Chapter Text
Somehow, the days pass. Bits and pieces of news filter in and out of the little room.
Sanji drops in to tell them the Marines are still on the island. Somehow, they aren’t trying very hard to get into the Straw Hats’ quarters. One of them - Nami hears the name Tashigi tossed around - keeps misplacing the warrants, and her commanding officer just keeps handing them to her when new ones come in. (“I guess we’re lucky she’s so incompetent,” Nami says offhandedly to Zoro, and is shocked when she’s met with a stony “We are lucky. But she’s not incompetent.”)
Usopp comes by, eyes wide, and tells them someone has stolen Crocodile’s fruit. Nami, who’s always been too busy with the very real danger of being lost at sea or wrecked in a storm to bother researching magic produce, doesn’t quite understand, and it takes fifteen minutes of explanation on the reincarnation of Devil Fruits before she stops trying to understand - since at that point she realizes why Usopp is side-eyeing her so hard.
“I didn’t steal it.”
“Oh… oh, of course. Although that’s just what you’d say if you did steal it, right?”
“I didn’t! Why the hell would I steal a Devil Fruit?”
“Seriously? They’re worth, like, a billion berries. Hey, I thought you were supposed to be good with money. Hey! HEY!”
At that point, Usopp runs out of the room, just barely dodging the glass of water Nami’s thrown at his head.
And, between telling them about every different kind of meat he’s eaten in the last week, Luffy drops in something that makes Nami sit up straight: “Vivi’s been training.” She presses for details, but he smiles that sunny, beautiful smile that can be so damn annoying and says “Guess you better get out of bed soon!”
And the very next day, Chopper arrives to tell them he’ll be taking off their bandages.
Zoro’s go quickly. He’s already had most of them off. It’s only that last wrap, the one around his leg, that’s left. Nami watches as Chopper unwinds it, revealing the stump beneath. The little doctor pokes and prods gently with his hooves, remarking on how well it’s healed - “given the circumstances of the amputation” - and finally pronounces him fit to leave the infirmary. Zoro limps out on a set of crutches, calling Usopp’s name - Nami can’t help but smirk, imagining the impending conversation.
As Chopper turns to her, that smile fades a little. He trots over and pulls up his stool, looking - despite his appropriately serious expression - like a stuffed animal someone gave a stethoscope to.
“Would you prefer a female physician?”
“What?”
They stare at each other. Chopper clears his throat (which sounds adorable).
“Well, much of the scarring is in, um… a sensitive area. For humans.” He nods towards her chest. “So, I thought I’d offer, um… in case you’d be more comfortable…”
Nami considers reminding Chopper he’s a reindeer, but it doesn’t quite seem like an appropriate time.
“I trust you.” She raises an eyebrow. “Besides, didn’t you take my shirt off to treat me when… you know, I got all the injuries that caused the scarring?”
“That’s different!” Chopper briefly shifts up into the register he uses when Nami tells him the cotton candy budget has been emptied for the day. He clears his throat again and lowers (relatively) back into doctor. “That’s different. But if you’re comfortable proceeding, then…”
It’s a longer process than she expected. With every few inches of bandages removed, Chopper wants to stop and inspect the healing, only continuing when he’s satisfied. She does end up feeling quite exposed as he pores over her bared chest and hip, but not in a way she’s used to. Between the probing with various instruments, the muttered observations, and his occasional notes taken down on the side, she feels more like one of her maps than anything else.
And eventually that, too, is over, and Chopper rushes out of the room to fetch the mirror. It’s a beauty - taller than her, its frame ornately carved and heavily gilded. It’s from Vivi’s room, Chopper explains excitedly. The thought only makes Nami’s heart dip a little bit.
She steps in front of it and looks at herself.
At first, the scars don’t quite make sense. Then she remembers how she stood at the top of the tower and raises her left hand high above her head.
There. That’s more like it.
The lightning burned its path into her palm, down her arm, wrapping around her shoulder, over her tattoo, across her armpit and then curving into her torso. Oddly enough, it doesn’t correspond to the familiar shapes of electricity arcing or her own veins - it hovers somewhere between the two in dark red scars that are almost plantlike, like the needled trees of a winter island.
(“I don’t know why they’re so persistent,” Chopper says apologetically. “Usually, scars from lightning strikes are much fainter - they might even start to disappear altogether with time. It might be something to do with the artificial storm conditions created by the Clima-tact, or maybe the atmosphere responding to the Dance Powder… I just don’t know.”)
