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Something Worth Dying For	By : slj812000 Category: +M to R > One Piece Views: 10730 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
Chapter Sixteen: Nami
The end was coming, she knew.
When Luffy left at four, Nami had stopped crying, but had not stopped despairing. How could she expect Luffy to get ten million berries in less than twenty four hours? She’d told him to beg, borrow, and steal if he had to, even mentioning the time she had beaten the shit out of Buggy’s crew and cleaned out their wallets. But it was an unrealistic goal, she knew.
Still, she felt tumults of pain go through her as she did simple things. She was nearly physically unable to clear the dirty sheets from her bed, she hurt so badly. Somehow, she managed, though a process that should have only taken her a few minutes took her nearly a half an hour.
She had to lean against the wall as she walked towards the lavatory. Every step was excruciating, but somehow she made it to the bathrooms. Some of the other Mermaids were there already; it was the only time of day she saw any of them. They took one look at her and all abandoned their own washing to aide her.
These women, who knew nothing about her other than the name Arlong had given her, were trying to help her. She felt a stir of affection for them; people she hardly knew. But that’s how it always was for her. She was unable to cast people aside as pawns or useless. She felt the tears dripping again as the Mermaids gently began cleansing away the last day’s ordeal. One of them, Akatsuki she thought, disappeared briefly before returning with a balm to rub on her open wounds.
“What happened to you?” Ai asked, eyeing her behind. Nami looked back and saw a reddish welt on her butt.
“I was whipped with a belt,” she recalled, shuddering at the memory. The Mermaids murmured among themselves.
“Marking is against the rules,” Sakura contradicted, wincing.
“I doubt Arlong cares anymore,” Nami muttered. “He sold me to that man. Permanently.”
The Mermaids went silent. Nami knew that they were all probably aghast at that revelation. She was pretty aghast herself. They probably realized just as clearly as she did that the man who had marked her, Donquixote, would probably kill her within a month with such violence.
Nami was also given a pain reliever. Kitsune gave her a small collection of pills, telling her to take two with her meals to help with the pain. She barely made it back to her room in time for her meal, though Koi and Kitsune helped her there. Nami momentarily debated not taking the pills, but after she attempted to sit on her bed, Nami was popping the first two pills into her mouth before her meal even made it to her room.
The pills were strong, whatever they were. Nami wondered where Kitsune had gotten them, and also where Akatsuki had gotten the balm. She doubted that Arlong would give the girls these types of things. The only thing she could think of was that their customers had given them to the girls. It was the only answer. Nami had never thought of that; asking Luffy to bring her things she didn’t have.
After her meal, Nami could barely stay awake long enough to climb into her bed. She was asleep almost instantly, despite having passed out and slept for a number of hours before. The strength of the pills did help ease her pain, but also knocked her out. Nami made a mental note when she awoke to only take one pill with her next meal. She didn’t want to face the wrath of Arlong if he were to get word from her customers that she was stoned asleep.
At one o’clock, Nami took one pill with her meal and waited for her share of customers. After a couple of hours, some of the pain did return, but not near as fiercely as it was in the morning. She knew she’d manage to get by.
Her afternoon was empty of customers and in the early evening, she only had two blow-and-go’s. It was a stroke of rare luck, she supposed, that she didn’t have to work any harder than that. She was still worrying about Luffy and her request to get more money. She paced the small room repeatedly as she waited for him to arrive, since sitting wasn’t comfortable after taking only one pill.
Finally, around eight o’clock as usual, Nami heard the sound of slapping sandals headed towards her room. She stopped and stared expectantly at her open doorway. She was not disappointed. Luffy entered her room with a grin and a wave.
“Yo!”
“Luffy! You’re here!” Nami cried in half relief, half anxiety. She took in his roughed up appearance. Had he been in a fight? Did he really try to beat up gangsters for money like she’d suggested? “Did you get the money?”
“Not all of it,” Luffy admitted. Nami was not surprised by that answer. She tried her best to not let the disappointment show on her face. “But I got a lot. The ugly is downstairs counting it.”
“And he sent you up here to wait?” she guessed. How much was a lot? Could he have possibly scrounged up a million or two?
“Yep,” Luffy confirmed, not looking perturbed at all. Lucky him. “What do you want to do while we wait?”
“I—I don’t know,” Nami admitted, flustered. “I just keep wondering if it’s going to be enough. And I worry because I dragged you into this.”
“You asked for help,” Luffy pointed out. “I wanted to help.”
