And here we go, the long awaited Arlong Park Arc. I really hope you guys enjoy what I have in store.

Wealth, Fame, Power…

Chapter 29: The Cat Burglar

Nami sighed as she spotted Cocoyashi Village off in the distance, her mind wandering off to things she wished she could forget. Luffy would understand, right? He was a pretty forgiving person after all, maybe he would forget about this? Aw who am I kidding, they all probably hate me right now. The girl thought glumly. But there's nothing I can do about it anymore. What's done is done, and there are things I need to take care of.

Hijacking the Merry turned out to be a lot easier than she thought it would be. Once she had those two perverts eating out of the palm of her hand, all that was required was a couple blows to the head and they were out like lights. And what was even better news, was the fact that she was pretty much right on her goal of 100,000,000 beris. Counting everything she had stored on the ship and adding that to what she had in the tangerine grove, Nami was certain that she had no less than 99,000,000.

As she watched her hometown get closer and closer, the navigator sprung up from her deep thoughts and prepared to dock in advance. After all, operating a ship was at least a three person job, so she had to be quick, even if the Merry was on the smaller side.

The orange haired teen walked down the road on the outskirts of the village, heading in the opposite direction of it. As much as she wanted to see her sister right now, she knew that it was better not to risk anything and report to Arlong first. As much of an asshole that the guy was, he was even worse when he was angry, so playing it safe was her best option.

When she reached the main gate of the large pirate base known as Arlong Park, the navigator took a deep breath to try to calm herself. She needed to be in character so she could be as convincing as possible, and that meant putting aside her hate for the horrible fishmen. You can do this Nami, just think of the freedom of the village.

After taking one last deep breath for good measure, Nami pushed the gates open and stepped inside, immediately getting the attention of all of the fishmen, Including Arlong.

"Aww, there's my cute little navigator! Where've you been Nami? You don't usually stay out so long." The man, or rather, fishman named Arlong said, he was quite a freaky looking fellow. To start off, his skin was completely blue and many of his features looked like those of a shark. He wore a fluffy ushanka on his head and a yellow patterned dress shirt with bermuda shorts. Said shirt was open to reveal his very strong chest, as well as a red sun tattoo. The most odd and yet terrifying feature on the fishman was his long saw-like nose. That thing was the definition of intimidating.

Nami physically cringed at the fishman's voice, finding it incredibly raspy and annoying. "Sorry about that Captain, I just kept on running into more money at every turn. In fact, I almost have enough to buy back the village through our little deal."

Arlong laughed loudly from his throne at the girl's response, finding it amusing how easily she always made stealing sound. "Haha! What poor suckers did you rip off this time!?"

Widening her eyes slightly, Nami debated whether or not to tell him the truth. But the longer she took to respond the more suspicious she looked. And in the end she panicked and just said the first thing that came to mind. "Heh, you wouldn't believe how stupid these guys were. Their Captain especially couldn't shut up about becoming the Pirate King."

As soon as the words left her mouth, Nami regretted them. The infuriating laughs of all the fishmen filling her ears being burned into her mind. She didn't mean to say that at all, she was supposed to be as vague as possible!

"Hahaha! That's so pathetic! I wish I could've been there to see the sorry look on the poor bastard's face when you stabbed him in the back!" Arlong laughed.

The orange haired navigator did all she could to block out all of the noise around her. She did not need this right now, what happened to trying to forget about those guys!?

It didn't take long for Arlong to cease his laughter and start talking again. "What a silly dream anyway, no human could ever become the Pirate King! They're just too weak and frail!"

All of the Arlong Pirates watched in confusion as their Captain began laughing again. One of the underlings even went as far as to speak out against Arlong's mistake.

"Um, Captain?" The underling asked, getting his saw nosed the leader's attention. "Wasn't Gold Roger a human?"

Suddenly Arlong stopped his happy celebration and stared at his crewmate in surprise. "Oh yeah, good point…"

But everyone's ears were grabbed again in a big way when another one of the Arlong Pirates spoke up. "Hey guys, wait! I remember my grandpa telling me a story about how Gold Roger was one-sixteenth fishman!"

