Nola
Chapter 4: Nola
The sound of footsteps warned him of his impending company, the Shandia pausing a moment in lighting a cigar before recognising the cadence and their owner with it. It may have been three weeks since he met Midori, but sometimes it felt like a lifetime.
When the younger man had woken up, not long after his fever died down, he had confirmed the pirate’s story. God had then proceeded to explain where they were and how they thought they had got there. That surviving the Knock-Up-Stream had been a miracle was also mentioned.
Gan Fall had been unusually accommodating of the men he’d named as his guests, going out of his way and over what was expected of him as God like he hadn’t done since the war ended and the Mugiwaras departed. Wyper thought it was highly suspicious of the old man. He wasn’t the only one.
Once he had recovered enough, Raki had taken it upon herself to show the two men around the island. Wyper went with them for security reasons, or so Gan Fall explained it when he suggested the warrior go along with them. Wyper may have put up more of a fight if he had found Midori’s company more… undesirable.
It didn’t hurt that Midori had a seemingly insatiable curiosity about the world around him, which extended to him wanting to know as much as possible about the Shandia Culture.
Raki had regaled him with tales of their people that had held his attention for hours on end. Midori was a good listener.
And whenever he wasn’t listening to a story or exploring the island with Gin, Midori could be found in the company of Arisa and Nola. The giant snake was even more taken with the young man than the girl herself, since he apparently could actually understand her. She usually followed him around like an overgrown and mortally dangerous pet.
Wyper hadn’t missed Gin’s comment of it being a trend, even if he still didn’t know the meaning behind it.
Turning his head towards him, he let Midori know he was listening without leaving his seat at the foot of a tree. He didn’t prompt him to speak, waiting for the young man to settle next to him.
“Braham has gone to ring the Bell again.” Midori’s voice was full of curiosity. “Why is it so important?”
So Wyper spoke passionately of his ancestor Kalgara and his friend Noland, of how they met, what they did, the regrets they died with… he told him of the promise that Bell represented and how he had the certainty that Noland’s descendant still lived and heard it.
At some point of the story, they were joined by Nola, the snake surprisingly silent for a beast of its size. Wyper knew she never missed a chance to listen to this particular story, so he wasn’t surprised when she sat her head next to Midori, the young man rubbing her scales without prompting.
When he finished the story, Wyper turned fully towards Midori and waited, curious about what he would draw out of it even if it didn’t show in his face.
The youth was staring thoughtfully at the shore, only a few meters from where they were sat at the end of the treeline. His startling green eyes swirled with his feelings, more revealing than eyes had a right to be, but Wyper still felt a short twinge of disappointment at the black bandana that constantly hid the lower half of his face.
“You have to promise me something.” Said Midori.
The Shandia warrior arched an eyebrow, interested.
“When you visit the Blue Seas, you’ll pay me a visit, alright?”
“Why would I do that?” blinked the older man.
“Because we’re friends.”
Wyper ignored the emotions the words stirred within him, even as the corner of his lips curled upwards at how much sincerity and simplicity went into the statement.
“Why would I visit the Blue Seas?” he clarified.
“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? You’ve got unfinished business there.” Said Midori, trying to explain his reasoning. “I mean, it’s obvious you feel strongly about Kalgara and Noland and you’ll end up regretting it if you don’t at least try to find this Cricket fellow, right? And you want to find out what’s become of the Mugiwara Crew. There’s also that pillar Raki said a pirate stole last year… Besides, aren’t you even a little curious? This is only half the island that your ancestors inhabited, a small piece of their world.”
Wyper couldn’t argue that logic. It was like Midori had just given voice to all the longing that had been building up within him since the war with Enel ended. Suddenly overwhelmed, Kalgara’s descendant swallowed and looked away towards the sea.
He carefully avoided making any promise.
HPOPHPOPHPOPHPOP
Raki looked on in amusement as Gin examined the weapons with a frown. The pirate had lost his ‘tonfa’, whatever they were, upon their arrival at Skypiea.
One had got lost on the Knock-Up-Stream, whilst he had managed to hold onto the other until he resurfaced, when he’d been forced to let it sink into the ocean or drown from its weight, the weapon hindering him as he swam to shore with a wounded shoulder from the wood of their boat cracking at the current’s pressure.
“You won’t find better weapons in the whole island.” She said.
Gin sighed, running a hand through his hair, for once not held back by his typical bandana.
