I don't own One Piece.

Chapter eleven

They exited the village and headed to the north part of the island. While walking, Midoris started to explain the layout of the island to everybody so that they could orientate themselves. There were only two villages—one on the west side of the island called Rahan where the port was, and one on the east side called Lenn. They were separated by a forest, which also had a river running through it. Their house, according to Midori, was not too far from Rahan.

Once they reached the main road, it would take them only ten minutes to reach the house. All of a sudden, Midori took an unnoticeable path, and they followed her into a small wooded area. After a few moments, a small cottage appeared in a clearing in the middle of the trees. It was clearly old, but well-maintained, and it had only a single floor. It was completely made of wood.

Nami looked around and almost immediately understood how much of a strategic position the cottage was in; the house was distant enough from the village to give them complete privacy but not too far from it in case they needed something. Besides, the path that brought them there was well-hidden, and the house wasn't visible from the road.

Once inside, Midori ordered Sanji to light the fireplace to heat the house and started to explain who would sleep where. Sanji and Midori would sleep in the bigger bedroom while Abi and Nami would sleep in the smaller one. There was a bed for Abi and a little cot for Nami.

When Sanji had finished lighting the fire, Midori drew near Nami and started to explain her duties as the maid.

"You'll always do what we order. You'll run the errands for us, and you'll clean and cook. You'll take care of the house, do you understand?"

Nami was tempted to backhand her, but she couldn't. She still remembered the pain caused by that infernal gadget. She nodded, looking at Midori defiantly, but didn't say anything. Although she stayed silent, that seemed to irritate Midori, who took the device and quickly pushed the button on it. A wave of pain overwhelmed Nami, but it was so fast that she didn't even get to scream. Pain disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, leaving her a little stunned and breathless. Midori observed her, smiling malevolently.

"When you are questioned, it's better for you to answer 'yes, ma'am,' do you understand?"

The navigator gave her a look full of hatred but forced herself to say those words. "Yes, ma'am."

Apparently satisfied, Midori turned and began to unpack her suitcases. She talked to Nami without even facing her. "Now go retrieve the rest of our stuff."

Nami bit her tongue to keep from answering and quickly went out the door. She had to get away from her or she wouldn't be able to restrain herself, and that would have meant another punishment, which she wasn't so eager to receive.

She quickly returned to the village and entered the inn. She headed to the staircases but when she saw the captain of the ship that had brought them there with one of his sailors sitting at a table, she changed direction and hid behind the corner, directly behind their table. From that position, she could easily hear every word being spoken. They were talking about Midori.

"That bitch wanted to see the house before paying, and she also had the nerve to say that she was expecting more! As if I could trick them; those women are my best clients."

The sailor wasn't all that interested in the conversation; he looked more interested in the beer he was drinking. "What are you complaining about—she paid you, right? And you've also got a bonus for that electric collar."

The captain grinned and nodded, swallowing what remained of his pint of beer. "Yeah, she paid me a lot of Beries for that."

"Has she told you when we have to come back for them?"

"In ten months, we have to be back here so that we can bring them home. The 30th of September, if I remember correctly. If all goes smoothly, we bring them to the village and get another five thousand Beries."

Nami's eyes grew wide hearing the amount of money that those men were going to be paid. How the hell did the village women have all that money? She decided that once free, she would rob all those bitches. She continued to listen to the men's conversation, but they changed the subject and Nami was forced to hurry up to the room where the suitcases were and return quickly to the house. If she arrived late, she would risk being punished. While walking, she began to think about an escape plan. She now knew when Midori was planning to go home, so she needed a plan.

She played the good maid a whole week after their arrival. She started to behave as the perfect maid under the merciless overseeing of Midori. Sanji was always at the restaurant, working all day and since there was nobody to entertain them, Midori was always ready to find something to complain about in everything Nami did. Besides that, the navigator was forced to sleep in the same room as Abi, and even if the girl was deep asleep, Nami couldn't risk sneaking out. What if the child woke up and found her bed empty? They would surely use the device.

After the third day, her work load decreased. Since she had never been a good cook and often burned what she was cooking, Midori decided that she couldn't keep on eating the bad tasting food that Nami gave to them. The navigator didn't even bother getting upset over that—sk it was true, after all. What was most important, though, was that Nami would have to do less housework, which would allow her to elaborate on her plan.

