A/N: So, an interesting, fun chapter ahead, dear reader. You'll notice I've neglected the long line for separating sections. It's intentional. Long line means (to me) to switch scenes. This is all one scene with just a bunch of different people involved, and I wanted all of their views... or most of them, at least... without changing scenes. Thus, twelve asterisks.
Also, I said at the beginning that I do not pair anybody in this fic. It still holds true, whatever you read in this chapter. It's just a little Nami-centric, cuz I like her tough-girl temper/soft side dual personality.
um, but if you must know, i am pro san/na. NOT IN THIS! IT'S PLATONIC, DAMMIT!!! :P
Jiaro Street was quiet. The shops were closed, their doors barred and windows locked and dark. Tall poles for street lights – colorful lanterns for the festival – were spaced along either side of the street, but only a few lanterns still gave light to the cobbled road below.
One, a bright garden-green, shone lightly down, creating an ellipse of greenish glow on the street. A small shape sat on the edge of this patch of light, and it was upon this figure, not the various prone bodies scattered about her, that Nami focused when she and Robin burst out of an alleyway and into the street.
It was unmoving, kneeling on the smooth, brown stones. It didn't speak. But these were not the strangest details; the strangest of all was the long, continuous line protruding from the figure's front and back. The head was bowed. As Nami and Robin approached it, both noticed the yellow straw hat hanging limply from the boy's neck –
They both stopped breathing, their eyes wide, for a long, flat second that felt infinite, then both screamed his name. He didn't lift his head to look at them, and whatever little hope they had in their hearts gasped and sputtered. The girls were beside him without knowing how they had crossed the distance. They tried to wake him – his eyes were open and blank, unresponsive, dead. Nami's wet eyes took in the blood running in rivulets down his torso, arms, legs, face and saw the way his hands still clenched into fists despite the end of the fight. She barely noticed Robin hiss in pain and surprised after touching the spear running through his body, or acknowledged that the other woman had stood stiffly and backed away from it. She saw and heard nothing but her captain and his fragile breathing until, faintly, a crying voice reached her ears. It whispered his name.
"Chopper!" cried Robin, running toward a quivering, sobbing mass down the street. Nami, tearing her eyes away from the bloody mess, watched her, relief evident on her face. Chopper will help. He can save him.
"Nami, we need you," called Robin, in a helpless voice. "He's in a kairouseki net. I can't…" Nami shook herself from her stupor – the shock of finding the strongest of them all so weak – and swiftly followed Robin to where the tiny reindeer lay, bound by a black net woven with innocent-looking grey stones. Her nimble mapmaker's fingers worked quickly, knowing that time was of the essence. In a minute, Chopper was free.
He shifted into Brain Point and hugged Robin's leg, tears streaming from his watery eyes. "Arigatou! Nami, Robin…"
"Hurry, Chopper," Nami said quietly. He nodded, wiping his face and morphing into his Heavy Point. He ran back to where Luffy knelt, motionless and unaware of the goings-on around him.
"Brook's over there!" Chopper yelled to Nami, pointing. "He was caught in a net too, and you need to free him in case he … he…"
Nami stumbled over to Brook's form and went to work again. She didn't realize she was crying. She pulled the skeleton completely free of the net and sat on her heels, waiting for him to revive.
"Nami!!!" shouted Chopper, panicked. "Please… it's kairouseki, and I can't…"
Under any other circumstances, Nami would have been irritated. But not now.
She approached Luffy again, feeling numb. Chopper was in full doctor-mode, now, and was quite calm, though fear of failure and its consequences made his voice shake. He directed her where to stand and how to pull it out. The pointed tip had gone cleanly through his body, but the problem was that kairouseki formed the core of the shaft as well as the tip, and the shaft must have remained in his body for at least ten minutes of hard fighting.
