A/N: Well, it's been a while. Too long if you ask me.
Sarah rubbed her arms, after Zoro very reluctantly released her from the binds. She was a little surprised, that when Zoro sheathed his swords, it sounded exactly straight out of the anime.
The scaly girl stood up dusting off her clothes. She stopped in her tracks, when she noticed the claw like hands she had now.
"This is really weird." she said out loud, opening and closing her fists a few times.
"What do you mean weird? That's what happens, when you eat a devil fruit." Zoro states as a matter of fact.
The girl turned around to him. Man, he's bigger than I ever imagined.
"Yeah, well, thing is, I never ate a devil fruit." Sarah clarified.
"Hmm?" the swordsman raised an eyebrow.
"Nonsense. You have to have eaten a devil fruit. How else could you be like that?" Nami pointed at the girl's hand with her finger.
Sarah was about to negate those accusations, but then stopped. A thought entered her head, one that she had in the back of her mind for a while.
"Yeah, whatever." she waved. "Since I'm now an official guest on the ship, mind telling me where the bathroom is?"
The captain of the ship simply pointed at a direction with his thumb, while he continued stuffing himself with the other hand.
"Thanks." Sarah said carefully, leaving the room.
This will take some getting used to.
As soon as the uninvited guest was outside, Nami and Usopp gave their captain a good smack over the head, causing him to crash onto the ground.
"Oi! What was that for?!" Luffy whined.
"We just felt like it." the two said resigned. At this point it wasn't even worth being angry at him.
"Honestly Luffy, I know you can be careless, but even you should know that there's something fishy about that girl." Usopp stated, taking a seat back on the table.
"So, she's a mermaid!"
"That's not what I'm saying at all!" the sniper shouted.
"Anyways, I think we can all agree that something's weird about her." Nami voiced almost everyone's thought.
Sanji lit up a cigarette, before talking. "I guess if Nami says so, then I have to agree. She must have somehow gotten on board, be it a boat or she snuck onto the ship. There's also another thing I noticed about her."
Everyone looked towards the cook.
"It's about her devil fruit power. I came out just in time to see her transforming. She looked like she was just as surprised as the rest of us."
"Now that you mention it..." Zoro looked up the wall, going through his own memories one more time.
"Yeah." the swordsman nodded. "She definitely looked surprised, when she pulled off her little trick. Though she caught herself pretty fast and started her counterattack."
"And later when she woke up, she thought it was all just a dream." Usopp pointed out. "Although, that might have been because Zoro hit her really hard on the head."
"Luffy, do you really think it's a good idea to let her come with us?" Nami addressed her captain directly.
"Sure! I don't get what you're all so worried about?" the captain grinned, taking yet another bite.
The navigator sighed. Obviously this matter had already been decided for Luffy.
"Do you really think she appeared just out of nowhere?" Usopp asked rhetorically.
"I dunno." Luffy shrugged.
"Of course you don't…"
X
In the meantime, Sarah was watching herself in the mirror, which hung in the bathroom. It was kinda surreal that a ship as small as the Going Merry had an actual bathtub inside, but none the less, at least the lizard girl wouldn't have to worry about body hygiene. It didn't change the fact that she had only one set of clothes with her. She shook her head.
Now's not the time to worry about clothes. What happened to me? Why am I here? Am I actually here or am I still dreaming?! This is so surreal, yet at the same time it had never felt this real.
She approached the sink, looking at all the different toothbrushes, shampoos and other stuff around it.
Nothing looks cartoony in any way. Shavers for men and women, brushes, soap...and it doesn't even look that clean, like in the anime. The toilet even smells a little.
Raising a hand or rather claw, she touched her own, now scaly face.
And this. It's like someone has given me devil fruit powers, without me actually eating one. But at the same time it might as well be the thing mom...left me. But...this raises so many other questions. Like, was mom from this world? Or maybe an ancestor of mine? And how did I get here in the first place. Is there even a way back?
…
Can I somehow reverse this? How did I transform in the first place? Let's see, I was fighting Luffy…...still so surreal….and I needed something….sharp…
"Urgh." Sarah groaned, falling onto her butt. She grabbed her head with both hands, trying to suppress the upcoming headache. She pretty much failed. The entire situation was just too much for her brain to comprehend. Rubbing her temples didn't ease the pain at all. So she just gave up and sat around for a while.
It wasn't really until she could feel the ship starting to move, which was 20 minutes later, that she started to stir. It wasn't the feeling of the waves pushing the ship up and down, no, it felt clearly like the ship was moving forward. Sarah pulled herself together and got up again. Even though she had still to get settled with everything, it certainly wouldn't help to just sit and mope around.
