Chapter Text
In the palace of Alabasta, Pell raises his arm to receive a large, star-marked bird.
Guards follow along, alarmed by the presence of an unidentified avian-- but Pell waves them aside. The little chimp around its neck delivers them a letter-- and Pell’s eyes widen at the familiar lock of hair around its binding.
Quickly, he sends the bird on its way-- it was not a patient sort, Pell can tell. It will certainly not deliver a return message -- and rushes to the throne room.
“Your majesty! King Cobra, it’s dire news!”
The doors are closed and the messages are silent.
“It’s Vivi-sama! She’s sent us a letter on everything she and Igaram-dono found out!”
“Ace! Ace, look how cool she is! Nami’s got a metal arm!”
“I know, Luffy.”
“Be more amazed about it! Nami is so cool!”
Luffy has been trying to emphasize on the charm and wonder of his awesome crewmate for the past hour, but Ace just isn’t impressed enough to satisfy him.
Luffy is very, very miffed. He’s gotten to the point where he’s bragging about his talking reindeer for the third time. At some point, Luffy began brooding in the corner, and Sanji had to begrudgingly walk up to him to apologize for not being impressive enough to brag about.
(Then Luffy began bragging about his fighting chef, and the cycle went on.)
(It took a while to make Luffy stop, Chopper resorting to distracting their captain with some of the things in Usopp’s box of inventions.)
-
“Purupurupurupuru…”
“Kachack!”
Nami picks up the Transponder Snail.
“Belle’s Tangerines, how may I help you?”
Eyes turn to her, and Nami raises a finger, indicating for everyone to be completely silent. They’re all stuffing their faces, Thatch and Sanji exchanging recipes in the kitchen as Ace marvels at the mutiny leaderboard.
“Hello, this is Pop Greens. I’m calling to confirm that I’ve received my parcel,” Usopp speaks through, “I was devastated to hear it got lost in the shipment, but the contents arrived in pristine condition. We will be forwarding the parcel to our beneficiary from here, and will contact you for any further enquiries.”
Nami smiles wryly, “we apologize for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your continued patronage. There is a waitlist as our house is full, but the line will remain open.”
“Speaking of which, I’ve heard there’s a dust storm coming through your area. Do take care not to inhale too much smoke.”
Nami chuckles, “I appreciate your concern. It’s not too severe upwind where we are. Our bread’s baked fresh from the oven, and it came out perfectly fine.”
“You sure it’s not the fire from your oven causing all the smog in the first place?”
Nami laughs. “Maybe!”
She hangs up.
“Bread?” Luffy asks, turning his attention from the tart in his hands, “where? Sanji, we’ve got bread?!”
“Where? I can’t smell any!” Chopper says, running up to Sanji in confusion.
Sanji almost feels bad that he has to break it to them that there’s no bread in the oven.
“Looks like Vivi and Zoro have successfully met up with Usopp, and they’re headed to the Rebel Base right now,” she reports. “And it looks like Smoker-san is here in Alabasta with us as well.”
Gin and Anne lift their heads at that.
“Coded conversation, huh,” Sanji observes. Nami and Usopp had gone about it so casually-- it was almost flawless. “You seem quite accustomed to it.”
Nami nods at that.
“In the Grand Line, Den Den Mushi are almost perpetually tapped,” Thatch explains. “It’s alway better to keep sensitive information out of the phone conversation. By the way, am I supposed to be the bread?”
“Am I supposed to be the oven?” Ace mutters, then, “shit. I did cause the smog.”
Nami chuckles at that. “Enough. Let’s talk business.”
Sanji washes the dishes while Nami and the Whitebeards sit at the table, talking over tea. Gin and Anne are with Carue outside, manning the ship’s course.
“You dropped by Drum, so I’m sure you know-- but Teach is loose, so watch out for him. He might hold a grudge.”
“Why were you guys looking for him anyways?”
“Well, we’re just making sure he doesn’t get any damn ideas.”
Nami frowns a little at that. She already knows this much from the Buggy line, but that’s fair-- she’s no longer an acting member of the Whitebeards, so she shouldn’t be sharing information lines as well.
“I appreciate the warning, but I can take care of myself. I have a new Captain now,” Nami pouts, cheeks puffed up in annoyance.
