Varin didn't like being lost.
Varin liked being lost with Nami even less.
By this point, the crew had already split up across Upper Yard. In the end, he and Nami had been paired together because it made the most sense. The alternative had been Nami going with Zoro, which everyone with functioning survival instincts immediately realized was a terrible idea. Mostly because of Nami's lightning attacks, having a very real chance of getting drawn toward Zoro's swords.
Varin had laughed his ass off over that. He laughed even harder when he asked what if Nami was actually the Enel they were looking for, since she already had the ego for it. That had earned him a direct hit to the side of the head from the Clima-Tact hard enough to make a lesser man fold. Varin, unfortunately for Nami, was not a lesser man, and it only made him laugh more.
Luffy had gone by himself because everyone collectively agreed nobody on the crew could realistically keep up with him once he decided to wander off. Trying to assign him a partner would just result in two missing people instead of one. Zoro ended up with Usopp, mostly because the sniper complained loudly enough that someone strong eventually got assigned to babysit him. Sanji and Chopper stayed behind on the ship to guard it, though Sanji looked deeply offended that he wasn't being allowed near Robin, Nami, or Vivi during an active crisis. Robin and Vivi headed toward the edge of the island after Robin mentioned hearing rumors about a war happening somewhere deeper in Upper Yard. Apparently, she wanted to see whether the other faction could become an ally against Enel and his priests.
Varin personally thought that sounded optimistic as hell, but Robin tended to know things nobody else did, so he kept that opinion to himself. Mostly.
Unfortunately, all of that brought him back to the current issue. Being lost, and more specifically, being lost with Nami while she continuously acted like this entire situation was somehow his fault personally. "You got us turned around again," Nami complained, pushing aside another massive root hanging down from above as they moved through the forest.
"I did not."
"You absolutely did."
"Nah. We're explorin'." Varin turned toward the navigator then, planting one hand on his hip in the exact same pose Nami herself always used whenever she was annoyed. On someone his size, it looked significantly more ridiculous. "But if you wanna go out by yourself, you know, where a god, his priests, and creatures we've never seen before and have no idea how strong they are all live, then go ahead. I wonder how you'll taste."
Nami stared at him flatly. "Was that supposed to comfort me?"
"No."
The navigator groaned under her breath and kept walking, boots crunching softly over ancient bark and packed dirt. Calling Upper Yard a jungle honestly didn't feel completely accurate. There were barely any normal plants near the ground at all. The trees themselves were colossal beyond reason, ancient trunks wider than entire buildings, stretching so far upward they vanished into the clouds above. What should have been the forest floor was really just an endless maze of roots thick enough to act as roads, bridges, and cliffs all at once. Entire sections of the earth were raised high into the air by the massive roots twisting through the island. It felt less like walking through a jungle and more like wandering across the exposed bones of something gigantic. Nami clearly hated it. Varin, meanwhile, thought it was pretty interesting.
"You know," Nami muttered while carefully stepping over a split root nearly taller than she was, "you're taking this whole 'possibly hunted by a lightning god' thing surprisingly well."
"And yes, I didn't magically forget Loki or your family," Nami quickly clarified after seeing the look that briefly crossed Varin's face. Before her tone softened slightly. "It's just... I've never... we've never seen you look even remotely worried about fighting, and I know we brought it up earlier, and you said you didn't want to lose us. But still..." She looked away for a moment while stepping across another root. "...it's kinda a morale hit."
Varin rolled his eyes, but despite himself, the near-permanent grin stretched across his face softened a decent bit. "Careful, lass. You don't want the others to know you care about anything more than gold and yourself," he laughed.
"You need new material. You've used that line like a hundred times before," Nami replied, though a small smile still pulled at her lips.
"' S'pose that's true," Varin shrugged as he grabbed her arm and helped her climb over a particularly massive root jutting up like a wall through the middle of the forest floor. Then his grin slowly returned. "But back to what you said," he continued, glancing down at her, "who said I was worried?" Nami blinked slightly as she got a full view of his expression. His grin had widened again, stretching unnaturally far across his face. The enlarged fangs she was already used to seeing looked even sharper now, more pronounced somehow. From where she stood in front of him, she could actually see the rest of his teeth beginning to elongate too, becoming fine predatory points instead of human teeth. For a second, he looked less like a man and more like something pretending to be one.
