A/N: Sorry, had a lot of stuff to do these past weeks.
"The Resurrect Fruit?" Usopp asked, titling his head. "I don't know. I mean Devil Fruits are pretty scary, but can such a fruit really exist?" the sniper ask.
"Hell if I know. I'm just retelling the story." Sarah shrugged. "Heard a bunch of them over the years. I never really figured out which were true and which were false. I just know the Grand Line is badshit crazy. And hey, at least the whale got some kind of hope. Damn, that thing is fucking huge." she muttered the last part looking at the whale, which was still calmly floating in the sea.
"The Grand Line is full of mysteries." Crocus said, his arms crossed. "The impossible becomes possible in these wild seas. But you're right in one thing. It is better to have some kind of hope, than none. Although, if Brook didn't make it back after 50 years…" Crocus shook his head. "I don't want to give Laboon false hope."
Sanji breathed out of his cigarette, looking into the sky. "Well, there is always the chance this guy might be still alive. Maybe he got stuck somewhere."
"Maybe." the old doctor echoed. "I guess it'll be better for Laboon to hold onto that hope. Just look at those scars. For fifty years he's been hitting his head against the mountain, believing his nakama would return from the other side of that wall."
"That's one dedicated whale." Sanji commented.
"He was so afraid of losing his reason to wait, he just couldn't accept it. There's no way for him to return home to the West Blue. But-"
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE YOU DOING?!"
*BONK*
The Straw Hats and Crocus looked to the side and found the Captain lying on the ground, a giant, steaming bump coming out of his head. Above him stood Sarah, her right hand still a fist and looking a little bit pissed off.
"What was that for?~" Luffy whined from his position.
"Oh, I dunno. Maybe for trying to take out the mast?! Have you lost it?!"
The crew didn't look too impressed at their captain.
"He tried what?" Usopp asked in a deadpan.
"Somehow I'm not surprised anymore." Nami said in the same deadpan voice.
"Don't get in my way!" Luffy jumped up, yelling at the girl. "This guy destroyed my special seat!" he motioned with his hands towards the broken off figurehead.
"Do you want us to drown or something?!" Sarah yelled back. "If you keep this up, it won't take very long and you can say goodbye to your precious ship! Do you want your ship to sink in the middle of the sea, with no help in sight?"
"...No." Luffy pouted, looking away.
Wow. He's actually listening. Sarah blinked surprised. "Good. 'Cause next time you do something to the ship, I'm gonna cut your throat!" She held up her hand towards his throat, the hand instantly turning into a claw. Luffy sweated, feeling the sharp claws against his skin, while the ship's guest just stood there dumbfounded.
"How the heck…?" She pulled back her claw, which turned back. Just in time too, as Zoro had been ready to cut her in half. He silently sheathed his swords again, making a mental note to keep an even bigger eye on their so called "guest".
"So, it's true." The swordsman heard Crocus mutter. "Interesting…" the old man turned around and walked towards Laboon, petting the whale with his hand.
XXXXXX
Luckily it looked like Luffy wasn't going through with whatever plan he had, for once. While Nami was on the main island, deciding their next course, it turned out that their two prisoners had slipped away. No one really cared, except Sarah, who did her best not to look concerned about them. She was currently leaning against the railing, watching Crocus sitting on the whale and talking to him. The whale had tears in his eyes and was "booing" in a low tone. Usopp in the meantime was trying to get the figurehead back at it's original place. Sanji had retreated to the kitchen and Luffy was doing whatever he was doing. As long as he didn't destroy the ship, no one bothered to look after him. Finally there was Zoro. He was sleeping. What else?
"That Luffy…" Usopp muttered, hammering against the wood. "He's the bane of my existence."
Behind him, Sarah let out a giggle.
"And what are you laughing at?!" the sniper shouted.
"At you, of course."
"Urrgh…"
"By the way, where are my clothes? And who patched me up?" she pointed at her bandaged head.
"Oh that was the old man. He said you would be fine, though."
"Huh. Guess I have to thank him."
"As for your clothes, they're down in the washroom, hanging to dry."
"That won't be enough." the girl frowned. "I still have to get the salt out. Urrgh, didn't think I'd need to ask this, but could you show me where I can clean my clothes?"
