The seagulls cawed overhead of the Going Merry early at dawn the next morning. Kimi looked up from the fifth page of her father's journal to the annoying birds overhead of the crow's nest. Even though she had been awake keeping watch the night before, she had only gotten through five pages of her father's journal. Most of the time during the night, she tried to decipher the words and what formulas were used while coping it down in her own journal.
Deciding to take a break, Kimi looked down at the ship's bow for any sign of movement. None. Sighing, Kimi looked up at the seagulls floating over head and then looked out at the sea. It was such an amazing sight, the deep blue of the sea and the glittering reflection of the sun hitting the waves. Never had Kimi felt this calm before. Everything was peaceful.
"I only hope this isn't the calm before the storm." Kimi situated herself back in the nest sitting Indian style. All throughout her life she was always on edge whether it was the marines knocking at her door or her sister.
There was a knock at the door but unlike the knocks Kimi had heard from the marines this one sounded meaner, harder, almost to the point of knocking the door down. As a 15 year-old girl, Kimi became frightened by the person on the other side of the door.
"Don't worry Kimiko, I'll answer. Stay behind in the lab sweet girl." Her father got up from their experiment and answered the door. Staying as still like a statue, Kimi could hear everything her father said as he answered.
"Hello- oh. You are not welcomed here. What do you want?" He sounded calm and collected as he always was, but then his tone was deadly. Kimi shrunk down in her chair. "I've come for a visit of course." The female voice answered. The women's voice was cold as ice to her father.
"You sold us out. Now because of you, we have to do all of your dirty work you promised you would do for the marines. How they gave you that title, I will never understand." Kazuhiro spit back. "Move outta the way father!" The women yelled and groan from her father made Kimi even more nervous as she heard footsteps walk to the lab.
Kimi looked up at the women staring at her across the room. Like Kimi and her father, she had blue hair, but hers was a darker/greyer shade of blue. She wore a long blue trench coat and a tight fitting black strapless dress with matching boots. The women with her evil, cold blue eyes stared at Kimi like a hawk does to its prey. "Hello sister dear. How have you been?" She smirked reaching for a sword resting at her right hip. "No. Please don't do it. I haven't left the house since you left. I've done everything that the marines told me. I even have the calculations to that cyborg you are working on. Please don't hurt me again. Please…" Kimi begged walking backwards. But her mind was made up, and there was no stopping her. The last thing Kimi remembered that day was her sisters hawk eyes and her cruel laugh.
Kimi screamed from the memory but covered her mouth quickly so she didn't wake anyone. She waited for thirty seconds or so and sighed in relief no one heard her. "Oi, you okay up there!" Zoro's voice called out from the deck. Kimi panicked and thought of a quick excuse.
She looked down and saw the swordsmen with a bunch of weighs all around him. "Yes, I'm sorry. There was a bee and it stung me." She lied. "That sucks. When he wakes up you should get chopper to look at it to make sure everything is okay." He nodded and then picked up a small weight lifting it up and down.
"Oh no. It's fine. Luckily the stinger isn't in it so I think I'm okay." She lied again. Zoro just nodded again, but counted to himself. Kimi sighed again and picked up all of her supplies and folded the blanket that stays in the nest. "Zoro I'm done with watch duty right?" She leaned over asking him.
Zoro placed the weight down and looked up, "No you have to stay there all day with no food or water. That's how it works." Kimi groaned. "Maybe I don't want to be a pirate then…" She said to herself but Zoro obviously heard because he laughed. "What's so funny?" She asked below.
"I'm just kidding. Yea you're done but don't go anywhere fast or you may not get breakfast when Luffy gets up." He picked up a bigger weight. Relieved, Kimi climbed down the tiny rope ladder and down to the deck where Zoro worked out. From up high his weights didn't look very big but once she saw them up close they were enormous. All she could do was gasp at the sight and try to imagine how in the world a human being could lift them, let alone work out.
"What you wanna work out too or something?" Zoro asked annoyed. Kimi shook her head and recovered from her train of thought. "No. How in the world can you lift that?" She asked. "Someone your size shouldn't be able to…but I guess it's possible since you did?" She was totally confused.
