A bunch of girls woke up one day, all they could see was a white void and a strange feeling all over their bodies. They got up but there seemed to be a lack of weight to them getting up. As their view grew clearer from their groggy vision, they saw each other's unfamiliar faces.
"Eh? Who are you?" Yoko asked.
"I should be asking you all the same thing!" Jolyne said. "And god I feel off today!"
“Oh god… my head… my he-” Lucy froze in fear. She looked down after trying to raise her arm to her forehead, only to realize exactly why she was completely numb in the first place.
“AAAAAH! MY BODY! WHERE’S MY BODY???” she screamed in panic.
"NANI?!" Jolyne cried.
"No way! How is this possible?" Yoko asked.
“AHHHH!!! Where’s MY body!? What happened to me!?” Ino exclaimed in shared terror.
“This can’t be happening! This has to be a dream! Am I dead!? Oh god, I’m dead!” Nami cried.
All five heads were freaking out in unison, confused and alone in a white void of nothing.
“My body, my beautiful body! Where could she be? What is happening to me” Nami asked herself, sobbing.
“What kind of jutsu is capable of doing this? I’ve done mind swapping for years, but literal non-lethal decapitation???” Ino said.
"Okay, we just need to calm down and put our... you know what I mean!" Yoko said.
"Stone Free." Jolyne said to herself as she looked away from the group. Her stand did appear beside her, well only the head. However she can still release her string as some shootout. "Phew."
"I can confirm that our abilities are not affected," Jolyne said as she turned back to the group.
"Abilities?" Yoko asked.
“Speak for yourself, I can’t do anything without my hands.” Ino responded.
"I'm just good at sniping and I kind of need hands for that." Yoko said. "I would rather not tell you all what I can do but I can assure you that I am on your side until one of you reveals your true colors." Jolyne said.
"So it's my fault?" Yoko asked.
“Yeah, what’s that even supposed to mean? As far as I know, you did this!” Nami said as she then floated closer to Jolyne’s face. “Where is she!? Where’s my poor old body, huh!?”
"Jesus! I did nothing! I'm as stuck as you are!" Jolyne said while getting closer. "I'm guessing that someone did this to us and we just need to find them. Perhaps find out what happened to our bodies along the way."
"She's right but I don't know if we can trust you." Yoko said. "I couldn't agree more." Jolyne said.
“Trust me? Do I look like I’m responsible for this!? I feel like I’m going to cry my eyes out! My body is missing and I’m a floating head stuck with five complete strangers in the middle of nowhere!” Nami cries. “The last thing I remember is relaxing in my room on our ship, and I-“
“Ship?” Ino asked.
“The Thousand Sunny. I’m Nami of the Straw Hat Pirates, you’ve probably heard of us.”
“Pirates? Don’t be ridiculous, there’s no such thing as pirates!”
“Whaaaat? Do you live under a rock!? We’re literally in the middle of a great pirate era, you big dummy!”
“Dummy!? You’re one to talk, only someone with a forehead as big as THAT would try and convince me pirates were-” Ino gets interrupted by Lucy yelling at the top of her (non-existent) lungs.
“Both of you, stop!” they all turn to look at her. “I know we’re all having a hard time getting a grip on the situation, but fighting isn’t going to help us figure out what’s going on.”
“You’re right.” Ino backs off.
"We should use this time to get used to being floating heads first," Jolyne said as she moved around a little. Trying to float higher but there was a limit. Only slightly higher than her original height. There was a chance of going higher but it felt random when it was possible. Yoko did the same thing as she started to get an idea on how being a floating head works.
Nami sways back and forth as her hair sways along. The feeling only makes her feel worse. Ino reluctantly tries moving around as a head, feeling shivers as she can’t help but wonder what happened to her body. Lucy does the same as tears start to well up in her eyes. She shakes her head and tries taking her mind off the subject.
“Well, since we’re all here together shouldn’t we introduce ourselves? I have to say none of you look anything like anyone I’ve seen in Fiore.” Lucy says.
"Jolyne Cujoh. Nice to meet ya." Jolyne said.
"Just call me Yoko." Yoko said.
“Ino Yamanaka, of the Yamanaka clan.” Ino said.
