Chapter Three

"Shells Town"

Twelve Years Ago

1510

"Stay quiet, Roan," Nora breathed in the little girl's ear, eyes locked on the alley mouth. They could hear shouting and gunshots coming from outside as pirates tore through the town. Roan whimpered and pressed herself against Nora's side, squeezing her eyes shut and covering her ears as a woman's screams pierced the air.

Demented laughter followed soon after. Gunshots and an explosion of cannon fire heralded a house across the street went up in flames. Nora wrapped herself around Roan and prayed for the nightmare to end quickly.

Pirates ran past the alley. They dragged screaming children behind them. Nora bit her lip until she tasted blood. This world was a terrible place.

They just wanted to go home.

Present Day

They pulled straws to determine the watch schedule that night. To no one's surprise (except perhaps Luffy's) Nami got the last watch, giving her a night of uninterrupted sleep. Roan drew the second watch and Luffy the third. Coby grabbed a blanket from the closet and settled in at the bow, leaving the rest of them to figure out sleeping arrangements.

"I'm the only woman on this ship. I have a right to privacy!"

"And it's my ship sweetheart, so what I say goes."

"I'm not sharing space with you two."

"Then sleep on the deck and share space with Coby," Roan said. He crossed his arms and attempted to glare her into submission.

There was a loud snore.

They both look down.

Luffy was sprawled out on the floor underneath the table, fast asleep.

"…I'm going to kill him," Nami said serenely.

"That's my favorite blanket he's using. If anyone's going to kill him, I am."

They shared an annoyed look and Roan let out an aggravated sigh. "You know what, take the damn bed. I don't care."

He grabbed another blanket and tossed it at her, taking one for him and finding a space on the floor with his back against the wall. Nami made herself comfortable on the bed and appeared to be out like a light within minutes.

That's some damn fine acting, Thief. The Ringmaster would've coveted you.

Not a nice thought. Arlong was a cruel master but he offered a faint hope of freedom. The Ringmaster would've snatched Nami up and made certain that she never, ever wanted to escape. It was what he did best.

Roan tried to shut off his thoughts. The Ringmaster was dead and had been for years. Yes, his teachings lingered (useful and cursed) and Roan knew he would never escape them. Some part of him would always be that desperate little girl struggling to stay afloat in a world trying to drown her.

Damn it.

Roan threw the blanket off and stood up. There were strangers on his boat, one who had every reason to hate his guts, and he couldn't shut off the memories that were best left forgotten. None of that was conductive to sleep.

If he couldn't get to sleep he might as well make himself useful.

Coby was surprised when, not even half an hour after his watch had begun, Roan-san returned to the deck with an aggravated expression and threw himself down beside Coby in a disgruntled heap. Luffy-san's first mate pulled a metal case out of his pocket and flicked it open, pulling out a cigarette and sticking it in his mouth but no lighting it.

"You smoke, Roan-san?"

"I've been trying to quit," the former bounty hunter said, "but I can't seem to manage it."

There was an old bitterness to the words that Coby didn't understand. Roan-san was an enigma. He argued with Nami-san, taunted her and poked her, and he was Luffy-san's first mate but didn't hold any visible loyalty to the rubber boy. Coby felt wary of him despite Luffy-san's reassurances that Roan was a good person. Could he really be if he denied it himself?

"Roan-san…"

"What?"

"Why does Nami-san hate you so much?"

Roan-san tensed. Coby might not have noticed it, except he'd become adept at reading body language to protect himself from Alvida's ire. He thought Roan-san might not answer. Maybe his question had been too intrusive.

"Because I work for the man who killed her mother," Roan-san said with an odd note to his voice. Coby didn't' know him well enough to tell if remorse was the emotion coloring his voice or not. He thought it might have been.

"You work for pirates?"

"Some people call me the Mercenary, Coby," Roan-san said and this time it was amusement that colored his words. "I'll do just about any job if it pays well."

Coby tried not to let his horror show. Roan-san let out a low, bitter laugh.

