Before start specially for "rami2023" who have read the chapter faster then I have deleted it. Yes, but you would need to wait for 20 more days. It was just a wrong chapter at wrong place.
Spoilers © River Song
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Also a note that a new full chapter with the first meeting of Robin and Straw Hats is available in patre0on.com/moctopus
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"Pffft!!! Luffy, you won't believe this, but we're off course again already! And it's only been ten minutes—a new record! Amazing!"
Nami was absolutely beside herself with delight over everything that was happening, and she made no attempt to hide it. At first, everyone else had also been surprised and impressed, but after almost two weeks at sea, only Nami continued to marvel at it, and only Luffy remained interested in her excitement. Even Johnny's curiosity had run dry several days ago. Now the Straw Hats and the Heart Pirates simply waited for the most beautiful navigator in the world to finish playing to her heart's content with the Grand Line's unpredictable weather and currents.
The two vessels had left Twin Cape eleven days earlier. Despite all the repairs, the Heart Pirates' submarine was still unable to submerge. Completing the restoration required additional materials that old man Crocus simply did not have; he had spent all his supplies on Laboon. There was also only one Log Pose, and it had long since taken up permanent residence on Nami's left wrist, so traveling underwater would have been impossible in any case. For those reasons, the Heart Pirates' submarine had been firmly lashed to the stern of the Going Merry with sticks, logs, planks, cables, ropes, and hawsers, so that even the strongest storm could not tear the ship and submarine apart. In theory. In practice, everyone understood perfectly well that it would be best not to encounter a serious storm at all. That was true even though Law had used his Devil Fruit ability to all but fuse the Going Merry to his crew's submarine. In an ordinary sea, such precautions would have been more than sufficient. On the Grand Line, they inspired nothing but concern. Frankly, in an ordinary sea they would never have needed such precautions in the first place, but the waters of the Grand Line truly were an utterly insane place.
For the first several hours after leaving Twin Cape, the Going Merry held strictly to its chosen course. Nami did not even need to use the Log Pose: once they set their heading, the ship followed it perfectly. The sky was clear, the sun beat warmly down on their heads, and the sea was quiet and calm—pure bliss! For the first three hours. Then someone apparently flipped a switch. Clouds swallowed the sky in moments, the water heaved, and a light rain began, swiftly turning into a blinding downpour beneath which the Going Merry nearly smashed to pieces against an iceberg the size of a small mountain that had appeared from nowhere. Almost at once, the air temperature began dropping sharply, and the impenetrable downpour soon became an equally impenetrable snowstorm, which at least explained the iceberg somewhat.
After winter, which lasted no more than an hour, spring naturally arrived, greeting the Going Merry with gusts of warm air and an enormous tornado that they avoided only by sheer luck. Yet the crew had barely released a collective sigh of relief as they watched the gigantic waterspout linking sea and sky retreat in the opposite direction when Nami discovered that, at some point, they had managed to stray off course. And not just a little. They were literally sailing in the opposite direction, while their actual route lay directly behind the slowly receding tornado. Faced with such nonsense, the best navigator in East Blue had only one thing to say:
"What the hell is going on here?!!"
Nami openly swearing was quite an indicator. Anyone who knew her well could say with confidence that she cursed extremely rarely, almost never allowing herself vulgar language even in response to Luffy's most irritating antics. With her captain, she simply went straight to physical violence, but there was no other way to deal with him. So whenever Nami suddenly began using profanity aloud—instead of merely running through every curse she knew inside her head—it was safe to conclude that either she had finally been pushed beyond endurance, or the situation was so extraordinary that even all her considerable experience could not help her keep a cool head. Considering the composition of her family, and especially the size of the cockroaches living in Luffy's brain, her experience truly could not be underestimated. So yes, a swearing Nami was very much an indicator.
"And what is wrong with this sea?!!"
