Disclaimer: See disclaimer from Chapter 17.
~ Witch on the Waves ~
Chapter 18
Nanohana was hot and dry, like the rest of Alabasta Island. Nami gave Chopper a cooling charm as they hit the island's summer weather, his fur making the heat even worse for him. She and Nojiko also distributed supplies for everyone to carry, emptying the ship of everything valuable enough to be stolen and carrying it in expanded packs made by Nojiko.
As they landed, Nojiko and Nami glanced at each other.
"Hey everyone," said Nami, "focus your Observation Haki on the town."
Zoro found them first, having had his Observation longest, and Luffy found them second.
"Strong auras!" said Luffy, staring off into the distance. "Let's go check them out!" He jumped off the ship and ran away, trailing a cloud of dust.
"We're still waiting for Bentham to arrive. We may as well go check them out," said Nami.
"Can I just say," Vivi interjected, "how useful it is to be able to use Observation Haki to tell when someone is lying? I would have been a lot more suspicious of Bentham if I hadn't been able to sense his, er, her sincerity. Ugh, that's confusing."
"Just refer to her as her," advised Nami. "And yeah, I know what you're talking about."
"I think I recognize one of those auras," said Zoro. "Isn't that Smoker from Loguetown?"
Nami chuckled, "Yup! But the stronger one Luffy's heading towards is new to me."
They followed after Luffy.
~ Witch on the Waves ~
When Luffy reached the aura he was chasing down, he found it in a restaurant.
There was a shirtless, tattooed man sleeping with his face in a plate of food at the bar. Everyone was looking at him, wondering if he had died.
Luffy lifted up the man's face and stole his food.
"So cold! To steal a dead man's food like that," said one of the restaurant guests.
"What do you mean? He's not dead, just sleeping." Luffy punched the man on the shoulder.
The sleeping man woke up. "What?"
"Aaaah, he came back to life!" shouted another of the crowd.
"Huh? What the… Luffy!"
"Huh? … Ace, is that you?"
"Luffy! I've been looking all over for you."
Luffy laughed. "Looks like I found you!" He swallowed the last of the food on his plate.
"… you stole my food."
"Anyone who falls asleep while eating obviously doesn't appreciate their food!"
"Them's fighting words!"
"Bring it on! I bet I can beat you now." Luffy pounded a fist into a palm.
"Really," drawled Ace, "you've never beaten me before."
"But I've gotten a lot stronger this time!"
The two brothers laughed, this being an old argument of theirs, repeated dozens of times.
Then Smoker walked in the door of the restaurant, with Tashigi and a half-dozen Marines.
"Found you, Straw Hat Luffy!" shouted Smoker.
"Smoker? What are you doing here?" asked Luffy.
"I've chased you all the way from Loguetown! And now, I'm going to arrest you!"
He fired out one of his hands with his smoke powers, aiming to punch Luffy.
"Heh, not so fast." Ace intervened, flames starting to come off his body as he blocked Smoker's flying fist. He rushed Smoker, tackling him through the wall of the building.
"Who are you?" demanded Smoker when he recovered. "Fire Fist Ace? What's the second division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates doing protecting a rookie like Straw Hat?"
"Can't a man protect his kid brother?"
"Brother? Whatever. If you're gonna get in my way –" Smoker exploded into smoke, starting the fight properly.
Ace answered with fire. "That's gonna be pointless. Smoke and fire just cancel each other out!"
As Smoker and Ace blasted large volumes of smoke and fire at each other, Tashigi and the Marines scrambled out of the way and Luffy just stood there, grinning and watching.
Then Nami and the rest of the Straw Hat crew showed up.
After watching for a moment, Nami said, "Okay, that's enough." She teleported to each of the Logia users and slammed them into the ground with a Haki-enhanced fist to the head.
"If you boys want to play, go do it someplace where you aren't destroying people's houses! Like out in the desert!"
"Oww!" "Oww!" Smoker and Ace glared at Nami.
