Disclaimer: I own a bunch of One Piece DVDs, but not the actual franchise.
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ONE- FLIPPING- HUNDRED!
Thank you for all your support, true believers! The next chapter will be a 100 Review Special!
Oh, and if any of you are going to be at Anime Mid-Atlantic 2014 on June 13-15, keep an eye out for me. On the second day, I'll be the girl with a really bad Trafalgar Law cosplay (Hopefully. I still need to acquire his hat. I'll check the dealer's room).
SBS 1!
Starting this chapter, I'll be answering a question one of you guys actually ask me, a question I feel like rambling about, or just give random fun facts about the story.
Chapter Question: "How'd you get into the gloriousness that is One Piece?"
I actually got into it last summer, but that was after months of being asked "Do you watch One Piece?" and replying, "Nah, not my thing." That was a lie. At the time I was asked, I didn't watch it simply because I didn't feel like it. I took it into consideration after finding a picture of Ace on deviantart drawn by an artist named Viria, and looked him up on the internet (spoiling his death for me. Dang it!). That led to looking up Luffy, then Zoro, then Brook... then reading a One Piece fanfiction called Mindshattered... then other fics by the author who wrote it... and by that point I figured I should just watch the darn series before I could spoil anything else for myself.
Best. Decision. Ever.
It's been almost a year later, and I'm still totally obsessed with it. I've become obsessed with different manga and anime before, but those obsessions only lasted two months, tops. Just goes to show how brilliant One Piece is above all the rest.
Only ironically, now when I ask people if they've seen One Piece, they all tell me they've never seen it. That's cosmic revenge for you.
Now without further adieu, enjoy the new chapter of Tomorrow's Romance Dawn!
EDIT: I just realized I left a major plot hole. It's fixed now.
Chapter 9: Ire, Liar, and Plants Under Fire
Location: Beach Next to the Bounty Hunters' Wrecked Ship
To say the mood took a dip after Tattoos shot himself would be an understatement.
A vast understatement, in fact. The weather was still cloudy and gloomy, so it fit the blackening mood of the crew. Chopper had even started crying, Tattoos killing himself obviously bringing back bad memories. Nami had picked up the little reindeer and taken him a ways down the beach while the boys "cleaned up," so to speak. "Cleaning up" involved going aboard the wrecked bounty hunters ship, finding a life boat that wasn't too badly damaged, and putting Tattoos' (the crew now partially wished they had learned the man's real name) body on it. True, they had no obligation to do anything for their former enemy, but the idea of just leaving the body there on the beach to rot didn't sit well with any of them.
It ended up being a viking funeral. Once they had walked a good distance away from the wreck and the still-unconscious bounty hunter crew, they drenched the boat in gasoline (donated by Usopp), set it aflame, and set it adrift. The pirates then stood on the beach, watching the boat until it disappeared beyond the distant fog.
Nami returned with Chopper in tow.
"Is the lifeboat gone?" she asked.
"Yeah," Usopp replied tiredly. He was surprisingly calm for a coward who just saw a man shoot himself. "Just sailed out sight a couple minutes ago." He looked down at Chopper. "How are you feeling, Chopper?"
Chopper sniffled deeply, wiping his eyes with his hoof. "I'm okay. I just wasn't... expecting that to happen, is all."
None of them had been expecting that to happen, so Usopp could see where the reindeer was coming from.
"If one good thing comes out of all this," Nami said softly. "I now know there seems to be a current leading away from the island, just like the one that brought us here. That's how the life boat got out so far so fast."
"So when we finally leave, we can just ride that current out of here?" Sanji asked.
"That's the idea, but taking Roronoa's presence into account, there's no telling where or when the fog will spit us out."
"So basically we're stuck here until we know for sure," Zoro summarized.
"In a nutshell," the navigator sighed. She turned to Vivi. "Sorry, Vivi. It might take even longer to get you home than before."
Vivi looked at her and nodded. "It's okay, Nami, really." She turned her head back towards the sea. "At the moment, we have other things to worry about."
"You mean with what just happened?" Roronoa asked.
"Yes," the princess replied. "It makes no sense. Why would Tattoos just up and kill himself out of nowhere?"
"He did keep telling us to just let him die," Sanji pointed out. "Maybe he decided to speed up the process."
"No."
Everyone looked at their captain. His straw hat was shadowing his eyes, making them hard to see.
"No," Luffy repeated. "Killing yourself is desperate and cowardly. Tattoos took on Zoro-ossan without so much as blinking. He wasn't desperate, and he sure as hell wasn't cowardly."
