Chapter 4: Unwanted Visitors

"Omak! What did I tell you about bringing strangers to our village? The only reason we live here is for isolation from pirates and malevolence of others. Omak, you remember what your friend did, allowing those pirates into our village. Well you'll never see him again, he's their chore boy now. That could happen to you," Omak's mother screamed in his face. Omak stood stiff as a needle the whole time with everyone, including the newcomers, watching.

"Luffy look. Omak looks like he's about to burst into tears. He did try to stop us from getting here," Nami said to Luffy. He nodded in agreement. When Omak's mother had left her snivelling son with the odd "disgrace" flying about, the villagers had returned to their daily duties.

"Follow me," Omak said, walking into his house, despondently.

"Shouldn't we be going?" Nami inquired.

"Nonsense. You must be treated well. After all, I don't want to feel responsible for the death of two young individuals such as yourselves. You two seem too kind to do us any real damage, too innocent looking," Omak assured. He was correct. Nami and Luffy seemed too naïve to be real pirates. " Come. you two must be fed. Please take a seat each at the table. You must be hungry." Luffy and Nami obeyed, Luffy beginning to drool. Nami looked to him appalled. Is he really human, she thought. Then another thought struck her, oh yeah he's Luffy.

Fifteen minutes later Omak appeared with a huge, smoking steak on a simple metal platter.

"Lunch is served. Eat as much as you can," Omak said. In Luffy's case, eat it all, Nami thought. The platter was placed in front of Luffy, who was about to dig in when he spotted Nami. She sat quietly next to him. Suddenly, he began to feel compassionate towards her, something he's never done before to anyone.

"Here Nami. Eat as much as you can," he said, pushing the platter towards Nami. She stared at Luffy uncomfortably. This wasn't the Luffy she knew before. What has gotten into him, she thought. She decided to take a few bites but then refused. Luffy only shrugged and dug in himself. Since she had nothing to do, Nami stared at the odd-looking boy who had taken herself and Luffy into custody. She notice that he wore a stained cotton t-shirt and rough brown trousers that were way to big for him. His skin was unnaturally pale, as if he was sick. The thing that Nami noticed most about Omak was his large, innocent brown eyes. She also noticed that he looked as if he hadn't eaten for weeks.

"Aren't you going to eat anything? You look famished," Nami asked in concern.

"Don't worry about me, I've only been a couple of days. Not really hungry," he said. Nami looked in his direction uneasily. Before Luffy could swallow the last bites of his meat, they were interrupted by a loud trumpet followed by, " Oh no! They're here! Everyone enter your households now." Omak stood up, antagonism on his dirty face.

"The shadows are here again? It's the third time this week," Omak said with irritation.

"What?"

"Who?"

"The shadows. They're like an endless legion of dark entities which terrorize these villagers and attack those who stand in their way. For some reason, I'm always the one ending up defeating them and turning them away from our village. But they always return with a vengeance…" Omak explained to them.

"Wait. If they can put up a decent fight, then count me in," Luffy said with a thumbs up and his trademark laugh. He stood up and gave the rest of his meat to Nami. Something he'd never do normally. Also, he took of his hat and placed it on hers, saying, "Please Nami. Keep this hat safe. I don't want it getting damaged while I'm fighting like it did when Buggy impaled it, Okay," he said, seriousness all over his face. Nami nodded and as Luffy left the room, Nami felt very, very special indeed.

"GUM…GUM…BLAST!" Luffy yelled as his arm was elongated and slung forward in one devastating punch. Around half a dozen shadows were knocked down, but the rest kept coming. Omak fought with precision and skill, every one of his kicks and punches connecting with a fatal part of the body, every blow giving devastating effects. He sparred with a shadow that put up a heck of a fight in front of him, and also noticed that one was up the rear. He made contact with the first ones jaw with his knuckles and swept down low to sweep the second with his foot. Both were knocked out. Wow, he's good, Luffy thought. Glad he's on our side. Luffy continued to use his elastic abilities to take advantage over his opponents, making sure he didn't get struck. Glad to have him on our side, Omak thought. As they fought, one child began to cheer on the two courageous defenders. Nami decided to leave the household she was in to watch the astounding battle that took place with her foolhardy captain and the peculiar fourteen year old that fought to defend the small, frail village which he considered to be his home. It was obvious that Omak was fighting in self-defence but Luffy seemed to exchange blows for another reason. Nami took a few steps forward and looked closely into the captain's eyes and what she had found out surprised and stunned her. In Luffy's eyes, she found out that not only was he protecting the villagers, but had to make sure that his navigator was well protected.

Sure enough, one of the shadows had dispersed from the wave of other shadows but made its way straight through the crowd. The villagers formed a path so that the frantic entity could get by without anyone getting wounded. The only person left was Nami, who was to enveloped in thought that she couldn't move. Luffy looked her way and saw what all the commotion was about. That was when he spotted Nami standing in the way of a wild shadow.

"Nami, NO!" He bawled, but it didn't do any good. So Luffy decided to take matters into his own hands.

Nami only snapped back into reality when Luffy cried out. She saw that one of those dark beings was bounding towards her an alarming rate. All she could do was shut her eyes and hope for the best. When she opened her eyes again she had thought that she had passed away for she could see nothing. But as she came to realize where she was she noticed that there was a sheet of red, blue and rubber flesh making a protective shield in front of her. Luffy? He made a protective shield around me, she thought, realizing that Luffy had taken the hit for her. Since Luffy was rubber, the force caused the entity to be knocked back and slammed with an immense force against a concrete wall. The captain then returned to normal size, wavered a bit…and then turned towards Nami. She trembled a little before falling into her captain, who held her up with strong, tough arms.

"Thank you, Luffy. Thank you…"