"Hey Chopper, get up! The island is near!" Zoro's voiced boomed through Kimi's sleep. Both she and Chopper jumped from their position against the mast. "Oh man, I didn't even realize I fell asleep." Chopper quickly changed into his heavy point and ran over to where the anchor rested. Kimi rubbed her head.
"I slept out here?" She giggled and stood up but the harsh waves from the nearing shoreline rocked the boat and she lost her footing falling on her but. Zoro ran past her and helped Chopper undo the anchor and dropped it when they came to an appropriate distance from the island.
Kimi looked out from the side and noticed all the trees and greenery. "It doesn't look inhabited." She stated. Zoro and Chopper walked over to Kimi. "No it doesn't." Chopper agreed.
Zoro yawned, "That's good, now we don't have to worry about thieves or angry village people." He sat down placed all three swords in front of him and leaned on top of them falling asleep. Kimi smiled and crouched down next to Zoro.
"Hey Zoro, would Nami be upset if I look around the island for a bit?" She questioned. Zoro opened one eye and then closed it, "Probably not but you can never tell with her mood swings. If you go, don't expect me to come and rescue you though." Kimi smiled and then walked away delighted. She sneaked into the women's quarters, put on her usual outfit and black boots and grabbed her notebook and a pencil to observe while on the island.
She got back out to the dock and noticed Sanji was up and taunting the swordsman. "Ah Kimi-swan, would you like for me to-"
"No, not now, Sanji but thanks." She hoisted the rope ladder off the side and started to climb down it. "Kimi-swan don't you need a traveling buddy to help you!" Sanji yelled out but Kimi didn't answer, she was too busy treading through the water to get to the island.
"She's fine, go make breakfast love-sick cook." Zoro groaned hoping he would leave him be. Sanji kicked the top of his head. "Marmio!"
As Kimi stood on the island she noticed many strange and interesting plants growing right along the shore. She took out her notebook and sketched the plants and tore off and kept a few. After she sketched the tenth plant she noticed the crew all walking through the island towards where she was in the woodsy area.
"Kimi! Whacha doing all out by yourself?" Luffy ran over and looked at her drawing of a big red flower. "Wow, that's really good! You should draw me and then we can hang it up on the mast for everyone to see!" He laughed and cheered.
"NO!" All of the crew demanded.
"Awwwwww you guys are no fun."
Kimi smiled but just as she finished she went to pick the flower like she had done to all of the previous plants. As she reached for the root of the flower, the mysterious flower somehow opened up revealing it had fangs and was about to chomp down on her head.
Thankfully, Zoro was quick enough on his feet and sliced the flower's stem killing it and stopping it from eating Kimi. Kimi just looked up shocked by the plants ability and responded, "Thank you Zoro." She then smiled and frantically wrote in her notebook about the plant. "That's one you probably shouldn't put in your notebook." Nami smiled and passed by Kimi looking into the forest.
Kimi laughed, "Yea, I'm not." She stood up and looked back at Luffy.
"Come on guys! Let's go exploring!" Luffy jumped up and ran into the forest. Ussopp crouched down.
"Ugh Luffy, didn't you just see Kimi's head almost get bitten off! I think my case of I-can't-go-into-the-scary-jungle is acting up again. Kimi smiled and followed after the captain.
Eventually everyone was walking up some sort of path. Robin noted that they should stay along the area that had water if they wanted to retrieve some meat because animals would need water eventually.
It seemed like the group was going up a mountain since there were many rocks that they had to climb to get through their path that Robin and Nami lead. Kimi would stop once and a while to write down something about a plant or a tree or anything she thought was interesting.
She stopped at one rock that seemed to be abnormal. She kneed next to it and picked it up. Even though it was muddy she wiped off the rock on her gloves and noticed that it had a weird feel to it.
"Oi Kimi, don't get lost out here." Zoro stopped from the group and walked back to her."
Kimi stood up holding the rock in her palm. "Zoro, do me a favor and cut open this rock. But be really careful I don't want it to shatter." She threw it to him and he quickly took out his white sword and cut the rock in two halves.