"Uh...sure." the sharpshooter blinked. "As soon as I'm done here. Just a minute."
XXXXX
Despite the sharpshooter's believes, Sarah didn't make him pump up water. Instead she did it herself. It was harder than it looked and in all actuality she had forgotten the ship was equipped with such a thing. But then again it was hardly shown in the show, maybe once. The bathroom basically functioned as a washroom. Usopp also took his time explaining how thoroughly clean the room after usage.
"We don't want the place to get all moisted, ya know?"
"Makes sense." Sarah nodded. "Having the ship rotting from the inside, not so nice. Alright thanks a lot."
"Oi, oi, don't think we're friends just because of that. I have an eye on you, I tell you!"
"Sure…"
"AHHH!"
"That sounded like Nami!" the sniper shouted, running on deck. Sarah chased after the sniper, but stopped when she saw him jump down onto the shore. The girl hesitated a moment, as she normally wouldn't jump from such a height. But seeing as Usopp, the arguably weakest member of the crew, managed to land on the stone without breaking a leg or something similar, she mimicked his jumped and barely managed to land in a crouched position. She blinked, as nothing on her body seemed to be even hurting in the slightest.
"The compass is broken!" Nami's voice brought Sarah out of her stupor. She followed the sniper up a rope ladder. On top of the cliff she almost came face to plate with a five star, fish cooked menu.
"Holy…"
While Nami was complaining about the broken compass, Sarah made sure to slowly walk around Sanji (who was holding three plates at once), in order to not get face first into the food.
"Round and round it goes." commented Usopp looking at the "broken compass". Before Crocus could say his line, Sarah decided to intervene.
"Normal compasses don't work on the Grand Line." she explained. Luffy, Usopp and Nami looked up to her curiously.
"Then how are we supposed to Navigate?" asked Nami.
"Let me explain. The islands on the Grand Island are basically giant magnets, messing around with the compass. Each of these "magnets" has his own field. In order to get to an island we need to get a special compass, called a Log Pose."
"A Log Pose? Hey, wait a minute! How do you know that?" Nami put her hands on her hips, to which the other woman could only give her a deadpan glare.
"Maybe because I wasn't born in one of the four blues? Be glad you have someone who at least knows basic stuff about the Grand Line."
"Lucky for you" Crocus walked up to the group, with a Log Pose in hand "I happen to have a spare one." He handed the delicate instrument over to Nami, who looked at it in wonder. "What the girl said is true. There are special minerals on each island, which create these magnetic fields. A Log Pose can lock onto these fields and will pinpoint at the direction where the island is. Once there, the Log Pose will lock onto the next island, after a certain amount of time has passed. How much time, that depends on the island you're on. From here you can chose one of seven routes. From then you will travel from island to island, until you reach the final one-"
"Raftel." Sarah finished, smiling. "You know" she looked over to Nami and Usopp "depending on how things go, I might stick around."
Sanji immediately came over dancing, saying stuff that sounded like flirting, but else was incomprehensible. The other two gave her a deadpan stare.
"We'll see." they echoed.
"Yosh, I'm full! Let's set sail!"
Sarah choked, upon seeing Luffy having devoured all the food. It was completely different from the TV-Show, since she had seen just how much fish there really had been. While Sanji and Usopp yelled at their captain, Sarah walked over to Crocus.
"Hey, I almost forgot, I wanted to say thank you for patching me up."
"It's no problem. I was just doing my duty as a doctor. I have to thank you, Dragonborn, for giving me and Laboon at least a ray of hope."
Sarah titled her head, both confused and intrigued. "Dragonborn? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
It was Crocus turn to look surprised. "You don't know what a Dragonborn is?"
"Assuming that it is someone with dragon eyes" she pointed at her own "and capable in transforming into some kind of human lizard...I just happen to discover this power today." She giggled. "You know, I'm in a funny situation. I want to know more, but at the same time the past two days have given me the greatest headache of all time. I'm kinda afraid that once you start explaining, my head will explode."
There was the sound of splashing water in the background. Sarah shrugged it off, as Laboon playing.
"Unfortunately I think you will need this information. You see, a couple of hundreds years ago, the last Dragonborn had been hunted down and killed by the World Government. Not much is known about them, aside from the history books all describing them as evil monsters."
