Final Departure
Chapter 7: Powerless
"Luffy, please..." Nami pleaded, hoping to be able to reason with her captain.
"Everyone's going!"
"What about Franky? He's staying."
"Repairing the ship" Luffy argued, not feeling very attired to expressing himself in so many words right now. Nonetheless, the message was clear.
The young woman let her eyes follow his, finding his attention to be fully consumed with the seemingly asleep swordsman across from them. He seemed to have become completely obsessed with Zoro ever since he began joining their crew irregularly to his usual pattern. In a last attempt, Nami took a hold of Luffy's shoulders, spinning him around to face her if even for just a moment.
"Luffy, listen to me!" Nami looked him sternly in the eyes, her tone pleading, trying to convey her utter distress.
"You may not understand my feelings and you may not want to hear any of it, but please... I look at this island and I'm terrified!"
She looked over Luffy's face worriedly, anxious to hear his response. Stress was clearly reflecting on his features, however, the girl couldn't tell if it was due to her request or the whole late situation.
"You're not staying behind" he finally answered, an emphasis seeping from every word that made Nami wonder if he was still even referring to this very moment. Her hands grew weak, slipping off him as he turned away, ready for their leave. She watched her captain carefully. Right now, this was the first time since Nami remembered, that Luffy did not show any excitement over setting foot on a new island... And while she had understood very well that his decision to string her along was definite, it was only now that she realised that it had also been deliberate.
From the rail Nami looked out at the island before them, cold and grey, rocky and uninviting. Once this close to the looming cliffs that spread along the shore, only glimpses of treetops gave away the wildlife that seemed to be hidden away in the core of the desolated land, separated from them by what were probably miles of craggy terrain.
A chilly wind breezed over her bare legs, making her painfully aware of the missing piece usually attached to her thigh.
'Don't worry' she had told Franky. 'I'm gonna use it as a staff like I used to'.
Nami hadn't been capable of following through with those words. Using a weapon as delicate as the Climate Tact - built especially for her with so much care - as nothing more than a simple club, would have pained her too much. And truth was that close combat hadn't been an option for her anymore for a long time now. Nami had never felt insufficient to be in this crew, nor did she quite feel this way now. She knew of her skills as a navigator and that she was fit to call herself a Straw Hat Pirate. Yet, she didn't have any Devil Fruit abilities like the others, no strength like Zoro did, or a secret technique like Sanji. Nor did she have Luffy's unshakable self-confidence or willpower. Did she even have the will to fight at all...?
She had locked the Climate Tact away in that drawer in her desk, the one she had stored her old staff in a long time ago, the rather simple weapon long deprived of every purpose. In spite of her style of clothing Nami had never truly felt naked before, yet, right now, she couldn't have felt more exposed.
The girl only snapped back from her thoughts when she noticed Zoro rise from his seat lazily, the action seemingly spurring everyone else to venture off the ship in a sudden rush.
o-o-o
The crew had left the coast and made their way through the rocky area for quite a while and Sanji felt his mood crumble by the minute. Not only was he craving a cigarette badly, but mostly didn't he fancy that Marimo brute's random decision to tag along out of seemingly nothing but a whim. To top it all off, this island seemed to almost be mocking the cook with the fact that food-wise it appeared to be as deserted as the last one, while obviously carrying a rich fauna somewhere they couldn't seem to reach.
They had been walking alongside steep, solid slopes for what seemed like forever to the nicotine-deprived blond, the barren land around them only pressuring the apparent purposelessness of this excursion. His fingers kept fumbling his clothes anxiously, straying into the same empty pockets over and over again, so many times he didn't even take notice of the frustration, creeping upon him from not coming across anything. 'Cauldron Cliff". That is what Robin had told them she thought the place was called and Sanji grew considerably impatient as he now experienced that the name was more befitting than he had hoped it to be.
"This is a fucking joke!" he finally rumbled to himself while inevitably rousing everyone's attention, seeing how these had been the first words uttered since their leave.
"What is?" Robin calmly replied, stupefying the foul-mooded man for a moment when he couldn't really think of an upright answer.
"I just wanna get to the core and stock up on provisions already, so we can leave this place behind us."
"I get that. We shouldn't forget, though, that there may be bounty hunters around who might have a say in that."
Robin's warning was interrupted by a snorting laugh, the crew's swordsman strolling ahead unimpressed.
Before setting foot on the ominous island Robin had already explained to everyone that some groups of bounty hunters had been known to settle down on islands close to the crossing point of Mermaid Island. She had been positive to recall one of those islands' name being Cauldron Cliff. Lacking the according maps, there was no knowing if this really was the place, other than judging from it's peculiar appearance. The upside of the situation had been that the Marines chasing them would keep a good distance from bounty hunter territory. The downside on the other hand was perfectly obvious...
The older woman didn't care to challenge her overconfident crew mate, so she spoke openly to the rest of the group as opposed to addressing Zoro's reaction.
"Bounty hunters in these areas specialise in pocketing high-ranked bounties from pirates trying to reach the New World. They're not your everyday troublemakers. Just remember to be prepared."
The crew marched on tacitly, causing a stifled atmosphere to settle around them again.
...
"So, bounty hunters, huh?"
Tension rose when Zoro's voice broke the thick silence another time, a smug tone coating his words.
