Disclaimer: See disclaimer from Chapter 14.
~ Witch on the Waves ~
Chapter 15
The next morning, Vivi felt weak and stumbled when she got to the deck.
The crew panicked.
"NAMI!" shouted Usopp. "Do something!"
"Why am I the one who gets called? I'm not a doctor," asked Nami, who had been watching quietly and waiting for everyone to stop running about and shouting. Well, not everyone. Zoro had decided on a more productive method of panicking and was lifting a huge set of weights, and Nojiko and Robin were also watching with quiet concern.
"Nami can do anything!" said Luffy. Sanji, Usopp and Carue nodded enthusiastically, and Carue added a "Quack!"
"It does seem that way sometimes," opined Robin. Nojiko, but also nodded.
"Oh, fine! Apparently I'm the ship's nanny. Come on, Vivi, how are you feeling? And I mean physically, what's your body telling you?" Nami sat Vivi down on the steps to the after-deck.
Vivi answered, "Tired, despite having a full night of sleep. Hot."
Nami placed the back of her hand on Vivi's forehead. "Hmm, definitely a fever. Any aches or pains anywhere?"
"No. Only the spot where I got bitten by a bug yesterday."
"That could be relevant. Where was it?"
"On the back of my neck."
Nami checked. There was a light red spot. "That could be relevant, we don't know what kind of prehistoric bugs were on Little Garden. Let's see…" She cast some diagnostic spells.
"Fever is 40 degrees Celsius. There's no stinger in that bug bite or sting or whatever it is, just some pus coming out. As I said, I'm not a doctor and my healing spells are limited more or less to fixing broken bones and repairing cuts, I have no idea how to analyze blood for poisons or pathogens. So let's get you to a real doctor."
"Fixing broken bones and cuts?" repeated Robin. "That's impressive by itself."
"Nami-swan is so amazing!" agreed Sanji.
"Okay, Vivi, I'm gonna take you to Doctor Crocus," said Nami. "He's an old doctor who taught Nojiko and I how to use Haki. Remember when you and Mr. 9 were trying to kill that whale at Reverse Mountain? He's the guy who told you you couldn't." She unrolled her flying carpet. "Alright, have a seat or lie down if you don't feel like sitting."
Vivi climbed on the floating rug and sat. "He's not going to be angry at me?"
Nami hopped on next to her. "Nah, once I explain he'll be fine with it. Alright, everyone, I'll bring you news as soon as I know anything."
"Quack!" Carue hopped on the other side of the rug.
"You're coming?"
"Quack."
"Okay, fine, only because you're Vivi's bodyguard." She teleported away.
~ Witch on the Waves ~
When they appeared at Twin Cape outside the lighthouse Crocus lived in, Nami cast about for his presence.
"Oh great, he's not in the lighthouse," said Nami. "Vivi, cover your ears, this is going to get loud." She flew the carpet over the ocean.
"Loud?"
"Yup," she said, and shouted, "LABOOOOON!"
There was a pause, during which Vivi asked, "Who's Laboon?"
Nami just repeated, "Cover your ears now." Vivi obeyed.
BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!
Laboon breached the surface.
"The whale?!" "Quack!"
"Laboon, we need to visit the Doctor."
BWOOOH?
"Yes, now open up."
Laboon opened his mouth.
"Thanks! I'll talk to you later Laboon," said Nami, and she directed the flying carpet straight toward Laboon's mouth.
"What are you doing?!" shouted Vivi, gripping the rug. Carue chimed in with a series of quacks.
"Visiting the Doctor!" grinned Nami, flying between Laboon's teeth and down his throat as Vivi and Carue screamed.
When they got to the whale's stomach, the two exclaimed in surprise as it looked almost like they were outside again.
"Hey Crocus-sensei!"
"Nami! And who's this? One of the whalers from a few weeks ago?"
"She's not here to try to kill Laboon anymore. Actually we're in need of your skill as a doctor. Crocus, meet Princess Nefertari Vivi of Alabasta. Vivi, this is Doctor Crocus. Vivi's got a high fever and exhaustion, possibly due to a bug bite or sting she got when we visited Little Garden."
"And Little Garden is?"
"A prehistoric island. Dinosaurs, fern trees and everything."
"Hmm, I'll take a look. Mind you, I don't have all the equipment anymore. The only patient I've had in years is Laboon."
"Thank you Doctor," said Vivi.
Nami hopped off the carpet onto Crocus' floating island to allow Vivi to lie down at the edge. She kept control of the floating rug with a remote command similar to a flying broomstick's "Up" command.
"So tell me," said Crocus as he started taking Vivi's vital signs. "How does a princess end up toting a handheld cannon and going around with a mercenary?"
