Wow, only one review and two favs (though oddly enough, no story alerts... Hm.) Oh well, I didn't like the prolouge that much anyway. :D
In other news, I do not own One Piece! I hope you guys like this chapter!
"Friendships are what our dreams are made of. We hold onto each other with its binding love. We stand close to each other, hand in hand, showing each other we understand."
~Unknown
Nami took pride in her navigation skills. After all, it was she that steered the crew towards Raftel, the one island in the entire world that had been unreached for twenty-five years. Of all of her nakama, only she, Robin, (and maybe Usopp or Franky) had any basic sense of direction, with Nami being the only one they trusted to navigate in a straight line.
So when Luffy had asked to steer the boat to an unknown island, the one man with a sense of direction to rival Zoro's incompetence, her first instinct was to pummel any such stupidity from his mind. But no matter how many times she beat the man, he was so set on his idea that she eventually made a deal with him. After some thinking, she had walked up to him and stated her conditions. "All right, Luffy. You can take us on our... err..."
"Mystery trip!" He had chimed in (not so) helpfully. Nami could only sigh and continue. "But I'm not giving you free reign! You can tell us where to go and I'll do everything logical to get us there, understand?!" She turned back to the captain only to fly in a rage when she saw where he was. "DAMMIT, LUFFY!! WHAT DID I JUST SAY??? GET AWAY FROM THAT HELM, YOU'RE GOING TO STEER US RIGHT INTO THE RED LINE YOU DUMBASS!!!"
And so, it was amid much captain-bashing and marine-evading that Nami had successfully steered the Thousand Sunny into the East Blue.
She wasn't quite sure at first; after all, the only 'north' they had been going by for the past two years was the next island. But when she had taken out her old compass, she had found that they were indeed heading north from the calm belt. And Luffy was still grinning without a care in the world as he pointed directly north.
It was around when they reached Dawn Island when things started getting interesting. Chopper, who had lived in the Grand Line his entire life, was excitedly asking Nami how a compass worked. Franky and Usopp were working together on an unknown project while Robin was contently reading a book she had recently purchased. Brooke was gazing distantly, his eyes shadowed as he thought gloomily of old friends (though he had no eyes-YOHOHOHO) and Zoro was keeping watch in the crow's nest.
Sanji was in the kitchen finishing the final touches on their dinner. Luffy was staring ahead at an unknown destination, grinning with a tad more excitement than usual. Nami finally couldn't wait any longer as she waved away Chopper ("Don't you have some medicine to make?") and casually walked up to the figurehead to talk with Luffy.
"Ne, Luffy?" Luffy turned to grin at his navigator. "What's up, Nami?"
"With the direction we're going in, we'll be at Dawn Island by tomorrow morning. Is that where we're headed?" Luffy's rubber abilities were the only thing keeping his face from splitting in half from his grin. Laughing in delight, he hopped off the figurehead and stood in front of Nami. "Shishishi~! It was gonna be a surprise, but I can't wait to tell you! We're going to visit our homes again! But we have to get to Fuchsia Village by tomorrow, because that's when the party is!"
"Party?" But then Sanji called everyone in for dinner and Luffy was gone faster than you could say "Meat."
Lin groaned, attempting to rub her headache away as she slowly sat up. After a bit of cradling her head, she opened her eyes slowly only to stiffen in surprise.
'This isn't my room,' she thought to herself, taking in the various medical tools scattered in what seemed to be someone's bedroom. She herself was sitting in a small bed, with her hat, jacket, and gloves sitting nearby on a dresser. Her backpack was sitting near the door, and a large brown book that Lin didn't recognize was lying on top of it. Carefully pulling herself out of the bed, she pulled on her things and put the book in her backpack.
Lin carefully tiptoed down the hall, noting to herself that it seemed to be dark outside, and stopped as she reached a small living room.
There was a small man lying on the sofa with a cold press on his head and another man holding a stethoscope to his chest.
The man appeared to be in his late thirties, with spiky black hair and baby blue eyes. The man was dressed in a semi-professional doctor's coat with long sleeves, and was conversing with the other man on the couch.
