One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Nest Egg ❯ The Call ( Chapter 1 )

     He had to send for her, there was no other choice.

     A man in his late forties moved quickly through a forest. He had, on his arm, a large bird. It was white, about the size of a pelican. It was an otherwise normal bird, except for the odd fact that it had its head twisted upside down. He needed it now to relay an important message.

     If what he heard was true, he had to act fast. He stopped when he reached a cliff overlooking the ocean. A large ship was approaching from the west. Seeing the ship’s sail, he realized that the rumors he‘d heard were true. There was no longer any time to waste.

     He held up the bird and perched it on a low tree branch that was nearby. From a pouch on his belt, he took out a second hourglass and put it into a bag tied around the bird’s chest. When he was sure the glasses were secure, he sent the bird off. It was trained to follow the object inside the hourglass. An object that very much resembled a compass needle. When all was secure, the man sent the bird away. It flew off, its upside down head giving it a perfect view of the Eternal Pose tied to its neck.

     He had to send for her, there was no other choice.

     It was a peaceful day at sea on the Going Merry. The crew listened while Nami, as always, argued with the bird that delivered her daily newspaper. As always, she was threatening to stop buying if the kept up their high prices. As always, she bought it anyway. And, as always, the crew started calling dibs on sections they wanted to read.

     Piece by piece, the crew divvied up Nami’s paper. Nami took the world events page and sat down on the deck chair set up by the bow of the ship. Nico Robin sat on a nearby chair with her paper. Unlike Nami, however, Robin preferred the local news, which featured stories of recent happenings on the Grand Line the crew sailed on that very moment. Usopp and Chopper took a page with comic strips in it. They laughed themselves silly while trying to explain some of the more subtle jokes to their captain, Monkey D. Luffy. A little later on, after the women finished with their sections, Chopper would take them and read them himself, trying to learn more about the outside world. Sanji found a section that contained many recipes from both world class chefs and ordinary cooks. The crew listened as he “ahh’d” to himself. That usually meant he found something he liked, and the crew would be eating something new as soon as Sanji got the proper ingredients. Zoro’s choice was always the oddest. He would just take some random page from whatever was left of the paper, sit down somewhere on the deck, and fall asleep with the paper over his face, looking as if he’d fallen asleep while reading.

     “Anything interesting?” Nami asked Robin as she flipped through her pages. She found it such a pleasure to have on board not only another woman, but an intellectual one at that. The two would often have some very lively discussions about what they read. Robin had a lot more experience in the real world and would often have insights Nami would miss. Though in such debates Nami was able to give as good as she got. Every day she learned a bit more about the equatorial sea and, one day, would have knowledge that rivaled Robin’s.

     “Nothing especially intriguing today, I’m afraid.” Robin replied, “How about yourself?”

     “Well, there is this one thing.”

     “Hmm?” Robin asked. Like Nami, she didn’t look up from her paper while talking.

     “I only just started reading it, but it seems to have to do with inheritance and people who have eaten the Devil Fruit.”

     “Inheritance? 221; Robin asked.

     “That’s what it says.” Nami said, reading on, “Oh! I understand now. By inheritance they’re referring to - hm?”

     Nami’s attention was suddenly focused on a shadow circling on the ship. She glanced up and saw a bird circling them..

     “Did it forget something?” Nami asked, assuming she was seeing the newspaper delivery bird.

     “No, it’s a different bird.” replied Chopper, who was also looking up. “The scent’s different.”

     The bird began to descend down towards the ship. However, it seemed to land very erratically. It swooped down and approached from the front of ship. Before landing, it suddenly flipped itself upside-down and skidded to a stop on the deck flat on its back.

     When the dust settled, the crew was staring at the strange avian that had just crashed onto their boat. They watched as it got up to its feet, twisted its head upside-down, and looked at each of the crew in turn. Luffy couldn’t resist twisting around his own rubber neck so his head was upside down as well. Its attention seemed to focus on Nami and Robin. Nami leaned forward in her chair to look at the object tied to the bird’s neck.

     At first glance, it resembled an hourglass. However, the glass portion was a perfect sphere. Inside was a compass needle, which pointed to a direction to Nami’s right (on the Grand Line, it was impossible to tell what was east, west, north, or south). It was an Eternal Pose. Though, Nami noted, it had a very odd feature Nami had not yet seen. Every Eternal Pose she had seen (which, she had to admit, wasn’t more than maybe half a dozen) had always had the location it led to inscribed into it. However, the wooden portion of this Pose was blank.

     “Miss Navigator, may I see that?” Robin asked from Nami‘s left side. Nami handed the unusual Pose to Robin, figuring she might know something Nami didn’t. As Robin examined the Pose, Nami turned to the bird, who was now being bothered by Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper. Sanji had gone back to his recipes and Zoro continued to sleep, oblivious to the whole thing.

     Luffy held on to his hair to keep his head from flipping back to normal. Usopp and Chopper watched and talked. Nami noticed Luffy kept turning his head around to talk to the other two. However, he kept turning it the same way each time. Which meant when Luffy finally let go of his hair, his head would likely spin around a few times before returning to normal. She was about to let Robin in on that fact when she noticed the other woman had gotten out of her chair.

     Robin held the Eternal Pose in front of her as she walked over to the bird. It was then Nami noticed the bag tied around the bird’s chest. Robin untied it and pulled out another unmarked Eternal Pose. She seemed to be well aware of what these Poses were about.

     “Um… Robin?” Nami asked as she walked over. Chopper, Usopp, and Luffy were watching as well. Robin hid her emotions well, but Nami had got a strange feeling from her. Something was seriously bothering Nico Robin.

     “Miss Navigator, the next island we’re due to approach, it has a harbor, correct?”

     “Um… yes.” Nami answered. According to some geography books she’d gotten from Alabasta, the next island had a well-off port town.

     “In that case, I have an announcement to make.”

     Robin turned to face everyone. Sanji had looked up from his paper to listen. The others also listened intently.

     “As soon as we land on the next island, I will be leaving.”

     “WHAT?!” Luffy cried as he let go of his hair. The head-spin Nami had anticipated indeed occurred, but nobody cared enough to notice. Robin’s announcement had put all eyes on her.