One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Sitting on the Waves ❯ And Here We Go! ( Chapter 8 )
The enemy makes their move.
Anime/Manga: One Piece Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Drama / Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 05.08.2005 | Pages: 2 | Words: 1.3K | Visits: 336 | Status: Completed
SITTING ON THE WAVES
CHAPTER 8
BY
Sgamer82
The forest behind the Redisca docks was split into two parts, one east, one west. The two sides were divided by a man-made path that led to the village. Robin and Chopper were searching the west end of the woods. The crew thought they had seen Nami come through here so Chopper, with his sense of smell, was hunting to try and track her. Robin was along so that, if they did find her and she ran, it would be easy to catch her.
Usopp and Sanji searched through the eastern side of the forest. They were there in case Nami attempted to switch sides while she hid to throw off pursuers. Zoro and Luffy were keeping to the path in case she turned up there. Nobody really trusted either of them not to get lost in the woods, and nobody really wanted to have to search for them as well as Nami.
The crew had searched all night. The sun was rising and nobody had yet had any luck.
“Nami!” Luffy called out.
“You know…” Zoro began, “she’s trying to run away from us. Should we really be letting her know where not to go?”
“Hey, you’re right.” Luffy replied, then took in a deep breath. “Nami! We‘re not here! You can come over here!”
Zoro gave Luffy a quick knock to the head. Even if she was a dumb brat right now, she wasn’t that dumb. Zoro kept his eyes peeled. Though no sign of Nami was showing up around the bushes. He did, however, begin to get a strange feeling he and Luffy were being followed.
His suspicions were confirmed when the gunshot went off.
“How’s it coming, doctor?” Robin asked.
“It’s strange.” Chopper answered, currently in his four-legged ‘Walk Point’ form, “I had her scent a while ago but now it’s getting all mixed in with something else.”
“Wild animals?” Robin inquired.
“No. The scent is definitely human.”
Robin didn’t like the sound of that. It could be the person with the Era-Era power. Or someone working with her. Robin took a careful look at her surroundings. After ascertaining where everything was, she closed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Ojos Fleur.”
On the many trees of the forest several eyes began to appear. Robin was beginning to think they had been maneuvered here. She wanted to make sure.
“Is something wrong, Robin?” Chopper asked apprehensively.
“Maybe not. But I’m beginning to suspect…”
Robin suddenly cut off her sentence with a scream as she brought her hand up to her right eye and fell to her knees.
“Robin!”
“Doctor! Go! Now! You have to warn the others if it isn’t already too late! It’s a trap!”
“No! You’re hurt!”
“I’ve had worse! You can take care of me after! Go now!”
Reluctantly, Chopper galloped off to warn the other Straw Hat pirates of the danger.
Meanwhile, Nico Robin stood up, and prepared for battle.
Sanji and Usopp were searching as well. There was little chance of finding Nami here. But it would be plain stupid not cover all possible bases.
“Hey, Sanji.” Usopp inquired, he wanted to keep some noise up. He couldn’t stand the dark, quiet forest. It wasn’t so bad now that daybreak was coming. But all the same…
“Yeah?” Sanji answered. He was personally getting annoyed with all of Usopp’s small-talk.
“Have you given any thought to just who it was who made Nami younger?”
Robin had told them all the story as they came to the forest. There had been some speculation but nothing concrete. They didn’t know anyone in this town so it was difficult to know if anyone there could be the one who caused this.
“A bit.” Sanji replied. They hadn’t really discussed this until now.
“Well, do you know if this Era-Era fruit requires the person to be close to the target?”
“Where are you going with this?” Sanji asked.
“Well, if it needs proximity or even contact, then that narrows our search for that person a bit.”
Sanji grunted an affirmative. Usopp was right. In fact… come to think of it…
“Of course! It was so obvious!” Sanji yelled out.
“What?” Usopp asked, surprised by Sanji’s sudden shout.
“That lady at the orphanage! When they first came to town, she and Miss Nami shook hands!”
“She did?” Usopp asked, comprehension coming to him, “Didn’t she hold Nami’s hand yesterday too!”
“Right when the changes starting getting worse!”
Sanji and Usopp had it.
“We gotta go!” Usopp suggested, “Hunting the forest might not be do any good. If Leda’s behind this then she may have taken Nami with her!”
“Sorry, that won’t be an option.”
The pair looked to the source of the voice and saw a slender man dressed in a black shirt and green pants. He seemed somewhat out of place for the great outdoors. Behind him, however, were a group of about seven or eight burly men who looked every bit as wild as the animals in the wood.
“Usopp! Go! Let Luffy and the others know what we learned. I’ll keep them off you!”
Usopp didn’t hesitate to run to the path. Sanji noted, as Usopp left, none of the big men made a move to chase him. Nor did the slender man make a move.
“That was just what you wanted, wasn’t it?”
“Good guess.” the man said. Sanji noticed his voice was a bit higher than most. But he didn’t dwell on it as the large men attacked.
Meanwhile, in an orphanage halfway between Redisca village and Redisca docks, a five-year old girl awoke, completely unaware of the danger that had begun outside.