Through the afternoon silence resounded the shrill laughter of her captain and usopps running after each other on the deck. Nami pressed her fingers to her temples, heavily annoyed. How was she supposed to be able to concentrate with all this noise?
She was in the cargo hold, taking stock of all the food and supplies on board and jotting them down so that they could do some planning when they set off again. Not that that would ever be possible with such an unpredictable hunger that Luffy managed to work up at any given meal. She sighed and made a mental note to ask Sanji to hide the emergency rations somewhere else. A precautionary measure, so that they would be available in case of emergencies and wouldn't accidentally fall victim to Luffy's stomach.
"You never know what might happen," she muttered and breathed a sigh of relief when the noise on deck subsided for a moment.
At the same moment, she felt as if she could hear a splash from not too far away, quiet and inconspicuous enough to be lost in the background noise, but steady enough for her to notice it.
Nami frowned alarmed. Why would the sound of running water come from below deck?
Listening attentively, she followed the splashing sound until she noticed the gleam of water at her feet in the dim light of her oil lamp. Lots of water. That was a lot of fucking water.
"Shit," Nami said, hurrying to get to the source and cursing quietly as she came to a halt at the other end of the cargo hold, wading up to her knees in water. Above one of the barrels that Sanji and the others had brought from the city today, there was a not inconsiderably large hole from which water was flowing into the interior of the ship and splashing from the barrel onto the floor. In the light of her little lamp, she saw out of the corner of her eye how the meat from the island, which Luffy had touted and which had been in the box on said barrel, floated past her.
"Luffy will be crushed." Nami thought to herself with a touch of pity for the loss of the quality meat. Then she looked around. A hole this size certainly needed professional handling, but if there was only something she could find to at least provisionally patch it up. At that moment, a bottle of sake bumped against her leg as it was propelled along the cargo hold by the stream of water. Without further ado, she grabbed the bottle and stuffed it into the hole with all her might. She cringed slightly at the sight of this makeshift bandage. Usopp would later scold her for treating his precious Merry like that. At least the water was no longer flowing into the ship, even if the bottle couldn't stop it completely.
"That'll have to do before Usopp and I can get help," she said to herself, casting one last reassuring glance back at the make-shift patched hole before making her way up to the deck, a thought still in the back of her mind: How the heck did this hole get into the hull of the ship? They had been standing motionless in the harbor all day long.
Nami shook her head. She would have to sort that out afterwards. After they had made sure their ship wasn't sinking. She sighed. It looked like they would have to stay on this island for quite a while after all.
Meanwhile, Luffy and Usopp were unsuspectingly playing a game of tag on deck. Usopp had a sandwich in his hand and ran across the ship screaming at the top of his lung, closely followed by a loudly laughing Luffy. A few meters away, Zoro was sitting against the railing with his arms folded behind his head and seemed to be sleeping undisturbed by all the commotion. From the kitchen, Sanji could be heard working and singing the praises of Nami as usual. A while later, the kitchen door swung open and the blond cook stepped out onto the deck with a tray in his hand, on which a sophisticated-looking drink had been placed with great care. He seemed determined to serve his latest creation without further ado to Nami, judging by the hurried pace he made directly towards the lower deck.
Unfortunately for the cook, he seemed to have underestimated the speed of his captain and the long-nosed marksman, because as they raced past him, he involuntarily took a step back to avoid colliding with them and instead tripped over the outstretched legs of the sleeping swordsman. Far too focused on keeping the drink on the tray and less on regaining his own balance, Sanji landed roughly on his butt. He could feel the anger steaming out of his ears before it did.
"Idiot mosshead", immediatly Sanji shot up and let his foot crash down furiously on the resting swordsman, who lazily blocked it with one of his sword hilts, "You almost made me ruin the drink I made for Nami-san."
"You should watch where you're going then", Zoro simply retorted, looking angrily at the cook with only one eye open.
"You should better watch out that I don't knock the rest of your brain out of your head too, you useless idiot.", That said, Sanji pulled his foot back to strike again, but before he could bring it crashing down, Zoro had jumped up, dodged and stopped his leg in mid-attack with his now drawn sword.
"Who are you calling useless, you perverted cook!" Zoro shouted back and looked like he was about to sweep the blonde off the ship with a well-aimed blow.
Suddenly, a hand wrapped around the railing between the two hotheads and an all-too-familiar rubbery blur approached with alarming speed.
"Shit," Sanji muttered and reflexively jumped backwards, tray still in hand. Hollow as the mosshead was, the swordsman had of course not understood what this hand meant as quickly as Sanji did.
