"Is that true?!" Zoro spat in horror.
Johnny's face was ashen. "Yeah. I watched it happen with my own two eyes. That woman's a witch! In order to obtain some hidden treasure for herself in Cocoyashi Village, she was kissing up to Arlong!" He pounded his fist against the ground and knelt over. "And for that purpose, she killed without even thinking about it! She's a rotten-hearted lowlife! We've been fooled all this time."
Lucy turned to me, her eyes shadowed under her trademark straw hat and her raven-black hair blowing in the breeze. "Yuril," she said calmly. "You're a psychic, right? Is that how it went?"
"Well," I began, "from any observer's point of view, it would have certainly looked like that, but you gotta remember that trickery is definitely Nami's forte."
Zoro's hard gaze softened a bit. "Then you mean—"
I nodded triumphantly, pleased he could figure it out. "She only pretended to kill Usopp so that he could escape safely."
"But I saw blood on both of their hands!" Johnny protested, mystified. "She's a witch, I tell you!"
"BASTARD!" Lucy roared, suddenly slapping the blue-clothed bounty hunter and shaking him in fury. "Say that about Nami one more time and I swear I'll kill you!" Her straw hat fell off and rolled in the dirt next to her.
"Lucy-chan!" I said anxiously. "Calm down! His reaction was perfectly understandable!"
"But he called my friend a witch," she fumed, giving me such a glare that I almost couldn't believe it was the same Lucy. She looked like she wanted to rip out my guts and use them as wolf bait or something. I was seriously worried for my life for a second there, but luckily Zoro managed to calm her down.
I heaved a sigh of relief.
"I swear you're bipolar," I muttered, shaken by the event. I absentmindedly picked at a cut I'd gotten from the wreck.
"You don't have to believe me," Johnny cried, "but I watched it with my own two eyes! I know I saw her kill Usopp-aniki!"
"STOP MAKING SHIT UP!" Lucy swore, forgetting about being calm. "There's no way Nami would kill Usopp! They're nakama! Plus, Yuril said it was a fake death!"
"Who's nakama, Lucy?" a familiar female voice said, almost sickeningly smug. I grinned and turned around, but what I saw made me pause. There stood Nami, sneering and fingering a new glove on her hand. She wore a green spaghetti strap shirt with white polka dots on it and had a blue tattoo on her left shoulder, a strange mark with a kind of spiraling shark on it.
Arlong's mark.
"Why did you come here?" she asked, a little more dangerously this time. Nami narrowed her eyes and squeezed her bo staff. You know, saying bo staff is actually a bit redundant, since "bo" means "staff" in Japanese... ARGH, DAMN ADHD!
"What are you talking about?" Lucy tilted her head, confused. A lock of her hair fell over her eye and she brushed it aside, a pout of annoyance on her face. "We're nakama. I came to get you!" She knelt down and picked up her precious treasure, dusting it off and stuffing it onto its seat of honor.
"How annoying!" Nami said sternly, arms folded about her chest.
I stepped back a little. "Eh? Nami?" That look on her face... either she was an incredibly good liar or somehow my appearance in this world had changed things so much that she actually DID kill Usopp.
"Nakama?" the navigator and cartographer said distastefully. "Don't make me laugh. You're more like a pathetic group of cooperators, don't you think?"
Lucy frowned.
"Damn you..." Johnny spat. "Even if Yuril says you're innocent, I still know what I saw! You killed Usopp-aniki! How dare you! He was innocent!"
A sadistic smile spread across her face. "And your point is...? You wanna try killing me to avenge him?"
"What?!" he muttered, taking a step back but never softening his glare.
"Johnny!" I said sharply. "Stay calm. Remember, she didn't kill him!"
Her gaze turned on me. "And as for you ," Nami sneered, "I always knew there was something weird with you from the start. You're no psychic. If you were, you'd have seen Usopp die. So sure, maybe you got lucky a few times, but that's it!"
My eye twitched. She was right, of course. I wasn't a psychic. I was as much of a liar as Usopp. And it was eating me up on the inside, not telling the crew the truth. But how could I tell them they were fictional characters in a popular anime from another world? They'd think I was even more insane than they probably already do.
She spun her bo staff around in her hand. "I'll tell you one thing," she informed us. "Right now Arlong wants to kill 'Roronoa Zoro and his posse.' All because Zoro went and did something stupid. You guys may have freaky, monster-like powers, but when faced with real monsters, you're NOTHING!"
"I dunno about that," I volunteered, raising a hand. "I did a pretty good number on Mohmoo on the way here."
"Eh?" Her eyes widened a little. "You guys fought Mohmoo and lived?"
Lucy giggled. "Yeah! Yuril beat that dumb sea bull's ass!"
I knocked her over the head. "Don't call him dumb, he was starving! And I only punched him a few times 'cause I had to, got it?"
Nami the Snowman was back again. "Well, no matter. Hang around this island and its occupants long enough, and you guys will be killed for sure." She closed her eyes and tilted her head down. "Ah, well. It doesn't concern me."