“I’m a decent shot. I guess one of these will have to do until we’re back down.” He said examining a Flame Gun, a flintlock similar in design to the Flash Guns but working like a Flame Bazooka, just less potent.
“You’ll have to train a little, though. Its kick is a bit harder than the pistols you’re probably used to.” explained the woman.
Gin nodded, acknowledging she had more knowledge in this matter than him. He would take her advice to heart and practice later.
His new temporary weapon chosen, they left the shop to find Midori sitting next to Kamakiri in a bench near the shop, a gaggle of children surrounding them. As they approached, they realised with amusement that ‘someone’ had roped the Shandia into a retelling of one of their tribe legends.
Quietly, they settled near them to wait for the story to end.
HPOPHPOPHPOPHPOP
Midori seemed to love all kind of stories, from what the people of Skypiea had been able to see. He never turned down a chance to listen to a new one, managing to stay an avid listener even during a retelling and displaying predilection for adventure and piracy accounts.
Novody was truly surprised anymore when Gan Fall obliged the young man by talking of the many pirates to have sailed through the Cloud Sea, but they would be lying if they said they weren’t surprised to learn he’d met the Pirate King.
There was a strange shine in the old God’s eyes when he spoke of Roger to young Midori, respect and amazement and wistfulness all mixed in his voice.
It was on one of those sessions of story-telling that Gan Fall spoke of Monkey D. Luffy and they all noticed Gin’s head shoot up.
“The sea is so big and yet it seems so small sometimes…” had mused Gan Fall when Gin confessed to having met the Mugiwara Crew when it was half its current size and about to make its way into the Grand Line.
Wyper agreed with the old man.
Conis, eagerly leaning forward from behind the bartop of hers and Raki’s cafeteria, didn’t waste a second before asking for her friend’s whereabouts.
Much to their consternation, they received confirmation of all those rumours about the death of Luffy’s brother and all the circumstances revolving around it.
“Last I heard, the Mugiwaras haven’t been spotted for near on two years. They say the crew has been disbanded.”
“You don’t sound so sure of it yourself.” Observed Raki from her seat.
“I didn’t know Luffy and the others all that long, but if I learnt something in that time, it’s that they’re not like most pirates. They’re not the kind to give up.”
“Of course not!” jumped Conis. “Luffy and the guys won’t give up, no matter the odds. I have faith that we will hear from them again.”
For a moment, there was only silence as they all digested her words and realised that they too were certain of this. It was Midori who broke that silence, his green eyes impossibly bright as he stared at the God’s Guards.
“So what was Mugiwara no Luffy doing in Skypiea?”
That had led to a retelling of the war with Enel and how a crew of pirates had put an end to a feud spanning the last four hundred years.
HPOPHPOPHPOPHPOP
When Raki saw a young man exit the forest with a bone-white mask covering his face, she stopped and stared. It was a warrior mask, covering everything but the user’s lower chin. The black and brown tribal pattern on its otherwise clear surface was familiar, as was the red fur that lined its sides and top and blended with what she assumed to be its owner’s black hair.
Then she recognised Midori’s clothes and green eyes, who was in Wyper’s company. Nola wasn’t far behind the duo.
She arched an eyebrow at her fellow Guard, but Wyper grunted and looked away.
“I like the mask.” She commented casually.
“Thanks! Wyper got it for me.”
Said man carefully avoided her eyes by focusing on patting Nola’s snout where she had slithered behind them and Raki contained a snort.
“Right! It suits you.”
She refrained from mentioning that only Shandia warriors were ever allowed to wear those masks and decided instead to steer to a safer topic.
“You went exploring, then?”
“Yeah, Wyper showed me the Bell today. It’s really beautiful. Your people sure were lucky to be tasked with protecting something so amazing!”
Alright, it seemed like there was no safe topic with those two.
That Wyper didn’t mind the story of Kalgara’s and Noland’s friendship to an outsider due to the respect they showed their culture and history, she could understand. That he deemed Midori worthy of wearing the traditional mask that a Shandia received upon becoming a warrior, she could ignore. That he also took that same young man to visit the Sacred Bell after outsiders had been forbidden when that blond pirate wounded two of their comrades to steal a golden pillar a year before…
How did the saying go? Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, thrice is enemy action.
‘Or well, not enemy, per se.’ she thought a bit dryly.
Kalgara’s descendant truly.
HPOPHPOPHPOPHPOP
Wyper was in a fool mood.
