Hello everyone!
First of all, I'm sorry this chapter took out so long to come out, but my Beta Hana-chan was sick with pneumonia O_O - I'm so glad she is back and well now!
So now the ending of this story, I want to thank everyone who reviewed, followed or faved this fic, this has been an amazing journey and I hope to hear from many of you on my next works
The Wind of Change
Chapter 7
After a moment that felt like eternity, Kazé fell on his knees… at first his pride wouldn't allow his body to fall down, but his torso gave up and his face bit the dust. His fist had never reached the Pirate King on time…
Luffy sighed gazing at his enemy with hard eyes and he finally stood up, his whole stance relaxing. He smiled at Nami with a sincere, wide smile.
Nami ran to him. "What took you so long?" She complained a frown on her face as she approached her captain.
"I didn't have any meat…" He explained lamely… Nami could only roll her eyes… and then sighed planting the Straw Hat back on its owner, pushing it down playfully.
Meanwhile various members of Kazé's crew were running towards them, with Loto ahead who wore a desperate expression.
"Kazé!" his first mate shouted in a trembling voice as he knelt beside his captain with tears clouding his vision.
"Damn it… shit…" Kazé cursed at himself while trying to get back up. He gave a dry cough and grasped his stomach in pain as tears of frustration inevitably fell from his eyes.
"Let's go Nami" Luffy whispered to her while starting to walk back to his crew with the navigator following close behind. The Straw Hats were cheering loudly and they seemed to be having fun, simply sitting there on the makeshifts stands.
"WAIT!" Loto shouted, halting the Straw Hats.
"Loto… don't" Kazé muttered between gasps.
"Just answer us something! PLEASE!" The desperate man begged, pressing his forehead to the ground.
"Loto" Kaze whispered, clenching his eyes shut and fighting back the overwhelming tears, not wanting to bear the sight of his friend humiliating himself.
"I know you found our investigation files… but all that… all that wasn't done with ill will! All our hard work was aimed to follow in your footsteps! We needed to know something. PLEASE, answer me just ONE question…. Pirate King!" The first mate said with the utter most passion he could bring forth from shear desperation alone.
Luffy gazed at him for a moment with hardened eyes, taking a bit of interest. "If the question is about One Piece, I don't care to answer" he said dryly.
Loto and Kazé weren't surprised by the answer. Loto shook his head.
"No… it's not about that. Obviously we would like to know more about it, everyone on the five seas does. But we know it's not out right to know…. What we really want to know is…." He paused and turned his face towards his captain, eyes filled with rage, "TELL THEM KAZE! Tell them your plans never involved Nami-san from the very beginning! Tell them the truth! What you really wanted as the prize of the Davy Back Fight!"
Nami was surprised by the revelation and looked at them with incredulous eyes. Kazé looked away from her, and Luffy seemed interested in the turn of events.
Zoro and Robin kept eating popcorn.
"Then what do you want?" Luffy asked with a confused face.
Loto, who just couldn't stop crying, dropped his head again, "We wanted to know what you're looking for now! Is there any other legendary treasure on these seas? As much as we research, we can't figure out the answer. Why is the legendary Pirate King's crew doing a YEAR over the East Blue with no certain destination? There is NOTHING in that sea! And what are you doing here at the South Blue now! You could be ruling the New World! Instead you are at these seas nobody cares about!"
It was a question that was eating them away, could it be that in Raftel the Pirate King had found a lead to another grand treasure, to another legend?
Nami and Luffy gazed at each other silently and then…
They burst into hysterical laughter. Kazé and Loto clenched their teeth in frustration and shame of being laughed at.
"Did you guys really do all this for such a stupid question? Are you idiots?" Luffy said cocking his head to the side. "It's a question that has a really simple answer" He smiled and glanced at Nami.
"It's for Nami" he whispered.
Kazé opened his eyes in surprise but Nami only had eyes for her captain, smiling at him, "My dream… is to draw the map of the word" she said.
"Is that it? No legendary treasure? No mystery map or legend?" Loto demanded with frustration, clutching the dirt in rage.
But Nami and Luffy were enthralled, glancing at each other, ignoring them completely.
Luffy started to talk softly without leaving her eyes, "A dream…. Is not the greatest treasure of all? I have mine… to be freest man in the world… now my nakama's dreams are my dreams… a dream within a dream…." He whispered.
