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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
- 3
- 4
- 5
Chapter Four: Nami
Finally, it was Friday. Nami tried to keep that thought in mind as she rode the train to school again. And much to her dismay, Luffy was waiting for her as she exited the train. He regaled her with stories from the night before and followed her the last two blocks to school.
Nami was pleased at least to see that Ussop had made it unscathed. He was waiting for them as they approached the school’s grounds. By the way he twitched, he had something to tell them.
“I was followed on my way to school,” he burst out as soon as they were close.
“I thought that might happen,” Nami replied. “That’s why I told you to walk in group.”
She turned to Luffy and smacked him in the back of the head.
“You should be walking him to school, not me,” she admonished. “Walk with him from now on.”
Luffy pouted, but did not argue. The three of them walked into class and were surprised to see Miss Nico already there. She waited for them to enter before walking directly to Ussop and handing him a note.
“I received this a few minutes ago,” she told him. “You are excused from the day’s classes.”
Ussop read the note and bolted out of the classroom. He sprinted down the halls despite two different teachers telling him not to run. Nami looked at her teacher for an explanation.
“It seems that Ussop’s mother has suddenly fallen ill,” Miss Nico explained. “We received a call that she was rushed to the hospital shortly after appearing at work.”
Nami closed her eyes in exasperation. “Damn it.”
She dropped her bag and ran after Ussop. The fool! It was clearly a lie! They were trying to separate him from others so they could attack him. Nami ran through the gates of the school and looked back and forth for a moment before turning to the left. The hospital nearest to where Ussop lived was the Flevance Clinic. She headed in that direction, hoping Ussop’s mother didn’t work far from where she lived.
She only got two blocks before she found them. Ussop was on the ground, being kicked by at least seven men. One man stood watching, leaning against a car. He smiled, amused at the yelps of pain coming from Ussop. Nami watched as he pulled a knife from his jacket lapel.
‘How dare they!’ Nami thought. ‘This area is still considered Fishman Village.’
Two of the attackers picked up Ussop and held his limp body at attention. Nami barely made it to the grouping as the man in the sunglasses lunged forward, knife raised.
Blood spattered everywhere. The man in the sunglasses lost his smile as he regarded her.
“I will only say this once more,” Nami ground out as she stood before him, hand splayed as it was punctured through the palm with the knife. “Next time, it will be war. Stay off of Fishman Village.”
For good measure, she yanked on her hand with the knife in it, pulling the knife from the grip of the startled man in the sunglasses.
“Take these pieces of shit with you,” she spat. “If I see them here again, I won’t hesitate to go to my employer.”
The man smiled again and bowed politely. With a terse nod, the men dropped Ussop and piled into the two cars parked on the side of the street. Nami waited until they’d driven off and gone around the corner before she turned to Ussop.
“You alive?” she asked, taking stock of the knife embedded in her hand. It hurt like a mother fucker, but that wasn’t her big problem. Her big problem was that there was going to be no denying this. She was going to be in deep shit when she got home.
Ussop coughed. “Yeah.”
“Good. Get up,” she said, leaning down to help him up with her good hand. “We’re going to the police station.”
Ussop dragged himself to his feet. Admittedly, he looked pretty bad. Nami debated for a moment about actually taking him to the hospital.
“K—Kaya,” Ussop stuttered, looking behind Nami. She turned to see the blonde behind them, awestruck at the scene. There were tears in her eyes as she looked at them.
“Ussop,” she whispered, her voice trembling. Nami sighed, waiting for the two love birds to do something besides stare at each other forlornly. “Did this happen because of me?”
Nami blinked. Well, that was refreshing. She expected the blonde to cry and gripe and moan about Ussop being stupid and lying to her again. But it appeared that she now believed. Small miracle.
“You should come with us,” Nami recommended. Kaya looked at her hesitantly. “We’re going to the police station. You can file a restraining order there.”
“A restraining order?” Kaya repeated.
“If you really believe this is because of you,” Nami went on, “then you know why this happened. It’s because you confronted Kuro, didn’t you?”