"Luffy-san is correct," Brook agreed. "Take my word for it, only a man who believes he has nothing left to live for contemplates dying. He fears living with his regrets. Tattoos-san may have said to leave him there to die, but you could tell he had no regrets. He was just a sore loser."
Roronoa shot Brook a side glance at his words, but said nothing.
"Usopp, you were the one who noticed him pulling out the gun first," Vivi said. "Did you notice anything strange?"
"Actually, it was Carue who noticed first," Usopp admitted. Normally, he would have tried to play up his involvement to make himself look good, but he wasn't in the mood for that right now. "I only looked when he starting quacking his head off."
"Quaaw!" Carue quacked, waving his wings frantically. "Quaaw quaaw, quaw quaw quaw!"
"'Right after Nami asked her question, Tattoos got this weird look on his face,'" Chopper said. "He says."
Everyone stared at the doctor for a moment, before remembering that Chopper was technically an animal himself.
"Oh, yeah. You can talk to other animals, right?" Nami asked. "I forgot about that."
"Keep translating for Carue, Tony," Vivi prompted him.
Carue went into another series of upset quacks, and Chopper translated when he finished.
"'It was really calm, and his eyes were all glassy. They looked like Luffy's eyes when he got caught in rice-cracker girl's Color Trap,'" Chopper translated.
"Rice-cracker girl?" Sanji echoed.
"It was when you were goofing off back on Little Garden," Zoro said. "A member of Baroque Works had the ability to hypnotize people using different colors. She got Luffy good a couple of times. Her name was... Miss Silver Day?"
"Goldenweek," Nami corrected.
"I don't care what her name is; not like I'm sending her a get-well card any time soon."
"But why call her rice crack- hey wait a minute!" Sanji protested. "I wasn't goofing off! I was procuring that Eternal Pose to Alabasta! Get it right, Algae Noggin!"
"Not the point," Roronoa interrupted before a fight could ensue. "Going off Carue's description, it sounds like Tattoos was in a trance when he pulled the trigger."
"You mean someone hypnotized him into killing himself?" Chopper asked in horror.
"Can a hippotist really do that?" Luffy asked, crossing his arms. "Besides rice-cracker girl, there was that weird guy back on Usopp's island who could do that to people. Only they got all stronger and stuff. They didn't die."
"Hypnotist, Luffy," Nami corrected. "Not hippotist."
"A hippotist is person who can transform people into hippos," Usopp lied seriously.
"Seriously?!" Luffy and Chopper gasped.
Usopp just grinned in reply. Chopper and Luffy jumped around him and demanded to know more, at least until Nami knocked the latter on the head and simply told the former to calm down. (Though afterwards, she gave Usopp a grateful smile. His lie broke the reindeer and the captain out of their respective funks, and helped break the gloomy mood in general, which had probably been his intention in the first place.)
"That doesn't explain why he killed himself just then," Vivi said, placing her hand on her chin. "I don't see anyone around here who could have hypnotized him, unless they're hiding."
"They're not," Roronoa said. "We're the only ones on the beach, and I don't sense anyone hiding out in the jungle. At least not nearby."
"If Tattoos-san's eyes became glassy right after Nami-san asked her question, as Carue-san says," Brook added. "Then if my own knowledge of hypnotism is correct, perhaps the hypnotist left behind a post-hypnotic suggestion."
"I've heard of those," Sanji said. "That's when a hypnotist tells you to do something, but only when your hear a certain word or sound."
"Like hypnotizing a volunteer to cluck like a chicken every time he hears a bell ring?" Nami asked.
"Precisely," Brook answered. "Nami-san had just asked about the island's possible treasure when the bounty hunter went into a trance, so that most likely was the trigger phrase."
"I guess whoever's leading the bounty hunters clearly doesn't want word about the treasure getting around," Zoro said. "Hell of a way to shut up any possible leaks, though."
"So not only do we have the missing future crew, being unable to leave the island, Roronoa's kidnapped mystery kid, and treasure-hungry bounty hunters to worry about, but to add a cherry on top, we have to keep an eye out for a master hypnotist that can even convince people to kill themselves," Usopp sighed, sitting down in the sand wearily. "What's next? Is the island going to blow up?"
KA-BOOM!
The loud explosion resonated throughout the jungle, reaching the ears of the gathered pirates. They looked in the direction the sound had come from, and saw a giant cloud of pink smoke rising from the jungle in the distance. The cloud formed a distinct mushroom shape bordering on taking the form of a skull.
"Oh no, the island is blowing up!" Chopper screamed.
Sanji gave Usopp a dirty glare. "You just had to jinx us, didn't you, Long Nose."