"You have to remove it quickly, Nami, so I can stop the blood. Just pull it through. Okay?" Chopper was asking her. Before she could nod her response, the silence that had reigned over the street was broken by a strangled exclamation. She squinted at the men down the road, who had started sprinting towards her. The Perfect Climatact was assembled in her hands in a flash, but she suddenly realized it wouldn't be necessary.
Zoro dropped to his knees in front of Luffy, staring. His hands hovered between them, wanting to help but not knowing how. Sanji, cigarette-less, watched his captain with a horror-struck expression. Despite having run through the warm night air to get here, his skin was pale. He stopped beside Nami, drawing her away from the wounded – dying – man, and tried to turn her face away. She dully let him do so, let herself be led away from the gore. Robin, who had been standing some distance away, approached the two of them with Brook following close behind. The older woman took Nami into her arms and they hugged for a long time. Sanji stood protectively by the women, but out of habit, because his eyes were fixed on Luffy, the first mate, and the doctor. He was still pale. His hands shook. He seemed to mutter something over and over, but Nami couldn't hear what it was – his lips barely moved.
The Strawhats had grown close enough and familiar enough with Brook that, though he had no facial muscles, Nami felt certain that she saw a distinct look of remorse appear on the skull's features as he gazed at Luffy with his eye sockets. She herself could not bear to look back. The notion of what she had nearly had to do was slowly sinking into her mind – pull a spear through Luffy's back, and hope the resulting blood loss didn't kill him… She shuddered.
************
Chopper noticed Zoro looking at him, and met his eyes. Such a painful look he had never seen on Zoro's face – Zoro, always so strong and stoic, willful and powerful – that the tears threatened again. They were quickly forced back. Now was not the time to be weak.
"What can I do…?" Zoro asked softly. His eyes were hard, guarded, hurt. I'm too late, Chopper could see him think. I wasn't strong enough.
Chopper made a decision in that moment. Zoro needed him to be the strong one now. He needed to make this better, and Chopper was his only hope. So he barked, "Get behind him, asshole. We've got to get it out of him, don't you see? But you've gotta do it fast. Once you're done, get out of my way."
Zoro nodded and followed the young doctor's instructions obediently, with hope returning to his eyes.
************
When Sanji saw Zoro place his hands on the spear and shift his stance to pull, his neck instinctively twisted to make him look away from the terrible sight. But a second had not passed before he made himself look again.
"… my fault my fault my fault my fault…" he whispered constantly under his breath. He had to look. He had to watch. This was his punishment for being weak. Seeing all the pain he had caused by deliberating, by flirting, by fraternizing with the enemy. He hoped the pain he was feeling, as he watched his captain suffer for his incompetence, could take away his guilt.
He didn't think it would.
************
"He'll be okay, right?" Nami's question was muffled by Robin's shoulder.
The archeologist, who had watched Zoro and Chopper's operation unperturbed, smiled. "I'm sure Chopper knows what he's doing, Nami," she said in a motherly fashion.
"I know he does," said Nami. "I just…" She sighed.
Robin was watching Sanji now, concern for him growing steadily as he rigidly stared at the scene in the green light. He hadn't moved in over a minute, and she knew he must be craving. Perhaps she should say something.
Nami extricated herself from Robin's hug and looked up and down the street as though searching for something. "Where are Franky and Usopp?" she asked.
"Still captured, most likely. We can get them when we –"
An abrupt shout of surprise from the alleyway startled everyone except Chopper, who was busily binding a collapsed Luffy's wounds and who could not afford a distraction. He trusted his nakama to make sure he could keep working without interruption. Zoro was standing beside the tiny reindeer and his fallen captain, but he looked up when he heard Miyoko.
The beautiful bounty hunter, followed by all of her subordinates, took in the damage to her commander's forces. The men lay about, either unconscious or dead. There were only forty bodies or so – the rest must have fled. Cowards. And there, the Strawhat crew stood, totally free. Her blood boiled.
Her eyes caught orange hair. "YOU!" she screeched, pointing at Nami. The navigator's brow furrowed as she frowned.
"What?"