~ Witch on the Waves ~
Unfortunately, after the examination was over, Crocus said he couldn't make a diagnosis. "It's definitely not a poison, looks like a bacterial infection. I would need to do blood work to find out more. You need to go to Drum Island and visit Doctor Kureha."
"Drum Island?"
Vivi answered Nami, "It's a kingdom that's famous for its doctors. The island is the one before Alabasta in the chain when you follow the Log Pose. I'm not sure if there's another between Little Garden and Drum, because it's been so long since anyone actually followed the Log Pose past Little Garden."
"I see. History is good for something, then," Nami teased.
"Shut up."
"So how are we going to get to Drum Island?" asked Nami. "Nojiko's Log Pose probably still points to Little Garden. I don't suppose you have an Eternal Pose for Drum, Crocus-sensei?"
When Crocus shook his head, Vivi said, "My father. He should have an Eternal Pose for Drum."
"To Alubarna we go then. Doc, any recommendations for Vivi's treatment? Diet, cold compress for the bug bite? Plenty of liquids I assume, since she's got fever?"
~ Witch on the Waves ~
After saying goodbye to Crocus, they teleported, still on the rug but invisible this time, to just outside the palace in Alubarna.
"So where should we enter?" asked Nami.
"I never thought I'd come home this way, sneaking in," said Vivi, shaking her head. "At this time of day Father should be eating in the dining room on the third floor. Can you get us there?"
"Girl, I can get us anywhere," bragged Nami. She flew the carpet up to the third floor and, with Vivi's help, identified the dining room. They sat floating there for a while.
"What are you waiting for?" asked Vivi. "You can teleport us in there, right? Or do you want to avoid showing that off?"
"I'm waiting for him to take a drink of coffee. I've never actually made a king do a spit-take before."
"What happened to the Nami that made a formal gentleman's bow when she met me?"
"She remembered that she's a pirate."
"I'm starting to see why you get along with Luffy so well. Now get us in there, I haven't seen my father for years."
"Spoilsport." Nami teleported them inside and dropped the invisibility, still floating on the rug.
"Papa!"
"Vivi?!" "Intruders!" "Intruders! Wait, princess?!"
Oh yeah, there were guards in the room. Who were rather surprised by a flying carpet carrying three people suddenly appearing in the middle of the king's dining room.
"Quack!" Well, Carue was technically a bodyguard too.
"Stand down!" ordered the king. "If Carue is with her then she's fine. Vivi, are you alright? Where have you been!" He rushed to the flying carpet and hugged Vivi.
~ Witch on the Waves ~
After a bittersweet reunion, a lot of explanations ("Devil Fruit power?" "Something like that." "Pirates, are you sure?" "Yes Father, I'm sure.") and a promise to bring King Cobra in on the plan to stop Crocodile, Nami, Carue and an exhausted Vivi left with an Eternal Pose to Drum Island.
Nami immediately teleported them back to the Going Merry.
"Nami and Vivi are back!" called Nojiko.
"Is Vivi gonna get better?" asked Luffy immediately.
"Not yet Luffy, we have to visit a different doctor," explained Nami. "Crocus told us to go to Drum Island and visit a certain doctor who is both still practicing and would know what to do. We teleported to Alabasta to ask Vivi's father, King Cobra, for an Eternal Pose to Drum Island, and I came back here to triangulate for Drum's location so we can get there faster. By the way, we had to tell Cobra all about Crocodile and the plan to take him down and stop the civil war, so he's in on that now. Hopefully he can do something to counter that disguise guy, Mr. 2, that Robin told us about."
"…triangulate?" asked Luffy.
"Nojiko, could you explain triangulation to Luffy? Zoro's hopeless, but I think Luffy should be able to grasp the basics of navigation. Eventually."
"Hey, I know how to navigate!" objected Zoro.
"The reason you're hopeless is because you're in denial. Now Vivi, I'm going to go off and find Drum by myself, do a bunch of teleports and high-speed flying, and I'll come back for you when I've found it, okay? Get some rest. Sanji, Vivi needs plenty of fluids and above all, quiet. She's had an exhausting morning already."
"You're the one who decided to fly us down Laboon's throat without so much as a warning!"
"What can I say, I couldn't help myself."
Once Vivi was safely back in bed, Nami jumped on her flying carpet again, lying prone and flying headfirst at its full speed of 450 kilometers per hour. She noted the angles between the Eternal Pose to Drum and the Eternal Pose to Alabasta that Sanji had stolen from Mr. 3's hut. After flying for exactly half an hour, she noted the new angle between the two Eternal Poses and used the distance flown (225 kilometers) and a bit of trigonometry to calculate the coordinates for a scrying spell. Her measurements weren't very precise due to the small size of the needles in the Poses and the unknown wind speed affecting her flight, but it should help, at least.
