Chapter Twenty-Seven: Nami
She'd been left in this shitty interrogation room for over three hours. She hadn't said a word after Smoker had left because she knew—she just knew—her mother was in the observation room. Smoker would have brought her to the station and used whatever clout he had with the officers to allow her mother to listen in on their conversation.
It was hard stuff to listen to, but Nami knew that Bell-mere had to hear it. If she didn't, Bell-mere would just keep on trying to find her and pull her back into the life they had before that was too dangerous to live in anymore. Nami believed there was no going back where Donquixote was involved.
Nami didn't know as much about Donquixote as she thought she should, but knowing his sadistic nature and sexual preferences was enough. She knew that man was dangerous and probably a shade of insane and she didn't want that anywhere near her mother or sister. Letting her mother hear that she didn't want to be with her anymore, make it seem like she didn't love her anymore, make Bell-mere blame herself for Nami's troubles (even though Nami clearly blamed Smoker) was the only way to get Bell-mere to let go it seemed.
Then, Nami could disappear into the wind.
But she also wasn't stupid. If Arlong had contacts in the EBPD, it was likely that Donquixote did as well. She did her best so that anyone who listened to or watched her interrogation tape would hear her claiming ignorance. If someone did by chance happen to see that paper, well, they'd have to look really hard at it to see anything but scornful words written haphazardly about her old yakuza buddies.
She hoped she had done enough.
It looked like Smoker got the message, at least. And he would no doubt relay that message to Garp. Hopefully, he'd be smart enough to do it without saying it out loud. Or at least not within hearing distance of anyone untrustworthy.
But in the meantime, she wanted out of this shitty police station. And preferably to a hospital that wasn't owned by the criminal underground. Her leg was throbbing fiercely and Nami suspected that she'd torn something again. Besides, when the evils that be came after her again, she wanted to be somewhere that she could be treated for the injuries she was likely to receive.
For slipping through Donquixote's grasp, she expected to be beaten until she couldn't run away and then transported to wherever Donquixote was and then sodomized until she died. But if she were in a hospital with police guard, maybe she'd get lucky and someone would just try the good old fashioned food poisoning or something.
Finally, Garp reentered interrogation.
"You're useless as anything but a witness," Garp told her. "And everyone you could testify against is dead. You're lucky; I should be sending you to a juvenile detention center, but there's no point in keeping you as a prisoner. Your admitted crimes, involving coercion and intimidation are misdemeanors and we are within our ability to strike those away as long as you agree to go home with your custodial parent."
"No," Nami answered immediately. "I want to be emancipated, not incarcerated into my room indefinitely. If I have to go to jail, send me to juvie."
Garp snorted a laugh. "You really gave your mother a shock. She might really have a nervous breakdown because of you."
Nami shrugged indifferently, though she was mentally cursing Smoker. She hadn't realized that Bell-mere was that poorly off. Just what the hell was Smoker doing with her? Anything? The moron should have at least been making sure she was eating and sleeping. Couldn't he even accomplish that?
"Take it or leave it," Garp advised. "But think seriously about it. If you go to juvie, you'll be put away with a lot of the kids you handed the ass to when you were a Messenger. You up to keeping yourself from being beaten to a bloodier pulp?"
"Can't I just go to the hospital?" Nami snapped. "I need my leg looked at. My arm and shoulder too, while I'm there."
Garp laughed. "You escaped the last hospital you went to."
It was true, and with listening ears, she couldn't exactly explain why she had either. So she decided to go to drastic measures. She stood from her chair and yanked down her leggings to expose her bandaged leg. It was bleeding through the bandage again.
"Should I show this to the camera behind that two-way mirror and tell it that you're refusing to give me medical treatment?" Nami challenged.
"You could just as easily be coming onto a police officer exposed like that," Garp suggested. "After all, you were a whore."
That stung. A lot. But Nami wasn't about to show that on her face.
"Fine, I'll pass out from blood loss and you can let the medical examiner explain why," Nami replied, pulling her leggings back up. Garp laughed.
