Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece.

Sometime after Water 7

"Hold her down, she's recovering faster than I'd have guessed but that's ok, I prefer it when there's some struggle!" Strong hands grabbed her arms and legs as she felt her blouse being ripped as his hands already began probing lower.

She let out a scream. "LUFFY!" For her efforts she received a harsh slap.

-X-

The Straw-hat pirates had been stuck on the small spring island for five days while waiting for their Log Pose to set, for once it had actually been a quiet time, no one had attacked them, Smoker hadn't shown up and there hadn't been any corrupt rulers that Luffy had felt the spontaneous need to overthrow. It was actually a nice change of pace.

On the sixth day the crew had gone their separate ways on the island to do whatever they had felt like might be fun. It felt nice to be able to talk with normal people and not be treated like vicious pirates.

News and mail had been slow to reach this island. There were no marine bases in the area; it was a great place for the Straw Hats to finally unwind. The few wanted posters were out of date and their numbers were low. The crew members who had gone ashore returned late in the afternoon to find a pouting Luffy guarding the ship, he'd been forced to guard the ship by Nami under threat of no meat if he didn't. Luffy had passed the day sleeping and generally being a lousy guard.

He'd perked up when people began returning, Sanji being the first to arrive had been subject to Luffy's earnest requests for food from the moment he stepped on board again, thankfully when Usopp had come on board Sanji gained some relief when Luffy was coaxed into fishing by Usopp. It wasn't long before Usopp had both Chopper and Luffy starry eyed as he told them a story about a giant sea horse that he'd wrestled during the day. By the time the story had ended with Usopp posing triumphantly over the piece of rope that had been the "seahorse" it was beginning to get dark.

Luffy clapped happily at Usopp's triumph when he heard someway climbing the gangway onto the boat. Who's that everyone came home ages ago…right? Luffy did a quick head count of everyone on board. Zoro was in the corner apparently sleeping, Chopper and Usopp were next to him, Sanji had come out to serve Robin a drink as she reclined in a deck chair, Franky was tinkering down below and Nami was…

Nami's not back yet? I bet she was in a drinking game and has been spending this time winning Berri's. "Shishishi, Nami! You promised you'd give me spending money when you returned and-" Luffy stopped speaking in his tracks; his eyes went wide as his precious navigator stepped on board and into the light.

Her hair was a mess and her clothes were in shreds, Nami's face had obviously been hit, there were bruises covering her arms and she seemed shaky on her feet. The crew's happy reaction upon seeing her had all been halted by her appearance. Even Zoro was awake.

Nami had clearly been crying

Upon seeing the crew staring at her, Nami had let out a loud sob and sprinted into her room, closing the door with a slam. The crew exchanged worried looks. No one wanted to break the suddenly tense silence. Luffy's smiling visage was long gone, he quickly took action; one of his nakama was in obvious pain and that was never allowed to happen…. least of all to Nami.

"Sanji!" his tone and attitude didn't sound at all carefree now. "Get Nami some meat, now!"

The silence continued after Luffy's order and Sanji took a moment to light up a cigarette before answering. His voice was like ice. "Luffy… meat can't heal everything. Nami's obviously not just hurt physically. Chopper you should go see her, you are the most likely to get the words out of her, and you do need to attend to her wounds." Chopper nodded in agreement and went to get his medical supplies. "Oh and Chopper?" Chopper turned to look at Sanji. "Find out who did it and where it happened."

Zoro stood up grabbing his swords before eyeing both Sanji and Luffy. "Captain, as soon as we know where and who did it we're going hunting." Zoro didn't even pretend to phrase it as question. Both Sanji and Zoro moved to flank the women's quarter's door so they'd be out of sight if the door opened, but definitely within earshot of whomever spoke from inside. Usopp seemed to be in partial shock but put on a serious face before standing near the door way like the others, although he seemed more confused then anything else. Robin remained sitting in the deck chair she seemed to be thinking furiously and occasionally shot pitying glances towards the door Nami had vanished into.

Luffy was angry. He knew this was something to be concerned about, he knew he should be furious about something- he just couldn't figure out what!

He really hated seeing Nami cry. In Luffy's world Nami could not cry, she could not be hurt, she could never be near death, in Luffy's mind he'd failed miserably. Nami was hurt and he had no damn clue as to how or why Zoro and Sanji were now radiating death. When he saw Nami all bruised like that he felt like someone had punched him hard in the gut, when he'd seen she'd actually been crying… it was as though the world had become a horrible dream, this couldn't be happening, his Navigator should never have a reason to have lost her smile.

Why was Nami crying!

Was it the bruises? Had Nami got into a fight? For a few seconds Luffy began to panic before realising that Nami must've won the fight. What other reason would she be in a fight and still be returning afterwards. No pirates on the Grand Line were merciful; they'd learnt that the hard way. From Luffy's own experience no matter how bruised you were, if you won the fight, then you could be happy with your dreams. And just like that the idea of physical pain being the cause for Nami's distress left his mind.

Maybe it was her clothes? They had been torn in numerous places hadn't they? Luffy tried to remember exactly where… Her shirt was ripped open in the middle she'd been holding it closed but Luffy remembered the cloth overlap he had seen. Also her skirt had partially torn at the top. As though it had been snagged on something and begun to rip.

But Nami has dozens of different clothes it can't be that, what the hell could it be?

Luffy noticed that his crew were now right outside Nami's room and seemed to be listening. Luffy crept up to the room; he didn't need Usopp's motions to keep quiet. Luffy was never the brightest light but he had good instincts and right now they were screaming at him to listen, whatever Chopper and Nami were discussing it was imperative for Luffy to hear it too.

-X-

Chopper carefully opened the door and closed it quickly behind him to hide the rest of the crew before looking around the room for his patient.

Nami was sitting in the middle of her bed curled into a ball. She had her head on her knees and judging by the wracking motions she was crying. She flinched upon hearing the door close and she looked up with fear in her eyes for a split second before it was hidden. Chopper's heart went out to Nami; he was nearly certain what had happened and her instinctive fear only helped to confirm his thoughts. It wasn't really surprising that she seemed afraid of the world but it was still horrible to see Nami so broken.

Nami must have seen the pity in Chopper's eyes and she made an effort to compose herself. She hadn't had an easy life, Nami was tough, sure she'd never had that happen to her…but really compared to the rest of the shit she'd been through and how close she'd come in the past to the same situation she really felt she should be dealing with it better. Chopper's pity helped her put on a brave face, she didn't want the rest of the crew to think she always needed protecting.

"Chopper it's only a few bruises I'm fine, can you just give me some time to myself? I'll be okay." Nami was surprised at how shaky her voice was; she normally had better control then that. Damn it girl keep it together you can do this.

Chopper's eyes widened at hearing her voice. Knowing Nami he'd expected her to yell at him to leave her alone… but all she could manage at the moment was that? She was clearly coping with the shock much better then the other girls he and Dr Kureha had treated but since he knew Nami so well… it seemed worse.

"Nami, um about what happened, um I think someone… someone hurt you in a way you didn't like didn't they?" Chopper knew almost exactly what had happened, the light external bruising from when she struggled, the ripped clothing, her reactions from when he'd entered and the quaver in her voice. All of those details were expected signs of a rape victim.