That had been her reaction on the first day—and not hers alone. It would be no exaggeration to say that none of those present had expected the Grand Line's weather to be this bad in reality. Rumors or knowledge, neither could truly prepare a person for something like this. Some things could only be understood after experiencing them firsthand, and the Grand Line's insane weather was precisely one of those things. When the Going Merry entered a region where forty-degree heat changed into thirty-degree frost every ten minutes, within an hour only a handful of the Heart Pirates' considerable crew remained standing on the upper deck, while all the others hid in the depths of the submarine, unable to endure such fluctuations. One could talk and listen forever about sudden changes in temperature, pressure, and humidity, but that did nothing to prepare the human body for such stress. Changes that abrupt could literally kill a completely healthy person.
After such an experience, it was possible to say with confidence that the Grand Line had problems with more than just its magnetic field—otherwise, certain things were simply impossible to explain. After ten days of observing various phenomena, Nami had begun leaning toward the idea that something was wrong with space itself on the Grand Line. Most people would have considered such a theory utterly insane and contrary to all familiar logic, but the Straw Hat family had already encountered spatial anomalies back in East Blue, so none of them considered Nami's theory impossible. It became yet another confirmation of Luffy's claim that everything abnormal gradually became normal as one's personal strength and experience increased. Moreover, when, on the fifteenth day of the voyage, the needle of Nami's Log Pose suddenly jumped ninety degrees for no visible reason and froze there right before her eyes, her theory about spatial anomalies began to look more reasonable than any alternative. It also explained the abrupt temperature changes and the icebergs that periodically appeared from nowhere—the first had not been the last. In other words, it was not the weather that changed, but the ship's location. Not that the Grand Line's weather could have been called normal without spatial anomalies, but they unquestionably made it much worse than it would otherwise have been.
Eventually, on the seventeenth day of the voyage, Nami had to abandon her navigation experiments. Not by choice, but out of simple necessity: they were beginning to run low on supplies. The appetites of the male half of the family knew no bounds, and the Going Merry was hardly impressive in size. Yet whatever anyone might think, it was not water or food that had begun running out aboard the ship and submarine. The obscenely expensive desalination unit—and 'obscenely' was no exaggeration—handled their water needs perfectly, steadily supplying enough for the entire family and the Heart Pirates. Law and his crew had almost had their eyes pop out when they saw such a marvel aboard the Straw Hats' ship. Food was even easier. The Grand Line had more Sea Kings than East Blue had ordinary fish, and ordinary fish were hardly scarce either. Sometimes the Going Merry entered regions of complete calm, like the Calm Belt—the belt of stillness bordering the Grand Line to the north and south, where neither wind nor ocean currents existed, but Sea Kings bred in abundance—and then everyone held fishing contests. Lunch, entertainment, and a break from the idiotic weather all at once. Complete self-sufficiency, so to speak.
The problem crept up from where no one had expected it: the family was beginning to run out of spices. How was Sanji supposed to cook his divine food without seasonings?!! The problem was completely idiotic—Sanji could prepare delicious meals using nothing but salt, which the desalination unit provided in abundance—but it was entirely in the Straw Hats' spirit and, from their point of view, extremely serious. To Law's immeasurable horror, after a whole month of living on food prepared by Sanji, he found himself inwardly agreeing with the crazy family's logic. As for the rest of the Heart Pirates, there was nothing to discuss. The brainless idiots had been bought body and soul even before they left Twin Cape.
Were it not for one detail, Law would have begun seriously worrying about an eventual mutiny aboard his ship. Trying to tear his crew away from Sanji's cooking could end in nothing else. And then there was Nami. Law's subordinates obeyed the girl as unquestioningly as they obeyed their captain. Bepo, the damned traitor, carried out Nami's orders with an enthusiasm Law's own commands had never received. In light of their inevitable separation, he really could have begun worrying about a mutiny aboard his ship... All right, perhaps 'mutiny' was a bit much, but Law could already foresee days upon days, perhaps even weeks, of his crew's incessant whining after that inevitable separation from the Straw Hats' insane family. Fortunately for Law, there truly was one very important detail in the relationship between the Heart Pirates and the Straw Hat Pirates. That detail was the fact that every single Straw Hat—absolutely every one of them—was a completely unhinged sociopath. More importantly, highly active sociopaths.
