GreenCyberWolf: Yea! We are in the final stretch with this story, only a couple more chapters to go. I'm totally excited but yet sad at the same time.
Luffy: Why are you sad for (sticks finger up nose) you have a whole journal full of stories you get to work on after this one.
GreenCyberWolf: Well that's true. It usually gives me something to do in class. Hehe
Luffy: Alright let's start already I want to know how my fight turns out.
GreenCyberWolf: Ok ok calm down Luffy.
Disclaimer: My name is not Oda therefore I don't own One Piece. I have like two bucks to my name so even if you sue you won't get anything anyway.
"talking"
'thinking'
flashback
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Nami's Returning Nightmare
Ch . 9
Playing Catch Up
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The swordsman hurried through the halls trying to follow Robin's directions but unknown to him the archeologist had told him the wrong way to go as part of a theory she had. The archeologist knew it was risky giving the wrong directions to Zoro but honestly he couldn't have done any worse by himself. Luckily for everyone her theory panned out and surprisingly Zoro found Luffy relatively easily. The green haired man wound up in what looked like the main gathering room which seemed like it had seen better days. There were large craters scattered around the whole length of the room, the pool in the center seemed to have lost most of its water somehow, and pieces of the ceiling and walls were crumbling around the remaining two occupants.
"Oi Luffy!" Zoro called out upon walking into the half destroyed room and immediately got the fighter's attention.
Seeming to forget that he was in a life and death fight Luffy turned his full attention to the first mate. "Hey Zoro, where's Nami? Did you find her? Is she back on the ship?" Luffy grinned with a relieved look in his eyes. 'Good Zoro's here that must mean they have Nami back. Now I just have to finish this guy.' Or so the rubber teen thought.
The boy's hopeful questions made Zoro even angrier with himself for failing his captain. "I'm sorry Luffy, we found her, but another bunch of pirates took off with her. They had too much of a head start and I couldn't catch them." Zoro told him, waiting for the boy's outburst. It didn't come instead when the swordsman looked up at the younger pirate he found the coal black eyes boring holes directly into the merman.
Montaru himself seemed to be in shock at this news, after her escape attempt he had made sure she wouldn't be able to even try anything again. Then like a brick to the head one man popped into his mind's eye, "That lying shit-faced bastard!" The two humans in the room jerked in surprise at the sudden loud outburst from the enraged fishman. Montaru paid no attention to them. "I let him stay on my island, eat my food, and drink my liquor. How am I repaid? He goes and steals that girl." The shark-man slowly seemed to calm down a little as he glared over at Luffy and Zoro. "Oh well, at least I know she's all but dead anyway even if I don't have the pleasure of killing her myself. All you're chasing is a corpse boy."
Luffy ground his teeth in anger, his whole body trembling from the effort to stay calm and rational. "Nami is not dead you bastard! She's a Strawhat pirate. She won't die!"
"Luffy we have to hurry, we can still catch their ship, but we have to get back to the Sunny with everyone else."Zoro called out as his captain again prepared for battle, he saw Luffy give a slight nod. The swordsman leaned against one of the remaining walls far from the battle zone. Luffy didn't seem to want his help.
"Gomu Gomu no Gattling Gun!" Luffy started things off once again throwing rapid punches at the large fishman who was able to block most of them. Luffy wasn't bothered by this and didn't even pause as he kicked up his leg and tried to kick Montaru in the ribs, but like before the shark was able to dodge the blow. Luffy stumbled, only slightly, but it was enough time for Monatru to go on the attack.
Montaru gave a loud yell as he raced at the rubber boy and was able to catch him under the chin with an uppercut sending Luffy flying back from the force of the hit. The shark continued after him pounding down on Luffy's chest with both hands and with such power that the stone underneath the Strawhat captain cracked. Luffy bounced slightly off the marble, breath lost and a stinging pain in his chest. Even his rubber body couldn't stop some pain from coming through the hits.
The younger captain stood up again wincing slightly as he placed a hand to his heaving chest. Luffy was exhausted and blood splattered. The rubber captain knew that if they had any chance to save Nami he couldn't afford to waste time here. Luffy quickly got his breath back and shot out a Gomu Gomu no Pistol, it hit its target pounding into the fishman's stomach. Luffy twirled around his opponent so that his foot hooked around one of his legs, kicking the back of Montaru's other knee with his foot so that the shark-man would lose his balance and fall forward. The large shark-man tumbled to the ground surprisingly easy landing with a loud thump on the stone floor.
