Chapter Three – Somewhere in Grand Line Academy
"Nice to meet you," Nami walks over to the group. Head high, shoulders back. I am not cursing every God in existence right now. As she breathes easily, Nami slips seamlessly into her role once more.
"I'm Nami," she continues, walking over to the desk beside the young boy's, which looks unoccupied and dumps her stuff, taking a seat, "Is someone sitting here?"
"No, it's free," the young boy mumbles. A red cap with a white 'X' had been sitting on the corner of his desk. At her approach, he'd abruptly snatched it and pulled it over his face shyly, still not meeting her eyes.
"Hey Chopper, what are you doing?" Luffy laughed, rocking back and forth atop his desk, "Don't be scared, she's a nice person."
Chopper didn't reply, only tugging the cap further over his eyes, shrinking underneath her gaze. Despite it all, the action struck Nami in some odd, maternal way. She turns around to avoid direct eye contact, letting her smile soften naturally.
"Chopper, right? You don't have to be shy. I won't bite," at that, her eyes flicked to the tanned boy who'd first said the phrase to her, "That goes for the rest of you too. What are your names?"
The tanned boy chuckles a little and jerks a thumb towards himself, "I'm Usopp and he's—" he moves to gesture behind at the green-haired boy.
"Zoro," the latter interrupts in his deep voice. His head is once again buried into his arms, making it sound muffled.
"Hey, do you have to be so rude?" Usopp snaps, whirling around and poking his forearm. His only reply is an unintelligible, sleepy mumble.
"Geez," Usopp rolls his eyes and turns to face the front again, "Hancock's late. Strange, usually she's here super early." At this, he twists his head and looks very deliberately at Luffy. Nami blinks, uncomprehending. Usopp turns to face her, "Hancock's got a huge crush on him since a couple years ago. We're still investigating as to why."
Nami laughs but gets cut off by the sound of loud, distinct clicks of high heels on wood. In the corner of her eye, she glimpses the side-profile of a sculpted, marble face of a woman through the rectangular windows lining the walls. Then the woman turns swiftly into the room, long black hair and white cloak sweeping after her like a model's during a shoot. Exactly like that because this woman is a supermodel. She is the most beautiful woman, physically, that Nami has ever seen. Her face is angelic as her eyes immediately find Luffy but at the sight of the rest of the class (Usopp tosses her a scrunched up paper ball. Smoothing it out, Nami sees a surprisingly detailed and accurate drawing of the classroom from a bird's eye view. Over each square representing a desk are written names. Red pen circles are drawn to surround certain squares, identifying the groups. One is labelled 'Amazon Lily'. The corresponding group is composed of entirely girls over nearby the door. Another is labelled 'Worst Generation'. That group is erratically random as if thrown together and scrambled. Nami eyes a pink-haired girl shoving a whole slice of pizza in her mouth and what appears to be a blonde kid with a full-on mask over his entire face. Then Nami folds the paper and reminds herself to look at it later, shooting a grateful look at Usopp), Hancock's face screws up in an expression of dangerous fury.
"Attention, class!" the voice resounds in the room; echoes off the surfaces of wood and stone like husky thunder. All at once, the class quietens from chatter into low mumbles. The Amazon Lily group immediately sits at attention while the Worst Generation appears to rebel more. Pink-Hair only rolls her eyes and leans further back in her chair, grabbing another slice of pizza from the box in her lap.
"Jewellery Bonney, legs off the table," Hancock orders, "Now."
Slowly, deliberately her legs uncross themselves and shove underneath her desk; Bonney wearing a thinly-veiled mask of contempt the whole time. Hancock only ignores her and passes on, her lips lifting a little at Luffy who'd shifted to sit cross-legged in his chair instead and finally resting on Nami.
"A new student," she remarks, her tone impassive, "You, what's your name?"