It was also a bit of a gamble to try to navigate by assuming that spatial directions and distances worked normally in the Grand Line, but Nami didn't have a lot to lose by doing so. And she appeared to be right, because when she teleported in after verifying the area was safe via scrying, the weather was wintry and snowing, indicating that she was close to the perpetual winter island of Drum. It only took her one more triangulation effort to get her within sight of Drum Island.
She discreetly landed and started asking around for Doctor Kureha. People were suspicious of an obvious outsider, but if she was looking for the "witch", why, the witch could protect herself, so they quickly told Nami that Kureha lived in the castle at the top of the mountain. Nami laughed quietly at the irony of telling a real witch to beware of a "witch".
Deciding that it would be better to show up with patient in tow, Nami noted a good spot to teleport into and returned to the Going Merry.
"I'm back! I found Drum Island."
"That was fast," remarked Nojiko. "You've only been gone for an hour."
"Yeah, well, triangulation worked. I think the Grand Line might not have any actual spatial distortions despite its reputation. At least this part of the Grand Line, I don't want to make any bets about the New World."
"Spatial distortions?" asked Sanji.
"Spatial distortions. Like what I did to make Nojiko's backpack and mine bigger on the inside."
"Bigger on the inside?" asked Usopp.
"Seriously? You haven't seen that? Okay, hang on a second." Nami reached a hand into her ever-present knapsack and pulled out an empty sack, holding it open. "Here, Luffy, stick your head in there and tell me how much space there is."
Luffy stuck his head in the sack. "IT'S HUGE!" he shouted, his voice echoing in the giant inside of the bag. He wiggled around and managed to fall entirely in.
Nami rolled her eyes. "Anyone want to join him in there?"
Everyone responded in the negative. Except for Sanji, who was thinking about something else.
"Is it possible that Luffy's stomach is also bigger on the inside?" he asked.
Nami thought for a second. "Possibly, but I doubt it. I think he somehow digests food extremely fast, plus there's that stretchy stomach factor because he's made of rubber. Either way I don't want to stick my head down his throat to find out, or I might find myself like this guy" – and she stuck her hand in the sack and summoned Luffy out – "who just got eaten again. This time not even by an animal."
That set off a round of laughter.
"Alright, to business," said Nami seriously. "I'm going to teleport Vivi straight to where Doctor Kureha lives on Drum Island. Luffy, Drum Island is only a short detour from our route to Alabasta. Do you want to keep sailing for Alabasta and have us teleport Vivi back once she's better, or head for Drum Island?"
"Let's go to Drum," said Luffy. "And I'm coming with you and Vivi. Drum Island is famous for its doctors, right? Maybe I can recruit one."
Nami blinked at Luffy. "That is a very good idea. Nojiko, here's the Eternal Pose to Drum, you should be able to make it there in three or four days."
~ Witch on the Waves ~
Nami, Luffy, Vivi and Carue appeared, well-dressed in winter clothing, outside the castle at the top of Drum Island's highest mountain, Nami once again supporting Vivi under one arm.
Luffy banged on the door twice.
"WHO'S THERE?!" came a loud voice from the inside.
"Oh, god, please not a knock-knock joke." said Nami.
"It's Monkey D. Luffy. Are you Doctor Kureha?" asked Luffy.
The door opened. "And if I am?" asked a woman with a wrinkled face, gray hair, and the body of an eighteen-year-old. She was wearing tight pink and purple clothing of a cut and fashion that would have looked perfectly in place on a 1960's hippie.
Luffy opened his mouth to indicate Vivi, when the woman said, "Are you here to ask about the secret of my eternal youth?"
"Exercise, good living and a healthy diet?" guessed Nami.
"Hah! That's a good one! So what'cha here for?" she asked, eyeing Vivi already.
"Doctor Kureha, please heal Vivi! She's sick and we don't know what to do!" said Luffy.
"And why should I do that?"
"We can pay you in Beri or in gold," said Nami, sensing a bit of greed but mostly humor. "How much are you asking?"
"Fifty million Beri!" joked the woman who was obviously Kureha.
"Fifty million Beri?!" shouted Vivi. "That's way too much!"
Nami reached into a side pocket of her knapsack and pulled out ten thick stacks of banknotes.
"Fifty million Beri," she said.
Kureha's eyes widened and her mouth dropped for a moment. "Well what are you waiting for! Get her inside! Fever of 40 degrees, obvious exhaustion, what are you doing standing out there in the cold!"
"Quack, quack!" grumbled Carue as they walked inside.
"Is fifty million Beri a lot?" asked Luffy.
"Depends on how you look at it," said Nami. "Fifty million Beri is about two-thirds of what the Going Merry is worth."
