"So? Was it impulse or something?" Wyper asks.
"No, I just got annoyed," Usopp says. "They weren't taking us seriously. It's not just our crew, but Foxy's crew as well… if we don't start changing our naive outlooks on things, we're not going to survive any further."
Back then, they changed too late, and that's why they had to take a two-year break from everything. They shouldn't need that kind of time wastage this time around.
"That's nice, you guys never let me kill anything," Anne says.
"Do you like killing?" Wyper asks, incredulous.
"...no," Anne says, "but I can."
And if she can, it means someone in the crew, someone with clean hands, would be spared the horrors of staining their own. To Anne, killing was almost a necessity, a mission, a quota to reach as a team effort. Her time in Baroque Works was the same.
"Nami evidently didn't like it," Wyper says.
Usopp stays silent at that. That was clear— and he knew that. He knew that she disapproved, and she would be the one that most clearly rebuked it. He doesn't understand why it hasn't happened yet, why Nami hasn't said anything yet— and it unnerves him that right now, it was all bottled up, imminent to bursting.
But he wasn't the one keeping emotions sealed, so he didn't even know how to fix it.
They remain silent the rest of the way, until Usopp, Anne, and Wyper arrive at Tonjit's house to deliver the good news.
"Wait. No," Usopp says, looking around before realizing Kinoko wasn't with him, so he couldn't ask her to look around either. "Hold on. Something's missing."
Anne and Wyper turn to him. "What's wrong?"
"...he's not here," Usopp breathes.
"Who isn't?"
"Give me a second. I'm looking for something," Usopp says. "Just a second. And don't eat the cheese if Tonjit offers it."
"So?"
When Zoro ominously gathered the currently present Strawhats away from the Foxy Pirates only to offer a single ominous prompt, everyone just knew this was not going to be a pleasant conversation.
"So what?" Sanji asks anyways. "It happened. Are we still not over it?"
Conis and Chopper squirm a little uncomfortably, and Nami gives Sanji a glare that he very immediately crumbles for.
"He's right, though," Gin says. "Sure some of us aren't used to it— but it happens."
"I don't like it," Nami says, almost immediately. "There was no reason for him to have done that. It's just— it just makes no sense. He usually doesn't do this."
"But…" Conis hugs Suu, "it's… it's not the first time he has. Aisa told me before–"
"He did it in front of Aisa?!" Nami flinches. That's right— Aisa would have been on the ship when it happened. "What is he even thinking?!"
"He's not," Sanji mutters.
"I do believe as pirates, it's more the necessity of the situation, rather than the situational awareness," Robin says. "So on Sky Island…" she trails off. It was justified was left unsaid, because Nami evidently disagreed.
She seethes, teeth clenched furiously, fists balled– and she demeaningly looks away.
"Senseless violence," Nami says. "That's all it is."
They left it at that.
"I don't care what you do," Zoro says, finally flipping that argument over its head to address something else. Those things didn't matter. It's what will soon happen that mattered at this moment. "It's what you don't do that's bothering me."
Keeping secrets, withholding information that was vital, all for the sake of some so-called development. As if they had any right to dictate people's experiences.
Nami falls silent.
Not even Luffy was refuting that this time.
The crew waited, as Nami bit her bottom lip, fists tightening. She didn't know how to get out of this conversation. She didn't think it was right of her to.
"You're not at ease yet, Nami-san," Sanji says. He takes a drag of his cigarette. "What's going to happen on the next island? Or maybe, it's this island."
She stiffens.
"There's someone else on this island?" Gin straightens, whirling around in the direction of Tonjit's house. "Then, Usopp and the others—"
Luffy jerks up. "Is it dangerous, Nami?!"
"No, if it was, you wouldn't have let them go, right?" Chopper insists. "That, or they're strong enough to handle it! It's Usopp and Wyper, after all."
"That's right, Miss Nami wouldn't…" Conis begins, but she falls short. She didn't know how to continue that sentence, because she, too, didn't know what was right.
Nami looks away. "I—"
All eyes turn to her, and the words are stuck in her throat. Zoro has his hands on his swords.
Then, very weakly, "we'll get out of it alive."
Zoro and Luffy jump right to their feet, making a run for it.
"We're not going to be able to take him on!" Nami yells, and they stop, turning around. "Not me, not Usopp… not even you or Zoro," she says, looking at Luffy. "He's not here to fight us. He's just here to…"
Robin looks between the tensions of the crew, slowly discerning the state of the matters— and it just didn't look good at all. What has Nami done? What has she and Usopp done to the crew? Would it have ruptured either way? Was it better before?
"...I'm just here to confirm that Nico Robin is in your crew, that's all."
For a horrible moment, no one dared to move.
"But I'm quite interested, Burglar Cat," Aokiji speaks, directly behind her, "how did you realize I was on the island? I had a hard enough time dodging that sniper."
Held in the admiral's hand, upside down like a chicken for slaughter, is Kinoko.
"This bird was a little tougher to throw off. Sorry if I roughed it up a little. I wanted to be unnoticed, you see but…" he sighs, putting it into Conis' hands, earning a strangled squeak. "Well, it was a pointless effort."
