Ranma doesn't know, because Nami has booked it.

[While One Piece has a lot of comedy, the major story arcs can break your heart. This is one such arc. I was really tempted to just jump right over it and toss in a few references, but I’ve already written this, so I’ll post it, but if you’re just looking for steamy sex scenes this is not the chapter for you. I do have to admit to being curious as to how many people have gotten this far without ever seeing One Piece. I can’t imagine this story is very coherent without that background.]

Waking up aching was not a new occurrence for Ranma, but in this case she was hurting in places she’d never hurt before. Zoro had done a real number on her poor little ass. Both with his hand, and four times with his cock. But it had been so worth it. She’d put up with a lot worse than what he did to her for the final results. This body was like a carnival thrill ride, that actually delivered more than it promised, and she wanted to ride it until it broke. Or was that let it be ridden?

Ranma stretched luxuriously. She grimaced a bit at how the bed clothes stuck to her skin. It wasn’t just her body that Zoro had messed up. The sheets were a sodden mess. Feeling positively domestic she gathered them up and tossed them in the hamper. The restaurant had to have some sort of laundry facility. Those tablecloths didn’t get that white on their own. She was sure that Sanji would be happy to direct her to them.

At the thought of Sanji, Ranma’s curiosity was aroused. She wondered if Luffy would be able to recruit him? The cook had been pretty resistant to the idea. She hoped Luffy managed it. If only for his cooking skills. But, as much as she loved Sanji’s food, she really hoped he could measure up to the other standards the rest of the crew had set. So far she was drawing aces when it came to her male crew-mates. If she hadn’t seen first hand that Buggy’s crew were mediocre at best in that regard she’d have been inclined to think that all the guys in this universe were hung like horses.

Well, Luffy wasn’t, until he was, but the rubber man was in a whole different category. He was more human shaped than human. But, then she wasn’t sure she was still human either. That she was an ability user by the standards of this world went without question. But she was still having a hard time figuring out just what her ability was, besides being a kick ass fighter and one hell of a good fuck.

Idly daydreaming about dick, Ranma exited onto the Merry’s main deck, and blinked when she saw that they were surrounded by water. Lots and lots of Water. As far as the eye could see there was nothing but water. Had the ship broken its tether in the middle of the night and floated away with her onboard? She glanced up. The sails were set. So floating away seemed unlikely. She dropped the basket of soiled clothing onto the deck and scanned the ship for life. “Luffy, Nami? Anyone here?”

“Here!” Ranma sighed in relief when she heard Nami’s voice shouting from the tiller room.

“What happened? Are the guys sleeping? Did Luffy get his cook?” Ranma shot out a stream of questions as she hurried to Nami’s location. She came to a stop when she noticed the tear streaks running down Nami’s face, though at the moment she was giving Ranma a smile.

“Luffy and the rest are back on the Baratia,” Nami said. “I couldn’t wait around for him to clear his debt. I have time sensitive issues back home I have to take care of.”

“But they’re our crewmates!” Ranma protested, her gut twisting and her heart aching in a way she had thought was a think of the past. “We’re going back for them when you’re done, right?”

“We never joined Luffy’s crew, Ranma. You know that we were only accompanying them while our paths ran in the same direction. Luffy has his path, and we have ours. We should have gone our separate ways long ago.” Nami explained this in a matter of fact tone that was belied by the glint of tears in her eyes, and the way her voice quivered as she spoke. It helped that she was as torn up by this as Ranma. That was way better than her pop’s indifference in similar circumstances.

“Maybe, sometime in the future we’ll meet again.” Nami said in what was clearly a sop for the redhead’s feelings.

That last line Ranma had heard too many times to believe.This was a situation that Ranma was very familiar with. Her pop had dragged her away from friends and comfortable situations more times than she could count. That didn’t make it any easier to deal with. This was the downside to surrendering control. Sometimes the decisions others made for you weren’t pleasant. And while it was cold comfort, Nami at least had not abandoned her.

“Where are we going?” Ranma asked.

“My home village and Island. I have some matters to take care of that simply can’t wait.” Nami explained. “You can stay at my sister’s while I deal with them. Once I’ve dealt with what I have to do we can set out and find some pirates to rob.”

If Nami had been a guy, Ranma might have gone all out to convince her to change her mind, but she’d learned a long time ago that once a girl had made up her mind there was no changing it. At least she’d never been able to do it, and she’d tried.

The next few days were not cheerful. Ranma wasn’t in the mood, and Nami maintained a stoic attitude only talking to Ranma in order to give instructions on how to adjust the sails.

