09: Bountiful Harvest

The sunshine was warm and the cool breeze that swept over the deck was refreshing. A happy upbeat song was being played in the background, one that was well-loved by their crew, and it kept her spirits high as she finished the minute details of her latest map. Pleased with herself, she carefully hung it up to dry in her room shared with their Archaeologist and then made her way back out onto the deck.

Everyone was gathering at the front of the ship, and beyond them, sitting on the figurehead were the brothers. Their laughter and delight was loudest, and she couldn't help but smile as she made her way to them. The course was already set, so she didn't have to worry about it, especially with the crew she ran with. Gaze set on the youngest of the brother's, the back of his head and that silly straw hat of his the only things she could see, she paused when a loud boom shook the entire boat.

Nami bolted upright from where she was laying in Bell-mère's tangerine grove, narrowly missing bumping her head on Nojiko's, whom had been trying to wake her up. They had been looking for treasure back in the grove, using a map that Nami had found months earlier, but they had been unsuccessful thus far. The map had been hidden away in a book on Navigation, which Nami had tried to steal, also an unsuccessful endeavor, and had fallen out without Genzo-san noticing when he had caught her stealing the book. The map, which looked more like a crude doodle of Kokoyashi than anything, had a bright red x marked around where Bell-mère's tangerine grove was behind the house they lived in. Nojiko didn't think there was any treasure, but Nami's gut said otherwise.

All of the booming and the ground shaking startled them, and both the girls scrambled up as shouting came from the village proper. Nami and Nojiko looked at each other, fear in their eyes, before they started running back to the house where Bell-mère was. Nami didn't get very far when she suddenly tripped over something sticking out of the dirt.

"Nami!" Nojiko, upon noticing that her orange-haired sister wasn't keeping up, turned around and began to come back for her. Once she got closer she paused, her mouth dropping open as she saw what Nami had tripped over. "Look!"

The object in question was the corner of something, sticking up out of the dirt, and there seemed to be a bit of a hole, not too big, visible. Nami rolled over and sat up to observe this oddity, while Nojiko came and knelt beside her. Brushing some of the dirt aside, the girls saw that what Nami had tripped over was a sturdy piece of board. Pushing this from over the hole, the girls' eyes grew large as they took in the contents within.


Genzo had found them, and thankfully they had been far enough back in the grove to go unnoticed by the Fishmen that were here to take control of the Kokoyashi. His reaction upon seeing the cache of treasure, however, left the two girls a little confused. "Take fifty-thousand Berri each, you two, and hurry. We haven't much time!"

Knowing that he meant well, Nami and Nojiko grabbed exactly fifty-thousand Berri each, stuffing it into their pockets, before covering the cache of treasure back up. Genzo helped, eagerly, and made sure that it looked like a regular dirt path, before ushering the girls to Bell-mère's house.

With the house in sight, both the girls panicked and became afraid when they saw a large group of Fishmen. What was even more frightening was that Bell-mère was on the ground, blood dripping from some wounds to her head and her arms, while the rifle she had favored was on the ground beside her with the end of the barrel broken in an odd way.

"Bell-mère!" Nami and Nojiko ran to her, and their adoptive mother wrapped her arms around them, tears in her eyes.

"One hundred thousand Berri for an adult, right? And fifty thousand Berri for a kid…" She held them close to her, her eyes shut tight as she seemed to come to a decision.

Nami and Nojiko stiffened slightly, then with realization at why Genzo had told them to take the money from the hidden cache… Bell-mère didn't have enough for all three of them.

"We have the money for all of us!" Nami cried out, pulling out the fifty-thousand Berri she had stuffed into her pockets. Nojiko did the same, and they held out their shares of the money to the rather intimidating Saw-shark Fishman that was closest to them.

"Wh-" Bell-mère let go of the girls and covered her mouth, silencing the question of where the girls had gotten the money from, so as to not cast suspicion on anyone else of the village. Her arms automatically went back around the girls when they edged back towards her and clung to her.

"This is one hundred thousand…" The Saw-shark Fishman stated after carefully counting the bills the girls handed to him. "You're a hundred thousand short."

"The rest is inside," Bell-mère bit out as she glared up at the Fishman. He made a gesture for her to go get it, a razor-tooth grin on his face as she reluctantly let go of her daughters and slowly stood up. She limped back into her home, with Nami, Nojiko and the Fishman trailing after her, the girls hurrying in front of her to stay away from the Fishman.

He watched as she went to a cabinet in the kitchen and pulled out a tin. From within the tin she retrieved the rest of the payment and calmly strode back to him. It was placed into his outstretched hand, a greedy smile on his face while her face was blank of emotion. Taking the time to count it, he continued to grin while she stood there, hands now at her sides and fisted. "Two hundred thousand Berri total. Pleasure doing business." He turned, pocketing the money, and started out of the house when something on the table caught his gaze. Going over, he picked it up. "What's this?"

"That's mine," Nami cried out, recognizing the map she had drawn of Kokoyashi Village.

"Oh?" The Fishman turned to look at the girl, a calculating look of interest in his gaze after he had studied the rather detailed map. "You drew this?"

Nami went quiet, a stricken look coming over her face while Bell-mère moved as fast as she was able to and snatched the homemade map out of his grasp. "What more do you want?!"

The Fishman look positively annoyed, and quite ready to kill Bell-mère, but since she had the money to cover for herself and the girls, he wasn't going to kill her just yet. Not unless she did something truly worth getting killed over. "I would be willing to make an arrangement with the girl in return for her services. She draws maps for me and you get to live."

"I'll do it!" Nami cut in before Bell-mère could open her mouth to refuse the Fishman. "Just please… Please don't hurt Bell-mère and Nojiko!"

"Nami…" Bell-mère didn't know what to say, her eyes full of hurt and understanding. Limping over to her youngest daughter, she knelt down and held up the map for her to take. "I believe in you, Nami," she whispered. "You're the best!"

Nami held back her tears as she took the map from Bell-mère then hugged her. "Nojiko can show you where the treasure is hidden," she returned in a whisper of her own, before she pulled away and went to hug her adopted sister. "Make sure you aren't followed when you show Bell-mère the treasure," she whispered to her sister, at which Nojiko nodded.

"Come on already," the Fishman snapped, irritated with how long this was taking.

"Hai," Nami let go of Nojiko and followed after the Fishman as he left Bell-mère's house. Glancing back, she saw Bell-mère and Nojiko come to the doorway, tears in their eyes. Wiping away her own tears, she hoped that everything would be okay.