“Yes, but you have no idea what you’re getting into,” she dismissed, feeling guilt wash over her. “This is some really bad stuff, Luffy. If by chance my boss says yes, we’re going to have to run away.”
“Run away?” Luffy repeated, perplexed. “Where?”
“I don’t know,” the Nami admitted, trying to think of where they could go that would be out of the reach of that sadistic man Donquixote. Law had said that he would be able to find them anywhere, though. “But we’ll have to go. Tonight, if he lets me go with you. We’ll have to stop and pick up my mom and sister—”
Nami stopped speaking mid-sentence. Another man had walked into her room. Nami was puzzled and a little agitated, wondering if another customer had been sent up to her on accident or if maybe he had the wrong room. He was kind of young, though, and for whatever reason, giving her a look of disbelief. Luffy looked behind him at the newcomer briefly before turning back to her.
“Oh, yeah,” Luffy spoke up, breaking the shocked silence. “This is my brother, Ace. He wants to help, too.”
She panicked.
“Luffy, what did you do!” she cried, grabbing Luffy’s shoulders and shaking them. “I told you, you couldn’t tell anyone I was here! It was secret!”
“I didn’t tell him,” Luffy clarified, though chagrined. “He followed me.”
As ever, it was another Luffy answer. Of course this guy, Luffy’s brother of all people, had simply followed Luffy to her. Because she had never stipulated that Luffy couldn’t let himself be followed here.
“This is bad! Very, very bad!” she declared, barely holding back tears as she began to pace back and forth. Another of Garp’s grandsons knew where she was. There was probably no getting around this now. She may have been able to finagle Luffy into silence, but chances were, his brother was a little less oblivious to her predicament.
“You need to tell me exactly what’s going right now,” the young man demanded, grabbing her and stilling her in front of him, confirming that he had grasped the situation very clearly. “Everything. How the hell did this happen?”
How could she explain this! It was impossible to do so and not ruin everything she had worked so hard for. Flustered, she went with her old standby and lashed out.
“It’s none of your—” she started, but the young man’s grip on her arm tightened and even shook her a little bit.
“Don’t you dare say it’s none of my business,” he interrupted angrily. “I have spent the last three and a half weeks combing this fucking city and papering it with your sister. It’s become my business. Start talking.”
What?
Her sister? Nami’s mind was reeling. This guy knew Nojiko? How?
His name is Ace. And we were studying.
Nami felt like the blood had drained completely from her face as she recalled Nojiko’s words. This guy, Ace, Luffy’s brother, was the guy that Nojiko had been tutoring. There was no way she was getting out of this. She had no choice left but to tell the truth. She felt tears stinging her eyes.
“I didn’t lie,” Nami told Luffy guiltily. “When I joined, I was just a Messenger. I held that position for six years.”
Luffy didn’t look bothered by the statement. If anything, he looked confused. He shared a look with his brother, who looked just as confounded, before looking back to her.
“But I was promoted,” Nami explained, ashamed to say what she was promoted to. Her eyes met the floor. “And like I told you before, I can’t quit. So I had to become a Mermaid.”
She looked up at Ace expectantly. He also looked like the blood had drained from his face. She knew it was redundant, but she had to ask anyway.
“Do you know what a Mermaid is?” she asked.
“I figured it out along the way,” Ace answered tersely. Yes, Ace knew exactly what a Mermaid was, and had even worked out where he was. He seemed to be looking around the room with new eyes, as if the whole scene had changed. “Why in the hell would you join them?”
“My mother,” she answered. “And my sister. They’re safe because I’m here.”
Ace looked torn at her answer. He was probably debating whether or not the life she had chosen was worth the trouble. Normal people didn’t go around worrying about assassination attempts on their family. But Ace was a grandson of Garp; if anyone was going to understand the dangers of the yakuza, it was going to be him.
“Fine. You made a deal with the yakuza,” Ace summed up, though he didn’t look like anything was fine at all. In fact, it looked like he had chucked the matter aside for the moment. “But then, what’s all the money for? Why are you making my brother steal for you?”
Nami felt the guilt eat away at her again. So Ace pretty much knew everything she’d asked of Luffy, huh? More shame rained down on her.
“Things changed,” she explained carefully. “A bid to permanently buy me was put in by someone and accepted. I didn’t know what else to do. If I leave Arlong Park, the protection I ‘pay’ for disappears. I needed Luffy to outbid my buyer so we could get my mother and sister and get out of here.”
