Chapter 9 | "We have bounties!!"

It wasn't long before Mihawk sailed away in his Hitsugibune, and Scarlett found herself walking along the village road - hood and mask already donned back up. Since it was now dawn, the villagers had retired to each of their homes... well, somewhat, as some opted to just sleep on their porches as they weren't able to unlock the door in their intoxicated states.

Scarlett stopped in her tracks when the front door of one of the houses, which was coincidentally just a few inches to her right, opened to reveal Nami. The strawberry-blonde girl stumbled out of the doorway as though someone had pushed her out.

She had a dazed expression as she looked back into the house.

"Is everything alright?" Scarlett asked the girl when she didn't notice her.

Her voice seemed to snap her out. Nami blinked at her a couple of times before finally registering the question. "Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah. Everything is good, definitely. Better than ever." The girl muttered, almost absentmindedly.

Scarlett nodded and didn't push her.

They stood in silence, both regarding each other and not knowing what topic to bring up to continue the conversation. Scarlett, though, knew how to quickly end the conversation, but she didn't, as Nami looked like she wanted to say something.

However, after a few minutes of waiting, