"She is a cold-blooded witch!" Johnny screamed. "All of you have been tricked by her! I saw her kill Usopp-sempai with my own eyes!"

"So what?" Nami asked simply. "You want to seek revenge and kill me?"

"What did you say?" Johnny demanded angrily. I could agree. Treating cold-blooded murder like it was nothing serious was more than a little maddening. And I didn't really like Carrot Brains anyway so it probably didn't help my temper much.

Nami sighed a bit and unfolded her arms. "Let me tell you something. Now, Arlong really wants to kill Roronoa Zoro and his friends because Zoro has upset him! Even though you are as strong as the devil, you can't compare your strength to real devils!"

"Never mind about that. Where is Usopp?" Zoro asked.

"Why don't you look for him at the bottom of the sea?" Nami suggested.

Instantly, Zoro's temper snapped. "Watch your mouth!" he shouted rushing forward.

I quickly cut in front of him, throwing my leg out wide but nowhere near fast enough to actually hit him. Especially since he dodged. "Hey! Where's your manners?!" I demanded. "Let me kick her ass first!"

"What?" Zoro asked still clearly pissed, but now I wasn't sure if it was directed at Nami or me. "You better get out of my way. It's none of your business."

"Hey, Sweetheart, I'm just trying to make this fight a bit more fair. Carrot for Brains would stand a chance against you. There's no need to snap at me," I said with a slight grin.

"Huh?" he said looking lost. "Hey! Watch your mouth! Otherwise, you can lose your head!" he threatened bring the sword to cross my neck.

I pouted a bit. "Now, now, it's not nice to threaten a lady like me. Besides, I'm not like Carrot Head over there. I don't go down without a fight," I said smirking slightly before taking a drag from my cigarette. It wasn't often a guy was resistant to my charms. Somehow, it just made the flirting more exciting if Zoro wasn't going to let me get away with it. Maybe I had a masochistic streak I hadn't known about…

"Hey! You shouldn't fight each other in a situation like this!" Yosaku snapped.

"Yes! If you want to fight, just get off of this island! I don't want outsiders to waste their lives here," Nami said folding her arms again, bo staff still at the ready in her hand. "Don't you understand? The reason I befriended you was for your money! And now you don't have anything, so I don't have to care about you anymore. I will return your ship to you. Just get out of here and find a new navigator or One Piece or whatever you want to do!"

"Bitch," I muttered as Zoro snapped at her loudly.

Nami didn't look particularly moved however. "Goodbye," she said resolutely.

"Nami," Luffy said. Suddenly, Luffy collapsed backwards to land on his back.

"Hey! Luffy-sempai!" Johnny cried reaching out slightly but not moving from his spot a few feet away.

Luffy moved to rest his head on his hands. "I am going to sleep here," he stated, closing his eyes.

"Sleep?! At a time like this?!" Johnny and Yosaku shouted in unison.

I sighed exasperatedly, unable to stop myself from doing so. "Muffin! You can't sleep in the middle of the street like that!"

"I've never thought of getting off of this island," Luffy stated, still not opening his eyes. "And I don't care about what happens here. Besides, I feel a little sleepy now. I will sleep now," he said.

I heard Zoro slap his forehead and I felt the urge to do the same. "Stop playing around! You will get killed!" Nami shouted.

"I thought you didn't care about us," I said casting Nami a slight glare.

Before she could reply though, Johnny started talking. "All of you are very strange! What that witch said is right! Usopp-sempai has already died!"

"Besides, Arlong is looking for you," Yosaku added. "There is no reason to stay on this island, and I believe in Johnny's word."

"It's been very nice knowing you, even though it was a very short time. We're gonna get going now because we don't want to be killed by Arlong," Johnny finished. Zoro just muttered a noncommittal understanding as they started to walk away. "I hope to see you again! Goodbye! You are already strong! Take care!" They called as they walked down the road.

"You too," Zoro said not bothering to wave like they were doing.

Nami huffed in anger before abruptly turning on heel. "Fine! See if I care if you get gutted or not!" she hissed as she stormed off. I scoffed a bit and rolled my eyes. Just because she was weak didn't mean all of us were weak too.

A faint snore rose and I looked back over at Luffy. He seemed sound asleep. I sighed and figured I could just leave him lying on the road alone. "Cutie Pie, you sure are troublesome some times," I muttered going to sit off to the side of the road against a tree trunk. Eventually, Zoro sat down in the road itself, his single katana propped against his shoulder.