“How much were you sold for?” Ace asked, thankfully seeming as though he got the urgency of the situation.
“One hundred million,” Nami answered, watching Ace’s eyes threaten to bulge out of his head. She could see that he was probably mentally trying to do the math.
“There was around ninety-eight million in the bag before I asked Luffy to—to add to it,” Nami stammered, feeling guilt attack her relentlessly. “I think for Arlong to even consider it, he would have had to come up with at least ten million more.”
Ace’s jaw dropped and he remained speechless.
“I didn’t get that much,” Luffy admitted glumly. Nami looked up at Luffy, who somehow was not angry with her. She guessed he didn’t really understand what was going on. “I think I got around six.”
She’d been expecting that. Six hundred thousand in one day was a lot. It just proved how much he cared for her. She felt the urge to quell his anguish.
“It’s okay, Luffy,” she assured him. “You did the best you could. It just—it just means you won’t get to be my boss.”
Luffy wasn’t appeased. “Can I still come see you?”
Nami shook her head, feeling her heart breaking in her chest. “No, you can’t. But I have one last request, if you’ll listen to it.”
Luffy’s attention was rapt on her. Ace had recovered from being stunned by the amount of money and was giving her an incredulous look. Yeah, she supposed she did have a lot of balls to ask for something else at that moment, but she just had to make sure of one last thing.
“When my boss tells you no,” she spoke, “ask to buy the protection of my family instead.”
Luffy made a sour face. “What for?”
“Please?” Nami requested, ignoring his question. “You said you would help me. This is the help that I need.”
Luffy sighed heavily, obviously irritated. “Fine.”
Luffy crossed his arms and looked pretty sullen. Nami recognized his pouting and couldn’t help herself. She tugged at his arms until he loosened them and embraced him. He was at least not upset enough to refuse to hug her back.
“Thank you,” she whispered, feeling like the two words were incredibly inadequate to express what she felt at that moment.
“What a sorry sight.”
Nami tensed at the sound of Arlong’s voice. She stepped back from Luffy and scrambled to come up with an explanation for why they were the ‘sorry sight’ that they were. She should have expected Arlong to come up himself when he had finished counting the money! She was so stupid!
“I come up here hoping to see a show as titillating as the sight from last night, and I find everyone standing around, still fully clothed,” Arlong complained disapprovingly.
“I was just explaining to my regular that tonight was the last night,” Nami told him, hoping that a tearful goodbye wouldn’t be too inappropriate in the situation. Luffy had been coming to her for almost a month now. That warranted affection, didn’t it? Or was she grasping at straws?
“Indeed it is,” Arlong agreed, though he looked unconvinced. “Though, not without an attempt at otherwise. Your regular put in a bid for you.”
Nami attempted to look astounded at the prospect. She gave Luffy a look that she hoped spoke of surprise.
“Sadly, only a hundred and four million is not enough to buy you out from under someone like...” Arlong trailed off. Nami’s eyes bulged. A hundred and four million? What? When Luffy had said he’d gotten six, he’d meant million? Where the hell did he find that kind of money?
“Well, let’s just say,” Arlong continued, “if I sold you from under that man, it better be for ten times the sum he’s paying me. I’d need that much to keep him from flaying me.”
Nami felt ill at the allusion to Donquixote. A billion? Really? Nami had known that he was a dangerous man, but for Arlong to be so intimidated, she began to wonder about him. Was he a Shichibukai too?
Well, she’d know tomorrow, probably. It was assured now. All that was left was her family. She looked over at Luffy, trying to get him to remember to ask for protection for her family. As he stared blankly back at her, she knew he’d already let it slip from his mind. Thankfully, his brother was a little more on top of things.
“The money,” Ace spoke up. Arlong looked at Ace, giving him a measuring glance.
“Yes, yes,” Arlong dismissed with a wave. “Aside from tonight’s fees, the money will be ready for you when you leave.”
“We’d like to buy something else,” Ace contradicted. Nami watched tensely as Ace did as she’d asked, wondering if Arlong would become too suspicious of them. This would all be for naught if Arlong decided to look into the backgrounds of Luffy and Ace. The minute he knew they were related to Garp, their lives would be forfeit.
“Oh? Has one of my other Mermaids caught your eye?” Arlong guessed with a smug look. Ace looked disgusted.
“No, we want to buy protection,” he clarified. Arlong took on a suspicious look. Damn it! Well, there was nothing she could say now, lest she want Arlong to know she was putting them up to it.
“Protection,” he repeated, giving her a sidelong glance. No doubt about it, he suspected her.
