Disclaimer: See disclaimer from Chapter 6. Yes, I'm going to keep doing this for the rest of the chapters.
~ Witch on the Waves ~
Chapter 7: Usopp
Luffy let out a big yawn as he woke up.
"Hey! You started eating without me."
"Don't worry, we saved you an extra-big share," said Nojiko. "Oh, and here's your hat." She stuck it back on his head.
"Thanks!"
Luffy inhaled his food, then sat back and thought for a moment.
"Hey, what happened to the fight? Did I fall asleep like Ace?"
"Dunno who Ace is," said Zoro, "but," and he pointed his thumb at Nami, "she knocked you out in less than half a second."
"Aw, man! That sucks."
"Don't worry Luffy," said Nami. "You and Zoro are in for some very hard training. You'll get stronger in no time!"
"When can we start?"
"As soon as you finish eating and we get underway. It starts with a long lecture on how Haki works."
"Lecture?" Luffy looked crestfallen.
"Oh, don't be so sad, Luffy," said Zoro, fighting the urge to scowl himself. "It'll be painful, but it'll be worth it."
Nami and Nojiko couldn't help themselves. They erupted in gales of laughter.
~ Witch on the Waves ~
"There's something interesting on this island," said Nojiko after Luffy and Zoro had run off with a local boy with a long nose.
Nami looked up from the photos she was studying. "That one aura that's almost as strong as Zoro, while everyone else's are at civilian level? Yeah, go ahead and have fun."
"Are those the pictures of the Devil Fruit diagram?"
"Yeah. I need to study these sooner or later. I'm sure you guys can handle whoever that is, and the rest of this island seems kind of boring."
"Not overly taken with Usopp?"
"Not really," said Nami. "I guess he appeals to Luffy's childish side, but he seems kind of pathetic for a guy his age."
Nojiko chuckled. "Yeah, I guess. We'll see."
"I'm also going to train my magic a bit. I've got some ideas."
"Okay, okay, I get it. I'm going."
"Hey Nojiko?"
"Yes?"
"When we're done with this island, can you teach me how to sew?"
"Seriously?"
"Seriously seriously."
"You don't know how to sew? Even after 172 years of your previous life, you didn't learn?"
"Men don't sew."
"Pffft. Hahahahaha!" Nojiko cracked up laughing.
Nami pouted. This just caused Nojiko to laugh harder.
~ Witch on the Waves ~
What worried Nami about Devil Fruits was their source of power. When she stood near Luffy, she couldn't sense a magical core or any kind of similar reserve of magical energy. This pointed towards an external source of power, which in Harry Potter's experience was usually a powerful sentient being with an agenda of its own. Usually some kind of deity or demon.
Moreover, Devil Fruit powers displayed some of the signs of a dark ritual: an instant power-up without a known price for the user, with a built-in, specific weakness to satisfy the balance of Life and Death. What made it worrying was the lack of a known price, because that often meant that the price was either paid by someone else (a sacrifice), or that the user would pay the price later, sometimes thrice or even seven times over. This was the definition of a dark ritual.
So Nami labored to deconstruct the enchantment diagram of the Devil Fruit they had found, focusing on trying to identify that unknown power source. It was slow going, but any progress was good.
~ Witch on the Waves ~
Nami focused.
From her magical core in the center of her chest, she drew magic. She guided it through arm, molding it in well-practiced ways: shaping it, imbuing it with intent. Hiding. Staying unnoticed. Averting the attention of all others.
From her mind, she drew spiritual energy. Melding it into the spell, she imbued it with resolve, with strength and unbreakability, with force of will, to counter the will of others.
Doing these two things at the same time required considerable mental juggling, a mastery of Occlumency, and a good deal of practice with simpler spells.
She cast the spell, a Notice-Me-Not charm to cover herself.
It held! Finally, on the fourteenth try!
She teleported away, appearing near where she could feel the auras of Nojiko, Luffy, Zoro and Usopp.
Usopp was declaring that he would fight off the pirates all by himself to protect his town. And he was crying. And his knees were shaking.
"Yo. What's going on?"
"Nami? Wait, Nami?! Why can't I feel your aura!" exclaimed Nojiko.