"Why are you so interested in the rock?" He placed his sword back at his hip and looked down at the girl as she gathered the two halves.
She then showed the inside of the rocks and Zoro gasped. It was glittering gold inside. "Dang." Kimi muttered and then placed it back on the ground.
"Hey what are you crazy?" Zoro yelled picking the rock back up. Kimi just smiled and readjusted her journal, "Its fool's gold. It's not real, sadly, but I wanted to make sure." She walked past him. Zoro smiled and then threw the rock back next to the other one.
The two caught up with the group, even after Kimi repeatedly reminded Zoro he was heading the wrong way from the group. "OIIIIIIIIII Zoro, we need you cut down these plants right here!" Luffy called him to the front. Nami looked through the forest and then screamed when she heard a low growl.
"What is it Nami sweet?" Sanji ran over next to her. "I think I just heard something growl over there…" she pointed. Zoro finished clearing the path and looked back at the group surrounding Nami. "Hey, the path is clear." He called out and some of the group continued on.
"Come on Nami-swan," Sanji placed his hands in his pocket and followed the group. Nami continued to look over through the forest and noticed something odd. She shook it off and ran over to the group.
Just then, Nami started to lose her footing and in order for her to not ruin her clothes she fell into Kimi hoping she would hold the two up. However, with Kimi unaware of Nami's fall she also lost her footing falling to the right.
"Nami!" Kimi yelled out and then screamed. The whole group looked back but it was too late, even though they didn't know it, they were climbing on top of a mountain and when the two fell they fell off the hill the group had been climbing.
Zoro and Sanji were about to leap in after them, but Robin's arm blocked the two. "You wouldn't want to put yourself in danger, or them if they in a dangerous position." She calmly stated to the boys. She placed her hands over her chest closing her eyes.
"What do you see Robin-chan? Is Nami-swan and Kimi-chan okay?" Sanji cried looking down the area the girls fell. Robin opened her eyes again and plainly stated, "They have landed very far down in a river somewhere. Kimi seems to be knocked out but Nami is up and looking for us."
"Okay we gotta go find them! Gum gum-" Luffy started to command attempting to punch down to the bottom of the hill. "No Luffy, there are a lot of rocks down there and if you hit one it may cause a landslide killing the girls. It is amazing they didn't cause one when they fell."
"Not helping, Robin." Ussopp commented.
"Oh no! What do we do? Are they okay, Ussopp?" Chopper cried.
Ussopp beamed, "Don't you worry Chopper. Captain Ussopp will be there to rescue the lovely ladies from harm!" Sanji started to kick him over the head constantly. "Like hell you will be the one to rescue Nami and Kimi-swan."
"We are close to the waterfall that falls down to the river that the girls are near. If we keep traveling towards it, we may have a clear path to the river and hence to Miss Navigator and Miss Scientist." Robin pointed straight.
"No time to waste! Let's go!" Luffy ran in the wrong direction.
"Kimi, Kimi wake up! Please don't die. I need you to save me." Nami nudged Kimi awake after she pulled her out of the water. Kimi moaned and opened her eyes to see a frantic Nami crying over top of her. "KIMI! You are alive! Now save us!" She hugged the blue-haired girl.
Kimi smiled and then sat up. "I guess we fell a long way huh?" Kimi looked up and saw an opening in the landscaping from the cliff. "Yea. I can't believe we didn't cause a landslide or something." Nami stood up and brushed herself off.
Kimi stood up, picked up her notebook that had fallen a few feet near her in her coat pocket and looked around noticing the water was flowing east down the river.
"Nami, let's travel up the river." She started to walk along the river side.
"Why do you think that?" Nami raced after her.
"Just have a hunch." Kimi smiled and continued to walk ahead.
The two girls walked in silence, trying to avoid the wildlife and nature that stood in their way and eventually they found the start of the river. It was a huge waterfall and from what Kimi could see, the cliff they had been climbing on lead straight to the top of the waterfall.
