Luffy sprinted through the streets of the town with all of her senses strained whilst the sun rose to its zenith. While the strategy of searching the town for Nami by hand had all the grace of a freight train plowing through the ocean (which was a strange metaphor, she realized), it was the safest way to start her mission.
Unfortunately, while the clown pirates were easy to detect (and there were several bands milling about the city; she could hear them), Nami was not. The girl knew how to hide, and Luffy had never been able to memorize the house in which she was hiding in her stolen memories.
To be fair, most of the dwellings in this coastal city looked identical.
As the hours wore on, Luffy grew bored and hungry. She hadn't been above grabbing a quick meal in the house she'd become acquainted with not long ago, but she had made no satisfactory discoveries since. It was this fact that drove her into yet another empty home, where she helped herself to some overripe fruit and time to go over her plan.
If Nami was already here, then she would need rescue from the men that had originally pursued her. On the other hand, there was no guarantee that the chase hadn't already occurred and Nami was either already dead, or she had found some way to weasel her way back to that Bugaboo fellow. Due to both denial and her optimism, Luffy was inclined to believe the latter.
If Nami was as clever as her future captain remembered her, Luffy just had to get to that damnable clown. That was where Zoro had found them last time, right? She had no reason to doubt this wouldn't reoccur, playing with causality though she was. Trusting Zoro wasn't the problem, though. She needed to get to Boggy and still somehow ensnare Nami into their crew.
Direct honesty wasn't a great idea. She'd sound more like a lunatic than usual, and there was only so much insanity Luffy could embody before she put the more socially delicate of her crewmates off. At the same time, lying outright to Nami, of all people, would be hard to pull off without plenty of time to think about what she would say.
Perhaps she should bribe her? Literally kidnap her? Well, the first required money, and the second made her ill. She really should have thought this plan through further than "find Nami and think on your feet because that's just what you do".
On that note, she was thinking too much. Luffy, frustrated and sore, shoved the door to the domecile open once more and took to the cobbles. The pirates were up on the terrace, and she would walk there.
Luffy needn't have worried. She could hear Nami's voice when she ascended the stairway to the rise that housed the pirate encampment. With typical bravado, she could hear a couple of people whispering to each other as she made her way there, despite the loud roars of what must have been some kind of celebration amongst the clown's crew. Two guards with hilariously large cutlasses blocked her access to the bulk of her enemy's forces.
"Now, now," the man on the left drawled, looking her up and down. "What do we have here? A little lost doggy?"
"Maybe a deaf bitch," his partner added, "-Because all the regular dogs heard the captain when he said you'd better leave town if you wanted to live." The man kept making words with his mouth and paid no heed to the fact he'd painted his face as a mime rather than a regular clown. "Maybe we should just go ahead and give her this notice… manually."
The threat of unspecified violence went over Luffy's head due to her fixation on the guard's chosen costuming. She stared at him blankly. Why was he talking if he was trying to pull that off?
"Look, if you can hear, little doggy, you'd better clear out now or take us up on our gracious invitation." the first guard said, his voice rising in pitch in anticipation of what might follow.
"Nope." Luffy replied simply. "I have business here."
The guard of the right scoffed while the one on the left shook his head. "Nice try, but we aren't hurting for wh-,"
Already done with this conversation, Luffy banged the mens' heads together in a rapid motion.
With that, she now had the attention of the pirates above. Whatever they were celebrating came to an abrupt halt. There was a rising wave of excited murmurs and the sound of weapons being claimed and readied.
After only a few seconds, their captain gave the order to deal with her in an incredulous, high-pitched voice. She let herself go as wild as she could without cheating or indulging in a high involving more than one self. She kicked, punched, and headbutted her way through a score of surprisingly violent mooks, wincing as she went. This wasn't due to any moral conflicts, however. Unlike the last set of henchmen she burned through, these were actual buccaneers. She didn't bother to hide her powers and took several foes out at a time.
This was not kind to her shrapnel wounds, despite the effort she'd made to stop their bleeding before.