What the hell is this tone? Nami frowns a little but finally Chopper catches her eye and gives a subtle shrug so she calms down and meets her first teacher's eyes squarely.
"Nami."
"Nami?" Hancock repeats the word thoughtfully; her dark eyes impassive but intrigued, "I see. A word of warning then that in my classroom, I alone make decisions, rules and arguments, not the other way around. Remember that."
With that, she turns and strides purposefully to the front of the room. Nami looks after her back with a somewhat annoyed look. Some welcoming committee with rainbows and free s'mores. Then again, Nami tries to remind herself she shouldn't expect any different. This school keeps on making her forget and harshly remember what it really is. She mentally shakes herself and refocusses to the front of the room.
After the initial cold front, Hancock actually proves to be an effective teacher at English and literature. Her passion for Shakespeare no doubt is fuelled in some way by Luffy from the way she quotes 'Romeo and Juliet' so reverently while catching his eye. Nami follows the play easily enough and completes the review questions diligently, like Chopper and mostly Usopp; though the latter keeps on having to spin around and scold Luffy who plays a game of balancing pens along the spine of the still comatose Zoro.
At some point, Zoro finally stirs and lifts his head, causing all of the pens to roll off and clatter noisily to the floor. Luffy cackles with laughter while Usopp sighs, finally giving up on them altogether.
"Be quiet back there—!" Hancock, standing at the front of the room with a marker to the board, abruptly cuts off when she sees Luffy's face and her voice reduces to a sweet coo as if to a child, "Luffy, try and get your work done, please." Quickly, as if a switch flipped, her voice becomes thunderous once more, "RORONOA ZORO, are you sleeping in my class again?"
"No," Zoro pulls his face up and plucks a pen from the ground, "I was just thinking."
"For three quarters of an hour," Hancock snaps darkly. Her eye scans over the rest of her class, her gaze narrowing at one, "Eustass Kidd!" The marker in her hand is dropped and one long leg shoots out in a perfect straight kick, launching the missile right into Kidd's forehead.
Or Nami is completely sure it would have if the masked boy, 'Killer', should she remember correctly, had not caught it centimetres from the target's smirking face.
"Not bad," Hancock allows coolly, "But get back to work." Her hand is outstretched for the marker which Killer tosses back easily. With a look at Kidd, who gives an annoyed, resigned glare of compliance, he copies Kidd's actions and gets back to work. As soon as Kidd starts working, Nami notices the others in the group following suit, even the rebellious pizza glutton.
What is he, a captain? Nami watches the whole group now out of the corner of her eye, noting the individuals within the group that stand out and seem to exert some sense of control over the others. Kidd is one, Jewellery Bonney another and perhaps a couple more she isn't quite sure of yet. Amazon Lily is led by two individuals; both impossibly tall girls – one with green hair and one with orange, though she can't recall their names exactly. The remaining is Luffy's group, obviously led by the kid.
A hand suddenly slams on her desk and Nami yelps, half-jumping out of her seat. Above her Hancock is an imposing figure, having to bend her tall frame down almost a full ninety degrees to be level with her eyes. Her smooth black hair falls over one shoulder and pools on her desk. Up close, Nami is acutely aware of how truly gorgeous she is. Even as a complete heterosexual female, Nami finds herself blushing slightly.
"Yes?" she quickly blurts.
"Take this note to the Administration Office immediately and tell them it's for Elder Nyon. State it is of the utmost importance." Long fingers deposit a folded paper on the desk and she swiftly turns on her heels, striding back to the front of the room.
"What a weird class," Nami murmurs to herself as she wanders the winding corridors once more (this time her feet know exactly where they are going): a supermodel for a teacher, future thugs for classmates and actual wolf packs with alphas and betas. Nami is beginning to wonder if there is one normal person in this entire school.
Usopp and Chopper seem nice enough, she thinks. Other than that, Luffy is a Pirate leader and Zoro is virtually unreachable and most likely narcoleptic. The others don't seem much better either and Nami can hardly see herself getting close to any of them.
