The sunshine is warm and the cool breeze that sweeps over the deck is refreshing. A happy upbeat song is being played in the background, one that is well-loved by their crew, and it keeps her spirits high as she finishes the minute details of her latest map. Pleased with herself, she carefully hangs it up to dry in her room shared with their Archaeologist and then makes her way back out onto the deck.
Everyone is gathering at the front of the ship, and beyond them, sitting on the figurehead are the brothers. Their laughter and delight is loudest, and she can't help but smile as she makes her way to them. The course is already set, so she doesn't have to worry about it, especially with the crew she runs 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 can see, she pauses when a loud boom shakes the entire boat.
Nami bolts upright from where she is 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 looks more like a crude doodle of Kokoyashi than anything, had a bright red x marked around where Bell-mère's tangerine grove is behind the house they live in. Nojiko doesn't think that there is any treasure, but Nami's gut says otherwise.
All of the booming and the ground shaking startles them, and both of the girls scramble up as shouting comes from the village proper. Nami and Nojiko look at each other, fear in their eyes, before they start running back to the house where Bell-mère is. Nami doesn't get very far when she suddenly trips over something sticking out of the dirt.
"Nami!" Nojiko, upon noticing that her orange-haired sister isn't keeping up, turns around and begins to come back for her. Once she gets closer she pauses, her mouth dropping open as she sees what Nami had tripped over. "Look!"
The object in question is the corner of something sticking up out of the dirt, and there seems to be a bit of a hole, not too big, visible. Nami rolls over and sits up to observe this oddity, while Nojiko comes and kneels beside her. Brushing some of the dirt aside, the girls see that what Nami had tripped over is a sturdy piece of board. Pushing this from over the hole, the girls' eyes grow large as they take in the contents within.
Genzo finds them, and thankfully they are far enough back in the grove to go unnoticed by the Fishmen that are here to take control of the Kokoyashi. His reaction upon seeing the cache of treasure, however, leaves the two girls a little confused. "Take fifty-thousand Berri each, you two, and hurry. We haven't much time!"
Knowing that he means well, Nami and Nojiko grab exactly fifty-thousand Berri each, stuffing it into their pockets, before covering the cache of treasure back up. Genzo helps, eagerly, and makes sure that it looks like a regular dirt path, before ushering the girls to Bell-mère's house.
With the house in sight, both the girls panic and become afraid when they see a large group of Fishmen. What is even more frightening is that Bell-mère is on the ground, blood dripping from some wounds to her head and her arms, while the rifle she has always favored is on the ground beside her with the end of the barrel broken in an odd way.
"Bell-mère!" Nami and Nojiko run to her, and their adoptive mother wraps her arms around them, tears in her eyes.
"One hundred thousand Berri for an adult, right? And fifty thousand Berri for a kid…" She holds them close to her, her eyes shut tight as she seems to come to a decision.
Nami and Nojiko stiffen slightly, then with realization at why Genzo had told them to take the money from the hidden cache… Bell-mère doesn't have enough for all three of them.
"We have the money for all of us!" Nami cries out, pulling out the fifty-thousand Berri she had stuffed into her pockets. Nojiko does the same, and they hold out their shares of the money to the rather intimidating Saw-shark Fishman that is closest to them.
"Wh-" Bell-mère lets go of the girls and covers 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 go back around the girls when they edge towards her and cling to her.
"This is one hundred thousand…" The Saw-shark Fishman states after carefully counting the bills the girls had handed to him. "You're a hundred thousand short."
"The rest is inside," Bell-mère bites out as she glares up at the Fishman. He makes a gesture for her to go get it, a razor-tooth grin on his face as she reluctantly lets go of her daughters and slowly stands up. She limps 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 watches as she goes to a cabinet in the kitchen and pulls out a tin. From within the tin she retrieves the rest of the payment and calmly strides back to him. It is placed into his outstretched hand, a greedy smile on his face while her face is blank. Taking the time to count it, he continues to grin while she stands there, hands now at her sides and clenched. "Two hundred thousand Berri total. Pleasure doing business." He turns, pocketing the money, and starts out of the house when something on the table catches his eye. Going over, he picks it up. "What's this?"
"That's mine," Nami cries out, recognizing the map she had drawn of Kokoyashi Village.
"Oh?" The Fishman turns to look at the girl, a calculating look of interest in his gaze after he takes the time to study the rather detailed map. "You drew this?"
Nami goes quiet, a stricken look coming over her face while Bell-mère moves as fast as she is able to and snatches the homemade map out of his grasp. "What more do you want?!"
The Fishman looks positively annoyed, and quite ready to kill Bell-mère, but since she had the money to cover for herself and the girls, he isn't going to kill her just yet. Not unless she does 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 cuts in before Bell-mère can open her mouth to refuse the Fishman. "Just please… Please don't hurt Bell-mère and Nojiko!"
"Nami…" Bell-mère doesn't know what to say, her eyes full of hurt and understanding. Limping over to her youngest daughter, she kneels down and holds out the map for her to take. "I believe in you, Nami," she whispers. "You're the best!"
Nami holds back her tears as she takes the map from Bell-mère and then hugs her. "Nojiko can show you where the treasure is hidden," she returns in a whisper of her own, before she pulls away and goes to hug her adopted sister. "Make sure you aren't followed when you show Bell-mère the treasure," she whispers to her sister, at which Nojiko nods.
"Come on already," the Fishman snaps, irritated with how long this is taking.
"Hai," Nami lets go of Nojiko and follows after the Fishman as he leaves Bell-mère's house. Glancing back, she sees Bell-mère and Nojiko come to the doorway, tears in their eyes. Wiping away her own tears, she hopes that everything will be okay.