Luffy had climbed from the bottle. She was on a beach. A bigbeach. Well, to her, anyway, having shrunk and all. She looked back at the ocean. How long had she been out? Where was Zyuu? More importantly, where was Ryuu? Ryuu promised to show her the way out. Yet, he was no where to be found. Luffy stepped forward only to have a wave wash over her and pull her back into the water. When she went under, two identical twins popped out from the trees. They each had a name tag, one said Tweedle D. and the other said Tweedle D. Dum. The boys both wore red-checkered shirts with solid red pants and a red and white propeller hat covering each of their bright red heads of hair. They looked at each other.
"Uh oh. That wasn't supposed to happen," Tweedle D. said nervously.
"Ryuu and Zyuu won't like this." Tweedle D. Dum clicked his tongue.
Luffy kicked and gasped until she came to the top of the water. She wasn't anywhere near that beach anymore. She was now in what appeared to be a sewer. She kicked and called for help; she couldn't swim. She looked to the side and saw a figure swimming through the water.
"Hey! Help! Please!" Luffy kicked, causing the figure to turn around. It was a mouse. "Yeah! Mouse! Help, I can't swim! " she yelled. The mouse swam over to her, only for her to see it wasn't a mouse, but a person with mouse-like qualities.
"Really? How old are you, Miss?" The mouse-man floated next to the flailing Luffy.
"Help! Please!" Luffy yelled. The mouse rolled his eyes and grabbed the collar of Luffy's dress and dragged her to dry concrete.
Luffy panted while the mouse-man tapped his foot impatiently. Luffy looked to her savior. He was about her age, with a black nose, tan skin, brown eyes and a gray hair color, making him look older than he was.
"How old are you? How can you not swim?" he asked.
"I- I ate a Devil's Fruit when I was really young. I never learned how to swim," Luffy panted, shaking water from her hair.
"Well, you're on your own next time, Miss..."
"Luffy."
"Miss Luffy. You're on your own next time! Anyway, you may call me Mouse." Mouse crossed his arms and decided to take pity on the dripping girl before him. "You know, you can come with me. I'm on my way to school and my teacher's lecture should dry you up."
"How can words dry you up?" Luffy asked.
"Trust me." Mouse rolled his eyes, a grin on his lips. " This is the driest lecture you'll ever hear." With that, Mouse helped up Luffy and led her into a small hole in a nearby wall, Luffy dripping water all throughout the walk.
Luffy sat in the midst of animals. A girl named Bunny, who looked like a rabbit, a Boy named Rat, who looked like a rat, and another girl named Squirrel, who looked like a squirrel were also there in addition to Luffy and Mouse. There weren't any others in the class, though. The teacher, an owl, talked on and on bout things Luffy didn't care to listen to. The soaked girl drifted in and out of sleep. Mouse nudged her.
"You dry yet, Miss Luffy?" he asked, Luffy shook her head.
"I'm as wet as the sea," she hissed.
"What was that?" The owl had stopped to stare at the two in the back.
"I'm as wet as the sea! This lecture isn't drying me at all!" Luffy shouted. The teacher was taken back.
"Oh, that is strange. Well, class dismissed for now, I suppose." The class cheered as the teacher flew off.
"What shall we play?" Bunny asked, nose twitching excitedly.
"How about we have a pirate's race!" Rat yelled. Luffy's eyes lit up.
"A pirate's race? What's a pirate's race?" she asked, bouncing on the tips of her feet.
"The only way to explain it is to do it!" Squirrel grabbed Luffy's hands and swung her around. The kids lined up. Luffy stood in the lie up, determined to win.
"On your mark!" Mouse, who agreed to be the referee, yelled. "Get set!" Everyone got ready, "Go!" Mouse jumped and everyone ran around randomly. Luffy stood, confused, not knowing where the starting line was, or where the ending line was. She saw the girls tripping the boys and the boys pushing the girls down.
"Hey, isn't that cheating?" Luffy asked Mouse, who simply shrugged.
"It's a pirate's race, what did you expect?" He laughed. Luffy shrugged, throwing herself into the fun. She was tripped, she was pushed, and she punched and kicked at whoever came to face her. At the end, she was the victor. All the kids congratulated her and they all laughed as they went home.
"Uh, guys? Hey! Wait! Where are you go - Mouse!" she yelled at the back of her retreating friends.
Luffy kicked the ground and walked around the classroom. She didn't know where to go from there.
"Well, haven't you wandered a bit to far off my path?" a voice from behind her said. She turned and saw Ryuu, smiling down at her with those sharp teeth. He was huge. "Oh! Look how small you are!" He chuckled. Luffy fumed and Ryuu took out a small vial. "Here you go, Luffy! Drink up!" he said. Luffy grabbed the bottle from the oversized fingers and drunk it down. She began to grow. Once she was full-sized, she glared at Ryuu.
"Ryuu! Where'd you go?!" She angrily punched his arm. "I almost drowned!" she yelled. Ryuu smiled and rubbed his arm.
"Yes, yes, I heard. You're lucky I found you when I did, my dear. God knows what could have happened to you out here." He looked around in disgust.
"Around here?" Luffy asked.
"This is, how you say, the 'slums' of Wonderland. True, it's just as full of magic and excitement, but it's not where you should be, Luffy." Ryuu explained. Luffy shrugged, crossing her arms.
"This part of Wonderland is just fine."
"Ah, but once you see the rest..." Ryuu trailed off, admiring his Kingdom in his own mind. Luffy rolled her eyes.