Nami's eyes filled up with glistening tears, and she couldn't help but jump into his grasp, surrounding him with her arms, and burying her face in the crook of his neck, holding him for dear life. The Pirate King's eyes widened in surprise, marveling at the feeling of seeing her happy, smiling again. After a moment, he eased her down as she almost blushed looking away from him, assuming she had overstepped some invisible boundary.
Without a moment of hesitation he grabbed her chin softly and pressed his lips to hers, harsh and clumsily but with purpose… at first… he did it to please her. Zoro had told him Nami needed kisses and romance…. So if that's what Nami needed to be happy…. He had figured he could do that for her.
But then… he hadn't taken into account how much the feeling was going to thrill him, how great her body felt against him… how soft her lips were.
Nami closed her eyes and surrounded him with her arms yet again, deciding that it was high time he learnt what a real kiss felt like. Luffy widened his eyes for a second when he felt her tongue probing softly against his lips, a shiver ran down his spine… and he abandoned himself in the feeling, deepening the kiss.
Usopp and Chopper's jaws were almost dropping to the floor, Sanji lit himself a cigarette thinking it was about damn time his rubber shit captain noticed Nami-swan's feelings. Brook only yohoho-hed, and Franky shouted SUPA and launched fireworks from his shoulders.
Zoro rolled his eye and took out a fat wad of berries from inside his red robe, and passed the money over to Robin who was grinning. The woman took the cash and stashed it in the cleavage of her dark olive dress.
"fu fu fu" she laughed at Zoro.
"Damn woman" the swordsman muttered. They had placed a bet on who would kiss who first. Zoro had said Nami would be the one to initiate the kiss, Robin had betted Luffy would.
Kazé cleared his throat feeling VERY uncomfortable with the whole situation. Is not like he was in love with Nami…. But he cared for her.
Luffy separated from his navigator and glanced at the other man with hate filled eyes at being interrupted. No wonder Zoro liked that kissy kissy stuff he had going on with Robin (although he didn't care to kiss Robin, it would be weird, and he was sure Zoro would kick his ass) but he had enjoying kissing Nami… more than he would have ever imagined.
"Yohohoho!" Brook's voice halted the tension. "It seems this Davy Back Fight has a winner!"
Luffy smiled and offered a hand to Kazé, supposedly to help him up. As soon as the other man was about to accept the offer…. Luffy punched him right on his chin, knocking the other man down.
"That's for kissing my navigator, BASTARD!"
"Oi oi" every Straw Hat gasped accepting their captain was going too far.
"LUFFY!" Nami shouted taking his arm and pushing him back in order to stop him from attacking the other man again.
Kazé stood up again slowly and wiped the blood coming from the corner of his mouth. He gave a bitter smile.
"Satisfied?" He asked. As man, he understood all too well the other's feeling. Luffy had NEEDED to take that out of his system.
Luffy smiled because his anger was now gone, just like that, "Yeah, ShiShiShiShi" he smiled.
"Everyone~!" the e letter vibrating on Brook's melodious, polite voice. "May I have your attention please, there's still a crucial part of this challenge left!"
Everyone walked back to the stage and the wind Pirates were standing by in expectation of the Pirate King's decision. There were some naive crewmen having daydreams about being chosen to join the pirate King's ship, though most of them were very loyal of Kazé and that thought hadn't even cross their minds.
"Then… what will you choose, Straw Hat" Kazé asked with a calm voice, his face straight, facing his defeat like a man.
"Your pirate mark" Luffy answered quickly, with an evil smile playing on his face.
The Wind Pirates were immediately enraged by those 3 words alone and began shouting. The Skull flag with a gust of wind coming from its mouth was their pride and honor and they couldn't bear the thought of losing it. It was also painted on their main sail, so they had to consider that.
Usopp started to laugh and covered his mouth, it was obvious by his face, he was scheming something evil, "Luffy, we can't let them sail without a flag… why don't you make one for them!"
The other Straw Hats started to snicker among themselves trying to hold back hysterical laugher. Kazé and his crew looked at them as if they had gone crazy. They didn't know what was so funny about it all.
"Ohh Usopp you are right! We can't leave them like that, RIGHT!" He said punching his fist, "Bring me some paint and stuff!"
An hour later, Kazé was watching with Ominous eyes as the downright hideous pirate mark that had been drawn for them by the Pirate King, was put up onto his ship's sails.