"You are such a conniving little girl," he praised. "It's almost as entertaining as it is annoying. Fine, I will send you to the hospital. But you will only be discharged into the custody of your mother. That's what you get for a compromise."
It wasn't much of one. He had to know why she was avoiding being with her mother. She didn't want to bring down anymore heat on her family, and Garp was practically ensuring it. The bastard. He probably planned on using her.
Like hell she was going to let that happen again.
"Fine," she huffed. "Can I go now?"
"In such a hurry," Garp criticized. "It's very unladylike."
"So is me telling you to go fuck yourself," she bit back. "But I will do it again if you don't stop dallying. Seriously. I've been shot three times and one of the wounds is bleeding and you're refusing to—"
"That's enough," Garp snapped. "I'm not refusing anything. I am simply waiting for my colleague to come let us out of interrogation."
Nami wasn't all that impressed with Garp, to tell the truth. He wasn't necessarily inept, but he didn't do as much as he should. Or at least, he didn't do it the way Nami believed he should. He could have been great, real great if he would just let go of his plans to manipulate people into doing what he wanted and doing the work himself.
Of course, that would have put a big target on his forehead for the organized crime families. And just like with Bell-mere, the danger would have probably reigned down onto his family, too.
Finally, an officer came and let the two of them out of interrogation. Nami was put into an ambulance and taken to the nearest hospital to be treated for injuries. Thankfully, it wasn't Flevance Clinic. She figured she would be visited by Law soon, but hoped to avoid it until she could get emancipated from her family.
Her arm and shoulder were 'healing nicely,' as the on-call doctor put it, but the leg had too many stitches torn and they were going to have to go in and do some repair work. So she was admitted and put under a local anesthetic while they tinkered with her leg.
She was put under watch, of course, which meant only police officers were allowed to come see her. Not even her family was allowed in. That was a small bonus she hadn't been counting on. Now she didn't have to have Nojiko come in and bitch at her for doing such stupid things or have Bell-mere come in and try to mother her uselessly.
But she was lonely.
Yeah, she had spent most of the last week and a half alone in Zoro's place, but he did come home eventually and talk at her. That wasn't so bad. Plus she liked getting the Luffy updates. Zoro wasn't the most descriptive person, but when there was something of note to say, he said it. So now, she was in the dark as to how Luffy was.
Ten-to-one, she could sneak out of this room and go see him herself, if she wanted.
But she would bust her stitches again, and she needed to keep her leg in good shape. She had a feeling she was going to be running soon. And not just metaphorically.
.o0o.
At eight o'clock in the evening, she was allowed dinner. It was nothing exciting, but it wasn't take out, and Nami appreciated that. She ordered some omurice from the dinner menu and waited for it to show up. At eight fifteen, it did. Along with something unpleasant. Maybe food poisoning really was the way she was going to be killed off.
"Well, look who finally dragged herself back to the hospital," Law said as he rolled a cart with her food on it into the room, looking perfectly like one of the hospital's orderlies. He had on scrubs and even had an I.D. tag that declared him an employee at the hospital.
Nami made a face and tried to control the swell of panic that rolled through her. "I wanted to live through that fiasco with the Fishmen. Not be dragged into the fuck-pit of Donquixote right away and be screwed to death."
"Kudos to you for making it away almost scot-free," he praised as he took a seat in the visitor's chair and proceeded to eat her dinner for her. Well, it wasn't going to be food poisoning then. "Too bad your blonde boy toy didn't get you out of there faster."
"I don't remember much of what happened after the building came down," Nami admitted. "I remember seeing you in the crowd, though. After that, it gets fuzzy."
"You went into shock again. Seems to be a common occurrence for you," Law chuckled. "Didn't know you were that much of a weakling."
"Like you'd fare any better if Donquixote fucked the hell out of you," Nami criticized. Law gave her a dark grin.
"You'd be surprised," he told her. Her eyes went wide. No way…
"So, I'm here to tell you what you already figured out that day, whether it be subconsciously in the ambulance or consciously in my father's clinic: the Boss owns you. No amount of killing yakuza thugs or bringing down buildings is going to change that. He bought and paid for you and now you belong to him to be used in whatever way he deems suitable."
