Riot Act: reading someone the riot act. There were actual historical Riot Acts (1714 & 1715.) If twelve or more people were illegally gathered together, an official was required to read the Riot Act to them. It was like a warning shot across the bow to get them to break up and leave. If they didn't, there could be serious consequences. Contagious Diseases Prevention Act (1864:) This was a law enforced against women who were suspected of having sexually transmitted diseases/infections. Officials (police primarily) were allowed to force women to undergo involuntary genital examinations. Prison time was the punishment for refusal. peeler: slang for police constable. Comes from Sir Robert Peel. He founded the Metropolitan Police Service in 1829 in London. blootered: drunk or heavily intoxicated

Chapter Text

Zoro took a drink of his porter. He hated meeting at Nami's even though he knew it made sense. He made sure to take the back door, where deliveries were made, embarrassed to be seen entering the place even though it was well known he was not a customer there.

The Celestial Empire pretended to be a salon, a meeting place for discussing politics and art. Nami served drinks and ostensibly sold newspapers.

The drinks were free and the periodicals went unread. The young women sitting posed in the second hand chairs would cost, however, and they would not go ignored.

He watched one of Nami's girls walk past, wearing a dark blue satin robe that was meant to look like a kimono.

Zoro would have been offended, but the girl couldn't know any better. Her whole world had never been wider than eight city blocks.

And she didn't look any older than sixteen. Her face was still too soft and unformed. She couldn't be fully done growing yet but soon enough, she would be far older than she had any right to be.

At least she was well fed. And, Zoro had to admit, Nami was quick to intervene if she thought any of the customers were handling her girls too rough. At least, she had hired men who would do that on her behalf.

Another reminder of how Nami took care of those working for her shuffled across Zoro's view.

It was Dr. Hogback, letting his walking cane hit the ground with a heavy thud at each step. Zoro didn't care for the man and he knew many others shared his opinion.

He was an off-putting bastard, too arrogant for a man who had officially lost his license to practice.

Nami swore by him, however. Perhaps she was right. Her house had a reputation for having the cleanest girls in White Chapel.

Despite Nami making certain the women working for her had food, protection, and medical care, none of it sat right with Zoro. It wasn't just the arguments over the ones that looked too young, the ones he knew Nami charged double for because it was their first time.

"It'll happen either way," she'd argue. "At least it will be on a comfortable bed with someone I can choose for her."

And just because what Nami said was the truth, it didn't mean Zoro had to like it. These girls felt lucky to be here only because elsewhere was so much worse.

It wasn't a dark, piss smelling alley. It wasn't a windowless one room apartment that they had to shoo their children out of first. It wasn't a stained mattress behind a factory door, below the windows where anyone could watch.

The Celestial Empire looked like paradise to compared to all of that, but in Zoro's eyes, it was just a sanitized version of hell.

Not that he believed in god or heaven or any afterlife. His idea of hell was not having a choice about his fate. And he knew Nami's girls, no matter how lucky they might feel, did not grow up wishing to be prostitutes.

It was a job taken up by necessity, so that they could eat, so they could sleep with a roof over their heads, so that they could drink away the shakes that came with too much drinking and then not enough.

He wondered if that little girl, the one who tried to pickpocket the Paradise lady, if her mother was on the streets now.

He wondered if the little girl would end up there as well in a few years.

"Zoro!"

Looking up, some of his melancholy mood lifted. Luffy waved at him, his arm shaking back and forth like the world's happiest dog, as if they hadn't just seen each other earlier that morning.

Zoro lifted his glass of beer, unable to help the smile that came to his lips. "Aye."

Luffy pushed back his titular straw hat. His hair was a messy shock of loose curls badly in need of a wash. Nami would have something to say about it. She always did.

He took the chair next to Zoro, moving it closer. Luffy had always been one for physical contact but seemed to need it even more ever since his brother had been hanged at Newgate.

Shame creeped into Zoro's belly. He would never let Luffy down again. All he had managed to do for Ace was make sure his close cell mates were the decent sort. That, and one last bottle of gin.

He couldn't even be certain that made it past the guards, however.

"Where's Nami?" Luffy asked as he wrapped a wiry arm around Zoro's.

Zoro switched his beer to his other hand. "She'll be down." He took a drink. "One of the girls, I think she got too drunk last night. Nami is reading her the Riot Act right now."

"She must be worried about her," Luffy responded, rubbing the side of his face against Zoro's arm.

"You mean, she's worried about her money," answered Zoro.

Luffy spoke into his arm. "Zoro knows that's not true."

"Zoro knows it's partially true," he snipped back, but Luffy just laughed and he must have meant it, because Zoro could feel his warm breath even through his coat.

