Chapter 24: Castle in the Sky

Hello people! I've recently got stuck in writer's block, but I'll try to get back into it with the new Sherlock Holmes movie! However, extra motivation would be reviews, and commentary about the long-anticipated confrontation between Nico Robin and Conan Edogawa. No new reviews have lead me to believe people either didn't like it, were indifferent, or didn't find it spectacular. So here's a short chapter, to move the story along! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or Case Closed

"Er…I'm truly sorry, I didn't mean to crash into your house, I swear." Conan said feebly. He was tied in a chair, with the orange-haired woman holding a rolled up newspaper, boring down on him with a furious stare.

"Then what did you mean to do? How the hell can one accidentally crash a ship into a house?" She demanded.

"Now Nami…I'm sure this boy didn't mean any harm." An old man replied. He wore typical blue wizards robes, and had a beard that reminded him of Merlin.

"How the hell can you say that you, old coot?" She exclaimed. "You do realize we're standing in the pirate ship that destroyed my house, right?"

"Er, yes…but-"

"Then there's no argument here! How are you going to fix this?" Nami demanded.

"Well…we can always give you another house…" The old man replied feebly.

"No! That won't do! I demand compensation for this!" She demanded.

"I don't have any money…" Conan sweat-dropped when he realized that he was broke.

"I wouldn't expect a little hijacker to have money anyways!" She screeched, and then turned to the old man. "Oi, ossan…until a new house prepared, I'll stay in this ship, with him as my assistant. Until I feel he's paid me back in service for what it would cost to fix my house, is that understood?"

"Er…yes, Nami-chan, but…we still don't know who he is." He looked to the boy. "Who are you my boy?"

"…Conan Edogawa…how about you?" He asked nervously.

"I am the weather wizard, Haredes, and this girl is Nami-chan, she crashed onto our island, similarly to you." The old man replied.

"Really?" Conan's attention quirked.

"That's none of his business, old man! Besides, when I crashed here, I didn't destroy anyone's house with a ship!" She replied indignantly. "Boy…what can you do?"

"Do?" Conan repeated stupidly.

"Yeah. Skills or talents, what can you do?" She repeated.

"Er…I solve mysteries for a hobby…I'm good at math and history…" He said nervously.

"You know anything about navigating?" She asked in an annoyed tone.

"Depends…do you mean by ship?" The boy asked.

"What else would I mean?" She snorted.

"…Nothing, nothing at all." He replied nervously; they probably didn't have cars in this universe.

"Tch. A stupid boy crashes into my house, doesn't have the money to pay me back, and has to pay me back in service that's completely useless!" She punched the wall. "Get me some orange juice, I'm putting you to work!"

"Er…" Herades untied him, and scurried off the ship. The old man moved quickly for being so short; the detective had the feeling of impending doom at the moment, and he could tell so did the weather wizard.

"Good luck Edogawa-kun…" He gave a good-luck hand gesture and disappeared from sight.

"Why are you still standing around? Go get my juice!" Nami demanded.

"HAI!" The detective scurried off.

Nightfall

"You sleep out in the hall outside my room! I want you ready at my beck and call tomorrow!" She slammed the door in his face, and proceeded to get ready for bed.

"Geez…I thought Serena was bad." The speckled boy grumbled, relaying the past day in his head. For the past eight hours, he had done this woman's cleaning, cooking, and selective laundry; as in he didn't even get to see anything worth a reward! The only thing worth being around this woman was to see her studying maps and weather, Conan had never met a meteorologist with skills as good as hers. He briefly wondered if she was meteorologist for this island, but she said she was a navigator. But if that was the case, why wasn't she on a ship?

"Oi! Boy!" The door came open, and it revealed Nami dressed in short pajama shorts, and a white tank-top, it was most likely her sleepwear.

Conan snapped out of his gaze and responded. "Y-Yeah."

"Come in here, I want to ask you something." She said and went back in. Blinking, Conan followed the woman inside, and realized that she took refuge in the captain's room.

"Yes, Nami-san?" Conan asked nervously.

"Now that we're alone without prying eyes, I want answers. Who are you really? How'd you get here?" She asked suspiciously.

