One Piece - Merlin - Chapter 4

After a quick, but very enjoyable, meal from the King's Buffet table, Nami and Merlin left their little boat. Nami had a fair idea of where Buggy the Clown should be, but she wanted to wander around and pick up a few more rumors to make sure. It always amazed her how much information she could get just by talking to the regular folk. Meanwhile, Merlin was making his way back to the Marine base so he could collect the five million Belly they owed him.

Merlin didn't want to be spotted by Luffy, whom he was sure was still in town, so he used extreme speed to get to the base. Honestly, he loved being able to use one of the Marines revered Six Powers to simply avoid a long and potentially awkward walk through the town. He'd have used Geppo to get there even faster, but then he'd stand out far too much. As it was, using Soru to dash down the streets got him to the base in about a minute. That was fast enough.

As soon as he appeared near the gate, the guard at the gate saluted him, “Sir! We were looking for you. It seems we owe you a substantial amount of Belly. Please, come inside and allow us to take care of that.”

Merlin grinned and followed the Marine into the base. As they walked the Marine leading him asked, “Pardon me for asking sir, but are you with that Straw Hatted pirate? I'm sorry for having to ask but some of the others heard him talking about you and after Roronoa Zoro joined him, we just need to be sure. We'll still give you the Belly we owe you but...”

Merlin smiled, “No. The guy in the hat asked me to join him but I refused. I'm still just a simple bounty hunter.”

The Marine sighed in relief, “That's good to hear. We were a bit worried after Roronoa Zoro joined his crew.”

Their conversation ended as they arrived at the jail. Stepping inside, Merlin could see that Alvida was no longer the only prisoner. Joining her in a cell of his own was the Ex-captain, Morgan. Morgan's face was covered in thick bandages that were attempting to hold the shattered mess of his jaw together. Merlin just had a congenial smile as he observed his handywork.

The Marine behind the counter, the same man as earlier in the day, saluted Merlin as he came into the room, “Sir! Good to see you again. I had the bursar prepare your payment in advance, just in case you came back.”

After speaking, the man ducked behind his desk and started setting down a couple of stacks of ten thousand Belly notes. Five stacks of one hundred notes in total. Seeing the money that way, it honestly didn't look like all that much. Yet, from what he'd seen, an item costing one thousand Belly would be considered rather expensive. Really, such large amounts of money were usually only used for massive purchases such as a ship, or perhaps a Meito.

Merlin collected the five stacks and stuck them in his pockets, no need to show off his storage capabilities to the Marines, “Thank you. Discarding the machinations of Morgan, it was a pleasure to do business with you.”

As he turned to walk away, Alvida shouted out, “When I get out of here, I'm going to hunt you down!”

When Merlin glanced at her, Alvida actually blushedand looked away. The very sight sent a shiver of revulsion down Merlin's spine. Something that big and ugly should not be acting like some innocent maiden! He shook his head to violently disgorge that thought and leave the building. The marine that guided him in, also guided him out. They parted ways at the gate where Merlin disappeared using Soru to return to the boat.

Merlin sat and relaxed while waiting for Nami to return. While he did, he couldn't help thinking about her home village, Cocoyashi. He really wanted to go there and defeat Arlong for Nami and the rest of the people suffering under that racist. Unfortunately, several things stopped him from doing so. First, he had no idea where the hell Cocoyahsi was. A map would probably show him, but then came his lack of navigational skills. Aside from using a compass to find north, he had nothing else. He'd never been sailing before and given the vastness of the oceans in this world... Then there was transportation, he didn't have a boat and while he could fly, he wasn't sure how long he could fly for as he'd never pushed his limits at it. There had never been a reason to do so before. Running out of juice why flying over the ocean was a great way to commit suicide.

His only real hope of getting to Cocoyashi was for Nami, or someone else, to take him there. He'd have to see if Nami could give him at least a beginners education to navigation. He didn't like being unable to do something due to ignorance.

-----Line Break-----

A few hours later, Nami returned to the boat with a smile on her face. Seeing the smile, Merlin asked, “I take it you confirmed where we're going?”

Nami nodded, “We need to head to the Orange Islands next. Rumor is, Buggy's been there for a bit and might still be there. If he's not, the locals might know where he went.”

