Treasure Hunters
Author Notes: A few review responses before we continue!
The lovely poztedeluz has done another lovely fanart of Gilly, Luffy, and Zoro! Follow the rabbit by removing the spaces: http: //poztedeluz .deviantart .com/ art/ Plastic-pool-160168735
LunaticV: Luffy got swept off on a chunk of wood, so I imagine he's going to hold onto it for dear life. As for Luffy being reckless… he's Luffy, he just likes to have fun. We're talking about someone who didn't realize Drum Island was cold until he thought about it. As for Usopp… hmmm. He might have been trying to prove himself, or at least thought that going onto the shipwreck to help destroy it wouldn't be terribly dangerous. (He was wrong!)
MooglesTookMyHeart: Coby? Aw, I actually like Coby! He definitely feels a little bad about breaking up the Straw Hats like that.
Disclaimer: I still own nothing, but I like to mess with it anyway!
Chapter 9: Dividing By Zero
Suggested Track: "The Sheep Song," Dresden Dolls; "Set the Fire to the Third Bar," Snow Patrol
There was no light. There were no stars, no moon. There was no sun. Night is to day as moon is to sun, school is to work as beach is to fun. F-U-N, eff yew enn. Fuh-oo-nn. There was no land, no sky, just a world that was completely blue and the rock she sat on. No school. No beach. No sun or moon. Was there even air or water? Gilly chewed her fingers as she stared around helplessly. She had awoken on Robin's chest, and it was already dark when she opened her eyes. Robin seemed to be sleeping silently beside her, breathing very slowly. Her clothes were soaking wet, her shoes and ribbons were gone, with her hair sitting in soft waves that covered her ears and neck. She still had her sword strapped to her back, but it had broken in half. She had no idea what had happened, and she didn't want to wake Robin and ask because that would be rude. She did not want to be rude.
Finally, the sun began to make itself apparent over the horizon, and the fog faded a little. They were on a big rock, surrounded by water for as far as she could see. She gawked silently at the detritus that floated around them, chunks of wood and sheets of metal. At it became brighter, Gilly decided that even if it was rude, she wanted to know.
"Auntie Robin?" Gilly reached and shook her arm gently. "Auntie Robin? Where are we? Do you know where we are?" Robin was still. Gilly noticed dried blood on the rock and the right side of Robin's head. "Auntie? Please wake up. Do you know what happened? Where's Daddy and Daddy?" There was fresh blood on the side of Robin's head too, sluggishly dripping from an ever-more-visible gash above and behind her ear. "Auntie Robin? Please wake up. Please wake up. Auntie Robin!" She began to cry. "Auntie Robin, wake up!" Gilly shook her over and over. Robin's chest rose and fell, her head still bleeding, her heart still beating, and Gilly cried and cried as she slept on.
She cried and she cried and she cried.
"Nami, wake up." Usopp shook her chest nervously. He had managed to stay conscious, but Nami had been knocked out against the board they had clung to. He had paddled them to the nearest island, laid her on the broken boards so she could sleep, and went into the island's wilderness to search for food. Now, with the day apparent and no food to be found, he decided to try and wake her again. "Nami, come on," he plead with her limp body. "Tell me you're awake."
"Hmm? Sanji?" Nami opened her eyes, two dull slits, and she immediately covered them.
"Ah, good, you're alive!" Usopp sighed with relief. Nami sat up, rubbing her forehead.
"What a nightmare," she moaned.
"You're telling me!" Usopp laughed sharply, and Nami looked around. They were on a sandy strand of beach, and it was still pouring rain. They were surrounded by wreckage and washed-up seaweed, and there was nobody else there. "We're alive, though. That's what's important."
"What about the others? Sanji? Luffy? Zoro? Robin?" Nami's eyes darted around in a panic.
"I have no idea," Usopp confessed. "Sanji was still on the Thousand Sunny, and the others are god-knows-where."
"Is this a joke? Is this some sort of sick prank? Ha, ha!" Nami stood up, grinning madly, staring around. "You've made your point, Sanji! It's not funny at all! I get it! I'm an idiot! I'm reckless! Just come out!" Nami bit her lip, as though waiting for something. "S-Sanji?"