“That’s right!” Luffy says, slightly annoyed, pointing at them with a pseudo-fishing rod-looking thing, “I'm not giving her back!”
Ace sighs, “we’re not stealing her from you, Luffy, chill.”
“You better not!”
Nami smiles warmly at that. “So? How did Teach escape you guys anyway? You didn’t deal with him?”
To which Thatch raises a confused eyebrow. “What exactly did you expect us to do? He dueled Ace for the right to leave and well, he won. So Oyaji let him leave.”
“I didn’t lose!” Ace snaps.
Thatch shrugs at that. “He didn’t get the fruit, though. That’s what you wanted, right?”
Nami groans into her palm.
“...yes, that was ideal,” she admits. She was wondering why Blackbeard was free even after sending Aladine to the Whitebeards…
(For denizens of the future, it would be common sense to deal with Teach early. Permanently-- completely, fully.)
(He caused too much trouble, chased too much fire, and ruined too many things.)
(But for people of the present, Teach was nothing more than a selfish bastard.)
(He did not kill a comrade. He did not commit mutiny.)
(He simply lost his goal in that Devil Fruit, and thus, demanded to leave the Whitebeards. He had every right to leave, even in their terrible terms and the shaky breakup.)
(If Nami had gone personally, would they have been able to kill Teach? No one knows.)
“Go with the flow and try not to die, I guess,” she mutters to herself, her words only barely heard by the others in the room.
“Well, we were just keeping an eye out,” Ace says, “good thing, I think he just barely missed you guys. Try changing courses after this, though.”
“I know, I know,” Nami waves them off, “it’s not my choice, but I’ll do what I can.”
“What’s this about changing courses?” Luffy asks, “we need to go somewhere else?”
Nami simply taps at her Log Pose. “No-- it’s just that if we continue on this path, someone following us might be able to trace our next destination.”
“EHH?!”
“Wait, really?!” Gin slams the door open in alarm. Look at the eavesdropping piece of shit forgetting how to be subtle. “No wonder you guys knew where we were!”
“That, and we just listened to the radio.”
“...the radio?”
“Ace, that’s top secret information.”
“Oh. Forget I said it, then.”
“Oh, come on!” Gin throws his arms into the air. “You cannot be serious!”
“By the way, is someone supposed to be listening in on us under the deck with a knife?”
“Ah, that’s Anne. Don’t mind her.”
Sanji groans. “So we are being chased by something? It’s not Whitebea-- Whitebread, but it’s still Nami-san’s fault, right?”
“Sanji, why did you correct yourself to the wrong name?”
Sanji simply lifts Nami’s pin to the top of the board. “Back to the top with you, then.”
“Oh come on !”
“Oh god, that thing is hilarious. ”
“I was actually wondering, how is your ship not the last on the ranking?”
“Luffy fell off the figurehead,” Chopper says. “His wounds were all from being run over by the keel and then he somehow got caught in the rudder, so we counted it as Merry’s.”
“And Luffy’s rank goes up when we have no one to blame it on.”
“And the doctor?”
“Luffy ate something he shouldn’t have. It’s Chopper’s fault for leaving it somewhere Luffy can reach it.”
“But Luffy can reach everywhere .”
“Exactly.”
Thatch gapes. “What sort of insane situation do you need to blame something on Luffy himself, then?”
Everyone made the most annoyed grimace, looking away in unison.
Fortunately for Thatch, no one answered him.
Ace bursts out laughing at that. If Luffy looked very irritated by that and started climbing all over Ace in his childish attempt to get back at him, no one else cared enough to tell him to behave.
“Speaking of knowing information on a line we weren’t aware of,” Thatch immediately prompts, voice liting in a way to draw more attention to his change of topic, “Nami?”
Nami cringes .
“Oh, not so fast now!” Ace slams his hand on the table before the girl can stand up and quietly leave. “ Nami ,” he says, smiling in a stiff, horrifically strained way, “I would like to know about the, well, guest , you invited onto our ship.”
Ah.
Nami chuckles nervously.
“First of all… how much do you know?” Ace leans in, his questions getting louder with each one that comes in succession, “about everything. How much are you still hiding, and how the hell did you find out any of it?”
“And why you did it, why at that specific time, and why these specific people in particular,” Thatch adds. It seems like they spent the better of their journey listing the questions they were going to hound Nami with. “And,” before he forgets, “what else you plan on doing.”