“For two women in the Conomi district,” Ace explained. “A woman named Belle and her daughter, Nojiko.”
A tense, silent moment passed.
“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised,” Arlong grumbled, his eyes narrowing on Luffy. “When the boy started coming here, he asked for Mikan by her real name. So you want to take over the cost of keeping those two alive?”
Ace nodded and the tension in the room skyrocketed. Would he go for it? Nami hoped he would. Arlong was rather greedy, and it was going to be an easy hundred and four million berries if he agreed.
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to make a choice, then,” Arlong shrugged, and Nami felt dread in her stomach. “You only brought me enough money to buy one woman. Not two.”
For a few moments, Nami felt like the world ended. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t hear, and with the tears welling in her eyes, she couldn’t see. Choose? Between her mother and sister? It was impossible. They were two of the most important people in the world to her. How could she choose one of their lives over—
“Nojiko,” Ace declared. Nami felt the world start moving again and looked at Ace. He seemed completely in control and somehow unruffled by the situation. How had he so confidently chosen one over the other?
Because he wasn’t as close to the situation as she was. He saw what she couldn’t. After a few moments reflection, Nami felt some of the panic drain, too. Ace had chosen correctly; Bell-mère had some form of protection in Smoker whereas Nojiko had nothing.
“Done,” Arlong agreed, smiling smugly. A tiny iota of relief blossomed within her at the knowledge that at least Nojiko would be safe. For now. “Now that business is done, how about that show?”
What?
The dread returned with a vengeance. She’d been reading Arlong’s suspicions wrong; he was not suspicious of the boys, but of her. That she had not been performing her duties as a Mermaid. Which she hadn’t.
“Come now,” Arlong cooed, giving her a dark look. “You don’t want to leave your best customer disappointed on his last night with you, do you? Not when he brought along a friend to share you with.”
This was the worst situation possible. Nami looked up at Luffy in defeat. Looks like the dream was over, and it was back to the nightmare.
She leaned close to him and whispered, “I’m sorry. Please, Luffy. Whatever happens tonight, don’t say a word. Sit on the bed for a bit.”
Luffy, though looking unsure, nodded in agreement and hopped up onto the bed, kicking off his sandals.
Nami turned to Ace, giving him an apologetic look before dropping to her knees and reaching up to undo his belt buckle. She tugged his shorts and boxers to his knees. Closing her eyes and mentally wishing an apology to Nojiko, who she’d known was head over heels for Ace the day she’d first become his tutor, Nami began performing fellatio on the boy her sister loved.
Arlong’s eyes were on her the whole time. She could feel it. She knew she couldn’t give some sort of half-assed performance, so she pulled out all the stops. Ace was, for the most part, pretty stoic, and it was weird. She had gotten him hard fairly easily enough, but he was silent. He was probably disgusted with her. She’d given him no choice, really. So this was what it was like to rape someone? Nami felt ill, but continued to perform.
Finally, he came. He gave a choked groan as he hit his orgasm and slumped against the wall. Nami held him in the recesses of her throat as the semen gradually stopped. She no longer felt Arlong’s stare, but another that was even worse. What would she see when she turned around and looked at Luffy?
She turned and saw a lot of anger. Luffy’s gaze was switching between the two of them and showed his irritation at the situation. She could tell he wanted an explanation, but she couldn’t give him one. Not right now. She prayed that he would keep silent as she got off of her knees and approached him.
The anger seemed to dissipate as she Nami climbed onto the bed with him. She watched as confusion battled arousal on his face. She hoped arousal won. If he was confused, he probably wouldn’t be able to keep quiet. Trying to help arousal along, she put her hands on the hem of his shirt and began slowly sliding it up.
He was compliant enough as she pulled his tee shirt over his head and discarded it to the floor. His face was becoming very red and Nami realized that though he had never ever been bothered by his or her state of dress before, that being stripped by her was embarrassing for him. It was then that she realized what she should have thought of before.
He was a virgin.
She was going to take his virginity from him. In front of his brother and Arlong, no less. At least when she’d lost her virginity, she’d been in the comfort of her own home with no one watching her but a blonde stranger who was much nicer than she deserved.
She wanted to make this less awful for him, but had no idea how. It seemed like everything she did was awful when it came to Luffy. Guilt began to eat away at her again and she knew she’d never be able to do this if she didn’t somehow distract herself.
