Chapter 87: Other Sorts of Complication
Chapter 87: Other Sorts of Complication
Luffy tried really hard not to stare as Yamato leaned forward to serve him tea. It was a challenge, one he at least partially failed at. Which caused a happy little smile to spread across her face as his eyes couldn’t help but glue to the briefly unobstructed view he’d gotten of her tits. Not just her cleavage, either, as she’d obviously loosened her top quite a bit. It was a fully intentional view, of course. He’d had that conversation with Robin about what was off about Yamato’s oath almost immediately after she’d given it and he’d accepted. What had been explained to him was certainly enlightening regarding Yamato’s actions afterward.
Which didn’t quite mean he’d sorted out what to do about the fact that Yamato had essentially sworn herself into his harem.
“Enjoy your tea, Luffy-sama!”
Luffy sighed as he noted the pep in Yamato’s step as she left, though at least this time she hadn’t hinted at him joining her to ‘clean up’ after they’d just finished sparing. Leaning back, he was no longer surprised that the tea was excellent. Honestly better than Sanji’s, despite the chef’s best attempts at correcting that fact. It had apparently been something that Yamato had mastered making…even if she self-admittedly wasn’t any good at the rest of tea ceremonies. Learning to make the tea had been a part of trying to learn tea ceremony, but she’d only really gotten the ‘making the tea’ part down before trying to find a different ‘Artform’ to learn. Which, of course, is how she’d eventually landed on drawing.
Enjoying sipping the tea, he let his thoughts wander to the Yamato Issue and what he wanted to do about it. It wasn’t quite as simple as Yamato ‘swearing herself into his harem,’ after all. What she’d really done was make a more complete oath than just becoming a sworn sword of his. The oath she’d chosen held specific societal connotations, depending on gender. Had a man sworn the same oath, he’d likely have come to hold a position akin to that of a chief lieutenant, majordomo, or vassal family head. In an indication that Wano truly wasn’t just ‘Otherworld Japan,’ though, Wano had allowed for female Samurai. Yet differences had developed between how oaths and positions between male and female Samurai were viewed.
Most relevant to his current situation, when the relatively rare female Samurai made that same oath, it was generally indicative of her signing herself up to be a mistress. Not someone who competed with a wife, as any children of the lineage would become vassals of Luffy’s house, but certainly someone who was more than willing to be taken into her Master’s bed. Along with being someone who was, more or less, sworn to be a close confidant and personal attendant. Not a servant. Closer to a personal assistant, at least so far as he could make a comparison to his past life’s memories.
For all intents and purposes, Wano had apparently formalized the ‘Sexy Secretary’ trope into actual existence. Complete with it being entirely normal for that secretary to be both bodyguard and bedwarmer. Actually, come to think of it, maybe Wano really was fantasy Japan, since that totally sounded like the plot of a hentai of some sort…
Shaking that particular thought off took a bit of effort, but Luffy managed to get his thoughts back on track eventually.
In a lot of ways, nothing had immediately changed between them because of the new oath. Yamato seemed to be aware, on some level, that he hadn’t quite known what she was doing. Yet, she’d also been doing her best at ‘subtle’ flirting. Which, giving this was Yamato, wasn’t actually subtle. Luffy would have needed to be almost as dense as the idiot savant he’d replaced to have missed the blatant signals. Which, in turn, had required him to sit down with Nami and Robin and figure out not just what to do about the situation, but also to make an attempt at figuring out the why behind something he’d not particularly wanted to poke very hard, for fear of ruining a good thing.
Specifically, why Nami and Robin were okay with sharing in the first place.
Luffy wasn’t dense and had long since realized that both Vivi and Yamato were interested in him. He’d simply limited how much he visibly or verbally responded to that, with the most he’d allowed himself being a bit of light teasing to cause Vivi to blush. Something both Robin and Nami engaged in as well, making it almost a shared sport for the three of them. Though, speaking of her, he also hadn’t been oblivious to the fact that something had changed with the Vivi situation, either. Their last trip to Alabasta had been a strong indicator of that, with Robin and Nami seeming to have come to some sort of decision or agreement that he hadn’t wanted to prod. The whole thing had seemed like way too much of a powder keg to risk setting off. His mantra had become Avoid, Delay, and Deny!
Well, less the Deny, honestly. Mostly the first two. Mantras like that just sounded better as three words instead of two.
Yamato’s escalation, obvious as it was despite her attempts at subtly, had changed that careful balance.
Reluctantly and a bit fearfully, he’d arranged time with Nami and Robin to finally address the topic. When he had, they had initially expressed a mild amount of confusion, before Robin caught on to what he was carefully tiptoeing around. She’d blinked, had a very visible ‘ah-ha’ moment, then uncharacteristically facepalmed. That sort of semi-slapstick response was so out of character for her that Nami and Luffy had just stared while she gathered her thoughts. Which had worked out reasonably well, as she’d proceeded to explain her realization.
