One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ A Log Pose to Nami ❯ A Wrong Turn at the Green! One-Sword Nami! ( Chapter 5 )

A Log Pose to Nami

A Wrong Turn at the Green!

One-Sword Nami!

Nami inspected her log pose, and stared at it, biting her lip as she listened to the guards march up and down the aisles on their round. When it became silent, she was startled when the old woman spoke again.

“Do you know why they let you keep that log pose?”

Jerking, Nami stared at her before looking back at the log pose, trying to ignore her as best as she could, “They just didn't notice it.”

“Wrong,” she said.

Frowning, she shot a withering glance at her, “Fine. Why didn't they take it away?”

The woman said, “They let you keep it so that you would see your way back disappear.”

“What do you mean?”

“The time it takes for a log pose to reset on this island is exactly five hours.” She tilted her head slightly as if to look at her like a bird - Nami compared her to a crow - using one eye, “You've been here for about three hours, right?” As Nami's eyes began to widen, clutching at the log pose on her wrist, the old woman said, “This is the Island of No Return. That means you can never return to whence you came. By the time that needle points away from the island where your friends are, you'll never be able to come back to them. You better hope that Monkey D. Luffy's luck holds out.”

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Luffy blinked, and then sat up with a gasp, “Aagh! I fell asleep again!” He made a motion as if to row, but then blinked in confusion at the thick handcuffs around his wrists. “Ah? What's this?”

Glancing around, it slowly dawned on him, reminding him of how he had gotten to where he was. It helped that at least a dozen men had their guns pointed at him, but the Kairouseki handcuffs would have told him everything all on their own. As he looked at them, the men started to sweat nervously as if he would sprout horns, and break out of his cuffs to beat them into pulp.

The Marine officer that he had seen before entered the room a few minutes later after someone ran out to inform him that Luffy had awakened. He grinned, and said, “Welcome to the Island of No Return. It's the only place you'll be for the next five hours.”

“That doesn't sound very scary.”

The officer gnashed his teeth as he said, “Of course it is! When those five hours are up, you won't be able to go back to where you came from! Your navigator's log pose has only twenty minutes before it will reset.”

“What!? Nami's really here then?” Luffy began to smile, and his arms and legs became jittery in excitement, ignoring the pang of his freshly wrapped shoulder.

Adjusting his cap, the officer said, “Of course. This is one of the best ways to make sure pirates can't easily return to their crews. The two of you will later be publicly executed together, of course, and-”

“That's great!” He said, and then he leapt to his feet, dodging the Kairouseki-tipped bullets as they shot at him in reaction. In such a closed in space however, some ended up shooting their comrades, and only grazed Luffy's arms and legs. With a yell, Luffy head butted the officer's torso, bringing him down effortlessly before he picked him up to face the others, using the disoriented officer as a shield.

The Marine sailors stopped firing at once, their eyes wide while Luffy used his cuffs to strangle the larger man. He said through coughs, “You'll never … make it in time …! The Marines here will stop … will stop you long before you … reach her …”

“Maybe,” he said, “but I'll take that risk. Unlock me.”

“Shoot him! Ignore me! Just shoot him!”

They shouted out as Luffy tightened his hold, “But, Captain!”

“Captain!”

“We can't shoot you, Captain!”

“Someone unlock me now!”

Luffy could hear the officer grind his teeth in annoyance before he dug into his pocket to pull the key out, “Damn it … you'll be stopped anyway … No one gets … away from here …”

He sighed in relief as the cuffs clicked open to free him. Grabbing the captain's shoulders, Luffy suddenly spun in place, tightening into a coil before he spiraled back, flinging their captain back at them before they could react.

As the men all toppled together, Luffy ignored the door, and broke through one of the windows instead by grabbing the window sill, and stretching his arms back while shouting, “Gomu Gomu no Rocket!”