She took his face in her hands and she kissed him. In the kiss was all the gentleness she could muster, all the sorrow at her previous actions, and all the affection she felt for him. She doubted he would, but she hoped that somehow, he understood her.
After a few seconds, Luffy reached up and pulled her hands from his face and locked his grip on them at their sides. He broke their kiss and gave her a very solemn look. At that moment, she had no doubt that he had understood her, because he was looking at her and begging her to stop. He knew just as clearly as she did that what was happening was wrong.
‘I’m sorry,’ she thought, leaning forward and kissing him again. He fought it at first. Though he did kiss her back, it took a few moments for him to finally give in. He let her arms go and gave up all restraint.
Nami pulled at the tie on her robe, letting the satin loosen and fall to the bed. She put Luffy’s hands in between the folds of the material and let go, intending for him to remove it for her. It took him a minute to get that far, but he finally pushed it off of her, almost dismissively. He didn’t do anything after that, either. His hands just rested on her legs as he kissed her.
She was about to put his hands on her, to help him along in realizing that he could touch her anywhere he wanted, when she was distracted by a conversation from behind her.
“I thought marking was against the rules,” she heard Ace mutter. Damn. She’d momentarily forgotten about the bruise on her butt. It had been ugly this morning; now it was probably hideous.
“Was done by the man who bought her,” Arlong explained. “Now that she’s his property, it’s not my concern if he leaves marks.”
Nami hoped with every fiber of her being that Luffy didn’t see it; she had no doubt that he’d probably be unable to keep quiet about it like Ace.
“Why don’t you join in,” Arlong suggested, and Nami tensed up for a moment. Luffy felt it and paused too. No, not this, please! Please don’t ruin even this!
She was on the verge of breaking down. Then, unexpectedly, Luffy kissed her. He seemed to be trying to comfort her as he kissed her as gently as she had kissed him in the beginning. She grasped at the remains of her composure and steeled herself for what she knew was to come.
“She’s taken two at once before,” Arlong spoke, as she had predicted he would. Nami had to make a tactical move. She knew she couldn’t do anal again, not so soon after being sodomized by that sadist Donquixote. She leaned forward on Luffy, pushing him backwards on to his back. He resisted for a few moments, before relenting.
When she broke away from the kiss, Luffy resisted again. He was trying to drag her back up to his face as she tried to slide down his chest towards his shorts. She put her hands on his crotch and massaged him through the fabric of his shorts and he let go, his head dropping back onto the bed. She dropped the lower half of her body off the bed as she unbuckled Luffy’s belt and undid his shorts.
Trying to forget it was Ace behind her, she crossed her legs and waited for him to enter her. She heard the foil of the condom ripping while she discarded Luffy’s shorts and underwear to the floor.
“You’re in for a treat,” Arlong chuckled as Ace grabbed her hip and lined himself up.
She took Luffy’s half-hard cock into her mouth as Ace pushed in slowly. By the way his grip tightened on her hip, he was already feeling it. She figured she’d let him get a good pace going before working her muscles. She didn’t want Arlong to think she was trying to rush things.
Luffy’s hands found their way to her hair. Most guys’ hands usually did. Unless they were an arrogant asshole like Law. But she didn’t want to think about him right now. She focused on Luffy, since she figured Ace was pretty well occupied as it was at the moment.
It didn’t surprise her that Luffy came quickly. For whatever reason, his hands left her hair and pushed at her shoulders, as if to push her mouth off of him. He was probably worried about coming down her throat. She’d worried about stupid stuff like that too when she’d first done it. She grabbed his hands and held them in hers as she rode out his orgasm.
After a broken moan and a shudder, Luffy stared at the ceiling and heaving breaths in and out, looking stunned. Nami figured she had a few minutes before he was coherent again, and when he was, she was going to have to be done with Ace. She began using her muscles on him, causing him to groan and lean forward and rested his head on her shoulder. Only two thrusts later, he was done for.
She felt him ease himself out of her and turned to see him stumble back against the wall. She got up from the bed and went over to the dresser, opening the top drawer. She pulled out another condom, ripped the foil and put the condom in her mouth.
She went back to the bed and leaned over Luffy again, and taking him in her mouth. She made one long, slow bob down his mostly soft length, rolling the condom down him and bringing some hardness back to him.
Luffy got up on his elbows, watching Nami as she climbed back onto him into his lap. She pulled him up until he had to sit up completely and kissed him again. Luffy didn’t waste any time in kissing her back with gusto. He seemed like he would be content with doing just that for the rest of the night, but a disgruntled sigh from behind her told her the show wasn’t over yet. She rose up on her knees and reached between them, grabbing hold of Luffy and positioning him before sinking down on him. Luffy gave a long groan before kissing her again.
