ONE PIECE

Two Worlds, One Family

A young woman struggling to find her place in the world wakes up to find a bunch of cats in her room...cats that turn out to be the characters from her favourite TV show, One Piece! Bound to each other, whether they like it or not, and trying to figure out a way to find a certain somebody's lost Nakama and get everyone back to their home, what follows is bound to be chaos, friendship, tears, romance - and, adventure! (Kind of a re-write of Straw Cat Pirates).

CHAPTER ONE

Asia - Don't Trust It!

"So, for a colour image of 175 lpi, how many dpi do you scan it in as?" The lecturer glanced around the classroom, and his eyes fell on the first girl in the third row from the windows.

She was short, at only about 5'0". Her dark auburn hair with the lighter ends was tied in its usual messy ponytail, and her hazel eyes were framed by glasses as she had just been reading from the white-board. She was dressed mostly in black, in a kind of preppy style, from the black stockings to the black knee boots, short black pleated skirt, black blouse under a black jumper with pink stripes around the middle, and pink ribbon in her hair. Her ears were pierced three times with mismatched golden hoop earrings, and her nails were painted pink to match her jumper and bow (which also happened to match her I-Pod and her wallet).

Her name was Emma Pax.

Taking that as her cue to answer, she consulted her notebook and, her voice shaking from speaking up in front of the others, she answered: "W-well, it's t-times two, so..."

"350 dpi." A voice said from behind her, and she resisted the urge to turn around and glare at the girl behind her. With her own lack of height and dark red hair, Georgia Brown could've been Emma's best friend - if she wasn't her biggest rival. For some odd reason, the two girls seemed to have pegged each other as enemies. Today, she wore an over-sized black sweater over maroon tights, black flats, maroon nail-polish and a black knitted hat. She had also just answered Emma's question, which did not impress the other girl, but of course she kept her mouth shut, and just continued to stare at the board, until she felt that old nagging sense tugging her gaze to the right.

Her eyes darted to the screen...her hand reached for the mouse...just a few clicks, and...voila! Onto the screen flashed a page on Fan Fiction. net. Making sure to keep one ear on the lecture, Emma began to read. It was a story that she'd read several times before but, still, she always found something new that she wanted to read about it. It was the typical OC meets canon-characters thing, and involved a romance between the fan-character and a certain green-haired swordsman. It also appealed to Emma because, like her, the main character had a pushy Mum.

Emma loved the story of One Piece, even though a lot of people called it a kid's show. To her, however, it was awesome, and the characters and story-line fit together perfectly. She loved anime, but One Piece held a special place in her heart, considering how badly she'd wanted to watch it when she'd first heard about it, but it had taken her nearly a year to be able to do so and, even then, it was only the 4-Kidz dub. Still, that was better than nothing, and now the Funimation dub was perfect. She didn't really have a favourite character - she liked them all.

Of course, there were a few characters that she hated, too...

So preoccupied was Emma, with her fan-day-dreaming, that she nearly missed it when the lecturer, Fitz, said: "So, make sure you scan your images in at the right resolution - I'll be coming around to check."

Emma panicked - what was she supposed to be doing?! Curse her and her ADD!

Glancing around quickly, Emma noticed that other people were going up to the front of the classroom, and selecting photographs out of a box, so she hurried up to the table as well.

"Where's my Tim Curry?" Emma heard Georgia say, as the red-head riffled through the box from last week's scanning tutorial before anyone else could get to it, before snatching up a photograph of the man in question as he'd looked in the movie Muppet Treasure Island.

Two fellow TAFE classmates, Sam Dean (whose full initials were STD) and Tyler Johnson (wheelchair kid), laughed at this, as everyone else tried to find a photograph of a person that wasn't completely ugly, although they were apparently going to be Photoshopping it anyway, so what was the big deal?

Emma just picked the first picture that she came to - a very random, slightly chunky lady - and returned to her seat. She stood up nearly straight away, and went over to the closest scanner, managing to get there second - Georgia, of course, had beaten her to it.

Emma waited patiently as Georgia expertly scanned in her picture, her actions so fast that you couldn't have timed it, before she got up and moved back to her own computer.

As Emma slid into the seat, she suddenly realised that she had no idea what to do - last week's lesson seemed a very long time ago. "Wait, how do I use this thing again?" Emma said out-loud, not really expecting an answer, but she got one.