“Nami, navigator of the Straw Hat Pirates.” Nami said.
“And I’m Lucy Heartfilia, mage of the Fairy Tail Guild.” Lucy said.
"You all sound like you are from some manga or something." Jolyne said.
"The heck is manga?" Yoko asked.
“…yeah, I’m going to assume you’re all not from where I come from.” Ino said. “Clearly.” Nami said in agreement.
"To think there are other worlds." Yoko said.
“Wait, no I have to be in Fiore! The last thing I remember was taking a walk in the woods!” Lucy said.
“I just remember being in the restroom and then here I am.” Jolyne said.
“Seems like we are just doing our own thing and then here we are.” Ino said.
“Guess we can’t just stick around here forever. We’ve gotta go find a way out of here, and… hopefully, figure out what happened to our bodies.” Yoko said.
The heads got it together and then floated forward to wherever. The time they took to get used to their new form was worth it as floating almost felt as natural as walking. There were hiccups but it went smoothly. The void was completely white with no sense of progress. The heads kept on floating until they grew bored. Sometimes the heads decided to just chat with each other.
“Oi, Lucy. Since we’re like floating heads, how are you feeling?” Jolyne asked while getting close to Lucy.
“It feels weird of course!” Lucy cried.
“Honestly, I have a lot to say. Not only do I feel a bit lightheaded, but I feel a bit horny.” Jolyne said. The head got closer to Lucy and continued. “I don’t mean like usual. I mean like phantom pain made me imagine things.”
“Please stop.” Lucy said.
“Hear me out! Like we can’t feel our bodies right yet we keep on thinking about our bodies. I’m just so focused on one part of it. And floating around just made me think about my old legs. We can’t really float higher than our original height for sure. I am about 174.5 cm and 58 kg and yet it’s all gone.” Jolyne said.
“And your point?” Lucy asked.
“I miss my body to the point where I’m imagining things. This odd floating numbness is making me think so much since that’s all I can do besides floating and talking.” Jolyne said. “In fact, how are we talking without lungs? How can we eat? Do we need to eat? The numbness is making me ponder so many things.”
“Magic I assume. We must be cursed!” Lucy said.
“This must be the work of an enemy Stand!” Jolyne declared.
The floating heads stared at Jolyne who looked not only surprised but a bit nervous that they had no idea what she was talking about. Then again, they were heads from another world so Stands might not exist from where they came from. Hell, Lucy mentioned magic and Ino was a shinobi.
“Anyways, we’re floating heads so we don’t have to worry about the lack of movement.” Yoko said. “Let’s focus on getting our bodies back.”
“Like that one?” Ino asked as she turned her head to the direction of some footsteps.
“A body?!” Yoko asked. “After it!”
The heads charged after the body as they got a clearer view of what it looked like as they got closer. The body appeared in a bikini and scarf while showing off a lot of skin. A lot of the heads stopped except for Yoko who kept moving forward.
“That’s my body!” Yoko said.
Yoko went toward her body and landed on her neck gleefully. With the feeling of her body again, Yoko used her hands to hold her head in place and straightened it out. All the other heads could only watch as Yoko was whole once more and sort of glare with envy.
“What?” Yoko asked.
“Oh good for you…” Ino said.
“Hey now. We’re making good progress. We just need to find your bodies next.” Yoko said.
“Be sure to not lose your head.” Nami said.
“I’ll be fine,” Yoko said as she knocked her head to make sure it was tight. Only for it to pop off a little and float beside her body. “I stand corrected.”
Yoko’s floating head had herself be grabbed by her body and attached back to her body once again. To think her head was loose with a small knock. She held onto her head and pulled it a little to see that she could take her head off with ease. Only to quickly reattach it again before she felt the numb sensation of being a head. Still holding onto her head with her hands.
“I wonder what else we could find around here.” Nami said.
“Perhaps that circular thing?” Ino suggested.
“Girl! You are good at finding things!” Jolyne said.
“With the rate we’re going, we’ll all be whole again!” Yoko said as she ran towards the portal. The four other floating heads followed suit as they entered the portal before it closed on them.
