Tani was rudely awoken from her peaceful nap, by the sound of shouting and water splashing. Now that's to be expected since they're so close to the ocean all the time, but the splashing seemed different.

"What the hell?" Nami shouted from the other side of the ship. Tani propped herself on her elbows, looking in the direction of Nami. Nami was staring over the side of the boat, a look of annoyance and confusion present in her fair face. Sanji, Usopp and Luffy ran out of the kitchen and leaned over to see what she was looking at. Judging by the way Luffy's eyes lit up in excitement, Tani could only assume it was something interesting.

Ace lazily followed out the kitchen after Luffy started shouting in excitement to Chopper, requesting the little doctor to translate what the "Turtle seals!" were saying.

Tani sluggishly lifted herself off the ground and walked over to the commotion. It was exactly what she expected, a bunch of dugongs with turtle shells... Challenging the ship to a kung-fu fight, well that's what Chopper translated.

"Well if it's a fight they want, it's a fight they'll get," The captain declared, jumping off the ship and onto the rocky surface the turtle seals challenged him on.

Luffy swiftly beat them all up... Like really fast, because it's Luffy... This ended up causing them to now claiming him as their master, it was all quite humorous until they wouldn't leave the crew alone.

"Nami I think they're still following us," Usopp pointed from the railing of the Merry. Nami growled and stomped to stand beside Usopp.

"We can't take you with us," Nami tried to reason with the hoard of Luffy followers. They barked at her, Chopper turned to the group and translated.

"We can't leave without learning from master," he parroted. Nami felt her forehead hurt from all the tensing she made with her brow. Usopp pat her back with comfort. She sighed.

"Can we make a deal with them?" Nami asked Chopper. The reindeer asked the question to the kung fu turtle seals, they chirped back an answer that Chopper quickly relayed.

"Food, for all of them," he said swiftly. Nami called for Sanji, who ran out in a flash with hearts in his eyes.

"Yes my love?" he called, Nami gestured to the turtle seals.

"We gotta feed all of them, how full is the food supply?" she asked the chef. He held his head in his hands to think. They'd just had a big lunch (Thanks to Luffy and Ace being total bottomless pits) so they didn't have too much left in terms of long travel.

"We can make them a meal and still have enough left to last us about three days tops," he estimated, counting on his fingers. "Four days if we skip snacks," Sanji declared. Hoping Luffy didn't hear that.

"Well get to it, we don't have all day," Nami instructed. Sanji was quick to leave, preparing a meal for the Luffy followers. Tani snickered at the sight. This world for stranger and stranger... Speaking of strange.

Who would have thought she wasn't the only dimension traveller here. Granted it was likely, she wasn't some movie protagonist. That was more a Luffy thing if she thought about it. Back on topic... If Ace knows a traveller as well than it would be in Tani's best interest to talk with her. Maybe she can ask Ace for his partners number? Yeah she'll do that when she has the chance.

For now she was going to relax, the journey ahead was gonna be a tough one.

...

"Bye!" waved Luffy in farewell. Tani and a couple of other crew members waved as well. The kung-fu turtle dugongs swam away with a splash, leaving the straw hats and their tag alongs.

"Well then... Shall we start packing bags for the journey?" Tani said with a clap of her hands.

"We did," Nami stated, pointing at the bags that Tani didn't notice because she was distracted by other things.

"Oh... Well I'm gonna go pack my things," She said sheepishly. Waltzing towards the girls cabin, only to have Vivi prance towards her with a soft smile. The blue haired princess walked with Tani to the cabin and headed for the desk while Tani packed her bag.

"What are you doing?" Tani asked curiously, shoving a packet of beef jerky into her bag. Vivi turned from her chair to face Tani.

"I'm writing a letter to my father, to tell him I'm coming home with some help for the kingdom," she replied, turning back to continue writing. Tani hummed, pulling her camera out of the bag and taking a look at it.

She was still curious about why it existed, she hasn't really used it that much. Maybe she should get on that. Tani turned to face Vivi's backside and with a click of the crank, tapped the shutter button and-

*Click*

"Nice," Tani smiled. Vivi lifted her head with a curious hum but Tani placed the camera back in her bag and continued pulling things out of her draws and putting them in the bag. Let's hope this isn't heavy...