Not for the first time, Nami wonders if her expectations are too high of others; if she always expects too much because she is used to always receiving less. Like rounding each corner in the ridiculous labyrinths of the school – always expecting something more familiar or better than the last around the next curve. Always wishing for something she is not even completely sure is there.
Unlike the past, her legs know exactly where she is going and unlike the past; eventually, the next corner gives way to exactly what she is looking for.
In reaching the office, she sees Shakky prying pens out of her corkboard where she is playing an unorthodox game of darts. She spins around in her chair and drops the pile of pens on her desk with a noisy clatter. In doing this, she spots Nami.
"Got lost during the entire first period?"
"Not that lucky," Nami replies and offers the paper, "Hancock says this is for Elder Nyon."
"She's in luck. Nyon is in Rayleigh's office. Want to drop it in for me?" Shakky arranges the pens in a pyramidal shape and 'tch's when the structure collapses, "She came in here about some disturbance stuff where she lives in Amazon Lily. She gets pretty passionate; I just prefer to leave them to it when I can. So, please?"
"Why would she come to a school principal?"
"Rayleigh's a… influential figure in the area," Shakky replies as she rebuilds her pyramid, "Let's just say the police can be subjective to act depending on who asks for it, so people tend to come to Rayleigh to keep the peace among Pirates. Especially with Whitebeard's passing two years ago," her structure collapses again and this time she leaves it as she sits back unbothered, "Rayleigh's been getting a lot of work. The Pirate Era is changing and with that comes conflict. But anyway…" she gestures at the door with the engraved plaque and turns around to play another game of darts, effectively dismissing her.
When Nami approaches the door, she hears fierce talking behind it, bordering on heated debate. She raises her hand to knock and pauses when the lady's voice rises, albeit quietened by the door.
"… Disturbance in the area! It cannyot be… the girls are in danger if he's…" the blanks in between are angry, accented slurs that Nami can't really comprehend. The tone throughout is angry and urgent though.
"The girls are quite capable of taking care of themselves," Rayleigh's voice is clear and closer to the door as he talks calmly but firmly, "Besides, even if they weren't, they have the protection of the Boa sisters, Hancock herself included. I'm sure you have nothing to worry about."
"He's a threat, Rayleigh! Definitely nyot some idiot on a whim! He nyeeds to be detained!"
Nami moves her hand figuring there will not be any break in conversation to enter politely.
"Arlong…!" the lady's voice hisses and Nami freezes. A quick, curt glance back tells her Shakky is still caught up in aiming fountain pens at an invisible bullseye.
"Arlong is a fairly notorious name," Rayleigh allows. His voice keeps on drifting in and out of earshot, as if he's pacing back and forwards from the door, "As of yet… no grounds to interfere…"
The lady's voice fiercely starts to protest but Rayleigh repeats, "There are no grounds to interfere, Nyon. I can only assume the Boa sisters said the same so you come to me for assistance." He pauses, "If he hasn't posed a legitimate threat on Amazon Lily, I've no reason to interfere. That's all I can say."
There follows a long pause. Finally, the lady, Elder Nyon, relents and Nami hears them exchange brief farewells and the scrape of a chair as Nyon stands to go.
Nami knocks moments before the door is opened.
She blinks at what appears to be a carved purple staff in a scarily accurate depiction of a snake and instinctively flinches back, "Ah!" She stumbles back a step; seeing the vivid, dangerous eyes of a predator. Then she blinks and the snake's eyes turn to round, innocent orbs once more. Almost immediately, her stupidity hits her and she has to force herself from blurting out something that would only make the situation worse.
"Don't worry, he's not real," an amused voice tells her. Nami looks down and sees a very small woman, perhaps only to her mid-thigh in height. She is dressed in clothes that bear intricate tribal patterns and her unbound white hair flows freely down her back, accessorised only with a pink flower above her left temple.