Seeing that Luffy didn't understand how much their ship was worth, she did some quick calculations. "Fifty million can buy you around seventy-five tonnes of beef. More if you buy live cattle."
"Seventy-five tonnes… of meat…" Luffy drooled. Then his head snapped back up and he got serious. "Nami, don't give that much away again unless it's for our friends. I don't share my meat."
Kureha and Nami chuckled at that.
Helping Vivi onto a bed, Nami reassured him, "Relax, Luffy, I would never waste money on something trivial. And fifty million is a lot, but I can go rob some pirates later and make it up. Or if you really want that much meat you can go hunt some Sea Kings. A lot of them are better eating than beef anyway."
As soon as Vivi was on the bed, Kureha started poking her.
"Ouch!" complained Vivi when the doctor got to the back of her neck.
"Well, that's it! You've obviously been bitten by a Kestia bug. What did you do, visit some prehistoric island? That bug has been extinct for a hundred years."
"You got all that just from poking her?!" Nami exclaimed. "Crocus said he would need to analyze her blood before he referred us to you."
"Crocus? That old flower is still around? Never mind, you're lucky I kept the cure around." Kureha opened a cabinet full of vials and started searching around.
"Kept the cure around? A hundred years? Wait, don't tell me… eternal youth?"
"Heeheeheehee! I'm 139 years old and counting!"
"Wow!" said Luffy in awe. "You're old!"
Kureha kicked him in the head. "Don't call me old!"
Nami opened her magical senses and searched, just to make sure. Nope, Kureha wasn't really a witch. That would have explained so much.
"Doctor, how long do you think it will be before Vivi gets better?" she asked.
"Two days."
"Well," said Nami, placing the fifty million Beri on a side table, "it looks like you have things handled here. Doctor, thank you for treating Vivi. Luffy, I'm going to go help Nojiko and the others speed up the ship so they get here by the time Vivi is cured. Vivi, here's a Den Den Mushi and my number, call me if anything comes up. You know, besides Luffy getting in trouble. And get better soon, okay?"
Vivi mustered a grin. "Thanks Nami."
"No problem. Okay, I'll see you in two days!" And she teleported out.
Kureha stared at the spot Nami had disappeared from. "Devil Fruit powers?"
Luffy opened his mouth and tried to speak. Then he closed it and thought for a moment. "Something like that," he said.
~ Witch on the Waves ~
"Hey everyone!" shouted Nami, returning to the Going Merry.
"Nami? What's the news?" asked Usopp, who was the closest.
"I've got good news and bad news!" announced Nami. "The good news is that Vivi is gonna get better."
There was a good deal of celebration.
"And what's the bad news?" asked Nojiko dryly, knowing that Nami had a joke up her sleeve.
"The bad news is that she's gonna be better before we get there! So we're gonna speed up the ship!"
"Speed up the ship?" asked Zoro.
"What are you gonna do, get out the oars and row?" asked Nojiko. "You can't go that much faster with the oars. Unless you plan to reinforce everything with Haki."
"Nope! It's gonna be good training though. We, meaning Zoro, Sanji, Nojiko and I, are gonna get out and pull."
"Pull?" asked Robin, finally placing a bookmark in the book she had looked up from when Nami appeared.
"Allow me to demonstrate!" Nami untied the anchor-rope from the anchor, put a big knot on the end to grip it easier, hopped over the front of the ship, and started pulling. Instead of reinforcing the surface with Haki, she merely stepped quickly in the Geppo-like method Nojiko had come up with, stomping the water extra-hard and many times faster than usual. The Going Merry immediately started going faster, leaving a white foamy wake and rocking with the turbulence left by Nami's footsteps.
The mainsail went slack and started billowing the other way as the ship sped up.
"Raise the sails and lock the wheel dead center!" shouted Nojiko. "The Going Merry is on turbo-drive!"
"Turbo-drive? Seriously sis?"
~ Witch on the Waves ~
By taking turns pulling the ship, the Straw Hats managed to double their speed and reached Drum Island two days later. They had returned to normal sailing during the night, but there was plenty of daylight in this part of the Grand Line.
There was a bit of trouble with Zoro not pulling the ship in the right direction, but they solved that by having him and Sanji take the same shift, get behind the ship, and push, one on each side. This allowed the ship's heading to be controlled with the rudder.
There was one stop along the way when Nojiko was pulling the ship, and they approached a man who was apparently standing on the water. Nojiko stopped the Merry, feeling the auras below the water.
She walked up to the man, who was standing on the water dumbly, wearing a blue-and-green winter version of a court jester's outfit and a large bow and arrows on his back.
"How are you doing that?!" asked the man in amazement, pointing at Nojiko's feet where she was standing on the water.
Nojiko was unimpressed. "How are you doing that?" she asked dryly, pointing at his feet where he, too, was standing on the water.
