Sorry it took so long to get this one up, but I have no excuse except for a small case of writer's block! I won't keep you any longer, so ENJOY!
Chapter 4: The New Plan
Shanks awoke with a loud yawn and rose from his favorite chair in the Captain's quarter. He rubbed his eyes to fully awaken himself and then threw his cape over his shoulders and ran his fingers through his hair to straighten it a bit.
He blinked his eyes a couple more times and put a hand to his aching head. He had done it again. Went and drank too much, and now had to suffer through the hangover.
At least it's not the worst I've ever had, the red-haired man reassured himself.
He reached for the doorknob, pushed it down and slowly opened it. Bright sunlight greeted his sensitive eyes and he shut them in frustration. The door closed behind him with a soft thud and he walked to the railing to look out on the sea.
"So you're finally awake?"
Shanks turned to see his first mate leaning against the wall next to his cabin.
"Did you need something?" he asked, "You could have woken me."
Ben shook his head, "No, it's just that Naomi has been awake since sunrise waiting to give you her answer. I offered to wake you, but she said to let you wake up on your own."
Shanks nodded sleepily and held back another yawn, "What is her answer?"
"She wouldn't tell us," the gray-haired man explained, "She said you would be the first to know. I've been trying to read her expression all morning for any clues to her response, but she's very hard to read."
"That's okay, we'll just find out now," he reassured his friend, "Where is she?"
Ben scratched the back of his head; "She's been all over the place exploring the ship. I think the last time I saw her; she was climbing up to the crow's nest, but that was a while ago."
"Yes it was, but it had a great view of the sea," Naomi suddenly swung into view. She was hanging upside down by the crook of her knees on one of the shroud next to the two men. With thin, but strong arms, Naomi flipped herself right side up hopped onto the deck in front of Ben and Shanks. "I have an answer," she announced. Karanetho walked along the railing from the back of the ship until he was next to Naomi and then he sat down.
"So I hear," Shanks smiled and Ben crossed his arms, "And what is it?"
"Even though I very much enjoy traveling with your crew," she began, "I don't want to join it, I do not wish to travel all the way to this Raftel. But if you'll have me I would like to travel with you a little while longer."
"Are you sure you don't want to join," Shanks inquired and put his hand in his pocket, "It's a hard life as a pirate sometimes, but it's full of adventures."
Naomi nodded, "I'm sure."
"Very well then. And you are certainly welcome to travel with us a while longer."
"Oh, thank you very much!"
Ben's smile could not be contained, "I'll go tell everyone," he announced and walked down the stairs to the main deck to inform the crew.
Shanks put another hand to his aching head, "You are lucky you did not drink so much last night…"
Naomi shrugged, "I only drink as much alcohol as my body can handle. Do you have a headache from your hangover?"
Shanks nodded slowly, "But it's not the worst I've ever had."
"Turn around," Naomi instructed and turn him with her hands so that his back was facing her.
"What are you-"
"Shhh," she said and put his arm at his side. Then she grasped the left side of his head one hand and pressed her palm against his right ear. Shanks stood still for a moment, utterly confused with what the she-elf was trying to do, but then a wave of relaxation washed over him and he could barely keep himself from jumping in joy when Naomi released her hands.
"Whoa!" he exclaimed, "How did you do that?! My headache is completely gone, I don't feel like I have a hangover at all anymore!"
Naomi offered a small smile, "When you've lived for over a thousand years you learn a lot of little tricks like that."
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The second morning at sea passed slowly for most of the men on the ship, but not for Naomi and Karanetho. They spent the whole time exploring the ship. Naomi was asking endless questions about how it worked and how all the men worked together to sail it. Karanetho was just curious and he even managed to rid the Red Force of a few mice.
When lunch was ready, a bell rang and was heard throughout the ship. Naomi was almost run over because within moments, every man on the ship was racing for the dinning hall. All except for one man, Naomi noticed that stayed at the helm.
The man noticed Naomi's curious starring and explained, "While everyone else eats, someone has to keep the ship on course and watch for danger."
Naomi nodded in understanding and with Karanetho on her shoulder, followed the last couple men into the dinning hall. She had never seen it filled before and was a bit shocked at the rude and ill-mannered way in which all the men were eating.
"Hey Naomi!" she heard her name called, "Come sit with us!"
She did not know the name of the man who called her name, but he was sitting with Yassop, Lucky, Rockstar and Shanks. As she sat down, a tall, skinny man with a red apron placed a plate of food in front of her.
"Hope you like meat," he said with a smile full of crooked, yellow teeth and hobbled away back to the kitchen.
"That's Soushefu," Lucky explained with a mouthful of meat, "He's our chef. A really good one too. Try the meat, you'll love it!"
Naomi cautiously picked up the metal fork next to her plate and picked up a small piece of the meat with brown sauce. She had never seen any food like it before, but she bravely put the morsel in her mouth and began to chew.
"It's delicious!" she exclaimed within moments.
"Yup!" Lucky agreed, "I bet you'll never taste food better than that anywhere in the world! …Or in your case, all the worlds…"
Naomi laughed and gave a piece of the meat to Karanetho. He reacted by jumping up and meowing happily, "I don't know… There are billions of worlds. I will never have a chance to destroy them all in my life time."
"But I thought you were immortal," Rockstar said with his head tilted to one side in confusion.
"I am," Naomi answered, "immortal meaning that I cannot die of old age. I am not invincible. I can die from wounds or sicknesses, but not because I have lived too long."