"Remember Whiskey Peak, Captain? Good times, eh?" he taunted.
"Shut it!" Sanji finally snapped at the green-haired man. He could feel his foul mood prey on his self-control, like dark clouds drawing together before a storm. Even though Luffy probably hadn't planned on displaying his emotions, his visibly tensing shoulders were a dead giveaway to his sudden discomfort. But if their captain wouldn't try and keep this Marimo in check, by god, Sanji would!
"I'm just trying to recall those ol' times, when our captain was still trying to kill loyal crew members instead of begging traitors to stick arou-"
Instantly, a black leg shot towards the sneering swordsman, who easily blocked the attack with the back of his wrist.
"If you don't shut your fucking trap, I'll make you!" Sanji hissed. "Why even come along if you're just looking for trouble?"
"Like I need your permission to leave the ship" Zoro now growled, bringing the whole group to a halt as he readied himself to unsheath his swords.
Nami looked around their Nakama, realising that no one was making a move to interfere. Even though those two were always at it like this, she was certain that this time they weren't at it like always... Sanji was actually fuming right now and Zoro had long become unpredictable all together.
Surprisingly, Nami was quickly proven wrong as she witnessed Zoro being the first to pull away his hands from his swords again, now turning his back on his almost-opponent.
It was then Sanji that seemed to be the one lacking self-control, kicking away the green-haired man's feet from underneath him in a - not as smooth as usual – round-kick. Torn to the ground, Zoro managed to twist around in his fall, one sword drawn and lashing out so quickly that he landed a blow on his attacker before even smashing into the stone surface beneath him.
"Now you've done it..." he rumbled as he rose to Sanji, who was catching his balance while beginning to bleed slightly through his slashed suit.
Hesitantly, Nami rose her voice, wanting to call out to the one person that had the means to stop them, when suddenly Luffy jerked away from where he stood, a flying object missing him scarcely.
Luffy hadn't seen the attack, nor the attacker. He never really thought about how it happened, yet somehow there were times when he could just feel a threat as it approached him. Another two nets shot out of nowhere unexpectedly to wrap around Robin and Chopper, the momentum tearing them to the ground immobile at the same moment that Luffy just narrowly escaped the one aimed at him. The two devil fruit users quickly sagged into their restraints.
"As expected" an unfamilar voice quickly caught the pirates' attention before figures began appearing from behind rocks and boulders around them. Luffy looked around the estimated ten enemies. Some of them were clearly fishmen, others presumably devil fruit users. His eyes fell on the man who was speaking to them, a wanted poster in one hand, a chain in the other. The massive restraint rattled loudly as the one it constrained jumped forth wildly while uttering a deep growl. The man held the huge animal back with ease.
"Monkey D. Luffy. A bounty of 300,000,000 Beri and leader of the Straw Hat Pirates" the muscular man recited. "Three devil fruit users among the crew. Or rather one, at current count" he then gloated with an unnerving calm.
Nami felt her anxiety rise as she witnessed the dreaded confrontation evolve. Fishmen! Why did it have to be fishmen! If Nami hadn't been proven wrong the next moment, she would have thought there couldn't have been anything more dreadful to her in an unarmed state. Yet, she only felt every last shred of courage leave her when a furious beast shot forward from the rocks, just barely restrained by a chain. She was sure she could hear Robin call out to her, hoping the girl would free the two devil fruit users from their constraints, only then did Nami realise her body wouldn't move, her eyes glued on the wild, ape-like creature. The posture strongly reminded her of a gorilla, occasionally rising to stand on two legs with a hunched back, easily doubling the height of it's master, with huge claws protruding from it's hand-like paws.
A Zoan! It crossed Nami's mind for a moment, the idea almost feeling less threatening to her, yet, the thought quickly vanished as she looked into the animal's wild eyes, drool trickling from sharp, fletched teeth and it's fur standing up in spikes in an aggressive spur. She was facing just another mindless beast, an animal that wouldn't hear any of her negotiations, stripping her of her last valid weapon.
Exceeding her conscious command on her body, Nami felt her unsteady legs retreat a few steps before giving out and letting her sink onto the cold stone ground. From the corner of her eyes, the frightened girl noticed the advance of a handful of fishmen. Panicked, she began scrambling away to seek shelter behind a craggy boulder and curl up into herself. Her whole body trembled as she held her hands over her head protectively, a blank, tear-filled stare directed at the ground before her.
She's had no weapon against Enel, and yet she had been able to hold a stand, using nothing against him but her wits. Even as a child among fishmen, to a certain degree, Nami had always felt on top of things, well knowing that she was following a plan. But right now felt different. Just like back then, when the residents of Cocoyashi Village decided to riot against Aarlong. When no weapon could have done good in her hands and the circumstances made everyone involved deaf to her words. Never would she have thought to feel anything like this again...
Powerless.
Author's Notes:
Yay, I updated! Sorry as always for taking so long :( Unfortunately my life's been turned completely upside-down when my mom was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago and recently passed away. There are probably not much words needed. I'm still trying to figure out where to go from here, maybe the circumstances will now allow me to do some more writing though (I always say that, sigh...).
On a happier note, Japan was amazing! Even though I was there during the worst blizzard of the past 10 years, which was interesting in it's own way.