"Anyways, I'm just saying, but you could really hire us to help save your country," Usopp suggests, to the loud protests of his crewmates. "It'll be en route if we head down Whiskey Peak, and Luffy needs a bounty anyways."

To say Miss Wednesday is shocked by this would be an understatement. Yes, she and Mister Nine are the ones that begged to come on-- but that's exactly why it's so incredulous to suddenly have them readily agree now.

"Bounty? Ah, right, yes!" Luffy agrees, "I want to get a bounty! The Marines are being idiots so I don't have one yet!"

"Wait, Luffy, this is too suspicious!" Gin immediately shows his dissent. "This has nothing to do with us! We don't have to involve ourselves! Say something, Sanji!"

Sanji hums, taking only a moment to decide that, "well, I don't know what's going on yet," what else is new seriously, "but I can't ignore a lady in need."

"Sanji!" Gin and Luffy exclaim, in despair and joy respectively.

"No no no!" Miss Wednesday quickly denies in a panic, "you don't know who you're up against! The boss is a terrifying man. Even if you are some abnormally Good Samaritans, I cannot subject you to this battle I have to face!"

"Wait, you know the Boss' identity already, Your Highness Lady Miss Wednesday?!"

"Mister Nine, do not call me that! It's embarrassing!" she snaps, blushing as she turns away.

And so begins another spiel about why this isn't a good idea, except they're going around like a bunch of old aunties trying to refuse money repayment from each other. It's honestly getting annoying.

(Can they go already? We all know where this is going to end up.)

Crocus, deciding his job here is done, returns to his lighthouse. He has a newspaper to read. Meanwhile, Nami decides to finally approach the group.

"Hey, Usopp," Nami greets him, ominously cheerful.

Usopp doesn't get a greeting out before he's unceremoniously bashed in the head by a haki-inforced Clima Tact. She actually lands the hit, so he swears his skull is shattered.

"What was that for?!" he whines, tears in his eyes.

"Uh yeah, I was expecting you to dodge it, my bad," Nami says, but she isn't beyond threatening another punch with her new, heavier metal arm. "What are you doing? You're overcomplicating things, you idiot!"

"Says you and then goes to make an alliance with the Whitebeards."

"That is besides the point!"

Usopp looks away, because it is what it is and even if she doesn't like it, she's gotta deal with it. As a Strawhat, she should have plenty of experience with annoying situations, after all. Usopp regrets nothing.

"Anyways, this is my problem!" Miss Wednesday insists, noble to the very end. "I can deal with it on my own! I--" she pales as it suddenly sinks in. "I have to go get Igaram and Carue, oh no, what do I do?!"

"Igaram?"

"See, you do need our help," Usopp says, "and if Luffy beats up your bossman, he'll definitely get a high bounty. It's a win-win situation."

"B- But! But that's impossible to begin with!" Miss Wednesday says exhaustedly. "Even with the Burglar Cat and the Man Demon on your ship, you can't be hoping you can actually defeat one of the Seven Warlords of the sea! And it's Crocodile , of all people. He's got an incredible Devil Fruit ability, you know!"

Immediate, bone-breaking silence descends on the entire cape.

Utter horror strikes.

"Oh no no no forget I said that! PLEASE!"

She's hysterical at this point, desperately fumbling in tears, knowing it was much too late to fix her mistake.

Usopp can't handle this.

He actually bursts out laughing, and he hears Nami join him in the distance.

Gin's shocked enough to actually be petrified, hands loosening against Sanji's collar, flabbergasted expression plastered on their faces. Sanji actually drops his cigarette.

"A warlord?!" Luffy says, absolutely excited now, "hey! That's like the Hawky guy, right?! That sounds amazing, Usopp, hey!"

"Don't be excited about it!" Gin snaps, throwing down his tonfas because if he was going to murder her now, he was very much going to use his hands for it. "Dammit woman! Why did you tell us that?! Now we're definitely going to have to get involved!"

("Oh, so Gin can recognize event flags," Usopp mutters to himself.)

