Chapter Thirty-Eight: Nami
For a good thirty seconds, all Nami could hear was the sound of bullets being fired and hitting various objects: cars, trees, houses, people. That last one was most disturbing. Though she kept her head down, Nami eyed the children she had stolen from Crocodile to make sure that none of them had gotten up yet. She was pleased to see all the children still on the ground.
Beneath Nami's protective arm, Bell-mere squirmed as though she meant to stand, but Nami held fast. There was no way she was going to let Bell-mere up until the drive-by was done. It was only after she had counted to ten following the last bullet fired did Nami raise her head. She was happy to hear the squeal of tires around the corner of the following block.
Nami looked at the damage around her briefly. The cars were bullet-ridden and quiet, suggesting that everyone who had been inside a car was dead. A dripping sound caught Nami's attention and she looked to the ice cream truck to see that it was bullet ridden as well. There was ice cream dripping on the ground along with blood.
Shit. She had forgotten about the ice cream truck kid. Fuck.
She deliberately turned her head the other direction and looked at the house. It had its fair share of bullets too. Nami popped up off her stomach and stumbled painfully to her feet. Bell-mere had been on the sidewalk with her but what about Nojiko…
"Please tell me Nojiko wasn't home," Nami muttered to herself, poised to go search the house but not sure she could handle what she might find.
"She wasn't," Bell-mere answered, standing as well. "What the fuck just happened?"
Nami looked around again in shock, unable to answer. She felt a pat on her leg and she looked down to see Mako still on the ground.
"Miss Nami, is lesson seven over now?" Mako asked. All of the other children were still on the ground.
"Uh, yeah, I guess," Nami mumbled. She was having a hard time assembling her thoughts. Somehow, Bell-mere still managed to have her wits about her.
"Okay, kids," Bell-mere called, but grabbing Nami's arm tight and yanking her close. "Now that this 'lesson seven' is over, it's time to go inside and get cleaned up. You've all got dirt and ice cream all over yourselves."
With another yank, Bell-mere pulled Nami towards the house. "See? Follow Miss Nami."
The children began filing towards the house and though Nami knew it was a bad idea to go in there, she caught sight of Sabo as she was towed in and knew that it was probably safer inside. Sabo looked livid as he checked the cars for survivors. Judging by how few people were outside the cars and standing, not that many.
Nami was carted into the house and towards the bathroom. Bell-mere pushed her in and addressed the children that had followed. "I'm going to help Miss Nami clean up. Then we'll get all of you in order. Get in a line, and we'll get you cleaned up in turn, okay?"
The kids looked at Nami expectantly. And just what was she going to say? No? Fat chance. Nami smiled and waved, and the children began to form a line. Bell-mere walked into the bathroom too and closed the door, locking it behind her. She then turned on the water faucet full blast.
"We've got about thirty seconds before those kids get suspicious. So spill it, Nami," Bell-mere commanded. "What the fuck just happened?"
Nami knew what the right choice was: to lie to her mother. To put on the brave face and assure her that nothing was wrong. To calm her worries and take a step back from her to keep her safe.
Nami had never been good at making the right life choices.
Tears dribbled down her eyes and she scrubbed at them angrily, embarrassed to be crying in front of her mother like a little girl. But so much had happened in the last two days—Nami was at her breaking point.
"I—I think I may have killed Smoker," Nami admitted. "And Crocodile, he's the head of the orphanage, he was going to use the children as shields against the Dragon's Brood—he's an assassin and a part of the Shichibukai. And I didn't know what was going to happen to all those people out there, I just wanted the children safe."
Bell-mere handed her a tissue. "Okay. You may have…killed Chaser. Fine. We'll deal with this one step at a time. Firstly, you were right: the children need to be safe. Chaser would have wanted that too. We're going to keep them here until this is over. But you got to pull it together. You go out there and they see you a mess like this, they're going to panic. You need to be strong for them."
"I'm so tired of being strong for other people," Nami whimpered, trying to calm herself.
"I know, you've done it for so long that it isn't fair anymore," Bell-mere agreed. "Just through this, I promise. We'll make it through this and everything will be better. I promise."
Nami nodded, turning and washing her face in the cold water of the running faucet. It cleared her head a little bit. Belle-mere gave her a once-over.
"You ready?"Bell-mere asked. Nami nodded and opened the door, believing she could face the kids now.
It turns out that she did not have the composure to face Sabo. He was standing inches from the doorway and grabbed her immediately. He threw her over his shoulder and stomped towards the door.
"Hey!" Bell-mere yelled, but was ignored. Nami caught sight of Mako, and saw that what Bell-mere had said was true; she looked panicked.