Chopper yelps at the sight, hurrying over with his first aid kit as Conis panics , gently shaking the bird until she just bolted up squawking, offended and traumatized and—
—and suddenly there's a bird violently attacking Aokiji, wings and talons and a startled yelp from the too-tall Admiral.
"Hey! Hey bird! Stop! I apologized!"
Kinoko is still screeching in anger, and the Strawhats are left watching as the looming, ominous, terrifying figure of authority is just… assaulted by an avian ball of fury.
"Should I—" Gin starts.
"Uh, maybe," Nami says. This was highly amusing but if the bird gets frozen Usopp will be incredibly distraught. "She's only allowed to do that because he's not fighting back. Let's stop her before he changes his mind."
"Alright then," Sanji sighs, "Robin sweetheart, would you do the honours?"
Robin blinks back to attention, finally taking a breath from her bewilderment to nod. Crossing her arms, hands sprout upon Kinoko's back, wrapping around her like a little bundle, dropping her right into the ground.
Luffy reaches over and retrieves her quickly, frowning. "So is he bad news?"
Nami juts out a nod. "But… it'll depend on his mood."
Nami would reach for her Eisen Whip, but she knows it would be too late. Aokiji was the kind to immediately identify every weapon in her arsenal, and she knew that he was prepared to take on any and everything.
(Because that was the difference in their power. That was what his overwhelming Haki, pressuring her like gravity and tightening her every hair and nerve, is warning her.)
Robin falls with a gasp. Abruptly realizing the severity of the situation, Luffy curses, calling out for Nami, while Sanji reaches in, taking Nami by the shoulder, dragging her a little away. Zoro and Gin jerk forward, hands on their weapons—
"Wait guys, don't fight him!" Nami exclaims. They all freeze. She leans into Sanji's chest from where he was still holding her. She doesn't tear away. She needed to be in there.
She raises her hands in surrender, and she smiles.
"It's nice to meet you, Marine Admiral Aokiji," she greets, noticing the way some of them have stiffened up upon realizing who he was. "I'm sorry— we got a little tipoff, you see. So we were a little nervous about your arrival. Do forgive us for being wary. You know what we are and all."
"A tipoff?" Aokiji hums. "Ah, I see. If I don't know about it, then it must be from that guy," he says. "How nice, I want the passport of the mysterious Seer, too."
The mysterious…? Coby, perhaps.
"What's with this guy?"
"Is he really an Admiral? Why's he so…"
"My motto's Lazy Justice."
"Oh that makes sense!"
Nami breathes out, and then sets a hand on Sanji's, which was on her shoulder, assuring him that it's alright to let go. Conis is whispering to Chopper, presumably asking about Admirals and what their significance was, and Chopper's answer makes her go pale.
"Ah, you've sure grown up well, Nico Robin," Aokiji says, and everyone instantly straightens right up again. "Ah, there are some other pretty ladies around, too. Nice to meet you, are you free tonight?"
"Hey!" Sanji snaps.
Nami knows that Zoro is glaring at her, displeased that this is what she was still hiding. And really it wasn't any laughing matter at all. Gin is scowling as well, but at Aokiji.
"So, Burglar Cat. I've heard you've troubled my old friend a great deal. How are you?" Aokiji says, chiding up some casual conversation. "As for your infiltration as one of our chore boys and the lasting grief the Elder Stars are giving us for it, well…."
"I've been in Smoker-san's care," Nami says. "I guess you're like my former former superior, or something?"
"Yes yes," Aokiji says. "Well, doesn't matter anymore though."
What's with this meaningless chatter?
Nami nods toward Conis, who picks up Kinoko and backs away. Robin stands up, eyes set in a frown. Suu scrambles up Nami's shoulder, and Nami whispers a quiet order.
Suu immediately runs off, and Aokiji watches with a sigh, deciding to let her go. It wasn't worth the effort.
"Meet my Captain, Monkey D. Luffy," Nami says, emphasizing his last name, knowing full well Gin bristled at that. "And Luffy, well… yeah, let's not bother with the greetings. Don't punch him, he doesn't hit as hard as your Grandpa, but I'd say it's pretty close."
Luffy grimaces. Aokiji also grimaces.
Nami stares. "...why are you offended?"
"I mean… I respect him, but," Aokiji says, lips pulled in disgust, looking the most visually annoyed that Nami has ever had the honour to witness. "It's cool to be compared to his strength, but the thought of it… exhausts me."
"Same," Luffy says, face pulled into an alarmingly similar look of sheer annoyance. "I get you, weird lanky guy. I totally get you."
"Luffy, don't find kinship in him, he's a marine!" Gin warns.
"Is anyone ever going to tell us who your Grandpa is or are we just supposed to collectively pretend we understand what the fuck is this conversation?" Sanji asks.
"Speaking of," Aokiji changes the subject, earning a frustrated snarl from Sanji, "the paintball war's the most amazing and infuriating thing we've ever had in our base, ever. Thanks for that."
"I have never in my life received such confusing sarcasm."
Aokiji hums. Well, he's identified Nico Robin, and acknowledged Nami's new allegiance under Luffy— that's his job done and over with.
So now?
"You're aiming for Robin?" Luffy says, scowling. "You're not getting her!"
"Luffy, stop it," Sanji says. "It's an Admiral."
"Don't pick a fight with it just because you can," Gin warns.
