381Roses first day of joining the crew had already been filled with excitement from Zoro's chase and she can't wait to see what the rest of the day would hold. Right now the girls are deciding what she can borrow until they reach the next island. Being a little tom boyish Rose didn't really care about the appearance as much as the function, so she chose a simple pair of jeans, black sneakers and a blue long sleeve shirt.
When looking in the mirror Rose immediately spots the rhombus shaped, half red, half black crystal hanging around her neck, and unconsciously touches it with a soft smile. (I'm so glad this made the journey.)
Both Robin and Nami look at the necklace curiously as they never saw a necklace with that type of crystal before.
"What type of crystal is in that necklace?" Robin asks.
Rose immediately snapped out of her daze "To be honest I'm not fully sure myself. My parents gave this to me when I was 10 celebrating that…" Rose started to cut herself off remembering how happy her parents were that day saying their research was completed at last before the tragedy happened. Nami and Robin notice this and they walk over to put a hand on her shoulders.
"Don't worry, we all have scars that are hard to share. If you ever want to talk about it just let us know." Nami said with a smile.
"She's right Rose, there's no rush. Whenever you are ready to talk about your past just let us know." Robin says with her usual smile but there was warmth in it.
"Thanks guys, I really a-ah- ACHOO!" Rose sneezes, accidentally uses her wind to send her flying out of the room and slams her back against the the hallway wall. She cradles her aching head as she staggers back up. (Seriously?! The flying sneeze routine?! What am I, the Last Air Bender? That reminds me though… I gotta learn how to control this ability before I destroy the ship.)
Both girls run out of the room.
"Are you ok Rose?" Nami asks.
She nods with a grin. "Y-yea, I'm ok… I'm glad I was able to demonstrate my devil fruit ability at least hehe…"
Robin crosses her arms over her chest. "Hmm… I think it's best if we start training you on your ability before you get hurt again."
"My thoughts exactly only question is how to do that?"
"I have an idea." Robin says with a grin that makes the other two afraid of what she's thinking.
As the girls head over to the mess hall for breakfast the guys were glad they finally arrived because now Sanji would allow them to eat.
"I'm so glad you're here Nami-swan, Robin-chwan, and Rose-chwan you all look absolutely stunning. I whipped up a lovely breakfast to commemorate the arrival of our new crew member." Sanji swoons to the girls as he places three plates in front of them with the most delicious looking plate of pancakes Rose has ever seen with hearts drawn on top by maple syrup.
"Thank you Sanji, this looks great." When the freckled brunette took the first bite she immediately felt like she was in heaven. (I knew Sanji's food was good but wow this is amazing! Much better than the TV dinners back home.)
Everyone is enjoying breakfast while keeping up their guard from Luffy's wandering hand trying to grab as much food as possible. As Luffy tries to grab a bite from Rose's plate he was met with a fork stabbed into his hand.
Rose grins triumphantly while continuing to eat her breakfast. "Nice try Luffy. It's gonna take more than that to steal my food."
Usopp laughed at what he just saw. "She showed you Lu-" He froze when he saw his pancakes gone. "HEY LUFFY! GIVE ME BACK MY FOOD!" Usopp yells as Luffy eats Usopp's breakfast.
It was everyone else's turn to laugh now except for Zoro who left to go training after he finished his food.
After breakfast everyone but Sanji and Rose left the kitchen.
"Hey Sanji do you need any help with the dishes?" Rose asks.
The blonde shakes his head as he rolls his sleeves up to do the dishes. "Don't worry, I can take care of it."
"Are you su-"
"Rose come on out it's time to practice." Robin interrupts from outside.
"Go on ahead Rose-chan, I'll be fine here." Sanji says with an assuring grin.
"Alright, wish me luck." (I'm gonna need it…)
"So, what exactly was this idea of yours?" Rose asks completely nervous about what Robin is going to say especially with a rope in her hand.
"It's simple, all we have to do is put you in a similar situation where you were when you first used your ability so you can learn to channel it willingly. In your case you're going to be attacked." Robin ties the long rope around Roses waist to the mast. "This is just an extra precaution so that you don't go flying into the ocean again."
"Isn't there a better way to do this?" (I feel like a dog on a leash...)
"Don't worry, as long as you use your ability you shouldn't die."
Rose sweat drops at Robin's comment. (That doesn't make me feel better about this…) "Zoro isn't gonna be the attacker is he?" She shudders at the memory of her high speed chase this morning.