Nami grabbed the frame of the doorway, stopping Sabo short for a moment.
"You all stay here with Bell-mere until I get back," she ordered sternly. "And don't you dare leave with anyone else but me. Understood?"
The faces of the children became more calm and Nami let go of the doorway frame. Sabo resumed his trek and soon she was on the sidewalk again. More cars had shown up and Sabo carried her to the nearest one and all but threw her into the back seat. He was in next and the car was moving.
"You better have some good fuckin' words to say right this minute," Sabo warned her. "Or my boss is going to skin you alive, followed directly by me."
Nami adjusted painfully in the seat. "What can I say that's going to help?"
Sabo pulled a gun and pointed it at her forehead. "Anything you think that would inspire me not to splatter your brains on the upholstery."
Nami's chest twinged. He was beyond mad. She had angered him to the point that he was ready to kill her.
"I didn't know that this would happen," she told him honestly. "I just wanted to get the kids away from the orphanage. Crocodile planned on using them as shields. I didn't know what he was planning, or what a lesson seven was until the kids got down on the ground. I'm sorry."
The gun in Sabo's hand was shaking. "That was shitty. I should blast your brains out."
Sabo put the gun away.
"Instead, I'm going to use you as collateral against the man who beat you into that state," Sabo lamented. "It was him, wasn't it? Crocodile? He beat you up like that?"
Nami nodded.
"Fuck," he cursed under his breath. "If we get out of this alive, I'm taking you far away from the East Blue. Somewhere that yakuzas and assassins can't find you."
"I would tell you that it's impossible," Nami said, "but last time I told you that, you proved me wrong."
Sabo sat back in his seat and Nami looked out the window as they headed back to the orphanage. She couldn't help but notice the small deer running down the street.
"I can't believe it," she muttered, climbing across the seat and rolling down the window. "Chopper!"
Chopper stopped, looked around and spotted her, and began running after the car.
"Stop the car, please?" Nami asked.
"No can do," Sabo told her. "My ass is already in trouble for the ice cream stunt. You're not getting anymore favors from me."
Shit. She leaned out the window and yelled back to Chopper. "We're headed to the orphanage. Meet us there!"
"Who the hell are you talking to?" Sabo asked, looking out the back window. "Are you seriously talking to a deer? Why is there a wild deer in the road anyway? How did it get this far into town?"
Nami didn't bother answering. She leaned over the front seat and turned on the radio, much to the displeasure of the men up there. She tuned station to 88.75 MHz and listened. It was dead silent.
Nami tried to not think about Smoker being dead in that office. She thought about where Crocodile might be. Would he meet them head on at the orphanage? It didn't seem like his style.
"Something's not right," Nami deduced. She looked at Sabo. "When I left, Crocodile was hunkering down for a fight. Now the office is silent. I don't think he's there anymore."
Sabo eyed her suspiciously. "I can't trust anything you say, you know."
"I know," she agreed. "But what I am saying is that if I took away all of the children, it's only Crocodile's assassins left in that building."
"So?" Sabo posed.
"So," Nami replied, "we could torch the place and the only lives lost will be those that aren't worth saving anyway."
"Look, I get it, I blew up a building," Sabo grumbled. "That's no reason to keep shoving it in my face—"
"I'm serious," Nami interrupted. "I'd light the fire, if you'd give me your Zippo."
Sabo eyed her suspiciously again. "You'd make an enemy of Crocodile."
"Does it look like I'm his friend?" Nami rebuttaled, gesturing to her bruised self. "If this is friendship, give me a match so I can burn the place to the ground."
Finally, Sabo cracked a smile. "My boss really does want to skin you alive."
"Hopefully this will redeem me," Nami said. She paused, steadying herself. "How many of your men died because of me today?"
Sabo eyed her carefully. "You mean aside from that poor kid scooping ice cream?"
Nami flinched. Yes, that blood was definitely on her hands.
"Just two. My men in the first two cars," Sabo answered. "The rest got out of the cars in time."
Nami sighed deeply. Just two. That wasn't so bad. But still, two more lives that were lost because of her.
"What were their names?" she asked quietly.
"Why the fuck do you care?" asked one of the two men in the front seat. He was glaring at her in the rearview mirror. "You're just some stupid whore that can't keep her ass outta trouble and—"
"Bunny-Joe," Sabo interrupted. "That's enough. Everyone just shut the fuck up. We're almost there."
It was true. They were just a block away from the orphanage. Nami looked behind them to see that Chopper had, not surprisingly, not kept pace with the car. He was nowhere in sight.
In retrospect, that might be a good thing. Nami didn't know what to expect when they rolled up to the orphanage. It could have been another barrage of bullets. But once again they were met with silence.
