“Aokiji, can we get something to eat?” I asked him, we had begun sailing about two weeks ago, he was sitting down on a chair and reading the newspaper, he didn’t advert his gaze and kept reading.

“Yeah, sure, I heard there’s a restaurant nearby. It recently opened, we can go there.” He suggested, however he slightly squinted his eyes upon reading something. “It appears there’s some fish-man group around here, we might run into them eventually.”

“How fitting, it happens when we’re heading for Fish-man island. Do you think all the bad guys heard and just ran?” I jokingly spoke, he raised his eyebrow and handed me what was a wanted poster with a bounty of 20,000,000 beli. The one known as ‘Arlong’.

“Kizaru captured him beforehand and he was released upon the Fish-man known as Jinbei accepting to become a Shichibukai and he’s already causing trouble.” Aokiji commented, he had a clear distaste in the idea of Shichibukai, that was made clear in the actual story when he spared the straw-hats for defeating crocodile.

“It’s possible we may have already missed him. Although we can deal with him if we run into him.” I responded, throwing the bounty poster away. It floated off the ship before I knew it. “So, where’s the restaurant?”

“It’s right there.” Aokiji pointed from behind the newspaper, I turned with excitement, although it died down really quickly when I saw what the restaurant was. It was a floating ship, a restaurant which was floating in the east blue. It’s the damn Baratie, why didn’t I realise this?

“Is the food good?” Well, I did have my doubts, but there couldn’t be anything that bad about visiting the restaurant. It’s not like I’ll mess anything up by just eating there.

“I’ve heard some good reviews.” He placed down his newspaper, standing up as we approached closer to it. “Our ship comes off as slightly intimidating.”

He did have a point, I’m pretty sure anyone would get scared when a military ship just begins to approach them. Does that mean we’ll get off and walk there by him freezing the water, but wouldn’t that just be even more intimidating?

Five Minutes Later

Turns out that we just normally docked ourselves, so I over-reacted for no reason. Upon entering the restaurant itself, everyone was uncomfortable with our presence instantly! I have never seen people look away so fast! It’s Aokiji, isn’t it? You can’t just ask people to ignore an Admiral who could very well be the difference between life and death.

Despite the uneasy atmosphere, we took a seat in the restaurant and skimmed through the menus, Aokiji began to start some small talk.

“Maris, what did you hope for when you joined the marines?” He queried. I was caught off guard, considering how particular the situation is I didn’t expect such a serious question.

“Huh, the whole reason I joined was to reform the world. I wanted to make a world where freedom was everyone’s security.” I was in the middle of deciding what to eat as well and had my thoughts muddled from his question. A waiter had come up to us, in fact he looked pretty close to my age and stood at our table. His hair reminds me of someone... wait, isn’t he...

“There are limits to such things, Maris.” Aokiji spoke, he looked towards the waiter who was standing at our table with his usual expression. “Waiter, what are your hopes and dreams?”

“I... I want to find the All Blue!” Despite his hesitation, he answered towards Aokiji. It was confirmed when he said those words, the kid who was standing before me was Sanji. Considering he’s two years older than Luffy, he’s 11 years old at this point.

“It appears that this great age of pirates still exists in some people’s heads, how disappointing.” Aokiji commented, looking down at the menu again.

Is it me, or is he really being a git? He just scolded the two of us for our dreams being too big! What kind of trainer is he? Then again, I shouldn’t have expected much to begin with, but still... there’s a line for me.

“Aokiji!” I tried grabbing his attention, but he continued to ignore me, like the majority of our conversations. Although, in this conversation, I’m not going to just submit to his silence so easily! I grabbed his menu and pulled it away and even got up and stood on my chair and place my foot on the table. Isn’t this what you call making a scene? “Everyone dreams! There’s as much dreams as there are stars in the skies and all of them can come true, don’t look down on them! The future is shaped by those who believe in the beauty of their dreams and those will never die!”

I... really didn’t know I was so passionate about dreams. I am incredibly pissed off at Aokiji at the moment even though he simply just stated what he thought. Since I don’t really know why I did it... is this related to my prior life? It would explain my sudden outburst...

“So you believe your dreams can come true?” Aokiji questioned again, this time he directly looked towards me.

“Yeah! Waiter, you as well!” I looked directly over to the waiter, at this point he identity didn’t mean much to me. “Don’t listen to this lazy fart! You will one day find the All-Blue and achieve your dream! You’ll find someone with a dream as big as yours as well and even join them, or even more people! It’s possible!”

Eh... wait, aren’t I talking to Sanji? AREN’T I CAUSING A HUGE SCENE?

I looked around in realisation of my actions, all of the customers were staring at me, even the chefs came out of the kitchen to watch me. I sat down and fixed my posture. Aokiji looked at me with an impressed expression, which was incredibly rare! I looked towards Sanji who stood there, I think he’s in awe or shock, or confusion, one of those...

“We’ll take our food to go.” I told him. I might have messed up... I have to minimise my interaction with all the straw hats and after saying that I just gave a loud SPEECH in the middle of a restaurant!

“We haven’t ordered yet.” Aokiji pointed out. “I’ll take the soup.”

“I’ll take the fish...” I mumbled, refusing to look anyone in the eyes. Forget the fact that I may have intervened with the straw hats, I didn’t expect myself to ramble about dreams!

A few minutes later

Finally, back on the ship! I guess I’ll find out eventually how bad I messed up in a few years... I didn’t expect such events to happen. I suppose I couldn’t help opening my mouth, but Aokiji looks like he has a lot of self-control, couldn’t he have asked that question on the ship?

“You’re a very compassionate person.” Aokiji remarked. “I apologise, but I somewhat unorthodoxly tried to test you. You scored as a very generous person.”

“Wait... you tested me? So that entire scene there was a test?” I suppose the scene was my response, but it sounds better if I say it was a test. Although, I should have expected this, considering that Aokiji is quite polite to just randomly start attacking people. “What’s the point of testing me for?”

“I had to see your character. You’re compassionate and refuse to let people be bullied, you’re quite like a big sister. What’s more interesting is that you were prepared to believe in a stranger’s dream who you’ve never met before.” I suppose the better term is never met in person.

“What was I supposed to do? I have to believe that people have the responsibility to act accordingly and achieve what they want. Have some faith, people are smart enough.” I lectured him, although it was unintended...

“We’re heading for Mariejois and then fish-man island.” Aokiji informed me.

“There better not be any hidden tests...” I grumbled.

A/N:

Yup, she interacted with Sanji a hell of a lot! It was actually the interaction which I found the most safe, considering that Sanji would still stay in Baratie since he believes he owes Zeff and Luffy would still be the one who would convince him to come with him.

Anyway, I’ll eventually try to do some side stories to consider some possible changes that Maris has caused to Luffy and the crew... which will not be from her perspective! :P