"What… what is that crap supposed to be?!" Kazé asked in horror.
Usopp was rolling on the floor with laughter along with Chopper. The king of snipers tried to stop, brushing away a falling tear with his finger.
"It's… it's…!" Usopp couldn't bring himself to say it out loud "ITS AN ASS WITH WIND COMING OUT!"
"HAHAHAHAHAH" the whole Straw Hat crew sans their captain erupted in laughter, even Robin couldn't hold herself much; Nami had the delicacy of trying to hold herself back by placing her hands on her mouth, but her eyes watered.
"That is undignified!" Loto said horrified. That pirate mark (if you could call it that) was totally humiliating. "I rather die than sail with such a hideous mark!"
Luffy's jaw fell and he looked totally dejected, his shoulders sagged… He was convinced that his creation was super awesome; he didn't understand why everyone was laughing at his design.
"ITS NOT AN ASS!" He shouted trying to defend his monstrous piece of art, "It's a sun and Wind!" he pouted and a shadow fell over him, he was looking very dejected.
"Oi oi, don't get depressed so quickly" Zoro said waving his arm.
Usopp put a hand on his captain's shoulder and sighed, "Luffy, it IS an Ass… look at it from a different angle" Usopp took the flag and switched it over… Luffy started to chuckle at first and then downright fell on the floor rolling in laughter.
Robin, noticing the other crew was humiliated, tried to play a diplomacy card before things could get ugly (again).
"Usopp, why don't you help our captain with the design? I think a sun and wind symbols are such wonderful and inspiring ideas. Why did you come up with that, Luffy?" Sometimes Robin thought she had started to understand the… peculiar way of thinking her captain had.
"Well… that…" Luffy said with his hand on his chin, scratching the little black tuff of beard he had growing there (so cool, kinda like Shanks's, he thought), "Well I think these guys must look up and go search their own adventures now." he smiled widely.
The Wind Pirates's crew suddenly felt moved by his words.
Kazé lowered his head… accepting utter and total defeat, this man he had in front, thought strange and downright weird, was better than him in all sense of the word. He suddenly felt renewed and with a new purpose. Tales of similar inspiration came to mind, in some islands they had gone through, they had heard of people changing after meeting the Straw Hat crew.
It was their turn to experience that kind of magic.
Kazé lowered his head with an arm draped over his chest, bowing in respect, but this time, his reverence was not a forced act of political correctness amongst pirates, this time, he paid respect from the bottom of his heart.
"Thank you; I have learnt a great lesson today"
Luffy cocked his head to the side, he didn't get what was so important about what he said, he thought it was somewhat plain and simple, but Nami understood Kazé's feelings and smiled.
"Well, what is it with the gloomy faces? Isn't this a SUPER parteyyyy" Franky shouted jumping over the stage, trying to cut out all the drama.
"Let Usopp finish the new pirate mark while we eat and drink" Zoro smirked.
"Oi oi! Don't put me to work!" The sniper complained, too late.
"YEAH PARTY!" Luffy shouted at the top of his lungs searching for Sanji, he was starving.
Music started, and booze began to flow, all hostilities were completely forgotten. Brook and Franky were playing with Kazé's musicians. There was a big bone fire with grilled meats and fishes in the middle of the two groups.
Luffy danced, Luffy ate, and Luffy stopped to share a glass of sake and a kiss with Nami now and then. The navigator was sitting amongst her crew, with no intention to bring any form of conflict by wandering off her group.
They partied like only pirates could, until the booze was gone and the food was no more, the party ended before dawn when the sky was barely clearing, the bonfire gone and red, smoking coals giving a little warmth to the pirates sleeping around it.
The Pirate King was sleeping nearby, with his back on the grassy floor and his arms and legs outstretched with the reindeer doctor and his sniper using him as a pillow as the trio snored away without a care in the world.
For a moment Kazé had to wonder how they had survived this long with such a relaxed, laid back attitude, but then smirked when he noticed Roronoa seemingly sleeping in a sitting position, arms and legs crossed against at log, and he knew just how.
"Kazé" Turning, he found Nami, as beautiful as ever.
"Just answer me something" She demanded, he nodded. "Is it true what Loto said… that you never really planned to take me?" It was bothering her since she had lowered down her guard with him, and she HATED, absolutely hated having the title of the top one kidnaped straw hat member.
