On the small sailboat.
Rocks had his Observation Haki locked onto the Buggy Pirates the whole time, watching the whole spectacle play out.
The corner of his mouth pulled up.
“Interesting.”
Honestly, it was hard to say whether Buggy’s Conqueror’s Haki luck was at work or whether Buggy genuinely had some particular quality as a leader.
That speech, which had sounded like pure nonsense to Rocks, had actually gotten those men fired up.
You had to give it to him.
Buggy was something else.
“Will they actually follow your orders?”
Kuina had no fondness for the Buggy Pirates.
If Rocks hadn’t been there, she might have drawn her blade on them.
She had heard about their reputation.
She had never shown mercy to pirates with that kind of name.
Rocks laughed quietly.
“They’ll listen.
He can’t afford to cross me.
The consequences would be more than he could take.”
Kuina nodded.
“Are we going to find our navigator now?”
“Find her first, honor the agreement.”
Rocks cracked his knuckles absently.
His Observation Haki was already spreading across a wide area.
“Though I don’t know if she’s on the island right now.
We’ll have to look.”
In the original story, to raise a hundred million Berries, Nami had become a thief who specialized in stealing from pirates.
She was fifteen now.
She might already be working that particular angle.
“What if she’s not here?” Kuina asked.
“The sea is vast.
Finding one person isn’t easy.”
Rocks smiled.
“Then we wait.
News of the Arlong Pirates being taken out won’t stay quiet for long.
She reads the papers and she’ll come back.”
“You’re the captain.
Your call.”
“Actually, no need to look.
I’ve already found her.
Let’s go say hello to our navigator.”
Rocks’s Observation Haki had already picked up Nami’s presence.
She was on the island.
That saved some trouble.
With her location locked, Rocks brought the small sailboat in and made for shore.
It took about fifteen minutes.
Rocks and Kuina arrived at an orange grove.
The oranges were in season.
Two people were picking them.
Nami and her sister Nojiko.
Rocks walked into the grove without ceremony and raised a hand.
“Long time no see.
Do you remember me, Nami?”
“Who are you…” Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
Nami was fifteen.
Short orange hair that just reached her ears, a white short-sleeved shirt, black shorts, about 160 centimeters tall.
A striking young girl.
She clearly didn’t remember him.
Her brow drew together.
“I don’t think I know you.
Why are you here?”
Her work had made enemies of more than a few pirates.
A stranger showing up uninvited was reason enough to be careful.
Beside her, Nojiko said nothing, but her eyes moved to Rocks and Kuina with equal wariness.
Were these people here to collect on one of Nami’s debts?
If so, she needed to alert the village.
Nothing could happen to Nami.
Rocks thought privately: she actually forgot me.
Reading the wariness in both their eyes, Rocks stopped a few meters away and introduced himself with an easy smile.
“My name is Rocks.
We met once, a few years back.”
“And we made an agreement.”
“An agreement?
With me?”
Nami paused.
She looked him up and down.
Something surfaced from further back.
“You’re the one who bought my oranges and asked me to be a navigator?”
That one had stayed with her.
A boy barely into his teens inviting a twelve-year-old to be his navigator.
It had been absurd enough to stick.
She remembered the scene clearly.
She had given him a few words back then as a courtesy, because he had actually bought the oranges.
That was all.
She hadn’t expected him to remember, or to actually show up.
Nojiko looked between Rocks and Nami with a question practically floating above her head.
He had asked Nami to be a navigator?
“Looks like you remember.”
Rocks smiled.
“So.
Does our agreement still stand?”
Nami looked at him, thought about it, and shook her head.
“No.
I wasn’t serious back then.”
She remembered the terms she had thrown out to brush him off.
A hundred million Berries, or save her village.
Conditions like that were beyond any ordinary person.
She had genuinely just been saying whatever it took to end the conversation.
Rocks had come specifically for Nami.
He wasn’t letting it go.
“That won’t do.
I came to honor the agreement.
You’re going to be my navigator.”
“No.”
Nami was silent for two seconds.
Her natural kindness came through anyway.
“I don’t know how you found out about my village, but you should leave.
Now.”
She drew a breath.
“I’m…
a member of the Arlong Pirates.
I can’t be anyone else’s crewmate.”
“If Arlong finds out you tried to recruit me, you’ll be killed.”
“The hundred million Berries, I don’t have,” Rocks said.
“But saving your village is something I can actually do.”
He smiled.
“Honestly, saving up a hundred million Berries is harder for me than dealing with the Arlong Pirates.”
“Kuina, let’s go.
We’ll deal with the Arlong Pirates first, then come back for our navigator.”
He said it, gave Nami and Nojiko an easy smile, and turned to leave with Kuina.
An agreement was an agreement.
He would see it through.
And if, after taking out the Arlong Pirates and saving the village, Nami still didn’t want to join him, he would figure that out when the time came.
Either way, this navigator was already as good as his.
“Uh…”
Nami stared after them as they walked in the direction of Arlong Park.
“Hey!
What do you think you’re doing?”
It clicked.
Nami’s expression shifted.
She took off after them, shouting.
“Arlong is stronger than you can imagine!
You can’t go up against him!
Don’t throw your life away!”
“Is this guy out of his mind?”
Nami’s speed was no match for Rocks and Kuina.
She watched them pull further and further ahead and muttered through gritted teeth.
“He actually thinks he’s going to pick a fight with Arlong.
That’s suicide.”
Did this person actually believe he could handle Arlong?
Arlong was a Fish-Man.
A Fish-Man pirate with a twenty million Berry bounty.
The highest bounty in the East Blue.
She didn’t see how Rocks could possibly take on someone like that.
“No.
I can’t let them walk into that.”
Nami gritted her teeth and pushed herself to catch up.
She was good-natured at heart.
Watching someone head toward their death because of her was not something she could stand by and let happen.
And besides.
If she hadn’t thrown out that offhand agreement three years ago, he wouldn’t have come looking for her.
He wouldn’t be walking toward his death over it now.