Kaya looked away. “I…I was sure Kuro-san would have an explanation for why he looked so much like the man in the mug shot. But he only asked me who had told such things. He never even denied it. And then he insisted that I not go to school today.”
Nami smiled. Kaya had a little defiance in her. She was clearly in her school uniform and on her way to school, though obviously late and on foot instead of in her limousine. Kuro had stabbed himself in the foot, per se, and begun his own demise.
“Then you should file a restraining order,” Nami advised. “You don’t want to go home to a man like that after defying him.”
Kaya paled.
“Oi, oi,” Ussop wheezed. “You’re scaring her.”
“She needs to be scared,” Nami shrugged. “Let’s go.”
The three of them made their way slowly to the police station. It wasn’t usual for three high schoolers to be entering the police station in the middle of the day, so they attracted quite a bit of attention. Nami went to the officer at the main desk.
“I’d like to report a crime,” Nami stated to the man. He stuttered a little bit.
“A crime?” he repeated, glancing between the three of them and smirking. “What, did your boyfriend there two-time you with that chick or something?”
Nami picked up her hand and slammed the back of it into the desk, lodging the sharp tip of the knife into the wood. The man’s eyes widened and his grin faded.
“An attack,” Nami informed him. “You can fingerprint the blade if you like. No one’s touched it since I was stabbed.”
Blood was gathering on the desk in a pool, but she got the desired response. Several men came over and while gloved, removed the blade from her hand and the desk. They took it off to be fingerprinted while Nami was given some bandages to staunch the blood from the wound on her hand. When she was done, she motioned Ussop and Kaya over to fill out reports with her.
Ussop and Kaya filled out their forms while a very nervous looking man came over to talk to her. Nami didn’t think she remembered this one’s name, but it didn’t matter. All of the men in this station were under Nezumi’s command.
“The, uh, fingerprints on the knife came back with a match,” he stumbled. “It is for Jango the Mercenary.”
Nami shrugged. “So?”
“So, you were attacked by the second deadliest man in the Black Cat gang!” the man burst out. “You shouldn’t be alive, let alone making a police report.”
Nami was unfazed. “So, what? Go arrest him.”
The man paled and shifted uneasily. Nami raised an eyebrow. She recognized this behavior.
Well, this was an interesting development. It appeared that Nezumi wasn’t only on her employer’s payroll.
A little more than irritated, Nami stood and went over to Ussop and Kaya. She took the reports out of their hands and threw them in the trash.
“Oi, Nami—”
“Let’s go,” Nami hissed. “We’ll get no help from the police.”
There were few places they could go and receive genuine help. Nami pondered for a moment before taking them towards her mother’s work.
.o0o.
“You are grounded until the end of college!”
Nami rolled her eyes. Her mother could be so over dramatic. She looked to Smoker for help, but he was busy with Ussop and Kaya, taking their statements or something. Maybe he was just avoiding her gaze as to not be drawn into the conversation and therefore not be subjected to her mother’s rage. Who knows?
“I can’t believe you ditched school to get into a fight!” Bell-mère went on, winding new bandages onto Nami’s hand. “We’re going to have to take you to the hospital to get stitches. Damn it, do you understand how much trouble you are in?”
Nami looked at her mother, judging whether or not she was supposed to answer that question.
“What was I supposed to do?” Nami replied, figuring this would be the only time she would be able to get a word in edgewise. “Let them continue to beat the crap out of Ussop? To stab him?”
Bell-mère curled her lip. “Why were you ditching school?”
“I was worried about Ussop,” she admitted. She knew it wasn’t enough of an explanation, so she embellished a little. “He’s my friend.”
That, Bell-mère had a harder time countering. “Your worrying almost got you killed.”
Nami sighed, looking at the floor. Her mother had no idea how close Nami had come to death long before this day. Nor was she going to point that out.
“But I’m glad you were there to help your friend,” Bell-mère finally said, laying a hand on Nami’s shoulder. “And I’m glad you brought your friends to us. You say the police did nothing?”
“They were afraid to do something,” Nami reiterated. “It felt wrong. So I left.”
