Ch 2 | The Second Letter

Luffy's eyes shoot open.

Something cold and wet had dropped onto his cheek and was sliding down his upper lip. Not a second later, his nose is caressed with the sweet aroma of oranges and something distinctly like the sea. He blinks.

His head is lying on something cool yet soft. He feels the strangely comforting slide of a hand through his hair, tangling in the dark locks before the fingers gently massage his scalp. Luffy slowly shuts his eyes again, taking in a deep breath and feeling relieved when the same scent is still present.

Nami.

She's here. She didn't leave.

It was just a bad dream. The others are all here, too, Luffy almost giddily thinks. That was a scary nightmare. He relaxes further into the comfort of his nakama's arms, a sudden rush of gratitude and relief invading his body.

The limbs beneath his head move, and Luffy feels her body shift forward, her damp, mikan-scented hair slapping his cheek and having more droplets roll down his rubber skin. He feels her staring and tries not to grin.

"Enjoying yourself?" comes her dry voice. "Don't expect this kind of treatment regularly."

He can't stop himself from giggling and turns his head to face her. Two bright chestnut orbs look down at him, narrowed as a playful frown dances on her flushed face.

"You smell nice," Luffy states simply.

Nami only smiles.

She moves to get up, small drops of water from her freshly-washed hair splattering into the wood. She towers over him as he sits up. He looks for his hat and smiles when Nami jams it onto his head. His smile disappears, however, when he realizes he's on the floor of the dining room and connecting kitchen.

With a start, Luffy realizes what must've happened. Before he can receive the coming punishment, he tries to make a plea.

"Nami, wait! I don't know what happened! I must've been sleepwalking or somethin!" His hands wave wildly in front of his face, his face comically panicked.

Nami only stares at him with a slight confusion, used to her captain's gibberish and knowing she should wait until he starts making some sense.

Gulping, Luffy continues, "I didn't mean to eat the meat! I don't even remember eating it!"

Nami almost facepalms.

"You didn't eat the meat last night, Luffy. Sanji bought a lock to keep you from doing exactly that," she replies amusedly, making her way to the table and plopping down on a chair.

From his position still on the floor, Luffy can see that a coffee cup had already been placed on the table. Nothing else.

No white rectangular envelopes.

It really was just a nightmare, he thinks briefly.

At the mention of the cook, Luffy's eyes light up. His stomach also decides to growl loudly, the bottomless pit not having been fed since last night.

"Ah! It's almost breakfast time!" Luffy exclaims, bouncing up from the floor to run out of the room. He suddenly craves to see all his nakama.

He slams the door open, a huge grin on his face, and yells, "SANJIII! MESHIII!"

When no one answers, he thinks, He must be sleeping.

Looking around, he realizes no one else is awake yet, the deck still free of the rest of his crew. A sneaky idea creeps into his mind and Luffy snickers as he jumps the rail, landing lightly (or what he thought was lightly) on his feet. He doesn't notice when Nami emerges from the dining room and kitchen, watching him with a worried frown on her face.

Luffy slowly opens the door to his room, cringing when it makes a creaking sound. He slips in and prepares to release the biggest yell he could manage - a personal wake-up call for his lazy crew. He takes a deep breath, moves closer to see the sleeping figu-

He lets go of his breath shakily.

The bunks are empty.

His heart starts pounding and a feeling that he's starting to hate crawls up his throat. Strangely, it's not exactly the empty bunks that scare him, but rather the sense of dejà vu that overtakes him.

He stumbles back out the door, landing on his butt on the prickly grass out on the deck. The silence is there again, loud and horrifying. He suddenly remembers his other companion, twisting to see her and calm his racing heart.

Nami's here, he reminds himself. He looks around, choosing to ignore the absence of the reclining chair where Robin usually reads her novels or the tools Franky or Usopp sometimes leave out.

They must be exploring an island, he reasons, grasping for something. Anything.

Luffy looks up at Nami, his hat falling onto his back to reveal dark eyes full of fear and anxiety.

Nami feels a shiver run across her spine. She wishes she could look away, or smile reassuringly to put his fears to rest. She almost does. But she reminds herself she needs to be strong - for both of them.

"Where is everyone?" Luffy's voice is deceptively strong and Nami could cry.

