Disclaimer: See disclaimer from Chapter 3.

~ Witch on the Waves ~

Chapter 4: Haki, Part 2

The two sisters had agreed early on to avoid using Haki against anyone in the East Blue, not wanting to garner the wrong kind of attention. They later changed that to using only Observation Haki, deciding that it was discreet enough that no one would notice so long as they didn't show off. And it was good practice. But now, with a fallback under their belts, they decided it was time to start going after high-level East Blue bounties, basically anyone with a price of over 10 million Beri on their head.

It was on one of these that they met Roronoa Zoro.

The target of the day was nothing particularly unusual, just an ugly-looking pirate captain with a few scars, four flintlock pistols in his belt, and some very good skills with his saber. The first mate was a good shot, the second mate was a planner, and the rest were grunts.

What gave the captain his 14 million Beri bounty, and the first mate 6 million, was the slaughter, rape and pillage of one small town that had tried to drive off the pirates when they demanded ransom under the threat of their ship's cannons. The captain had killed the defenders, led his crew into town and literally attacked anyone in sight and visited various atrocities upon the inhabitants.

This, of course, was why Nami and Nojiko picked that ship as their next target.

They had been recognized on the approach this time ("it's the Fighting Sea Sprites!") and had to dodge bullets and cannonballs on the way in, which they easily did. But when they leapt up onto the gunwale, shooting a couple of snipers in mid-leap, there was already a commotion on the other end of the ship. Still, the immediate battle took their attention, and the two girls attacked.

After fighting their way half-way across the deck, there was a pause as the cause of the commotion became apparent.

"The Pirate Hunter, Roronoa Zoro?" asked Nami, recognizing his description from his three swords and unusual green hair.

"The Sea Sprites?" His voice was surprisingly clear around the handle of the sword between his teeth, which must have taken practice.

"The Fighting Sea Sprites, thank you very much," said Nami tartly.

At this point, the pirate captain decided to take the opportunity, and fired one of his pistols at Nami and the other at Zoro. Nami dodged easily, and Zoro, who had kept an eye on the captain, deflected the bullet on one of his blades.

"Shut up, we're talking here!" "Don't be rude!" exclaimed the girls. They each pointed their pistols and fired at the captain's knees, which he barely dodged. And he shut up.

Nojiko and Nami shared a look and Nami whispered in Nojiko's ear. Nojiko grinned and offered Zoro, "Bounty's yours if you spar with us afterwards. We're mostly here for the fight."

Now that, Zoro understood. He nodded and faced the captain, who dropped his spent flintlocks and drew his own sword. "Looks like it's just you and me."

Nami and Nojiko watched for a moment, then jumped away and sliced through the mainmast and some of the rigging, bringing down the crow's nest. Nojiko went to retrieve the first mate, who had been up there and now fell into the sea. Nami put away her sword and gun, unfolded her collapsible staff, and dashed around the deck, knocking out the rest of the grunts.

When the fighting was over and all of the pirates subdued with nary a scratch on any of the bounty hunters, Zoro said, "So the rumors call you the Fighting Sea Sprites, but they don't mention your names."

Nami and Nojiko used their Observation Haki on Zoro, then glanced at each other, communicating wordlessly as siblings who spend a lot of time around each other can. That, and they each used Observation Haki to read the other's emotions.

"And you're not getting them unless you promise to keep them secret," said Nami.

"And even then, not around here," stated Nojiko, indicating the pirates laid about, some of them still conscious.

"Fair enough," said Zoro. "Now about that spar…" and his eyes gleamed eagerly, glancing at the sliced-off mast.

"One on one, sword and martial arts only. Nojiko first, duel to first blood. No sense in getting ourselves stranded here wounded." Nojiko went first because Nami could patch her up with magic if need be, or if they had overestimated Zoro's trustworthiness.

Nojiko drew her katana and dropped her Observation Haki. She would still use Kami-e, feeling air movements in order to dodge, but Zoro might notice if she started countering attacks before he made them.

Zoro likewise drew his three swords and took a stance.

"Begin!" barked Nami, standing off to the side. She focused fully on Observation Haki, both to watch the combatants and to stop any of the wounded pirates still lying around the deck in case one of them pulled out a hidden surprise.

