The cacophonous bang of the gunshot is still echoing in Nami's ears as she rushes forward, slipping out of Nojiko's slack grip to stagger up to Bellemere's crumpled, bloody form with little thought for the gun still smoking a few feet above her head and the chuckling Fishman who fired it.
Her knees give out just as she reaches her side, collapsing into the dust, heedless of the blood already starting to pool there, entire body numb and cold.
"Bellemere-san," she tries to repeat, tries to call her name again, tries to get her attention, please wake up- "Bel- Mommy-"
Her throat burns with tears; all that comes out is a terrified wheeze of air with no voice behind it.
She doesn't know what to do. She can't speak. She can't move. Her head feels like it's been stuffed into a jar, she can't breathe-
Nami just crumples forward helplessly with a breathless sob because she doesn't know what else to do.
Nojiko's wretched wail reaches her ears in the moment before she throws herself across Bellemere, nearly hitting Nami as she falls forward and clutches at Bellemere's blood-soaked shirt.
Nami doesn't really notice. She doesn't really care.
Bellemere is dead. Bellemere is dead. Bellemere is dead-
A foreign, massive hand clamps onto the back of Nami's dress and she screams.
"NO!" her voice is so shrill she can barely understand it, feral with terror. Her knees are covered in red and dust; blood is dripping off her hands like rain. Bellemere's blood, gushing out of wound from a bullet, a bullet He fired- "NO! LET GO OF ME!"
She's yanked off the ground in one sharp tug and spun around to face Him, the biggest, ugliest, cruelest Fishman she has ever seen in her entire short life, and she hates Him. She's so scared of Him, why won't he let go-
"You're pretty good for a little Human, huh?" He sneers, and one of the maps Nami had drawn for the wall in Bellemere's kitchen is waved in her face, and she doesn't understand-
What would a Fishman need a map for when he's already destroyed Nami's whole entire world?
She would ask, but she's too busy trying to kick Him in the nose, half-blinded by tears and making sounds that are more animalistic than she's ever heard before. "PUT ME DOWN!" she rages weakly, squirming for all she's worth, but His grip is firm and unyielding.
Nojiko's voice comes from somewhere down below, demanding that He let Nami go, and Nami loves her sister more in that moment than ever before, how could she have ever doubted they were family-
Gen-san's voice, barely a whisper of steel being unsheathed, everything going red red red-
Nami stops kicking.
Nojiko's voice cuts off.
Nami is too horrified watching Gen-san sag to the ground in a gory heap to risk looking downward.
She doesn't know what she'll do if Nojiko is like that too.
He starts laughing again, walking back towards his crew with Nami's limp body dangling in his hand.
She doesn't try to kick him again.
A/N: I really really really really hate Arlong.
~Persephone