Usopp had to fumble with his keys before hurriedly shoving it into the lock of his front door because the phone inside was ringing insistently. He threw the door open before slamming it shut, flung himself onto his small couch in a semi-dive for the ringing phone on an end-table beside it.

"H-Hello?"

He said in slight difficulty, still recovering from his save.

"Ano... U-Usopp-san?"

A very soft and hesitant voice sounded at the other end, and Usopp choked on his next words in surprise.

"K-Kaya? Is that you?"

A sharp pang of the same, wrenching pain infiltrated his chest, but it flitted away in the next second as Kaya's relieved voice replied,

"Oh, I'm so glad. I thought I might have gotten the wrong number."

"But I gave it to you, didn't I?"

"Yes, but I might have written it down wrong or..."

"Heh. I remember I once wrote down someone's number wrong."

Usopp recalled the time he had tried to call Nami's new mobile phone, but had instead reached a blindingly numb dial tone every time. He had bothered to call the same number ten times in a row before realising he was an idiot.

"What happened?"

She actually sounded genuinely interested.

"Uh, nothing, actually. Phone was dead everytime I tried."

"Oh. I see."

Why did he feel so stupid all of a sudden? Usopp shook his head to keep himself from thoughts like 'I am lame' running through it, and opened his mouth to ask what the actress had called for. The words that came out, however, were completely different.

"So I tried again, thinking I wrote the six too much like a zero or something. But this 'Pizza and Pasta Parlour' picked up instead. I thought it was my friend kidding around though, but..."

Eh? What the hell am I saying? Usopp thought with a sweatdrop, That never happened. But he couldn't seem to stop speaking. He'd lost control of his mouth. In seconds he was imitating the voices in a supposed conversation he had held with the manager of the 'Pizza and Pasta Parlour' and making Kaya laugh so hard she got the hiccups.

Damn. I'm... lying. And I don't know if this is a good thing but I seem to be really good at it, too. I mean... unusually enough, she's believing me, unlike some people I know...

"Usopp-san?"

Snapping out of thought, Usopp laughed.

"Sorry, I sort of spun off track there. What'd you call for, Kaya?"

She paused here, and Usopp raised an eyebrow in puzzlement at the sudden silence. When Kaya next spoke, she sounded embarrassed.

"Ano... I just thought... (hic)I-- I'm sorry for disturbing you. I was... (hic) feeling in need of a good talk."

She hiccupped loudly again, and let out a nervous giggle.

"Or a good laugh."

Usopp blinked. She sounded so shaky.

"Uh, are you okay, Kaya?"

There was a pause, and Usopp immediately got the message - she didn't want to talk about it, whatever it was bothering her.

"Last time I had the hiccups, I had to do a presentation for a group of representatives."

Usopp took a second to realise the words had sprung from his own mouth.

Gah! Another lie!

"That must have (hic) been terrible."

Kaya said, and Usopp spent the next half hour doing spirited animations of himself in several imaginated sequences, each scenario becoming sillier by the word but each making Kaya laugh herself to stitches. Finally, Kaya hurriedly told Usopp she had to hang up before Merii found out - he'd just returned home.

"Who's Merii?"

"I'll tell you later. Can I... call you sometimes?"

She'd asked it quietly and tentatively, but Usopp immediately answered,

"Of course."

After hanging up, the engineer stared at the phone in disbelief and mild surprise. He couldn't believe himself.

How on earth had he managed to say all those stories just to make her laugh, and yet feel so good about it?






Zoro entered pulled out a chair in the GrandLine University library, and as he settled into it pulled out his physics books from his bag. He was somewhat unsurprised to see that Tashigi still hadn't noticed he'd sat down next to her, and she was muttering calculations out loud while writing down a rough draft for some biology investigation.

Now that Zoro had been with Tashigi a few times, she was becoming a lot more noticeable to his eye - even within a crowd of students. Her black thick-rimmed glasses and her raven-black hair that nicked the edge of her neck seemed incredibly easy to spot. Then again, it could be the fact Tashigi was sitting alone at a table to herself.

He started with his own physics investigation, studying his notes - or at least, trying to. The way she was biting her lower lip in concentration, occasionally brushing loose strands of hair off her face and just so absorbed in her work kept catching his peripheral vision.

Why did that keep happening? He didn't understand why he felt so strange when Tashigi smiled rewardingly at her completed table. Shaking his head, he decided it had to do with the overall sense of comfort he had with the girl.

It's like I've been around her before,

He mused, then paused as he thought about that.

Does this mean she's also...?

"Oi."

Zoro said, and startled the wits out of Tashigi.

"Gah!!"