"Hey, don't blame me!" Usopp hollered, standing up. "I wasn't expecting an explosion to go off the minute I said that!"
"Ooh, ooh, Usopp! Maybe if you say 'Is food going to start raining down from the sky?', food will start raining down from the sky!" Luffy suggested. "Try it!"
"Somehow I doubt that's going to work," Zoro pointed out. "Try making it rain booze. Rain and alcohol are both liquids, right?"
"Luffy! Mr. Bushido!" Vivi scolded. "Now's not the time!"
"You're all being ridiculous!" Nami shouted at the boys. "Usopp didn't cause that explosion to go off, so stop being moronic!"
"Actually, maybe he did," Roronoa spoke up, mostly to himself.
Nami looked at the elder swordsman. "I beg your pardon?"
Roronoa ignored her, then turned towards Brook. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
Brook nodded. "Yes. Unless my eyes are deceiving me (though I have none), that smoke definitely looks like the remains of one of Usopp-san's attacks."
"Yeah, you're right. That's Usopp's bombgrass, or whatever it is he calls it," Roronoa agreed. He smirked. "Tattoos did say they were having issues with a cowardly sniper."
This made Brook laugh loudly.
"Uh, future guys?" Usopp interrupted. "How can you be so sure that explosion was future me just because of some smoke?"
"Your future self uses a... unique form of ammunition, Usopp-san," Brook replied. "We'd recognize it anywhere."
Usopp raised an eyebrow in interest. He'd become interested in learning what kind of sniper he was in the future. Hadn't that one bounty hunter lackey who read off the wanted posters called him 'Sniper King?'
"So good news: we now have at least a semblance of an idea where to find another member of Roronoa and Brook's crew," Sanji said, lighting a fresh cigarette. "Bad news: given an explosion is our only indicator, he's most likely fighting off one the bounty hunters as we speak."
"Usopp's in trouble?!" Luffy gasped. He turned toward the jungle. "DON'T WORRY USOPP, I'M COMING!"
"Luffy, wait a-!" Roronoa began to protest.
It was too late. The rubber captain went tearing into the woods, with only the goal of protecting his nakama in mind.
Location: Jungles of Kāla
Roronoa shoved a vine out of his way. "You know, I blame the cook for this."
"Huh, why's that, Roronoa?" Chopper asked.
"If he hadn't opened his big mouth, Luffy wouldn't have taken off like that."
"I'm right here you know, Mosshead!" Sanji barked.
Roronoa ignored him.
"I think you're giving Luffy too much credit," Nami disagreed with the swordsman. "I'm surprised he went this long without just charging into the jungle."
After Luffy took his impromptu venture into the jungle, the assembled pirates agreed maybe it was time to reevaluate their original decision not to split up. One group would enter the foliage and search for their captain (and future Usopp, to a lesser extent), while the second group would continue looking for Franky and the ship. Only this time around, the second group would return to the Going Merry and search from the water. They weren't taking any chances with another attack on the beach. With the bounty hunters' ship gone, the waters were safe, relatively anyway. Nami even gave them instructions on how to avoid the current leading away from the island.
And so not to contradict Roronoa's "no fighting without permission" condition, one future Straw Hat would be in each group. Brook would go with the Merry-bound group (after being given explicit instructions about Roronoa's condition), and Roronoa would leave with the jungle group. Roronoa actually had wanted to go into the jungle alone, but Nami reminded him he could get lost on the Merry, never mind a big jungle. Then Chopper pointed out Roronoa was still injured and his fight with the bounty hunters agitated his shoulder.
And then Sanji had wanted to be on Nami's team (though that didn't mean he loved Vivi any less!), but Usopp complained that her team already had Roronoa and would have Luffy next; his team need some powerhouses too!
"Not that the Great Captain Usopp can't handle a surprise attack!" Usopp had said. "In fact, I once fought off a surprise attack from an army of two-headed swordsmen when I was just two years old..."
Ignoring the ridiculous lie, Nami had argued her team was more likely to be attacked by the bounty hunters then the Merry-bound group, so they needed Sanji more (elating the chef greatly). Zoro was placed into Brook's group to compensate.
In the end, the groups looked something like this:
Going Merry Retrieval and Shipwright Location Team: Brook, Usopp, Zoro, Vivi, and Carue.
Luffy/Eventual Future Usopp/Roronoa's-Mystery-Kid-If-We-Happen-To-See-Her Search and Rescue Team: Roronoa, Nami, Chopper, Sanji, and Luffy (when they found him and knocked his lights out for being so stupid).
Once that was settled, the two groups went their separate directions. The second group was now currently deep into the jungle, attempting to locate and retrieve their impulsive captain.
