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A reincarnation, most of the time, happens to someone who has knowledge of the world they are sent into or at least has some skills that fit into said world. This did not happen here. No useful knowledge or skills were present.
But somehow, she made it work.
It was already a few months before that she got reincarnated. Being hit by a truck apparently does that to one.
After waking up in a somehow familiar body, aka her own, but in an unfamiliar world, Sam, short for Samantha Christine Joules, decided to just ignore it. Like she always did.
Continuing her life wasn’t as much of a challenge as she first expected. No one said anything about a change of character, no dangerous situations came towards her and everything was normal.
And it continued to be.
Sam started her day, like every normal person, with a cup of coffee. Her found passion was actually being a barista. Thankfully her old self already had a cafe, which wasn’t quite popular, but that didn’t matter.
So after drinking her coffee and obviously getting ready, Sam opened her shop with an eager smile on her face. She knew that many people should be in town today thanks to some minor event happening in the city.
Only after a few hours did the first guest come into her cafe, walking through the mooing bell on the door. An homage towards cows.
“One black and one latte.”, the man said, staring her dead into the eyes while his child played with a toy next to him.
“Oki doki, it’s coming right up!”, Sam nodded eagerly and immediately went for the coffee machine, making the coffees. Like one makes coffees.
After both coffees were brewed and ready, she placed a lid on both of them before handing them over to the man. Said man grabbed both coffees like a starved child does with food while putting some bills on the counter.
The brunette went ahead to give him his change of 3,937 but got stopped as the man started choking on the coffee she made earlier. With panic, she swung over the counter, accidentally knocking down some stuff and burying the child and the toy in napkins, straws, tiny cars and wooden pencils.
Ignoring that, she sprinted towards the man, taking a pillow and hitting him on the back furiously, multiple times. Halfway through, he did stop coughing, but Sam wanted to be sure that everything was fine.
“Why did you hit me?”, the man asked confused, looking at her with a funny face. “Better safe than sorry!”, Sam answered, not at all confused.
“What?”
“What?”
“…”
“What.”
“You know what, forget it. Your coffee is downright disgusting. No wonder you don’t have customers.”, the rude man grumbled, taking his still-buried child by the hand and his coffees into the other (despite his critics), before once again walking through the mooing door.
“Mhm, they always do this, maybe it’s the people in this world. Maybe they’re all allergic to coffee and I’m secretly poisoning them.”, she thought, putting The Thinker™ pose to good use.
“Well, let’s just ignore that. Don’t like it, don’t drink it. Easy peasy.” Sam said happily, taking off to organise the chaos around her, readying herself for the next customer, the vodka bottle standing innocently next to the coffee machine.
…
At midday, a few unusual things happened. One of them was screams of rage and the sound of guns and the other, much more concerning thing, was her craving for chicken broth.
This was something really special, considering her hardcore sweet tooth. But always up for a change, Sam went out of the mooing door, closing and locking said door.
She never really ventured outside of her home, being socially awkward and such, which is why she didn’t know where to go. After some really uncomfortable moments of standing around, she made eye contact with three mascots running around.
Sam managed to connect it with their selling tactic. A fish, a chicken and a frog were obviously representing their dishes and the mascots were meant to gather attention from customers. Smart.
Running after them seemed like the right thing to do. So she did, skipping after them with the thought of chicken broth. Despite her constant concentration on the three mascots, she soon managed to find herself alone, with no one to follow.
Taking in her surroundings, Sam found herself in a deserted but elegantly decorated hallway.
Everything was suspiciously quiet, only the sound of a few voices, coming from a window, breaking the silence. With slight wonder, the brunette moved towards the window, taking a glimpse outside, before realising that she was high above the bustling city.
Seems like the mascots were promoting quite the luxury restaurant, or they wouldn’t be able to afford such a location. Looks like she won’t be going then. Way too expensive and most of the time, not worth it.
Suddenly Sam was thrown out of her musing as a person rounded the corner into her corridor. A big guy with purple clothes and some rough scars over his eyes.
Being polite and respecting her elders, she stepped out of his way, smiling, before noticing that he is blind, thus obviously not noticing her.
She immediately made herself known by saying a quick and nice “Hello”, stopping the man in his tracks. Slowly the man turned his head towards her, confusion creeping on his face.
”Miss, what are you doing here?”, he asked, after a painful silence, obviously being lost and in need of help. “I wanted to find a restaurant.”, was Sam’s answer to his question. The blind man’s face immediately hardened before he took a resolute step towards her.