Yelping, she absurdly knocked her glasses against her pen and sent it flying under the table. She bent down hurriedly to pick it up, banged her forehead against the edge of the table and cried out 'ouch!', followed by 'oh no!' as loose-leaf papers slipped off the table and fell into disarray at her feet. She gave Zoro a helpless look.

"Uh, hi."

The helpless look froze Zoro to the spot momentarily.

His eyes blanked as the quiet sounds of books shutting and shifting with the occasional soft chatter of students ceased to a pure silence. The sharp and clean edges of the image of Tashigi sitting before the library's custom grey-white tables slid and splintered out of proper focus; he squinted reflexively, and Tashigi's face switched to another girls face; blue eyes and shorter, rounded hair - then back to Tashigi - but they both shared exactly the same face of helplessness.

The scene flickered, and Zoro saw a flash of darkness; the next second his vision was plunged into night-time, a passing wind playing with the girls hair, but her eyes were filled with tears as she gave Zoro a shaky smile... his eyes widened as she mouthed words he couldn't hear, a pale hand rising from the sword-sheath in her grasp to wipe at her tears.

You idiot.

She gave a smile mixed with gratefulness and happiness, yet stained with tears...

Even though you're a weakling.

...and she reached a hand towards Zoro, still mouthing words...

-- It's a promise --

...and Tashigi's hand grabbed Zoro's shoulder and gave him a hard shake.

"Zoro Roronoah. Zoro. Zoro?"

"Uh, wha--?"

Blinking as the sunshine from the windows seemed to spill in and illuminate his entire vision, he shut his eyes tightly for a minute and gave himself a mental shake.

Who was that? She looked beyond familiar. I know that girl. And Tashigi looks just like...

"Tashigi..."

Zoro said slowly, and Tashigi looked almost scared as answered,

"Yes?"

Zoro closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them to meet Tashigi's eyes properly.

"Have you ever felt like..."






"Come on Nami,"

Vivi coaxed gently, soothingly rubbing Nami's shoulder as she spoke,

"Talk to me. I'll at least try to understand."

Nami very slowly shifted her face from her pillow to let her eyes meet Vivi's gaze. She was ashen-faced and her eyes looked darker than usual, her overall expression very tired.

"I don't really want to talk about it,"

She said dully, but inside a strong resolution to not tell Vivi a word of how she was truly feeling burned stronger. She had told Vivi some of the basics of what had been happening in her life - just the possibility of a connection between her and Usopp and Zoro - but she hadn't said a word about anything else.

"I was just in a bad mood because I was forced to think about things I didn't have any idea how to get answers to. I don't really have too much against Sandy White..."

'Pfft,'

Nami thought as she remembered her words,

'I haven't said a dumber lie before, have I?'

She definitely did have something against Sandy White - or rather, Sanji-kun. In fact, the name 'Sandy White' was sounding positively wrong, now that she thought about it.

She had never felt such excruciating pains in her chest, nor such terrible headaches. But what really nettled her was the fact that now she was away from Sanji, nothing of the pain remained, but she was feeling increasingly stupid and immature by the minute.

What she had said must have really driven deeply into Sanji, and she was irritated at now was the engulfing tide of regret she was wading through. She hated the fact she regretted. But she didn't exactly know what it was that had made her repel the model like a cat to a dog, and she just didn't understand the pangs of pain. Even now she was trying to figure out what it was about him that made her recoil.

Maybe it was the way he'd smiled at her even though she had done her best to infuriate him. Or perhaps his innocent happiness back when they had been dancing, as though she was the best thing that had happened to him - even though she hardly knew him. Or it could be his total lack of ability to understand women, but then again, not a single man had that...

It had been the first time she'd let herself cry infront of a guy... or was it? She had a firm memory of never crying infront of anyone but her foster mother and sister - no father - but... something nagged at her brain... something like a word she just had on the tip of her tongue but couldn't seem to grasp the right word --

"GO AWAY!! You don't even know what's going on!! Just go!! Just... go..."

Her eyes widened as the words rang distantly through her mind -- these words again! She strained to try and keep listening, but the words were fading --

"...H-help me..."

Too distant! Nami shut her eyes, concentrating hard for that last part of what she was sure was a memory--

"...Luffy...!"

She was startled out of her reverie by a piercing whistle in the air of the dormitory. It was her cellular phone's ringtone. She scrambled for it, revelation overcoming her as she held onto the name she had just heard and also thankful for a diversion - Vivi had been gently pleading for her to tell her what was making Nami so upset for the past hour or so.

"Nami here,"

She mumbled into her mouthpiece, and having seen the caller ID, she added,

"What's up Usopp?"

