Chapter Text
somewhere on the Grandline
It was yet another day of very mild weather.
Maybe that was the only thing that could be counted as an advantage to this otherwise completely wretched island.
Some big beaked, ugly birds were screaming from the bottom of their lungs by the shore to really annoy the hell out of everybody, awake or not. People for sure were underestimating those fat birds and they were clearly more clever than the islanders gave them credit for. She knew it for a fact because one of them was staring at her blatantly just after letting out that weird noise. Then its friend snatched the little piece of bread she brought with her for breakfast. Talk about a wonderful morning.
Her observation Haki was not weak by all means, but she wasn’t on the same level as some monsters who could see into the future for a short while.
And, well she also did not have the living energy of someone who would actually try to dodge the bird. Growing up, she never had much chances of fighting back. She liked to think that she was saving her opportunities for later. At least, that was better than accepting her life will be forever shitty. So she didn’t wanna waste one of her presumably countable slots on a dumb bird.
She sighed and let herself lay on the still cold sands with a plop. Sun was still trying to rise, unable to warm up the island properly yet. Even the sound of the sea was not enough to calm her nerves on this island. Still, trying was free contradictory to everything else there.
They were not a part of the world government, which brought with it both upsides and downsides. Freedom was nice sure, but the absence of the big fish only summoned various mid sized fish. Which was still too much for her to bite.
Would be nice if I was just one of those rocks over there, she thought.
At least they had no worries to stress over.
Barrel Island did not really care about the lifeless.
Grandline, a little far from Fish-Man Island
”Luffyyyyyy!”
Nami quickly tried to cover Chopper’s mouth, only to fail miserably.
He continued ”Log pose is already set, it’s choosing time!”
”Chopper!” shouted Nami, now desperate.
”I wonder if there will be rare plants that i can add to my research for new medicines!!” little reindeer was beaming with joy.
“Ooh, new plants would be great actually!” joined in Usopp.
“Right, righttt!!”
The two started to dance around Nami. She wasn’t sure if they were only happy about the probability of new discoveries in their respective areas or if they also wanted to lowkey annoy her.
And as if he smelled the fun Chopper and Usopp were having, a head stretched from the upper deck to just above them. Nami’s most dreaded time was already here.
”Let me, let mee~”
“No” Nami bonked a punch to his head. “We just got out of a shark fight, not again, not so soon. I am picking this time.”
Luffy, now sulking ”Awww, shucks”.
Nami turned back to observing the little glass spheres, ignoring her pouting captain.
They were now past the red line, so none of the compasses could really be described as steady. Nevertheless, she at least wanted to choose one with less wiggle to it.
“That one wobbles like Usopp, shall we go there~”
“No” another bonk.
Luffy, the 19 years old captain with the attention span of a toddler, decided not so long after, that Chopper and Usopp were more exciting at the moment, which caused Nami to exhale a relieved breath. She considered the log pose for a little while longer, then realized that she can just find herself an accomplice in case her choice went wrong “Taking a second opinion it is!”.
The swordsman was sleeping on the deck as usual and the cook was most likely, well cooking. Weighing down her remaining options, it was obvious that Robin was the better end of the deal.
“Ah, Nami is escaping!”
“Follow the navigator!!”
“Aye, aye captain!”
“HeyYy, but I am the captain.”
Apparently her troubles weren’t just done yet.
Grandline, Barrel Island
”HAHAHAHAHA, beat you again HuHHHH??!”
”U fuCki-“ a smash straight to his face didn’t let him finish.
This was yet another not so surprising sight of her daily life. It was now a routine for her to witness meaningless bar fights starting from the morning.
She evaded a liquor bottle thrown at her impassively. Nothing to get mad at, it was unintentional. But it made her raise her brows questioningly to how even they got the bottle. She was sure careful about keeping the bottles way out of customers’ reach. Honestly, it didn’t matter if a glass was being thrown or the bottle to her, but full bottles being wasted was equal to receiving a smaller pay check.