"G-G-G-GHOST!" screamed Usopp, running in circles with his hands in the air.
"Boo." And Nami dropped the Notice-Me-Not, appearing in front of Usopp. To Nojiko, her aura suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"AAAAAAH!" Usopp screeched to a halt, his eyes bugging out. Then he dropped on his back in a dead faint.
Nojiko gaped. "Sis! You… Oh my god you figured it out!"
"Yup," said Nami proudly. "Finally came up with a solution for hiding from Observation Haki. Unfortunately it's not a pure Haki solution, so I can't teach it to you, but at least I can apply it to others if need be."
"Okay, so this is is way over my head," said Zoro, "but were you actually invisible just now?!"
"Not exactly. More like I was actively preventing everyone from noticing me. I would still show up on film if you took a picture."
"I still don't understand," said Zoro.
"Just put it down under something I can do, like teleporting."
Luffy finally stopped laughing, which he had been since Usopp fainted.
"So what's going on sis?" asked Nami. "Did Long-Nose say he was going to fight off some pirates? Isn't that us?"
~ Witch on the Waves ~
After a condensed explanation from Nojiko, Nami said, "Considering the strength of Kuro and Jango, and assuming the rest of their crew is even weaker than Jango, it would only take two of us at worst to defeat them. So how can we keep this from turning into a total snooze-fest?"
"I was gonna let Usopp make the plans," said Luffy.
Nami thought for a bit. "Okay," she said simply. She prodded Usopp awake, using a discreet, low-powered Enervate through her fingertip as she poked him.
"GAAAAH! GHOST!" shouted Usopp, backing away on his hands and feet.
"Seriously, Usopp?" said Nami dryly. Her lips twitched briefly, then she said, "Don't worry, I'm friendly. I promise that I won't possess you, set you on fire, steal your life force, or use telekinesis to stab you with Zoro's swords. See? Nothing to worry about."
"S-sure, n-nothing to worry about. J-just a friendly g-g-ghost."
Seeing that Luffy and Nojiko were incapacitated with laughter, and that Usopp was still terrified of Nami, Zoro decided to move things along.
"So Usopp," he said, "What's the plan for tomorrow? In case it isn't obvious by now, we're helping."
~ Witch on the Waves ~
The next day found the five hiding at the top of a slope that was covered in oil. Nami and Nojiko shared a look, and Nami shrugged.
"You know," said Nojiko, "this oil slick idea was great and all Usopp, but the pirates are coming from the other side of the island."
"WHAT! Quick, to the north of the island!" And he dashed off.
"I'd better go grab our boat, don't want them stealing our meat, do we Luffy?" And Nami teleported away.
Luffy shouted, "Oh no, our meat! Gum-Gum ROCKET!" And off he went.
"Wait!" called Nojiko. "Wrong direction…" But Luffy was gone, so she shrugged, vanished at high speed to catch up to Usopp, and kept pace with him the rest of the way.
"So," said Nami, having teleported their boat away under a Notice-Me-Not before they arrived. "Whatcha wanna do about that, Usopp?" And she pointed to the Black Cats' pirate ship, sailing towards them.
"Couldn't you scare them away with your ghostly powers?" asked Usopp.
Nami and Nojiko laughed.
"I hate to break it to you, Usopp, but I'm not a ghost." And she rapped him on the head with her knuckles.
"Ow! But yesterday you said you were a ghost!"
"Actually I didn't. You were the one who said I was a ghost, all I did was say I wouldn't do various things to you. Most of which not even ghosts can do. If you want I can still set you on fire though."
"What?! No! Argh! Where's Luffy? Shouldn't he be here by now?"
"He and Zoro are running in the wrong direction completely," said Nojiko.
"Well I guess it's up to us," declared Usopp with resolve, despite his trembling knees. He pulled out his slingshot.
As the first pirate landed on the beach, he shouted, "Exploding Star!" and released a pellet filled with gunpowder, hitting the man in the chest. It knocked the pirate over, but he got up a moment later.
"Exploding Star! Exploding Star! Lead Star! Special Tabasco Star! Why aren't you two shooting at them?"
"Eh," Nojiko and Nami shrugged. "We don't see the need."
"What do you mean you don't see the need?! The pirates are still landing! Exploding Star! Egg Star! Lead Star!"