Nami sighed and took off her shoes, placing her tired feet in the water. "Where the heck are we going? We should just go back to the ship." Nami pouted.
Just then Kimi heard a voice and she quickly turned over her shoulder to the area the sound came from. "Nami. Stay still." She commanded and of course Nami stood up in a panic. Kimi rolled her eyes and then looked out in the jungle. "Who's there? Don't make me hurt you!" She yelled.
With no answer, Kimi used her Clone-clone fruit to search and find the people who caused the noise. The clones sneaked up on the two people in the jungle and blocked them from attacking up on the girls. As the clones dragged in the two tiki-masked men the girls heard a familiar voice from above.
"KIMI! NAMI!" It was of course their rubber captain calling down to them from the top of the waterfall. Nami waved and Kimi smiled up at the crew now relieved that they had reunited again. But her moment was short lived as the two men used Luffy's call of distraction to attack Kimi's clones and hold Kimi captive.
Nami screamed and looked back at the commotion. Kimi was being held down by one of the jungle men, and the other covered her mouth. "LUFYY HELP! THEY GOT KIMI!" Nami started to scream and run after the men that ran back into the jungle with Kimi still in their arms.
Luffy and the others heard what Nami said and without thought Luffy stretched his arms down to a giant rock by the river and held onto it to help bring him down to the ground. Sanji and Zoro jumped after falling into the river but running out and following Luffy and Nami in the jungle.
"Aren't you going to jump as well?" Robin smiled to Ussopp that was down in a fetal position by the edge of the cliff. "Yessssssssssss…." Ussopp stood up shaking and crying. "For Kimi!" He said as he jumped off and landed in the deep water end of the lake.
Robin laughed, "Chopper climb on my back and we will land in safety." She smiled and the two gracefully hopped down the cliff using Robins devil fruit.
Kimi struggled to get free from the jungle men, but the two combined made it twice as hard. She could hear Nami yelling after and also Luffy screaming to let her go. Kimi felt a strong gust of wind towards her right side and then felt the men's grip loosen and then completely let go forcing Kimi to fall to the ground face first.
Quickly sitting up, she saw three swords pointed at one of the men and a foot on top of the other man's head. "Guys! Luffy!" Kimi smiled at Luffy offering a hand for her to stand up.
"Don't move a muscle, masked freak." Sanji threaten the man as he tried to remove Sanji's foot on his mask. "You all fell into our trap." The one next to Zoro laughed. Annoyed, Zoro hit the top of his head with the back of his sword, knocking the man out.
Kimi dusted off her clothes and then looked behind her noticing the entire crew had now been surrounding on one side of even more half-naked masked men. "Oh great." Kimi muttered and held her arms up to form the triangle she used to create her clones. "Clone-clone ally!" She yelled out and hit Luffy's arm with the triangle she made with her hands.
"Kimi what are you-" Luffy asked stunned that she would hit him at such a time, but then stopped as a hundred clones of Luffy started to appear and attack the jungle men. "Whoa Kimi! AMAZING!" The real Luffy had stars in his eyes.
"That's a pretty cool trick." Zoro smirked and then leaped into the battle field along with Sanji and the real Luffy. "Kimi! Are you okay?" Nami ran over to the girl and panted trying to catch up to her breath. Ussopp, Robin and Chopper followed after. "What is going on here?" Chopper asked.
"I'm not sure to be honest. Maybe they thought we are trying to take over or something." Kimi walked over to the unconscious men that took her captive. She took off the man's mask and looked at the sleeping man. He didn't look that interesting or dangerous, but just then his eyes opened and the color of his eyes had Kimi screaming.
He started to stand up with his red eyes staring straight at Kimi and growling. "Uh guys, we gotta problem." Ussopp cried to the three fighting. They looked back at the crew and then noticed that the men that they had beaten all stood up with their eyes glowing red.
"What is going on here?" Kimi wondered aloud kicking the man back down.
