Hello, fellow OP fans. A low IQ degen makes his debut here. This is legit my first OP fanfic, haha. I dont even know if I want it to be a one-shot or not. I really wanted to write something like this and so I just did. I'm hoping you guys find it at least a little bit enjoyable. Please tell me how I can improve.
Nami brushed a stray strand of tangerine hair as she overlooked the dark horizon. The time was past midnight, the Sun having already fallen down.
"Man, what a chilly evening." Nami commented, rubbing her bare shoulders a little, as a cold breeze passed by the ship. There was something almost magical about its sudden occurrence.
Nami had stayed on deck for a while longer than the rest of the Straw Hats. As the ship's navigator, she had to make sure they were constantly on the right course. If there existed a risk of them accidentally reaching the rocky coasts of the Red Line by mistake, then shaving off a few hours of sleep was no biggie for the young woman.
She also really just wanted to have a bit of alone time where it was only her, her thoughts and the vast sea that churned quietly around the Thousand Sunny, like a snoring beast.
A door's creak echoed throughout the ship, and a relatively small white shape walked out into the deck with a dazed, staggering step. Nami noticed her, eyes narrowing.
"Who in the-" she paused, voice getting stuck in her throat, as a cold sweat of fear coursed through her. Was she witnessing a ghost?! But wait...Brook should be resting, right now. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. This time, with better inspection, Nami realized who the figure actually was. "Carrot?!"
What's she doing out so late?!, screamed Nami in her head. She scared the crap outta me! Damn 5 feet tall rabbit.
"Carrot, what are you doing out here?" Nami asked, raising her voice enough that she was sure Carrot could hear her clearly. Even so, she didn't get a reply. Carrot didn't even seem to acknowledge her presence. A bit rude, Nami thought. "Carrot?"
The rabbit mink perked up her ears for but a split second before resuming her wobbly walk across the deck. Nami monitored her cautiously until she saw what her likely destination was and screamed internally, eyes bulging.
"WAAAAIT! Carrot, stop!" Nami yelled after the rabbit mink, jumping down on the central platform of the deck, but by that time, Carrot had already attacked her orange trees. "Ah! No! My life's second work!"
Nami saw that Carrot rapidly shoving oranges one by one in her mouth, rapidly reducing their number. Nami was about to throw a string of curses at that, but pressed her lips thin when Carrot unexpectedly shuddered and froze.
"Carrot, are you alright?" Nami asked, her concern for her crew-mate's health overriding her inner rage, at least for the moment.
It looked as if Carrot still didn't register her voice, but then after a minute of shivering and eerie silence, Carrot turned around, mouth stuffed with pieces of…wait, that didn't exactly look like fruit bits, even though she saw glimpses of the colour orange in there.
"Uuu, Nami-san…" Carrot said as she gulped down the last of…whatever it was she was struggling to consume. "Your oranges taste worse than crap."
Nami's brows twitched as fiery rage settled on her face.
"You little shit. How dare you?!" Nami growled as she raised her fist, ready to make Carrot feel the full weight of her anger, like she did whenever one of the boys got on her nerves.
"W-Wait, Nami-san, please don't-"
But the fist connected with her face.
…Or at least, that's what Nami thought happened. Carrot stopped moving, but she was not sent reeling back from pain. But, weirder than that…
Huh?
Nami blinked, mind going absolutely blank for a second.
Her fist had passed through Carrot's head as if she had hit air. The head itself now appeared snow-white, puffier than usual and lacked physical substance. Carrot's whole face was a snowish swirl around her fist.
It took a few moments for the reality to fully sink in, and when it did: both females screamed in horror, though Carrot's was muffled, thanks to seemingly having no mouth. Nami cursed as she snapped her hand back and then jumped several feet away from Carrot.
"Eep!" Nami let out a high-pitched yelp just as snowy wind began swirling around the boat. The navigator back-pedaled away from Carrot, who was flapping her arms around helplessly.
Nami's hand covered her mouth in quiet horror as Carrot tried to grasp her seemingly-deformed head shape only for her skull to dissolve further . Nami gasped as the rabbit mink desperately tried grasping other parts of her body, only for them to turn into a snowy white powder-like substance.