In the initial clash, Nojiko realized that Zoro's Three-Sword Style wasn't anything like having three fully articulated limbs. The sword in his mouth could only slash from one side, and he had to move his body a great deal in order to do anything more, which was slow and could throw off his balance. So it was more like two swords and a greatly handicapped third. Two swords she could deal with, having practiced against that style in a couple of dojos.

The basic principles in wielding one sword against two were: to avoid getting into a blade lock with only one of your opponent's swords, which would let him use the other to attack; to use the greater speed and strength produced by having two hands on your blade to your advantage; and to stay mobile and dodge as much as possible.

Nojiko discovered that she actually had considerably greater speed than Zoro, and this combined with Kami-e and near-equal strength let her fight on an equal footing with Zoro for about five minutes. Unfortunately, she couldn't get a hit on him; Zoro's defense with his three blades was simply too good, his greater weight meant that she couldn't force him off balance, and he was light enough on his feet to dodge kicks and slashes toward his legs if his swords weren't in position to block.

So eventually Zoro managed to block a strike with both the sword in his mouth and the one in his left hand, leaving his right free to nick Nojiko on her arm.

"Halt!" called Nami.

Nami's match with Zoro went very differently. For one thing, she was physically stronger than both Nojiko and Zoro. (While Zoro had been weight training longer than Nami, he also slept a lot. A LOT.)

For another, Nami had been watching Zoro closely against Nojiko, and now had a good idea of how he fought. While Nami's style was very close to Nojiko's, Nami also used a couple of dirty tricks.

To end the match, she blade-locked all three of Zoro's swords, grinned, and said, "Your footing is bad."

Zoro frowned. There was nothing wrong with his footing.

Then Nami made it so by stomping hard on the deck and smashing the beam they stood above, causing Zoro to stumble while they both disengaged. Nami immediately dashed to attack. Zoro, not off-balance and unable to block properly, tried to counter-attack by scissoring at Nami with his swords, and Nami raised her left knee and blocked one blade with the collapsible staff strapped to her thigh, battered the other blade to the side, then lashed out and gave Zoro a shallow nick on his right pectoral, which he was unable to deflect with the sword in his mouth because the blade was on his left.

"Halt!" called Nojiko. "I believe that's first blood to Nami."

For some reason Zoro seemed strangely pleased. Under his breath, he muttered, "Kuina was wrong."

"What's that?" asked Nami.

"Eh? Nothing." said Zoro. "So I heard the rumors that you two can run on water. Is that true?"

"Yes, our boat is just over the horizon and we ran from there. Basically you have to constantly hit the water with your foot hard enough that it keeps you up. You should be able to do it with practice."

"Thanks, maybe I'll try it."

"How did you get here anyway?" asked Nami. "I don't think I saw a boat anywhere around the ship."

"Stowed away in the hold when they left port. I didn't want to risk one of the bounties getting away while I fought the other, so I waited till we were out at sea. I'm taking one of their life-boats to get off this ship."

"Makes sense. So, shall we go raid the captain's room and split the treasure?"

~ Witch on the Waves ~

Once the girls were back in their boat, Nami took off Nojiko's bandage and healed her nick with an Episkey.

"So what did you think of Zoro?" asked Nami.

Nojiko grinned. "He's hot."

"He is!" agreed Nami. "But did you notice? Not a lick of interest."

"Are you sure? You didn't Observe anything when you were watching my match?"

"Nope, sorry. Not that kind of interest, anyway. He does love his swordfighting though."

Nojiko groaned. "Well darn." Then she perked up, "Maybe he's gay?"

"Pervert."

"Hehehe. Anyway, besides that, did you notice how strong his teeth have to be to use a sword like that? That's not normal."

"Yeah, most people would have knocked their teeth out during some of those blocks. There's definitely something different about biology in this world that lets people train and surpass the physical limits of the materials our bodies are made of. Tekkai is just the most blatant example."

"And it wasn't Haki, I checked. There wasn't any more spiritual energy around his teeth than the rest of him."

"And I'm sure you checked out the rest of him quite thoroughly, didn't you Nojiko?"

~ Witch on the Waves ~

"Hey Nami!"