During the first weeks, Midori often sent Nami to buy the ingredients for what she wanted to cook, but she was always accompanied by Abi, whose job was to control her while they were at the market. For the first few times, they always went to Rahan's market, but after awhile, they started to go to Lenn's market, too. Soon enough, Nami understood that Abi wasn't like her sister; she wasn't mean to her and didn't criticize her, she just stayed out of it, watching her sister be a bitch. Abi was also the only one who was happy to get out of the house and go to the village, even if it was with Nami. She was only ten years old after all; it was normal that she wanted to go playing in the village instead of staying all day in the house like her sister.

After some time, the little girl started to make new friends in the villages. She became especially fond of the children in Lenn, which was why they started to go to that market more often. Midori obviously didn't know anything about this. All of the village women had to maintain a low profile and the fact that Abi played on the village streets chasing other children would have made her mad. Of course Nami used this fact to her favor, earning some trust from the kid.

After a few days, a kind of routine was established between the two. When they reached the village, Abi played with her friends while Nami ran all the errands that Midori had given her. At the end of the morning, they met back up at the village entrance. From there, they would return to the cottage.

Midori was never interested in what they did, and even when she asked about it, Abi lied, protecting their secret. It was in her and Nami's best interests to not let Midori know the truth, because the girl would have been forced to stay home all the time and Nami would have been surely punished for letting her play with other children.

Although she was free to do almost anything she wanted during her errands, Nami didn't use this freedom to her advantage immediately. For some time, she played the good maid and behaved properly. In the meanwhile, she checked the island for a way to escape and break that goddamn collar. She had to earn a little more trust from Abi before starting her plan for real.

She continued to go to the market and started to make friends with the villagers, joking with them and letting them know Midori's story. Nami made sure that if Rufy and the others stopped by the island, she and the villagers would not be protected by Midori's stupid lies. Moreover, she was sure she would have a higher probability of succeeding if people thought she was a respectable woman; she could use their trust to get useful information.

After three weeks, Nami finally got to be on her own. The attention with which Midori controlled her every action eventually faded and in the end, Midori felt secure enough to send Nami alone to run some errands. Probably, she was starting to feel bored in the house alone almost all day. Moreover, Nami was wearing the collar, and it was virtually impossible for the navigator to escape her control. The device's range was huge, so she just couldn't run away.

One day, Midori ordered Nami to go buy some food for supper and asked to Abi to stay in the cottage with her to help with the cooking. Abi looked at Nami with longing—she wanted to go out—but didn't say anything and just nodded. The navigator shrugged and went outside, heading to Rahan Village.

She quickly ran her errands and, once finished, went to the port, looking for a ship that could bring her back to Kosey Island. Surely Rufy and the others were still there, if they hadn't been captured by the Navy. When she reached the docks, she started to ask about a ship that could bring her there, but she soon understood that there weren't ships that could take her anywhere. It was winter on that island, and during that season, ships didn't go too far from the island, not without being well-paid.

She would have to wait until spring, when the commercial ships arrived to barter with the islanders. Those were the only ships that she could hope to convince to bring her to Kosey, but since they arrived only when the village was ready to sell its famous strawberries, she would have to wait eight or nine months before the first merchant ships arrived. Besides, since they were commercial ships, she would have to promise them a huge sum of money in exchange for transportation.

Returning to the house, Nami started to build another plan. Her initial plan had been to take a ship as soon as possible, but since that was impossible for now, she needed a more elaborate plan, one that could allow her to take Sanji with her. She couldn't leave him with Midori and hope to return in time with Rufy to stop the villagers; it was up to her. That meant she needed a lot of money to pay the ship captain for safe passage for them both as well as to pay someone to take the shock collar off.

Feeling stronger after having decided what she needed to do, she opened the door without knocking and as soon as she entered, she had to face a scene that she had hoped never to see: Midori and Sanji kissing in front of her. They didn't even notice her, and Nami used this time to run to her room, closing the door behind her.

Still shocked from what she had seen, she sat on the cot, bringing her legs up to her chest and hugging herself. Without even trying to stop herself, she started to cry quietly, trying not to sob. Her plan had a hole—she hadn't thought about how she would have to wait for nine months in the same house where Sanji was living with his wife. That meant they would kiss and sleep together and… Her brain refused to go any further. She couldn't even think about it without becoming sick. How the hell could she spentdmonths like that, with Sanji treating her like nothing but a maid, never acknowledging her, looking at her with contempt as if they hadn't lived on the same ship together for years. She soon understood that this would be the truly difficult part of her whole plan.

The problem wasn't finding a way to escape—it was surviving those nine months.