"CARROT!" Nami screamed, worry pushing through her initial horror.
Just then, three figures burst through one of the doors, flying through the air and landing on the deck, near Carrot.
"MEAT!"
"The hell's going on?!"
"NAMI-SWAN!"
Nami blinked as she saw Luffy, Zoro and Sanji now standing between her and their crumbling mink friend. She heard foot-steps and saw the other Straw Hat members arriving shortly after. Nami breathed a mental sigh, glad to at least have her crew's presence around.
"Ara, did someone die in front of you Nami?" asked Robin with her typical bluntness.
"DON'T MAKE SUCH JOKES RIGHT NOW!" Nami responded, unsure if she was angry or just outright unnerved by how spot-on Robin nearly was.
"Come on, Robin. Don't scare her like that." Robin pursed her lips as Franky chided her.
"Besides, she spends every day next to a dead person already, YOHOHOHO!" said Brook as he came into the frame with a twirl of his cane. "A dead body wouldn't so easily scare her!"
"Well, it depends on the body. I've seen some very scary sights with Dr. Kureha and Dr. Hiluluk over the years." stated Chopper as he appeared from behind Brook. The little humanoid deer let out a saddened sigh. "The way some people can die is honestly haunting…"
"Haha, having our doctor talk this way is real assuring. Haha…" Usopp voiced, dread-filled sarcasm oozing off of his entire being.
"You guys shouldn't be worrying about death so much. You're all still young." said Jinbe, his tone warm and concerned, matching his eyes which traveled to meet Nami's. "Your screaming woke us up. What happened?"
Nami opened her mouth to respond, but was cut-off by Sanji, who was wobbling and flailing in a typical Sanji-manner. Love-filled aura manifesting around him as he put a hand on his heart and 'danced' towards her.
"NAMI-SWAN! When I heard your beautiful voice echo with such shrill screams, I thought the worst had-OUU!"
Sanji wheezed a little as Zoro hit him over the head with the handle of his Wado Ichimonji.
"Shut up already, she can't even explain herself because of you."
Sanji glared at him, the hearts in his eyes breaking like a shell, revealing angry flames.
"Damn you, tactless Marimo!"
"Bite me, ero-cook!"
They butted heads and looked ready to start a fight right then and there. Nami gave them an unamused glare, before ultimately deciding to ignore them.
"I'm fine personally, but Carrot is-" Nami's voice faded mid-sentence when she noticed her captain, who was squating down, chewing on a bit of Carrot. "AAAH! LUFFY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
Luffy turned around, expression all clueless, still munching on a small piece of Carrot, "Eh?"
"Don't 'Eh?' me, you idiot!" Nami berated him, whipping out her climatact and throwing it at him with her all strength. It hit him right on the stomach, causing him to groan and spurt out the Carrot bits in his mouth. They fell down into the pile of snowy substance that Carrot had now fully transformed into.
"Hey, anyone feeling like it's suddenly a bit colder than usual here?" Usopp's question went on to be ignored completely, even though Chopper's fur was shivering a little.
"OI, why'dya hit me?!" Luffy exclaimed angrily, glaring at Nami, who glared back just as fiercely.
"Why the hell were you eating that?!"
"I'm hungry, okay?!" he puffed some smoke from his nose, as if letting out the steam and relaxed a bit. He pointed at the white substance spread near his feet. "Look, it looks like Sanji's sugar powder. And uh…OOOOH, IT HAS EYES!"
"Wait, what?!" asked half the crew in unison.
Sanji and Zoro dashed next to Luffy, taking a look at the snowy powder laying on their floor helplessly.
It looked like a pile of snow, shifting ever so slightly in place. It had a pair of big round eyes that looked around without aim, as if in a daze. Nami gulped, knowing who those eyes belonged to.
"Damn, it really does have-"
"-such big, pretty eyes!" Sanji exclaimed, his love-stricken gaze resurfacing. Zoro frowned at him in mild annoyance.
"Yeah, how cool is that?! A pile of sugar with eyes, haha!" Luffy said. As always, he found anything out of the ordinary to be exciting. Jinbe, Franky and Robin had curious expressions on their faces, whilst Brook, Usopp and Chopper were shuddering in place.