Robin chuckles at the nervous girl "Don't worry, I have a few others in mind for this experiment."
"What did you need us for Robin?" Luffy says as he and Chopper start walking towards her.
"I need your help with getting Roses power under control. Would we be expecting Long Nose as well?"
Chopper shakes his head. "No, he said something about fixing the hole in the ship after we left breakfast."
"I'm sorry again for that…" Rose says still feeling guilty about what happened.
Luffy shakes his head with a toothy grin. "Don't worry about it, the Merry has been through tougher scrapes than that when we were up in the sky."
Rose feels a little better from his smile "I see- Wait, did you say when you were in the sky? Do you mean Skypiea?!"
"Yea that's the one. I'm surprised you heard about it." Chopper says with curiosity.
She rubs the back of her head nervously. "Oh well… I heard great stories about Skypiea back in my hometown. It sounded like a really cool place." (At least from what I've seen in this story. So we're that close to the Water 7 arc, I wonder how that will play out.)
Robin gives her a curious look but focuses back into the training. "Alright you two here is what I want you to do: Doctor I want you to try attacking Rose in close combat range. Captain, I want you to try to attack her from a distance. Since Long Nose cannot come you're going to have to be the long distance opponent."
"I don't think this is a great idea Robin. Rose is still hurt from those claw marks and the crash, she should wait a bit." Chopper says with a concerned look for his new patient.
Rose walks over to him, kneels down to his level, and pats him on the head with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry doc, it will take more than a few scratches from those two to hurt me. Back where I'm from I'm one of the best fighters in my school. I can take a hit, and as long as you're my doctor I know I'm in good hands."
Chopper whacks her hand away. "SHUT UP! Don't think your compliments make me feel happy human! Your compliments mean nothing to me at all! Heeheehee!" Chopper says while showing his real emotions in a happy dance.
"Hehe, I see. ALRIGHT! Let's see what my new crewmates got!" Rose gets in a stance with excitement in her eyes..
"That's the spirit. LET'S GO!" Luffy yells throwing the first punch in which Rose side steps out of the way in time.
Chopper goes into Heavy Point and starts punching her with Luffy continuing to give her Gum Gum Pistols. Rose steps back to dodge Choppers punches and holds back on punching back only wanting to fight with her wind. As Luffy throws his punches Rose manages to dodge but got hit with some of Choppers punches in the process.
She tries to use her wind abilities but nothing seems to come out as she continues to dodge until she reaches the end of the rope and is now cornered with Chopper and Luffys punches. (Crap! I gotta do something quick… What worked once right? I command thee wind send me flying to avoid these punches!) For once her power worked as she wanted as a large gust of wind sends her flying up avoiding both Chopper and Luffys punches. (I think I'm getting the hang of how to fly now the real question is how I get down…) As she's thinking this she remembers her situation as Luffy's punches heads towards her. (Damnit! GO THROUGH ME! GO THROUGH ME!) As she thinks this she prepares for the worst but as Luffy's punch heads closer her Logia powers come into effect and Luffy's punch manages to go through her.
"AWESOME! I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT WORKED!" (Let's see if this works… Wind, I order you to land me.) as she thinks this the wind under her disappears causing her to drop from 7 feet in the air. (Crap! Wind stop me from falling!) as she pleads this the wind manages to catch her just before she hits the ground "Wow that worked" Rose muttered with a smile.
"Good job, I think that's enough training for today" Robin says as she unties the rope and heads to sit down with her book.
"THAT WAS GREAT! CAN YOU MAKE ME GO FLYING NOW?!" Luffy yelled with enthusiasm.
"I'm not fully sure how to do that yet, but once I do though you'll be my first flyer deal?"
"YOSH!"
Chopper runs over to examine Rose "Let me see your injuries, you got hit a couple of times. Are you hurt anywhere?"
She shakes her head with a smile. "Nope I'm good, you pulled your punches during the training right? Because of that I'm not hurt, thanks doc."
"Stupid! Your thanks doesn't mean anything at all! I don't want your thanks!" Chopper says with a big smile and happy dance.
"I see." Rose says with a smile as the kitchen door slams open revealing an angry Sanji.
"LUFFY! WHERE ARE YOU?!"
"Oh boy…" Luffy mutters as he tries to run, but Sanji already saw him and kicked him to the ground.
