A big favor is asked of Nami, but even if she wants to, is the cost of delivering on it simply too much?

"Well, aren't you at least going to come out here and show me how you look," called Nojiko from the front room.

"I guess..." replied an unenthusiastic Nami from the hallway where she stood before the only full-length mirror in the house. A few moments later, the recently turned fourteen-year-old shuffled out to present herself.

"Oooh, nice," smiled the lavender-headed girl, admiring the ensemble, "Very sophisticated."

She stood up and walked in a slow circle around her younger sibling. "And is that a bra you're wearing, Nami? I'm so proud of you!"

"Aw, shut up," Nami crossed her arms, "I've only just gotten big enough boobs to fit into a bra!"

"I don't know about that," laughed Nojiko, "You've had a jiggle to your walk for a while now."

"Anyway," the other girl rolled her eyes, "I needed some older-looking clothes if I want to be taken seriously by pirates - nobody wants a little girl in a sun dress on their crew."

"What pirates are you trying to impress," Nojiko raised an eyebrow.

"The ones with lots of loot," she put her thumb to her index finger and stuck out her tongue.

"Well, just make sure they don't want you as a wench rather than a crewmate," advised Nojiko.

"I don't care either way," shrugged Nami, "whatever gets me to their money."

"Don't say that so flippantly," her elder sister scolded her. "Still, I'm surprised you're not more excited about new clothes; you usually love buying them."

Nami sighed, "Eh. I guess I'm just tired from my trip."

"Well, I've got your laundry ready to go," Nojiko pointed to the basket of neatly folded and stacked garments.

"Thanks! Do you mind if I also take a bath before I go?"

000

Nami stepped out freshly bathed and carrying her bundle of laundry down the front path. Her stomach churned at the thought of having to return to Arlong Park - especially now when she knew that Aka-Mushi would not be there. The burden suddenly seemed unbearable without his simple presence as a point of light in her otherwise dreary existence as Arlong's prisoner.

More than anything, she longed to believe he'd somehow survived the Calm Belt and made it back to the Grand Line. Maybe she'd even see him again someday. According to Arlong and the others, Aka-Mushi had left to find a former comrade of theirs in the hopes he'd help overthrow Arlong (because of course he'd do something so reckless, the big dummy!) but none of them had witnessed his actual demise. Therefore, she still had a shred of hope to cling to.

While Nami had no reason to doubt their story, she still couldn't believe that any former comrade of Arlong's (even an enemy) would give the slightest fig about what the sawshark did to the inhabitants of a few small islands in East Blue. Not even the Navy cared enough to lift a finger for them. The world was a very big and dangerous place full of important people who simply couldn't be bothered with the troubles of one small...

The girl suddenly froze and turned sharply toward a rustle from the trees. She saw a head of dark hair dart quickly toward the woods. Nami shot after it, dropping her laundry on the ground.

"Hey!" She shouted at the retreating figure.

Through the palms and shrubs, she saw the long-haired individual slowly come to a stop. The woman turned to face Nami.

"Who are you and what the hell are you doing, sneaking around here," demanded the young pirate.

"We've met before," replied the other, taking a step toward her, "I saw your boat docked down at the pier and wanted to see if you lived here."

"What business do you have with me? I don't know you," quipped Nami.

"Look, I'm sorry for spying, but I wanted to talk to you; I have for a while now."

"WHO ARE YOU," shouted Nami with growing impatience.

"I'm - I'm," the flustered woman struggled with her words, "you've seen me at Arlong Park before - at that party they had a while back...I was also there that one other night too."

Nami frowned thoughtfully for a moment, her eyes then widened in realization. "You're that woman from Gosa Village!"

"I am from Gosa," she affirmed.

"Okay. But I can't imagine what you'd want to talk to me about."

"Well, I'm just wondering what sort of miraculously dumb luck you must have, seeing as the last time I saw you, you were standing over Arlong with a knife, and yet here you are - still breathing."

"Yeah, no thanks to you."

