Check out advanced chapters on : patreon.com/Veni_V
---------------
After we discussed where Nami was going, we sent Yosaku back to direct Luffy to us while the rest of us kept going toward Nami's destination. She was headed to an island deep in the territory of the fish-man pirate Arlong, a fish-man. Zoro had finally managed to wake up. He still needed to see a professional doctor, given the fact he was practically filleted.
"Are you sure we should be wasting our time with Nami?" Zoro asked.
"We have to; Luffy won't take anyone else," I told him. "We've got no choice. Besides, you didn't see the look on her face; something is wrong here, and I want to know what."
"I think we're here," Usopp quivered behind the railing of the boat.
"This is it," Johnny told him. I'm glad we have someone here who knows what they're doing.
Usopp suggested we find the ship and start our search there, but Zoro and I had other ideas. "Let's just cut our way in."
"I like the front door approach. We can find Nami and make her talk."
Usopp and Johnny weren't too thrilled with our gung-ho approach. "Untie us this instant, Usopp! How dare you do this to your captain," I snapped. Those two had tied Zoro and I together against the mast of this tiny boat.
Usopp kept rambling about how he was a pirate of great adventure or something until he spotted some fish-men giving him the stink eye. They jumped into the water after our boat, only terrifying Usopp and Johnny more.
"What should we do, Usopp?" Johnny asked him.
"Abandon ship!" Usopp said as he and Johnny jumped into the water to escape the incoming fish-men.
"Get back here and free us!" Zoro screamed after them, but they didn't listen. The fish-men boarded the boat and decided to take us back to Arlong. At least they were kind enough to tie Zoro and me up separately.
Captured
The fish-men pulled our boat into a place called Arlong Park, a huge plaza and tower seemingly made for the fish-men to enjoy themselves at.
"What the hell are these filthy humans doing here?" a fish-man with a long nose asked from his chair.
"Arlong, sir, we found them drifting outside. They look suspicious, so we brought them here."
So this is Arlong?
"What were you doing out there?" Arlong said, sneering at us. "Well?"
"We're looking for someone, fish-face," I told him, intentionally trying to test his patience as quickly as possible. I got the impression he was the type of guy to be egged on with simple insults.
He went on some long rant about how superior fish-men were to humans. I don't know, I drowned him out after a while. I didn't really care if you were strong, it didn't matter if you were a human, a fish, or a dog.
The only person who was able to shut him up, though, was Nami. "I'm sick of your rambling," she stomped in.
"Nami. Why are you so friendly with this guy?" Zoro asked.
"I work for Arlong. You guys were just another mark. I didn't really think you would follow me this far," she rolled her eyes a bit.
"So this is your true self?" I spoke up. "Luffy will be so disappointed."
The look on Nami's face changed to one of sadness rather than anger. She feels bad about betraying Luffy.
"Nami would do anything for money, even betray her family. You all got fooled," Arlong laughed.
Nami's face looked even more upset when Arlong talked. What the hell's going on between these two?
"I see," Zoro started. "Well, I always pegged her as heartless. From the beginning, I had a feeling you were a good-for-nothing freeloader."
Nami started to defend her actions, but I needed to test a theory. I leaned over to Zoro. "I want you to jump in the water."
"What?"
"Captains orders, just do it." Zoro begrudgingly flipped back and sank into the water. Will she save him, or let him die?
Sure enough, she did just what I expected and dove in after Zoro. She surfaced, pulling Zoro onto dry land while all the fish-men tried to figure out why she had helped Zoro.
"What are you playing at?" She turned to me.
"Someone like you, some pathetic, small-time thief, shouldn't try acting tough. It's disgusting," I told her with a small glare.
"Be faster next time. I thought I was gonna die," Zoro angrily said to Nami.
Nami told the fish-men to lock us up, that she would deal with us later. "Arlong, there's been another unknown human sighted in the village. This one has a long nose."
Dammit, Usopp, just be careful.
They threw Zoro and me into a back room, and then I heard the pirates go off to find Usopp.
The Story Unfolds
Zoro and I had been sitting around for a while tied up in the small room when the door opened. "Look who it is," Zoro sarcastically remarked.
Nami threw Zoro's swords and my whips on the ground, untied us, and said, "Just leave. Before they get back."
"Nami, wait!" I caught her attention. "If you need help with something, please just ask."
"Just leave. Stay out of my life," she said, not even turning to look at us. "Just… go away."
Zoro and I made our way outside only to find the park still riddled with fish-men. "Well?"
"Front door approach works here," I said.