Still...this looks cool and all, but I really wish I knew as to how to reverse this effect. What the-?!
Just as soon as those thoughts left her mind, her hand, which was still holding the doorknob, it slowly started to turn back to normal. The claws and scales seemed to be going back into her skin. Sarah stood there completely frozen, until the transformation was complete. Once everything seemed to be back to normal, she quickly ran back to the mirror. Sure enough, her face was back to normal as well. Rolling up her sleeves, she found her arms being the skin color they always were.
"I...just...brains…"
Deciding the best course of action was to no longer think about whatever was happening and go onto deck. There she found the all of the Straw Hats, standing in the middle and looking up in the sky. Curious she followed their gazes.
"What the actual fuck?"
Her voice drew every single one of the pirate's attention towards her, but the newcomer didn't care at the moment. Up in the sky, one could see a stormfront coming closer and closer. The wind was already pretty strong, which made it possible for the Going Merry to pick up a good amount of speed.
"That looks pretty cool."
"I know, right?"
"GAH!"
Sarah punched Luffy in the face, who suddenly appeared in front of her vision. To her surprise, there were a lot of surprises these past hours already, the rubber man flew right across the deck, until he hit the mast. The girl had to blink at her own display of strength. While she was looking at her fist in wonder, the crew just shrugged it off.
"However strange that storm is, we have no choice but to sail through." Nami obviously continued a conversation that had been going on before. "Reverse Mountain is right in this direction and from the looks of things we'll be there in ten minutes tops. Get ready."
"Aye, aye!"
The crew left to their previously designated posts, except for Luffy, who stood up again and used his rubber abilities to get to the crows nest.
Nami in the meantime walked towards their uninvited guest, who had found herself out of her stupor.
"How about you make yourself useful?" the navigator asked.
"Uh...wha-? What? Hello? I already told you I know nothing about sailing. You'll be happy if I manage to distinguish starboard from larboard."
"Uaa…" Nami sighed, rubbing her forehead annoyed. "Then at least go somewhere where you won't be in the way."
Sarah resisted the urge to answer that order in any way. Nami was right, she needed to get out of the way, especially with the storm and Laboom coming-
She facepalmed. "Urrgh, how could I forget?" she muttered.
"Forget what?" Nami asked.
"Gah, you're still here?"
In response Nami just gave her a deadpan look.
Great work, Sarah. Great work.
"Just… … uh, I have heard stories about the entrance of the Grand Line."
"Stories?" Nami asked, now genuinely interested.
"Y-yeah." Oh man, come up with something quick! If I say the wrong thing now of all times, I'm done for!
"Supposedly….there's a gigantic fish...uh, I mean whale, yeah that's right, a giant whale is supposed to live at the entrance of the Grand Line, right on the other side of that Mountain."
"Really?"
"Well...I don't really know, you know?" Sarah fidgeted with her hands nervously. "I just heard some stories at the bar sometimes. It might be just that, a story."
"A whale, huh?"
Sanji walked up behind Sarah, carrying some rope. "If we had enough storage space, I might have been able to feed even that glutton over there." The cook nodded towards Luffy. "Miss, I must ask you to take Nami's advice and go under deck. Things are bound to get ruff from here on out."
Sarah was a little taken aback by being called "Miss". But moreover she was a little miffed that she was asked to be not on deck. Luckily she wasn't an impulsive person, well most of the time, and understood the logic of the Straw Hat's reasoning.
"All right." she sighed. "I'll just be...wherever that door leads to."
Sarah walked away from Sanji and opened the door. As it turned out, the door lead to some stairs and downstairs, the girl found what was obviously Nami's sleeping place. There was her bed, a desk, an oil lamp, a little commode and a few maps. Sadly there was no window, so she couldn't at least look outside to see what was going on.
As a result, she spend the next thirty minutes, plus, minus ten, just sitting on the edge of Nami's bed, waiting. That was until the ship started to shake, causing the girl to fall off.
"Ow! What the heck? Whoaaa!" Sarah slipped over the floor, until she hit the wall. Then the ship turned to the side and she was thrown against the other wall. And again. And again. And five more times, times two. And then the ship came to a full stop, causing the girl to hit her face right on the stairs.
"Arrgh! That's it!" she shouted, getting up. Quickly she ran up the stairs, only for the ship to title 45 decree. Naturally Sarah flew backwards and hit the ground.
