Hah, Nami can't help but crow, if only within the privacy of her own mind, at the sight of the... What was it, what was their flag? Nami is sure she'd seen it, on their ship's sails when they'd first boarded. The Al...vion Pirates? Something. Whatever the case, she thinks herself perfectly within her rights to feel a touch smug, as those lousy pirates go about their business entirely oblivious to having let her slip their attention. It's a shame about the other passengers, but it can't be helped. Nami has bigger fishmen to fry, so best not to think about it.

She carefully stows away her rich girl disguise, which is sure to fetch a pretty penny in and of itself, and hefts the very practical bag previously hidden under her dress over her shoulder. One hand braced on the wall in preemptive counter to any more violent rocking that may befall the passenger ship, Nami turns to go on her way, as she—

Spots a child rounding the corner up ahead at full tilt, only to spot Nami in kind and skid to a stop, eyes yellow and peeled wide and overly large. Nami's mouth falls slightly open in surprise, something in her brain going very briefly blank, but that single beat of silence seems to be all the little girl—Seven-year-old? Eight?—needs.

"Nami!" wails the mystery kid, barreling into Nami with less force than she might have expected and fisting her teeny hands in Nami's work-shirt. "Please don't leave me! I'll be useful, so please don't leave me!"

Nami's eyes go saucer-huge. "How do you know my—?"

"I know where the Alvida Pirates' treasure is! I know where their escape boats are!"

"That's—" A second glance tells Nami that the girl's clothes are better-made than the pirates', very well-made in fact, but far less frilly than those of the passengers' children she'd seen. Nami's stomach lurches, and she maneuvers herself to a crouch so that she can grip the girl's shoulders firmly. Calm, got to stay calm; that's the key to coming out on top when the universe throws her a curveball. "Did you board with the pirates?"

Pigtails, after the prominent pair of them sprouting from either side of her head like handlebars, shakes said head insistently and tugs, urgent, on Nami's arms. "We gotta go. We gotta go before the fighting starts. We gotta—"

A scream from the room behind them, and pirates jeering. Nami swallows.

"Alright," she says, and lets Pigtails go, and straightens. "Fine. But you have to stick close to me, got it? And don't get in my way."

Pigtails beams, terror momentarily forgotten, and salutes Nami with the wrong hand. "Yes, ma'am!"

With that, they're off. Nami pencils in regretting this decision for after she's made off with all the pirates' stuff.

X️XX ️ ️

To Nami's growing unease, Pigtails appears to know her way around the Alvida Pirates' ship handily. Following a rope-scaling entry that leaves the kid giddy and babbling about how cool Nami is, which Nami, under other circumstances, would have reveled in, Pigtails drags Nami confidently by the hand to stand in the nook between the stairs to the forecastle and the ship's railing. She motions for Nami to stay still. Bemused, Nami does, and several beats later a pirate comes out from one of the doors to the forecastle. Pigtails, grinning widely, retrieves an old sock with a large rock in it from her duffle bag. She holds it up to Nami in silent offering.

Nami, grinning back, accepts. Before the pirate has so much as noticed them, she tiptoes up to his back, pulls back her arm to take aim, and swings the rock by the sock in a perfect arc. The pirate topples to the deck with an oof and a thump and a lump already starting to form on the back of his head.

"That's what you get!" Pigtails declares proudly to the downed man, fists planted imperiously at her hips. "Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Nami's smile falters into a grimace. She returns the blunt instrument to Pigtails, who disappears it from whence it came.

Does she know him? Nami wonders, looking between the pirate and Pigtails, before dismissing the thought for the moment. No time. She says, instead: "You said you know where they keep their treasure, right?"

Pigtails nods, smug. "I do. It's this way."

She takes Nami by the hand again, to the door the pirate-guy had come out of and through, down a flight of stairs to the level below. The rest of the heist goes off without a hitch, after that, with Pigtails never hesitating as she leads Nami to the cargo hold, helps bag the treasure, and then shows Nami to the lifeboats, all before the Alvida Pirates have even had a chance to make their way back with their loot. By the time the pair of them are on the water and sailing away, Nami really can't help but laugh, mood lightened by the acquisition of her loot.

"This much gold is worth at least six million berry," she enthuses to Pigtails, who beams back at her from across the lifeboat, practically vibrating with glee. "At least."

"It's six million, two hundred thousand, four hundred and seven," Pigtails tells her, nodding. "That's what the dealer will say."

Nami pauses, and frowns. Right. She'd forgotten for a second there, but this situation is actually pretty deeply weird, isn't it?

"Right," Nami starts, dubious. "What exactly is your deal, anyway?"

Pigtails perks up, exuding self-satisfaction. She rummages around in her duffle bag for a blank-covered book, which she hugs to her front. Pigtails looks back at Nami with a grin that makes Nami want, for whatever reason, to shake her violently.

"I suppose you're wondering why I've brought you here today," Pigtails says, almost conspiratorially, and entirely nonsensically. Nami blanches.

"What? No. No, I'm asking the questions here. Who are you?"

"I'm Treva, and I can see the future!"

What.

Nami fully intends to interject, but Pigtails—Treva—goes on, babbling, "Your name is Nami, and your sister's name is Nojiko, and your mom's name is Belle-Mere, and my name is Treva!"

Nami stares. Treva shrinks, starting to sweat.

"And I can make you lots of money!"

Nami's ears prick like a bloodhound's. "How much money?"

"Sooo much money. Tons of money!" Treva leans in, an air of desperation about her that goes mostly over Nami's head, which is full of possibilities. "Think of all the gambling dens you could scam! Pirate-owned gambling dens!"

Oh, Nami's thinking of them, alright. So much money. But—that's only if the kid's legit.

"Hold on just a minute." Nami crosses her arms. "There are other ways you could have found out about..." She frowns, discomforted. "Me. Seeing the future is pretty out there, you have to admit that much."

Treva's face turns a splotchy, indignant red. "I can see it! I'll show you!"

"Alright. Show me."

With a nod and a determined set to her shoulders, Treva shifts onto her knees, lays her book flat open on the lifeboat's deck, and braces herself over it with a palm on either page.

Then, Treva vomits onto the book.

Unrelatedly, in the distance, the Alvida Pirates' ship gets cannonballed to oblivion by the marines.