Nami grows paler with each question, and by the penultimate one, her flight or fight meter was highly tuned to the ‘F U C K’ zone.
His questions make her crew lift their heads curiously.
Evidently, a few weeks of being left in an obvious dark has worn down on the crew’s patience, and Sanji’s lack of deterrence for Ace’s interrogation is a testament to that.
“Nami, I swear, if you give us another cryptid clue Marco might just lose the last of his hair,” Thatch says, “what else did you learn-- is it how you found us in the first place? Who’s your source, and why did you never tell us about it when we were sailing?”
“Did you already know this when you were sailing with us? Or was it later than that?”
“Is it an information source you can’t talk to Oyaji about?”
“It’s not just who’s your source it’s how’s your source,” Ace groans, “it makes no sense how you would know things I don’t know about myself!”
“Sanji, save me,” Nami immediately says.
Sanji opens the door, taking out a cigarette. “I’m sorry, Nami-san, but I think you should just listen to your big brothers today.”
“I agree,” Chopper reports, quietly picking up a paper explosive and leaving the room, closing the chest of inventions as he goes.
Luffy just laughs, following them out. “Good luck, Nami!” and then the door closes.
Nami might just cry.
-
Nami runs out of the galley and buries her face right into Anne.
The younger girl was too busy being surprised by the sudden affection to react with a warning stab. But Nami nuzzled in so earnestly, she missed her chance either way.
“Seriously, why’re you so desperate to not say anything?” Thatch says, following her out. Behind him, Sanji notes that Ace had fallen asleep facefirst on the table. Luffy sees it too and beams , hurrying toward the cartography room for some reason. He comes back with a marker.
“Please, just take my word for it and believe it won’t be used egregiously?” Nami pleaded, hiding behind Anne fully now.
“At least tell me who else knows sensitive information.”
“I don’t know who else knows!” That’s a lie, “you know the code with information lines.”
“Nami, the Whitebeards are only not in contact with one information line and I don’t want to think you made contact with fucking Joker ,” Thatch emphasizes, “I’m just worried for you, alright? Don’t bite off more than you can chew.”
“I’ll be fine!”
“Yes, Nami, I trust you will be,” Thatch clarifies. “I just don’t trust the people you’ll come in contact with in the future.”
Nami makes this groaning noise into Anne’s back.
It was awkward, being stuck between the two as they argued. Gin pondered on interfering, but Sanji was already keeping an eye on them.
Meanwhile, there’s a loud shriek in the kitchen before Luffy screams bloody murder, scrambling high hell out of the room with Ace literally hot on his heels.
“CHARYBDIS UP MY ARSE! LUFFY!”
And fire and rubber churn across the deck in a mess of limbs and expletives and screams of pain. Luffy had apparently decided to play a game of find-the-constellations along Ace’s freckles, and he’d been caught red-handed.
Muttering a chain of tart curses, Sanji goes after them, hoping those flames wouldn’t sear the deck. Gin calls for Anne’s help, and the girl quickly excuses herself.
Thatch and Nami are left, still two meters between each other-- and the man hasn’t been distracted in the least. He doesn’t even spare a moment to entertain the ridiculous situation. Doesn’t take a moment to make fun of Ace-- so Nami knew then that she couldn’t get out of this willy-nilly.
“It’s me,” Nami says.
Thatch’s brows furrow just a little.
“I don’t have a source-- I’m the source,” Nami elaborates. “When I first met you guys, I was just a girl, a reckless rookie trying to save my island. You trusted me, but I lacked seniority or proof-- that’s why I never told you guys.”
And when she smiles, the curves are strained and it doesn’t reach her eyes.
Thatch finally breaks eye contact, sighing into his collar with an expression that could only be interpreted as sheer, undeterred disappointment .
“So you’re saying, you won’t tell us the details now either-- because you still don’t think we trust you enough? Because you don’t trust us to trust you?”
Nami fights the urge to deny it.
(Because he’s right.)
(The only people Nami can truly trust in this world-- they’re scarce. She loved them-- would die for them and run across the seas for them-- but she cannot give them this.)
(She cannot give them the power to topple the balance, because right now-- it’s the only edge she, and the rest of the time travelers, have against the world.)
(If she shared the information carelessly-- they could lose it as a weapon.)
