One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Ruby's Story ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

If you read One Piece: Ruby’s Story or Ruby’s story, this is it. I have made the chapter longer. I also tried to edit them while I go through the chapters.

Disclaimer: I don’t own The One Piece Characters, but I do own Ruby and her sisters.

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She groaned as she slowly woke up. She felt the hot sun beat on her face. She opened her sky blue eyes. She looked around. Her bamboo sword was lying near her left hand. She could feel her green book bag shifting on her back as she moved her body. Her red hair stuck to her face like a glove as she saw she was on top of a building. She began aware of pain as she looked down to see she was on gravel. She stood up and walked toward the edge of the building.  She brushed away her hair and little bits of grovel from her face and stared at what was happening below.

People of every shape and size were running around, going into some buildings and out of the building, carrying bags. There were groups of young women following a man who running from the buildings, ordering them to help. Chatter from below was starting to reach her ears as she watched. The dialogue sounded different from what she was used to and personally, it sounded like she was in entire different country.

‘How would that be possible?’ she thought. She pulled back from the edge of the building and walked a couple paces before hearing the dialogue again. Her eyes darted up and saw a door of a small building was slowly being opened. What would a person do when she is possible in a different country with no knowledge of local dialogue? Panic.

She grabbed her bamboo sword and darted toward the small building, feeling stupid. Her heart pounded loudly in her ears as she waited for the people either go back downstairs or…….something. She didn’t care as long as she was not discovered. She listened as the people started walking across the grovel roof and she looked around.

There were buildings nearby she could jump to without her book bag, but with her book bag, it would be iffy. Her book bag was heavy from carrying her school books, notebooks, laptop, a towel, and her swimsuit. Now, you are wondering why a woman like her would be carrying those items. That would be answer later when she found out where in the world she was?

The voices, she noticed, were coming closer and she grabbed the book bag straps, pulling them tight against her shoulders. Thankfully, the sun was on her side today and shone on the people. Their shadows paused and continued to walk toward her. She muffled a groan and tightened her gripped on her shinai, waiting for her time to arrive.

There were two men from what she could tell from the shadows and they were walking along the building housing the stairs leading down. She felt and heard her heart pounding in her chest. She looked toward the next building. She placed her hands on either side of her body and pushed off. Her legs pumped as she began to run toward the edge.

“OI!” Someone yelled behind her and she ignored them as she tried gain speed. She bent down on her left leg and pushed off, jumping over the gap that was between the two buildings. Her sky blue eyes looked down and she paled. There were three stories of nothing but air before she would hit anything.

‘Ain’t that nice,’ she thought, ‘some idiot like me would jump thinking the next building was actually closer.’

She noticed she was slowly altitude as she neared the next building and winced as she saw she was going to hit the edge of the building. Her eyes popped out like a bugs as she hit the edge of the building. She groaned as the air was forced out of her. Her vision swam. Her desire of getting away from the two men was stronger as she slowly pulled herself up from hanging over the edge of the building. She swung her body left to right, using the speed she gather to throw her left leg over the edge and started to pull herself up. She rolled her body over on to the edge.  She heard voices on the other building and saw a shadow blocking out the sun above her. She froze, weighting her options. She looked up and got a face full of white smoke. She swayed from side to side and fell to the right, falling down three stories, screaming.

She landed hard on something that caused her to fly through the air, again and she somehow managed to turn the free fall into a land. She landed on her feet before falling back onto her butt. She blinked stupidly and looked up to see the white smoke that caused to her fall in the first place, followed her down to street level. She continued to blink as she watched the smoke transformed into a man with a white jacket that was opened to reveal his bare, muscled chest. He wore a pair of blue jeans that defined his thighs really well and he was smoking two cigars.