The woman's admittedly beautiful features hardened. "If you'd actually stabbed him, we might both be dead right now!"

The teenager crossed her arms. "What exactly do you want?"

"First of all, I want to understand what you're up to," the woman said bluntly. "Everyone knows you joined his crew for the money, so then why would you turn around and attack him like that?"

"What's it to you," shrugged Nami, "you writing a book or something?"

The Gosa villager sighed as if she were dealing with a very young, very stupid child, and Nami imagined setting her long silken hair on fire. "No, but how do you manage to get away with it? Does he not know what you tried to do? I'm asking because you seem to have some sort of sway over him."

"Well, I'm definitely not going to bed with him," snapped the girl.

She watched the barb hit home; the woman flinched before quickly firing back, "Where do you get off judging me? I only spent one night with him - you're worse than a whore, you traitor! I don't expect you to understand, but I have three children to feed, and my husband died from injuries after fighting those monsters when they first took over! I'm desperate - that's the only reason I'm talking to you!"

It was Nami's turn to flinch. She regarded the woman more closely, noting the wild, hungry look in her pale eyes, framed by her long, purple-black hair. Being well acquainted with desperation, she could spot it as easily as a cold sore on the pretty face.

"Okay. I'm sorry," the deflated teen stated flatly. "What do you want? Money?"

"That's only a temporary fix," rasped the woman in a voice hoarse with unshed tears.

"Well, that's all I have!"

"I recently sent my kids to live in the orphanage in Cocoyasi Village because I couldn't afford to pay for them and myself anymore. Now I can manage the tribute a little better, but I wish I were dead! I can't stand the thought of them being stuck in there - they don't understand. They think I abandoned them!" Her voice broke as she went on. "What's worse, they'll probably be split up and adopted to outside families and we'll never see each other again!"

Nami's stomach clenched as she watched the woman finally burst into tears. She remembered all too painfully her own tearful reaction when Dr. Nako told her and Nojiko that they'd have to abandon Belle-Mere and their home because their foster mother couldn't afford to pay their survival money. Simultaneously, she recalled the story of how fiercely Belle-Mere resisted the pressure to put she and Nojiko in the orphanage when they were little.

"I know it's hard," Nami swallowed, "But you still have to hold out hope and tell your kids to do the same - just keep surviving and better times will come."

The woman stopped and stared at her as if she were a lunatic. "Is that what you believe?"

"Yeah."

"But obviously you also believe that in order for anything to happen, you need to do more than just 'hope'; that's why you were holding that knife back then."

"What exactly are you getting at?" Nami's brow furrowed.

"I'm asking - no I'm begging for you to help me make a deal with Arlong so that my kids can live with me again! I'm willing to do anything!" She took several steps toward the girl before falling to the ground in front of her. "Please. Please. Please!"

"Stop that already," the disturbed surveyor demanded, "I can't make Arlong do anything - no one can! I don't have any power to help you - I'm sorry."

Slowly, the tousled Gosanite sat up, her once pretty face now glistening with snot and tears. "Are you saying you aren't even willing to try and help us," she sniffed.

"I don't even know what I'd say to him. Just because I'm alive after sneaking into his room with a knife doesn't mean he listens to me - all the more reason for him not to! And the same goes for you! Don't expect Arlong to help you, in fact, stay as far away from him as possible from now on. The only thing that can persuade him is money."

Watching as the wretched woman struggled to compose herself, Nami reached inside her shirt, pulled out a roll of bills and laid it on the ground in front of her. "One last thing - DO NOT EVER come around here again!"

000

By the time she reached The Park, Nami's already dark mood was as black as it could get. The crew by comparison, was surprisingly mellow as she passed through the gate. Many sat leisurely around the compound as the sun slowly sank, drinking and singing while Pisaro played a shanty on his squeeze box. The girl meandered across the walkway to find Taka and Shioyaki sitting on either side of a barrel with their legs dangling into the pool. Gaylord, the eel-man swam up and was handed a mug.