"Well are we just going to let him take her?!"
"Of course not, obviously!"
"Then let me fight him!"
"No!"
"Uh, Aokiji-san," Nami says, "I know it's very weird for us to ask a favour of you, but…" Tonjit still needed a way to get home. Aokiji's an understanding guy, so that's alright.
"If it's about that weird hut in the distance, yeah, I get the story, I'll help," oh okay that was easy. "Also can you call off that guy? I don't fancy getting shot today."
Nami looks toward where Aokiji was pointing. There's nothing but plains and trees as far as the eye can see.
"Call off what?" Sanji asks.
Nami takes a moment to remember what it was— Luffy does it first, though, taking a breath before hollering, "HEY USOPP, DON'T SHOOT THE GUY!"
"Thanks," Aokiji says. "I'm glad you're more reasonable than your grandfather."
Luffy immediately adds, "I WANNA PUNCH HIM FIRST."
"I spoke too soon."
"Well, it's not like I was actively trying to shoot you," Usopp says, "it's just an Observation Haki thing, you know— it's like etiquette. He went out of his way to avoid me, so when I noticed him, I had to inform him with minor attempts of petty violence."
"Usopp, what the fuck."
"You know this, Nami. Remember what Conquerors do as a greeting?"
"Knock out everyone in the general vicinity like inconsiderate bastards, okay, I get it."
Usopp had been on a really tall tree, apparently, so Luffy went to get him down. He was going to shoot Aokiji and Nami's now interrogating him on the why .
Aokiji yawns, Kinoko on his head yawning in tandem.
Meanwhile, the crew, who still don't know what Conqueror's Haki is, are staring in baffled silence. "Is it just me or did that start sounding incredibly personal toward the end?" Sanji asks.
"Don't think about it," Gin says.
"I'm not going to think about it," Zoro adds.
"I would prefer to never think of it," Robin agrees.
"I… am thinking of it," Chopper says. "With a lot of concern."
"I don't know what we're supposed to be thinking of…?" Conis admits.
Luffy sneezes.
"C'mon, I'm not delusional, I'm not going to think I can land a hit on him," Usopp says, "I was going to shoot this," he says, holding up a water balloon.
"Not the paintball again!"
"No no, it's not a paintball. This liquid's transparent," Usopp clarifies, very seriously, "it just glows in the dark. Really brightly. And makes all birds and critters in the vicinity shriek at the sight of you."
Aokiji balks. "That's terrifying," he says. "That does it, once we're done sending that old man off, I'm fighting you guys."
"What kind of petty reason to fight is that?!" Zoro snaps.
Wyper, for one, is still struggling with understanding the concept of the Marines.
"So you just go your whole life… hunting down pirates ? Do you guys have nothing better to do with your life?"
"I could turn that argument back around and ask why pirates have nothing better to do than cause trouble for the citizens all the time," Aokiji says, "or something. I know that's not what you guys always do, but capturing pirates isn't all we do either. It's a two way street, or something. I'm too tired to debate about this."
"...if we're not going to talk do I just start blasting or?"
"Wyper, give me my guns back!"
Sending off Tonjit is easy.
They all help the man pack up his belongings, load them up on a cart, get Sherry well-settled, and all. And then Aokiji decides to freeze a whole segment of the ocean along with the guardian of the coast for some showoff reason, and then they're off.
"Can I paint this?" Anne asks.
Aokiji looks down. "Huh? I guess so? Go ahead." And then Anne is obediently running off to find her easel. Aokiji has no idea what just happened.
"You're now legally not allowed to interrupt her painting," Gin says, very dryly.
"...is that what I agreed to?"
"Yeah."
"...okay, fair."
Conis has never been exposed to ice before, so she stood by the coast, a glove off to carefully touch the frozen ocean, fascinated. Chopper began talking to her about the wonders of winder and the island he'd come from, and she was gleaming with interest. Wyper, who was incredibly cold but very interested, was listening beside them.
Robin stays a very fair distance away. Nami lingers around her, and Zoro, sensing the problem there, makes his way just a little closer. Luffy and Sanji see Tonjit off, waving even into the distance. Gin picks up Kinoko and wonders where Suu went.
"All things considered, your crew is quite a peculiar one," Aokiji says. "The name of Burglar Cat and Man Demon, and maybe Miss Goldenweek too, are just little bits of notoriety, but Nico Robin isn't exactly a name that they can ignore."
As of the moment, the government has yet to officially identify Anne and Robin's allegiance in this crew. They barely understand Luffy, the up-and-coming super rookie. Learning that he had four decently notorious names under his command would be unsettling.
Usopp couldn't help but sigh heavier at the thought.
They haven't even noticed the two craziest ones, being Roronoa 'Shimotsuki willbearer' Zoro and Black Leg 'not a Vinsmoke' Sanji, yet. And when the insanity that is Franky, Brook, and Jinbei join… the Strawhats are going to be a completely special brand of calamity to the world.
"The one the government has its most vindictive eye at the moment is, undoubtedly, Nico Robin," Aokiji says. "You've survived thus far, betraying and discarding every organisation behind you… not a single one of those allegiances exist today, Nico Robin. They've all been annihilated, you aside."
Like a curse.
