Breaking Down
A/N: I hope this type of storyline isn't too overdone. Let me know what you think.
Chapter 1
It was the storm that had originally driven off course. They had been following the log pose until Nami spotted it and decided to try to go around it. It was clear a few hours later that there was no going around it. The log pose kept pointing right into the middle of the storm.
"We're going to have to ride it through," Nami announced. A few groans were the response she got. "Tie down anything that can't be taken below. And if you can't swim, my may want to tie yourself to the deck."
Luffy chuckled at that last statement, but he was the only one who found it humorous at all. With nearly everything tied down or stowed the storm came upon them with little preamble. The wind alone was enough to blow a person off their feet, but when rain was added to the equation it was close to impossible to get around at all.
"Check the ropes around the sails!" Nami was yelling. "It looks like one of them is about to break!"
Franky was the one to climb up and amble across to check the ropes but was not quick enough. One of the ropes snapped and the sail billowed out with a deafening crack, sending Franky out to sea with the force of it.
"Man overboard!" cried Ussop, scrambling to throw a preserver into the water. A rubber arm stretched out and snatched the shipwright out of the water. It wasn't the gentlest landing back on deck for Franky, but he seemed happy enough to be back on the ship. He threw a thumbs up at Luffy, who was tied to the foremast, courtesy of Nami.
"We can't keep this up much longer," Zoro warned Nami. She knew he was right, but the log pose was still pointing in the same direction.
"We've got to be getting close to the eye of the storm," Nami spoke aloud, though no one probably heard her. If they could make it to the eye of the tropical depression, then they could get a well deserved break while they rode the calm sea there before riding out the rest of the storm.
A giant wave took all of them off their feet and Nami started to doubt their chances until she felt the air start to stabilize.
"There!" she cried as loudly as she could, pointing starboard. Sanji, who was helping Ussop at the helm, heard her at least and directed the ship towards the steadying weather. The ship lurched badly to one side as they went against the waves, making everyone who wasn't tied down grab hold of something in order to keep from being pitched off the ship.
"The headsail is going!" Zoro shouted. Nami looked up to the foremast to see that the edge of the headsail was indeed starting to pull away completely from the yardarm. A loose rope was whipping around in the wind haphazardly, but somehow Zoro managed to grab a hold of it. Immediately, he was pulled forward about three feet on the slippery grass and he strained to hold it from escaping.
"Franky! We need you on the foremast!" Nami cried, but her hopes were dashed when she saw the shipwright tackling the shrouds on the mainmast, which snapping just as quickly as Franky fixed them. With half of their crew tied down to prevent them from being swept away, Nami knew that she'd be the one climbing the foremast.
"Robin!" Nami called. The historian looked like the weather was giving her a good whipping, but otherwise unharmed. "Lend me a hand, okay?"
The historian nodded and Nami grabbed some rope to secure the headsail, then began the long and slick climb up the foremast. She slipped twice, but each time an arm protruded from the foremast to help support her until she got her grip back. It felt like ages, but after five agonizingly long minutes, Nami made it to the yardarm. The skinny post weaved back and forth in the heavy wind and flapping of the sail.
Nami looked down to Zoro, who was straining to keep the rope and sail in his grasps. "How do I get out there?"
"Scoot!" Zoro yelled, sliding on the wet grass again. He immediately backpedaled in order to regain his footing.
"What?" Nami yelled back.
"Sit on your ass and scoot out there," Zoro explained, cursing that he'd let her go up there. If only he'd told her to switch places with Ussop, the job would have been done already. At least the cowardly liar knew how to move about on the rigging of the ship.
Still unsure, Nami straddled the yardarm and slid on it until she came to the first break in the sail. She knotted and retied it to the yardarm and moved forward to the next one. She praised her luck that there were only four that needed to be fixed.
The ship lurched suddenly and Nami slid to one side and nearly fell off the yardarm altogether. Four arms sprouted in time to catch her and pull her back up atop it.