She swallows nothing. "They're not here."

Luffy doesn't react, only stares at her with those pleading eyes.

"Nani? What are you talking about? Where is everyone?" he repeats. Please.

She feels like she's torturing him. A shaky sigh escapes her lips. She leans against the balcony, meets his eyes straight on, and firmly states, "They left, Luffy."

"Nani?" he repeats.

"They're not here."

Luffy purses his lip and Nami could see the denial flare up in his eyes. Dread fills her stomach as he stands up, fisting his hands, and gives her a look of pure hurt and betrayal.

"You don't know what you're saying Nami." His voice is low and cold. "After all that we've been through, our nakama would never abandon us. Ever. Have a little faith-"

"No, Luffy, I was there-"

"And they wouldn't leave without any warning - without telling me first," he continued, pretending like he didn't hear her. "They wouldn't leave… letters when they could just come to me, and tell me what's wrong, and I'd go and take care of whatever or whoever's making them worry. They know that."

"Yes, they do-"

"SO DON'T STAND THERE AND TELL ME THEY JUST UP AND LEFT!" he burst out. Luffy rarely yelled at his navigator, but then, she usually wasn't putting him down like this. "How can I be a captain without a crew? I'm not stupid, Nami. And we're nakama. They didn't lea-"

"Well they did!" Nami burst into tears. "They left, Luffy!"

She suddenly reaches into the pocket of her jeans. She flings her arms to the side and Luffy watches with glazed eyes as folded pieces of white paper rain down at his sandaled feet.

"They did write letters!" Nami's voice is raw, and she curses inwardly at how weak she must sound. She's supposed to be strong, damn it.

"They did 'just up and leave'! I was there and I couldn't do a thing!" She gestures wildly around the deck. "Look for yourself, Luffy - no one's here! We're in the middle of the ocean and the only two people left on this damn ship! Zoro, Sanji-"

Luffy lets out a cross between a grunt and a sob, tears threatening to cascade down his cheeks, clenching and unclenching his hands.

"-Usopp, Chopper," Nami hiccups. "Robin, Franky, Brook! THEY'RE ALL GONE!"

Her voice echoes with a certain finality across the ship.

Luffy lowers his head.

Nami pants, her chest heaving up and down. She watches as her captain visibly deflates, unshed tears still in his eyes, and look down at the folded letters on the grass. A soft breeze brushes them closer to the boy.

After what seems like hours pass, Luffy looks up again. His voice is so quiet Nami has to lean in over the balcony to hear him.

"Why?"

It's a question that has Nami taking in deeper breaths, feeling like the air around her was too thick. Her heart hurts with a dull, seemingly constant pain. The water from her bangs mix with the salty streams on her cheeks and nose. Nami sniffles.

She can't tell him. Not yet.

"Read the letters," she says simply, and turns her back on him.

She walks to her room and closes the door, refusing to look back and see the devastated face of her captain.

x.

Luffy sits at his favorite spot, on the Sunny-Go's head. Upon a closer look, he realizes the envelopes have small numbers on the corners.

He realizes that there's one missing.

There should be seven. Now there's six.

Luffy looks back at the closed door of the girls' dorm, where he could feel Nami's feelings of hurt radiating from inside. He couldn't comfort her when he himself didn't know what to do.

Placing the rest of the letters inside his pants, he opens the envelope that has the number two on it and starts to read. Almost immediately, he recognizes the messy, inky scrawl on the paper:

Oi senchou,

This is Zoro. Ero-cook and that Witch told me to write this so here we are.

Luffy. Remember that condition I had when I agreed to join your crew?

Luffy thinks back and knows immediately what his First Mate is talking about.

My ambition, to become the greatest swordsman in the world, will always come first, Captain. If you did anything to jeopardize that dream, that promise I made to a friend, then I told you that I would leave. That, or I would kill you.

I decided not to kill you.

So instead I'm going. Don't come looking for me, or I'd have to do that. Kill you, I mean. Or try to.

You're strong. But I can't follow a Captain who endangers his crewmates' dreams. Hope you understand that.

- Zoro

x.

Nami wakes up to a soft knocking on her door.

