Chapter Text
Nami leaned back in her chair, quill still clutched between her fingers. She stretched her back, reaching far behind her and something in her backbone popped satisfyingly.
With a relaxed groan, she leaned back on her desk.
Sun rays poured from the skylight and into the Thousand Sunny’s library, giving it a warm and cozy glow.
The ship had been meticulously fashioned with each crewmember in mind by Franky, their mate and shipwright. Thanks to him, Nami had a spot reserved for herself, her tools and her maps, but more importantly, a place where she could find some time alone.
Being the Strawhats’ navigator, and oftentimes being the only voice of reason in the crew, Nami rarely had the occasion to accomplish her own goals and pour her attention on drawing her maps.
So she made good use of the little solace they had and spent the best of the day in the library.
Pouring herself another cup of coffee, she admired her work, happy to notice she hadn't lost her dexterity despite her lack of practice lately. She would need nothing less if she was to draw a map of the whole world.
She grimaced at the cup after bringing it to her lips, however. The coffee had gone cold.
She’d been at it for a while.
Breathing some fresh air would do her good. She could grab a snack at the kitchen. Surely, Sanji would have some tea and biscuits ready by now, she thought, gauging time from the golden receding sunlight.
She was actually surprised the lovey-dovey cook hadn't barged in and fretted over her all day. He had been a bit more reserved ever since the recent events at Whole Cake Island. He was still his old self, kind and caring, though Nami and the rest of the crew knew he would need some time to digest what had happened there.
All in all, Nami wasn't too unhappy that he had finally learned to give her some space.
Good.
The library was always a sacred place where she could find peace and focus on her maps, as it only was ever visited by her and Robin and occasionally Brook and Chopper who weren’t the noisiest, nor messiest in the crew.
For once, the whole crew was together on this ship. With no imminent threat or enemies chasing after them, they could all take a well deserved breather. It was a godsend change of pace and she would make good use of that freetime, regrouping her notes of the places they'd been while they were still fresh in her head.
They were headed to find another poneglyth and their next stopover would be three days away, if the weather allowed.
The weather they had gone through these last couple of days alternated between relatively calm, to dour clouds and windy rainstorms.
According to the maps she got her hands on, they were about to sail near a more violent area soon.
Nami had warned their helmsman Jimbei and everyone else in advance.
They would need to swerve that stormy area and stay starboard from it.
This would lengthen their voyage by another day, but they would avoid unnecessary trouble.
Nami was getting ready to head out, rearranging her work bench and storing her trusty tools and documents back in their place. Just as she was leaving the library, she heard Ussop’s voice cry out from outside.
« LAND OH ! »
« what? », Nami let out in shock before hurrying outside to the main deck.
She emerged to a surprisingly clear sky and had to shield her eyes from the blinding sun until they adapted from the relative darkness of the library.
Other crewmembers got out on the deck of the ship at the same time as Nami and seemed just as surprised as her.
« Oy, navigator. Didn’t you say it would be a few days before we see land ? », Asked Zoro, stifling a yawn, clearly grumpy for getting woken up early from his afternoon nap.
« don’t look at me ! », retorded Nami, raising her arms in the air. She was always annoyed when anyone questioned her skills. « I just went over my maps again, and there are no records of an Island being here. »
« Ussop ! What do you see ? », yelled Sanji, cupping his hands around mouth, so that his voice would reach the crowsnest where Ussop was.
« An island, a big one ! », answered Ussop, leaning over the wooden basting. He pointed where he had spotted the land before looking through the spyglass in that direction again. « or maybe it’s a cape ? », he added, unsure.
Excited by the recent change of plans, Luffy, the captain of the Strawhats', stretched his elastic limbs and sprang to the crowsnest with the ease of an orangutan. He snatched the spyglass from Ussop’s grasp and peered into it.
His excitement radiated through him when he spotted the said land.
« ooh ooh ooh oooh, it’s BIG ! », Luffy laughed.
« my log pose hasn’t picked up any new magnetic field. Such a big mass of land should be detectable. I hope it isn’t malfunctioning », Nami mused aloud, examining the elaborate compass that was strapped to her wrist in the manner of a bracelet. Nervous, she shook it lightly next to her ear to try and detect any defect in the tool.