"You're getting out first," Sabo told her. "If they don't put bullets in you, then I'll get out behind you."
Nami sighed, knowing that she deserved to be on the end of a flying bullet, but also irritated to be used as a shield against her will. But Sabo looked like he was having a hard time of it, so she cracked open the door to the car and cautiously stepped out. No bullets came flying.
Easing her way out of the car, she looked around the orphanage more closely and saw the Millions and Billions positioned in every window as well as on the roof. They were ready for retaliation.
Behind her, Sabo stepped carefully out of the car. He stood behind her, crouched somewhat, definitely using her as a shield. She wasn't surprised when she felt the muzzle of a gun at the side of her head. This was his plan after all; to use her as a tool for bartering.
"Yo," Sabo called out loudly. "Bring that shitty-ass assassin you call a boss out here now, or he'll be watching his precious little whore here have her brains splattered against the sidewalk."
Though what he said wasn't wrong, Nami still felt a pang in her chest at being called a whore by him.
"Sorry," he muttered under his breath.
"Boss said to go ahead and off her," someone yelled. "He said he's done with her anyway."
"That's a lie," Nami murmured. "He wouldn't kill one of the Joker's possessions without risking a retaliation worse than yours."
Sabo was silent for a moment. "You belong to the Joker now?"
Oops. Nami felt a chill go through her and settle in her stomach. She hadn't meant to tell anyone that. She remained silent, hoping that Sabo would ignore that fact for the moment and focus on what he was doing. She was disappointed.
"Holy fuck, are you one unlucky girl," he muttered. He then addressed the Millions and Billions. "You sure? Okay then."
He pushed Nami forward a few steps and moved the muzzle of the gun from the side of her head to the back of her head. She heard the gun cock and squeezed her eyes shut. With a loud bang, the gun went off right next to her ear. She could only hear ringing on that side of her head for a few seconds, but she was surprised she could hear anything. She was pulled roughly back to the other side of the car as the bullets began firing and she fell to the ground as soon as she was under cover. Trying to regain her bearings, Nami blinked a couple times and saw that Sabo, Bunny-Joe, and the other man who had been driving were all firing back at the Millions and Billions.
"Fuck, Sabo, what were you aiming at?" the unnamed man asked as he emptied a clip at the orphanage.
"The goddamn gas meter," Sabo answered. "I guess my aim is off."
Nami looked at Sabo more carefully; his black jacket was wet on one side. She got up onto her knees and felt the jacket's wet spot. Her hand came back red.
"When did you get shot?" Nami asked, drawing the attention of the other two.
"At the drive by," Sabo answered irritably. "It's just a flesh wound."
"This is too much blood for a flesh wound," Nami contradicted, yanking on his jacket roughly so he was pulled down to his knees as well. "Let me see it."
"It's fine," Sabo insisted. But even as he said it, she could see that his face was pale. She'd seen it before, but attributed it to the adrenaline rush of the drive by. But now she could see he was in bad shape.
"Shit," she hissed. She looked at the other two. "How many rounds do you have left?"
Bunny-Joe was most likely never going to answer her, but the other guy did. "Probably two clips each."
"That isn't going to take care of the Millions and Billions," Nami predicted. She hazarded a glance at the orphanage, where most of the firing had stopped. She saw that the assassins were still in the windows and on the roof, but for whatever reason, they had stopped firing as well.
And then she smelled it.
"Do you smell that?" she asked. "Sabo, I don't think you missed the gas line."
Sabo, looking exhausted and sweating quite a bit, dug into his pocket and handed her his Zippo. "Do you think you can toss it close enough to light it?"
Nami took the Zippo and quickly kissed him on the cheek. "I promise I won't miss."
She then looked at the other two. "Make it look believable that I'm trying to escape."
"You aren't going anywhere," Bunny-Joe predicted, making a grab at her. She skirted around the other side of him and dashed around the side of the car.
She ran full on towards the orphanage, hoping no one took a shot at her, but also betting they wouldn't. If she could smell the leaking being a good fifteen meters from the orphanage, then those inside and on top of the orphanage could definitely smell it. She ran for the front door of the orphanage, gripping the Zippo tightly in her hand. She had to be very close in order for this to work, but that also scared her.
As soon as she was a mere two meters from the door, she flicked the Zippo and tossed it in the direction of the cracked gas pipe. She dove to the side of the front steps, hoping for cover. She did get cover from the explosion, but not the debris.
The explosion itself was small, but still caused its fair share of damage. Bits of bricks went flying everywhere and glass shattered, all raining down on Nami. She counted herself lucky though, because when she pushed away the debris and looked up, the front of the orphanage was on fire.