That was all Merlin needed to know. The Orange Islands sounded somewhat familiar, maybe. Either way it was their next stop. After Nami climbed aboard and they left the dock to head back out to sea, Merlin pulled out the stacks of Belly he got from the Marines, “Five million Belly, as promised. Once we find Buggy we can see about capturing him for his fifteen million Belly bounty.”

Nami smiled brightly at she snatched the Belly from his hands, her eyes practically transforming into Belly symbols, “Thank you!”

Merlin gave her an indulgent smile. He knew that right now she was extremely desperate so he gave her some leeway. Once her village was safe, she'd get better and be less stressed by what she needed to accomplish.

A short while into the next leg of their journey, Nami turned to Merlin, “I think I can handle asking you a few more questions now.”

Seeing Merlin's little smirk annoyed her a bit but she pushed on, “I've been wondering about something. You've got all this weird stuff you can do, some of it very helpful, why didn't you use your strange powers to leave the island?”

Merlin sighed and looked up into the sky, “Believe me, I wanted to. Very much, in fact. The problem is, my powers have limits. I can only do so much before I run out of energy. So if I fly, for example, I'm sure I could have left the island. The problem is, I had no idea what direction to fly in. If I was to run out of energy in the middle of the ocean I would fall into the sea, drown, and die.”

He was being truthful, but explaining that he had flown off of the island and couldn't leave even after going in a straight line wouldn't make sense to her. Nami contemplated his answer for a bit, “Alright, I guess that makes sense. Wait, you said you could fly?!”

Merlin continued to stare at the sky as he let out a content sigh, “Yeah, it's one of the greatest feelings in the world. Just myself and the wind around me as I cruise through the skies. There's really nothing else like it.”

Nami gave him a jealous look, “Sounds nice. Don't suppose you can make me fly?”

He lowered his head and looked at her for a moment, “I probably can, though I never developed a spell for that. I'd have to design a new spell, but I could do it.”

Nami immediately decided that it was something he needed to do so she fell back onto one of her tried and true methods to get a man to do what she wanted. She grasped her hands together in front of herself and used her arms to 'innocently' press her bust together and deepen her cleavage. At the same time she tilted her waist a bit so she could look up at him through fluttering eyelashes, “Would you please consider doing it?” Her voice turned a little coy, “For me?”

Merlin didn't even glance down once. Instead he gave her a bright smile and a thumbs up, “Sure! It'll take a bit though. Creating new spells takes a fair bit of effort and thought, it's why it took me so long to figure out how to do it to make my very first spell. I'll let you know when I've figured it out.”

There was a moment of silence as Nami tried to come to terms with what just happened. Sure, she was happy that Merlin agreed to make a spell to let her fly in the sky, but she was also a tad upset. She knew she was attractive, beautiful even. Every time she'd done the move she'd just pulled on Merlin, every guy previously had been entranced by her breasts. She was rather proud of that. But for him to not even glance down and agree anyway?

Nami moved away from Merlin to take care of guiding the boat to the Orange Islands as she tried to figure out what it meant that Merlin hadn't peeked even a little. She knew he was attracted to women. It was easy to pick up when they were walking together and he gave the women they'd passed lingering looks. Nothing skeevy or perverted, just appreciation, something he didn't give to guys.

The more she thought about it the more she looked back on their interactions with each other. Ever since they'd met he'd told her anything she wanted to know. When she wanted his treasure he hadn't said he wouldn't give it to her, just that giving it to her would get her killed. That was something she could appreciate, even if it irked her just a bit. He'd also given her the bounty for Alvida without asking for even a single Belly for himself. Considering he did one hundred percent of the work, even she wouldn't argue if he wanted to keep a little for himself.

Now they were on their way to capture Buggy the Clown and he was planning to give her the fifteen million the clown was worth. That was a not insignificant amount of Belly and yet he still didn't ask for anything in return. Even now he was just relaxing on one of the benches across the boat waiting for her to ask any questions she had. Now she had one she needed to know the answer to, “Merlin, why do you treat me the way you do? Why are you so willing to give me what I want and help me out like this? I'm woman enough to say that any debt I felt you owed for rescuing you is paid off by now.”

Merlin gave her a warm smile, “I believe you are underestimating just how much I appreciate you rescuing me from that island. But, even beyond that, I just want to help you out. I might have been an accidental hermit for sixty years, but even I can tell that something is making you desperate. I wont ask what it is. Rather, I expect that once you trust me enough you'll tell me yourself and we'll take care of whatever the problem is, together.”