However, when they entered the portal, Yoko seemed to fall so suddenly as the other floating heads watched the girl land on the ground. The impact caused Yoko’s head to pop off and roll a small amount of distance away from her body.
“Yoko! You alright?” Jolyne asked.
“Argh! Does it look like I’m fine?!” Yoko yelled. She watched as her body tried to get up before levitating herself to her own neck and reattached herself. The other floating heads floated down slowly as they didn't seem to be falling as quickly as Yoko.
“Where are we?” Nami asked.
“Some sort of desert?” Ino asked as the floating heads looked around.
All around them was sand and some random plant life that was either dried up or were cacti. There seemed to be no animals or insects of sorts roaming around, making the entire place deserted of all sentient life. There were the occasional cliff and rock formation that was different than just sand but it at least had a more significant landmark than a blank world.
“I guess this is one perk of having no body. It won’t weigh us down when traveling around here.” Jolyne said.
“I’ll be fine.” Yoko said. “I’m used to places like these.”
“If you say so.” Lucy said. “It beats roaming around aimlessly in a white void.”
“Let’s just keep on going. I really want my body back.” Nami said.
“We all do.” Jolyne said.
…
Yoko felt exhausted, walking around all day. She would've complained had she not been with her current companions keeping her from being lonely. The girl was roaming around a desert area that was showing no signs of any living thing besides desert stuff like sand or cliffs. It beats wandering around in a white void that had nothing at all.
"Do you think we'll find one of them soon?" Ino said with a nervous undertone notable in her questioning.
"Of course we will, it's only a matter of- THAT'S MINE RIGHT OVER THERE!" Nami shouted to reassure the blonde kunoichi when she'd spotted herself (sans head, of course) blindly stumbling around.
Yoko turned to look and saw that, indeed, a headless body was standing over there. She would've commented on the woman's attire, but didn't wish to be seen as a hypocrite.
"Alright, come on!" Yoko said.
Without a moment's hesitation, Yoko grabbed Nami from where she was floating, and ran over to the stumbling body, almost making her way to slam the head she held down onto the neckstump (even as Nami was screaming bloody murder about how she was being manhandled) when a portal similar to the one theyd gotten here through opened up under the headless pirate, causing the body to flail in mild panic as it fell through. Without a second of leeway, the portal closed back up after the body had been abducted, and Yoko had to skid her heels to keep from accidentally slamming Nami into the ground.
"...Shit!" "No... NO, WE WERE SO CLOSE!"
"Hey, we'll get it next time."
"Who's to say there'll be a next time?!?" Nami was understandably upset. She'd have forgiven the man-handling had she actually gotten her body from the ordeal, but she didn't... And that made it worse.
"Come on, now! We'll get it, eventually! For now, we gotta go find someplace to rest, maybe get our bearings properly..." Yoko looked around, trying to find a good spot to rest, before spotting a village close by.
"Oh! There's a village! We can head on that way!" Joylne said as she turned to Yoko.
"Are you sure we can head that way? Who's to say people won't freak out about our condition?" Yoko thought for a moment, before shrugging. "Guess we'll wing it, then."
…
As the group got closer, they found what appeared to be a village filled with tan skinned women with red hair. All of them glared at the group, specifically the ones that were floating heads. Making Lucy shudder as her head bopped in place as she floated by.
“I don’t think we’re welcome here.” Lucy said.
Things got more intense as they seemed to be grabbing weapons, either it be swords, spears, or bows. They got themselves armed and ready, but they did not continue further.
Yoko went for her waist and poked it a bit. Realizing that she still had a spare pistol in case things like this happened. Before anyone could make their first move, a loud booming voice rang through the pathway.
“Hold it! State your business!”
Yoko let down her guard as she was face to face with a tan lady who was more dressed in jewelry and authoritative than the other girls. She looked down on Yoko as well as the floating heads as they looked as if they wanted to start a fight.
“We just stumbled around here, that’s all.” Yoko said.
“Are you the ones responsible for the holes that appeared out of nowhere?” the lady asked.
“Hell no!” Jolyne said.
“Jolyne! Calm down!” Lucy said.
“An introduction would work first of all.” Ino said as she introduced herself and the rest of the group.
“As for me, I am Riju! Chief of the Gerudos!” the lady said.