"I'm standing on a submarine! You're not!"
"So what?"
"You're standing on the water! That's impossible!"
"Uh-huh. And yet I'm clearly doing it."
The man's response was interrupted by the submarine heaving itself out of the water. It turned out to be a heavily mechanized ship with metal shields covering the top when it went underwater. The figurehead of the ship, a hippopotamus head wearing a royal crown, actually came out of the front of the ship, moving by some kind of gear mechanism, after the rest of the ship had surfaced. And it had a pirate flag. And hundreds of men crowding the deck.
And it was huge.
"Muhahahaha," laughed a guttural male voice. "What's the matter. Don't tell me our underwater raid ship the Tin Tyrant surprised you!"
"Nope, no surprise," said Nojiko. "I do have one question though."
"Well? Spit it out."
"Do you have lifeboats?"
"Of course we have lifeboats! Why are you asking that?"
"Oh, that's simple. If your ship is made of that much metal, there isn't going to be much floating debris to cling to when it sinks!"
"Don't be stupid! With this much armor, our ship can never be sunken! Men, commence the attack!"
The figurehead lowered towards the Going Merry and its mouth opened, disgorging a big fat man wearing tin armor and a lot of uniformed, winter-coat-clad soldiers with muskets.
Then Nami reappeared, hopping up from behind the Merry. "Alright, I'm back!" she said.
"Back? I didn't even notice you were gone!" said Usopp.
"Yup, and I'm all done. So it's safe to say we're under attack?"
"Definitely," said Nojiko, hopping onto the front railing of the ship.
"Then," said Zoro, "let's end this." He pulled out his swords and slashed, lightning fast, at the fat man, sending him flying back into his own ship. The man tried to open his mouth wide and bite one of Zoro's swords, but Zoro's Observation Haki detected that intention and he redirected that sword in time to avoid it.
"Wapol!" shouted some of the men. "Impossible, he defeated Wapol!"
Sanji and Robin easily took care of the rest of the soldiers on board the Merry, using kicks and conjured hands to knock them into the sea.
Usopp spent most of his time dodging musket fire, but managed to send redirect a few soldiers overboard himself.
Then Nami and Nojiko struck. There was a double BOOM! And the mostly-metal submarine cracked in two places where they had struck the hull with a Haki-powered punch and kick, respectively.
There were cries from the enemy pirate ship. "Oh, no!" "The ship is sinking!" "Aaah, we're sinking!" "Get to the lifeboats!"
Once they were back aboard the Going Merry, Nojiko asked Nami, "What took you so long?"
Nami grinned. "They had a LOT of treasure." She reached into her backpack and pulled out an implausibly large sack. She opened its mouth and shook it. From the sack came the sound of a small sea of gold coins, jewelry and other trinkets clashing against each other. Then she held it out to Nojiko.
Nojiko accepted the bag and peeked inside. "Holy crap!" she said. "They must have been doing this submarine ambush attack for years."
"Guess so! Let's get going, Vivi and Luffy are waiting."
~ Witch on the Waves ~
When they dropped anchor in the harbor, they were threatened by a group of men on a cliffside with muskets.
"Hold your fire!" shouted Nojiko, knowing this was the same self-defense routine that Cocoyashi used. "We're not here to attack, we're just here to pick up our captain and a crewmate! They came here two days ago to get healed by a doctor."
"How can we believe you? You're pirates!" shouted the tall, broad man who seemed to be commanding the others.
"Because our captain is right there," said Nojiko, pointing above him.
The man looked up.
"Are you going to try to attack my crew?" asked Luffy cheerfully, using Geppo to hover above them.
"If that's what it takes to protect our island!" declared the defender, pulling a large, weaponized spade from his back.
"I don't get it," said Luffy. "How can you protect your island by fighting us?"
"We're stopping your attack."
"But we're not attacking."
"You're pirates! It's a deception."
"Shishishishi! You're really stupid! Why are you so scared of pirates?"
"Last time pirates came here, they killed hundreds of our people!"
"I see. Sorry for your loss. Who were these pirates?"
"The Blackbeard Pirates."
"If you want to stop pirates," interjected Nami, "you should get some bigger weaponry. These wouldn't even be enough to stop that idiot Wapol whose ship we sank earlier."
There was muttering from among the defenders. "Wapol?" "They sank Wapol's ship?"
"This Wapol," said the leader. "Describe him."
"Big and fat like a hippo, huge mouth, tin armor, purple hair, guttural voice, arrogant like you wouldn't believe. His Jolly Roger was a skull-and-cross-bones wearing a royal crown, and his ship was highly mechanized," described Nami. "Don't worry, they had lifeboats."
"They had lifeboats? So he's still around? Damn. Okay, men. Stand down. If these guys fought Wapol then they deserve at least the benefit of a doubt."