Minutes ticked past as I drew another long drag from my cigarette. I glanced over at Zoro. He was wearing a strangely patterned shirt open showing off nicely sculpted Pecs and a covering of bandages over the rest of his torso. It was a pity really. I'd have liked to see those muscles…

The silence was a bit deafening and I decided after a while to try and strike up a friendly conversation. "Hey, handsome?"

"Huh?" Zoro looked over and I smiled a bit that he'd actually responded to me calling him handsome.

"You think Carrot Head really killed Usopp?"

Zoro scoffed a bit. "Maybe. Even though she is small, she once beat me up. Maybe she's already killed Usopp."

At first, my thought was a curse against Nami for daring to hurt Zoro but then my brain registered the rest of what he'd said. Small. "Small?" I asked as my brain churned. Nami was almost as tall as me, which meant that he must have… "You shouldn't be staring at women's breasts!" I screamed throwing my heel towards his head as my temper snapped.

His sword came up instantly. "Do you only think of pervy shit?!"

"UGH!" Something squished between my steel heel and Zoro's katana sheath.

"Eh?" My eyes widened at the smashed face between us. Zoro had a similar reaction of surprise.

"I'm alive…" I heard a small version of Usopp's voice say. "But, maybe I'll really die this time."

I lowered my leg and Zoro lowered his sword as Usopp collapsed to the ground. However, the slam seemed to wake Luffy up. He blinked as he stretched before seeing Usopp. "Usopp!" he cried running over to the other boy. "Did Nami do this to you!?"

"No, Muffin," I said with a slight laugh of embarrassment. "That was our fault."

"More like your fault," Zoro corrected.

I rubbed the back of my head slightly as my embarrassment doubled. I really needed to learn how to control my temper better. "Luffy! You're here too!" Usopp said finally coming around enough to see who was shaking him.

"Yep!" Luffy said with a smile.

I leaned forward to look around Luffy and so that Usopp could see me. "I also came. Hi!" I said waving slightly.

"You kicked me in the head!" he screeched.

I looked away slightly. "Yeah…sorry about that. I didn't mean too!" I said trying to charm my way out of his anger. He wasn't all that cute but that didn't mean I wanted him pissed at me.

"Anyway!" he said looking away from me. I smiled at the change in topic, looked like I was off the hook. "The problem is Nami! She is the one who saved me. I think there must be some reason that she joined those fishmen."

"It's hopeless!" someone said and we all turned to see who it was. "There's nothing you can do to change Arlong's system."

"Nojiko," Usopp said sounding a bit surprised.

Nojiko was a girl with short blue hair held back by a thin red ribbon and a tattoo over one arm and across her collarbones. "Who's that?" Luffy asked Usopp as he pointed to her.

"Nami's elder sister," Usopp answered.

I scowled. Of course it was Nami's sister! Stupid pretty girls with their tight tank tops and flirty tattoos of hearts and ribbons in their stupid blue hair…

"What do you mean by that?" Zoro asked as I grumbled to myself.

"Please! Don't get involved with our business!" Nojiko said hands on her stupid curvy hips. "I will tell you everything if you leave this island."

"I don't want to listen to that because I don't care about her past," Luffy stated. Suddenly, he started walking down the road. "I am going to take a walk."

"Take a walk?" Usopp echoed. "You don't want to know about her past?"

"No, I don't," he said not even pausing in his stride.

"He-"

"Don't worry about him," Zoro told the stupid blue haired…stupid girl. "That's the way he is," he added with a smirk that sent a shiver down my spine. He was just deadly handsome when he did that. "Tell us. We'll listen. However, nothing is gonna change."

Within an instant of him saying that he started snoring loudly, clearly asleep. I laughed a bit but the others seemed less amused. "Then why are you sleeping?" Nojiko asked.

"You told her that you'd listen, but you fall asleep before she even begins!?" Usopp yelled, though it failed to wake him up or even break his snoring. "I will listen to you," Usopp said firmly.

I sighed a bit "Yeah, I guess I will too," I said, though really I was just trying to be polite. Carrot Brain's past didn't really interest me.

