"The other cooks don't like you anyway," the head chef continued. "Why don't you just become a pirate or whatever you please? Why don't you just get the hell outta here!?"
Lucy blinked. Zoro raised an eyebrow. I sighed and went back to meal, drowning out the rest of my conversation. I didn't like listening in when friends were insulting each other until Sanji was thrown into the table, before which I only just managed to get my food out of the way of being smashed, along with everyone else. In my opinion, as long as my name didn't come up in their argument, it's their problem, not mine, and I won't fight unnecessary battles.
Still though, my stuffed peppers didn't taste quite as good as they had before.
Zeff walked off saying, "I'll live another 100 years!" and Lucy, that moron, chose this moment to get a few words in of her own.
"Isn't it great that he gave you his blessing!" she exclaimed, leaning over to pat him on the back. Sanji looked like he couldn't decide whether to go into ero-cook mode or to kick her in the face, which I wouldn't blame him for doing.
"Lucy!" I snapped. "Is that really all you can glean from that argument?"
She totally ignored me, but then again, was I really expecting anything else? "Now you can come with us—"
"HELL NO!"
I heard one of the cooks mutter, "Whoa. Sanji said 'no' to and cursed at a girl? This has to be a world record or something."
I nodded in silent agreement.
Then Sanji immediately went into ero-cook mode after fixing our table, and gave Nami and me a Fruit Macedonia and a new glass of wine.
"Spaz," I heard Zoro mutter, earning him a sharp look.
Nami thanked him and a greedy sneer spread across her face while Usopp sprung up demanding Sanji apologize to him. I rolled my eyes.
"You want a fight?" Usopp grunted. "I won't go easy on you. Get him, Zoro!"
I sweatdropped. "If you want to fight, do it yourself," I told him. The swordsman agreed.
Nami pouted. "Please don't fight over me."
"Very well, madam, I'll stop."
"WHO'D WANT TO FIGHT OVER YOU?!"
I pointed at Sanji, my face blank. Zoro snickered.
Nami started playing with the ero-cook's easily-swayed heart to get free food while I just shook my head and tried to concentrate on my food. Lucy watched the whole thing, stomach growling the entire time.
"Give me food, Yuril!" she begged, looking at me and turning on puppy dog eyes.
Damn... those were some cute puppy dog eyes. I felt my resistance weaken and I sighed. "Alright. You can have one of the remaining peppers on my plate."
"YAY!" she cheered, scooping up the biggest stuffed pepper and downing it in one giant gulp. "More!"
"N-N-No," I grunted, somehow managing to tear my eyes away from hers.
"Come on!"
"I said only one."
"Oi, waiter girl! Why are you slacking off? Back to work!" a random cook said.
"Oh. Okay..." She looked so disappointed I almost gave her another pepper, but I managed to stop myself before I broke. And so our captain was dragged off while Nami, Usopp, Zoro and I all sweatdropped. Sanji left our table soon after.
***
Three days passed, three days to get closer to each of the Straw Hats. Zoro and I got into more mini battles, Nami breaking them up before they escalated. I practiced my self-defence and tried to discover what my powers were. I mean, if I was a demigod, I had to have control over some type of aspect of human life, right? And since Aes had said he was the god of the ocean, it only made sense that my powers were water-related. I had pretty much accepted this was real by now. I'd never had a dream so realistic in my life.
On the second day we were at the Baratie, I managed to cause a wave the size of the restaurant that rolled, out of control, out to sea. Luckily it went in the direction of the Calm Belt, so I wasn't too worried about it crashing into islands and causing a mass panic. By the fourth day, I was able to control the waves I created, though it took a lot of effort and left me physically exhausted by the time I was done. The crew asked me if I'd eaten some sort of Devil Fruit, and to keep things simple until I learned more about why I was here, I said I ate the Mizu-Mizu no Mi, otherwise known as the Water-Water Fruit.