Nami put one fist on her hip and used her other hand to point out at the desert. "Out. Now!" She glared right back at them.
The two men growled at each other and trudged away.
Nami walked over to Tashigi. "Sheesh. Men, right?"
Tashigi gaped at her. "How did you do that?"
"Dunno," Nami shrugged. "Maybe I was some kind of dragon mother in a previous life."
Tashigi nodded. Any girl who could control men like that had her respect.
Nojiko gasped and started laughing. "D-dragon… mother…!"
"Why's she laughing?" asked Robin quizzically.
"I have no idea," lied Nami.
"Lieutenant Tashigi!" spoke up one of the Marines. "Shouldn't we arrest these pirates?" The men all brandished their standard-issue muskets.
Before Tashigi could order her men to stand down, Luffy laughed. "You can try!" And he released a wave of Conqueror's Haki directed at all the Marines except Tashigi. They all fell down foaming at the mouth.
Tashigi stared at him, alarmed, and drew her sword halfway. "What did you do?!"
"Oh, don't worry," said Nami. "They're just knocked out. They'll wake up in half an hour or so. And seriously, Luffy, Conqueror's Haki?"
"You said I should hide it until I got Armament and Observation. And now I do!"
"All three types of Haki?" exclaimed Tashigi.
"Oh, you've been told about Haki?" said Nami. "Good, then I don't need to explain it."
Zoro asked Tashigi if she was related to Kuina and her father Koushirou.
"Nope," Tashigi shook her head. "Never heard of them."
"Really? Shimotsuki Village? Isshin Dojo? You look just like Kuina."
"I know where Shimotsuki Village is, but no, I'm not related to anyone from there. And I'm glad, because if I was then I might hesitate to bust your ass!" She fingered the hilt of her blade.
"I'm not fighting you, woman!"
"What, are you one of those women-are-weak type? I'll show you!"
Nami rolled her eyes. "Trust me, Tashigi, he's not, I've sparred with him a lot and even got him to use some dirty tricks against me. Don't be a nitwit, Zoro, just give her that fight she wants. If Kuina were alive, would you refuse to fight her because she's your friend?"
"But she's…"
"You'll be just like Sanji if you keep on like that, refusing to fight a woman because of her looks," prodded Nami.
"Rrrrgh. Fine! You and me, right here, right now."
"And when I beat you, I'm going to take those swords of yours!" declared Tashigi.
"You're not going to beat me!"
And she didn't. Zoro went all out… well, without using any of his high-powered long-range techniques, anyway. Apparently he was still thinking about Nami's warning about damaging peoples' houses. But he did use Observation Haki and easily handle everything Tashigi dealt out before disarming her and trapping her on the ground with a sword to the throat.
"Give up?"
Tashigi glared, but nodded.
~ Witch on the Waves ~
After Chopper patched up an embarrassed Tashigi, who had a number of nicks and bruises while Zoro didn't even break a sweat, everyone decided to go see Ace and Smoker's duel, which was by now sending towering pillars of fire and smoke into the air in the desert away from town.
"You should learn Haki before you take on Zoro again," Luffy told Tashigi on the way there. "Zoro has Observation Haki."
"Why are you giving me advice?"
Luffy shrugged. "Zoro's like me. He likes fighting. If you're stronger next time, you can give him a better fight!"
"That sounds… ridiculously stupid."
Luffy just laughed. "You have a dream, right?"
Nami facepalmed and shook her head, seeing where this was going.
"Yes! I want to reclaim all the Meito from those who would use them for their own selfish ambitions. They should only be used for justice!"
"Shishishi! I like you. You should join my crew!"
"WHAAAAAT?!" Luffy's crew, apparently, did not see where this was going. It was Nami's turn to laugh.
"HELL NO!" shouted Tashigi. "I'm a Marine! Where do you get off inviting me to join a pirate crew?"
Zoro objected too. "You can't invite her on the crew, Luffy! She's… she's… we're rivals, alright!"
"Rivals?" Nami laughed even harder.