Nojiko sighed. "That's why these people give Nami such a headache," she muttered before launching into a long story about Nami's past. Apparently, her dream was to make a complete map of the world. Nojiko told us that their family: Nami, Nojiko, and their foster mother Bell-mère, were very poor and couldn't even afford to feed all of them sometimes. This got an immediate pang of sympathy from me. Starving was bad enough but starving because of lack of money was even worse. Due to lack of money, Nami also resorted to simply stealing what she wanted as did Nojiko apparently.

'Wonderful. Two thieves,' I thought sourly.

Nojiko continued with her story. When Arlong came he claimed the entire village as his. Then charged people a fee if they wanted to survive. The fee would have to be paid every month. But their family was again too poor to pay the fee. They could only pay for either both kids or Bell-mère. The villagers had wanted to save them all by sending Nojiko and Nami away and paying for Bell-mère but instead Bell-mère did the opposite. She paid for Nojiko and Nami and not herself. The villagers attempted to help but were beaten down and Bell-mère ended up being killed by Arlong.

I thought at first that had been the end of the story but Nojiko kept going. Arlong found out about Nami's map-making hobby and decided to take her. She ended up joining Arlong to protect the village. She made a deal that she'd be able to buy the village for a hundred million belli in return for joining Arlong's crew as a mapmaker. "Since that day eight years ago, that girl has never cried again, and she's never asked anyone for help. Because she doesn't want to die like our Mother. Since she was ten years old, Nami decided to fight alone in that situation. Have you realized how much pain she has been going through?" Nojiko asked.

"Because it was the only way to save the village, she decided to join the people who killed her Mother," Usopp summed up rubbing his nose with a look of anger.

I blew out a long stream of smoke. "Damn. Guess that means we should forgive her for being a bitch to us, huh? Probably gonna have to bail her out of this too." Suddenly Nojiko slammed her fist across my head, catching me completely by surprise. "Ow! What the hell was that for!?"

"I came here to tell you not to do anything stupid," Nojiko said. "If you get involved with her, you will make those fishmen suspicious of Nami and her plan for the past eight years will be ruined! So, I want you to not create any more trouble and stop hurting her feelings."

"Well, whether we leave the island or get involved is completely up to our cutie of a Captain," I replied. "So you'll have to talk to him about it, but I guarantee that he won't just leave and let Carrot Head fight Arlong on her own. That's not his style and I haven't even known him that long."

Usopp nodded beside me. "It's true. It's true. That's just how Luffy is."

"Hmph," Nojiko said folding her arms across her chest. "What frustrating people," she muttered. "I'll just go find Nami then. Maybe she can figure out how to talk some sense into you," she said turning and walking back down the road.

"I highly doubt it!" I called after her.

Usopp frowned a bit. "What a stubborn girl."

"Che, yeah," I agreed.

Just then, there was a loud yawn from behind us and I turned to see Zoro rubbing his eyes. "Wha' happened?"

"Morning, handsome," I greeted with a bright smile. "Nothing's really happened, don't worry. Carrot Head is apparently being used as a map maker by the pirates who killed her mother in return for being able to buy the village they took for a hundred million belli," I explained.

Zoro grunted. "I guess we'd better find Luffy then."

I sighed and nodded in agreement. He'd most likely want to do something about this. He had that charming fierce protectiveness thing going on, though why he wasted any of it on Carrot Brains I suppose I'll never understand. "Where do you think he is?" I asked getting to my feet and brushing the dirt off my skirt.

"Beats me," Zoro replied heading down the road aimlessly.

Before too terribly long we ended up in a village. Nobody seemed around but spotted Nami in the distance with blood streaming down her arm and a bloody dagger raised, Luffy holding it still. "You don't know anything!" she shouted dropping the dagger. Zoro frowned and sat down on a nearby short wall, apparently to wait. Luffy said something I couldn't hear and she grabbed a handful of dirt before flinging it back at him. "I told you to get off of this island!"

There were a few more moments where they said a few things that I couldn't quite make out. Suddenly Luffy put his hat on her head and jumped over to land in front of her. Then, I heard a familiar voice scream. "SURELY. I WILL HELP YOU!"

I turned in the direction he was walking, knowing that he'd need our help for this particular headstrong idea. I took a drag from my cigarette, as his footsteps got closer. "Let's go!" he said in a fully serious and kinda hot voice. Man, why couldn't he be this serious all the time?

"Yeah," We agreed as he finally reached where we were waiting.