Stepping out of the mirror and into the Hall of Mirrors, Y/n tries her best to stop her body from spazzing out.
Her reaction improves slightly, her body still wobbling and shaking in a weird way but for a shorter time.
'Eugh... damn, I gotta get used to mirror travel. Riddle never answered my question, but I don't think there are other ways of getting to the dorms.'
"Uhh, are you okay??"
A boy with animal ears, who isn't wearing the weird robe, is standing in the center with wide eyes and stands rigidly.
"Yeah, that just happens because of the mirrors, don't worry."
The boy can only look at her in bewilderment as she waves him off. Is he really supposed to just take her word, act like it was normal and not worry about it? Then again, he doesn't really want to get involved in whatever is wrong with the woman,
"Uh-huh... anyways. I'm Ruggie, and I'm going to be the one showing you around out dorm, Savanaclaw. Let's go, it's already late."
"Alright, lead the way! Ah, I'm Y/n by the way."
Y/n follows behind him as they head towards a mirror with two lit torches and some animal bones, the portrait of a lion with a scar is at the center of the top. Ruggie is about to enter the mirror, but takes a step back and gives Y/n a concerned glance. Seeing no traces of hesitation on her face, he walks through with her following right behind him.
Y/n has the same reaction as earlier and Ruggie does his best to pretend everything was normal, averting his gaze from her and scratching the back of his neck, he points towards a large building that looks like it was carved out of a mountain.
Letting out a quiet "woah", Y/n takes a moment to look around. It was a strong contrast to Heartslabyul, the biggest difference being that while Heartslabyul is full of lush greenery with every little leave trimmed to perfection, this place is a dessert. A few animal bones lay around and a few trees and bushes are visible, but most of the plants look dried up. On a tree that's in front of the dorm hangs what Y/n assumes is their flag.
"C'mon, it's already late and I still have to show you everything inside."
Nodding towards the entrance, Ruggie doesn't wait and starts walking towards it. Y/n catches up to him as they finally enter Dorm itself.
Arriving in front the lounge, the Devil Fruit user looks around at all the students that are still hanging out there, being loud and rowdy.
'I don't think I've ever seen this many minks in one place... wait they're all furless, are they even minks??'
"Are you guys Minks?"
"What?"
Ruggie wonders for a second if she's being bizarre on purpose, but listening to her explaining in full detail what Minks are and can do he starts to question even more where the hell she came from,
"No, we're just beastmen but we aren't like those Minks. The most we have is better hearing, taste sense and physical abilities than humans."
Y/n only hums in response, looking forward to learning what more this world has that hers doesn't.
'Stronger than most humans, huh? I really want to see who the strongest here is and see what they can do...!'
Taking one step into the lounge, all the students stop what they're doing as their head whip around to observe Y/n. Not expecting such a reaction she stays still, unsure if she did or is doing something, and stares back at them. The staring contest lasts less than a minute and the students slowly return to whatever they were doing, only in a much more calmer manner than before.
As they walk through the lounge, Y/n leans towards Ruggie and whispers to him,
"umm... what just happened?"
"Hm? Ah, our Housewarden told them to be on their best behavior for when you're here and to show you respect."
Y/n raises a brow at this,
"Wait I thought you were the Housewarden?"
"Nah, our Housewarden is Leona. He just sent me to show you around instead."
Ruggie shakes his head and looks to the side, avoiding Y/n's gaze as a hint of annoyance becomes more evident in his face. The woman thinks about the name Leona and tries recalling the ceremony. If all the Housewardens except Malleus were there, then Leona had to have been there.
She thinks hard.
'Leona, Leona... Leeoonnaa.... hmm, nope, doesn't ring a bell.'
As they exit the lounge and pass through a few rooms and areas, right off the bat the Devil Fruit user decides she's liking it here more than Heartslabyul. The outside, being a desert and all, also slightly reminds her of Alabasta, giving it bonus points in her mind.
'I wonder how Vivi and Alabasta is doing right now... that Croco-bastard better not come back there again!'
Now walking through one of the desolate hallways, Ruggie can't help but notice and steal glances at her bag. He would never steal from her, especially after Leona threatened the entire Dorm to be on their best behavior, but tells himself it should be fine to just take a look and see what valuables she has on her. With how distracted she is, Ruggie also tells himself that the woman won't mind.
Just as he's about to discreetly slip a hand into Y/n's, they both abruptly stop in their step and his hand is grabbed and lifted upwards. Y/n has an iron grip on his wrist and the hyena boy instantly starts regretting his choice. Not expecting such strength, he fears for the worst as the Devil Fruit user finally turns to face him, looking at him with an empty expression.
.
.
.
"If you wanted to look in my bag, you just had to ask. No need to be sneaky, haha! Though you're pretty good at that!"
Ruggie blinks a few times, surprised that she isn't enraged or even slightly bothered. She just laughs, looks at him with kind eyes and pats him on the back a few times like they're friends. Y/n already moves on and walks in a random direction, telling him that she'd show him what's in her bag after the tour. Staying back for a few seconds, thinking about how way too strong her grip was, a weird feeling starts to form in Ruggie's chest.
Ignoring it, he runs after the woman and pulls her into the right direction.
Showing her where Leona's room is and then where the students of each year sleep, he shows her into his room and sits down on his bed. Y/n tosses Ruggie her bag so he can look through it, in the meantime she looks around at the stuff in his room. The air between the two is a lot more relaxed.
"You going to head to Octavinelle after this or are you stayin' here?"
"I'll be staying here the night, this place reminds me of a friend's home so I like it a lot here!"
Nodding in acknowledgement, Ruggie starts rummaging through her bag. Grabbing some of them out to examine them, he's completely confused.