~ Witch on the Waves ~
"So who is this guy anyway?" asked Chopper as the Straw Hats, Nami and Tashigi formed a sideline watching Smoker and Ace go at it.
"Captain Smoker called him Fire Fist Ace, second division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates," explained Tashigi.
"The Whitebeard Pirates?" said Sanji. "What's a commander of one of the four Emperors doing here?"
"He's my brother," stated Luffy.
"YOUR BROTHER!" shouted everyone except Nami.
Luffy laughed. "Yup!"
"So what do you think," said Nami, "should we do something to stop the fight or should we just leave them to it? Because our new ally has arrived, and we've got a rebellion to stop and a rogue Warlord to take down."
"Rogue Warlord?" asked Tashigi.
Nami, who was intentionally feeding this information to Tashigi, was happy to explain. "Crocodile is the one who plotted this rebellion in Alabasta, he's been using Rain Dance powder and blaming it on King Cobra, which is what started the rebellion in the first place. We're here because Princess Vivi here asked us for help."
Vivi nodded.
"What, but… you're pirates! That sounds like a job for the Marines." Tashigi was understandably surprised.
"The problem is, we have no proof of Crocodile's wrongdoing," explained Vivi, "and the World Government won't do anything against one of their Warlords without overwhelming evidence."
"But that's not right!" said Tashigi.
Nami shrugged. "It's the World Government. They do assassination, slavery, and genocide. They murder babies just because of who their parents were."
"You're lying, the Marines don't do any of that!"
"Ask Smoker. Most low-level Marines don't get close to that stuff, and the World Government keeps it secret, plus they have separate resources for doing a lot of the dirty work, but it does get done. Now I think we really have to get going, we don't want to hold up our new ally for too long. I did make a promise after all. Luffy, you wanna step in here? A couple of Logias should be good practice for fighting Crocodile."
Luffy laughed. "Sounds like a good idea." He used basic Armament Haki to enhance his full body as much as he could. Then he ran into the fight.
"GUM-GUM WHIP!" His extended leg sweep struck both Ace and Smoker despite their intangible Devil Fruit-given bodies and sent them tumbling.
"What the – Luffy?" "Straw Hat!"
"Shishishishi, you guys are taking too long. How about a three-way fight? Gum-Gum Double Pistol!"
He punched out at both of them. Ace caught the punch and Smoker dodged out of the way, pulling out his new, heavily reinforced seastone-tipped jutte.
"Luffy, when did you learn Haki?" asked Ace.
"A little more than a month ago! I unlocked Armament the first time I beat Smokey."
"Wait, you beat this idiot Marine Captain? I was holding him off so you could get away!"
"I thought you were just having fun!"
Smoker rushed at Luffy with his jutte leading. "Stop ignoring me and talking like I'm not here!"
Luffy dodged easily, his Observation Haki already good enough to predict the moves of someone who had none. Grabbing Smoker's jutte, he snapped it in half again and punched Smoker off to the side.
"So Ace, whaddya say, wanna find out who has the stronger punch?"
"You're on!"
Ace and Luffy each took a stance facing the other, winding up their punches. Luffy upped the ante by focusing and producing a black coating on his fist, barely covering it up to the wrist.
"Heh, Armament Hardening already? Damn Luffy." Ace matched him, covering his fist with his own Armament Hardening.
"Damn," said Smoker, "Fire Fist was holding back that much?"
Then Ace and Luffy brought their fists forward in simultaneous punches, colliding against each other.
The world trembled. It was like a shockwave in reality itself emanated from the meeting of their fists. It carried a wave of Conqueror's Haki, knocking Tashigi out cold and making Smoker brace himself to stay standing. Chopper, Vivi and Carue all passed out as well.
"What's with the weird effects?" asked Nojiko.
"I guess Ace must have Conqueror's Haki as well as Luffy," concluded Nami. "I'll explain my thought process later, you know, when Smoker's not listening in."