She felt ill. She was suddenly glad he had eaten her dinner; it may have come back up with the reminder.
"But he doesn't want a broken toy to play with, lucky for you," Law went on. "He wants you nice and healthy so he can be the one to break you."
"So I get a reprieve from him for a couple weeks?" Nami surmised flatly.
"A month or so," Law allowed. "Enough time for the EBPD to lose interest in you."
"I doubt that will ever happen," she told him. "Garp seems to think that I'm integral in the whole mafia-gang-yakuza business, no matter what I tell him."
"Oh, yeah, I heard the interrogation tapes," Law chuckled. "So you think Hatchan can't bust his way through a wet paper bag, do you?"
"I've never seen him fight," Nami clarified. "So I was honest. No I don't think he'd be a big threat. But if I'm wrong, so what?"
Law tapped the side of his forehead. "I told the boss you were smart. You just keep on saying things like that and those two little birds you live with won't get hurt."
Nami sighed deeply. "Fuck them. I can honestly tell you that my thoughts about the police protection on this room was good to at least keep out an overbearing mother and nagging sister. I'm so done with both of them."
"I almost believe you," Law smiled. "No one works that hard to save someone just to toss them away."
"Watch me," Nami said. "I don't want to go home after this, and that's the one place Garp will send me. I'm going to be grounded to my room and bitched at constantly until I can escape from that hell hole."
"The emancipation," Law summed up. "Yeah, I heard all that too. Well, good luck with that. Your lawyer friend—"
"He's not my friend!" Nami snapped.
"Now that I can believe," Law grinned. "Well, he's gonna fight that emancipation, and to tell the truth, so will Donquixote. He's gonna want you connected with your weakness at all times."
Nami had been trying to prevent that.
"I want my clothes back, by the way," Law spoke up. "My money too."
"I already spent it," Nami told him. "And I don't have your clothes anymore, though I could probably get them back. They're covered in blood."
"That was my favorite sweatshirt," Law muttered. "I want the clothes and the money. I don't care how you do it."
"Do I gotta do it right now?" Nami asked. "Kinda stuck in a hospital under guard. Can it wait until I get out?"
Law shrugged. "You know where to find me."
She did. But that reminded her…
"Are you in that shitty school to watch Crocodile too?" she asked. Technically speaking, it wasn't her job anymore. But the curiosity was there nonetheless.
"I'm helping him," Law shrugged. "A favor from the Boss."
"Crocodile has balls. I wouldn't ask for anything from the Boss," Nami marveled. Law snorted a laugh.
"I guess if he had balls, you'd be the one to know!" he chortled. "I heard he was your first fuck. How'd that go?"
Nami froze. How did he know that? She didn't mention that in interrogation.
"Roughly," Nami answered warily. Law grinned maliciously.
"Was he your first?" he asked with too much enthusiasm. It was sickening.
"If you're asking if he took my virginity, the answer is no," Nami answered. "And you're disgusting for asking."
"Crocodile was crowing about fucking one of his students in Arlong's menagerie. I can only assume he meant you," Law told her. "He claims to have taken her virginity. I take it that is incorrect."
"Very," Nami bit. The fucker. He was going around telling everyone he'd fucked her? He was such a sick fuck.
"Figured as much," Law commented. "I thought for you, it was probably that blonde."
Nami froze again. How did he know these things?
"Bulls eye," Law grinned. "He looked a little too invested in you. I wondered if it went both ways."
"No," she answered. "I don't think I feel about him the way he feels about me."
"How do you feel about him?" Law asked, too curious.
"Grateful," Nami answered. She didn't like the way he was prying into her business like it was his. She needed to stop talking to him now.
"I feel bad for him then," Law chuckled. "He's got it bad for you."
Nami decided not to believe him. He was a bastard who worked for Donquixote and whether or not he was coerced to do it, it didn't look like he hated it. He probably would have been a small-time hoodlum with or without Donquixote.
"I'm getting the vibe that you don't want to chat anymore," Law said, getting up from the visitor's seat to handed her something. "Here. You have to be accessible at all times for the boss."
