Chapter Thirty: "Something to make sure she knows we don't care if she's a girl."

Final chapter! Sorry it's a little short.

Sora hated being on watch. It wasn't as if she couldn't sleep in the crow's nest, but her hammock in the boy's room was much more comfortable. Not to mention Namizo was always lecturing her about napping on watch, which was stupid, since she didn't have to be awake to know if someone was on board.

Case in point: she stirred slightly as her instincts warned her that someone was walking around on deck. She settled back as she realised it was a crewmate – figuring out which one or even how many would require waking up more, which quite frankly didn't seem worth it.

Her lack of interest meant that the swordsman didn't know that below her, the entire crew were running through the last-minute details of their plan. In fact, her internal clock was also being derailed by her current state of sleep, meaning that she had no way of knowing that her shift had finished five minutes ago.

"Isn't she coming down?" Luffi asked impatiently.

"She's probably asleep," Usoppa theorised.

"Figures," Sanae grumbled, taking a breath of her cigarette.

"She'd better not be sleeping on watch," Namizo growled. "Again."

Roben glanced at Usoppa. "It'd seem fairly natural if you woke her, Miss Longnose. Don't you have the next shift on watch?"

"Yeah, okay," Usoppa agreed. "Everyone hide."

The two boys climbed into their room, tucking themselves into their hammocks. The girls (excluding Usoppa and Sora) took refuge on the deck as the sniper climbed the rigging.

"Sora, wake up." Usoppa shook the swordsman awake. "It's my turn on watch."

"Huh?" Sora asked sleepily, sitting up. "Okay." Yawning, the swordsman started to climb down the mast. "Good night."

"Good night," Usoppa called down after her.

Sora could sense other crewmates hiding around the deck – that sounded like Luffi's giggle from the balcony – but she wasn't coherent enough to care. Instead, she climbed into the boy's room, passing by where Namizo and Roben were lying with their eyes closed. Tiredly, she changed into her pyjamas and gratefully crawled into her hammock.

She was asleep within moments.

After a little over a minute of listening to the girl's breathing become deeper, Namizo sat up. Quietly, he slipped back outside and beckoned the girls into the room.

Usoppa, Choppa, Sanae, and Luffi all entered after him. Roben was already slipping out of his bed, carefully approaching the sleeping swordsman.

"Are you guys sure she won't wake up?" Usoppa asked nervously.

Sanae gave her an annoyed look. "This was your idea."

"It was Roben's idea to do something to make sure she knows we don't care if she's a girl," Usoppa corrected, then paused thoughtfully. "Although I am rather brilliant," she added.

"Usoppa's got a point, though," Namizo said. "Choppa, you're sure she won't wake up?"

"Yep!" Choppa said, nodding. "I've been watching, and Sora only wakes up if someone's in trouble. As long as she doesn't sense that she, or any of us, are in danger, she'll stay asleep."

Usoppa glanced at her. "Not to rain on your theory, Choppa, but I can name plenty of times that she's slept through danger."

"That's different," the doctor said confidently. "If we're in a storm or something, she'll wake up if something is directly about to hit her, like if a barrel goes flying. And if you look closely when Sanae kicks her awake, her eyes open just before the point of impact, but when she tries to move Sanae reflexively adjusts for that and hits her anyway."

"That's cool," Luffi said admiringly. "I've never seen her do that. Sanae, could you show me?"

"Could I kick the dumbass moss-head for entertainment? Sure."

"Your ankle's still healing!" Choppa argued immediately.

"I'm fine," Sanae protested. "That was weeks ago-"

"Shut up!" Namizo hissed. "I don't care if you think she won't wake up, let's not test it."

The Straw Hats quietened.

Usoppa walked over to the head of the hammock, her bare feet treading silently on the floor. Carefully she began to undo the knot holding the bed to the wall. Luffi stood next to her, fingers on the actual hammock to stop it from dropping.

On the other side, two hands had bloomed from the wall, gently easing the other knot out. Choppa was standing in Heavy Point, her fingers digging into the gaps of the hammock to hold her.

After a few moments, the knots came off. Sora's hammock dropped abruptly, before being caught by Choppa and Luffi. The sleeping swordsman didn't stir.

Treading as quietly as they could, Luffi and Choppa took a step towards the door.

Sora fussed slightly. The entire crew froze.

"Get her swords," Sanae hissed.

"What?" Usoppa looked at her blankly.

"She always notices if someone moves her swords away – it'll probably be the same if it's in reverse," Sanae advised.

The sniper hurried to obey. Gently she collected the blades, balancing them in her arms, and stepped softly to bring them nearer.

Sora settled.

"I can't believe that worked," Namizo whispered incredulously.

Treading quietly, Luffi leading the way and with Usoppa trying desperately to keep the distance even, the Straw Hats slipped out of the boy's room with their sleeping crewmate.

Sora didn't react as they touched into the cold night air, still sleeping peacefully.

Getting her down the hatch into the girl's room was the trickiest part of the mission. Usoppa, Namizo and Sanae climbed down first, after Usoppa handed the swords over to Roben. Choppa and Luffi gently dangled the hammock into the hatch. Sora's legs grazed against the edge, but it just barely fit. Then a chain of arms curled around the edges of the hammock. More and more hands lengthened the chain, bringing her closer to the ground. A second, smaller chain dropped beside it, keeping the swords at an even distance.

