Straw Hat Luffy: The Black Fist

Chapter 13: Fish and Ships

AN:

There have been a couple of comments about certain things like Luffy's mentioning of his brothers or everyone knowing about Shanks. In the manga, the emperors aren't mentioned very much. It's the same with Luffy's brothers. I feel like it was a way for Oda to build the story in the right way. I know I know, very presumptuous of me. But, that's beside the point. The point is that we already know the story. With that in mind, I want everything to feel a little more connected if that makes sense. Hopefully, it will as we get further into the story. That's kind of why I'm mentioning some things the way I am. I do want this to be true to the source material but I'm also not trying to rewrite the manga, it's fanfiction so I want things to be different. Anyways, again, I love talking about this kind of stuff so keep the comments coming in. I always enjoy reading them. Hope this didn't seem ranty lol. But again I love the comments they give me a chance to talk about stuff like this.

Also, I am caught up on everything so don't worry about spoiling me in the comments. I'm a little bit of a One Piece nut if you couldn't tell.

I don't have too much to say about this chapter other than it's a slower one, but you guys know how it goes. Still, I like it and hope you guys do too.

---

Chapter 13: Fish and Ships

Nami sighed. It was a beautiful day out on the waters of the East Blue. The sun shone brightly in a sky filled with big beautiful white clouds, the blue water reflecting its rays. The orangette's eyes roamed the deck of their new ship as the wind blew through her short hair, looking for her companions.

Luffy slept on the figurehead of their vessel, sprawled out and uncaring of the fact that he could fall into the water below at any moment. He'd dubbed the perch as "his spot" as soon as they'd set off. The girl scanned for the other occupant of the boat and her eyes found a green head of hair doing some exercising just outside the storage room. It was where he'd decided to keep all of his... Equipment. She scoffed remembering when he and Luffy had brought his 'weights' on board. She still couldn't really believe it was possible for humans to be as strong as they were. She shook her head. No use dwelling on it.

Her eyes stopped scanning for passengers and began to roam the deck once more, her smile growing. She couldn't help it. The ship was perfect. The Going Merry. The three companions had taken to calling her Merry for short. She walked up the steps toward the galley and turned when she reached the top. The girl leaned against the railing and looked out once again, the memory of the first time she stood there flashing through her mind. She didn't stop it as it took her back to seeing the ship for the first time.

"Ship?!", Nami exclaimed. She'd totally forgotten, but she'd been planning to ask Kaya if she had one she was willing to part with. Obviously, if the blonde had asked for compensation, Zoro would have paid for it but that was beside the point.

The point was, she wanted to get to Mad Treasure's hideout as quickly as possible. She'd already been away for a while and Arlong didn't like it when she was gone for too long. The girl resisted the urge to scowl. She wanted a bigger ship so they could sail straight to the hideout rather than having to stop on the way. It would definitely cut off some time. Not too much, but enough to make it worth asking. The problem was, it had totally slipped her mind. And with everything that had happened, it was coming as a shock to her that Luffy had actually managed to get one.

"Yeah!", Luffy exclaimed excitedly, "Kaya said that no one really uses it anymore!". The straw-hatted boy stood to his feet and nodded toward the door, "You think you can make it down to the docks?".

Nami groaned but slid her legs back out of the bed and placed them on the wood floor, slowly standing to her feet. Her muscles groaned slightly but it wasn't too bad. She tried to take her first step and, instead, yelped when she was lifted into the air.