Nami whirled about and gaped at Nojiko, who was hopping in the sky. "What, how? Geppo?"

"Basic Armament! We're more than strong enough to use the rest of the Rokushiki with Enhancement!"

"Why did I not think of that?!"

They spent the rest of the day in the middle of nowhere in the East Blue practicing Geppo, Soru and Rankyaku, stopping only when they ran out of energy. Tekkai was an odd case because the idea was to strengthen your body with just your muscles, so using Haki would only lead to instinctively using Hardening. That would have to wait until they were just plain stronger physically. And Shigan? What was the point of that anyway? If you want to make bloody, bullet-sized holes in someone, just use an actual gun. Or a knife, or any kind of weapon really.

When they were done for the day…

"Hey, Nojiko, I thought up a new way of training our stamina with Armament."

"Yeah?"

"Basically, just use Armament: Hardening on part of your body under your clothes, and hold it as long as you can all day."

"Sounds tiring, but I guess that's the point."

"Yup. We may have to change our clothing to cover more skin once we can maintain a larger amount of Hardening."

"True, but for now… iron boobs!"

Nami rolled her eyes. "Are you sure you're straight?"

~ Witch on the Waves ~

The East Blue was a big place. It covered one-quarter of the globe, minus the relatively narrow sections taken up by the Red Line, the Grand Line, and the Calm Belt. It contained over 7,000 inhabited islands, a little over 100 Marine bases, and at any point there were upwards of 500 pirate ships operating in this ocean.

So it was no big surprise that it took almost a full year of bounty hunting before they turned in another bounty at Loguetown, despite actively avoiding bases commanded by corrupt Marines.

Because it was a busy port, they left their boat on an out-of-the-way uninhabited island, and teleported directly atop an empty patch of ocean over the horizon from Loguetown before running in. They did want to spread that reputation for running on water, after all.

It worked out quite well this time. They were met by Captain Smoker when they reached the Marine base, each of them toting a hogtied man over one shoulder and carrying a bounty poster in the other (it was a way of stopping people from thinking this was a kidnapping).

"You two the Fighting Sea Sprites?" asked Smoker around the two cigars he had in his mouth.

"That's us," said Nami. "We're here to turn in Roderick the Bloody Fist and his first mate Jameson for their bounties." The two sisters set their tied and gagged burdens down on the floor and rolled them over to show their faces, handing over their bounty posters.

Smoker examined the posters, reached down and pulled out their gags to better see their faces. Jameson immediately started cursing, until Smoker threatened to knock him out.

"That's them alright. Total of 19 million Beri bounty. Secretary, find our copies of these posters and cancel them. You four," he said, pointing at four Marines who were in the room, "carry these two to lockdown, cuff them, and untie them. In that order."

Two of the Marines immediately went to grab the captured pirates, hoisting them onto their shoulders the way the girls had. They then staggered out of the room, sweating, much to the silent amusement of Nami, Nojiko and Smoker.

"So macho," whispered Nojiko after they left, which caused Smoker to snort and Nami to snicker.

As he sat down at his desk and pulled out a checkbook, Smoker said, "My lookout said you two came into port running on the water. Where'd you learn that trick?"

"We came up with it ourselves," said Nami honestly.

Nojiko nodded, "You have to kind of give the water a sharp stomp with your feet, and if you do it hard enough it keeps you up above the water."

"That sounds a lot like a Marine technique for stepping on air. It's called Geppo. You ever hear of that?"

The girls controlled themselves perfectly, not letting on that they knew anything about it already.

"Really?" "Really?"

"If you're stepping on air, does that mean you can fly?" asked Nojiko excitedly.

Grinning wildly, Nami declared, "We are so totally trying that out!"

Smoker facepalmed.

As he handed them a check for each of the bounties, he said, "You two look familiar… are you the two that were with the sheriff of Cocoyashi Village, what was it… 'round two and a half years ago when he turned in Arlong?"

Nami and Nojiko went still.

"That's us," said Nami seriously. "Would you mind keeping it a secret though? We don't want any pirates attacking our village in revenge."

Smoker nodded. Then, with a wry smile, he said, "Sure. Would you mind not telling anyone that I told you about Geppo? It's supposed to be a Marine secret."

