One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Sitting on the Waves ❯ Battle Plans ( Chapter 9 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

ONE PIECE
SITTING ON THE WAVES
CHAPTER 9
BY
Sgamer82

     In a private room in the Chibi no Mi nursery, little Nami awoke. There was no bump on her head from Huncaza’s knocking her out. After all, technically, that injury hadn’t happened to her yet. There was no tattoo on her left shoulder, nor should there be. However, there was a scared little girl who had no clue where she was.

     Leda walked in just as Nami was starting to cry. She managed to calm the girl down easily enough. This was something she encountered often in this work.

     “It’s okay, little one.” she cooed, “You’re safe.”

     “Where am I?” Nami asked.

     “This is the Chibi no Mi Nursery.” Leda answered.

     “Nursery?” Nami suddenly huffed, “But I’m not a baby!”

     Leda had to laugh a little. No matter how many times children did that it was always the most adorable thing to Leda. Truth be told, it was the reason she kept the word “nursery” in the orphanage’s name.

     “Of course you’re not.” Leda said, “This place is an orphanage. There are lots of kids here, several are older than you.”

     “But… I’m not an orphan.” Nami said.

     “No, but you were lost.” Leda explained, “You were found asleep in the forest just outside.”

     Nami was confused. Why wasn’t she at Cocoyashi village? Where was her big sister, Nojiko? Where was her Mama, Belmeil?

     “You needn’t worry, Nami. I’ll make sure you get home as soon as I can. For now, I’d like you to enjoy yourself here. All right?”

     Nami thought about it. This lady seemed nice enough. Besides, there really wasn’t much else she could do. She held out her hand.

     “Okay.” she said hesitantly.

     “Wonderful!” Leda said with a smile. She introduced herself to Nami, took her hand, and led her out to another room in the building.

     The orphanage consisted of a small number of rooms. One was Leda’s personal bedroom. Another couple had bunks for the children who lived there. There were two bathrooms. And there was the room Nami had just come into.

     A large main room with small tables set up on one side where about two dozen or so kids both older and younger than five-year-old Nami were eating breakfast. Some of the older kids, in their early to mid teens, seemed to be helping with the smaller kids, helping feed the ones who were too little to feed themselves without a huge mess.

     Nami was led to a seat between two girls around her own age. She was real hungry and dug right into the meal. Afterwards, she got to enjoy drawing with some paper and wax crayons Leda had brought out for the children to play with. She had a little difficulty thinking of what to draw. After looking around the room though, she got an idea. She drew a few squares here and a few designs there…

     “My goodness, what have you got there, Nami?” Leda asked cheerfully. She had seen Nami very focused and wondered what she was drawing. Nami held up her masterpiece.

     “It’s a map!”

     Leda was amazed. She had been watching Nami and had seen her look up from the table only two or three times. But the drawing in her hand was near-perfect. If it weren’t in crayon, you’d think it was a genuine map of the room. From the locations of the doors, to the tables and toy boxes. Leda even thought she saw what looked suspiciously like a compass rose in the corner.

     “I can’t wait ‘til I get home!” Nami said excitedly, “I’m gonna show it t’ my Mama Belmeil an’ my big sister!”

     “Your sister?” Leda asked, “I didn’t know you had a sister.”

     “Yep! Her name’s Nojiko! She’s three years older ‘n me! Sometimes she picks on me, but usually she’s real nice.”

     Leda listened to Nami talk about her sister. She wasn’t sure what to think. Huncaza hadn’t told her anything about a sister. She was told her adopted mother had been the only family Nami had growing up. It and her story had been why she had been willing to use her Era-Era powers on the girl.

     Huncaza had told Leda that Nami had been abandoned by the people of her own village at the age of ten, shortly after being forced into servitude under the pirate Arlong the Saw. When Monkey D. Luffy defeated Arlong, Huncaza had told her, he had demanded Nami as the payment for his services. Trapped in such a life, Leda couldn’t stand by and allow the girl to suffer.

     But, if Huncaza lied about a sister, what else was a lie? * * * * *

     Zoro was bleeding from his right arm. Fortunately the bullet just grazed him so the wound wasn’t serious. What was serious was how the wound had been inflicted. The gunshot had come from behind them, hit Luffy, then grazed Zoro after Luffy’s rubber body made it rebound.