He stepped forward and she got the feeling she should be running from this man, not checking him and wondering how good he would be in bed. She twisted her body the opposite direction and using both her hands and knees to push herself at a running pace. She started to run away and when she reached the main street, she hopped on her left leg foot and run into the crowd. She looked behind her and squealed in surprise. The man with the cigars was chasing after her.

She turned her sight forward and started running faster. She saw an alley up a head and decided she would a take turn there. She neared it and grabbed a pole attached to a vender’s stand. She used the pole to swing her body around the tight corner. Her sky blue eyes went wide as she crashed into a young man and an idea sprang in her head as she noticed the young man wore a hat.

Quickly, she threw her book bag off her back and swung it one of the young man’s companions with her shinai that managed to stay in her hands the entire running spree. She plucked the hat off his head and kissed him, using the hat to shield their faces. The kiss was very good, she mused as she broke it off and pulled the hat down, seeing if that man smoking two cigars was gone. She peered up and down she just left and the alley. That man was gone.

She smiled at the young man who had a faint blush on his pale checks and his companions who had their jaws hanging down. She grabbed her book bag from the blond hair man and took her shinai from the green hair swordsman - he had three swords at his waist - before she walked with the straw-hat on her head.

‘Good job, Ruby,’ she thought to herself, ‘You kiss a total stranger, lost the smoking guy, and got a new hat.’ She kept an eye out for the smoking guy as she walked around, viewing the town up close. Ruby hoped she looked like a travel just passing through. She was just passing through a busy part of town when she felt like she was in trouble.

Her sky blue eyes scanned the crowd until her eyes settled on the young man she kissed. He was glaring at her. His companions were spreading out in the crowd. The green hair swordsman was closing in on her left. The blond hair man was acting weird or at least she thought he was. He had a heart shaped eyebrow and eye while doing some noodle dance. There was an orange hair young woman heading straight toward her with a long nose, black curly hair man whose knees seemed to be shaking.

‘Great,’ Ruby thought, ‘I have to run….again.’ She turned into an alley and took a step back in surprise, seeing the man with the two cigars sticking out of his mouth. ‘Shit.’ Her eyes darted back to the man she stole the straw hat from to the cigar man.

The man with the cigars seemed to get the message as he looked that way. His eyes widen in surprise and he headed in the direction of the young man. Ruby slipped past him as he went his target. The young man and his friends seemed to be panicking as Ruby looked back. The green haired swordsman somehow managed to slip past the cigar man and was walking toward her.

“I hate running,” She muttered, speaking out loud the first time since she woke up. She turned away and started out as a walk then a slow jog. She jogged past two alleys before she broke out in a run. She dodged people and docked under various objects that got in her way.

She turned suddenly into an alley that led to her surprise the ocean. Ruby ran toward the ocean.

Ruby forgot all about the swordsman after her as she blindly ran toward the ocean. Feelings swam through her as she slowed down to a walk as she neared the ocean. The sand of the beach was white. The ocean was a deep, beautiful blue that seem to stretched on for miles and miles as she dropped to her knees, just staring at the sea.

Ruby felt the burning rush of tears in her eyes as she soon was lost in her thoughts. How could this happen? What was her family doing?  Was the small family of three (minus her) looking for her? Would they even care that she was gone? How could she get home? She had so many questions that she didn’t have the answer for.

She did not sense the swordsman approach her, but she did feel the hat being taken off her head. She knew it was wrong to fight him over the hat and display her emotions on her sleeve. She suddenly grabbed her shinai and her left leg was bent at the knee as she swung her shinai toward the swordsman. He drew one of his swords and defended himself from her attacks. He seemed surprised that tears were running down her face.

The hat lay forgotten on the sand as the swordsman knocked the bamboo sword out of her gasp. She wiggled out of her book bag and let it fall to her hands then to the ground before she kicked out at him. He grabbed her flying leg as he put away his sword. He opened his mouth and talked to her, but it came out in a different language she did not understand. She did not care what language as she threw a right hook that he ducked and threw one of his own. It hit her jaw. Her teeth clenched together. Her tongue was tucked in the roof of her mouth, protecting itself. Her hand flew behind her as she prepared her body for a back flip, kicking her opponent in the jaw. He stumbled back a few feet. Ruby tucked her feet back under her as she landed the back flip, staring at the swordsman. She slowly stood up.