They arrived in a small natural harbor and Nami escorted Ranma to a small cabin set in the middle of a tangerine grove. There they met Nami’s older sister, Nojiko. She was of average build with light blue hair. Whereas Nami had a small tattoo on her left shoulder, Nojiko’s right arm and chest were heavily tattooed.

Nojiko greeted Nami warmly with a hard hug and a careful examination, before turning her attention to Ranma. She ran her eyes up and down Ranma’s body with appreciation before teasing her sister. “Finally giving up on sausage, Nami?”

“Never! I’ll leave the clam digging to you. Don’t go getting ideas. Ranma is our new little sister. I pulled her out of the ocean. She would have drowned otherwise. In return she swore internal servitude. In short, she’s an idiot.”

Ranma protested, but only received an order to sit at the table while the adults talked. She fumed, but obeyed, while vowing silently to pay Nami back for that remark.

Turning to Nojiko Nami said. “I need you to look after Ranma while I deal with my business.”

“Sure, sure. No problem. I treat her well,” Nokiko said theatrically, giving Ranma a lecherous look and licking her lips. This earned her a bop on the head from Nami.

“One last thing before I go, Ranma. There are fishmen on this island. Under no circumstances, no matter what, are you to fight with them. Keep your head down and act like a scared mouse. If they ask for a blowjob, give it to them. They are under orders to not fuck any of the females on the island, but don’t push it. Do not cock-tease them, to not insult them. Do you understand?”

“Sure, no problem. I can do that. Just one thing. What’s a fishman?” Ranma asked, fluttering her eyes at Nami. This earned her a bop on the head to match the one Nojiko had gotten.

“Trust me. You’ll know one if you see one. Now promise me.”

“Fine, I promise,” Ranma grumbled.

“Good. I should be back soon,” Nami told her, and left the cottage, leaving Ranma alone with Nojiko.

“Well, I suppose I should make up a bed for you. Unless you’d like to share mine.” Nojiko told Ranma.

“Huh? Oh. Sure. That would be fine,” Ranma said distractedly as she stared at the door Nami had just exited. Her worry must have been clear on her face.

Or that was what Ranma would have said it was. Nojiko labeled it as separation anxiety and offered some reassurance. “Don’t worry. Nami can take care of herself. She’s been doing it since she was ten.”

“Yeah, she’s my boss. Of course she can take care of herself!” Ranma said firmly, but could not banish the worry from her heart. She’d seen Nami beard Buggy in his own den. She’d been confident and assured. But now? For all her attempts to make what she was doing sound like something casual, Ranma had clearly seen the trace of fear in her eyes. The instructions about the fishmen only made her more sure that this was not a simple situation.

Ranma glanced over at where Nojiko was making up a small futon. “I promised,” she muttered to herself. “Yeah, I did. But Captain Ryoga didn’t.” Ranma walked over to Nojiko and brushed her hand across the back of the woman’s neck with a muttered, “Sorry about this.”

Nojiko folded like a house of cards and would have fallen on her face if Ranma had not caught her. She carefully laid the older girl down on the futon she’d been making up and then headed for the stove, and the kettle that was steaming on it.

******************************************************************************

Nami looked down at the battered and bruised body of the young boy she had just brutally and without mercy beaten to the ground. She’d encountered him on the path to Arlong Park and he had demanded she get out of his way as he needed to kill Arlong.

“Arlong doesn’t have time for little brats like you,” Nami told the battered child who’s life she had just saved. She turned and walked away, but as she did she tossed a sheaf of berries over her shoulder. “Here, use this to live long enough to at least grow some hair on your balls.”

Nami paused outside the gaudy gate of Arlong Park, the base of the Arlong pirates and her home for the last eleven years. As usual the gate was wide open. Arlong felt nothing but contempt for the people of the island. If they wanted to attack he’d welcome the chance to make an object lesson of them.

One of Arlong’s men was slumped against the side of the open gate, half-dozing, but when he spotted her, a smirk crossed his face. “Well, look who’s home. Robbed and betrayed any interesting pirates this time around? Did you bring me anything, little sister?”

“Just this,” Nami said derisively. She stuck up a forefinger. “Would you like it now, or would you like to perch on it later?”

“Hah, I’ve missed you, little sister. You are one cold bitch. But then what else would you expect from someone who joined the crew of the man who rapped her mother to ****.”

Nami’s expression remained ice cold. She’d been taunted with that lie for half her life. Not that the truth was much better. Arlong had shot her mother down like a dog in the street right in front of Nami and Nojiko, when their mother only had enough money to pay her daughter’s residency tax and not her own. A **** penalty crime in Arlong’s jurisdiction. Her last words were to tell her two adopted daughters that she loved them.