Zoro and I made quick work of our unsuspecting prey. Whatever he didn't cut, I beat into submission. Uncle was right; he and I do work well together.
Zoro took a seat in Arlong's chair while I wandered around the park looking for anything. "What do you wanna do?" he asked me.
"Promised Luffy I'd bring her back, so that's what I'm gonna do," I said, looking at one of the unconscious fish-men's sharp teeth. "We're gonna end up involved in something we don't want to, but that's the price we'll have to pay to help our friend."
"This is one complicated mess."
"Yeah, it is," I responded. "But it wouldn't be interesting if it was too easy now, would it?"
An odd noise came from the gate out of the park. Zoro and I got up to investigate the noise only to find an octopus fishing outside. "You the one making that racket?" Zoro asked the fish-man.
"Who are you two? Me? Oh, I'm Hatchan or Hachi for short. Are you two guests of Arlong?" he asked.
"You could call us that," I said.
"Arlong's not here right now. He went to catch a long-nosed intruder. I can take you to him if you like; just hop in my pot and I'll give you a ride."
Usopp. We may as well go rescue him while we have free time.
"Come on, let's go see Arlong," I said, hopping into the jar with Zoro not far behind. It didn't take us long to reach the village thanks to a ride from our octopus 'friend.'
"We're here. Hope you find Arlong."
"Thanks for the ride." Zoro and I said, walking into town. What an odd fish-man.
"Arlong's here somewhere," Zoro warned.
"Yeah, but let's focus on finding Usopp first. Unlike you and I, he can't really fend for himself." I started looking for Usopp in all his usual places: behind trees, in barrels, under a rock. We asked around town for anyone who had seen our long-nosed companion.
"Are you looking for that kid with the slingshot?" A random villager said, approaching us.
"That's him. Have you seen him?" Zoro asked the man.
"I just saw him get taken inside Arlong Park."
Dammit!
"That idiot's gonna get killed, we gotta hurry," I said, running with Zoro not too far behind. Zoro and I kept going back towards Arlong Park as fast as we could. It didn't help that neither of us knew how to get back.
"Maybe hitching that ride was a bad idea. Now we don't know how to get back," Zoro explained.
Zoro and I kept running when we heard the sound of an entire forest being torn down. "What the…" Zoro mumbled.
"Focus, if we don't get there soon, Usopp will die."
That's when a boat carrying three passengers burst through the canopy. "Hi!"
"What the hell do you mean 'hi'?!" I snapped.
The boat crashed into the trees, finally slowing to a stop.
"DAMMIT, LUFFY!"
"You find Nami yet? And where's Usopp?" Luffy asked, dodging my tirade. Crap, Usopp.
Zoro explained what had happened to Usopp and that we needed to hurry.
"YOU'RE TOO LATE!" a voice yelled. "He's already been killed."
WHAT?!
Johnny came out from the trees, crying, "Usopp sniff NAMI MURDERED HIM!"
We were all pretty shocked by the revelation that Nami had killed our friend, especially Luffy.
"SHUT UP! THERE'S NO WAY NAMI WOULD KILL USOPP! WE'RE FRIENDS, SHE WOULDN'T DO THAT!"
"Luffy! Relax, Johnny is only telling us what he saw. There's no reason to be angry with him," I tried to calm Luffy down, but he had no desire to take a breath. "It doesn't make sense, though. She wouldn't let Zoro drown, but now she's escalated to cold murder?"
"Why did you come here?" We turned around to find Nami had come out of the shadows to speak to us.
"Because you're part of our crew. We came to get you," Luffy explained like it was no big deal.
The blonde guy from the boat with Luffy started jumping up and down, asking if Nami remembered him. Oh, Luffy brought the cook. He and Zoro got into a fight about something, but I just ignored them.
"I saw her stab Usopp. She's a cold-blooded witch," Johnny said, sticking to his story.
"So what?" Nami rudely replied. "Just leave so you don't end up like him. After that stunt Steve and Zoro pulled, Arlong wants you both dead. I don't care how strong you think you are, you're no match for him."
"I don't care. Where is Usopp?" Zoro asked.
"The bottom of the sea."
When Nami said that, it set Zoro off. He tried to swing at her but had to dodge a kick from Sanji first, leading the two to once again get into an argument.
"Will you two try and take this a little seriously, please!" I yelled.
"If you want your ship back, you can have it. Go find yourselves a new navigator. I don't care, just get off my island," Nami huffed.
Luffy fell to the ground. "I'm tired."