"Maybe if you stopped carrying him at everyone else's eye-level it wouldn't be such a problem," Rayleigh remarks from where he leans against the wall behind her. His arms are crossed as if in deep thought. He straightens himself, turns and his eyes are immediately intrigued, "Are you the new student Luffy told me about?"
"Nami," she recovers what dignity she can and offers the paper, "I'm only delivering a message for Hancock."
"That girl?" Nyon reaches up with her hand and uses her staff to push Nami's arm down at the same time.
"Hey!" Nami yelps as Nyon takes the paper and peers at it suspiciously before curtly cutting her off, "Fine. Thank you."
Everyone in this bloody school, Nami thinks irritably. Rayleigh's mouth quirks upwards in an apologetic smile but otherwise does not interfere.
As Nami turns and starts to leave, she couldn't resist angling her head back slightly, as if checking the clock on the far wall. Her eyes strained to see the edge of her peripheral vision.
She watches as Nyon scans the paper and whatever is written on it. Her expression only alters by a quick enlargement of her eyes and, what Nami imagines, a sharp intake of breath.
Then she turns and ushers Rayleigh back into his room, follows him and closes the door once more. Even from her distance now, Nami can hear the start of another fiery debate.
After her initial covert spying, Nami actually did check the time (only thirteen before next period) and deliberately dawdles going back to class, hoping to get there just in time for the bell to ring. She has a sinking suspicion Hancock might just nail her to her desk for such a thing, however.
In exiting the office, one found themselves on the threshold of a huge, spacious courtyard dotted with lush gardens, stone pathways and a grand fountain right in the centre. On three sides were the buildings, forming a U-shape if looked from bird's eye view. On the open side were more gardens and then a gentle slope descended beyond them into the sporting fields that occupied the rear of the school.
Nami knew all this by wandering around the courtyard, enjoying the steady click-click-click of her boots on stone along with the peaceful hum of the fountain. Grand Line Academy is not like some sort of institutional school, she thinks; more like home despite its majestic appearance. Maybe that is part of an illusion.
But Nami likes it, at least for now.
She follows the stone paths that lead her past displays of gardens and statues; the latter apparently of notable figures for there is a small plaque or stone at the foot of most. Automatically, she leans down and reads each one as she passes.
Pirate King Roger… White—
"First day and already a truant," a wry voice comments, momentarily breaking her train of thought.
Nami yelps and looks up into the eyes of Ace. He sits casually on the stone slab on which the statue stands, legs partly stretched out before him. He grins at her expression, "'Sup."
"You two really are brothers," Nami mutters and Ace tilts his head in confusion. She quickly adds, "Should you be sitting on that?"
"Don't see why not," he replies, angling himself back to lean against the huge stone bisento wielded by the statue, "It's not a grave." After a few seconds of silence, he speaks again, his voice changed in ways that Nami cannot identify, "He was my old man. He'd want his kids nearby, not kept at safe distance." At the last words, his eyes drop slightly, studying the edge of the stones rather than her eyes. But a second later, his black eyes rose once more and the conversation flows as if nothing had happened.
"What class are you meant to be in now?"
"Hancock's English. What about you?"
That smile again and his eyes reflected amusement. His toned, tall body stood and poses opposite her, arms out at the sides in some 'ta-dah' gesture. Nami blinks and then notes his dark jeans and shirt that is actually open over his bare chest. The bodybuilder theory is alive and thriving, clearly. She quickly jerks her eyes away from that.
"Technically, I'm not a student," Ace states. Either he's pretending not to notice her overt perv or actually oblivious. Whatever it is, he doesn't say anything about it to Nami's gratitude.
"Technically?"
"Here, anyway. I graduated a couple years ago. I go to the university nearby." He looks down, checks the time on a simple brown watch with a blue face and white hands with red tips, "The bell's going to go soon. Come on, I'll take you through a shortcut so Hancock won't go nuts." With that, he starts walking at a natural, loping stride across the courtyard, past the fountain.
