Two is Company
Luffy, in an act of desperation, manages to save Nami from being separated on Sabaody; and now the Navigator joins him for adventures on Amazon Lily and beyond. Impel Down, Marineford; none are ready for this company of two.
This story is a Redux of the work Search the Wind by Shadowonthewall6. Link can be found in the post-script.
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece… allegedly.
Chapter One: Two is Company
"If you were to take a vacation, where would you like to go?"
The words of the paw-padded warlord echoed across the clearing the crew had found themselves, but it was the silence that followed the ear-shattering pop that rang in Luffy's ears. The Straw Hat captain felt Robin grab him to avoid Chopper's large fist from crushing him, but his brain had stopped working. It was short-circuiting in such a fashion that he had briefly wiped the idea of Kuma's display from his mind. As if Zoro had never disappeared.
Pants of exhaustion escaped the rubber-man's lips as he attempted to recover from the fight against Sentomaru, but a twitch from the archaeologist next to him as she stared at the spot Zoro used to reside brought reality crashing back to him; like a dose of freezing water splayed across his back.
Rage overtook his heart.
"ZORO! WHERE DID HE GO!?"
Luffy could hardly recognise the sound of his own voice. The sight of his swordsman missing scattered his senses, the reactions of the rest of the crew merely a brief white noise in his ears. Chopper's continued attack on Sentomaru roused him from his stupor, as the captain could only try to grasp what had occurred while he shouted as the axe-wielding servant of Vegapunk.
"HEY! WHAT DID HE DO TO ZORO!?" Gasps burst from his lips once again as he feebly attempted to catch his breath. "WHERE DID HE GO?"
Sentomaru blathered, as usual, recounting his knowledge of Kuma's ability, all of which Luffy could only listen to in horror. As action blasted and tore in the background behind him, Luffy grasped the waxy grass, feeling a sense of relief that horrified him.
"Alive. Zoro's alive. Zoro's gone… Zoro? No, Zoro's alive…" The whispers came out in a manner that was hardly audible, given Robin's lack of reaction next to him, the black-haired woman watching the events unfold before her. He shifted his gaze to what she was transfixed on, and saw Kuma advancing on the trio of Usopp, Sanji, and Brook .A small voice took root at the back of his head, calling him to action as he desperately tried to protect what he had left.
Words left his mouth before he could properly understand them.
"RUN! ALL THREE OF YOU!"
He could hear Usopp's confusion, but the captain couldn't really register it.
"EVERYONE, JUST GET AWAY FROM HERE! THINK ABOUT WHAT TO DO NEXT AFTER YOU'RE SAFE!"
All that mattered was that his friends were safe. That was the only thing Luffy could focus on. Kizaru, Sentomaru, Kuma - all of them were too much. Luffy, quite frankly, didn't even shirk at the idea that they had been defeated. He hardly cared about that or his pride; all that mattered was that they were safe.
The rest of the crew responded in kind, and Luffy felt Robin support him as she helped him to his feet. Glad for her help, he took off with the archaeologist, only to hear the sounds of his musician disappearing with a half-told skull joke floating in the vacuum where his skeleton body once sat.
"Brook…!"
Luffy's heart shuddered, his breath coming out in higher octaves at a faster pace. His panic constituted his gaze as he could only stare at what he could only assume was his worst nightmare. He wanted to pitch himself, stretch his skin so far that it would bleed in response and force him awake, but he knew.
This was reality.
The sight of Sanji barrelling towards an opponent would normally set Luffy at ease, .but now all it could do was drain him of hope as he stared in horror. He wanted to scream, in the hopes that his voice could grab the cook and send him to safety. And it took him a while to realise that scream, he actually did.
"RUN, SANJI! JUST RUN!"
Luffy could have screamed at his disappearance, only to realise Sanji had only been sent crashing into the building ahead. Relief flooded the captain's system as he fell to his knees, with the energy sapped from his form, only for it to be dashed away by the nightmare that simply would not stop.
He watched Usopp disappear before he could even comprehend what was happening.
This couldn't be happening…
Tears were falling from his eyes now, and for the first time in his seventeen years of existence, Luffy felt his resolve just disappear, fall, and fade away like that of a common coward, his body shaking at the sight of his worst fears. Sanji disappearing was like a claxon in his head, and Luffy's brain physically struggled to grasp what it was actually observing.
"What the hell… what do I do…!?"
His voice was broken, perhaps he was broken as well. But rage was an old friend to any human, and soon it overtook Luffy's mind like a storm overtakes the oceans of the Grand Line. Gritting his teeth, Luffy felt power flood his veins as his legs turned into pumps; steam burst from him in such quantity that one might think it was an entirely different technique.