“Zoro,” a cry from the edge of town rang out as he came out her again. They ignored the cry. She lifted her arms in a defense position as he threw punch after punch at her. She moved her upper body from side to side, not blinking and the knowledge of one of this man’s punches could knock her out for a few hours kept her moving. Ruby soon felt all the anger and frustration in her body melt away. She let her guard down and fell to her knees, crying.

Hot tears slowly ran down her redden checks as she stared at the white, hot, sand. She saw the black boots belonging to the swordsman turned and walk away from her. She didn’t know what he was doing until he called out in his deep voice.

“Luffy!” She looked at the swordsman’s back and saw he was holding up the young man’s hat. The young man was standing on the beach with the rest of the group of friends. She looked away. She could not stand watching them. They remind her of her own ragtag group she hanged out with…..used to that is. She pushed herself up from the ground and turned to her book bag. She swung it on her back and reached down to grab her bamboo sword before walking away, heading down the beach.

“OI!” She had a feeling that was for her. She ignored it and continued on her way. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She glanced over her shoulder and her eyes widen in shock as she looked at a hand that belong to arm that stretched all the way back to where she fought the swordsman. She lost her balance and fell on her butt, still staring at the stretched out arm. Ruby let her mind wonder on the perverted side of the situation, thinking what else he could do that involved the bedroom activities with that ability. That ability also seemed familiar like she should know what it was and who it belonged to, but the information eluded.

Ruby watched as his arm wrapped around her waist and she paled, dug into the sand. That didn’t help as he started to pull his arm back toward the rest of his body. She felt her voice catch in her throat. She dug her feet into the sand, but young man she had kissed pulled her to her feet and brought her flying into him. She closed her eyes. Ruby felt someone caught her, but not in the way she wanted to be caught.

A warm pair of lips pressed against hers. Mentally, she cursed as she opened her eyes to see who she had kissed. Looking up, she saw green hair and groaned mentally. It was the swordsman. She could feel his arms around her, figuring he did in order to catch her. She pulled back, turned red. She began to fight to get out of his arms, but he tightened his hold, glaring at her. He opened his mouth and said something that involved “Onna.” She ignored him. She used her hands to pull at his own, trying get him to let go of her. Suddenly, his head flew forward. Her eyes widen in shock and moved her head to keep from kissing him again. Where his head landed was not much worst then a simple kiss. His face was buried in her breasts. Ruby never felt this embarrassed before.

‘Fate is against me today,’ she thought to herself as she tried keep from crying. She kneed the swordsman in the gut. He went to the ground, groaned and clutching his mid-section. Emotional, she turned and fled from the group.

Ruby ran for a couple minutes before she lost her breath. She had no clue on where she was. Wiping her eyes, she took in where she was currently at. To the left side of her, the town was busy, people running around doing what they do every day. Looking to her right, she saw ships of all sizes and shapes sitting in the harbor, waving all kinds of black pirate flags. One of the ships caught her eye. She gasped in surprise and realization. How could she be so stupid? She couldn’t believe it. Yet, it was true.

It was rather a small ship compared to the other in the harbor, but it stood out in her mind. Its bow was one of a ram head and the sail has skull and cross bones like the other pirate ships. A straw hat was on the skull. She started to hum a song that belongs to an anime she loved to watch.

“Wealth, fame, power,” She mumbled softly. “Gold Roger was executed thus creating the Great Pirate Era.” Ruby sat down her shinai as she kneeled down onto the ground. She dropped her book bag from her shoulders and grabbed, in the front pocket, her silver ipod. She put in her ear buds and went through her list of songs to one song that got her hook on the anime, We are. She listened to the song.

