"Okay," Luffy said without hesitation.
"Don't just say 'okay'!" Usopp protested. "Nami, what do you mean?"
"What do you think I mean?" she said exasperatedly. "If the real Princess Erika is out there and still alive, you guys can find her, bring her back here, and then we can go!"
"Great, where is she then?" Zoro asked.
"Well, that's up to you guys to find out, right?" Nami said.
"I'll do anything to get you back, Nami-swan~!" Sanji cried.
"B-But she might not even be in the East Blue!" Usopp said. "She could be in any one of the Blues, or even on the G-Grand Line—"
"Then that's your problem, isn't it?" Nami said, smirking.
"I like this side of Nami-swan too," Sanji crooned.
"Shut it for a minute," Zoro muttered to Sanji. "Luffy, what do you think?"
"I already said we'll go," Luffy said. "But . . . only if she's not in the Grand Line. I don't wanna go there without Nami."
"Thanks," Nami said, relieved.
"I still don't like this, but since no one can stop Luffy . . . I've got a question," Usopp said.
"Spit it out," Zoro said.
"How are we going to get anywhere without our navigator?"
There was a moment of silence.
"You guys handled it fine without me this morning, right?" Nami asked, frowning.
"Uh . . ." Zoro said.
"Sort of . . ." Sanji said, looking away.
"It is a problem, but I can give you guys some basic tips," Nami offered. "The East Blue is normally a pretty easy sea to sail on, unlike the Grand Line—or so I've heard. Does anyone have some paper and a pencil?"
Usopp handed over the two things to her. She knelt on the ground and poised the pencil over the paper; the others crowded around her.
"First off," she said, writing as she spoke, "The sun sets in the west—"
"We know," the other four said together.
"Oh," she said, surprised. "Um, okay. Next, here are some diagrams for controlling the sails, just in case . . . Sanji-kun, Usopp; I'll leave this part up to you two."
"You can count on the great Captain Usopp!" Usopp exclaimed. "I shall direct Merry to the best of my ability—which, of course, is the highest possible ability in the world!"
"You can count on me too, Nami-swan~!" Sanji cried.
"Why do they get to control the sails?" Luffy complained.
Nami shoved the diagrams at him. "Do you understand these?"
Luffy studied them for perhaps half a second. "Nope," he declared proudly.
"Exactly."
She eventually finished giving them tips; giving the paper back to Usopp, who stored it in his shoulder bag, she stood and said "I'll go tell those two what's happening. You four come along."
Nami pushed open the cell door and strode out, the others following.
"Nami-swan," Sanji said as they walked, "Do I have your divine permission to call you Princess Nami~?"
"Never call me that again," she growled.
Back in the throne room, the men of the Strawhat crew stood respectfully by while Nami explained the idea to Larry and John.
"So you see," she finished, "this would be in the best interest of everyone. I get to leave with my crew and you get your princess back. Do we have a deal, gentlemen?"
The two looked at each other—Larry looked up while John looked down.
"Very well," said John at last. "We have a deal, Princess Erika—er, Princess Nami."
Nami growled at him. "Do not call me that . . ."
"Thanks, you two," Sanji said. "Do you have any clues for us to start with? Any place we can start looking?"
"I have a picture of the princess," Larry offered. He withdrew said photograph from his cloak and handed it to the Strawhats. They passed it around and studied it.
Zoro whistled. "She really does look like you, Nami."
"Shut it," Nami snarled.
"Okay, orange hair, brown eyes . . ." Usopp muttered to himself. "And her name is Erica?"
"No, Erika," John corrected, "with a 'k'."
"Oh, okay," Usopp said, nodding. Then he frowned. "Wait—"
"So where is she?" Luffy asked.
"All we know is that she was kidnapped ten years ago," Larry said sadly. "Oh, my poor princess, how you must be suffering . . ." he began wailing.
John smacked him. "Get a grip. Yes, she was kidnapped by some thugs when she was nine."
"How many were there?" Zoro asked.
"Only one, of course," John said in surprise.
It was Larry's turn to smack his partner. "Not the princess, idiot! I think there were maybe five or seven bandits. They sailed in the direction of the rising sun . . . well, that's all we know. We naturally attempted to give chase, but with the time it took to assemble a crew, they were long gone."
"Hang on," Nami said, frowning. "I just thought of something—how did you two find out where I was? That's a bit creepy, if you ask me."
Larry grinned. "Your highness, I happen to possess the power of a Devil Fruit; the See-See Fruit, which allows me to see anything happening within a 50-kilometer radius. Of course, I can only see; I cannot hear, smell, or feel . . . I ate this fruit only a year ago, which is why I have not used it earlier to find the princess."
"So in other words, she's over fifty kilometers away from here?" Zoro asked.
Larry nodded.
"T-That seems really far," Usopp whimpered. "Are we really gonna be okay?"
"Adventure!" Luffy yelled happily. "Let's get going, guys! You wait for us, Nami!"
Nami grinned. "Don't take too long."
Larry and John led the Strawhats out of the palace and to the docks. Merry had thankfully not been seized yet, so the pirates were allowed to climb aboard and set sail.
"To the princess!" Luffy declared, pointing in the direction they were headed.
"To the princess!" The others echoed.
. . .
"So which way do we go?" Usopp asked.
"They said that the thugs went to the east, right?" Sanji said. "We'll start there."
Luffy looked up at the sun and then pointed towards the east. "To the princess! Oh, Sanji, I'm hungry. Can we have lunch?"
"Fine," Sanji said. "It's about time for lunch, anyway."
"I want meat!"
"I want fish!"
"I'll have booze."
"What about to eat?"
"Nothing to eat, just booze."
"You can't have just booze for lunch . . ."