Second Wind

5

They tied their two boats together and set sail. As the island grew more distant, Nami noticed with slight panic that there was only one bag of treasure on the boat. They had separated everything into two. "Um, Luffy? Where's the other bag of gold?" she asked nervously.

"Ah, I left in on the shore for the townspeople." It took a moment for this statement to register in Nami's mind.

"You left it? That was worth at least 5 million Belly!" She yelled in frustration. Luffy just nodded.

"They're not a very wealthy town. They'll need it for repairs. Besides, you said we'd split the profits. I just gave them my share." Nami gave up and her head sagged. She had said that, and she didn't feel very deserving of that extra 10% right about now...

Luffy observed Nami out of the corner of his eye. She was definitely getting more comfortable around the two of them, but she was still slightly disconcerted after everything she'd witnessed them do. Nami was used to using her cunning to manipulate circumstances to her advantage, and she felt way out of her comfort zone when she didn't feel in control of a situation. But that was kind of the point. Luffy wanted her to feel completely at ease around them not because she could control everything, but because she trusted them to watch her back so that she wouldn't have to constantly look over her shoulder. It was still a work in progress.

On the way to the next island, Luffy and Zoro quickly got bored. They left the navigation to Nami (not that they could have helped much), and started playing rock-paper-scissors of all things. The dull game was made even blander by Zoro's unyielding belief that rock was the strongest, no matter how many times it lost to paper.

They eventually passed by a small, uninhabited island, and Luffy suggested they stop there to take a stretch. It was by far the strangest island Nami had ever seen. The animals were all odd hybrids of different land mammals, and a small man stuck in a chest who claimed he was the god of the island confronted them. He had been stranded there ever since his crew left without him after searching the island for treasure. Luffy later found what they'd been looking for, but revealed that there hadn't actually been anything in the chests. Gaimon, as he told them his name was, decided to stay on the island and look after the animals there.

After that, it wasn't long before they reached their destination. As the island came into sight, both Luffy and Zoro felt waves of nostalgia upon sensing the familiar presence on the coast. Soon, three other auras joined him. They stretched their arms and legs as they walked onto the shore, and it wasn't long before Nami noticed them. "Hey, we're being watched." They all turned toward their observers, and three of them instantly ran back towards the town.

"Hey! Don't run away before it even begins!" the fourth one shouted. He nervously turned back to the newcomers and raised a green slingshot. "Stop right there! I am Captain Usopp, the great protector of this village! State your business here, otherwise my 80 million followers will chase you to the ends of Hell!"

Luffy and Zoro exchanged an amused glance as Nami looked at the eccentric villager with disinterest. "Damn," Luffy said. "He's got over a tenth of the world's population as followers."

"That is pretty impressive. Maybe we should run," Zoro added. Usopp gulped, doing the math in his head. He hadn't really thought that one through, but it looked like they were buying it. Maybe this would work...

"He's lying," Nami stated in a bored tone.

"Crap! I've been found out," Usopp exclaimed as Luffy burst out laughing. Usopp swayed back and forth comically as he wondered out loud what he was to do now that he'd been discovered. Nami almost looked guilty for what she'd reduced him to. He quickly recovered though.