"Conqueror's Haki? That's what that was?" said Smoker, frowning.
"Oh, yeah. That's why Tashigi and some of ours got knocked out. That was a lot stronger than what Luffy is normally capable of producing," said Nami, intentionally wording it as though Luffy were the only Conqueror's Haki user present.
The winner of the clash was Ace. Luffy was thrown off his feet and onto his back, his Haki simply not as strong as Ace's due to the short time he had been practicing it.
"Damn, Luffy, that's impressive," said Ace. "Only a little more than a month of practice?"
"I'll show you! I'll keep practicing and next time I'll beat you!" proclaimed Luffy, jumping up from where he had landed on the ground.
"As if!"
"Alright, Luffy," said Nami, "I think we need to go meet our new ally and get out of here before she runs into the Marines. Smoker, I take it you're not going to try and follow us?" Nami indicated that he had to take care of Tashigi.
"Hmph." Smoker grunted, walked over and picked up Tashigi. He did not like losing, but with Ace on Straw Hat's side and both of them having Haki while he didn't, it was a lost cause. Before he left, he paused.
"Hang on. Nico Robin?"
Robin sweatdropped.
"Robin's part of my crew. No trying to arrest her," said Luffy seriously.
"Hm. I just wanted to confirm that," said Smoker.
The pirates picked up Vivi, Carue and Chopper and quickly walked down to the shore to meet Bentham.
Along the way, Nojiko remarked, "Luffy, you know Tashigi's never going to join our crew, right? Her dream is kind of incompatible with becoming a pirate."
"I know."
"So why did you ask her to join?"
"Imagine Smokey's face when he finds out I asked."
Nami and Nojiko remembered Smoker's reaction when he found out that the two sisters, whom he had hoped to recruit into the Marines, had become pirates. They laughed.
"That's a good one Luffy! He's going to be so mad!"
Grinning at the prank as well, Ace changed the subject and asked, "What are all your names anyway?"
They all introduced themselves to Ace. Chopper and Vivi managed to wake up before they reached the port, but poor Carue didn't and was still being carried tied up on Zoro's back.
"Nami, right? I take it you're the one teaching my idiot little brother to use Haki?"
"Me and Nojiko, yes."
"So where'd you learn Haki? Are you from the New World?"
"No, no, we learned from an old man who is a veteran of the New World. What are you doing here in Paradise anyway? Are you just here to say 'hi' to Luffy?"
"Heh, no. I'm chasing down a former Whitebeard pirate who committed the ultimate crime: he murdered one of his own crewmembers."
There was a collective wince and dark looks were exchanged. Your crew is like your family. You do not do that.
"What's his name?" asked Luffy.
"Blackbeard."
"The same Blackbeard who attacked Drum Island a couple of months ago?" asked Nami.
"Yes. Luffy, this is very important: if you come across Blackbeard, do NOT fight him. He's mine."
"Alright." Luffy nodded. He respected when it was someone else's fight.
"You too Nami. You said you're Luffy's ally, not on his crew, so…"
"Hmm… fine, but if I find him murdering innocents like he did on Drum, no promises. That's the best you're gonna get from me."
Ace stared at her. Nami stared back evenly. "I guess that's fair enough," said Ace. "Luffy, here, take this."
He handed Luffy a small, stiff square piece of paper.
"What's that?" asked Luffy.
"It's my Vivre Card. You can use it to find me again."
Nami looked at it in interest. "A Vivre Card. I've been wanting to find out more about those. Can you tell me how they're made?"
"Dunno. You take a piece of your fingernail and go to a certain shop to have it made."
Nami facepalmed. "Fingernail, I should have expected that. Luffy, can I see that for a moment?"
Luffy handed it over to her.
Nami examined it closely. It was slightly magical. "Let me guess," she said, "it's pulled towards you and you can turn it into a sort of compass by dangling it on a thread."
Ace nodded.
"And… it probably shows signs, like turning gray and slowly turning into dust, burning up, or even just fading away if the person whose fingernail it's made from is dying."