"Nami, he's not here, this is not a joke!" Usopp stood and throttled her. "Why are you saying those things?" Nami shivered, pressed her face into her hands, and began to rub at her eyelids. Usopp thought for a moment. "What did you give to him? What was so important that you had to risk your life to give to him?"
"His wedding ring!" Nami sobbed. Usopp let go of her and she collapsed onto her knees. "He got me a beautiful ring four days after we got married, but I was so selfish I barely even tried it on! I don't even have it now! I didn't get him a damn thing when we got married, so I tried to get him something for our anniversary. But- when Luffy started screaming outside our room, I got scared that we'd be caught! I wanted him to have his ring… I wanted to tell him before that… I'm an awful wife!" Nami shook her head.
Usopp's jaw may as well have been six feet below the ground. "Ann-anniversary?! Ring?! Married?! Wife?!"
"Yes, that's exactly it," Nami whimpered. "We've been married more than a year."
"I didn't know! Why didn't anyone tell me?!" Usopp squawked.
"We… we didn't tell anyone… because I'm selfish…" Nami pressed her palms into her eye sockets like she was trying to push her tears back. "We were going to have to tell everyone soon enough… I just didn't want to be treated differently."
"I didn't even know!" Usopp groaned, sinking back to the ground and resting his head in his hands. "If I had… I… I would have tossed you back to the Sunny!"
"It doesn't even matter… we had a huge fight… he wouldn't have caught me. I don't even know why he caught his present. I'm a terrible wife… Oh, god, I'll never see him again!" Nami began to cry uncontrollably. Usopp was taken aback.
"It… It's okay. It is, Nami! I bet, the second he saw our part of the ship blow apart, he jumped in after you! He'll probably swim the whole way here!" Usopp clenched his fists excitedly and jumped back to his feet. He pumped his fists into the air. "I can practically hear him right now! Listen! 'Nami-swan! Nami-swan! My darling tangerine! I'd swim a thousand oceans for you my beautiful, wonderful… wife…!'" Usopp stopped, because Nami had stopped. He looked down at her: her teary eyes, a tiny, tiny crack of a smile parting her lips. He unbuttoned his shirt, pulled it from under his overalls, and laid it over her shoulders and head for a raincoat. It only seemed to rain harder as he sat back down beside her to wait for the sky to clear. "They'll come for us, Nami. I know they will."
"It's not the worst part, Usopp," Nami whispered. "I've been ruined. You deserve to know that much. I… I have to tell you…" Usopp didn't know what to make of this, and they sat amongst the ruins with nothing to say, even as Nami doubled over and began to retch into the sand. Tears ran down her face, and she cried and she cried.
"Sanji?" Nami tapped the doorway to get his attention. Sanji was working on dinner for the crew, and he barely looked up when she entered.
"There you are," he grumbled. "Where were you? We could have used you. That damned kid is out of control."
"I'm sorry, I wasn't feeling well, so Robin told me to take a rest."
"Go see Chopper. I keep telling you. I've been worried about you, damn it," Sanji growled over his cutting board. "You were just laying around the whole time?"
"Sanji, I'm… I'm really not feeling well," Nami sputtered nervously. He scowled and scoffed quietly. "I… I need to talk to you. We need to talk."
"Well, we're alone now. We're talking. What is it?" Sanji demanded curtly over his cutting board. Nami glanced at the sloppy cuts of cabbage, uneven and crooked, and frowned.
"If you're in a bad mood, then now isn't the right time." Nami folded her arms and looked at her feet. "We've barely even spoken all day, though not for lack of my trying, but I don't want to do this like this. Find me when you're in a better mood."
"You've already started. Get on with it," Sanji snapped. He put down his knife and began to wash his hands. Nami gaped.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Nami shot back, putting her hands on her hips. "Quit being a prick. This is serious!"
"I know what you're going to say!" Sanji growled. "You think we've been found out and Luffy's going to blab to everyone just because he was dragged away from your cabin door when he went into false labor-"
"What? No!" Nami gasped. "Robin told me she was sitting there, and Luffy went to her because he couldn't sleep and he saw she was awake. Luffy doesn't know a thing! Calm down. Let me talk!"
"Then what is it?" Sanji conceded, drying his hands on his apron before folding his arms and frowning at her. Nami studied his face for a moment and wilted in his gaze.