Her back is largely spared - at least, as far as she can tell from twisting and turning in front of the mirror - but it branches out over her collarbone, spiderwebs across her breast, and then bundles back together in the almost perfectly centered dot in the center of her torso.
(“You really were lucky. He cracked two ribs very badly, but if he’d hit you a little higher he would have punctured your liver and the bleeding would have been much, much worse, and you might…There’s a chance I wouldn’t have been able to… I’m really glad he didn’t.”)
Dot is the wrong word for it, of course. It’s a puckered, twisted puncture, lines of stitching still visible where Chopper’s handiwork held her together. It’s ugly. There’s no doubting that. But… the lightning passes into it, and through it, and emerges unchanged coursing down the other side all the same. The scars grow fainter here, scratching down her hip and under the underwear Chopper only briefly looked beneath.
(Nami has a peek, just to make sure nothing’s gone too bad down there. It hasn’t, thankfully. Chopper buries his face in his notes until she’s done.)
And then it peters out partway down her leg. The last fading arcs disappear on her calf into pale, still-unblemished skin. And that’s all there is.
All except her face.
Nami takes a deep breath and looks herself in the eye. Sure enough, the lightning has reached up her neck, painted stripes across her cheek, crossed her lips and even spiked over her left eye. It doesn’t quite reach her eyebrow, which sort of pisses her off.
“If I was going to get hit by lightning, couldn’t I at least have gotten an eyebrow slit out of it?”
Chopper, who has been carefully monitoring her face for signs of distress and preparing to offer counseling on methods of scar reduction and therapies to come to terms with one’s changed body, pauses.
“What?”
She does manage to convince him she’s not delirious after a while, and she, too, is set free from the infirmary into the desert sun.
The little makeshift hospital Chopper established for them is located in a part of the palace grounds more isolated than the rest. Judging by the utilitarian style of the buildings, Nami guesses these used to be guards’ quarters. A bit of exploring supports the theory - she comes across an abandoned armory, a few rusted blades (none worth stealing) still hanging on racks or scattered on the floor. She’s just beginning to wonder where the rest of the crew has got to when she hears the noise.
“Slasher!” And a rough fwip-thunk , like a knife thrown straight through a cutting board. “Slasher!” Fwip-thunk. “Slasher!” Fwip-thunk.
Nami creeps towards the source of the sound, feet silent on the cobbled street. As soon as she steps through the stone arch into the training ground, though, her feet crunch on the sand, and the woman inside whips around.
“Nami!” Of course it’s Vivi. Hair up in a ponytail almost like when they first met, sweat slicking her face and neck and chest, dressed in - Nami takes an appropriately long look, and then steals another ten seconds or so - some… flattering exercise wear.
Then, of course, there are the thoroughly mutilated training dummies behind her, sand and straw pouring out of rips and tears in their sackcloth skin. Nami raises an eyebrow.
“Vivi. Working hard, huh?”
“Yes!” It comes out a little too quickly. That gives Nami pause. She doesn’t have any reason not to believe Vivi, so why the odd sense that she’s guilty about something? Nami does another once-over, this time without distraction. (Mostly.) Vivi certainly looks like she’s been training. The only thing that’s missing is…
“Huh.” Nami stares at Vivi’s waist, where her string slashers are securely fastened. So securely, in fact, it looks like they haven’t been used at all. “Have you been practicing some kind of… draw-and-resheathe stuff? A samurai kind of thing?”
“Mhm!” Vivi nods emphatically. “Exactly. I got some tips from Mister Bushi- sorry, from Zoro. It’s very powerful! But, whoo, I’m kind of tired now, so…” She strides up to the arch, but stops when she draws level with Nami. “Walk with me?”
Well, that’s just not fair. Suspicions evaporating like the spilled contents of a canteen, Nami takes Vivi’s hand and follows.
“I’ve been thinking,” Vivi says as they walk by long-unused barracks. “I think I’m starting to understand pirates. Not ones like Crocodile, but… I was afraid of them. For a long time. Of, well, you. I still was, for a little while. When you first let me on board your ship. You were all so…”
“Weird?”
Vivi laughs. “Yes. But not frightening. And not bad people. And the funny thing is… it’s because you’re selfish.”
“Huh. Well, thank you for the compliment, I suppose…” And then Nami stops short as Vivi comes to a halt.
“Really. I didn’t start to understand it until Drum Island, when I had to tell Luffy not to start a fight with a crewmate in danger.”