When I wasn't practicing self-defense or learning how to control my powers, I was fooling around on my iPod or just trying to get some rest before the big battle I knew was coming. My reflection on my iPod showed me the same Yuril that I'd been before I'd entered this world; a slightly nervous Yuril with maybe a little more muscle than I'd had before, but the same me nonetheless. I had on an orangish PacMan shirt under a cool leather jacket which Cracked-Up Chuck had stolen for me against my wishes. I'd almost returned it to the store, but it was so awesome on me that I'd decided I'd keep it, just this once. I also had on a dark blue pair of jeans, the same ones I'd been wearing on my mother's death day. I hadn't grown more than an inch since then. My hair was red and windswept from the sea breeze. My eyes were light-brown. My single black belt was caked in seasalt from the waves I'd practiced making, and smelled bad like the ocean, though I was getting used to the smell by now.
At the one week mark, a heavy fog rolled in. I had been watching the Baratie Arc as well as the other future East Blue Arcs secretly up in the crow's nest so that the crew wouldn't hear me doing it, and so I knew that today was the day that Don Krieg would show up trying to take the restaurant, whose food we'd been gorging ourselves on for the past week.
"Man, it's already been seven days," Usopp complained. "I'm getting fed up with this place. How soon can we leave, do you think?"
"Technically you're not getting fed up with the restaurant, you're getting fed up with the restaurant's food," I told him seriously.
"Smart ass."
"Beats me." Zoro shrugged, totally ignoring me. Did anyone pay attention to me? At all?
"You don't think she'll really be stuck here for a whole year, do you?" the liar grumbled.
"Knowing Lucy, she's probably wrecking the place, and they'll let her out early to save themselves the extra repair cost," I chuckled. We were all leaning against the side of the Merry 's upper deck railing, the fog so thick it looked like pea soup.
"Too true," said Nami with a sigh. "I'll miss all this free food."
"IT'S ONLY FREE FOR YOU TWO!" Usopp shrieked. He tilted his head and must've seen our captain off the side of the ship, because he called out, "Oi, Lucy! What's up with you? Hurry and get out of this mess!"
"Ah, can't you guys wait just a bit longer? I'll try talking to the boss again," replied Lucy.
"Please do!"
There was a slight pause broken only by the lapping of the waves against the side of the Going Merry. Then the shadow of a huge ship sailed steadily toward us like a ghost. My shackles stood up on end and I shivered. The anime hadn't done the creepiness of the situation justice.
As the ship grew closer, we all watched it. And man... up close it was even bigger . It had to be at least six times the size of our own little caravel. Its mast head was akin to a sea monster, or maybe a weird purple lion, and its pirate mark was... strange. But the creepy thing wasn't the sheer size of the ship, or its figurehead, or even the grinning Jolly Roger flying on the mainmast. No, the creepy thing was how utterly decimated it looked.
"It looks like it was put through a giant meat grinder," I said in horrified awe. "How is it even still sailing?"
"Hey, we gotta get outta here!" Usopp freaked.
"That ship's huge!" Nami said in shock. Thanks for that, Captain Obvious.
The fog cleared away, revealing just how messed up the ship really was. The sails were torn nearly in half, and one of the masts was leaning to the side. Giant, gaping holes were ripped in the hull of the ship.
"We can't go without Lucy," I told Usopp, "and I doubt she'd want to miss the excitement anyway."
A huge man shrouded in his ship's shadow stepped off it and walked into the Baratie, leaning against a struggling hin.
"Oi, everyone, let's go in the back way," Zoro suggested.
"Yeah, sounds good to me, Marimo." I nodded. The tenseness in the air was so great that the unofficial first mate of the Straw Hats didn't even shoot me a glare.
"I think I have, If-I-go-to-the-restaurant-I'll-die disease!" Usopp cried. "It's a serious dilemma!"
"Fine, stay here, but don't blame me if Krieg's men raid our ship," I shrugged. The liar squeaked in terror and ran over to hide behind me. "Oi..."
"I'll protect the ship," Nami offered. "I'm good with a bo staff."
I bent my head in resignation, knowing she'd sail off without us. "Alright, but I need to get something out of the crow's nest first." I quickly scaled the steep mast, almost slipping but managing to regain my balance, and slipped my iPod into my pocket, then jumped out of the lookout post and into the sea, willing myself to stay dry so my iPod wouldn't get fried. I'd learned I could do this the day before.
SPLOSH I sank into the water, hung for a second, then blasted myself onto the Baratie.