FicWad

ONE PIECE
SITTING ON THE WAVES
CHAPTER 12: RECOVERY
BY
Sgamer82

Zoro, Usopp, and Sanji arrived just in time to witness the caretaker of the Chibi no Mi Nursery turn the man who had been threatening their lives into a helpless infant. Leda fell to her side, the front of her dress staining red with blood. Luffy immediately rushed to get her. The other men ran over to see what they could do. Sanji took the now baby Huncaza, extracting him from the animal skins that were now far too large, and carried him inside. Luffy followed carrying Leda. Zoro examined the green substance the children were trapped in and mulled over how to best remove it. Usopp pulled a pellet out of his bag, put it into his slingshot and aimed straight up into the air.

"Red Snake Star!" he yelled as he fired. A stream of red smoke emerged from his slingshot and went high into the air. It would be an unmistakable sign for Chopper and Robin to come quick as they could.

"What's going on here?" asked som people approaching from the north. Redisca villagers attracted by the smoke.

"We need some help!" Usopp answered, "Is there a doctor anywhere? There's someone injured!"

"Where?" asked an older gentleman stepping out of the crowd.

"Inside."

The doctor went in to tend to Leda. Sanji had performed some basic first aid, but the doctor would be able to fully treat her wounds. Meanwhile, Zoro tried to explain what had happened to the villagers, describing the bounty hunter's apparent attempt to use the children as hostages. Usopp took his turn examining the green stone himself. He took another pellet out of his bag, something he had been cooking up just recently. Usopp threw it straight down and watched as the area immediately around the pellet began to bubble. When it stopped, the area was so brittle that a boy nearest where Usopp had thrown the ball was able to pull himself free.

"I was right!" Usopp exclaimed, "My new Acid Stars were just the thing!"

There was a cheer from the children.

"Now I just need to make more of them!"

There was a groan from the children.

"Sorry! I just started making them." Usopp told the kids, "It shouldn't take too long though." He sat down, opened his bag , and got to work. It took a while, but Usopp eventually made enough Acid Stars to cover all the green stone in front of the orphanage. Every child was happy to finally be able to move freely again. Most had rushed inside the orphanage to see how Leda was doing. Others, however, were ushered to Chopper when he arrived with Robin, now sporting an eye patch over her damaged eye, to be checked for injuries.

Fortunately, they were mostly unhurt. The single worst injury was the little girl who had used her own body to trip Huncaza in the fight. She was sporting a large bruise on her side where his leg had hit her. But with all the fights the Going Merry's crew got into, Chopper had plenty of ointments for bruises. Otherwise there was nothing more drastic than a few kids the fear of the situation had gotten to. Fortunately a change of clothes was more or less all that was required. Leda was doing fairly well. She wasn't in critical shape, however the blood loss had the village doctor and Chopper both concerned. She would need some time to recover. Which meant there would be some time before she could restore Nami.

In Leda's absence, the local villagers looked after the orphanage children. None were burdened by doing so. Many of Redisca's citizens were, in fact, children Leda herself had raised. This was the least they could do to pay her back.

The only exception was Nami, who joined the crew in returning to the Going Merry to rest and recuperate until Leda awoke. The pirates considered her their responsibility. Nami also refused to be separated from Luffy. They seemed to get on well. Better than they usually did when Nami was an adult, at least.

"Come on! Can't I have it?" Luffy begged Robin, "I'm the captain! Pirate captain's should get to wear eye patches!"

"Yeah!" Nami chimed in from next to Luffy, "Pirates wear eye patches!"

"Captain, the doctor told me to keep this eye patch on until my eye fully healed. He doesn't want it exposed to light while it's healing."

"Aww..." whined Luffy and Nami.

"But..." Robin continued, "I promise that as soon as the doctor says I no longer need it you can have it."

"Really?!" Luffy asked excitedly. He ran to join Chopper and Usopp, "Hey, Chopper! Tell Robin she doesn't need her eye patch anymore!"

Luffy became Chopper's problem for the rest of the trip back; little Nami right behind. She shadowed Luffy every step of the way.