Montaru let out a loud yell of fury and irritation as he picked himself up. 'I don't understand it, he should be getting weaker. Why doesn't the sea-stone affect him?' Then as if in answer to his unspoken question the stone rings around Montaru's fingers cracked and broke apart. The fishman gaped down at the broken stone in shock then with the image of Shanks flashing into his mind Montaru let out an infuriated shout that shook the already weak foundations of the room.
Luffy had backed off a few feet at the loud outburst and the shark made his way back over to the throne like seat which surprisingly was still intact. Montaru grasped the handle of a large weird looking sword that was leaning against the chair and held it up with ease as he snarled glaring heatedly at the human boy. "I've had enough of this game. I'm going to finish this now." Montaru scowled as he readied his attack.
"You're right this will end now. I have to save my navigator and I wasted enough time on you." Luffy growled with a dark glare sent to the fishman. He could feel that he was getting weaker this fight had taken a lot out of him and there was a loud ringing in his ears. Even with his injuries he was ready when the much larger pirate ran at him with the heavy blade. However, Luffy quickly learned that the weapon was to be avoided as it swung down at him at an alarming speed. Luffy dodged but not fast enough to avoid it completely. It cut open the front of his red vest just nicking the skin. "Ah! That thing's really dangerous!" He cried as he landed a few feet away from the range of the sword.
Montaru laughed nastily. "Of course it's dangerous, boy! What do you think this is?" He scoffed loudly, swinging the large saw-like blade back into a ready position. "You're going to die." The battle continued on with the black haired boy jumping here and there to avoid being sliced open by the menacing weapon.
Luffy wasn't that lucky however as the sharp blade cut into his skin over and over though he did manage to avoid the more serious hits. His red vest was basically shredded cloth by this point and stained with his blood that oozed from the more serious wounds he had received. Eventually, finding that the loose material got in his way, Luffy removed the vest. Letting the tatters drop to the ground and revealing all the raw gashes and cuts on his rubber body.
"It's time to end this pathetic fight." Montaru roared as he swung the large blade down at the blood caked human boy.
Luffy braced himself against the destroyed marble floor and rolled to the right barely avoiding the sharp blade. The sword implanted itself deep into the marble floor almost to the hilt leaving Montaru wide open. Zoro was watching everything from his spot against the wall and he smiled at his captain's move. "Luffy we have to move it if you want to go after those guys." He saw Luffy look in his direction only momentarily then back to the fight.
Luffy turned and glared at the large merman with a dark look in his eyes. "You're right. It is time to end this. You're gonna pay for what you did to my navigator!" The enraged Luffy finally let out all his anger, grief, frustration, rage, and anything else he may have bottled up over the last two weeks and grabbing the handle of the imbedded sword he snapped it like one would a stick. That left most of the blade still stuck inside the floor. Luffy bent forward as steam began to rise from his body and his skin turned red. "Gear Second." Luffy muttered and then disappeared in a flash. Not waiting for Montaru to try and counter-strike the black haired teen reeled back his fist as far as the space would allow, twisting it the whole way back, and then shot it forward. "Gomu Gomu no Jet Rifle!" His fist struck right on target pounding Montaru between the eyes with a satisfyingly loud crunch sound that could be heard from the shark's skull. It was a second or two before the merman's slate colored eyes finally rolled into the back of his head and he dropped to the ground in a heap.
The victorious captain panted hard, black spots dancing before his eyes as he stumbled away from his downed opponent. He was in a rather bad condition even Zoro could see that as the first mate walked over to him. Luffy's body was littered with cuts and gashes, he was caked with blood, and Zoro could only imagine what Chopper's reaction was going to be.
The straw hat wearing boy smiled as toothily as he could in his condition and only when Zoro was closer did Luffy finally collapse. He was caught by his trusty first mate before hitting the floor. Luffy tried to stay conscious the only thought on his mind was getting to Nami but he could feel himself slipping into the darkness. "Z…Zoro," Luffy's voice wavered slightly as he struggled to speak to the green haired swordsman. "We have to go after Nami. I have to… to save her…no matter what." Then his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he finally fell unconscious.
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The swordsman sighed in exasperation again as he hauled Luffy's body out of the fishmen's base and toward the Thousand Sunny. When he walked out the destroyed double doors of the entrance to the main building Zoro heard Chopper's voice calling from behind him. The swordsman turned around to see the little reindeer jumping up and down excitedly and waving to get his attention.
"Zoro, the Sunny is in this direction." Chopper said as Zoro walked up to him. "Robin knew you'd go the wrong way so she told me to wait here for you." The ship's doctor then noticed Luffy slung over the swordsman's shoulder. "Ah! Luffy, help we need a doctor!" Chopper started running in panicky circles. "Oh wait that's right I'm the doctor." The young reindeer said with an embarrassed blush after he was done panicking.