"This is hard," she sighed. "Please, stop looking at me like that. Sanji, I… I mean… You… me… we… I… I should have asked Luffy. He's better at this kind of stuff." Nami subconsciously rested her palm over her lower stomach. "I-I'm going to be sick again."
"If it's torturing you that much, get it over with," Sanji admonished, raising his brow. Nami gagged, but swallowed her bile.
"F-fine." She looked him in the eyes. "I'm pregnant. It's yours. Are you happy?" Nami grabbed the wastebasket and heaved into it. The cigarette dropped from Sanji's lips.
"What? How long have you known?" Sanji held the back of her shirt as she coughed and cleared her throat.
"Just today," Nami choked out, spitting one last time and going for a glass of water from the tap. Sanji scowled again.
"How far are you?"
"I don't know."
"What do you mean, you don't know?" Sanji growled. Nami rinsed her mouth out and leaned against the counter weakly.
"I don't have any way of knowing. That little friend that is supposed to tell me I'm not knocked up once a month has never been consistent. Could be two weeks. Could be two months. The last time it came properly was more than seven months ago. Does that help at all?" Nami scowled at him.
"Not in the slightest. Damn it, Nami!" Sanji paced as he lit up a fresh cigarette. "You know very well that we have been committing the act for over a year, and not once have we used protection! No protection. No baby-prevention. You could have caught the little bugger at any time in the past year! Hell, I wouldn't think that someone had to tell you that if you do the act that often, you should at least check every once in a while!"
"I'm doing the act? I'd best check? What do you think your role in this was?!" Nami snarled. "This wasn't an immaculate conception, you know!"
"Are you kidding me?" Sanji barked. "I know very well it's half my fault, and hell, maybe I should have used a condom, but it's your damn body and you have to take care of it! I mean, come on! It's a kid, damn it!" Sanji extinguished one cigarette and quickly lit another. "What are you going to do?"
"What do you mean, what am I going to do?" Nami mumbled, dejected.
"It's your body, and you're going to do what you want anyway," Sanji grunted. He took a long drag. "You're going to kill my kid, aren't you?"
"Oh, what the hell?!" Nami snapped right back. "It's my body, but it's your kid?!"
"You don't even wear your wedding ring, Nami! You don't want to admit I'm yours, how can I expect you to keep anything I gave you? Even a goddamn baby!" Sanji threw his hands up in disgust. "Hell, why did you even bother telling me?!"
"I wanted to talk to you and you're just yelling at me!" Nami cried.
"I'm pissed off!" Sanji roared, putting his face close to hers and nearly pinning her to the counter. She could smell the smoke on his breath, and it almost choked her. "You know," he growled, lowering his voice, "this has to be the stupidest thing you've ever done."
Nami stared at him, shocked, studying the rage in his eyes. Cigarette smoke on his breath nauseated her and she couldn't think. Terror quaked her, and she would have thrown up if there was anything other than water left in her stomach. "You… you… I can't believe you," she whispered weakly. She pushed his chest back and stumbled towards the door. "I thought you'd be happy. Fuck you, Sanji." She ran, and he scoffed quietly and went back to work.
Sanji stared stupidly at the little jewelry box Nami had thrown him. After hearing his tale, Chopper and Franky were wailing and Brook had hung his head somberly. "That's… the last time we spoke. I'm such a damn fool. I was just so frustrated with Gilly and Luffy and the heat and everything that I treated the woman I love like dirt! I'm an asshole. I'm such a dick."
"Nami's having a baby and you're an asshole!" Chopper cried.
"I hate you so much, Sanji!" Franky bawled. "You're such a dick!"
"Is she wearing the special fat-girl panties yet?" Brook asked seriously.
"Shuddup!" Sanji snapped, before shrinking back. "She… she was only a little bigger. Just a little. Her waist only increased by five inches. Just a little bulge. No less." Sanji rubbed his eyes.
"That's very precise," Chopper sniffled.
"It's just one of those weird little things I can do, just knowing her measurements by looking… I didn't want to say anything! I couldn't care less if she gained weight, I didn't even want to mention it until after she told me she was… God." Sanji sadly opened the box again and rubbed the gold ring with his thumb, feeling the engraved windmill. "She spent money on me."
"Sanji, if she's showing that much, she's at least four months pregnant," Chopper pointed out quietly.
"F-four?!" Sanji squeaked.