Luffy got down from the top of the mast just as quickly as he had climbed it up. He landed on the deck next to his crew, clapping his hands together, a wide grin stretching his features.
« A mysterious island that is on no maps, where no crew has set foot on? Sounds like a pirate adventure! It's settled. Set a new course to shore ! », he yelled, stretching his arms unnaturally high up in the air before pulling all his mates he could reach into a group hug.
Intoxicated by their captain's enthousiasm, the crew cheered, eager for a new adventure. Even Nami momentarily let go of the questions racking her mind and joined the group’s cheerfulness.
~
A little later, as the crew got together to discuss what little information they had on their new course, Nami couldn’t shake her unease.
It was just too odd.
Sure this part of the sea was relatively quiet since no major trade route went through it and no emperor had laid a claim on such an inconsequential sea, but it wasn’t deserted or unexplored either.
Surely an island of that caliber should have been recorded by now.
Did the ocean still hold such mysteries? Or were the maps she had in her possession obsolete?
And why couldn’t her log pose detect the presence of this Island’s magnetic field?
She usually had a sense for those things, but as she looked to the horizon where the shape of a mountain started to peek out, she felt nothing but a strange presentiment.
« An old-fashioned island adventure ? Wouldn’t that be a nice change of pace », asked Robin next to her, startling Nami out of her reverie.
The tall, dark haired woman had an almost childlike mirth to her.
The archeologist had been in a good mood ever since they had left Whole Cake Island, in recent possession of a new piece of poneglyph. She was not unproud of herself for acquiring this piece of forgotten history, as well as an essential key to their journey. And she was furthermore ecstatic that their course led to another poneglyph that she’d be able to decipher soon.
The change of plans could have bothered Robin, delaying her discoveries, but being together with the whole crew again since so long made her feel too giddy to care.
« I suppose it couldn’t hurt to check it out », murmured Nami, looking back to the horizon. The mass of land was slowly growing bigger as their ship got closer.
« You really don’t know anything about this island, Nami ? », asked Chopper in a worried, high pitched voice.
Nami shook her head « no » and brushes her fingers on Chopper’s furry head, soothingly.
Nami unfolded her notes to peer at them once more.
Just as she had thought, the island was standing in the area of the map that was supposed to host the worst of the weather and that was indicated best to be avoided.
The current weather however was very welcoming, nothing like the map suggested.
Could it be that the locals had drawn those maps to avoid foreigners approaching them?
It wouldn’t be such a crazy idea. The strategy wasn't unheard of to ward off unwanted travelers.
Thinking it over, it now seemed quite logical.
In the new world, most islands did best to stay hidden and not become an attraction to every pirate crew sailing by. The more she thought about it, the more acceptable an explanation it began and Nami’s unease eased somewhat.
~
(In the narrator’s voice)
Strange phenomenons, anomalies that science has a hard time explaining, or seemingly mundane things we encounter in our daily life without ever questioning them.
All across the oceans, different areas have their own micro-climates that don't seem to match the surrounding areas. Snowy islands appear in the middle of vast tropical waters. Violent storms pick up unexpectedly and vast parts of oceans where not even a gust of wind blows. Random physics and magnetic fields on some islands that wouldn’t make sense anywhere else. Monsters and natural oddities hidden from common knowledge. Whole cities floating high above the cloud or thousand leagues below the sea.
For centuries, sailors have learned to read and divine those events in order to survive those hostile waters. Skilled adventurers who could navigate by picking up on subtle changes in weather, long considered paranormal in nature. It was said people with such skills had made a pact with evil entities who gave them power over nature. These people were shunned from society, the sea becoming their home.
Even to this day, those abilities are difficult to explain, even by those having said skills, but thankfully their reputations have improved, thanks to time and the progress of science.
Although the expenses of land and sea are becoming more and more explored, there is still much to explain.
Even with the help of logposes and most cutting edge tools, the Strawhats would soon discover that there is much to this world that still eludes them.
And even the least imposing little town carries its share of mysteries, once you look past its quaint exterior and dig a little deeper.