Nami remained frozen for quite a while.
Then her legs went weak, and she dropped onto the floor.
Rook stood over her with his arms crossed.
“Name?”
“Na… Nami.”
Since this guy already knew her nickname, Cat Burglar, Nami didn’t see much point in lying about her name.
It wasn’t exactly some unspeakable secret anyway.
And considering her current situation, she figured behaving honestly would probably be the smarter choice.
“Gender?”
“F-Female…”
Nami suddenly raised her head and glared at Rook like an angry kitten with all its fur standing on end.
“You already know that! Why are you asking?!”
“How big?”
“C—”
Nami abruptly caught herself.
“No! I mean… I’m almost fifteen!”
Now that her disguise had already been exposed, Nami simply gave up pretending.
Her voice rose sharply.
“What the hell do you want from me?”
“Fine! You caught me. I admit it.”
“Yes, I stole your wallet. I was wrong.”
“But I don’t want to die.”
“And judging by how you’re acting, you probably want me to do something for you.”
“So tell me.”
“What will it take for you to let me go?”
“I can give your wallet back.”
“Wallet?”
Rook slowly repeated the word.
His expression immediately darkened.
Nami suddenly felt as though the air pressure around her had dropped.
A chill crept across her skin as she heard the resentment in his voice.
She gave an awkward laugh.
Rook glared at her and said through gritted teeth,
“I swore that if I ever caught you, I’d break your legs.”
Nami’s face changed instantly.
She hurriedly scooted backward across the floor, waving both hands frantically.
“No need! No need!”
“If you break my legs, I won’t be able to help you with anything!”
Bang!
Her back struck the wall.
Nami winced in pain.
Rook walked over and bent down as though he intended to grab her legs.
Nami’s face went pale.
“Wait! Wait!”
“As long as you don’t break my legs, I’ll do anything you want!”
Rook stopped.
He raised an eyebrow and straightened.
A playful smile appeared on his face.
“Anything?”
Nami nodded repeatedly.
Rook studied her for a moment.
“Then give me your boat.”
Nami froze.
“What?!”
“The boat you used to get here. Give it to me.”
Her face immediately changed.
“No!”
The answer came so quickly that even Rook raised an eyebrow.
Nami scrambled backward and glared at him.
“You can take the money I stole from you. I’ll even help you with something if that’s what you want.”
“But I’m not giving you my boat.”
“Without it, I can’t leave this island.”
“And I absolutely can’t stay here.”
Rook watched her quietly.
Even while believing she had been poisoned and might die within half a day, she still refused to surrender the one thing she needed to continue moving across the sea.
Interesting.
“Good.”
Nami blinked.
“…What?”
“I wanted to know whether fear had completely shut off your brain.”
Rook stepped back and crossed his arms.
“If you’d handed over the only thing keeping you mobile just because I threatened you, you wouldn’t be much use to me.”
Nami’s eye twitched.
“You bastard…”
“You’re the one who stole my wallet.”
Rook shrugged.
“Consider us even for the moment.”
Nami stared at him suspiciously.
“You aren’t going to break my legs?”
“Depends on whether you try stealing from me again.”
Nami immediately looked away.
Rook almost laughed.
“By the way, my name is Rook Vane.”
“You can just call me Rook from now on.”
Nami stared blankly at him.
Her thoughts were such a mess that she couldn’t immediately process what had just happened.
“Rook?”
“What exactly do you mean?”
“I heard from some beggars that you’re not from this island.”
“You came here alone.”
“But you steal here pretty often, and you’ve even been taking business away from them.”
Rook looked at her.
“That means you know navigation, right?”
“You can sail around the East Blue by yourself?”
Nami froze.
“Those bastard beggars!”
“Oh?”
Rook raised an eyebrow.
Nami continued indignantly.
“That night, when you chased me all the way into their territory…”
“I was watching from a nearby rooftop.”
“I was even worried they might kill you.”
“I was actually planning to help if you ended up in serious danger.”
“But then…”
Rook gave her an amused look.
“Didn’t expect you to have a conscience.”
Nami laughed awkwardly and quickly changed the subject.
“Right. Yes.”
“I know some navigation.”
“So what exactly do you want me to do?”
Rook got straight to the point.
“You infiltrated this ship because you wanted to steal Norton’s treasure, didn’t you?”
Nami’s expression immediately darkened.
Rook acted as though he hadn’t noticed.
“I plan to leave the Norton Pirates.”
“Norton is a pirate with absolutely no bottom line.”
“I don’t belong with people like them.”
Nami abruptly looked up at him in surprise.
At the same time, she quietly relaxed.
Apparently she hadn’t accidentally walked straight into another disaster by sneaking onto this ship.
“The sea is enormous and full of possibilities.”
“But if you want to travel it, you need a ship.”
“And you need navigation skills.”
“I have neither.”
Nami blinked.
She seemed to realize where this conversation was going.
Rook grinned.
“I don’t know what could make you so desperate for money that you’re willing to risk your life stealing treasure from pirates.”
“But if you keep taking risks like this, sooner or later your luck will run out.”
“I’m sure you understand that better than most.”
“You’re practically carrying your own head around on your belt.”
“One mistake and you’re dead.”
“And sometimes…”
“Living can be worse than dying.”
Listening to him speak so frankly, Nami fell silent.
A deep sense of grievance rose inside her, making her nose sting.
“You have navigation skills.”
“You have access to boats.”
“You’re alone.”
“And for some fucking reason, you enjoy running around trying to get yourself killed.”
Rook saw the stubbornness in her eyes.
“As for me, I have strength.”