“Um hi. We’re just passing by and…” Ino said.
“Silence! It’s clear that you all are the cause of the holes!” Riju said. “Not only that, responsible for the disappearance of Princess Zelda!”
“We don’t even know who she is!” Jolyne said.
“And I can see that you plan on attacking me with a weird thing. Perhaps it’s how you created the holes?!” Riju said.
“What, no!” Yoko said.
“I’m a head butt them!” Jolyne said.
Before the group could do anything, a wormhole appeared below them, causing Yoko to fall. Out of instinct, the floating heads followed their bodied friend as the other Gerudos stood back to not fall in. The shock was not just from the fact that the portal appeared out of nowhere but the fact that it was right at the feet of the accused.
…
After falling from the portal, Yoko specifically landed into what seemed to be murky mud, butt first. Her disembodied companions descended quickly as they watched the wormhole close up. The floating heads then looked at Yoko as she was too concerned with how dirty she got.
“Good thing I got no feet to make a mess out of my shoes!” Jolyne said with a grin.
“Shut it!” Yoko said as she wiped the mess off of her.
“Hmm… I don’t know if this is any better than where we were earlier.” Ino said.
The group took in their surroundings as they found themselves in a murky area full of trees and plant life. The air was dense and humid as the moist air raced through their faces. Even without bodies, the heads felt a little uncomfortable.
“Come on, let’s keep on going.” Nami sighed.
The heads kept on floating while Yoko traversed the jungle with her feet. Her boots were clearly not made for this environment as the heels were causing problems with her steps. Everyone still had to keep a lookout for any headless body that roamed around the area. It was like back in the desert, slow and hard to traverse. There were no signs of wildlife except for plants if you could count those.
The only sound emitting was the leaves rustling and the steps Yoko made echoed into their ears. It was the only thing that could be heard. That was until a big splash sound was made, causing all of the heads to stop where they were while Yoko got out her pistol, aiming at wherever.
“It has to be.” Lucy said as she floated forward.
“Oi! Don’t just go off like that!” Jolyne said.
Lucy looked around and intensively floated to where the source of the sound was. It was followed up with more splashing as she kept looking all over until she gasped. She stood where she was as her head hovered over the thing making all of that noise. There appeared to be things falling from the sky. Splashing onto the body of water but the thing that caught her interest was…
“My body!” Lucy said as she was surprised and shocked.
Lucy’s body fell from the sky and landed with a thud. The fall made the body panic as it tried leaving the body of water and struggled to swim properly. It was not that deep but the contents of the water made it uncomfortable for swimming. Lucy’s floating head was stuck floating still and saw how dumb her body was acting. The rest of the group appeared and noticed what Lucy was looking at.
“Need some help?” Yoko asked.
“Yes please.” Lucy said.
“Man, you really are freaking out, mind and body.” Jolyne said.
“Shut it!” Lucy said.
Yoko pulled Lucy’s body from where she was and got her to a drier area. Lucy took some deep breaths as that somehow helped her body calm down a little. While she had no control or feeling over her body, perhaps the way she felt affected her body.
“I just need to get to my body and get on it?” Lucy asked.
“That’s what I did.” Yoko said.
“I… I… this is too much for me!” Lucy said. “It’s so creepy to just stare at my headless body!”
“Come on. I’ll help you out again.” Yoko said as she grabbed Lucy’s head.
“Hey! What are you doing?” Lucy asked.
Yoko went towards Lucy’s body and gently placed Lucy’s head back onto her neck. She adjusted the head a little to straighten Lucy’s head. Afterwards, Yoko stepped back as Lucy felt the sensation of having a body again. Twitching her fingers and holding them up to her face.
“Oh god… this feels so weird. Like, this should be normal but being without a body for a bit really makes this feel so surreal.” Lucy said.
“It will be alright. Just take it slow.” Yoko said.
“Hmph…” Nami said as she glared at Lucy being comforted by Yoko.
“Jealous?” Ino asked.
“Pretty much yeah.” Nami said.
“We’ll find your body soon. I just know it.” Ino said. “We’ll just find another wormhole and maybe find another body there.”