Bell-mère nodded and shared a look with Smoker. “Miss Kaya can stay with us tonight.”
“I will take you home, Ussop, and speak with your mother,” Smoker announced. “And you will not go to school tomorrow. Neither will you two.”
He pointed to the two girls.
“No one is going to get a hold of you three,” he swore. “I’m going to go see my old comrades at the force tonight. There will be no locals in on this raid.”
But Nami knew that when they went to Kaya’s estate, there would be no Black Cat members there.
.o0o.
After three days, Nami was allowed to go back to school. It was against Bell-mère’s wishes, but when Smoker had approached her on the matter, she’d caved. Smoker had no choice but to use Nami and Ussop as bait, but they would be guarded by none other than Garp himself.
True to form, Garp pulled up to her house with his grandson in tow. Luffy bound out of the car and rushed up to her house, bursting in before she had the time to open the door. He laughed and scratched the back of his head.
“Where have you been?” he asked, giving Kaya a wave.
“Here, obviously,” she answered, knowing he must have been informed on why she’d been missing school by his grandfather. “Let’s go.”
She didn’t wait for Luffy’s answer. She dragged the boy out to the waiting car. In it was the man she had heard about, Garp. He had the same wide grin as his grandson as she climbed into the car.
“So you’re the girl my grandson won’t shut up about,” he greeted, driving down the street.
“I guess,” she muttered, glaring at Luffy.
“He says you’re pretty good at fighting,” Garp conversed. “That you bested fifteen men on your own.”
Nami was seething. That was something that didn’t need to get around.
“Technically, it was fourteen,” she amended, since Luffy had been the one to take down the weirdo in the fur hat with ears.
“So how did you manage to run head long into a group of eight and come out of it with a knife in your hand?” he asked.
“The people you try to protect get in the way of fighting back sometimes,” Nami answered truthfully. “I could have beaten all of them, if I didn’t have to worry about Ussop.”
“And what did you say that stopped them from beating you as brutally as they beat him?” Garp inquired. “It must have been something.”
“I said I’d scream real loud,” she lied. “I would attract unwanted attention.”
Garp snorted, unconvinced. “You shouldn’t lie to your elders.”
Nami snorted too. Still, he let the subject drop until they got to school.
“You see anyone you know?” Garp asked. Nami knew he did not mean the students.
“No,” she answered. “But I doubt they’d be stupid enough to come to school. Too many witnesses. How was Ussop getting to school today?”
Garp eyed her in the rear view mirror. “He was going to walk, followed by two of my men. I also have eight men scattered across the five blocks to his house.”
“You’re being pretty high handed with his life,” Nami commented. Garp shrugged as he sighed.
“I trust my men to watch over that boy,” Garp told her. “Each one of them is devoted to me, and if I tell them to put their lives on the line for that boy, I know that they won’t hesitate.”
“We’ll see,” was Nami’s response. One of the first things she’d learned when she’d begun working for her employer was that there were no absolutes. Garp may have been sure that when he gave the order to protect Ussop that his men were loyal, but he couldn’t be sure that nothing could buy them after. Everyone had their price.
She got out of the car, followed by Luffy. Together they made their way into the school. Zoro met up with them as they entered class. Seeing as he didn’t bother to comment on hers or Ussop’s absence over the last few days, Nami figured he’d been filled in by Luffy. The three of them sat at their desks and an ominous silence filled the air around them. Ussop did not show up to class.
“I’m leaving after first period,” Nami told them in a whisper as Miss Nico took roll call. “You really shouldn’t follow me; you’ll probably just get yourselves killed. But they’re not going to show here. Nor are they going to follow me home. They already know where to hit that will cause the most damage.”
Zoro lowered his chin to his chest. “They’re at Ussop’s house.”
Luffy abruptly stood. Nami grabbed his arm and tugged hard, pulling him back to his seat. Miss Nico raised her eyebrow at the behavior, but didn’t comment and went back to taking attendance.
“Idiot! Your grandfather is still out there,” she hissed, jerking her thumb at the window. “If we leave now, they’ll know. And we can’t take anyone with us to the house. These men don’t play games. They will kill Ussop and his mother too if she’s home.”