"You weren't paying attention when he showed us last week?" Georgia said crisply. "Spending too much time on Deviant Art?" She shrugged. "Fun for you."

Emma sat back in her swivel chair, feeling numb. Wasn't this supposed to have ended in high school which, for her, was, like, six years ago? Then again, she hadn't been any good at standing up for herself back then, either so, instead of telling Georgia something sharp, Emma just sat there, staring at the screen for a full ten seconds, before another girl in the class, Christine Zanders, came and helped her out.

What's wrong with me? Emma wondered, back at her own computer now. She found her photo in the Limbo folder (a folder that could be accessed by all of the computers on the campus) and opened it in Photoshop, making sure to keep her internet page open in the corner of the Mac screen, so that she could read while she worked. Why don't I ever stand up for myself? Oh well... She sighed, and set to work Photoshopping the lady's face, before realising that she'd scanned it in at the wrong resolution. She had to go back and re-scan it, which did not impress Sam (whose computer was hooked up to that particular scanner).

The good thing about Wednesday was that it was only a half-day, so everyone got to go home at one o'clock. The other good thing was that there was only one day left after that, and then a four-day weekend - bonus!

Emma left the Central TAFE campus in Northbridge, Perth City, listening to Long Live The Weekend by The Living End on her I-Pod. She passed a group of film-students, talking and laughing, and tried to ignore the pain in her gut. Christine was the closest thing she had to a friend at TAFE (they both shared a love of anime, and Emma had to remember to watch Kyoh Kara Maoh, like Christine had instructed her too, but would Christine watch any Hetalia?), but even then they didn't see each other outside of TAFE. There, Emma had only two friends, her best friends in the whole wide world or, at least, they had been as kids. Now, it seemed like they were growing apart, yet they could still act like they'd just seen each other yesterday, even after weeks apart. It was one of the things that Emma's Mum bugged her about.

Call Mayling sometimes, don't be so lazy, or else she'll leave you behind!

Get off your ass and go and see Krystal, or else you're gonna lose her!

Stop watching so much childish shit, or you're going to lose the only friends you've got!

Emma was not on very good terms with her Mum. Luckily, both Lee and Bruce were on a holiday in the Eastern States right at that moment, which meant that Emma could go home and do the one thing that she'd wanted to do since waking up that morning.

Go back to sleep.

Why was she so tired lately, anyway? Well, she had an idea of what might have caused her sudden lack of energy. It was a hot day, and she was sweating in her black clothing. Her legs felt like lead, as she walked past the State Library, towards the train station. Trains, in Emma's opinion, were beautiful, and she was glad to be able to have the chance to ride them so often. They weren't steam trains, but they reminded her of the sea-train from One Piece nonetheless. Tagging on with her Smart-Rider, and riding the escalator, Emma allowed her mind to wander off with her music, as she walked the familiar path to platform two.

As she boarded the train, she was lucky enough to get the seat she always liked (facing the front, with a river-side view) and immediately put her feet up on the yellow guard-rail in front of her, before taking out a book. No, it wasn't a manga, it was an actual book. One aimed at younger people, she had found out after she'd purchased it, but a good story, regardless. It was called White Ninja, and was written by the martial-artist trainer on The Biggest Loser, Tiffany Hall. To Emma, Tiffany was inspirational and awesome, and reading this book made her feel excited about tomorrow night's martial arts lesson.

Krystal and Mayling had suddenly expressed interest in something Emma had wished to learn for years - martial arts. Maybe to learn a new skill, or maybe to avoid ending up as a statistic, like so many girls in their city recently. Either way, Lee and Bruce had been powerless to stop what happened when all three girls got together and researched, eventually finding a martial arts school in Cannington. The three girls had been given two weeks of free trial lessons with the other white-belt students, which gave Emma some time to creatively avoid telling her parents how much the lessons would be costing. Fifty dollars per lesson, with a one year plan, was a lot, plus it was risky if you didn't want to continue for whatever reason (or, if you couldn't) but, Emma figured, she would be paying for the lessons herself with the money she got from Centerlink, so there shouldn't really be a problem with fifty dollars per lesson, should there?

Still, she was reluctant to let her parents know...