Frickin wasteheads
She had to check the upper shelves behind her to be sure that nothing too valuable just got sucked into the mop of another coworker. She guessed it was one of the discarded bottles, not having enough time to check everything midst of the chaos.
The smell was horrible, like it was in every other bars and diners on the island. It was the combination of old men breath and years of marinated sweat coming from the chair cushions. If she wasn’t already used to it, she would surely throw up. Preferably on some drunkards face.
She served a few more drinks and cleaned some still miraculously intact glasses from the earlier fight. Her patience was thinning a little faster today. As talented as she was at keeping her poker face throughout the day, she still needed some breathers once in a while. A very resigned bartender with slouched shoulders had to replace her upon her request. She almost felt sorry for the guy. But she was in a worse situation overall and pity helped nobody. If there was one thing she would surely bet over in a life and death scenario, it would obviously be pulling the short straw.
She walked the sandy paths aimlessly after leaving the bar. There wasn’t really anywhere near the bar she worked at, where it didn’t smell sickening to the ends. She wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings either. It was all the same ugly shit everyday, so why would she? But she could swear she saw for a split second something green amidst all the banal greys and browns.
Huh?
She had to blink really hard to be sure of what she saw. But the flash of green was gone from her vision as quickly as she perceived it.
“Would be really uncool if I am hallucinating now on top of everything.” she murmured to herself and strolled towards the diner where she thought she saw the unusual color.
Grandline, Thousand Sunny
Nami bounced her right leg rapidly on the deck as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
“And WHO would this be, Zoro?!” she gritted in a single breath.
“Eh? How would I know?”
Robin chuckled to that. She came out of her room with Nami when they heard a commotion.
“How would u know? How would I know?!”
It was fairly unclear to Zoro, why Nami was mad. To address the elephant -sorry- person on the deck, Nami cleared her throat “Hello Mister~”. She assessed the man’s clothes and decided in a millisecond that he couldn’t be rich. Her politeness vanished even faster than the duration it took her to do the assessment at all.
Mister was not really mistering.
“Who are you and why are you in the middle of Grandline on your own?”
”I pulled him up Nami! Did I do good?” asked the captain already proud of himself.
The man looked shaken. Wet and underfed. He opened his mouth but no sound came out. His tongue was cut.
“Ah, forgot to tell you, he doesn’t look like he can talk at all.” added Zoro very unnecessarily. Nami would get mad at him again if the poor man’s condition didn’t horrify her.
Thankfully, Robin was a quick adapter, being older than most of the Straw-hat crew. She gently offered a pen and a paper to the shaking guy.
Nami reached the railing to get a clear read on the situation while their guest frantically started scribbling something on the paper.
As she thought, there was a wooden rowboat near the Sunny that was rapidly sinking. She watched the boats last breaths then turned back to the strange man to read the paper in his hands.
nearby island
bad people
can’t go
Well, the note was loud and clear. The last thing Nami wanted to do now was going to whichever island the guy in front of her came from. She felt like an evil witch for thinking so but quickly let the thought evaporate from her head because witches had riches.
“How does he eat without a tongue though?” Luffy didn’t waste any time pointing the most crucial thing -to him- out. The man looked on the verge of tears after Luffy’s question, so Chopper chimed in to lift his mood “I’m sure Sanji will figure something out!”.
If a man could talk without his mouth, this one would definitely be asking who the hell Sanji was. He missed his tongue more than ever now, in the midst of these crazy loud people.
Without any warning, Luffy snatched the log pose Nami left on Robin’s table with a stretched arm and showed it to the guy before Nami could do anything about it “So, which one is your island?”
Nami felt the world slow down as the clueless man lifted his finger to show the only sphere that Nami eliminated out of options first things first. Luffy’s face widened with a grin. Nami cursed silently to whichever god destroyed her chances at picking the route. They were now going to Barrel Island.