Which actually wasn't as hard they thought it would be. All they had to do was follow the path of destruction Luffy had created by punching through whatever got in his way; usually bushes and the occasional giant tree root. Also Chopper was lending a hand (or hoof) by using his enhanced sense of smell.
"I still can't believe how big the trees here are," Chopper said with wonder. He was in Walk Point, once again playing the role of the pack mule. "They're even bigger than the evergreens back on Drum. I wonder why they grow this way."
"Probably because of the environment," Roronoa commented. "I wouldn't be surprised if this place's ecosystem differed from other islands."
The reindeer nodded. It sounded like a plausible explanation. Roronoa walked a little farther ahead with Chopper, before the pair realized Sanji and Nami weren't following.
Chopper stopped and turned around. "Sanji? Nami?"
"You guys coming?" Roronoa asked.
Sanji and Nami stared at Roronoa in disbelief.
"... Why are you staring at me like I'm crazy?"
"... Since when do you know so much about plants?" Nami asked.
"Don't tell me you've taken up botany," Sanji added.
Roronoa rolled his eye. "I don't and I haven't. I just remember Robin saying something like that awhile back. I figure if it was true then, it's true now."
The crew began following Luffy's trail again. Nami walked in the front of the group, occasionally jotting down in a little notebook.
"This Robin sounds like she's really smart," Nami said.
"She is," Roronoa said with a nod. "She's an archaeologist."
"Not that I'm complaining about another gorgeous lady being on the crew," Sanji said. "But what does archaeology have to do with piracy?"
"That's a question you'd have to ask Luffy. You know, assuming we find both him and his older self."
Nami frowned. "Going off your description of your crew, I'm guessing Luffy hasn't outgrown running off without giving everyone else's opinions any consideration?"
"You mean Luffy does this often?" Chopper asked.
Sanji gave a tired sigh. "Very often."
"Extremely often," Roronoa added. He smirked. "You guys are in for a lot of gray hairs in the coming years."
That thought gave the past Straw Hats (save Chopper) a sense of dread, so they continued on in silence. Nami continued to write down notes down in her notebook, to a point where she was finally asked about it.
"What's that you got there, Nami?" Chopper asked.
"I figured if we were going traipsing through the jungle anyway, I should take some notes of the topography," the navigator answered. "I told the guys earlier I wanted to make a map of this place, and it looks like I'll get to do just that."
"Oh Nami, you're so beautiful when you're trying to accomplish your dream!" Sanji cooed, hearts in his eyes.
"Cough cough-whipped-cough cough," Roronoa faked-coughed into his fist.
Sanji shot him a baleful glare. "Mind your own business. Nobody was talking to you, Zoro-ossan."
"Your future self is twenty one too you know," Roronoa pointed out in deadpan. "And last time I checked, aren't you older than me by a few months?"
Sanji hated it when Zoro (or this case, Roronoa) had a point. He quickly thought up a retort. "But I'm not my older self. I'm still nineteen, thus making you the older one, and therefore the old man!"
Roronoa looked at Sanji from over his shoulder. "Then maybe I should have you call me Roronoa-sempai."
"NOT ON YOUR LIFE, MOSS-" Sanji began to holler.
"Wait a second," Nami interrupted, ceasing her stride. "Roronoa, you remember that conversation?"
"About our ages? Yeah," he replied, also stopping. "Only because it was the day we learned Ero-Cook was barely older than me. Why do you ask?"
"The subject of our ages only came up then because we saw the island," Nami explained.
Chopper gasped in realization. "And Roronoa doesn't remember ever coming here!"
Sanji gave Roronoa a pointed look that clearly said explain that one, sword freak.
Roronoa scowled. "I remember that conversation, but I don't remember why we got into it. All I recall from that day is that one moment Chopper's telling us Nami's not sick anymore, the next we're discussing our ages for some reason. We all thought it was weird, but looking back, we just dismissed it and went on with our day. Two days after that we arrived in Nanohana."
"Hmm..." Nami thought aloud. "This doesn't make sense..."
"What doesn't make sense? The whole not-remembering thing?" Chopper asked.
"Didn't we think up the possibility that history's changed somehow?" Sanji said, lightly chewing on his cigarette. "Like we weren't supposed to come to this island but did anyway?"
"That's what doesn't make sense," Nami started to clarify. "The whole reason we had that stupid age debate was because we saw the island and Usopp started bragging about conquering haunted islands when he was five. If Roronoa doesn't remember us ever seeing Kāla, much less coming here..."
