Chapter Text
Nami couldn’t sleep.
She had been tossing and turning in her bed on the Thousand Sunny for over an hour, trying to dream of the exciting (terrifying) prospects of whatever island they came upon next. Her nerves were still acting up from their plunge off of the waterfall barring Wano from the rest of the New World. It had been a while since she had slept on Sunny, they had been in Wano for nearly a month - staying an extra five or so days after defeating Kaido to heal up - although Zoro and Luffy were still in debatable states of health - the former especially had suffered after taking some weird injection to keep himself going during the battle. Luffy on the other hand had taken a terrible blow to the head, one that nearly killed him, and Chopper had been chasing after their young captain for a good portion of the day just to try and re bandage the wound.
Maybe going to check on the two would help clear her head. Chopper had taken today’s nightwatch over the two in the infirmary, but Nami knew the young reindeer had trouble staying awake long into the night, so he was probably sound asleep. Nami rose out of bed, slipping into some warmer clothes and a thick coat - they had been nearing a winter climate and the temperature had slowly been dropping over the past few days. She stepped outside, shivering as the wind brushed against her hands, which she raised to her chest and blew softly to warm.
Briskly walking over to the infirmary, she peered in through the window to make sure everything was okay, and headed on inside.
The sound of snoring became immediately audible. Chopper was curled up on a chair beside Zoro’s bed, his eyes closed as he murmured in his sleep. Nami smiled softly, removing her coat and draping it over their doctor’s body. The hints of a smile brushed on Chopper’s face as he buried himself in the warmth of the jacket. Turning over to Zoro, Nami saw that, although he was still slightly paler than normal, the man for the most part seemed to be resting well. She turned over to where Luffy was sleeping to check on him as well.
Or where he should have been sleeping.
The bed was empty, the sheets having been ripped off and strewn about the infirmary with little care. Nami sighed and rolled her eyes, knowing exactly where Luffy would have been headed if he had gotten up.
Without wasting a second to ponder, she began making her way over to the kitchen, prepared to find her captain caught up in one of Sanji’s traps he had made to protect their food supply from their captain’s ravenous appetite. As she neared the kitchen, the sound of someone eating was sharp and clear.
So the traps hadn’t worked. That was annoying. Nami prayed that she had caught her friend in the early stages of his food rampage, otherwise there would be hell to pay tomorrow once Sanji discovered the scene. She opened the kitchen door.
And stopped short.
“Luffy…What are you doing?” Nami looked on with a mixture of confusion and concern at the sight of Luffy, dressed in white clothes that definitely wasn’t in his wardrobe last she checked. He was hunched over in the corner of the kitchen, next to the open storeroom. The doors of the storeroom creaked, shifted by the midnight wind escaping through the open door in the back. Nami watched as, in an almost owl-like manner, her captain swivelled his head to look at her, his eyes locking on with calm deadly precision that was completely unlike the Luffy she knew. Despite the dark interior of the kitchen, his hair looked several shades lighter than normal. In his hand, he held a half empty bag of something, though it was too dark to clearly see what was on the label.
“ Eating. ” Luffy replied matter of factly, his mouth full.
Nami sighed. “I can see that. Seriously, sometimes you’re impossible, you know. You’re meant to be on strict bed rest until your head injury is fully healed, Chopper’s orders!”
Luffy made a face, “Resting is boring, and besides, it’s been ages since I’ve been able to walk around .” He stared at the woman, and Nami found herself feeling… cautious. It was as if Luffy’s eyes - she was sure his eyes had been brown last she checked, not an unsettling shade of magenta - were boring into her soul. Upon the sight of the tattoo adorning her left shoulder however, those magenta eyes flickered to life with sudden recognition. “Ah! You must be Nami, the navigator, right? I’ve already heard a lot about you from his thoughts.”
“T-thoughts? You’re kinda creeping me out…” Luffy was probably sleepwalking, that had to be the explanation for his unusual behaviour. He had gotten pretty badly hurt in his fight with Kaido, so it wasn’t a stretch for him to be slightly out of it, even a week after the fact.
