Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or any other Anime/manga that I reference.

A/N

Anni: So guys, this is a fanfic that I'm gonna be writing by myself. Kate and Laura won't be in this story, but we are going to be continuing The Reason We Are Here Is What, Now? all together, so don't worry.

If you haven't read it you should check it out, but there is no connection in the two stories except for my character and the very beginning. For you guys who haven't read our other story, here is a summary of our background:

Me (Anni), Kate and Laura are from an inter-dimensional academy where we trained for five years as the only humans in the entire place. We took our final exam that would allow us to be a kind of police for the different dimensions, so that giant wars don't break out between dimensions. Unfortunately, we don't get special treatment as police because our current job is secret. We can't tell people who we are, but we are keeping peace in smaller countries and large cities. After our exam, of course. That's what we plan to do if all goes well. During our exam, we made a small mistake with our powers and ended up being thrown into different dimensions.

Recap of my powers: I have fire-style elemental powers, can open portals between dimensions and I can teleport.

P.S. All pairings in other stories have never happened in this one.

Anni's POV

I woke up to the clattering of bottles. My head hurt like hell, but I pushed the pain away and sat up. Actually, my whole body hurt like I had been beaten up really bad. Where was I? I looked around and saw that I was in what looked like a storage room for some kind of shop. The room was filled with boxes and shelves, most of which were filled with food and sake.

Prying open one of the boxes, I grinned. It looked like I had fallen into the back room of a bar. The box was filled with bottles of sake, and by the look of it, it wasn't cheap. Wow, if I had fallen onto one of those boxes, I would be working here for at least a week to pay it off.

Suddenly, I felt my stomach drop. I stood up and turned around slowly. The clattering sound I had heard when I woke up turned out to be the sound of bottles of sake smashing on the floor. My head had broken the side of one of the boxes, and there was at least four broken bottles on the floor complete with a slowly spreading puddle of booze.

Footsteps from the hallway behind the door completed the moment. I was lost, and now dead. Yay for luck.

The door creaked open as I stood there in the middle of the catastrophe. I racked my brains trying to think of some excuse for my predicament, but nothing came to mind. I was just gonna have to wing it like usual and hope for the best.

The person opening the door was a short, wide, and grumpy looking lady. She had frizzy black hair done up in a ponytail and lots of makeup. She wore a beige shirt with a brown coat and dark pants, and the expression on her face said that she was ready to clobber anyone who disagreed with her.

As she took in the scene of me standing in the room with broken sake bottles all around, her face slowly reddened to the point that I didn't want to even try and make an excuse.

"WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE TO MY STORE, YOU PUNK?" She screamed.

Not waiting for an answer, she grabbed me by the cheek and hauled me into another room with a set of drawers, a desk, and a chair. Forcing me to sit down, she rummaged around in a drawer for a minute and turned to me with a terrifying expression on her face, and a piece of paper in her hand.

Slamming it down on the desk in front of me she glared at me.

"Sign."

I read the paper that she was giving me and I felt a little uneasy.

Looking up, I cleared my throat. "Um..."

Her head whipped around. "Whadda ya want?"

I swallowed. "Isn't two weeks full-time a bit over-kill? Miss?"

Her expression hardened even further and she brought out another paper. "Alright then missy, since you're so keen, then I'll shorten it to one week, but you have to work nights as well."

Expecting me to decline, her jaw dropped when I said, "Alright, sounds fair."

She sounded less angry as she said, "You do realize that this means you will get very little rest, and you will work hard, right?"

I nodded. "As long as I get a place to sleep and some food, I'll work as hard as I can."

She nodded. "Now sign and scram. You've gotta clean that storage room fast."

I signed the paper and turned to leave, but the lady spoke up before I could go.

"And you might want to do something about that nasty cut on the back of your head before it gets infected."

Confused, I reached up to touch the back of my head, and was surprised at the redness on my hand as I pulled it back. It was probably from when I crashed into the box, but it was no biggie. I could fix it with the small first aid kit that I had in my bag.

"Don't worry, I'll fix myself up later." I grinned. "Nice to know that you care, though."

The lady scowled. "Get moving. You've got work to do!"

XxX

After I had cleaned the storage room, the lady introduced herself as Clara. She had run the pub for ten years with her husband, and had two kids named Cathy and Nico. Nico was three years old and Cathy was five. They both had short curly brown hair and loved to act like pirates, which seemed like a trend in the town. Sometimes when the pub was nearly empty, Clara would send me upstairs or outside to look after them and make sure they didn't get into trouble when they tried to steal 'treasure'. Mostly shiny rocks, but sometimes they would go to the river nearby and try to get small pieces of quartz from the bank.

One time, Nico nearly got swept away by the current as he stretched to grab a rock. Cathy tried to jump in after him, but before she could do anything, I used my powers to teleport into the river. However, my fire-style powers don't work that well in water, and I had to swim to the shore.

Clara was angry with me for that. She scolded me for not keeping a eye on them, but let me off work for an hour as I dried off.

XxX

A week soon went by, and we were getting along well, with the occasional whack to the head for not paying attention, working too slow, or sampling the sake without permission. Eventually, the day came when I could leave. I had no place to go, so I stayed working at the pub for a little bit of money.