"Is Hancock even supposed to know you're here?" she hisses as she follows him.
"You misunderstand me. I'm dropping you off at least a hundred metres away."
Nami laughs and Ace cracks a smile. He makes an abrupt turn into a narrow space between two buildings and turns around when Nami hesitates, "Come on. No spiders, promise."
Admittedly, she didn't like narrow, dark spaces. Not for spiders, but sharks.
Determined not to lose face though, Nami twisted herself sideways to get within the small opening. They emerged some slow seconds later at what resembles a small plaza with a few flights of steps leading to different buildings on all four sides. The tops of the buildings effectively block most of the sun, setting half the space in shadow. The medieval similarity is unsettling, much like the whole school; as if every place had been plucked up off its foundations from their respective time periods and dropped in a mismatched cluster. The effect is disorienting, even for her.
"Are you going to tell me why you're even here?" Nami asks, "And more importantly, how you find your way in a place like this?"
"Killing time between classes," Ace shrugs as he walks confidently to the foot of one set of steps, "Sometimes it gets boring over there so I come here. It's fun. As for your second question, I've been here for years so I know the place. You, on the other hand, seem to be a natural at finding your way around." He doesn't give her time to react to the comment but turns and bows with a flourish, resembling a butler, "Your destination."
Nami actually has to stifle another smile, "Do you kill time here much?"
"Usually it's split between Makino's and coming here," he replies, "Mainly looking out for Luffy."
At school? She finds it a bit odd, but doesn't comment. Instead she walks ahead, noting the look of the arched doorway to remember for future reference, "You missed my point." She turns when she reaches the mouth of the doorway and leans against the frame, "I knew the way back, you know."
The amused smile appears again, "I know."
The rest of the day consisted of mostly detachment on Nami's part. She was polite but only spoke when prompted and she never missed a cue to smile or nod as the social convention commanded. She wondered, briefly, during the end of social studies with the taciturn Bartholomew, if she was coming off as rude or snobbish. She also tried to tell herself that it shouldn't matter.
Luffy, at least, seemed undeterred. The others simply followed his lead except, she noted, for Roronoa Zoro who treated her indifferently, if not warily. Usopp appeared the most normal of the lot and Chopper still too shy to provide much more than awkward silence.
At lunch, somehow, she'd managed to slip away and ate a pre-packed lunch out on the medieval plaza by herself. Then she resumed tagging along with a Pirate crew, hating, and not hating, every second of it.
When school ends, Luffy walks with her to the entrance while Usopp and Chopper attempt to wake a near-comatose Zoro by the end of Biology. Trafalgar had made no move to help, despite being the teacher; only beginning to tidy his desk and shooting an annoyed, but accustomed, glare at the trio.
"I'm going to the police station," she tells him as they clear the gates amid other students. The novelty of Luffy's little stunt had thankfully worn off but Nami would still prefer less scrutinising from her peers. First and easiest way to do that is to associate with Monkey D. Luffy as little as humanly possible.
"OK," Luffy shrugs and continues walking her route, "Let's go."
"Isn't Makino's on the other side of town?" she tries, exasperatedly following this kid once again, "I know my way now."
"Nope, not gonna work." Luffy locks his fingers around the nape of his neck and pushes his elbows out in a carefree manner.
"Are you doing this on purpose?" she demands.
"Sure. I like you, you're interesting," he laughs good-naturedly, "Even if you won't join my crew, let's be friends."
"Uh-huh," she frowns at him, "You're kind of pushy so I'm going to be an acquaintance for now."
"That's so complicated," he huffs, frowning back, "Either we're friends or not friends. That's simpler."
"Ac-quain-tance," she enunciates, "You've known me for a day, not even. We can't be friends that quickly."
Or easily, she thinks.