"Sure," Varin continued, voice roughening into something deeper and gravelier, "an invincible fruit is deadly. And I'm almost certain to die." His grin widened even further somehow. "But can you imagine how much fun it'll be?" Nami stared as Varin leaned forward slightly as he spoke again, excitement visibly bleeding into every word now. "A real fight. Even if he is some weak bastard throwin' around power he barely understands, that kind of power makes up for it." His eyes sharpened beneath the shadows cast by the giant roots overhead. "Not Marines hidin' behind ranks and numbers. Not another arrogant idiot I can crush by hittin' harder. A genuine monster." A low laugh rumbled out of his chest. "Do you know how rare that is?" The air around him felt heavier now. Wilder.
"Most fights end the same," Varin continued, dragging one hand across his own jaw while his claws sharpened slightly at the fingertips. "Someone talks too much. Someone gets scared. Then they die." He looked almost disappointed saying it. "But this?" His grin became outright feral. "This bastard calls himself a god." The word came out almost reverent. Not respectful, like most, but instead excited.
"And if he really has the Rumble-Rumble Fruit..." Varin's voice lowered further, rough enough now it almost sounded like growling. "Then he might actually live up to the title." Nami felt a chill run down her spine. Not because of Enel, maybe being an actual god. Because Varin genuinely sounded happy about the possibility of fighting something capable of killing him. "Fighting Crocodile was the most fun I've ever had," Varin continued, his tone almost absurdly cheerful now, like a child talking about an upcoming festival instead of a battle that could kill him. "And Chopper says I'm stronger now than I was then."
His eyes practically glowed at the prospect of it. "Back then I had to figure things out while half dried out, stabbed, buried, and gettin' thrown through dunes," he laughed. "Now? Now I know what I'm fightin'. I know how dangerous he is. And he's still dangerous enough that I might lose anyway. That's excitin'."
Nami honestly didn't know whether to be impressed or deeply concerned anymore. Probably both.
Varin flexed one clawed hand slowly as he walked, like he could already feel the future fight waiting for him somewhere deeper in Upper Yard. "If he's even half as strong as I think he is, every second of that fight's gonna matter. Every mistake could kill me. Every hit could cripple." His sharpened teeth flashed again beneath the massive roots overhead. "That's the kinda battle people remember for centuries."
Nami stared at him for another long moment before shaking her head slowly. "You know," she muttered, "sometimes I forget you and Luffy are actually friends for a reason."
Varin barked out a laugh loud enough to echo through the roots around them. "Aye," he grinned. "Captain's just crazier in a different direction."
Nami laughed, the worry on her face finally disappearing. "I don't know what I was thinking," she admitted, shaking her head. "Of course, that was the answer. You and the other three monsters are all battle-hungry maniacs. You're just worse."
"Aye," Varin replied proudly. "Glad you're finally recognizin' talent." Nami rolled her eyes, though the tension between her shoulders eased noticeably after that. As insane as Varin sounded sometimes, there was something strangely comforting about the fact that he wasn't afraid. Reckless, absolutely. Probably mentally damaged in several unique ways, too. But fearless.
As Nami considered his words, she noticed the terrain around them slowly began changing the deeper they moved through Upper Yard. The massive roots and towering ancient trees started thinning out, replaced by broken stone structures jutting out from the earth at strange angles. Massive walls half swallowed by roots. Cracked pillars leaning sideways beneath centuries of overgrowth. Staircases leading nowhere.
It looked less like ruins built inside a forest and more like the forest had grown around a dead city until the two became inseparable. "...Well, that's not ominous at all," Nami muttered.
Varin crouched beside part of a collapsed wall, running one claw lightly across the stone. Unlike most things in Skypiea, this wasn't made from cloud material. It was actual earth and rock. Ancient, too, if the erosion meant anything. "Someone used to live here," he said.
"No kidding."
"Nah," Varin replied, glancing around slowly. "I mean, properly live here. Big enough city that this was probably just the outer edge."
Nami followed his gaze and finally noticed just how many ruined structures surrounded them now beneath the roots and hanging vines. Broken archways. Crumbled towers. Fragments of old roads buried beneath dirt and moss. Before she could respond, though, something strange caught her eye. "...Varin."