She put her bag back on her back and grabbed her shinai before standing up.

Ruby walked toward the Going Mary. She felt her heart began to race.

She reached the ship. Looking the rope ladder, she decided she could not carry the shinai in her hand and climb up. She tossed her shinai to her right and slid it into the straps of her book bag, perpendicular to her back.

She began to climb up the rope ladder. She felt excitement boiling in her blood as she was doing what every anime fan girl wished she could do - see where Luffy and his nakama lived - ‘live action version’ she thought as she grinned.

She reached the top and swung her leg over, gazing around the empty ship. She walked across the deck, almost dancing. Her foot falls barely fell against the wooden deck. She felt like a cat, sneaking around.

Ruby was passing the mast when she heard voices coming from the ladder. She paused in mid-step. Her breath seemed to catch in her throat as she quickly wondered where or what she will do.

A door with a small circler window caught her eye. She made a split second decision and dashed to the door. She opened it, dashed in, and silently shut it behind her. She looked through the small window, watched as someone threw a bag over the railing.

Zoro followed the bag. He turned around to hit with the next bag of, what Ruby assumed was, supplies. He let the bag fall before he started yelling at the person responsible. He wore a white t-shirt, a dark green bandana tie around his left arm, a green sash around his waist like a belt that held his one sword, a pair of dark green baggy pants and black boots.

 Sanji followed. He got into the swordsman’s face and yelled back. This man wore a black suit with a lime green dress shirt and black tie. His black shoes shone in the light as he kicked the swordsman.

Ruby could just watch the interaction between the two men as the rest of the crew climbed abroad. She blinked and took the time to study the crew members. Besides the two men fighting, there two more men there were a part of the crew. Luffy wore a red vest, a pair of blue jean shorts and a pair of scandals. Usopp was a long nose man with black, curly black hair that had a hat with some weird gadgets. He wore brown overalls and a pair of green stripped boots.

The last crew member up was Nami. She wore a white, tight, tank top with an orange skirt and platform scandals. She climbed over and saw what was happening on deck. She started yelling at the two men. Sanji swooned over her. Zoro just crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at the blond hair man. Luffy just watched the only woman in his crew yell at his crew mates. Usopp bent over and grabbed one of the four bags of supplies. He started to head where Ruby was standing.

Ruby silently cursed and looked around the room she was in. It looked like a storage room with a back door, heading somewhere else. She had to take a chance to run and hid. She ran to the back door and opened it, trying to keep her foot falls quite. She ducked in the room behind the door.
The moment she shut the door, she was surround by complete darkness. Ruby mentally groaned and strained her ears, listening for any footsteps approaching the door. She heard the crew talking. What? She had no idea what they were talking about.
Ruby got the feeling that the crew was going to be busy for a while and turned around. She grabbed her shinai from the straps on her book bag and pointed it down in front of her. Ruby slowly walked forward and fell down. She screamed as she fell.

“Oooh, I found the stairs.” Ruby muttered and heard footsteps heading her way. She panicked and scrambled to her feet and ran in front of the stairs to only hit her nose on a wall. Searing pain went through her skull and she turned around in time to see the door open. A corridor went along the opposite direction beside the stairs. She ran down the corridor.  Ruby heard yelling from upstairs. She tried to run faster. She found a cabinet in a square room. She couldn’t tell if she could fit into it or not, but she took the chance as she slipped off her book bag, opened the cabinet door, threw her book bag and her shinai in before she climbed in. She closed the door.

Ruby could hear voices and footsteps. She knew the crew was talking about her scream and she waited patiently till the footsteps and voices faded. She counted silently to twenty before opening the cabinet door an inch. She didn’t see anything in her current range of version. She opened the door a bit further and poked her head out.