"YOU STOLE MEAT FROM THE FRIDGE AGAIN DIDN'T YOU?!"
Luffy's lips purse to the side and his eyes avert everywhere but Sanji's eyes "I didn't take any meat..."
"You are literally the worst liar in the world." Sanji says as he whacks Luffy with a fishing rod. "Because of you we're out of meat, so unless you fish us some food you're going without dinner tonight." Sanji walks back to the kitchen leaving Luffy to groan.
"Aww man… Hey Rose, Chopper come help me fish!"
"Alright!" Chopper says as he grabs a fishing pole for him and Rose.
Chopper hands one to Rose, but she quickly steps back, looks away nervously, and shifts her eyes everywhere "A-actually I can't… I ha-have an allergy to fishing poles!"
"You are one of the worst liars I have ever seen." Usopp says as he returns from patching up the hole in the ship.
"I don't want to hear that from you Usopp."
"Could it be that you never fished before Rose?" Robin inquires not taking her eyes off the book.
Rose blushes from embarrassment for being found out "Was it that obvious?"
"You really never fished before?" Chopper asks and she nods.
"Don't worry Rose, I've managed to catch a two headed sea king when I was twelve years old! Teaching you how to be a master fisherman like me would be easy." Usopp lies with a proud face.
"Re-REALLY?! Teach me how to catch a sea king Usopp!" Chopper says with excitement.
"I WANNA LEARN TOO!" Luffy yells with excitement of wanting to eat a sea king.
Usopp nods with a thumbs up. "Not a problem! What do you say Rose wanna to learn how to fish?"
"YEA! It sounds like fun." Rose says with excitement.
"GREAT! I'll be right back with my fishing pole." Usopp says as he rushes into the boat and returns in a flash with his fishing pole.
"Alright, so how do I do this?" Rose asks as she grabs the fishing pole Chopper offered.
"It's easy, all you gotta do is lean the rod back, release the clip holding the line, and then push forward letting the line go like this." Usopp says as he shows Rose, Luffy and Chopper how to cast.
Rose, Chopper and Luffy all watched with excitement and copy Usopps cast.
(I see, this kind of reminds me of Hunter X Hunter. Hehe, I hope I don't get anything too small) Rose focused on her line until it started tugging causing Rose to pull back on the rod trying not to lose her grip. "Hey Usopp! I think I caught something! What do I do now?"
Usopp blinks in surprise. "Wow, that was quick. Alright, all you got to do is reel it in."
"Right!" Rose tries to reel it in but it gets harder and harder as the fish keeps fighting and is about to pull her into the water along with the rod until Luffy grabs her by the waist keeping her from going in and causing her to blush lightly as she continues to reel it in. "Th-thanks Luffy. What the hell did I catch?" Rose keeps working to reel it in while the reel is getting harder to use.
Chopper now goes into heavy point to help Rose reel it in as Usopp gets his net out for the fish. However, that net isn't going to do them any good as the fish surfaces and turns out to be a huge shark quarter the size of the Merry that was sent flying out of the ocean by Luffy and Choppers strength. The four fishermen scream in surprise as the shark tries to dive down onto them but before it could harm anyone Luffy gave it a Gum Gum Pistol and accidentally sent it flying into the air.
(Crap! I don't want to lose my first catch!) Rose tries to summon her wind focusing on what she wants the wind to do and as she does this a gust of wind goes under the shark before it goes back into the water and she forces the wind to land it onto the deck "I did it… AWESOME! THAT WAS SO MUCH FUN! CAN WE DO THAT AGAIN?!" Rose turns to the guys in excitement to find a look of shock from Usopp and Chopper while her captain looks at the fish with excitement.
"THIS FISH IS HUGE! SANJI! COOK UP THIS SHARK WE GOT!" Luffy yells as he brings the shark over to the kitchen.
Usopp looks at her with a cloud of depression over his head. "Y-you said this was your first time…?"
"Yea it was, but I wouldn't have been able to catch it without your lesson. Thank you Usopp, you're a great teacher." Rose says while patting his shoulder trying to comfort him.
Usopp immediately recovers and gives her a thumbs up. "I'M GLAD I WAS ABLE TO HELP! IF YOU EVER NEED MORE FISHING LESSONS THE GREATEST FISHERMAN IN THE WORLD CAPTAIN USOPP IS HERE TO HELP!"
