Chapter the First Bringing Back these Memories
"Oi.
Nami. Are we there yet?"
The
twenty-year-old navigator sighed and bonked her captain on the head.
Some people grew up as years passed; her captain would forever be a
child. "Yes, Luffy, we are almost there. See that island on the
horizon? That's Juvarra, the last island before Raftel." She
sighed. "I wonder…what kind of things will be living there. It's
almost impossible to get to Juvarra. I mean, look at us. It took us
two years just to reach it."
Sanji came up to
the bow where the two of them were seated. "Does Nami-san not have
a map of this island?"
She shook her
head. "Too few people have ever visited it and come back to
civilization to talk about it. The only real map they ever have of
this area is from the late Pirate King's cartographer, Annie
Belluz, but that's kept under lock and key in the Grand Marine's
headquarters."
The cook
grinned. "If it is Nami-san's dream to make a map of the entire
world, then Sanji-kun will be right there with her." He put a glass
full of sparkling blue liquid in front of her. "But for now, enjoy
your midmorning snack."
"Oi. When's
lunch?" The captain had momentarily forgotten about Juvarra.
"Soon enough.
Quit whining." Sanji spun around with a flounce and waltzed into
the galley.
Having used up
both Nami and Sanji for entertainment, Luffy reconsidered his
options. Chopper never did anything interesting, being both a
reindeer and a doctor. That left the swordsman and the liar.
Usopp was at the
bow doing whatever the hell he did most of the time. Which seemed to
involve a lot of exploding things and fires. Although, his
'experimenting' did cause rather strange effects in battle. Which
was a good thing.
"Oi, Usopp.
Whatcha doing?"
Usopp kept an
eye on the frothing liquid contained only by a small beaker with a
tightly sealed cork. It was dark red in color and did not look very
inviting to drink, which Luffy had learned from countless burning
throats and what Zoro liked to call 'passing gas'.
"Luffy, can
you go bother Zoro or someone? I'm kinda busy right now."
The captain
pouted and stuck his tongue out, but said nothing.
Zoro, oddly
enough, wasn't sleeping despite the warm weather. He was training.
"Oi, Zoro.
Watcha doing?" He was used to saying the same thing many times
over.
"Training."
Duh.
"Any reason
why? You already beat up that Mihawk guy, right?"
Zoro grunted, as
if recalling a bad memory. Either that or he was reaching exhaustion.
Luffy considered telling him that once upon a time he had struggled
with that much weight in both his hands, and that even though
Santoryu required three swords, they probably weren't that heavy.
Zoro spoke up before his captain had the chance.
"That-" he
swung the weights to his left. "-doesn't mean-" he raised the
weights in his hands above his head and crouched low to the ground.
"-I have to stop training." A final swing and he was finished,
lowering the weights to the ground and throwing off his shirt.
"'Sides, you never know if there is anyone stronger than him out
there. And considering how close we are to One Piece, I'd better
not be any old weakling when you become the pirate king."
Luffy remembered a long time ago saying that anything else would make him look bad.
Late dinners, he mused, were better than early dinners. By the time the sound of clattering dishes on the wooden table hit his ears, he was hungry enough to eat whatever was placed in front of him and then some.
"Oi. Luffy."
He stopped eating for half a second to determine the source of the
voice. His cartographer was picking at her food, obviously perturbed.
"It's an uphill journey from here, you know that? The last
stretch of ocean between us and the One Piece has only been sailed
through once before."
"So?" Luffy
resumed eating, glad that Nami hadn't chosen a topic that
important.
She pushed
herself up, slapping her palms facedown on the table. Her nakama
turned towards her, some amused, some puzzled and in the cook's
case with hearts in their eyes.
"Luffy. You
realize that we all have a good chance of never making it to Raftel
at all? The chances are…like…molecular."
Luffy showed an
unusual expression on his face, one of utter seriousness and complete
confidence. "Nami…" and like the passing wind, his expression
vanished and his grin was back. "When I set out three years ago and
met Coby for the first time…" he paused, giving solace for the
fallen Marine, "he told me the chances of me becoming the Pirate
King were umpossible. And Sanji, he told me I couldn't do it. And
that Crocodile guy, and that Doctorine woman, and the clown guy, and
the smoke dude." He started to laugh. "Wouldn't it be funny if
I did it anyways?"
His nakama finally understood why they were following such a child.
Juvarra was all it was made out to be. Nothing. No people, no animals, just the moon softly shining on the short, spiky brown-tinged grass; the trees covered in golden and red leaves blowing in the cool evening wind.
"An Autumn Island…" Chopper whispered as if it wasn't obvious, which to the captain it probably wasn't.
Nami took control immediately, like she had been doing for the past years. "Sanji, scour the island for anything edible. Lord knows we'll need it." The cook jumped up and was about to run off to perform his duties when Nami spoke up. "And take Zoro with you. God knows he needs to stop training for even half a second." Sanji pouted but said nothing as he went back to the ship to get Zoro, a perilous task considering the man trained more than he slept now that Mihawk was beaten.