"You get desperate enough and you start toeing the line. Then you put a toe across it. Before long all of you is across the line and you look back wondering how you got there." He pulled out a lighter and lit the cigarette, taking a deep drag from it. "I used to think there were lines I wouldn't cross," he said, "but that was a long time ago."

"Go to bed, kid. I'll take your watch."

Coby didn't hesitate to obey.

Roan watched Coby disappear into the cabin with mixed feelings. He didn't want to get close to these people, but he didn't want to push them away either. How could he explain the desperation that pushed him to the edge again, and again, and again? The cloying hopelessness that threatened to drag him under and the stubbornness that pushed him to keep going?

Once upon a time he'd been an idealistic kid like Coby. Like Luffy. Like Nami, even.

That kid always felt like a stranger to Roan.

He took another drag from his cigarette. It tasted like ashes on his tongue.

Roan was back at the circus.

Bright colored fabric and painted on smiles surrounded her. It was something straight out of the childhood she could barely remember but twisted. The shadows were long and hungry, threatening to devour every scrap of light. The reflections that looked back from the house of mirrors were things of nightmare.

The Ringmaster was there.

He was smiling with sharp pointed teeth, lips smeared with a red that drip drip dripped down his chin. Iron shackles clamped around his wrists with shattered chains dangling from them. His clothes that he'd taken so much pride in (the finest silks and velvets in East Blue, worthy of kings) were tattered and charred in places.

He stepped towards her and opened his mouth as if to speak – but all that came out was a wet gurgle.

He held his hands out. In them was a collar, one Roan was painfully familiar with.

A slave collar.

(Tick tick tick BOOM)

A pipe protruded from his chest. The Ringmaster dissolved into shadows and in his place –

A little girl with a bloody face and a macabre smile – "What is freedom, Onee-chan?"

A little boy with sad eyes and a gap in his front tooth – "I want to see the sky, Onee-chan!"

A woman, emaciated and bitter, standing with her arms out as if to embrace someone – "Tick tick tick BOOM!"

A man, hunched over and crying – "My boy! My boy! THEY TOOK HIM!"

And always the question, repeating over and over…

WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE US?

Roan didn't wake up with a gasp or bolt upright from the terror of his dream. He sat up slowly and curled in on himself, aware of every movement Coby, Nami, and Luffy made. They were all three awake and going by the crumbs around Luffy's mouth they'd been awake long enough to have breakfast. Nami and Coby were discussing navigation while Luffy interjected with curious questions or demands – like asking Nami to join his crew.

I'm sensing a pattern here.

"There's breakfast," Nami said, noticing he was awake. She gestured to a place set on the small kitchenette counter and covered in foil.

Roan rubbed at his eyes. He felt like he hadn't slept a wink. Not an uncommon occurrence really. He kicked off his blankets and stood up, doing a quick series of stretches to limber up his muscles. Maybe later he'd get around to doing one of his training routines.

"It's not poisoned, is it?"

"I'm not a murderer," Nami responded coldly, "even if it was tempting."

Roan snorted; he'd bet good money Nami had been the cause of at least one death in the past even if she was unaware of it. And if she wasn't, then she'd been luckier than Roan. He pulled the foil off the plate, surprised to find eggs, toast and fruit. He'd half expected gruel.

"Thanks."

"…you're welcome."

It took effort not to scarf the food down like he was starving. It wasn't anything special, but he was hungry and it was good. At least nothing tasted off. If Nami had poisoned it, she'd used something undetectable to his senses.

There were probably a lot of those. Poison wasn't something the Ringmaster had taught.

"How long until we reach Shells Town?"

"An hour or two, Roan-san," Coby said. "We caught a good breeze that cut our travel time down."

That was good news. Roan didn't want to be stuck on a boat with Nami any longer than he had too. He couldn't shake the feeling that she would try and kill him in his sleep.

If only that was the reason for the nightmare.

They reached Shells Town right on schedule.

"I'm hungry."

"We just ate an hour ago, how can you be hungry again?"

"I just am. I want meat."

Roan rolled his eyes. "Whatever. There's a restaurant up the street, let's go."

"Catch you later, losers," Nami said, striding away and flipping her hand at them dismissively. "It's been fun."

