When you return
She knew how to leave messages. And he knew very well how to follow them.
So when a bottle bobbed towards the ship containing nothing but a piece of parchment, the Mugiwara captain eagerly fished it out and unveiled its contents.
"It's a map," his eyes lit up with the hint of a new adventure. Only he wished the person who sent him the bottle had delivered it herself. He wanted his Nami back.
The captain's orange-haired navigator was under a reconnaissance mission, accompanied only by his first mate. Luffy knew she was in good hands. The message itself was proof enough.
He chose then to follow the map to the next island.
It was only a few days later that a box washed onto the shore of what looked like a deserted cove. The Thousand Merry's sharpshooter bounced excitedly, thinking there may be treasure inside. "Luffy! I found something, get over here!"
Luffy opened the box and found that it did indeed hold something the entire crew welcomed: gold. While some of his crew members dove straight into the money, Nico Robin—the only female of the crew at the moment—noticed a piece of paper falling out of the chest. She opened it.
Divide money amongst yourselves. Underneath it another location. Robin smiled. She supposed they were all supposed to go there next.
"Navigator-san seems to be leaving us a trail," Robin commented. "First the map to this island, then another one."
"I'm hoping the idiotic marimo hasn't done anything inappropriate to my dear Mellorine!" Sanji was pining. His comment, however, fell on deaf ears.
The captain chuckled. "Well, you saw the map. Let's goooo!"
Three, four, five, six...Luffy had lost count after weeks passed between each new message. The last one had even their resident historian nonplussed. Yet they pushed onward. Luffy trusted his nakama after all, and that included his expert navigator.
---
She hoped he was following her instructions as she sent them. For all the World Government put a heavy bounty on Monkey D. Luffy, he was mostly an idiot in practical matters. Like getting from one area to the next. In fact, her captain knew to follow only one thing: his nose.
Nami was done, and she'd sent her last message. She knocked on her bodyguard's head to wake him from his slumber. He grumbled. "What? Is someone attacking?"
Thousand Sunny's navigator smiled. "We're going back."
---
"Ne, nothing?" Luffy pouted.
It had been months since the last bottle. They were now docked at another unfamiliar port with no more money. The crew had tried taking various jobs, but with the large bounties on their heads, most of the villagers stayed well away from the pirates who totaled 667 million and 50 beri.
Luffy's stomach wasn't going to last very long.
"Hungry..."
"You finished your money?!" a shrill voice struck the air. Luffy turned and saw a pair of brown eyes glaring daggers at him. "Luffy, that was supposed to last you longer!"
He saw his navigator marching towards him, and instead of cowering with fear of Nami's famous wrath, he ran at her. "L...LUFFY! Let me go!"
"Welcome home!"
She always knew where to find him. And he always knew she'd come back.