Intrigued, Nami abruptly took a detour from her intended course, walking up to the barrel and the fishmen.

Taka lowered his own mug after a long swig. He turned to give her a once-over, "You gonna drink with us tonight, Nami?"

"Yeah, I think I will."

"Well, grab a draft," he replied.

She took her beer off to a secluded corner of the courtyard where she could sit silently with her thoughts. After sipping and staring blankly out across the wide East Blue for several long minutes, Nami found her psyche still circling the drain. Finishing the last of her draft, she thought another might help slow the spiral. She got up for a refill only to find, upon her return, Kuroobi and Hachi settled into the previously empty area.

Her eyes met those of the octopus-man as Hachi raised two of his three right arms. "Welcome back Nami!"

Glancing behind her, she spotted Arlong emerging from the cellar carrying two large casks on either of his shoulders. She turned back toward the officers, deciding she'd rather deal with them, and with a curt nod, sat down several paces away to imbibe her second mug.

"Looks like we're going to get some storms tonight," mused Hachi to no one in particular after a long pause.

Nami gave the overcast sky a brief glance before returning to her cup. "No, we won't. It's going to blow out to sea." She heard Kuroobi scoff.

"You think you know everything," he sneered.

She cut her eyes at him. "You think I'm wrong?"

"I think you make up more than half of what you say," maintained the ray-man.

"Then, maybe you'd like to make a bet."

"That's another thing," declared Kuroobi, slamming his mug down with a slosh, "everything's always about money with you!"

"You're just now realizing that?" She rolled her eyes.

"Nyu, if we're betting, I'd like to get in on this."

"We're not!"

Nami gazed moodily again at the sky, "No, the weather's easy to figure out. It's people who are the mystery." She glanced back to see both of them staring at her.

"Except for you guys, of course. You're as simple as they come," she smirked.

Kuroobi returned the smirk. "Why don't you figure out what I'm thinking right now, then."

She took another long drag from her cup, "Hmm...probably something like: ' I'm Kuroobi. I hate humans. And even though I'm a level 40 black belt in fishman karate, Arlong never listens to me!'"

Hachi chuckled, "That's pretty good!"

Kuroobi, however, lunged at Nami faster than she could even perceive his movements. He halted mere inches from her face, crouching over her like a sharp-finned oni. She reflexively flinched from him, heart thudding in her chest as she stared back into his fierce round eyes.

"I suggest you don't laugh at my level 40 black belt - because being on the receiving end of it is no laughing matter." Nami gulped as, abruptly, he straightened up and strode off toward the entrance of the fort.

"What a sensitive jerk," she muttered into her mug once she'd regained her ability to speak steadily.

"Don't be too hard on him," Hachi defended his friend. "He wasn't always like this; he's just got some...well, trust issues ever since we left our last crew - Nyu."

"It's not like I care either way what his problems are," sighed the girl as she finished off her second drink.

Hachi sighed also, but more of a wistful sigh. "This pirate life gets troublesome, y'know. Sometimes I think I'd like to retire from it and settle down somewhere..."

She eyed the mug in his hand. "Are you drunk already?"

"Nyu, no. I'm just thinking of what might have been."

Nami deliberated for a few moments, then against her better judgement she asked, "So, what would you do if you weren't a pirate?"

For someone who supposedly devoted so much time to contemplating a hypothetical civilian's life, Hachi took a long time to answer the simple question. "Hmmm...I'd probably like to have my own business - a shop or a stand maybe. I make a pretty mean takoyaki," he grinned. "And there's also a girl..."

Her eyes widened in genuine surprise. "A girl?"

"Yeah, she's a real beauty," his demeanor took on a dreamy quality as he spoke. "Someday I hope to be worthy of her hand in marriage - all six hands to be exact."

"...Is she an octopus-woman too?"

"Not just an octopus-woman, nyu, the most gorgeous octopus-woman in the world!" He suddenly became very animated, "The first time I laid eyes on her I swore that if I ever married anyone, it would be her. She's the only one for me!"