A fake cough cut short Luffy's laughter. Nami was standing in the entryway.

Looking at the proper way she was dressed, Nami could pass for any of the real ladies drinking tea at Twinings. "What's so funny? I thought we were here to discuss a matter of life and death."

"We are," Zoro responded. He set his glass down harder on the table than necessary.

Nami made a dismissive noise. "Don't be an asshole. I got up early this meeting." She looked at Luffy. "When's the last time you bathed?"

Zoro felt Luffy shrug, unbothered. He couldn't say the same. Just being here bothered him, never mind Nami's teasing. "You know I wouldn't ask to meet unless it was important, you greedy witch."

Nami feigned being hurt by his insult and took a seat at the table. "Is this about the dead prostitutes?"

"You know it was more than one then?" Zoro shouldn't have been surprised. Nami had all the right coppers on her payroll. She never got raided and her girls never got inspected, not even by Vergo.

"Of course I do! And as touched as I am by your concern, I already hired another guard even though it's probably a waste of money. The bastard isn't going to come here. He's going after girls out there on their own."

"I asked Kidd to meet with me tonight," interrupted Luffy. "Maybe his guys could help with night patrols?"

Zoro nodded, liking where Luffy's mind was going. "That's not a bad idea, if he'll go for it. But he's going to want to know what's in it for him."

"Tell Kidd he could teach the constables how to do their damn jobs," offered Nami. "They spend far too much time drinking and too little keeping the bad ones off the streets."

Zoro made a point of quaffing down the rest of his beer in two large gulps while looking directly at her.

"Sometimes the peelers are the bad ones. But not Zoro. And not Coby. You know that, Nami." Luffy turned his attention to Zoro. "Kidd watches out for his men and his men's people. Plus, he hates hypochondriacs - "

"Do you mean hypocrites?" suggested Nami.

"Yeah, that! People are saying it might be a police officer, that's why Vergo's covering it up or - "

"It might be a noble, or somebody else with money," interrupted Zoro. "I talked to somebody yesterday and he swears he heard a carriage leaving the night Clara was murdered."

This caught Nami's attention. "Who? Was he sober?"

Embarrassed, Zoro shrugged and shook his head. "Does it matter? And he was sober enough." He didn't like the way Nami's eyes squinted as she looked at him, like she could see inside his head and read his poorly hidden thoughts.

"Don't tell me! Your witness is Gaimon? That little old drunk who lives in a box?" She held her stomach as she laughed.

"Even blootered, his ears still work," Zoro groused.

"Sure. I'm just surprised you're pointing fingers at the well-to-do. I heard all about the Daughters of Paradise and how you came to their rescue. You didn't do yourself any favors, you know that?" Nami was grinning at him, happy to watch him squirm. "Your brave rescue didn't have anything to do with the pretty blonde - "

Fortunately, Luffy rescued him from wherever Nami was going with her teasing. "Zoro was smart. They would have busted heads if those ladies got hurt. And they wouldn't care whose head they cracked open, big ones or little ones."

There was no need to say who Luffy meant by they and it was enough to remove the smile from Nami's face.

"True enough," she agreed. "It doesn't mean everyone else is going to see it like that."

"No," said Zoro. "What's done is done. I'd do it the same way if I had to." He felt Luffy patting his back, too roughly but Zoro knew it was his way of showing how much he cared.

Zoro pushed off from the table and pulling his arm out of Luffy's grip. "Well, since you seem to know everything already, I'm getting out of here. Just - " Zoro put his hands together and cracked his knuckles, a nervous habit he picked up walking his beat. "Just maybe put your girls on a curfew. Don't let them run any errands at night, not until we catch this monster."

"I don't know which is softer, your head or your heart. But fine, I'll lock them down. Besides, if they don't get their beauty sleep, I can't keep my prices up." Nami looked over at Luffy. "Are you meeting Kidd alone? I don't think that's a good idea."

"I'm not worried about Jaggy," Luffy waved his hand. "But Jinbei is coming with me."

"Good," nodded Zoro. After his last release from Newgate, Jinbei retired from the life but his name still carried much respect. Zoro could trust Luffy's safety with him.

Luffy stood up too. "I'm hungry. I'm going to Hatchan's. You want to come?"

"It's a little early for sprats." Before Luffy could protest that it was never too early for fried food, Zoro followed up. "Hell, why not? I'm going to eat at some point today. It might as well be now."

"Like, I said. Soft head and soft heart. Now both of you out, You're bad for business." Nami made a show of pretending to push them out.

And as Zoro was leaving, he saw the girl in the fake blue kimono again, lounging on a divan.

There were bruises on her ankles.

Whatever appetite he may have had, suddenly fled.