"I already told you my name, and you saw how I got here." The detective answered evenly.

"That's not what I mean, and you know it!" She screeched. "Where the hell you'd get a pirate ship that could navigate itself to a sky island?"

"Sky island…?" Conan repeated it, and after a moment, it finally sank in- sky island. "You mean this island's in the sky?"

"Yes! We're on the sky island, Weatheria, you nimrod!" She bashed him on the head. "How the hell could you not have known that? Didn't you tell this ship to come up here?"

"I didn't mean to do that, I hijacked the ship out of desperation, and I didn't know how to navigate it so, somehow I ended up here! And how the hell are island's in the sky? How the hell's that possible? Is it even possible for people to live up here?" Conan tore hair out of his head in frustration, yet another weird quirk of this universe. 'I wonder what the Christian idea of Heaven is here.' Conan idly wondered.

"…What?" Nami asked shocked.

Conan sighed. "I was captured by a group of vigilantes, and I had no choice but to hijack one of their ships, I was in the middle of the ocean, so I was desperate and just pushed random buttons, and before I knew it, the ship was flying. Then, the ship started going warp speed, and to avoid killing a flock of birds in the path of destruction, I pushed another button, and the ship went a steady, bumpy rhythm, until stopping abruptly. Apparently…your house stopped it." He managed to smile, but inside, he was torn up; he had just started telling the truth, and here he was, lying again. He had to resist the urge to blame Dragon for this, after all, he had just found stability, and it was viciously snatched away from him.

"I see." Nami sighed, and went to sit down on her bed. "So you were in the same boat I'm in."

"What?" Conan blinked.

"I was separated from my crew about a two weeks ago, by a guy named Kuma. I was sent flying for three days and ended up here, Weatheria. The people here are nice, but they won't let me leave." She sighed.

"Why won't they let you leave?" Conan asked confused. "Herades-san looked really nice."

"No, the people here are nice, but…they won't help me get off the island, because I'm the first young girl they've seen here, in years." She grumbled.

"Er…really?" The detective sweat-dropped.

"The old geezers aren't used to seeing a young, beautiful maiden such as myself, so they get excited and greedy, and can't help themselves." She gave a dramatic sigh. "But it in consequence, I'm trapped on this island, and I can't get off of it!"

"Did you try buying a ship from these people?" Conan asked.

"People from sky islands, especially one as small as Weatheria very rarely leave the island. It's kind of a cultural thing, you could say. They pride themselves of being self-sustainable, so they don't rely on the normal islands below the clouds." Nami explained. "Besides…these people wouldn't sell a ship from me, even if I tried."

"I see…" Gears started reeling in Conan's head. "So, you're a pirate, then?" She was a lot prettier than most pirate women; then again…Nico Robin of the Strawhat crew could challenge that stereotype.

"Eh…you mean…you don't recognize me?" She asked confused.

"No…should I?" Conan asked.

Blinking, she took a piece of paper out of her pocket and showed it to him. "Now you recognize me, I'm the infamous 'Cat Burglar Nami', of the Strawhat crew!" Conan fell over from that statement. "Eh? What's wrong?"

"Er…Nothing." Conan got off the ground, his eye twitching. 'I'm gonna meet all of them, aren't I'? "Out of curiosity, Nami-san…just how many people are in your crew?"

"Nine, why do you ask?" She quirked a brow.

'Three more to go then, huh'? He thought, but then smiled. "Nothing, it's just…I've heard of a lot of great things about your crew, so it's really cool I get to meet one of you guys!"

"Kid…I'm a professional thief and con artist, don't pull shit like that on me." She glared. "Now it's your turn, tell me who you were running from."

"…I'm on the run from the Navy, and one of the eleven Supernovas picked me up, and was hoping to exchange me for the bounty the World Government placed on me." Hopefully a half-lie would pull it off.

"I don't buy all of it…but it's enough of the truth where I'm comfortable, but if you double-cross me in any way, I really will throw you off this island." She warned.

"Ah." Conan nodded.

"Good. Now, how do you really know about my crew? I'm not letting you slide on that one." Nami explained.