"You all try to steal the gold on me island, huh?" Boomed a voice in the distance. The crew looked over at a giant fat man in the distance. He wore a loin cloth and had one of the weird masks on his head as well. In his right hand he held a giant stick with a skull at the end of it. Everyone stopped fighting and looked at the man.
"Who all you be?" The man yelled. Luffy calmly walked over to the giant and stopped about twenty feet in front of him. "My name is Monkey D. Luffy. I'm going to be king of the pirates."
"I never hear of you. You gonna die now, monkey man!" The man yelled and waved his stick in the air. The jungle men's eyes stopped glowing and they continued to attack the crew.
"ENOUGH! Duck down you guys!" Luffy yelled out, "GUM GUM PINWHEEL!" Luckily Robin had dragged the amazed Kimi down to the ground to avoid Luffy's pinwheel attack. All of the jungle men, including the giant had fallen down all knocked out from Luffy's attack.
"That's how you do it!" Luffy cheered out laughing. Kimi smiled and looked at the damage. Nami stood up right away with Berri signs in her eyes. "Did he say treasure?" She reiterated. The group gathered together and Kimi let go of the mind control of the clone Luffy's.
"I say we get outta here while we still can!" Ussopp shook trying to hide behind Kimi. "I agree. I've had enough of this island." Kimi smiled at Ussopp cheer.
"I want that gold!" Nami pointed towards the jungle. Luffy cheered. "GOLD! PIRATES LIKE GOLD!" He laughed.
"Why don't we split up? Nami-swan and I can find the gold on the island and the rest of you can get the Merry ready to leave before the jungle men wake up!" Sanji smiled with a heart in his eye.
Luffy shook his head, "I wanna go Sanji!" He pouted.
"Good thinking Sanji, Ussopp, Kimi, Zoro and Chopper, you guys head to the ship and get ready to set sail before the jungle people wake up!" Nami started to head off still with Berri signs in her eyes.
The two groups separated and Kimi lead the way out of the jungle. "Kimi were you scared that they were going to kill you!" Chopper asked excited for some reason. Kimi just laughed. "No, I just wanted to get free." She stopped holding her arm out to block the guys. "I think this is quicksand right here." She stared at the odd color of the ground.
"I'll test it." Ussopp shot a firestar at the ground and indeed it sank into the Earth. "Whoah! Good job Kimi! You saved us." Chopper smiled. But his smiled faded when he noticed that the quicksand pond was a giant circle that blocked the four's path. "Um, how are we going to cross?" He asked puzzled.
Kimi placed her hands on her hips. "I'm not sure. I guess jump." She started to walk backwards. Zoro had already jumped across as she suggested and landed right before the quicksand missing it by just a hair.
Kimi took a deep breath and ran at full speed to leap across, but as soon as her momentum started to fail, she held out her hand hoping Zoro might be able to catch her.
Zoro looked behind and noticed Kimi reaching out and pulled her across to safe ground and into him knocking him down with her on top of him. Kimi felt her head against the dirt and grime with her but in the air.
"Would you two stop rolling on the floor and help meeeeeee!" Ussopp cried. Kimi pushed herself off of Zoro's stomach and on her knees. She laughed at him. "Sorry about that."
Chopper, who was in his jumping point, walked past the two following along the path while Zoro sat up smirking at Kimi, "Glad I could help." Ussopp continued to shake, "Guys. Help meeeeee….." He cried biting his lip.
Kimi took off her lab coat and removed her notebook from her pocket resting it on the ground, "Jump across Ussopp and grab onto my jacket. I'll pull you across."
Ussopp nodded, "Just don't tackle me." He started to run back as Zoro picked himself up. Leaping as best as he could, Ussopp cried in the air and when he was close enough held a death grip on Kimi's coat as she threw him onto the ground.
Zoro laughed as Ussopp flew through the air pulling Kimi with him. Ussopp landed against the trunk of a giant tree and because he still held onto Kimi's coat, Kimi landed in his lap. "Ahh. That was a better landing."