Reluctantly, Luffy stopped struggling. First period was slow to say the least, and when the bell rang, three stood and marched out of class like a death squad. Miss Nico watched them go, only stopping them when they were out in the halls.
“Shall I send the school doctor after you?” she asked. Somehow, the woman had picked up on the fact that they were about to do something hazardous to their health. “Though I presume you are going to leave school grounds.”
“Might not be a bad idea,” Nami answered, pondering the woman’s position in Baroque Works. She had to be one of the Officers. She was too intuitive and skilled in things no normal teacher would be.
When they reached the front doors of the school, she was relieved to see that Garp was no longer guarding the entrance. She had no idea where he’d gone, but it was likely some of his men were watching the school. They’d have to be quick. The three of them walked swiftly to Ussop’s house, only pausing at the gate. It was eerily quiet.
“Anyone want to back out?” Zoro asked. In response, Luffy opened the gate and walked towards the door. As if to give a sign of how the fight was to go, he raised a fist and slammed it into the door. The door’s hinges buckled instantly.
Nami shook her head in dismay. It wasn’t like she had intended on trying to sneak in, but this was a little more aggressive than she’d planned.
“Oi! Where’s Ussop?” Luffy yelled, stepping into the house. Zoro followed and Nami sighed as she went third. The house was slightly dark; the shades had been drawn on every window. She had to squint for a moment to allow her eyes to adjust.
“Welcome.”
The smooth voice that had spoken up came from the left. But Nami was not fooled. She’d been in too many confrontations to know never to go for the obvious. Her two companions, not so much. They immediately walked into the room to face whatever foe was there. A little too late, Nami wondered if she should have let them come along. Though they were good in a fight, they had no clue how bad things could get.
Nami had not been idle for three days at home. She’d dug for information of the Black Cat gang. The internet had mostly been useless, only being able to provide information on the members of the gang that had been on the roster three years ago. Kuro Cat, the leader, Jango the Mercenary, and two hit men named Sham and Buchi.
The rest of the information she’d dug up in Smoker’s office. While she and Kaya were stuck sitting around the office all day, Nami had offered to ‘help’ Smoker by filing some of his paper work. The man had agreed and given Nami access to the entire filing room. It proved lucrative.
Smoker was well informed for a simple prosecution attorney. She found out that there were seventeen men suspected to be a part of the Black Cat gang, not including the original four members. That meant that there were probably at least twenty one men in the house with them at the moment, but possibly more. If Kuro had bought off any of Garp’s men, that meant there could be upwards of thirty one men.
It was more than twice as many as she was confident in dealing with on her own.
True, she had Luffy and Zoro, but these also weren’t small time hoodlums either. A loud crash alerted Nami that the fighting had begun in the other room. She hung back in the hall, waiting for the others to converge.
Down the stairs came Sham and Buchi. They smiled when they saw her, chuckling under their breath.
“Lookie what we have here,” Sham said. “A pretty little Fish, I hear. I wonder if we have a true Mermaid on our hands.”
Nami curled a lip in disgust. Her employer’s men were called ‘Fish’ by rival gangs, but the term ‘Mermaid’ was designated for the whores of the yakuza.
“Believe it or not, I’m called the Cat Thief,” Nami told him. “I steal men’s hearts right out of their chests.”
More crashing from the other room. It distracted the two briefly.
“Then you’re in the wrong gang, honey,” Sham returned. “A pretty little cat like you should be in the Black Cat gang.”
Nami was deadpanned. “I’ll pass.”
“Besides,” he went on, shrugging at her dismissal of invitation, “the one who steals hearts from people’s chests is the Surgeon of Death, not the Cat Thief, baby.”
Nami shrugged too. “I also steal people’s reputations.”
Zoro appeared in the hallway behind the two men. He looked slightly ruffed up, but fine. Apparently, he was confident that Luffy could handle whatever was going on in the other room.
“What’s all this?” he asked as another loud crash sounded. Men groaning in pain could be heard now too.
“Presents from upstairs,” Nami replied. “Want to share?”