Nami saw that it was a cell phone. Reluctantly, she took it. She saw that there were a few preprogrammed numbers in the phone already. One was from Law. Joy.
"Keep that thing charged," Law instructed, clearing away her dinner that he'd eaten. "I'll be in touch. Lest you want the Boss to come see you."
"No thank you," she muttered, knowing that Law was the lesser of two evils.
Law left and Nami was once again alone. She took it back; she would deal with the loneliness if her only companion for conversation was going to be Law.
.o0o.
Three days was a long time. And admittedly, Nami was milking it. She made sure to stay in the hospital as long as possible since she didn't want to be released into the custody of her mother.
But on the flip side of things, she was seriously getting sick of Law.
Law visited her every day, three times a day. She had even tried skipping meals in order to avoid him, but he'd just brought food to her room and ate it in front of her like he did that first night. He was an awful conversationalist. He constantly brought up things she'd rather not talk about. Like about living with her mother and endangering her, Sabo's obvious interest in her, and the vulnerability of her friends to Donquixote if he felt like killing someone. It was nerve wracking.
"So I hear you're being evicted," Law started as he wheeled in her lunch that day. "Going home this afternoon. Shall I tell you how much I'm going to miss our lovely conversations?"
"Knock yourself out, I suppose," Nami replied. "I can't say the same."
"Aw, don't say that," Law cajoled. "You have an order from the Boss, and you're not gonna like it if that's the way you feel."
Nami stiffened. What? She thought she had a reprieve for a month while her body healed.
"That's a good look," Law teased. "You look terrified. Good. You should be. The Boss is not someone to be crossed. So be a good little spy and do what he says."
"Spy?" Nami repeated warily.
"Yes, spy," Law confirmed. "You're going to continue to do what you were doing before: spying on the goings on at Louge-Town Senior High."
Nami closed her eyes and swallowed back down the bile that threatened to come back up. No! She didn't want to face that son of a bitch again!
"Oh, there's more, sweet cheeks," Law promised in a delighted tone. "You and I are going to be working the same area, and operatives in the same area always cover for each other. You and I are going to be lovebirds."
"No!" Nami insisted. "I don't want to!"
An officer stuck his head in the door. "Everything alright in here?"
"Yeah, the patient is just being ornery on her last day," Law assured him. "She doesn't want to eat her lunch."
The officer ducked back out of the room.
"Relax, sweet cheeks," Law told her. "It's appearances only. We'll only have to go to school together, and go home from school together. And hang out at school in between classes. Oh, and also hang out on weekends."
Nami was shaking with frustration and anger. Why Law? Why?
Law looked positively entertained. He was doing it on purpose. "Listen, sweet cheeks—"
"Stop calling me sweet cheeks," she growled, "or I'll hop out of this bed and shank you with a piece of that plate."
Law laughed. "Ah, you're so entertaining. A small thing like you couldn't—"
Nami was off the bed and had a hold of the fork on the tray that Law had brought in and had it snug against his groin. Law wasn't idle either; he had grabbed up the knife but had little time to do anything but use it to parry the fork.
"You're good," Law acknowledged. "I'm impressed. I thought you'd only be good for fucking."
"I have lots of skills," Nami told him. Her leg was throbbing and her arm was shaking against Law's parry, but she wasn't going to let him see her weakness. "I'm not a small thing or sweet cheeks. I am dangerous. Don't forget it."
She'd let the altercation go on too long, Law regained his composure and was easily pushing her back now. She decided to give up with her dignity and went back to lift herself on the bed. When she got herself comfortable again, she addressed him.
"Why does Don—" she started.
"The Boss," Law corrected her quickly. Nami narrowed her eyes at him and he tapped his ear and looked around.
"Fine," she relented. "Why does the Boss need me to go spy on—er, the school? Didn't he offer you up as help?"
"It got around to the Boss that you found a leak in your former boss's organization," Law told her. "It seems the 'party in question' lets his guard down around you and tells you things he doesn't tell others."
"So?" Nami posed. So Crocodile apparently was loose lipped when he was around her? So what?