Yet despite all this he didn't know how to get Nami to admit it. Before he'd been with Dr Kureha and she'd taken a very straight forward approach, but Chopper was too timid for that. Chopper felt a twinge of fear, violent reactions to males was another side-effect in some women and he didn't want Nami attacking him, Chopper quickly suppressed his fear- right now Nami needed a professional and the crew needed details. They would not let such a vile act to a crew mate go unpunished.

"It's…nothing Chopper I just had to fight some people while coming back that's all… now leave!" Nami said the last bit with more force. She didn't feel like explaining herself, the sooner she forgot the better. She knew what Chopper was hinting at but she wasn't ready to fully confront it… not yet.

"Nami I...I think" Chopper winced he'd just have to say it. "You were raped, weren't you Nami?"

The reaction was instantaneous; Nami seemed to freeze for a second before fixing her wide eyes on Chopper as fresh tears began to form. "P-Please Chopper, I c-can't deal with this now, please just leave me alone, go away, and just leave me alone!" By the time she finished speaking her voice had become more frantic and her eyes searched madly around the room looking for an escape hole from Chopper's questionings.

Chopper gritted his teeth, this was probably going to end badly but he had to try, one last time, he hated himself for doing this to her but it would help her recover and the crew as a whole needed a resolution. "Where was it Nami, who did this to you?"

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Chopper ducked the first jar but got hit in the chest by the plate, he covered his face and did his best to get out without being hit by anything else Nami was frantically throwing in his direction. Nami was strong but even she wasn't capable of dealing with her torture mere hours afterwards. Only when she'd forced Chopper out of the room did Nami stop throwing things. Nami collapsed into silent tears again, she felt tainted as though by letting it happen she didn't deserve her place in Luffy's crew. It was irrational and she knew it was irrational but she still felt that way, there'd be nothing more she could've done.

-x-

She hadn't gone easily she'd struggled; it was a drinking game and one guy had tried to cop a feel of her breasts. Nami had dealt with that before though and slapped his hands away, nothing too violent but enough to give the message 'hands off' but the guy hadn't taken the hint, he bloody growled at her, like it was a game and tried again.

Nami slapped him again this time on his face and made to leave, she didn't want a scene, she'd just came to relax in a drinking game and win a bit of money but this idiot wouldn't take a hint, and in a public bar no less! He'd suddenly lurched up in front of her blocking her exit, he was wearing a lecherous grin and appeared to be completely unphased by the bright red hand print on his cheek.

She kicked him in the crotch-hard; as he collapsed she stepped over his crumpled form and walked out of the now silent bar. Nami noticed her two shadows as soon as she stepped outside the bar, to be honest they sucked, they had none of the skill or experience that Nami did. They didn't seem as though they were trying to capture her though which meant they either had a trap to spring or had already sprung a trap. If they'd already sprung a trap it was most likely…

Nami quickly focused on her hands and wiggled them, damn it, it wasn't much but she could tell that at some stage she'd been drugged and the depressant was starting to take its effect. She began taking controlled purposeful steps towards the harbour, her body's natural tolerance was amazing, unless they'd intended to put her into a coma she'd probably at best only start swaying but it was best not to take chances, she walked quickly but made an effort to remain calm so she didn't increase her heart rate, although this would counteract the depressant temporarily it would simply speed up the absorption of the drug in the long run.

A few streets away from the tavern Nami realised she had serious problems, she wasn't an amateur to drug effects on her body, Nami had realised that whatever they'd drugged her with it was clearly strong, probably much stronger then they'd intended, a problem that arose with illegal drugs was just how concentrated a single dose was. Clearly whatever shit she'd been given it was a high concentration dose, enough to kill an average girl bastards don't even check their pills properly, she was finding it hard to see straight and maintaining decent motor skills was becoming a challenge, she realised she wouldn't get back to the ship before she was incapable of movement.

Nami let herself trip, in her current state it wasn't hard to do so. "Kyah!" she let out a loud scream to draw the attention of people around her, in the middle of a crowded street at lunch time. "Can someone take me to the hospital I don't feel very well." Nami let out a painful moan for effect, the un-well girl routine usually drew enough attention that a group of people would help her, too many for her shadow's tastes…

"Sarah! Where are you Sarah! Ah shit sis I told you not to drink so much!" A bright orange haired youth, no older then fourteen came into her vision. He had orange wavy hair like hers, a small tattoo of a cross on his left cheek and blue eyes.

A quick glance told Nami that her two shadows hadn't even started towards her despite the apparent knowledge that she was about to get away, which meant… shit, this guy had been a third shadow. They were a lot better then she'd expected.

"Don't worry sis, I'll bring you home, our Dad will be annoyed at you for drinking so much again and mom will have a fit, you know she'll probably ground me for letting you drink so much." Whoever this kid was, he was good, this can't have been his first time, as he'd lifted her up he used a gut punch to get her off the ground and into a fireman's hold, the kid had done it so naturally no one had seemed to notice. Thanks to the strong depressant she barely felt the punch but it did drive the air and any chance of screaming out of her lungs. All the while the kid kept up a stream of family related chatter which proved a strong shield to any passerby showing a remote interest in them.

"Don't worry sis, we'll soon be home!"

It suddenly dawned on Nami that she'd played all her cards, she didn't have any trumps left to play this kid was really going to take her back to that man she'd kicked and then him and his cronies were probably going to…

Fuck no!

Suddenly feeling ice cold Nami managed to suck in a breath that she needed. "Lu-!"

BANG! The kid had lifted her up slightly and brought her stomach down hard on his shoulder knocking the air out of her lungs. Her started scream had attracted some attention though, if she was lucky someone would-

"Lulu's at home, you know, where you left her so you could go drinking, you're a seriously irresponsible sister Sarah, and you can't leave me alone with our baby sister like that!" The kid was too bloody good, quick tongue and a quick mind and already they were being ignored again by the passers by.

Her last hope was that wherever he was taking her was far enough away that the depressant would wear off before they reached there, she recovered fast, all she probably needed was 15 minutes and she'd only be feeling a bit tipsy, half an hour and she'd be fully recovered but she needed that time! Nami groggily counted in her mind. Five minutes passed and they were out of the really crowded streets. Seven minutes and they were near the tavern she'd left. Ten minutes and they were in some side allies, they were probably getting close and Nami could feel her arms and legs tingling.

Suddenly she was thrown to the ground and the bastard from the Tavern filled her vision, even as he spoke she could feel him already pawing her breast again. She made a feeble attempt to kick him in the crotch again but she didn't have the co-ordination or the energy yet and only managed to kick his thigh.

"Hold her down, she's recovering faster than I'd have guessed but that's ok, I prefer it when there's some struggle!" Strong hands grabbed her arms and legs as she felt her blouse being ripped as his hands already began probing lower.

She let out a scream. "LUFFY!" For her efforts she received a harsh slap.

"Gag her she's clearly a fighter, bad luck boys, it looks like we only get to use two holes today…"

She felt her dress begin to rip before one the thugs found the clips and pulled the dress off her. Nami shut her eyes and tried to block it out; she refused to give them the satisfaction of her crying…

-X-

The crew was silent for dinner that night. Everyone felt the absence of Nami from the table and for once Luffy wasn't stealing food. Everyone felt bad for Nami especially Sanji but he was too much of a gentleman to question further until she was better.

Luffy was confused.

He'd gathered something bad had happened to his navigator and judging by how angry Sanji seemed to be it can't have been good. Usopp's serious expression showed his own concern and Zoro seemed to have mentally retreated to the ice cold calm mode he went into before a serious battle. Someone had apparently even told Franky what had happened and the cyborg and been checking he was at top condition every 10 minutes!