Zoro smirked. “I don’t share. I’ll take both.”
Nami shrugged, watching the two men turn to face Zoro. Apparently, she wasn’t considered that dangerous. Morons.
Within a blink of an eye, Nami had lifted every weapon they had on them and slipped by to head up the stairs. She knew there were more men up there; she could hear their footsteps clunking around. Using her newly acquired weapons, two pairs of clawed gloves and several knives, along with some good old fashioned street style fighting, she had anyone who appeared in her sights lying in a bloody pulp on the ground.
Counting up the bodies, Nami came up with twelve. Sham and Buchi made fourteen. She had no idea how many had been in the room Luffy had gone into. Still, she made sure the second floor was clear before heading back down the stairs. Sham and Buchi were on the floor in a mess of their own, beaten unconscious. She had to admit to herself that Zoro wasn’t a half bad fighter.
Glancing in the kitchen, Nami didn’t see anyone, so she went to the room she had yet to enter. It was pretty gruesome.
Four men were on the ground and obviously done. Luffy was fighting someone in the corner. He didn’t look too hot in terms of health, but he was also winning the fight. Zoro was taking on Jango on the other side of the room, using a lead pipe of all things like a sword as he fought the Mercenary and his many knives.
Finally, Nami saw Ussop. The poor kid looked terrible and not surprisingly, unconscious as he lay next to a string of ten men, all bound and beaten similarly. So there were Garp’s men. Still, Ussop looked the worst, so she went to him immediately, checking him over for wounds. There were plenty, but most of them weren’t too serious. The worst of them looked to be his poor nose, which was bent two different ways. She attempted staunch some of the bleeding, which was a trick while still wearing the clawed gloves, as she waited for Zoro and Luffy to finish with their opponents.
She was knocked clear across the room into the wall. The blow had been swift and unexpected; whoever had done it was not the typical goon who frequented a gang. She clutched at her right arm, which had taken the blow as she looked up at her assailant.
Kuro the Black Cat. She should have known.
On silent feet, he walked over to her with a calm assurance and a long two-by-four in his hand. Nami had no doubt that he knew who she was just as clearly as she did him.
“What, no threats about this being Fishman Village?” his smooth voice asked. His had been the voice that led Luffy into the room to fight at the start. Nami wondered where he’d hid to watch the show. He slowly approached, stopping a few steps away from her. She struggled to her feet, using the wall behind her as a brace. “Shall I let you call your employer to tell him what is happening here? Or possibly you think it unwise to tell your employer about your involvement with Garp?”
Nami remained silent. No, her employer was coming nowhere near this fight. Not unless she wanted to die herself.
“Perhaps I shall be the one to send a message today,” Kuro posed. He raised his left hand and Nami saw clawed gloves on his hands, similar to the ones she had on hers. He made a slash at her and she moved to parry with her own gloves.
Pain caused her legs to cripple as the two-by-four in his right hand connected with her thigh. She was crumpled on the floor when the claws came at her again. She did manage to block them mostly, until the right hand came at her as well, the two-by-four apparently abandoned.
She felt searing lines of pain slash across her neck and chest, thankfully not too deep. She was squirming along the floor to get away from the man, but he merely covered the distance in a few steps.
“Tell your employer that I do not intend to invade his so-called Village,” Kuro told her. “That as soon as I have finished with my business with that brat Kaya, I will leave this town for good.”
“You’d better kill me so I don’t tell him,” Nami snarled. “He finds out you did this, it won’t matter where you go. He’ll find you and pay you back in full. And then some.”
Kuro smiled. “I was willing to leave you alive, but if you’re so interested in dying…”
He raised both hands to strike at her again. Nami knew that she wouldn’t be able to deflect both claws. Still, she wasn’t about to cringe and hide from this man. She stared him down, eyes filled with hatred.
Imagine her surprise when a pipe flew across the room and hit the man in the head.
It wasn’t a clean blow; the pipe merely grazed one side of his head. But it was enough to grab his attention. Nami risked a glance in the direction of the assault and saw both Luffy and Zoro done with their opponents.