Luffy laughed. "That's good, because I wouldn't want to knock you all out!"
"So Luffy, how's Vivi?" asked Nami.
"She's fine! Doctor Kureha says she's almost cured. Wait until you meet Chopper! I asked him to join our crew, he's really cool!"
"Chopper? Is he a doctor?" asked Zoro.
"Yup! And he's a monster!" Luffy grinned.
"Good," Zoro nodded.
"Oh, great," moaned Usopp. "Another monster. Would it kill you to recruit some normal people?"
"Don't worry Usopp," said Nami, patting him on the head. "We'll turn you into a monster soon enough! You just have to keep up that training schedule, and you'll be sinking ships with that slingshot of yours in no time!"
Apparently Nami had finally hit on the right fantasy, because Usopp could actually visualize that. He went off into a fantasy realm, daydreaming about Captain Usopp, brave warrior of the sea, sinking enemy ships with a single well-aimed explosive shot from a dozen kilometers away.
"Come on guys!" said Luffy. "Let's go get Vivi and Chopper! There are these really cool fighting rabbits on the mountain too! And a hiking bear!"
"Go on, Luffy," said Nami. "I'd like to stay here and talk. I'll meet you up there later."
"Okay!"
Luffy left with everyone else to climb the mountain. Nami smirked, it would be good training for Usopp and Robin to keep up with Luffy.
"So… Mayor? Sheriff? Who is this Wapol character anyway?" asked Nami.
"I'm Dalton, no official position really. Wapol is our former king who fled when the Blackbeard Pirates attacked. And you are?"
"I'm Nami, independent pirate captain and ally of Luffy over there. Sorry, sometimes I forget to introduce myself. He's Monkey D. Luffy, future King of the Pirates, and this is his crew, including my sister. We left a friend with Doctor Kureha up on the mountain to get cured two days ago, and we're here to pick them up. I think we'd like to buy some supplies from your town if you don't mind, though."
"So long as you're paying."
"Still suspicious? Don't worry, my home village also had a nasty encounter with pirates a few years ago, and I ended up arming the town with a bunch of rifles from the South Blue. That was the East Blue, though. You need some cannons!"
"Unfortunately," said Dalton, "when Wapol left, he locked up the armory in his castle, and we haven't been able to get it open."
"Maybe I can help? I have a way with locks."
Dalton squinted one eye at her.
"It's not like that," said Nami, rolling her eyes. "I've been stealing from pirates since I was twelve. Most of them have safes for protecting their treasure at the very least. So anyway, cannons. Maybe some Gatling guns. I can point you in the direction of a few weaponsmiths in the South Blue who make revolver rifles like my pistol here, very good for increasing your firepower with a limited number of fighters. And if you don't mind going to the black market, there are certain ways to get Seastone bullets which would be useful against Devil Fruit users. Expensive, but the World Government likes to hoard all the Seastone for itself."
"That… would be appreciated."
Nami wrote down some information on a piece of paper and handed it to Dalton. Then she smirked mischievously. "If you don't have enough money for the weapons, see if Dr. Kureha is willing to help. She did take fifty million Beri for Vivi's treatment, after all."
"FIFTY MILLION BERI!"
~ Witch on the Waves ~
After being told that the armory was in the castle at the top of the mountain, which had previously belonged to Wapol, Nami told Dalton that she would get it open and leave it in the care of Kureha, then teleported up to the room where Vivi's bed was.
Everyone was there already. Usopp and Robin were puffing and red-faced, but seemed to have made it to the top of the mountain just fine.
"Hi Vivi! How are you feeling?"
"Hi Nami. I'm much better, I feel ready to go."
"You're not ready to go until I say you're ready to go!" growled Kureha.
"Come on, Doctor, I have a kingdom to save! I'll get better along the way."
As Vivi and Kureha continued arguing, Nami looked around. "So where's this Chopper?" She felt an aura in a doorway, short but strong, and walked around the group of crewmembers to see who it was.
There was a little reindeer standing on his hind hooves like a human and wearing a fuzzy pink top hat with a white "X" on it. His antlers and ears were sticking out of little holes in the hat.
Nami's first reaction was: "CUTE!" And she teleported behind the reindeer, picked him up, and started nuzzling him.
Nojiko went wide-eyed at this behavior, then started giggling uncontrollably.
"Waaah! Help me! Get her off!" shouted the reindeer.
"Who are you?" asked Nami, stopping her nuzzling, turning him around and holding him up with two hands by the armpits.
"I'm Tony Tony Chopper, and I AM NOT A PLUSHY!" Chopper changed forms into a large, muscular body with human arms and hands and tore himself out of Nami's grip. Somehow his voice was still high, befitting his smaller body.