Re-opening them was, in fact, the furthest thing from smart. But Luffy didn't feel like being intelligent: She felt like beating things up.
"Monster! It's a monster, you guys!"
"Kill it! KILL IT!"
"Oh, Gods, my SPINE!"
"Where's the booze?! Somebody splash her and set her on fire!"
"Murder that flashy bitch!"
In her frenzy, she could hear Bunny shrieking profanities at her. Ignoring the attempts at personal arson being visited upon her by the clown's resident pyromaniac, she hazarded to steal a glance at him when she got to the right angle. He was furious, turning as red as his bulbous nose. She didn't linger on him, though, as Nami's presence at his side was far more interesting a development.
"MOHJI!" Came the stiffed captain's shrieking voice.
The motony of her enemies broke when she found that the things she needed to beat up upgraded to a familiar lion-taming man. She narrowed her eyes at the man covered in improbable body hair. It was hard to prosecute him for a crime he may not have committed in this reality, but she remembered terrible people. This was one of them, and she had no reason to think he wouldn't torture animals for fun in this time-space continuum.
"Mohji, kill this little upstart, would you?"
"Oh,you don't want to do that." Luffy said, reliving how this entire thing had gone down last time. She stared at the lion straight in the eyes. She tried to give him a telepathic idea of how much the next thirty seconds would hurt. She knew, in the broadest sense, that she had intimidated animals in this way before, but she honestly couldn't remember: a)if it was in her current body, or b)exactly how to do it.
"Oh, but I do. You'll see what a lion does to earn it the title of "King of Beasts"!" Mohji shouted, his spittle flying everywhere.
The lion had started to shake and took a few steps back, proving that the two weren't entirely on the same page.
Luffy smirked in her triumph, though it was short-lived as the lion charged her only moments later. Clearly, she hadn't mastered whatever skill was necessary to scare beasts away.
That being said, she HAD mastered the skill that allowed her to slide under the lion and thrust out her fingers, entwining them into a net.
There was a sound of a spectator retching in disgust at watching her stretch to truly grotesque proportions. Luffy grinned.
Once she'd limited her opponents' movements, she ran in the other direction until she felt there was enough thrust. She had to hurry, as her not-so-little friends strained against there bonds, but once that was complete, she let her feet leave the ground, her toes pointed together like an arrowhead.
She screamed, more out of a need to make some sort of noise to cover her shock from the recoil than anything else.
It connected with a satisfying squishy thud, and Luffy faced Mohji's screaming rage at the damage she'd just caused his precious pet.
The lion wasn't completely done, though. She'd broken a couple of ribs, but it was a monstrous creature.
She slung herself near the edge of the terrace, out of their reach, and began charging her devastating double-handed punch. Like idiots, Mohji and his lion came at her anyway. While her knowledge of physics was limited, she knew that this would hurt. She punched the lion in the nose this time, forcing it and its rider back into the pub and reducing a wall to rubble.
There was a pause in which Luffy hazarded another calculating glance at Nami, but the peace was not to last.
"You! I'll KILL you!" she heard the man yell from the wreckage. "You'll pay for what you did to Richie!"
Luffy felt wetness on her shirt. She had already paid for something, dammit, and she wanted a return for her investment.
"Stand down, Mohji!" his captain demanded. "She's too strong for you!"
Luffy stole another look at Nami. She was standing still, clearly disconcerted and probably formulating some sort of plan. There was no warmth to be found in those eyes.
"What are you?" Nami asked, her voice steely.
"A rubber human," Luffy responded casually between deep intakes of breath. Nami blanched.
"Another person who has partaken of the Devil Fruit, hm?" the clown captain asked, intrigued. "You're strong, yes, but even a Devil Fruit won't save you today!"
"From what?" Luffy asked, trying to stifle a laugh and act genuinely confused. "Am I being threatened?"
The other captain bristled.
"Cabaji, perhaps you can succeed where your underling has failed, hm?"
"With pleasure." came a voice from above.