Luffy wasn't stupid, his crew was ready to commit murder for Nami and Luffy felt he should be angry enough to do the same.

The problem was he wasn't.

For Nami he'd break anyone in the world, but she hadn't asked him to do anything yet and he wouldn't interfere until she did. Just like back on her home island, he wouldn't interfere until she asked, Nami would call for his help when she felt she needed it, Luffy had made that clear to her over and over, he would always come when she needed it.

But in this situation there didn't seem to be anyone to beat up, Nami had said she'd already beaten up the people who had given her the bruises and torn her clothes, so it must have been that thing Chopper was talking about that made Nami so upset instead. Unfortunately Luffy didn't know what the word meant. Was "raped" another word for tricked? Had Nami lost all her money? Instantly Luffy dismissed the idea, he knew his navigator too well, whatever "raped" was it was something serious that Nami had been involved in.

More serious then money

"Chopper what is "raped"?" Luffy asked innocently, it honestly only mattered to him so he knew how to fix it. With Arlong it'd been obvious what the source of Nami's pain was but it looked like to help Nami this time he'd need to know a bit more.

There was a loud 'crack' from Sanji's end of the table. He'd apparently driven his fork which had been in the act of holding a steak, through the steak, plate and deep into the table beneath.

The table stilled and everyone focused on Chopper to see how he'd respond to Luffy's ignorance. Chopper looked up pleadingly for help from his friends. They all looked away. Explaining anything to Luffy was a tiring process and there was no point getting Luffy all upset until they could actually do something about it.

Chopper looked back at Luffy and tried to gauge Luffy's knowledge of genders and sex. He was pretty certain it was an almost blank slate. "Never mind Luffy but rape is a very bad thing that happened to Nami." The crew sighed they loved their captain but he didn't need to know, it was better to have him ignorant. If Luffy knew what had happened Nami wouldn't get a moment's peace and his pestering might make her worse. Luffy was much better ignorant.

-X-

It had been one day since Nami was raped and she still hadn't come out of her room and talked to anyone. Robin had a hammock set up for herself in the kitchen she'd said she thought Nami needed space at the moment. Between Luffy's questions and the waiting for Nami to give them details the atmosphere had become quite tense for the more informed members of the Straw Hat crew.

They were trying to give Nami the space she needed but at the same time, they had every intention on dealing with those responsible for Nami's state. Sanji had quietly brought Nami's breakfast into her this morning and had left a map of the city with her hoping when he came to pick it up she'd have written some indication. Usopp had shoved blank profiles under her door so she'd be able to fill out who had done it. Zoro's method had been no less subtle with him pointedly standing in front of the Nami's window view for long periods of time while loosening his blades regularly. Franky had been working on something all morning and from the occasional loud bangs, it didn't sound like a children's toy. Nico Robin was lying down in her hammock with her eyes closed- no one pretended that she might be sleeping. Robin was methodically combing the city, even if Nami didn't tell them Robin eventually would.

Luffy was getting frustrated. The rest of the crew seemed to have come to the agreement that Luffy wasn't to know what rape was. Luffy was beginning to hate whatever it was that had hurt his navigator; he was beginning to hate it a lot. Luffy hadn't seen Nami since yesterday evening and he felt her absence from his life.

Luffy found that weird. He knew he would feel sad if anyone else was gone but there was something about Nami that made him want to make her happy and be with her as long as possible. Nami made his heart beat faster whenever she looked at him and when he wasn't near her he felt an aching feeling in his stomach.

And now his crew seemed to be deliberately conspiring against him to stop him from being able to help Nami when she was finally ready! He had to know why she was now so sad and wouldn't talk or see them and if his crew wouldn't tell him why, well they were docked at a city…

Sanji saw him run too late to stop him. "Tch Luffy… I suppose it won't matter if he knows, he'd treat it like any other injury anyway, and we'll just have to keep him away from Nami." Sanji threw away the cigarette he had been smoking and went to prepare some more food for Nami maybe his cooking would make her feel better. And just maybe cause her to open up to him; I'll starve them for this.

Luffy didn't look back as he left the docks, he needed to find a way to fix things. Nami's absence was breaking his heart.

-X-

Luffy wandered around the city aimlessly he trusted his instincts; they'd tell him who to ask. He guessed half the people here wouldn't know either what 'rape' was. After all he had never heard of it even mentioned in his village so it couldn't be a very well known event.

The first place Luffy ended up at was a familiar place on the island from a few days ago. The closest bar from the ship, it was the middle of the day and it seemed a particularly slow day, there were only a few people inside and none of them looked very smart, it was probably a waste of time asking them. Luffy headed outside again and followed the general movement of the people he saw, gradually moving deeper into the city.

The second place was a book store. Normally he'd never bother stopping at such a place but he remembered one day Nami –Luffy felt a small pang remembering her smiling face- she'd told him about a book which had every single word ever written down in it and explained what every word meant. If only he could remember what it was called, he hadn't paid much attention to the book Nami had been holding, his eyes had been focused on her hands, they looked so fragile, he remembered wondering how could someone who sailed so often and had done so much ship work still have had hands so smooth.

Now he kind of wished he could remember what the book was called. It started with a 'D' he could remember that much, that and the fact that it was a long word. Luffy sighed, that information wouldn't give a book lover much to work on at all! Starts with a D, is a big word and tells you what words mean, there were probably tons of books in that bracket and only a few would tell him what 'raped' meant.

Disappointed in himself for forgetting such a useful piece of knowledge, Luffy moved on.

After wandering around aimlessly for awhile Luffy began to get bored, after all it had been a full half an hour he'd been looking and so far he hadn't seen any places where anyone could possibly know what such a weird word meant. Fortunately Luffy had a stroke of brilliance when he saw yet another group of boys dressed in matching black outfits. At first Luffy had thought it was some sort of gang that went around the town but Luffy finally figured it out! They were school students! All he'd have to do was stealthily stalk them back to their school and he could ask one of the teachers at the school what rape was.

Having decided on his cunning plan Luffy stealthily snuck up behind the two students and sneakily began to shadow them.

In other words he walked up directly behind them, started picking his nose while staring at them and followed them about.

Luckily for Luffy teenage boys have a good tenacity for ignoring everything around them; hence Luffy's stalking was a success. It wasn't long before the two boys returned to their school, mixing with more students just as they returned from their break. Luffy stopped tailing the two students after he critically viewed the large building they were going into and the gate in front of him reading "Jina Middle School" Luffy quickly came to the conclusion that this was probably a school and that he could find a teacher on his own from here.

-X-

Mr Mizuri was not having a good day. Sixteen year old guys had a tendency to act as though they were on top of the world and that they knew everything. This made teaching the boys' maths an extremely hard job. His morning had been filled with attempting to drill trigonometry into the young men and it seemed all they'd responded with was sarcasm. Mizuri had been looking forward to lunch as he had no classes afterwards and could end his disappointing day. Upon arriving at the staff room though he had been immediately drafted as a substitute teacher for an afternoon class.

