123 new friend (1/2)
Looking at Kuina, I could see Nami on her side. Seeing the manga and the real person in the flesh was completely different. It have something more than its 2D counterpart, the emotions, from her gaze, I could see the hidden emotions behind the faked exterior.
She was hurting, and it was clear to me. Living under Arlong rein from the past years was nothing like described. It wasn't the kid-friendly manga anymore, but real life, were man kill, ****, burn and plunder just for the pleasure of it.
Arlong? Being the racist he is must-have make them miserable, crushing them under his boot to vent his ill mind of the enslavement of his kind by the Tenryuubito. This circle of hatred all started by the greed of pigs thinking themselves the centre of the world, all the death, pain, tears, just for their sick pleasure, leaving the result in front of my eyes.
While some would have to think Nami despicable in the manga, for her greed of gold, it all rooted from her will of freedom. Her mind twisted that money will solve anything in this world. She was nothing like the Nami that I learn to know and love, she was a complex individual driven by her will from freedom.
Being so near her goal, only for it to be crushed by Arlong treason will leave more profound scars that showed in the manga, and I can't let it happen, it could shatter her.
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When Alex didn't respond further at Kuina, she was about to ask him something, only to be stoped by the gaze he was giving her. No, not her, but the girl at her side. She had never seen a gaze like that in someone else eyes.
The amount of raws emotions she sees flickering in them was staggering and was starting to make her unease. She couldn't understand their origin nor what they were transmitting, but she knows that it wasn't something superficial nor for her to interrupt.
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While Kuina couldn't understand them, Nami could. How could she not after seeing the same emotion in her sister gaze when Arlong had killed their mother in front of them.
'He knows!'
She doesn't understand how, but she somewhat knows that he understands her, the pain, the sacrifice, the hatred, the hope... But there was also something else, something she had refused to believe, yet know would happen.
While she was frozen, lost in those eyes, she didn't react when he rises, nor when he approached. She didn't fight back when he took her in is embrace, spreading a warmness she never thought she would feel against one day, the warmness of family. The very same feeling of comfort, of security Bellmere, would give them when they were scared and lost. That someone will take all her worries away.
Before her logical side could tell her that it was all false, a lie of her mind, his word strike into the deepest part of her mind, killing the traitorous thoughts before they surface.
”Everything will be alright, I will take care of him. He won't threaten you anymore.”
It has been nothing more than whispered words, but for her, they might have been shaking the world. Unable to hold back any longer, her tears break free, her screams muffled into his chest as sobs were wrecking her body.
All the accumulated anger, fear, hatred was drained away into the embrace of someone she just encounters but feels to have known all her life.
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Nami needs near a complete hour to purge any negative thought she had accumulated from the past years. During all this time, she hadn't leave Alex arms a second, founding his warm embrace the most secure place she had since Bellmere death.
Finally, she raises her head, looking at Alex with her deep brown eyes. He immediately sees the difference, the weight she was born on her shoulder has nearly vanished, her previous fake smile had diminished but feel way more sincere, a true smile.
He has always found it strange that stranger could connect that easily, before. But after the past years, it wasn't the case anymore. He knows deep inside, that it was only a matter of time before she was his. They share a too deep connection for her to walk away from him, and he won't let her.
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Closing her eyes for a moment to enjoy his presence, Nami was still a little confused as to how she could be like this in front of a stranger, but she feels deep inside that they were mean to be, and she was strangely ok with that.
Alex was handsome but more important than anything else know and share a past similar to her. While she wanted to completely abandon herself to him, she couldn't, not yet, not until they take care of Arlong.
She knows that he promises her to take care of him, but she needs to be sure that he knows who was her tyrant, that he wouldn't be like Bellemere, protect her, only to leave her behind, alone.
Opening her eyes, she looks deeply at him before speaking.
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”I know you say you will take care of him, but you need to know who is it.” She takes the oh-so-much hatred bounty poster from her pocket.” Arlong isn't human, he is a monster. He had sunken hundred of ships nearing my island land, all to keep his hold on us. Marines won't even help as he had the nearest colonel in his pocket. He...”
”... Is a fisherman, coming from the Grand Line, but isn't the only one to do so. He had fled here because he was a weakling there. Here in east blue, he is only a large fish in a small pond. If SMoker wasn't such a bastard, wanting to keep the grand line route safe, he could have crushed him long ago.” Cut her Alex
”How?! he is...” Start her to scream, her fear of the man still present.
”Nami,” say him harshly, shutting her.” You need to know that east blue is the weakest of the eight seas. Devil fruits aren't a legend and Smoker had eaten one of the strongest kind, Logia. Those fruits allow one-self to turn into element themself. As long as they aren't taken by surprise, it impossible to hit them by normal mean. Smoker had eaten the Moku-Moku no Mi, turning himself into smoke. No matter how much Arlong would have tried to strike him, all would have pass through him, that why he hid on the island. He knows that some can take him down here. As for me, I can reshape my surrounding according to my will. If need to be, I could bury him in the ground, before skewering him to death. He isn't invincible.”
From her look, he knows she wanted to trust him, but was still held by the trauma of the past eight years.
”How about that,” she perks at his word, taking her out of her thoughts and doubt.”Baggy is also a Devil fruit user. He can separate his body into parts, and fly for a small extent. We will take him down, if after that you still don't think that I can take Arlong down in a face to face, I could always snipe him down. I will show you it later, alright?”
Calmed down, she nods. If he could take Baggy, a man with a 15,000,000B bounty easily, Arlong shouldn't be too much of a fight.
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”How are we doing this?” Ask Kuina, who had to stay quiet all along. After hearing why the orangette was wanting her that much in her team, she had mellow down. It was also another example for her that pirates were scums and cowards terrorising weaker peoples.
”Baggy is an easy man to anger, any allusion to his nose will make him see red. He is also proud of his fruit. He doesn't know that we know about it and will use it to scare us. I will capture any part of his body he will throw at us.”
They plan made, the three made their way to the inn/bar.
”Here. I was thinking to go to Grand line to gather the rest of the money first, but I won't need it anymore, right?” Say Nami, taking the map out and giving it to Alex, with a bright smile.
”Hum.”
To Nami surprise, the map just vanishes while he was holding it in his hand.
”How?!”
”I told you that I was able to modify my surrounding, right?” She nods, waiting for him to continue.”I also have a storage of sort, where I could put everything I want it, that not alive, that it.”
It didn't take long for Nami to understand what type of use one could make with those.
'He can become the greatest thief of all time!'
As she was lost in her disillusionment, they arrive at the inn.
”Ready?” Ask him looking at the two girls on his side.
They nod, Kuina taking out her blade and Nami her three-part staff. Breathing in, Alex shout.
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