Before Lin could think of a way to approach them, a high-pitched voice drew her attention. "Wah! Sky-nee-san! You're awake!" This also appeared to startle the other two, who immediately turned their attention to Lin.
Turning to glare at the voice, her gaze immediately softened when she saw a small girl, only about five years old. Touched at being called 'nee-san' and thrilled with the general idea of any small child, she bent down to the girl's level and hugged her. "You're so cute!!"
And cute she was. With short-cropped dark hair and wide, innocent amethyst eyes she made the most innocent face. She was dressed in a small lab-coat (which was still way too big) and had a stethoscope around her neck. In all, she was a doctor wannabe and easily one of the cutest kids Lin had ever seen. The girl didn't seem to mind the attention and hugged Lin back, making her almost squeal out loud.
Finally releasing the girl, Lin looked up to see the two men standing above her. The doctor seemed amused while the other man (who /really/ looked familiar) seemed irritated.
After a bit of silence, Lin gave a small "Hello."
The doctor coughed slightly and held out his hand.
"I am Dr. Ookami Yamada and this is my daughter, Asuka."
"I'm Woop Slap and I'm the mayor of this town! Why the hell did you pummel me?!"
"Now, now, Mayor-san; I'm sure she didn't mean to fall from so high up, let alone on top of you."
"Well thanks to her antics, that blasted pirate snuck into town! As if we didn't have enough to deal with!"
"You can't really still be upset about Lu-"
"I'm the mayor and that brat has destroyed my town's reputation! We were perfectly content until he screwed everything up!"
Lin watched the exchange in confusion before a small hand tugged at her jacket. Smiling down at the girl, she said "Asuka is it?" The girl nodded.
"You still need to rest. I also need to check your vi… vittles? Vigor?" Lin could practically feel the sweat drop on the back of her head. "Err… vitals?"
"Hai! Vitals!" And with that the cheery girl dragged Lin back to the room, leaving the two adults to continue arguing.
As they reached the bedroom, Asuka pointed to her jacket and gloves, which Lin took off. Asuka immediately pressed the stethoscope to Lin's heart and listened, nodding to herself with a comically serious expression. With her eyes almost crossed from concentration and her tongue sticking out, it was only sheer will that kept Lin from hugging her again.
As Asuka hung her stethoscope around her neck again, Lin tried to start a conversation. "So, Asuka… Where am I?"
"You're at my house, Sky-nee-san!" Lin looked at her oddly.
"And why do you call me that?" Asuka shrugged. "Cuz the mayor said that you fell from the sky! That's how he got hurt… And one of the pirates brought you guys here!" Asuka's eyes seemed to sparkle with awe. "He was so cool! And he wasn't even the captain! Daddy said that he was also here twelve whole years ago, before I was even born! So he asked us to take care of Mayor-san and… What is your name?" She finally stopped shining long enough to tilt her head in confusion. Lin giggled.
"My name is Lin, but…" Then Asuka's words seemed to kick in from earlier. "What do you mean I fell from the sky?!"
"That's what we would like to know." Lin gave a start and turned towards the door, where Yamada and Woop Slap were standing. Yamada spoke up first. "Apparently, you fell from the sky and landed on top of the mayor here. No one in town seems to know you, so we can only guess where you came from." Lin's head started to hurt.
"But… I was at the library! I was conversing with a senile old lady and then…" Lin tried to remember what happened next, but between the headache and the three staring at her, she could barely remember even that much. Pressing her hands to her aching temples, she finally asked "Where am I?" Dr. Yamada spoke up first.
"You're in Fuchsia Village, home of the second pirate king, Monkey D. Luffy."
"Luffy, where the hell are you taking us?!" Luffy stuck his tongue out at the infuriated Nami only to bite it a second later from Sanji's kick. "Don't disrespect a lady!"
"ITEEEEEE!"
"Wah, Luffy!! Someone! We need a doctor!!!"
"BAKA. You are the doctor!"