A few days later, I heard a commotion outside the pub. Running outside, I saw two men fighting over which way to go. One had blonde hair and one had green hair, and it seemed like the blonde was winning their fight. That soon changed when the green-haired one took out a katana, and started attacking with it still sheathed.

Despite the fact that they didn't look like they were fighting to hurt each other, I was still worried about the people who might get in the way. Running up to them, I used my fire-style powers to block the attacks from both sides with my arms.

Their angry looks turned to ones of surprise as they realized that their attacks hadn't connected with the person that they were meant for. I dropped my stance and looked at them with the expression that I had learned from Clara. I looked them both in the eyes and said, "What do you have to say for yourselves?"

The two taller men bowed to me with a muttered "Sorry.".

I softened my expression and said, "Why don't you come and discuss it like normal people in the bar?"

The green-haired one grinned and nodded. "Sounds good. Let's go, Love Cook."

I was confused. Love Cook?

The blonde scowled. "Don't call me that, Marimo."

Marimo? What was with these people?

I shook my head. "I don't know what you guys are doing, but I have to get back to work. Come in if you want to, stay out if you don't."

As I walked back into the pub, I felt the two men look at each other, shrug, and follow me in. They sat down at the counter as I poured them each a drink. Resting my elbow on the counter, I asked, "So, you two seemed to be having some problems with directions. Where were you trying to go?"

The blonde glared at the 'Marimo' who was drinking his sake very fast. "We were trying to get to the docks to get back to our ship and our nakama."

I raised one eyebrow at the foreign word. "Nakama?"

The green-haired one slammed his mug down. "What do you mean? Nakama are like your family. They're the ones that take care of you and are always with you. You can trust your nakama with your life, and a true nakama will never betray you."

So kind of extreme but, okay. Sounds nice to have these 'nakama'.

I was distracted from my thoughts by the green-haired one refilling his mug for the fourth time. I grabbed the bottle and said, "Hey, that's gonna get expensive real quick, and I don't know your names so I can't chase you down if you leave without paying, which I expect you'll do 'cuz you don't look too rich. So you've got two options. Tell me your names and pay, or try to run away. I guarantee that you won't get far."

The green-haired guy rolled his eyes while the blonde's eyes had stars in them as I went to get a notebook.

"Don't worry, barmaid-chan. We'll pay for everything!" He said, practically wriggling in his seat.

Ignoring the honorific, I raised the pencil in my hand. "Alright. What are your names?"

The blonde jumped at the opportunity to speak. "I am the great cook and lover of ladies, Sanji."

"Okay." I wrote down the name and turned to the other one. "And you?"

The sake-drinker sighed. "Zoro."

Sanji and Zoro. These guys are much better than the normal customers.

Totaling their drinks, one for Sanji and seven for Zoro, the amount was higher than I expected.

"So you guys owe me 4000 beli. Do you have the money for it?"

Sanji took out a wallet packed with bills. "Yes, barmaid-chan!"

Handing me the correct amount, he whacked Zoro on the back of the head.

"Ya know, marimo, if you had money, I wouldn't have to pay for everything you buy."

His head snapped around and he yelled, "Yeah, well if Nami would give me money, then I could pay for stuff myself."

"Don't insult Nami-san like that!"

"I didn't insult her. I just said that if she wasn't so stingy with money, I could afford decent stuff!"

"What was that, bastard?"

"You wanna fight, Love Cook?"

"Yeah, marimo!"

"NOT IN THIS BAR, YOU WON'T!"

They both turned to look at me as I stormed out from behind the counter, grabbed their cheeks and dragged them outside. A handy trick to learn. I mentally thanked Clara for her attitude that I had picked up.

I dumped the two on the road in front of me and was about to start lecturing them on their behavior, when I heard a two high-pitched screams from above the bar. The three of us spun around as a shadow flew from the top of the building to the other side of the road. I immediately recognized Cathy and Nico under the arms of a big man.

He was about 6"5 and was very muscled. His face was ugly, with a scar running down his nose and one ear missing. Two other men jumped down from the rooftop to his side.

He laughed and said, "We're holding these little squirts ransom. Tell the old owner that if she wants them back, she's gonna have to pay 500,000 beli. Bring it to the old cemetery at sunset today. Or else..."

He shook the kids and they squealed.

"Please help us, Anni-san!"

"Beat these guys up for us, Anni-san!"

But before I could make a move, the three men had gone. I turned to Sanji and Zoro, who were still sitting on the ground, and scowled. "You two can fight, right?"

Zoro nodded. "Hell yes we can."

I grinned sourly. "Then you're gonna help me kick these guys' asses to the moon. Sound good?"

Sanji smirked. "Fine by me. We're gonna teach these guys a lesson they won't forget."

A/N

Anni: And... cut! I'm not used to writing this long by myself. Although, it is easier with just one person's perspective.

I hope you guys like this first chapter. I decided to try solo writing and I think it came out okay. If you guys like this idea, then I would be delighted if you would let me know your ideas for events to come. I'm thinking about following the plot and adding in things like Easter, Valentines day, Christmas and New Years holidays at the corresponding times. I'll see you in the next chapter, which will hopefully come out in less than a week.

See ya!