"I'm sorry!" she pleads, tears in her eyes, "I didn't mean to!"

Small mercy, the Unluckies aren't around. They can still turn around and pretend they didn't hear it, and nothing would be wrong.

(The News Coo lands on Nami's arm, and trades a few beris for a newspaper.)

(Usopp nods. There goes all their chances of escape-- in a couple days, Crocodile heading an organization will probably become available knowledge high on Morgans' information channels. Their fate is sealed.)

Sanji swoons, already resigned to their fate because Luffy is sparkling three ways into the sun, "Miss Wednesday is beautiful when she's being a dork, too!"

"Please stop!"

"W-W-Wait, what am I supposed to do?!" Mister Nine squawks. "Your Highness Miss Wednesday-- That's right. I can still pretend I don't know anything, right?"

Yes, yes he can. But for the rest of the Strawhats, that isn't feasible as long as Luffy is apparently way too eager to get involved, and no one is actually trying to stop him except for Gin.

The resulting panic is more amusing than anything else, but Nami sighs in resignation, picking up the Log Pose and strapping it to her wrist, holding up the map with a wide grin. Well, at least the route is nicely charted. As expected from Gin-- though Usopp probably taught him how to do it.

"Well, nothing we can do about it now," she says, turning cheerfully back to the crew. "You're in trouble, right? Then what're we waiting for? Full speed ahead to Whiskey Peak we go!"

"YEAH!" Luffy cheers, and Usopp and Sanji give their similar yells of agreement in slightly differing ranges of enthusiasm.

"Ehh?!" is everyone else's reaction.

"You know it's a trap, but we're still going?!" Miss Wednesday has no idea what is going on right now. Is this a pirate crew, or what? On second thought, maybe it's because it's a pirate crew that they're not thinking about the consequences...

Gin also disagrees. "Nami, you can't be serious."

Nami gestures at Luffy with a shrug. "Well, we can at least get her there. And then if we change our minds, we can turn back."

"You know that's not how it's going to work!" Gin snaps, "if they label us enemies, they're going to chase us down!"

"It's fine, Gin!" Luffy wraps his arms three times too many loops around Gin, "it'll be fun!"

"This is not a 'have fun' situation! Usopp, say something!"

Usopp doesn't, because Luffy isn't going to understand if he just says that.

(They can't play it nice and easy here if they want to grow. It's going to hurt, but that's unfortunately how Luffy learns best. So Usopp and Nami have already agreed on letting these things happen without change.)

(They internally apologize to Gin, though.)

The Captain's ecstatically jumping about, way too eager to get on the ship and set sail right now. Nothing they can do about it if the Captain is the most excited to get there.

"We're going to fucking die," Gin mutters, burying his face into his hands, for about the hundredth time that week. "Two minutes into the Grand Line and our goal is a fucking Warlord. History, bloody hell, it repeats itself."

Sanji pats him on the back. "Shithead, it's not the same as it was with Krieg," he says, " we're heading for the Warlord this time, not the other way around."

"Exactly the problem!" Gin groans.

Luffy grins. "It's the exact opposite of a problem, Gin!" and the man makes a dying noise in response.

"He's right, you know," Nami says, folding up the map after making sure they were set on a heading to Whiskey Peak. "Recklessness isn't the problem here-- it's the solution!"

"Nami, I thought you were the rational one on this ship!"

After Nami got involved with the 'hey we found a princess that's working undercover, let's help her' discussion, it only took a few more words to sort-of convince everyone to allow them onto the ship.

In a 'fuck it, I'm tired of talking common sense into idiots, let's just go' sort of way.

Gin and Zoro were the only voices of reason on the ship-- but Zoro was asleep, and Gin couldn't win an argument alone.

Sanji is in agreement with everything that has to do with Miss Wednesday's wellbeing, and Usopp and Nami were already in the process of getting there, as if the decision was obvious from the start.

Something is wrong here (are they on crack?) and Gin doesn't know what.

(Goddammit, he likes this crew but sometimes he just wants to strangle all of them slowly in a dungeon.)