When flung out into the sky, he looked down, and gaped at the sea below him. Acting fast, he glanced back to see a balcony, and he stretched out a hand to grasp it, springing onto it. Gasping for breath, he swallowed hard, and wiped his forehead while applying pressure to his stomach wound. It seemed that when he had been knocked out, the Marines had redone Ace's work, and wrapped him with clean, professional bandages - his sore feet as well. After checking himself very briefly, Luffy opened the door of the balcony, and ran down the hall, chanting her name.

After running for several minutes, he realized that he had passed that same balcony again, and he stopped to scratch his head, looking around in confusion. He said, “How am I supposed to find her in this big place?” He punched his flat palm suddenly, and said, “Oh, wait! Dungeons are always on the bottom floor!”

Grinning, he stretched his arms up before bringing his fists crashing down onto the flooring, and he fell down through the resulting hole before he repeated it. Some ten or fifteen floors down - he hadn't bothered to keep count, really - he punched the ground, and yelped in shock, blowing on his pained hands. Without realizing, he had hit steel, suddenly unable to go any lower even though his fists had dented the steel a bit. Looking around, he noticed that he was within what looked like a jail cellblock, and as luck would have it, he had just barely missed falling into a cell.

The cells were all almost filled with men, and as he walked down the aisle, some of the men reached out for him, shouting at Luffy to free them - and soon! - while most of the others sat in corners dejectedly, their log poses having obviously already reset. A few recognized him from his wanted poster though, and yelled at him, asking to join his crew if only he'd get them out. He had no business with them however, and he didn't let his eyes stop moving, jogging through the aisles as he looked for his navigator.

He shouted above the inmates' voices, shocking their din into silence, “Nami! Where are you?”

“Straw Hat! There he is!”

Someone started shooting at him, and Luffy began running, not entirely sure where he was heading anymore. If this was the jail, then had Nami been placed somewhere else?

As he headed for the sole exit, he pulled his arms back when the Marines guarding the way shot him, but Luffy grinned when their dull bullets did him no harm, “Gomu Gomu no” - and then he shot his hands out to strike the man in front - “Bazooka!” The hit toppled the man back, causing a sort of domino effect on the rest of the Marines behind him, and they all crashed into the wall, and fell to the floor. Picking one up on the way, Luffy continued to run, and started to smack him awake, “Oi, oi! Where's Nami? Tell me where my navigator is!”

“Over the rainbow and through the woods …” the man murmured, and then conked out again. Satisfied that he had gotten his answer, Luffy dropped him, still running.

“Over the rainbow and through the woods,” Luffy started to chant, looking around the halls before he spotted a red sign overhead, and grinned. “Red's the first color!” He said, and ran under it, looking around for the next color of the rainbow until he saw the orange bulletin board, “Orange! Yellow, yellow, yellow! Where's yellow …?”

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She stared ahead at where the old woman had used to be, crossing and uncrossing her eyes in boredom. Now that she knew her reset time was coming down to its last hour, she hadn't seen anyone approach her cell; too wary to let Nami get a hold of any keys or weapons. The last time that anyone had even come into the aisle had been over an hour ago when the Marines had taken the old woman away - presumably to her permanent cell on another island.

Nami looked down at her log pose, her eyes dry, but threatening to pour tears once more. The needle had not yet twitched from its previous course, but she figured that she only had ten minutes or so left until she had no chance to see her friends ever again.

“I need more than luck to get out of here, lady,” she said, and then lied down on the bed, keeping her eyes out in the aisle, and hoping that someone would be foolish enough to come by with the key to her cell.

She had already snitched several keys from the Marines when she had first been marched down to her cell, but it appeared that they had all been decoys as she had attempted to use them on her cell lock several times already. It seemed that they had planned ahead of time for her. Not only would she be devastated with losing the way back to her crew, but they had given her false hope by taking away any concept that she would escape as well.

Biting her lip, she curled her arms around herself, just about to close her eyes in sorrow until she heard the sound of feet slapping the steel floors.

“Huh? Hey, there's no blue in here. I took the way that guy told me though. Maybe I turned on the wrong green … Oh! I forgot about indigo! … Wait; is that before or after blue?”