"We were hoping Luffy and Zoro would get here soon, but either way, we'll wait until they've all landed," said Nami.
"Try some more of those Tabasco ones," said Nojiko. "They seem more effective than the others." Indeed, the one Usopp had hit in the face with a hot sauce pellet was the only one still out of the fight.
"I don't have many of those! Special Tabasco Star! Special Tabasco Star!"
"Well," said Nojiko as the last of the pirates who had left the ship finally landed, "I suppose we can't let them attack the village."
"And Luffy and Zoro are still lost. I can't believe they don't know how to tell which way north is. It's early morning, the sun should make that obvious!" griped Nami. "I guess they're just gonna miss the fight."
"Yup," said Nami. And the two girls dashed down the slope and attacked.
When the girls were halfway through the fight, Jango started swinging his chakram and shouted, "When I say Jango, you will stop fighting and fall asleep! One–"
"Yoink! Hey Nami, anything special about this thing?" Nojiko grabbed the chakram, glanced at it for a second, and tossed it to Nami.
Nami examined it for a moment. "Nope, seems like he's just using standard hypnotism. It wouldn't work if you looked away from this thing."
She went back to knocking heads. Three seconds later all the pirates were lying on the ground, out cold.
Usopp gaped comically. "Fast."
"Would have been even faster if we hadn't stopped to pickpocket all of them," said Nojiko, holding up a sack that Usopp just noticed she was holding.
"Time to go loot their ship!" declared Nami enthusiastically.
They ran across the water and jumped on the Black Cats' ship, making Usopp gape even more. A trio of pirates started some weird drama routine, but Nami and Nojiko knocked them out before they got two words out.
"Hey Usopp!" came a call from the ship. "Do us a favor and start tying them up!"
~ Witch on the Waves ~
Luffy and Zoro managed to arrive before Kuro, who had gotten into a state of murderous annoyance at the tardiness of his crew. For most people, it would take a good deal of fury to reach the 'murderous' level. For Kuro, it took just slightly more than mild annoyance.
The fight with Kuro was somewhat interesting. Luffy decided to fight him alone (again, captain to captain), but Kuro kept disengaging and trying to attack others, including Usopp's friend Kaya, the island's rich heiress, who had shown up in the middle of the fight. Nojiko, Nami and Zoro had to guard Kaya and Usopp.
The interesting and useful part came when Kuro used 'Shakushi', which turned out to be an uncontrolled version of the Marines' Soru technique. This meant the girls had a viable public excuse for knowing Soru, as long as they didn't call it that.
Unsure of whether they could claim a bounty for Kuro considering he had gotten his bounty canceled when he faked his death three years earlier, they just left him in the hands of the villagers along with the rest of the crew. The Marines would be called after they left.
Kaya decided to gift the island's protectors with a ship, the Going Merry.
Luffy asked Usopp to join his crew.
And Nojiko started teaching Nami how to sew.
~ Witch on the Waves ~
Later, after they departed, on the deck of the Going Merry, Nami asked, "Hey Luffy? What made you ask Usopp to join your crew?"
"He's a good guy and he's funny."
"I know that, but I'd think he'd need something more for you to want him on your crew. Any other reasons?"
Luffy shrugged. "He's Yasopp's son."
"Who's Yasopp?"
"Shanks' sniper."
"I see, well I guess parentage is as good a reason to give someone a chance as any. Captain Luffy, permission to train this pathetic mook into a warrior worthy of sailing with the future King of the Pirates?"
"Go ahead," said Luffy, laughing.
"Excellent. Usopp, drop and give me two hundred," barked Nami.
"Two hundred what?" asked Usopp.
"Two hundred pushups, of course! No stopping! And when you're done, roll over and do two hundred crunches!"
"That's impossible!" shouted Usopp. "No one can do two hundred push-ups in a row!"
"And when you're done with the crunches, you'll be doing squats until you drop!"
"Oh, I see. You're joking. You're joking, right?"
Nami let out a light burst of Conqueror's Haki. "Are you questioning me?"
"Erk! No! No! Ahh, scary!"
"Sounds like… a light… warm-up," said a strained voice behind Usopp, and he turned around to see Zoro doing one-handed handstand pushups with his feet against the mast, big chunky weights strapped around his ankles.