When they reached the /Merry/, Nami ran right to it. She was amazed, unable to remember ever seeing such a big ship. She told everyone the only boats she knew were fishing boats back in her home in Cocoyashi. She especially loved the tangerine trees on the ship. They reminded Nami of home. The crew made a point not to explain that home was exactly where they came from.

The rest of the day was spent with Chopper treating Sanji and Zoro's injuries. Luffy only got a few scratches in his fight, so he and Usopp instead concentrated on occupying Nami. Robin sat on the steps to the tangerine grove, content to watch the fun rather than participate. They played tag for a while. Nami proved to be a very energetic little girl. She and Luffy were still running to and fro long after Usopp had gotten worn out and had to sit with Robin. They went on for another half-hour until Sanji called them in for an early lunch.

The meal was, as always, wonderful. The crew dug in, being sure to keep an eye out for Luffy's hands; a practice that had become common practice for each of them since joining the crew. Robin had developed the habit of making hands sprout from the table to slap away Luffy's whenever he made a grab for someone else's plate. The meal went peacefully until Nami suddenly began to cry. All eyes turned to her.

"Mr. Luffy took my food!" she wailed.

"N'I'Di'n!" Luffy said through a full mouth.

Not surprisingly, nobody believed him. Sanji provided Nami a fresh plate as well as a small bowl of ice cream from the freezer. Not one member of the crew thought to ask about the sauce stains around her mouth and on her clothes. Nor the odd smile on her face as she ignored the actual food and started on the ice cream. After lunch, Nami ran out to the deck with Luffy.

"Whaddya wanna do now? Huh?" She asked. This had been an exciting day for her so far.

Luffy answered her question by falling backwards onto the deck and going to sleep.

"But... I don't wanna take a nap!" Nami said, yawning midway through her sentence. She too lied down and fell asleep. Once she was out, Zoro walked over and woke Luffy. Robin came and picked up Nami, intending to put her in her own bed. She made sure to thoroughly hide any and all evidence of Nami's adult life before joining the others in the lounge. They didn't need another incident like last night when she was thirteen.

"So what'd you wake me up for?" Luffy asked when they were all together. Usopp answered.

"Luffy, we need to decide what to do if... if..." he really didn't want to say it, "...if Leda can't reverse what she did to Nami. We need to figure out what to do with her."

"Why wouldn't she change Nami back?" Luffy asked.

"It may not be a matter of 'will' or 'won't.' I talked to some people while I was getting the kids free. They know about Leda's powers. A lot of them were even changed by them before. But they all said that they couldn't think of a single time Leda reversed a transformation she'd done on someone else."

"Not surprising." Robin interjected, "Up until now, she's probably never had reason to. Everyone came to her seeking her powers and expecting the result to be permanent."

"Meaning , then, there's a chance Miss Nami can't return to her older self at all." Sanji said.

There was a moment of silence at the thought of losing Nami to her child self.

"So what'll we do?" Chopper asked.

"We take her home."

The crew looked to Luffy, surprised he had a decision already. A logical one, at that.

"A kid like her can't handle the sea." Luffy said. When he realized Nami might not come back, Luffy immediately remembered the words of "Red-Haired" Shanks' first mate. Something he had been told when he wasn't much older than Nami now, and begging Shanks to let him join his crew.

"The safety of the entire crew rests on the Captain's shoulders."

Luffy was always confident that, should his crewmates be unable to do so themselves, he could protect them. But that wasn't the case with Nami. With her, that wasn't an option. The crew couldn't argue. Worst come to worst, it was the only option.

"Does that mean we'll have to go all the way back to Reverse Mountain?" Usopp asked.

"Not necessarily." Zoro commented, "Robin, does Nami still have an Eternal Pose for Alabasta?"

Robin nodded. They had gotten the Pose from the island of Little Garden, and Nami had kept it as a memento of their time with the Alabastan princess, Nefertari Vivi. It would be far simpler a matter to leave Nami in Vivi's care. She could more easily ensure Nami's safety and trip home if she needed to return to Cocoyashi. There was no worry about what would happen to Nami upon returning home. Given all she had done for the village, not a single person in Cocoyashi would hesitate for a second to make sure Nami was cared for.

The crew sat in silence after that. Each of them silently hoping their navigator would return to them.