She wipes away the stickiness of dried tears from her face as she gets up slowly. From the position of the sun outside her window, she can see it's already noon. She hears Luffy's stomach growl even before she reaches for the doorknob.

Despite all the negative emotions that had been wracking her body, she allows herself a smile. At least one thing never changes.

She opens her door and finds the rubber captain waiting for her. With a sigh, she gestures towards the kitchen and an unnaturally silent Luffy falls into step behind her. She notices the paper crumpled in his hand and stays quiet as well.

Luffy sits at the table, gazing at the note in his hand with such an intensity, Nami thinks that laser beams would shoot out of his eyes any second. He tilts his head and his straw hat then covers half his face, shrouding it in an ominous shadow.

She occupies herself in the kitchen, determined to cook a heaping plate of different kinds of delicious meat for her emotionally worn Captain.

She puts in the code to unlock the fridge and takes out two steaks, some porkchops, six chicken wings, the same number of chicken legs, and large cuts of a 20-foot long tuna fish. After tying on Sanji's black apron, she gets to work into seasoning, marinating, grilling, steaming and baking the meat and fish. As they cook under their respective heat, Nami starts making a side of rice, vegetables, and sushi for herself and to hold Luffy over.

A half hour later, she sets the steaming plate of grain and sushi, minus the veggies, for a surprisingly patient Luffy. He finally looks up at her, and she gives him a wan smile.

He mutters a "thank you" before gulfing it down in two bites. She sweat drops. Luffy's appetite definitely hasn't changed.

"The rest will be done in 15 minutes," she murmurs, sitting across from him. He nods, then goes back to staring at the letter.

It's relatively quiet for another ten minutes save for the clinking of Nami's fork against her plate and the whistle of steam from the stove.

"You didn't," Luffy suddenly says.

Nami looks up. She shoots him a questioning gaze.

"Leave," he clarifies. "You didn't leave."

Nami stiffens.

"Why?" Luffy inquires.

Nami sets her fork back down. "I didn't want to."

Luffy waits, but that's all she says.

"Then why did you write a letter?" At her slightly surprised look, Luffy continues, "Before there were seven, eight if we included Usopp's. Now there are six. Did you change your mind?"

She doesn't answer. Luffy grows agitated. He flicks the paper so that it lands between them. He fixes her with a serious look.

"Zoro says you told him to write it. A letter. You. All of them left, but you stayed. Why?"

His dark eyes watch his navigator bite her lip before she takes a deep breath.

"I did leave," she finally says, looking down at her half-eaten plate of rice. "But I came back… because I couldn't bear the thought of you going through that kind of pain again."

Luffy stays silent, prodding her to go on.

"I couldn't do anything when Ace died," Nami says, and hears Luffy's sharp intake at the name. "I couldn't help you after your brother died in your arms, and could only imagine the pain and suffering you went through - all alone, your crew missing, and your brother killed. Everything was so unfair."

Nami wraps her arms around herself, suddenly cold. "I could only cry… and wish. Wish that I was there to comfort you. Wish that you at least had one of us there to make you feel a little less alone." She looks up to find Luffy's gaze already piercing hers.

"How could I deliberately leave you alone, Luffy? Knowing how much pain you'd be in? The more the distance grew between the waver and the ship, the more I knew I made the wrong decision. So I came back with the resolve to stay, even when the others warned-" She paused.

Luffy frowned. Nami shook her head after a moment.

"The crew debated a lot on it, but in the end, the only solution was to leave, Luffy. Believe me when I say we wouldn't if we didn't have a really good reason. But still... we couldn't bring ourselves to suddenly leave without an explanation. You deserved that, at least. So I suggested we each write you a letter. They were skeptical at first, but then Sanji-kun backed up my idea, then Robin and everyone else went along with it."

Luffy listens intently to her story. He doesn't say anything, but the questions are crowding in his head. Amongst them is one that itches his very core.

After Nami brings him his meat - all five heaping plates of it - he takes a few bites then asks her straightforwardly.

"Nami. What exactly happened… to make them leave?"

"You have to read the letters."

He shakes his head. "The letters don't tell me what happened. They just tell me why they left. And even those doesn't make sense."