Nami studied him for a moment, it was hard for her to not hear the sincerity in his voice. That alone let her know he was telling her the truth. She was pretty good at spotting liars, after all. Still, she needed to know more, “What if I asked you to leave me alone after we turn in Buggy?”

That question actually caused Merlin to frown, “I would do as you ask, though I wouldn't be happy about it. You're my only friend in this entire world. I don't think that guy in the straw hat counts as a friend yet. All he does is ask me to join his crew.”

“What guy in a straw hat?”

Merlin looked at her curiously, “You didn't see him in the yard at the Marine base when I fought Morgan?”

Nami waved a hand dismissively, “I didn't watch your fight. That guy's safe was actually a little tough to get into. I didn't really pay attention to anyone in the yard after I found you and we left.”

Merlin snorted in amusement, “I see. The guy was on Alvida's ship at the same time we were. He was clearly an enemy of Alvida, but I got to capture her. Then earlier, he was in the Marine base because he, apparently, wanted to recruit Roronoa Zoro into his crew.”

“I've heard of Zoro, isn't he a bounty hunter who hunts down pirates? So this straw hat guy recruited him eh? What kind of crew is he putting together?”

Merlin nodded, “Yeah, he is. And I've never been told what kind of crew. Just shouts at me to join his crew. When I refuse, since I'm gladly helping you out, he yells about refusing my refusal.” Merlin snickered a little, “If nothing else, he's persistent. If you told me to leave, I might see if I could run into him again. If he's not some evil scumbag, I might join up with him and see what happens. Though, I would much rather continue to sail with you until I feel like I've paid you back.”

Nami studied him closely as she asked, “Would you join him if he was a pirate? Do you want to be a pirate?”

“I don't specifically want to be a pirate, but I could easily be classified as one.” He waved back in the direction they'd just come from, “Technically speaking, the Marines back there could easily report me for what I did and have an issue placed on my head. Despite the fact that Morgan was a complete scumbag, he was still a Marine Captain. Attacking him like that is a crime. Would you hate me if I was forced to be a pirate because I took out a scumbag Marine?”

Nami frowned deeply as he spoke. This discussion wasn't going how she'd first intended. She also didn't like how the discussion was making her question her long held beliefs on pirates. Pirates should all be bastards who deserve to die! Yet... Merlin wasn't wrong. She could easily see some corrupt Marine having a bounty put on his head for doing the right thing. Would she hate him if he became a 'pirate' just because the government decided that him taking out one of their corrupt Marines was a bad thing? Of course she wouldn't hate him! He'd been nothing but nice and helpful since she'd rescued him. Well, with the exception of that one incident. Just thinking about what she'd seen brought a light blush to her cheeks. Merlin was very... fit.

Letting out a long sigh, Nami shook her head, “No, I wouldn't hate you if you were labeled as a pirate by the Marines. I know you're not a pirate and nothing they say can make me think otherwise!”

Merlin continued to smile at Nami, “Glad to hear it. Is there anything else you want to ask?”

Nami shrugged, “Talking to you gives me a headache. Still, there is one thing. Can you stop mentioning your age or spending sixty years alone? I'm not trying to disregard what you went through or anything, it's just... Every time you mention it, it weirds me out because of how you currently look. You look the same age as me! I know you used to be an old man and all, but you've never acted old so it's just super weird, alright?”

Merlin chuckled a little and nodded, “Not a problem. I honestly never really felt old. I guess it's hard to really mature when every day is pretty much the same and there's no on to interact with. Perhaps it'd be best if we go with the belief that I spent two years on the island alone.”

Nami nodded along, “That's much easier to deal with. Just trying to remember you're really a seventy year old man while looking like that...” She shook her head, “It's much easier to just think of you as seventeen.” She smirked a little, “It doesn't hurt that it makes me older than you.”

Merlin arched an eyebrow at that. He wondered if Nami was into younger guys or something. Much like Nami, he knew he was pretty good looking. Various bonuses and effects he'd gotten over the years had made him into an extremely attractive man. He'd once hoped that his looks would help him land women like Nami and Nico Robin. Those dreams had died years ago. Though, if Nami expressed an interest in him, he definitely wouldn't say no.