Sarah rubbed her temples. "What? I don't get it. Monsters? Could you elaborate?"
Crocus crossed his arms. "Unfortunately the only other thing I know or can at least guess, is that your anatomy has similarities with a lizard."
The girl in front of the old doctor took in a deep breath and then exhaled it slowly. "Okay. I'm now going back to the ship and then I'm going to repeatedly bang my head against the wall. It was nice meeting you, Crocus."
XXXXXX
Cleaning her clothes turned out to be not as tedious as getting rid of all the water she used. By the time she was done they had been sailing for quite some time, though without a clock it was impossible to tell for how long exactly. The entire time she tried not to think of what Crocus told her, as it would only give her a stronger headache, than she already had. After she was done with her work, the so called "Dragonborn" walked into the kitchen, where she found Nami, Vivi and the agent sitting on the table. She tensed up for a second, before walking in.
"Who's she?" Vivi asked with her evil persona.
Damn, is it part of royal training going to an acting club? She's really convincing.
"No one you should bother yourself with." Nami waved off.
Sarah placed herself next to Vivi, letting out a breath she didn't notice she had been holding.
"Is it just me or is it getting colder?" Sarah asked into the room.
"Now that you mention it" Vivi next to her pulled her clothes together "it really is cold, isn't it?"
"Feels like it." The agent added his two berry, rubbing his arms.
Nami was about to scold the trio, when she too noticed how cold it was.
"What is going on?" she asked, passing by the window. A second later she ran back and saw that it was snowing outside!
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHH?!"
*five minutes later*
"I know the Grand Line is supposed to have crazy weather…" Sarah shivered sipping on the tea Sanji provided her and the others with "...but thunder, while it snows? Brrr." Her entire body was shaking like a leaf in a storm. The others were faring much better than her for some reason.
"I don't get it! I just checked the Log Pose a minute ago! And the waves were so tame..."
"Are you really a navigator?" Vivi asked, pissing Nami off.
"On this ocean the wind, the sky, the waves, the clouds, you can't trust any of it. The only thing you can trust is the direction the Log Pose's needle points. Get it now?"
As an answer Nami somehow managed to kick all three of them out of the room. They all landed uncomfortably on the deck, barely catching Nami's orders to help out.
For some reason Sarah really struggled to get up. While Vivi and Mr. 9 were already on the ropes, she was still on her knees.
"What do you think you're doing?!" Nami shouted. "Get up!"
"I-I'm trying." Sarah said with chattering teeth. "S-something's...w-w-w-wrong w-w-w-with m-m-m-me!"
"I'll help you, my lovely Sarah-chwan!"
Sarah-chwan? Really? Nngh, too cold to think about that. Way too cold. I can barely even move! What the fuck?!
Luckily for her Sanji helped her to get up. And just as she stood the weather changed in the course of a second. A warm spring breeze was coming against their faces and in a matter of seconds Sarah could stand on her own again.
"Thanks SanjIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"
The spring breeze easily had turned into a spring storm, so to speak. The Going Merry was shaking in the waves, the crew ran around frantically trying to cope with the weather. Sarah helped out where she could, mostly with the steer rudder. Sanji was there with her, too focused on the work than to flirt with her. The girl mostly followed the man's lead, having a hard time keeping herself on her feet. She remembered in the episode this situation was resolved in a matter of two minutes. Too bad for her, the storm of weather changes lasted hours! She needed to turn the steer rudder so often, she didn't even have time to complain inside her head. At one point, when it was a little calmer, Sanji left, saying he was going to get some snacks. She was left alone, trying to keep the rudder under control against the raging sea.
What felt like an eternity later, Sanji came back with some rice balls.
"Here, eat those. It will keep the energy going."
"Thanks." With one hand she grabbed a rice ball, while with the other she desperately tried to keep the ship on course. Sanji grabbed the steer with both hands.
"Sit down for a while. I can handle it from here." he assured.
"If you say so…" she said uneasily, sitting down on the floor and leaning against the wall. Not really caring about the taste, she stuffed the balls inside her mouth, eager to get something into her stomach.
"Damn! I NEEDED that!" she exclaimed. Prior to this, she didn't even notice her body had been running on reserves.