"Eh? Where are you going Nami-san?"

"Probably to scout out the base," Roan said. "Don't get caught sweetheart."

"Don't call me sweetheart, Bastard."

"Keep speaking sweet nothings in my ear and I'll start to blush."

Luffy laughed. "Shishishi, you two are funny!"

"I live to amuse," Roan deadpanned, pushing Luffy up the street. "And I meant what I said, thief; don't get caught. It'd be a pain to break you out of jail again."

"The only reason I was in jail was because of you!" Nami hissed, looking around quickly to make sure no one had heard.

Coby looked scandalized by the topic of conversation. He took a step away from Nami (though that could have been the fear of her fists she'd engrained on the poor kid; Luffy could escape the damage, but the rest of them weren't so lucky) and looked ready to bolt if she showed the slightest sign of violence.

"It could've been worse – you could have a wanted poster."

She very nearly had, too, but Roan had called in a favor from the local kingpin Bartolomeo. That had been a steep price to pay. Bartolomeo was not a nice man. He was not kind and about the only good thing that could be said for him was that he never broke his deals. He had a bastardized form of honor and was one of the only people in this fucked up world that Roan trusted in any way, shape, or form.

That deal had set Roan's goals back to negative one hundred. He was still paying the debt off.

"And I suppose I have you to thank for that, too?"

"Yep."

All the money he'd spent years saving, all the favors Bartolomeo owed him, Arlong's grudging respect, his ability to walk the streets as Roan instead of Roan; all of that had been given up to keep Nami out of jail and there were days – dark, terrible days – when Roan regretted it.

But he couldn't change it and life went on. Dwelling would get him nowhere.

"Is that the restaurant, Roan-san?"

"Yeah. Come on thief, you're coming too."

"What? Why?"

"You just sailed into Shells Town on my boat – you owe me, so you're paying for our meals."

"That's only because you tossed me overboard!"

"So? You're still here thanks to us, so pay up."

"Like hell, bastard!"

They found an empty table in the corner, Roan shoving Luffy into a chair and then pushing Nami into another. The thief was going to pay for their food whether she liked it or not. She owed him.

"Roan-san, maybe you shouldn't – "

Roan clamped a hand on Coby's shoulder, halting his words. "A lesson, Coby; if you don't stand your ground, you'll lose it. And I happen to know that Nami sniffed out a few of my cash stashes last night during her watch." He smirked. "So really, I'm paying."

"Some of your cash stashes?" Nami repeated with a greedy gleam in her eyes. "There are more?"

"Well, I don't know…and you won't either since you're not coming with us. It's a shame really. I think I had…maybe two million belli? Almost three."

"Sign me up, Onii-chan!"

"So you'll be our navigator?" Luffy asked excitedly.

"Sure, sure," Nami said, waving his words off. "But it's only a temporary partnership. I definitely won't be a pirate."

Roan could almost see the belli signs glittering in her eyes.

It would put him out several million belli but most of his money was safe in his apartment at Loguetown anyways.

(Still, he had lost his mind wanting her around any longer than necessary.)

"Whoo! We've got a navigator!" Luffy cheered.

Roan echoed him with little enthusiasm.

(He'd lost his damn mind.)

They ordered enough food to feed a small crowd. Luffy's bottomless stomach meant he could eat enough food for twenty men and Roan was no slouch in that department either. Coby, who looked like a good stiff wind would blow him over, didn't eat hardly anything. The kid needed to see a doctor; Roan wouldn't put it past Alvida to have starved him for weeks on end as punishment for imagined slights.

"We'll go our separate ways here," Luffy said to Coby when he'd finished off his last plate. "You do your best to be a great marine, alright?"

To Roan's horror, Coby's eyes filled with tears. "I will," he said, pushing his glasses up and wiping his arm across his eyes. "Luffy-san, thank you so much! You have to become a great pirate too, though we'll be enemies in the future."

Roan eyeballed the kid and his emotional blubbering. He edged away subtly, ignoring Nami's snickering at his discomfort. Crying people made him uncomfortable. Happy tears especially weirded him out. Why would you cry if you were happy? It made no sense.