"Aye?"
She pointed ahead toward a cluster of ruined pillars. Odd purple clouds drifted lazily through the air between them. Smaller than the sea clouds outside Upper Yard, denser somehow, too. They floated strangely low to the ground, slowly sinking through gaps in the ruins or settling against broken stone like fog.
Varin's grin faded slightly. "Well," he muttered, standing back up fully. "That looks suspicious as hell."
One of the purple clouds slowly drifted against the edge of a cracked wall. Instead of stopping, part of the stone simply sank into it slightly before the cloud continued onward. Nami immediately took a step backwards. "Oh, I absolutely hate that."
Varin grabbed a broken chunk of rock from nearby and tossed it lightly toward one of the floating clouds. The moment it touched the surface, the rock sank straight through with almost no resistance at all and vanished completely inside.
Neither of them spoke for a second. Then Varin barked out a short laugh. "Alright," he admitted. "That's actually pretty interestin'."
Nami grabbed the back of his coat before he could walk any closer. "No. Absolutely not. We are not touching the weird murder clouds."
"Aww."
"I'm serious!"
"Aye, aye."
Still, Varin's eyes remained fixed on the drifting purple masses moving silently through the ruins. "Clouds that swallow things..." he muttered. "Sky islands really just make shit up as they go, huh?"
One of the clouds suddenly dipped lower through a crack in the ground nearby and vanished entirely beneath the first cloud layer below them. Nami stared after it uneasily. "Let's just... avoid those."
"Probably smart." Then Varin paused. "Actually, now that I think about it, if those things work how I think they do..."
Nami immediately pointed her staff at him. "Don't."
Varin frowned slightly at that. "What? It's not like I was gonna go jumpin' in 'em to see how they work." The look Nami gave him made it very clear she did not believe that for even a second. Varin let out a quiet huff through his nose and crossed his arms. "You act like I'm on the same level as Luffy when it comes to stupid stuff."
Nami lowered the staff slightly but still kept a careful distance from the drifting purple clouds. The things moved unnaturally, silent and slow, almost deliberate in the way they slid between broken ruins and disappeared beneath the cloud layer below.
Varin watched them too, though his expression had become more thoughtful than reckless now. "They're traps," he said finally.
Nami glanced toward him. "What?"
"No natural thing moves like that." He pointed toward one of the clouds drifting around the edge of a collapsed pillar. "See how it settles around solid ground? It's avoidin' unstable footing."
Nami narrowed her eyes slightly and realized he was right. The clouds weren't random. They collected around openings, broken paths, and weak sections of ruins. "Someone put these here," she realized quietly.
"Aye." Varin's grin faded slightly. "Which means we're probably gettin' close to one of the priests." That immediately changed the mood again as they both looked around the ruins that suddenly felt less abandoned. Like somebody was actively using them. Nami instinctively moved closer to Varin, eyes scanning the broken structures around them while her grip tightened on the Clima-Tact.
"Wonderful," she muttered. "Murder quicksand clouds and insane priests."
Varin slowly rested an arm across Nami's shoulder, the gesture casual but solid. Protective without making a big deal out of it.
"Aye," he said quietly, eyes narrowing toward the deeper ruins ahead. "And somethin' tells me they already know we're here."
"Indeed," a voice suddenly answered from somewhere deeper within the ruins. "You two bicker rather loudly." Both of them reacted instantly. Nami spun, Clima-Tact already in her hands while Varin tensed and let his claws extend.
At first, neither of them actually saw anyone. Then a figure stepped out from behind one of the tilted stone pillars ahead. Tall. Broad-shouldered. Strange cloud-skis attached beneath his feet kept him hovering slightly above the uneven ground while long braided hair framed a face that somehow managed to look both intimidating and profoundly absent-minded at the same time.
The man blinked slowly. Then his eyes rolled upward for a moment. A smaller sky island soldier standing behind him immediately cleared his throat loudly. The priest blinked again before his eyes snapped back down properly.] "Ah," he said. "How careless of me." The priest crossed his arms confidently. Then paused. Looked down. Realized he had somehow crossed the same arm over itself twice.
A vein pulsed in Varin's forehead. "What..." he muttered slowly, "the hell am I lookin' at?"
