It was getting warmer, Zoro observed almost absently as he turned into the wind. Standing at the bow of the ship he could see the distant shape of an island drawing ever closer. Nami's Libitina, he assumed.
A full day had passed since the navigator had brandished her map and their captain had chosen their path. To the island, to the treasure, Luffy was looking for adventure in this new mystery. Usually Zoro would be behind his decision, but for the past day something had been nagging at the back of the swordsman's mind. A feeling of what, foreboding?
A frown drew Zoro's brows together over eyes narrowed at the dark shape ahead of them. He didn't support Usopp's claims that the island must be haunted or guarded by horrible monsters; that idea was just ridiculous. But something kept people away from the place, and something was certainly wrong enough that it was distracting the swordsman. Whether it was baseless paranoia or a founded warning against the island, he wasn't sure.
"Doesn't it look cool?" came Luffy's excited voice from the swordsman's left and Zoro spared a sideways glance at his captain with a non-comital sound as his only response.
Luffy offered the swordsman a searching look in return, his usual cheer gone from his expression and leaving him looking grim. "Something's wrong." Not a question.
Zoro propped his arms on the rail and looked ahead at the island again. "I'm not sure yet."
Luffy hopped up onto the railing by the swordsman's arms and swung his legs out to let his sandaled feet dangle over the side of the ship and the rushing water far below, clamping a hand over his straw hat against the wind. "You've been acting funny since we left the last port. Something happen?"
Not yet, Zoro thought, and then caught himself with another frown. He lifted a hand to gesture vaguely at the approaching island. "Something about this place..." he said, "it gives me a bad feeling." He felt like a fool even saying it, but there it was.
Luffy laughed and rocked back on the railing. "You're starting to sound like Usopp." He grinned at his first mate and Zoro smirked back after a moment.
"Don't worry," Luffy said as he stood up on the railing, his arms raised on either side of him to help him balance. Zoro watched his captain from the corner of his eye, prepared to snag him if he slipped. "I wont tell Sanji you're scared."
Zoro decided he was more inclined to shove Luffy off himself. "What?!"
Luffy grinned deviously and hopped off the railing to land neatly on the deck. "Well, I mean, about the island. You being scared of it and all. I didn't think you were the type."
Zoro's left eyebrow was twitching faintly. "You know I'm not scared."
"I dunno," Luffy said, looping his hands behind his own neck. Then he flashed a grin, said a quick, "Ya scaredy cat," and took off running across the lawn. Zoro lunged to grab him, missed, and took off running after his fleeing captain. "Luffy, get back here!"
Robin observed the scene from inside, where she was keeping Nami company as the navigator made enough copies of her Libitina map to give to each of the search parties once they reached the island. She was on the last one, pen moving across paper with quick skill.
Nami's hands were ink-stained and there was a black smudge under her right eye, but she didn't seem to notice, all of her attention focused on her work as she drew the last... line...
"There!" Nami set her quill aside and threw her arms up, happily regarding the newest copy of the old map.
Robin studied the still-wet ink with a smile. "Wonderful, navigator-san."
"Of course," Nami sing-songed as she set weights on each of the map's four corners so it wouldn't roll up on itself and ruin all of her hard work. Then she got to her feet and stretched her arms above her head, working the kinks out of her back.
Robin sipped her lukewarm coffee absently. "Do you think we'll find it?"
Nami blinked at the sudden question and looked over at the other woman. "Huh? Oh, the treasure?" She flashed a quick smile. "I'm always hoping."
Robin returned the smile as she got to her feet and handed a clean cloth to Nami so the navigator could wipe ink from her hands. "Luffy seems excited."
Nami puffed a breath and scrubbed her hands clean – well, as clean as she could - then set the cloth on her work table. "He'd be more excited if the treasure was made of meat instead of gold."
"To each their own," Robin said with an edge of amusement, but then her expression changed and she glanced toward the door again. "Zoro doesn't seem so pleased with the idea of Libitina..."
"Him?" Nami waved a dismissive hand. "He's a stick in the mud. Don't pay any attention to that." She flicked a quick glance to the clock on the wall. "Lunch should be ready soon. Come on, let's get to the galley before Luffy eats everything." She grinned and then headed for the door.
Robin hesitated briefly, her eyes turning to run over the map still covering the table top. With a slight inclination of her head she studied the careful strokes, the criss-crossing lines of drying ink that signified features of the island, and then the neatly-scrawled name at the top of the page; Libitina.She caught herself waiting – for what, a bad omen? A premonition of disaster? - and shook her head at herself, then followed Nami from the room.