"Usopp, take Chopper and go look for fresh water." Usopp gave a groan of impertinence, causing a vein in Nami's forehead to pop. She was rather quick to rile, he noted. Perhaps it was nervousness, considering how close they were to the One Piece.
That left the
cartographer and her captain, hopping from foot to foot impatiently.
She never knew what to do with him. "Uh…Luffy. I'm going off to
map the island. Why don't you go…look for people? Explore the
island? And, um, be back to the ship by daybreak, is that tolerable?"
Another one of
his devilish grins. "It's to-ler-a-ble!" With that new word in
his vocabulary, he was off.
For a split
second, Nami wished she had asked him to come with her.
The night went
well. Only two hours later, they were all gathered around a quite
large fire enjoying boiled Kuja fruit, because no-one really bothered
to argue with the chef as to what to name the fruit that grew in
abundance on the island. Usopp tried, but honestly, who would want to
bite into a fresh and juicy Usopp-the-great fruit?
"Oi."
The Straw Hat
Pirates turned towards their captain, the two hundred million beli
man. Child. Same thing.
"What Nami
said. About us not making it to Raftel."
What a ragtag
band of six. The hundred and fifty million beli swordsman, the seven
million beli cartographer.
"You know,
maybe we should make a record. Leave our mark."
The
sharpshooter was going up for a cool eight million, the doctor for
six million. The cook was up for seventy-five million beli, only half
of the swordsman's yet almost as dangerous as a Shichibukai.
It was a wonder the captain hadn't been conscripted to become a Shichibukai, but then again you have to be caught before they can force that kind of thing on you.
"The
head?"
"Sure,
why not. I mean, it probably the first thing anyone notices when they
see the ship coming, huh?"
"…They'd
be running for their lives the moment they saw it. With Luffy sitting
on it all the time, you know." The swordsman was starting to get a
little angsty to get to sleep after a long night of collecting
whatever the hell grew on the island. Kuja. That was it.
Usopp
appeared on deck with a black marker. "Found this in Nami's
room."
There
was a long silence.
"…Nami's room?" The doctor was a tad
too loud and should have considered the cartographer in earshot.
The six of them gathered by the headpiece: The captain, the first mate, the cartographer, the liar (only slightly mangled, those legs of his could outrun even an extremely pissed woman), the chef and the doctor. Six of the most unlikely creatures to ever unite under one flag.
And
were they ever goddamn strong together.
"You
know…" The swordsman was never one to instigate a conversation
from scratch. "It was a long time since we last did something like
this. Like, the last time we did it, remember?"
There
was a nod of approval from all of them except the tiny reindeer who
couldn't remember anything about feet on a barrel in the pouring
rain.
"The
Log Pose is set. This is it, guys."
They pushed off.
"Luffy should go last. Seeing how he's the captain and all."
"Ai, ai. Who should go first, then?"
"How about we go in reverse order? Y'know, from when we joined?"
Nami grinned. "Perfect." She tossed the marker to Chopper, who stepped out from the tight ring of nakama to face the head of the Going Merry. Zoro placed his arms underneath the tiny reindeer's own arms and gently lifted him onto the polished white wood.
A snap disconnected the pen from its cap. His gaze turned towards the sleeping sea. He lowered the pen to the wood below him.
"Everything
that has happened was so wonderful and new to me. I never thought I'd
ever find nakama so close to me, and have so many good memories."
The
pen squeaked as he wrote.
"My
dream is to cure all the diseases known to men and animal alike."
The pen changed hands as the cook stepped up.
"I thought I owed the shitty cook a lot when I left Baratie, but I guess I was wrong. I owe you guys even more."
A pause for dramatic effect.
"A profound moment? When I first laid eyes on Nami-san."
They could tell he was joking, but who really cared?
"My dream is to find the All Blue." He penned it neatly onto the head of the Going Merry.
Usopp was speechless for once as he stood, pen in hand.
"All the time, I knew that one day I would go back to Kaya and tell her everything that happened. It's just that…from the beginning to the end there's just too much. Like when we were at Logue Town and I met Daddy the Father, I think that was the first time I realized that to be brave…you gotta do it yourself."
He
laughed through his tears.
"My dream is to become a brave
warrior of the sea."
Nami was uncharacteristically silent.
"I thought I would betray you and never come back."
There was a long silence.
"But…there
was something so…different about Luffy-kun that made me want to.
Want to come back. When he stood upon the rubble of Arlong Park and
screamed my name, I knew I had to turn my back on my past because
Luffy would do the same for me.
My
dream is to map the entire world."
Luffy wasn't sure what Zoro would do. He'd already beat up the Mihawk guy. There wasn't anything else, was there?