The class in question that he had the happy fortune to be teaching was a class of thirteen year old boys. The age group alone was already pretty bad, he wouldn't envy these kids home room teacher, the good news was he only had them for one lesson. The bad news was that the lesson was meant to be on intercourse. And the little assholes just wouldn't stop laughing at the word penis…

"Gentlemen! Please try to be a little bit more mature you're in year 7 now you're not little kids anymore so stop acting like ones!" Mr Mizuri sighed; he'd used a similar line on the year 10's this morning- just for once he wished he could believe that the kids actually did mature, instead of just getting bigger. "Now that we've covered the basic anatomy, can anyone tell me reasons to be careful about intercourse?"

A few kids put up their hands; thankfully no one had started laughing again… yet. "Shiro?"

"Sexually transmitted diseases?"

Suddenly without a knock the door was opened with a loud creak and a young man, wearing thongs, a red vest and blue shorts walked into the room. The class quickly died down and were now staring at the man who was probably not even into his 20's yet. The man in question simply put his hands in his pockets and continued to stare at Mr Mizuri.

Mizuri was more puzzled than surprised. He'd had his class interrupted numerous times over the years and ever since that incident with the badger and the man with a rapier, anything below that was simply a mundane interruption. Mizuri was quite content to stare back at the young man until he got a reason for the interruption. It was a basic technique, make the person ask you and you'll assume high status for the conversation, giving the teacher a better control over the situation.

The silence seemed to stretch out as the young man made no move to ask a question and simply continued to stare at Mizuri. Clever man- it appeared the kid knew the method and Mizuri would have to take the initiative, this young man was smart. "Can I help you?" Mizuri spoke up; in the blandest voice he could manage.

Luffy was startled out of his daze when the funny man had spoken up. He'd intended to ask a teacher as soon as he'd saw one and he'd walked in with the intention of asking a teacher but then he'd seen that the teacher had no hair and he'd spent the last minute trying to wrap his mind around the concept of not having any hair. "Huh? What'd you say?"

Mizuri sighed. He'd misread the signal. This guy was an ordinary bumpkin. "Is there a reason for why you are here?" Mizuri did his best to use one syllable words so as not to confuse or aggravate the fellow. Although it'd probably be ok if he did, Mizuri was in decent shape and this youth appeared quite slender and gangly.

"Ano? Just wondering if you'd know a tricky word that's all Mr. No-Hair"

This statement was rewarded by quiet giggles from the rest of the class. Perfect he's stupid and has no respect. This guy was probably a dead-beat who'd only recently come to Jina Island. "Well what is the word young man?"

"Hey, would you know what 'rape' is?"

There was silence in the class room. Mizuri had covered rape to the class already. The kids knew that for whatever reason the guy was here, it wasn't really a laughing matter anymore, no matter how slow the guy was. Mizuri paused for a moment to assess the situation. He pitied this guy, clearly the slow stupid one in a family- and for him to be wandering around asking, it must've happened to someone close to him. "… Do you know what sex is sir?" Mizuri decided to keep this simple and short; he prepared himself for the sad emotional back lash for when this young man would finally understand.

Despite his crews perception Luffy had spent most of his free time as a child at a tavern and no matter how quickly Makino had been at covering his ears that'd just made Luffy more eager to listen.

"Yeah, so what?" said Luffy as he reached up to casually scratch his cheek.

"Well rape is when one person has sex with another who doesn't want to have sex with the person, whether they like it or not. It can happen to men, but it usually happens to women or small children… girls and boys." Mizuri tried to break the news as gently as possible, trying to soften the blow with some back ground knowledge of the concept in an attempt to impersonalise the idea.

It didn't work

-X-

It took Luffy approximately 2 seconds to connect the dots about how rape was associated with sex and another 2 seconds to understand the significance of the act. When he finally linked the concept to the idea that someone had raped Nami, he doubled over in shock of his new found understanding.

Someone raped Nami!

Someone Raped my Nami!

Luffy loved his crew and he knew deep down that he cared for Nami more than the others. It was an idea that made him feel uncomfortable around her but want to be around her more any way. It was an issue he was quite happy tip-toeing around and ignoring. He loved her more than the others.

And someone had raped her.

-X-

Mizuri had watched sadly as the teenager had fallen to his knees apparently in shock. The boy's body had begun to shake and his hands looked like they'd give way any second and the boy, probably not even shaving yet, would drop to the floor. Mizuri was about to move closer to the boy- but then it happened.

The boy stopped shaking and just like that Mizuri felt he couldn't breathe. The temperature in the room seemed to fall five degrees and in the corner of his eye he could see he students weren't feeling any better than him.

The fists clenched as the boy- no as the young man rose to his feet and moved a hat from that back of his neck onto his head. He then raised his head slowly, facing the teacher and the rest of the room.

It felt as though someone was tightly gripping Mizuri's brain, whispering all the ways he could take Mizuri apart.

Dimly Mizuri was aware that he'd just pissed his pants but at the moment all he could focus on were the eyes of the man in front of him. He'd thought the guy had been a bit slow in the head and easily restrained if he got angry, but looking into Luffy's eyes Mizuri understood just how wrong he had been. The eyes held so much raw un-tamed anger inside them, he was amazed he was in this things eye-sight and still alive. They were eyes of a predator of the sea, a monstrosity that had finally awoken.

At last the memory clicked. The hat on the man's head finally clueing Mizuri in. The man facing him was the Monkey D. Luffy worth 300 million dead or alive, a pirate that obeyed no laws or sense of reason but his own.

A pirate captain that took down 1000 marines and was laughing the entire time

And then the pirate turned around and simply left the room. It felt like a controlled cyclone leaving the area.

There was silence for a few moments before Mizuri turned and addressed the class. Completely aware of urine staining his trousers and looking over the class, seeing numerous matching stains, Mizuri decided to round-up the lesson.

"I presume we're all aware that rapists are normally arrested and given a few years jail time for their crime?" There was silence to his question. "There is however an alternative means of justice that can arrive if the police fail to take the offenders into custody, I would advise watching the news tonight if you'd like to find out what that alternative is. Class dismissed!"

-X-

Zoro could feel Luffy coming from 300 meters away. He'd been ready to spring into action for the past day and his battle senses were finely honed and Luffy was very easy to feel.

Currently Luffy… was not a happy person. "Oi! Love cook, still sure it won't matter?" Zoro called as Sanji emerged from the kitchen, pointing at Luffy who was now advancing down the dock, people who passed too close to Luffy slumped to the floor their knees giving way, Luffy was leaving a trail of stunned by passersby as he walked.

Sanji, although not on edge anywhere near as much as Zoro was not stupid. "Crap, that's really not good! He better not do anything stupid, Nami-san's having a hard time as it is without him crap ruining everything."

Luffy jumped onto the deck in a controlled leap. It was perfectly controlled to bring him onto the deck with a small 'thump' as Luffy maintained his purposeful walk towards Nami's room. Sanji moved into the way attempting to run damage control. "Sorry Captain but she needs more time by herself, not even Chopper can see-"

"Move" Luffy had taken his focus off Nami's door for half a second to settle his gaze on Sanji. His voice was neither loud nor threatening but it held such force behind the single word that Sanji automatically stepped out of the way before he could think. Luffy's tone was speaking directly to the instincts deep in the back of Sanji's brain.

Luffy refocused on Nami's door and kept on walking. Reaching the door Luffy yanked it open, breaking the internal lock and slammed the door behind him.

Sanji heard Zoro from behind him. "Well done Sanji, you showed him!"

Sanji snarled out in response. "Shut it Marimo! I'd like to have seen you try!" He couldn't stand up to Luffy now but he wouldn't take shit from Zoro about this, at least he'd manage to stop his hands shaking before Zoro had noticed...