"Best get to it, Usopp. If you're not done by the time the sun starts setting, you'll have to start over again! When I'm done with you, what Zoro is doing will seem like baby exercises! You will be so fast that you can run quicker than the eye can see! You will be so strong that you can lift up an entire ship and throw it! You will have such stamina that you can fight ten thousand men and come out the victor! You will be so manly that you will bleed testosterone! Yeeouch!"
Nami pulled her needle out of her thumb and sucked the drop of blood forming on it. Stubbornly going back to her sewing, she decided to armor her fingers with Haki before continuing.
Nojiko and Luffy just laughed helplessly.
~ Witch on the Waves ~
Three days of sailing later, Nami finally finished her sewing project. With a smirk, she had kept it a secret from everyone else, including Nojiko, stating that it would be "something awesome" and they would see when she was finished. While Nojiko recognized the patterns she was sewing to be magical runes, Luffy kept trying to look at it from various angles, going so far as to hang upside-down from the yard (the horizontal piece bar from which the mast hung) in order to look at it.
"It's finally finished!" announced Nami, holding a roll wrapped in canvas.
"What is it? What is it? Is it your Jolly Roger?" asked Luffy, having acquired his own skull-and-crossbones flag two days ago after the crew rejected his own terrible artwork and unanimously decided to go with Usopp's design.
"Now Luffy," said Nojiko, "did you see her stitching any designs that looked like a skull or bones?"
"No," said Luffy, "but I know Nami's tricky! And it's a big rectangle, what else could it be?"
"Well sorry Luffy, but it's not a Jolly Roger. Actually I'm not sure if I want a Jolly Roger. I don't plan to have any crew other than you guys, so I don't really need one."
"But you're a piiiiirate!" wheedled Luffy. "All pirates have to have a pirate flag!"
"Actually there's one other pirate I know of who doesn't have one," Nami informed him, "and he's the only other pirate captain I know of who doesn't have a crew."
"Really? Who is it?" asked Luffy.
"Dracule Mihawk, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea," said Nami.
"And the current strongest swordsman in the world," added Zoro, gripping his swords.
"So anyway, time for the big reveal!" And Nami set it down on the floor and unrolled it.
Everyone stared at it.
"It's just a rug," said Usopp, disappointed.
It was a rug, a fairly simple design of deep royal blue with stripes of white and green running along its length. The two short edges were trimmed with white tassels. Nami had sewn runes into a pattern that sprawled across most of the rug using gold thread.
"It's not just a rug, is it?" said Nojiko, knowing her sister.
Nami smirked, stepped onto the middle of the rug, and sat down cross-legged. "Nope."
The rug rose into the air above their heads, tassels sticking out straight as if it weren't hanging in mid-air.
"IT'S A FLYING CARPET!" And she shot off, the rug stiff yet flexible, maneuvering according to her will as she looped and turned around the sails of the Going Merry. "WOOHOOOO!"
Flying was every bit the thrill for Nami as it had been for Harry Potter. She quickly changed to lying on her stomach, hands flat on the rug spread in front of her, so she could fly headfirst into the wind.
Everyone below gaped, including Nojiko. Luffy was the first to recover. "AWESOME! I want a ride!"
Unfortunately, Nami was out of earshot, climbing toward the clouds. She shot through one cloud, then looped around it, buzzing close to the bumps and humps in the cloud. Then she was off, weaving between more clouds at faster and faster speeds.
Puru-puru-puru. Puru-puru-puru. The Den Den Mushi she kept in her expanded backpack rang.
"Nojiko!" shouted Nami, answering the call. "This is awesome!"
"Are you ever coming down?"
"I'M NEVER COMING DOWN!"
"If you don't come down right now, I'll tell Crocus about that time you tried using happy emotions with Conqueror's Haki."
Nami teleported next to the ship instantly. "I'm here, I'm here! You promised to keep that a secret!"
"And if you stay up in the sky forever, you'll never know that I broke my promise, will you?" said Nojiko smugly.
Nami's eyes narrowed. Then she smirked and said, "Are you sure you want Crocus to know what happened to you when I used happy Conqueror's Haki?"