Luffy grips the table tightly with his hands. "Usopp left because I apparently had a fight with him. Zoro said that I pushed you guys to forget about your dreams or something. But here's the problem-"

Luffy gives her the most wounded look that should never, ever be on such an innocent face and Nami looks away.

"I don't remember doing any of that."

She says nothing.

"I can't tell if they're lying in their writing," Luffy continues, "but if they are… why would they do that?"

He stares at Nami, the latter avoiding his gaze. "What really happened, Nami? Why did they leave?"

This time she lets out an answer, but it's not what Luffy expects to hear.

"Don't make me say it," she pleads.

Luffy blinks. She's starting to cry again. "Don't make me say it," she says again.

"Say what?" Luffy asks, confused as to why she's crying.

"No, Luffy!" Nami suddenly yells, slamming her hands onto the table, copper eyes turning pale red and shrinking, and Luffy stares, surprised.

"Just," she says, panting. Calming down. "Read the letters. Just read them. When you're done, come to me."

She gazes at him, but Luffy feels as though she's looking past him. Her face turns dark, then abruptly blank.

"I'll give you my letter last. ... Then you'll know."

x.

The day passes by slowly, with the sunny weather mocking the two grim pirates on the lonely ship.

After lunch, Luffy goes to fish, his heart aching for his regular companions. Nami had retreated to her room, muttering something about charting their course.

Now that they were seven crewmates short, it was even more dangerous to be out sailing in the New World's seas. Their current situation suddenly slams itself into Luffy and he feels dizzy.

Pirate King. He can't achieve his dream without his crew. He can't do anything without his nakama. Everyone single one of them was precious to him, his treasure. They were the extensions of his limbs - what he couldn't do, they could and did.

The same question kept rising. Why?

They had made it so far. He thought they were happy, that they trusted each other. Never had the thought of them leaving ever cross his mind. Even after everyone achieved their dreams, Luffy had imagined that they would continue sailing, having wild adventures with all the freedom that the title of Pirate King and the powers of his crew would have on the grand ocean.

Even if one of them would leave, Luffy had showed numerous times that he would stray off his course to take back just one of his nakama. They were his family. And no one would get left behind.

But this… he could never have imagined that they would all leave. All except one, but even she had thought about leaving him. Was he a terrible captain? Did he chase off his crew?

….Did they hate him?

As Luffy's thoughts turned dark, he didn't notice the sparse clouds above converging into huge gray cumulonimbus ones. Living up to its reputation, the New World's weather was changing within seconds.

The light drizzle soon turns into a heavy rainfall. Luffy, however, stays dry. He looks up to find a large red umbrella shielding him from most of the rain. He turns around to find Nami struggling to hold both umbrellas over both him and her, a yellow raincoat covering her body. He looks at her with half-lidded eyes for a long time before finally realizing she is talking to him.

He can barely hear her over the pounding rain.

"-Rain… letters… -run…"

It takes him a long minute to find out that Nami is trying to tell him that the letters, written with ink, would be unreadable if rain got to them. He wraps his arm around her waist then and pulls her close, making her drop the umbrella she is holding for herself. Both under just one umbrella now, Luffy stretches his other arm to the other side of the ship.

Ignoring Nami's protests, he slings them over and, though slightly wet from the passing sprinkle, is relatively dry. He pushes her into her room then follows.

"What kinda idiot sits in the rain then-...," she's muttering. Nami takes off her raincoat and plops it by her desk.

Luffy takes the letters from inside his pants and sets them by her map, not noticing suspicious reddish-brown eyes watching him. There were two candles burning in her room and Luffy feels better being in here than out there. Warmer.

He's turning to face his only nakama at the moment when Nami suddenly bonks him over the head for being so reckless. She then hits him again for being shameless about where he puts his stuff and he lets out a slight "shishishi" because, for a fleeting moment, everything seems back to normal.

Nami sighs. "This rain is going to go on for a while. But it means we're close to an island." Her smile is bittersweet. "We'll also be harder to find under this cover. We should be fine until we land."

Luffy barely hears the rest of what she says with the sudden wave of fatigue that sweeps through him. "Ne, Nami?" he yawns. "Do you think the crew will be back?"

She doesn't respond, so Luffy answers his own question. "I think they will. Even if their letters say they won't."