For Miss Wednesday and in her defense, she really didn't have a choice. She had to get back to Whiskey Peak regardless, and if she had to ride the road of a pirate ship to get there-- well, it's the least riskiest thing she's done so far.

(Why did they even believe that she was a princess, anyways? Just because the long-nosed said so?)

"But this isn't any of your business!" she insists, even as they board the ship. "I know I'm speaking this ironically-- but I could steal a weapon and stab you guys in the back when you aren't looking!"

"Well, are you?" Luffy asks.

"Uh. No, but--"

"Then that's fine, you can stay."

"Don't trust so easily! Are you really the captain?!"

It's probably a statement to their disorganization that Miss Wednesday feels genuinely concerned for this ship's workings.

Gin, for one, isn't going to retort anymore.

This is unfortunately his captain now and he has to live with it. It's okay, the stress can't possibly make his life any shorter than it was already fated to be.

Mister Nine sighs. He sits on the deck (I'm going with you, Miss Wednesday! We're partners, after all-- I can't just leave you now!) and simply watches everything go on. He's very out of place here and he's aware of it.

"What are you talking about, Miss Wednesday? Of course it's our business," Nami says, raising her finger. "It's business , period. I'll have you know our prices aren't cheap."

Miss Wednesday's jaw drops.

That was a complete game changer for the situation, as ridiculous and unsensible it already was. "You're charging?!"

"Bodyguard fees, mercenary fees," Usopp counts off the top of his head. The bird on his shoulder adds her own input, but goes ignored. "Beggars can't be choosers, unfortunately."

"Wha-- I wouldn't be on this ship if I weren't desperate…" Miss Wednesday despairs, suddenly realizing the anchor has been raised and she only has two more minutes to hesitate, "you guys are so dishonourable!"

"We're pirates!" Luffy gleefully reminds her.

"Last I recall, we were trying to kill a defenseless whale," Mister Nine notes the hypocrisy, to which Miss Wednesday hisses for him to be quiet.

"You're a princess, right? You should have cash," Gin points out. Regardless of whether that's true or not, they were a bounty hunting organisation. They literally run on the premise of cash, so there should be a monetary benefit for them somewhere.

"No, we're kind of in the midst of a civil war, as I've said…"

"Then we'll put it on your tab."

"Is this a bar?!"

"No, this is a pirate ship."

At this point, Miss Wednesday wanted to jump off.

But alas, all her brain cells have curled up and died in the process of the absolutely appalling conversation, and she realized it was much more to her own benefit that she stayed here and hitched a ride.

"Plus, this isn't done without reason," Nami finally admits, to everyone's surprise. "While I agree-- it's dumb to lead two of you onto our ship, we need the manpower right now to make it through the starting storm. So basically, you gotta work your cab fee."

"Ah," Miss Wednesday looks up, rather appreciative of that one factor that allowed her to breathe with a little less guilt, "I see. That's fair… I suppose…"

"Come to think of it, this is an abnormally small crew," Mister Nine admits, "I'm rather surprised you made it here at all."

"Hey," Luffy takes offense.

"He's right, in a way," Nami pats Luffy on the straw hat. "At least for now, we need more people on hand, even if they're just there to pull some strings or fix holes that show up in the hull. And trust me, we'll never have enough hands around here."

(Just like the other side of the Red Line-- there's always a storm that greets them in the entrance. It's the factor that wipes out most of the unprepared pirates in Paradise.)

(However, it's not as straightforward on this side of the wall. It can range from heavy snow to thick fog on a sharp spin to strong winds and icy paths, but the fact remains that it's dangerous to go on unprepared.)

(Usopp's patch jobs have always been notoriously shoddy, but they were always quick when the times called for it. Now that he was blind, he could do neither. That was, before they get a shipwright in Franky, a big loss.)

(Which is why they went out of the way to get a sea king to ferry them across Reverse Mountain. Even in the first time around, the ship would have capsized much earlier if the crew did not have the particularly patchwork-competent Usopp with them.)

(And that was really ironic to think.)