She was also unlucky because the car out front that she had come in took off in a squeal of tires. Though dismayed, Nami hoped that it was taking Sabo to the nearest hospital. But that still left her without any type of protection or getaway. She eyed Smoker's car momentarily; she didn't know how to drive, but she knew the mechanics of it…
It was a long way between where she sat hunkered down and the car though. If anyone had seen her throw the Zippo, she was going to be an easy target. But she needn't have worried. The shooters on the roof and in the windows began shooting at the street again. This time at Chopper.
Nami had forgotten about the poor little deer momentarily. She stole out from her cover and ran toward Smoker's car. She made it without being shot and dove into the driver's seat. She eyed Chopper to make sure the deer had not been shot down and saw that he was skittering around nervously, hiding behind things that did not conceal his entire body again.
Checking the visors for spare keys, Nami found a set of keys and started the car. Immediately, the bullets came her way. Thank fuck Smoker was a former detective and had bullet resistant glass put in. But that didn't stop the windshield from cracking in a spider web formation. She threw the car in reverse and almost instantaneously hit another vehicle in the lot.
"How the fuck does Smoker make this look so easy?" she complained aloud as she switched to drive and made her way out of the lot in a line that was not straight at all. She pulled up next to where Chopper was hiding badly and rolled down the window. "Get in!"
The deer was in before she finished speaking. She slammed her foot on the gas and nearly hit the telephone pole that Chopper had been hiding behind, narrowly swerving to miss it. She tried to drive in a straight line but with all the cracks in the windshield, she couldn't see where she was going very well.
"Damn it, I can't see!" she hissed, barely missing a lookie-loo pedestrian who had been trying to see what the commotion was. Chopper plodded around in the passenger seat until he was facing the back and kicked out hard with his back legs. The windshield dislodged and fell onto the hood of the car. Nami slammed on the breaks in surprise and the windshield went sliding off the hood.
"Uh, thanks," Nami said as Chopper readjusted in the seat.
"The school!" Chopper burst out at her.
Nami tried to concentrate on the road but she was startled a bit to hear Chopper speak again. So she hadn't been delusional about that. Well shit.
"What about the school?" Nami asked, starting to get the hang of driving. Stopping was still another story.
"He went to the school!" Chopper told her, shaking with the news.
"Who went to the school?" Nami inquired, not following the deer's train of thought.
"Crocodile. And the Weekdays and Numbers," Chopper divulged. "They said he was going to finish up their mission at the school."
Nami processed that for a moment. What was left to be done at the school? As far as Crocodile knew, the Nefeltari heir had never gone to that school to begin with. That was what she and Vivi had reported. If he was going back to the school, that meant something else was happening that she didn't know about.
"Ugh, I can't think!" Nami groaned as she drove back to her mother's house. It was the only place she could think to go. She saw a slew of officers blocking off her street and kept on driving to the next block. She parked the car in an empty lot and turned it off. She got out and looked at Chopper.
"I honestly don't know what to do," she told him unsteadily. "This is the only place I can think of that you might be safe. I'm going to tell my mom that you're a pet from the orphanage and that—that—fuck, I don't know!"
Nami grabbed her head in confusion. "I just don't know what to do anymore."
Chopper sat in the seat of the car and watched her have her second melt down of the day.
"Can I just give up?" Nami asked, plopping back down into the driver's seat again. She looked at Chopper desperately. "Can I just start this car and drive until I run out of road and say to hell with it to everything I know?"
Chopper didn't answer her. He instead looked past her and tried to use her as a hiding spot again. Nami recognized this behavior and turned to see Law approaching the car. He looked pissed. Great.
"Where the fuck you been?" Law demanded. "You're supposed to stay with me. I swear that yellow-haired guy was going to put a bullet in you when he left with you."
Nami sighed. "I was taken back to the orphanage."
Law made an on-with-it gesture, indicating he wanted a further explanation.
"They took me back to the orphanage and tried using me as a bargaining tool," Nami told him. "It didn't work. They said that as far as Crocodile was concerned, the Dragon's Brood could just shoot me."
"I see no bullet holes in you," Law observed. "And this isn't the car you left in."
"I got ditched at the orphanage after I blew a hole in it," Nami snapped. "I had to steal Smoker's car. It's not like he'll be missing it anyways."
Law leaned down on his haunches so he was eye level with her. He looked even more pissed. "You blew a hole in Crocodile's orphanage? Are you stupid?"
"No, but I figured our alliance was over the minute I was left to the wolves," Nami returned. "Did I mistake that?"
