Author's Notes: Sorry about the delay in getting this chapter out. We'll come back to the fight's fallout later, first it's time for Nami and Chopper's adventure.
Nami had never been easy to fool, her childhood teaching her the value of cynicism and distrust long before Luffy arrived to assure her that some people were just that stupid. No, Nami always gave everything a second glance (unless it related to money, in which case her eyes never moved away from it long enough to qualify for one) and Nami had half-expected Sakera to just steal whatever she wanted.
Given her own experiences with pirates and villages, she would have naturally intervened but that had proven seemingly unnecessary as the shop owners (stall owners, more so) crooned and fawned over Sakera while the two searched for goods. They didn't put up a struggle nor did they even seem disgruntled, smiling all the while.
Chopper, the one carrying many of the bags, was completely taken in by that surface, accepting Sakera's praise with his usual weak denials. Nami, meanwhile, had seen the hints of fear in the shopkeepers' eyes, heard the supressed tremble in their voices. If Chopper hadn't been such an innocent, Nami would have taken action sooner but she decided it was better to wait for Chopper to wander off.
So, she simply let the evidence pile up while subtly returning the more expensive looking goods to their owners. Were it not for childhood traumas, such acts would normally have left her in tears but the navigator had her pride.
As the trio were reaching the end of the shopping area, with a Heavy Point Chopper carrying their new goods, a hysterical woman of a heavier build accidentally bumped into Sakera while charging up the street.
"Watch where you're going!" Sakera yelled as she turned to glare at the offending runner.
The woman turned with an apologetic look mixed into her panic but her skin paled at the sight of who she'd run into.
"Miss… Sakera, oh no. Please, it was an accident! My son is sick and-" the woman began but was swiftly cut off.
Sakera's retort (Nami noticed the subtle movement of her lips) was also cut off by the same yell, Tony Tony Chopper immediately dropping the bags and running up to the woman in his normal form.
"Your son's sick?! What's wrong with him?!"
"He's had a fever for about a week now and he's getting worse. I'm sorry, I need to go get some medicine from Miss Sakera's pirates," the woman explained in a rush as she tried to sprint off once more.
Nami's eye twitched at the phrasing, "Sakera's pirates… I thought that Risho guy was captain. Maybe it was nothing but…"
Chopper caught the woman's wrist, her panic proving infectious as he spoke, "I'm a doctor. Have any other doctors looked at him, yet?"
"No…" "Then let me take a look. Which way do you live?"
The two were soon gone Chopper dragging the woman along as he ran as fast as his little legs would carry him while Sakera groaned.
"What good's a man that runs off with any old hag? Am I ri- what's with you?"
Nami had crossed her arms and was glaring at the older woman impatiently, causing a sweatdrop to run down the back of Sakera's neck.
"You need the can or something?" Sakera asked jokingly before Nami replied sharply, "What are you doing on this island?"
Sakera smirked at this while shaking her head, "Fine, I'll tell you what's going on… I wasn't really keeping it a secret anyway."
Sakera led Nami to the edge of town, one look sending the surrounding villagers scurrying to give the two pirates their privacy.
"First off, I wasn't a member of Risho's crew when I got here," Sakera explained. "Risho arrived here about three years ago with just Kintaro, Onji and the dog in the suit; I don't think it has a name."
She tilted her head as she tried to remember the second hand details.
Apparently they got into a scrap with some big shot pirate crew, which I find extremely easy to believe given Risho's violence, Kintaro's strength obsession and Onji's need to make everyone around him hate how much of an arrogant weasel he is. Only that time, things didn't turn out so good.
They might have had more crew members, Risho would never say, but all I know is that when they were pushed, Onji used Uro's natural weather phenomena to plot an escape route and avoid capture. They just missed the brunt of the storm starting up, which lost the other guys but trapped them here.
Risho was so devastated by the loss that he apparently killed all the marines who tried to capture the new pirates on the island, eventually breaking into their base and raining death upon them like an F5 hurricane. Then he stole some goods and got hammered.