"So, we want to know a little bit more about what's being investigated there," Law replied. "We think that the 'party in question' will tell you."
Nami sighed as she digested this information. She had a feeling she knew how they planned on using her. "You're going to want to have me let him fuck me again, aren't you?"
Law shrugged. "The means doesn't matter as long as we get the end result."
"Once I find out what's being investigated, what then?" Nami posed. If she told Donquixote what Crocodile was looking for, what else would he want from her?
"You'll just assist me," Law told her.
"What are you in the grand scheme of things?" Nami asked.
"Amongst other things," he grinned deviously, "I am a thug in this case. Hired help. It seems the 'party in question' is desperate to keep things tame at school. So if someone acts out of line, say, gets into a fight just two blocks from school grounds, I take care of it."
"I didn't see you around when Buggy tried to shoot me," Nami complained, knowing that's the time he was indicating.
"You have a reputation that precedes you, Miss Cat Burglar Nami, the red-head Messenger from the Sawshark yakuza," Law rattled off. "You shouldn't have needed my help. But in case you lost, I was on the fringe to clean up after you."
Nami snorted. "It's not much of a reputation anymore."
"It's much worse," Law contradicted. "You're still the Cat Burglar Nami, but now you're the red-head from the Joker's gang."
The Joker? Nami had never heard of it.
"So what's your reputation, then?" Nami asked, trying to recall if she'd ever heard of a Joker in all the time with Arlong's yakuza.
Law's face went impassive. He didn't smile or frown, he just went expressionless. His eyes fell to half lidded and he didn't move a muscle…but somehow he felt even more dangerous than when he'd toted around the nodatchi.
"I'm the Surgeon of Death," he answered calmly. He watched her face for a moment before a lazy grin covered his face. "I take it you've heard of me."
Nami could only nod mutely at first. Finally, she found her voice again. "I didn't realize that the Surgeon of Death worked for anybody."
"And that's the point," Law told her. "By the time a person finds out about the Joker, they either belong to him or they are about to die."
Nami digested the new information. She didn't want to belong to anyone, but it was better than death. Maybe. She'd have to see. Because if belonging to Donquixote was as rough as it had been the night she'd first seen him, she was going to ultimately choose death. She still had that right.
"You don't realize how deep you're in, do you?" Law guessed, watching her. "I once thought like you. I did. But I wasn't allowed an out. You won't be allowed one either. He'll make you live."
Law undid a wide banded watch from his wrist and showed it to her. There was a long, ugly scar there. He had obviously slit his wrist with something, but the attempt had clearly not worked.
"Did he stitch you up where you stood?" Nami asked bitingly, angered that she would not be allowed to even take her own life if she tried.
"No, my father did," Law answered, putting on the watch again. "Listen, sunshine, it's time for me to go. But don't worry. I'll be seeing you again soon. Don't try anything funny. Believe me, it's not worth it."
When he said that last part, a weird look crossed over Law's face. Nami would have said it looked haunted, but she also thought it looked horrified. He left her, taking her uneaten lunch with him, the bastard.
.o0o.
She did get released from the hospital that afternoon. But much to her surprise, it wasn't into her mother's custody. No, it was much worse. It was Smoker's custody.
"The fuck is this shit?" Nami asked when she was told the news.
"You said you didn't want to go home to your mother," Smoker griped right back. "Your mother has hit her limit. She's given up. She's giving you what you want: your emancipation."
Nami held the irritated look while the guilt swelled within her. But it was for the best. Even if she had to suffer through Smoker's presence.
"So I'm rooming with you now," she summed up.
"Hardly," Smoker snapped. "I'm fighting this tooth and nail. You're going to the East Blue Orphanage. At least until your emancipation comes through."
Nami felt a wave of fear go through her momentarily. The orphanage? That place was not a good one. It was run by Crocodile's lot, the Billions. It was a breeding ground for future assassins. Not a good place for her to go.
"Whatever," Nami dismissed. It was just a temporary setback. "I'll be out of there eventually."
"You may be there for longer than you think," Smoker predicted. "These court cases can drag on for months, or even years."