"YOU BASTARD! SECOND GEAR!"
Kuma disappeared from view only to reappear in front of Nami and Franky. Despite Nami's attempts to stop the cyborg, the shipwright tried to clear the path for their escape. The sound of Robin's protests fell on deaf ears, as Luffy had already burst with Shave directly towards Kuma, moving faster than her voice could hope to catch him.
He crashed to a stop the second Franky disappeared, just as he was going to attempt to make Kuma disappear with his Jet Pistol.
Franky… Franky too?
The sight of Kuma in front of Nami, though still following through with his movement that removed Franky, made Luffy's brain lock into place like a cog that was finally added to a large mechanical steelwork. Nami shook in fear, and Luffy shook in a calculated rage as he took hold of the large tree root nearby. Wrapping his arms around it, Luffy could only leap into the air for a millisecond before his technique took hold.
"NOW GUM GUM…"
Luffy didn't believe in God, he never had and, quite frankly, he never would. But for a brief moment, he prayed. He prayed with every fibre left in his decaying being.
"JET ROCKET!"
Catapulting forward at speeds that would put a meteor to shame, Luffy tore across the ground, desperately attempting to jump the gap between him and his navigator. Upon approach, hurtling through the air, Luffy twisted his body to face Kuma and the paw that descended upon Nami. Face cast with a shadow of rage, he finally found himself between them; and cast his right hand backwards to take hold of his orange-haired nakama, while the fist in his offhand clenched with a shaking fury.
His fist crashed into Kuma's descending paw, and for a moment, Luffy agonised over the thought that he had failed; that he and Nami would be cast away into darkness. But instead, he felt the reflective force strike his body as his fist finished squelching into Kuma's soft palm, casting both him and Nami backwards with the same amount of force he had struck the bear man with.
Luffy couldn't help but smile, a shattered and tiny one, but a small victory in what had been a scenario of horror. Pulling Nami in front of him, tucking her into his chest in order to shield her from the impact, the captain felt himself slam into the tree with almighty force. He could feel his breathing descend to a normal pace as well, as if Kuma had reflected his Second Gear right out of him.
Falling to the ground, Luffy could feel Nami lying across him, briefly limp but from the way she was breathing; completely, completely alive. The sight of one of his nakama saved brought Luffy a brief moment of euphoria, before he noticed the Warlord approaching Chopper. And with his face no longer gracing a smile, he carefully moved to place Nami on the ground, as if she were made of porcelain.
Taking a step forward, he felt something hold him back, preventing him from reaching Chopper. Briefly enraged, he turned to see the cause.
Nami.
She was gripping his leg tight, tears cascading from her face in a way that caused his anger to fall away, as he crouched beside her almost immediately.
"Please…" she managed to huff out through her sobs, voice broken and so unlike the one that bossed him around on a daily basis, "Please… don't leave… me."
A frown crossed his face now, further facilitating his anger towards the bear Warlord.
If you ever take Nami's smile away, I will kill you.
Something in Luffy stirred, as it had multiple times, and he reached for his head, taking off his precious hat before placing it gently on Nami's crown.
"Nami… I will be right back…" His voice came out in a whisper, but for the first time since this nightmare had begun as he stared at the form of his navigator, Luffy said what he meant with true resolve. Gone was his doubt and agony, if only for a second, as he made a promise he intended to keep. Call it foolishness, perhaps, considering the failures that had just occurred. But it was a promise he was making regardless.
And with that, Nami released Luffy's leg, and he took off with frightening speed. But too late. Far too late.
Chopper roared, his scream shaking the ground around him as he barrelled towards Kuma, as if even in his monstrous state, he could recognise what Kuma had done. What Kuma had taken from him. But it was a monster's effort nonetheless, as his palm easily missed the large Warlord, who made him disappear with a simple POP.
The captain blitzed forward, arms shooting backward as he prepared to strike the giant bear-man.
"GUM GUM BAZOOKA!"
For naught. Kuma intended on leaving Luffy for last, to make him see, not that the boy himself could gauge that. Reflected as if he were nothing, Luffy flew backward, spinning in the air before crashing into the tree he had struck earlier. The entire structure almost ripped itself from the ground, the giant roots that defined the archipelago starting to upturn in the water.
Dazed for a moment, Luffy crashed into the ground next to Nami. With a hand on his forehead, he attempted to regain his bearings. He had to. After all, he still needed to save-
"LUFFY! NAMI!" The scream of anguish came from their left, Robin calling out with an outstretched hand, as if she was attempting to cast her powers right in front of them.