The answer had turned out to be stupidly obvious, at least to most people. But Luffy specifically had lacked the context to make it so.
Apparently, the One Piece world didn’t have such a thing as cultural norms about relationships.
That was, of course, an oversimplification. The actual truth was that individual islands sometimes had cultural or societal norms regarding sex, sexuality, relationships, and marriage. The entire world as whole, however, was so disconnected, even in the Blues, that no single one of those ‘norms’ were considered THE norm. At the same time, the islands were generally connected enough, that most people were aware of that fact. Luffy, as isolated as his ‘upbringing’ in this world had been, had never noticed the difference. Which had left him defaulting to the ‘norms’ from his old life.
Of course, Robin didn’t know that part. What she’d ‘realized’ was close enough to the truth, however. She’d landed on the assumption of an isolated upbringing, which they’d all intellectually known Luffy had to some extent, preventing him from getting the second part. The part where there was enough travel between most places that it was dirt common to see pairings and relationship setups that Luffy considered non-standard, with him having only the frame of references of ‘an isolated village in the East Blue.’
In reality, it was the frame of reference from his previous life, reinforced by the fact that Foosha had fit smoothly into that reference frame. Since he’d mostly stuck to himself, keeping his head down and making almost entirely professional connections as he worked his way around the East Blue, he’d never realized that other types of relationships were common elsewhere. Once she’d cottoned on to what Robin was saying, Nami had facepalmed too, and went on to describe the common practices of several islands just in the East Blue alone. Islands she, as something of a social predator in her Rob the Rich and Pirates days, had picked up a wider knowledge of practices from. Along with picking up more from Bell-mère’s erotic books, of course.
The Oykot Kingdom allowed the practice of group marriages. Cozia was an odd mix of casual, female-led relationships and male-led dynastic lineages, with only the lineages bothering to properly ‘marry.’ The casual female-led relationships there were, apparently, more friends-with-feels-and-sometimes-sex. Nami’s own home island chain had been so close and community oriented precisely because they focused, as an entire population, on found family and choosing who your family is for yourself. With both being considered more important than romantic relationships of any kind. Bell-mère had, interestingly enough, been quite normal in that regard. Hence why none of the locals had even blinked when she turned up with a pair of adopted daughters, instead just pitching in a bit to get her set up with them.
None of those islands had issues with same-sex relationships either, though there were islands that did have such hangups. Even ‘okamas’ were considered weird but harmless pretty much everywhere, not just on the Grand Line where they were most typically encountered. Robin had noted that even the rare non-human pairing was found on the Grand Line, though those did face a little bit of racial stigma. Mermaids and humans perhaps the least, but still a certain amount overall even for that combination.
Ultimately, there just wasn’t a standardrelationship template.
Instead, at least with individuals who were more cosmopolitan or well-traveled, such things were worked out almost entirely on a person-to-person level. Despite everything, the most common relationship type was still monogamy. Such easily being seventy plus precent of the general world population, which helped explain why Luffy hadn’t realized anything was ‘off.’ But in most cases, that was a personal choice, rather than something created by societal pressure, cultural norms, or laws.
It just so happened that Nami and Robin both fell into the category of being open to the idea of more than one partner, so long as everyone was aware of it and agreed on who to bring into the relationship and when. An arrangement that was the next highest percentage of the population, at least as far as Robin had been able to observe. No one really tracked percentages like that, after all. Most islands barely had anything like a population census, let alone the gathering of more details like sexual or relationship preferences. Slightly rarer were relationships such as Shakky and Rayleigh’s. Couples like theirs went in another direction, with a romantic connection only existing between the two of them, but the relationship otherwise being ‘open.’ So on and so on for many other options. There were a handful of ‘more common’ setups, but nearly infinite niche varieties existed as well. Some almost entirely unique to individual islands or individual people.
Getting back to Yamato, and Vivi as well while Luffy was sorting this out, both girls were from cultures where outright harems were a commonly established thing in the higher levels of society. King Cobra was actually the odd one out among his family for having only had one wife and no mistresses. Something which was considered actively a problem in some ways, as it meant there was only Vivi and him left, whereas previous generations of Nefertaris had consisted of half a dozen princes and princesses. The Grand Line wasn’t asafe place, so it had been viewed as better for the Royal Family of Alabasta to have plenty of children, just in case.
Wano, meanwhile, worked on a clan structure, of sorts. Since it was easier to both establish a new clan and maintain the core family of an existing clan via at leaders having at least a modest harem, they weren’t uncommon at all. Existing clan leaders typically took one ‘official wife’ but several mistresses, in order to make sure there was plenty of their blood present in the clan. New clans generally came into existence in the first place by virtue of stronger Samurai deciding to found one. Often, those new clans resulted in even larger harems in order to build up the initial strength of their clan. Thus, with Yamato viewing Luffy as her sworn leader, it was easy for her to leap to the idea of that including being his mistress.