I arrived a year later and, after Kintaro single-handedly obliterated the thirty guys in my crew, we joined Risho and helped him run the island…
"… he was content to just take some food and beer. Maybe have the occasional feast but the locals didn't mind him too much, he's got a charisma about him as long as the subject doesn't go past his basic needs." Sakera gave a toothy grin and waved her arms around to gesture to the whole of the island, "I changed that. Now we control everything on the island, not just the marine headquarters. Food, machine parts, medicine, if the islanders want it, they got to toe the line with us."
Nami's nails, already digging into her palms at the arrogant speech, actually broke the skin when she tried to supress her rage when Sakera asked, "It's a pretty beautiful system, no?"
"You're scum," Nami said calmly, her temper just waiting for the right moment to boil over.
"Oh you're a pirate, you should aspire to something like this," Sakera retorted like a dismissive teacher, waving her hand at the teenaged girl and unknowingly sending her anger over the edge.
"Who would want to be a two-faced old hag like you?!" Nami shouted, finally causing the other woman's glare to match her own in intensity.
"Who you calling hag?! The only pirate hag I've seen in the last few hours is that creepy woman who came with you, and once Bui gets through with her, well…" Sakera trailed off in a mocking laughter causing Nami to pull out her Clima-Tact parts in one smooth movement while shouting, "Gust sword!"
The blast of wind sent Sakera off her feet, the woman yelping in surprise as her back smashed into a nearby tree. Groggily rising to her feet, Sakera barely had the time to jump to the side as a cloud above her head dispersed a bolt of lightning.
While rolling, she pulled out a silver flask and began downing its contents, bringing a disgusted look to Nami's features.
"Are you drinking in the middle of a fight?" Nami asked in disbelief, gritting her teeth when Sakera indicated for her to wait with her finger. "How much of a revolting drunk can you be?"
Sakera flipped her off while emptying the flask with a satisfied sigh. Nami created another black cloud in an attempt to shock the woman out of her stupor but the drunkard just kind of rolled out of the way with a clumsy gait as the bolt left a black mark where she'd sat just moments earlier.
Nami groaned as she attempted another strike, only to pause when she heard snoring from the downed Sakera. "Is she making fun of me?! Who does she think she is?!"
Nami took a step forward but was halted backwards as Sakera seemingly flew back to life and leapt to her feet, taking a wild backhand swing at Nami that sent her sprawling to the floor with an incredible force, little lights dancing in Nami's vision as she pushed herself back to her feet. A bright red flush covered Sakera's face as she hiccupped happily.
"Aish foooolhed 'ou~," she sang in a drunken stupor as her navigator opponent narrowed her eyes in surprise. "Ay'm a Zui Qu (hiccup), a Zu (Hiccup)… (cough), a drunken boxer!"
Nami blinked twice in surprise before smirking, causing Sakera to make a little hmpf of confusion. Nami twirled her Clima-Tact before seeming to vanish into thin air.
Sakera glanced about confusedly and placed a calloused finger to her chin as she appeared deep in thought.
Nami seemed to simply pop out of the air behind her in a single moment, an arc of lightning following the end of the Clima-Tact as she did so, "Thunder Lance Tempo!"
The next moments were perceived in slow motion by Nami as Sakera's body bent out of the arc's path before spinning to one knee and putting all her weight behind a punch directly to Nami's nose. Sakera's slightly bulkier form proved to hold far more power than Nami's as she was thrown into the air by the strike before hitting the dirt hard in a dazed state.
Nami felt a trickle of blood pouring down her nose as Sakera wandered into her view, the navigator blacking out as Sakera smirked.
Sakera took a moment to compose herself, her previous drunkenness fading away somewhat as she walked back into town with a decided stumble in her step.
It was on this path that she bumped into Chopper, the frenzied reindeer running down the road while mumbling to himself about the oddity in the fever. He noticed Sakera's presence and immediately gripped onto her leg, much to the older woman's surprise.
"That boy's symptoms are really weird, I think he had an allergic reaction to one of the plants," Chopper half-yelled as he stared up at her. "I don't know what medicine to use or which plants to look at…"
Sakera blinked before looking upwards to hide her ambitious smirk.
"I know where you can get the right medicine for him…"
Author's Notes: Two fighting styles covered… three remaining to be revealed. I should point out that Nami was supposed to have been caught offguard and would do better in a rematch… did that come across? As always criticise constructively to your heart's content.