Chapter 4
I frowned. Something cold was resting against my foot. I wiggled my toes, and opened my eyes, sitting up and flinging the covers away. I opened my mouth wide and –
"Nami!" The door flung open in reaction to my scream. Hancock was missing. I realized this only after I noticed I was standing on a chair across the room. At the foot of my bed was a snake. A large one. White and red, with a skull placed over its face. Zoro and Sanji grinned when they saw it, and I was already thinking I knew what we'd be having for lunch and/or dinner that day.
"Oh," Hancock appeared. "That's where you disappeared to, Salome."
I closed my eyes, angry. I could feel my vein pulsing on my forehead and tried hard to refrain from throwing the nearest and heaviest thing I could find at the spoiled empress. Of course the snake was hers –a venomous pet for a toxic woman.
Chopper ran into the room, looking surprised when he saw the snake. His initial reaction was already fear, but when it hissed at him, he leapt across the room and into my arms yelling "ah!" I held him close as I stepped down and off the chair.
"How long has this thing been onboard?" I asked coldly, now calm knowing the situation.
"Since I arrived yesterday," She said simply. The snake wrapped itself around Hancock, who looked completely comfortable. "Salome follows me wherever I go."
"How loyal," I said sarcastically, brushing past her. I placed Chopper outside my door, and watched as he scampered quickly away. I wondered what the snake had said to him. I turned back to the three standing in my room. I looked briefly at Hancock before setting my eyes on the two bozos. "How in the world did such a large snake get past the two of you?"
"Let me make a correction," Hancock said coldly. "Salome has been following the ship since I got onboard yesterday. Salome must have gotten tired," She stroked the scaly face of the legless creature.
"You have bad naming skills," I told her.
"As if you're any better," Zoro muttered under his breath.
"It doesn't matter what I name anything," Hancock said, betting her eyelashes. "Because even it's a god-awful name, everyone will forgive me."
"I forgive you already, Hancock-sama~" Sanji said, his heart practically jumping out of his throat.
Zoro rolled his eyes and just began walking out of the room. I enjoyed Hancock's expression of momentary confusion as I went to my dresser, grabbing a new shirt. Sanji, seeing my getting ready to change, left immediately. If it had been two years ago I would have had to yell at him, hit him, or something. It made me almost feel sad that we didn't have that routine anymore. Sometimes I couldn't help but see the changes that everybody has gone through.
No. In the end, we were, and always would be, nakama. And nakama always came first. Luffy made sure of that; Luffy was what held us together. Truthfully speaking, if it weren't for him I'd never have even thought about becoming a pirate. I was glad I did. I've seen more gold out here on the Grand Line than anywhere in the East Blue. If only everybody didn't have such bad spending habits, I'd be –I mean, we'd be –rich.
"Not a snake person?" Hancock asked.
"I'm not necessarily not a snake person," I answered. "I just prefer animals with legs and fur."
"I hate cute animals," She muttered. "I also hate things that block my path. Or people that don't listen to a word I say. And people that don't think I'm the most beautiful woman in the world."
I couldn't help but roll my eyes as her list went on. As her head leaned back further in arrogance, I slipped out the door, heading for the dining room on the second floor, where I hoped to find breakfast. Sanji was still working on it, but was nearly done.
"Man, I wish I could've eaten that snake," Zoro's voice was muffled, his forehead against the table.
"I wish that snake would've eaten her," I grumbled. "That was not something I wanted to wake up to."
"I woke up to something I didn't want to see," Usopp said walking in. "Hancock was watching Luffy as he slept this morning, sat right beside his bunk."
Robin walked in as he spoke, and slid into the seat beside Zoro and across from me. She exchanged a look with me as she said, "A girl in love, hmm?"
"Hmm, indeed," I murmured under my breath, stretching and leaning back.
Luffy ran into the room, "Nami, what happened, I heard you scream."
I brought my fist down on his head, "And what makes you run to the kitchen first instead of my room? What if it were some pervert?"
"Eh? Why would anybody want to lay a hand on a dangerous woman like you?" He asked. I hit him again.
"If there were a pervert, he'd be dead by now," Zoro agreed.
"You have quite the reputation," Hancock entered the room. I guess she finally realized I'd disappeared. She spotted Luffy, and her eyes melted and a blush crept into pale cheeks.
"Morning," Luffy greeted, swinging his legs back and forth on his chair while waiting for breakfast. He didn't bat an eye at the large snake still coiled around her.
"Luffy –" She began.
"I'm not marrying you," He laughed.
She giggled girlishly, covering her mouth with her hand as she did so. Salome unraveled itself from Hancock's body, and then coiled into some kind of chair, which Hancock sat on without batting an eye at the head of the table beside Luffy. She caught my eye and smiled sweetly. It was sickening.
"Oi, where's Chopper?" Luffy asked suddenly.
"Ask the snake," I muttered.