Emma was so involved with her book, that she nearly missed her stop, but managed to make it out just as the door was closing, and lugging her heavy backpack as she did.

"Be careful, kid!" A nearby train-guard barked at her, making her jump.

"Y-yes, sir!" Emma squeaked, not bothering to correct him on her age - it never worked on her parents, so why should it work on a complete and total stranger?

Keeping her head down as she stepped shakily onto the escalator, Emma tagged off, and then dug her keys out of her bag, exchanging her Smart-Rider for them.

After walking three kilometers (which it felt like) to her car, Emma unlocked the white Lancer and slid gratefully in, glad to be out of the heat - that is, until she switched on the air-conditioner, only to find that it wasn't working. "Oh, come on!" She complained, before sighing again and driving out of the parking space, sliding a CD into the player at the same time.

The music came on.

It's true, we're all a little...insane... Amy Lee of Evanescence sang, and Emma found herself singing along, wishing that she could sing like that. Her voice...well, let's just say that her Dad often said she should sing something the family dog didn't know. She also knew that her parents might try to Skype her later on that night, and ask her how the house-work was going.

With that in mind, plus a debit card full of money in her wallet, Emma decided to take a detour home...oh, okay, so she totally veered off-course when she headed for the shops. At times like this, she reasoned, there was only one thing to do - shop!

Yup, she was a complete and utter shop-a-holic.

If only she'd know that this simple shopping trip was going to change her life.

Smiling in an almost guilty fashion, Emma walked out of JB-Hi-Fi about ten minutes later, swinging the familiar yellow and black shopping bag. Inside was the first volume of One Piece, with four whole discs of nothing but One Piece-y goodness. Finally, she could see where 4-Kidz went wrong, and go Funimation forever!

Listening to her I-Pod, she headed over to the BBQ Inn and, after getting her usual rice/noodles/honey chicken/sweet and sour pork with extra sweet and sour sauce, she noticed that the stand where she'd gotten her snake bracelet from a few months ago was gone, and a new stall was up in its place. Curious, because it seemed out of place in the center, Emma began making her way over to it, feeling as compelled to do so as she had to read some more of that fan fic earlier on in the morning.

Why was there no one manning the store? And, why was the jewelry so strange here? Various trinkets and whatnot...Emma's kind of store...

Emma was so busy staring, that she didn't sense the presence that came up beside her until she looked, and jumped, seeing the shortest Asian lady in the entire world. She also appeared to be the oldest and, almost as if she could read Emma's mind, the old lady glared up at her with blue eyes, despite being Asian.

"You come have look at shop!" The lady demanded, as Emma took her headphones off hurriedly.

"O-okay!" Emma stammered, nodding, as she followed the lady closer to her stall.

The lady took her place behind the table, her gaze steady and piercing. Those blue eyes of hers were startling, and seemed to be endless, like a cremello pony's. Emma found herself unable to look into them for too long, which was nothing new. She busied herself with looking at the jewelry, but noticed something odd.

"There's no..." She began to whisper, but the lady cut her off (how had she heard?).

"You find what like!" The lady ordered. "Then, we talk price!"

Emma shook her head. "Oh, no...umm, I have to go..."

The lady narrowed her blue eyes. "You lie." She accused, pointing a finger at a startled Emma. "No have to do anything but sleep - tired face give away." She added, in answer to Emma's shocked expression. She put her hands on her hips. "You take time, is no rush." She sat on a little stool, and waited.

Emma gulped, and turned back to the display, wondering if the tiny Asian lady would give chase if she tried to run. It was a scary thought. Like Hetty from NCIS...

Emma browsed the shelves, wondering how she'd gotten herself roped into all of this. Her eyes wandered along rows and rows of rings, necklaces, bracelets and earrings. All of them had either an Asian, punk or random look to them, and nothing seemed to match. There were feathers, gem stones, spikes and beads. Wood, gold, silver and leather.

How was she supposed to choose? Why was she supposed to choose?

Her parents would freak out if they found out she was spending the kind of money this jewelry must be worth...

Emma's eyes narrowed. Wait, why should she even care about that right now?! They were over three thousand miles away, and they couldn't do a thing about it now, could they?!

Emma closed her eyes for a moment, weighing up her options, and then she felt a tug to the right. Not a physical tug, but almost like a...like a feeling...was that normal?

Since when have I ever been normal?