Not a single one of the emotions that memory churned up showed on Nami’s face as she said, “What can I say. She got what was coming to her for being such a cheap whore.”

“Fuck, cold as ice. I bet your cunt would turn my cock into an icicle.”

“You’re never going to find out! Are you going to get out of my way? As much fun as it is to catch up, I’ve got some news Arlong’s going to want to hear.”

“Nami-chan? It is you? Welcome back Nami-chan,” A brief expression of affection crossed Nami’s face as she turned to see Hatchan approaching. The octopus fish-man had been her childhood caretaker. He’d kept her alive, and had been the closest thing to a surrogate father she’d had in the Arlong Pirates, but Nami never forgot that the amiable octopus was totally under Arlong’s thumb. If he ordered it, Hatchan would gut her like a fish. He would weap honest tears as he did it, but he would do it. When you came down to it she was just a human, and for all they valued her skills as a cartographer, to the fishmen she would always be a member of an inferior species. Disposable the moment the hassle of putting up with her exceeded her value to them.

Hatchan. Good to see you. How are you doing?” Nami asked, letting a shred of warmth flow into her voice. There was no point in holding his nature against the poor fool, and there was always the chance that he might warn her if things looked like they were going south for her. In much the same way a young boy might release his dog into the woods if he learned the police were planning on putting it down for killing chickens.

“Good, good, I’m good. I work as a taxi now, bringing humans who deal with Arlong back and forth. I just finished taking Captain Nezumi back to his ship. I was just on my way to get some ingredients from town. So I can’t keep you company. But we can meet up when I’m off duty. I’ll cook your favorites, Takoyaki.”

Nami scowled internally at the mention of the corrupt marine captain who was on Arlong’s payroll. He was one of the major reasons Arlong was able to rule the island unopposed by the forces that were supposed to keep monsters like him in check. “None of her feelings show on her face as she told Hatchan, “Can’t wait. I’ll see you later.” She gave the other fishman a speaking look, and he hastily stepped aside for her. Nami wasn’t above using her stave to slam a guy’s balls, and Arlong would just laugh it off as Nami being Nami. Despite the fact that Nami was a human, the fishman knew perfectly well who was the more important person to Arlong here.

The door opened up onto a large plaza that surrounded a large ocean weir on one side and the front porch of Arlong Park on the other. It was far from utilitarian however. It looked like an expensive resort complete with marble features and fountains. There were dozens of assorted fishmen lounging around the plaza, and sitting in his throne on the marble porch was Arlong. The ten foot tall Sawshark fishman smirked as Nami approached him. “Welcome back, Nami.” He turned to the fishman and shouted out. “Our little sister is back, give her a warm welcome.” The gathered fishmen shouted and cheered for Nami.

Nami gave them a wave. “Thank you, thank you. I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed all of you.” She couldn’t tell them because doing so would get her beaten black and blue and locked in her drafting room for a week without food.

“As we have you. The only human we’ve ever met that was good enough to belong to my crew. Let's hear it for the greatest cartographer in the East Blue boys.” Once again cheers rang out with Arlong waving them on with his hands, until he made a cutting motion and silenced them.

“See how much we’ve missed you. Now why not come up here and properly say hello to your old captain?” Arlong said with a leer.

Nami gritted her teeth and then plastered a smile on her face as she began to walk toward Arlong, her hips rocking as she strutted. One by one her clothes fell from her body and dropped to the stone floor of the plaza. Much to the delight of the watching pirates. “I can’t tell you how much I’ve been missing this,” Nami said. “You have no idea what it was like dealing with nothing but human cocks. Especially for the last few weeks.”

“Up to your old tricks were you? I”m sure you made them pay well for the privilege of using your body,” Arlong said with a laugh.

“You have no idea. This was one of my most profitable cons yet,” Nami said as she knelt and began to unbutton Arlong’s pants, allowing his nine inch member to spring free. From up close it looked impressive, but from a distance, and laid against Arlong’s better than six hundred pound body, it was pretty pathetic. Proportionately he was a teeny-weeny. Even Usopp was bigger than Arlong, and the sniper wasn’t much taller than she was.

Most of Arlong’s crew had cocks that topped out at over eighteen inches erect, some were even bigger. Fortunately Arlong’s hatred of humans, and his utter disgust at the idea of breeding one of them, meant that any fishman was taking his life in his hands if he dared stick his dick in a human girl’s cunt. Oral was fine, but you did not do anything that might make a baby. If it hadn’t been for that rule there likely wouldn’t be a single woman left alive on the island.