Finally, Thatch huffs, hands on his hips as his face twists to a scowl .
“Oh come the hell on, Nami!” he snaps, and all motion on deck stops. “You’re seriously selling us so short like that? After all this time?” Nami tenses sharply, shoulder bracing as Thatch fiercely, powerfully steps forward--
--and wraps her in a hug.
“For such a bright girl, you’re such a fucking idiot.”
(Huh?)
“How am I supposed to stay mad at you when you look like you’re going to cry?” Thatch holds her close-- cradled her head, and makes sure she feels secure in his arms. “You’re not talking to an enemy, you know?”
Nami chews on the inner lining of her lip. “It’d be easier on me if you just got mad.”
“Well thank goodness, absolutely not,” Thatch says. “Look, Nami-- it’s okay if we’re not the first ones you turn to when you’re in trouble. That’s not the intention in our relationship, and we definitely aren’t going to monopolize you when you leave,” he tells her. “But you can’t just forget we’re on the list. And we don’t care what you do, what you hide, or where you come from--”
He stops there, but Nami picks it up.
“--Oyaji will split the seas to save me if I need his help,” she says. “I know.”
(Did she really?)
“I don’t need help,” she breathes out, shoulders easing in a way to recompose herself, and just a little-- she leans into the hug, her arms coming up to return it as tugs on the back of his coat. “I’m fine.”
This time, Thatch is the one that breathes out deeply.
“Liar,” he says, “you haven’t been fine since the day we met you.”
(You’ve always been there, trying your hardest with all that weight on your shoulders.)
(And we’ve always been waiting here, for you to ask for a shoulder to cry on-- but you never asked for it.)
(We’re still waiting.)
“It’s fine if you never tell us,” Thatch says. “It’s okay if you leave us in the dark, we’ll still love you all the same. But we don’t want you to be alone when you cry.”
Nami isn’t crying.
But she buries her eyes into Thatch’s shoulder, and neither mentions it when they come away damp.
No one mentions how the rest of the Strawhats have gone quiet, and were all subtly looking away, pretending not to see as well.
-
“Thanks, Ace. Tell Triangle Chin that for me too?”
The older brother whirled around in alarm.
“And when did you learn manners?” he asks, flabbergasted. He can’t take the sincerity too seriously when Luffy’s face is still splattered with ink and scribbled over with permanent marker.
Maybe that green paint the little painter girl used just now was messing with his younger brother…
“No, seriously!” Luffy says, irritated. “I can be polite when I want to, okay?!”
“Oh my god, this is so weird. Are you feeling okay, Lu?”
“Stop making fun of me!”
They pick up their cups of tea, Ace in particular perusing the green symbol at the back of his palm as he does so-- and settle into relative comfort on the crow’s nest.
“I’m talking about Nami,” Luffy finally elaborates. His voice is uncharacteristically dull-doned, and his spirits are a little lower than Ace remembered him to be. “She and Usopp are always like that.”
Ace pauses mid-sip, but continues.
(This means, simply enough-- that Nami does have a comrade after all.)
“She doesn’t tell any of us anything,” Luffy says. It’s not as if he would’ve asked for it anyways, “and she always seems so sad about it.”
Ace mused on that. Luffy would definitely be the first to take note of people’s emotional states. What surprised him here-- was that he didn’t do anything, even knowing.
(Why, he wonders.)
“Nami’s your nakama , right?”
Luffy nods. Of course she is. “But…” he slumps into his arms, pouting just a little, “sometimes, when she looks at me… it’s like she’s looking at someone else.”
Luffy was definitely not the sort you could call ‘insightful’. But he knew things-- and he was thoughtful. He rarely put it into words-- but if there was someone that could empathize better than anyone else in the world-- it was Luffy.
“At first, I thought it was that Whitebread guy,” he says, “but it’s different.”
Almost, Ace can hear it.
(Nami’s lonely, but Luffy knows he’s not capable of filling in that void.)
(And the thought crushes him.)
“Nami and Usopp are strong,” Luffy says. “Of course they are. All my nakama are strong. But Nami and Usopp are different. I don’t… feel like I’m their captain, sometimes.”
Ace’s breath holds. He had been a captain himself, but never would he ever be brave enough to admit such a thing.