“That?” Now Nami is really in disbelief. “That’s what turned you around? Our captain acting like a selfish kid and almost getting us killed?”
“Yes.” Vivi meets her eye. The honesty there is almost unnerving. “Because that’s the same way he reacted when I wanted to give up on Alabasta. It was selfish. But that’s what it’s about, isn’t it? I was so unused to it. I was raised to put everyone before myself, and I was good at that. That’s what being a princess is. And suddenly, I realized you didn’t have to do everything in your life for someone else.” She’s speaking quickly now, urgently, lifted up and pitched forward by the energy of what she’s saying. “And when I came back, that’s why I fought. I mean, I wanted to help everyone - I still do! But… but I was angry, too. I was angry at Crocodile. He treated Alabasta like, like a thing. Like something he could possess. And part of me was made that he’d even think that, but another part was mad because… Alabasta’s mine . This land is my land, its people are my people, and I am theirs . To hell with Crocodile!”
There’s a long silence.
Then Nami, a little choked up, says “Do you think I could be selfish right now?”
Vivi leans in and wraps her arms around Nami’s shoulders. “Yes. Anything you want.”
“Um. I heard. I heard there were… baths…”
“Oh!” Vivi is still hugging Nami, but it’s gone a little stiff. “Yes, there… there are. But… but, um… technically I’m not supposed to bring you there.”
Nami counts: one, two, three, four…
Before she gets to five, Vivi speaks with breathy excitement.
“But I think I could definitely sneak you in!”
And the rest of the day is the best Nami’s had in a long time.
Four days later, the announcement she’s been anticipating and dreading arrives. Usopp skids into the dining room where she and the rest of the crew are enjoying breakfast and screams:
“The Marines are gone!”
Luffy begins eating even faster, which Nami didn’t think was possible. Chopper hollers as his fruit salad is absorbed into the flood pouring into Luffy’s mouth. Sanji stubs out his cigarette and stands just as Zoro slams a hand onto the table.
“Then we need to leave. Now.”
“Of course,” comes a melodious voice Nami has to describe, despite herself, as royal . “But if I may be so presumptuous, I only ask you grant me the privilege of honoring you all in my throne room before you depart.”
Nami turns to see His Majesty, The Most Wise And Powerful King Cobra of the Nefertari Dynasty standing in the doorway. Before she, Sanji, or Zoro can get a word in edgewise, Luffy turns his neck a hundred and eighty degrees and chirps “Yeah, sure!”
“Sublime,” says King Cobra. Then he sweeps away.
Nami looks helplessly at Zoro. He just shrugs, leans back, throws his shiny new (wooden) peg leg up on the table, and pops open another bottle of booze. Sanji has already lit up again, and Nami can hear him muttering: “Oh, dear, sweet Vivi… how in the world am I to say goodbye to you? Be still, my heart…”
And in no time at all, the royal guards arrive to escort them to the throne room. All the while, that cold twisting in Nami’s stomach is growing, as if the hook never left. She can feel that she’s being unreasonable. It doesn’t change anything about the discomfort and pain, but at least she’s being self-aware, right?
It’s a beautiful room. Nami scans it, doing the usual calculations - how easy each item would be to steal, how plausible it would be to pawn, what price she could get. Her heart’s not really in it, though. It functions as intended: a way to take her mind off of what’s really troubling it.
There’s one item in particular that catches her eye. Set aside on a new display pedestal is Crocodile’s massive golden hook. A shiver runs up Nami’s spine. Well, as far as trophies go, it’s less gruesome than the glass…
And now they’re led up to the throne, Cobra sitting regally and Vivi standing beside him, the picture of an obedient princess. The guards depart, leaving them alone with the princess, the king, and the ever-present Igaram.
“Straw Hat Crew,” Cobra intones in solemn decree, “you have done myself, my daughter, and the entire kingdom of Alabasta an unfathomable service. If not for your actions, I would be dead by the fiend Crocodile’s hand, as would Vivi… and the entire country would be irreparably devastated by his selfish actions. I wish, therefore, to reward you - although considering the depth of your service, I acknowledge any reward will seem paltry in comparison. That being said, I would like to offer you -”
“That’s cool,” says Luffy. “But I’m fine. You fed us a ton! I wanted to know, are you going to join the crew?” The question obviously isn’t directed at Cobra. He’s looking straight at Vivi. Silence falls throughout the room. Vivi looks up, shock evident on her face, and then slowly turns her gaze back to the floor.