She sweat drops at the recovery. (He recovers quick… I can't believe my wind worked. Robin's training really paid off, I better thank her later.)
"LET'S SEE IF WE CAN CATCH SOMETHING BIGGER!" Chopper yells with excitement from the catch.
"YEA, LET'S GO!" Rose and Usopp say as they pick up their poles and fished for the rest of the day.
As the sun starts to set and the crew finishes dinner and heads out to get ready for bed. Rose notices that Luffy has been absolutely quiet which kind of surprised her.
She walks up behind him. "Hey Luffy is everything alright?"
"We had a deal."
"Eh?"
He turns to her while pouting. "You said that when you can make others fly I would be your first flyer. Why did the shark fly first?"
She blinks at him in shock. (He's jealous about a flying shark?) She recovers and gives him a soft smile. "I'm sorry Luffy. I was in a panic about making sure the shark didn't get away. If it will make you feel better I can make you my first human flyer now."
Luffy immediately recovers. "REALLY?! LET'S DO IT!"
"Great! But we should get someone to watch in case something happens."
"ZORO! COME OVER HERE!" Luffy calls out wanting to fly as soon as possible.
"What do you want?" Zoro says as he approaches the pair.
Rose looks at him nervously. "Hey Zoro... Luffy wants to go flying. Can you watch us in case I accidentally drop him please?"
"Fine."
She sweat drops at the attitude. (At least he doesn't want to kill me now…) "Alright, ready Luffy?"
"LET'S GO!"
(Alright, here goes…) She focuses on summoning her wind remembering how she made the shark go flying and sooner than they knew it Luffy's feet started to lift off the ground as he ascended into the air.
"AWESOME! CAN YOU BRING ME OVER TO THE TREES?!" Luffy yelled with excitement.
"SURE, WATCH YOUR HAT!"
She brings Luffy over to Namis tangerine trees and he stretches his arm to eat a few of them when he sees Nami below him preparing her Clima-tact for a Thunder Tempo.
"Luffy… HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU TO STOP EATING MY TANGERINES?!" She yells as she finishes preparing her attack.
Luffy panics and grabs onto the mast to pull a Gum Gum Rocket shooting him out of the Thunder Tempo's reach but it shoots him too far causing him to head towards the water.
"AAAHH! HANG ON LUFFY!" Rose hurriedly catches Luffy with a new gust of wind before he reaches the water and lands him with her and Zoro.
"Phew, that was close" Luffy says sighing with relief.
"You got that right. I'm just glad my wind caught you. Wait a minute…" Rose remembers Luffy's stupid stunt and hits him on the head. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT TO AVOID HER LIGHTNING ATTACK?! YOU'RE MADE OF RUBBER!"
"IT WOULD STILL STING!"
"THINK BEFORE YOU ACT IDIOT!" Zoro says as he whacks Luffy's head too.
"Right, my bad…" Luffy apologizes as Nami runs over to them and gives Luffy, Zoro, and Rose a whack to the head.
"WHY DID I GET HIT?!" Rose and Zoro ask simultaneously.
Nami points her Clima-tact to Rose and replies "YOU WERE AN ACCOMPLICE BY GETTING HIM TO FLY! AND YOU ZORO WERE WATCHING THEM AND DIDN'T STOP THEM!"
Rose bows her head. "I'm sorry…"
"Geez, just don't let it happen again. I'm going to bed."
"I'm gonna head to bed too. Today was annoying." Zoro says while walking away annoyed at what just happened.
"Uh Zoro!"
Zoro turns around a bit surprised that Rose called out to him and gave him a small wave and a sheepish grin. "I hope there are no hard feelings from this morning… Since we're nakama now, let's be friends."
Zoro quirks an eyebrow then turns away and starts to leave. "Whatever, just don't betray the crew and you won't get hurt."
Zoro went back inside while Luffy walked over to Rose. "Don't worry about him he's always like that. Here, this is thanks for the flying trips." He flashes a big grin as he hands Rose one of the tangerines he took.
"Thanks Luffy, I'll see you tomorrow. Good night." She shows Luffy an appreciative smile as she heads to bed and eats the tangerine. (This has been the most fun day ever! I wonder what the first island would be like.)
With the first day as a Straw Hat drawn to a close Rose goes to bed with complete excitement about what the next day would bring.
TO BE CONTINUED