She laughed and looked back at Ussopp's crushed nose. "Sorry Ussopp. But you got across." She stood up and took her coat out of his grip. "Come on silly. Those jungle men may try to attack us again." She whispered and in an instant, Ussopp was running down the trail.
Kimi giggled and looked back at Zoro staring at her. "What?" She titled her head at his weird glance. Zoro just shook his head. "We better hurry up." He continued to follow Chopper and Ussopp.
Kimi tried to take a step forward, but her ankle gave out on her causing her to fall back to her knees. Zoro heard the girl fall and looked back over his shoulder. "You all right?" He asked.
Kimi tried to stand up again, but her ankle said otherwise. "I'm okay, you go on ahead." She tried to stand again. Zoro walked over picking up her notebook off the ground and gracefully pulled her onto his back, holding onto her legs to support her on his back. "You'll just slow us down." He walked trying to follow the other two and handed her the notebook.
"Thank, thank you, Zoro." Kimi smiled putting the notebook back in the pocket and pulled on her now dirty torn up lab coat. She tried to move her right ankle that hurt but it must have twisted when she fell on Zoro or on Ussopp.
"Um, Zoro, you are heading off the path." Kimi noticed and held onto his neck and pointed to the correct direction. "Go that way." She giggled. Zoro groaned annoyed that he went the wrong way in such little time. "Oi, it's your fault, you are slowing me down and I can't find the others." Zoro tried to blame his lack of direction on the girl.
Kimi just laughed, "Sorry."
When the two meet up with Ussopp and Chopper they arrived back at the Merry. "What's wrong, Kimi?" Chopper noticed her on Zoro's back. "I think my ankle might have twisted. Nothing serious." She smiled continuing to hold onto Zoro.
Once they climbed up and gathered on the deck Zoro sat Kimi down on Nami's infamous tanning chair. Chopper ran over to her with medical tape from his bag. "Hold still, Kimi, it doesn't look too bad, just swollen."
After he finished, Zoro and Ussopp were just about done getting the Going Merry ready to set sail. "Thank you Chopper!" Kimi hugged him and stood up from the chair. "Can we help with anything?" Kimi looked up putting on her glasses.
"No, we pretty much got everything done now." Ussopp jumped down and patted her on the shoulder. Kimi smiled. "Well then I'm going to change out of these dirty clothes then. Have Nami or Robin come and get me when we are ready to go." She walked carefully holding onto the railing so that she didn't put too much pressure on her hurt foot and eventually made it to the women's quarters.
Not wanting to waste too much time, she opened her suitcase and looked at the sea of blacks, whites and blues in her wardrobe. Kimi never really liked too much color, since she and her father only usually wore black shorts and a grey top with their lab coats. But with Kimi's coat almost being torn to bits, she needed to wear something else until she could fix it.
She pulled out a black turtle-neck short-sleeved shirt, dark blue jeans, and black sandals. She removed her outfit, pulled on the new clothes and then tossed her dirty ones in the dirty hamper in the room. She looked in the mirror and readjusted her bun. Her father never liked for her to have her hair down. It caused too much problems in the lab when they worked so Kimi always kept it up and in a bun. When it wasn't in a bun, it was medium length with layers that shaped and curved naturally towards her face.
Kimi also didn't wear makeup. It was too much effort, and honestly she had never thought she needed it since she only worked with her father. Now was not the time to try to experiment with such delicate tools. She noted that she'd have to ask Nami about it later.
As Kimi made her way back to the deck, feeling refreshed after changing into a new outfit, she noticed that the rest of the crew had made their way back to the ship and they were about to lower the sails to leave.
"Look at this gold statue that we found!" Nami smiled not letting the small golden mask statue out of her grip. Kimi walked up and stared out at the island. "So you guys got away without being noticed?" Chopper questioned Luffy jumping on top of his head.
"I think not." Kimi laughed and directed the crew's attention to the island where the masked men started to appear angered on the shore. "I'd say we'd better get outta here fast!" She laughed as the others went to their stations to get the ship out of the bay leaving the tiny island in the horizon.