"I suppose Crocodile's an exception, since he's still running free, but his organisation, Baroque Works, is effectively gone as well," Aokiji says.
Finally, Luffy explodes. "Hey, you, shut up already!" he snaps, "the past doesn't matter ! Robin is a member of my crew now, and I'm not going to let you keep talking crap!"
"Yeah, you freaking asshat!" Sanji adds. "You don't know Robin, so don't talk shit!"
"I don't see how any of our crew matters are your business," Wyper mutters.
"Oh?" Aokiji muses. The entire crew, including Anne, had turned to him, hands on their weapons, glares set full in a frown. Usopp hadn't moved yet, but Nami's expressions were hauntingly blank. "You seem to have gained the trust of these people as well, huh?"
Robin's lips purse, shoulders tightening in a surge of anger. Her arms lift— and instantly, a dozen arms bloom, grappling Aokiji in a firm, brutal hold.
"What are you trying to say, Aokiji?" she says, her voice rising uncharacteristically, like she was fighting through the accusations she didn't want to admit were true. "If you want to arrest me… if you regret letting me go that day, twenty years ago… then…!!"
She snaps him in half, to the visceral horror of the entire crew.
Half of the crew gasps, while Zoro and Gin straighten, seeing the way he'd shattered, pure ice in his wake. Wyper's ice widen, recognizing the signs of an incorporeal being.
"AHH!! He died!" Chopper screams.
Conis covers her mouth, "It can't be…!!"
"Everyone get back!" Wyper yells, snapping the entire crew out of their stupor.
Aokiji quickly begins to reform, and Usopp lunges back, taking Chopper in one arm and Conis in the other. Wyper leaps back as well, right out of the range of the ice that comes and freezes through the ground.
"He's a Logia! He's not going to go down easily!" he warns, and the rest of the crew curse loudly, weapons drawn. Of all the times to not have seastone on hand…
"The ground…!" Robin breathes, her shoes frozen through the ice.
Aokiji forms a blade of ice— but as he throws down, Zoro intercepts. Sanji and Gin whirl in on both ends, and Luffy lunges in to throw forth a bullet — but they're stopped, a single hand on Zoro's shoulder, another immediately snatching Sanji's leg out of the air.
Gin's tonfa made contact, but it froze over immediately, and Gin hisses, the metal instantly searing into his skin, and before he could tear away, it coated over, engulfing his hand with ice. Luffy's fist plunged into Aokiji's stomach— and that was it for him.
A hand on each of them, and a single moment's direct contact— and he'd incapacitated them all, leaving them howling in the pain of severe frostbite.
"All four of them at once?!" Conis gasps.
Wyper curses. He'd almost jumped in, too.
"Frostbite!" Chopper exclaims. "This is bad, we have to treat them immediately.
"As for Burglar Cat… oh dear," Aokiji says. "I'd assumed you were smarter than this. If you knew I was coming, I'm quite sure you should have changed into a model better suited for the winter."
Nami was stuck to the ground, cringing nearly audibly as the ice froze over her foot, searing through the metal parts, right into her skin. "I let my guard down," she admits. "What an oversight." She curses. Aokiji didn't freeze the ground last time.
"Oh, oops," Aokiji straightens, when Anne is standing by her easel, her shoes frozen to the ground, but her body itself unharmed. "Did I interrupt you, little painting lady? My apologies, I was trying."
Anne glares, unable to do anything when her paints are frozen.
Aokiji is slowly, steadily, approaching Robin. Robin's feet are frozen to the ground, and she's shaking, "You've got some good friends, but it seems you haven't changed, Nico Robin."
Wyper hurries to stand up— but something by his feet catches his eye.
Suu has returned, and she's holding a Dial. Did she run all the way back to the ship? Wyper's eyes meet Nami's, who held the Clima Tact firmly in her hand.
"Oh my mark!" Usopp says, setting Conis and Chopper down before snatching up a sack of white, cotton-like objects from his bag, tossing it up to be scooped right up by Kinoko. "Wyper, don't hesitate!"
Aokiji lunges for Robin, engulfing her in ice.
Kinoko drops the bag, and Usopp immediately aims his slingshot. "NOW!" Wyper activates the Flame Dial and throws it into the air— setting the entire bag on fire, right before it explodes violently in every direction.
The noise makes Aokiji stop and look up in alarm.
"You came prepared," Aokiji muses. "But this much isn't enough—"
Nami whirls around, Eisen Whip shooting forward, piercing through a single flaming cotton, setting her cloud whip on fire as she lashes it at the Admiral.
"—ah, now that's something interesting," Aokiji says, smiling.
Anne catches a fireball in her palette, hurrying to reactivate her paints and get her feet out.
Robin is nearly half encased in ice now, but some fire was slowly melting away the ice around her boots, enough for her to wiggle her feet out of them and raise herself out on some extra appendages.
She drops off overhead, and Conis and Chopper run to catch her, cringing at the cold. Robin, a hand fused to a shoulder and the rest of her body mostly frozen in place— she couldn't even muster a protest, left only able to lean weakly against Conis' chest.
"You guys, get Robin out of here!" Luffy yells. "Go melt her out!"
"Yes, sir!" they exclaim, picking her up with some effort.
Nami lashes her whip outward, splitting Aokiji's body in half, but unable to hurt him.
