Title: Storm
Pairing: NamiVivi
Warnings: Use of weapons.
Summary: Capturing Vivi was Nami's final mission as a bounty hunter. Her client would pay well, and the mission would ultimately save her village from the hands of Arlong. However, somewhere along the way, it seemed as if it was Nami who got captured by Vivi.
Author: Stopless [ladyquintessence Tumblr]
Beta: Atlanis Tumblr
Note: Written for the 2015 opbigbang.
The sun's rays filtered through the drapes of bedroom window, and Nami was met with a small headache. She slowly got up from the bed and stretched before taking a quick shower and putting on her armour and equipping her weapon.
She looked at Vivi, who was still sleeping, the sun's rays filtering through the drapes and onto her hair creating a soft glow around her.
Without thinking, Nami stroked Vivi's bangs away from her face.
Nami then quietly made her way out of the room. She needed to get a quick cup of coffee and breakfast for both Vivi and herself. The meeting with Luffy and Zoro shouldn't be too long, either.
xxx
Nami made her way into the same bar that she and Vivi had dined in last evening. She headed to the back of the bar, where business was typically dealt.
Zoro and Luffy did not disappoint her. They were already there, nursing a drink, and already blending in so easily with their desert garb. Zoro wore an orange hood decorated with a gold trimmings and a loose-fitting zebra print robe on top of his usual garb. His three katana were tactically hidden away under the loose robe.
Meanwhile, Luffy wore a blue scarf atop of his strawhat and also a loose-fitting robe. The robe was a beautiful maroon with silver trims. Unlike Zoro, Luffy was a brawler. He mainly relied on his fists in battle, and sometimes when the battle gets more rough, he was not above welding knuckles made out of metal. The last time Nami saw Luffy in battle, he had on metal knuckles that were a deadly black.
Nami casually slide into the seat that had been waiting for her. She signaled for a bartender to the table, ordered, a drink, and when it arrived, got down to business.
She took a sip of Rainbase's Specialty before speaking. "There's been a change of plans," Nami said. "You will still be my backup, but at a different location."
Zoro sighed. "So much trouble."
Luffy, in contrast, laughed at Zoro's predicament. "Go on, Nami," Luffy said.
"I need the location of the base," Nami said. "So you two would have to get that information from someone. Interrogate them, fight them, use whichever method suits you best. Once you rely the location to me, then your job's done."
"There's something you're not telling us," Luffy observed.
Nami was silent. She took another gulp of her drink. "I need to save my strength for a battle there if the situation calls for it," she finally admitted.
"Don't tell me it has to do with her," Zoro said, referring to Vivi.
"It does."
"I knew it," Zoro replied, shaking his head. "So that was the bounty hunting business you were talking about back then."
Suddenly, Zoro's expression became dead serious. "Nami," he began. "I've only seen he briefly in battle, but she's deadly. Are you sure you don't want our help?"
"This is something I have to do on my own, Zoro."
"Alright."
"Here, take this," Luffy said, breaking the tense atmosphere. He rummaged through a clothed bag before presenting Nami with a DenDen Mushi device. "We just have to get the location. Once we tell you, you can go kick the boss' ass, right?"
"The boss is her client, Luffy," Zoro corrected, lightly jabbing Luffy with his elbow.
"Anyway," Zoro said. "Don't hesitate to call us if you need us. And don't forget our payment."
"Why, Zoro," Nami grinned. "Don't you remember that you own me? Plus interest?"
Zoro only grumbled as he finished the last of his drink.
xxx
When Nami returned to the bedroom, however, Vivi was gone.
Her garb, armour, and weapon were no where to be seen. Nami wondered if Vivi had the same idea as her, and settled on nursing her coffee at the table as she waited for Vivi's return. They would soon go over the plan again, and finally encounter the leader of Baroque Works. The tyrant putting Alabasta and its moons to ruin. The client that would help Nami further her own goal.
Not for the first time, Nami wondered if they were in another universe, things might have been a little different. A little different, but enough of a difference.