Anyone who knew him even just a little would be able to tell by taking a look at his face.
Nola might be a giant snake and therefore more often than not confused the expressions on the faces of humans, with all those little telling twitches of lips and eyes and even noses and cheeks ―let’s not get her started on the matter of eyebrows… why did they even need hair over their eyes? Strange creatures, humans were.
Thing is she might not always understand what their expressions meant, but near four hundred years of little snippets here and there of Kalgara’s descendants and even she was familiar enough to understand.
Nola knew Wyper’s temper better than most; in that, he was too alike to his ancestor.
It was a few days before their new friends were set to leave ―and she couldn’t say she was happy about that either― and Nola had been sniffing out her new favourite human when she came across the Shandia warrior brooding as he checked his dials.
She stopped, pondering if it was worth bothering him in such a mood and decided that, no, it wasn’t. She wanted rubs and the one that spoke her tongue gave the best. No need to pester Wyper.
But as she was about to leave, she’d picked up the smell of Midori’s nest-mate-not-mate. Midori had tried to explain the concept of friends and nakama to her, but she’d only understood that it meant they were nest-mates, but weren’t mates either. Yeah, confusing.
Nola decided she’d wait and follow him. Eventually, he’d lead her to Midori, unless the human was in the city again, then she’d pout until he came back. The city streets weren’t big enough for her and, frankly, the place smelt to her. Apparently, humans had a very underdeveloped sense of smell.
So she watched and listened and winced when Wyper’s mood took a turn for the worse.
She sighed, a very human gesture she’d picked up along the years. She wanted a rub and this didn’t seem to be getting her any nearer to it.
Sniffing the air, she left the two men in the forest and followed her senses to Midori. If he was going to be leaving soon, she’d better get as many of those nice rubbings and scrubbings he gave her as she could possibly get. And maybe see if she could convince him to bring her with him.
HPOPHPOPHPOPHPOP
“You are considering joining them.”
Gan Fall’s words startled him, but Wyper refused to let it show. He’d already suspected something when the old man insisted on going for a walk amd asked him to join him.
“Your old age seems to finally be catching up to you.” He grunted.
Gan Fall simply chuckled.
“It is understandable.” Continued the old man. “Anyone else in your position would already have jumped at the chance, if they had some brain.”
Wyper wasn’t sure whether he was insulting his intelligence or remarking on him not being like the others, but he already didn’t like where this was going.
“Really? And why would that be?”
“You’ve got the perfect chance to see to that unfinished business you have in the Blue Seas and sate your curiosity at the same time. It’s not an opportunity that will present itself again; it’s more the kind you get once in a lifetime. I had it too, you know? More than twenty years ago. I turned it down for the same reasons that you are now thinking of turning it down for and, although I can’t say I regret it exactly, I’ll always wonder: ‘what if’…”
“I’m not you, old man; don’t start drawing baseless comparisons between us out of nowhere.”
Rather than getting offended, the God smiled and looked off towards the sea.
“Perhaps they are baseless, perhaps not… but I think you should consider it carefully, Wyper. You love this island and its people and are proud of them, eager to defend them with your life. And yet you’re curious about what else could be out there, what more there could be that would be worth protecting. And that’s only part of it.”
The Shandia warrior refused to give him the pleasure of a verbal confirmation.
“And going with them doesn’t mean you can’t come back whenever you tire of the Blue Sea. Even if you do become a pirate. Skypiea isn’t affiliated with the World Government, after all.”
“Why are you so insistent that I go? That I abandon my duty to my people?” asked the younger man, eyes narrowed.
“Ah, duty… Duty and honour are often the biggest obstacles in the path to happiness. Your duty to your people is done, Wyper. You’ve given them peace and hope for the first time in four hundred years. Your people and my people don’t exist anymore; they’re now our people and I think they’d agree that you deserve this chance.”
“I still don’t see why you’re so insistent.”
“Part of it is what I’ve already told you: you can gain much by joining them. Another part of me, I confess, simply hopes that you’ll be able to help and protect young Midori.”
“Midori… what do you know?”
“I know nothing for sure.” Replied Gan Fall promptly.
“But you suspect.” Accused the Shandia.
“…Yes, I do. If Midori is who I think he is, going with him, helping him, will be worth it. It’ll definitely be interesting to see how everything unfolds.”
“Who is he?”
“If you go with him, you’ll discover it in due time.”