-X-

Nami sighed; the Log Pose had finally set for their next destination. They could leave this accursed island and maybe she could put the memories behind her… or find a ship that could get her home. She wasn't sure whether she was done with her dream or not. She'd never be able to have a normal relationship with the crew again, she'd always be treated differently now.

Nami wasn't sure if she could deal with it. The muttering they thought she couldn't hear, waking up and seeing an eye sticking out of the wall opposite before vanishing just as quickly as she noticed it. The minor pestering from the crew, Nami knew she should be grateful. Nearly all of them had shown that they wanted to help and that was the crux of the issue, nearly. She remembered returning to the ship and seeing their shock as she'd sprinted to her cabin. She'd figured she had 10- maybe 20 seconds before Luffy broke the wall and demanded an explanation.

A minute passed

Than another

And then with a small creak, Chopper had slipped in.

It hurt. It hurt to know she was so weak that she couldn't shake off the drug in time, albeit a dosage that would've put a normal person into a coma, it still hurt dammit! It hurt to know that everyone wanted to help and that she knew she was being stupid denying she had a problem. But most of all it hurt that Luffy hadn't even tried to help her yet. Was he disgusted with her? He seemed to conquer his own fears so easily, was he disappointed at how she seemed to wallow in hers and unable to get out without a hand? That settled it. She'd prove she was good enough to stand with the Luffy; she'd leave the Log Pose than slip out of the ship and find another boat and go on the Grand Line alone! First she'd need her-

Nami's thoughts were interrupted when the door's lock broke under pressure and the door flew open. Luffy was standing in the doorway his hat was already flying towards her and landed perfectly on her head. He continued to stand directly in the middle of the doorway Nami could feel the anger radiating from him. "Tell me everything Nami."

It wasn't a question.

Nami couldn't meet his eyes anymore. Pulling his hat over her head she held it down and began talking. She told him everything she could remember, all the while holding the hat to her head and refusing to meet his eyes. Expecting any second that'd he'd try to wrest the hat from her head, that he'd reject her. Fresh tears started travelling the lines on her face and she kept talking and talking. Afraid if she gave him time to speak she'd hear the disapproval in his voice. She felt she'd break if she heard that disapproval directed at her. She even gestured to the faces she'd drawn in those early hours after getting back.

Nami knew she was being foolish and that she was crying. But it felt so good talking to Luffy even if it was about this. She kept up the stream of information. Just another 20 seconds, another 20 seconds or so before I'll have to look at him again and see the disapproval in his eyes. Finally Nami ran out of material and slowly raised her head, her white knuckles still showing how tightly she was gripping his hat. Viewing the door way she found it empty.

Luffy was gone.

-X-

Luffy followed the direction Nami had given him; he entered the bar that Nami had described. The mood dropped as soon as Luffy walked in. The place was perfectly silent upon his entry, Luffy was still radiating death. "Not here" he said quietly before exiting.

The entire event had taken 20 seconds and it was another minute before the bar patrons felt safe to move again. Even then it was hushed whisperings.

Luffy was on a damn warpath.

This instance was repeating itself in a similar bar nearby, the mood had died on his entry and the place felt like everyone was holding their breath. Luffy scanned the place looking for the 3 tell-tale faces Nami had been able to draw in sickening detail. The knowledge that she'd been able to remember the scum's faces that well had driven his anger another notch higher.

"Not here" he said quietly before exiting. It was a big city for an island; the place had over 3000 people. This wasn't a problem though, Luffy could go four days without sleep and there were only so many places…

-X-

There's a studied phenomenon among humans that Luffy would have had no chance of knowing about, called the Verbal Overshadowing effect.

It's the idea that through attempting to describe a human face with words which are nowhere near accurate enough to describe how "thick" the eyebrows are and the like- a human can actually 'rewrite' in their brain, what they think a face looks like.

Nami had given Luffy descriptions and pictures which were remarkably different to what the culprits actually looked like. If Luffy had been going just by their facial descriptions he would have almost certainly missed his targets.

Unfortunately for the culprits though- facial tattoos can be accurately described in words and Nami had remembered to include them and those details were definitely accurate.

-X-

Nami stayed in her room for a good hour after she'd looked up and found him missing. At first she'd been terrified he'd show up with a Log Pose and tell her to get out, or worse, that he'd simply moved on as though he didn't care anymore. She'd been dreading hearing him call out "Sanji! Meat!" for the last half an hour now.

Nami wasn't quite sure when it had happened but Luffy had gradually made himself a foundation of her life. Any image she could conjure of her sailing the seas and being happy had Luffy in the background- sitting on top of the figurehead. She'd dreamt of finding a mountainous pile of gold and turning around and seeing Luffy standing there picking his nose- still looking around for the treasure directly in front of him.

It was hard to think of a life without her rubber captain now- and more importantly Nami didn't want to think of a life without him. It made her feel… uncomfortable.

Finally summing up her courage Nami jammed the straw hat firmly on her head and stepped out of the cabin…

-X-

Usopp frowned looking out at the city from the boat. Almost an hour had passed since Luffy had returned and then emerged from Nami's room. The entire crew had been there to meet him outside the door. It was weird, Usopp had been sure Luffy would've started issuing orders or simply telling the crew to fall into line behind him- he'd done neither.

Usopp brushed his hand against his waist pockets one more time, making sure he had the… appropriate ammo to fire at the scum. Looking around at his nakama he noticed each of them doing a similar routine. Frankie's new toy wasn't visible but judging by the fact his right arm was twice its normal size and let out hisses of steam every few minutes, it was probably ready to go.

They'd decided to keep their distance from the door- and could only make out Nami's soft voice speaking very fast in the cabin. They did respect Nami's privacy- and since Luffy would give them all the knowledge they needed in a second, yeah they could wait that long…just.

Finally Luffy emerged from the cabin and with care not matching his clear anger he quietly closed the door behind him. Looking around he didn't seem surprised to see the crew here.

Usopp spoke up first "So where do we find them Captain?"

There was silence for a few seconds as Luffy seemed to stare intently into the distance before answering. The tone made Usopp's skin crawl.

"Leave them to me."

There was a quick intake of breath- this was unexpected, surely Luffy didn't mean what he was saying? Sanji let out a hiss "Surely you're not going to be this selfish Luffy, she's our crewmate too!"

Frankie's voice followed short after Sanji's. "Agreed, I haven't been on board long- but we should handle these things together!"

Luffy waited out the complaints, focusing on the crew members one by one until there was total silence again. He took half a step forward.

"No, I'm going to be selfish"

This time there were no complaints it seemed like Luffy wasn't done, he was simply taking time to choose his words with iron clad judgement.

"They've had a full extra day, because NONE of you would tell me what was happening. They've breathed an extra day!"

Again silence

"I'm going to say this once to make it nice and clear and when I'm done I expect you all to wait here- IF I can't find them in an hour THEN you can come out to play- but only IF I'm dumb enough to let them live longer than that."

Luffy let the sketches Nami drew fall to the ship's floor

"Yes Nami's our navigator, yes Nami's our crewmate and we will NEVER let anything like this happen to a crew member- but the reason you'll wait an hour before getting a turn, the reason I'm going to be selfish like this?"

Luffy took another step forward and stood nearly toe to toe with Sanji, the most argumentative member of the crew.