“Captain Luffy,” Cobra says eventually. “I understand your crew and my daughter have… grown quite close. And I am so grateful that you were there for her when I could not be. But she has her duty to the people of this kingdom too, and although I hope you both stay close as friends, I fear she couldn’t abandon her position.”
“Okay,” says Luffy. “But I want to know what she thinks. Vivi, are you gonna join?” He’s still staring. Vivi still isn’t meeting his eyes. Cobra looks between them, concern growing on his face.
“Luffy. Please. I realize this is difficult for you. Can’t you see how hard it is for her? I implore you, don’t make this worse. Let us return to the topic of -”
“Yes.”
Absolute silence rolls through the room like the quiet after thunder. Nami's heart beats like a drum. Every eye is fixed on Vivi. Fists clenched, she raises her head, smiling through the tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I will, Luffy. I’m going to be a pirate.”
“Impossible!” Igaram’s booming baritone fills the room in an instant as he steps forward. “Princess Vivi, please! Think of your own safety! Together, we were able to survive undercover in Baroque Works, but this crew - I mean no disrespect, but they sail headlong into danger! If you leave with them, you risk injury or even- even- I cannot bring myself to speak it! It could spell the end of the Nefertari line itself!”
“Do you think I’m weak, Igaram?” Vivi is still crying. But something else has entered her voice. Nami has heard it before, at Whiskey Peak and Little Garden and that final battle against Crocodile. Beneath the feathers, beneath Vivi’s perfect poised smile, is a core of determined, righteous anger hotter than the desert sun.
“N-no, Princess. I only… I meant to say… When one looks at the ridiculous might of these pirates…”
“When one does?” Vivi steps forward. Very carefully, she dries her tears on her sleeve, making sure not a drop is left on her skin. “Then look.” She raises her arm, and as she brings it down in arc cries out.
“Peacock Sand Slasher!”
Her fingers blur and melt into a ribbon of sand, and Nami watches in stunned silence with everyone else in the throne room as Vivi splits the gaudy golden hook into two perfect halves.
Igaram’s lip trembles. “The… the Sand-Sand Fruit…”
“Crocodile nearly destroyed this kingdom.” Vivi’s tears have dried, and she turns to face her father with the kind of composure that could turn aside a sword. “We were lucky. We defeated him, because we had allies - strong allies, strong enough to make up for our weakness. But Alabasta isn’t their country. It’s ours. And if I ever want to be worthy of the crown… I think I should be strong enough to protect what’s mine.” She kneels before the throne. “I don’t want to leave without your blessing, father.”
Very, very quietly, she adds: “But I will if I have to.”
King Cobra’s face could be carved from stone. He looks down at his daughter, but makes no move toward her. Instead he reaches behind his neck and unties his necklace.
“Stand, Vivi.”
Vivi raises her head, but as she sees the small, simple ornament in her father’s hands, she gasps. “Father-”
“Yes. Your mother’s.” Cobra leans forward and fastens it around Vivi’s neck, tying the knot behind her with a simple, practiced motion. “I meant to give it to you after your speech, to signify your return as princess. But instead…” He leans back and sighs. “Igaram.”
“Your Highness?”
“It is a shame. Isn’t it? That after Crocodile’s attack, the kingdom was in such ruin that our princess was kidnapped by the notorious Straw Hat Pirates? Although one could never blame our guards. After all, they were only able to make off with her after the Marines departed.”
“I-I see.” Igaram seems troubled by the very suggestion of what Cobra is saying. “But, Your Highness… When people see her… fighting alongside them?”
“Self-defense.” Cobra’s lips curl up in a wry smile. “Everything is, when you’re royalty.”
“The Devil Fruit!”
“We are a desert nation. In a way it was already ours, I think.”
“And… and…”
Cobra looks over at Igaram, who seems near to collapse. “Do you actually have anything else to say, Igaram?”
“N-no. I suppose not.”
“Then I suppose you should say goodbye.”
Igaram nods. In one smooth breath, he swallows the sadness and returns to his professional bearing. He steps over to Vivi and bows. “Princess…”
Then, rather like a dammed river bursting, he collapses into a puddle of tears.
“Please, Princess! Go if you must, but please, stay safe! I couldn’t bear it if you were harmed out there! And be sure to write to us! If you can! Oh, Princess…”
Nami, that pit in her stomach not gone but at least slowly shrinking, leans over to Usopp.