Tani sat in front of her draws with a thoughtful look on her face, she stared at the many items splayed before her. Determining which items were more important than the others. She didn't want to over or under pack. She wouldn't need any extra clothes because it's gonna be hot. She didn't have any water bottles to pack because she missed the dimension store in Nanohana thanks to Luffy being lost. She already had the camera, some snacks and her Walkman... Oh her yo-yo's too! What else?

Since it was sandy she didn't need her roller blades because those bad boys would sink in the stupid sand... Sand sucks! Unless... There were stone paths in Nanohana, maybe the bigger cities have paths too... Was it worth it? Maybe she could ask Vivi about the city?

"Ready to go?" Vivi asked after a moment. Tani blinked, had that much time passed? Vivi had a neatly folded envelope in her hands. Tani pulled her rather light bag onto her back.

"Let's get going," Tani smiled. The princess gave a nod and headed to the door. Tani followed behind Vivi while fixing up her head cover, it was a scarf that kinda looked like the one Zoro was wearing, but it's colour was the same light green as her cloak. She unfortunately had to leave her lucky cap behind because it just wouldn't be practical.

"Hey Vivi! Does the ci-" Tani started once they made it outside, she failed to notice the carelessly forgotten bag left right in front of the door. Tani tripped and slammed face first into someone. Who was it? She didn't know because her face was smothered in human. What she could conclude though, was the person was a guy because... Well of course she can tell the difference.

"You should really watch where you're going there klutz," that not so familiar deep voice snickered. Oh whoops... Tani pushed herself off Ace but in doing so tripped backwards over the same god damn bag! Ace grabbed one of her flailing arms to prevent her from looking like any more of an idiot than she already felt like she was. Her cheeks were a fiery red, a mix of embarrassment and the scorching heat of the sun.

"You called? Oh-" Vivi started as she walked back onto the boat. Tani steadied herself and scooted away from Ace.

"Uh, oh yeah. Does the place we're going have stone paths? I dunno if I should pack my skates or not," Tani asked while trying to cool her cheeks down. Vivi clapped her hands together and gave Tani a closed eye smile.

"They do. In fact all of our major cities and smaller towns do," she said cheerily. Her princess pride very evident in her tone... And she was just talking about the paths. Tani wishes she had this much pride in her homeland, too bad it was pretty lame in comparison to pirates and desert kingdoms.

"So you reckon I should bring them?" Tani inquired. Vivi went to answer, but a voice cut in over hers.

"If it's your weapon of choice, bring it," Ace said coolly, sliding his own cloak on.

"Tani hurry up!" Nami sounded like she was on a rampage. Stomping up the gangplank to tell Tani off (she wouldn't yell at Vivi or Ace because of course not). Tani tensed and bolted back into the cabin to grab her skates.

Tani returned quickly, and by quickly it means Nami stormed into the cabin after about 5 minutes because Tani was having trouble tying the knot around one of her skates. The red head hauled Tani out of the cabin and tossed her off Merry and into the sand in front of the gathered crew. Clapping her hands to rid them of dust.

"Now that everyone is finally here," she glared at Tani, who poked her tongue out in a childish manner. "We can finally start making our way to Yuba," Nami declared, turning to Vivi who was now explaining the directions and all that jazz. Tani didn't really pay attention, she was too busy digging through her bag to find a-

"Hey Tani whatcha doing?" Luffy asked, his cloaked arm lazed over her shoulders to look in her bag. She grabbed around the small orb and pulled it out of the bag.

"Usopp do you have any string?" she asked, turning to look at the long nosed man. He scoffed as if that was the dumbest question, but pulled out a huge line of string.

"Sweet, I need to make a bell thingy for Ace so he doesn't get lost," she said aloud, to answer Luffy's question from earlier. Ace looked at them at the mention of his name. Finding the long nosed guy and klutz working on looping a small bell onto a line of string while Luffy hung off the girls shoulders. Ace smirked at the sight, his little brother was such a-

"Here you go," Tani said as she offer the string with the bell dangling from it to Ace. "It's so we don't lose you during the journey," she explained. Ace shook it, hearing no sound.

"Only Tani can hear it," Luffy explained with a beaming grin, "Isn't she the coolest!" he praised, Tani clapped her hands on her cheeks to hide the very obvious blush on her cheeks.

"Am not, I probably just have better hearing than you. That's nothing special," she deflected. Ace felt like laughing at the pair, what a charmer his little brother was.

