Watching Monkey D. Luffy stretch had to be one of the most surreal things that Elsie had ever seen in her life. Oh, he wasn't awake: no indeed, Luffy had been fast asleep when Elsie had woken automatically at 6:30. When Brook had announced her awakening to the rest of the crew and subsequently woken many of them up, (with the exception of Robin and Sanji, who were already up,) Luffy had been fast asleep and by now, everyone seemed to know better than to waste time trying to wake him up before he was ready to be awake. No, the reason that Luffy was stretching in his sleep was that, having been placed in an upright position on the sofa in the lounge, Luffy had fallen forward, bending at the waist, and his head had fallen past his knees to rest, straw hat down, on the floor, stretching his neck out most grotesquely.
Elsie couldn't look away. It looked very uncomfortable, but that was the least of Elsie's thoughts. She was fascinated to see the infamous pirate in the rubbery flesh, and was most interested in studying how very little justice the cartoons gave him. His basic features were similar enough: tousled black hair, a scar under his left eye, a strangely large mouth (which was currently snoring fit to raise all hell,) but what Elsie noticed most was how the part of his skin that was currently stretching- namely, his neck,- was looking quite oddly plastic and decidedly rubber-band like, whereas the rest of him looked like any normal human's skin.
It was weird to think that Elsie had never been able to imagine Luffy as anything but a cartoon, and yet here he was before her, looking as real (if a bit surreal) as herself. It was almost enough to let her forget that she was currently being examined by the rest of the Strawhats while she sat in the very same wheelchair that her father had used after his extensive chemotherapy sessions all those years ago.
She was abruptly brought back to what passed for reality when Robin spoke gently. "Are you Gianni Elsie?" She asked. Abruptly, Elsie stopped staring at Luffy and looked to the rest of the Strawhats.
"Yes," She said quietly. "But how did you know that?"
Robin picked up Elsie's leather purse from a sidetable, reached inside, and pulled out Elsie's school I.D. "This." she answered simply.
"Oh."
"Who are you, exactly?" Nami asked brusquely. "Why did you fall from the sky?"
Elsie looked at her feet, wondering how exactly to reply. Since Ohio didn't exist in the world of One Piece, Elsie figured that the next best thing was to use what she knew already as well as her predilection for making up stories to spin a convincing tale for her piratical hosts.
"I'm... from a sky island." She began haltingly, straining to remember even the tiniest details of what she'd been told since she woke up. "I'm... I'm a student. I'm not associated with the World Government, or any pirate crew, or anything, I'm just a student. A student who... fell off the edge."
"But how did you get so injured?" Robin prompted, leaving Elsie desperately scrabbling for a logical explanation. More than scrabbling, she was trying to remember what had actually happened to get her this messed up. And it was all hazy. Elsie squinted across the room at the lazily swimming fish in the enormous aquarium, trying desperately to remember.
"I don't know." She finally admitted. "I can't seem to remember. I was going to Martin's and then... I don't know. I'm sorry."
"There was a lot of damage to the skull," Chopper said, abruptly switching from cute small child mode to scarily smart doctor mode. "The memory loss could be caused by a concussion."
"Forget that," Nami said (to which Elsie couldn't help but offer a small smile at the well-timed pun,) and pulled from Elsie's purse what remained of the wad of cash Elsie's mother had given her for groceries. "What's this money? It's not Beli, and I don't think it's Extol, either."
"It's... um... Ohian currency?" Elsie tried timidly. She'd never been great at improvising, but at least she could keep track of her lies, if she concentrated. "The... the sky island I lived on is called Ohio. We're normally pretty... isolated from the rest of this world. Even from the other sky islands."
"Oh! That makes sense." Nami said smoothly, pocketing the money without hesitation or permission. Elsie, lightheaded, confused, and glassesless as she was, didn't notice.
"Wait, didn't she say that she'd seen wanted posters of u- uuuhhhh... of you guys?" Usopp piped up, with an ill-disguised save mostly designed for Chopper's sake.
Elsie looked at him. Without her glasses, the long-nosed sniper was not much more than a very tan, orange-clad blur, but even so she could discern the newly-attained muscles on his bare chest. Realizing she was probably staring, Elsie looked down primly and cleared her throat.
"Mostly isolated doesn't mean we don't occasionally get big important bounty posters and news coos. The Enies Lobby incident was probably a lot bigger than any of us can think."
"It was bigger than anyone knows, sis." Franky suddenly said, with ice in his voice. "They were saving Robin that day." He grinned sloppily at Robin, as if to remind her. "And I helped."
Robin looked at the man coolly, an unreadable expression in her dark eyes. "Yes," she agreed. "You did help." Elsie got the impression that the woman was controlling her inner smile with great grace.
"Well, um, I'd really appreciate it if you guys didn't... you know, kill me?" Elsie tried, breaking up the almost tangible tension between Robin and Franky. Elsie involuntarily recoiled when Sanji took her hand in both of his.
"Of course we won't, Elsie-chan!" He said, his cigarette waggling with each word, blowing smoke into Elsie's face. She coughed and made a face. She hated the smell of cigarettes.
"Do you have to smoke that, Sanji-san?" She asked, trying to wave away the smoke with her free hand.
Sanji's face fell, but he bounced back quickly. "You're so delicate, Elsie-chan!" He praised. Elsie could practically see the hearts in his eyes. She quickly withdrew her hand from his grip.
"It's not our decision to make." Zoro spoke up finally. "We have to wait for our Captain to decide."
All eyes returned to Luffy, who snored loudly.
Sanji took a long drag on his cigarette before extinguishing it in the ashtray. "Oi, Luffy, wake up: it's time for food."
Elsie was skeptical that such an approach would work in real life, but true to his character, Luffy sprang up, bright eyed and already drooling.
"Breakfasttime?! All right!" He clapped his hands together enthusiastically, dancing around and making clapping noises with his sandals as he raised each foot. He paused when he caught sight of Elsie. "You!" he exclaimed. "You're the girl who made it rain food and then fell out of the sky!" Suddenly he looked very agitated. "I-I-It wasn't me who broke your glasses, it was a sea king!" he fumbled. Elsie could hardly bite back a smile. Luffy was a terrible liar. Instead, she did her best to look in awe and perhaps a little afraid.
"Monkey D. L-Luffy-san!" she stammered convincingly. "Please don't hurt me, I fell by accident! Let me stay on your ship until you get to the next island with a marine base on it, please!" She clapped her hands together and bowed, though it hurt her sore ribs and she heard an unpleasant crackling sound. Chopper pushed her back upright quickly.
Luffy stopped panicking for a moment and considered. "Will you share your food?" He asked.
Elsie paused. Could it really be that easy? She wondered. "Of course," She said.
Luffy grinned. "Really? You're nice, you can stay!"
"Thank you, Luffy-san." Elsie's smile was genuine.
"Sanji! Where's breakfast?!" Luffy shouted.