“It’s really going to be that easy - ow!” She glares at Usopp, who’s just stepped on her foot, only to be glared at right back.
“Do! Not! Say! That! ‘Til! We’re! On! The! Ship!”
About an hour later, when it turns out the Marines weren’t really as gone as they thought, Nami will remember that moment and tell herself it was going to happen anyway. But all the same, it’s a creepy coincidence.
“Attention, pirates,” drawls the pink-haired lady Marine who Nami definitely, absolutely wouldn’t be more than happy to meet under different circumstances. “Hina is becoming annoyed with chasing you. Give up now.”
“No!” Yells Luffy, which pretty much speaks for the crew.
“They are getting closer, though,” says Vivi, pacing back and forth on the deck. “Oh, I really, really hope they don’t sink us. I used to be good at swimming, but…”
“Don’t be stupid. The Merry ’s unsinkable.” Usopp adjusts the spyglass. “Oh, man, they have a lot of cannons, though…”
“Maybe you should try holding me hostage?”
Everyone turns to Vivi.
“What? I mean, you’re supposed to be kidnapping me, so… just put a gun to my head and say ‘Stop chasing us, you fucking Marine bastards, or we’ll paint her pretty princess brains all over the mast!’ Something like that?”
“Pirates don’t talk like that,” Zoro grumbles, hauling a crate of cannonballs across the deck.
“They don’t?”
“We! We don’t! That includes you now! Are you going to start talking like that? And we don’t have any guns!”
“What about Usopp’s slingshot?”
“What? No. Who the hell holds someone at slingshot-point? That would look stupid.”
“Hey! I’ll have you know my slingshot is one of the deadliest weapons on all the seas! Why, one time when I was only four years old…”
The voice comes across over the sea again. “Attention! Attention! All Marine ships! Hina orders you to turn hard to port! Abandon ship! Throw your guns into the sea!”
“What?” Usopp sweeps the distant fleet with the spyglass. “Um, guys? Does that Hina lady have… a twin? A stupid one, maybe? Who loves giving wrong orders for fun?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Snarls Zoro, hauling two more crates of cannonballs.
“Wait.” Sanji calls from inside, where he’s been manning the rudder. “Is one of them wearing an incredibly gaudy swan-based tutu?”
“I’ll look…” A brief pause. “Oh. Oh my god. How did you do that?”
“Huh.” Sanji tilts his head. “I guess he was serious about befriending me through combat and all that.”
“Bon!” Luffy hollers from the crow’s nest, his excitement enough to propel his voice across the great distance. “You’re back? Thank you! I won’t forget this!”
“Oh, great.” Zoro, bent double under the weight of three crates of cannonballs, manages to growl a few sentences. “Glad the guy trying to kill us a week ago is all buddy-buddy now. What’s next? Someone from Baroque Works gonna stow away and try to join the crew?”
“Um, bad news. They’re not listening to him anymore.” Usopp snaps the spyglass shut. “S-Sanji, I think you need to turn the ship. We’re going to be in cannon range soon, and I’ll need to get every shot off I can before they get close enough to aim at us.”
“No.” Nami looks up at the sky. Clear as can be, blue as the sea. Not a cloud in sight, and no chance of a storm.
If you’re an idiot, at least.
“Sanji, rudder to starboard. Hard as you please. We need to make up some distance. And I’m going to have to cheat a little. Luffy! Gimme a lift!”
As soon as she says it, a rubbery arm snaps down and lifts her into the crow’s nest. Nami closes her eyes, listening to the wind, smelling the faintest trace of ozone. No - she still needs one more thing.
“Vivi?”
A cloud of sand rises into the crow’s nest and coalesces into Vivi. Luffy, suddenly very cramped, waves and says “Hi, Vivi!” before leaning backwards and toppling out of the crow’s nest, shouting as he goes “Bye, Vivi!”
“Could you draw some moisture out of the air? If you can create a miniature dryline, I can develop a supercell, and the resulting storm will be-”
Nami is cut off as Vivi leans in, kisses her, and says very kindly “I don’t know what most of that means, but I’ll do what I can.” As the sand begins to swirl, Nami nods.
“Right. I meant to say… It’s going to be a big one.”
As she begins to swing the poles of the Clima-tact, seeding the coming storm with barely-visible balls of hot and cold air, she reflects on just how wrong she was.
You can have everything you’ve ever wanted. You just have to be a really good thief.