Ruby’s face fell as she saw the men of the ship stood there as they watched her fall into their trap. That did not mean she had to come out, willingly. She pulled her head back in the cabinet. Ruby only had to wait for a total of five second before the cabinet door was forced opened by one of the men.

Ruby saw green hair before she was tore from her hiding place by her shirt. Her right hand fell on her shinai as she grabbed the arm with her left hand. She hoped she looked innocent and sacred as she felt. Ruby could feel her eyes wide and her grip on the bamboo sword was starting to hurt.

Zoro lifted her body up in the air and alarms went off in Ruby’s head. He slammed her against the wall, growling something. She had a feeling that he wanted to know what she was doing upon the ship, but her knowledge flew out of her mind as she felt her personal space being invaded. She raised her knee to his groin. He groaned loudly before he let her go and she bonked him on the head with the bamboo sword as she landed on her feet.

Ruby swung her bamboo sword toward the three remaining men. Usopp already fainted as she hit Sanji and Luffy. She ran back down the hallway she originally fled down. Ruby grinned slightly as she saw the stair case, but lost it when she heard angry cries from the men she had hit.

Ruby reached out with her left hand to the pole attached to the stair case and swung her body around in a sharp u-turn. She saw how close the three men were and adrenaline pumped into her blood. She took the stairs three at a time and made it to the top of the stairs as they barreled after her.

Ruby watched them climbed after her. She cocked her head to the left as Zoro, Luffy, and Sanji tried to take the stairs at the same time. In her opinion, that would have NOT worked out. For them, it did. She calmly waited till they were just a couple stairs steps away and slammed the door in their faces.

She giggled as she heard them fall back and the angry language that followed. She knew she had pissed them off. Ruby turned around and blinked as a fist flew toward her head. She had enough sense to duck in time. Her graze flew up. Her jaw dropped as she saw the only woman in the crew put her fist through the door. Not to the door, through it.

Ruby scrambled around the obvious angry woman. She jumped toward the door that led to the deck as the angry woman turned and followed. Ruby twirled on her balls of her right foot, faced the angry woman who had a weapon of her own out. The two women faced each other as the men piled into the doorway.

“Nami-shwan!” Sanji cooed over the angry woman and he continued to say something in his language.

‘Nami,’ Ruby thought to herself as she shifted into a defensive position. Her eyes harden. Ruby drew her focus on a possible fight between herself and Nami. She noticed that Nami was did the same. ‘I will fight clean.’ She promised herself as she moved her right foot forward, cried out “Maaaa!” as she made a face that used to make her friends laugh.

Nami’s face screwed up. She bit her lip as her torso shook with possible laughter. Ruby took this chance to attack. She swung her bamboo sword up over her head and brought it back down onto a metal sword. Ruby’s eyes went wide as her knees went out from under her and she numbly watched half of her bamboo sword went flying over her head. The top of half of the bamboo sword spun end over end and landed in the ocean with a splash.

Ruby felt the blood drain from her face as she turned her head back to face Zoro. He smirked at her. She started to pushed off her knees and do something - anything at all, but she saw a glint of metal as it went for her exposed neck.

Ruby dropped the half of the bamboo sword she held in her left hand, defeated as she eyed the sword. She slowly raised her hands.

“I gave! I gave!” She said as her hands reached her eye level.

Ruby’s wrists felt uncomfortable as she waited and waited………for anything to happen, other than sitting here doing nothing as the pirate crew talked in the kitchen or helm room to do with her. She sighed impatiently. She put her back against the starboard side of the ship and tilted her head back, watched the clouds floated by without a care in the world. She remembered what happen a few hours earlier.

She had given up once the swordsman threatened to cut off her head. She held up her wrists in surrender and did not do anything in attempt to escape as they took rope and tied her wrists together in front of her. Once they did that, she walked to the starboard side and sat down, waiting. She held her head high the entire time.

Now, Ruby was had difficulty dealing with the fact she was in another world. She fought back tears of being homesick. She uncrossed her legs and placed her arms around them before buried her face in her knees and let the tears roll down her face.