"Do you think Roronoa is still being kept at the base?"

The reaction was instantaneous. Everyone around them bolted away, staring at their little group in abject terror. The sudden silence in the restaurant was jarring.

"What the hell…?" Nami whispered.

"M-maybe we shouldn't mention his name here," Coby stammered. "He must have done something really terrible."

"Looks like it," Roan said neutrally. There were a lot of terrified faces around them. And none of the people of Shells Town would meet his eyes. Their gazes skittered away even as they kept a large area of clear space between them and Luffy's group. As if they had a contagious disease.

"I saw a notice on the streets about Captain Morgan – "

The reaction was the same. People leaped back and away, avoided looking at their group, skirted around them and exuded an aura of terror.

Nami dropped a wad of cash on the table. "We should go," she said, looking around with uneasily. "I don't like this."

"Something about this is fishy as fuck," Roan agreed, "but it's not our business, so let's go."

"What an interesting restaurant," Luffy said, laughing. "We should come here again."

Roan shoved him out of the restaurant. "We won't have time. Even if we don't bust Roronoa out we're still stealing from a marine captain. Once we have the map we're leaving."

And the faster that happened, the better. Roan couldn't remember hearing anything too bad about Morgan which was suspicious in itself. The marines were a controversial organization; sometimes they were the heroes and sometimes they were the villains. It all depended on who you talked to and how they lived. Port towns sometimes made their biggest profits from pirates and when marines interfered it could throw whole islands out of balance economically.

Loguetown was one example. The people relied on Smoker to protect them, but by arresting all the pirates who came to the city Smoker had put quite a few places out of business. Bars, taverns, weapon shops, supply stores…all of them relied on pirates for business. Without that income they were forced to shut down.

To some Smoker was a hero. To others he was a villain.

It was all a matter of perspective.

The marine base stood out like a sore thumb.

Nami was not impressed.

"This is the base?" She stared up at the bright blue building with growing incredulity. "I don't remember the base in Loguetown being so…ostentatious."

'That's because it isn't," the Bastard said with a wry tilt to his words. He looked up and down the wall surrounding the base, frowning. "Loguetown's is better guarded too, remember? I don't even see a chore boy around."

Nami remembered. Loguetown's marines had been annoyingly skilled. That was the reason she'd gotten caught. If they'd been even a drop less competent she would have escaped scot free and the Bastard would have taken the blame.

Instead she'd been forced to rely on him to get her out.

Coby wrung his hands anxiously. "M-maybe there's something happening today?"

Luffy, the idiot, didn't pay it any mind. He scrambled up the wall like a monkey and shaded his eyes from the sun, looking around. "Demon, demon, where's the demon?"

"Luffy-san, I don't think – "

"I see him!"

"While you idiots try to recruit a pirate hunter, I'm going to go find that chart," Nami said as Luffy dashed off along the wall with Coby hot on his heels. "See ya~!"

"Hold it."

A hand clamped down over her shoulder. Nami twisted out of the Bastard's hold, aiming a kick at his groin. The Bastard danced out of the way with infuriating ease, wearing a mocking half-smile.

"Ah-ah-ah," he said and wagged his finger chidingly, "none of that now, dollface."

"Don't call me dollface, you - !"

"Bastard, yes, I've heard," he interrupted. "Do you really think I'm going to let you out of my sight?"

"If you want the map, you won't have a choice!"

"There's always a choice and I'd prefer the one that doesn't end with me stabbed in the back."

Nami didn't fail to notice the singular there. She wondered if Luffy had any idea the sort of person he'd accepted as his first mate. Did he understand that the Bastard would stab him in the back with a smile if it furthered the Bastard's own goals?

"Don't walk in front of me then," Nami said as evenly as she could, shoulder checking him as she walked towards the base. She heard and aggravated sounding sigh and then the Bastard fell into step beside her, expression irritated and one hand on his sword.

This would be interesting.