Sanae, Usoppa and Namizo grabbed hold of the hammock, holding it steady as the other three climbed down to join them. They took hold of the mobile bed, picking their way around the room to the area that had been set up for her while Sora was on watch.

Picking around the swordsman's belongings that had been recently relocated to the girl's room, the Straw Hats lifted the hammock up. Roben's numerous arms reached around, expertly knotting both sides to the edge. In relief, the Straw Hats stepped away from the bed.

Sora slept on, completely unaware that she'd been neatly kidnapped by her crew.

"Congratulations," Roben said, glancing at the four conscious girls. "You now officially have a new roommate."

Sanae wrinkled her nose with distaste, an expression that was probably more for show than any real discomfort. When they'd first come up with the plan, she'd put up a token huff at sharing a room with the swordsman – which Namizo had quickly shut down by asking if the cook would prefer he and Roben have to deal with her. Despite that, Sanae didn't really care that much, and couldn't imagine the new arrangements would have too big of an impact.

A few days earlier, Roben had commented that although mostly the female swordsman appeared to be completely comfortable in her skin, it might reassure her to have some kind of gesture to prove the others were fine with the new information. The others had agreed, and Usoppa had suggested moving her into the girl's room.

It had seemed like a nice and simple way of telling the swordsman that they were perfectly accepting of her being a girl.

"Well… goodnight," Namizo said finally, turning around. He climbed up the ladder out of the room, with Roben following him.

The girls glanced at the newest edition to their room, before quietly getting changed into nightclothes and climbing into their own beds.

Slowly, the five girls drifted off to sleep.

X

Sora could hear movement going on just outside her bed. That in itself wasn't entirely unusual, but it felt like there were too many people in the room. Especially since Roben generally tried to keep quiet while Sora was still sleeping, and that sounded like a lot of noise for just Namizo.

Sleepily, Sora sat up, yawning.

"About time you woke up," Sanae said impatiently. She was standing in the corner of the room at the mirror, running a brush through her long blonde hair.

Sora looked at her blankly. "What are you doing here?"

The swordsman looked around the room. Usoppa was neatly making her bed – at least as well as one could make up a hammock. Choppa was tying a yellow ribbon to her antler, her hooves being surprisingly agile as she tied the bow. Luffi had apparently half-fallen out of bed last night, her rubber legs staying tangled in the hammock which she was currently trying to unknot.

The four girls seemed remarkably casual about the unexpected situation. Almost unnaturally casual, as if they were purposely trying to act like this was what happened every day.

"Okay. What am I doing here?" Sora asked finally.

"Well, you are a girl," Usoppa pointed out, glancing at her with a grin. "We figured you might as well sleep in the girl's room."

Sora gave her an odd look. She swung her legs out of bed, looking around.

Her swords were resting in easy distance against the wall. All of her stuff had been relocated into the room in the night, presumably about the same time she was. Even her clothes and shoes, which she had left discarded after finishing watch duty last night, had been brought into the room.

"Did you… did you carry me in here?" Sora asked incredulously, glancing at her hammock. It had been expertly knotted to the wall, a situation that had certainly been different when she went to bed.

"Uh-huh." Luffi managed to untangle herself from her bed and got to her feet, her familiar straw hat flopping on her messy hair. "We thought you were going to wake up when we started to move you, but Choppa said you wouldn't."

Sora considered for a moment. Several possible responses were running through her head.

Eventually she just groaned and collapsed back into her hammock. "You know, you could have just asked. I would have moved."

"The only good thing about this new arrangement was to do it without consulting you," Sanae grumbled, putting her hairbrush away. She flicked one strand of hair out of her face, which seemed ridiculous considering her usual hairstyle, and started heading out the door. "Breakfast should be about twenty minutes."

"Sanae, that's way too long!" Luffi complained, running after her. "Isn't there anything you can do to make it faster?"

"No! I wouldn't demean cooking by rushing it!"

"So you can do it!"

"Not happening, Luffi."

"Fine. Can I at least have some of the meat before you cook it?"

Sanae almost certainly would have refused, but Choppa was already running after them before she got the chance. "No! You'll get salmonella!"

Grinning, Usoppa turned to the green-haired girl. Her smile faded. "Are you okay with the room change?"

"Yeah, I guess," Sora shrugged.

Usoppa's smile returned. "Good."

Then the long-nosed sniper ran out of the room, shouting. "Hey, wait for me! I don't want to miss out on breakfast just because Luffi's a human guzzling machine!"

"Hey!"

The boy's voices joined the conversation as Namizo and Roben apparently left their room. Sora wondered absently what they thought of her absence, then decided that they probably knew before she did – Namizo would be in on any plot on this ship, and Roben still had the uncanny ability to know everything.

Smiling to herself, Sora got out of bed again. She pulled out a couple of simple clothes, her fingers brushing past the binders she had long since abandoned in the bottom of her drawers. She ran her brush quickly through her now shoulder-length hair, getting rid of the worst of the knots.

Then, whistling cheerfully, the female swordsman left the girl's room, her three swords clinking together as she walked, heading off to join the rest of her crew in a mad rush for breakfast.

Maybe a little cheesy, but I figured since Sora has spent the better part of this fic pretending to be a guy, we should finish on something that draws a parallel to how far she's come.

It's been a fun ride for me. I loved writing these subtle differences between male and female, and I absolutely loved getting all your reviews. Thank you so much for all your support throughout this – it helped a lot. I hope you enjoyed this fic as much as I did.

Thanks for reading!