"It lights on fire, yes, and it burns up completely when the owner is dead. How did you know all that?"
"Yeah…" Nami said dryly. "I bet there's a special ingredient that they mix your powdered fingernail into before making it into paper. Some part from a weird plant or animal."
"What makes you think that?"
"Intuition."
"You have some weird intuition."
"Shishishi, Nami's just really smart!" was Luffy's input.
~ Witch on the Waves ~
Ace eventually said goodbye and left on an odd surfboard powered by his Devil Fruit fire, and the others met up with Bentham. Ace had offered to take care of the three Baroque Works ships that just showed up at the harbor, but Luffy said, "I can take care of myself, Ace!" and blasted them with Conqueror's Haki.
The Straw Hats, with the exception of Chopper, decided to remain on board the Going Merry rather than watch Nami transform the rest of the crew into women of various shapes, sizes and ages, corresponding to the body types the men had been before.
"I don't do boob jobs," stated Nami dryly when one of the new women complained that her breasts were too small. "You get the shape you would have been if you'd been born a girl. If you want bigger tits, go find a plastic surgeon!"
There were also a number of people in Bentham's crew who liked cross-dressing and using feminine behavior, but didn't want to be transformed into females, and some who simply weren't sure what they wanted. Those who weren't sure, Nami gave a temporary transformation which would last a couple of hours and told them she would make it permanent if they wanted later.
All in all, though, it was a very happy crew that Nami, Luffy and Chopper left behind to watch over the ships as they left with Bentham to head to Katorea with the rest of the Straw Hats.
"All done?" asked Robin as they got back to where the Going Merry was moored.
"All done!" said Chopper cheerily. He had watched and cheered at every single transformation, finding the process quite fascinating from a scientific perspective, trying to predict what each man would look like after being transformed. He was, after all, a reindeer, and had only a detached, academic understanding of the psychological side of human sexuality, even though he was sympathetic to the crewmembers' happiness afterwards.
"All done," said Nami exhaustedly, though this was more mental than anything else. "No more requests for boob jobs. No more women sticking their hands down their pants and shouting in joy before trying to hug me. No more overcompensating makeup jobs… well except for one, anyway." She eyed Bentham.
"You think my makeup is overdone?!" said Bentham in alarm.
"You'd be better off with none," stated Nojiko. "If you absolutely need makeup, go light." She started to make some more specific suggestions.
Over on the railing of the Going Merry…
"Are they speaking in code again?" Zoro asked Luffy.
"Yeah," confirmed Luffy.
"Really? They're speaking in code?" asked Usopp.
"Yeah, all women speak in code to each other sometimes," stated Zoro.
"So," said Usopp conspiratorially, "If we listen closely, we might be able to figure it out."
"That's so cool!" said Chopper. "I wonder if I should take notes. Do you think it would help?"
"Brilliant idea, Chopper!" said Usopp.
"Wait," Chopper thought logically, "if this is a code that all women know, how does Bentham know it? Didn't he used to be a man?"
"Idiots!" said Sanji, knocking them all on the head. "They're not speaking in code, they're talking about feminine things."
"Sanji knows the code?!" exclaimed Luffy.
Robin and Vivi just stood off to the side, listening to the boys' conversation and laughing silently.
~ Witch on the Waves ~
Eventually the Straw Hats all made it to Katorea and hunted down Kohza, the leader of the rebel army.
Vivi led the way into the house Kohza was staying in with Luffy and Bentham, finding him sitting at a table studying a map. There were a couple of other soldiers in the room.
"Vivi?!" Kohza jumped up.
"Kohza."
"Vivi, what are you here for? If this is about your father…"
"This is about the rebellion that you've been tricked into creating by Crocodile in his attempt to take over the country."
"What are you talking about? Crocodile is a hero! Vivi, I know we're old friends, but if this is some attempt to –"
"I have proof," interrupted Vivi.
"Fine. Let's see this proof."
"Mr. 2?"