(Though Usopp was bitter to admit it, he was no longer competent in the same way, and thus they had to make new adjustments accordingly.)

"Bye Whale! Don't rub out that mark now!" Luffy loudly warns.

The whale sings back, the crudely-drawn Strawhat jolly roger clear and bright on his head. Crocus stands at the pier to see them off with a hum.

They wave goodbye to Crocus and Laboon as they parted from the Twin Capes, finally making their way toward the first stretch of the Grand Line.

Zoro lays asleep at the corner of the deck with Kinoko flopped across his belly. They were snoring quite loudly, but they were out of the way so it was fine.

(Nami contemplates punching him awake, but she decides against it.)

As entertaining as it was to see them coerce an unwilling princess onto their ship, Gin did not like the situation and he was making that clear. He was going to watch her like a hawk-- and everyone had agreed to that-- so any suspicious moves would be interrogated.

Even if Usopp swears that she's an actual princess, Gin could care less. Royalty and nobility are things he never bows down to, after all.

"Here's the deal, Luffy," Gin finally speaks up as they face the horizon. His captain sits on the figurehead, and they were away from the rest of the crew. He lowers his tone, speaking seriously. "I'm tolerating this until we get to our destination. If for a second I think we shouldn't do this-- you're listening to me, understood?"

Gin isn't going to let them walk right into a suicide situation, idiots or not.

(As the oldest and most experienced member of the crew, he's responsible for at least this much.)

Luffy looks over, his expressions neutral. Despite the childish eagerness he had displayed, he looks at him with a degree of gravity in his expressions, willing to listen to those words in consideration of Gin's feelings if nothing else.

"The Captain of this ship is me, Gin," he says, his tone laced with just a hint of whininess. He even punctuates it with a light smile, like a lighthearted reminder rather than a stern warning.

But it didn't seem that way to Gin.

Gin stiffens, face steeled, as if the words had hit him a little hard. Luffy notices the way he goes paler, fingers tightening around his forearms in fear.

The Captain had failed to catch until now, that his Quartermaster wasn't used to their ways yet. But the Quartermaster, too, had forgotten that the nature of this new crew was far more complicated than this.

To Gin, this was the precognition of something dire. A slap to the face, a swing of a blade, and immediate regret.

(Men are killed often on the Don's ship.)

(It's the natural order, after all. What were those men thinking, going against the Don's orders? Did they think they had the right to express their disagreements directly up the chain of command?)

(Perhaps, Gin has grown complacent too.)

(For a moment, he had forgotten that he didn't have any authority on this ship. What was he thinking, complaining constantly about everything and even justifying it in his head that it was for the crew? Has he gone mad?)

The Don was authoritative and unforgiving. Gin had always been careful when working under him-- and this would be his first fuck up. He pales, feeling the churn of another round of blood making its way up his throat.

But none of that happens.

Luffy simply adjusts his hat on his head and turns back toward the sea.

Picking up after his mistake without an apology-- because they didn't need those things-- "I trust you, Gin!" he staples it on with a resolution and a wide smile. "So if you think we really shouldn't, then we won't. Alright?"

(I decide where we go. And you make sure it doesn't go too far out of control.)

And it's another phrase he's heard plenty of times from Don-- but from Luffy's lips, it sounds beautiful. It sounds genuine, and it fills him with so much confidence, he might have cried there.

Maybe it's the pain of the poison in his chest-- nah, he's used that excuse too many times. Maybe one day, he can admit that these warm feelings are joy.

(What was he bracing himself for? Luffy isn't Don Krieg.)

(He thought he knew that.)

On this ship, he could complain as much as he wanted. He was allowed to. There will, of course, be people that deny his denials, and things will never go the way he wants them too-- but that's fine.

Because order is something only done in moderation on a pirate crew. His job was essential-- but sometimes, moderation can run wild. Moderation can be a nag. And they would love him and need him all the same.

"Alright, captain," Gin manages to say. Then, more for himself than for Luffy, he adds that, "I trust you, too."

It's snowing.