Law sighed deeply. "No. But I wish I could have been there for some of these decisions. I am not too keen on taking on Crocodile just the two of us."
Nami laid her head back on the headrest. "No one said you had to help me."
Law snorted. "Yeah, sure. You against an entire assassination organization. You'll be fine."
"Maybe I'll just drive this thing off the bridge at Tequila Wolf and do the job for myself," Nami hissed, starting the car and jamming it into gear.
Law was pretty quick to shove his upper body into the open driver's side door and yank her hand off of the gear shift, but the car was moving and he slid out of the open door with nothing to hold onto. Nami put both hands on the wheel and floored the gas, letting the centrifugal force close the door. Poor little Chopper fell into the back seat as Nami took off down the street at a mad pace. In the rearview, she could see Law running behind her, but he'd never keep up.
The more she drove, the better she got. Stopping was getting better too. It was less of a jerking stop now. But it didn't matter. She was going to drop Chopper off at Ussop's place since it was close to the school and then she would be headed there herself.
"Nami?" Chopper asked from the back seat, his voice quivering. "What are you doing?"
"I'm taking you somewhere you'll be safe," she answered. She pulled up in front of Ussop's house and parked the car. She then got out and held the door open. "Come on Chopper."
Chopper looked hesitant. He slowly climbed back into the front seat and out of the open door. He dropped his head low, as if he were afraid of retaliation.
"It's fine, Chopper," Nami assured him. "You're going to be safe here."
She led the little deer up to the front door of Ussop's house and she knocked fiercely. It took a few moments, but Ussop came to the door. He went wide eyed at the sight of her.
"Nami! What happ—" he began.
"No time for explanations," Nami interrupted. "I need you to do something for me, but you can't ask why. I hate to be the kind of person who calls in favors, but I did your ass a favor when we fought the Black Cat Gang and took a knife in the hand for you. I need you to pay me back."
Ussop was quiet for a moment, looking between her and Chopper, whose rear end was sticking out as he hid behind her. "How?"
"I need you to keep Chopper safe," Nami stated, stepping to the side and revealing Chopper. "He's a good little deer that belongs to the school nurse and he doesn't belong with the likes of me."
Even though she told him he couldn't, he still asked. "Why?"
"Because I'm going to go do something very bad," Nami answered. "And he shouldn't be around me when I do it."
"What are you going to do, Nami?" Ussop asked, sounding more serious than she was used to. He was starting to get that same gleam in his eye that Luffy got whenever he was gearing up to protect someone he cared about.
"Never mind that," Nami dismissed. She gestured to the deer at her feet. "His name is Chopper and he's a sweet little guy. Just please, take care of him."
Nami pushed Chopper's rear end into the house around Ussop. Chopper reluctantly went, whining pitifully.
"Nami, tell me," Ussop insisted as she descended the steps. "What are you going to do?"
Nami walked to the car and popped open the door. When she looked back at Ussop, he was not alone. Of course, Zoro, Sanji and Luffy were there too. She smiled and waived.
"I'm going to go kill our principal," she answered, and climbed into the car. She shut the door and started the car, shifting it into drive.
She was startled when Zoro slid across the hood and landed on the other side of the car. He popped open the passenger door and took a seat. Nami looked at him in disbelief.
"I'm going too," he said in explanation. "I know what that fucker has done, and he has it coming. But if you think that you're going to make it to him without having to go through a ton of other fuckers first, you're dumb."
At her hesitation, the rest of the car was filled. Sanji, Luffy and Ussop all packed into the back seat. Nami looked in the rearview at the trio and put the car in park again.
"No, absolutely not! Get out of the car! All of you!" she shouted.
Sanji lit a cigarette and looked her dead in the eyes. "You have no right to tell us what we can and cannot do."
Nami felt her third meltdown coming on. She didn't want to drag them into this, but here they were, volunteering for the slaughter. She doubted knowing what they were up against would change any of their minds, but she tried anyway.
"This is a suicide mission," she stated baldly. "I'm going to face the mastermind of a bunch of professionally trained assassins. This isn't a joke."
No one looked like they weren't taking her seriously.
Nami's stomach dropped. She heard a scraping at her door and turned to see Chopper sitting next to the door, looking both pathetic and as though he wanted to go too. Nami felt something inside of her snap and she closed her eyes for a moment before popping open the door. Chopper clumsily climbed across her to sit in between herself and Zoro.
"Fine. We all can die if you want," she muttered, pulling the door shut and shifting the car into gear again. "I don't care anymore."
With that, Nami stomped on the gas and headed for the school.
A/N: I've been slacking lately with updates, and I do apologize for that. I will strive to do better in the future. Let me know if you're still with me on this journey.