They had decided that Bentham would come transformed into her old male form, and retake the alias of Mr. 2 for this purpose, allowing her to keep her identity and new face a secret.
"I am a former agent of Baroque Works, which is a criminal organization headed by Crocodile," stated Bentham, gesturing flamboyantly. "I was ordered to use my Devil Fruit power to disguise myself as the king and order the use of Dance Powder in order to destroy his reputation."
Bentham demonstrated by transforming her face into that of Nefertari Cobra. "I take it you recognize this face?"
Kohza was horrified. "If that's true, then the entire rebellion was caused by a farce!"
"Is that enough for you," asked Vivi, "or do you want to speak to Crocodile's former second-in-command?"
Suddenly one of the rebel soldiers drew a gun and fired it at Kohza. Luffy was faster, though, having kept his Observation Haki up, and blocked the bullet with his hand. The next moment he punched the soldier into a wall with a rubber arm.
"Another Baroque Works agent?" asked Vivi when the motion stopped.
"Indeed, most likely!" said Bentham. "Check him for a tattoo of the Baroque Works symbol, a skull in front of a pair of crossed fencing swords, backed by a pair of purple wings."
The other rebel soldier quickly stripped the knocked-out man of his shirt, finding just such a symbol tattooed on his shoulder.
"Chances are," said Bentham, "that a number of your other soldiers are Baroque Works agents as well."
"Alright, I believe you, Vivi. And thank you for saving my life… what's your name?"
"Monkey D. Luffy. I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!"
"A pirate, Vivi?"
"He's a good person, and he's going to help us take down Crocodile."
"I'll take your word for it. Now what are we going to do about the rest of the Baroque Works agents?"
"Eh, knock them all out and search them for tattoos," was Luffy's suggestion.
"Let's get the rest of Luffy's crew and Nami in here in case they have some other ideas," said Vivi.
"GUYS! COME IN, WE'RE DONE CONVINCING KOHZA!" shouted Luffy.
The rest of the crew filed into the house.
On understanding the problem, Nami said, "Well, it does seem like the best way to find the Baroque Works agents is to look for tattoos. And we don't want them escaping or shooting at us if they realize what's going on."
"So… knock them all out and search for tattoos?" said Luffy.
Nami made eye contact with the rest of the crew. They all shrugged. "Sure, why not," said Nami
Luffy took a breath and concentrated.
Realizing what he was about to do, Vivi tried to stop him. "Wait!"
Luffy released a broad, even pulse of Conqueror's Haki.
The Straw Hats and Vivi all managed to stay awake this time by dint of practice, except for Carue. Kohza stumbled and caught himself on the table, but managed to stay awake. Bentham also managed to avoid passing out.
Everyone else in the town of Katorea was knocked out cold.
"There you go, all knocked out. Umm… Kohza, how many people do you have in your army?" Luffy suddenly realized that this might not be the best plan after all.
"Almost eight hundred thousand."
"Uh-oh. This is gonna take a while."
Nami laughed. "Don't worry, it won't take that long. We can just wake them up as we go and have everyone who we clear help with the searching. Once they start clearing people and waking them up it'll be over before you know it. Kohza, can you order your people to do that?"
"Yes. But what was that? Luffy did that, right?"
"Conqueror's Haki," said Nami. "Why don't I explain while we get started. We do have to finish before people start waking up. By the way, we should check the strongest people in your army first, because they'll be the ones to wake up first."
~ Witch on the Waves ~
It was a good thing this was the Grand Line and people were generally tougher than the average. If Luffy had done this in a random town in the East Blue, there would have been some injuries from falling down, maybe even deaths from heart attacks and falling down stairs.
It took two hours for the last people to be checked for tattoos, and at the end of it they had over three hundred Baroque Works agents tied up in the center of the army.
"So Kohza, why don't we call my father and coordinate?" said Vivi. "You've got an army, he's got an army, and Crocodile's army is a lot smaller than either of them."
She pulled out a Den Den Mushi.