…

…

…

"AW HELL YEAH!" All of the fishmen yelled in unison. Clearly happy at the slightly exaggerated news.

"See guys, Captain Arlong is always right!"

Arlong smiled widely, showing his razor sharp row of teeth in happiness. He sure was lucky to have such a supportive crew.

Nami on the other hand nearly facepalmed at the stupidity of the pirates. It was like she was dealing with Luffy and Zoro all over again!

And speaking of those idiots, why the hell did she keep thinking about them!

Now that the girl had concluded her check in with Arlong, she proceeded to turn around to the gate, ready to finally go home. She clearly had some more thinking to do.

"Wait Nami," Arlong called out, making the navigator turn around. "Before you go, make sure you change when you get home and show some more skin. We want everyone seeing what pirate crew you belong to after all."

Nami shuddered at the evil grin on the fishman's face as he gave her the creepy orders. She knew exactly what he was referring to, and she hated showing it to people with a burning passion. Without another word, the orange haired teen walked out of Arlong park, a new and more comfortable destination in mind.

But once the girl had left and was completely out of earshot, an eight limbed fishman approached the throne where his captain sat. "Are you really gonna let her buy back the village Arlong? We make so much money off of this place, plus Nami is such a useful navigator."

The captain only smiled at his disciple's worries. "Well Hachi, I am a fishman of my word. But there may be another way to keep her and the village."

"How?"

With his grin widening to show more teeth, Arlong looked to some of his lower ranked underlings. "How do you boys feel about picking tangerines?"

The moment Nami stepped in the familiarity of her home, a large weight seemed to lift off her shoulders. The presence, the aroma, the memories, all of these things comforted the girl as she called out to her sister. "Nojiko? Are you home?"

Not getting any response, the navigator moved through the familiar house until she reached her room. This place never failed to bring back amazing memories. But with those good ones came bad ones as well, making the teen shake her head out of them.

Walking up to her dresser, Nami kicked off her boots and began stripping down. Reluctantly following the orders of her 'captain' and changing her clothes. After some brief consideration, she decided to go with blue form fitting shorts and a green spaghetti strap tank top. And just as Arlong requested, all of her arms could be seen, revealing a large blue tattoo on her left shoulder; The mark of the Arlong Pirates. It was as though she was purposefully hiding it before.

Sighing for what felt like the millionth time that day, the navigator walked back to the kitchen, not even bothering to put on any shoes just yet. She couldn't tell if she was just being lazy or if she was truly exhausted. She was guessing the ladder, considering she had just finished lugging a bunch of heavy gold off of the Merry and into the tangerine grove.

Right when the orange haired teen had just finished pouring herself a glass of much needed water, she heard the door behind her swing open gently. "Nami?"

"Nojiko!" The navigator called out in surprise, looking her sister up and down to take in her appearance. Considering that they weren't even blood related, it was quite odd how similar the two looked. This could have been because of the similar tattoos, as well as the eerily similar haircut that they shared. The only obvious difference between the siblings was the lovely tan gracing Nojiko's skin. Her hair was also light blue instead of orange.

Without another moment's notice, the two sisters ran up and embraced. Attempting to make up for all the time they had been apart. "Woah, you ok Nami? You're hugging tighter than usual."

The girl in question only smiled at her sister's worry, tears forming in her eyes as she brought up some much needed great news. "Nojiko, I did it, I have enough to buy back the village!"

"What!? You have a hundred million beris!"

Drying her eyes to stop herself from crying, Nami continued. "Well, not exactly… But I'm less than a million away. In one more week at the most, we'll be free from these damn fishmen!"

Not totally convinced by her sister's words, Nojiko guided her to the kitchen table a few feet away. "Woah, just slow down, here, sit."

But the teen did not take well to being calmed down so quickly, because as soon as her butt touched the chair she shot right back up. "What are you talking about!? Didn't you hear me!? We're finally gonna be free!"