A familiar man on a unicycle appeared before her, leaping out of nowhere and landing beautifully. Luffy felt twinges of envy and admiration at his grace. Unfortunately, that was overshadowed by seething rage as she remembered slights from another life.
This enemy, with his gleaming hair and ridiculous scarf, was an acrobat that would fight dirty and wielded blades. She seldom fought anyone who did so due to the fact that they were her natural foe and Zoro… Well, at the very least, he was the reason for the renewed adrenaline rush coursing through her system.
"It seems like your luck has run out, little girl. Maybe you should go home to Mommy." Cabaji cooed in her direction, slowly approaching like a specter caught in drying maple syrup.
"Don't worry, I'll send her your pieces arranged tastefully in a little box."
"You are a ridiculous man and your threats are dumb." Luffy deadpanned.
"Oooh. Was that supposed be a comeback?" Cabaji asked, a note of amusement hanging in the air.
"Nope, just a couple of weird sounds I made with my mouth you happened to interpret as words." Luffy stated, letting the absurdity of the statement sink in and taking advantage of her foe's shock at her obtuse follow-up to an initial bout of obfuscating stupidity to put some distance between them.
She had to do her best to stay one step ahead of this man's sword. That was going to be tough, considering that once he pulled it out of his esophagus (which for some reason didn't elicit the same disgust as her fingers turning into nets did, but whatever), he seldom stopped moving with it. She had to basically remain beyond his range, but that wouldn't always save her from some of his more creative attacks.
She slingshotted herself around the terrace, stalling for time in the hopes Zoro would arrive. Well, that, or manifestations of Cabaji's stupidity. She didn't really care which. However, neither were quick in coming. After only a couple of minutes of this, she was dangling at the end of her proverbial rope having already dealt with Cabaji's ability to ride up sheer walls and his apparent need to throw explosives disguised as children's toys. It was the thrown daggers that caused her the most trouble, though. She had one stuck in her thigh, for heaven's sake!
"You know-," Luffy panted, fog fighting to engulf her vision, "-you could have made other things into bombs."
Blood was now dripping onto the ground whenever she took a moment's pause.
"Of course," Cabaji agreed from behind her. "-but that wouldn't have the same FLAIR!"
The last word was punctuated by a lunge at her open wound, but Luffy knew his patterns well enough to dodge to the left and clothesline his nether regions. Sweet, sweet catharsis.
Cabaji's eyes practically bulged out of his head. Predictably, he followed this up by emitting a choking sound and sliding off the front of his ridiculous vehicle.
"Come now, Straw Hat." his captain growled from the inside of his pavillion. "That wasn't flashily fair."
"I don't care!" Luffy grinned at him widely, unable to help but notice that Nami appeared to be biting down laughter. This was a helpful observation, as it grounded her as gravity ceased to function. Still, Luffy wouldn't let a little thing like massive blood loss stop her from trying to kick this man's ass. She'd made a promise.
"Come at me, Bro!" she shrieked, snapping back her arm and twisting it dramatically.
To her left, the acrobat was pushing himself up with shaking effort.
Oh, dear. That meant the battle could still potentially be two-on-one.
Luffy looked at Nami with askance.
Nami acted like she hadn't noticed. This was in her favor, as the clown gave her a sidelong glance, his lips pressed into a literal thin red line.
Luffy growled and threw her corkscrew of a punch right at that horrible, bulbous thing in the middle of the clown captain's face. She felt it dislocate with a note of muted glee. He flew backwards through the back of his luxurious tent, cracking the pub's wall further as Nami stared in shock and awe.
"Nami! Don't just stand there, do something!" Boghi stammered, his nose gushing blood from Luffy's punch. Nami gulped and pulled her power pole out of its carrier. She hesitantly brandished it at Luffy.
The young woman was barely concealing a tremble, but the coldness that Luffy had noticed before was gone. The creature standing before her now was a vulnerable human trying just as desperately to gain an advantage of the situation before them as she was.