"You still can't apply Haki to elementally-augmented weapons, I see," Aokiji says. "I understand. That can get tricky. It's unfortunate, however… until you figure that out, you stand no chance against me, even if you're using a superior element."
Yeah, no dice. Of course.
Nami lets the whip droop around her feet in an attempt to melt her foot out of there. Kinoko lands on her shoulder, and she quickly reaches into the bird's sacks, retrieving a small screwdriver. She'll have to unlatch her foot.
"Bullfight Red—!" Anne spins out a Colours Trap, but Aokiji doesn't let it reach him, swerving right aside from it, freezing Anne's tools in a single touch.
"Now now, little lady," he says, sounding stern. Inspecting the canvas, he hums, pleased. "Don't get distracted. Keep painting, you looked like you were almost done."
Anne stops moving, realising how helpless she was.
Zoro and Sanji struggle to their feet, Gin trying his best to rip his hands away from his unsalvageable tonfas without ripping his skin and flesh off with it. Wyper held the Flame Dial right at it, arguing vehemently with Gin as he did it, Gin screaming that he couldn't just rip his hands out of metal in negative degrees and Wyper not understanding physics.
"We're not letting you go after Robin-chan!" Sanji says.
"I'd advise against protecting a woman like that," Aokiji says. "You have no idea what a threat to the world she is. Nothing but disaster awaits."
"So what?!" Luffy snaps, louder than necessary.
"She will bring your crew to ruin."
"She won't!" Luffy yells. "I'll make sure of that— I'm the man who's going to become the Pirate King… and I need all my nakama to get me there!" Nothing you say is going to stop that!"
"Ah, is that so?" Aokiji straightens. "How about force? WIll that stop you?"
Luffy clicks his tongue. Zoro reaches for his swords again, and Gin has finally managed to safely tear his hands free, not that they were in a very ideal state. Usopp hurries over, to lift Anne out of her shoes, bringing her to his shoulders. Nami, finally freed from the ice, throws out her Eisen Whip toward a tree, dragging herself out of harm's way.
"You guys! Go back to the ship!" Luffy orders, to everyone's ire. He keeps his eyes on Aokiji. "I want to fight him alone. Man to man."
Aokiji scoffs. "Sure, then."
Zoro grabs Nami by the collar and shoves her against the wall.
"Zoro—!!"
"Enough!" Zoro snaps, and he's loud, he's fierce— and while the rest of the crew watch on in horror, Gin is actively stopping Sanji from trying to protect Nami. "I've had enough of you both. You think it's funny that we're dealing with this shit? You knew that guy was coming, you knew he was targeting Robin— just because we get out of it alive doesn't mean you're entitled to make us face all this shit in the first place!"
Nami knows best that things are changing, and that means risks are not worth taking.
"If it can be prevented, I prevent them," she says, glaring back up at Zoro, arms coming up to take his, gripping fiercely. "Let me go Zoro. Right now."
"What's wrong with letting things happen?" Usopp says, to the crew's surprise. He's drying himself off. "Even if we try our best, Merry would still break down. But if we didn't follow it to the book, we wouldn't make it in time to save her. Which would you rather risk losing, Zoro?"
For a moment, Zoro seemed to eat his words.
Then Anne speaks up. "Is that why you let Sherry get shot?"
And the entire deck falls criminally silent. Nami's eyes blow wide— and eyes turn, almost accusingly, toward Usopp.
Usopp shrugs.
Then, with a much more subdued, yet so much more infuriated tone— he lets go of Nami. "Usopp," he warns. "Life isn't something you can just drop on a lever and decide which is more profitable in the long run."
While it's true that this path ensures Merry's greatest chances— this was entirely reliant on the ends to justify the means. Did Merry deserve to go through all that desperation just to blindly believe that Usopp and Nami will get her to safety in time? Did she deserve to be put through this trial to test her loyalty to the crew?
"Don't play god," Zoro says, slamming a hand against the door. "You two don't have the right to look upon our journey as some predetermined fate! This isn't a fucking game!"
They fall silent immediately.
"I get how you feel," Gin says, his voice low and strained, dunking his hands in a pail of water as Anne hurries around with Suu, bringing towels and warmth and treatment materials to everyone. Conis and Chopper were working on thawing Robin in the bathroom, so they didn't have any time to spare on the others. "But this isn't the time."
"Stay calm, you idiots," Wyper warns, raising his bazooka over his shoulder. "We can't interfere in Luffy's duel right now. But if he loses…"
There's a high chance that, on this sea, in this world of unforgiving consequences, they would never see Luffy again.
This was a duel, after all.
There should be no complaints if Aokiji kills Luffy at the end of their fight. That's just how it works down here in the sea, right?
Half the crew run off to retrieve Luffy, leaving Nami and Usopp seated on the deck, chastised.
Blame was rising in Nami's throat. Anger, irritating her tongue.
"It turned out fine," Usopp says. "Even if it doesn't—"
"Enough already!" Nami says, her voice hitching into a high note at the end of her sentence. She rubs vigorously at her leg, trying to stave off the frostbite— but maybe, just maybe, she was gripping it too hard. "Usopp, tell me the truth. Did you try to save Sherry from being shot? At all?"
Usopp's response is a very telling silence, and Nami feels her stomach drop in dread.
