Hey all, I am so, so sorry that it took me so long to post this, last week I had exams and then I had to help my friend out with some of her own problems. Not too mention that it has hardly stopped raining here in 2 weeks. I don't know why but I'm just never able to write very well when it's raining. Either way, I finally got this chapter done so I hope you enjoy.
Trusting Trust
Chapter 3- Invisible Sight
By: Kieri Norou
Gently rocking, a single lantern hanging from a planted hook in the ceiling swayed silently with the calming waves, casting the dancing shadows across the dimly lit room. On one side of the room a wooden desk held a slightly disgruntled pile of hard-planned sea maps tilting towards a small inkbottle standing guard by the collection of finely chosen feather quills. Over in a neat corner a box of medical supplies accompanied the high heel shoos the mugiwara navigator was always seen wearing. Next to the familiar attire rested a wooden bed pushed against the wall. The beds warm blankets were carefully folded around the huddled form of the orange haired girl. Her arms tightly holding her legs to her chest, and through unseeing eyes she allowed crystal tears to cascade down the redness of her cheeks.
Luffy watched this all as he stood in the doorway of his navigator's room, he had entered unnoticed and now just seemed to be waiting for her to allow him passage in her room. He'd already learned long ago that entering Nami's room without permission just wasn't something that you normally wanted to do… not unless you desired a headache for the next few days. After waiting a minute it became clear to him that his pained nakama would not be inviting him in, with this conclusion he decided to make his presence known to the quivering girl. Calling out her name he knew she had heard him when her blank eyes met with the place she knew the door was located. Her stare made Luffy uneasy, he'd never seen eyes so lifeless, and he wasn't sure he really liked them. The weak greeting that met his ears broke his private thoughts. "That you, Luffy?"
To her credit Nami tried her very hardest to make her voice as strong as it usually was, however, she just couldn't seem to bring enough strength into her spirit to make the call sound anything more than a weak, scared question. She cringed at her own voice and tried desperately to put on a smile so that her captain wouldn't be suspicious of her odd behavior, one hand reached up and quickly wiped away her stray tears as she looked in the direction she hopped Luffy was stationed. She was a strong girl and she didn't need the sympathy of others, she'd been through worse and she'd be damned if she allowed herself to show weakness now.
As her gaze continued to reach forward Nami was unaware that her captain had come to stand beside her watching her stare at the door, his head fell to one side as he tried to understand just what was so interesting about that door. "Neh, Nami why are you staring over there? I don't see anything, is it invisible?" startled by Luffy's sudden presence Nami's face shot towards the bewildered boy. His face still held a confused look as he noticed her eyes not actually looking at him but past him. Glancing behind him the boy sighed… he just didn't get it, what could she see that he couldn't see? It wasn't fair; he wanted to see it too.
Nami really wasn't sure what to say to his question, she hadn't quite come to terms with this sudden disability and she certainly wasn't ready to explain it to her overly naïve captain, and so she was at a loss for words. How did you explain to someone so child-like that you couldn't see? And more over, you had no clue as to the reason behind the blindness. Swallowing Nami mentally prepared herself as she took a deep breath. "Luffy, I can't see anything." Her voice quivered as she continued slowly, "I'm…" She had never thought it would this hard to voice it, she supposed that once the words left her mouth she would finally come to accept it, however, she didn't feel that she should be trying to accept this, as a matter of fact she felt that she should just be angry. Angry that this had happened to her, angry that that damn pirate had hurt her, angry that she hadn't gotten any gold, angry that she had been stupid enough to bored that ship, angry that her crew hadn't come to help her, angry that she had even been in the Grand Line.
Yes that was it, she should be angry that she had entered the Grand Line, she should be angry that she ever left Kokoyashi Island, angry that she had ever met Luffy. Nami wasn't really sure how all this tied up with her meeting Luffy but right now it seemed to make perfect sense, if she hadn't met the straw-hat pirate then she would still have her sight, sure she would still be working for Arlong but then this never would have happened to her. Yes that's right, Arlong was cruel and just plain evil but HE never would have let this happen, he never would have let her be blinded by some scumbag pirate. He would have done a better job of taking care of her then Luffy did. When Nami's brain finally caught up with her thoughts she couldn't hold in the painful gasp from leaving her lips, and suddenly she had tears streaming down her face again, completely forgetting about her silent guest. Had she really become so low as to think such cruel things about her captain and the adventures he'd allowed her to experience? Suddenly feeling angry with herself Nami mentally scolded her outrages thoughts for ever taking form.