Sitting up, Nami jumped to the cell door, and reached out her hand, “Luffy!”

“Nami?” When his face appeared in front of her cell, she nearly sobbed in relief, “Nami! Nami, Nami! I found you!”

“Luffy,” she said, “hurry and find the key!”

He glanced down the hall, and, blanching, said, “There's too many to look through. Just get away from the door.”

“What? Luffy, no, it's-” He grasped the bars before he promptly slumped to the floor, and she sighed, “It's made of Kairouseki.” Reaching through the bars, she pushed him away from the bars, and slapped his cheeks, “Wake up, Luffy!”

Muttering tiredly, he gained his strength back quickly, and rubbed an eye as he stood, “Nngh, damn it … Nami, keep away from the door, okay? Hug the wall.”

“You're not going to try that again, are you?”

“Do it!” Stunned, she backpedaled away from him before she just turned to press up against the bare, steel wall, covering her head as she peeked back to watch him. Without another look at her, Luffy stretched his arms down before he pummeled his fists into the ceiling with a “Gomu Gomu no Bazooka!” Cringing away, he favored his already bleeding fists, scowling at the weakened ceiling before he attempted again, winding up his arms this time before he said, “Gomu Gomu no Bazooka!”

She clenched her eyes shut as the ceiling crashed down, stirring up dirt and grit, and sending metal shards on top of Luffy. When everything calmed down, she looked out, and saw a large pile of debris in the aisle, “Luffy …? Luffy, you idiot! Why are you doing this? You don't have to do any of this when you don't even need me!”

The ceiling right above the cell door abruptly cracked, and then buckled. Shrieking, she backed against the wall again, covering her head as everything came crashing down in front of her.

When the dust settled, she looked out again only for her eyes to widen at the sight of Luffy standing on top of the new pile, and gazing at her, perplexed. He said, “I do need you, Nami. That's why I'm here.” Taking her hand, he pulled her up with him as he jumped onto the floor above them, running down the hall, “I missed you, Nami! I wanted to give you this great treasure that I found, but I lost it on Alvida's ship!”

“Luffy-!”

“I'm sorry! I was so excited about getting you out of there I just forgot about it!”

“Luffy!”

“I said that I need you, and I mean it,” he said, glancing back at her, and he smiled when he saw her heated blush.

“But, Luffy, we're going the wrong way!”

Eyes widening, he slid to a halt, still clutching to her, and then he took off down the other way, “Why didn't you tell me!?”

Trying to keep up, Nami said, “That's what I was trying to do!” Spotting the correct turn, she tugged at his hand, and led him down the hallway, the two of them still running, but with the navigator in the forefront, “Down here. The port is somewhere along the north coast. Where did you dock your boat?”

“I didn't have a boat,” he said. “I tied myself to a log, and rowed out here.”

“What!?”

“Then I got caught by the Marines, and now I don't even have a log anymore.”

Scowling, Nami thought quickly, “We have to steal a boat small enough for just the two of us to manage. Did you see anything like that out there? I didn't get a chance to look.”

“I don't know.” Luffy laughed, “I wasn't awake when I got here.”

Groaning, she pouted back at him before she looked forward, and stopped abruptly, “Luffy!”

“I got it! Gomu Gomu no,” he shot forward, startling the two Marines that they had almost tripped over, and punched them down the hallway, “Pistol! … Ah, Nami, there's the dock.”

Disregarding the knocked out men, Nami looked out the window he was referring to, and smiled, “All right! Now, we just have to find a way down.”

“Okay,” he said, and then he destroyed the glass of the window before scooping her into his arms, and jumping out.

Her heart nearly pounded through her chest as she hung from him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, and screaming into his ear. She had remembered this much about the island on the way in if nothing else. Indeed, only the basement was below ground, but then, the ground around the first floor dropped off into a cliff, allowing escapists to fall to their doom or they were gunned down before falling to their doom.