"Ow~...I give up. Fuck you, world." she held up both middle fingers against the ceiling. For ten straight seconds she managed to lie on the ground peacefully. That is until the Going Merry reached the peak of Reverse Mountain, flying straight into the air. The momentum shot Sarah straight up and through the door. The girl screamed her lungs out, as she came closer and closer to Nami, who was also flying in mid-air, like the rest of the crew. The Navigator didn't know what hit her, when their guest crashed into her. Everyone dropped to the ground again, with Sarah landing straight on Nami's back.
"Ahhhhh, ummf! Huh, soft landing...AH!"
"GET OFF ME!" Nami shouted with razor teeth. With the help of some cartoon logic, she managed to send Sarah flying once again. This time the girl landed on the hard deck of the Merry.
"Ow...what did I do to deserve this?" the girl wined. She blinked twice. "Oh right, THAT!"
"LET'S GO!" Luffy shouted on top of his lungs, somehow being louder than the gigantic waterfall they were riding on. Sarah barely stood steady on her feet, so she grabbed the railing, before she possibly fell off the ship.
This is fucking madness! I'm glad I didn't break a bone back there, but this world! How long have I been here?! Look how crazy this world is. At least things should calm down for a while.
…
Oh wait…
"BOOOOOOOOO!"
Just kill me now…
Sarah ignored the ongoing dialogue and braced for impact. She had survived so far, so why should she die now? Well, if she would have remembered the episode correctly, she would have known that Luffy would shoot the front canon, in order to stop the ship. The sudden stop, caused the newcomer to fall over the ceiling and straight into the sea. At this point she didn't even scream anymore.
"Woman overboard!" shouted Sanji.
"SHH!" the rest of the crew hissed.
"MY SPECIAL SEAT!"
Sarah in the meantime was now full of energy, thanks to the shock the cold water gave her. Acting purely on instinct she swam up and up, until she finally was out of the water. Coughing up seawater, the girl struggled to keep herself afloat. Not an easy task, considering that she was wearing clothes. She just noticed how much they wore her down. On top of that there was also the current of the sea, which drifted her past Laboom!
What the-?! Oh, I hate this world, I hate this world, I hate this world, I hate this world!
"DAMN YOU ODA!" she screamed on top of her lungs.
"BOOOOOO!"
"FUCK YOU TOO!"
….
O.o'
"aaaaAAAAAAAHHHH gurgle, gurgle, gurgle!"
Just kill me already.
FWHOOSH!
Before she could get sucked in, Luffy managed to grab her and pulled the girl on top of the whale.
"Yosh, you're safe." he breathed out, looking down at the girl. He could see her breathing, but she appeared to be too exhausted to even move. On top of that, the whale was slowly sinking into the sea! Looking around frantically, his eyes fell on a hatch, which was implemented in the skin of the whale. Luffy being Luffy, didn't question it. Instead he grabbed his passenger and headed towards the hedge.
XXXXXX
Inside the whale, Luffy quickly overcame his confusion of why there was a tunnel made of metal inside the whale and instead sat down in front of Sarah, waiting for the girl to wake up. Luckily he didn't have to wait long, as the girl slowly stirred and finally got up.
"Ngh, anyone got the number of that truck?"
"Ah, you're awake!" Luffy shouted excitedly.
Sarah in return looked at the Captain a little dumbfounded, until her brain was fully operating again.
"Oh yeah...that happened…" she breathed out. She then noticed her weird surroundings and took a look around. "Where the heck are we?"
"We're inside the whale!" Luffy exclaimed.
"Inside…?" Sarah rubbed her temples. "You know what? Fuck it." she stood up, the water dropping off her clothes. "How about we look around? We might be able to find your crew."
"Yosh, let's go!" Luffy pumped a fist into the air. Shaking her head, Sarah slowly walked ahead, the Straw Hat wearing pirate walking right behind her. Their footsteps echoed through the hallway, which smelled of fish. The air around them was a little warmer than outside too, which certainly helped Sarah, as else the water on her would have slowed her down significantly.
"Oh right." Sarah stopped all of the sudden.
"Hmm? What is it?" Luffy asked, blinking at her from behind.
"I just remembered, earlier in the water I was able to swim. Which means no one somehow made me eat a devil fruit."
"Huh…? Oh, I know! You mean, when you got all scaly!" Luffy pointed with his finger at her forehead, which the girl slapped away.
"Yes, that." The girl nodded. "The question now is, if we can rule out a devil fruit, what exactly-AHH!"
"Wh-what's going on?! The whole place is shaking! AAHHH!"
"I CURSE YOU EIICHIRO ODA!" *BONK*
XXXXXX
For Sarah's taste she had enough unconscious experience for the next two months at least. She had woken up in Nami's bed, her head bandaged up and her body generally feeling like it was a piece of shit that had been thrown at a piece of shit.