"If anyone asks," said Nami solemnly, "we were told about it by Captain Nezumi of the 16th branch." And she winked.

"Nezumi? The rat guy? Why him?"

"Oh, he's the one who was taking bribes from Arlong."

"Anyone who saw his face would believe he was capable of selling government secrets, he practically radiates it."

Smoker snorted. "Works for me. Now, have you two ever thought of joining the Marines?"

Nami and Nojiko looked at each other, communicating something. Then they both grinned.

"Sorry Captain!"

"Marines just don't have enough fun!"

"Anyway, thanks for the bounty!"

"Gotta fly now!"

And they vanished, the door swinging closed while laughter drifted in from the street.

"Damn, forgot to ask for their names," muttered Smoker.

~ Witch on the Waves ~

It was the incident with Smoker that prompted Nami to cast a Fidelius Charm. Its secret was, "Nami and Nojiko, also known as the 'Fighting Sea Sprites', are from Cocoyashi Village."

It took some doing, but Nami managed to let everyone from Cocoyashi in on the secret, and then suppress the memory that they had momentarily forgotten about Nami and Nojiko. A bit underhanded, but she didn't want to let everyone know about her magic. The two sisters also explicitly asked everyone to keep the secret, which would hopefully keep them from actually trying to tell anyone and noticing that they couldn't.

Not only did this wipe Smoker's and the Marines' knowledge of their origin, it also meant that in future they could use their names in public, associated with the "Fighting Sea Sprites" title, without worry that it would backfire on them.

~ Witch on the Waves ~

"Hey Crocus-sensei," asked Nami, "is there any way of countering the other sides of Observation Haki? I know when you said it was possible to counter emotion sensing by controlling your emotions, and intent sensing a couple of different ways, but what about presence and strength sensing?"

"Not that I know of," said Crocus, knowing by now not to use the word "impossible" around these two, especially Nami. "I actually asked the same thing when I was learning, but even if you can suppress your aura, the only thing it does is condense it and cut off your own usage of Observation.

"Hmm. Can you feel me when I do this?" And Nami used her standard set of stealth spells, turning invisible, silencing and hiding her scent.

"Yes. Nothing has really changed at all, except for your intent to sneak around to my other side."

"Damn," said Nami, dropping her spells in mid-step. "I'll have to think about this."

She later asked Nojiko for help, went completely outside the range of her sister's Observation Haki, and used a scrying spell to spy on her. Nojiko reported that she couldn't feel a thing.

"Well that's good news. I'm still not going to be able to properly infiltrate certain places, but at least I'll be able to gain some information. Too bad scrying doesn't give you any sound. Maybe I'll have to modify the spell, or come up with a sound version and use two in conjunction."

They also discovered that direct magic could be countered by Armament Haki.

"That makes sense," said Nami. "Devil Fruits are magic, and Armament Haki famously counters Devil Fruit powers, so it's no surprise that direct magic like stunning spells is also blocked by Armament: Hardening.

"Now the question is, can I infuse my magic with Haki like Devil Fruit users can infuse their powers with Haki?"

That turned out to be much harder, since Nami was effectively trying to control two mystical energies at the same time, both of which required a good deal of focus. She would take several months to figure it out.

But before that time, Crocus sat them down and said formally, "Nami. Nojiko. I have no more to teach you. You've been excellent students, you've learned Haki far faster than anyone else I know of, and you've even taught me some things that I don't think anyone has ever figured out about Conqueror's Haki. You have yet to learn some of the more advanced Armament techniques, but I've told you everything I know about how they work and as I am unable to use them myself, I can help you no further. From now on, you are no longer my students."

"Thank you, Crocus-sensei," said Nami. "We're very grateful for the training you gave us."

"We'll still come visit you and Laboon once in awhile. And keep helping him learn Haki," said Nojiko.

~ Witch on the Waves ~

Author's Note: My numbers for islands, Marine bases, and pirates in the East Blue are non-canon; I'm totally guesstimating based on the size of Krieg's armada (50 ships), the fact that Morgan's base is the 153rd branch (assume numbering is worldwide, that gives us a lower bound) and the fact that the canon storyline really lists only one-seventh of the important islands in the Grand Line (there are seven routes through the Grand Line, after all).