Luffy, long forgotten, was still standing there with his head once again tilted to the side. He watched as Nami's face became contorted in unmasked anger, causing him to unknowingly take a step back. It had started off as a slow movement, her jaw clenching, and then her mouth coming into a frown, her eyes that once were staring vainly past him now came to rest in one her for scary glares. Watching all of this, Luffy really wasn't sure what to make of it, it wasn't often that Nami would hold in her anger, so his instincts told him to run, however, he stood there patiently waiting for her to finish her explanation of the invisible thing only she seemed able to see. Coming to a realization, Luffy snapped his fingers, and as he was about to state his explanation for the teenage girls strange behavior he was interrupted by an overflow of angry tears streaming down Nami's delicate face.
This seemed to cause an uncharacteristic frown to appear on the happy-go-lucky boy as he allowed his gaze to search the room. "Nami, did that invisible thing make you cry? I'll kick his ass!" Luffy started to search for the mysterious enemy looking under tables and behind curtains. All the while, Nami who had been brought out of her thoughts by the realization that her captain was still very much in the room stared at the place his voice had originally came from. Now it was a well known fact that Luffy didn't' take kindly to people who went after any of his Nakama so his statement itself hadn't really surprised her, pleased her yes, but surprised her, no. A small smile gracefully painted it's way onto Nami's face as she heard her noisy captain now throwing out threats to the non-existent enemy.
Deciding that she should try to clear things up before Luffy tore the entire room apart looking for her supposed assailant, Nami once again took a deep breath before continuing. "Luffy, there isn't an invisible thing…" her statement was cut off as Luffy was now looking under her covers, quickly becoming annoyed at the seemingly depth captain Nami sent a swift kick to the boy's face. Hearing the sound of her captain hitting the ground Nami tried to continue "you don't need to fight any enemies right now, there's nothing too fight."
Luffy, who was still sprawled on the floor looked up to the map making geniuses, he really wasn't sure what was going on anymore, everything seemed to be so confusing since those know-nothing pirate scavengers had come by, but he supposed that If Nami said that there wasn't an enemy in the room, then there mustn't be one. However, he still couldn't figure out what was happening, and it bothered him that there was still a few lone tears falling down his Navigators face. Luffy really didn't like it when any of his crew was hurt, either physically or emotionally. They weren't supposed to be getting hurt… at least not badly, they were supposed to be going out and having fun, going on grand adventures laughing and singing—well, the singing part would have to wait until after they found a musician, but he could think about that later. Right now, he wanted to understand why Nami wasn't acting like her normal self and why in the world Sanji didn't have dinner ready yet.
Suddenly, Luffy remembered something; Zoro had said that Nami was blind…. Maybe that was why she was acting so strange. Proud of himself for figuring it out a wide toothy grin spread across Luffy's rubber face. "Oi, Nami, Zoro say's your blind, why don't you just try to turn on your sight again?"
A sudden jolt of annoyance sprang up Nami's spine as she searched the ground for where Luffy may be stationed; her eyebrows twitched angrily as she slowly asked, "Turn…on… my… sight?" She was hopping that she had just become depth as well and hadn't heard the 17-year-old right.
"Yep, you know, when we close our eyes we don't see anything, and then when we open them suddenly we can see, so there's got to be a switch or something that turns our sight on and off, right? So just close your eyes and open them again, you probably just didn't open your eyes the right way last time." During his whole speech Luffy was sitting with his legs crossed as he continued to blink, as if showing Nami just how you were supposed to open and close your eyes.
Nami, however, found this speech less then amusing, actually, she found it frightening… could it even be possible that someone like Luffy existed? How was she supposed to even interpret his statement? It was so… juvenile that she suddenly doubted she was actually talking to her captain, what if it was some little kid playing a cruel joke on her? Either way, Nami decided that even if it wasn't Luffy this person deserved punishment for their supposed stupidity. Clenching her fists Nami let out a powerful swing, only then realizing she didn't know where to aim it. Before she could react gravity had taken its hold on the poor girl and pulled her down to the floor where she now lie next to the bewildered Luffy.
"Whatcha do that for Nami?" Luffy's eyes stayed pasted on her fallen form as she tiredly tried to sit up. Luckily for her, the loud noises coming from her room had attracted the curious reindeer and as Luffy was about to ask another irritating question he was interrupted by Zoro's sudden appearance behind him, fallowed closely by Sanji coming to Nami's immediate aid.
"Nami-San, Why are you on the floor?" asking his question, Sanji proceeded to dust Nami off as he helped her back onto the bed. Nami who at the time was all of the sudden overwhelmed by the amount of overbearing noise in her at one point very peaceful room tried to brush the confident cook off.
Feeling Chopper's inhuman hands searching her for injury Nami resigned herself with a sigh and decided on just allowing this annoyance to continue, there really wasn't anything she could do about it anyways. "I was trying to hit our baka captain for his stupidity." Her statement rang loud and clear in the blond man's ears and he immediately bounded over to the young man that was currently being scolded by both Zoro and Ussop.
