Chapter 109: Back Together

Chapter 113:

Back Together

Nami rested on the hammock her captive had provided, never letting the old pirate out of her peripheral vision. Shiki and his gorilla hadn't moved much since Indigo had yelled something about a new breakthrough and ran off. Letting out another sigh as the light bounced off the water of the pool in just the right way that it glinted off her wedding ring, Nami let her mind wander to Luffy. Shiki and the gorilla either hadn't noticed her ring or didn't care. The telltale sound of Indigo's shows finally appeared, the door to the room banging open seconds later to reveal Indigo with something covered in a tarp.

"This is it, Captain!" the scientist voiced with a glint in his eye, dropping his cargo. "A new genetic mutation!" The clown pulled a sheet from the item, showing a cage as tall as he was. Inside looked to be a mix of a peacock, a duck, and a chicken, the creature as tall as the navigator. Its feathers were mostly yellow with spots closer to brown dotting its wings. Clawed, slightly-webbed feet supported the bird from below. A red rooster's crown crested the creature's head and a large, rounded beak protruded from under its large eyes, said eyes surrounded by red, flame-like shapes. Finally, an orange peacock tail with green designs almost as tall as itself stood folded behind it.

"A guitar?" Shiki questioned seriously.

"It's obviously a bird!" the clown protested.

"OOHH, OOHH!" the gorilla yelled, pounding his chest. Indigo's eyes droopped as his moment was ruined.

"Are you pounding your chest to try to impress the girl?" the doctor asked. Shiki's jaw dropped, his eyes widening.

"I thought you were my mother for a second there."

"Does everyone in your family look like a freaking gorilla?!" Indigo demanded, smacking the back of his captain's head. The trio ended their act, striking another pose. Nami blinked before the cage opened, the bird flapping onto Shiki's shoulders. It splayed its peacock-like tail before the trio and bird were engulfed in a flash of electricity.

"Stupid guitar!" the blond yelled as the shock faded, grabbing the bird and throwing it away.

"Leave him alone!" Nami demanded, leaving her hammock and running the the creature's side.

"Is that the mutation you wanted to show me, Doctor Indigo?"

"Y-Yes," the scientist muttered, still dizzy from the shock. He shook his head, clearing it. "The Gigafowl has evolved to release bursts of electricity while fully immune from them itself. We won't be sure how it works until we dissect it."

"You won't touch him," Nami cut in, placing herself in front of the downtrodden fowl. The Gigafowl huddled behind her, tears forming in its eyes. "And what was all that about evolutionary breakthroughs?"

"Well, you'll learn it when you join my crew," Shiki began, "so I might as well tell you now. See, these islands have always had a rapid evolutionary growth, some species changing so much as to be unrecognizable after three or four generations. Our research narrowed the source down to a local plant known as IQ. With that in mind, I've had my men harvest every last IQ plant on the islands and distill it into a concentrate so potent, it can make an animal mutate in hours and become violent to the point of insanity, conquering challenges with nothing but brute force. You've never seen such vicious creatures, and it's these perfect weapons that I'll unleash on the East Blue until the Government crumbles to my demands! JIIIHAHAHA! JIIIIIIIIHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"You're a loony," Nami hissed. "I'd never betray the East Blue or my Nakama. I'll never join you."

"Assuming they're still alive," Shiki smirked. "I doubt it after a week with these beasts."

Nami gulped, telling herself that they were still alive.

They had to be.

"Are you sure you don't want to join me now? Disappointing, but that makes forcing you to grovel later so much sweeter. You'll end up on your knees begging to join, Babydoll. Just remember, I'm always willing to grant a favor for one of my own.

"Sorry, Doctor," Shiki said, turning away from Nami and the Gigafowl. "I don't think this one will be useful to us." Shiki eyed the bird without turning. "But it seems my new navigator has taken a liking to it. I think I'll let you keep it, Babydoll. Call it a gesture of good will." With that, Shiki snapped his fingers the his trio made their exit, the gorilla pounding his chest again.