Zoro became angry this time, "What underestimating me? I'll show you strength." He then somehow threw up the heavy weight and landed it on his feet while he did handstand pushups. Kimi's jaw dropped. "That's amazing! I've never seen something like that! Clearly there has to be some laws with physics and the muscles in your body that are allowing this to happen." She sat down and jumped to a clean page in her journal and started to write.
Realizing that she had moved onto something else Zoro stopped and looked over at her page. She had already scribbled and drew a picture of him with the weights and the accurate size and weight along with his mass and size. "What the hell is this?" He grabbed her notebook and looked at the picture in more detail. Although it was a rough sketch the picture of him didn't look bad. "Are you stalking me now? What is all of this?" Kimi stood up and smiled.
"I want to understand why this is happening. It may sound creepy, but if I observe you maybe I could figure out what laws of physics are working here. And I could also tell you how to better your training session." She smiled and took the book from him. "Can I?" She smiled closing her eyes.
Zoro couldn't say no, "Sure why not. Just don't get it the way." He walked back and picked up another weight. Kimi smiled and ran over to the stairs and spread out her journal on her lap while writing away at the blank sheet of paper. She looked up occasionally to see what he was doing, but really she didn't need to watch. After what seemed to be only a couple of minutes ending up being a whole hour and Zoro started to put his things away. It snapped Kimi out of her thought and she looked over at him putting his things down in the men's quarters. She stood up and stretched and popped her back.
"Get anything done?" Zoro walked back up this time with a shirt on. Kimi didn't even realize that he hadn't had one on earlier. "Oh um yes! But I think my eyes are starting to cross over from looking at the pages for so long." She didn't wear her glasses since she only needed them to see far away, they were stored safely in her coat pocket in the case.
Just then the two were interrupted by a curvy tall glass with a orange liquid and a fancy mini umbrella attached with a straw. "For you lovely Kimi! This is Nami's special tangerine juice with a bit of rum added to it! I hope you are hungry because I've prepared a feast for you my darling." Sanji's visible eye was in the shape of a heart. Kimi smiled and took the drink. "Thank you Sanji." She took a sip and looked at the glass. "This has rum in it? What's rum?" She asked as Zoro started to laugh hysterically.
"Rum is alcohol Kimi. How do you not know that?" Nami appeared from the top deck. Sanji ran off to the kitchen and came back only seconds later with another drink for Nami. "Here you are Nami-swan!" He said with a heart again in his eye.
"Oh, I've never drank before. That's why I asked." She responded taking another sip. "Really? How old are you?" Zoro crossed his arms confused by why she had never had booze. That was one of the things he lived on when he was pirate hunting.
"I'm 20." Kimi smiled and took another sip and walking away towards the women's quarters with both her and her father's journal. "Don't run off Kimi-swan! We are about to start breakfast!" Sanji called out.
"She's weird. Older than all of us except Robin and hasn't had a drop of booze before." Nami commented and walked into the kitchen with Sanji. Zoro simply smirked.
After the crew all had breakfast they scattered themselves all around the ship like they did the day before. After taking a bath and changing into another set of her usual outfit and gloves, Kimi walked onto the deck.
Zoro was taking a nap again; Nami was sunbathing, Luffy, Sanji and Ussopp were on one side fishing and Chopper sat in the middle of the deck grinding down some medicine. Curious Kimi walked over and sat by Chopper.
"What is this that you are working on Chopper?" She smiled. He looked up and smiled, "Just some pain reliever medicine. We always need some it seems."
"Why is that?" Kimi looked confused. "Because we fight a lot of bad guys!" Luffy cheered raising his fists in the air. Kimi smiled and looked at Chopper's unopened books. "I've always wanted to know about medicine." She responded reading the first page that introduced the study.
"Really? But I though you are a scientist. Don't you know some stuff already?" Chopper asked and stopped grinding. Kimi shook her head. "No, my father never understood it when he was younger, so I never learned it when he homeschooled me." She answered back. "You were homeschooled by your dad? Wow he must be pretty smart!" Chopper smiled.
Kimi laughed, "Well then again I only learned science things. My father never liked history or English, so he pulled me out of school when I was 8 and from then on I only learned math and science." She continued to the next page. Eventually the two talked and Kimi learned a beginning perspective of medicines. She loved it so much that she insisted that Chopper teach her more and more every day.
Around the time that the two picked up everything, it was sunset and Sanji called the crew in for dinner. Kimi and chopper sat next to each other and even though they were eating, Chopper managed to give Kimi another medicine lecture.