By the body of water that Lucy’s body previously flailed in, a portal opened wide. Making a large swish sound that caught the attention of the other girls and was glowing underwater as the portal was on the ground surface of it. Everyone stared at Ino who looked prideful over her good luck streak.
“Man, I am good at this!” Ino said.
“Come on, just say we found my body now.” Nami said.
“It has to come naturally!” Ino said. “I can’t be pushing my luck now!”
“Whatever, we’re going in!” Yoko said.
“Now hold on, our heads need to be held so we don’t float back up.” Jolyne said.
“Good point.” Lucy said.
Lucy held onto the heads of Jolyne and Ino while Yoko held onto Nami’s head. Lucy was the first to dive right in as she went into it straight. Yoko tried to do the same thing as she managed to get down into the water, but her breast was in the way. Surprisingly, the portal this time was smaller than the previous occasions.
“A little help please?” Yoko asked.
Lucy from the other side said. “I’ll return the favor!”
Lucy let go of the floating heads she was carrying and then grabbed onto Yoko’s legs. Using all of her might, she tried pulling as much as possible. Jolyne helped out surprisingly as she shouted “Stone Free!” and her strings wrapped around Yoko’s legs as well. Lucy and the others could not see it, but they could tell that Jolyne is using her ability to assist Lucy.
After much pulling, Yoko was brought to the other side but at a cost. She ended up landed on the ground roughly again and it caused her head to pop off once again. Before she could react, Yoko felt some hands pick her up and was facing Lucy.
“I got you.” Lucy said.
“Aw… thanks.” Yoko said.
Lucy returned the favor with Yoko’s head being reattached back to her body. Adjusting it so that Yoko’s head was on properly. After further adjusting from the impact of the fall, they felt the head and sand once again. Except this time the air was a lot cooler and tropical.
“Finally! Some place that doesn’t feel so horrible to be in!” Lucy cried.
“And familiar too!” Nami said.
“Well duh, pirate and all.” Ino said.
“Let’s just hope no one attacks us again.” Yoko said.
“Especially anyone in that cottage over there.” Ino said as she tilted her head to the direction of said cottage. The cottage appeared on a beach-like cliff with a safe pathway to head over there.
“How are you able to find stuff like that?” Lucy asked.
“Anyways, let’s proceed with caution.” Jolyne said.
Yoko got her pistol out while Lucy had one of her celestial keys ready in case they had to deal with another threat again. Perhaps they might be lucky to find another body again like in the jungle. Lucy and Yoko stood by the side of the door while the other floating heads stood besides Yoko.
Yoko opened the door and pointed her pistol straight as she took a quick look of her surroundings. It appeared to be a basic bedroom of sorts with a netted hammock hanging on the right. There only appeared to be a single person in the room who raised her hands up.
Said girl had long purple hair tied in a high ponytail and wore a skimpy red outfit. What’s odd about her the most was her pointed ears and aura, as if she was sort of otherworldly yet still be seen as human. All the girl could do was stand there and exclaimed.
“Hold it! Hold it! I’m on your side!”
“Huh?” Yoko asked.
“I know about your predicament as I kind of was in the same shoes as you.” the girl said. She demonstrates this but moving her head side to side roughly and then her head suddenly floated above her body. “My name is Shantae and I’m a half genie. I kind of ended up here as a floating head initially but I luckily found my body.”
“Oh.” Lucy and Yoko said as they lowered their guard.
“I might be magic but I am not the one responsible for all of this!” Shantae said.
“How do we know that’s true?” Nami asked.
“As I said, I ended up here in this mess like you five! And the two of you are lucky as anyone else I met so far is left bodiless.” Shantae said while attaching herself back onto her body.
“You got a lot of explaining to do as you seem to know a lot.” Jolyne said.
“Of course! I got time for that!” Shantae said. “Oh! I kind of need to know you five as well.”
“Fair point. But don’t try anything sneaky! I might not have a body but I can still kick your ass without legs.” Jolyne said.
“Uh…” Shantae said.
After a proper introduction, the girls gathered at a table while Shantae prepared her explanation of what she knew so far. The heads were seated on the table itself while Yoko and Lucy sat on chairs across from each other. Our girls then glared at Shantae as she began to explain.
