The Great Sea (One Piece fanfic)

Part 6: Don't Call Me an Asshole, Asshole!

It was the early morning when Cegan was awoken by the sudden coldness of the floor underneath her. It was before she was fully aware of her surroundings when she heard the sound of the trap-door click shut, and she realized that she was alone in the crow's nest. Pink light streamed in through the large windows and illuminated the dark colored weights that sat near the wall. Too tired to move, she quickly fell back asleep, a small pool of drool forming on the ground as she snored with her mouth wide open. A few minutes later, she felt another presence in the room and was brought back to her senses enough to feel someone set a blanket over her. As she continued to snore, the trap door shut again behind the kind person.

~~~

Izumi stepped out onto the deck, squinting her eyes against the harsh midday sunlight. The day was considerably cooler than before, but the sun still bore down relentlessly. She still wore her pajamas as she headed towards the kitchen to see if lunch was ready yet. Once Izumi reached the stairs she noticed her blonde friend walking in the opposite direction, dressed in only a bathrobe.

"Lunch is ready in 30," Cegan spoke as she skipped down the stairs past her.

"Thanks, you'd better not have used all the hot water," Izumi replied with a grumble.

"Don't worry, this ship has plenty." She brushed off her friend as she walked back towards the girls' room.

Izumi then proceeded to head straight to the bathroom, excited for a nice hot bath. When she entered the room, the air was already steamy and warm. It felt like she was only in the bath for a few minutes, but before she knew it, she noticed a half an hour had already passed. Jumping out of the water and throwing on a bathrobe, she raced out of the bathroom and jumped down the ladder into the empty library. She landed gracefully and sprinted full-speed towards the girls' room to change. Since Izumi had slept through breakfast, she felt she couldn't get to Lunch soon enough. Emerging from the women's quarters fully dressed, she paced across the deck and burst through the door to the kitchen, startling everyone at the table except for Luffy.

"Hey Izumi!" Cegan waved from the far side of the table.

"I have your meal in the kitchen. I'll bring it right out." Sanji spoke, getting up from his place.

"How does Sanji's cooking taste so good?" Cegan questioned, shoveling food into her mouth. Izumi was surprised because Cegan usually ate a normal amount of food. Today, she was on par with Usopp, slurping spaghetti into her mouth at an alarming rate.

"Didn't we already go over this?" Izumi grumbled.

"Yeah, but today it tastes REALLY good!" Cegan replied between mouthfuls.

"Here is your plate, Zumi-swan~!" Sanji placed down a massive plate of spaghetti.

"Thanks so much Sanji-kun," Izumi replied, immediately digging in.

"You woke up pretty late," Nami told the purplette who was twirling pasta on her plate.

"Yeah, I like my sleep." Izumi replied bluntly before shoving her fork in her mouth.

"What about you, Cegan?" Nami turned to the blonde who was still chewing.

"I stayed up super late, but at least I don't sleep in like Izumi." Cegan stated.

"Oh," Nami replied. "Anyway, we should be getting to the next island in a week; we already entered the climate zone, even though it's still pretty far away. Apparently it's an autumn island, too."

"Cool, we've never been to an autumn island before!" Luffy exclaimed.

"What's a climate zone?" Cegan questioned. Nami paused, before explaining.

"Each island in the grand line has their own climate. It covers the island and quite a bit of the surrounding sea. In between islands the weather is unpredictable because the climate zones of each island fight against each other.

"Like in the first bit of the grand line, there was this massive storm because the climate zones of seven islands were fighting against each other." Usopp added.

"Oh. We wouldn't know, we snuck here on a marine ship that just sailed through the grand line." Cegan replied.

"Really? How did you manage to stow away on a marine ship?" Franky questioned.

"We pretended to be some of the nurses who had time off because nobody had been injured yet." Izumi explained.

"We just sat around, said we were new or whatever." Cegan added.

"Oh, that reminds me of the time we fell out of the sky and had to hide in G-8." Robin spoke up.

"You fell out of the sky?" Izumi exclaimed in disbelief.

"Yep." Luffy said.

"Into that marine stronghold?" Cegan added.

"After we left Skypeia." Luffy added.

"You went to Skypeia?" Cegan exclaimed. "You guys are epic!"

"I know, right?" Luffy grinned.

"Who knows, maybe next we'll arrive at some underwater mermaid island with fish people." Izumi spoke.

"Well, that's what Cocoro-san said." Nami clarified.

"You're lying." Izumi blurted out.

"Nope. Cocoro-san is a mermaid!" Luffy responded.

"No way." Izumi said, eyes wide.

"Yes way." Luffy replied.

"The grand line is insane." Cegan announced as she finished her plate of food. "It is official. We've landed ourselves in the world's mythical looney bin."

"But the Grand Line isn't a mental institution," Chopper spoke up innocently, confused by Cegan's remark.

"Aw, you're so cute, Chopper!" Cegan replied, completely ignoring the reindeer's confusion.

"Don't think you can brush me off by calling me cute, asshole!" Chopper exclaimed.

"Don't call me an asshole, you asshole!" Cegan replied. She glared at the fun-sized doctor as he turned away, crossing his arms. The rest of the table sat in silence.

Nobody spoke a word until Izumi spoke up. "...is it just me or do their arguments never make sense?"

~~~