"You can look at him on the ship Chopper we don't have the time now." The green haired man looked down at his younger crewmate and the reindeer squeaked and nodded.
Chopper turned and started to head into the forest. "Come on Zoro we have to hurry and get Luffy to the ship." He was sure to keep an eye out in case his companion started to wander away but it didn't take very long for the two of them plus the unconscious captain to make it back to the Thousand Sunny.
"Oi, there you guys are, I was about to get my 8,000 followers to go out and search for you." Ussop stated posing on the railing of the ship. "After all, the great captain Ussop never leaves his crew behind." Zoro walked past the posing figure completely ignoring him while Chopper had gone starry eyed at Ussop's exclamation.
Franky came up to the swordsman as he was making his way to the infirmary to dump the rubber boy to be treated by Chopper but Zoro was stopped by the blue haired shipwright. "Hey Zoro we saw that ship. Cook-bro over there said it was the one that has Nee-chan on it. It sailed past just awhile ago it was going at a pretty fast speed too. Are we going to try and follow it?" Zoro nodded and turned to the crew assembled on deck suddenly finding himself in charge.
"Luffy's order was to get that woman back no matter the cost." Zoro told the remaining crew said captain was still over his shoulder. Sanji was fuming in the background because the Marimo had referred to his 'sweet Nami-swan' like that. The swordsman pointedly ignored the chef. "We're gonna catch up to those bastards and get her back but if they see us coming after them it might become even more difficult." Zoro told them.
"In other words you are suggesting a sneak attack. Putting out the ship's lights and sneaking in behind them. We cannot reveal ourselves till we are ready to attack." Robin explained picking up on Zoro's plan immediately.
Zoro's eye twitched, "So what are you still standing here for? Get to work already and go after those bastards. Come on Chopper." Zoro turned back around as the others started to move and headed for the infirmary at the back of the ship. The doctor followed Zoro to the infirmary where he started to patch Luffy up and the Strawhat crew set off after their feisty orange haired crewmate once again. The course for the ship was set and luckily it was already set to sail so the Sunny was out to sea in no time.
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It was just after dawn and the inky blackness of night had faded away to the brilliant early morning colors of pinks and blues. However the spectacular display of beauty was lost on the stone faced first mate of the Strawhats as he stared ahead at the other ship sailing on the horizon. Even after sailing at full speed for most of the night they still hadn't been able to catch up with the other ship. Now with the loss of darkness to cover themselves with there was no chance to sneak up on them unseen. The only thing Zoro could figure now was to use the Coup de Burst.
"Franky get ready to use that blaster of yours." Zoro called over to the older blue haired man who was standing at the helm. The shipwright looked at the swordsman in confusion before figuring out what he was talking about and saluted enthusiastically.
"Yosh, you got it, one Coup De Burst coming up." The blue haired cyborg reached over to the intercom and alerted the rest of the crew so that they could prepare themselves and activated the Coup De Burst sending the ship flying forward out of the water and into the air. This way the Sunny easily caught up to the other pirate ship. With a huge splash the Sunny came crashing down in the water just a few feet from the side of the stranger's ship so that they were now both side by side. The Strawhat crew, minus Luffy, since he was still knocked out in the sickbay had gathered on deck.
The crew finally got a good look at the ship they had been pursuing all night, the ship itself was unremarkable. It had a dragon shaped figurehead and wasn't much larger than Sunny but the Jolly Roger on top of the mast drew everyone's attention. It was of a skull with a single diagonal red stripe across the eye and two crossed swords replaced the bones.
"That flag…" Robin gasped.
Sanji and Zoro whipped around to look over at the archeologist. "Do you know these pirates Robin-chwan?" Sanji asked looking back over at the other ship quickly.
"Yes. This is one of the four Emperors of the Sea, the Red Haired Pirates." Robin looked to Zoro waiting for his decision on what to do.
Zoro stared grimly up at the flag. He was not looking forward to taking on one of those guys with one crewmember missing and their captain unconscious. "Alright Chopper, Robin, once we board you split up and search for Nami the rest of us will hold off the rest of their crew." Zoro unsheathed two of his swords and jumped over to the opposite pirate ship.
"Wait for me my wonderful Nami-swan! Your knight in shining armor has come to rescue you!" Sanji's visible eye turned into a heart and he had a dreamy look on his face as he boarded the enemy ship directly after the swordsman. The chef was closely followed by the rest of the crew. Once on board none of the Strawhats were surprised to find themselves immediately surrounded by ferocious looking pirates.