Nami waited for several minutes- until she was sure they were not coming back anytime soon- before releasing the breath she'd been holding. She reached out, petting the large animal's head, a gesture the duck responded happily to. This was it.

"Come on," she told it, assuming it understood enough to follow. "We're leaving."

Leaving the duck's side, Nami loaded a backpack and slipped into the pool, swimming to the far end. The duck followed her, just as graceful in the water. Reaching her first destination, Nami sucked in a breath and dove, the duck followed without pause. He joined the orange-haired woman as she pulled the cover from the bottom of the pool, revealing a pipe system wide enough for the duck to fit.

What a flaw in Shiki's design plans.

Understanding her plan, the duck all but scooped the girl up, rocketing through the water as soon as she had a grip on his feathers. They hurtled through the water for a time, blasting out of a ring of water clinging to Shiki's main island. Nami took that time to open her eyes and catch her breath, noticing that they were falling toward a volcano filled with water.

The two dove into the water, a blast of electricity coloring the surrounding air yellow. The Gigafowl alighted on a seaking that had fallen to its shock before realizing the girl he had befriended was no longer on his back. Panicking, the duck found her floating like the fish. He grabbed her, pulling her from the water and gently pecking at her face, a worried expression showing his concern. She groaned, breathing. The duck gasped, pecking her harder.

"Knock it off!" Nami roared, punching the bird. It skidded before jumping to its feet, a look of relief and joy on its face and electricity sparking around it. "No!" the navigator ordered as she raised a hand, the bird pouting without touching her just outside her reach.

"Wahhh!"

"You did save me," Nami conceded, dropping her hand. "Thank you."

"Waahhh!"

"Now where are we?" The navigator glanced around. Trees, trees, trees, ship, trees... "It's the sunny!" she cried, jogging down the mountain toward where their ship had landed, its sturdy Adam Wood showing no signs of damage. Suddenly, something exploded from the trees to her right. Nami slowed to a stop on the mountainside as a trio ran from the forest.

"Oh, hey. It's the Sunny," a familiar voice laughed before a roar split the air. One of the trio grabbed the other two and ran in her direction just before three giant scorpions and a massive lion followed their path out of the trees in pursuit.

"Nami!" Luffy gasped, catching a glimpse of her from where Gin was dragging him and Grace. "You escaped!"

"Take care of them first!" the orange-haired woman cried.

"Waaahhh!" A mass of yellow flew overhead, impacting the creatures with a blinding light and the smell of ozone. The pirates turned back to see a duck they'd never met perched over the steaming corpses of the other monsters. They blinked.

"Huh."

"That was awesome!"

"But lightnin's my thing!"

"This scorpion is great!" Luffy cried, Gin and Grace humming their agreement. "Nami, you need to try some. Isn't that right, Billy?"

"Waahh!"

"Who's Billy?" the navigator asked, stepping out from behind the boulder she'd used to change. She now wore a short top striped red, yellow, then green and a pair of short jeans cut off before her legs.

"This guy!" her husband laughed, tugging on the duck's cheek. Billy let off a charge of electricity, the power running over the rubber-man and into the Logia. Gin wavered for a second before balancing out. "He's got a big bill. Hey, Nami! Can we keep him since we couldn't keep the beetle?"

"I don't know..." Nami responded. "We have to get out of here first."

"Should we wait by the Sunny for everyone else?" Grace asked, reaching for another scorpion claw from beside the cooking fire. Nami walked over, setting herself down by her beloved and stealing his claw. For his part, the only reaction Luffy had besides grabbing a new claw was snagging one last bite out of the one she took.

"No way!" the captain answered around his mouthful. "That's boring!"

"Don't talk with your mouth full!" his wife admonished.

"She's been fine this long," Gin thought aloud. "She cou' stand 'nother few days. And wi' Billy bein' able ta fly, tha' makes findin' the others a Helluva lot easier."

"We'll leave as soon as we're done eating," Luffy agreed, tearing off another bite.

"Fine, but let me get my Clima-Tact first."