Ruby heard a door shut and she looked up to the kitchen. The blond hair man walked to the stairs. Ruby whipped her face with her hands. She looked up again as he knelt beside her and put a tray of food down.  No words were exchanged as he looked at her and she smiled.

“Merci,” She muttered in French without thinking.

“You speak French?” Sanji questioned. Eyes widen, Ruby gasped, inhaled some food that went down the wrong pipe. She started coughing. He patted her back.

“I barely passed that class with a C in high school.” Ruby confessed with a grin. “I kept on falling asleep.”

He laughed. “I had to learn it while working on a floating restaurant.”

“You worked on a Floating Restaurant.”  Ruby covered her mouth, amazed.

“Yeah.”

“No wonder why this food taste so damn good, freakin’ cook,” Ruby scrawled. “My cooking don’t taste this good.” She laughed. “I barely have the time to bake or cook anything while I was in college.” He looked confused.

“College?”

“Higher education for people who want to something more important than flipping hamburgers for the rest of their lives,” Ruby paused. She blinked as her thoughts turned to her home, “Or at least where I came from.”

“Where do you come from?”

“America.” Ruby looked at her food and inhaled the rest of it before it turned cold.

“Never hear it.”

“Hmmmm….” Ruby handed the tray back to the cook. “My name is Ruby.”

“I’m Sanji, beautiful,” Sanji’s heart eye started popping out of his head. “I’m the only cook on this fine vessel.”

“Sweet,” Ruby said. ‘I am defiantly in One Piece.’ she thought before continuing the conversation. “Who else is on board? I think I beat up or at least pissed off a couple people earlier.”

“My crew mates,” Sanji said.

“Lovely,” Ruby muttered. “Tell me how good are my chances of living to see the sunset?” Sanji blinked in surprise and started laughing. His laughter caused his crew mates to come out. Ruby stared at the blond hair man, in confusion. Nami asked Sanji something and Sanji replied still laughing. Luffy started laughing, Zoro smirked, Usopp held onto Luffy to keep himself from falling down and Nami giggled. “What?” Ruby looked between the crew mates. “Tell me, Sanji.” She pulled Sanji’s black pant leg. “Please?”

Sanji turned to her with a smile on his lips. “We weren’t planning to kill you. Luffy was trying to figure out what to do with you.”

“Oh,” Ruby said, “Nothing too bad, I hope, like using me as a sex slave or any kind of slave. Somebody might just get hurt in more ways than one and it will not be me.”

“Awful confident, ain’t ya?” Sanji looked at her.

“I try to be,” Ruby shot a grin at him. Sanji translated for his crewmates. They laughed harder. Luffy said something and his crew mates stopped laughing, looked at him and then turn their gazes on to her. “What did he say?”

“The captain said you’re funny and he also wants you to join the crew,” Sanji said, took out a cigarette and lit up. Ruby sat there in shock. She looked down at the wooden deck.

Ruby knew she had to get home. She had a life there. She was working on her English degree of becoming an English teacher and full-time writer. Her family must be worrying out of their minds for her well-being. There was a chance that she would not go back home. She lifted her gaze from the deck to the view the ocean.

There were dark clouds on the horizon and she couldn’t help feeling like something bad on the horizon will happen.

“I don’t mind hitching a ride, but to join your pirate crew? I think I need to think a lot of things over,” Ruby said. She looked up at Sanji whom translated. The captain cheered. Everybody except for Ruby yelled at Straw-hat for something. Ruby looked confused as she switched her gazing eyes between the angry looking crewmates to the straw-hat captain. The captain had a big grin on his face.