Luffy cracked his knuckles while Zoro split with him, walking to the other side of the room so that Kuro was between them. Kuro looked at the two of them in amusement.
“So I have the honor to be double teamed?” Kuro deduced. “How quaint. It’s been a few years since I did this last; it may take a few minutes for me to get back into my groove.”
Not in the mood for chatting, Luffy and Zoro charged. Nami watched as the two adolescent boys went against the leader of the Black Cat gang. It was brutal. Neither boy on his own was a match, and together, they barely kept up. Nami watched in frustration as Kuro easily dominated the fight between them and many bloody cuts appeared on the boys.
The sound of a car pulling up distracted Nami from the fight. She had no idea who it was; it had been nearly an half an hour since they left school, it could be Garp or it could be Kuro’s reinforcements. Not wanting it to be the latter, Nami pulled herself to the lead pipe and picked it up, wanting something to defend herself with if needed.
It wasn’t needed. Garp strolled into the room and took in the sight. His presence alone was enough to cause the fight to briefly pause as the opponents assessed the newcomer.
“We meet again, Garp,” Kuro panted lightly. In contrast to him, Zoro and Luffy sounded like marathon runners trying to reclaim their breaths.
Garp ignored the gangster. “This is pathetic. Two of you against one and you’re unable to take him down? What a joke. Should I let this ruffian walk right past me out of the door and walk away? Would be fitting considering my own grandson can’t seem to lay a hand on him.”
“Shut up, Gramps!” Luffy snapped.
“Grandson?” Kuro repeated, amused. “What a lovely joke.”
“Didn’t you tell me you were strong enough to protect your friends?” Garp taunted. “Didn’t you say you wouldn’t let anything happen to them? Look at your friends, brat. They’re half alive and you can’t do a damn thing but barely hold yourself up on your own two feet. How are you supposed to protect anything like that?”
“Shut up!” Luffy fumed.
“I will not shut up,” Garp refused. “I will not listen to such a disgrace of a grandson—”
Nami watched, dumbfounded, as Luffy turned away from his fight with Kuro to raise his fist at Garp. Her look turned to horror as Kuro grinned and raised a clawed hand at Luffy’s unprotected back. And Garp just stood there, watching, that irritating grin on his face.
Zoro was pretty quick, despite his injuries. He was at Luffy’s back in a moment, but only had the time to raise an arm in deflection. The claws ripped down his arm deeply, and Nami swore she could see bone.
Luffy looked behind him with what could only be called murderous intent as Zoro took the blow. Zoro must have lost his footing from the impact because he went down to his knees. Luffy, arm still raised to punch Garp, twisted around again and grabbed Kuro by the jacket lapels. With a swift jerk, Luffy pulled Kuro towards him and head butted him.
Kuro had been unprepared for such an attack, it seemed. He was unable to deflect or form his own attack before his head collided with Luffy’s. His head snapped backwards in what had to be an unhealthy way; his glasses cracking and falling away from his face as the force of the blow propelled him backwards a few steps.
He didn’t even regain his balance. A fist hit him square in the jaw and took him face down to the ground. Kuro lay there for a moment, unmoving, before pushing his hands under him to stand again.
“Stay down!” Luffy yelled, slamming his foot into the back of the gangster. He then returned his attention to his grandfather. “I told you I can protect them!”
Garp snorted. “You did a fine job, Luffy. So fine, that the four of you will probably spend days in the hospital.”
Luffy only glared at his grandfather, apparently having no response.
“I’ll call an ambulance, shall I?” Garp commented, leaving the room and heading out the door.
Was it really over? Nami looked at Kuro; he was down but was he out for the count? And what about the other men? Yeah, they’d gotten the shit beaten out of them, but some of them could regain consciousness at any moment and the fighting could start again.
It didn’t.
Uniformed men began filing into the house by the dozens. Nami could tell by the patches on their shoulders that they were from a different precinct than Nezumi’s. The beaten bodies of the Black Cat gang were hauled away, presumably to the backs of squad cars.
Nami watched in astonishment as Luffy remained standing on Kuro’s back while other, less dangerous men were dealt with first. Were they stupid? Did they really think Kuro wasn’t a threat because he was on the ground?