"... Then I shouldn't remember ever having that conversation," Roronoa finished for her. "You're right, I don't remember ever seeing or coming here. I shouldn't have memories of the discussion we had about our ages."
"So my theory was wrong," Chopper sighed. "Sorry guys."
"That's okay, Chopper. It was a good theory," Nami assured him. She groaned. "Ugh, this is like one giant puzzle! I usually like puzzles, but this is getting ridiculous!"
"It's okay, Nami. No one expects you or anyone else to figure it out all in one day," Sanji said. He exhaled some smoke. "I think for now we should focus on one thing at time, like Luffy. Who wants to bet he's covered more ground in the time it's taken us to have this little brainstorm session?"
"For once, the cook is right," Roronoa agreed. "I want find Luffy before he finds one of those bounty hunter 'higher-ups' Tattoos told me about. Chopper, can you still track his scent?"
Chopper sniffed the ground. "Luffy's scent is still very fresh. I should be able to-"
The reindeer paused, a confused expression gracing his features.
"Chopper?" Sanji said. "What is it?"
"Luffy's scent... is not the only one here," the doctor answered. "There's two others. One smells like.. spices? Yeah, spices... and roses. The other smells like gunpowder..." He gasped. "That's Usopp's scent!"
"Usopp smells like spices and roses?" Roronoa asked. He scoffed. "Geez, you think you know a guy..."
Chopper shook his head. "No, I meant the gunpowder smell is Usopp's!"
"Usopp said he only went into the jungle when he heard Brook, but that was back near the Merry," Nami pointed out. Her eyes widened "Then that scent must belong to-!"
That was when the trees began to topple over.
Naturally, trees don't topple over at random (unless they have Sudden Oak Death, but these trees were not oaks). It appeared some glowing slice went through the air, cutting through the thick trunks just as neatly as any sword. While interesting to see, it did pose a problem for the jungle-trek group.
Because no matter how you look at, getting squished by a falling tree is a pretty stupid end for the future Discoverer of All Blue, World's Greatest Swordsman, Maker of the World Map, and Creator of a Panacea.
As the first tree plummeted toward the group, Sanji jumped into the air and drove his foot into it, succeeding in kicking it away. Unfortunately, the effort caused a shooting pain to spread throughout his entire leg. He tried to bite back a groan of pain, but didn't do a good job in doing so.
"Oi, Cook!" Roronoa called up to him. "You can't kick them all away! Run!"
Normally, Sanji would have argued with the swordsman, but he decided now was not a good time. He proceeded to run as fast he could out of the path of the falling trees, second to Chopper's pace. (Dang, that reindeer could run.) Luckily, while some of the trees fell quickly, others fell quite slowly. It wasn't until Sanji far enough away that he wouldn't be squashed did he notice Roronoa hadn't been running along with them.
Sanji skidded to a halt. "Where's Roronoa?"
Chopper also ceased running, looking frantically from side to side. It wasn't until he turned around did he shout, "There!"
Sanji turned and groaned. Roronoa was still in the path of the falling trees! Only for some reason, he had all of his swords drawn, and seemed to have taken a battle stance.
"What are you doing, Algae Brain!" Sanji shouted over to the swordsman. "Get out of there before you-!"
"108 Caliber Phoenix!"
Sanji's jaw dropped and his cigarette fell from his mouth. Roronoa merely slashed the air with his blades, but the motion created some sort of... vacuum that practically glowed, not too unlike the slash that got them into this predicament. Though this single, curving slash cut through the falling trunks more neatly and efficiently than the previous one. The falling trees all broke into multiple piece and fell to either side of the jungle, leaving a path that only covered Luffy's trail minimally.
Roronoa scanned his work, then sheathed all three swords. "Alright, you can come back now."
Sanji and Chopper both gaped.
"Should it be physically possible to be that cool?" Chopper whispered.
"I... don't know, Chopper," was all Sanji could get out. "I don't know."
The cook and reindeer slowly made their way back to Roronoa, who was examining the sliced-up trees critically.
Sanji cleared his throat, regaining his composure. "So Mr. Fancy Swords, you were able to predict all my attacks back on the Merry and those cannonballs, so why didn't you see this coming?"
"Sanji!" Chopper gasped. Vivi wasn't there to scold him, so he would do it.
"Because, Lord of the Swirls, that attack wasn't directed at me. It was random," Roronoa replied with just as much condescension. He turned to face the cook. "If the attacker doesn't know where his attack is going to end up, then I'm not going to know."
"That actually makes sense," Sanji muttered. "You never make sense. Just what the heck happened to you in the last two years, Roronoa?"