"Nami's, mine!"

And with that Luffy was done, he strode past the stunned Sanji and leapt off the ship and started moving down the dock.

No one followed.

Usopp shook his head; it honestly shouldn't have been that much of a revelation- but it was weird to hear Luffy be so… possessive like that. The hour was almost up though and Luffy hadn't returned, it looked like they were about to get their chance anyway.

A small creaking sound caused Usopp to quickly turn, Nami's door was open and she was standing outside of it with Luffy's hat pulled down on her head. Looking around nervously she seemed still to be very nervous.

"Nami!" Chopper let out a happy cry upon seeing her and jumped at her, clamping onto her in the best hug he could possibly give while still in his miniature form.

Whatever nervousness she'd been feeling seemed to melt away with that hug. There's just something about a tiny ball of empathy and happiness hugging you while crying they've missed you that gets rid of any nervousness.

Usopp seeing both Chopper and Nami crying, began to cry himself- with Frankie not far behind.

Any thoughts of how long until they could leave were lost as the crew enveloped their navigator in hugs and well wishes- it was fantastic to see Nami outside again.

-X-

Raphael was in a really good mood as he walked back from markets. The boss had paid him really well for that girl he'd brought back. The best part was that he'd even paid all up front for once- rather then his standard 'we'll see how long she lasts' deal. Apparently she summoned up the strength while the boss was taking a break after half an hour. They'd never had any problems in the past but apparently that minx had managed to break out of hand cuffs, rope knots and knock out two people and then avoid 6 more all in less then a minute! Raphael was really glad he had his cut advance.

13 years old Raphael knew he was probably going to get his growth spurt soon, then he wouldn't be able to play his oh so important role that he was getting paid for. People would be more suspicious if it was a young man carrying off a drunken girl, as opposed to a boy. In a way he was sad, he'd had a good few years to get his method right and travelling with the band of 'musicians' and knowing how useful he was had been a lot of fun. On the bright side apparently being a teenager with them would be just as fun! Hopefully they'd be going to the East Blue next; apparently some of the dark girls there could be made to do this thing with their tongue that-

Raphael's train of thought was derailed by a sudden crushing fear for his life.

It was horrible, no one was touching him, nothing was happening but still he felt like any second now he was going to die. Limbs shaking Raphael tried to turn around, it took him 20 seconds to manage this simple act, and this was enough time to process three main ideas.

1. He really wasn't much of a fighter; he relied way too much on not being seen until too late.

2. Raphael was nearly completely alone in this alley, except for a single silhouetted man that hadn't been standing there before.

3. The silhouetted man was the one radiating death and was definitely seeing him.

"You don't look much like the picture she drew"

Raphael tried to suck in a breath, the statement should have been comforting, Raphael still had no idea who this person was but he was connecting the dots. So if he didn't look like the right guy why did he still feel like he was about to die?

"Are there lots of tattoos like that one on your cheek on this island?"

The colour drained from Raphael's face. "Y-y-y-yes! Lots! Lots! Promise!"

"...I think your lying"

Raphael turned and ran, he had no idea how he managed it with the crushing pressure but he sprinted as fast as he possibly could, he felt his long hair catch on something but he kept running. Raphael ran and ran feeling increasing pressure until eventually he collapsed in an alley at least 5 blocks away from that terrible man.

As soon as he stopped moving he realised something was wrong, he was slowly being pulled back. Feeling his head Raphael saw that his hair had indeed been caught on something. That something was a hand that seemed to stretch back into the dark alleys he'd run from.

"Noooooooo!" Raphael screamed in fear and latched onto a nearby drain pipe.

And then the hand really pulled

-X-

It took 5 minutes for Chopper to stop bawling his eyes out and to let Nami go. The sheer amount of empathy from the little guy was just so heart-warming.

How anyone could have mistaken Chopper for a monster is beyond belief

Finally let go, Nami was able to look at around at the entire crew, she even (thanks to Chopper)- had a tiny smile of her face. The whole crew seemed to be there and there didn't seem to be any pity from any them, just joy at finally seeing her outside her cabin again.

Frankie was complaining about a water leak in his face as real men don't cry and his right arm was simply massive, almost the size of his chest and other arm combined! "Frankie? What happened to your arm?"

Usopp answered "Er, I don't think we want to know he said something earlier about a fitting punishment and started explaining the mechanics and well… he clearly wasn't happy… none of us were." Usopp seemed to be dressed as sogeking with the mask hanging loosely around his neck, the only ammo he appeared to have on him were some… interestingly shaped projectiles that reminded her of the Kanamara festival she'd seen once. Usopp saw where she was looking and looked a little embarrassed. "…We kind of went a little overboard with preparation"

Nami smiled, she was part of the best crew in the world, they hadn't just attempted to shower her with pity and empathy for something they couldn't understand, they'd simply attempted to fix it as best as they could.

Sanji finally spoke up "*ahem* It's so good to see you up Nami-swan! However we have a score we need to settle with a few acquaintances before we can relax Nami-swan!" This was Sanji's way of being polite, the man clearly seemed torn-up, on one hand he wanted nothing more then to help Nami move on, which was sweet but on the other he also did not like the idea of Nami's captors getting off so easily.

A gleam lit up in Nami's eye. Nami had coped through seeing her mother being shot in front of her and being seemingly alienated from her village for 10 years, those bastards thought she'd stay broken like the women they'd probably taken before? They had another thing coming.

"Excellent idea Sanji-kun" Nami moved to get her staff when she suddenly realised what was out of place. "Wait… where's Luffy?" Without realising it Nami had again grabbed his Straw hat and held it to her head… if Luffy wasn't there…. Did that mean she'd been right about his response? Nami felt her recovered confidence begin to shake… where was the man who'd become part of her dreams without her realising it?

-X-

After meeting Raphael, one might think that Luffy would be in a slightly better mood, having dealt with one of the main culprits.

He was not.

He'd extracted every scrap of information he could possibly get from Raphael, confirming his fears, snarling bestially at hearing the troupe's 'standard' methods, his heart had jumped with pride at hearing how she'd escaped but that was tempered with the knowledge that the bastards had still had enough time for….

He made an effort to relax his muscles; it'd be no good if he accidently killed them too quickly…

-X-

Raphael tried to move his muscles, feeling the waves of pain that washed over him from simply trying to raise his head. He knew it wasn't a miracle he was still alive, from what he remembered of that man's beating, it was purely from the care the man had taken to find that edge of force where the walls would break just before Raphael's own skull.

The lesson had been clear and it had been learned. Never again or I WILL come back

Suddenly settling down for his life and learning a proper trade seemed like a much more reasonable idea that it had two hours ago…

-X-

The crew nervously evaded Nami's gaze after hearing her question. None of them looked her in the eye and Nami could've sworn Robin was hiding a smile. Eventually the group seemed to reach a silent consensus and Usopp was pushed forward by Zoro. Frankie spoke up in a loud overly cheerful voice.

"We'll be uhhh, in the kitchen... getting ready!" The entire crew barring Usopp shuffled away from Nami's door, Sanji appeared to be indecisive but was dragged off by Zoro.

It was quite clear to Nami that something... awkward had happened with Luffy, had, had he really just not cared? Was he in the kitchen eating right now! Nami shook her head, There's no way Luffy could be sitting in the kitchen, I'd have heard him eating. "Usopp, what happened with Luffy?"