( “Am I a captain worth following?” is a concern all leaders have. But “I feel like they deserve better,” is a thought no captain should be forced to feel.)
It’s an inevitable question.
Nami is a pirate hailing in the standards of the New World-- famed and notorious. And this crew is decked out in similarly notorious names, from Pirate Hunter to Man Demon, the biggest names in the East.
(The pressure a man must feel, to lead all these big names on his thin, rubber shoulders.)
Ace brings him arms around Luffy, leaning in close so the sides of their heads touch.
“Maybe you should tell her about it,” he says. Then, with a short chuckle, “she’s a girl, but she’s strong. You can punch her once and tell her that you want her to stop being so sad, you know? You’re captain, after all. Your authority is highest.”
Luffy snickers at that. “But Nami’s punches hurt, so it might be tough.”
“Yes, but it’ll feel better once you’ve fought about it once, right?” Ace says, and Luffy agrees readily.
(If he had been Sabo, he would be suggesting a mature conversation, not a brawl.)
(But it’s the only way Ace and Luffy have ever honestly communicated-- and sometimes, it’s what works. If punching is what it takes to make your tears be heard-- then that should be it. There’s no shame in being a bunch of emotionally constipated morons together.)
Luffy leans into Ace’s arms, gently rubbing against the crossed-out S engraved into the skin-- and for a while, they simply reminisced.
-
They’re almost at the shores of Erumalu when Ace and Thatch get ready to leave. Tossing Luffy a thick paper, Ace smiles.
“Leaving so soon?”
“Yeah, this was just a clock-in to make sure you were doing alright,” Thatch says. “Teach doesn’t have the Yami-Yami no Mi, but he’s still pretty dangerous. So don’t fight him, alright?”
“No promises.”
The rest of the crew snort at the rather honest answer from Nami.
“That paper will allow us to meet again,” Ace says, “it’s called a Vivire Card, and well-- Nami can explain the rest to you, I guess.”
“It’s just a blank piece of paper, though?”
“Don’t want it?”
“I’m keeping it.”
Luffy peruses it with a confused demeanor, but he doesn’t let Anne take it when the girl glances curiously toward it. Even if it seemed like strange scrap paper, Luffy evidently held any sort of gift as a treasure of their own kind.
“Well, good luck staging your uh, coup. Crocodile’s a tricky one to fight,” Thatch says. “We’ll be heading home. Come visit us someday.”
“You sure you don’t wanna join us Whitebeards?”
“Absolutely NOT!” Luffy snaps immediately, and Ace’s words fade away into laughter.
Hat on his head and a smile on his face, Ace says his goodbye with words of a worried brother and a hopeful bid to meet again on the blue sea.
Thatch even ruffles Nami’s hair a little, complimenting her dancer costume (and earning shy word of gratitude before immediately receiving a kick to the shin,) before hopping down to the Striker.
“Ah, before I forget,” Ace turns back, briefly remembering something, “by the way, Luffy-- Sabo’s alive.”
There’s a moment where the world seemed to stop for a second. The clouds didn’t seem to move, the wind didn’t seem to travel-- it was just a confused stare, a blink-- and then:
“...Huh?”
“Like I said,” Ace says, turning to face his brother, rucksack slung over his shoulder, “Sabo’s alive. He’s busy with work right now, but he says he’ll come meet you as soon as he’s done picking something up? Dunno with that guy. But yeah.”
Luffy sputters for a second, “Huh?!” Then, when Ace just raises a brow, Luffy snaps to Nami and goes, slack-jawed eyes wide and tongue somewhere the hell else, “HUH?!”
Nami has to turn away and desperately transform her laughter into fake coughs.
“Well, you’ll meet him someday.”
“Wait, Ace! WAIT!” Luffy lunges but fails to catch his brother when he hops off and lands on the Striker, “you’re just gonna leave?! HEY!”
Ace grins. “Oh, and he ate a Devil’s Fruit too, so don’t throw him into the ocean or anything! You can ask him all about it next time you meet him.”
This time, Nami is immediately wrenched from her laughter right into the gallery of horrified faces, “wait! He ate a-- is that what happened to the-- ACE COME BACK AND EXPLAIN THIS!”
Instead of a response, all they can hear is laughter and the churn of flames as the Striker zooms away across the sea.
“Goddammit, ACE!”
-
-
Usopp hangs up and sighs.