Kazé smiled softly
"Yes…" he answered simply, "I never intended to, I just said that to try to bring Straw Hat's guard down… Besides… I really like you so… I wouldn't be able to do something like that to you."
She blushed barely so.
And Kazé sighed, "But you know, right from the beginning I knew I've never stood a chance with you"
Nami's eyes widened, "What?"
"Nami-san" he said smiling knowingly.
The navigator just looked at the floor and a bittersweet smile touched her face. It was true, Kazé had never been but a summer romance to her, a date, a kiss that didn't mean anything further than that.
"I hope you don't hold any hard feelings… I didn't intend to use you, I'm sorry" he apologized
Nami nodded and Kazé surprised her raising his head suddenly, he smirked, "And I think It would be wise if you go back to your crew… before I earn another punch on the jaw" he said caressing his jawbone.
The navigator glanced at her back and saw Zoro's cold stare from afar, Luffy was still on the floor with Usopp and Chopper, but he wasn't snoring anymore.
Nami smiled and shook her head, "Well… good night then." She turned around and walked away, back to the Sunny.
Morning came and it was a magnificent day for sailing, the wind was strong and fresh, it wasn't so hot and the Wind Pirate's crew was busy repairing their main mast with Franky's help. Kazé couldn't wait to set sail, looking at his new flag and smiling. The long nosed sniper had done an excellent job.
He glanced back at Sunny, were the Straw Hat crew appeared to be sleeping in late.
Suddenly, he noticed Luffy jumping over to shore with a relaxed look about him, a simple red shirt with short pants and a white sash with a bigger than necessary orange backpack. Nami appeared next and she too was dressed casually with a white blouse with the picture of a smiley and khaki shorts. He chuckled when he saw the smiley had a small crown. She also had a pink backpack and rolls of papers and other instruments could be seen sticking out of it.
He leaned on the railing.
"Oi Windy" Luffy waved with a smile, "Are you guys leaving so soon?" He asked when he noticed the obvious signs of a crew getting ready to set sail.
"Yeah… we have to make our own way now. Don't we? It won't be an easy task… so we will probably drop by the new world first, give the Yonkous a headache or something"
"Oi! Don't mess with Torao or Shanks, they are my friends" Luffy warned stepping out, his temper changing quickly.
Kazé waved his hand, "Don't worry about that, if I see them I will tell them you said hi"
He looked at Nami next, "Going exploring?"
The navigator smiled and almost blushed, "Luffy offered to come with me to explore, so I can chart the island"
Kazé held a laugh, such a puny island at the entrance of the South Blue would have been very well documented on the Marine and trading routes sea charts. He was sure you could just walk into any store on the main port and purchase a map. But wasn't Nami's dream the adventure in itself? He guessed purchasing a map wouldn't be half as fun as exploring and drawing the thing yourself (if map drawing was your passion, that is).
Or maybe, the new couple was making an excuse to be alone… or both.
"Namiii" Luffy whined at her, "Let's go already" He started to walk in direction to the forest, giving his back to Kazé.
Nami nodded and started to follow her captain, but she suddenly stopped, turned around and gave Kazé one last look.
"Kazé, Thank you!" she stuck her tongue out playfully and ran after Luffy whom by then was far off from her.
"Oi Straw Hat! Take good care of her! If not, I swear I'll come back and kick your ass for real this time!" Kazé shouted at the top of his lungs.
Luffy laughed in good nature, his hat shadowing his face, only his wide simile could be seen, and his thumb was suddenly up, "Of course!" He shouted and then proceeded to wrap his right arm around Nami as his left shot towards the wilderness of the forest.
The last thing Kazé heard of them was Nami's loud shriek, "Wait, Luffy! NOOOO!" And the Pirate King's laughter as they flew off and disappeared from his sight.
Kazé sighed and turned back to his ship.
"What are you bastards standing there for? Show's over; we'll be setting sail in twenty minutes!"
"You heard the captain! Move!" Loto added. Both men stood at the bow of their ship, and soon they were setting sail. The Sun was shinning high above them, and the wind was in their favor on this glorious day.
A new adventure was most definitely awaiting them.
~End~
There's still a small epilogue for this, to wrap things up. Anyway, I have more fics planned for the future!
If you enjoyed this fic, please tell me so! THanks again!