Which Nami actually despises for the irony-- she had just changed to the heat model, dammit. Grand Line weather, curse you!

(And of all things, Zoro is asleep, so it's not like she can ask him to change her limbs again. She'll kick him later. With the metal foot.)

Luffy had been building snowmen for a long while, until he threw a snowball at Mister Nine who had been criticising his art skills. Except, he missed and hit Sanji.

So now Luffy and Mister Nine were running for their lives while Sanji, who had a shovel, was trying to bury both of them. Mister Nine has no idea why this is happening to him.

Zoro now had snow covering him in a layer. Kinoko, seemingly registering the cold but not willing to rouse, squeezes herself under the belly warmer and continues sleeping.

Gin had been out there shovelling with Sanji, but after the chaos occurred, he decided to stand there and contemplate his life decisions again.

(Then the three stooges pelted him with a snowball and he takes that as a personal insult, so he proceeds to join in, but that was of course beside the point.)

Nami wraps a shoulder guard, layered with heat packs, around the core of her metal arm. It won't help out much near the elbow and finger joints, but it prevents frostbite at the core and that was enough for now.

She hid out in the galley with Usopp and Miss Wednesday, wrapped in blankets.

Usopp was working on the Buggy passport they had acquired, trying to transform it into an ornament that they could carry around without it getting in the way of battle.

"They're freaking out about Luffy's crazy stunt on the execution platform," Nami tells Usopp. They're seated by the table, the former reading the newspaper.

The front page was plastered with Luffy's face, a shot of his smile as the execution is shown in shambles behind him. A second picture depicts him exchanging sake cups with a cloaked man, moments before lightning struck.

There were accompanying pictures as well, mostly civilian shots of Nami and Gin getting along as they made their purchases around town. Zoro, another prospective Straw Hat member in Marine opinion, also had a picture displayed in the corner.

Usopp chuckles at the descriptions. "But no bounty yet?"

"No, but I think that's more out of confusion than anything else," Nami surmises. "They're putting a large warning on 'Straw Hat Luffy' with this article, though. He leads the two highest bounty holders in the East-- and he can apparently contact the dead."

Usopp snorts.

All the while, Miss Wednesday gives them a strange look. Nami describes every picture they find, and reads it out to him as if he couldn't read it for himself.

(Is he illiterate? That's not uncommon... But then there wouldn't be a need to describe the pictures, would there?)

Gradually, as they ignored her and continued to speak-- Miss Wednesday realized that the long-nosed craftsman was blind.

(But her hand shivered at the realization that this was the same man that found them behind a rock, exposed their intentions-- and knew her secret.)

(Why did he know so much?)

(It was, just a little… incredibly, incredibly terrifying.)

(They say that those who are blind are the ones that have seen the most in the world.)

"But they don't know just how much damage he can cause yet, so his bounty is still tentative," Nami summarises.

Which makes sense-- the platform event could have been a skit or a prank for all they knew. Pirates loved flashy things and the more experienced marines were willing to bet the situation on a loud publicity stunt if nothing else.

But they got news coverage, and that was all Nami wanted.

On a smaller scale, they also covered the Revolutionary event on Tequila Wolf, (which was penned down as a 'rebel base found in an abandoned country' instead of the ironic other way around.)

Even if the World Government was unaware, someone involved in that outbreak would definitely remember the straw hatted boy. Rumours will spread about the revolt possibly kicking off from that little jailbreak.

(It won't be a big deal, but it will certainly ring some bells in future conversations.)

"They don't know how to gauge the wanted amount because this is a confusing sort of threat hailing from the East sea, of all places," Usopp shrugs, "well, he'll definitely get one after Crocodile, so it's only a matter of time."

"I'm betting on a hundred mil starter," Nami grins. "We're hyping him up, y'know!"

"That's impossible," Usopp denies immediately, "the highest starting bounty recorded in history is eighty million, you know. They won't go any further than that for an outset. Also, Nami, where the hell did you pick up that vocabulary?"

"None of your business. But if you're in such denial about it, wanna bet ?" Nami repeats herself, her voice slurring in an almost cheeky, seductive way that made Usopp rethink every decision in the world.