"Yosh! Let's go!" Luffy commanded, his free arm pumping in the air. Taking the lead with Tani still attached to his side. The crew followed behind the eager captain, Ace could only grin as he followed the same old Luffy he cared for so deeply.

...

"It's hooooooot" Luffy complained for the 52nd time (yes Tani was counting) in the last three hours. He was lagging behind, using a huge stick he found on the way as a hiking stick. Vivi and Nami had taken the lead. Sanji, Tani and Usopp were behind them, Ace behind them next to Zoro, who was pulling Chopper along on a sled.

Tani could feel the sweat dripping from her skin. If only she could have bought some water bottles! Why did Luffy need to get lost so quickly? Hell even a fan would have helped.

"It's hoooooooooot!" Luffy complained again, his mouth hung low as he breathed heavily. It was kinda scary how wide his mouth could do that, being made of rubber was such a weird power. Now that she thought about it.

"Hey Ace?" she called behind her, turning on her heel and walking backwards to face the older man. He lifted his gaze to look at her with that trademark smirk. "Luffy said you got your powers not that long ago, why did you eat the fruit?" Ace chuckled.

"I ate mine by accident, me and my first mate Deuce found the fruit on the first island we landed on and got so hungry that we both ate it," he said with nostalgia. "I took the first bite so I got the powers, while Deuce got a whole bite of nasty fruit." he laughed heartily.

"But now you can't swim, I think that trade off is totally not worth it." Tani remarked. Ace tilted his head.

"The pay off can be pretty great sometimes. Example being mine," he flicked his fingers, they lit like a match. "My whole body is made of fire, so nothing can hit me," he sounded confident. Tani decided to challenge that.

"What about a fire extinguisher? Or a fire blanket? Those are made to literally snuff out fires," she shot back with a smirk. Ace quirked an eyebrow. "Well? If you think about it, you're made of fire. So depriving you of air or covering you in whatever it is in the fire extinguisher would take you down wouldn't it?" she thought aloud.

"What in the blaze's a fire extinguisher?" he looked like he'd just found out about a new secret weapon.

"They have them around schools and buildings in case of fires. It's this red thingy with a hose that sprays this white foam stuff that puts out fires," Tani replied. Oh right! He wouldn't need to worry about something like that. "It's something from my homeland, so you don't need to wo-"

"where you from? I don't think Trip has ever mentioned those before," Ace asked curiously.

"Tani's world has so many cool things!" Luffy chirped. Wasn't he dying just a second ago? "Hey Tani? Do you have-"

Trip!

Tani's foot clipped something protruding from the ground. She fell backwards, landing in the awaiting arms of Sanji. What was wrong with her today? Tani kept tripping over things, she wasn't normally this clumsy was she?

"Thanks Sanji," she sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck as he steadied her onto her feet again. He gave her a pleased smile.

Tani looked around and found that everyone had stopped walking. Now that she wasn't tripping over like a doofus, she found herself staring at the empty remains of a town. Only the top halves of the houses could be seen, dried up trunks and sticks littered the sandy ocean. The wind carried thick layers of sand that could cut the skin if the wind traveled much faster.

Vivi stood frozen, her shoulders shook up and down in a mix of anger and sadness. Nami stood by her side, rubbing the small of the blue haired princesses back. Usopp and Luffy were exploring the area, Zoro was sitting in the shade with Chopper. While Sanji, Ace and Tani stood around with nothing better to do.

"Should we? Comfort Vivi or something?" Tani asked, half a roll-up hanging out her mouth. Sanji went to light a cigarette, Ace gladly lit the end of it for the chef who gave him an appreciative smile. Sanji let out a smokey breath.

"I think she just needs some time to process all of this," the blonde sighed sadly. For a guy that's obsessed with women, he sure can read the room. Tani frowned, hopefully Vivi feels better soon.

"So Tani," Ace spoke from beside her. She looked up at him with a hint of nervousness. "Tell me more about fire extinguishers," he said with the most serious tone. Tani almost wanted to laugh at how nervous she had felt.

"What is there to say? They put out fires," she shrugged, Ace narrowed his eyes.

"What about that blanket you mentioned? The one that puts out fires," she asked curiously. "how does that work?"

"You get this fire proof blanket and cover the open fire. Because there's a lack of oxygen it snuffs out the fire. Poof! All gone," she made a motion with her hands. Ace nodded as he absorbed the information. "My turn to ask a question. How come you're more human and solid now? Even though you're made of fire?"

