Short notes: This is contains spoilers for up to just before Thriller Bark (the current story arc in the manga) and this will be dark. The rating may go up, and there might be cuts made to the version posted to FFnet anyway. Thou hast been warned.

Distrust
By Ryo Hoshi
Chapter 1: Making Port

Lyftfaet was, as they'd been warned, little more than an admittedly sizable rock sticking out of the ocean. It was well-placed, though, and the shape of the island was perfect for what it was: a port. The island curved in a sort of crescent, with tall mountains at the back, sloping down gently toward the bay, which could only be reached from a narrow gap in the island's arc.

The result was that the port, cradled in the bowl of the mountains, was protected—both from storms and from attack. It was rather fortunate for them that pirates had settled it before Marines could discover it. It was quite obvious that the terrain would have resulted in it being claimed, entirely, for a base otherwise. As it was, somebody had built forts at the mouth of the bay to ensure that they would have complete control over who entered and left their port.

Lidmann Port itself was eclectic. There was more variety than at Jaya—the island itself had established itself early on as a free port, where any vessel might dock as long as it respected the truce of the island. Its geography was not the only reason the World Government did not try to force them to change. The port itself was too vital to everybody—merchant, pirate, and Marine—as the island made up one of the points of the Florian Triangle. Legend, at least, had it that when a pirate crew had attempted to turn Lyftfaet into their own private base nearly a quarter of a century ago, its importance to all who wanted to cross the Florian Triangle had prompted an alliance between the Marines and the two greatest pirates of the time to free the port.

According to Usopp, the carnival on the island was, in fact, the still-going party celebrating this victory.

Regardless of what the truth of Usopp's words might be, there definitely was a party going on Lidmann Port, and it looked like it'd been going on for a very long time. Only a few buildings visible from the mouth of the bay did not look like they'd been designed by a madman—Franky House on Water 7 would have fit in perfectly and qualified as a nice, staid building compared to many of the other buildings there. The wilder buildings looked to have been the result of a series of bets. "I bet it won't fall down," to be specific.

The people were, on the whole, dressed in a similar fashion as the buildings—though if any of these clothes were based off bets, the bet must have been something like "I bet this won't fall off" or "I bet that outfit can be pulled off." Many of the outfits would have lost the latter bet anywhere else. Somehow, though, they worked in Lidmann.

The first example they saw of the local fashions was at the port's mouth. Lidmann actually had a working port authority—as opposed to the usual systems of either it being a fancy title for bribe-collector or a job for the incompetent nephew. In Lidmann, however, it was in fact more than just a harbor master, but included pilots…which they insisted all ships coming into port use. The one provided for the Thousand Sunny was a tall, lean man who looked like a desert nomad, dressed like an unusually rich one or perhaps one, and at least acted like he'd gotten to Lyftfaet from Alabasta on a pirate ship.

Latif, as he introduced himself, took Nami's offense at the perceived insult to her own skills with amazing grace. More precisely, he flirted with her…and then showed her exactly why the port authority was so insistent upon their pilots being used. The harbor's waters were deceptively calm, another layer in its defenses against invasion. The rocks beneath the surface didn't cause a ripple to show on the surface yet were just tall enough to hole the hull of any ship whose helmsman didn't know the waters intimately…and the port claimed full salvage rights for any wrecks that occurred because a captain was too cheap to pay for a pilot.

It was around this point that Zoro, who'd been napping, woke up. He looked around, eyes settling on Latif, suspicious. "So we're at Lyftfaet… I remember hearing something about Lidmann and bounty hunters…?"

Latif grinned—not as widely as Luffy, but it looked like that was only because the pilot was not made of rubber. "Keh! That? We don't like kidnappers. Bad for business."

With a smile hidden behind her book, Robin softly asked, "Lidmann Port was built up by trade, wasn't it?"

The pilot laughed again, grin unfazed. "Built up? It wassettled because of it—some pirate crew realized they'd make more money if they turned their base into a port instead!"

The friendly conversation between the two continued with only the occasional pause for him to mention to Nami one or another hazard, and how to make it past.

Luffy ignored them in favor of staring out at the port in quiet excitement—or, rather, too excited to be noisy. This island looked to be possibly even more fun than Skypiea, especially since he shouldn't have to worry about his nakama here. And he knew that a trading center like Lidmann would have new meats he'd never tried before—though he'd not put it that way if somebody asked him.

By the time they were nearly to the berth assigned to the Sunny, Luffy had eagerly pulled himself higher up on the figurehead for a better view. The pilot seemed to take the rubber man's stretching calmly, and merely apologised politely to Robin and devoted his attention to shop talk with Nami. The other ships berthed along the particular dock all flew pirate flags, and Latif was easily persuaded by Nami to tell her everything he knew about any given crew.

Once Sunny was in their berth, Nami coordinated their mooring, with the pilot's advice that the port authority would prefer ships be too secure instead not not secure enough. It was more work than mooring had been for them ever before—usually all they'd needed to do is drop anchor—but thankfully Franky had designed the brig sloop with the expectation of sometimes coming across places which would demand that more than one or two hawsers be used. With half the crew working at the stern and Latif's help at bow, they managed to (somehow) get all six of the lines he'd recommended they use secured.

Sanji settled on bollard, lighting a cigarette, and watched Latif and Nami talk. Luffy might be happily oblivious to how well the pair were getting along—instead, their captain was looking around the dock excitedly, hoping Nami would give him his allowance soon—but Sanji was not. He didn't like it at all, either. He could stand it if one of his nakama—well, perhaps not Zoro—got Nami instead of him, but for some outsider to win his Nami-san's heart…

Latif glanced at Sanji, noticing the cook's expression, and grinned at Nami. Then, with one smooth, liquid movement, he jumped ashore and walked over to Sanji. "Hey, you don't have to worry, you know."

"Why?" the blond said, not very reassured. There was, after all, the matter of the other man's grin.

The tan pilot leaned forward, nose nearly touching Sanji's. "Keh. You don't have to worry because you're more my type…"

The love cook blinked, cigarette dropping out of his mouth, and then retreated. Latif laughed again, and shouted up to the Straw-hat crew's navigator, "If you want to join in the carnival, you'll want to get costumes! You'll get a good price if you visit Rou's shop and tell her I sent you, alright?"

Nami laughed. "Thanks, Latif! We've got a couple weeks before our log pose resets to Fishman Island, right?" The harbor pilot nodded. "Then I'll make sure I do that." With a wave, their new friend walked off, heading back to the harbor's entrance.