"Well, yeah, but she could be a late bloomer," Chopper added cautiously. "Like you said, she could be six or seven months pregnant and just not be very big. The baby could be unhealthy or undersized, not to mention complications due to second-hand cigarette smoke inhalation." Chopper shivered, but kept babbling. "Low birth weight, higher risk of premature delivery, a whole host of genital defects including congenital heart defects, pulmonary disorders, even cerebral palsy- or placenta abruption or even miscarriage-"
"Chopper, stop!" Franky wailed, covering his mouth. Sanji had begun to sob into his hands, and he lit a second cigarette and crammed it into his mouth next to the first.
"Oh, god, Nami," he moaned. "We've lost everybody…"
"All the liddle babies," Franky sniffled.
"We've lost our captain, or navigator, our first mate, our sharpshooter, and our archaeologist," Brook recounted mournfully. "We might as well have tossed ourselves into the sea with them!"
"We can't do that," Sanji said softly. "We have to find them, we have to find them all."
"We gotta get 'em back! Liddle sis Nami!" Franky's nose and eyes were pouring like faucets. "Baby sis Gilly, and all the liddle babies that aren't alive yet!" Franky howled. "We need to get our crew back together!"
"We'll start by going back to where that one ship was destroyed," Sanji mumbled, lighting a third cigarette. "Maybe we'll find some clues to what directions things were carried. Things… people… happiness…" He slid his ring onto his finger.
"You know, if Sanji and Nami had not argued, Nami may not have gone onto that ship and she would still be here to help us navigate," Brook pointed out.
"Don't remind me!" Sanji moaned. "I miss her like hell. I miss the hell out of her. It's all my fault. Nami…" Sanji buried his eyes in his fingers and wept.
From the Internal Monologue of the Stranded Captain Usopp
She's pregnant. Oh god, she's having a baby. Shit, what do I do?! I mean, thank god I kept her from jumping across, because she would have fallen and then Sanji would have lost both of them! But she's going to be a mother! What am I supposed to do? I'm not her husband, there's no way I can tell her everything's going to be okay! She won't stop crying, no matter what I say. I need to do something! It's my duty now. She's always been stronger than me, but she's broken-hearted. This position feels so familiar to me, and I don't know if I can do it. Even if I have to, and I do have to... I, Captain Usopp, have to be the brave man of the sea now!
I just hope my knees will stop shaking long enough for me to do something. I feel like I should cry and vomit and beg for mercy, but that won't do anybody any good, let alone Nami. I'm going to do it, I'm going to help her somehow. I'll help Nami and the baby and we'll all be a crew again!
When it stops raining.
It was very sunny when he opened his eyes. It had to be at least midday. His stomach was empty, but somehow, still felt full. The sky was blue, with puffy white clouds that almost looked painted in drifting somewhere high above. It was hot, and he was already starting to sweat. He sat up, and one hand moved to his stomach.
"I look like I just ate," Luffy said aloud, "but I still feel really hungry. Hmm. I would like some mushrooms. Sanji!" He turned around, and realized there was nobody else there. "… A dream?" He scratched his head. "No, if this was a dream, I would be waking up in a barrel." He looked down at the sheet of plywood he was sitting on. "It's too real to be a dream. I remember now!" He grinned. "Yep! I'm not dreaming. I'm stranded." He smiled to himself, proud he remembered, until it hit him. "Stranded?! Damn!" He stood up and gazed all around. "Oi! Zoro! Zoro!" He spun around, his feet heavy from his swollen ankles. "Nami! Usopp! Sanji! Anybody!" He tilted his head back. "Brook! I know I'd see your ass from a mile away- if you had an ass!" He waited, but Brook's laugh didn't echo back. He dropped back into a sit. "Yep. Completely stranded. Damn." He looked down at his midsection. "Except for you. But I don't think you'll be able to help me at all." He thought for a moment. "I guess we need to talk."
Luffy began to trace little circles on his skin with his fingertips. "So, you were right again. I was wrong. Maybe if you were born when you said you wanted to be born, you wouldn't be here now. But you are still too small to be born. You probably would not have lived and that would have made me sad. Now, though, it looks like I'm not going to be able to take care of you, even if you are still inside me. There is no food out here, nowhere safe enough for you. You'll either starve because I'm going to starve, or get hurt because I'll be hurt. So, I'm really sorry, but you're going to die."