"Would you stop it Chopper, you're making my head hurt." Zoro commented since Chopper was in the middle of Kimi and Zoro. "We'll talk more tomorrow Chopper." Kimi smiled and sipped on another rum drink Sanji made for the girls, while the boys all drank ale, well except for Chopper.
Just then a knock at the head of the table came from Nami who pointed to her log pose on her wrist. "Okay guys, the next island is coming up early tomorrow morning. Chopper, you're on watch for tonight, but Zoro will also help you since we will need to hoist anchor around dawn. Don't wake us up because some of us need our 'ahem' beauty rest!" Nami commanded.
"Yea, yea." Zoro groaned and folded his arms. "Thankfully, Kimi and her father gave us more than enough supplies, so we really don't need anything except for meat of course." Luffy stood and raised his arms up. "MEATTTTTTTTT!" He yelled with a mouth full of it. Nami nodded, "Anything thing anyone else needs to say?" Everyone was silent. "Meeting adjourned then!" and Nami finished the rest of her drink.
"Nami-swan! Let me get you another please! Robin and Kimi would you like one as well?" Robin nodded as well did Kimi and instantly another glass appeared in front of the three. Kimi laughed since she hadn't even finished the first, but she quickly sipped it through the straw and replaced the straw in the new glass.
Once everyone finished their meals, Kimi walked out and down to the women's quarters. She didn't feel too good and she had a dizzy feeling. "You okay?" Nami asked as she changed right in front of Kimi not even hesitant about modesty. "Um, I'm not sure. I can't tell if it's the motion sickness of the ship or the alcohol." Kimi sat down on her bed and rubbed her temples.
"Probably both." Robin replied, "You may want to ask Chopper for some motion sickness medicine, after sometime, you will get used to the ship." She smiled at the girl. Kimi nodded and took off her lab coat and changed into a pair of black sleep pants and a cotton-grey v-neck shirt. Kimi didn't bother putting on shoes since her plan was to ask Chopper for some medicine, he was probably out on the deck since he had duty, and then grab some water and go to sleep.
As she walked out on to the deck, she noticed all the bright stars even without her glasses on. She stood in amazement at how bright they were. "Kimi are you okay?" Chopper's voice pushed her out of her gaze. "Oh yes, Chopper I came out here to ask you if I could have some motion sickness medicine, I'm not feeling too well."
Chopper nodded. "Of course, I'll be right back!" And he walked away. Kimi looked up again and walked out to where the mast was in the center of the deck. "This is incredible!" She whispered.
"I know. Who'd a thought you could see so much even though there is nothing around." Zoro walked next to Kimi looking at the stars too. "Well since there is no light in the background it is easier to see the stars." She replied. Zoro looked at her confused. "Light pollution." Kimi smiled.
"Here Kimi take two of these and you'll feel better in the next hour!" Chopper handed her the two pink pills. "Well I'll just sit and stargaze since it'll take an hour for me to feel better. I can't sleep not feeling well." She smiled and sat down.
"You need to take it with some water though. I'll go get it for you…" Chopper started to walk off but Kimi stopped him. "No need too." She smiled and cloned herself. The clone walked to the kitchen and then came back out with a glass walked across the deck and handed it to Kimi.
"Hey that's pretty useful." Zoro smirked at her fruit power. She nodded, "My father and I always tested out our experiments on clones. When a clone disappeared from an experiment, we realized it was a failure and could kill someone." She laughed.
Zoro noticed how innocent her laugh was. It almost reminded him of Vivi's, but Kimi had sadness to her laugh as well. Something definitely happened to her whether it was the marines or something else, Kimi seemed very sad all the time. He then noticed she still had on her black fingerless gloves. Even in her pajamas she wore them? He noted it down in the back of his head and then yawned. "Chopper I'm going up." And he climbed to the crow's nest.
Kimi and Chopper talked for a good hour or so, Zoro noted, but shortly after the talking stopped and Zoro imagined that Kimi had gone to bed leaving Chopper probably sleeping on the deck. He looked over and saw just the opposite. Both Kimi and Chopper were leaning on each other sleeping against the mast of the ship. "Well at least they are quiet." He though aloud and continued to look at the stars. "Light pollution, huh?"