     At first, Zoro believed it was nothing more than a lucky shot. But then two more shots rang out, hitting Luffy and bouncing towards Zoro. He barely dodged them. Now Zoro was worried. Was whomever was shooting at them intentionally ricocheting bullets off of Luffy?

     “Zoro! Where’d those come from?!” Luffy asked. Bullets couldn’t harm Luffy, but all the same he didn’t like getting shot.

     “I don’t know.” Zoro replied as he pulled his three swords and readied for battle, “It was from behind us, but beyond that I don’t know.”

     A sounded along the path. Another shot sounded out and hit Luffy in the chest. Zoro wasn’t able to dodge the bounce off Luffy’s body and took a hit in the side.

     “Hya hya hya! What do you think of my marksmanship, Mr. Roronoa?”

     “You’re aim sucks! Your bullets can’t even hurt me!” Luffy yelled out.

     “But they can hurt your friend.”

     That clinched it, whoever this person was, he was aiming every shot.

     “Where are you?!” Zoro demanded.

     “You don’t honestly expect me to say?” said the voice, which sounded much like a young man, barely Luffy‘s age.

     “Fine then, what do you want?” Zoro asked.

     “Your head.”

     A bounty hunter.

     “I also wish to see which of our weapons is superior, Mr. Roronoa. So many people wield swords today. Even though firearms are getting more and more powerful. Why hang on to old relics? Is there something about them I just don’t see? Why don’t we have at it, Mr. Roronoa, and learn whether swords or guns are truly superior? What do you say?”

     “Luffy?” Luffy gave Zoro a nod, “Fine, then, I accept your challenge!”

     “Luffy!̶ 1; another voice called. Usopp jumped out of the west side of the woods.

     “Luffy! We think we know who changed Nami into a kid!”

     “What?” Luffy and Zoro asked together.

     “We think it’s Leda! The lady from the orphanage! But there’s more! It’s all a trap! Sanji’s fighting as we speak!”

     Usopp was interrupted by a gunshot which hit Luffy and hit the ground by Usopp’s foot. This caused Usopp to jump back about three feet.

     “As you can see, we already know that!” Zoro told Usopp. Before they could go further though, someone came out of the east end of the forest. Zoro stood ready to attack but let up when he saw it was Chopper.

     “Let me guess.” Usopp said upon seeing Chopper, “It’s a trap and Robin’s fighting?”

     “Wow! That’s amazing!” Chopper said, awed, “How did you know without my saying a word!”

     “A great man like me always knows when danger is afoot! I couldn’t be a Great Warrior of the Sea otherwise!”

     “Oooh!” ;

     “Save it!” Zoro called out, “The others need help. We have to finish up here before we-- Luffy! Wait!!”

     Luffy wasn’t listening. He was already running down the path to the Chibi no Mi, to Nami.

     “Luffy! We gotta go! Sanji’s being attacked by a bunch of huge guys!” Usopp called.

     “Robin’s already been hurt!” Chopper yelled.

     “We gotta get to Nami! The others can take care of themselves!”

     He was right. Both Sanji and Robin were fully capable. They were in danger, but more than likely, even hurt or outnumbered, they could handle it. However, Nami’s situation was completely unknown, and with her regressed body and mind, she could easily get herself into more danger than she could handle. But neither Zoro, Usopp, nor Chopper felt right leaving Sanji and Robin, or Luffy for that matter, alone.

     “Chopper!” Zoro called, “Go after the cook! If he’s outnumbered, you’ll be the most help there!”

     “But Robin…”

     “I’l l go after Robin!” Usopp volunteered. “I’ll rescue her and we’ll go after Luffy when we’re done! Go and help Sanji!”

     Chopper nodded an affirmative. He could count on Usopp.

     “Good!” Zoro affirmed, “This sharpshooter challenged me, alone. So don’t worry about me. Go!”

     Chopper went west as Usopp went east. Luffy headed north, towards the orphanage. Zoro turned towards the south, towards the direction his adversary’s gunshots had come from.

* * * * *

     Up north, Huncaza listened as the sound of Tirsni’s gunshots carried up the path. He turned to the orphanage, where the sound of children playing was surely drowning out the noise from so far away.

     The shooting was the signal. “Straw Hat” Luffy would be here anytime now. He took a small pellet out of his pocket and casually made his way to a window of the orphanage. With a flick of his thumb, the pellet went into the building.

     This will slow our little Monkey down a bit.