"Oi, Oi, Luffy, are you listening to a word I'm sayi—" The sharpshooters sentence was cut short as the young man before him was pounded to the ground and now was continuously being hit over the head.
"Baka, what did you do to poor Nami-san? Why didn't you let her hit you? You made her fall on the floor Baka!" and with that Sanji's leg came crashing down painfully causing Luffy to crack the floorboards.
"AHHHHHHH, don't hurt the Going Merry!" His frantic arms waving above his head as he ran around trying to find the tools needed to fix the precious ship closely fallowed Ussop's shriek of dismay.
Ignoring Ussop's background noises of displeasure Sanji continued his attack on the very confused boy below him, "look Nami-san, look, I'm hitting him for you, Nami-san, don't worry, I'll take care of him so you can rest assured now, he has paid for his crime against you my Nami-swan."
Zoro who had taken a stance leaning against the wall of the room after Sanji's first assault on their captain was now looking completely annoyed as he promptly brought the palm of his hand to his face slapping it against his skin as if trying to ignore the utter chaos ensuing in the small room "Oi, Love-cook, stop saying that, she can't see anything, baka". Robin who still hadn't made it past the doorframe allowed a small smile to grace her face, this crew amused her and always seemed to brighten her day even in situations like this.
Chopper, who at first had been examining Nami was now looking worriedly around the room, he didn't know who he should be worried more about, the beaten captain, the sobbing shipwright, or the ever tensing navigator… this was all just too much for the young doctor, he wasn't sure just how much more his ill-tempered patient could take, however he wasn't confident in his ability to clear the wooden room of the other occupants. Looking from one crew member to the other his thoughts were stalled as the dark eyed captain was finally able to raise his face from the broken floor, small slivers of wood falling to the ground as he confronted the swordsmen's earlier statement. "But Zoro, she can see, she can see something invisible that's in the room… it's not fair… I wanna see it too." At the captain's obvious whine every member of the mugiwara kazoku halted in their actions, even Robin's smile was erased from her lips.
Nami, who had been trying her very hardest to contain her fury and frustration was now desperately clenching her hands, her anger had been growing with each disturbance of sound but now as the room grew quiet it only seemed to grow ten-fold, finally unable to stop the uncontrollable rage her fists pounded into her legs as her voice rose over the silence sending everyone into frantic surprise. "GET OUT, all of you just GET OUT! I don't want you anywhere near me, just go, right NOW, leave me ALONE!" It didn't take long for everyone to pile out of the room heading to the upper deck fearfully trying to avoid any danger.
Once the room was met with silence Nami's prone figure began to shake, she didn't feel as though she was even on the Going Merry anymore, how could she? Nothing was familiar, all that surrounded her was darkness filled with sounds that never before seemed important. How was she to know that the sound of the creaking wood never used to bother her only because she had been able to see that there was no danger, how was she to know that the sounds of her Nakama laughing were only ever enjoyable because she could see what caused the humor. She didn't like asking questions, it made her feel as if she was a weak girl who didn't know anything about what was going on around her. And now, as she felt the wet drops of her tears falling to land on her huddled form she realized that she truly was a weak girl, who would never understand her surroundings again.
She'd always be faced with the need to ask questions and she would never be of any use to anyone ever again. She had been weak before, but at least then she had been able to captivate enough courage and understanding to be of some help. However now, how was she supposed to even pretend to be smart, brave, witty, and utterly perfect when she couldn't even see who she was trying to fool? A sudden shift from the waves caused the boat to tilt slightly and in doing so allowed a few scattered piles of maps to fly off of their table and smoothly grace the still shallowly cracked floor. Hearing the unmistakable sound of paper sliding across the floor Nami's instincts told her to remove the map from it's position in danger, however, suddenly, as if some force had finally allowed her comprehension she realized something that she never wanted to be faced with. Her maps, the maps that she had dreamed about since childhood, the entirely cherished collection of information she'd been gathering from the whole trip were at an end. She would never be able to finish her plans and she would never fulfill her dreams.
Finally Nami allowed her protective wall to break as she fell into a waterfall of tears. Nothing would ever be the same again, and the entire reason she was brought along on this adventure was lost. She couldn't possibly be able to navigate for the crew again, and she would have to inevitably be replaced. All together Nami's world came crashing down.
All right well, that's it for this chapter, I really wasn't sure how I wanted to end it but I hope that was good. I'm really hoping that all the characters are IC and if their not please tell me I'll try to fix it if I can. Oh, and I wanted to say thanks to my friend Koru-Chan for helping me out. Also thanks to everyone that has reviewed I really appreciate it. Don' forget to review this chapter too, I could use all the help I can get, especially with this non-stop rain were having. All right, well hope you enjoyed the story thus far, I will do my best not to make you wait so long for the next chapter.
Kieri Norou