Usopp fiddled with his ammunition apparently self-conscious about his interestingly shaped pellets in front of a woman. "Well, you know we were all upset for you when you came back, right Nami?"

Nami remembered clambering onboard and realising half a second too late that she should've at least tried to sneak on and avoid that scene. "Yes, I remember that Usopp, you also all appear to be 'kitted' up quite nicely, what's going on Usopp?" Nami raised her eye brow pointing a Usopp's ammunition still straining her ears for the sound of Luffy eating from the kitchen.

Usopp blushed but made no move to hide his ammo "Well, Luffy didn't quite get what had happened... I think he bought your excuse about falling down some stairs." Usopp said as he tapped his nose.

"NO he wouldn't Luffy's not that gullible!"

Usopp stared at her blankly for a few seconds

"... But you're right, he's definitely that trusting" Nami sighed, it was just like her rubber buffoon to assume that if everything wasn't fine, his crew would tell him- bluntly, why are men so stupid.

Usopp cracked a grimace, trying to think of a nice way to say 'we hid the reason from him for a day'. "Well he didn't know what had happened and well... we MAY have not taken much of an effort to educate him with the details of what happened and... he didn't like that."

Nami's eyes widened "So he hadn't known at all and just became angry and broke into my room?"

"Wellllll mayyybe and mayyybe not. He left the ship early this afternoon to go into the city, the next I saw of him was Zoro shouting at Sanji about 'shit hitting the fan' and the door to your room closing with a slam!" Usopp stroked his chin. "I didn't know Luffy could get so... possessive"

There was a lull in the conversation and Nami felt her heart-beat speed up. Nami realised that Luffy's hat was now tightly pressed to her chest and she'd no idea how it'd reached there...

"Usopp...what exactly did Luffy say when he came out?"

-X-

Luffy was disappointed in himself, he'd failed to scour the entire island in one hour and now his crew might get the wretches before he did. Luffy turned another corner and finally found his destination.

There was no smile at his success, only a gleam in Luffy's eye, a glimmer of the controlled violence he was going to unleash, the Tavern was just as that teenager with orange hair had described in elaborate detail at Luffy's request. Buffalo sign, sliding doors, two stories tall with a haystack outfront, Sarba and co. usually hung out inside on the far left beneath the beam with the lightning shaped crack in it, Sarba has pigish eyes and wears a fez (the boy upon Luffy's gentle questioning had gone into further detail on what exactly a fez was).

Luffy cracked his knuckles and began his final stride towards the Tavern.

-X-

"Well? What did he say Usopp?" Nami's attention was completely focused on Usopp but she still noticed the rest of the crew peeking through the kitchen door.

"mmmmmmm well he got really mad at us for letting those jerks go for a day by not talking to you and well, then he said a few more... convincing things for why he should get the first chance to hunt them down and then you came out about an hour later and here we are!" Usopp nodded happy with how he'd managed to dodge that bullet.

"Wait! So Luffy's out there hunting them right now?" Nami's eyes widened as she remembered their leader.

"Yes, he's gone for over an hour now, we were about to go help him when you came out."

Nami grabbed her cudgel and motioned to the others. "We've got to help him the captain had a sea-stone glove!" Nami moved to the side of the ship but stopped upon hearing a snigger. "You think this is FUNNY Zoro?" Nami's eyes flashed dangerously, this was not time for joking around.

"Oi oi, it's ok Nami, I agree with you we should find our captain but as for him being in danger? Were you even feeling his mood when he was in your room? I bet you the Sea-stone's not gonna mean shital-"

*CRACK*

The resounding sound echoed out from the island, a large amount of debris had just been thrown into the air and a giant's fist appeared to have emerged from the dirt to hit a city block with an upper cut.

The crew watched as the debris started to fall slowly, only for the hand to curve around and prepare to slam the debris back down to the ground.

*CRACK*

Zoro sniggered "They'd need a bigger handful of seastone!"

Nami grinned happily, he does care, "Come on then, we can find him now!" She leapt down from the side of the ship with the crew, the crew that she was part of, following directly behind her.

-X-

Luffy let the air out of his bones, letting his hand shrink down to a more appropriate size for such a 'personal' experience. The captain had somehow missed Luffy's aura and had responded to Luffy's initial questioning with 'who's Nami?'... that had not sat well with Luffy.

The block now in ruins, Luffy moved among the broken beams and cracked and groaning bodies, to find Sarba, his legs ruined and fez missing, trying desperately to hide under what appeared to be a chunk of floor that Luffy had uplifted before.

Luffy was having none of that.

Luffy's hand snaked out and latched tightly onto one of Sarba's ruined legs, dragging the howling man closer to him. Luffy readjusted his grip, grabbed the man's groin and held him upside down by them, holding him there and coldly listening to the weird duck like noises Sarba was making from having his entire weight hanging from his scrotum, when the man sounds progressed to churlish mewling noises Luffy let him drop to the floor in a crumpled pile.

"Start apologising and explaining why I shouldn't kill you" Luffy was tempted, so tempted to just end it right now but he felt that this broken heap in front of him deserved one more chance.

"I-I'm swowwie, I'm so swowwie! I'll never do dat a'gin!" Sarba was blubbering, through his broken jaw.

Luffy again felt the temptation to end it but with-held himself. He fixed the man a death glare one last time before turning to walk away, his lower body was wrecked, Sarba would never recover properly, that was enough.

Sarba continued to mumble quietly to himself but not quietly enough "she wasn't worf da twouble anyway, she was fking dry and kept trying to bweak it off..." For Luffy that comment was too much. With blinding speed he whipped around, out stretched hand latching onto Sarba's chest.

Sarba obviously at this point realised that he was going to die and a small amount of fire made it back into his eyes. "She wubbed it mate, couldn't git enough of my fat-"

Luffy's vision went red as a roar of adrenaline blocked out all sound. Luffy sprinted forward and pinned the man to the group with one foot, with his right hand still digging into Sarba's chest. Luffy began to wind his arm like a corkscrew, making sure to keep Sarba still as the rubber tension in his arm began mounting up and up and up. He saw through his red vision Sarba begin to blubber again, figuring out what exactly Luffy was going to do.

Finally Luffy was ready.

Luffy jumped and applied all his weight to his right arm which began to rapidly unwind spinning Sarba's torso and pressing it to all the debris on the ground. It took about 10 seconds to blend Sarba into the ground as his body kept spinning and being gouged away by the rocks, the doppler effect gave Sarba's death screams a weird ringing sound as his body was blended against the ground. Finally it was done, leaving Luffy kneeling, palm flat on the ground, with nothing but a smear left to acknowledge that Sarba had ever existed...

-X-

By the time the crew arrived at the spot the dust had finally cleared and a crowd of onlookers had formed a ring around the remains of the bar. Nami and the crew pushed their way through the ring as people attempted to hold them back.

"Hey don't go in!"

"The man's a psycho!"

"He just killed everyone in the bar!"

"He's part giant!"

Nami finally pushed her way through to find the debris in the centre of the mob, with a single figure standing in the very middle of the mess slumped on his hands and knees.

The rest of the crew managed to barge their way through into the circle too. Upon seeing the wreckage and just how big the crowd was, Frankie raised his sunglasses off his eyes and peered over the crowd. "Tttsssss, oi Robin! There's too many civilians here can we get a little privacy!"

