Chapter Seven: So, Logically

"I want to go back." Luffy was really pressing buttons now. "I think something's there. We have to go back, the trail is marked, we can get through faster."

"It's not a matter of faster." Nami was seething, trying her best now to keep her cool. "Stop that, we can't go on your treasure hunt, it will get you hurt."

"I. Don't. Care." Luffy stressed, looking very cross. "I don't see why I always have to do what you want me to anyways."

"It's for your own safety."

"But I'm bored." Luffy was now no longer paying attention to his dinner. "That's what we came here!"

Nami paused. "Not entirely . . . "

Luffy rubbed his head. "Ugh, it hurts . . . "

Zoro brandished a needle full of things he wasn't supposed to have his hands on. "Take it. There's a little something extra in it, combination, if you will. He'll sleep and it won't hurt a bit."

"I don't need another trip to hospital because you've poisoned him!" She smacked the syringe from our anarchist's hand. "I don't need your fucking charity."

"Calm down," I tried to reason, "We can talk about this in the morning -- "

"We're leaving, I swear!" She was livid now. "I don't need your charity."

Zoro's eyes became slits. He was going to do something. He seized Nami by an arm and practically lifted her off the ground.

"On the run, aren't you? No need to be reported . . . won't they be excited to know that Louis Straw is, in fact, alive in well in South Carolina? How hard it must have been to leave without a trace, but I give you all credit, you pulled it off.

"I maybe a stoner, but I'm not stupid. He used his real name, you don't. It was easy to look up someone with a sports career. The put stats on the internet. Now suck it up. It's not worth your time or your money to run."

She was still furious. "You looked us up!"

"Last seen fleeing East." Zoro quipped, grinning childishly.

Her mouth became a perfect O. "You didn't."

"I did." He muttered, dropping her. "Now sit your stunning ass down or I will be forced to take action."

"You are sleeping outside tonight."

"Woof, woof."

o-o-o

I think she was sane, but I'm sure she had her motives.

"It's all logical."

"Hallucinating is not logical!"

"Plenty logical."

Nami was holding her breath as to not lose her temper on suave, deadly calm Robin-Nicolette. We, meaning all males, were on the other side of the counter, waiting and watching.

Robin-Nicolette had a theory. A weird theory that didn't seem like her, but it sort of made sense. I heard a dish crash and I sighed. Zoro was still holding half a plate and sniffing the remains. He was a odd one . . .

"On some level, yes, but ghosts don't exsist." Nami stressed with her hands. "That's the only problem."

"Or you're too much a close-minded city girl to understand something like this." Robin-Nicolette said primly. "I am right, most of the town will back me on this. Don't make me get proof."

"You can't prove anything!"

"Your . . . friend there, Louis, he has hurt his head, no? Then it seems that he would be hallucinating. Usopp," her nose wrinkled here, "while a terrible liar, is a coward. His fears were too founded. Obviously there was nothing enough to scare him until he said he saw something, but he must have been previously alerted of presences."

"Ghosts aren't real."

"Be that way, but Usopp's family is also the oldest black family in Brice. Even more explanation to why he would see things that you would not."

"It's not an explantion! Explanations are fact, they can be backed with other facts and they make sense."

"This makes sense. I've thought it out. Luffy picks up psyhic impression dues to head injury, it explains why he sees detail! He sees someone else's memories or someone remembers the property. And Usopp had some mediumistic properties because of his heritage."

" . . . no. That's not a fact. Dual hallucinations are probable, we were in a swamp, after all, swamp gasses could have possibly caused the 'visions'. That's the truth."

"Then how do you explain the rest of you remaining in perfect condition?"

"Zoro is on acid, a hallucinogen, anyways."

"Besides that."

"Sanji spends all the time smoking and around heavy duty cleaners--"

"Wouldn't that make him more likely to be affected?"

"Less likely, he has a tolerance for pathogens."

"Fine, we will say he does. And yourself?"

"High tolerance as well."

"From what?"

"Things."

"Illegal things?"

"Right, so you have tolerance as well. But swamp gas still doesn't fully explain because even with tolerance, you would be affected in some small, adverse way. It would have taken longer because of the tolerance, but it would have presented."

"How?"

"Interesting, twisted dreams, I supposed. Something involving the subconcious is probably the safest bet. There is, however, a high documented occurence of what Louis saw. The manor house is known to appear to all manner of folk, passing through and local alike."

"Lucky chance he said the right things."

"Then explain the road."

"What about it?"

"It's been used, hasn't it?" Robin-Nicolette smiled sumptuously. "This year's senior prom, well, some of us snuck off. We hit up the woods for a seance. We found the road, it was well used. You can't pass that off with logic because it defies logic. Something that old in that type of enviornment doesn't preserve itself naturally."

Nami was speechless. Robin-Nicolette sipped from her shake thoughtfully, enjoying the moment.

"Just because it happens doesn't mean it's logical." She said, an air of smugness weaving its way in. "Things can't always be explained you know. If they could, it would take the mystery out of life. So stop ignoring your sixth sense. It makes you very boring."

Nami flushed a brilliant red.

o-o-o

"I don't like her, I don't like her at all." Nami was muttering later. Luffy shrugged.

"I think she's right."

"She said your seeing things because of--"

"Yeah? I think that's kind of cool. Like getting new glasses."

"But it's not like getting new glasses -- ack, no skills! You don't want to seize again, do you?"

"I don't give a fat rat's ass about seizures, I want to practice." Luffy complained, getting off the counter. "Stop worrying."

Nami rolled her eyes. I can't blame her. Chopper couldn't get Luffy in until the end of August, near another two months. In the meantime, there was a veritable drug ring in the backyard. Luffy's riddlin, Valium, and god knows what else was sitting there, under lock and key to guard against Zoro.

Not to mention Zoro! The thing he was kept hanging around those two. But he was definitely quieter. If he got high, it was elsewhere, but that didn't make up for his knife toting ways and tendency to be off his rocker. Not in the silly way Luffy was, more the life threatening way.

The rain pelted the diner windows, only the most faithful patrons battle their to the door. I yawned lazily as Luffy curled up on a window sill, huffing discontentedly. Nami rubbed the table she was bussing harder, aggressively. I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall, sighing as well.

There was definite tension today. Nami had spent most of the morning hollering at poor Luffy as he showed Zoro how to do giants. As soon as the boy wonder went upside down, he crashed to the ground, gasping like a fish and moaning, clutching his head. I felt so bad for him I ran him inside and got him a glass of water and some Tylenol, stopping Nami before she got to him again. Her patience was being tried.

It was hard to blame either one of them for acting as they did. Well, maybe I didn't know them all that well, but I felt like I did, like I had known them for years. Luffy was something like the odd cousin I never had and Nami as well.

Zoro's snores ripped through the quiet lull of conversations coming from the booths. I eyes popped open and I glared at him.