"I…thought I was gonna die. I was tied down in the middle of a marine base with twenty, maybe thirty guns pointed at my head. There was a moment when I surrendered everything, all my dreams and goals. I was such a bastard back then, would you believe I closed my eyes so that I wouldn't see myself die?"
Nobody laughed.
"But…when I opened them, there was Luffy, that bastard, all arrogant and pompous, bullets flying all around him. He saved my life, and changed my life forever. Not tyring to be all cliché or anything, but it's true.
You guys believe in fate? I do now. Think about it. If Luffy hadn't have showed up that day, I would've died. Then we'd never have showed up at that place where that goddamned clown Buggy was. We'd never get Nami, so we'd never get to Usopp's village, meaning Usopp would have died when Kuro attacked, right? And the bastard cook when Don Kreig came, Nami when she returned to Arlong, Chopper when Wapol returned. And Arabastra would've fallen to Crocodile. All of this shit would've happened if Luffy had never set sail in the first place."
"I kicked Crocodile's ass, right?" Luffy didn't quite get it.
Zoro
ignored his captain. "We shook this whole goddamned world, so let's
end it by grabbing the One Piece…" Tears began to roll down his
cheeks. "And our names will be heard even in heaven.
My
dream is to remain the greatest swordsman in the world, until I meet
Kuina as the first mate to the Pirate King."
The thing about captains was that they were awful people. They bullied you around, kicked you, threw you overboard if you weren't worth their time.
Luffy was definitely not a captain.
"A
million years ago, people told me it was umpossible."
His
nakama loved him; that was for sure. How could they not? There was
something so honourable, so lovable about him. The thing that made
people want to be around him, to see past his apparent stupidity and
lack of common sense and follow him to a dream that certainly was
impossible unless Luffy was leading you to it.
"I
kicked all of their asses, so I guess…"
His
nakama knew what was coming.
"…There's
no-one left to tell me I can't. My dream is to become the Pirate
King!"
They
cheered.
Zoro enjoyed late-night watches. The way the moon shone down on you, it didn't care whether you were a little bastard who kept losing, or a fully-grown bastard who didn't lose at all.
The crow's nest was rather comfy, the way Usopp had set it up with blankets and pillows. It was amazing he'd never fallen asleep in it, considering how comfortable it was. Whatever.
He started to doze off when he suddenly became aware of his ear being tugged on. Hard.
"…The hell?"
His
captain was dangling off the edge of the nest, bouncing up and down
with the effect of a rubber arm, supported only by Zoro's ear.
"I
slipped. Owari."
"S'okay."
He was rather forgiving, considering the hour. "Why're you up so
late?"
Luffy
pulled himself into the nest by Zoro's ear, granting a grunt of
pain from his first mate and another apology from him. "I can't
sleep. Tell me a story."
Zoro
groaned. "What the hell?"
"Please?
I asked Sanji to, but he called me 'Nami-san' and tried to bite
my ear."
The
swordsman was cornered. "Alright. Just don't go asking this kind
of thing ever again, they'll think the Pirate King is like…a
kid."
"Aw,
they say that anyways." Luffy grinned and sat down, crossing his
legs.
That was rather true. Zoro took in a breath. "Once upon a time…there
was a kid."
"What
kind of kid?"
"Don't
interrupt the story," Zoro growled, "I'll get to that.
Anyways,
once upon a time there was a kid. Um, and he wanted to get this
treasure at the bottom of the sea but the problem was he had eaten
the Baka Baka no mi, which turned him into an idiot and meant he
couldn't swim."
"The
mayor of my town told me I eated the Baka Baka no mi. Shanks said he
wanted to kick his ass for saying that."
"Be
quiet. So this kid wanted the treasure so bad that one day he jumped
into the sea for it, and then he drowned. But he didn't die because
a mermaid brought him back to life and they lived happily ever
after."
"You
mean like Arlong? He was ugly."
"No,
it was a pretty mermaid."
"What
did she look like?"
He
sighed, not meaning for his captain to be so interested. "Well…she
had long black hair and really pale skin, 'cause she was under
water all the time, and her tail had black scales."
"Did
she wear a shirt?"
A
rather odd question for Luffy to ask. "Um, no. Her hair fell over
her…chest."
"Oh.
You mean her second butt on her chest? Like the one Nami has?"
"Yeah,
like what…THE HELL?"
Luffy
grinned. "What, you didn't know? I think it's some kind of
giant secret, you know, that girls have butts on their chests. Once
when I was hanging around the tavern Shanks told me…"
Zoro was staring off towards the black horizon, mouth hanging wide open.
"No
time for that. Later." Zoro shook his head and jumped up, almost knocking his captain
out of the nest. "Luffy. Go wake everyone up. Now."
"What?
Is there free food or some—"
"GO."
A/N - I am so so so sorry, I guess my
drabble sense got the best of me. Just in case you're wondering because
I'm an idiot and forgot, I probably don't own One Piece, but in some
alternate dimension perhaps I do.