Nami watched him wave his arms around while gushing over his prospective bride, still unsure why she'd gotten herself mired in such a ridiculous conversation. At last, she shrugged, "Well, here's to the future I guess." She raised her glass only to recall it was empty.

"I'll get us more," offered Hachi, taking her glass and walking over to the tap.

The girl drank far more that evening than she'd ever drank in her life, gradually loosing count of how many she'd gone through as a warm buzz slowly enveloped her like a fuzzy blanket. She suddenly found Hachi inexplicably hilarious and laughed uproariously at all his antics until the six-armed man fell asleep in the middle of a story about his battle with a giant sea chicken. Nami leaned back, resting her own eyes for a moment as the squeeze box continued along with Hitchin and Renado's off-key singing.

The music faded into a hazy background rumble as thoughts of the woman from Gosa came floating once again to the surface of her mind like a drowned corpse.

I have three children...help me make a deal with Arlong!

"I told you I can't, now leave me alone," she grumbled aloud as Hachi let out a loud snore beside her. "I've got my own problems; I can't be worried about your damn kids. Besides, did you ever think maybe they'd be better off getting adopted and leaving this godforsaken island?"

I wish I'd been adopted by rich people!

Her eyes stung and her hand went to her cheek as she remembered Belle-Mere's ringing slap. She closed her eyes and saw the sobbing mother of three swimming before her in the darkness. Nami gripped her hair in both fists, gritting her teeth.

Arlong's grating laughter carried over the music to her corner of the yard. The teen glanced across the pool at the group of pirates milling around the saw-nosed captain. She could tell from his sweeping gestures and punctuating shouts he was on one of his drunken tirades. She'd already heard all the greatest hits before - they all centered around the same tired ideas of fishman strength and human inferiority, but if she wanted to get an audience with him sometime tonight, she knew she needed to go ahead and make her presence known.

Am I really doing this? She asked herself incredulously as she stumbled toward the entrance to the fort - but it was already happening, and she didn't have enough faculties left to inhibit the wild impulse driving her forward.

"Fucking guy," she heard Arlong ejaculate as he threw his mug down, shattering it over the pavement.

"What are you gonna do? It happens!" Taka threw up his hands in defeat, sloshing beer down his own chest, "Don't beat yourself up, Arlong-san!"

"I love all my brothers, and I'd die for them," declared Arlong dramatically with scarcely a pause, "so what sort of a 'brother' receives that kindness only to spit in your eye? What sort of scum does that? And all for the sake of filthy low-born humans, no less?"

Nami came to a stop just beyond the gathering.

"It's simply defective thinking," rumbled a miserable-looking Kaneshiro, who sat off to the side and stared vacantly into the water, "He was too young to understand - he never saw all the things we saw."

"That don't absolve him," shouted a surly Arlong.

"I know it don't," murmured the goldfish, taking a swig from his flask and falling silent.

"Look, I think it goes without saying that any fishman who betrays his own brethren is beneath contempt," the ever-helpful Hitchin chimed in, "but let's not let that ruin our evening, gents; let's just enjoy the fellowship of our true brothers that are here with us tonight!"

Several mutters of assent rang out from the assembly of pirates.

Nami felt her fingers slowly curl into fists at her sides as Arlong snorted and grabbed a second glass, raising it up, "Too right, Hitchin! To hell with him and all other traitorous fishmen!"

Other crew members shouted out their approval, but one high-pitched voice in particular rose above the bedlam.

"Cheers to that! To hell with 'em all! To hell with all fishmen who betray their brothers and lie down with humans!"

All heads turned toward Nami as she crossed the walkway to where Arlong sat. "To hell with hypocrite fishmen who pretend to do everything for the sake of their nakama only to lie and steal from them!"

"Huh? Who the hell did that," someone in the crowd asked.

"Yeah, what are you talking about," demanded another.