“And if I want to keep becoming stronger, there’s no avoiding fighting powerful people.”
“So…”
“How about we work together?”
Nami blinked.
“There are plenty of rich bastards on this sea.”
“I fight them head-on.”
“You steal their treasure.”
“Afterward, we split everything fifty-fifty.”
“Both of us benefit.”
“And I won’t exploit you.”
“Huh?”
Nami stared at him in astonishment.
Was this what people meant when they said there was always light at the end of the tunnel?
But…
She didn’t want to agree.
If she did all the work only to hand half the money over to him, wasn’t he still taking half of what she’d earned?
Nami cautiously asked,
“Um… R-Rook?”
“Can I refuse?”
“Or could you maybe take a smaller share?”
“I urgently need a huge amount of Berries.”
“Sure.”
Rook nodded calmly.
“Then wait for the poison to kill you.”
He turned around and started walking away.
Nami froze.
He wasn’t even going to negotiate?!
Wait for the poison to—
Her eyes suddenly widened.
Right!
She had swallowed that bastard’s poisonous Kick-the-Bucket Pill!
“Wait! Wait! Wait!”
“Don’t leave!”
Nami shrieked and scrambled to her feet.
She rushed after him and grabbed his arm at the doorway.
“Fine!”
“Fine, I’ll agree!”
“Fifty-fifty! We’ll split it in half, all right?!”
“Keep your voice down.”
“You trying to bring every pirate upstairs down here?”
Nami immediately gave an awkward smile.
But then—
The corner of Rook’s mouth lifted.
“You only agreed to fifty-fifty now?”
“Too late.”
“Ninety-ten.”
Nami’s eyes widened.
She stared at him in disbelief.
“You only want ten percent?”
“That’s amazing!”
“You’re such a good person!”
Rook’s mouth twitched.
“Were you born with this talent for pretending to be an idiot?”
Nami fell silent.
Her hands tightened around Rook’s arm.
Several seconds later, she raised her head.
Her eyes were slightly red.
“I really need a lot of money.”
“For money…”
“I’m willing to risk my life against pirates.”
“If you actually want us to work together, then don’t squeeze me dry like this.”
“Otherwise, one day, if I can’t take it anymore…”
“I’ll sail the ship straight into some death trap and drag you down with me.”
“You’re a pirate.”
“So you should understand one thing.”
“Never piss off the navigator aboard your own ship.”
Nami herself might not have noticed it yet—
But her tone had already shifted toward that of someone negotiating the terms of a partnership.
“Are you threatening me?”
Rook’s expression remained calm.
Nami glared back without backing down.
She looked like someone who valued money more than her life and already had one foot hanging over the edge of a cliff.
“Give me a reason.”
Rook said.
“A reason why you need that much money.”
“If you can convince me…”
“Then as long as my ordinary living expenses and weapon-maintenance costs are covered, I don’t necessarily mind lending you my share of our future earnings until you’ve saved enough.”
Nami froze.
Her face filled with disbelief.
Was this guy really that generous?
But this time—
She hesitated.
Arlong, who occupied Cocoyasi Village, was like the blood-red serpent of the Red Line itself wrapped tightly around her body, crushing her until she could barely breathe.
But she didn’t dare speak about it.
Nami pursed her lips.
“Can you stop forcing me?”
“You have secrets you wouldn’t want someone constantly digging into either, don’t you?”
“My problem…”
“I want to solve it my own way.”
Rook nodded immediately.
“Fair enough.”
“We barely know each other.”
“It’s perfectly normal that you don’t trust me enough to tell me everything.”
“So…”
“Fifty-fifty?”
Nami quietly sighed in relief.
Yet for some reason, a strange frustration also appeared in her chest.
If he’d kept asking…
It wasn’t as though she absolutely couldn’t have told him.
Feeling irritated for reasons she couldn’t quite explain, Nami glared at Rook.
“So what are you planning to do now?”
“Do you want me to take you off this island immediately?”
Rook rubbed his chin.
After thinking for several seconds, he told her about his plan to formally announce his departure from the Norton Pirates.
He also explained his suspicion that something major might soon happen aboard the ship.
Then he asked for her opinion.
Two heads were better than one.
Nami blinked.
She finally released Rook’s arm and finished putting her clothes back on.
Then she rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
“From what you’re saying, there’s something strange about these new recruits.”
“And some of them move like they’ve received proper training.”
As she spoke, Nami began thinking back over the details she’d previously ignored.
Now that Rook had pointed them out, Nami reconsidered the details she’d overlooked.
“What kind of people do you think there are the most of on Barbarian Island?”
“Remember, this place is a lawless zone packed with gangs and pirates.”
Rook caught her implication.
“You mean…”
“One of the gangs on this island is targeting Norton?”
Nami nodded.
“Most likely.”
“And gangs robbing pirates—or pirates robbing gangs—probably isn’t exactly unusual around here.”
“True.”
Rook suddenly chuckled.
“If that’s the case, then Norton is probably about to be finished.”
“What about the treasure?”
Nami immediately asked.
Her eyes lit up with excitement.
“According to you, things should become chaotic here pretty soon.”
“So…”
“You keep watch outside.”
“I go steal the treasure?”
“And then you immediately run away with it?”
Rook asked.
Nami instinctively nodded.
Then immediately shook her head.
She gave him an awkward smile.
“How about we agree on somewhere to meet afterward?”
“Besides…”
“I don’t want to die.”
“You still haven’t given me the antidote.”
She paused and stared at him.
“Come to think of it, we’re partners now.”
“So shouldn’t you give me the antidote already?”