Nojiko blushed. "How did you know?!"
Nami just winked.
"Shut up! Anyway, Luffy wants a ride. And I do too!"
Luffy took that moment to jump on the flying rug next to Nami.
Nami snorted and said, "Come on then. I've got room for three. Hmm, I'll have to measure its speed sometime. It's got to be at least 400 kilometers per hour."
She spent the next three hours giving rides to the crewmembers. She had to turn the rug upside-down and disengage the sticking charm in order to get Luffy off the first time.
When Luffy requested his own flying carpet, Nami thought for a moment and said, "I don't know if it'll work for you. Let's try it out."
She landed the rug flat on the Merry's deck, and had him sit down on the rug by himself.
"Focus on what you want the rug to do, Luffy. Just will it to rise in the air. It's fairly simple like that."
Luffy closed his eyes and focused. His torso stretched, taking his shoulders and head away from his legs.
"Not like that!"
Luffy opened his eyes again, looked down, and said, "Oops!" He immediately snapped back to his normal shape.
"Focus on the rug. Not on flying yourself, but on the rug picking you up and flying."
Unfortunately, when he tried again, nothing happened. Nami focused on the magical energies and realized nothing was flowing into the power runes in the rug.
"Sorry, Luffy. I had thought that the rug might be able to draw the required magical energy from your Devil Fruit power, but unfortunately it looks like whatever or whoever is powering Devil Fruits won't let that magic to be used for other purposes."
"Awww," said Luffy. Then he perked up as he always did. "I'll just have to get a ride from you whenever I can!"
"Magic?" asked Zoro.
"Yup! I'm a witch and I can do magic!" said Nami, grinning broadly. "Why do you think Nojiko and I kept laughing when you called me a witch?"
"You're a witch?!" Usopp was shaking in fear again. "As in turning people into toads and pointy hats and contracts with devils and dark magic?! THAT'S WORSE THAN BEING A GHOST!"
"Oh, don't be silly," said Nami. "Only evil witches do real dark magic. Only stupid witches make contracts with devils. And only unfashionable witches wear pointy hats. So you have nothing to worry about!"
"I notice you didn't say anything about turning people into toads!"
Nami cackled. "Best not slack off on your training then!"
Then she addressed Zoro. "Oh, don't be so suspicious Zoro. Magic is not inherently evil, it's just a form of energy. There's good magic and bad magic just like there are good swordsmen and bad swordsmen. There are magical animals too, and they're nothing more than animals with some magical traits. Den Den Mushi, for example."
"Hmph," Zoro grunted, not wanting to admit his negative thoughts. But Nami could tell he wasn't suspicious anymore with her Observation Haki.
"So," said Nami, "now that the cat is out of the bag, I'm going to have to ask all of you to keep this a secret within the crew. Being the only magic user I know of in the world, I'm sure the World Government would love to lock me up, experiment on me, or use me in some fashion. To that end, I've actually applied a spell called the Fidelius Charm to prevent anyone from accidentally blurting out the secret. Okay?"
Everyone on the crew agreed. Nami had actually cast that Fidelius shortly after she and Nojiko had made their respective arrangements with Luffy. The secret was, cleverly, "I'm a witch and I can do magic."
~ Witch on the Waves ~
Nami decided to go off on her own the next morning.
"I'm going to start systematically charting of all the islands in the East Blue that I've missed. It's been rather haphazard so far, just mapping and plotting every new island I saw. Our itinerary was dictated by our bounty-hunting activities.
"As you know, I've left a Den Den Mushi with Nojiko and she has my number. If I don't answer immediately, it's because I'm in stealth, and I'll call you back later. Nojiko, call me if anything interesting happens, you know what I mean by that. Or if you need the boat; like we discussed, I left it on our hidden island so you'll need me to bring it if you want it for some reason. And if there's an emergency, you know how to alert me even if I don't answer the snail."
Then Nami flung open her flying carpet into a hovering position in mid-air, and vaulted onto it.
"Bye everyone! See you in a few days at the most!"
"Wait! Nami! Won't people see you on that flying carpet?"
"Ah, but sis, this isn't just a flying carpet. It's an invisible flying carpet!" And she faded out of sight, only her laughter trailing behind her as she vanished into the distance.