"Let's meet at eight or nine. I want to talk about the captain."

He answered,

"It's pretty important, I'd say. This guy we saw... he really makes me think... By any rate, I'd reallyappreciate a group gathering of memories."

"Is it that important?"

Nami muttered irritably, not wanting to see anything 'familiar' for a while.

"Well... I have this feeling that this guy I'm thinking of just might be the key to this whole 'thing'."

"The key?"

She repeated inquisitively.

"Yeah, you know what I mean... like, everything working out. Making sense of our linkage to the other. Stuff like that."

For the first time since her issue with Sanji, Nami perked up a little. The idea of the huge knot in her stomach resolving; or at least finding out the reason she couldn't go near Sanji without getting chest pains or headaches gave her a flutter of hope and cheer.

"Eight or nine? Let's meet at nine then. I've got homework."

Nami said, concealing how much she liked the idea of ridding herself of the ludicrous guilt she had.

"Great. Tell the cook that for me, will you?"

He hung up, and Nami felt a nasty pang as she realised she knew immediately who the 'cook' was. Regret and guilt returned in a rushing wave, and letting out a grumble of complaint, Nami laid back on her pillow.

Vivi sighed, stood up and left Nami alone to brood at whatever her problem was.

And Nami was left to herself to contemplate the rush of anticipation she felt as she conjured the name back to her mind...

"...Luffy...!"






Usopp reached the second landing of the second extension of GrandLine University to see, to his surprise, no one there but one person staring absent-mindedly at a door.

"Zoro?"

He called out, and Zoro, startled, returned a wave.

"What's up?"

Zoro asked, and Usopp raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"We were going to meet at nine to talk about the captain."

"Right,"

Zoro said, remembering Sanji telling him something like this,

"I forgot."

"Tuh,"

Usopp said, rolling his eyes, and proceeded to go to room 211 and knock on the door. Nami answered, and looked relieved when she saw who was at the door.

"Usopp! Hey,"

She said as she shut the door with a snap behind her. Usopp frowned.

"Where's Sanji? Didn't you tell him what time to meet?"

Nami turned just the lightest shade of red as she muttered,

"I forgot."

"We can go get him upstairs,"

Zoro suggested, and the three were soon trooping up the stairs while listening to Usopp's musings.

"You know, I figure that this captain guy is pretty important. I mean, even though I feel a lot less 'empty' with you guys than when alone... I still feel like something missing."

"I guess I feel that way too,"

Nami commented, sub-conciously tugging at a long lock of orange hair as she spoke,

"I feel like something's missing... and I still feel like something's just not right."

"Maybe the captain guy might explain some of the things we just don't get,"

Zoro said, and all of them secretly hoped so, though Nami said,

"I don't think so."

As they approached the fourth floor, Usopp asked,

"Why is this place so empty? Usually it's full of students."

Nami shrugged.

"I don't know. Maybe they're scared that motorcyclists will come charging in at them."

Having reached the fourth floor landing, they were surprised to see Sanji fumbling with the card key to his dormitory.

"You were outside?"

Zoro called out, and Sanji, looking stricken, spun around to stare.

"Ahck!!"

He yelped so suddenly they jumped,

"You didn't know? I mean-- I just found out too, but -- new security measures -- people gotta be in their dorms and stay in there from nine --"

"You mean the patrolling starts today?!"

Nami cringed as, to her and the others' horror, voices could be heard echoing up the stairwell.

"--too early for the kids, they'll be complaining soon--"

"Don't blame them, I'd hate it too--"

"--For their own good, they asked for better security--"

Zoro, Nami and Sanji's jaws dropped in horror as all three of them immediately recognised the third voice as a very affronted Mr. Harrison. Even Usopp recognised the voice; his eyes rounded as he mouthed, not the dean!

Both genders hanging outside a dorm room equals not good.

Without a second thought, shoving the card key in, Sanji kicked the door open and the four ran into the room before shutting it quickly. The four of them stared at the door as though afraid it may burst into flames. An entire minute passed as they held their breath as one.

Voices passed by their door, and faded away. Once the voices and footsteps had completely disappeared, the four let out a collective sigh of relief.

They had been so engrossed with the door they were all startled when a voice behind them snorted and snapped,

"It's about time!"

Spinning around in shock, their jaws dropped and their eyes widened as they saw...




A/N: *blinks* Will update soon. Arigatou for over 100 reviews! *cries* The enormity of the fact people bothered to leave over one hundred reviews has me overwhelmed. *bows* I love you all. *sobs with happiness* *^^*
And I thought I'd point out... what made you think this was going to end after the explanations? *insert groans from audience smothering the too-high-to-be-evil laughs from the author*