(When Nami makes a bet, she never loses-- even if she does, she'll find a way to make you miserable about it, to the degree where it doesn't even feel like you've won. It really, really sucks sometimes.)

He groans. "Just read the rest of the article."

"Why?" Miss Wednesday speaks up.

They turn to her.

"Why are you two so sure you'll defeat Crocodile, just like that?" she finally brings up the courage to ask. "I don't think you understand just how fearsome a man he is!"

She couldn't handle this anymore-- this nonchalant nature.

(It was mockery to her.)

She'd suffered for five years, just to get anywhere close to this progress and a bunch of pirates are just going to waltz in, take care of it, and that would be it?

What makes them think it'd be so easy?

(She almost doesn't want them to help her, but that's her pride talking, so she would never vocalize it.)

(But the emotions stay there, churning in her impatience.)

"We understand," Usopp says, his tone stern and serious. "And Miss-- Vivi," he uses her name, and that makes something in her shrivel. "We're sorry that there was no one that could give you this same degree of help before now."

(Huh?)

"It's a political problem, after all," Nami says. Her words were to Vivi, but her heart seethed in the memories of Arlong Park's dark ages. "The World Government is at fault-- sometimes, a girl has to stand up for her precious people. I was the same, too."

Miss Wednesday bites her lip.

"There are things we can't do alone, even if we risk our lives and spend years in hell for it," Nami tells her. And she inches, just a little closer to the princess. "And I realized that a company of ragtag pirates is better than having no company at all. The only thing in my way was my confidence that now had no pillar, and my pride."

And Miss Wednesday resists the urge to shout.

(Pride? Confidence? Is that what they're summing up her internal conflict into?)

Of course, she wanted someone to share the burden with. She had Igaram with her, Carue always by her side. But loneliness always prevailed, for the sake of her kingdom.

She couldn't trust a single one of her fellow agents.

(So when Mister Nine vehemently declared his desire to stay on the ship with her, because they were partners -- she had internally marked him an idiot.)

(An idiot, because didn't you know? I don't trust you nearly as much as you do me.)

(I was tricking you this whole time. Don't call me your partner-- I'm a terrible, terrible person that deserves none of your compassion and trust!)

She feels a hand at her cheek and she immediately backs off, sharply slapping it away. It takes her another second to realize it had been Nami-- and she was holding a handkerchief.

And Miss Wednesday had frustrated tears trailing down her cheek.

She wipes it away, furiously pretending they never existed.

"I'm not overconfident!" she insists, her anger overtaking her. "All of you are! The situation is hopeless, and we're all going to die once we reach Whiskey Peak… and yet… and yet all of you are still here, bringing me there…. Why?"

Her voice broke at the end of it, and she dissolved into tears.

There are Officer Agents waiting for her at Whiskey Peak. It was stupid to even bother going there-- but Igaram and Carue were there, and she needed, needed to get them first. If she didn't go, they would definitely die.

And yet…

"Vivi," Nami calls, but she doesn't look up. "Vivi, look at me."

She does, and she finds Usopp sliding a cup of warm tea in her direction. Nami hands her the handkerchief-- but Vivi doesn't take it.

"You're right. Whiskey Peak is a trap, so there's no reason we should go there. You have friends on that island, but if we're choosing the lives of those two or the lives of your whole country-- it's easy to see which is more important," Nami challenges her.

Vivi snaps at the implication, "I am not leaving Igaram and Carue to die!" She slams her hand on the table.

"So you're just going to die with them instead?" Nami says, raising her voice.

"No! I--"

"That is exactly what you're thinking," Nami says. "Deep down, you know that it's impossible to save both of them. But here we are, giving you a slim chance for all of you to make it out alive. And you trust it, that's why you're asking us to go there."

"That isn't what I'm doing!"

"It is!"

And she fell silent, biting her lip.

(She's right.)

(Right now, Miss Wednesday is trying to use this crew to her benefit. It's not as if she has a choice in the matter, and they were willing, after all.)