~ ;3 ~
Luffy let out an excited cheer when his feet hit the sun-warmed sand of Libitina's beach, his arms thrown in the air as if he were greeting the new island.
Usopp refused to step off the ship, having come down with a sudden and violent case of Can't-Leave-The-Thousand-Sunny-To-Visit-A-Scary-Island-Syndrome once they dropped anchor and he caught sight of the place up-close.
Nami had attempted to dislodge the sniper with threats of inflicting Suddendeathitis on him if he didn't get off the damn ship, but he wouldn't budge. Deep down, Nami couldn't blame him; the place was massive and once you got past the white-sand beaches, you hit jungle so thick that sunlight seemed challenged to penetrate it. It was a scary-looking place, but Nami had better things to think about. Like how the underbrush was overgrown and would present a problem once they started making their way inland. Everyone would have to overcome that in their own way though.
Zoro stood on the beach as Luffy ran circles around him, chasing Chopper in an impromptu game of tag. The swordsman tried to ignore them as he stared into the jungle. The saying "you couldn't see the forest for the trees" was fitting here, in a literal sense.
"All right!" Nami called in her best leader voice, taking charge of the group. She had all of her maps in a bag slung over her shoulder, waiting to be given out. "Everybody line up!"
Chopper hurried over to the navigator dutifully, but Luffy either didn't hear her or simply didn't listen, instead continuing running laps around Zoro as the swordsman stood there looking mildly annoyed.
Nami seemed about to chuck a rock at Luffy's head, so Zoro sighed and snatched the collar of his captain's vest when Luffy made another pass. Luffy's legs kept going for a few feet, then snapped back to join the rest of him as Zoro dragged him over to the rest of the group.
Nami eyed them both and Zoro cocked a brow at her, folding his arms. The navigator sniffed and persevered; "You have each been given a back pack with enough supplies for you for a whole day. This includes water and food, so don't waste it! We don't know if there will be easily accessible fresh water here."
She scanned the group. "We're going to break up into separate pairs and search the island. We'll cover more ground that way," she declared and drew the bag off her shoulder as she spoke. She pulled one of the long, rolled-up paper tubes from the bag and waved it in the air in front of her nakama like she was trying to get the attention of a herd of young school children. Next to her, Robin tried not to laugh, her shoulders shaking.
"You each get a map," Nami continued, "and I've marked the rough course you should take to cover the most ground without crossing paths and wasting time. The teams will be..." Nami studied everyone in front of her. "Team one, Luffy and me. Team two, Robin and Franky. Team three, Chopper and Brooke and team four is Zoro and Sanji."
Everyone seemed pleased enough, save for the last pair, who immediately groaned in protest. Nami cut off the bitching before it started; "Sanji will keep you from getting lost" - she pointed at Zoro and the swordsman seethed - "and if Sanji went with Robin or me, he wouldn't be able to pay attention to the search." She nodded as if agreeing with her own words.
Sanji, who had initially smirked at the mention of Zoro's less-than-stellar sense of direction, now looked wounded. "Nami-swan, I would do nothing but protect you and Robin-chan from--"
"Exactly my point," Nami said sharply, and bopped the cook on the head with her rolled-up map. "You'd be too distracted."
Sanji simpered and Zoro grinned at him.
"What about Usopp?" Luffy chimed as he looked back toward the ship.
Nami shrugged. "He's guarding the ship." Truthfully he navigator had just run out of ways to try and pry the sniper off the ship.
Luffy looked less than pleased by this. "Why? He's going to miss the whole adventure."
Nami let out a breath and rubbed her forehead. "He's scared of the island, so he doesn't want to come. We need someone to guard the ship, so he can stay here and do that. And anyway, he kept going on and on about how if even Zoro's scared of the island then there must be a good reason for--"
"He said what?!" Zoro roared.
The majority of the crew spent the next ten minutes physically restraining Zoro from charging back to the ship and murdering Usopp. The next ten minutes after that were spent watching Zoro chase Luffy around the beach for being a traitor.
Eventually order was restored and Nami was able to pass maps around to the designated teams, and they all dispersed without much more trouble.
Back on the Sunny, Usopp thanked his lucky stars he would never set foot in that jungle.
! ~ ;3 ~ !
Don't worry, the island's not haunted or anything silly like that. XD It's just a dangerous place! I wouldn't vacation there. O-o
And Usopp's on the ship 'cause when I have him, things get too funny. XD I'M SORRY! I enjoy him way too much for a serious story.
:V Stuff will pick up in the next chapter, I promise. But I'm not going to rush it just for the sake of a pairing, or for the sake of making Zoro suffer. XD
Send me lucky vibes for the next chapter! Sorry if you've been too bored so far! :'D