Being a seventy-five year old virgin was no joke. If he hadn't been a Wizard since the age of fifteen, he definitely would have become one by now. Possibly a Sage.

As it was, he'd stopped thinking about sex decades ago. No internet, no magazines, not even a dirty book to read. There was only so much imagination could provide on those lonely nights.

After a moment of silence, Nami spoke up, “I hate talking to you sometimes. I don't know why, but somehow our conversations always seem to end up feeling heavy. Or annoy me in some manner.” She left out a heavy sigh, “Well, whatever. We should arrive at the Orange Islands by tomorrow morning. Hopefully dealing with Buggy wont be any harder than dealing with the last two pains.”

Merlin chuckled and nodded, “Hopefully. Do you know anything about Buggy?”

Nami shook her head, “Not really. I only really know that he'd been a pirate for a long time, yet his bounty is still relatively minuscule. So I doubt he'd much of a pirate.”

Merlin crossed his arms over his chest as he searched his memory. Buggy was still in there, a little bit. Mostly because Buggy was the first person, after Luffy, to have a Devil Fruit and it was one that made him invincible against early Zoro. Though Luffy still pounded the snot out of him. Buggy... was not a threat to him and he could easily protect Nami from Buggy and his crew. The issue he was running into was how to get Nami to interact with Luffy so the four of them could join up together. Nami needed to spend time with Luffy to see what a nice guy Luffy really was and eventually join his crew.

Why did Merlin want to join Luffy's crew? Because it was something he'd dreamed of for decades! Luffy was the protagonist of the world! Everything interesting involved him somehow! Then there was his journey across the various crazy islands. Aside from that, there was one item he'd gotten about thirty years ago that he could put to good use if he got the chance while sailing with Luffy.

Aside from all of that, sailing with Luffy would just plain be fun! Why go through the effort of making his own crew, which would likely contain the people from Luffy's crew anyway, when he could just cruise along with the originals?

That didn't mean he planned to just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. He had all kinds of ways he could help the crew become stronger. Perhaps he could take on the role of the crew's trainer, teaching them all way they could make themselves stronger. He wasn't just thinking of things like telling Luffy how to use his Devil Fruit to maximum effect, but also things like the Marines Six Powers, Haki, Swordsmanship, Technology, and more. His little warehouse contained a little something for everyone to help them out.

Merlin was brought out of his musing by Nami snapping her fingers in front of his eyes, “Hey, you alive in there?”

Merlin blinked and focused back on the young woman, “Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts.”

Nami snorted, “Clearly. What had you so distracted?”

“I was thinking about the future.” He leaned closer to her to look into her eyes, “Do you really want to head into the Grand Line?”

A pensive look crossed Nami's face as she thought about the question, “Maybe not the moment we get our hands on the map, but yes.” She looked deep into his eyes, “I'm so close to my goal now. Thanks to you. If we get our hands on Buggy's treasure and his Bounty, I'll finally have enough!”

Her eyes glistened with un-shed tears, “Once I have it taken care of, I'll be free.” She looked off into the distance, “I can finally do what I want to do and I want to see the Grand Line. But not just the Grand Line, I want to see the entire world! I want to see everything it has, every last nook and cranny, then I want to map it all!”

Merlin smiled softly as Nami finally expressed her dream to him, “Then that's what we'll do.” He reached out and gently held her hand, “Once whatever it is, is taken care of. We'll head out to sea and see it all.” He chuckled a little, “Though, if we do that, you're going to get yourself a bounty before I do!”

Nami blinked the tears out of her eyes, fighting them down. She refused to cry anymore, “What do you mean by that?”

Merlin shrugged uncaring, “If you want to map the world, that means seeing all of it. There's parts of it that the Marines wont let you near, or want you to map. If you do, they'll come after you. For example, their main base island. You think they're going to just let you map that so anyone who sees the map can know all about their position?”

He asked the final question with a raised eyebrow. Nami looked at him for a bit before she snickered, “I guess. I don't care though! I'll do it because I want to do it! It's my dream to map the entire world and when I'm free there will be nothing to stop me from doing it!”

Merlin laughed happily and clapped his hands together, “Yes! Yes! That's the spirit! Do everything in your power to fulfill your dream! Why shouldn't you?! It's not going to hurt anyone!”