"One of THEM!" she spat.
Nami's numbness was gone, replaced by a dire hatred for this evil, cruel woman. She maintained her calm, however, just as she had with the bounty hunter men; her anger simmered beneath a tight lid. She carefully brought the Climatact before her and started to walk – saunter, really – toward the women's division. A black shape cut her off, however, holding his hand out to stop her.
"I'll take care of this, Nami-san," Sanji said clearly, facing Miyoko. Smoke wafted above his blond hair, blue against the black sky.
"Sanji-kun…?" she asked him, surprised. "Maybe I should…"
"NO." The man took a deep breath, then put the cigarette back in his mouth. "I can do this."
"Nami," called a gruff voice, "he can."
Nami glanced back at Zoro, who had a hand on Wadou and a fierce expression on his face. He glowered at the woman leading the bounty hunters, but he didn't join her and Sanji to fight. She gritted her teeth. "I'm not letting you have all the fun," she told Sanji pertly, tightening her hold on the Climatact. She heard the sound of a sword being smoothly slipped from its sheath, and looked to her left to find Brook.
"May I join you, Nami?" he inquired politely. Behind him stood Robin, wrists crossed in front of her, a slight smile on her face.
One side of Nami's mouth went up. "You certainly may," she quietly replied.
Sanji attacked suddenly, closely followed by Brook, sword weaving and waving. Nami stayed back and prepared a storm, heavy with electricity. Robin's arms sprouted everywhere, tripping and slapping and breaking.
Needless to say, it didn't take very long for Miyoko's forces to tumble among their male comrades.
"That'll be the last of them, aside from the ones who got Usopp and Franky."
Nami nodded at Sanji. These were the first normal words she'd heard from his mouth since he arrived here. And he had just willingly attacked a bunch of women. Anxious now, Nami approached him, placing a tentative hand on his arm. He flinched at her touch, and then relaxed, keeping his eyes on the ground. "Sanji-kun," she began, not knowing how to continue.
He met her eyes and seemed to understand her unspoken questions. He smiled sincerely and said, "My apologies, Nami-san. I have not been myself."
"What happened?"
His smile became tight, almost forced, but it remained, no doubt for her benefit. "That division," he said, gesturing to the fallen women, "was the one sent to detain Zoro and me. Well, really, they didn't have to bother with me." His voice was icy, full of self-loathing. He took a drag, and met her eyes again. He seemed to be relieved to tell her this. The smile was comfortable, but hesitant. "I…" he trailed off.
Nami slid her hand down to hold his, suddenly understanding. He was blaming himself, baka. "It's not your fault, Sanji."
His hand jerked, but she held it tight. The smile was gone, and he was breathing harder. "Yes, it was," he said, biting the end of each word.
"No," she commanded. "We weren't prepared for something like this. I… I left Brook, Chopper, and Luffy alone to fend for themselves… they're all fruit-users… If it's anyone's fault, it's mine."
"It's my fault," said Zoro quietly, from beside Luffy. "I'm first mate. I should be there to protect him… I should have been stronger…"
Nami rolled her eyes. Men. "In that case it's my fault again, for not letting you follow him, baka."
Zoro just shook his head. Nami felt her temper returning, but then she noticed he held Luffy's blood-spattered hat in his hands. Her heart jumped in her throat. "Did he wake up?" she asked breathlessly, running over to him.
The swordsman nodded imperceptibly. "For only a minute."
"We've got to get him to the ship," Chopper ordered. "Zoro?" The man didn't hesitate, carefully scooping Luffy up, into his arms. "Don't ruin his bandages, baka," Chopper scolded.
"I won't," he grunted, and began walking.
Nami grinned, but hid it quickly. "Oi, Zoro?"
His step didn't falter as he swung around, already knowing why she'd stopped him. "Lead on, witch."
Sanji's lips curled into a half-smile-half-grimace. "What did you say to her, bastard?" he muttered at the green-haired man.
Zoro smiled.