Emma opened her eyes, and reached across, taking the item from the shelf.

No, I've never been normal. She decided, holding her choice in her hand. I'm a book-worm, and a manga-lover, and a video-gamer, and a shy-guy, and a plushie-collector, and basically just an overall FREAK and, right now, I'm going to buy this damn necklace like the freak that I am!

Sitting in the palm of her hand was a pendant about the size of fifty-cent coin. It was shaped like a heart, with a pair of golden wings on either side of it, resembling something from Cardcaptor Sakura. When Emma handed it to the lady, the red stone of the heart gleamed in the shop lights.

Instead of taking the necklace from Emma, the lady reached out and clasped her hand briefly, making Emma freeze and gulp at the sudden contact.

What is she...?! Emma wondered, just as a sudden flash erupted behind her eyes, like being stung, and she flinched back. The necklace's chain caught around her fingers, and the lady kept hold, too.

The red heart dangled between their fingers, catching the light and throwing red beams off at them.

"You put on and no take off." The lady said calmly, her voice suddenly steadier than it had been before. "I sense great things about you, Emma."

She knows my name...stalker! But, somehow, Emma was not afraid.

"You just need see for self."

Emma was caught in the lady's hypnotic stare, barely aware that people walking past them seemed to be barely aware of them...suddenly, all that mattered to Emma was that she suddenly wasn't sure of anything anymore.

Maybe she'd been watching too much anime, or reading too many fantasy novels but, suddenly, Emma's mind was set that anything could be possible. Maybe from the way that this lady was suddenly smiling at her, and placing a "free gift" that resembled Japanese Sultanas into her hand, or the fact that the necklace felt warm in her other hand or, the fact that, when she turned around, the stall and the lady were gone.

"No way." Emma said out-loud but, when she looked at her hands, she knew that it was way.

At home, in the now air-conditioned comfort of her family's long house on five acres, Emma brought the dog inside. He promptly fell asleep on his rug. Though he had about a thousand nicknames (including Buster, Buddy, Bro, Lad, Oshana and Oshawott) his real name was Ranger, like the blue fox from The Animals Of Farthing Wood. He was thirteen this year, going on fourteen, and the vet had said that he was living on borrowed time, which was devastating, but he seemed okay.

At any rate, like Emma, he was happy to be inside, in the cool. The Australian Summer had been merciless this year, with a 42 Degree Celsius Christmas Day, one of the hottest on record. Today was shaping up to be another one of the same, but Emma didn't plan to spend it in the pool with her sister, her cousins, and a glass of red wine.

No, she was going straight back to bed, to maybe have an anime-inspired dream. Maybe about watching another sparring/death match between Itachi and Deidara, or practicing Waterbending with Katara, or kissing Japan/Kiku. Or, maybe she'd just dream about the Whitebeard Pirates, like she had yesterday...yeah, that'd be nice...

But, first things were first. Emma slipped into a more comfortable dress, before taking off her watch and untying her hair. Extreme comfort was what this siesta/cat-nap/kip was all about.

Then, she glanced at her free necklace (she had half-expected the police to come charging after her, or perhaps even Linda Hunt). Deciding to just "go with it", she picked it up, and fastened it around her neck. It felt warm against the skin of her throat, where a fine white scar lay and, when she turned it around, she admired herself in the mirror.

"Dazzling, darling." She told herself, giggling in a way that she never would in public, before remembering the other freebie. Shrugging, she opened up the box, which writing she couldn't read because her Japanese didn't extend to Kanji, and shook out a few strange, green fruit-like raisin-like...things.

In other words, she had absolutely no idea what they were, and was just about to throw them all away, when her hand had other ideas about the weird snack-foods and, quite suddenly, they were in her mouth and she was chewing them.

As soon as they hit her tongue, however, she knew that something was wrong - they tasted terrible, like peanuts, only worse!

Resisting the urge to spit them back out, Emma swallowed without chewing anymore, hoping that she wouldn't throw them back up - that'd be awkward.

She also decided to throw the rest of them out, box and all, and soon they were in the bin under her desk, and she was in her bed, stretched out and smiling in content.

Dreams of pirates, here she comes!

Emma was standing in the midst of a scene - like in all dreams, she was suddenly thrust into the middle of it, it being her subconscious and all.

However...this one felt a little...too real...