Law had diagnosed Luffy and Zoro during their very first meeting, and had immediately wondered how two such people managed to live together. His surprise only grew after he realized that, in fact, every member of the Straw Hat family was a sociopath to one degree of activity or another—Luffy was the most active, while Usopp proved the calmest. How, exactly, did they manage to coexist? And not merely call their crew a family, but genuinely consider themselves one? That sharply contradicted Law's knowledge, which in turn cast doubt on his diagnosis, but he was not accustomed to doubting himself or what he knew. So what was the secret, or the reason? As further acquaintance revealed, there was no secret or reason at all. Question: "How do seven highly active sociopaths live together?" Answer: "They don't."
Relationships within the Straw Hat family amounted to an extraordinarily complicated psychological game with constantly changing rules, the objective of which was to kill another member of the family. The worst part was that it was completely unclear whether any of them did this consciously. Because despite the game's ultimate objective, it had one clearly visible side effect: either you constantly became stronger, or you died. And it worked. Law could say with confidence that he was capable of defeating all of them except Luffy and Zoro—but only because of his Devil Fruit. Bepo, as experience had shown, could defeat only Usopp, which could hardly be called a source of pride; the long-nosed young man was a sniper, not a fighter. More importantly, Usopp's talent had reached a level Law had never before seen in his life. More important still, the same could be said of Zoro as a swordsman, Sanji as a cook, and Nami as a navigator. On the first day of the voyage, the girl had been able to do nothing but clutch her head helplessly, unable to comprehend what was happening. Two weeks later, nothing could disconcert her anymore; it only filled her with delight.
Most importantly, she really had learned to predict the Grand Line's seemingly unpredictable weather. She could even identify the appearance of what she had ultimately taken to calling spatial anomalies. Talent at such a level was impossible to overestimate, though easy enough to underestimate. Yet for all these reasons, Law did not have to fear a 'mutiny' aboard his ship. No matter how delicious Sanji's cooking was, no matter how beautiful, kind, sweet, and compelling Nami might be, none of that—or anything else—could compensate for their greatest flaw. Trying to force one's way into the Straw Hat family was like sticking a hand into a running meat grinder. Even simply being friends with such people was extraordinarily dangerous. The family of idiots was entirely capable of getting both themselves and everyone around them killed merely by deciding to play some joke. Law himself had understood that on the very first day of their acquaintance, while his crew had needed considerably more time to grasp such an apparently obvious fact.
There was no need to look far for an example. More precisely, there was no need to look anywhere at all; the appropriate example stood before their eyes every day. Or rather, she did. There was not a trace of exaggeration in the statement that the family of idiots could get everyone and everything killed, including themselves, for the sake of a joke. They truly were capable of it. In fact, they were already trying to test the possibility in practice. Meaning, trying to get themselves killed. How else could one describe the fact that they were keeping a Marine officer aboard their ship? One who had been kidnapped for the sake of yet another joke. Was that not perfect proof of everything Law had said? Especially once one began examining the details.
When Law first saw Tashigi, he had not paid her much attention. Before meeting the Straw Hats in person, the captain of the Heart Pirates had known and heard nothing about Usopp or Sanji either, yet upon meeting them, they had turned out to be members of the crew who were simply unknown to the public. So Law assumed the unfamiliar girl was another crew member not known to the wider world. If she was not part of the crew, why would Roronoa Zoro himself be training her? Logical? Logical. Law had simply not yet understood how foolish it was to judge the insane family's actions by the logic of a normal person.