Nami knew better than to chalk it up to concern for the women on Arlong’s part. Dead people didn’t pay taxes.

**************************************************************************

Ranma, or rather Captain Ryoga, stood in the shade of the forest and looked at the place he’d tracked Nami to. It looked like an ocean front palace. Exactly the sort of place he could see Nami calling home. Standing next to the gate and working on some sort of list was some sort of octopus man. He was weird, but he wasn’t Pantyhose Taro weird, though both of them sported tentacles.

“Hi there,” Ranma called out cheerfully as he approached the gate.

“Eh? Oh, hello. Welcome. Are you here to see the captain, nu? You might have to wait. Our navigator just got back and he’s busy giving her a welcome home party.”

“Navigator? She wouldn’t happen to be about this tall with orange hair. Goes by Nami?”

“Ahh! You’re a pirate that Nami robbed right? Please don’t hold it against her. She’s really a good girl.”

“Can’t do that. No one robs from the dread pirate Ryoga and gets away with it.”

“Are you sure? You really should give up. Fishmen are ten times as strong as humans. You’ll only get hurt if you try to punish Nami!” Hatchan’s good humored behavior vanished. He clearly was not about to allow anyone to threaten Nami. That said good things about him, or bad things about Nami. Ranma was currently facing a real pirate, with all that entailed.

“Sorry. I’m not planning on hurting Nami,” Ranma apologized before casually laying his hand flat on Hatchan’s chest. The octopus man gave him a puzzled look. Ranma’s arm pulsed as he delivered a fraction-of-an-inch punch. Hatchan was lifted from his feet and flattened against the tall stone wall. His arms and legs splayed out making him look like an eight limbed starfish. The **** fishman stuck to the wall for a few seconds, before falling forward face first into the dirt. Ranma stared at him while muttering. “I really hope you're right and Nami is really a good girl.”

The blackhaired boy looked upward toward the top of the wall with a grim look on his face. “Which one is the real Nami,” he wondered as he lightly jumped up fifteen feet to the top of the gate’s arch.

There were over fifty fishmen inside the walls. The smallest four times Ranma’s size. But despite that It didn’t take Ranma long to spot Nami. “It’s deja-vu all over again,” he muttered as he spotted Nami kneeling in front of the obvious leader of the fishmen. Just like when he’d stumbled across her in Buggy’s bar her head was bobbing up and down on a thick cock while her bare ass waved back and forth in the air, the perfect peach of her pussy on full display.

‘She’s certainly getting along well with him,’ Ranma thought. ‘But given how big the ugly bastard is it’s not like she has any other choice than to be friendly.’

It was about seventy-five feet from the gate to where Nami was giving Arlong a blow job. An easy jump, and it would save him the hassle of wading through a half-dozen of the big bastards to get to them, and drawing in all the rest once the brawl started. At the moment he was just here to talk and get the lay of the land.

“Hup,” Ranma grunted as he put some muscle into it and jumped in a high arc that brought him down onto the plaza mere feet away from where Nami was deep-throating the sawnosed leader. “Well, this is a familiar scene,” Ranma said in a casual voice. “First time I saw Nami here she was in the exact same position. That guy offered to share. Don’t suppose you’d be inclined to do so?”

Arlong, or at least who Ranma assumed was Arlong, was a cool customer. While Ranma’s appearance caused an uproar among the other fishmen his only reaction was to lay his webbed hand on top of Nami’s head to hold her in place when she started to jerk her mouth up and off his cock. He gave Ranma a cold amused look and asked, “Who the fuck are you?”

“Captain Ryoga of the pig pirates at your service, Captain Arlong. You are Arlong aren’t you?”

“You a bounty hunter?”

“I did say I was a pirate.”

“The two are not mutually exclusive. For instance if you have a price on your head let me know. I’ll mail it to proper authorities once I rip it off.”

“Now is that very friendly? I come all the way here to meet the captain of the strongest pirate crew on the East Blue and this is the way you react.”

“Kneel, skum!” A fishman who had approached Ranma from behind with all the subtlety of a hippopotamus, clamped a hand down on Ranma’s shoulder, and tried to shove him to his knees.

Ranma reached up and took hold of the Fishman’s wrist, or as much of it as he could wrap his fingers around, and squeezed while twisting. With a cry of agony the Fishman straightened his arm out to relieve the pain while falling to his knees, bringing his head down so it was only a foot or so higher than Ranma’s. Hardening his hand, because this fishman’s face was a bit on the spiky side, Ranma drove a fist into the fistman’s nose, flattening it and sending the massive male tumbling across the plaza.