Normally, she would like her anime dreams to feel real, but this...this was too much...

People were dying around her, fighting and dying and all for...what?

What could have caused all of this?

A hand suddenly grabbed her arm, and she turned to see a blonde-haired man by her side and...wait, were those wings on his back? They looked like fire...

"Girl, what are you doing, get out of here!" He shouted to her, just as a bullet rang past his left ear, and Emma gasped despite herself. "Go!" The man with the spiky hair and the anchor-like tattoo on his chest yelled, giving her a push in a direction, and she took off running, wishing that she'd chosen to wear a bra in her sleep and...wait, shouldn't she be wearing whatever she wanted, since it was her dream?

Well, at least it wasn't a naked dream.

She saw men in white uniforms, and men with street clothes dashing about, battling and firing bullets at each other. Some used supernatural powers to fight, and some moved so fast that you could barely see them.

Emma didn't know where she was running too, or what she was running from but, just then, she felt another tug, and headed in that direction, dodging past the fighting men that only half seemed to see her, intent on killing each other.

What was going on here?! Why were they fighting with each other?!

Emma felt the tug grow stronger, and then she saw it, on the ground in front of her, not ten feet away - a straw hat, with a red band tied around it.

Emma stopped in the middle of the war-zone, and stared at it, trying to figure out if she was really seeing this one small detail in this all-too-realistic dream she was suddenly having.

That would teach her to read fan fictions in class.

A gust of wind suddenly picked up the hat, and carried it towards her. Without even thinking, she reached up and grabbed it, bringing it down and staring at it in her hands in confusion.

"Straw...Hat...?" She muttered, blinking.

Suddenly, a voice from behind her shouted out: "She's with Straw Hat Luffy - get her!"

There was a lot of shouting from behind her and, half turning, she saw a dozen or so of the men in the white uniforms charging for her.

She cried out, unable to scream (she'd never known how to scream by herself, only at rock concerts or on roller-coasters) and, without even thinking, she held her arms - and the hat - out in front of her.

Why was she so scared in her own dream, anyway?

Suddenly, a flash of scarlet and gold light erupted around her, blocking the oncoming attack with surprising success - the men coming at her were suddenly thrown off their feet, landing several kilometers away from her!

Emma lowered her hands slightly, staring in shock. That power...the energy running through her hands...that feeling of fear, and then adrenaline...

That had all been...real...

She suddenly felt that tug again, and turned around, this time seeing what she was supposed to be seeing.

A teenage boy with messy black hair was crouched injured, blood pooling around him. Another boy with black hair and a cowboy hat was coming towards him, to intercept something that was flying towards the first boy...a man made entirely out of molten lava...something that was deadly and fierce...

"You're mine, Straw Hat!" The man shouted, in a terrible voice.

It all happened so fast and, yet, for those that were watching, with one girl in particular, it was like time had slowed down, and the motions of everyone and everything were terribly accentuated.

The Paramount War At Marineford seemed to slow to a stop, as all eyes were glued either on the man of lava, or on the small young woman clutching the straw hat.

Her body jerked; her head was thrown back towards the sky, and she screamed something that wasn't really quite words, just...a scream. A long, drawn out cry, that seemed to hold the pain of a future that should never be.

Long red and gold tendrils like ribbons shot out of her body, hundreds of them, wrapping around certain people, and causing more chaos than had been before because, when she and the ribbons had disappeared, so too had all of the Whitebeard Pirates...a few others, too...plus, Luffy and Ace.

Sakazuki/Akainu stopped his unsuccessful attack, staring at the spot where Fire-Fist and Straw Hat had just been.

"No..." He couldn't believe it. "NO!"

"Wh-what just happened?!" An unlucky nearby Marine chose to ask, and the man of magma chose to kill him on the spot.

Stepping over the other man's smouldering remains, the angry one stated coldly: "Mark me...when I find that little girl...she'll suffer the same fate as Straw Hat and Fire-Fist..."

Author's Notes:

See, you're learning stuff already. ^^

To read the fan fic that Emma's reading, go here: s/4121745/1/My-StrawHat-Adventures

Read that book by Tiffany Hall and praise it - or else.

I own that necklace, plus a snake bracelet, too.

Oshawott!

Hot day + sleeping with the air-conditioning on inside = Priceless!