V.E.: Okay, it seems like I'm getting back into the writing grove again. Sorry to you all, I just really haven't felt like writing a lot and then when I did want to write I had technical issues. Go figure. If it's any consolation, you guys are not the only ones who have been waiting on an update.
Anyway, I've been wanting to do Nami since I started, particularly because the Pokémon that I have chosen is one that is near and dear to my heart. (One of these days I'm going to have to make one of those Favorite Pokémon lists people keep doing.) That and Nami is a very intriguing character.
Either way, I hope I still have readers for this thing. So, let's get this started.
Nami: 11/12 years old
Quote: "Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough."- Og Mandino
Anyone who knew Professor Eclipse D Mana (and they'd have to know her very well to know about that little initial) knew that the woman had three great loves in her life. Whether this would be said to her teasingly or remarking on her singlehood status (which was none of their business), those three loves of hers were very apparent in her life.
1. Pokémon
2. Photography (Preferable of Pokémon)
3. Alcohol
As all her subordinates and several of her contacts in the navy could tell you, the female professor was utterly capable of outlasting the alcoholic tolerance of men twice her size. How she did this, no one could say though in a world of Devil Fruits, the Grand Line, and a wide variety of creatures with some that resemble humans so strongly, perhaps the books on what was thought to be physically impossible should have been thrown out a long time ago.
Regardless, of those three loves, the third was the hardest to consistently satisfy. Given that she lived and worked on an island that was dedicated mainly to research and was kept a well-guarded secret to most of the world, luxury items like high quality spirits and sweets were harder to obtain than the creatures that were always there or materials that fell under research materials. So, whenever Mana did leave the island, she would use it as a chance to indulge herself in her third great vice.
Which was why her patience with Cocoyashi Village was slowly dwindling into the void. "Honestly, how hard is it to find the tavern in a backwater village in the East Blue?!"
Her snappiness could perhaps be forgiven as she had just finished taking care of all the starters she still had with her (and that little Totodile was quite spirited) though it was perhaps rude to disparage a town she had never set foot in before now. Mana had usually been very good at giving people the benefit of the doubt, her good many acquaintances on the other side of the law would be proof of that.
But the more she saw of this little village, that peevishness soon turned to unsettlement. There was barely anyone outside: no laughing children, no gossiping house wives, no old geezers complaining about the 'ungratefulness' of the younger generation. This stillness, this silence, felt unnatural.
The only thing she could see moving was the breeze on the trees. I've seen more things alive in a graveyard and that's not counting Ghost Pokémon.
Then her eyes found something that made her genuinely stop and duck out of reflex. She peered out ever so slightly, making sure she really did see it.
Fishmen, and if their attire and weaponry they were touting as they came out of some shop with too wide smiles and smug laughter were genuine, they were Fishmen Pirates.
Mana felt her urge for alcohol be replaced by an urge to strangle something. What in the world are Fishmen Pirates doing in the East Blue? I thought that Jimbei guy guaranteed that none of them would cause humans any more trouble. Moreover, how did the idiotic Marine in charge of this sector miss something like this?!
That led to a pained grimace making its way onto her face. Great, now I got to fill out some paperwork to report this. Damn it, I help the Marines enough as it is, I shouldn't have to do their damn job for them! It's bad enough they keep on demanding more powerful Pokémon when they don't realize these creatures are highly intelligent and won't just listen to anyone's orders! And don't get me started on those interns! Nine times out of ten they're spies with no actual knowledge of Pokémon at all! Thank the heavens above that Ruri…..
"Persian!"
The very catlike sound jolted the Professor out of her mind rant, utterly confused. For a second or two, she wondered if she half imagined it before she felt something furry rubbing against her legs.
She looked down to find a Persian looking up at her. It was a regular type Persian, with a lean body with tan fur, black tipped ears, and red eyes to match the red jewel on its forehead. It had a rather smug yet delighted expression.
The woman crouched down to get a better look, wondering at this new mystery. "Well hello there, what are you doing here? I don't think there are any marines with retired Pokémon living nearby." (It was quite common for when a Pokémon could no longer serve on a Marine ship that their partner would want to take them home and let them enjoy their golden years in peace rather than send them back to Avalon Isle. Apparently, many of them became beloved family pets, accepted as strange foreign but otherwise unremarkable animals for those not in the know.)
A cursory glance was enough to tell her about this Classy Cat Pokémon, noticing some rather interesting scars. "Well you are getting on in years, but nowhere near the point of the retirement. Though, I wonder how you got some of these…."
"Felix! There you are!"
Both professor and Pokémon turned to find an orange haired preteen girl coming at them with an exasperated expression on her face. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in! Don't think I won't cover for you with Nojiko!'
The Persian seemed to give a little 'Who? Moi?' expression to the young girl before the girl seemed to realize that there was someone else there. "Oh, I'm sorry. I hope he wasn't bothering you. This old cat just doesn't know when to not poke his nose into other people's business."
Mana smiled in an easy going way. "Oh, don't worry. I'm quite accustomed to Persians acting like little shits. Very common in Pokémon with feline characteristics."