“Did anyone grab my bag?” Ruby asked. Sanji

“Oi, Zoro,” he started and continued saying something. The swordsman nodded, turned, walked back into the kitchen and came out, holding Ruby’s book bag. He raised his arm, tossing her book bag over the railing. Ruby’s eyes flew wide and she rushed to her feet, the tray dropped to the ground. Her baby blue eyes were glue to the book bag as it swore through the air. Ruby saw the bag, falling fast and she drove on the wooden deck. She slid a couple feet before she came to a stop and a second later, she felt her book bag land in the curve of her back. She winced at the impact and the pain that followed. She used her right arm to reach to behind her and pulled the book bag off her back. She sighed as she began to push her upper body up and pulled her feet under her. She stood up and glared at Zoro.

“BAKA!” She yelled at him. The crew stood there, shocked. “I had breakable items in there, teme!” She turned away, gave the swordsman her back. Ruby heard Sanji translate for them and she walked to the bow, looking at the ocean. Ruby was tempted to look back and see how the swordsman reacted. She heard the crew howling with laughter. She knew she either made an enemy or got the respect of Zoro, the swordsman. She continued to look at the sea.

In the middle of the night, Ruby woke up. She had been dreaming about home, how much she missed it and whom she was missing. Her baby blue eyes scanned the small women’s quarters that Nami had dragged her to after dinner. Nami was sleeping on the bed. Ruby watched her sides raise and fell with each breath she took.

In Ruby’s opinion, Nami was a very beautiful young woman. She was headstrong and not afraid to piss people off like she had pissed off Zoro during dinner. Nami reminded Zoro of his debt with 300% interest. He glared at the orange haired woman throughout dinner causing Luffy - the straw hat captain-, Usopp - Long nose - and her to laugh. Ruby had been trying to be polite and hid her grin behind a napkin that Sanji put on the table.

Ruby tore her gaze away from the sleeping Nami and slowly got off the white hammock that one of the young men came in and set up for her. She walked to the door, opened it and slipped through, quietly so not to wake Nami up. She looked up and down the corridor that led to the men and women living quarters before heading up deck to look at the sky.

She found the stairs and the panel that hid the stairs from above deck. She pulled the panel back and went through. She turned around and replaced the panel. She stood up and a soft breeze played with the white t-shirt that Ruby and Nami made Zoro lent her. He was the only one on the ship that had really big shirts and Ruby was actually fine with the t-shirt.

Ruby turned to the bow, remembering the scent of the swordsman was on the shirt and the feeling it brought up in her, safety. It had been a while since she had the feeling of safety. That is one thing she learned quickly while on college campus - be alert at all times. Ruby had signed up for a kendo class at the beginning of the semester and she did not look back on that decision. The bamboo sword was given to all the students who signed up the course.

Ruby shook her head. She can’t live in the past, now that she was living in another world where the anime show of One Piece was real and living, breathing crew of the Straw Hat Pirates was around her. She had to stay on her toes and try to help out when she could in the future.  Ruby froze, suddenly. She felt eyes burring holes into her head. She looked up and saw a man up in the crow’s nest. His straw hat was outlined with the rest of his body.

“Luffy?” she called out.

“Ruby-chan,” Luffy’s animated voice called out. Ruby waved at him and he reached down, stretching his arm. Her eyes widen. It was really freaky to see it in person instead of viewing on the anime show. He wrapped his arm around her waist and slowly pulled her up. She felt her feet leave the deck and waited, staring at the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates.

Ruby saw he had a smile on his lips that could be classified as tender and she found herself smiling back at him. She guessed he had one of those personalities that everyone liked. He lifted her over the railing before sitting her down. He unwrap his arm away from her waist and sat down. Rose sat down beside him and pulled her legs to her chest, covering them with Zoro’s large shirt.

“You know,” Luffy said, suddenly. “The stars are really beautiful tonight.”

Ruby jerked her head to look at him. Shock was written over her face as she stared at him. He was speaking perfect French. “How?”