Nojiko just let out an exasperated sigh at her sister's stubbornness, taking a seat at the small table. "Alright fine, but just relax. In the nicest way possible Nami, you look awful. How do you expect to attract guys when you look like you're about to explode?"

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, the navigator smirked at the blunette in defiance as she sat back down. "Oh don't even go there Nojiko, I could attract way more guys than you on a bad day. You don't have the manipulation tactics that I do."

Finally feeling like she was talking to her sister again, Nojiko smiled. "Hehe, it's good to see you Nami."

At the girl's words, the teen felt a weight lift off of her shoulders. As much as she tried to ignore it, she really was under a lot of stress. "You too Nojiko."

"So you talked about almost having enough for Arlong? How the hell did you manage that? When you left a month ago, you were fifteen million away."

The blunette expected her sister to rise up and get all excited again, but instead, the opposite happened. A small bit of sadness could be seen flashed on her face, but it was quickly replaced with an obviously fake smile. "Oh yeah, isn't it great!? The village is saved!"

Nojiko narrowed her eyes playfully at her little sister. "You didn't answer my question."

Nami did what she could to not look suspicious, but it was clear that her sister could see right through her. In the end, she just decided to tell her what was on her mind. "Ok fine, I uh, kinda met some people."

Seeing as how the answer she got was very vague, Nojiko expected more. "Ok… what kind of people?"

Avoiding eye contact at all costs, Nami choked out the extremely awkward answer. "I uh, might've joined a pirate crew for a while. They were pretty strong, so it was pretty easy to get cash off of the people they took down."

"That's all? You always do that, ripping off pirates is your thing isn't it?"

Debating on whether or not to be transparent with her sister, Nami took a moment with her thoughts. After a while though, the blunette's staring became too much and she just crumbled like she did earlier today. "No, that's not all."

"Oh?"

"They… they were good people. I know they were pirates and all, but you should have seen them, Nojiko. They didn't care about any of the bad stuff, they were just all about the adventure."

The elder sister was starting to become a bit confused with her little sibling and her thought process. Good pirates? That sounded too good to be true. Nevertheless though, she continued to listen intently.

"Oh man, and their Captain! He was just the biggest weirdo I've ever met!" Nami giggled as she thought of Luffy's constant nonsense. "He was a complete idiot, but he definitely had his morals. And they were good ones too, the guy would totally flip out if someone hurt one of his friends."

Before the orange haired teen could continue any further though, Nojiko piped up. "Well as great as all that sounds, why does this matter?"

As if she was coming back down from a fantasy, Nami felt the small reality check from her sister and immediately frowned. "Oh yeah… It uh, doesn't matter at all… I'll probably never see those guys again anyway since I stole their ship, so… um, yeah."

Now being convinced from her hardy explanation and her sudden awkwardness, Nojiko spoke her mind, hoping that she was wrong. "Nami… do you miss those pirates?"

Jumping up from her seat in the blink of an eye, the navigator tried not to look guilty. "What!? No way! It's not like that at all!"

Nojiko narrowed her eyes. "You sound like you're trying to convince yourself right now."

Beginning to panic again, the navigator went into safety mode. "Well… Sure, it was fun to steal with them and all, but that's it Nojiko, I promise. My first priority is this village, and I will save us," she finished. Walking away and disappearing behind the kitchen door.

When she appeared again, she was wearing shoes. A pair of heeled sandals to be exact, and she looked to be in a hurry all of the sudden.

"Where are you going?" Nojiko asked with concern.

"Back to Arlong park. I've gotta keep up appearances on these last few days. I don't want him to make a move on the village for some stupid reason."

"Nami, don't be ridiculous. You look exhausted, stay for a while and sleep. I can make you some food for when you wake up."

With a sad smile, Nami shook her head in response to her sister's offer. It was too late to turn back now, so she would continue to endure for everyone else's sake. No matter how hard things got, she would handle this… Alone.

With that simple gesture, the teen stepped out of her safe haven, ready to face the hell that she had become so accustomed to.

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