The orange haired girl's eyes widened at the terms the stranger had used. "How do you know….?"
The professor's smile then turned to reassuring. "Mind if we talk back at your place? I'd like to give this one a thorough check up."
"Oh I see, so your mother was a marine."
The orange haired seated on a chair near where Mana was working,who the older woman now knew as Nami, nodded; observing as the professor finished wrapping a bandage around the Persian front right paw on a nice bed with fresh sheets. The quaint little farm house on the tangerine farm felt much more like what she had expected of a small island village, very warm and well lived in. It looked very comfortable for two young women though given the well polished picture frame of a woman with magenta hair with two young girls it was very clear that these inhabitants still missed their late mother.
Nami spoke then, still watching Mana work. "Bellemere left the Marines to raise me and Nojiko. Felix had been with her for a few years by then and where she went, he would go. Nojiko said that he...changed when I was about three or so."
Mana smiled, always touched to hear how Pokémon would bond with their Marines even if the endings weren't particularly happy. "He evolved, you mean. Hmm...can't really recall the name Bellemere, but Meowth is a rather common Pokémon I give out. They're apparently a very good midpoint between a ship's cat and attack cat. Though, some of these scars look more recent."
The young girl averted looking in the Professor's eyes at that. "Yeah, Felix likes going with me when I leave the island. I think it's half to keep an eye on me, half to feel like he's on adventures again. But he's starting to slow down a bit."
"You go off the island frequently at your age? What do you do?"
That seemed to be a touchy subject, Nami's hands clenched as the Persian gave a warning stare at the Professor before shaking his head.
The older woman considered this all in silence before sighing and giving the feline Pokémon a scratch behind the ears. "Alright, keep your secrets. Though are you sure that you don't need..."
Nami cut her off curtly. "I can handle it. Really."
Before Mana could pursue the subject any further, the door swung open to reveal a teenage girl (who looked to be a few years older than Nami herself) with light blue hair and some rather impressive tattoos on her right arm and chest coming in with a basket of tangerines. "There you are, Nami! I heard you were back in town, but I couldn't find you."
Felix the Persian jumped up at the sight of the human, rubbing her legs and purring as Nami gestured to Professor Eclipse D. Mana. "Well, I was in town for a little while, but then Felix ran off and found her. Apparently, she specializes in...whatever Felix is."
Nojiko gazed at the woman skeptically, placing the basket of fruit on the table. "Really? Bellemere said that people from where Felix is from usually don't leave that Isle under penalty of death by Marine firing squad."
The brown haired woman felt a smile crack at that before turning back to Nami. "Well, for most of the inhabitants. Let's just say I'm pretty high up on the chain of command that the World Government trusts me to be able to go off by myself and come back. Anyway, I've checked him over and Felix is mostly healthy though you are right about him slowing down. I would suggest on not taking him with you on anymore adventures."
Felix did not seem to like that advice. "PERSIAN."
Nami got up at that, taking a few steps before crouching down to scratch the Classy Cat Pokémon behind the ears to placate him. "Oh come on, you know you couldn't keep up with me forever. And I know very well you've always liked Nojiko better than me."
Nojiko smiled as she strutted over in a sultry manner as Felix went back to rubbing the older girl's legs. "Well, considering I'm the one who feeds him, grooms him, know when to give him space, and didn't try to pit him against the neighborhood dogs as a distraction to steal sweets."
"I WAS FIVE!"
The professor held back a chuckle as she interrupted the two. "Umm, excuse me. Do you think perhaps this little guy would feel better if you weren't going alone doing...whatever is you do off the island? Or a housemate?"
That seemed to throw the sisters for a loop, but Felix seemed to perk up at that. "Persian!"
Nojiko and Nami blinked warily at the Pokémon's exuberant response, with the later to answer her question. "Well, I guess so, but I don't understand what you're getting at."
The oldr woman smiled, "What I mean is whether Felix would mind you having your own Pokémon partner. That is, if you're interested."
Nami's brown eyes seemed to gleam at the prospect. "Really?"
Nojiko's eyes, on the other hand, sharpened in suspicion. "What's the catch?"
Mana's eyes twinkled in good nature, holding up a rather sizable wad of cash she dug out of her lab coat's pocket. "Well, if putting me up for a few days so I can teach Nami the ropes as well as providing some decent alcohol is a deal breaker, you can throw me out right now. Just to be clear, I can reimburse you for..."
The money was quickly snatched away as Nami's eyes almost seemed to become Berri signs. "Make yourself at home!"
Her older sister just sighed as Felix head-butted her leg in affection.
Nami didn't pay them much attention, putting the money away as she asked the woman. "So, where is it?"
The older woman held up her hand to calm her down. "Slow down, first I need to figure out what would suit you. Now then, what is your dream?"
The girl's head titled in confusion. "My dream?"
"You know, what's the goal you're pursuing right now or want to pursue someday? Will it take you out into the world?"
Nami seemed to turn it over in her mind for about a minute or two before answering quietly. "Well, before things went crazy I wanted to draw a map of the world..."
Mana's eyes widened in surprise. "Well, that's one I hadn't heard before and I deal with some pretty ambitious dreams with this. You any good at drawing?"
