From Ninja to Pirate

25

Riddles unanswered,
Questions unsolved.
Hints required,
Suspects involved.

To answer the question,
To solve the riddle.
A suspect's session,
A hint in the middle.

Once you've finished
You get to the end,
You've solved that mystery,
With a family to mend.

-author

Natsuki dropped the last of the men on a massive pile in front of Marine Ford, smirking at the thought that there were no more millions or billions in Alabasta.

"Time to take off guys. Shall we go on another adventure?"

"Yeah!" The seasons joined their hands, and reappeared on board of their Kazoku-gunkan. Though something glitched when Natsuki did so. They landed safely, but it was a much weirder experience. The atmosphere changed from ocean to forest for a second, but the problem was, that Natsuki recognised the place.

"No! No. Not that place again..." She ran to the side of the ship, ready to throw up, thankfully keeping it in until the last minute. Uki tried to run to her, but Fuyuki stopped her.

"She needs to figure this out first, or she'll sulk for days again, like she did when we answered that riddle she was trying to answer a year ago." He joked, but the seriousness never left his voice. They just watched her as she mumbled, her palms and forehead sweating badly. Though when night fell, she calmed down, walking into the kitchen for a midnight snack.

"Better?"

"Still confused."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Sorry, but I want more time. Sorry Fuyu. Where are the others?"

"They're all asleep."

"Is it already that late?"

"It is midnight Natsu."

"Time flies when you're having fun... The problem is, that it also flies when the problem is too big." She grumbled, munching into a piece of cake.

"I'm sure you'll find the solution Natsu."

"If that solution involves you guys coming to another world, would you say the same?" Fuyuki seemed slightly taken aback.

"That's what the glitching was?"

"Uh huh." She began the mumbling again, and Fuyuki decided to leave her alone.

The next morning, she walked into the kitchen with circles under her eyes.

"Woah. You've slept well." Haruki said sarcastically, and Natsuki didn't even have the energy to whack his head.

"Did you get a solution?" Aki asked knowingly, as she was in the crows nest last night, accidentally listening in on her captain and vice-captain's conversation.

"Yup."

"Wait, a solution to what? World poverty? If so, then you're amazing to have been able to solve that in a night." Haruki said again, and this time Uki hit him.

"Will you just shut up and listen for once?" Kanki grumbled.

"Alright, alright." Haruki smirked, he hadn't made the calm Kanki irritated in a long time.

"So, you guys know how I come from another world."

"Really!? Never knew"

"HARUKI!" Kanki yelled, and Haruki laughed at his success.

"Sorry... So?" He said once he calmed down after his laughter.

"As I was saying, so that glitch which happened yesterday. That's my last world. For some reason, it's trying to take me back. So, I'm going to try and go back to that world, but what I spent the last whole night doing, was developing a new seal which allows us to travel between the two worlds freely. So that we can come back here, even after going there. What do you think?"