Captain's Orders || ZoroXNami

ACT THIRTEEN - Chapter 56 No Show

Zoro breathed deeply and took off his outer clothing, hanging it up on the chair next to his bed. The crew had managed to rent a few rooms in an inn thankfully, considering the fearful look the inn-keeper had on his face when they entered. The ladies shared one room and the men shared two conjoined rooms. There were enough beds for everyone and Zoro recognised it as an upgrade from their usual hammocks on the ship. Though, he'd already gotten used to the hammocks.

Stretching his arms to the wooden ceiling with a yawn, Zoro sat down on the bed next to his chair. Usopp suddenly poked him from behind which Zoro answered with a deathly glare. "What?" he'd just been getting ready to sleep.

"Look, I don't want to fight right now since you look like you could kill me, but that's my bed," Usopp said, folding his arms. "Take the one on the other end."

"Huh?! But I got here first!" Zoro argued, his tiredness catching up to him. He didn't have the energy for this.

Usopp pointed to his jacket which laid on the foot end of the bed, "That's my jacket. So this is my bed."

Zoro finally noticed the jacket and he scowled, knowing that Usopp was right. He gritted his teeth and agreed reluctantly. "Fine," he hissed. Grabbing his clothes, he trudged to the other side and slumped on to the bed. In a quick second, Zoro had fallen asleep.

Nami woke with a start. The birds were already chirping loudly outside the window, a sound she had not heard in a while since she left her hometown. Nami had always liked it as a child, but the feeling of waking up feeling jolly had disappeared when the pirates took over. So now, as an adult, she treasured the feeling.

Robin sat up on the bed next to her but Yamato stayed asleep. "We should get up. I think it might take awhile before we find Luffy. Let's get up." She threw her covers off and walked to the bathroom to get ready.

Nami nodded and stood up as well. "I'll go and wake the boys." She put on her dressing robe and went out of the of the room, closing the door quietly behind her so she wouldn't wake Yamato up. Yamato had always loved to sleep in, so she never helped to cook breakfast even when she was scheduled for it.

She knocked on the boys' room and when there was no answer, she decided to open the door anyway. It wasn't locked. "Oi! Wake up everyone-" in front of her stood a semi-naked Zoro whose face turned bright red when his eyes met hers. He'd obviously just woken up too and hadn't had the time to even dress.

"What the heck are you doing here?!" he stammered, pushing her away. "We'll come! We'll come!"

Nami's face was already painted red and she couldn't even find the nerve to speak. Instead, she let Zoro push her out of the room and shut the door in her face. Nami gripped the hem of her thin pyjama shirt and forced herself to calm down. She hadn't been ready for that. Suddenly, the image popped back into her head and she blinked in embarrassment. Zoro had looked so muscled and hot just then. Flustered, Nami kicked the thought away from her mind, banishing it from entering her head ever again. She rushed to the other side of the corridor and quickly went into her own room and shut the door behind her, the image of Zoro along with it.

The Straw Hats managed to get ready pretty quickly and met outside the inn with fresh spirits and bright smiles on their face. "Alright! Let's do this! It's only one whole island to search! We can do that!" Brook cheered, then he suddenly looked at Zoro, "And please don't let that beautiful image of Nami in her pyjamas distract you Zoro! I should be the only one being distracted!"

This received a punch in the head for Brook, from both Zoro and Nami. Zoro hadn't noticed Brook standing behind him when Nami had come into the room before, but when the skeleton brought it up now, he was sure that Brook had been awake. He scowled at the skeleton before turning to the group, trying to keep his emotions in check. "Ignore Brook," he scowled through gritted teeth. "We should find Luffy. Should we split up?"

Robin put up her hand and objected. "No. Let's go together. It will be unfair if one of us gets to see him first. Plus, it doesn't take that long to search the entire island. We can use Haki as well." She knew she'd feel either bad or upset if one of her crewmates got to hug Luffy before she did. Robin would feel jealous, despite her mature demeanor.

Sanji nodded along. "I agree." Then he brought out a bag stuffed with lunch boxes. "For the trip," he explained. Sanji chucked the bag to Zoro, who reluctantly carried it. He didn't want to fight today, and Sanji knew that.

Suddenly, a deep voice spoke from behind them. "I knew I went to the right inn. But the man kicked me out, saying that he would get in trouble if he let me in," a man said and opened his eyes. Nami jumped and bit her tongue when she found the owner of the voice, stopping herself from shrieking. The man was sitting behind her on a bench, he wore a sleeveless open denim jacket and jeans, as well as a large thick scarf. It was unmistakably one of the three commanders of the Big Mom pirates.

"Katakuri!" Usopp screeched, jumping behind Franky, "It's him. Tell me I'm not dreaming! Tell me this guy didn't eat Luffy!" His extra excitement had made Usopp burst into an extreme panic mode. "AGHHH!"

Jimbei slapped him on the back and brought him out in front of Franky, "Stop it."

Yamato suddenly marched to the front of the group and stood imposingly in front of Katakuri. She easily towered over him as he sat down and her appearance was so fierce that even Katakuri wondered if she was going to fight him. Yamato's near-golden eyes glinted, "Oi! Where did you put him, you bastard?! If you have him, then I've got a fight to settle with you."

Katakuri bust out laughing, then he stopped so abruptly that they would've thought he was faking his laugh if they didn't know him better. "I don't have him, but I may know where he is."

Nami put a shoulder on Yamato's shoulder and squeezed, but her fury was directed at Katakuri. "Don't play with us. We've come a long way to find him. If you know where he is, just tell us."

Katakuri nodded. "If you don't know, there are only two people in the world with an extremely advanced Observation Haki, so advanced that they can see nearly a year into the future. One of them is better than the other. Luffy managed to surpass me in my strength of Haki, but that doesn't mean we didn't see the same things. I cannot tell for sure that he knew what was happening, but I have a hunch that he did. Because this time, the vision was so vivid that I could not ignore it."

Zoro stared, his pupils dilating in fear. "So he knew."

"Possibly. Anyway, I'll tell you what I know has happened," Katakuri continued, "Luffy separated from his crew at Wano, the last place you were together after you found the One Piece. He told you that he wanted a short break and that he was going to call all of you together again for another reunion, but not to see each other until then. You did what he told you, because this captain's order felt important this time. He left first by boat and then all of you dispersed, except for Zoro who stayed in Wano, eventually training up swordsmen."

They were speechless, unable to react to what he said. Because all of it, down to the last detail, was correct. The Straw Hats couldn't ignore it anymore, what Katakuri said was true and he was possibly the only person in this world besides Luffy who knows what happened and quite possibly what might happen next.

Katakuri, seeing their stone cold faces, knew that he'd hit the right spot. "There was a reason behind all of this at first, but that probably didn't turn out well. Whatever happened prevented him from coming back to you, so it must've been serious. The reason he left was because he was sick. Incredibly sick. Trafalgar knew the fatality behind his sickness - it meant death in seven weeks. Trafalgar found Luffy and offered to help him treat it. Through the Healing Mushroom I believe."

Chopper let out a choked gasp. "The Healing Mushroom. So Trafalgar and Luffy came here too. I came here a few weeks ago. There was barely any of the mushroom left. I only just managed to scrape a few from someone's backyard."

"It doesn't matter, because Luffy never even saw the mushroom."