"ICEBERG AHEAD!" came Usopp's voice.
"AGAIN?!" she and Sanji shouted at the same time. The first one had already done some damage to the ship.
"This ocean is nuts!" Sarah shouted.
"I have to agree with you there!" Sanji shouted back, smiling wryly.
XXXXXX
Finally it was over. Sarah couldn't feel her arms anymore, after having to fight the might of the ocean for hours straight. The rest of the crew didn't look much better, everyone lying around deck or in Luffy's case on the.
"I feel like shit…" the so called dragonborn moaned from her resting spot.
"I think I'm gonna diiiiieeee…." Usopp groaned.
"Die in silence." Sanji groaned himself.
Right next to her, Sarah heard Zoro letting out a hearty yawn, before standing up, completely oblivious to the girl lying next to him. He walked onto the middle of the deck and commented on how lazy everyone was.
I should have kicked him in the face. The girl thought to herself.
"Why're you two on board?" The swordsman asked the almost passed out Vivi and Mr. 9.
"We're heading towards their town." Luffy explained who made a miracle recovery and was now sitting on the upper part of the Merry. "The place is called Whiskey Peak."
"You mean we're giving them a lift? This isn't becoming a habit is it?" Zoro asked, nodding towards Sarah, who was still lying on the ground like most of the crew.
"Eh, it's just for a short while." Luffy shrugged. "Besides, the more the merrier, right?"
"Not that I care." the green haired man waved off, before turning towards the new guest. The two "agents" were now in sitting position, nervously looking up to the swordsman. "My, these look like faces that plan nasty things. Tell me, what were your names again?"
"M-Miss Wednesday." Vivi answered with a twitch in her eye.
"P-please call me Mr. 9." The man answered with the same twitch.
Seriously, that crown just looks ridiculous. And how is it that he still has that thing? I mean SOMEONE must have the idea of stealing that thing at one point or another. Come to think of it, why didn't Nami try to snatch it?
"AH! Urrgh, nghn!"
Speak of the devil. Sarah smirked. It was just so satisfying to actually see the swordsman getting hit by Nami, after he just slept through the whole storm.
"Stay on your toes everyone." Nami stepped into the center of the ship, getting everyone's attention. "Who knows what might happen next? I can finally grasp the fearsomeness of this ocean. I understand why they call it the Grand Line."
Maybe because it looks like a straight line on the map?
"But it hasn't even begun to see MY navigation skills! "Bet on it!"
"Well…" Sarah spoke up for the first time since the storm. "I'd say you left a pretty good first impression." The others noticed the girl standing on the front of the ship, her back turned towards the ocean. With a thump she pointed towards a white mist, through which you could see a bunch of green hills in the distance.
Everyone ran towards and stared in awe at the island in the distance.
"Land ho!" Luffy shouted, who jumped on top of Merry's head.
"So this is Whiskey Peak." Sanji commented with a smile. "Sure is a weird looking island."
"Check out those huge cacti!" Luffy pointed at the largest one.
"Makes you think why they didn't just call it, I dunno "Cactus Island"?" The dragonborn girl asked nonchalantly, hiding the pure awe she was feeling herself. In the anime, Whiskey Peak didn't look all that awe inspiring, but seeing this for herself, she couldn't wait to see the other islands, the real good looking ones.
The sound of two pairs of shoes simultaneously hitting the railing.
"This is our stop."
"Thank you for the ride, my honeys."
"We'll meet again if it is to be."
"Bye, bye baby!" They both shouted and jumped into the ocean. Sarah blinked stupefied, seeing them swimming three times as fast as the ship.
"Those two are some good swimmers." she commented, before suddenly feeling the need to use the restroom. Without anyone asking where she goes and with at least having an idea what's going to happen next, the girl retired.
My muscles having ached like this, ever since the time Dad gave me and Cast self-defense lessons. And I haven't even gotten into a fight yet.
…
Alright Luffy DID try to kill me, but he would have kept me alive for questioning. Probably about where I put the meat, since he thought I was a meat thief.
So far the others aren't questioning me, which is pretty stupid on their part, but who knows how long that will last? I think I need to be a bit more subtle with my hints, unlike what I did with Crocus, basically telling him that Brook is still around and kicking.