“You all know how not only you lost your bodies but a bunch of wormholes are appearing everywhere?” Shantae asked.
“Yeah.” the group said.
“Well, let’s just say that they have been appearing around the multiverse and stealing random girls when they are asleep or unconscious. From what little I heard, someone would decapitate us while keeping us alive and drop us here.” Shantae said.
“We have a body collector now?” Ino shouted.
I only knew that as I woke up a moment and saw it happened. I don’t know who it was but I managed to keep my head and fell into a portal. I don’t know the cause of the portals but I did recall an explosion before I fell into one to escape.” Shantae said.
“You know, I think I heard an explosion.” Jolyne said as she glared at Shantae. As if she found a clue to a puzzle.
“You do?” Everyone asked.
“I was not awake but I have the feeling that my abilities were involved.” Jolyne said. “Even when unconscious, it does try to defend me. Perhaps in its effort to do so, something happened. Before I met all of you as floating heads, I did hear a boom. All before I woke up like this. It’s vague but that’s all I got.”
“Hmm… was your ability like an invisible force punching someone?” Shantae asked.
Jolyne glared over Shantae’s guess as she might be an enemy. All Shantae did was back off and cried. “No no! I’m literally guessing as I did recall a voice complaining about an invisible punch, and then the portals appeared.”
“I still have my eyes and I’m keeping it on you.” Jolyne said.
“The next thing I know, I saw this beach, made due with this cottage, and met more girls like you.” Shantae said.
“Where are they now?” Yoko asked.
“In the floating head village.” Shantae said.
“Eh?” the group asked.
“I’m only staying here so that I can see the village from afar and I put so much effort in this place. I do visit there from time to time.” Shantae said. “You should head there to get some help. They might be excited that the two of you found bodies. You girls made more progress than them with less time. Perhaps you could help them.”
“This better not be a trick!” Jolyne said.
“Hey! Calm down. We’ll deal with her if it is.” Nami said.
“I guess we’ll just visit this place.” Yoko said.
“Just look out of my window and head towards that direction.” Shantae said. “You're bound to get there by just walking or floating.”
“Thank you, Shantae.” Lucy said as the five left the cottage.
…
By the advice of Shantae, the group headed towards a nearby village to rest for the time being. Although the floating heads have no bodies to weigh them down, they were exhausted for various reasons such as the stress of everything. Said village was made up of tents and appeared to contain other floating head girls.
"It's as that half genie said, there are more girls like us." Jolyne said.
“So many heads… this can’t be happening…” Lucy said in deep worry. She feared for whatever the source of this mass decapitation could be.
“How long have they been here? Weeks? Months? Years!?” Nami began to hyperventilate as thoughts of never seeing her body again started to cross her mind.
“Hey, hey! Don’t be like that. You’re scaring me!” Ino replied.
Some of the heads start to take notice as a new group of girls enter the village, especially since two of them have managed to get their bodies back.
"Hey! Look! It's some new girls!" said Ruby Rose.
"Oh um! Hello!" Yoko said.
"Eh! Two of them have bodies! No fair!" Hatsune Miku said.
Yang comes rushing out of a nearby hut, the same one Ruby was floating in front of.
“Bodies!? Where!?” Yang notices Yoko and Lucy and hurries over to them. “How did you find them!? Did you see any others!? How about mine, did you see my body? I was dressed in-“
“We haven’t seen any except for Nami’s, but we didn’t reach it in time and it fell through another wormhole.” Lucy said, pointing at Nami with her thumb over her shoulder. Nami’s expression turned to sad regret, and Ino responded with non-verbal sympathy.
“…oh. That sucks…” Yang hung her head low.
"Did that genie tell you about this place?" Ruby asked.
"Yep." Yoko said.
"Good. You know this is a place where us floating heads can stick together and go find our bodies. Or just relax here." Ruby said. "We got plenty of room here for more!"
"Though we ask that you take off your heads and let your bodies be protected by our leader's body. We don't want you to lose them while you are here." Miku said.
"Oh come on!" Yoko said. Yoko reluctantly pops her head off and turns around to see her body fidgeting uncomfortably, waving above her neck in confusion as to where her head went. Lucy sees this and refuses to comply.