His hands were restless, trying to hold her to him but unable to do so as she began to move up and down on him. At first, he took hold of her hips and Nami figured they would stay there for awhile. But then he was using his grip to try and stop her again.
She didn’t know whether his will to stop her was just from the overwhelming sensations he was experiencing or whether he really wanted to stop. She pulled at one of his hands and placed against her breast, trying to distract him away from stilling them. He fondled her breast for a bit, probably fascinated by the feel of it, but soon his hands were on her hips again.
Unexpectedly, Luffy caught her hips in a tight grip and lifted her. Startled, Nami broke the kiss and grabbed hold of Luffy’s shoulders. Luffy was up on his knees for a moment before very awkwardly, the two of them changed positions until she was on her back and he was leaning over her. Moments later, he was thrusting into her again and kissing her with abandon.
“Never pegged that kid to be a dominant,” she heard Arlong muse. “Condoms are in that top drawer. Lube too, if she gets dry. Have fun; you’ve got ‘til four.”
Finally, that bastard was leaving. Most of the tension left the room with him. Nami heard Ace shift down onto the floor, figuring he was probably relieved too. Once again, Luffy somehow seemed to sense the difference in mood within her. The kissing became less desperate and the thrusting less frenzied. It started to feel more intimate now that the monster was gone.
It felt like the number of times Nami had been forced to have sex was irrelevant. It all went away in the time she spent with Luffy until she forgot that she was a whore for the yakuza and instead felt like she was a virgin again. Okay, no, maybe not a virgin. But less used. Like she was a normal girl making love to the boy she loved.
She loved him.
That’s how he’d become so important to her over these last few weeks. Because she loved him. The realization hit her hard and she felt tears slip from her eyes and roll back into her hair. Damn it, she didn’t want to cry! She absently wiped at the tears and concentrated on Luffy.
He was close, she knew. His breathing was shaky and every thrust came accompanied by a grunt. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close and then clamped her muscles down on him. It unraveled him and he fell into a sporadic pace, groaning into her mouth as he came.
He had been half supporting himself on his forearms, but as the orgasm hit, his arms became shaky and he fell on top of her, the exertion to hold himself up completely spent. He had to stop kissing her, he was panting so bad, but he would not let go. For a long time, all the two of them did way lay there unmoving.
At one point, Luffy must have gotten cold because he sat up and yanked on the sheet below them, dislodging it to pull it over to the two of them before lying back down beside her and wrapping his arms around her again. Maybe she should have said something, or done something about the situation, but she was content to simply be held, cherishing the last night she would ever spend with the person she loved.
.o0o.
The knock came at four on the dot, followed by the terse information that time was up.
Not surprisingly, Luffy didn’t move. He remained glued to her side, his arms tightening around her slightly at the proclamation. He was going to be difficult, she knew, and she didn’t know if she had the strength anymore to put on an indifferent façade if he got too unruly.
“Luffy, it’s time to go,” Nami told him, grabbing one of the hands that was wrapped around her and pulling it off. As predicted, he fought her for a few moments before she won and sat up. She slid off the bed and picked up her discarded robe and tied it in place.
Finally, Luffy sat up, looking was sullen as Nami put first his shirt in his lap, followed by his boxers and shorts. He didn’t move at first, and Nami wondered if she was going to have to put his clothes on for him. At last, Luffy dressed himself, though in an irritated silence. When he got up from the bed he shoved his feet into his sandals angrily and leaned sulkily against the bed.
Saying goodbye was the last thing she wanted to do. Back before the incident at the Baratie, she had planned to say goodbye nonchalantly, not letting him know that he wouldn’t see her again because she didn’t want to see the pain on his face. Now, she was unable to avoid it. She pulled on his arm so he was no longer leaning on the bed and embraced him. He did not hesitate to hug her back.
“Thank you for being my friend,” Nami whispered to him. She felt Luffy’s grip tighten on her. She didn’t want to be the one to break the hold, but the Fish would be back any second now, and if Luffy resisted and put up a fight—
“We have to go,” Ace stated, and Nami forced herself to let go. She looked up at Ace in remorse, apologizing with her eyes for what he’d been through tonight. She thought he understood her apology. Her gaze settled on Luffy again. He was still very sulky looking and she bit down fiercely onto her bottom lip as she geared up to say what she didn’t ever want to say.