Which, it had to be said, neither Nami nor Robin were against. Nami had, in fact, admitted bluntly that she was looking forward to faceplanting in Yamato’s ‘giant titties,’ and that the risk of suffocating just meant a risk of dying happy. Robin hadn’t been nearly as blunt, but had freely admitted that she found Yamato both attractive physically and something of a balm emotionally, since the girl was so unabashedly happy-go-lucky despite living an objectively rough life. Honestly, given that Robin would have latched onto the original Luffy as a leader, if not a lover, he shouldn’t truly be surprised by that. Yamato shared many characteristics with the idiot-that-could-have-been.
All of which meant that it was Luffy who was struggling to figure out his own position on things. Part of him wanted to just go for it. Another part, however, was afraid that doing so might not be the best thing for their attempt to connect to Robin on a deeper level. Still another part thought that Yamato might actually help that along. For that matter, that part also quietly whispered that Vivi, who both of his current girlfriends had apparently talked to about this and had only been waiting for him to make a decision, might be even better at helping sort Robin’s issues out.
This had absolutely not been something covered by The Talk in his past life…
… … …
“So, how exactly are we planning to explain abruptly having access to several Eternal Poses that just so happen to lead us to useful islands?”
The question had come from Kuina. She, Nami, and Robin were the only ones present with Luffy as he placed out the various Eternal Poses he’d purchased from the System which might prove useful. Robin had been ‘read in’ to the situation after she’d joined in Luffy and Nami’s relationship. A show of trust which, oddly enough, had probably done more to help Robin with some of her issues than the spectacular sex had. She wasn’t quite yet to a tipping point where he and Nami thought she could handle being properly romantic, but they were both virtually sure she’d at least admitted to herself that she wanted that aspect of the relationship to happen.
It was also Robin that offered up the first possible answer, showing why it had been a great idea to bring her in on things.
“I can easily say I grabbed a few of them from the Sabaody Marine Base, or even that I had them in a cache on some island. I do, in fact, actually have a few such caches, though none of them have anything as valuable as an Eternal Pose in them. Mostly, they are just money and medical supply spots on islands like Alabasta that exist on multiple routes, leading me to hit them several times while crisscrossing the Grand Line.”
Luffy nodded, then frowned as he partially shot down the idea.
“The cache idea could work for one or two of them, particularly after we’ve hit a few random islands on one route or another. We’d have to read Vivi in if we claimed they were from the Marine Base, though, since it would be hard to believe she wouldn’t notice them coming through her Air Doors.”
Robin shrugged in wordless acknowledgement of that fact. Thankfully, Nami had another idea.
“Actually, I could probably pass one or two of them off, too. Everyone knows I was a bit of a thief, even if I haven’t done much such since joining the crew. So, if I head off on my own, I could claim to have ‘found’ a couple. We could also probably pretend easily enough that we found more from the Alabasta or Crystal City markets. So long as we ‘find’ them while only with mixed groups of the four of us.”
All of them considered it for a long moment, before Kuina nodded.
“That sounds believable, assuming we don’t just want to tell everyone the truth at this point.”
Luffy immediately shook his head in denial at that.
“No. There are others on the crew I would trust with the information. Zoro, Yamato, Pagaya, Nojiko and Kaya probably. Possibly Hina. Absolutely not Sanji, Usopp, Chopper, Brook or Perona, though. Some, like Brook and Perona, I just don’t have a good enough feel for. Whereas Sanji, Usopp and Chopper are too easily tricked in various ways. Telling the ones I would trust, but not the ones I wouldn’t, would just create incidents at this point. Kaya would have a hard time not telling Usopp. Zoro might well not pay attention to which people knew and which didn’t. Etc.”
Kuina frowned, but reluctantly nodded after a moment. She knew Zoro better than anyone, after all, and could acknowledge that he tended to be less careful around those he knew and trusted. He could easily be trusted not to leak the information outside the crew, even under torture. But might easily leak it to other crew members who didn’t know. Nami, thankfully, broke the slightly awkward pause a moment later.
“That’s the plan then! The real question now is which of these islands we want to try hitting first? With us coming in from the Calm Belt, we’ll want to use one Eternal Pose or one island or another anyway, which we can easily claim was the plan all along. So targeting a useful island only makes sense.”
Everyone nodded or made noises of acknowledgment at that, and they were soon debating the best island to approach first…
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A/N 1: A little bit of cultural justification, to make the multu-ship fit into the story better. I try to make even harems (when I write them) as natural as possible, rather than just being there for the smut, and I've been hinting in Luffy's thoughts for quite a while that he's MISSED something. Specifically, he's been blind to the differences between the disjointed nature of disconnected cultures and societies in One Piece, compared to what he was used to in his past life. Realistically, historically, monogamy wasn't the only option in our world either. In the One Piece world, it makes even less sense for it to be the universal societal norm.