“That’s haki,” Arlong said in a flat voice as he stared at Ranma’s pitch-black hand.

Ranma looked at his discoloured hand, which slowly resumed its normal coloration. The effect still freaked him out a bit. “Eh, is that what you call it? Good to know.”

“Don’t play the fool with me!” Arlong growled. “You might have haki, but that doesn’t mean you can treat me and my crew like we’re nothing. I have a hundred of the strongest fighters in the East Blue sailing under me. Even someone who can use haki can’t take them for granted. What is a Haki user doing in the East Blue?”

Ranma realized that the man was actually wary of him. Was haki that special? That attitude combined with how tough the two fighters he had already taken down gave him an idea of their relative strengths. Luffy could take this bastard. Maybe not easily, but he could do it.

Out of the corner of his eyes Ranma examined Nami closely. While she looked like she was about to die from mortification, there were no bruises or contusions on her body. In fact, looking at the tattoo on her shoulder with fresh eyes Ranma realized it was a copy of the pirate insignia that was plastered all over this place. It seemed like she really was a member of Arlong’s crew. Which meant that so was Ranma by default. Disappointment filled him. He had thought Nami was better than this. He thought she actually liked Luffy and his crew. Arlong was scum. You could see it in the way he looked at Ranma.

Ranma had sworn his life to Nami, he took that seriously. If she was a member of the Arlong crew then so was Ranma. But he wasn’t giving up just yet. He didn’t know the whole situation.

Luffy trusted Nami totally and unreservedly. In the short time Ranma had known the rubber-man he had come to respect Luffy’s ability to read people. He was certainly better at it than Ranma had ever been.

Ranma held onto that thread of hope. Even if it looked like Nami had stabbed Luffy in the back he would keep hoping. There really wasn’t anything else he could do. No matter how much he wanted to decimate Arlong’s crew, he couldn’t do that if they were Nami’s nakama. Luffy would come for Nami, Ranma was confident of that. He was going to have to trust that the captain would get Nami, and him, out of this cluster-fuck.

“Recruiting,” he replied to Arlong’s question.

“Recruiting?” Arlong looked down at where Nami had resumed bobbing her head up and down in his lap of her own volition. “My navigator is the most important member of my crew. She’s going to give us the East Blue on a platter.”

“That’s nice, but I already have the best navigator in the world as part of my crew. Your girl there is just a nice looking relief station to me. I can find a dozen of those in any port town. I was talking about seeing if any of your men might be interested. Any of your lower ranked crew members interested in a position on my crew. Strong chance of advancement. More so than here with so many strong men between them and the top.”

“You want to recruit some of my crew? My fishmen crew?” Alrlong’s voice carried traces of wariness, surprise, and barely hidden contempt.

“Well sure. What decent pirate captain wouldn’t want a few fishmen on their crew? We’re sailing on their home turf. We’re stuck on the top, but they can fly in it. No crew without fishmen would have a hope in hell in a fight with me.” Ranma really ladled it on. If nothing else when it came to social situations, his pop had taught him to kiss ass.

“You’re serious?” Ranma could see that Arlong was honestly flabbergasted. He wondered why. Sure he’d poured the flattery on, but he didn’t see anything extraordinary about what he had said. Was there some reason a fishman couldn’t crew on a pirate ship with landsmen?

Arlong shook off his surprise. Visibly making an effort to be polite he said, “None of my men would be interested in crewing with humans, even one as strong as you. Sorry, that’s just the way it is. We’re about to have a feast to welcome Nami home. You’re welcome to join us if you like.”

“Sorry, can’t. If you’re sure none of your men are interested I have other places to be.” Without a backwards look, Ranma turned and headed for the gate.

Ranma hated this. He had no idea what to do. Nami had been clear, He couldn’t fight the fishmen. He had promised Nami. So far you couldn’t call what he’d done fighting. More like pest-control. But if he pushed things here it would lead to the real thing. He was already sneaking around his promise to stay put by going guy, but there was a limit to how far he could push it. He was not going to get into the habit of breaking promises he made to Nami.

Ranma had to put his trust in Luffy. Unless he was a different person than Ranma thought, he would be right on their tails. Ranma had to stay in the background. Worst comes to worse he was going to have to convince Nami to take the leash off his girl side. But if he did that, his happy relaxed and fun life would be a thing of the past. He just had to hope that his nakama could handle this. If only he’d known that Haki was a thing that people did in this place. He could have given Luffy and Zoro some tips that would give them better odds in the coming fight.