Chapter 7: Food for Thought

In exchange for dinner Nina had performed on stage for an hour. Song after song she somehow managed to touch even the most cruel and hateful of the pirates. Some even cried when listening to her sing of the fate awaiting the unwary sailor that happens upon a mermaid colony, and others laughed with rowdy abandon when she sang about the princess that abandoned her kingdom to sail the seas.

Though she was just barely out of childhood there was no doubt about her skill. Nina was good.

Robin let her eyes travel through out the room memorizing every face, looking for the insignia of Red-beard's crew on the men in the room.

She saw several people watching Nina intently, but she couldn't tell if they were spies or if they were merely enthralled with Nina's skills.

Nami came in through the door with a paper in her hand. She waved for Nina to join her when a mastodon of a man tried to stop her. Sanji's shoe stopped him before he even had a chance to grab her.

"Nami-san, you're beauty lights up this dark and dreary room!" Elegantly he held the chair steady as she took her seat.

Nina gave a final bow, and amidst all the catcalls and congratulations she slipped through the audience and took the empty seat by Chopper.

"Alright, I have the application papers for you… but…"

"Is something wrong?"

"It's not that it's wrong. It's just well… they want you to sing something that you wrote. Nina have you ever written music, or lyrics before?"

Nina looked surprised at the question and shook her head in the negative.

"I've written music before but never lyrics. This… will be a first."

"Seriously!" Chopper looked up at surprise, a piece of lettuce sticking out of his mouth.

"What's the big deal?" Luffy bit into another of the ribs sitting on his plate the barbeque sauce was dripping down his face. "She's decided she's going to do it and she's going to do it. Just like how I'm going to eat all of the food!"

Piling the food into his mouth like a rabid wolf Nina thought about what he said. "You know you say some pretty good things sometimes!"

"…uh? I sa..d som…ding?"

Laughing at the silly picture that Luffy made she grabbed some paper from her secret storage area and started to write anything and everything she could think of down onto paper. The music would be the easy part the lyrics she needed all the time she could get.

Wiping the sleep from her eyes she looked down at the song that she had written the night before and hoped it would be good enough for the performance.

She couldn't loose! Everyone was depending on her, and this was her chance to help everyone that had ever put they're faith in her. She owed it too them all to do her best. She was going to show them her appreciation with her music!

She changed her clothes as quickly as she could, it was going to be hot outside but she needed every angle she could get in the performance.

Slipping outside she went down the docks and into town where things were going to be held that day.

"Wait up!"

She could hear Usopp's voice as he ran towards her his hands waving in the air trying to get her to stop for him. She slowed her pace and let him catch up.

"You know the Marines are going to be all over the place today if you guys aren't careful…"

Usopp put a stop to her words with a laugh and a finger pointed straight up in the air.

"It would be the biggest disgrace of my life if I let you go in there unprotected. I'll just be hiding somewhere with my slingshot so you don't have to worry!"

"Um… thanks?"

"You can do it! We'll all be cheering for you!"

"Just don't get caught you guys this place is going to be crawling with Marines."

Nina watched as Usopp waved by and plunged into the crowd. Now that she stopped and thought about it she hadn't seen the rest of the crew on the ship that morning either… were they all coming to watch her performance?

Holding her head up high she was bound and determined to show them the best concert that they had ever seen in their lives.

Chapter 8