Nami nodded excitedly, “I will! As soon as I get rid of that fish faced bastard, I'm going to fulfill my dream!”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Nami sobered up immediately and frowned. She didn't want to talk about that bastard Arlong. She was certain that the moment she did, Merlin would take off to find and fight him. Merlin might have beat that big Marine Captain in a single blow, but that guy had nothing on Arlong. She honestly didn't want Merlin to lose his life in a pointless fight against that monster. She could see the curiosity in Merlin's eyes as he looked at her. Fortunately, he kept his word and didn't ask her about her problem.

It's not like it mattered, not really. Soon she'd have the last of the money she needed to have the one hundred million. Soon she wouldn't have to worry about Merlin getting killed trying to beat Arlong, the fishman would leave as soon as she paid him off.

She refused to acknowledge the little voice in the back of her head telling her that Arlong would betray her.

-----Line Break-----

The next day, not too long after waking up, something interesting and new happened. After a delicious breakfast provided by the King's Buffet, and a couple hours of sailing, they came across another boat. It was slightly smaller than theirs but manned by three men. The big 'red flag' was the large black sail bearing a skull and crossbones with a big red nose.

Nami glanced at the incoming boat and arched an eyebrow. Normally, she'd pull some scam to trick the guys on the boat out of whatever they might have. Now though? She really didn't care so she turned to Merlin, “You want to deal with them?”

He looked over at the boat and stroked his imaginary beard, “Hmmmmmm...” He smirked as an idea came to him. He'd been looking for a way to get Nami to acknowledge his strength, this pirates would make a good target.

An elegant eyebrow arched on Nami's face as she watched Merlin draw the sword at his waist. She'd seen him carrying it around but never seen him draw it before. She didn't know a whole lot about swords, but the sword Merlin had seemed... different from the swords she was used to seeing. She could actually see a difference between Merlin's sword and the sword one of the pirates was waving in their direction.

As the boats drew closer they could finally make out what the pirate trio were shouting.

“Drop your sails and prepare to be boarded!”

“All of your valuables now belong to the Buggy Pirates!”

“Hey, that girl is pretty hot... you think we could... you know?”

Merlin's eyes narrowed at the last comment. He held his sword high up in both hands, preparing for a vertical downward slash. When the Buggy boat was about thirty meters away, close enough for everyone to see each other clearly, the pirates took notice of Merlin holding up his sword. They all had cocky grins on their faces. One wearing a beanie hat that had a copy of the Buggy flag on it couldn't help laughing and mocking Merlin, “What are you going to do huh?! You have a sword idiot!”

It was kind of ironic for the pirate to be saying that since he had his own sword out and was waving it in the air like an idiot. Merlin didn't even bother wasting the energy to roll his eyes. Instead, he gripped his sword's handle tighter, his muscles tensed, and his eyes narrowed. The next moment he slashed down putting a fair amount of power into the action.

Four sets of eyes widened in shock as a visible slash opened up on the surface of the ocean and flew toward the boat. To their collective shock, the invisible force slicing the ocean surface sliced clear through the pirate's boat slicing it in half. The pirates stared, bug eyed, as their ship cracked into two pieces and instantly began taking on water and sinking. Nami wasn't much better off than them. Though she did recover from her shock faster thanks to seeing the weird things Merlin tended to do around her.

Due to the severe damage, the pirate boat sank in moments leaving the three aboard with no option but to tread water and scream for help. Screams both Nami and Merlin ignored. Nami was for more interested in asking, “What was that?!”

Merlin slid Kashu back into it's sheath at his waist and gave Nami a congenial smile, “It was a pretty common technique among swordsman of any real strength. It's called a flying slash and does exactly what it sounds like. It's the main reason you hear about the worlds greatest swordsman but never about the worlds greatest gunman. While there are amazing snipers with unerring aim, it's not really comparable to the sheer damage a good swordsman can put out. A truly great swordsman could easily slice a galleon in half from hundreds of meters away.”

“That's... I want to say impossible, but what I just saw...”

She also couldn't help thinking about what he said. Even she had heard about some amazing swordsman that was considered the best in the world was somewhere on the Grand Line. He was right though, she'd never heard a peep about the worlds greatest gunman. She frowned as she asked, “Why is there no worlds greatest gunman? I mean if you can do that much damage with a sword, shouldn't a gun be able to do more with the right techniques?”