"Hey Nami," Arlong abruptly stood and lumbered toward her. Before she could fully focus on him, the captain's hand swung back and knocked her across the face. The slip of a girl went tumbling to the ground in a heap. Her hands immediately flew to her stinging nose where she found blood gushing from her nostrils.

"How 'bout you quit being such a bitch and settle down for a little while?" He loomed over her with a grin full of razors.

"Yeah Nami," snickered one of the crew, "just relax already."

A round of chuckles pelted her as Arlong returned to his seat. The surveyor picked herself up and slowly slunk off to the only place she had left to go - the cartography room.

000

The storms did indeed travel east of them as she'd predicted. After spending a sleepless night on the floor beside the open window, watching the night sky slowly turn to dawn, Nami gradually fell into a fitful doze. Starting awake once again from a half-remembered nightmare, she jostled her head against the windowsill. Her temples throbbed as she sat dizzily up, but Nami suspected her discomfort had more to do with the amount she'd drank the previous night than her sleeping habits.

Not only that, but it had also caused her to shoot her incredibly stupid mouth off and place herself squarely back on Arlong's shit list. Her blood still boiled as she remembered the things he'd said about Aka-Mushi, but she resolved right then and there never to show her anger to Arlong ever again. Dealing with him required as much finesse as she could possibly muster, and with a few careless words, she might have shattered what little trust the diabolical shark-man still had in her.

Although not particularly hungry, she knew she needed to get something on her stomach before getting to work. The morning was already nearly over, and Nami hoped with luck that she would have the galley to herself. Either way, she had no intention to linger longer than it took to grab something quick and bolt back up to the cartography room.

Nami froze as soon as she walked through the door and saw none other than Arlong himself standing at the counter. She started to back out again, but the captain had already noticed her.

"Oh, you're back," he muttered absently, returning to the clutter of items he'd been engaged with before her arrival.

She frowned as she watched him pour tomato juice into a glass of beer. Nami proceeded to grab herself a bowl and spoon, scraping the sides of the pot until she had scrounged up a small serving of rice porridge. "Obviously I'm back," she deadpanned, "I was here drinking all last night just like you were, wasn't I?"

Arlong gave a non-committal grunt, his back still facing her as he continued to putter at the bar.

She gave him an appraising glance, noting the same rumpled shirt he'd worn the previous day along with his disheveled hair, minus the customary hat he was almost never without. He looked as if he'd just rolled out of bed. "What are you making over there?"

Just a little hair of the dog," he replied as she heard an egg crack and then another one.

To her surprise, he plonked two glasses onto the table - one in front of himself and a second beside the chair adjacent to him. Nami looked around before gradually realizing the other was intended for her. Considering the circumstances, she thought it best to indulge him as she slowly slid into the chair.

The egg yolk stared up at her from the bottom of the red liquid like a leery eye. Arlong, meanwhile, chugged down his own in several large gulps, swiping dribble from his stubbly chin before turning to her. "What are you waiting for? Drink it - you'll feel like a totally different person afterward."

"Is that a good thing," she remarked, taking a small sip.

He blinked and leaned toward her, "Where'd you get that shiner?"

She scowled disbelievingly back at him as she set her glass down with a thud, "What?"

"Are ya deaf," he shot back, "I said, who smacked you?"

Now it was her turn to stare; did he seriously not remember what happened last night - including the accusations she'd lobbed at him in front of his crew? Nami could scarcely believe her incredible stroke of luck.

"Just some bastard - it's hardly even worth mentioning," she shrugged, grateful when he asked no follow up questions.

A long paused followed in which the girl thought yet again about the woman from Gosa Village. She snuck a glance at Arlong as she nibbled porridge and nursed her beverage. He sat with the knuckles of one hand slowly massaging his forehead, apparently still waiting on that "totally different person" effect to kick in; she hoped it was killing him. Despite getting a mulligan on her earlier drunken outburst, Nami suspected it still wasn't a great time to approach the hung-over shark-man on the same touchy subject. On the other hand, if not now, when would she ever do it?