"Oi Luffy, what are you...", Zoro had turned his head towards the deck in confusion but was cut off when his captain, who naturally was the owner of the hand on the railing, collided painfully with him, sending them both tumbling overboard.
"Shit Luffy, what did you do that for!", Sanji cursed slightly as he heaved up his captain onto deck with his free hand. Luckily, he had caught the rubber boy before he could have taken a swim.
Luffy did not seem to have heard him though. He stared mindlessly at the spot where his first mate had vanished underwater a mere few seconds ago, indicated by the bubbles that were slowly floating to the surface.
"Oi, I'm talking to you, damn it!", frustrated, Sanji gave his capitain a well-meant kick to the head, "Anyway, how many times do you have to be told not to mess around like that!" Nami's drink had almost been ruined again, he added mentally after an assuring sideways glance at the somehow unscathed tray in his hand.
"Maybe I shouldn't have run so hard." At his feet, Luffy yammered as he held his head, on which a big bump was already forming where Sanji had kicked him.
The latter cast his gaze back to the calm waters of the harbor. Did he have to throw a life ring after the stupid swordsman? He should have climbed back on board by now, shouldn't he?
"Hey, Sanji!" Usopp's voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he saw that the sniper was standing next to Nami, who must have finished the inventory.
Sanji immediately pranced lightly to her side and proudly presented her with the drink on the tray with an elegant bow. "Naaaami-san," he sweet-talked, "all that work must have made you thirsty. I hope this cocktail can help refresh that wearied mood a little." Not to mention all the trouble he had to go to to keep it safe on this ship full of lunatics.
"Thanks Sanji-kun.", she said and took the drink, only to drain it in a few sips, as the cook stared in disbelief. "What happened there?", she then said and nodded in the direction of their captain who was still sitting on the deck.
"He was careless again and almost fell overboard." Sanji explained, deciding that it wasn't important to mention that Zoro had actually fallen overboard.
"Of course," Nami said as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Then she turned to Sanji and only now did he notice the serious expression on her face.
"What's wrong, Nami-san?" he asked and he saw Nami and Usopp exchange a meaningful look.
"We have a big leak in the cargo hold. Usopp and I will go into town and try to find a shipwright who can fix it," Nami explained and when she saw the worried look Sanji gave the lower deck, she added, "Don't worry. We're not going to sink. Not right away, anyway. It's definitely fixable. Usopp has already had a look at it but we still need the help of a professional."
Relief was written all over Sanji's face. For a moment, he had really thought that she was about to tell him that the Merry had reached the end of her days.
"Sanji-kun," Nami said, casting another strange glance at Usopp and nodded.
"That leak definitely didn't happen on the journey," Usopp declared and Sanji knew how serious the situation was, because for once, the sniper didn't get lost in any made-up stories, "This morning after we dropped anchor here, I checked the good old Merry for damage like I do every day. At that point, she was still fine."
"Meaning it must have happened here in the harbor." Sanji murmured with a serious expression while his hand nervously fumbled with the pack of cigarettes in his pocket.
"Exactly, and at best it was some kind of stupid accident. Otherwise we might have a problem." Nami said quietly, her eyes scanning the harbor area alertly, thus explaining the underlying implication of the last sentence all too well.
Deciding he needed a smoke immeadiately, Sanji rushed to light up a cigarette as this thought dwelled on his mind. Someone on this island might have intentionally damaged their ship? For what reason? So that they couldn't leave? So, someone on this island forcefully tried to keep them here? Who would do such a thing, and why?
He took a big smoke from his cigarette and tried to not let it show to Nami that these thoughts did indeed worry him to some extent.
"Let me come with you to protect you", Sanji said and even though his suggestion had been directed mostly at Nami, Usopp was very eager to accept it.
"That is very kind, Sanji-kun.", Nami smiled, and to the sniper's disappointment she shook her head, "I'm afraid we need you to guard this ship ... and to make sure Luffy does not fall overboard again. Usopp and I will manage."
Sanji followed her gaze to their captain who was leaning dangerously wide over the railing, staring at something in the distance.
"Sure, Nami-san, as you wish.", he said gently, "I will leave you in the hands of one of the greatest warriors of the sea then. You will be fine."
Upon hearing the last statement, Usopp began boasting about some made-up adventures and Sanji sought some comfort in feeling as if he had boosted the sniper's confidence, consequently reassuring himself that they would be fine without him. They would, wouldn't they?