As the sun began its final descent below the horizon, the calm sea was bathed in brilliant, golden light. A cool evening breeze swept across the open deck of the Little Fish, carrying the sharp scent of saltwater.
Rustle... rustle...
Nami flipped through the final pages of Henzo's research documents, her despair deepening as the stack grew thinner. The cool sea breeze did nothing to dispel the lingering anxiety tightening her chest. According to Henzo's notes, some victims of the Rainbow Mist remained displaced for decades. Even if Darian eventually found a way out, navigating across oceans to track down a moving ship could take months or years—by which time their crew would have long since fractured and disbanded.
Snap!
Nami tossed the papers onto the wooden table with a heavy sigh, running a hand through her orange hair. Without Darian, the ship had lost its central anchor. While he usually spent his days lounging lazily or chasing skirts, his sheer physical presence had held their chaotic crew together. Without him, the ship felt eerily empty.
Noticing her distress, Robin closed her book and offered a calm, reassuring smile. "You shouldn't worry so much about the Captain. With his strength, there is very little on this ocean that poses a genuine threat to him."
"You don't understand him, Robin," Nami muttered, crossing her arms. "He's a complete idiot. When I first met him, he nearly drowned because he didn't even know how to handle a basic boat. He has zero common sense, relies entirely on brute force, and gets effortlessly ripped off whenever he tries to buy anything."
Robin chuckled softly. Though Nami framed everything as a complaint, every word betrayed her deep affection and concern.
Before Nami could vent any further, the calm ocean surface a hundred meters away began to ripple erratically. Space itself seemed to warp, expanding outward in vibrant, distorted waves.
"Everyone, look!" Marianne shouted from the bow, peering through her brass binoculars. "Something is happening on the water over there!"
Nami immediately sprang to her feet, staring in the direction Marianne was pointing. As the spatial ripples widened, a shimmering, seven-colored mist expanded across the waves. Nami's heart hammered against her ribs—the Rainbow Mist had returned.
A brief flash of light illuminated the fog, and a dark figure tumbled out of the anomaly toward the ocean below.
"Someone fell out of the sky!" Marianne squeaked.
"Raise the sails!" Nami barked, dropping her coat as she prepared to dive into the water. "Steer the ship over there right now!"
Before the vessel could even complete its turn, the figure stabilized mid-air, landing lightly on the surface of the sea. Instead of sinking like a stone under the Devil Fruit's curse, Darian stood upright, walking casually across the rolling ocean swells as if stepping on solid pavement.
During his brief time in the Naruto universe, Darian had extracted basic chakra control techniques from the Grass Village scrolls. Exercising surface-adhesion by channeling energy to the soles of his feet was an elementary skill—one he had perfected while traveling across the desert.
Nami froze mid-stride, her jaw dropping as she watched Darian casually stride toward the ship. "Wait... since when can he walk on top of the ocean?!"
Robin leaned against the deck railing, her dark eyes narrowing in quiet fascination. As a Devil Fruit user herself, she knew the sea was a lethal weakness. Darian's new ability to traverse open water completely defied the natural laws governing fruit users.
"Captain!" Carmen called out, running out of the galley as the crew gathered along the starboard railing.
Darian extended his silicone-enhanced arms, launching himself off the water and landing smoothly on the main deck. The solid weight of the wooden planks beneath his boots brought him an overwhelming sense of grounding.
"You absolute idiot!" Nami yelled, her anxious expression instantly turning into a scowl as she marched toward him with raised fists. "Where the hell did you disappear to?!"
Instead of dodging or joking around, Darian stepped forward and pulled Nami tightly into his arms, burying his face into the crook of her neck. Feeling the reality of her soft body against his chest was the only thing that anchored him after discovering he could never return to Earth.
Nami stiffened in surprise, her cheeks flushing as she felt his arms tightening around her waist. "Idiot... what are you doing? Everyone is watching..."
"I missed you, Nami," Darian whispered softly into her hair.
Nami stopped struggling. Sensing the genuine vulnerability in his voice, her frustration melted away. She wrapped her arms around his waist, gently patting his back. "What happened to you out there?"
"Nothing," Darian murmured, leaning into her touch like a tired child. "I just really needed to see you."
Though Nami could be short-tempered, her core was defined by warmth and empathy. Unlike the violent, prideful Sannin he had left behind in the other world, Nami possessed a gentle resilience that grounded him.
Around the deck, the rest of the crew watched the embrace with varying reactions. Paula and Alvida exchanged quiet glances, fully aware of Nami's undisputed standing as Darian's primary partner. Carmen looked down slightly, a pang of envy touching her heart, while Robin observed the scene with her usual unreadable smile.
Dinner was served shortly after. Darian offered a simplified explanation of his absence, claiming he had been trapped in an isolated temporal pocket for several days, intentionally omitting any mention of the Naruto universe or the Astral Pools.
After learning that Paula and Alvida had casually discussed abandoning the ship during his absence, Darian assigned them night watch duty as a petty punishment before retiring to Nami's private quarters.
Later that evening, Darian lay across Nami's plush bed, staring up at the ceiling as he contemplated his path forward in this world.
Creak...
The door clicked open, and Nami walked into the room, wrapped loosely in a soft white bath towel. Her damp, orange hair fell over her shoulders, and her skin radiated a soft, rosy glow from the hot bath.
Before Darian could speak, Nami turned back toward the hallway and pulled a second figure into the room. Carmen stepped inside, similarly wrapped in a towel, her face burning crimson as her eyes darted nervously toward the bed.
Darian sat up, his eyes widening slightly.
Ever since the Alabasta palace, Nami had accepted the reality of Darian's growing harem. However, to maintain her influence as his primary partner, she had quietly decided to form an alliance with Carmen, bringing the chef into her inner circle.
Nami closed the door, shooting Darian a sharp, defensive glare when she saw the sudden smirk spreading across his face. "Not a word out of you, Darian."
Darian raised his hands in mock surrender, though his pulse quickened. Nami stepped up to the bed, taking the initiative to lean down and press her lips against his in a deep, demanding kiss. Darian wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her flush against his chest as her towel loosened, exposing her smooth, pale shoulders.
Carmen stood near the foot of the bed, nervously clutching the edge of her towel. Sensing her hesitation, Nami reached out, playfully tugging the fabric away to pull the flushed chef down onto the mattress beside them.
The soft creaking of the wooden frame and the rhythmic lap of waves against the hull settled into a quiet rhythm as the night wore on, locking Darian firmly back into the reality of the Grand Line.
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Give me powerstones.
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