"You don't want to know. Moving on. We all agree it was a flying slash attack that cut through the trees, right?"
"Yeah, it was kind of like what you did just now," Chopper agreed, reverting to Brain Point and setting everyone's stuff on the ground. "Is that what it's called? A flying slash attack?"
"Yeah. It's part of a skill set known as 'The Powers of Destruction,'" Roronoa replied. "But that slash didn't come from a sword. I would be able to tell if it did."
Sanji's brain was still on the 'Powers of Destruction' bit. Predicting attacks, cutting steel, chopping a galleon in half, and now flying slash attacks? If Zoro of all people progressed this much in just two years, what did that say for the rest of their crew? "If it didn't come from a blade, where did it come from?"
Roronoa narrowed his eye, as if deep in thought.
The man jumped up before balancing on his swords and kicking out both his legs. The motion created two glowing slashes, racing towards the green haired swordsman. The latter quickly used two of his own swords to deflect the attack, sending the slashes into the door behind him.
The first man got back to his feet. A second later, surrounding pillars and bookshelves collapsed, slashed neatly in two.
The first man, that square-nosed freak, smiled smugly. "Sorry; I use four swords."
"... It came from something I haven't seen in a long time," Roronoa said at last. "Which means this just got a whole lot more dangerous for you guys. We need to find Luffy and get out of here."
Sanji contemplated asking what he meant by that, but something in Roronoa's tone made the question die in his mind. "Right. Chopper, Nami-swan, let's-"
All three men froze.
They knew they had been forgetting something.
"Um, guys?" Sanji said.
"Yes?" Chopper and Roronoa answered.
"Where's Nami-swan?"
Location: Jungles of Kāla, Away from Roronoa and the Others
Nami didn't know why the trees had started falling, and she didn't care. All she had to know what that she wasn't going to let herself be flattened by an over-sized piece of wood.
She ran as fast as she could, trying to escape the descending timber. She didn't stop running until she could no longer hear the crashing booms of trees hitting the jungle floor.
She came to a halt next to one of the giant tree roots, panting as she tried to catch her breath. "I think that's far enough, guys. Any idea why the trees started to- guys?"
She looked around. There were giant trees, vines, flowers, and few insects, but no Sanji, no Roronoa, and no Chopper. She was all alone. None of the surrounding scenery looked familiar. That way she had come was suddenly blocked by more trees that definitely had not been there before.
Nami fell to her knees. "Oh no. Please don't tell me..."
Nami... was lost.
Nami, the navigator of the Straw Hat Pirates, the mapmaker, and one of the only people on the freaking crew with any kind of sense of direction, was lost.
"No, I CAN'T BE LOST!" Nami shrieked. "I'M THE NAVIGATOR, DAMMIT! I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO GET LOST! EVER!"
But here she was... completely lost. And she knew why.
"It's their fault," Nami hissed to herself. "Zoro and Roronoa's. Zoro already has a terrible sense of direction, but with Roronoa here, that defect has been amplified and it rubbed off on me."
Nami jumped to her feet, flames of vengeance flickering around her form. Those brainless swordsmen were going to pay for this!
"JUST YOU WAIT, RORONOA ZORO! I'M GOING TO INCREASE YOUR DEBT SO MUCH IT'LL TAKE YOU A THOUSAND YEARS TO PAY IT ALL OFF! NOTHING SHORT OF YOUR FIRSTBORN CHILD WILL SATISFY ME! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME, ZORO?! YOU ARE SO-"
"Geez, I feel sorry for the poor fool who earned your ire."
Nami's rant became stuck in her throat at sound of the rich female voice. She looked over her shoulder.
The speaker was standing across from her, leaning against one of the tree trunks and crossing her arms. She did not look happy.
She was a curvy, athletic woman; very tall and looking to be 29 or 30. She wore a sleeveless vine-and-flower-print cheongsam with long slits going down the sides, and loose pants tied off around the ankles underneath. She also wore white socks and black slippers, and her ears were pierced with simple silver hoops. On her right arm was a tattoo of a jolly roger- a skull with two curved arrow-headed swords behind it, resembling horns. And of course, her most striking feature was her long blonde mohawk. Some of the hair in the front fell on to her forehead, but the rest curved to toward the back of her head and fell to just past her shoulders.
Add the aforementioned description on top of the fact she had a pair of clawed metal gauntlets tied around her waist, and you got the appearance of someone who you did not want to mess with.
Nami was no exception.
The woman raised one manicured eyebrow. "You do know talking to yourself is a sign of insanity, right? Like I don't have enough crazy people to deal with."
Nami turned fully around to face the woman. "Who... who are you?"