Luffy paused as though waiting for a response, sniffled a bit, and kept trying to explain. "It's not that I don't like you or don't want you. Really, I like you very much. And I have wanted you for months, ever since I knew you were alive. Except that's just it; you're not really alive. I need to go help the people who are actually alive now, even if you kind of feel alive and you're almost alive. I'm sorry. I'm very sorry." Luffy forced a smile. "I hope you get to go be born with a good mommy and daddy who will be able to keep you safe like Zoro says and love you a whole lot. I'm not a very good daddy at all. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Luffy rubbed his eyes and balled his fists at his sides. "Please don't cry."
"A voyage of idiots," Sanji muttered mournfully to himself. "I called them all idiots. If we never see them again, the last thing I said to them was that they were idiots."
"I should have gone with them," Franky moaned, digging his fingernails into his scalp. "I could have saved them. I am the worst man this week."
"I've never even once seen Robin's panties!" Brook bemoaned.
"And what good am I to my patients?" Chopper whimpered. "I said I'd protect Luffy and the baby, and I have to take care of everybody else too!"
"We suck," Sanji decided, and all four sighed.
"Hello? Sanji? Franky? Somebody?" They all looked up when they heard a familiar voice.
"Zoro?" Chopper jumped up. "Zoro! Where are you?"
"I… I'm not really sure," Zoro's voice replied, and Brook looked to the Den-Den Mushi on the table. He picked it up.
"Zoro, are you injured?" Brook asked gently.
"I have never been happier to hear your voice, Brook," Zoro replied. Even the Den-Den Mushi looked weary as it mouthed Zoro's words. Chopper, Sanji, and Franky got close to it.
"Hey, what happened to you?" Franky leaned in.
"I think… I fell into the eye of the storm. I got pushed around in the air, but I got smacked in the ribcage and fell. I can't really move, I don't want to break anything. I'm still at the shipwreck, I'm on some flotsam under part of the ship. I think I can still see the Mini-Merry on the other side here. I'm just so lucky I had this thing on me… I need help… Wait. No. The others. Find Luffy first. We need a captain…"
"Don't be stupid!" Franky growled. "We're coming to get you!"
"Zoro, stay still!" Chopper instructed. "We were headed there anyway!"
"No, I'm telling you, Luffy, and Gilly. The priority chart, guys. The ration chart. That's how important everyone is," Zoro mumbled. "I'm at the very bottom. You guys don't need me."
"Of course we need you!" Chopper wailed, clinging to the receiver until Sanji snatched it.
"Stupid," Sanji hissed into the speaker. "It's not all about you. We need the Merry too."
"Is there a lot of wood there?" Franky asked tentatively. "I can build another small boat."
"And we need another able body to help search," Brook added. "After all, I don't have a body at all! Yohoho!"
"And of course we care about you too, Zoro!" Chopper squeaked. "I miss you! I miss everybody!"
"Okay, if that's what you're going to do. I'll be here. I won't move at all," Zoro murmured. "I can't anyway."
"You can't move? Oh no… Your voice sounds faint," Chopper whimpered.
"Everything's gotten kind of fuzzy. I'm going to take a nap. Zoro, out." There was fuzz on the other end of the line, and Chopper cried out.
"Zoro! Zoro!"
"He said he was out, he must be out," Sanji muttered, as Franky rushed on deck to the wheel.
"The rescue mission begins now!" Franky declared bravely. Chopper and Brook nodded firmly, and Sanji bowed his head.
"Give me a god to pray to, because I have nothing else."
Gilly could wait no longer for Robin to wake up. She took a long piece of wood from the sea and stretched out to touch a chunk about the size of a picnic table that bobbed on the nearby rocks. She managed to tap it and drag it closer, and, with some effort, rolled Robin off the rock and onto the slab. She jumped onto it beside her and pushed off the rocks using her long piece. "It's okay, Auntie Robin. We have a raft and an oar, and we will go find everybody. I'm a pirate, after all." She began to row out into the vast, foggy blue.
End Notes: The next few chapters are going to be a little complicated, as I'll be moving between the situations of the different characters as they are spread out across the Archipelago.
Questions? I'd be happy to answer them!
Comments? I love them!
Concerns? Let me know!
Review! Reviews are super-happy-fun-time-good!
Look for chapter 10 next week!