"No! I won't do it! You guys go in without me, I'm not losing my body again!" Lucy cried out.
"Why are you making her lose her body again? Can't you see that the poor girl's traumatized!" Ino yelled at Miku.
"Just look at her neck and you can see why." Miku said.
From Lucy's anger, she failed to notice that her head was popped off once again. Floating above her body with her body not even noticing the fact that she was headless once again. All the floating heads looked at Lucy as she then realized what Miku meant.
"That's the sad reality of things that our leader warned us about. If we get our bodies back, we can lose them as easily if we are not careful. Especially in this village where it's made for heads." Miku said.
"It won't be that bad. Your bodies will be kept safe and sound!" Ruby said.
"Argh... if you insist." Yoko said.
"Oi, Lucy. Just do as they say for now. I'll handle the rest if something is up." Jolyne said.
"No!" Lucy's body flailed before hurriedly pushing her head back down. "I just... I don't know..."
"Lucy..." Nami said.
As Lucy struggled with the decision, Tifa arrived on the scene.
"Tifa! You're here!" Yang exclaimed.
"Hi Yang, we just got back. No bodies this time, but we did find some footprints in the Gerudo Desert." Tifa said.
"Did they look like they belonged to boots?" Yang asked hopefully.
"No, more like high heels." Tifa responded, much to Yang's disappointment.
"Hey! That was my body! We were just there!" Nami exclaimed.
"And what happened to it?" Tifa asked.
"She fell through a wormhole, just gone in a flash. We haven't found her since." Nami said.
"Her? You call your body 'her'?" Yang asked in mild discomfort, imagining her own body as a separate, headless entity.
"Yes, my poor body's out there all alone and I could tell from her movements that she's just as scared as I am! So have some respect and stop referring to her like she's some sort of object!" Nami pouted.
"The fact that there are bodies around means that we're able to be whole again soon!" Miku said.
"I'll miss being a floating head but I guess this is a good thing." Ruby said.
Yoko stared at the young floating head over that comment and sighed. "Alright. If we help you find your bodies, would you welcome us here?"
"You don't have to ask! We welcome all floating heads!" Miku said. "And extra help is welcomed!"
"Lucy, is it?" Tifa asked, floating closer to Lucy. "You don't have to be afraid. Shantae's gonna protect your body at all times to make sure nothing to it- er, her, and you can go see her whenever you like. It's just a precautionary measure, the last thing we want is for you and your body to be separated again. You two are the first to come here whole, you'll give the girls inside hope that one day they may be whole again too."
"I... I... I uh..." Lucy stammered.
"It's okay." Tifa reassured her. Lucy reluctantly popped loose from her neck and held back tears as her body progressively started panicking and swiping the air around her for her head.
A purple mist appears near the girls and Shantae poofs out of it. "Hey guys! I see you've met Tifa" Shantae said.
"How are they holding up?"
"It took some convincing, but they'll be fine." Tifa said. "As for their bodies, well..."
They look over as Lucy and Yoko's bodies are frantically walking in circles with their arms stretched out, bumping into each other and pointing at their empty necks unaware that the other is in the same predicament.
"Don't worry, they'll be safe with me." Shantae said. She pops her head off. "Alright body, go take care of these two. Take them to the safe room."
Shantae's body grabs the arms of Yoko and Lucy's bodies and gently takes them away. Jolyne then looked at Shantae with a curious look, being suspicious about the whole thing.
"You know, I wonder why you leave outside the village rather than right here." Jolyne asked.
"Well, as protector of Scuttle Town I have to remain in my own dimension in case any wormholes try snatching up people again." Shantae said, now as a floating head herself while laughing. "Although, in the case of my friends Rotty and Sky, it wouldn't be much of a new experience for either of them, haha.”
"Why's that?" Yang asked.
"Well Rotty's a zombie so her head comes off all the time, and as for Sky, well... let's just say she's never letting me try untested spells on her ever again." Shantae replied.
"Well, we'd better get moving. I'm sure you're all still very confused about all this. Let's go inside, I'll explain everything." Tifa said as she turned to Shantae.
