Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or the characters, those belong solely to the beautiful brain of Eiichiro Oda.

Chapter 3: The Navigator

She slammed the door shut and leaned against it, trying to catch her breath. Brown eyes glanced down at the piece of paper in her hand and then she gripped it a little tighter, mouth firming in determination. Turning her head to press her ear to the door, she waited, hoping the footsteps would recede.

They didn't.

She stepped away from the door just before it burst open behind her. Orange hair swayed around her chin as she spun to face her pursuers, a tense smile on her face, "What now, you idiots?" She gestured to the open rooftop around them, "You've chased me all the way up here, but what exactly do you hope to do?"

The two goons looked at each other, then gave her greasy smiles. "Well, nee-chan, we're all alone up here. We can do whatever we want."

She opened her mouth to shoot back a retort, but she paused when she caught movement behind the two men standing before her. Who the hell is that? She stared for a moment at the boy wearing a straw hat, laying on his stomach above the door. He looked like he might be a student… She grinned and waved at him, "Hey, boss! It's good to see you! Can you take care of these two idiots?"

The boy's face scrunched up in confusion, chin resting in his hand as his legs waved idly in the air behind him. "Yes?"

Nami sat on her surprise at the response and merely ducked between the two men, bolting through the rooftop door and locking it from the inside.

Luffy stared down at the door underneath him, a frown on his face.

"So, you're her boss, huh?"

Luffy hummed thoughtfully to himself as he looked at the two men before him, still frowning.

"And if the clouds look-"

CRASH

Professor Haredas turned toward the classroom door, blinking to keep the cloud of dust out of his eyes. He stroked idly at his long grey beard, pulling faint puffs of dust from it as he said, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey… What's going on here?"

Nami stared incredulously at the figure rising from the dust. She had nearly convinced herself it was impossible when the wavering shadow solidified into the kid from the rooftop. He bent and picked up his straw hat from the debris of the door and brushed it off, placing it back on his head.

"What's with those guys, anyway?" he whined, brushing off his black suit jacket as well. "I didn't do anything to them."

The class gasped collectively as a fist came out of the dust cloud behind him, straight for his head-

But where had he gone?

Nami's eyes dropped to the ground. The kid had bent so far backward that he was resting his hands on the ground. He grinned widely, then raised his legs from the ground, grabbing the figure in the cloud around the chest on the way, and finished his backflip.

Slamming his attacker's head into the ground with a meaty thump.

Nami flinched back when something landed on her desk, but her hammering heart slowed when she realized it was just the straw hat. She stared at it for a moment, then raised her head as she heard the boy muttering, "Hat? Hat? Where'd you go?" He was patting at his head frantically, looking at the ground and trying to wave dust out of the way so he could see better.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey… I think it's over there."

The boy looked up at Professor Haredas, who was smiling kindly and pointing at Nami's desk while his other hand continued to shake dust off of his long black robe. The boy's dark eyes lit up when he spotted the hat and he smiled, "Hey, my hat!" He trotted toward it, the sound of his flip-flops slapping the ground strangely incongruous with the destruction in his wake. Nami knocked over her chair in her haste to stand as he came closer, but the boy simply grabbed his hat and placed it securely on his head. When he looked up again he grinned widely and turned to Professor Haredas, "Thanks!"

Then he shoved his hands in his pockets and just walked out of the classroom, whistling tunelessly.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey…" Professor Haredas stared at the shattered doorway for a moment, then turned back to the chalkboard and continued drawing, "So if the clouds look like this…"

Every time she thought she'd pinned down his habits, he threw a wrench into her plans.

She'd gone back to the roof, but hadn't seen him there again.

She didn't know who he was, so he had to be a first-year for sure. She'd asked around some of the first-year students, but only got a few tidbits of information.

She tried dropping in on the first-year swordsmanship class because he'd been seen there before, but it looked like he was skipping it these days. No one in his class had seen him lately.

She thought she caught sight of his hat once or twice, but every time she tried to get close enough to talk to him, he wasn't there anymore.

She was feeling distinctly like she had hallucinated him and had decided to drown her frustration in coffee, sitting at the window bar of the cafe, staring petulantly at the passersby.

So she nearly spewed her coffee into the glass when she saw him across the street. He was walking and laughing with some pink-haired kid wearing glasses.

She frowned. A friend, maybe? But where have I seen him before… "Oh!" She blinked, then chuckled.

She was practically skipping when she left the coffee shop.

Coby should've been paying more attention to the unusual whispers coming from his classroom, but he was far more preoccupied with reviewing material for his test when he walked in the door and headed for his seat.

So it came as quite the surprise when he tried to set his backpack on his desk and found a girl in the way.

A very attractive girl. Who also appeared to be one of the upperclassmen.

Coby stumbled back until he hit another desk, his hands flying to brace himself against it, sending his flashcards scattering like flower petals around him. The girl was sitting on top of his desk, one leg crossed over the other, her black skirt scandalously high to bare her thigh. She was resting both of her elbows on her knee, hands hanging in front of them, head tilted, regarding him with a smug smile.