"Why?"
"I didn't find it necessary."
"You didn't find Sherry's life necessary?!"
"I didn't find the event worth changing! Chopper was there, do you not trust Chopper's medical skills, Nami?!"
"That's not the fucking point, Usopp!"
"But that is what it all boils down to, isn't it? If it didn't happen, nothing would! If you didn't get hurt, you wouldn't be a member."
"Why do you get to decide–!!" she stops. That was Zoro's point, wasn't it?
"We have the right to decide," Usopp says. "You decided too, didn't you? That's why you set out to sea, that's why you went to find Jinbei, that's why you became a Whitebeard pirate! And then you came back, because you decided what should've changed and what should've stayed the same. We have the right to decide. We came back with that right."
"That's not— it's just— shut up! It's not the same thing!"
In a fit, she raises the nearest object, her towel— and everything in her was dying to just chuck it at the bastard— but she couldn't. Not when it would just be hypocritical.
"...you know, if we were going to disagree on decisions like these all the time, maybe we should've just left like Coby," she says.
She sniffles, reaching up to catch her tears as they fall, burying her palms into her eyes, desperate to stave off the burning, but it wasn't working.
"Maybe it was a mistake to have joined the crew again."
They wanted to indulge in its old wonder. By selfishly deciding to join the crew even as changed people, their little differences seem to be slowly but surely destroying that old beauty, driving it in the direction of doom.
Usopp said nothing to refute it.
Luffy and Robin survive, to everyone's relief.
Usopp and Nami aren't looking at each other, and the crew immediately notice. Zoro looks upon them, clicking his tongue, and Sanji bonks him over the head with a foot.
"Your fault," Sanji says.
"Fuck off," Zoro returns.
Chopper carefully treats Gin's hand wounds while Wyper, with Kinoko's help,works on a new foot for Nami. Usopp has retreated into the cabin with Conis to take care of a still-unconscious Luffy and Robin, along with Suu. Anne keeps a lookout while they rest.
They won't be able to go anywhere for the next few days.
But now that Aokiji's gone, they have lots of time to spare.
Luffy snores, and Robin sighs. Conis holds her hand, and it's warm and assuring, but Robin knows that those are stress lines across her face.
The crew dynamics were strained, and Robin's convinced that it's her curse at work.
"...and that's the story," Nami says. "I'm sorry for keeping it from you this whole time, Robin. I promise we didn't hold any ill will towards you for it."
Of all the ways Robin was expecting to finally learn of the crew-wide open secret that was exclusive to her, this might be one of the more anti-climactic options.
They're alone, just the two of them, in the women's room.
They've time travelled, and before that, they were a crew. That was so unbelievable to Robin that she didn't know what to think. Especially right now, with such a ruptured crew… maybe that was rude.
"We'll go for you no matter what, Robin," Nami says, "we're nakama."
Nakama. Robin feared that word. It meant burdens, it meant risks that she didn't want to lose. Even now, she knew that she would never want to lose these people. She has no idea if this is how she felt last time around at this point too, but it's how she feels right now, and it scares her.
Aokiji had come to give her a warning. Aokiji, the man who gave her life, is telling her she is no longer worthy of it. Robin didn't know if anyone else's words mattered, if anyone else's promises had the power to make themselves matter.
"What did I do, last time?" she asks instead.
Nami knew what she would do. Robin herself is unchanged, after all. And Robin felt fearful, because for the first time in her life, she was completely seen through, completely without secrecy. It didn't feel right.
Nami tightens her fist. "You leave us," she says. And then, desperately holding back tears, she hurries to add. "You left last time. And we went to save you. We chased you all the way, dragged you home, burned down the government flag and made you one of us."
She's crying, and Robin wasn't sure if she was genuinely hearing this.
"I want to tell you not to go, Robin," Nami says, pleading, wiping her tears. She's been such a crybaby recently, and she felt so pathetic. "But… if this didn't happen last time, you would've never opened your heart to us. It's when you really became one of us. And that's why, deeper in my heart, I'm scared that if you don't go, you won't stay."
If you don't go through the same emotions, you won't become the Robin we travelled with. You'll become a different Robin that, maybe, doesn't even hold the same attachment to us, and Nami feared that too. She feared losing the 'Robin' she knew.
That's why Usopp and Nami have been so selfishly withholding that information. They were scared of losing that attachment to familiarity.
And that's when Robin realized that she, too, was scared of losing familiarity.
She'd lived so long in the darkness, that the idea of opening her heart genuinely to the Strawhats terrified her.
The fear they felt was the same.
"Can you be brave, Miss Navigator?" she asks, softly. "How difficult would it be, to take that one step into change?"
Nami pauses, surprised.
Then, a weak smile. "Very difficult, apparently, but I wouldn't know. I've always been a coward," wiping away the rest of the tears. "I would ask Usopp, but I'm scared of talking to him now, too. So I don't know."
Robin looks toward the ceiling, and sighs heavily.
"Then I guess I have no choice but to be a coward with you, then," she says.
She would never forget the way Nami's face lit up, equal parts delighted and crestfallen. Nami cradled Robin's cold hand to her cheek, and nodded shakily.
"I'm sorry," she says. "You're always spoiling me, I feel so bad."