“So,” He turns to the very out-of-breath Zoro and the half-sobbing Vivi, who was already on her knees and never wanting to do this again, “need a break? Kinoko found this neat nananut juice stall a little east of here, and I’ve already bought three before you guys managed to make it here.”
“Be q--” Zoro tries to maul Usopp, but the sniper dodges, and Zoro has to take another moment to catch his breath again before hacking up his words, “quiet, you arse.”
“There was so much sand everywhere… I know Alabasta is huge, but I can’t believe I got lost on my own home island…” Vivi whimpers tearfully, struggling to compose herself, “for a second, I thought we were going to end up in Alubarna…”
(...by walking along the port?!)
“No no, don’t worry about that, Vivi,” Usopp quickly assures her, “it’s definitely not your fault. Zoro is just a monster.”
“Oh fuck you, Usopp!”
Next time, Usopp might have to ask Kinoko to lead them around. She might make a better guide bird for Zoro, instead of him.
Seemingly sensing his intentions, Kinoko plucked at Usopp’s ear in retaliation, earning a mindless swat and a half-hearted sort of apology.
Usopp is handed new clothes, and Kinoko is given a new little cap to match. There's a distinct ruffle of clothing as everyone seems to get settled in their new robes, weapons tucked carefully away.
“We need to meet with the Rebel forces first,” Vivi says, tugging her hood over her head. The seastone bangle-- which, apparently, became Vivi’s weapon at some point-- hung around her wrist.
Usopp picks up his walking stick, and they begin to move. It’s systematic, the way they don’t question why or how Usopp knows the way-- if anything Vivi was tempted to make a comment on trusting him more than Zoro, but she kept it to herself.
Kinoko takes flight, rounding their supposed destination overhead before descending nearby. Usopp knew exactly where she landed each time, making slow progress forward to follow her road after road, alley after alley.
Vivi and Zoro don’t say a thing.
Sternly, they keep an eye out. True to their suspicions, they were being stared right back. The stench of Katorean perfume filled the air, not too pungent but just enough to barely mask the hollow, grainy scent of gunpowder Zoro instinctively recognized.
-
“You can’t get lost from here,” Usopp says, abruptly coming to a stop. “Vivi-- there are Baroque Works agents within the Rebel Army as well. Be careful, alright?”
And then he turns away, taking a clear right turn while Zoro continued to take forward strides. Vivi hurriedly catches up, a question at her throat but unable to voice them in fear of the eyes around them coming too close.
“Wait, why are we splitting up!” she hisses, warily eyeing Kinoko’s new direction and trying not to act too panicked-- she turns, but Usopp’s already gone.
(How did he disappear so quickly?)
“Usopp’s weapons aren’t made for short-ranged battle,” Zoro simply says, moving on unfazed. “Let the blind bastard go wherever the hell he wants.”
“Emphasis on the ‘blind’ part,” Vivi sighs, then, “wrong way!” she grinds her teeth, grabbing him very firmly by the wrists, and quickly moving so their hands were firmly intertwined.
Zoro balks, first at the invasion of space then at the extra warmth as Vivi worms her fingers through his, making it harder to tear away. “What?!”
Vivi doesn’t look the least bit embarrassed. “If this is what it takes to not get lost again, I will be willing to spare some dignity for the sake of my sanity.”
Zoro was very, very miffed by her sheer gall, but there was nothing he could do except try and hide his face while Vivi dragged him forward like a very demanding little sister.
-
Smoker wasn’t one to stalk quietly, (he preferred confrontation,) but Vivi’s presence had piqued his interest just a little too much.
When Fire Fist led the Strawhats to the shore and they began to sail away-- Smoker deemed them a lost cause and inevitably found himself following the two that split away-- Roronoa, and the supposed missing princess of the country.
Now, he stood by the roofs, just out of sight-- watching them go by slowly.
Hey, he could be subtle when he wanted to.
And then, his attention was drawn away by the longnose they convened with-- his walking stick indicating a blind man, his Haki solid-- wielded with confidence.
(Haki was rare enough in Paradise-- much less someone that used it to establish his own position in a crowd. Smoker could feel it-- this man didn’t need to spill his haki in this manner. He was doing it on purpose-- to keep the weak-minded instinctively away from him and clear his path.)
(It was like looking at Issho.)