Merlin shrugged his shoulders, “Not really. There's not many techniques one can use with a firearm. I'm sure there's some Devil Fruits that can make firearms extremely powerful, but due to their rarity...” He shrugged his shoulders again in a 'what can you do' manner, “In the end, people without Devil Fruits can do amazing things with swords whereas no one really does anything all that amazing with firearms. At best, you can get some amazing snipers capable of extreme distance shots. As far as I know, firearms become almost pointless once you cross from the first half of the Grand Line into the second half.”

Merling had some tricks he could do with firearms, though that's what they basically amounted to, tricks. Nami sighed and she relaxed back in her seat, “So, if I wanted to learn a weapon, I'd be better off learning to use a sword?”

Merlin sat across from her as they both ignored the screams for help from the boat-less Buggy Pirates they were quickly putting behind them. Neither cared for the fate of the pirates, “Well, there's some things to consider. First, it takes a lot less effort to become proficient in the use of a gun. A few hours of practice and you can hit a target pretty reliably. You wont be doing any fancy shooting or long distance sniping, but you could at least hit your target center mass most of the time.”

Nami nodded as she listened. Merlin continued, “Swordsmanship, on the other hand, takes far more training to become proficient in. Depending on your talent, it's likely to take months to become proficient in even the most basic forms. Years to become proficient in actual combat. Then sheer amounts of effort for who knows how long to gain the skills to do what I did. Something like that comes down to time, effort, and talent.”

He pulled out a drink from his storage and took a sip to wet his throat before continuing, “Take me, for example, I had a good amount of time to practice and get to the level I'm at. I don't have a whole lot of talent when it comes to the sword so it took me a lot of time and effort to reach my current level. A talented swordsman could easily reach my level with much less effort.”

He couldn't help comparing himself to Zoro. It took him nearly twenty years to be able to perform his first flying slash with a sword. Zoro did so after sailing with Luffy for only a few months! Merlin had been in his mid thirties by the time he could do something Zoro could do in his early twenties... maybe earlier. He didn't exactly remember how old Zoro had been... or was. Of course, Zoro had one major advantage over Merlin, Zoro actually had a teacher while Merlin was waving his sword around in what he hoped was a skilled manner. That could make all the difference in the world.

Nami nodded as she listened to Merlin. She appreciated that he didn't mention his age or how many years it took him to get to his skill level. It helped her preserve the illusion that he was as young as he looked. She knew he wasn't, but she could pretend otherwise! No matter how she thought about it, sailing with a man in his seventies was weird. Especially when he looked like Merlin did. It was much better to pretend he was younger than her. It didn't hurt that he didn't really act older than her. Still, there was something she had to know, “How do you know all of this? You were trapped on that island when you were fifteen!”

Merlin smiled brightly, “I lived quite an interesting life before I was trapped on that island. I learned all kinds of things before then. While I was stuck there, I tried to figure out how to do some of the things I'd heard of. Eventually, I was able to do a lot of them. It helped that random stuff kept appearing on the island that I could collect and practice with.”

Nami pointed at him accusingly, “That's another thing! Where does all your stuff come from?! Famous weapons, Devil Fruits, that stuff you drank to get younger! You can't tell me you've had all of that since you were fifteen!”

Merlin chuckled lightly, “I can honestly say that I have no idea where it all comes from. I just know that, periodically, things would appear on the island. For all I know it washed up from various wrecks or other incidents on the sea.”

It was true too, he had no earthly idea where the gacha got the things it gave him from. He just spun the wheels and got the prizes. For all he knew, the things he got were just copies of the originals. He wouldn't know for sure until he came across the place where the original was supposed to be. Which would only work for unique one-of-a-kind items in his possession. Anything that could be remade or replaced with a copy, or that he didn't know the original location of, didn't count.

Nami groaned, “You make no sense!”

Merlin laughed lightly, “The world makes no sense!”

She couldn't argue with that, at all, “Fine.”

Nami pouted and crossed her arms under her bust, emphasizing her breasts to try and throw Merlin off while trying to entice him to be as helpful as possible. She needn't have bothered, “Back to the subject of strong people, is there anything you can think of that can make me stronger?”

Merlin nodded, “Several things. Most of them take a lot of practice to really sue in combat though.” He tapped his chin as he thought, “There is one item I got a long time ago that I never really got skilled with.”

He held his hand up causing the usual golden ripples to form as three blue piece of metal with balls on the end came to a res on his outstretched hand, “This is called the Clima-Tact.”