Many of the other men around the table had been listening in and murmured in understanding.
"LAND HOE!!!" a voice yelled from out side. All them men began to quickly finish their food.
Ben Beckman stood up from his spot at another table, "All right everyone, outside! Dock the ship a little ways from shore and start unloading!"
The men grumbled in protest that they weren't finished eating, but listened to the first mate anyway. Within a couple minutes, the dinning hall was empty except for the top men in the crew and Naomi.
"So Naomi did you like it?" the tall cook came back out of the kitchen and started collecting plates from the other tables in the hall. He glanced up at Naomi to see her reaction to his question.
"Like it? I loved it!" Naomi laughed and Karanetho nudged her arm, "Oh, and Karanetho did too."
The man smiled to himself, "Luffy used to love it too. He told me that when he became a pirate, he was going to find a cook that was just as good as me if not better! …Boy do I miss that kid."
Naomi smiled at the memorable moment for Soushefu and handed him her empty plate that had been licked clean by Karanetho.
"You all sure seem to want to see Luffy again," she pointed out.
"I wish there was a way that I could send him a message or see how he's doing," Shanks sighed and put his chin in his hand.
"Would it be terribly hard to?" Naomi inquired, "To send him a message I mean."
"Well," Ben explained, "We are both pirates, so we can't exactly use the governments mailing system to send him a letter. The only way to get him a message would be to pay someone to travel backwards through the Grand Line to find him and give one to him."
"But that would be very hard to do because no one really knows his exact position in the Grand Line," Yassop reported.
"But it wouldn't be impossible right?" Naomi asked and stroked Karanetho continuously as he purred in her lap, "Just difficult?"
Rockstar nodded, "Yes, but why does it matter so much to you?"
"…What if I went?"
All the men's heads, including the cook's, snapped up at this comment.
"You?!"
"But how?!"
Shanks quieted them by raising his hand for a moment, "You'd be willing to travel backwards through the Grand Line to meet up with Luffy and give him a message for us?"
Naomi nodded, "This seems like just the sort of adventure that I would love. Since I'm not going to be staying with your crew forever, I think this would be a great opportunity to help you out."
"But how will you find him?" Lucky broke in.
"I'm sure I can figure it out. If you can get me to a populated island, I could ask around if anyone knows the last place he was and hitch a ride on a ship going backwards through the Grand Line."
"I think it's a great idea!" Yassop exclaimed, "Will you allow it Capt'n?"
Shanks sat quietly in thought for a moment and no one moved or made a sound, anxious for his answer. "To a populated island it is!" he exclaimed finally.
The rest of the men cheered and so did Soushefu's. He began clearing the plates faster than before as if he was the one leaving to go see their old friend. Shanks told Ben to order all the men back and reload the ship. Then he gestured for Naomi to follow.
He leaded her through a door in the floor of the dinning hall and down a small ladder into what looked like a very large storage room. In the far back corner were two small shelves stocked neatly with small globes. Inside each globe was a diamond shaped needle with one red end. On the wooden framing around the globes a name was carved.
"What are these?" Naomi asked and picked one off the shelf, Karanetho bent forward to sniff it and then recoiled his head in disappointment. "They look like the log pose you showed me yesterday."
Shanks gently took the log pose out of Naomi's hands and put it back on the shelf. "These are called eternal poses," he began, "They are a lot like log poses, but these will always point to one island and never change. Hence the name 'Eternal Pose'."
"I see. So are we going to use one to take me to an inhabited island?"
"Yes. I think the closest one to use is this one here," he said a picked one off the top row of the shelf, "Let's get this to Rosutonabige, he's our navigator. He'll get us on the right course and then we can talk about how you're going to find Luffy."
"And the message I'm going to give him?" Naomi chipped in.
"Yes," Shanks smiled, "That too."
"This is all so exciting," Naomi announced to the red-haired captain and they climbed back up the latter into the dinning hall, but she couldn't see Shanks' reaction to he comment.
"There you are Capt'n," Yassop noted and walked over to the door in the floor just as Naomi poked her head up. The sniper offered her a hand to help her out and even though she didn't need it, she accepted his hand and was lifted carefully onto the floorboards, "Rosutonabige was wondering what our heading was."
"Here," Shanks responded and placed the eternal pose in the blonde man's hands.
Yassop looked at the pose and then back at his captain, "Juumin Island? Is that the closest one?"
"No, but it's the most populated in the area and only a day and a half to get there."
Yassop nodded and walked back out on the deck to give the pose to the navigator.
"Kaiino!" Shanks called to a man outside as they neared the exit to the dinning hall, "Get me a quill and a piece of paper."
The man nodded to his captain and ran off. Naomi and Shanks sat down a table near the door and waited for the man to come back with the paper. When he did, Shanks took the paper and started to write something on it.
He finished quickly and handed the paper to Naomi, "Give Luffy this."
She examined the paper and then looked up at Shanks with a smile a she carefully pushed the paper between her waist and her skort for safekeeping, "It's perfect."
Dun dun dun...lol, not really much of a hang over, but kind of. And I just wanted to clue you all in on my 'creativeness' with names, lol. Here's the translations for this chapter, but none of them are elvish. All Japanese.
Soushefu: Sou-gross, Shefu-chef
Rosutonabige: Rosuto-lost, Nabige-navigator
Juumin: Population
Kaiino: Seaman
So that was my little 'joke' for the chapter. As i continue with the story, you'll notice that I will almost always use this 'method' to make up names. But i hope you enjoy it! Please review!!!