"... what's this thing supposed to be?"
Putting back a book she had been looking at, Y/n looks at the item he's holding and goes to sit next to Ruggie on his bed,
"That's my log pose. I got it just before entering the Grandline, it's impossible to navigate there without one because normal compasses don't work there. It's supposed point towards the nearest and strongest magnetic field of an island. But for some reason, ever since I arrived here it hasn't stopped spinning."
Crossing her arms, Y/n looks at her log pose perplexed.
"Uh, hold on. The Grandline?"
"Oh yeah, I'm from another world. Before coming here I was traveling through the Grandline. The Grandline is this huge ocean route that goes across the world in a line. The weather is dangerous and unpredictable, and it's known as a pirate graveyard... and I sailed there in search of adventure! Also because I wanted to catch up with my brother who-"
"A pirate??"
"Yeah! How'd you?"
Ruggie hold up a piece of paper and repeatedly points at it, her wanted poster,
"NO! You! You're a pirate?!"
"Ah, did I not mention? Where I'm from it's the new pirate era. I am a pirate, I don't officially belong to any crew but for the majority of my journey I've stayed with my brother's crew so the government assumed I'm a part of it."
"... you're joking right?"
Ruggie keeps looking between the woman and her wanted poster. He didn't know what currency her world uses, but that doesn't make the big number at the bottom look less insane.
"Ahh, it's a shame they still don't have a picture of me to put on it. They didn't even try drawing a portrait like they did with Sanji..."
Watching Y/n sulking over that, Ruggie doesn't know what to do. Why would she want her face plastered on a wanted poster with "DEAD OR ALIVE" written on it?! Thinking about it more, he questions how she even became a pirate. Pirates are cruel, murder people and pillage villages, but the woman sulking on the floor doesn't even look like she could hold a grudge. She didn't even get mad at him for trying to get into her bag!
"How did YOU become a pirate? No offense but... you seem way too nice. Shouldn't you be more evil?"
Immediately, the Devil Fruit user stops sulking and tilts her head as she looks at Ruggie,
"Who says pirates need to be evil? I became a pirate so I could live freely and travel the world... to see everything there is, without anyone stopping me or telling me how to live."
Towards the end, her voice gains a bittersweet tone and her eyes have a nostalgic glint in them. Jumping to her feet, she looks at the hyena boy determined,
"That's why I set sail at 16, so I could make my dream come true! If the government wants to try and stop me and call me a pirate for chasing my dreams, then I'm proud to be a pirate and I'll fight with everything I've got!"
The weird feeling from before returns stronger in Ruggie's chest. The way Y/n is so determined to make her dream come true, no matter how simplistic it is, and how ready she is to fight anyone who stands in the way if her dream is almost enough to distract him,
"... wait. You left your home at 16?!"
"Yep! Me and my brothers actually made an agreement to first leave and become pirates at 17, but I ended up leaving a year earlier so my grandpa wouldn't try stopping me. He really wanted all of us to be Marines instead and even trained us for that too, hahaha!"
Remembering her childhood memories with Garp, the only thing Y/n can do is laugh about all the training he put her through and how often he threw her into jungles and had her fight wild animals and beasts. If it weren't for that, she wouldn't have discovered her love for fighting.
"... shishishi~ you're really something else, you know that Y/n?"
"Hehe, I've been told so!"
The two continue to talk, asking about her pirate life, though Ruggie mostly wanting to what stuff she's stolen and Y/n answering.
Eventually the time comes when they have to go to sleep. The Devil Fruit user notices how she doesn't have a change of clothes, she pretty much wore the weird, baggy, cult robe all day. The hyena boy informs her that he'd go and look for some spare clothing and that in the meantime she could go into the bathroom and get changed.
"Man, it feels like today has been going on forever! Still, I've met some pretty interesting people. I can't wait to befriend more!"
Y/n struggles a bit, but eventually figures out how to take off the robe.
'Ah, that's why it was oddly warm.'
Beneath the robes, she was wearing the clothes she had on the previous night. A dark blue off the shoulder shirt and black shorts, her old boots though were replaced with the weird shoes she's currently wearing. Not wanting to wear the weird shoes any longer, she takes them off and goes to look into her bag. She remembers packing an extra pair of shoes, but isn't sure if it's in this bag or one of her other bags.
"C'mon, please don't make me walk around with those weird shoes... AHA!"
Successful in her search, Y/n pulls out a pair of simple looking dark shoes. Just as she puts them on and folds the robe together, Ruggie returns,
"I couldn't find any spares that looked your size, but I could give you a spare shirt of mi- where'd you get the clothes from? And the shoes?"
The Devil Fruit user points towards her bag,
"I didn't notice, but turns out I was wearing this under the robe. And the shoes were in my bag."
Ruggie's ears flatten as looks at the bag puzzled,
"That's... convenient. How much stuff do you have in there?"
Shrugging, she shoves the folded robe into her bag and closes it as she starts to head out the door,
"Welp, I'll be going now. See ya tomorrow, Ruggie!"
"Uh, aren't you sleeping here? Where are you going??"
"Huh? To sleep in the lounge of course, where else?"
Ruggie quickly starts pulling her away from the direction of the lounge,
"In a spare room! Why would you be sleeping in the lounge?! Seriously, did your pirate life make you used to sleeping anywhere?"
"Well...",
Y/n thinks back to all the times she slept in the wilderness because of her grandpa or Luffy and Ace. Sighing at her, Ruggie shows her to the spare room and tells her at what time to wake up, then returns to his own room.
Now alone in the room, she flops onto the bed, ready for sleep as she stares at the ceiling.
"... heh, I can't wait to see what else this magic school has to offer!"
ꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀ𓊝ꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀ
TO BE CONTINUED