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“He isn’t part of our crew anymore,” Sanji said, his voice flat. His hand clamped onto Chopper’s shoulder, holding the reindeer back as he tried to scramble over the railing toward the broken silhouette of Usopp lying on the shore.
Below them, Luffy stood like a statue on the shoreline, his hat casting a black veil over his eyes. On deck, the others were frozen, but Nami was vibrating with a cold furry.
“How can you say that?” she whispered. The words were low, but their sharpness cut through the roar of the wind on deck.
Every head turned.
“Usopp is family!” she snapped, her voice cracking as she unleashed her fury on Sanji. “Are we just throwing him away? Just like that?”
They all looked at their feet, the wood grain of the Merry suddenly fascinating.
“Nami, I know this is hard, but—”
“You think you know?!” She lunged into Sanji’s space, chest heaving, tears spilling down her cheeks even as her eyes burned.
She glared at him with pure venom in her teary eyes. “Are you just going to stand there, Sanji? Just smoke your cigarette and watch him walk away?”
“It was a duel. Luffy made a decision—”
Nami’s finger was in his face before he could finish. “I don't care about your stupid, made-up rules! This is Usopp! Arlong Park, Alabasta, Skypiea… we did that together! And now you’re letting him walk away? Do something, you idiot! Tell Luffy he’s wrong! Tell Usopp to stay! Don’t just stand there acting like this is okay!”
The silence that followed was suffocating, nobody moving to action. She scoffed before turning on her heel to walk away, taking only a few steps before pausing her stride.
“No wonder you’re obsessed with every woman you see. People are just replaceable to you.”
Sanji flinched as if she’d struck him. “Nami…” he whispered, his voice impossibly small.
With that she continued her walk until she reached the edge of the deck before vaulting over the railing.
“Wait, Nami!” Chopper squeaked, his voice breaking, but Nami was already gone.
A heavy drop of water hit the deck. Then another. Within seconds, the sky broke, weeping over the grieving ship.
————
In the damp, jagged mouth of a sea cave, Nami struck two rocks together until her knuckles went white. Finally, a spark caught. The small flame clung to the few dry sticks she found lying around, illuminating walls of this new dark sanctuary. Outside, the drizzle had evolved into a violent downpour, water pouring so thickly she could barely see more than a few feet beyond the mouth of the cave.
She began to wring out her orange hair, shivering as she pulled her knees to her chest. Her eyes watched the fire, but in reality all she saw was the image of Usopp, beaten and alone in the mud. Instead of the drum of rain hitting rock, all she could hear were the words she’d hurled at Sanji echoing in her head.
A splash of footsteps came from the entrance of the cave. Nami stiffened.
“Luffy, leave me—” she began, spinning around, but the words died quickly.
Zoro didn’t even look at her. After pausing to shake the water out of his hair, he simply walked over to the fire. The closer he got the more it was clear he was soaked to the bone, but seemingly unbothered by it. She watched him come up and sit on the rock with her, placing his swords next to him. There was a long silence as she waited for him to say something.
To her surprise, he instead pulled out a bottle of sake she hadn’t noticed he was carrying. He uncorked it with his teeth before taking a long swallow. After wiping his mouth with the back of his hand he offered the bottle to her, all while never breaking his concentration on the fire.
Nami wiped her eyes with one hand as she took the bottle with the other. A few swigs of sake later and she was already feeling warmer.
They sat, just listening to the roar of the rain and the crackle of damp wood for a long time.
“Is Sanji mad?” she finally whispered, passing the bottle back.
“The cook’s too obsessed with you to be mad.” Zoro grunted taking another long gulp. “You could probably set his hair on fire and he’d thank you for the light.”
Nami attempted a weak smile.
“On the other hand,” Zoro added, passing the bottle back, “verbally abusing the cook is my job. Stay in your lane next time.”
Finally, a wet chuckle escaped her as she took another gulp of the vial liquid before handing it back.
“Zoro…” her voice shook as she stared at her hands. “Is the crew going to fall apart?”
“No.”
She furrowed her brows, “but how can you sound so sure?”
“Are you leaving?” Zoro asked plainly.
“...No.”
“Neither am I, so it won’t.”
Nami’s temper flared “So what, everyone else is disposable? As long as it’s the two of us and Luffy, that’s enough for you? God, you’re just as bad as Sanji!”
“Watch it, carrot head. I know you’re having a shit day, but I draw the line at trying to compare me to the cook.”
Any other day the retort would have landed and she would have played along. Instead, her shoulders shook violently as she tried to hold back a sob.