Not what Nami wanted to hear.
"You may as well just stay with your mother," he advised. "You'll both be happier."
"You don't know what would make me happy," Nami reminded him. "You only know what will make you happy. And that's what you do, despite what may happen to others."
Smoker sighed in disgust.
"Look, I get that you hate me and the decisions I've made," Smoker said, "but I mean to do better in the future."
Smoker was wheeling her out of the hospital at that point, so he didn't see her roll her eyes. On the way out, Nami saw Law leaning in the doorway of the waiting room in plain clothes. He pushed off the door jam and walked towards them. Nami braced herself for the stupidity to come.
"Breaking out, Nami?" he asked, as if he didn't know. Nami rolled her eyes again, glad someone could see it. Law grinned at her. "Can I follow you home?"
"I'm going to the orphanage," Nami told him. Law's grin twitched ever so slightly.
"Really?" he responded. He didn't sound pleased. Donquixote probably mandated that Nami go home.
Nami threw a thumb in Smoker's direction. "Judicial system's orders."
"And you are?" Smoker asked of Law, sounding more cop than lawyer at the moment.
"Trafalgar Water," Law introduced himself, going so far as to hold out a hand. He was really hamming it up. "Nami's boyfriend."
Nami didn't see the face that Smoker made since he was behind her, but Law grinned again and took back his unshaken hand. She bet it was not a pleasant one.
"And rather than send her to an orphanage, she can come stay with me," Law offered. Nami didn't know what she disliked more: the orphanage or the possibility of ending up with Law.
"It was her mother's choice and she chose to let Nami go back to the orphanage," Smoker told him. "I'm not about to hand her over to a boyfriend who hasn't been around when she needed him and back to a hospital she was so desperate to get away from a few weeks ago."
So Smoker had put two and two together. He knew that Law was Dr Water's son. Too bad Nami couldn't just blurt out that Law was the Surgeon of Death. Maybe if she had known his real name before this…no, probably not. There wasn't really a good way to indicate that Law was a criminal. But it seemed like Smoker had pretty acute senses and suspected as much.
"I was at ground zero helping when Nami was brought in to my father," Law defended easily. "I saw her waiting to be transported, sent her to my father's clinic, and went back to trying to save lives. And I haven't been able to see her for the last three days because she's been under police protection."
"Why didn't I see you helping out with any of the searches?" Smoker asked.
"I don't know Nami's friends very well, and none of them felt the need to contact me," Law told him. "I had no idea that the searches were happening. I was looking for her on my own."
Law was very skilled at lying, Nami had to admit. At her level, probably. But would he fool Smoker?
"Regardless, she's going to the orphanage," Smoker ultimately decided, and began wheeling Nami towards the exit again. "Until the courts say otherwise."
Law didn't seem bothered by that and walked along side them for a moment.
"I guess I'll see you at school, Nami," Law offered up. Nami gave him a dark look.
"See you at school," she muttered as Smoker wheeled her away. Silence overtook them as she was delivered to Smoker's car and helped into it. When the car doors closed though, Smoker was not silent.
"Your boyfriend?" he asked as he started the car.
"Not that it's any of your business," Nami responded. "But yeah, I guess."
"I thought that kid Luffy was your boyfriend," Smoker told her. "Either that or that blonde kid Sabo."
"Well they're not!" Nami snapped. "Can we please stop talking about this?"
"Fine," Smoker conceded as he drove them to the East Blue Orphanage. She had no dealings with the place. She'd just heard about it and passed by it a couple times.
"How long until my first court date?" Nami asked, watching the building come into view. It was drab and lacked anything cheery about it. Children hovered in the fenced in yard, but they were all engaged in solo activities. No one interacted with one another.
"Three weeks," Smoker told her. "Are you sure you don't want to go home to your mother?"
Nami eyed the building and reminded herself that she had survived for four weeks in Arlong's whorehouse. Surely she could survive three weeks in an assassin's orphanage.
"I'm sure."
A/N: I know, it's been months. I apologize. Hopefully more regular updates to come. I seem to have gotten over my writer's block for the moment.