"Uh… isn't he going to be angry at me for organizing the rebellion?"
"Nope! He already knows you were deceived by Crocodile's actions."
"… okay. I'll be glad to do something good with this effort I've been organizing so uselessly."
As Vivi dialed her father's number, she said, "One more thing, Kohza. I'm challenging you for the leadership of the Sand Sand Clan."
"What?"
~ Witch on the Waves ~
The final plan had the Straw Hats sailing up the Sandora River, disembarking after anchoring the ship, and walking across the desert to reach Rainbase.
Bentham decided to come with them, wishing to spend as long as possible with her new friends. But she left her crew behind, knowing that they would not do well in such a chaotic fight.
The rebel and royal armies were moving to surround the same place by horseback, and the Straw Hats were going to try to take out Crocodile and his officer agents right before the armies arrived. Timing was key, in order to prevent large masses of Baroque Works agents from running away once their leaders were defeated, but at the same time they didn't want the armies to be in range of Crocodile before he was personally defeated, lest he take a large toll of soldiers' lives with his powers. Still, they didn't need to coordinate too precisely. Crocodile would obviously hear of the royal army mobilizing, but the only thing he could do would be to prepare for an attack, since it took a lot of time to prepare an army to move through the desert and the Sandora River, the fastest means of escape, was about as far from Rainbase as from Alubarna.
It took days of river and desert travel for the Straw Hats to reach Rainbase, occasionally running into giant Banana Gators and strange desert creatures. Nami enchanted everyone's choice of backpack or bag, and for Sanji and Zoro even their pockets, as well as water bottles, with space expansion magic for essential supplies during desert travel. Vivi monitored her map to make sure Crocodile didn't leave the city.
"Hey Nami?"
"Yes Vivi?"
"This map doesn't show aliases, does it? I can't find any of the officer agents."
"Unfortunately, no. Robin, Bentham, do you know the real names of any of the Baroque Works officers?"
"I'm afraid not," said Robin. "The only ones I really looked into were Vivi, Bentham and Igaram."
"Oh my god!" exclaimed Vivi. "I can't believe I forgot all about Igaram. Show me Igaram!" she commanded the map. "Oh, good, he's already in Nanohana. He must be making his way to Alubarna."
"I, on the other hand," said Bentham, "have used my super-spy skills to discover the identities of four other agents! I can give you the names of Mr. 3, Miss Goldenweek, Mr. 4, and Miss Merry Christmas."
Bentham gave Vivi their names and she quickly looked them up on the map.
"I see all four of them in Rainbase."
"That's good news!" said Bentham. "The last mission I was given by Mr. 0 was to hunt down Mr. 3 for his failure to kill you Straw Hats and bring him back to Rainbase. I wonder why he's back there, then? I certainly didn't catch him."
Everyone shrugged.
"I have a question! Where did you get that marvelous map of yours?" asked Bentham.
"Umm…" Vivi looked at Nami.
"I suppose I can tell her." Nami knew Bentham would be loyal to her after what she had done for the okama, and if not, well, there was the Fidelius. "I'm a witch and I can do magic. I made that map."
"Ah, magic! Of course! Nothing less could have transformed me and given me this wonderful body!"
"Ugh. I really wish you wouldn't put it like that, but yes."
"I'm surprised you accepted that so quickly," said Chopper. "It took a lot of demonstrations for me to believe magic was real."
"My dear tanuki," – "I'm not a tanuki!" – "I have been sailing the Grand Line for over five years. Such things as a witch doing magic are not nearly as strange as you might think!"
"Well, in any case," said Nami, "I'm glad I didn't have to go through that demonstration again. Bentham, you should know I put a piece of secrecy magic on the fact that I can do magic, so please don't try to tell anyone else. There's a lot of information you can get out despite the spell, so it's really there to make sure no one blurts it out accidentally."
"Clever!"
~ Witch on the Waves ~
Eventually the Straw Hats and company reached their destination.
"What are the Marines doing in Rainbase?"