"Aww! Still cute!" said Nami. "But not my type."
This set Nojiko off into full-blown laughter.
"What's with her?" asked Nami. "Did you breath in some laughing gas, Nojiko?"
"I haven't seen you – hah – act that girly in years!"
Nami pouted. "It's not girly to like cute things! Men like cute things too, they just pretend not to because they don't want to look unmanly!"
Nojiko stopped laughing and looked at her seriously. "Really?"
Nami nodded authoritatively.
Nojiko looked at Sanji, Zoro and Usopp speculatively.
Zoro grunted and started polishing one of his swords.
Sanji lit a cigarette and ignored the conversation.
Usopp said, "I am Captain Usopp, brave warrior of the sea! I do not like cute things!"
Nojiko looked at Luffy, who was laughing.
"I told you Chopper was awesome!" said Luffy.
"Wow," said Vivi, who had stopped arguing with Kureha as soon as the commotion started. "Who'd have thought it?"
"Men really do like cute things," said Nojiko in wonder, nodding slowly.
That elicited a roar of laughter from Kureha.
"Well Chopper," declared Nojiko, "I guess I'll be the first to say this. Welcome to the crew!"
"I haven't agreed to join anything!" Chopper turned back into his toddler-sized form and hid behind a curtain.
"Shishishi!" laughed Luffy. "That's what Nami and Nojiko said when I asked them to join!"
"Umm, Chopper… I think you're hiding the wrong way," said Nami.
~ Witch on the Waves ~
Nami eventually asked Kureha where the royal armory was, explaining that she had offered to Dalton to open it, and, after inspecting the lock for a few seconds, conjured a bump key of the right size and shape in her backpack and expertly unlocked the door.
"It's a decent lock," she said to Kureha, "but it's a standard model. If you want to keep out thieves you'd be better off with a custom vault lock. And if you really want to keep me out, you'd have to hide your vault in a separate spatial or temporal dimension. Even that might not do the trick if your pocket dimension is too close to ours, or connected in an obvious way."
"I'll keep that in mind," said Kureha dryly. "Not that these weapons are going to stay locked up for much longer."
"True, Dalton will probably place them in defensive locations around the island. Hey, these are pretty good weapons. Should be enough to deter most pirates from these waters. I don't think they'd be worth anything against a New World crew, which I'm beginning to suspect the Blackbeards are."
~ Witch on the Waves ~
Not too long afterwards, Nami jumped up from where she was talking with Vivi and Robin, then looked out the castle's window toward the harbor. Pulling a pair of binoculars out of her knapsack, she stared for a minute.
"It looks like Wapol's crew managed to make it here after all in those lifeboats of theirs," she announced.
"Do you think they followed us?" asked Robin.
"They're too far behind to have followed us the whole way, but if they have a decent navigator they could have started on our heading and then used the waves and currents to deduce the direction of the closest land. Either way… LUFFY!"
"Huh, Nami? What's up?"
"There's an evil pirate attacking the island. He's the former king of this island who abandoned his kingdom and ran away a few months ago when some pirates attacked. We already fought him on the way here, well, more like Zoro took him out with one hit, Nojiko and I sank his ship, and everyone else tossed the mooks into the ocean. He's coming in with his crew on lifeboats and we're going to need to protect the Going Merry at the very least."
"Got it. Nami, can you stay here and protect Vivi?"
"Sure. Just tell me about his Devil Fruit powers afterwards."
"Will do! C'mon Robin, let's go! USOPP! SANJI! ZORO! We got a pirate fight! Some Wapol guy!" Luffy ran out of the room.
"He does seem to like to fight a lot," remarked Vivi, not sure if she liked that about Luffy. She was a pacifist at heart, after all.
"He needs it to become stronger. And as I told him near the beginning of his journey, if he wants to become King of the Pirates, he needs to conquer, dominate, or make followers of most of the pirates on the sea. It's not a title you can gain by election, inheritance, or finding some big old pile of treasure."
From outside came Chopper's voice. "Wapol is coming? Wait, I'm coming too!"
"Shishishi, I knew you'd join my crew!"
"It's not like that!"
Vivi thought for a moment. "You know, Nami, I never thought of the Pirate King title like that. It is kind of a royal title, isn't it?"
"Different people have different interpretations of what it means, but as Luffy says, 'the Pirate King is the strongest and freest person in the world'. I don't think any pirate would disagree with that. And Luffy's style isn't to make everyone give way to him through fear, so it's got to become something of a leadership role sooner or later. Therefore making it similar to a royal title, I guess."
"But it's still rule through conquest?"
"The vast majority of pirates believe in 'might makes right'. So yes, many of them would accept nothing else. And others might follow the King out of personal loyalty or something nobler, but they are still pirates, and would only give their allegiance to someone stronger."