He had the unnerving feeling that he was a mouse being confronted by a cat.

Coby glanced around, trying to find a friendly face, any means of escape, but the entire class was carefully not looking in their direction, carrying on their own conversations even though their attention was clearly on this oddity on his desk in the front of the classroom. He gulped and turned his eyes back to the girl, "Uh, uh, um…"

She hopped off his desk and took one step toward him, her far-too-tight white button-down coming rather too close to his face for comfort. Her navy blue tie was broken only by the golden tie-pin that secured it to her shirt, providing a contrasting curve to the white behind it and leaving nothing to his imagination.

His face reddened and he tried to lean back a little further. "Uh, um, wh-who are you? D-d-do you need something?"

She smiled and leaned over him, bringing their faces closer, "I noticed you hang out with a certain someone with a straw hat…" She lifted her hand and his eyes riveted to the piece of paper between her first two fingers. His attention elsewhere, it gave her the chance to lean toward his ear, orange hair falling to hide her mouth, and say quietly, "I was hoping you would be willing to deliver a message."

"EEE!"

She blinked down in surprise at where he'd fallen off the desk, having been leaning so far back that he'd flipped over it.

"I-I-I'M SORrryyy…"

She stared at the doorway in shock as he vanished, his voice trailing behind him. Her face twisted into a frown and she tsked. What the hell was that? Does he not know how to act around women? But then… Where could he be running off to?

A sly smile slid across her face, Or better yet, who could he be running off to?

That smile stayed on her face as she sauntered out of the classroom.

Leaving a great many wide, staring eyes behind her.

"Luffy-senpai!"

Zoro opened his eyes and glanced past the gleam of his sword to see Coby's diminutive figure jogging toward them. He turned to say over his bare shoulder, "Hey, Luffy."

Luffy looked at him in the middle of swinging a mace around wildly, "Huh?" Then he gave a faintly panicked grimace when the mace slid out of his fingers and flew straight into Zoro's bandaged side.

"AHHH!" Zoro curled his body around the left side of his chest as best he could, then glared at his captain, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?"

Luffy held his hands up and waved them placatingly, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! It slipped!" But his gaze was drawn up as he caught movement behind Zoro's hunched form and he smiled, "Oh." He raised his voice and waved, "Hey, Coby!"

Then he suddenly leaped up and back as Zoro took a swing at him with his sword. Luffy grabbed his hat as he felt it trying to fly off and pushed it back onto his head as he said, "Woah, wait, Zoro-"

A wicked grin slid across the swordsman's face, "Not this time, captain." He drew his other two swords, gripping the hilt of one between his teeth, and settled into a stance Luffy recalled from the fight in the alley.

So when Luffy landed, he raised his head, one hand still securing his hat to it, and grinned, "Is that so?"

Coby hugged the wall, terrified of the power display taking place before him. He knew Luffy had skills beyond a first-year, but to see him pitted bare-handed against an armed Roronoa Zoro…

He had greatly underestimated them both.

Luffy leaned back, Zoro's sword passing within centimeters of his nose. He pushed through his foot to launch himself into the air in a horizontal spin, avoiding the swipe at his legs that the swordsman had taken. Grinning, Luffy landed on his hands and spun his legs in a circle, trying to knock Zoro's swords away.

Zoro flipped his grip around and stopped Luffy's kick with the back of his sword, then pushed back to throw the boy off balance.

Luffy allowed himself to lean back with the force of the shove, landing in a crouch, hands still braced against the ground. He lifted his head and grinned.

Zoro's lips pulled into a wicked smile around the hilt between his teeth and he surged forward.

A severe gust of wind blasted from the middle of the field, clearing it of the dirt cloud the two fighters had kicked up and slamming something against the wall beside Coby. Zoro stood in the field alone, half-crouched, both arms held out to either side of him, swords gleaming in the sun. Coby looked to his right and found Luffy down on one knee, breathing heavily, one arm resting on his knee and the other fisted against the ground to prop himself up.

Zoro stood and dropped the sword from his mouth into his hand, then sheathed all three at once. He chuckled breathlessly and grinned, "I can't believe you guarded against that. You're a total monster."

Luffy grinned back and stood, brushing off his bare knees, "You're quite the monster yourself." Sweat soaked the back of his standard-issue navy-blue tank top and more than a few cuts peppered his black gym shorts, though he didn't appear to be bleeding anywhere.

"Well, that was quite the show."

Coby spun to his left and looked to the top of the wall he'd been hiding against. He stared fearfully at the source of the familiar voice, "You…!"

Nami grinned, an elbow resting on her knee and her chin propped in her hand. She was spinning Luffy's straw hat on the finger of her other hand. "You're a hard man to find." When he didn't respond, she stopped spinning the hat and held the brim between her first two fingers, holding it up and sliding brown eyes sidelong to Luffy.

"I'd like to propose a partnership."