"I am Gedatsu," the man declared proudly. "Priest of Lord Enel and master of the Ordeal of Swamp."
There was a pause. Then the soldier behind him leaned forward slightly and whispered something. Gedatsu blinked once. "Ah. Right." He pointed toward the purple clouds drifting around the ruins. "You are trespassers. Therefore, you will now die."
Nami tightened her grip on the Clima-Tact immediately. Varin, meanwhile, looked genuinely confused. "This is the priest?" he asked slowly. "The death trap cloud priest?"
Gedatsu nodded seriously. "Correct."
"...He forgot to threaten us properly."
"How careless," Gedatsu agreed solemnly.
Even Nami looked thrown off now. The pressure from earlier was still there. The man in front of them was dangerous, that much was obvious from instinct alone, but the way he carried himself felt bizarrely disconnected from the threat he represented. Then Gedatsu casually stepped sideways onto one of the drifting purple clouds. Instead of sinking, his cloud skis skimmed across the surface effortlessly. The cloud beneath him suddenly expanded outward.
Nami's eyes widened. "Varin."
"Aye. I see it." The ruins around them shifted subtly as more purple clouds began drifting upward from beneath the lower cloud layer. Slowly. Quietly. Filling the gaps between roots and broken stone. Turning the battlefield into a maze of hidden death traps.
Gedatsu tilted his head slightly. "You should surrender," he informed them calmly. "The survival rate of my ordeal is fifty percent."
Varin blinked once. Then slowly, his grin started spreading again. "You know," he muttered, "that somehow sounds less impressive the way you say it."
Gedatsu looked thoughtful for a moment. Then his eyes rolled upward again. The soldier behind him sighed loudly. "Sir. Your eyes."
"Ah," Gedatsu replied. "How careless."
Varin blinked once. Then again. Slowly, he looked toward Gedatsu, staring at the priest in complete silence for several long seconds. After that, he glanced toward Nami. Then back toward Gedatsu again, whose expression remained completely serious despite everything that had just happened. Varin exhaled heavily through his nose and without another word, he turned and started walking toward the nearest section of collapsed ruins. Loose stone shifted beneath his boots as he climbed onto part of a broken wall before lowering himself onto it with a dull thud. One elbow rested against his knee while the other hand dragged slowly down his face. "Nope," he muttered finally. "He's all yours, lass."
Nami blinked. "...What?"
Varin gestured vaguely toward Gedatsu without even looking at him directly anymore. "Can already tell he's weaker than Crocodile by a fair bit. Dangerous powers, sure, but the man himself?" He let out a low grunt through his nose. "Fightin' him'd feel like clubbin' a child."
"That's rude," Gedatsu said calmly. Then he accidentally stepped backwards directly into one of his own swamp clouds and immediately started sinking waist-deep into it. The soldier behind him looked exhausted already. "Sir."
"Ah," Gedatsu replied while slowly sinking further. "How careless."
Nami stared at the scene in complete disbelief. Varin looked physically offended now. "See?!" he barked, throwing one hand outward. "I can't even enjoy this! The bastard's practically fightin' himself already."
Gedatsu finally managed to awkwardly pull himself free using the nearby wall, cloud skis wobbling beneath him the entire time. Despite that, the pressure rolling off him still hadn't disappeared. Weak or not, he was still mildly dangerous. The purple clouds drifting around the ruins continued spreading outward slowly, swallowing more ground while blocking escape routes.
Varin noticed Nami watching them nervously and tilted his head slightly toward her. "Oi." She looked over. "You wanted morale earlier, right?" he asked. "Then here it is." He pointed directly at Gedatsu. "If this idiot's one of Enel's priests, then Sky Island's standards are lower than I thought." Nami snorted despite herself.
Gedatsu frowned slightly at that. "You are underestimating me."
"Aye," Varin replied bluntly. "Because I can." The priest's expression twitched faintly. Not anger exactly. More confusion at being dismissed so casually. Varin leaned back slightly atop the ruined wall and rested his axe across his lap. "Go on then, Nami," he said lazily. "Show me all that confidence you swing around on the ship's actually earned."
Nami narrowed her eyes immediately. "If I win this, you're paying me back for all the times you broke things on the Merry."
Varin barked out a laugh. "Now there's the navigator I know."