He climbs into her and Robin's shared Queen bed, kicking off his sandals and placing his hat on the nightstand. Settling under the covers, he looks back at her to find a haunted look on her face, the candlelight flickering across her wide eyes.

After a long moment, she climbs into the bed beside him. Immediately he buries his face into her neck and wraps his rubber arms around her cool frame.

"We'll be alright," he assures them both.

Nami cries, cursing herself because, once again, Luffy - the one hurting the most - is the one being strong for both of them.

She feels Luffy tighten his hold on her before drifting off into a troubled sleep.

x.

"Well?"

"We can't be sure, yet. It's too soon."

"He could've been bluffing, the bastard."

"Yeah, he was a coward."

"But… this is Luffy, our captain, we're talking about. What should we do if-"

"We leave."

Silence.

"What are you talking about Zoro?" Nami fought to keep her voice level. Luffy was still sleeping in the men's quarters.

The Straw Hats were in the aquarium, the air tense and grim. Zoro didn't bat an eye.

"If you have ears, then you heard what we heard. I'm not following a captain that's going to endanger us all."

"Zoro!" Nami immediately scolded. "How can you talk about him like that? And after all he's done for you, for all of us, you're going to just leave him like that?"

Another tense silence.

The faint blue light illuminated the glum faces of the eight Straw Hats.

"I think the Marimo is right, Nami-san," a voice Nami would have never imagined would take sides with Zoro said. She whipped her head around to face Sanji, tears stinging her eyes. She had counted on him to side with her on this.

"Hear me out," he tried to amend. "We all heard what would happen. So maybe it is best if we leave. What if it makes him better?"

"And what if it doesn't?" she whispered back harshly. "He lost Ace, but knowing that he had us kept him together. If he loses us…" Her voice broke.

So far, Nami had been the most emotional of the Straw Hats, her compassion clouding her judgment. They all loved Luffy, but if nothing was done, they would all perish at sea.

"Nami," Robin's soothing voice spoke up.

Good. A reasonable voice, Nami thought, her eyes pleading at Robin. Her heart broke when Robin fixed her with a firm but apologizing gaze. It wasn't good.

"I've read about his power's effects in the newspaper," Robin explained solemnly. "He was terrorizing the towns in the South Blue before all this." Robin told to the crew what she'd learned.

"That doesn't prove a thing," Usopp argued, and Nami agreed.

Chopper started crying softly. Robin patted his head, comforting him. The small reindeer buried his head in her bosom.

"Stop crying, Chopper," Franky said, to which Robin glared at him. "He'll wake up the Senchou," Franky quickly defended his tone.

"I can't," Chopper whimpered. "How can I be the world's greatest doctor," he sniffled, "if I can't even-?!" His bawling drowned out the rest of his sentence.

"It's not your fault, Chopper," Usopp said. "You've done all you could without knowing how it works."

"If it's even working," Brook chimed in. No skull jokes tonight. "Luffy-san does seem fine."

"Well, let's assume it does start 'working'. Then what?" Zoro demanded. "In the New World, everyone who's not already an ally is an enemy. They're either trying to capture us or kill us. We can't be dumb sitting ducks waiting to get shot out of the water."

He received a hard pinch by Nami and hissed. "What's your problem, woman?"

Nami glared before saying softly, "You don't have to put it that way."

Zoro leaned against her in a sign of peace. She gripped his arm and he didn't even react when she squeezed it as hard as she could, biting her lip and forcing herself not to cry.

Zoro glanced at her, then looked at the rest of the crew. "We have to be strong."

The aquarium stayed silent once more. Bubbles from passing fish rose up to the top of the fish tank. Then,

"We need to tell him."

She quieted all the immediate protests. "Listen," she urged.

They do.

Sanjo was the first to agree. Then Robin raised her hand. "What if he doesn't understand?"

Nami took turns looking at everyone. "He will."

"Alright," Zoro quipped. This whole situation made him on edge. He, more than anyone, beat himself up for turning his back to the enemy. It was a fatal mistake for a swordsman, and now his captain was paying the price.

Brook looked towards Nami calmly. "We'll need you to guide us there, Nami."

The faint light shone on a tear drop that escaped her eye.

"Of course."

X

End Of Chapter 2

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