Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece.


Chapter 4: The Devil Spreads Its Wings

"And you really think you're gonna be the world's best swordsman?"

Zoro rolled his eyes. It had only been a matter of time until their orange-haired problem child would pick on him, and to be honest, he had been curious what she had to say to him. But this, this was just uncreative.

"You're not gonna break my determination by telling me stupid things like that," he informed her and folded his arms behind his head, ready to take a nap. He had trained for the whole afternoon and needed some sleep now. But did that girl get it? No, of course not. Or, in the state she was in at the moment, she would probably have been glad had she known it, glad and endeavouring to disturb his sleeping time.

"I saw Mihawk slicing you up like a loaf of bread," she went on, a mischievous smile on her usually so pretty face. "You couldn't defeat him back then, you can't defeat him now, and you won't ever defeat him in the future. You're way too weak, Roronoa Zoro."

Zoro furrowed his brows. Once again he had to remind himself that this was not Nami. She would have never called him by his whole name. It was things like this which told him to restrain, to keep calm until this – whatever it was – was over.

"Weather witch, you haven't seen that fight. You were busy capturing our ship and snitching our treasure to give it to that Arlong guy." He watched her closely, as if mentioning that name would take her back to normal, but there wasn't even a spark in her eyes that showed her reaction to his words. "Besides, if I am weak, what are you, then?"

He knew all too well that this wouldn't bring him any closer to victory in that discussion. It wasn't even a discussion.

"Oh, insulting a woman now, are we?" she seethed. "I'm calling love-cook to give you a good beating. Probably even he could defeat you …"

Zoro didn't listen anymore, but he couldn't sleep neither. "Thank you, weather witch," he murmured and got up slowly, leaving the ranting navigator behind. He definitely should get some booze now or he would do something very rash, having had not enough sleep. It was so easy to forget that it was this curse speaking, not her. And even if she was a woman he wouldn't have any problems with punching her right in the face … if it continued like this.

They hadn't found that old woman on the island, even after five days of search. And each day, it got worse. Nami's moments when she was herself grew fewer and fewer, and even if nobody said it aloud, they all feared that they would lose their navigator – for good.

And then what? Zoro thought as he made his way to the galley. If she stays on the ship we're all gonna freak out.

It wasn't a pleasant thought, but it wasn't the first time he had had it. Robin tried to comfort them by saying it could be temporary, that it could be over anytime, after a week, a month, a year, and they'd get her back as her old self.

But Zoro didn't quite believe in that. Sure, he wanted to, that was for certain. He wasn't eager to lose a nakama either, but he knew something had to be done. To have to stand this for a year … God, a week hadn't even passed and the crew was on their last legs. Usopp shivered whenever he saw a flash of orange, Chopper had barricaded himself in the infirmary and whoever went past it only heard strange sounds that sounded suspiciously like sobbing, Franky didn't leave the ship's hull except for eating (drinking, in his case), and even Robin avoided Nami as good as she could, given the limited space of the ship they were on. She tried to sound confident, though, but slowly the signs of exhaustion showed on her face. The only ones relatively okay with the situation were Sanji and Brook, Sanji being his normal self and Brook not being affected a bit.

But the one about whom Zoro worried most was their captain. Ever since the matter had been explained to him, his face had been lined with the same grim determination he always had when some evil enemy was in the running. They knew it all too well, and were it the only thing that had changed with him, Zoro would have been fine.

But it wasn't.

Since the first unsuccessful day of their search, his aura had grown more and more gloomy. He had stopped stealing their food at dinner, he had stopped calling Sanji for food every ten minutes, and he had stopped playing around with Chopper and Usopp.

In short, he had stopped being himself, being the stupid idiot captain they all loved, and if he wasn't out there looking for the witch, he just sat on Sunny's head, his strawhat shadowing his eyes, being silent.

Zoro knew what the rubber boy was thinking; it was probably the same thing that was running through his own mind at the moment. But as he contemplated things out of the comfortable position of a crew member, even though being First Mate, Luffy had to think about everything from a captain's perspective. And that, the green-haired swordsman was afraid, had to be one thousand times worse.

And to make matters worse, Zoro knew about him having a thing for Nami. He knew it ever since he knew them both, and he knew it was vice versa, too. And that really didn't help one thing; quite on the contrary. It made everything just so much worse.