Throwing the blanket off, she sincerely hoped it was Nami who changed her clothes. She now wore a plain white shirt, jeans and sandals. Her exposed arms showed just how pale her skin was, due to the lack of sunlight hitting it.
"Does this world somehow hate strangers?" she asked, getting up. She was about to open the door, when she heard a voice from the outside.
"When a group of jolly pirates came down from Reverse Mountain and into the Grand Line, swimming alongside their boat was a little whale. That whale was Laboon. Island Whales like him only inhabit the West Blue. They're the largest species of whale in the world."
Crocus pushed his glasses back up, a small smile on his face.
"It appears Laboon had been traveling with those pirates for quite some time. But they were now headed into the dangers of the Grand Line. They thought they had left him behind in the West Blue, but Laboon had followed them."
Sarah closed her eyes, her hand on the handle of the door. She had an idea. A completely, utterly stupid idea. An idea that might change things for the worse, possibly make things better, but for all she knew she just might crown Blackbeard the Pirate King. However that scenario would play out, she had no idea. But it was definitely better than leaving the poor whale in despair.
"So the stories were true." she said loud enough for the crew outside to hear it. Opening the door, she revealed herself and found the entire crew together, as well as the two Baroque Works agents tied up. She managed to get her attention away from them and back towards the crew and Croquus, "sailing" on his little metal island.
Damn this is weird.
"The story about the crew who left behind a dear friend, but never returned from the Grand Line." she continued, focusing on Crocus. The crew huh-ed at her, while the old man stared at her for a couple of seconds, before closing his eyes and nodding.
"It seems you have heard about this."
"Yeah." Sarah nodded, walking towards the railing and leaning against the wood.
"Some guy who apparently knew the crew came by one day at my home."
Now she had the full attention of Crocus and the rest of the crew. "Though he didn't tell me the friend that was left behind was a whale. Eh, whatever. Sad story really. Supposedly half of the crew got a disease from some island. Since they couldn't cure it, they split up, leaving the first mate in charge of the healthier half."
"Wait, what?!" Crocus had gotten up from his leaning chair and stared at the girl, who he treated just minutes ago.
"They split up?!" he asked.
"You didn't know?" Sarah faked her surprise. "Apparently after they got this disease, they decided to say: Fuck it, through the Calm Belt it is." she gestured with her hands. The others looked taken aback by this.
"The Calm Belt?!" Usopp screamed.
"They thought they had a better chance of surviving in the weaker seas and possibly find a doctor with a cure." Sarah shook her head. "The guy I met didn't know what happened to them. Safe to say, they're probably dead." she sighed, not in sadness, but more in relief that she managed to tell her story this well, without showing any signs of lying. "He got this story from the first mate of the other crew. Met them at some bar or something. Last thing he heard of them, they got defeated by some other pirates."
Crocus looked downcast. For some reason it appeared he didn't have any trouble accepting Sarah's story.
"I see. So they didn't ran after all."
"Huh?" Huh-ed the entire crew.
However, instead of answering, he jumped onto a ladder and climbed up to some sort of machinery.
"Wow, this is incredible." stated Nami.
"Yeah. It's hard treating a whale, when they're fully grown. Especially Island Whales."
"You're a doctor?" Luffy asked.
"That's right."
"Then you should be my ship's doctor!"
Something about this...oh man! I already changed something, didn't I? Well, it is something small so far...
"Don't be stupid. Unlike you young'ins, I don't have the energy going around, doing foolhardy things anymore."
The old man proceeded to move a wheel, which then caused a pair of huge metal double doors to open. Without further ado, the Going Merry shipped to the outside. Sarah took in a deep breath, relieved that the smell of fish wasn't around her anymore. The old doctor followed them to the outside, continuing with the story.
"The last thing I found out was that the crew had high tailed out of the Grand Line. Thank you, girl. At least I now know the truth. It might even be a relief to Laboon." He looked at the whale.
"Oh, the thing is, the story isn't over." she grinned.
"Really?" Sanji asked. "I mean everyone died. It's a tragedy, but that's how it is. What else could there be?"
"Well…" Sarah scratched her head "the guy who came to my town claimed to have sold a Devil Fruit to the crew. The first mate is the one who ate it and SUPPOSEDLY" she held out both arms "I don't know if it's true, but SUPPOSEDLY it was the Revive Fruit."
"R-R-Revive?!" Nami screamed. "Revive as in…"
"As in coming back from the dead." Sarah finished.