"…It's true that I started off when running from the Navy, but through a series of misunderstandings, I ended up running into some of your crewmembers, and they helped me escape." Conan explained cautiously.

Raising a brow, Nami continued her interrogation. "Really? Who'd you meet?"

"Brook-san, Chopper-kun, Franky-san, Ussop-san, and Robin-san so far." He listed in order. "It was a very odd array of events that couldn't have been avoided Nami-san."

"Are you even going to be remotely honest about how you met my crewmates?" She glared.

"Honestly, no." The boy chuckled.

"Fine, I'll ask about you when I see them." She retorted. "You must be pretty famous if the World Government's after you. I know you weren't lying about that part. What'd you do?"

"I…" He hated lying about this, especially since Robin helped him so tremendously, but he had no choice. "I researched the Void Century." That lie earned him a huge bash on the head.

"At least make up your own lie than copying off the my crewmate!" Nami screeched, but then sighed. "Fine, don't tell me…you look harmless anyways. So, you obviously don't plan on staying around this island, what do you plan on doing?"

"Er…" He decided to at least tell her what his destination was, maybe she could help him. "I need to get to Amazon Lilly!"

"What?" She asked surprised.

"You heard me…I have to get there…there's someone I need to find." Conan explained.

"…I won't ask who you're looking for considering that you'll never make it." The beauty replied simply. "Amazon Lilly is a women-only island, protected by the ultimate Boa Hancock, who has a restraining order against all me who come near the island. If you go there, the World Government will know where you are in a second."

"You don't have to tell me it's a huge risk, Nami-san but…it's a risk I have to take." He said.

"Why?" She quirked her brow.

"I made a deal with the devil, and the devil will collect his due one way or another." He replied.

"How do you plan to get there?" Nami asked.

"That's what I wanted to ask you about Nami-san…you're the navigator of the Strawhat crew, right?" He asked.

"What of it?" She gave a knowing smirk.

"I'm not your crewmate, and I don't have any intention of this being a permanent arrangement, but…could I hire you to be my navigator?" He stood tall.

"Hmph." She gave a sly smirk. "What makes you think you meet my price range? As you said, you're broke. Besides…I'm a thief as well as a pirate, I could easily steal this ship form you and maroon you here or anywhere if I wanted to."

"Then why don't you?" The detective challenged.

"Isn't it obvious? The ship won't budge." Nami shrugged, taking a brush for her hair. "When you crashed it into my house, you dislodged one of its wings that maintains its flight ability. I already tried to steal it from you, while you were out buying groceries for me. You screwed us over, kid."

"Was the wing actually damaged?" He asked.

"No…but we would definitely need a master shipwright to fiz it." She gave an exasperated sigh. "You couldn't have brought Franky with you?"

"I was trying to desperately escape people who want to kill me, I wasn't exactly thinking about that." Conan grumbled. But then he remembered the room he fell into with all the gold, with the gears turning in his head again, he smirked. "Nami-san…I'll make you a deal."

She turned to him. "What?"

"If I find a way to fix this ship, as well as find a way to pay you, will you agree to navigate me to Amazon Lilly?" He asked with his trademark smirk.

Nami noted this, and showed her own amused smirk. "Deal. You find a way to pay me, and fix the ship, then I'll be your temporary navigator."

"Good. However…let's make this interesting." His smirk widened, and reached into his pocket, and to his luck…a piece of the pirate's boon fell into his pocket. He held up the coin to Nami, and she fell off her chair in shock. "Since you flat out admitted to attempted abandonment, I need a little insurance that you'll keep your word once I get the ship working. You see…when I crashed here, I fell into a room filled with gold and jewels, and I can tell by your expression, that you haven't been able to find it. I can also tell you searched top to bottom of this ship, and found nothing. So…if you abandon me, you lose your treasure. What's it going to be, Navigator-san..?" He flipped the coin up with his thumb. As it flipped down, he caught it in mid-air and threw it at her.

Looking at the coin, and then at the boy, she couldn't help but see Robin in that question; her mature older sister-figure had always called her that, and she felt her heart strings tug at the idea of seeing Robin and all of her crew again. After a few tears, she wiped her eyes and gave Conan a confident smirk. "Deal…you're on, Edogawa!"

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