Ruby chewed on an banana listlessly, leaning on the wooden tree it had come from in boredom, spinning Floating Array's blade as she did. Speaking aloud, "well, at least I won't die, eh, Penny?"
Penny didn't respond, couldn't when she wasn't even here. Chewing on her banana, she stared out over the small island she had beem stuck on for the last month. It didn't look like it had when she started out. When she had, there had been a single half dead tree with a single fruit. When Ruby had finally caved, starving, it had tasted horrible, and then things got… Weird. Like the fruit had forced her Semblance to evolve in ways she had never heard of.
The obvious one was that her skin could turn into thick bark, tightly knit vines or any other plant life she could imagine on top of her ability to dissolve into rose petals, or now, leaves or anything else that came off a plant. And when she had tried to cut her palm with Crescent Rose out of morbid curiosity, the spot had healed instantly in a flurry of lashing vines literally pulling the wound together.
The other was that she could force plants into existence from the palm of her hand. She had quickly figured out how to cause the tree she was eating from to grow in seconds, alongside strawberry bushes and, when the sun was out, she could feel herself gaining energy.
So in short, unless she went insane, had already gone insane honestly, from isolation, she wasn't in any danger of dying anytime soon. Which honestly wasn't any better in her opinion but what could you do?
That was when a ship crested over the horizon. Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose and peered through the scope. It was a relatively small ship, with a sheep's head in the front and a skull and crossbones on the sails, wearing a relatively silly hat on it. Pirates, just her luck.
Well, beggars couldn't be choosers, she supposed. Activating Petal Burst, she surged across the space between the them with Crescent Rose and Floating Array, flying over the sea and landing on the deck of the ship ready for a fight.
Only to come across a boy around her age wearing the same silly hat, a redhead girl, a sleeping green haired man, and a dark haired boy who had fallen onto his butt as she reformed.
"Uh, hi?" Ruby said, "Sorry to burst in, literally, but I was kinda stuck on an island and you were the first boat I saw in, like, a week. Can I talk to your captain?"
"Shishishishishi," the hat wearing boy laughed, "That's me! I'm Luffy, what's your name?"
—
"You're Captain?" The mystery girl said, "Ok, I'm Ruby Rose. You mind giving me a ride to the next island with a town? I hate to ask, but after being stuck on an island for a couple of weeks I was starting to think I would go insane!"
"Yeah, that would be pretty bad," Luffy said, "Who marooned you, and why?"
"I just woke up there one day," Ruby shrugged, "I wasn't even on a boat before!"
"That sounds really bad!" Luffy said.
"Really suspicious, more like," Nami muttered just loud enough for them to hear, "Who doesn't want to tell someone why they were marooned."
"I'm serious, I wasn't marooned by anyone!" Ruby insisted, "I don't even know where I am. Is this near Mistral? Vale? Vacuo?"
"Nami?" Luffy asked, and the navigator sighed before going into her room on the Going Merry and walking out with a map laying it on the table. Ruby stared at it for a long few minutes, confusion on her face.
"I've never seen anywhere like this before," she finally admitted, frustration in her voice.
"Weird," Luffy said, picking his nose as he did, "So what was with the flower thing. Did you eat a Devil Fruit?"
"A Devil Fruit?" Ruby asked.
"Did you eat a really bad and weird looking fruit, and then get powers?"
"Uh, yeah, actually? Is that called a Devil Fruit?"
"Are we just moving past the fact that she apparently doesn't know where she is?" Ussop asked.
"Yep," Luffy said, answering both questions at once, "like me, I ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi, it makes me into a rubber man, see?"
He pulled his cheek, stretching his face and getting a little giggle out of Ruby. Hey! Job done!
"What's yours let you do other than turn into petals?" Luffy said, excitedly. Ruby smiled, and then her skin turned into something Luffy was very used to, tree bark.
"Woah," Luffy said, "So you're like, a plant girl! Can you do anything else?"
"I can grow plants now?" Ruby said, a small tree growing in her hand, a tiny banana hanging from it.
"I like meat more, but that's still pretty cool," Luffy said, "Uh, a little warning about Devil Fruit, you can't swim anymore. You'll sink if you touch too much water."
"I- what are these fruits!?" Ruby asked, "they made me a plant person, they make it so you can't swim, not that I liked swimming but come on!"
"Nobody knows," Nami said, "I'm Nami, by the way, and this is Ussop, and the one who's sleeping is Zoro. Why don't you get some rest, I guess, if we're carrying you? Being stuck on a deserted island can't have been fun."
"I'd rather practice with these new powers, honestly," Ruby said sheepishly, "anywhere I can do that safely?"
"One second," Luffy said, shaking Zoro awake, "Hey, Zoro, we got a new crewmate and she wants to fight!"
"I didn't say tha-!"
"The best way to learn how to use your Devil Fruit is to fight with it!" Luffy said, thinking back to his childhood under Dadan.
—