She thought he was quite competent for someone blind, moving with so much confidence. In a sudden twist of events, the man gripped onto her arm.
It seemed like he was asking for help, so the brunette nodded understandingly before speaking up.
”If you want to, I can help you find your way. I’m not busy.”
The man’s eyebrows lifted in obvious thankfulness while shaking his head no. He probably didn’t know that it meant no.
”Shaking your head from left to right means no. If you want to say yes, you need to shake your head up and down.”, she politely informed him, hoping to not seem like she’s being condescending.
He doesn’t manage to answer, his face screwed in exasperation from getting his knowledge of head shaking completely refuted. So with a proud smile, Sam used his grip on her arm to gently guide him forward.
”So where do you need to go?”, she asked nicely. When he didn’t answer, she just continued on the way he was going before meeting her. Soon enough they arrived in a room with four massive thrones and a big projector-like thing, projecting a video on the wall. Some blond man was standing and watching the video with a grin on his face.
Supporting Doflamingo in his plans was most definitely not something Fujitora wanted to do. He was somebody that, in his opinion, didn’t deserve the protection the status of a warlord brought. But his thoughts weren’t exactly asked for and so he needed to at least protect the civilians while the warlord played puppeteer.
As such, the newly appointed admiral moved through the castle's corridors, up towards Doflamingo. While walking, he was suddenly struck out of his thoughts by a girl's voice casually greeting him.
He turned towards the woman, not having noticed her presence before she said something. Seems like the pirate managed to find a powerful crewmate, one who was proficient in Haki and knew how to hide her presence.
“Miss, what are you doing here.”, he asked her, not amused that the warlord probably sent someone to guide him. Her deadpan and quite frankly, rude response of “I wanted to find a restaurant.”, made him even more annoyed. No one had a clue about politeness anymore.
To let the girl know that he wasn’t to be taken lightly, he immediately stalked towards her, gripping her arm in a haki-covered hand. Fujitora hoped she could understand now.
When the girl started nodding, he went to pull away from her but got stopped.
“If you want to, I can help you find your way. I’m not busy.”, was apparently the only thing she thought to say in his presence. He was confused. Who is she? Didn’t she get that he didn’t find her funny?
Caught up in his confusion, the admiral only managed to let out an unintentional head shake. Because no, he did in fact not need help. When the unknown girl suddenly started to tell him that the way he shook his head no was wrong, that was when Fujitora truly lost his mind.
What. The. Fuck. Is. Happening.
He only came to himself when he registered Doflamingo’s presence much nearer than a few seconds ago.
”I guess we are here.”, she said, pulling herself out of his grip while looking around. “Is this like a cinema but for rich people? Like VIP seats?”
The two men occupying the room turned towards her, one in complete utter disbelief and the other in annoyance. Maybe they weren’t friends? She really hoped that they at least knew each other.
The room was once again filled with silence, only the occasional breathy groan coming from some guy crashing on one of the thrones, interrupting it.
”Who is your little friend here, Fujitora?”, the blond man asked with a strained grin, now turned towards the blind man beside her.
”I do not know her. I thought she was one of your crew members.”, the purple-clothed man answered, spitting the last words with slight disgust.
The once again grinning man just shook his head no. At least he knew it correctly, though she thought it was really inconsiderate of him, since the blind man couldn’t see him do so.
Before she could answer in his stead, Sam found herself sitting on one of the thrones. Did he move her here?
”Uii, are we watching something together?”, she questioned the grinning man eagerly. It had been ages since she had seen a movie.
The man hummed, “Yes, the downfall of your comrades.”, before turning his attention onto the blind man.
As Doflamingo’s plan was slowly but steadily moving forward, he allowed himself a few minutes of watching the colosseum tournament. It truly was one of the best so far.
Soon though, he was pulled out of his musings by the presence of Fujitora slowly getting closer. Turning his way, just as he entered the room, the warlord was surprised to see a young woman holding hands with the admiral.
He thought the blind man to be more cautious than that. Who would bring their lover to such a meeting? But as he turned towards him, he saw a face full of confusion and disbelief.
And so to get answers, he started questioning the admiral with a grin. “Who is your little friend here, Fujitora?”
Said man seemed to gain his bearings. “I do not know her. I thought she was one of your crew members.”, was his rather rude answer. Despite that, Doflamingo shook his head no.