Luffy's and Sanji's bravado was cut-off when Nami suddenly appeared from behind both of them. With a growl, she knocked them out, leaving them kissing the floor of the deck with their butts perked up.
"You idiots! This isn't a 'pile of sugar', this is Carrot!"
Nami's statement hit every member of the crew with a hard impact. They all gasped, shocked beyond belief.
"What…?" Robin silently asked.
"WHAT?! CARROT?!" Luffy yelled out as he got back up, his demeanor taking a sudden turn from his usual comedic self. His expression now had serious concern written all over. Sanji followed suit a second later.
"THIS STUFF IS CARROT?!"
"W-w-what the hell happened to her?!" Usopp asked, his legs shaking as he eyed the powdered form of Carrot.
Everyone then looked over to Nami, awaiting her explanation.
"Okay, so…"
The navigator went over everything that led to the present, not omitting any detail she had noticed. The crew had variable reactions to her story, though Luffy quickly got distracted and started to play with the snow-formed Carrot on the floor. When Nami finished, Usopp was the first to give his input.
"AAAH, CARROT'S BEEN CURSED!"
"NO, YOU MORON!" Nami berated, as she smacked him with the climatact.
"Actually, what Usopp just said isn't entirely wrong…" said Robin, whose expression looked deep in thought.
"How so?" asked Nami.
Robin hummed, throwing a silent glance at Carrot before turning back to Nami. "You said she ate your oranges and shortly afterwards she began turning into this snow-like substance."
"Yes."
Robin took a hard pause before replying, "It is possible Carrot has eaten a Devil Fruit by accident. A Logia, by the looks of it. I'm guessing something related to snow…"
"How's that possible?" Nami wondered.
"Likely a result of a Devil Fruit reincarnating recently." answered Robin with a shrug.
"Wait, 'snow'? You just said snow, right?!" Zoro asked, his composure suddenly shaken a bit.
"That's right. I'm certain it's a Logia. Only Logia-types can transform like this."
Zoro stood still, his shoulders tense, a deep frown plastered on his face. He looked like a man recalling a bad memory.
"What's wrong, Zoro?" asked Nami.
"Nothing, just…I think I know the Devil Fruit."
"Wha-really?"
Zoro nodded, somewhat curtly.
"It was back in Punk Hazard. That Yuki-Onna that me and Tashigi fought could transform her body into snow."
"Wait…" Nami's eyes sparked with recognition. "You mean Monet?!"
"Caesar's assistant?" Robin asked plainly. "If I remember correctly, she had the Snow-Snow Fruit, type Logia. This could only mean…"
"She died and her fruit got reincarnated on this ship, as one of Nami's oranges." Jinbei finished her the archeologist's thought. Even though he hadn't been there at Punk Hazard with them, he was informed enough to know what had transpired.
"All the evidence points to that, yes." Robin said with a nod.
"How have we not noticed it until now…" Usopp voiced, rubbing his head in wonder. He was still visibly unnerved by the prospect of Carrot being a snow pile that was oozing off coldness, but after hearing the whole story, he was taking it better.
"I wonder, should she be dissolving like this? Can't Logia choose when to transform into their fruit's element and when not to?" Franky inquired, arms crossed.
"Yes, but you have to remember Carrot is young and not very knowledgeable when it comes to devil fruits. Also, she just ate the fruit, so she has no control over it." Robin answered and Franky nodded in agreement.
Noticing the concerned expressions of most of the Straw Hats, Robin added: "Don't worry, she herself should be fine."
They held her gaze for a moment, then sighed.
"Hey guys…" Luffy called out to them, his voice sounding neutral. His face was obscured by his hat and there was a strange tension that seemed to lurk underneath. "You said Carrot has become Snow."
"Uh, yeah…" Zoro said.
"But, she's also still a rabbit…"
"Technically." Nami answered this time.
The crew looked a bit on edge as their captain took a big and long pause, drawing out the moment, until he turned to look at them, revealing a big bright-eyed grin. "Can I call her 'Snow Bunny' then?!"