Robin chuckle. "Oh, do I?"
Usopp tinkers with the guns in his bag while Wyper fixes up a new pair of limbs for Nami. Usopp's invested fully in his work, but Wyper's staring, very pointedly at him.
He's not one to interrupt a craftsman, and he's also not one to strike up conversation.
So thankfully, it's Usopp that speaks first.
"Uhh… Wyper, sir? Are you… staring at me? I'm sorry, may I help you?" Usopp asks, hesitantly putting his hands down, almost meekly.
Wyper blinks. "What's with the polite language?"
"Huh? Oh uh, no, nothing really. Habit."
"...and how did you know I was staring? Are you really blind?"
Usopp chuckles awkwardly at that, lifting the tools in his hands again to resume working. "No, nothing like that. I'm just naturally sensitive to stuff like that. Gazes, whispers, opinions… minor inconveniences, dumb things like those. I'm always worried about them. Paranoid, Sanji always says."
Wyper stays silent for all of a moment. "You mean the Sanji of this life, or the one from your last?"
Usopp's hands stop. HIs eyes don't move for a long moment, don't even close or blink. And then he lifts his head, mouth only moving to speak a single, toneless statement.
"They're the same."
Wyper freezes. Usopp had said that with unthinking certainty. A dull, resolute word, with no room for argument.
"They're both the real Sanji," Usopp says. "The real, physical man among men, the woman-worshipping master at cooking, an amazing fighter, a peerless protector of his nakama, he's the Sanji who will come when I cry for help," he says, each word more self-affirming than the next. "They're both Sanji," he says once again. "Right?"
Like he was trying to convince himself.
Wyper couldn't even speak.
He nods, trying to answer the question, but Usopp couldn't see it, so he belatedly forces it out of his throat, croaky, hesitant, and rushed. "Y- Yeah. Yeah, of course he is!"
Usopp beams.
Zoro drinks alone at night when Gin comes up, takes his sake bottle right out of his hands, and chugs the rest right then and there.
Zoro stares, deeply offended.
Sighing heavily after finishing it, Gin holds up another bottle, assuring the swordsman that he brought enough to share. Zoro raises a brow, but doesn't comment. Sanji is going to be mad at them for this, but hey, the Quartermaster brought his approval. The two of them then sit down, beer mugs before them as they mindlessly drink to the moonlight.
"I… don't believe you should be drinking with those injuries, Gin-san," Conis says.
Both of them choke on their drinks. Violently.
"How long have you—?!" Gin abruptly lowers his voice, "how long have you been there?" And how did none of them notice her approaching?
Conis smiles weakly, chuckling. "Heso. I'm sorry for startling you two," she says. Then, holding up a little green teacup of her own, "may I join you?"
Gin scoffs, continuing to drink his sake. Zoro chortles at the thought, raising the bottle in her direction. She sits on her knees, lowering the cup, and Zoro pours her a serving.
It's uncharacteristic of her, but she indulges anyway.
"I'm sorry for my weakness today," Conis says, her words a whisper. "I should be used to this, honestly. But somehow… There's just so much I don't know yet."
As morbid as her first week down here has been, she's so glad she brought up the courage to come to the Blue Sea. Death isn't new to her, neither is cruelty. She will adapt, as she always does, and then, she will grow.
Instead of an answer, Gin knocks his mug against her cup, and Zoro does the same.
She smiles. She nods, and then they all down it at once.
Luffy wakes up and hides up at the crow's nest with Anne, because she just happened to still be there on lookout duty and hadn't come down yet.
("I've waited ten years. What's a little longer?" Tonjit had said, about his own miserable situation. He'd been so optimistic.)
(Luffy wondered if Usopp and Nami were like that too— they'd waited so many years, so impatiently, that right now, they were so desperate for things to get back to where they used to be, that they've lost sight of everything else.)
"Nami and Usopp have been waiting for us," Luffy says. And they will never meet the Strawhats that were theirs ever again. "It sounds lonely."
Anne hums, legs hanging over the crow's nest. She understands how it feels to wish desperately every night to go back to those days.
"But that day came for me," she says. She was allowed to reunite with Gin, and now, they travelled together. "It's not the same, but I like it too." I learned to love it, too.
Luffy nods. "But…" but it's hard. It was hard for him and Ace back then, to adapt to the gap that Sabo left behind. He wouldn't wish those years of emptiness on everyone, and here Nami and Usopp were stuck in the ridges of that process.
Why couldn't the Strawhats be that for them?
Why couldn't Luffy be the Luffy they knew? Then they wouldn't feel out of place. Then they wouldn't be rifting apart from each other, as two cogs that no longer fit into the machine they came from.
"I want to be stronger," Luffy says. "Stronger, like my future," he's said this before. "So I can become who I was. How do I do that?"
But strength wasn't all that future Monkey D. Luffy had. He had charisma, he had power, he had prominence, and he had dreams, further and wider than imaginable. He had hope and the ability to spread that joy around the world.
How do I grow up right now? Why can't I be him right now?
How do I become the other Monkey D. Luffy? He would know what to do. He wouldn't be agonising over this situation. He would be the Luffy that Nami and Usopp loved.
(But Nami and Usopp chose this Luffy to follow, right? So he has to wait until they learn, until they adapt. Until they realise for themselves?)