"You don't have to think about it, Vivi," Usopp tells her. "You're not a nice girl, and your years in Baroque Works is proof of that. You might as well make the most of it, you know?"

Use us, they were saying.

Use us as your pawns to save your country.

We're volunteering.

"Your strongest suit is spearheaded leadership, as a princess of your country," and those words struck her, almost too well in her heart. Usopp grins, though. "Take the reins, and we, the idiots, will follow. And you're going to make sure we all make it out alive."

"Not too literally, of course," Nami quickly adds, "Luffy's still the captain of this ship. But we'll take your words as the advisor, counsellor and strategist in this war. And in return, we get prestige, and your skills for the duration of the voyage. Is that fair?"

Almost too fair.

Vivi could see the thinking line behind the pretty words.

They were just ferrying a princess over like busybodies-- but they were trying to involve themselves, to turn this into something else.

To turn this into future investment, so they can plant their seeds of connections into the roots of a royal kingdom once they liberate it.

Everything else was something short of a convenient excuse, that was obvious.

(Is this as bad as what Crocodile is doing?)

(...maybe not.)

"That's fair," she admits. She wipes her tears, picking up the teacup and taking one soothing, warming sip. "But… but we'll negotiate the terms in detail at a later date."

Nami extends her flesh hand, to which Miss Wednesday takes in gesture of contractual agreement. "You can be assured of our skills at the next island," she promises.

"The incredulity of this crew has assured me as much, but I will keep that in mind," Miss Wednesday says, breaking into a resigned smile.

"Everyone! Storm coming south-southeast!"

Everyone jumps up at the same time to put their full point of attention at the navigator. Usopp and Miss Wednesday leave the galley, the latter padding gently at her raw and reddened cheeks, trying to get her energy back.

(Zoro stays asleep, but no one notices yet.)

"Usopp, take the jib sail! Sanji, on the rudder-- wait sorry, the other way around!" Nami orders. Usopp doubles back, abruptly remembering despite himself that a blind man shouldn't take the damn jib sail, because that doubles as aft lookout. "Gin, tighten the sails!"

"Aye, sir!"

It was finally time to face the chaos, and Nami had the most excited smile on her face. Maybe that was why everyone else couldn't help but smile back.

"Iceberg at eleven o'clock!" Miss Wednesday yells loudly.

"It's huge!"

"Usopp, rudders hard to starboard! Sanji, rein that in!" Gin yells before Nami could order it. The two obey immediately, and the synchronous action prompts a smooth, wave-compelling turn that Nami has never come close to experiencing without Jinbei on their side.

They avoid the iceberg almost too perfectly, coming close but never grazing the surface.

It surprises her, so she takes a moment to meet Gin's eyes-- and she suddenly realizes that she wasn't the only one with navigation knowledge anymore.

In fact, Gin had sailing knowledge that surpasses hers-- he knew, not perfectly, but enough for a caravel, how to turn ships. And he could do it so much more naturally than Nami could ever hope to emulate.

Nami's specialty lay in the direction and the weather-- and that's where she should put her attention on. Gin had skills everywhere else-- and for a highly specialized crew like this one, a member like him was vital.

(I do what I can do, and you do what you can do.)

(That's a crew, right?)

Gin nods at her, not quite registering her thoughts but prompting for her to ensue the next command. He was the responder of the situation, after all-- not the commander.

(Nami didn't have to do everything on her own anymore-- that was such a crazy thing to think about. She might have been underestimating all of her crew until now.)

She laughs.

(Oh, what to do? She's so happy.)

"Ooh, there's a dolphin in the distance!" Luffy announces, ecstatic, pointing at something none of them have the liberty to look out for, "it's huge! Nami, let's go find it!"

"Luffy, sit down and be quiet!" Nami snaps, though the smile is so, so wide on her face.

She looks at the log pose.

"Usopp, angle our course thirty degrees northwest! Strong winds coming in from the starboard, so Sanji, hold your spot!" she orders. Then as an afterthought, "Gin?"