Technically it was the second, improved, version of the Clima-Tact, the so-called Perfect Clima-Tact. It was the strongest version of the weapon pre-timeskip as it used Dials from Skypeia to improve its performance drastically. Nami should be able to use it to great effect, once she understands it. He held it out to her, “It's a three section staff, each section has a different function. One puts out heat, another puts out cold, and the last puts out electricity. It's a unique item that no one ever really figured out how to use, maybe you will. Just... don't practice with anything lightning related on this small boat. I've heard that in the hands of someone who can use it, the Clima-Tact is a very powerful weapon related to the weather somehow.”

Nami accepted the blue three section staff from Merlin and began to examine it. She quickly figured out which staff section did what and his hint about weather gave her a direction to work in. The weird shells inside of the bulbous ends had Nami asking, “What are these?”

“Those are known as Dials. Each one has a specific function. For example...”

He picked up the section that released heat balls, “The dial in this section is known as a Heat Dial. It absorbs heat from any source and can release it in a controlled manner.” He picked up the Thunder Ball section, “This one has a Lightning Dial, it does the same as the Heat Dial. You just need to recharge them every now and then to make sure they don't run out of power. With me around that's fairly easy, though I'm sure you could do it on your own without any issues as well.”

Nami listened to his description of the Dials and looked rather impressed, “Steer the boat for a bit, I want to see what this thing can do.”

She made her way to the bow where she began to practice with the Clima-Tact. It didn't take her very long before she was performing feats similar to what she did in the canon timeline. Though, after Merlin's warning, she stayed away from anything related to lightning. The last thing they needed was her accidentally sinking their boat in the middle of the ocean.

Within a couple of hours, Nami was using the Clima-Tact like she'd had it for years. This impressed Merlin quite a bit. He wasn't lying when he said no one ever figured it out, though he was the only one to try. He'd never gotten it to do anything right and the one, and only, time he'd gotten it to make a thunder storm, he'd electrocuted himself something fierce. Only someone like Nami, with her extremely fine tuned sense of weather, could handle the weapon.

Once she had a feel for the Clima-Tact, Nami turned to face Merlin with a massive grin splitting her face, “This thing is amazing! I can do so much with it and I don't think I've scratched more than the surface of it!” She bit her lip a little, “It's so tempting to try out things involving lightning, I can't wait until we make landfall!”

-----Line Break-----

It was only a few hours later that they spotted the Orange Islands in the distance. It was really more like one large island with a few small spits of land nearby. Each of the smaller islands was only really big enough for maybe a single small house to be built on.

As they got closer, they spotted Buggy's rather large ship docked near the town on the main island. Even from the distance they were at, they could spot the damage that had been done to the town. Nami clicked her tongue, “This is why I hate pirates.”

Merlin nodded in agreement. Pirates like Buggy were really worthy of her hatred. Nami retook control of the rudder and steered them around to the far side of the island out of view of the pirates. Once they pulled up to the shore and partially beached their boat, Nami turned to Merlin, “We'll go after Buggy and the map tomorrow. I want to practice with the Clima-Tact and see what else I can get it to do.”

“Alright, I'll make sure to set up a barrier so they wont notice us no matter what you do.”

Nami gave Merlin a grin of appreciation then made her way a little further inland. Once she picked a spot, Merlin waved his hands a few times while spell circles glowed on his palms. It wasn't hard for him to set up a soundproof barrier and an illusion that would hide anything Nami did from anyone looking in their direction. He'd made spells like this in the past, thinking they would be helpful for hiding areas or even a ship from people looking for it. He hadn't gotten any real use out of them until that moment.

-----Line Break-----

The next day, a little after lunch, the pair were walking through Orange Town. The place was completely abandoned. As they got close to the ship, Nami turned to Merlin, “Alright, hit me with those spells so I can do a little scouting.”

After Merlin complied, she took immediately walked up to the roof of a building and used them to scout around the ship. Merlin stayed where she'd left him and looked around rather bored. Or at least, he was until he heard screaming and looked up into the sky where it came from. He saw a familiar straw hat wearing pirate falling from the sky, “Huh. I honestly didn't expect to run into him here this time. Is it fate? Is he just destined to put together the best crew?”