"That makes sense. Well I'm glad it's Luffy you're trying to make King, because it's still a dangerous philosophy if the wrong type of person takes that title."
"Oh yeah. In fact I haven't met a single other pirate who I think would be a decent King. Mind, I have seen a few who are not heartlessly evil, but still."
"And how about yourself, Nami?" asked Kureha, who had walked quietly into the room and started listening to the conversation after the others rushed off down the mountain.
Nami grinned. "It's too much responsibility for me! Why would I want to be King of the Pirates anyway? Making people acknowledge my power would only curb my freedom."
Then she turned a little more serious. "That, and I would never enjoy it the way Luffy does. I do like a good fight now and then, but I prefer to fight to protect innocents. Luffy just kind of revels in chaos."
"He's a D," said Kureha.
"He's a D. I'm not," confirmed Nami. "I don't know if I ever had a last name, but I do know I'm not a D. I'll create chaos if I think it's necessary, but normally I'm a proponent of order."
"Excuse me, but what's a D?" asked Vivi.
Nami deferred to Kureha, wanting to know what she knew.
"The Will of D. is a legend about those who bear the middle initial of D. No one seems to know what it stands for or much about it, but it's said that the bearers of the D. are all exceptionally dangerous people. It's said that 'D. will bring a storm'. And it's said that every D. who has ever died did so with a wide smile on their face."
Nami nodded. "I know of six D's, and all of them are or were very strong. And Roger certainly brought a storm, didn't he?"
Kureha laughed.
Vivi was confused. "Roger? Gold Roger?"
"His name was actually Gol D. Roger," said Nami. "The World Government is very wary of D's, and I think they're the reason very little is known about the legend in the first place. They ordered that his name be published as 'Gold Roger' in order to cover it up for some reason. Which only lends credence to the legend. And yes, I know of six D's and they are all quite dangerous people."
"Really? Who?" asked Vivi.
"Well, there's Roger of course, and our own Monkey D. Luffy, there's Portgas D. Ace, who is one of Whitebeard's division commanders and actually Luffy's adopted brother, there's Monkey D. Garp, Luffy's grandfather, there's Jaguar D. Saul, who was a giant, and not my story to tell, and there's one other who I shall not name because if their full name gets out, people will die."
Vivi's eyes were wide by the end of it. "Luffy's Grandfather is the Hero of the Marines? His adopted brother is a Whitebeard commander?"
Nami nodded. "Rubber boy's got connections."
"There was also Rocks D. Xebec," added Kureha. "He was a pirate captain from… I guess it would be around 40 years ago now, who was so dangerous that Roger and Garp actually made an alliance to take him down."
"Roger and Garp teamed up?" exclaimed Nami. "Now this I have got to hear."
~ Witch on the Waves ~
When Luffy and the crew had tramped back up the mountain, Nami asked, "So how did it go?"
"Well," said Robin, "they're treating a lot of prisoners for hypothermia now."
"And Wapol?"
"Luffy kind of… blasted him into the horizon," said Nojiko.
"Chopper, you okay? You look a bit scuffed up, and I can't actually see your bruises under your fur."
"I'll be fine as long as you don't glomp me!" declared Chopper, hiding behind Luffy. "I beat Kuromarimo!"
"Who's Kuromarimo?"
"One of Wapol's officers."
"Cool. Did Wapol have any interesting Devil Fruit powers?"
"Ehhhh…" Nojiko made a disgusted face. "Luffy got eaten. Again."
"Oh, gross! On second thought, I don't want to hear about Wapol's Devil Fruit powers! New subject, is the Going Merry alright?"
Luffy laughed. "Of course! I asked Nojiko to protect her."
Nami nodded. "So… anything else to do on this island Luffy? Because it seems Doc Kureha is all out of stories about your Grandpa's heroic fights."
"Shitty Gramps did what?"
"Mmm-hmm. It was all like, bad-guy go, 'Mwahahaha, Imma take over the world!' and your Grandpa go, 'Fist of Love!' and bad-guy go 'Ow! Ow! I'll be good!'"
Luffy made an incredibly sour face and turned to Kureha. "Old lady, you tell really terrible stories."
"I think that story suffered a great deal in the retelling," said Kureha. "And DON'T CALL ME OLD!"
~ Witch on the Waves ~
Eventually Luffy decided it was time to leave. Vivi was more than ready to get out of bed and he was sure Chopper would come and join the crew.
So they departed with a bit of wild drama involving Kureha and a lot of bladed weapons, Chopper saying goodbye and running away pulling a sled, and cherry blossom fireworks.
"Alright, set sail for Alabasta!"
Two hours after they left Drum Island, a giant eagle flew overhead.
Luffy provoked it and nearly got eaten again.