"Don't point that thing at me unless you mean it." Luffy whispered, shaking her head to try to right her balance.
Nami approached, not putting the weapon down.
"Oh, our new firebrand wants a piece of this action?" Cabaji asked, rushing past Luffy once more, cutting cloth instead of flesh as she flew backwards in yet another dodge. "Should I herd her towards you, Nami?"
"I suppose," Nami answered, voice barely concealing a tremble that contrasted with the smile forming on her lips.
Luffy spat out blood and struggled to right herself. She sensed Cabaji coming close but couldn't quite bring herself to dodge this time. Thankfully, it was not to be a lethal blow. The man's unicycle-fueled sandals made contact with her backside and drove her to the ground in front of Nami.
Undaunted, she still tried to get to her feet. If nothing else, Nami would give her time for this, and even the now-armed captain of the clown pirates had stopped in his tracks, keeping his knives in his hands instead of throwing them at her.
Morons.
These men were morons. Was it any real wonder Nami had so much success conning people like this?!
Luffy trembled with the effort but pulled herself to full height next to Nami. She was shorter than the redhead and had to look up to make her resolute eye contact. At this distance, she could see the lights dancing on her future friend's irises, even with blurry vision. Perhaps it was the loss of blood, or that same stroke of brilliant luck that often relentlessly pursued her, but Luffy decided to do what felt natural. For all her plans, there was no way to truly control life itself.
She would trust Nami; even without the truth spelled out in anything other than actions between them, and even though she was a stranger.
There was a burst of some kind of communication between them, then, and somehow Luffy knew Nami had a plan for what would follow. She fell to her knees in front of the navigator and let herself get thrust backwards by a powerpole strike to the face. It wasn't gentle, persay, but neither was it painful.
Nami now stood over her, kicking at her experimentally as Luffy strained to keep her eyes open. She was taking her sweet time on the next phase of her plan.
The clown cleared his throat loudly, following the sound with an expectant hum.
"Are you going to give me a gun, or do I have to do this with my goddamned stick?" Nami snapped back, her bloodlust suddenly convincing.
Buggy adjusted his broken nose and just sputtered, "What the hell do YOU think?!"
"Really? It's so inefficient..," she muttered, wrinkling her nose and looking down.
"She BROKE my flashy nose!"
"I know, I know," Nami placated, one hand open in an understanding gesture. "-it's just that I only just got my pole cleaned, you know? I mean, it has a nice finish, but the smell of blood just doesn't-"
"Shut up and do it." Buggy growled, the frenzy in his tone replaced with calm murderous intent. "Prove your worth to me."
Whilst turning back to Luffy, Nami's eyes appeared to focus somewhere far away for a split second, but she shook her head and returned to the task at hand. She let her fingers tense over her weapon and thrust down at an angle into the pirate's bloodied clothes.
Luffy let herself scream in pain, but it was more from the pain catching up to her after the adrenaline started to wear off than Nami's brutal textile attack.
Standing in such a way as to make the illusion perfect, Nami proceeded to "murder" the young woman beneath her, coating her staff in blood she didn't shed and flecking it onto her legs to make it seem more realistic.
Groggily, Luffy wished she had the energy to become another version of herself to see how this could play out, but that wasn't an option. No, for the moment, all she could do was get irritated at the fact that Nami's stalling hadn't brought Zoro to their position any faster to dispense with Cabaji or help them escape. Well, that, and let herself lose consciousness at last.
A nap sounded nice. She would heal quickly and be back stronger than ever if they could just play for more time. A couple of days, perhaps? Or Nami and Zoro could take out that Boogie fellow on their own…
Her vision blacked out.
"LUFFY!"
Sounds started becoming distant, too. Therefore, she could be forgiven for having a hard time focusing on what she was certain was Zoro screaming. It was about time he arrived!
Luffy really hoped he didn't try to kill Nami and just took a moment to think. Also, she hoped he didn't get stabbed.
Finally, how many times was she going to use playing possum as a legitimate strategy? She'd… have to do better...
Oblivion took her.