"Salome's very good at tracking," Hancock rubbed the snake's head as Sanji came with the food.
I bit the inside of my lip. I bet she could understand the snake, the damned snake empress. I pushed my chair back and got to my feet, "I'll go find him."
"No need, Nami," Franky said, walking in. Chopper was practically clinging to his leg as they walked over and sat down. I remained standing for a moment before taking my seat once more.
"You don't look like you slept well," Usopp commented suddenly.
"Me?" I passed a hand over my face. "Well, I suppose I could have slept better if somebody hadn't been laughing in her sleep."
The empress ignored me, leaning on the table and watching Luffy as he began eating. I sighed, rolling my eyes and grabbed food to fill my plate.
"Hey, Robin, let's play chess later," I said.
"Alright," She agreed, smiling warmly at me.
Salome hissed again, and I watched as Chopper shivered.
"Stop it," I muttered.
"Hmm? Nami?" Luffy asked, pausing with the plate half lifted to his mouth and his head slightly tilted back.
"Mm?" I looked at him, "It's nothing."
He shrugged before going on to shovel the food down his throat. I glared at the snake, which in turn seemed to be smiling back at me. Like pet, like owner; they both irritated me. Same arrogance, that was for sure.
"Yohoho," Brooke burst through the door. "What a pleasant scene to feast my eyes on~ Of course, I don't have eyes to see with! Skeleton joke!" He came and sat at the table, before swinging his body to face me to ask, "Nami-san, may I see your pant–"
I rubbed my sore fist as I went back to eating.
"You're running late, Brooke," Zoro said, smacking Luffy's hand as it came near.
"There was this song that was running through my head that just had to be completed –" He began. "Oh, why don't I just sing it for you~" He seemed to pull a violin out of nowhere. He cleared his throat before touching the bow to the instrument. He drew out the first note, long and low. He smiled before he broke into an entire song and dance. Luffy laughed, patting his stomach as he did so.
Trying to keep from laughing as Luffy and Usopp started to dance beside Brooke, I glanced at my wrist to look at the log pose, but I realized that I'd forgotten it in my bedroom. I gripped my wrist with my other hand as I stood up. It must have been because of the snake commotion this morning. I left the dining room, heading down to the lawn deck then up to the other part of the second floor, the girls' quarters.
I picked the log pose up from the desk and strapped it to my wrist. Then it was up to the third floor to take the helm.
"Need help?" Chopper appeared.
"Hard to starboard," I told him without batting an eye. He changed forms to help me get back on course. I looked up, "Looks like Zoro and Sanji haven't let the sails down yet."
"I'll do that too," Chopper said.
"Thanks, do that first" I told him. I waited a moment, listening to the faint music, before asking, "So what has the snake been saying?"
"That he could swallow me whole," Chopper muttered as he walked past. "That he was going to stalk me until I was least expecting it."
"So Hancock and Salome really are similar," I leaned on the railing, crossing my arms and bending over to rest my chin in the crevasse created. I closed my eyes and opened them as the whoosh of the sail coming down distracted me. I turned and looked up, and saw Chopper leap from the main mast to the foremast, where he let that one down too. He swung down, landing on the deck and taking up the helm again. The boat began to turn, the sails catching the wind nicely.
I still had to tend to my mikans. I should probably put the map I finished in my room in the library to store. Later I would play a game of chess with Robin. She'd probably win, though I liked to think I gave her a good run for her money. We never did bet money though. A shame –if we did I might have full motivation to win.
"When are we supposed to be arriving at the next island?" Chopper was back to his small form beside me, leaning with his head between the rails.
"Sometime today, hopefully," I told him. "It's good, because I think we both need to get off this boat for a little while."
"Mm," He nodded, looking up at me. I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He looked over at the other side of the ship. "Hey, Nami?"
"Yeah?" I asked.
"Is that over there another ship?"
I squinted into the distance, shielding my eyes from the blinding light of the sun as it steadily rose higher into the blue sky. It was almost as if the small storm the night before hadn't existed.
"I can't tell," I dropped my hand. I headed for the crow's nest, climbing the ladder as quickly as I could with Chopper following me closely. I grabbed the binoculars and looked out again.
"Yeah," I answered finally. "It's another pirate ship."
"Do you think they see us?" Chopper asked.
"Mm," I replied. They appeared to be heading straight for us. I handed him the binoculars and turned on the microphone for the loud speakers. I cleared my throat before I spoke. I smiled when I thought about Luffy's reaction. I couldn't help it. He'd grin; that would be his first reaction. Then he'd run out and up to the third floor deck to try to see it. See if they were bad guys or good guys, or strange guys that he would probably try to get to join our crew. I hoped they weren't any strange guys. Sometimes Luffy seemed to only attract the strange ones.
But still, it had to be done. I continued to smile, but after a small pause, I said, "Luffy, you're going to have some fun today. Here come some pirates."