She could hear Zoro sigh and set down the bottle.
Before she could protest, she was suddenly pulled to her feet.
He grabbed her shoulders and made her face him. “Look at me.” He commanded.
She looked him in the eyes for the first time that night. In his face she could see it. Buried behind his stoic expression, his eyes ached with a sadness that would be impossible to recognize had it not been her.
“Things break. Sometimes they have to break before they can be fixed. If we have to break for Usopp to find himself, then that’s the price we pay for being his friends.”
“And if I’m not willing to just stand here and watch him break?” Tears were pouring down her face again.
“Then you’ll survive. Through the hurt. Through the pain. You’ll still live…You know how to do that better than anyone I know.”
The tears turned to poorly contained sobs, resulting in Zoro slowly pulling her into his chest. The action, though unexpected, unleashed the last of her defenses. The quiet sniveling turned into ugly, racking sobs. She balled her fists into his wet shirt, weeping for Usopp, for the Merry, and for the terrifying fragility of the family she had fought so hard to find. Zoro placed a hand gently behind her head. He didn't offer platitudes, just letting her cry until the ache in her chest subsided into ragged sniffles.
When Nami finally leaned back, wiping her nose on the back of her hand, she looked at the floor, then the fire. “You shouldn’t have left the sake over there.”
He smirked.
They sat back down and passed the bottle back and forth a few times.
“I finally found my family,” Nami said softly, the strong drink now setting into her system. “And it feels like I’m losing them.”
Zoro hummed. “They are not lost, just changing.”
“Lost and changing feel like the same thing right now.”
He paused. There was another long silence before she watched him grab the Wado Ichimonji from beside him and pull it onto his lap, studying the hilt with a quiet reverence. “Kuina,” he said. “It was her sword.”
Nami watched him intently, holding her breath. She had witnessed the care and intention he payed to that sword, clearly suggesting it was significant to his past, but he had never told any of the crew about its origin.
“She was going to be the best. We both were.” He tightened his grip.
“…but she died, didn’t she?” Nami whispered.
He nodded. “Not even in a duel—she just fell down some stairs.”
Lost. She thought.
He looked at Nami. “Any of us could go at any second. A disease, an accident, a sea king. But losing Usopp to a fight? It means he’s alive enough to make mistakes. It means he has friends who care enough to mourn the rift. That’s a gift, Nami.”
“I get it, life is short,” Nami sighed. “But why waste it fighting each other, then?”
“You’re asking a swordsman, a pirate at that, why he spends his life fighting?”
She smacked his shoulder, making the corner of his mouth rise slightly. “I’m asking why you’d support a fight over something so stupid.”
“What fuels a man’s heart is never stupid,” he retorted.
She paused, absorbing the weight of his words.
“…what’s in Usopp’s heart, then?”
Zoro contemplated the flames. “A grief for the Merry so deep he couldn't hold it in.”
“And that justifies him fighting Luffy?”
“It’s not my job to decide what’s justified,” Zoro said, sliding the blade back onto the rock beside him. “It’s just my job to understand he is hurting. I can’t quell what is in another man’s heart, nor would I ever try.”
“Fine, but the fight happened. Now it’s done. Why not fight for him back? Why aren’t we going to him?!”
“Because he hurt us, too.”
She looked confused.
“If this is how he has to process it, fine. We let him, but he needs to acknowledge the harm he has done. He isn’t ready to do that.”
A clash of thunder shook the cave, drawing their eyes back to the storm.
“…I hate when you say things that kind of make sense.”
“Did you just admit I was right?” He looked at her curiously.
“Shut up”
He just smirked at her.
She shoved him as another loud roar of thunder echoed through the cave.
“You’re still the idiot who followed me in this weather” she muttered.
“Funny, I thought the person being followed was the idiot for braving it in the first place.”
“It’s called being cunning. I knew no sane person would have followed me….Unfortunately, sanity is in short supply around here.”
“At least we keep things interesting.”
“Ha.” She rolled her eyes.”You stubborn pirates are going to be the death of me.”
He paused for a moment, considering a playful jab before opting for a different tone.
“Sounds like a good way to go if you ask me.”Zoro said with a quiet sincerity.
Nami looked at him, admiring how he saw such a complex world in such simple terms. She envied how in his mind there was no room for the kind of regret she lived in. He didn’t waist time thinking about how he got somewhere, just focused on carving a path forward for all of them.
She snatched the sake bottle from him and raised it in the air.
“To stubborn hearted pirates, then.” Taking a large swig before passing it.
He smirked, raising the bottle. “To stubborn hearted friends.”