“Goodbye, Luffy,” she bid. Luffy closed the distance she’d put between them and kissed her. Nami felt pain inside her chest, holding her arms at her sides to keep from reaching out to him again like she wanted to.
Ace took hold of his arm and pulled gently, trying to get the boy moving. Clearly frustrated, Luffy wrenched his arm from Ace’s grip and sullenly strode out of the room without another word. Not even a goodbye. Nami felt her chin begin to quiver as she watched Ace silently go after his brother.
She couldn’t help herself; she began to cry. She couldn’t be silent about it, either. She dropped down to her knees on the floor as sobs wracked her, crying at the finality of their parting. That was it; it was really over. She’d never see him again. The thought only made her cry harder.
.o0o.
Nami cried for a long time after Luffy left. It seemed like every tear she had saved up since she was a child was determined to be set free. She knew that Luffy and his brother Ace (just how small was the damn world anyway) had left shortly after four in the morning. Her tears lasted well past that, all the way until Chew came to her around ten in the morning and told her she had to be made presentable for her new owner.
Nami was sent to the hands of the aestheticians again. The put her in the showers first, lathering her up in all sorts of perfumed soaps. The smell of them made her head ache. Her hair was washed, dried, and curled up again into soft waves. Heavy makeup was applied to cover the dark circles under her eyes. She was dressed in a white silk kimono that reminded her of the old fashion wedding kimonos she’d seen in the history books.
Fitting, she supposed, since like those women of old, she was being sold off with a hefty dowry.
When she was done, she was escorted by Chew down to the sixteenth floor to wait. As they had been the other day when Donquixote and his ilk had arrived, the number of Fish around was greatly reduced, and those that were there were dressed in suits and had a nervous feeling about them. She couldn’t imagine any of them, Arlong included, was particularly happy about seeing that man again so soon.
She was directed to sit in a chair right next to Arlong’s desk and wait. Nervous tension filled the room and Nami watched the Fish shift uncomfortably as they waited. It wasn’t as amusing to watch as it had been the other night.
Without warning, the lights went out for a moment before flickering back on. Murmurs sprang up in the room.
“What the hell was that?” Arlong demanded. It took a moment for an answer to come to him.
“Fire alarm has been tripped on the fourth floor, sir,” a Fish told him. Nami saw that the Fish was half in-half out of the room that was used to monitor security.
“If some moron set off the fire alarm by burning popcorn in the microwave again,” Arlong growled, “I swear, I will disembowel him myself and feed his gizzards to his coworkers. This had better not disturb the finality of our transaction with Doflamingo.”
The Fish in the doorway looked more nervous than the rest of the Fish. Nami guessed he had bad news.
“The fire department has been dispatched,” he revealed. “No one is going to be let in the building until it’s cleared by them.”
Nami watched as the general fear for Donquixote dissipated in wake of fear for Arlong, who had taken on a dark aura that not even Nami had seen before.
“Get Nezumi on the phone now,” Arlong snarled. “I want him down here in the next five minutes taking care of this situation.”
Several Fish hopped to it, though in the end only one of them would be able to do his bidding. Nami supposed that they hoped that looking like they were doing something useful would spare them Arlong’s wrath. She honestly doubted it.
At that moment, the door to the back stairwell popped open and a figure in white apron with stepped through, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. He looked around in dumbfounded shock for a moment before smiling stupidly.
“Anyone order take out?” he asked, laughing nervously. Nami’s eyes widened in horror at the sight of Ussop, easily recognized by her even in the ridiculous get up.
Nami stood to scream her warning to Ussop, but was ultimately too late to say anything. A shot rang out from the desk next to her, where Arlong had taken out his fury by means of a gun. Ussop fell immediately, sprawling to the side with the ricochet from the impact of the bullet.
Nami was shoved held in place by the hand of Chew, who was still at her side. She watched, helpless, as Ussop lay motionless, not even groaning in pain. Was he dead? Really? He couldn’t be dead! He shouldn’t even be here.
“How’d that idiot get in here?” Arlong demanded. “Those doors are locked and are only accessible with a card key.”
The Fish in the doorway of the security room cringed. “When the fire alarm is triggered, the locks on the building are disengaged. The elevators shut down, too.”
Arlong shot him, too. The Fish fell to the ground, half way between both rooms.
“Get our security measures back up!” he shouted. “I want the elevators working too! Go down to the fucking fourth floor and shut off that damn alarm if you have to!”