"I have no idea, that's just how the fruit works I guess," he shrugged.

"Hey guys, found something!" Luffy called from far away. Everyone got up to examine Luffy's find... It was a human skull. Tani had seen skulls before, hell she'd dissected many animals for science class (which included skulls) not to mention all the horror movies she had watched with her mum. Yet seeing the real deal just... Felt like a whole new level that she wasn't quite ready for mentally.

Vivi was affected the worst though, her screams echoed off the empty hollow buildings of the town. A horrific sound filled with pain and sorrow. She fell to her knees in anguish and covered her face with shaking hands.

"I'm gonna kick Crocodile's ass!" shouted Luffy angrily. His arms held high in the air, ready to take down the monster who did this. Vivi looked up at the angered captain with a determined glare, as if saying she too was ready to kick this guy's ass.

"We need to hurry to Yuba, or else every towns going to end up like this one," Nami reminded. The desert princess lifted herself off the sandy ground, a new spark of determination lit up in her eyes. She nodded and took the lead again, storming through the desert with the straw hats following behind.

...

"Hooooot..." Luffy groaned for the 78th time in the last two hours.

"Too hoooot..." Usopp complained for the 44th time in the last two hours.

Tani could feel her limbs growing tired, a mix of the intense heat and her lack of stamina making the journey difficult on her aching body.

"We get it! You're hot can you shut up!" Nami shouted at the pair who were trailing behind the group.

"But it's hooooooot," Luffy whined. Tani turned around to face her captain, it didn't help that he was carrying one of the more heavy bags. Maybe he wouldn't feel so tired if he swapped bags with someone. Looking at her own, which was light because of its size and contents.

"Luffy, why don't we swap bags?" she said with slight hesitation. She wanted to help Luffy not be so tired, but he has a record for being reckless. Tani's bag was one of her most precious items. Yet she trusted that the bag was in safe hands... Relatively. "Since my bag is much lighter, you won't feel so tired," she explained. Luffy perked up at the mention of less tired.

"But I don't wanna carry any bags... Hey Zoro! Can we put all the bags on the sled?" Luffy asked. Zoro tsked at that, pointing a thumb at Chopper who was over heating on the sled.

"Chopper needs it more than our stuff does. Quit whining," he barked, giving Chopper a worried glance. Aww he was worried about Chopper, what a dad.

"How about we play rock paper scissors, winner needs to carry all the bags," Luffy declared. Holding his hand out ready to play. Sanji, Usopp, Zoro and Tani all put their hands in to play.

"Wait did he say winner needs to hold the-" Tani started but was silenced by Sanji who motioned for her to draw paper.

"Rock!"

Sanji wouldn't let her win the game, because he wouldn't want her to hold all the bags.

"Paper!"

But if everyone was in on this, then that would leave Luffy holding all the bags.

"Scissors!"

Everyone flicked their hands. Sanji, Zoro and Usopp held their hands flat. While Tani and Luffy had two fingers pointed out.

"Scissors beats paper! We win," Luffy laughed with victory. Sanji looked at Tani with shock.

"Well looks like you guys won," Usopp snickered, "Have fun carrying all the bags you two," he said with a sing song voice. Dropping his bags on the ground and walking away.

"Hey! We won though," Luffy said with a stomp of his foot.

"Luffy you said the winner needs to hold all the bags," Zoro shook his head at the idiot captain, dropping the bag he was holding and returning to the sled to pull Chopper along.

"Tani dearest, let me hold your share of the bags," Sanji pleaded. Tani shook her head, sliding on the bag Zoro dropped at their feet. "A woman shouldn't be treated like a packing mule," he whined at the girl. The mention of her being a girl struck a slight nerve.

"We won fair and square, just take it easy Sanji," Tani assured. Nami and Vivi weren't holding bags in the first place so they didn't drop anything off, while Ace held onto his belongings. Tani held onto Zoro's and her own bags, while Luffy held onto Sanji's, Usopp's and his own bags.

...

"It's hoooooooot..." cried Luffy for the 117th time in the last four hours.

"Hoooooot," Tani coughed for the 22nd time in the last four hours.

The over heated pair lagged far behind the main group. Sanji would offer to take Tani's bags every time she complained, but she refused every offer.