The orange haired girl nodded, her eyes misting in memory. "Very good. Bellemere said that no one would believe that a little girl drew that good of a map all by herself. I wanted to be a navigator so I'd be able to see it all and make that map. But then..."
She fell silent then, both Nojiko and Felix looking at their young charge worriedly.
Mana simply decided it was to best steer away from whatever place this was steering towards and changed the subject. "Well, that's high praise coming from a former Marine. In terms of navigation, how good are you at reading the weather?"
Nojiko answered before her sister could, in a rather teasing tone. "Scary good. She can predict a change in the winds practically seconds before it happens. One of the reasons she's called a witch."
Nami's face flushed in embarrassment, the darkness from earlier dissipating. "Nojiko!"
The professor watched the siblings go into a little teasing squabble. Well, this isn't what I was expecting. Still, that's a very keen sense of intuition to know the weather like that. Perhaps some latent psychic abilities...
She then took the time to look over her newest client one last time. Nami was a very bright, with a fire inside that she would do anything to achieve no matter what she had to go through. And once she devoted herself to something, it seemed that nothing could turn her away from it. Rather like Luffy.
But at the same time, she was very different from Luffy. This girl knew that things were not going to be easy, that there was darkness in this world she simply couldn't plow her way through. Things could change as quickly as the weather and she had to be ready and willing to adapt herself to it.
'Witch', huh? And then Mana knew exactly what to give her.
She went into her bag, cheerfully ignoring the sister's squabbling as she took out one of her Poke Balls. She pressed the button, the light of which stopped the sisters as th light began to take form.
Soon, the form of a foxlike creature appeared with pale yellow fur that was longer on its haunches, tufts of orange fur coming out of its large ears with a similar orange tip on its tail, and a fluffy white muzzle near a pointed black nose and sharp orange eyes. It blinked a few times before it turned towards the professor. "Fennekin?"
Mana smiled, a motioned towards the orange haired girl.
The Fennekin took a few steps toward Nami, the girl kneeling down to get a closer look at the Pokémon. Then the Fox Pokémon smiled, jumping up to lick the young girl. "Fennekin!"
As Nami broke out into a smile and scratched the little fire starter, Felix started to sniff the little one before nodding in approval. "Persian!"
Fennekin sniffed its new Pokémon friend, seeming to be just happy with him, before its nose went up in the air to sniff something else. After a few meoments of exploring the new area with its nose, the Fennekin seemed to smile as it jumped onto the table with the basket of tangerines on it. "Fenne!"
Both Nojiko and Nami were panicking as the foxlike being went to the basket, the later going over to get her Pokémon away from their produc. "Oh no, no, no, no! We do not eat those!"
But Mana just laughed, startling Nami as the professor watched Fennekin sniff out its prize. "Oh, don't worry. She's not going for the fruit."
About half a minute later, the female Pokémon lit up as it dug its head into the basket and pulled out a nice sized twig. It curled up on the table and began to gnaw at it with great vigor.
Neither of the girls could believe their eyes, Nojiko voicing their shared thought as Felix also hopped on the table and settled down right next to his new housemate. "It just ignored the tangerines."
The brown haired woman nodded. "Fennekins don't really snack, rather they like to chew on twigs. They can also be a tad temperamental, this little girl is especially spirited, but they'll do their best for their trainer."
Nami nodded, Nojiko seeming to be relieved that said activity would be able to be readily provided for given their immense pile of twigs in the back. "Okay. Any tricks to get her to listen better?"
"We can start on that tomorrow. For now, I could use a drink. After all, I did pay for it..."
Nami's eyes sparkled at the mention of said money in her pocket. "I'll go get you a glass, Big Sis!"
Mana made herself at home on the chair, giving both Pokemon a scratch behind their ears. She couldn't wait to get a picture of the four when this was all over. "Professor is fine, dear."
Finally, done! I wasn't kidding about those technical issues. My computer literally glitches up on me right as I was done writing the first part of this. Luckily, I was able to save it to an email and upload to Fan Fiction Net to finish the rest of the work.
Fennekin/Braixen/Delphox: For the record, I did consider Primarina, but I have such a special place in my heart for Fennekin as it was my first starter. Yeah, I'm that much of a casual. Anyway, part of the choice did come from the whole mage thing this line has and Nami's title as a weather with. But another thing that interested me with this is her parallel to Luffy. In some ways, Nami can come off as just as much the protagonist of the series as Luffy. Heck in some cases, she is more of the protagonist than Luffy at times like during the Gold movie.
Thanks to LawlessWriter who gave me the idea of giving Bellemere a Pokémon of her own that Nami might have used. Ship cats were a thing as rats were just as much problems on sea as they were on land and they could often detect changes in the weather. I was looking over a list of notable ship cats on Wikipedia and the name Felix jumped out at me. Seemed right to give him the name 'Lucky.'
And don't worry, next two Straw Hats won't get starters.
Well, I'm not sure when I'll be updating as school work has my priority right now, but I promise I'll try to squeeze some in.
Please review and I hope to see you soon.