Letting out a deep sigh, he pushed the galley door open and made his way inside the room, wondering about why it was so dark in here. Shouldn't a certain cook stand here, preparing drinks and snacks for his 'lovely ladies'?

Shrugging, Zoro went to the cabin where he knew his desired alcohol was stored, grabbed one large bottle of sake, and closed the door without even thinking of taking a glass. On his way out of the galley, he uncorked the bottle and was just about to set it on his lips – he could almost feel the liquid burning its way down his throat –, when he heard a strange sound from the darkness where the table stood.

Zoro halted, bottle still raised, and turned his head towards where the noise had come from. It sounded like a wounded little animal, but what …?

Then, his hesitant steps in that direction made him see clearer. There, slumped over the wooden surface of the table, sat a miserable-looking figure, and were it not for the blond hair peeking out of all that blackness, he would have never recognised the ship's cook.

Zoro stopped. "Uh, Sanji?" he called out quietly, careful not to scare the cook in case he was sleeping. The bundle on the table moved and made another of these strange sounds, and Zoro realised that Sanji was sobbing, which was disturbing enough, let alone the fact that he knew Zoro was there and didn't even give a damn about it.

The swordsman swallowed hard. So it had come to this – just when he had been glad that at least two persons on this darn ship didn't show signs of impact in front of their navigator-gone-mad. At least this once he had been happy with the cook's everlasting infatuation …

Slowly, he made his way towards the table and took a seat next to that slumped heap that had once been their cook. When Sanji raised his face from his arms, the swordsman was startled at how devastated he looked, his eyes puffy and swollen, with dark shadows underneath, his cheeks flushed in an unhealthy way and his hair the dishevelled mess he knew love-cook would never allow it to be.

Without saying a word, he reached his bottle over to Sanji and leaned back when the blond took it reluctantly and brought it up to his dry lips to take a good swig.

They had to do something about Nami, and quickly.


"Luffy."

The strawhat-wearing boy showed no sign of attention. He just sat on the lion's head and stared out to where the sea extended seemingly endlessly like he did all day as long as he was on the ship, cross-legged and with his arms folded in front of his chest.

"Luffy, I know you hear me. Listen, I don't have much time."

This, however, made him turn around slowly, eyeing his navigator warily as she stood in front of him, eyes wide and beautiful for once, and he knew immediately that it was herself speaking, not the curse. He couldn't help his throat going tight all at once, seeing the expression she wore. She looked so incredibly sad it hurt him deep inside his heart, and yet … very determined. Slowly he climbed down the figurehead until his feet touched the wooden ground again.

"I'd like to amplify this story and stuff, but I don't know how long I can tell you this," she started, her eyes meeting his in a firm and steady gaze. She was talking very fast and seemed scampered – understandable.

"So I'll just tell you. Luffy, you have to get rid of me." Her beautiful brown eyes bored into his.

His ears rang with what she had just said. It went through his head over and over again, her expression when saying it, the tone of her voice, the way the wind blew through her short hair and the way the evening sun gave it a red glow. And this utterance of hers. It whirled around in his mind, and yet he didn't understand it. It was there, and yet his mind seemed blank, wiped out, unable to comprehend these words she was saying.

"Luffy!" she exclaimed, made two quick steps and grasped his wrists. "Do you understand me?"

"No," he said without thinking. His voice didn't sound like his, it was raspy and rough. "No, Nami."

"Yes! Yes, you have to! Drop me on some uninhabited island on the way, bring me into some jungle, or just throw me over the railing, I don't care! But you have to do something, or God knows where this is leading!" she blurted out.

"No!" he repeated, and to him, it sounded like the pained cry of a hurt animal.

"Luffy!" she said again, intense, and he saw tears welling up in her eyes. "Something has to be done. I want you to do this before I'm changing for good. I'm dying, Luffy," she told him and let go of his left wrist to take her hand up to cup his cheek. "I'm dying. Soon there will be nothing left of me, and –"

"No!" he interrupted her fiercely and his face darkened. "I won't! It's temporary, I know it is! We all know it! You'll change back and everything will be fine!"

A sad little smile spread on her face, lighting her face up. Luffy swallowed. He wanted to close his eyes, but he couldn't. Just this moment, her lovely face with that lovely smile, he didn't want to miss anything of it. It was so precious. He didn't want to lose it, ever.