"Yohohoho~! Chopper-san seems to be quite beside himself with excitement! My heart can barely take the stress! Although I have no heart… SKULL JOKE!!!"
The throbbing cluster of veins was the only indication of Nami's acknowledgement of their stupidity. They were all walking through a forest (Luffy had insisted that they anchor Sunny miles away from any town) and the sun had barely risen three hours ago. Walking alongside a mountain with barely any indication of where they were going was really not helping the navigator's already short temper.
At dinner last night, Luffy (after eating more than his fair share) had told them that they were going on a 'Mystery Trip', and they had to walk at least ten miles from where they were going to anchor in order to get there. Zoro, Robin, and Franky had shrugged with indifference, while Sanji was torn between swooning at the thought of Robin-chwan and Nami-swan needing any assistance in walking and beating the living daylights out of Luffy for suggesting such labor. Chopper and Brook seemed to sparkle at the prospect of the unknown while Usopp seemed to catch 'Can't-go-on-any-hazardous-journey-itis', which Chopper proclaimed would soon pass and was not, in fact, lethal.
Nami, choosing not to mention Luffy's mention of a party, had simply stated that there would be a ten million beri fine for anything that went wrong and went to bed, but not before pummeling Zoro for his mutter of "Greedy witch." Sanji, who seemed to understand that Nami could punish Zoro himself, muttered his disbelief at how such a pathetic marimo became the World's Greatest Swordsman not too long ago. This immediately degraded into a fight, which only ended with Robin saying that all the noise would wake up Navigator-san. Sanji and Zoro immediately quieted down, Sanji out of respect and Zoro out of self-preservation.
They had been walking for about five hours when Zoro (who was pulled back in the right direction more than a few times by Luffy) spotted a small village ahead. Luffy grinned like his namesake before breaking into a run, dragging Zoro by his collar. Nami twitched dangerously "Luffy! Don't leave us behind when we don't know where you're going!!" And with that, the rest of the Mugiwaras ran after their energetic captain, with Nami, Zoro, and Sanji yelling the entire way.
"Luffy! What did I just say!?"
"Get back here and listen to Nami-swan you shitty bastard!"
"Why the hell are you dragging me!?!?"
"You were going right back into the forest, marimo!"
"Shut up ero-cook!"
By the time they reached the center of the town, Nami had successfully caught and dragged the captain back to the group. She then proceeded to beat the man within an inch of his rubbery life. As Nami was occupied, Robin finally spoke up. "Navigator-san, have you noticed anything strange about the town?" Nami stopped beating Luffy long enough to see what Robin was talking about. Chopper ran up to the barely conscious Luffy and immediately started checking his vitals as Nami walked up to Robin, while Zoro fell asleep leaned up against a water fixture.
"Now that I think about it, there hasn't been a single villager, has there?" Luffy bounded up to the girls, completely ignoring his previous beating.
"They're all waiting! Come on!" And Luffy picked up Nami, ignoring Sanji's death threats, and ran off in another direction. The group ran after Luffy (with Chopper dragging the still sleeping Zoro in Heavy Point) and found themselves in front of a bar, with the title 'Party Bar' overhead.
Luffy grinned at the crew before setting Nami down (who immediately bonked him on the head) and opening the doors, revealing half of the village sitting in the bar with drinks in their hands. "Yosh! I'm back!" Luffy yelled. A bartender with long dark green hair smiled warmly at them as a random villager shouted,
"Oi, mina! Our anchor has returned!"
"KENPAI!!!"
Hm, I like this chapter a bit more than the last one. The crew's general interactions always crack me up, so sorry if I don't do them justice.
I am inspired by reviews! They are the mana of general get-to-it-ness! They are my spoonful of sugar! THEY ARE DEPENDENT ON YOU! Even if it's just to tell me how much I suck, I really appreciate them!
I typed in Samantha and Danny into a Japanese name generator and I got Asuka and Yamada. Why? Because I just watched a Danny Phantom episde recently and the reference was too tempting to pass up.
Read and Review!
Edit: Fixed this one too, just more spacing errors and such really.