So the woman was part of the rebelling group. She was probably acting like she wasn’t part of it to get near him. Smart, but not smart enough.
Doflamingo immediately put her on the throne next to Law, using multiple strings to make sure she stayed there. He really hoped they knew each other, he could use her to get information from the still unconscious man.
He started to get annoyed when she asked in a way too cheery tone if they were going to watch something. In hopes of crushing her smile, he said, “Yes, the downfall of your comrades.”
Despite him not getting the reaction he wanted, he starts to calm down, knowing everything was going according to plan.
Sam soon enough clocked out of their conversation, as they seemed to be having an argument. Looking to her left, where the other man sat on the throne, she noticed that he was heavily injured.
But before she can once again speak up, multiple people have suddenly gathered in front of them. And she also only now noticed another guy being tied up, leaning against the wall.
They started to interrogate the guy next to her, but she blended them out. The brunette shook her head in disappointment. She never had something against people acting out their kinks, but they didn’t even ask for her consent. So with the thought of going home and drinking a coffee, she stood up and left the room.
As he and his crew were not getting any more information from the injured pirate, he decided to use the woman as a way to make him speak. Turning his attention towards the throne next to Law’s, Doflamingo and his crew members watched as the brown-haired woman stood up and left the room slowly and unconcerned.
No one made a move until a few minutes later, when the strained voice of Law plunged them back into reality.
”Is no one going to go after her?”, he asked, confused. The warlord shared his sentiment and question.
Why was no one going after her?
And with that thought, the room exploded into chaos, multiple members running after the unbothered woman.
After a few minutes of wandering, she found herself back in the city, which was occupied by many screaming and running people. Multiple were swinging their weapons quite aggressively and way too close to her. It seemed like they almost wanted to injure her. Thankfully they didn’t, though.
As she walked towards her cafe, she noticed the destruction around her home. Everything was quite hectic.
Sam also noticed a mass of people leaning against some wall of strings, seemingly pushing against it. Strange couldn’t even describe the sight that it was. Why would they push against a wall? Maybe a new workout?
Not in the mood for sports, she continued moving towards her home, following the wall of strings. After a few minutes, the brunette arrived at her cafe with a tired sigh. Today was quite the hard day.
Meanwhile, a few minutes earlier, a group of people, who started to try and hold back the all-destroying birdcage, noticed a house standing towards their left without any scratches or damage, despite already being caught up by the strings.
Slowly but surely the strings either stopped completely or continued around the house, leaving it untouched, as they started closing in on the city.
A green-haired swordsman, whose attention drifted over to the rare sight, glares towards the proudly standing building while he himself continues to be pushed back by the birdcage.
If somebody noticed how the building started to shine a little brighter, gleefully looking down on them, then no one said anything.
In front of her door, the man from earlier was sitting with his child, bawling his eyes out. As she moved towards them, she eyed them with a questioning look.
“Why the fuck are you and your shop the only things surviving this thing? Can’t one good thing happen in my life?”, the man sobbed out. Seemed like a personal problem.
“Well, to be honest, I have no clue what’s happening. I was at some kink thing in a restaurant the entire time.”, Sam answered him with honesty.
The man let out a scream of suffering into his hands before he started to explain.
“Our King, Doflamingo, apparently turned everyone into toys and completely manipulated our country. He wasn’t the great king that we thought he was. He was a murderer and a liar. I can’t believe he would rather destroy us, our country and homes than let his actions be known.”
At his words, Sam’s eyes widened. “Are you telling me that we were living in a dictatorship? I thought we were a democracy. Where did my votes that I sent out go?”, she thought out loud before stopping herself with a realisation. “Maybe that’s the reason we never got that public ice cream machine.”
Meanwhile, the Gorosei have been wondering who started voting for a public ice cream machine in Mary Geoise. Many of the Celestial Dragons have been supporting the decision, leading to multiple ice cream stations being opened all around the capital. Even some ice cream dispensers were installed in the Pangaea Castle for the officials and for the upcoming Reverie.
Now if they could just figure out who managed to unite the residents of Mary Geoise, so they can eliminate them. The risk of somebody gaining more authority than the Gorosei was too big to be ignored.
The man only looked at her in exasperation, as he suddenly screamed into his hands once again. His child, apparently having enough of his father’s embarrassing actions, leads him away from the door and towards the city centre in silence.
At least the child had some sense of maturity.