As if to punctuate the point, Kuro twisted suddenly beneath Luffy and grabbed the leg that stood upon him, digging his clawed gloves deep into Luffy’s leg. Luffy howled in pain and surprise before he was shoved roughly away. Kuro made it to his knees before Nami swung the pipe as hard as she could, albeit with her left hand, not her right, at his head. She made a solid connection.
Kuro collapsed into a heap on the floor as Garp reentered the room, with Smoker in tow. Garp chuckled at the turn of events, nudging the gangster with his shoe.
“And in the end it’s the yankee girl who knocks him out,” Garp iterated. He smirked at Zoro and Luffy. “You boys have been bested.”
Smoker was already on his way to her. He checked her over for injuries, grimacing at each one he found. Done with his inspection of her, he went to Ussop to do the same.
“This was handled poorly,” Smoker commented, sitting the now conscious boy up. “Her mother is going to skin me alive, and you too if she sees you.”
Garp laughed. “Her mother should be proud. Her daughter helped take down a gang that has been on the lamb for over three years.”
“Yeah, but we’re going to be the ones with death sentences,” Smoker muttered. He pulled out his phone. “I may as well get this over with.”
As Smoker made the call, stretchers came in from the ambulances. Zoro vehemently refused a stretcher, but the rest of them were carried out and taken to the two ambulances waiting outside. They were split into pairs: Ussop and Nami in one, Zoro and Luffy in the other. Nami lost sight of Smoker and Garp as the doors closed on the ambulance and they drove away.
There was a paramedic in the back with them for awhile, checking their vitals and trying to staunch any heavy bleeding, but once that was taken care of, he went to sit up front with his coworker. Nami and Ussop were left in the back by themselves.
“Thanks,” Ussop wheezed quietly. His eyes were closed as he lay on the stretcher.
“Like I said,” Nami replied, “I kind of got you into this. So don’t thank me.”
It was quiet for a moment.
“Nami, what’s Fishman Village?”
Nami sat up quickly on her stretcher and slapped a hand over Ussop’s mouth.
“Don’t talk about that!” she hissed. Ussop’s eyes opened to look at her curiously. “Where did you even hear about that?”
She lifted her hand from his mouth and regarded him.
“That asshole Kuro said something about it to you,” Ussop informed her. “And you said something the other day about it too.”
“Forget about it,” Nami snapped. “Forget you ever heard it. It’s not a good thing to know.”
Ussop watched her for a minute before closing his eyes again with a sigh. “Fine.”
Nami let her shoulders relax and lay down on the stretcher again. She had been careless to mention that in front of Ussop. She needed to be more cautious. No one could possibly know about her involvement with Fishman Village or it would be disastrous.
.o0o.
They ended up at Flevance Clinic. The four of them were met with wide eyes and looks of wonder as they were carried, or in Zoro’s case, hobbled in. Still, the man who ran the clinic was professional and spent the rest of the morning and the whole of the afternoon taking care of them.
Smoker arrived not long after they made it to the Clinic, and Nami watched as he mostly hovered. She guessed he wasn’t too enamored with the idea of going back to his office and facing her mother. Garp was around to take statements from the four of them, though he mostly argued with Luffy about his incompetence when interviewing him.
Finally, near dinner time, they were allowed to go home. None of them had suffered any life-threatening injuries, miraculously, and were all told to take it easy over the next week. Nami watched as a man in glasses and a fighting gi came to collect Zoro.
Ussop’s mother arrived in tears, but thankfully not hysterics, to collect him next. They were given a voucher for a hotel to stay at for a few days while their house, the ‘crime scene,’ was dealt with. Luffy went off with his grandfather, not surprisingly, and Nami was left with Smoker.
“I’ll be taking you home,” he told her, helping her to stand. Her leg was bruised, swollen, and sore, but if she hobbled, she could walk. As she hobbled out, a young man wearing a uniform from her school walked in. They regarded each other for a moment.
