Nami of the Marines

[Estrecca]

Having found very little One Piece fanfic of even barely acceptable quality, I decided to try to come up with something that could be used to make a decent tale. This is the bare bones of the idea I liked best.

Concept: One Piece AU where Arlong's crew is defeated and captured by Smoker and Nami joins the Marines (being cleared of all charges of piracy thanks to the testimony of the villagers of Cocoyashi), while Coby becomes Luffy's navigator.

Points of divergence:

*NAMI:

1- Commodore Pudding Pudding of the 77th branch of the marines shows up a few days earlier than he did in canon. Events happen pretty much as they did in the OTL, but before his ship is sunk they have time to use a Den-Den Mushi call confirming the presence of the Arlong pirates and requesting support.

2- The closest Marine presence, other than Captain Nezumi, happens to be the Loguetown garrison and they receive the Den Den Mushi message. And, as it turns out, Smoker was a distant friend of Pudding Pudding. And since he knows that Nezumi is a cowardly disgrace to the Marines who has only avoided some serious trouble by being a brown-nose bootlicker... After telling headquarters that Nezumi and his men are in no way prepared to handle a pirate that is reputed to be nearly as strong as one of the Seven Warlords, Smoker leaves Loguetown.

3- When Nami arrives home, she finds Arlong Park burned to the ground, the fishmen under arrest and the villagers of her hometown nearly kissing the ground Smoker walks on. After a few very pointed questions about her being a member of the Arlong pirates, the explanations of the villagers and the fact that there is no bounty offered for Nami is enough to convince Smoker to intervene in her behalf. Smoker persuades the Marine high command in East Blue to hand Nami a pardon in exchange for her surrendering to the Marines the treasure she accumulated over the years to buy her village and putting her talent as cartographer and navigator to work for the Navy. She isn't terribly happy about the last provision, but she accepts.

*COBY:

4- Upon deciding that the Marines who worked under Lieutenant Morgan aren't any better than he was while being a cowering member of Alvida's crew, Coby's dream of joining the Marines is broken. Although a bit heartbroken at first, Coby remains firm in his decision to stay with Luffy for the time being. When they help Usopp defend his village against the Black Cat pirates, Coby comes to the conclusion that he doesn't need to be a Marine to bring justice to the seas and his will to stay with Luffy grows stronger. His new dream becomes helping his friends carry out their dreams and, in the interim, look for a way to bring True Justice to the world.

Opinions?

 

[zeebee1]

Nami is the best navigator in the series. I really doubt that Coby could measure up. Nami's role isn't that of a fighter, but a navigator. It is in some ways the most important position of a boat crew. Unless Coby is a prodigy Luffy won't survive the trip up the Red Line, or even enter the Grand Line at all.

 

[Estrecca]

Nami is the best navigator in the series. I really doubt that Coby could measure up. Nami's role isn't that of a fighter, but a navigator. It is in some ways the most important position of a boat crew. Unless Coby is a prodigy Luffy won't survive the trip up the Red Line, or even enter the Grand Line at all.

Coby was good at navigation, at least according to Alvida, and since people like Don Krieg and Buggy managed to get inside the Grand Line, Nami levels of expertise probably aren't needed to cross Reverse Mountain and enter the Grand Line proper.

Of course, some stuff like flying the Going Merry up the giant geyser might be too much (which means that they never visit to Skypeia with all the consequences of this). Or navigating the second sea train through the Aqua Laguna, which could cause enough delay to the Ennies Lobby rescue operation to wipe out of the plotline the Thriller Bark arc and everything that comes after it.

 

[zeebee1]

Don Krieg had access to advanced technology, and Buggy just went back there. They both had their own shortcuts.

 

[Estrecca]

Don Krieg's ship was still a sailship and the equipment of his mooks wasn't anything special. The advanced technology stuff is something that he carried personally.

As for Buggy, last we saw him pre-Grand Line was in Loguetown (last island in East Blue before Reverse Mountain). The only known points of entry to the Grand Line are sailing up the mountain or crossing the Calm Belts with all that implies.

Without a seastone hulled ship, the route through the Calm Belts requires being insanely strong to survive the Sea Kings. This obviously wouldn't be a concern for Hawkeyes and Don Krieg might have been desperate enough to flee through the Calm Belt... but Buggy's return to the Grand Line pretty much requires him to have crossed Reverse Mountain on his own with his crew.

Which wasn't mentioned to have anyone who can be even remotely described as a legendary navigator.

 

[Frank Cadena]

Escape from Enies Lobby required the calm insight and genius at Navigation that Nami had. She read the currents of the vortices and navigated the fastest way to escape while staying out of the firing line of the Marine ships.

 

[Estrecca]

Escape from Enies Lobby required the calm insight and genius at Navigation that Nami had. She read the currents of the vortices and navigated the fastest way to escape while staying out of the firing line of the Marine ships.

Good point. I didn't remember that one.

Yet another additional factor that would justify Ennies Lobby going pear shaped this time around.

 

[zerohour]

Another factor is the fact that the Going Merry was never designed to function in the chaos that is the Grand Line. Considering the crazy weather it can have, I could easily see it getting wrecked without Nami doing her best to avoid the worst of it.

 

[Estrecca]

Another factor is the fact that the Going Merry was never designed to function in the chaos that is the Grand Line. Considering the crazy weather it can have, I could easily see it getting wrecked without Nami doing her best to avoid the worst of it.

Actually, I think that Merry could have lasted longer if it hadn't been:

1) Pushed into the high atmosphere by a gigantic geyser.
2) Fallen from pretty damn high, after the sky octopus that was supposed to make them land gently burst.

Of course, without 1 and 2 Skypeia very probably gets wiped out by Enel and most/all Shandians and Skypeians die. But without the damage suffered during the Sky Sea arc, Going Merry might reach Water 7 in good enough state to be repaired and improved by the shipwrights there for Grand Line conditions.

...

This one is gonna require some serious planning ahead.

In a slightly different note, the battle of Marineford might become a four way battle of Impel Down instead (Magellan and the Impel Down forces in one side, Whitebeard trying to rescue Ace with just primary crew from a location that doesn't contain the concentrated power of the World Government, Blackbeard trying his recruitment drive as in canon and Strawhats showing up for Robin after failing to rescue her at Ennies Lobby).