Nami's POV:
"This is it, Missy!"
The anchor hit the water surface with a splash. I sighed. In front of me lay Black Flag Island. The Island lay so remote in East Blue, that it took a week and a half to get there. It had to be: Piracy was illegal after all. A school for pirates-to-be had to be properly hidden for the World Government.
"Something wrong, Missy?" the captain, a short, old man, had noticed my tired expression. "No," I answered, "Just a little tired." "The trip was tiring indeed." the captain scratched his head. "Normally we arrive before you know it. It's always fun with all the students on board." He let his gaze go over the empty deck. "What the hell were you thinking, joining halfway through the year?" "I hesitated."
I couldn't tell him that I was after the treasure. A rumour had cought Arlongs Ears a while ago, and he sent me to figure things out. Apparently, a Devil's Fruit was in possesion of the school.
This was my last assignment. If I brought Arlong the fruit, he would leave Cocoyashi Village and all this would be over. Nojiko and the others would be safe. I needed to steal the fruit, no matter what.
I was planning to enter the school, steal the fruit and flee. Perhaps I could use this ship? I shook my head at the thought. In my mind it seemed so easy, but the truth was different. I didn't even have a proper plan.
There was only one way to get to the school: signing up. There would be a thourough background check, wich I passed because of my connections to Arlong. The location of the Island was a secret, and even with my navigation skills I coudn't have found it. Even now I wasn't sure where we were, all I knew is that it was somewhere in East Blue.
The Island seemed uninhabited at first. There was someone waiting for me at the beach, however. A boy with black, curly hair, wearing brown overalls and a brown bag around his shoulders, greeted me.
"Welcome to Black Flag Island!" he yelled, waving both arms as if I was standing miles away. "My name is Usopp, nice to meet you!" "H-hi..." I said, stunned by his enthousiasm. "Follow me, I'll take you to the school grounds!" Without further warning, he took one of my suitcases and started walking. I took the other one and followed him.
"Usopp, where is everybody?" I asked. "This island seems uninhabited." "This is an illegal organisation!" Usopp said, stating the obvious. "If a ship happens to pass by the crew is not supposed to see the school!" I mentally blamed myself for asking such a stupid question. "It's a two-mile walk from the beach." Usopp added. He then began rattling about the history of the island.
I looked around. We were walking through a green forest. The branches of the trees joined above our heads, forming a roof made out of leaves. The sunlight that fell through the natural roof created a fairy tale-like atmosphere. I heard birds chirping everywhere around us.
The path ran slightly upwards, but more annoyingly: Usopp was fast.Meanwhile, he was still rattling on, changing the subject to the time he fought a bear and won -seemingly a lie- and he didn't notice how I struggled to keep up with him. Just when I was about to interfere with his heroic speech, he stopped talking. He stopped walking as well, but I noticed too late and bumped into him, dropping my suitcase to the ground.
Usopp looked around for a moment, only to change direction and leave the path. "Follow me," he said. I didn't really have a choice. With lots of effort we made our way through the branches and bushes. What the hell was Usopp doing? Just as I wanted to complain, we got out of the forest.
The deep abyss startled me and forced me to shut my eyes for a moment. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" Usopp's words made me open my eyes, only to be shocked again.
Far beneath us lay an immense valley, surrounded by mountains, with green plains and a forest. There was a lake to the east, and in the north was a village. In the middle, impossible to overlook, were the school grounds.
My eyes got wider with the second as my gaze went through the valley. How? How was this possible? How could something so beautiful be in the hands of pirates?In my opinion, pirates were scum. nothing more, nothing less. Yet, this view was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.
Usopp tried to keep himself from laughing when he turned to look at my face, but failed miserably. "Something tells me that you didn't expect this." Well, Usopp, something tells me it's written on my face. "I just don't feel like we went up this far." I said, trying to hide my annoyance and, most of all, my disbelief. "That's right," Usopp said. "This valley lies below sea level. It's kind of like an inside-out fish tank."
As we got back to the path, Usopp continued the way. He also proceeded his monologue. I was glad I didn't have to talk as I picked up my suitcase again, overwhelmed by what I just saw. Usopp started walking twice as fast, but the path ran down now so it didn't take as much effort to keep up.
Before I knew it, we were standing in front of the gates to the school grounds. I didn't realise the letters in the arch above the gates spelled the name of my new home:
Black Flag Academy
A.N. I have been writing for a while now, but this is the first time I found the courage to publish something. Please leave a review, I would love to know what you think of this short introduction! I will be publishing new chapters every once in a while.
English is not my native language, and I apologize for any grammatical errors! It takes a lot of time to write everything in Dutch and then translate it, so sometimes I over look small grammatical errors. I hope it doesn't bother you too much! ;)