Nami cleared her throat. "There was something I was meaning to ask you about," she began, having no idea how else to broach the subject.

His pale eyes fixed squarely on her as he lowered his hand from his brow. "Y'know, there's something I've been meaning to ask you too," he abruptly blurted, batting her question aside with one of his own, "You were friends with Aka-Mushi, weren't you?"

Momentarily stunned, she paused while attempting to wrap her head around his random line of interrogation. "I - No, not really, but why are you asking?"

"I've seen the two of you talk on a number of occasions; I know you had a certain rapport with one another. Did he ever mention anything to you about his decision to mutiny?"

"No. He never said anything to me," she replied, meeting his gaze evenly.

Arlong leaned in closer, his nose leveled like a serrated blade at her face, "Is that right? Then, did you happen to suggest anything to him that might have encouraged him to betray us?"

"I don't even understand the whole situation," she shrugged back, "all I know is that he tried to leave, and you chased after him all the way to where? The Grand Line? His reasons for leaving were or his own; they had nothing to do with me."

The fishman didn't answer but continued to appraise her for several long seconds. Nami, feigning disinterest, returned to her porridge.

"Alright, if you say so," he finally conceded, settling back into his chair. "So, what was it you were going to ask me?"

Her fingers tightened around the spoon as she took a steadying breath. She looked up from her bowl back into Arlong's cold, mistrustful eyes and her request immediately died in her throat. "Never mind. I've already forgotten it."

She went back up to the cartography room feeling tired and numb, still uncertain if she'd made the right decision. Several days would pass before she heard the news.

000

Genzo knocked on the door of his friend Nako's place bright and early, however this was not a social visit. The doctor soon answered and motioned him inside.

"Sorry to barge in on you first thing in the morning," Genzo leaned wearily against the wall as the other man crossed to his desk where a steaming cup and an open folder full of typescript pages awaited.

"Not to worry; I've been up before dawn. Can I get you anything," Nako offered automatically, "Tea? Coffee?"

"No, I'm alright," the sheriff replied with a yawn. "I was just making my way back from Gosa Village and thought I'd check to see what progress you'd made on your examination."

"I was just finishing up on that," returned the doctor, stacking the pages together against the desk before holding the completed folder out to Genzo. "It's as you suspected - death by drowning. No other injuries or foul play detected."

Genzo grunted grimly as he flipped through the pages of notes, then glanced back up at Nako. "I have her almost positively identified as a Gosan woman by the name of Ardelle. Seems her neighbor became concerned when, out of nowhere, this woman gave her a large wad of cash as back payments for all the money she'd lent her over the years when she couldn't meet tribute. When I checked her home, she wasn't there, of course... But I found a letter."

"A suicide note," inquired Nako, even while he already knew the answer.

"It was to her kids," Genzo grimaced beneath his mustache, "Apparently, she has three children here at the orphanage in Cocoyasi."

"Damn it all to hell," sighed Nako, his fingers rubbing the bridge of his nose, "These goddamn fishmen! I hate that it had to be one of them that discovered her floating out there off the coast."

"At least he bothered bringing her ashore to be identified," Genzo supplied. He straightened back up and closed the folder with a snap. "The neighbor agreed to come by this morning and identify her. Once that's done, I'll have the task of breaking the news to her seven, five and three-year-old."

"For crying out loud, man! Stay and have a cup of coffee," exclaimed Nako, "or something stronger if you need it!"

"I'm going back home to sleep for a couple hours before I have to get back to work - it's been a long night and it's going to be an even longer day."

"Alright, take it easy, then; I'm sure we'll talk later." Nako saw the sheriff out and slumped wearily back down at his desk. The burden of last night's grisly discovery and the added tragedy he'd learned from Genzo moments ago would cling to him throughout the day even while he saw to his living patients. It was going to be a long day indeed, and as much as he'd like to, he couldn't afford a nap or to drink anything stronger than coffee.