Gin holds tight to the ropes of the sails, nodding sharply, "Hey, Mister Nine! Get off your ass and take the other sail!" then a second later, "Usopp, pull back!"

Usopp pauses there, careful not to turn them too sharply across. He could only gauge, after all-- he couldn't clearly tell from orders and feeling alone.

"Zoro, wake up, we're in an emergency!" Usopp yells. "And Kinoko, stop ignoring us and get out of the haramaki!"

"Are you fucking serious?!" Gin exclaims, not having noticed the swordsman and the bird still being asleep this whole time. (Come to think of it, roads were abnormally free of bird face-hugs today.) "HEY! We need another hand on the sails! ZORO!"

"Rocks! Nami, Rocks!" Luffy yells out urgently, "they came outta nowhere!"

That definitely happened a lot on the Grand Line, didn't it? Nami takes it in immediately-- crap it's impossible to dodge all of them! "Twenty degrees, Sanji!"

"Too late! We grazed it!"

"Water below deck!" Wednesday yells, rising from under the deck, carrying the oars in her arms.

"Damn it!" Gin swears. The Merry was such a fragile vessel. "Nine, go fix it!"

"Wha--" Mister Nine falters, but flinches as Gin gives him a death glare. "Okay, okay!" He goes after it immediately, knowing from his prior ship tour where the supplies were.

"Winds rising fast!" Nami raises her voice, alarmed, "raise the sails now! Ship hard to port, it might be a cyclone!"

"The sails are going to tear! Luffy, help me out here!"

"Sanji, keep the jib out but hold it tight!"

"Usopp, I'll take the rudder! Help out with raising the sails! Luffy, go up and get it from the crow's nest!"

"Another leak in the lower deck! I need larger planks!"

"Wednesday, there are spares in the women's room! Get them to Nine!"

"Could you at least put the Miss and Mister before it?!"

"Is this the fucking time for naming conventions?! Wait a minute-- ZORO, WAKE UP!"

"Kinoko! I know you're pretending, GET UP!"

Of course, once they were out of the storm and sprawled out in pure exhaustion, Zoro got an inglorious slug over the skull with the Clima Tact.

"Can't believe you would actually do it again," Nami hisses.

"What do you mean, again?"

Nami pointedly doesn't answer that.

Needless to say, Zoro is just as confused as the first time as to why he got hit over the head. He's swearing colours into their ears and everyone is too tired to explain to him just yet.

(Meanwhile, Usopp is sitting by the bow, holding his bird upside down by the legs as if it was a chicken about to be gutted. He's giving her the most unimpressed look in the world, and the bird expertly avoids meeting his eyes, not that he can see or anything.)

(Everyone averts their eyes.)

"Huh? What are these bozos doing on our ship?" Zoro asks, as soon as he recovers.

Miss Wednesday and Mister Nine lay on the deck, out of breath and absolutely gratified for the decent springtime sun. "You just noticed?!" even they're exasperated.

"Come to think of it… what were you guys' name again?" Zoro crouches down, "Mister Nine? Miss Wednesday?" he hums, tilting his head quite contemplatively-- "now where have I heard of that before?"

The two agents sweat nervously. There was no way this swordsman of the East Blue could know about their organisation, could he?

"Uhm, actually… it's a long story at this point…" Miss Wednesday tries to fill in, but her hesitation gives her no time to explain anything.

Nami checks the Log Pose one last time-- and turns her eyes to their heading.

"We're here, everyone!" she declares, just as the clouds part to reveal the grand, charming silhouette of Cactus Island in the distance.

"It's an island!"

"We got here alive!"

Luffy bolts up from the dead, beaming in fascination at the abnormally mountains that were the island's namesake. Sanji takes it in similarly, his excitement palpable in the view of the very first island they would encounter on this monstrous sea. Gin is much more tense, but among the crew, he lets his shoulders ease.

Zoro keeps a hand on Kogatana, his other hands resting against the swords around his waist.

"We'll reach shore in an hour, in this wind," Nami says. "Now sit down, everyone-- it's time to talk about the plan."