"Faster!" was Zoro's advice from below. Resisting the urge to tell him where to shove it, Nami tied the next break in the sail as quickly as she could. There were only two left.
A brief glance at their destination showed that they were within three or four leagues of the eye of the storm. She'd tied the third break in the sail faster than the last two with that happy thought in mind. The fourth was the most challenging since it rested on the edge of the yardarm. Instead of only two ways she could fall off, there were now three. Ignoring that thought, she tied as quickly as she could while keeping her knots accurate. The last thing she wanted was to climb up again because one of her knots came undone.
"Stay there for a minute," Zoro called out to her, and she couldn't resist the urge to look at him as if he were crazy. Moments later, Sandai Kitetsu was embedded in the yardarm just inches from her leg with the loose rope Zoro'd previously been holding tied to it. "Tie that off while you're up there."
'He is crazy,' Nami decided, watching Zoro run off to go help Franky. She was stuck trying to figure out how to get the sword out of the yardarm so she could reach the rope. As she reached for the handle, another arm sprouted from her hand and pulled the katana free, then retracted the blade back into her hand.
"Thank you, Robin!" Nami cried, untying the rope and then retying it to the yardarm. With all her tasks completed, Nami scooted backward toward the foremast so she could climb down and get away from the teetering and dangerous height. It would have been a lot easier if she didn't have to carry Sandai Kitetsu. Unlike Zoro, she didn't have a nice little scabbard to hold it in and there was no way she was holding it in her mouth like the swordsman.
Robin gave her an extra limb to hold the sword so she could climb down and Nami felt waves of gratitude to the woman who made her job so much easier. When she had both feet on the grass again, she turned to go thank her when the storm made one last ditch effort to take down the pirate ship.
A wave as high as their jolly roger came at them ruthlessly.
"Grab onto something!" Nami screamed in warning, lacing her arms into the lattice rope at the rail of the ship. The water beat down on them for nearly half a minute and swept all of them off their feet again. Struggling against the flow of water that wanted to drain of the deck, Nami looked up in time to see Sandai Kitetsu be swept away with it.
She dashed after it, knowing that she'd never hear the end of it from Zoro. Not to mention, she'd loaned him the money for that sword. In a way, it was like watching an investment be swept away. She dove and caught the handle right before it poured over the edge of the ship, grabbing hold of the railing to prevent herself from falling over.
Another hard lurch made that a fruitless effort. Nami tipped over the side sword and all, but caught a one-in-a-million break when Sandai Kitetsu sliced down deep in the hull of the ship and stuck there. Hanging on for dear life as the sea beat against her, her cries for assistance were choked away by the rain and sea water preventing her from doing anything but struggle to breathe. Zoro's face appeared above her, looking over the side.
"Just hold on," he told her as he tried reaching for her, but she was a good ten feet below him. He turned around and called to their captain.
"Luffy!" he yelled. "I can't reach Nami! Throw a hand over!"
Zoro looked back as to tell Luffy how far he needed to stretch, but both navigator and sword were gone, swept away into the sea. He stepped back from the railing a few steps, staring out at the gray sea as the ship gradually sailed into better weather.
"Zoro, what's wrong?" Luffy called, untying himself from the ship. Zoro didn't answer, simply scanning the tumultuous sea they left behind.
"She's gone," Zoro quietly replied. Luffy ran to the edge of the ship and looked over the side. There was a deep slit in the hull that would need patching so they wouldn't take on water, but no Nami.
"Go back for her!" Luffy yelled, turning to Sanji and Ussop. A deep crack was heard right before the mainmast split and pieces of it collapsed onto the deck.
Franky looked at his captain and knew what he said would not be well received. "In this condition, the ship doesn't have the maneuvering capability. We have to make repairs or we'll be beaten apart by the storm in minutes."
Luffy looked helplessly out to sea as the storm moved farther and farther away from them. And with it, their hopes of ever seeing their navigator again.