"Shade? Shade... Shade!" Luffy cheered, his arms already flying through the air towards the visible rocks in the distance. The rubber man went sailing passed everyone, a sandy dust cloud puffed from where he made impact.

"So... We making a pit stop?" Tani giggled as she walked passed the stilled crew. They gave her weird looks, but brushed off the statement as being just some phrase from her home world.

The group was less than 500 meters from the rocky oasis when Luffy came rushing back to them without any bags on. His arms flailed frantically as he called for a doctor to help some sickly birds. Chopper ran ahead with Luffy, leaving the rest of the crew to walk at a quickened pace.

"Vivi? Something wrong? You've had that look on your face since Luffy mentioned the birds," Nami pointed out with concern. The princess furrowed her brows in thought, before she had a light bulb moment and ran towards the rocks calling for Luffy and Chopper.

Everyone followed behind her with a quickened pace. Whatever revelation she had meant the pair were in danger. Tani's hands drifted to her pockets, fingers dancing around the strings of her yo-yo's. She glanced around to find Zoro's hand magnetise to the hilts of his blades.

They arrived at the entrance of the rocks, only to find Luffy and Chopper running around frantically looking for the now missing birds... And bags!

"I forgot to mention the Warusagi birds... They trick travellers to steal their stuff..." Vivi said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. Luffy shouted into the distance, slingshotting himself across the open desert. The boy was nothing but a blur in the distance as he chased the birds that had half their bags.

"Should someone go after him?" Vivi asked, the remaining crew all shook their heads and waved a hand.

"How about lunch?" Sanji suggested. Tani pointed in the direction Luffy ran.

"He had your bags Sanji," she said with defeat. Sanji blinked in shock, what did he think? He wouldn't let her hold his bag so of course Luffy had it. "I have some snacks if anyone wants any?" Tani offered, slipping her bag off her back and pulling out some packets of roll-ups, potato chips and twiggy sticks.

Usopp and Chopper happily took some of the snacks, their faces looking joyous at the instant treats. Sanji gave them a skeptical look but ate them anyway, he didn't seem like the kinda guy that would like prepackaged foods. Zoro and Ace stood by the entrance Luffy flew from, waiting for the guy to come back. Nami and Vivi talked among themselves about the island and it's many cities.

"Should we save any for Luffy?" Chopper asked with a couple chips in his mouth. Usopp shook his head.

"The moron lost our food in the first place, so he misses out," Usopp declared. At this Tani grabbed the half eaten packet of beef jerky and put them in her lap.

"He's currently trying to get those bags back in this scorching heat, he deserves something to eat," Tani huffed. "...Plus he would totally murder us if we didn't share," she added with a sheepish grin.

"Aww~ Tani darling is so cute when she's considerate of the shitty captain~" Sanji cooed. Tani shuffled away from his flailing arms.

"So what's the plan if Luffy doesn't come back with the bags?" Usopp asked, the end of a roll-up hanging out the corner of his mouth. Sanji gave a shrug, his thumb pointed towards Chopper.

"We could always use him as emergency meat," he said with deathly seriousness. Chopper shrieked and hid behind Zoro's leg, the swordsman death glared Sanji. Tani and Usopp giggled among themselves.

The sound of shouting echoed through the rocky oasis. The travellers turned their defensive gazes over to the cloud of dust being kicked up by none other than Luffy and what looked like a camel? That's the only desert animal Tani could think of. That wasn't the only thing apparently, because an even larger animal was chasing the pair. A giant purple lizard in fact. Vivi gasped in horror before mentioning that she forgot to mention that. Everyone deadpan stared the princess.

"Oi shitty marimo, let's go," Sanji said with a sigh, already taking a drag from his newly lit cigarette. Zoro huffed at the chef but followed him anyway. The duo stood at the entrance, everyone else having moved back to witness the show.

Luffy saw the rocks and waved rapidly at the people awaiting him. His radiant grin could be seen a mile away. The camel rushed into the opening, Luffy jumped off it's back and landed inbetween Zoro and Sanji. The three of them proceeded to beat the ever loving daylights out of the lizard. Tani turned away from the carnage to find Vivi once again racking her brain for some missing information.

Tani didn't have time to ask her, because the earth underneath her shook. Sending her tumbling backwards onto the scaly backside of yet another giant purple lizard. Vivi panicked, crying that those lizards happen to work in pairs. Everyone once again deadpanned at her. Tani didn't have much time to do so, since the lizard bent it's neck all the way back just to stare at her with its hungry yellow eyes.