When she looked up at Luffy however, he was unafraid - even smiling into the wind lashing at them - as they began to plummet, and she started to smile too. He reached out to grab the roots of a tree hanging out of the side of the cliff, and as Luffy's arm stretched down with them, their descent slowed until they were hovering a few meters above the bottom. Releasing the root, his arm snapped back into place, and they fell down the rest of the way. Still pressed against him, Nami swallowed her lungs - as they had leapt out into her mouth during the fall - and said, “Luffy.”

“Huh?”

She punched the top of his head, sending his face into the dirt, “Don't ever do that again!” Dropping to her knees, she yanked his head out by his elastic neck, and said, “You've already risked everything else. You don't have to risk me with you!”

“Nami,” he said, “does that mean you missed me too?”

Quavering, she hugged him tightly before she pulled back with a nod, “Let's get out of here.”

“Okay!” Luffy pumped a bloody fist into the air before he got onto his bare feet, and jogged down to the dock.

Trailing after him, she checked the vicinity for Marines, and then looked at her log pose before she determined that it hadn't changed just yet. She then pointed to a small ship near the end of the dock as they approached, “I'll get that one, okay? You just make sure no one gets in the way.”

“All right,” he said, and she saw that his grin was still there as he sped up, knocking and slinging aside the sailors that attempted to assault them.

Doing her best to stay out of Luffy's range, Nami reached down to pick up a sword from a fallen Marine, and then cut the boat loose from its moor to the dock before she jumped inside. Checking the sides, she pulled the crank for the anchor, and lifted it from the ocean floor. Just as she turned, she found herself facing a Marine that had followed her onboard.

“Luffy!” She brandished the sword she had taken, feeling ridiculously like Zolo, and tried not to picture herself using his three-sword style.

“Oooh! Nami, you look cool!” Nami wilted when she heard Luffy's happy voice, and she glanced up to see him sitting on the boat's cabin, “You look just like Zolo!”

Snapping, she pointed the sword at him, “Luffy! Get rid of this guy! We're leaving!”

Again, Luffy's smile seemed to grow wider than the sea, and the moment that Marine saw him advancing, he appeared to rethink his position before he leapt out of the boat by himself. Luffy pouted, crossing his arms as he watched him swim away, “Aw, that's no fun.”

“We don't have time for fun,” she said, tossing the sword away. “Push off! We're going back!”

“Wait, Nami,” he said, and she looked at him strangely.

“Luffy, we need to hurry, and get away from the island so we can still get back.”

“It'll just take a second,” Luffy said, and then he bent down to kiss her lips, still grinning when he pulled back and saw her rapidly heating cheeks. “Now we can go.”

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Heso! Believe it or not, but I was so far along in writing this chapter that when I read catho and onepiece fanatic's reviews, I got confused because I forgot that I left the last chapter on a cliffhanger! It seems that the last chapter helped clear through the gunk in my head, and I just … started writing. So … this is a slightly longer chapter for you guys! The end is coming though, so … two or three more chapters to go? We'll see. Thank you for all your awesome reviews!

nonmember: Heso! Thanks so much for taking the time to review! Much appreciated.

kage karasu: Aw, you didn't say heso … XP Heso! Thanks so much! It's nice to hear that you still enjoy how the story's going.

onepiece fanatic: Heso! Indeed, it is evil, but now everything's almost better, and … another person that didn't say heso!

catho: XP I'm sorry, but you're a very amusing emotional person. You're one of my favorites, I think. Ack! You didn't say heso! … Heso!

Gabe Logan: Ah! You didn't say `heso!' …… :D Oh, well, I'll live. Thanks for the luck and the review! Heso!

wheathermangohanssj4: Heso! On the contrary, I have every right! But! Luckily, for you, I figured out what I'm going to be doing for the rest of the crew, and the cliffhanger idea isn't it. It's nice to know that Nami's character is okay though. I was really agonizing over her. Thanks for the review!

overlord: Yeah, I figured a bit of a break was needed before the ending … Not that this is the end. Oh, no! Not just yet - it's not over! Heso! Thanks for reviewing!

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