"So you do care!" I said in mock-surprise. Her eye twitched almost as bad as mine.
Sanji swooned, nearly dropping his cigarette. "Ah! Nami-swan looks beautiful even when she's so cold! Hey, Nami-swan! It's me, me! Do you remember me? Let's go on a cruise together!"
"Idiot," I muttered.
"You just stay out of this!" Zoro grumbled, interrupting the cook's love-sick waving. "You'll just complicate things."
"What did you two say? My love is always a hurricane!"
"Hurricanes are cool," I put in. "Your so called 'love?' Not so much." Snickering, Zoro and I turned away from the hopeless fool.
"EH?! Listen to me when I'm talking to you!"
Zoro put a hand on Wado Ichimonji. "Where is Usopp?"
"At the bottom of the sea," came the calm and cool reply.
"WHY, YOU! QUIT YOUR BULLSHIT!" The swordsman bent forward and nearly unsheathed his choice weapon, but a swift kick and punch from Sanji and I put that idea to rest.
"Do swordsmen attack women too?" the smoker asked. "Roronoa Zoro?"
I eyed Zoro uncertainly. "She's innocent. I don't like people who attack innocents." At least, I thought she was innocent...
He glared at Sanji. "Eh? What did you say? You don't even know what's going on here!" The unofficial first mate rounded on me. "And as for you, your psychic crap is a bunch of shit! I don't care if you're a demigod or whatever, but no way are you a psychic! She just admitted to killing Usopp! Why would she lie to us if she saved him?"
I sighed. A part of me wanted to spill the beans on this whole sad story right now, as it was the perfect opportunity, but it would be kinda pointless since everything comes together in time. If I didn't change anything, that is.
Sanji snorted. "Ha. After an emotional loss, of course you're irritable."
"Oi." Zoro tic-pulsed, pointing his sword at the second newest Straw Hat. "You'd better watch what you say."
I put a hand to my forehead and shook my head. "Aye, aye, aye, you're just making it worse."
"Mind your own business."
A chain of footsteps came from behind me, and then Yosaku appeared next to us, waving his arms desperately and pleading, "Aniki! Please don't bicker at a time like this!"
"That's right!" Nami agreed coldly. "If you're going to fight, do it off of this island. You outsiders should quit sticking your nose into this island's business." She turned, showing off her tattoo for everyone to see. "You still don't get it? The only reason I got close to you guys was for the money, nothing else. Now that you guys have nothing, you're of no use to me.
"I'll return the ship, so just go off and find another navigator who'd be stupid enough to head to the Grand Line with you. Go find One Piece or whatever..." She swiped her staff at us pointedly. "Just get the hell outta here! You're an eyesore!"
I thought I saw a brief flicker of pain in her eyes, but then they hardened again and the moment was over.
Nami opened her mouth to say something, but I cut her off. "Oi, Nami. Do you know where a Lady... uh, I forget what her name is, but it sounds like an espresso drink or something."
She blinked in surprise, furrowed her brow in thought, then narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Oh, you mean that weirdo hermit Lady Vestionora? Yeah, she runs a fortune telling shop out in the woods. There's a path to her place in Cocoyashi Village. What business do you have with her?"
From the tone of her voice, I could tell that she didn't like the oracle goddess, Lady Vestionora, too much.
I shrugged. "My dad said I should talk to her and that she lived here, so while we're here I thought I might as well talk to her."
Her laugh was as rigid as the North Pole at Christmas time. "Well, good luck getting an audience with her," she scoffed. "She's always busy doing something and never actually tells anyone's fortunes. She's also a recluse who never visits the village, or even comes out of her mansion much."
I raised an eyebrow. My dad's side of the family sure had some weird characters.
But at least I had a destination now.
"Well, thanks anyway," I said.
Her expression darkened even more, if that was possible. "Goodbye."
"Nami..." Lucy murmured. There was an awkward silence where nobody moved or said anything, staring each other down. Then my captain closed her eyes and simply collapsed backwards.
The navigator's eyes widened a little.
"Lucy-aneki!" Johnny and Yosaku freaked, and I stared in confusion. Birds chirped in the forest as we all rushed to our female friend's side, save for Nami, but then a snore rose up into the air.
"Really?" I demanded from no one in particular. "She's sleeping at a time like this?"
"In the middle of the road?" Yosaku added, flabbergasted.
Her eye opened a little. "I don't care about what's going on here, but I'm not leaving. Plus I'm a bit sleepy." It closed and the snores continued.
"She can wake up and carry on a conversation at will?" I deadpanned.
"Aneki..." muttered Johnny.
"HAH?" His friend/brother/whatever gaped at the girl.
Zoro just facepalmed and I sweatdropped.
A sudden shout of pain and anger startled me. "FINE THEN! DO WHATEVER YOU WANT! GO AHEAD AND DIE FOR ALL I CARE!" Nami, who'd been the shouter, turned sharply and tore off along the dirt road, muttering darkly under her breath.