He continued to wonder about the situation as Luffy plummeted to the ground and landed with a thunderous impact. Merlin had no idea how far Luffy had fallen, and didn't care. The rubber-man wouldn't even be scratched by a fall like that, not unless he landed on something sharp, like a pit of spikes.

He made no move to go check on Luffy, rather, his focus turned toward Buggy's ship where he could hear a commotion. He couldn't make out what they were shouting, but he had a pretty good idea what had happened from their tone of voice. They sounded angry.

There was a flash of orange between two buildings a distance from him that caused Merlin to groan, “Nami, what did you do?”

He quickly ran in the direction he'd seen a flash of Nami's hair. She was already long gone and his Kenbunshoku Haki wasn't developed enough to help him locate her. His range of observation was just too short. He looked around until he caught the sounds of combat coming from a little ways away. He quickly arrived on the scene to see Luffy standing over the bodies of three downed Buggy pirates and Nami sitting on a second floor balcony looking down at him.

Seeing Nami so clearly could only mean that the invisibility spell had been broken. Which meant she ran into someone. The invisibility spell was very delicate and would break the moment it was touched by someone else. It was the price to be paid for perfect invisibility. Though he did have a different spell that acted more like active camouflage. It made the target hard to see, but not impossible. It's major upside was that it couldn't be broken, it could only run out of power.

He'd arrived just in time to hear Nami exclaim, “Wow, not too shabby. You beat those guys with swords bare handed. You're almost as good at fighting as Merlin.”

Hearing the name 'Merlin' instantly had Luffy perking up and looking like an excited puppy, “You know Merlin?! Is he here?! I have to find him so he can join my crew!”

Nami tilted her head to the side, “You know Merlin?” She looked at Luffy closer paying especially close attention to the straw hat he was wearing, “Wait, are you the straw hatted guy he says he keeps running into?”

Luffy nodded his head vigorously, “Yes! That means you know him! Where is he?!”

Nami waved her hand dismissively, “He's around somewhere.” She hopped off of the balcony she was on and walked closer to Luffy, “He told me you kept inviting him to join your crew, even refusing his refusals.”

The rubber-man nodded along, “That's right! He can do magic and I needa magician on my crew!”

Nami chuckled at the child-like response, “Well, I'm sorry to say but me and him are currently partners. Better luck next time!”

Luffy, undeterred, just exclaimed, “Then you'll join my crew too!”

Nami laughed, “I don't think you could afford me Straw Hat. My navigational skills are top notch, and so are me fees.”

Luffy's eyes widened, while Merlin palmed his face in the background, “You're a navigator?!”

Nami puffed out her chest and smirked, “I'm the best navigator.”

“Join my crew! I need a navigator and a magician! It's decided!”

Normally such a declaration might have annoyed Nami, currently she just found it kind of funny. Straw Hat was just as Merlin had described him. She couldn't help saying what came out of her mouth next, “Sorry, I'll have to refuse.”

“I refuse your refusal!”

Luffy couldn't help thinking that he'd been saying that a lot lately. To everyone he wanted to join his crew, in fact. First Merlin, then Zoro, now this girl. Was he going to have to refuse the refusal of everyone he wanted to join him? Whatever! If he wanted them to join then they'd join and have fun adventures with him!

Nami snickered as he said exactly what Merlin told her he'd said in the past. Still, she was curious so she asked, “Why are you putting a crew together?”

Luffy gave her a genuine smile, “My dream is to be the freest person in the world! To sail the seas and see what can be seen, to do what can be done, to have the greatest adventures, and to find the One Piece!”

Nami smiled along until she heard the last item on the list, “The One Piece? Are you a pirate?”

Luffy threw his hands into the air, “I'm going to be King of the Pirates!”

Nami huffed and turned on her heel to walk away, “I hate pirates!”

Despite Merlin's discussion with her about pirates, and Luffy not seeming all that bad, her gut reaction was still steeped in hatred. Arlong had burrowed deep into her mind and until would remain there until he was defeated. All she saw when she heard the word pirate was Arlong laughing as he murdered her mother right in front of her.

Merlin sighed as he made his way out to join Nami as she walked away from Luffy, who decided to follow her. It would take time, but the beginnings of the Straw Hat Pirates was here. He was sure it wouldn't take much to convince Nami to stick with Luffy and Zoro a bit for some more exploring and pirate hunting.

The adventure was just beginning!