Several Fish scrambled to do as they were told, heading down the stairwell towards the fourth floor presumably.
“And get those bodies out of sight!” Arlong added. “I don’t want blood staining the carpet.”
More Fish moved to do as they were told, but a couple were brought up short. They turned to Arlong, half fearful, half confused.
“What is it?” he demanded. The Fish split and Nami could see from where she was that the place where Ussop had fallen was now vacant. While Chew was distracted, Nami began to inch backwards away from the Fish a bit towards the desk. It was bullet proof, she knew, and she might need it soon.
“Maybe one of the guys grabbed him on the way downstairs,” offered up one Fish. The others looked at him for a moment before stepping away, in case Arlong wanted to shoot him as well.
“Send out a general alert,” Arlong ordered. “Something rankles.”
Nami could feel it too. There was something going on. She didn’t dare say it, though.
“Sir, we’ve got a problem in the stairwell.”
Arlong walked to the security room himself, looking ready to break necks with his bare hands. “What is it?”
“It’s the all-nighter kid,” the Fish manning the security told him. “He’s got two others with him. They’re on their way up.”
“Let the men headed down to the fourth floor deal with them,” Arlong decided.
“That’s the problem, sir,” the Fish explained. “They’ve already beaten them.”
Every single Fish in the room went rigid with tension as Arlong went livid. Nami was positive no one saw Ussop skirt along one wall towards her. She had no idea what his plan was, but it was obvious now that he was there with Luffy in some half-baked plan to save her.
“Idiots,” she hissed as Ussop ducked under Arlong’s desk to hide. Everyone in the room turned to regard her.
“Something you would like to share with the rest of us, my dear?” Arlong snarled.
Nami couldn’t save any of them now, she knew. The best she could offer to her friends was the option of dying with them.
So she stepped away from the desk, stabbing Chew in the leg with a letter opener she’d pilfered from Arlong’s desk. Chew crumpled to the floor and she stepped away from him. She knew it was surprise that had gotten him, not the stab itself. He’d be back on his feet in a few moments. She didn’t want to be within his reach.
“Well, sixteen is longer than I originally expected to live,” she sighed. “So I guess I came out ahead. I’ll tell you now; I am not going to go peacefully to Donquixote. You’re going to have to kill me.”
Arlong narrowed his eyes into slits at her. “Is that so? Even at the cost of the lives of your precious family, who you’ve work so hard to keep alive these six years?”
“You were going to kill them anyway,” Nami accused. Somehow, she just knew it. Call it woman’s intuition or whatever. She knew that as soon as she left Arlong Park for good, Arlong was going to kill her mother and sister, regardless of the amount of money he was offered to the contrary.
“I offer you one last chance, little Nami,” Arlong said. “Sit down in that chair and wait for Doflamingo like a good little girl and you will escape this little act of rebellion without a mark on you.”
“I’d rather die,” she stated calmly. “So let’s cut to the chase already.”
“So be it,” Arlong shrugged. He took a phone out of the breast pocket of his jacket and dialed a number. There was a pause while he waited for the other party to answer. “Mihawk. I have another job for you. Yes, the two women whose pictures I sent you yesterday. No, no need to wait anymore. Go now. Do me a favor and make it painful. I’ll pay extra. Good man.”
Arlong eyed her with malice as he hung up.
“You’re in for some trouble, you know,” Nami told him, refusing to give in to his goading. “Those boys, the ones on their way up here, they were at the restaurant with Krieg. They survived.”
Arlong scoffed. “Impossible. I decreed no witnesses.”
“I know,” Nami agreed. “But here they come. Which means one of two things: either they bested Dracule Mihawk, or Mihawk cheated you. Which do you believe?”
She knew Chew had removed the letter opener from his leg and had regained his feet. She could feel him just a few steps behind her. She had no weapons on her anymore; all she had left was a mean fist. When Chew came at her, she turned to deliver the strongest blow she could, but she didn’t need too.
Chew went to the floor instantly, a knife lodged deep in his chest. Nami saw Ussop standing behind the desk, brandishing several knives. He wasted no time in lodging them into nearby Fish.
“I’ll tell you our secret!” Ussop cried, pulling more knives from his pockets. “We’re invincible!”
It was a blatant lie, but Nami wasn’t about to discredit him. He had the attention of everyone in the room. A big plus as Nami watched the other three idiots, Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji, walk though the stairwell door and join them.
Fifty Fish versus the five of them. She didn’t exactly hate those odds.
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Something Worth Dying For