“My grandfather forced me and my brother, Ace, to learn several languages,” Luffy explained. Ruby continued to stare. He was very different then earlier. He had lost that innocent and the child like way of talking. “He taught or more like tortured Ace and me while he was visiting us.” He paused. Ruby felt like she should say something. “One time, the old geezer threw me off a cliff after I ate the Gum Gum Fruit.” Ruby remembered reading the magna about that story. The old man Garp was mean to Ace and Luffy. “Ace found me, sleeping, in a tree.”

Ruby bit her lip. “You fell asleep after being thrown off a cliff?”

“Yup!” he had that humorous grin on his face, looking like the young captain she had kissed and met earlier. She started to giggled, covering her mouth with her right hand as she shifted her body around. Her legs now lay on the wooden platform of the crow’s nest and her left hand was used to support as she continue to giggle. Luffy stated to look confuse.

“You looked so serious then you made that grin like a kid at a candy store.” she explained in between giggles. Luffy laughed.

“Sorry, I’m like that,” Luffy admitted. Ruby slowly got her breath and giggled like a school girl.

“So, you like at act that you are clueless but really you are not,” Ruby asked.

“Yup,” Luffy looked upward. “Something like that.”

“You are really good actor, Captain.” Ruby said with a smile. Luffy blinked.

“Ye~a~h!” Luffy said and continue in his native language.

“Luffy!” Ruby scolded. “You are going to wake the crew.” He ignored her and cheered about a “nakama”.

Suddenly, the panel below opened revealing Sanji, Usopp, and Zoro. The three of them looked sleepy.

“Ruby-chan no nakama!” Luffy jumped down from the crow’s nest. Sanji looked up at Ruby. She just nodded her head and walked over to the rope net. She turned around and started to climb down the rope net. A soft breeze played with the edge of Zoro’s shirt and it went up. Ruby screamed in surprise and tried to save her modest by pushing the shirt down with her hands, covering the fact she was wearing nothing under the shirt. She lost her balanced and fell backwards. Her eyes widen and she took a sharp breath. She hit the ocean.

Darkness surrounded her as she tried to stay calm and let her body float in the direction she needed to go. Ruby tried moved her hands from the bottom of her shirt, but couldn’t. She pressed her lips together and let bubbles out every few seconds through her nose.

Suddenly, she felt an arm slipped around her waist as she jerked to see Zoro. She threw her arms around his neck and he started kicking, pushing them to the surface. They broke the surface. Ruby left herself a few inches and Zoro found his face almost buried into Ruby’s boobs. Ruby tilted her head back and sucked in a huge breath. She came back down and looked at Zoro. He looked like he was dazed for a moment, but he jerked his head behind him. Ruby looked in that direction. The ship was not in sight. Ruby twisted around and saw the ship directly behind her. Zoro let go of Ruby and she turned away as he started to swim in the other direction. Ruby saw that and grabbed his shoulder as he tried to swim by. He jerked to look at her with somewhat confused and angry expression on his face. She pointed at the ship. He began to look embarrassed as he started to swim in the other direction.  Ruby shook her head and grabbed onto to him.

They reached the ship a moment later. Ruby pointed at Zoro and pointed the rope ladder. Zoro shook his head and pointed at her, then the rope ladder. She glared at him. She repeated her request. Zoro repeated his request. She sighed.

‘If he is gonna be stubborn about this, fine.’ she thought, ‘He can see my puss if he really wants to, but he is not gonna to get it.’ She grabbed the rope ladder and pulled her feet under her, placed them on the first rang. She pulled herself up, water coming off her nightshirt and sticking to her body like a second skin. She began to climb. Ruby tried to think about Zoro under her, looking up at her bear rear.

Luffy and Usopp was waiting at the top and grabbed her arms as she reached the top.  Both men pulled her over the railing and Ruby saw Sanji coming out of the kitchen, wiping his face. She stepped on the deck, sea water dripping from her night grown and she felt uncomfortable.

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I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I will be updating two weeks time. See ya then.