He was an upperclassman, she could tell by the color of his tie. A second year. And apparently into little white bears too. There was a tiny white bear keychain attached to his book bag. But Nami didn’t recognize his face. He held the door while she stumbled out, clutching the arm of Smoker for support.
“I think I missed something interesting,” he murmured as he entered the clinic and closed the door behind him.
Nami made it to Smoker’s car and collapsed against it. “I should have elected for the wheelchair.”
“Your mother would have kittens if she saw you in one,” Smoker commented, opening the door for her. She dragged herself into the cigar smoke smelling vehicle. He rounded the car and got in the driver’s side. “She’s going to have my balls now as it is.”
Nami smirked, knowing he was right. Bell-mère may work for Smoker, but she was not intimidated by the man like so many others that met him. She was one of the few who had the gall to stand up to the man if she thought he was wrong.
“What’s going to happen to Kaya?” Nami asked, watching out the side window as the town passed by.
“There were three in her household servant staff that were not a part of the Black Cat gang,” Smoker told her. “One of them is a man named Merry, who has been with the family for over twenty years. He has offered to take over guardianship of Kaya, if the courts allow it.”
“And if they don’t?” Nami asked.
“She will be remanded to her nearest relative,” Smoker answered. “Which, as far as I was able to find, is a third cousin who lives outside of the Blues. I had been in contact with him briefly. He had heard that Kaya’s parents had died, but had no knowledge that Kaya even existed. Needless to say, it was a surprise to him that he had an underage cousin who may need his guardianship.”
Though something about that explanation bugged her, Nami let the subject drop. There really was nothing Nami could do for Kaya, but she had grown to like the young blonde that had lived with her for the last few days. She hoped everything worked out for the best for the girl.
When they arrived at the house, Smoker told Nami to wait in the car. He then got out and came to her side, lifting her out of the car and carrying her into the house. Bell-mère was at the door, and by the look on her face, Nami believed both she and Smoker might die before the night was over.
Nojiko peeked around one side of Bell-mère and Kaya from the other. The two looked distressed at the sight of her.
“You should see the other guy,” Nami quipped. It was not the thing to say. Nojiko’s look turned cross and Kaya began to weep, while Bell-mère’s eyebrow twitched.
“If you’d be so kind, Smoker, to take my daughter to her room,” Bell-mère managed to request calmly. Smoker began walking in the house as the three women moved out of the doorway. “Seeing as she will be there for the rest of her life…”
Nami sighed in defeat. Of course she knew she was grounded. She didn’t expect anything less. She had just hoped that somehow Bell-mère would see the good that was also done this day, as she had the day Nami had shown up to her office with Ussop and Kaya in tow.
“Good luck,” Nami whispered to Smoker when he set her down on her bed. Smoker nodded in return.
“I’ll need it,” he replied, leaving her in her room with the two younger girls.
“Are you okay?” Kaya asked between sobs.
“Couple of cuts, couple of bruises,” Nami replied, trying to downplay the injuries. Kaya looked completely eaten away by guilt. “The doctor told me to stay home for a week, but I think that’s over kill. I think I’d be fine to go back in a day or two.”
Nojiko didn’t buy Nami’s bluffing one bit, but at least she didn’t say so in front of Kaya.
“How’s Ussop?” she asked, looking anxious. Mutual puppy love. It was kind of cute.
“The worst for wear out of all of us, unfortunately,” Nami admitted. “They broke his nose in two places. But other than that, just cuts and bruises like me.”
Kaya’s lip quivered.
“You should call him,” Nami urged quickly, trying to avoid the water works. “He probably wants to hear from you.”
Crying fit averted! Kaya nodded eagerly and went in search for her phone. After she had left, Nojiko gave Nami a hard look.
“You did something stupid,” Nojiko deduced. “That’s not like you.”
“You think I should have let that boy die?” Nami asked rhetorically. “Trust me, if there had been a better way, I would have taken it.”
“You were lucky they didn’t kill you,” Nojiko told her, before leaving her to herself.
No, Nami was not lucky they didn’t kill her. She was going to have to explain this entire mess to her boss. She would be lucky if he didn’t kill her.
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Something Worth Dying For