"Wait, I though Zyuu would be with you," she muttered.
"Zyuu?" Ryuu let the name roll off his tongue with disgust. "Like we would ever travel together," he grumbled. Luffy sighed.
"Well, how do I get out of here?" she asked once again.
"Oh, come with me!" Ryuu turned and opened a large book in the classroom. It was a pop-up book. A house was there. Soon the scenery around her changed, and she was at the three-dimensional home.
Ryuu led Luffy to the door. He looked around.
"Luffy, would you wait here while I stop to run an errand?" he asked. Luffy nodded.
"Sure, what are you doing?" she inquired.
"There's a noble that lives here, Fredrick Rabbit. I'm inviting him to the big event!" Ryuu smiled. Luffy nodded slowly, trying to figure out whatever this "big event" could be. She sat on the stairs, waiting as Ryuu ran into the house without knocking.
"He is a King after all..." Luffy yawned. "Kings don't knock," she guessed.
"It's actually pretty rude if you ask me," a voice said. Luffy perked up, looking around.
"Who said that?" she asked.
"I did, stupid girl," the voice said again.
"I'm not stupid! I can't see you!" she yelled.
"Oh, my bad. Sorry!" The voice laughed. Suddenly, in front of her was a man as old as Ryuu. He was wearing a black mask over his eyes, a purple and black striped shirt, black pants, and a purple cat's tail. He was hanging upside-down over the door. Luffy noticed he had purple hair and cat ears. Luffy jumped back in surprise.
"Ah! Ryuu!" She called for they closest person. The-cat boy flipped over, standing in front of her and waving his hands and shushing her.
"No, no! Hey! Don't be scared! Damn it all..." The boy put a hand with a black glove over her mouth to stop her from calling for Ryuu. "Geez! Stupid girl! Be quiet!" he hissed. Luffy nodded, relaxed now. The boy grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the house.
The boy sat on a rock and Luffy sat on the ground.
"Who're you?" Luffy asked.
"Name's Cheshire," the cat-boy, now identified as Cheshire, said.
"I'm Luffy! Nice to meet you," Luffy smiled.
"Yeah, that's great Luff. Now, what are you doing with Princey?" he asked.
"Ryuu? He's showing me how to get home." Luffy shrugged.
"Get home, my ass! Damn, this always happens," Cheshire cursed.
"What?" Luffy asked. Then the door opened.
"Alright, Fredrick! See you there!" Ryuu was saying while Cheshire and Luffy looked through the bushes. Ryuu looked around. "Oi! Luffy! Where'd you run off to?" he called. Luffy was about to answer when Cheshire pulled her back, covering her mouth and pressing her back to his chest as he leaned against the bush-covered gate.
"Shh! Are you insane?!" he hissed into her ear. Luffy glanced at him with confused eyes, muttering into his glove. Cheshire shushed her again. Luffy was quiet.
"Luffy! Come on, now! Don't hide!" Ryuu yelled. Then the king went off in a random direction, cursing his luck under his breath.
Cheshire led Luffy in the opposite direction.
"Hey, Chess, where are we going?" she asked. Cheshire winced at the nickname and looked back at her.
"We're going to see the smartest guy I know," he said, picking up the pace. Then he stopped. Luffy banged into his back. Cheshire started to shift through his pockets and pulled out a cookie.
"What's that for?" Luffy asked.
"We're going to eat them, of course. Stupid girl. We're going to see a caterpillar," he said, tossing Luffy a cookie.
"Oh." Luffy took a bite out of the cookie and Cheshire took it away, doing the same to his cookie.
"There," he said as they shrunk. Then they continued on their way. Luffy looked around at all the things she would have never seen from her normal height. "Hey, Luff. Pay attention," Cheshire snapped. Luffy ignored him, accidentally going the wrong way when the cat-boy wasn't paying attention to her and trying to find his own way.
Luffy stopped, looked around.
"Chess?" She muttered. "Chess! Hey!" she called out to him. No answer. "Stupid cat." She pouted, walking off on her own. She'd find this smart caterpillar herself.
The Straw Hat Crew
The Thousand Sunny was anchored near a violent whirlpool. Sanji and Zoro both ready to dive in. They knew it was the right one. The rose petals swirling with the cold water told them that Luffy had been dragged down this one.
"There." Nami tied a rope to each of the men. Robin was reading up on what Wonderland was like.
"It's a place where everything is exactly what it seems, but at the same time, nothing is what it would appear to be," she read. The crew shook the confusion from their heads and peered at the whirlpool.
"Luffy," Chopper sniffled.
"Don't worry! Zoro and Sanji will get her back!" Usopp smiled.
"Yeah, and Luffy-aneki is super strong! She'll be fine!" Franky posed. Sanji puffed out a cloud of smoke from his cigarette. He had a bag containing Luffy's Devil's Fruit. Zoro had her hat tied to a string around his neck – carrying it would have been a hassle, especially since he fought with swords.
"Ready!?" Brook yelled at the two. Sanji and Zoro nodded.
"Good luck," Nami said, nodding as the two dove in. They were spinning and kicking frantically before begin dragged down.
Meanwhile, Luffy was in a predicament. After wandering away from Cheshire, she was forced to hide in a flower pot after being chased by a dog for what seemed like miles.
"Freaking dog," she muttered as the nose poked through the crack. She took in a sharp breath as she pressed her back against the wall, waiting for the dog to leave. At the same time, Zoro and Sanji were falling down a strange hole, full of lamps, desks, chairs, and pictures of their captain.