Shanks was standing at the back of his crew. Ben Beckham was standing next to him while the red haired captain was grinning like a madman at the Strawhat flag. "Let's see just how strong Luffy's crew really is, shall we." Shanks asked his first mate. Beckham just grinned back at his captain and silently made his way to the front of the group of men.
"What do you small time pirates want here?" Ben asked, playing his part in this façade. "Do you know whose ship you've just invaded?"
Zoro smirked staring the grey haired man in the eye, two of his swords already drawn ready for action. "Yeah we know exactly who you guys are but we're here to take back our crewmate. Not even one of these so called Emperors is going to stop us." Then the green haired swordsman clamped onto his third sword with his mouth obviously done talking.
Ben matched the green haired swordsman glare for glare as the two first-mates stared each other down. "Have it your way then." Ben pulled out his own sword and motioned for the pirates behind him to attack.
Sanji and Zoro both rushed forward at the same time to meet the oncoming wave of pirates and between the two of them easily created a gap in the crowd of attacking pirates. "Chopper, Robin, go now! You know what to do." Zoro called to the young doctor and the archeologist as he jumped forward locking swords with Ben. Robin nodded silently and slipped through the gap heading for the deeper parts of the ship, the hold and the brig.
"A…are you… sure you want…me?" Chopper stuttered nervously but one look from the swordsman sent the young doctor scurrying through the hole in the fighting and beneath the deck. It was his job to search the crew's quarters. Once below deck and away from the fighting Chopper switched to his Walk point. No one had followed him which he was grateful for. "Whew that was close." Chopper muttered, "It's a good thing no one noticed me slip through." Without any trouble Chopper made it to the crew's bunk rooms. He could still hear the fierce fighting going on above him on deck as he made his way down the long corridor. Using his sensitive nose Chopper swiftly went from door to door trying to find Nami's scent. "I have to hurry the others are counting on me."
After a few minutes the reindeer's blue nose twitched at a familiar smell, one that never accompanied good news, it was the strong smell of blood. Chopper skidded to a halt just outside a large heavyset wooden door. The scent was strongest behind this door. "Nami's here, this scent is definitely hers." Chopper transformed into Heavy point as he tried the door and found it unlocked. He cautiously swung the door open and stepped into the room. At a first glance Chopper guessed this was the captain's room, at least it looked like what a captain's room should be, with rich colors and expensive looking furniture placed around.
There was a large four-poster bed set over near the window and it was there Chopper found his attention drawn. Unconscious and wrapped in numerous bandages was the Strawhat's navigator. With Chopper's trained eye he could easily tell that Nami's condition was not good but he didn't have time to dwell on this or anything else for that matter as a bullet whizzed past his head barely missing him.
A darkly tanned man with blonde hair sat in a chair near Nami's side he held a smoking gun in his hand. Chopper was forced to turn his full attention to the stranger. The man wore a simple pair of brown pants and a blue vest, his headband was the same color blue as his vest, and he had the name Yassop printed clearly on the band.
The young reindeer briefly wondered if he had any connection to Ussop since they had similar names but his train of thought was interrupted by another bullet that the young reindeer was barely able to dodge. 'AHHH! This guy is shooting at me I have to get out of here!' Chopper began to panic and turned to dive back outside the doors but stopped himself. 'No, I can't. Nami needs help and I'm a strong pirate too.'
Yassop's eyes widened and he leaped out of his chair as he was forced to back away from Chopper's wild lunge. 'What the hell is this thing?' The blonde pirate asked himself as he heard a loud crash from above him. 'And, what is going on up there?' The gunman was finally able to put some distance between him and the enraged doctor as they danced around the large room. The blonde was only able to cock back the hammers of his guns for another shot before he found Chopper's huge hands around his throat and was lifted off his feet which caused him to drop his firearms and grab onto the large furry arm.
Chopper was beyond angry. Nami's weak and labored breathing seemed to ring in his head. His nakama was suffering and this pirate was keeping him from helping her. The young doctor tightened his hold on the blonde man and gave him his best glare. "What did you do to Nami? Why did you take her from those mermen?"
"Wait… Nami… you know her?" Yassop managed to ask between puffs of breath. He sounded surprised and he felt himself be lowered just slightly as a confused look passed over the furry face of the one cutting off his airway.
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This is the end of Chapter 9 hope ya'll enjoyed it and please review. See ya next chapter.
Next time Luffy wakes up to find his crew and Shanks's crew in the middle of a fight. Nami is finally back where she belongs but will it be too late for her. Will she be able to pull through for her nakama and Luffy?