The base was easy pickings. Nami and Roan caught a lucky break in the first room and found a couple of spare uniforms to wear. From then on their progress from room to room was unimpeded. It made things simple, but also boring, and Roan found himself with far too much time to wonder about Nami's intentions. He didn't care if she decided to stab Luffy in the back. As long as she waited until after they'd reached the Grand Line he would look the other way and pretend it never happened.

If she decided to make her move before then…well.

Best not to think about that until it happened.

Luckily enough Roan had years of experience not thinking about things.

(He didn't think about home.

He didn't think about Nora.

He didn't think about a lot of things and every year the list just grew longer.)

"This is it," Nami said, looking into the next room. "Morgan's office."

The office was plain, the only decorations being monuments to Morgan's fantastic ego. Roan eyed a small statuette with distaste. There was a limit to the amount of self adulation one could show before it became tasteless and tacky.

Morgan had surpassed that limit exponentially.

"I found the safe," Nami said from across the room, pushing a few barrels away from the wall.

"How long will it take you to crack it?"

"I grabbed a stethoscope from the infirmary we passed, so not long," she said, pressing it against the safe and turning the dial.

Roan started digging through the drawers looking for dirt on Morgan or any other marines. People like Bartolomeo would pay good money for blackmail on marines, never knowing when such information might be useful. There was an entire market for information like that.

"Aha!"

Nami opened the safe triumphantly, flashing a victory sign at Roan as she pulled out a rolled up piece of paper. She unrolled it…and groaned.

"Damn it!"

"What?"

"We've been had," she said. "Or Morgan's a bigger idiot than he looks." She turned the paper around so Roan could see the pirate mark and the message. "Buggy got here first."

Roan grinned. "What a coincidence," he said, holding up a sheath of papers from Morgan's desk, "because here's a report of recent pirating activity around Orange Island. Guess who the perpetrator is?"

Nami returned his grin. "Buggy the Clown?"

Roan flashed a thumbs-up. "Got it in one, sweetheart," he said. "That makes things – "

The door to the office opened, admitting two marines. They froze on the threshold, taking in Roan and Nami, dressed in marine uniforms and rummaging through Morgan's office.

In that instant Nami and Roan reacted.

Nami produced some rope from who knows where. Roan charged the marines, decking one across the face while Nami handled the other. It was the work of seconds to have them tied up and gagged on the floor.

"Don't worry," Roan said as they shoved them in a closet, "I'm sure someone will be along at some point to untie you."

Nami blew a kiss their way. "See ya~!"

The two of them made a good team when they weren't at each other's throats. Roan was man enough to admit that at least, even if only in the privacy of his own head. He moved down the hall, Nami in step beside him with Buggy's message shoved into her belt, and began checking the next rooms.

It was the fourth room down on the next floor up where he hit the jackpot.

There was a meitou.

"Holy shit," he breathed, picking up the white blade with utmost care.

Nami crossed her arms, unimpressed. "It's a sword."

Roan looked at her disbelievingly. "It's a meitou," he said and ran a hand down the sheath. "A named blade. The Wadou Ichimonji. This sword is worth twenty million belli at least."

He couldn't fathom what such a sword was doing here. Tashigi, the swords freak, kept an obsessive eye out for the named blades and Roan knew that this beauty had not been in the possession of the marines.

He looked around the room. It was girly, frilly; not the room of a serious swordsman. Yet there were three swords…

…oh.

"This belongs to Roronoa," he stated.

"How do you know? It might just belong to whoever owns this room."

"I have a…friend who's obsessed with swords. This is not the room of a swordsman. And I've heard Roronoa fights using Santoryū. These are definitely his." He picked up the other two and attached them to his belt, making a face at the added weight. "I'll give them to Luffy; maybe he can use them as a bargaining chip against Roronoa."

Part of him was tempted to take the sword and run. He could sell it and finally have enough for his own ship and maybe even a crew. Then he wouldn't need Luffy. But Wadou Ichimonji was well cared for, loved, even.

I've been spending too much time with Tashigi, he thought in resignation, to care about a hunk of metal.

Nami looked out the window. "I can see Roronoa," she said. "I don't see Luffy or Coby. He must have said no."

"We'd better get back. If Roronoa said no, maybe his swords will change his mind."