"Oh…" Luffy says, leaning into Anne's shoulder, sulking. "Waiting is so lonely."
Anne hums, leaning over as well. "It is, isn't it?"
They look up into the sky from the crow's nest, huddling up together for warmth, a single blanket between them.
"Hey, look there," Luffy points out, "see those stars, right over there? Don't you think they look like meat?"
Anne blinks. "Huh?"
Luffy grins. "They do, right? Ace calls it the Meat Constellation! That one's the jerky constellation. And if you look over there, see. You can find the skewer constellation, too."
Anne has no idea what he's talking about, but she looks on in fascination anyways.
"Me and Ace always did this when we were young," he says. "Cause Sabo says the stars are always there, even on the Grand Line. And when sailors are lost, they can find their way with them! Awesome, right?"
Anne looks doubtful, "really?"
Luffy grins, "look at that one, the chicken drumstick constellation! Sabo says the shiniest star at the end always points North. Not that I know what to do with that information."
"No way."
"Yes way, Sabo doesn't lie!"
"...who's Sabo?"
"Oh, my big brother! I haven't told you about him yet?"
"Give that over to the drinking morons and Conis-sweetheart for me, alright?" Sanji says, gently caressing Kinoko's feathers. He moves on to Suu, scratching under her chin, "and you get this to the crow's nest. Don't let Luffy steal it all or I'll pluck your tail."
Kinoko chirps, nodding a couple times before her claws come to a basket of hors d'oeuvres, all freshly prepared to go with their nighttime beer snacking. Suu huffs, offended at the implication that she would do anything but a perfect job. ANd then she scampers off with her little rucksack as well, hustling off.
Sanji sighs. He picks up a bowl of warm soup and coffee for the girls, leaves it by the entrance, and knocks twice. And then, he leaves, ignoring the hands that pop out of the woodwork to retrieve their supper.
Sanji brings the last two cups, one black coffee and one hot chocolate filled to the brim with peppermint and marshmallows, and heads back to the galley, where Chopper was working alone. Usopp and Wyper were asleep, though, the only ones that were.
"Sleep is important," Sanji says. "We don't get much rest time on the seas, after all. But apparently not a single shithead in our crew knows that, so everyone's awake today."
Chopper chuckles at that. "Thank you, Sanji!"
They drink in silence for a long while, Chopper returning to work as Sanji watches, sitting by the couch, enjoying the reprieve of nothingness.
"Hey Sanji," Chopper says, "I wonder sometimes, you know. What else Nami and Usopp know about us that we haven't told the crew yet."
Sanji tenses at that. "...I do, too," he says, vaguely.
"I can't help but be curious!" Chopper says.
Sanji hums. "Yeah," he says. "But I think some things should stay a secret. Patient privacy, confidential information, all that, you know?"
Chopper nods. "Of course!"
But what if they find out? What if they already know? The only ones safe from this are Gin, Anne, Wyper and Conis. Suddenly Sanji can't down his coffee anymore. He puts it down and sighs.
They all agreed that Usopp and Nami should only share what they feel appropriate. But when they got to the core of everything, it just felt wrong that they didn't know what they knew. Maybe for the others it was fine, but Sanji—
—Sanji desperately wished that they didn't know what he thinks they would, and the fact that he doesn't know for sure terrifies him as much as the aspect of being found.
The crew was never supposed to evoke such feelings. It was supposed to be freedom.
"What's wrong, Sanji?" Chopper asks. "You're sighing a lot."
Maybe if everyone was going to be exposed anyways, Sanji should do something on his own terms.
"Hey Chopper, you remember when you first got on the ship and you wanted to do a full-body checkup on everyone, but I wouldn't tell you anything about how weird my vitals were for what's normal of a healthy young man?" Sanji says.
Chopper perks up.
Sanji smiles miserably. "Can you keep a secret? It'll be just you and me, because this is one thing I'm sure Nami and Usopp don't know about either."
Chopper blinks. Then he straightens, putting down his hot chocolate, and sits upright and serious. "I'm listening."
Sanji smiles. And then he leans in and whispers.
Chopper yelps in surprise, but when anyone comes in to ask, he vehemently desperately resolutely keeps his mouth shut no matter what.
Sanji chuckles warmly. "It's a secret, just the two of us," he says. "Patient confidentiality, right?"
Chopper nods vigorously. "Yeah!"
Just a little, Sanji felt like he had control over his secrets again. He'll worry about the other things later on. For now, he'll revel in this.
The next day, everyone wakes up refreshed (albeit some a little hungover), and acting as if nothing ever happened. Robin greets the crew with a smile, and Nami is much more relaxed. Usopp acts as usual, and Wyper and Chopper are finishing up the final tuning to the prosthetics, arguing on whether it was safe to put it over her half-healed ice injuries.
Conis strives to be helpful everywhere. Zoro takes a nap while Luffy teases him for his obvious hangover irritability. Gin is getting chewed out by Sanji after the cook found out about the splurged sake stores. Suu and Kinoko are still heavily sleeping on each other and on Anne, who was also asleep.
"Alright, everyone!" Luffy grins. "Is the log ready?"
"Yep!" Nami beams.
"Then let's set sail, everyone!" he declares.