"I don't suppose you've seen a long nosed coward in goggles come by this way, have you?" the woman asked, ignoring the question.
Nami scowled, though on the inside she was freaking out. This had to be one of the bounty hunters. "Depends. Why do you want to know?"
The woman ran a hand irritably through her mohawk. "Because he's been nothing but a source of irritation and stress for me since we got to this stupid island. Do you have any idea how repetitive freeing your teammates from the clutches of giant venus flytraps gets? Let me tell you sister, it's. Not. Fun."
Nami sweatdropped. Wow, this lady could complain.
"I'm this close to catching him, though," she went on. "And when I do... oh, there will be comeuppance."
Nami cocked her head to one side. "Comeuppance?"
"Yeah, comeuppance. You know, revenge? Retribution?"
Nami stared at her.
"It's a word!" the lady huffed.
"I believe you. Sorry, but I don't know where this long nosed coward is."
Maybe if Nami could make her think she wasn't one of the pirates she was hunting, she would leave and give the navigator time to locate Roronoa and the others. It was worth a shot.
The lady smiled thinly. "Oh, but I think you do... Cat Burglar Nami."
Nami groaned inwardly. Darn it!
The woman smirked, crossing her arms. (Now, if this were occurring the this actual manga or anime, now would be when an Oda-box would appear. Here's one for your benefit.)
"Gauntlet" Erity
Second Lieutenant of the Carrion Bounty Hunters
Erity pulled a wanted poster seemingly from nowhere. She held it up. "My name's Erity, and I have to say, you look remarkably similar to how you did two years ago."
Nami eyes bugged out when she saw the poster.
"CAT BURGLAR" NAMI
WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE
16,000,000 BERRIS
Why does my picture look like a pin-up photo from some dirty magazine?! Nami thought in horror. Why do I even have a bounty? What did I do to warrant such a high amount?
"Well, no matter," Erity continued, putting the poster away. "I don't know how you got away from Runo, or how you managed to snap out of it, or why you thought cutting that pretty long hair would keep me from recognizing you. Personally, I don't really care. That hypno-freak is a total moron, so I wouldn't put this form of incompetence past him. Point being, while you're not that annoying sniper, I do have a job to complete. I can forget about him for now and focus on other ventures."
Nami remembered Roronoa's condition. She was not to fight any of the bounty hunters without permission. The navigator turned heel and began to dart away from the mohawked woman.
"They always run," Erity sighed. "Soru."
Erity disappeared from where she was standing, and reappeared in front of the ginger-haired girl. She was close enough that Nami could smell her rose scented perfume.
Nami skidded to a stop. "What the-!"
Erity smiled and rammed her knee into the navigator's gut. Nami choked out blood and went tumbling across the ground, finally stopping once she hit a tree trunk.
Erity wasn't finished, however. She jumped into the air and kicked out her leg. "Rankyaku!"
Nami frantically got to her feet, ignoring the protesting pain in her gut. She jumped away from the tree she had crashed into, and just in time too. Erity's kick created some sort of glowing slash, which cut through the tree like butter. It toppled over, and was about to crush the female bounty hunter.
"Geppo!"
Erity lept into the air... and stayed there. Nami eyes widened as she watched Erity kick her away through the air, easily avoiding the tree she knocked over.
"She... can fly?' Nami gasped.
The navigator was so busy gaping she didn't notice that Erity was heading directly towards her.
"Geppo," Erity said. "Soru!"
Erity flashed-stepped forward, once again appearing directly in front of Nami. The navigator, however, did snap out of it in time to quickly assemble her wooden bo-staff. She swung towards the mohawked woman's head.
Erity rolled her eyes. "Tekkai."
The staff connected with Erity's head, and promptly snapped in half.
Nami paled and broke out into a sweat, falling to her knees for the second time that day.
"Seriously? You're done already?" Erity asked. She sounded disappointed as she slipped on one of her gauntlets. "And here I was, looking forward to fighting Nami, the Master of the Art of Weather, that my associates were raving about."
Nami had nothing to say to that. She was still in shock. This woman had broken her bo staff- that weapon that had served her so reliably over the years- by not even moving. Was this what it meant to be a traveler of the New World? To be able walk in the sky, to move so fast you cannot to be seen, to destroy trees just by kicking the air? This woman was nothing like the hunters on the beach. They'd put in an effort; Erity looked bored. She looked like how Roronoa did when he beat Sanji.
"Okay, you know what? Forget it. I'm not wasting my time fighting someone weaker than me."
Roronoa had said that right before his curb-stomping of Sanji.
Erity clearly had no such issue.