There was no need to describe the shock the Heart Pirates' captain experienced when he learned that the girl Zoro was training was actually a Marine, held the rank of lieutenant, had been kidnapped by Luffy in Loguetown, wanted more than anything in the world to kill Zoro himself, and wished to throw every other Straw Hat behind bars. And they allowed such a person to remain among their family, learning their secrets, motives, goals, and desires. More than that, they were teaching her. They were training someone who, in the best-case scenario, wanted to send every member of their family to Impel Down, the most impregnable prison in the world, for the rest of their lives. And all the while, they found the entire situation extremely amusing and treated Tashigi herself as though she were a cute little kitten growling in an entertaining way. True, as Law understood perfectly, compared with the Straw Hats' captain and the Pirate Slayer, she currently was no more dangerous than a harmless kitten. But one should never forget that kittens had a tendency to grow up—and not always into house cats.
Law might still have accepted the ongoing madhouse if Tashigi had been a talentless fool, but no. Under the guidance of East Blue's 'chief bogeyman,' the girl progressed at such speed that it seemed less as though she were learning and more as though she were recovering old skills. At the beginning of the month, Law could have said with confidence that he could defeat her with one blow without using his Devil Fruit. Four weeks later, that was no longer even remotely true. No, Law could still defeat the girl easily, but only by using his fruit; otherwise, the fight might drag on for a long time, and there was no guarantee it would end in his victory. Training an enemy with such potential for growth was the very height of idiocy. And the reason for such idiocy? All for amusement. A joke. Fun. A prank. And then there was ordinary information.
After spending an entire month together, who could know what conclusions Tashigi had reached and what observations she had made? Upon returning to the Marines, the girl could easily use her knowledge to lure the Pirate Slayers into a trap. Despite all their unpredictability and obvious madness, Law himself assumed that luring them into one would require almost no effort. It would be enough to promise them something interesting or unusual, tons of fun, piles of money—and that was it. The Straw Hats would charge in the indicated direction regardless of every obstacle. Even some third-rate pirate crew could arrange such a trap, let alone the Marines with all their resources. The real question was: would they want to? And was that not the true reason for the Straw Hats' careless behavior?
As Law understood it, from the perspective of the people who truly made decisions in this world, the Straw Hat Pirates—better known to the world as the Pirate Slayers —were, despite all their fame, scarcely more than pathetic insects that could be crushed with the press of a finger. Upon returning to the Marines, Tashigi could certainly explain to her superiors the full depth of their error, but what were the chances that the high-ranking officers would listen to some lieutenant from East Blue? Without additional connections at the top, almost none. And without the intervention of those very senior officers, dealing with the Straw Hats was impossible. Not in Paradise.
Nor was Law certain that Tashigi herself fully understood just how dangerous the Straw Hats truly were. It was enough to say that Sanji, a man completely unknown to the world, was capable of defeating all the Heart Pirates put together. Their only chance of resisting the blond cook would be to use the power of Law's Devil Fruit. And they were the strongest crew in North Blue. That meant something. In East Blue, only Buggy the Clown could boast a bounty of thirty million, but in North Blue he would have gone entirely unnoticed. Pirates with bounties of thirty million or more were commonplace in that sea, which said more than words ever could about the competition for the title of 'strongest pirate crew.' The Heart Pirates and Law himself had managed to claim that title. And yet, despite all their strength, they could barely deal with an 'ordinary ship's cook' from among the Straw Hats.
Even more striking was the fact that, with the exception of their captain, every member of the family never forgot their daily training. Where had anyone ever seen a pirate crew spend almost all its free time improving itself? Even among the Marines, such behavior was rare. Leaving aside recruit courses and advanced training programs, few officers insisted that their subordinates train constantly, and even then it was usually forced upon them. With the Straw Hats, matters were entirely different. They never interrupted their training regardless of the weather; if anything, they took advantage of it to add variety. From Law's point of view, the Straw Hats resembled a cancerous tumor—dangerous but treatable in its early stages, and almost certainly fatal in its final one. If no one got rid of them now, then later... Let it simply be said that, a month after meeting them, Law took Roronoa Zoro's declaration that he would earn the title of World's Strongest Swordsman, and their captain's claim that he would become the Pirate King, far more seriously. All of that also belonged on the list of reasons why Law tolerated their joint voyage, which had dragged on far too long, with such calm. A voyage that now threatened to come to an end at any moment.
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