"Luffy," she said, her voice soft all of a sudden. "You can't just let me be here and hope it's gonna be gone someday. You just can't. Until that day, if it would ever come, you'll all have gone nuts."

"But I can't abandon you somewhere! I wouldn't betray a nakama, never! I wouldn't betray one of you, and I wouldn't betray you!" He almost shouted it, and Nami flinched a bit. Could it be …? No, probably not. He was just freaked out.

"Please!" she pleaded, and a single tear made its way down her flushed cheek. "Please just end this! You're all suffering, and I don't want you to suffer, not because of anything in the world and especially not because of me! You have to end this, Luffy," she said insistently, looking him straight in his deep black eyes as her right thumb slowly caressed the soft skin of his cheek on its own.

"But … I can't," he whispered and felt his eyes burning as he looked at her. "You're my navigator, who's gonna lead us through storms if we don't have you?" He couldn't prevent his voice from breaking at the last word. The lump in his throat grew bigger and bigger, threatening to suffocate him.

She closed her eyes, that sad smile still slightly curving her mouth upwards. "You'll find another," she said calmly. "There are so many navigators on the Grand Line, you'll find one who's worthy going with the future Pirate King and ..."

"I don't want any other navigator than you!" Luffy released all his emotions in a yell. He felt the tears streaming down his face, but he couldn't care less. All he cared for was right in front of him. He wouldn't lose her, not again, and not as long as he lived. He jerked his wrist free of her hand still clutching it and took her tear-stained face in both of his hands. Her eyes stared at him widely, he could drown in those beautiful auburn eyes.

"I want you, Nami, not anyone else," he said slowly, carefully pronouncing every word. "I only want you."

Her eyes grew even wider by hearing this, and he knew he could have added "to be my navigator", but he meant it like this. He realised it was right. Just now he really discovered what she meant to him – too much to put into words.

"Luffy …" she whispered almost inaudibly as he bent down slowly. He had not the slightest clue what to do now, so he decided to just follow the lead of his body. His heart pounded like mad, and he had an idea that it wasn't just from fear of losing her. Her face came nearer and nearer and he saw her closing her eyes, almost wanting to say to her to open them again so he could enjoy that colour a bit more.

His own eyes, too, fluttered closed bit by bit as her mouth came nearer, her lips parted ever so slightly, and he could feel her breath touching his skin in the most delicate way. He accepted what would happen next, accepted it with his arms wide open. And then …

"Idiot!"

He stilled and opened his eyes. Their faces were only inches apart and he could still feel her breath on his skin, but there was something different.

"As if I'd do that," she said in a disgusted tone. "Did you really think I'd kiss you? Dream on, stupid! Stop taking advantage of me!"

Her eyes were open, and they were full of hatred.

No! the voice in his head screamed wildly, No! No no no no …

He didn't want to let her go and one part of his mind told him to hug her and hold her there until she changed back, until it was over, and it would be over, once and for all.

But it was too late.

"Get your filthy hands off me!" Nami screeched and slapped them away from her face. "Pervert! Bastard! Idiot!" she ranted and turned on her heel, not without having cast him an extremely furious glance.

Luffy stood there and watched her storm off, screaming something at Usopp on her way.

Then he sagged to his knees helplessly, his hands catching his fall when he touched the ground. Emotionless, he watched the dark stains that were his tears spreading out on the light wooden floor of the Sunny.


Robin turned her head away. She couldn't watch this anymore. Something had to be done, and she knew it would break Luffy's heart to do it himself.

Closing her eyes, the black-haired archaeologist took a deep breath.

It was a good thing their captain had a crew on which he could rely for better or for worse. She was determined to do anything she could to help him carrying this burden … even if that meant earning everybody's loathing.


Author's note: You didn't really think I'd let them do it, did you? Naaah! The story would be over if I'd let them :-P

Oh, and you understood Robin's thoughts, yes?

I quite liked Sanji's breakdown. That means, no, I don't like making people suffer, but I liked the idea of Zoro silently standing by his side. These two don't only fight the whole day, even if it seems so after having read too many fanfics ;-)

But I felt so, so, so bad, writing Luffy's scene. Poor Luffy, I'd like to write Nami in his arms and making him happy so badly …