“Am I? Sorry, sorry. Do you know where I can get more of this food? It's really good!” Luffy laughed. Except, it was completely unlike any laugh Nami had ever heard come out of him. Unlike the usual ‘shishishishi’, it sounded more like ‘hyahaha’. Nami stepped closer, ignoring Luffy’s previous question. You never told the man where to find more food unless you wanted a global shortage of said food by the end of the day. As she walked towards Luffy, she was finally able to make out the label on the nearly empty bag he held. The label read-
Nami’s mouth dropped open. She reached forward, yanking the bag from Luffy’s hands and bringing it up into the moonlight. She rubbed her eyes, squinting as if that was going to change the words highlighted in bold on the side of the bag. It couldn’t be! Not even Luffy would eat-
On second thoughts, scratch that last sentence.
“Luffy this is FLOUR! And what do you mean by more of- oh, oh no you didn’t!”
“Hm? I didn’t know people ate flowers nowadays, no wonder it tastes so funny.” Luffy didn’t even look concerned, continued to munch on raw flour without another word. Nami ran past Luffy and into the storehouse, her eyes widened as she took in the absolute carnage that their captain had left in his wake.
Sanji had only ever tried to murder Luffy once, but after this, Nami was certain that assassination number 2 was on the menu for breakfast.
“LUFFY! WE HAD ENOUGH STOCK TO LAST US A MONTH! YOU CAN’T HAVE EATEN ALL THAT!
The twenty or so bags of flour that had been tucked away to the side of the storeroom were ransacked . All that was left was remnants of the white dust sprinkled on the floor. All of the anti-Luffy traps that had been set up along the floor and walls had all been… mauled. It was as if someone had punched them multiple times until the mousetraps were nothing but brutalised bits of scrap metal. That was strange though, Nami hadn’t heard any signs of anything out of place as she struggled to sleep. How Luffy had managed to do that silently, let alone why he would do that, was beyond her.
Luffy tilted his head “...Oops?” He giggled, not sounding apologetic whatsoever, “Also, stop calling me that.”
“Stop calling you… by your name?” Nami turned back and- Luffy’s hair was definitely not black. She had thought it’d been a trick of the light, but now, as he stood up, she could see the way his hair had grown, forming into cloudy tendrils as it twisted around his shoulders and fringe, ending in small swirls that just touched the back of his neck. His eyebrows as well, were pale white, swirling like Sanji’s into inward pointing curls. Luffy’s, no, the
person’s
smile was big - too big for any normal human, and their posture was low to the ground, as if they could jump up and start bouncing around or running in circles at any moment if they felt inclined.
‘Luffy’ shook their head in response. ”That's not my name. I’m Nika, it's nice to meet you.”
Nami took several sizable steps backwards, eyeing the stranger with a mix of confusion, apprehension and intrigue.
“N-Nika?”
“Mhm! And I’m a God!”
Nami short circuited.
“AND YOU’RE A WHAT!?????”
Lu- Nika suddenly let out a wide yawn, his eyes drooping as his hair began to darken to it’s normal shade, and his eyes lost their magenta shine.
“Well… I’m kinda tired now… speak to you later.”
And then he collapsed, falling to the floor. In the place of Nika’s misty form, was now a sleeping Luffy, snoring loudly as his head lolled on the floorboards.
Nami looked at her hands, and saw that they were shaking slightly. She took in a few deep breaths, trying to steel her nerves. This was a dream. Surely it was a dream! Damn it! She did not sign up for whatever the hell that was when she agreed to be on Luffy’s crew, though, at this point, what could she expect. They’d already saved several kingdoms, fought a self proclaimed god, declared war on the world government, defeated a few Warlords and now just took down two Emperors of the sea. In the grand scheme of things, her captain getting possessed by some random guy who claimed to be a god and then passed out wasn’t
that
far fetched.
Right???
Nami shook her head, sleep suddenly sounding very appealing. Returning Luffy to his place in the infirmary, Nami trailed up to bed, and shut her eyes.
She would figure it out in the morning…