The girl pulled out her yo-yo's and proceeded to smack the lizard in the face with said weapons. The lizard didn't appreciate that and snapped it's jaw at her, missing because she dodged out of the way. Tani ended up rolling off the lizard altogether, flopping into the sand bellow. The lizard reared its head back with a gurgle in the throat, eyes burning into the now panicking girl.

A hand grabbed at her ankle, Tani broke eye contact with the lizard to stare at the elongated arm of Luffy. He whipped his arm back, dragging Tani with it. The pull back was too fast, as Tani flew a couple feet off the ground and slammed into Luffy which knocked them both to the ground.

Before either of them could recover, the sound of sizzling could be heard. Tani turned back towards the lizard, only to find its purple skin was a sunburnt pink, and smoke was fizzling from its open mouth and ears. Ace stood before it, turning around to face everyone with a smirk.

"So... Who's hungry?"

...

"Jesus Christ almighty it's cold!" Tani stammered as she rubbed her arms rapidly. The crew had been walking until the early night, the air shifted from scorching hot to icy cold in the span of an hour! Hell even a fog had started escaping her lips everytime she breathed.

"Should we rest for the night?" Vivi asked from atop Eyelash the camel. The camel Luffy saved would only let women ride him, but couldn't hold more than two people so Tani opted out.

In response to her question, Luffy and Usopp both flopped onto the cooling sand and stayed there. The princess laughed and jumped from the camels back.

Setting up camp was easy, since Tani had been holding Zoro's bags which held the tents and blankets. The only problem was the lack of fire wood, after all what's a camping trip without a camp fire? Wrong! That's what.

"Why is it so cold?" Tani complained with a shiver, regretting not bringing her denim jacket for the trip. She was so tempted to jump Ace for his warmth, the dude was made of fire for Pete's sake. An arm curled over her shoulder, a warm arm to be exact. The girl looked at Luffy who was now giving her a hug which she returned. Sapping all the warmth she could from the rubber man.

Thus the hug pile began. Usopp wrapped his around Tani's waist, sandwiching her between the two boys. Chopper ran over and hugged her legs, and boy was he warm! Like an inferno of warmth. Tani crouched down, the boys attached to her sides following her moves. Her free arms looped around Chopper's torso and pulled him closer until he was resting in her lap. Zoro sat down behind Tani and leaned against her back, promptly falling asleep. Tani looked up at Sanji who looked like he wanted to join in but was too busy making dinner from the barbeque lizard meat. Nami and Vivi were once again talking among themselves merrily. Ace looked at the pile with a fondness in his eyes. Tani beckoned him over with the tilt of her head. He gave her a smirk but didn't move to join in.

Sanji called for dinner, everyone got up and ate the stewed lizard meat. Which was surprisingly good, but also not really surprising because Sanji could make a great meal out of a tomato, salt and three eggs. The crew all joked and laughed about whatever crossed their minds.

"Hey Tani," Ace spoke up, attention was now on him, "Trip doesn't really talk about her home much. Since you guys are from the same place," he started with curiosity. "Is it that different from here?" he asked. The girl swallowed her mouthful of stew.

"Well it's super different from here, because where I come from we have no pirates," she answered. Luffy, Usopp and Chopper gasped as if that was the most insane thing they'd ever heard... Hadn't she told at least Luffy and Usopp about the lack of pirates? Maybe not. "Instead we have big cities all over the globe that trade and wage war on each other because we hate each other," she said while thinking back on her history classes.

"Um what else? Well there's the fact that we don't use only boats to travel to other countries, since we have aeroplanes that travel up, up, up in the sky," she pointed up into the sky and waved her arm to the sides. "We also have cars, that are like horses but powered by fuel," she could see the shimmering curiosity in the eyes of all her listeners. It made her feel pretty special to be from such a place.

"There's also television and video games, oh an movies! I thinks movies are the only thing I really miss from home that isn't my mum," she laughed, remembering the late night movie marathons she would have with her mum.

"What's a movie?" Luffy asked while clapping his feet together. Everyone was tuning in for the answer, even Zoro paid attention.