"You guys go on ahead, I've gotta go back to Scuttle Town and continue my research on who or what could be behind all this." Shantae said.
She disappears in another puff of smoke, Nami coughing. The girls start following Tifa into the town.
"How are you coughing without lungs?" Ino asked.
"SHUT UP!" Nami snapped back.
The floating heads went to Tifa as they saw heads working somehow without bodies such as selling food, accessories, and goods. There were some heads that were floating around in depression.
"So... what else do we do around here?" Jolyne asked.
"Ah!" Yoko shouted as she saw a gun shop. "I can work as a sniper for you all!"
"How so? You don't have any hands." Nami said.
"When I get my body back, of course." Yoko said.
"In the meantime, do we just float around or work in jobs?" Jolyne asked.
"Well to be entirely honest with you, these jobs are more of a distraction to these girls than anything. It helps them get their minds off of their missing bodies while me and the other girls in the search team try to figure out what's going on." Tifa explained.
"Some of these shops are selling... food." Ino said.
"We can still eat, but no one knows where it goes. It's not exactly like we get hungry without stomachs. It's a bit of a mystery as to how we can still swallow too, since we don't have any necks." Tifa answered.
"Well by that logic, how can we even talk?" Lucy said. "None of this makes any sense, we shouldn't even be alive and you're wondering how we can swallow food."
"Like you said, magic." Jolyne mocked Lucy.
"Hey, I get it." Tifa turned to Lucy and Jolyne. "To be honest, this whole thing is scary for me too. I was the first girl here, and I haven't seen my body since I woke up here in this town. Ever since then, the amount of bodiless girls here has only increased faster and faster. I don't know how long we're going to be here, I just want to go home..."
"Yeah. I get it." Jolyne said. "We all do. We just gotta keep trying."
"The fact that I was able to find my body means that there's still hope!" Yoko added.
"H-How long ago was this? You, uh, losing your head I mean." Lucy asked, wondering if she even wanted to know.
"Two weeks," Tifa said.
"EH! Two weeks?!" Jolyne asked as she noticed what Tifa said. "All to establish all of this?!"
"Hm. Yeah. But I guess there is hope!" Tifa smiled, albeit still visibly sad.
“Still, it’s amazing that all of this was made in such a short amount of time.” Ino said.
"Well, when I woke up here everything was just kind of there already. It's not like we have hands to be able to build any of this anyway, it's almost like someone made this in anticipation of our arrival..." Tifa said.
“Strange…” Jolyne said.
“Either way, we are willing to help search for your bodies! After all, we are looking for the same thing.” Yoko said.
“Thank you.” Tifa said. “We’ll need all the help we can get.”
“When can we start?” Ino asked.
“Tomorrow. You five seemed tired.” Tifa said. “Spend the rest of the day looking around our clan or resting in our home tents. The shelves are surprisingly comfortable to rest on and the pillows are to die for!”
“Wait, we sleep on shelves?” Lucy asked.
“There are boxes too if you want.” Tifa said. “They open like magic.”
“Shelf is fine.” Lucy said.
…
In the morning, the group of floating heads prepared their search for bodies once again after a good night’s sleep on the shelf. The heads from the village were very nice to them so it was natural to pay them back by finding their bodies again. All while the bodies of Yoko and Lucy approached them. Prompting Lucy to reattach to her body immediately while Yoko was less hasty.
“I knew I forgot something.” Yoko said.
“Finally!” Lucy said.
“I think the first step is to find those portals since that’s what it’s all been about.” Jolyne said.
“Right. But we still don’t know where to look.” Ino said.
“We’re rested now so I think we can do much better than before.” Yoko said while stretching. “Besides, you three are probably used to being floating heads by now.”
“Whatever, let’s get to looking.” Nami said. “Because I would rather not be used to being a floating head for too long.”
“We have all the time we need since we got a temporary place to call home.” Jolyne said.
“I’d rather go to my actual home, thank you very much.” Lucy said.
“No matter what, we’ll just need to keep moving forward.” Yoko said. “Let’s go!”
“YEAH!” Everyone else shouted.
The group went out to the distance, who knows where they would go. Even though it was a nice tropical field, there might be danger onward or another portal may show up. But that is a story for another time.