"Truthfully, I have no real interest in capturing you, Cat Burglar," Erity admitted, slipping on her other gauntlet. "But if I don't, my boss might start wondering what's up with me, and I do have a reputation to uphold."
Nami swallowed the thick lump in her throat. She had to move. She had to move or this psycho was going to kill her. But... she couldn't. Her legs weren't listening to her.
Erity extended all of the fingers on her right hand, the sun glinting off the clawed gauntlet. "Relax, girlie. I'm not going to kill you. That'd put a huge drop in your bounty."
Move, damn it, Nami scolded herself. Move, RIGHT NOW!
Erity stepped forward and drew her arm back. "Sorry, but this is going to hurt. Go Shi-"
"GREEN STAR: SKULL BOMBGRASS!"
Nami felt a cord wrap around her waist several times and yank her away from the female bounty hunter. A second later, the woman was enveloped in an explosion that left behind a pink mushroom cloud of smoke. Erity's screaming could be heard quite audibly.
Nami watched the smoke cloud billow up towards the sky. If she hadn't been pulled away, she would have been caught up in that. But who...
"HA!" a male voice behind her gloated. "Take that, you CP9 reject! That'll show you to mess with the sniper and navigator of the Straw Hat Pirates!"
Nami felt a hand grab her wrist.
"Up on your feet, Nami!" the hand's owner ordered. "That won't keep her down for long, trust me!"
Nami let herself be dragged into a run. She was too numb from shock to argue. As they ran, Nami kept looking over her shoulder, expecting to see Erity coming up behind, pissed as hell. So far, no sign of her.
"Glad you're alright, Nami!" her rescuer was saying, shoving vines out of the way while he ran. "I was worried about you, Sanji, and Chopper when I saw that feral whackjob make off with the three of you! You have to tell me how you escaped!"
Nami's tongue felt like lead. She couldn't respond.
"But I have to ask, why weren't you putting up a fight against Erity?" he went on. "I didn't go through the trouble of fine-tuning your Clima-tact just so you could not use it. It took a really long time, too! Seriously, what did you let those old fogies on Weatheria do to it?"
Nami had had enough. She stopped running and pulled her hand out of the man's grasp. This allowed her to finally get a good look at the person who saved her form Erity.
He stopped running as well, lowering a pair of goggles from his eyes. "Nami? You okay? That woman didn't hurt you, did she?"
Nami's stomach still ached from getting kneed and her mouth still held the metallic taste of blood, but that didn't concern her at the moment. She just stared at the man.
He was a few inches taller than her, and at least a year older. He wore a pair of yellow rolled-up pants, red suspenders, and brown boots. He also wore a pair of orange-and-white striped goggles with red lenses (now hanging around his neck), orange headphones over his ears, a blue-and-white striped armband, and a white wide-brimmed hat. Over his shoulder was a red satchel, and in his hand was an oddly shaped black slingshot. He had black, extremely curly hair pulled back into a tight, poofy pony tail, and a small goatee on his chin. The man was also fairly muscular. Not super big muscles like Roronoa's, but still pretty well developed.
However, it was the man's ridiculously long nose that announced his identity to Nami.
"Nami?" he repeated.
"... Usopp?" she croaked.
The man... Usopp... crossed his arms. "Yeah?"
"Oh... my... lord..." Nami stuttered out. She pointed at him. "YOU'RE ALL MANLY!"
"WHY ARE YOU SAYING THAT LIKE YOU'RE SURPRISED?!" Usopp hollered back indignantly. He paused. "Hey, did you get a haircut?" He looked her up and down. "And shorter?"
"Um, well, Usopp..." Nami said slowly. "I may have a few things to fill you in on."
Before she could begin what would be an extremely long explanation, they heard loud crashes coming from the direction they left Erity.
"COME ON OUT AND FACE ME LIKE A MAN, SNIPER KING!" they could hear her scream. "BECAUSE WHEN I'M DONE WITH YOU, YOU WON'T BE ONE ANYMORE!"
"Ouch," Usopp whispered with a shiver. "She recovered quicker than last time." He looked in his satchel. "I'm almost out of Pop Greens, but I still have plenty of other ammunition left. I can still hold her off provided you lend a hand with your Clima-tact. But it's better we don't let her catch up. She's a hell of a person to shake off."
"If you know a way to fight her, I'd be more than happy to listen," Nami said. "Just one question though."
"Yeah?"
"What's a Pop Green, and what's a Clima-tact?"
Next Time:
100 Review Special: Omakes Galore!
How did Erity's headache first begin?
How did the Future Straw Hats arrive on the island?
And so much more!