"They're these huge hour long stories with pictures that move. They can range from horror movies with scary monsters to adventure movies with treasures," she gushed, "Oh! There's these places called the cinema, where you pay money to see a newly released movie with other people! And you get to eat popcorn and drink soda while you're there," Tani exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with joy at the thought. Luffy and the others all looked just as excited.

"We should go to the cinema!" Luffy cheered, clapping his feet and hands together. Tani gave a laugh, a hint of disappointment hanging from the end of it. She'd never be able to share her love for movies with them because they wouldn't be able to come home with her. "Do they have movies about pirates?" Luffy asked with anticipation.

"Of course there are! Movies like Treasure Island or Peter Pan have pirates, though they just hunt for hidden gold with treasure maps," she explained, Luffy hollered with awe.

"You're world sounds amazing," Nami smiled, Tani gave a nod.

"It's pretty cool from a technological view, but it's not as cool as being a pirate," Tani admitted. "There's no freedom back home, all these rules and laws you need to follow, societal standards to live up to. The only thing I need to worry about here is dying, but I have you guys to help me survive," she beamed. Sanji could be heard cooing in the background.

Ace gave a hum as he looked at the smiling girl. His eyes drifted back down to the small bell dangling from his neck. That nagging feeling in the back of his head knocked again, there really was something about her that felt familiar. Yet he couldn't pin point it.

"Puru puru puru,"

"What's that?" Tani asked, turning to look at Ace. The man reached into his bag and pulled out a small snail. She looked at it with amazement, why did he have a snail? Ace tapped the top of the snail, stopping it's ringing.

"Kachya,"

...

"OI FLAMES FOR BRAINS WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!" a voice screamed from the tiny snails mouth, it's expression was not impressed in the slightest. Ace winced but that smug smirk returned in an instant.

"Aww~ missing me already Trip?" he cooed mockingly, a grumpy voice huffed from the small snail.

Trip? Was that the girl!

"How about I hop, skip, whoop your ass if you don't hurry up and report to pops?" the snail threatened. Ace laughed. Tani looked at Luffy in confusion, he just shrugged and looked back at Ace.

"Last time you tried that you almost fell into the ocean," Ace snickered, the snail groaned.

"That's because you're stupid ass was taking up all the space!" the snail growled back. Ace laughed.

"Alright alright moron, I'll report to pops in a minute. Did you find anything on your island?" he asked her with a more serious tone. The snails face narrowed.

"No, that bastard hasn't been spotted at all around here. I think he's taking the 4th path. I've heard he's been sighted on Jaya," she relayed. Ace nodded with a grimace.

"Take the 5th path and continue asking around. Jaya is my next stop-"

"Shut the hell up Dipshit, there's no way in hell I'm letting you follow that lead on your own." Trip barked. Ace smirked.

"Aww~ you worried about Lil ol' me?" he cooed. The snail was not amused.

"I'm going to send you to Impel down in a cardboard box with a shitty pink box on top if you keep being a total asswipe," she threatened. Tani had never seen such an aggressive woman in her life. "Anyway I'm signing out, remember to call Pops," she reminded.

"Will do, talk to you later partner," he ended, before hanging up on the sounds of sputtering from the snail. Which fell asleep when the voice went away.

"... Are you telling me that your version of a phone... Is a snail?" Tani blurted with humour. They all decided to just nod, since they didn't know what a phone was.

"Ace, who was that?" Luffy asked curiously. The cowboy hatted man perked up with a grin.

"That was Trip, she's the girl I told you about earlier. The one that's like Tani," Ace recounted. "She's the only official girl on the crew, since I refused to join unless she could come along too," he said with a smile.

Luffy looked ecstatic, begging Ace to let him meet her one day. Which Ace promised he would. Tani could feel the tired of the day catching up to her, the girl was about ready to hit the hay. So she stood up from the circle, walked a couple steps... And flopped on the ground. Her snores already filled the air, earning a snicker from the crew.

"How is it even possible for her to be here?" Vivi asked out of the blue, looking at the snoring girl. "Aren't alternate dimensions just a myth?" she pondered. Luffy gazed at the princess, looking back at Tani.

"Does it matter? Tani's here, that's all that matters," he ended the conversation. Walking over to Tani and flopping on top of her, falling asleep instantly. Chopper and Usopp piled on them, Zoro and Sanji leaned against the pile, Nami giggled but joined in. Leaving Vivi and Ace to stare at the pile of straw hat pirates, who were all snoring and snoozing away in each others company.