(This was a man that had seen , and now sees without. He looked Nami’s age-- and presumably, was also part of that crew. It made Smoker grimace at the thought.)
Tashigi was heading the rest of the troops, so he couldn’t split his own forces. So when the longnose decided to part ways with the other two, Smoker knew he had to decide one to follow now, or--
The tap of a walking stick behind him makes him jump -- but before he could whirl around with his jutte-- Usopp was there, a hand at his elbow, holding his back mid-swing.
“Are you really going to attack a defenseless, disabled boy, Captain Smoker?” Usopp challenges, smiling mildly.
Soru.
Fuck, that was definitely Soru.
Smoker tries not to let his own haki flare up too briskly.
“I know better than to trust a blind man acting innocent,” he says instead. Issho was one hell of a spartan when people looked down on his sight, after all. “I don’t trust a pirate that confidently approaches a Marine.”
(Nami, Ace, and this one, too-- being able to strike casual conversation with someone in a Marine coat is the sign of a veteran fighter.)
Usopp pouts, stepping back just a little-- Soru -ed just out of reach as Smoker swipes at him with his jutte-- and poised his walking stick before him.
Smoker stood straight.
He could tell, from a glance-- that unlike with Nami-- this boy’s Observation Haki was superior to his own. It wasn’t some monstrous thing, Smoker could definitely take him in a fight, it just wouldn’t be worth the damage it might cause.
That’s why he was slightly relieved when Usopp didn’t try to attack.
“Can we talk?”
Well, that was honestly ideal.
Smoker allowed the other two to leave the range of his Haki-- and leaned back, taking a drag of his cigar as he faced the boy. Evidently already sensing his intentions, Usopp eased as well, a laugh escaping his throat.
“What a relief! I was scared shitless thinking about fighting you, man,” Usopp says, collapsing to his knees. “Ah, right. I’m sorry about all the trouble our Nami has caused for you, by the way.”
A curt little bow.
“Cut to the goddamn chase and just tell me what the hell you guys are doing here in Alabasta!” Smoker doesn't have a lot of patience, evidently. “And about the stupid phonecall we half-tapped while we’re at it!”
Usopp pouts, “not even gonna let me introduce myself? Rude.”
-
Kohza lifts his head at the foreign birdcall.
He’s not sure what species this is-- the colour was a little uncommon, so was the size-- but the armor-like contraptions it spotted were the signs of a domesticated upbringing. It definitely wasn’t local-- but his breath caught at the sight of a glinting object around its beak.
An earring-- just one, gold in the hoop and jade in its ornament.
“Kebi,” Kohza orders, sharp and quiet, “clear the meeting room and the entranceway. Now.”
His friend speaks up to chase an answer, but Kohza doesn’t entertain it. He steps forward, dismissing other questioning calls before lifting an arm-- meeting eyes firmly with the avian-- and allowing it to perch strongly against his arm.
Closer inspection confirmed his fears.
Gold and jade, the hoop engraved in the ancient script of Alabasta-- this was Vivi’s earring. One she wore only during the most official events and when she went missing, word went that the jewellery disappeared with her.
There was a letter sticking out of the bird’s pouch.
Kohza brings the bird into the hut-- Kebi had cleared the room, but now he was frowning really hard, expecting a very prompt explanation now-- but he didn’t know how to answer it.
All the letter said was I need to meet you, Leader. And, much more grimly, don’t trust too many people .
Ah, how much he wished for this to be a terrible dream.
“Guess who’s finally home,” he can’t suppress the resigned smile on his face, and Kebi finally shoves forward to get a look at the letter too.
The way his jaw drops straight down is honestly very amusing.
Kohza nods at the bird, quietly nodding for a coast clear before allowing the bird to fly off and lead their guests back into their tent.
Kebi hasn’t moved on from the ‘frozen shock still’ phase just yet, so Kohza has to whack him over the head with the heel of his palm. Kebi groans, but recomposes himself.
“Let’s see what sort of crazy our pain-in-the-ass princess took two years to find,” Kohza sighs, sitting down.
“Okay but like,” Kebi recovers very quickly, “I know you’re going to tell me I can’t set up the betting pool, but I just know the first thing she’ll do is break your damn nose.”
Kohza makes a non-committal, strangled-sounding noise, burying his face into his hands.
“I know. ”