"Cente Fleur!" Hundreds of arms emerged from the ground forming an impromptu wall around the straw-hats. Nami slowly began moving towards Luffy her nerves returning and her heartbeat speeding up. Luffy didn't look like he'd won a fight, why was he on the ground? Nami moved in closer.

"Luffy?" she said as she tried to get him to look up at her. "Luffy, talk to me please! What's wrong?" Luffy remained slumped over staring at the broken beams. "Luffy it's ok! I'm ok now Luffy get up!" Nami became increasingly worried as he refused to look up. Eventually Nami knelt down in front of him and peered under his fringe.

Luffy was crying

"It didn't work Nami..." Luffy muttered, still avoiding meeting her eyes. "Why didn't it work Nami?" Luffy's hands balled into fists as he began to shake. "Why didn't it work!"

Nami impulsively grabbed his shoulders to stop him shaking. "Luffy you're not making any sense! You killed that... that bastard right?" Nami's finger began digging into Luffy's shoulders, afraid that Luffy had got poisoned or something in the fight! If Luffy hadn't killed him than that would make sense for why Luffy was still here! Nami gripped Luffy's shoulders tightly "Luffy! Are you ok? What happened?"

"...I did kill him...Nami" she felt herself relax a little bit on hearing those words and began trying to work the tension out of his shoulders.

"And are you ok Luffy?"

"But it still hurts Nami... why does it still hurt?" Luffy finally looked up and met Nami's eyes and Nami could see the pain in them. "I still failed you Nami and it's not better yet!" Luffy began sobbing. "I never wanted you to lose your smile Nami... you're special to me, like meat!"

"shhhhh, shhhh it's ok Luffy, I'm ok now, see? see? I've got my smile back Luffy, you brought it back!" Nami smiled and wrapped her arms around Luffy, holding his limp body against hers. "It's ok Luffy, everything will be fine now..." Nami just held Luffy's body for the next few minutes until his crying finally subsided and he became completely relaxed. Glancing back over her shoulder, Nami saw that Luffy had apparently fallen asleep. Any other time she'd be mad at him for this, calling her a piece of meat and falling asleep in an awkward position like this... but right now she was just glad that Luffy was still the Luffy she knew, her Luffy.

-X-

Slowly Luffy returned to consciousness. He felt very relaxed, his head was resting in what felt like a warm pillow that smelled of Tangerines, with a soft arm draped over him, feeling more comfortable than a doona ever had, while a hand curled its way through his black hair.

Finally Luffy opened his eyes to find himself resting in Nami's lap, still surrounded by the debris of the Buffalo tavern. It was very quiet and Luffy turned to look up and see the stars above- but more importantly Nami's smiling face, shining down at him. "Nami?"

Nami's eyes looked down at him, making no move to stop stroking his hair or pull her arm away. "What is it Captain?"

"Dictionary"

Nami stopped stroking his hair in surprise... "what?"

"The book that has all the words in it, you told me about it. It's called a Dictionary Nami!"

"eh?"

"I couldn't remember what it was called because you have nice hands but I finally remembered Nami and it's called a Dictio-" Luffy's voice was cut-off as Nami silenced him with a kiss. Luffy's eyes widened in shock before closing as he wrapped his arms around his Navigator. After a few seconds the two separated again, Nami with small tears in her eyes.

"You stupid rubber idiot, Luffy..." Nami went back to stroking his hair.

*Ahem* Zoro coughed to shake the two out of their own little daze. "Not that I don't like watching love-cook stew but I think those marines might actually be stupid enough to charge us."

Nami and Luffy broken out of their daze gradually got to their feet, the crew surrounded them, in a large circle facing outwards, still over the debris of the inn. Nami glanced around at the temporary accommodations I must've fallen asleep as well, we've been here for at least 3 hours. Zoro, Sanji, Frankie, Chopper, Usopp and Robin were all facing outwards and down the hill appeared to be a group of marines, tentatively advancing forward. Both Frankie and Usopp were leaning casually against large beams that'd been turned into bill boards saying "NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG!"-with the Straw-hat crest emblazoned on the wood, while Sanji was facing the advancing Marines, letting a cigarette fall to the ground, putting it out with his black shoe. "Oi, let the come Marimo, I could really use something to kick right now.."

"shishishishishi" Luffy's grin enveloped his face, for the first time in the past day. Grabbing tightly on Nami's hand he let out a yell. "Time to gooooo!"

Nami felt Luffy's left hand wrapping itself tightly around her waist, pressing her against him, likewise she wrapped her hands around him before suddenly realising, they couldn't run like this... "Luffy you'll need to let-" Nami's eyes widened as she watch his right hand streak out into the distance towards the harbour with their ship. "Lufffffy please don't tell me you're-" Nami felt herself being yanked "Luffffffffyyyyyy!" as the two shot off into the night...

-X-

Later in the early morning, Nami emerged back onto the deck after a few hours rest. The crew had make it back easily with only Zoro being at all put out by Luffy abandoning the crew after they stood guard over him. Frankie got the ship moving away from the island and following the Log-pose as much as possible but Usopp still managed to fire off all his mini metal phalluses at the marines on the shore before they got out of sight.

On the upper deck resting casually on the wheel was Luffy, staring at the sun-rise. Nami, slowly crept up behind Luffy, before wrapping her hands around his throat, drawing a 'guh' sound as she shook his head. "Do you have any idea how lucky we are that you picked the right ship and didn't over shoot into water! Gah! I swear you are the most frustrating man I've ever met!" Nami finished her tirade releasing the blue-faced Luffy as she walked past him, putting Luffy's hat back on his head as she stared at the horizon. "Be more careful you stupid rubber man..."

Nami stepped forward but let out a gasp as Luffy's armed snaked their way around her, pulling her tight against Luffy, his front to her back while he rested his chin on her shoulder. His arms weren't loosely holding her, they felt tight.. possessive. It was incredibly warm and safe in Luffy's arms...

"Nami?" His warm breath in her right ear sent shivers down her spine.

"y-yes? Luffy?" she leant back against his chest, resting her weight against him.

"You're my Navigator, Nami". Nami felt her breath catch in her throat, Nami understood this wasn't just nakama, Luffy meant more.

"y-you're my r-rubber idiot... idiot..." Nami's hands wrapped themselves around Luffy's wrists, feeling the back of his hands with her thumbs.

"I'm never letting you leave mmmkay?" It was all Nami could do to nod to that remark as Luffy's grip tightened.

"Yeah... I know Luffy, I know" Twisting in his grip Nami turned and wrapped her hands around Luffy's head, pulling him down for a passionate kiss as the sun finally rose.

"Bwurrrrrrgh, it's so sadddd!" The two jumped apart both bright red upon hearing Chopper's voice from the balcony above, his little reindeer face looking down at them with tears in his eyes.

"Oiii, Chopper! Don't you make any noise~!" Nami said as she straightened her hair.

"Bwurrrgghh Luffy's letting the rest of us leave!" Chopper cried as he ran back into the cabins, with the sound of swearing shortly following his entrance!

"Shishishi! Chopper! Wake up Sanji! It's time for meaattt!" Luffy ran inside after Chopper.

Nami watched him go, hearing the sounds from inside the cabin and some swearing between Zoro and Sanji as Chopper continued to bawl about Luffy abandoning them! Nami smiled, listened to the ruckus as eventually Luffy emerged with a half-dressed Sanji being pulled towards the kitchen... It was a new day for the Strawhats and the start of a new adventure as well...

The End