Sanji, Usopp, and Coby woke up in a boat, their clothes sopping wet. Unsure of their location, Sanji poked his head up over the rim, eyeing the world beyond the boat. "Guys, there's something wrong."

"What do you mean?" Coby questioned as he poked his head up next to Sanji. On the shore stood a village of plain-looking houses. Older women and young children went about their daily lives, the most surprising thing about them being feathers that reached along their arms like pseudo-wings.

"What's wrong, Sanji?" Usopp hissed from the boat.

"There's no young ladies here."

"That's your problem?" Coby yelled, smacking the chef.

"Oh, you're awake," woman's voice said, the three pirates turning to see an old woman with black hair. "You sure have us a fright when you fell out of the sky like that. We thought you'd all died." Bending down, the woman set a trio of steaming mugs on the dock beneath her feet, sitting next to them just before the men scooped them into their hands.

"Thank you, miss/madam," Coby and Sanji nodded, Usopp only managing a simple "Thanks."

"Oh, do I look like a madam to you?" the woman waved off, her feathers waving.

"I'm sorry," Coby muttered, "but why do you all have those feathers?"

"Oh, these? Don't know. We've all got them."

"Are you all getting enough to eat?" Sanji questioned. "You're all much too thin. And why aren't there any young women or men around?"

"Well, we could do better," the old woman admitted awkwardly, her voice slowly shifting from embarrassment to sadness. "Most of us live from hand to mouth, but we manage. It wasn't always that way, but everything changed when Shiki showed up."

"Shiki?!" the pirates yelled.

"Yeah. All of the men and women were taken to work in the palace. From the notes we've gotten, if they don't work, we die. Shiki's got us all under his thumb. It will be a good day when he leaves for the East Blue and- get down!" The woman lunged, pressing the pirates into the bottom of the boat, hissing at them to be quiet. Poking their heads up just far enough to see, the Straw Hats were greeted to the image of a giant transponder snail with purple skin and a blue shell.

"What is that?" Usopp hissed.

"It's a surveillance transponder snail," the island native replied lowly. "That's how Shiki keeps tabs on us."

They stayed crouched until the snail moved away, the woman then assuring them it wouldn't return for about eight hours. Thanking her, the trio started up a hill into the town. Finally, the exhaustion of the past week caught up to them, the pirates all but collapsing by a small set of stairs. Usopp froze, staring at the top of the steps. Seeing this, Sanji glanced that direction.

"Oh, hey, it's you," the chef said, his words mixing with Zoro's.

"Usopp!" Chopper cheered, running down the stairs and flinging himself at the sniper for a hug, Merry doing the same.

"Zoro-sensei!" Coby greeted with a wave.

"Sleep first, Shrimp," Zoro muttered. "Talk later."

Without any more preamble, the assimilated pirates collapsed into something of a disjointed, snoring heap.

"Crawley Davidson~! Crawley Davidson~! Lalala~ lalala~ lala~!"

Franky hummed along to Brook's song as he directed the Crawley Davidson, a giant crawfish he'd forced into becoming a motorbike, through an expanse of desert. Robin sat sideways on the 'bike' behind him. Behind her was Brook, sitting backwards as he strummed his violin. Amy floated behind them weightlessly, her umbrella connected the the bike by a chain of Robin's arms.

"This is the way to travel!" Amy called down. "Hey, I see a castle or something!"

"Is that a town?" Franky question, the crawfish beneath them jerking backward.

"Ow," Brook whined as the animal-turned-bike skidded to a stop and jumped backward. "I bit my tongue... not that I have one."

"What the Hell?" the cyborg demanded, punching the creature. "Bikes don't jump backwards, Stupid!"

"The poor thing's trembling," Amy muttered, landing next to it."

"It's not listening to me is what it's doing," Franky growled. "I guess we'll have to walk..." Sighing, Franky removed the modifications from the crustacean and the quartet continued forward through a ring of fat, white trees with a pungent aroma.

"I guess we'll check out whatever's up there," Amy shrugged. "I'm hungry."

"You and me both, Lil' Sis!" Franky responded.

End of Chapter 113

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-SwordOfTheGods