"ROBI-N!"
The call they both returned didn't even have time to reach her. With the final pop, Robin was gone. Reality set in for Luffy: he had failed his crew. Each and every one of them. The disorientation from Kuma's last strike, and this entire nightmare, was causing his sanity to slip away, until he heard the final shift of his navigator beside him.
No. Not all of them.
Nami. There was still Nami.
She wouldn't leave him. Nor had he completely failed her. Her tears continued to fall as Kuma rounded on them, looking at his last two targets so impassively one might think he didn't even know they were there. And Luffy did not falter, not this time. Nami still needed him. Someone still needed him.
Holding his nakama close, a glare transformed its way to his face as he stared up at the approaching Warlord, whose shadow began to cast itself over the last two members of the Straw Hat Pirates at an agonizingly slow speed. Shielding the girl, the captain seemed to see Kuma respond to this, angling his paw in such a way that he could strike her and not the rubber boy.
A burst of Conqueror's Haki, unknowingly emerging from the captain, quickly put Bartholomew Kuma in his place. Luffy's words were not a plea, but a command.
"You've taken all of them from me…" Luffy hissed, staring up without fear at Kuma, "But you are not taking her. I am not leaving her…"
Kuma stared back, and the world faded away, silence encroaching upon all three of them. Perhaps the planet itself ceased to turn, waiting for the moment of criticality to pass. Nothing held any importance, not even the missing Straw Hats. It was he, Kuma, and Nami. That was all that held any significance, as Kuma's judgement held reality with bated breath.
"Very well…" Kuma murmured quietly and quickly, lowering his paw and gently grazing Luffy's side, causing him and Nami to disappear with a final, fatal pop. Though, this did not prevent Luffy from hearing Kuma's final words.
"Farewell. We will not meet again…"
Luffy could not even comprehend the significance of his words. How could he. Hell, how could he even care? In the future, when others would learn the truth, they would mourn. But for now, all Luffy could do was fly.
The paw-shaped bubble carried him away, and Luffy looked down at Nami, who held him tightly around the waist. As the sky faded to black, night taking over, Luffy watched his navigator fall asleep. With her grip slipping, Luffy failed to tighten his own and, for a brief moment, panicked, only to see the two float together in the sky in perfect synchronicity.
And now the captain's tears did fall, for Nami could not see them. Strangely enough, despite his responsibilities, Luffy had no problem with Nami seeing his tears at such a time. It was Nami after all. But still, perhaps it was for the best she could not…
Not this time.
His tears and wails were soft, draining him of his energy and coaxing him into a deep yet troubled sleep, with no idea of the horrors to come.
All Kuma could do was stare at the sky where the two had gone. Kizaru and Rayleigh long since departed, leaving Kuma once again on his own.
"Defying fate again…" the Warlord muttered; eyes blank as the sky sang back to him for perhaps one of the last times. "He is no son but yours…"
And so, the sun set on Sabaody. It was a moment that felt timeless, as bubbles climbed high and soared, only to be popped by the wind for reaching too far, like Icarus of old. An oncoming storm loomed on the horizon, despite the beauty and forecast of the red sun over paradise, leaves cast aside by growing winds. Winds which crawled towards the Red Line, guided by the stars themselves.
Kuma would miss these sights, but perhaps not forever.
"For what is lost… can never be broken."
Wow wow wow. That is crazy.
Hey guys, surprise! I am not dead, in fact, I am quite alive.
Before anyone asks, yes. I am planning on updating my other stories, in fact, quite keen to. But basically, long form manga-encompassing stories make my thinker box hurt, and kill motivation sometimes; so here I am, writing a more self-contained one.
Onto the story!
This is a Remake/Redux of an old story called Search the Wind by Shadowonthewall6. I was always a huge fan of its premise, and while outdated, more importantly, it was never finished. And suddenly, I came to a flash of inspiration. What if I finished it? I am such a huge fan and the premise is one I often toy with in my own time, so why not put that to paper.
I reached out to shadow and am waiting for a response, but for now, enjoy this chapter (if they ask me to pull the story, I will; but I hope not!)
So, here we are! I'm quite excited honestly. In the sense of, "if you want something done, do it yourself". So, here we are! Can't wait to go on this ride with you all.
Also, I'll be crossposting this to AO3 because… uh. Idk to be honest. Also, at the end of each chapter, I will be posting a link to Search the Wind, given it inspired this work and should be read with far more awe than mine.
Search the Wind:
s/6495693/1/Search-the-wind
So, as usual. Positive and negative reviews welcome!
This is, TheHumulisScriptor, signing out!