Wyper narrowed his eyes again as the old man kept playing on his curiosity.
“If it would make you feel better, I could word it as a mission for your God.”
The man glared at Gan Fall and he sighed.
“It is your choice, Wyper, but consider it. Don’t let your stubborn pride get in the way of what you want. If you do join them, though, I daresay you won’t regret it.”
The God fell silent and rose to leave, deciding to give the warrior the chance to be alone with his thoughts, but stopped as if he’d just remembered something.
“Oh, yes, apparently Nola has decided to go with them. I think it was something along the lines of getting to see her birthplace again and getting good rubs.”
The younger warrior stared.
“Nola. The giant serpent.” He said slowly, as if he thought the man was just playing a tasteless joke that he simply didn’t get. “The snake that’s bigger than a building and certainly any ship?”
“She’s now the size of a small waver.”
Wyper cursed his curiosity.
HPOPHPOPHPOPHPOP
The sleek Dial Boat that Gan Fall had prepared for them barely bobbed in the sea of clouds, still docked as they made sure everything was ready for their imminent departure.
The ship was big enough to fit them all comfortably with some room to spare, but it had nothing on most of the pirate ships that visited the sky island. It didn’t need to be, either, since it was only meant to take them down to the Blue Sea and to the nearest island where they’d be able to purchase a proper ship. Gan Fall had, of course, had a few suggestions in regards to that.
The old meddlesome man seemed too invested in this venture not to raise his suspicions.
Wyper strolled past Gin without a word, dropping his bag on the deck of the small ship and staring out to the sea. The older man hadn’t said anything when the Shandia had started to prepare for departure two days before, but he still knew that Gin was pleased.
Surprisingly ―to him― none of his fellows had seemed truly all that surprised when he’d told them he was joining Midori and Gin and entrusting them to protect their land until a time came when he chose to come back.
Kamakiri had taken over command of the God’s Guard in Wyper’s name, a solemn promise in his eyes.
A few teasing comments about finally getting their ‘first Shandia Pirate’ might have been thrown around too.
The only one whose reaction had been unexpected was Raki. The warrior woman turned doctor and barmaid hadn’t said anything at all.
Midori stood leaning on the railing as the last provisions were brought on board by their oldest companion and his eyes told him that he was frowning under his mask. The warrior was certain he’d never meet anyone else with such expressive eyes.
It was curious how the mask worked so well to hide his features yet did nothing to hide his emotions.
It didn’t erase the fact that he’d rather the young man wore no mask, but Midori had started looking to purchase a new one before he’d gifted this one to him.
For a second, he grimaced at the memory of the red and blue monstrosity he’d seen him eyeing in the market. A Shandia Warrior Mask was definitely an improvement over that.
The green-eyed youth was fingering the black bandana tied to his neck as he watched the forest line.
“Do you think Raki is angry?”
Wyper shrugged, a scowl forming on his brow. He’d never understand that woman.
“I don’t see why she should be.” He said instead.
His attention was pulled back to the people gathered on the small dock by Nola’s pitiful whining as she alternated between hounding Aisa and Conis.
“If you’re gonna be so whiny, you should simply stay here, Nola.” Snapped Wyper, irritation working to cover the understanding he shared with the snake.
“Nobody’s forcing you to come with us.”
Immediately, the snake reared her head back and directed a hissy fit at him that he was glad Midori didn’t translate. The meaning was still clear as the snake slithered onto the ship and made herself at home on the deck, ignoring the snickers directed at her.
The fact that she was now the size of a waver had lost her a good portion of her intimidation technique to those who’d dealt with her when she was her normal size.
Goodbyes were exchanged and a few last minute pieces of advice and well wishes exchanged before they finally set out towards the End of the Cloud Sea where they’d be making their way down. All the while, Midori looked like a kicked puppy, in Wyper’s and Gin’s honest opinion.
“I can’t believe that woman didn’t even show up to see us off.” Muttered Wyper.
“Talking to yourself isn’t a sign of good mental health, you know?”
The warrior would deny to his dying day that he was actually surprised to see her walk out of the main cabin.
“Raki!” exclaimed Midori with a smile.
“So you’ve decided to come.” Hummed Gin.
“Well, of course, someone has to patch you all up when you inevitably get into trouble.” Replied the woman casting a smug look at her fellow Shandia.
As Nola enthusiastically greeted her, Wyper huffed and looked away. It looked like he wasn’t the only one too curious for his own good.