It was getting close to past an hour, and Nami grew concerned about Vivi's lack of return. Did Vivi leave to go search for the Baroque Works leader without her? … Or did Nami accidentally say something to Vivi last night about the location of the leader and thereby exposed the entirety of her cruel plan?
Once the hour passed, Nami got up from her seat.
Something was wrong.
Vivi wouldn't suddenly abandon her help. It didn't add up. However, no signs of struggle were present in the bedroom, which meant that Vivi had left out of her own volition.
That, or she was forced to cooperate.
A cold, sinking feeling coupled with anger suddenly shook Nami to the core. Of all her years of being a bounty hunter, she should have know better. She should have known that bounty hunters did not only rely on their ability in combat, but dishonourable tricks in order to get what they want. Such a rule did not only apply to bounty hunters, either. It applied to almost everyone across the galaxy.
Her client, the tyrant, the leader of Baroques Work themself, had outsmarted her during her moment of doubt and weakness. The leader had never planned to give Nami a great bounty. Instead, Nami's purpose in the grand scheme of things was to bring Vivi to Rainbase. The rest of the Baroque Works' loyal members would see to it that Vivi was brought to the leader themselves.
With one last look of her surroundings to make sure that she didn't miss anything, Nami rushed downstairs and went outside.
She needed the boss' location as soon as possible. Time was of the essence. It no longer mattered from whom she got the information. When she made it into the privacy of a dimly lit inn, she contact Luffy and Zoro with the DenDen Mushi device. It was time for another change of plans.
xxx
Cold water poured onto the head of the captured bounty hunter. They were known as one of the 'millions,' who were not considered as powerful as the Baroque Works members with a single digit number, day of the week, or holiday as their code name. Nonetheless, the captured bounty hunter glared defiantly up at their captors.
Zoro tried, but failed to prevent a yawn as he stood outside of the building to keep watch as Nami interrogated the unfortunate soul within. Nami had called Luffy and himself earlier. Zoro had been the one to pick up the DenDen Mushi, as Luffy was still sleeping off a huge dinner. Luffy always did eat too much. His stomach was like a bottomless pit. Yet that was what made Luffy, Luffy.
Nami had told Zoro that the blue-haired women - Vivi - was missing, and they needed to get her client's location as soon as possible. Zoro did not need to be told that the Nami's very own client had taken Vivi. Zoro had then thrown on his desert garb and equipped his katana. After a brief meeting and a hastily drawn together plan, they managed to engage a boisterous 'millions' member into a drinking game.
While Zoro and Nami had always been able to hold their liquor quite well, their victim had been the opposite. An act of drunkenness out of the bar soon led to the bounty hunter's predicament of cold water in an abandoned building just outside of the main city.
The bounty hunter shivered while they say on the concrete floor of the building that was engulfed in a cool shadow of the building itself and their interrogators. A lone stream of sunlight was what gave the bounty hunter hope of escape, however that hope was slowly fading away.
Another wave of cold water hit the bounty hunter. They spit it out. There was something unnatural about its taste and making. The women with orange hair seemed to be summoning it with a blue staff.
Water was already considered to be a high commodity even in Rainbase. Sure, it had been all part of their brilliant boss' plan to have one of its top members disguise himself as Alabasta's king hosting the import of Dance Powder in order to engage the people in conflict. However, even without the Dance Powder to summon rain due to being blessed with natural rain, Rainbase's value in water skyrocketed among even its very own citizens.
Although the water being summon by the women with orange hair seemed unnatural, it was water nonetheless, and it started to gnaw at the bounty hunter that something so precious was being wasted. The water had to come from somewhere, didn't it?
"Tell me your boss' location, and this will all be over" Nami said again, summoning cold water onto the captured bounty hunter.
The bounty hunter seemed determined to not break under the torture, and although Nami did not show it, she was starting to feel concerned. Not particularly toward the unfortunate bounty hunter - didn't they value their life at all? - but concerned about the possibility that the bounty hunter did not actually know the answer to her question.
As the bounty hunter started to lose consciousness, indicated by the nodding of their head, they uttered their final words before suscumming to darkness.
"Millions travel in packs."