"This isn't the time to be taking a nap, Luffy," I tried to get him to sit up, but he kept falling back.
"I'm not leaving without Nami, but I really don't care what's going on around here, so I'll just take a nap," he said, explaining why he was laying on the ground.
"Do whatever the hell you want! Die for all I care!" Nami said, running away.
Johnny and Yosaku took the opportunity they had to leave, saying they had to get back to their day jobs but wished us luck in whatever we chose to do. The guys and I sat around while Luffy took his nap when Sanji finally decided to talk to me. "Hey, other captain. Do you think Nami killed the long nose?"
"Doubt it, but after I told her that her act was disgusting, maybe she grew a pair and actually stepped up," I hummed.
"Nami's body is not small-time!" he threw a kick at me, which I went to block with my elbow, only something else blocked our attacks.
"Usopp!" "He's alive!"
"Maybe not after what you two just did to the poor guy," Zoro said, making me feel embarrassed about how I acted.
Apparently, hearing Usopp's voice was enough to wake Luffy. "Good to see you're not dead," I told him as Luffy kept mumbling about Johnny lying to him.
"I should be," he said. "If it hadn't been for Nami, I'm not sure what would have happened." He kept on explaining what had happened to him and Nami. "There has to be some reason she's working with Arlong."
"I was thinking the same thing," I told him.
"It doesn't matter," a blue-haired woman said, walking up to us. "No matter what you do, you won't be able to stop Arlong's rule of this island."
"Who are you?" Zoro asked the woman.
"This is Nami's sister, Nojiko," Usopp explained that he had met her earlier.
"I'll tell you how things got this bad, but in exchange, you must leave this island," she started bargaining with us.
Fat chance. Luffy won't leave without Nami.
"I'm not interested," Luffy said. "I'm gonna take a walk."
Usopp wasn't too happy about Luffy not staying. "It's fine, let him go. We'll listen," I said, calming him down. "I want to fill in the missing pieces of my idea about what's happening here."
"It all started eight years ago…" Nojiko began.
A Friend in Need
We listened to Nojiko's story until the end. "You see, since that day eight years ago, Nami has worked for Arlong, never asking for help so that no one is killed by Arlong, like our mother was.
"After the story, Usopp and Sanji were raring to go help Nami despite Nojiko's pleas for them not to because it would put Nami's hard work in jeopardy. Nojiko walked away. "I have things to do, but please… just leave Nami alone."
As soon as she was out of earshot, Sanji spoke up. "So are we sitting this one out?"
"Hell no! Our friend needs our help. What kind of people would we be if we turned our backs on a friend? A real man stands up for the people he cares about. Ain't that right, Usopp?"
"Yeah!"
"Well, let's get going," I said, waking Zoro. "We'll need to meet up with Luffy."
It didn't take us long to get to the village, but when we got there, an angry mob had formed to go fight Arlong. I saw Luffy sitting on a bench across the street. "You all wait here," I instructed as I made my way over to Luffy.
"What's up?" I said as I sat next to Luffy.
"Nothing," he said, swinging his legs back and forth.
"You ready to kick fish-man tail?"
"Hell yes," Luffy calmly responded.
"Hahaha." I laughed, rubbing his head. "Good, me too."
By this point, the mob had run off, leaving Nami alone in the street. "Let's get moving," Luffy stood up, and I followed behind him.
Once we got to Nami, she was in a sorry state. She looked defeated. She had fought for so long, and now her heart just had nothing left to give. She had given it everything she had, and even that wasn't enough. She angrily bit her bottom lip until it bled, and she picked up a knife that was lying on the ground.
Don't do anything stupid, Nami!
She drove the knife into her shoulder where her tattoo was. With every plunge of the blade, she yelled out his name. "ARLONG!"
Luffy grabbed her hand to stop her from harming herself anymore.
"Luffy. Steve."
She threw dirt at us. "Didn't I tell you two to leave!"
"Yes, you did," We both answered.
"But we can't leave without you, Nami," I told her. "We won't leave without our friend."
That was all it took to break the final wall holding Nami back. She broke down crying.
"Help me."
It was barely audible, but we heard it. Luffy took his hat off and placed it on Nami's head. He never lets anyone wear that hat. Not even me.
"OF COURSE I WILL!" Luffy yelled out into the sky.
"Without a doubt, Nami, you can always ask us," I said, giving her a reassuring smile.
Luffy and I turned and began walking past our friends.
"Let's go."
"Right!"
The five of us made our way to Arlong Park with one goal.
Free Nami from this hell.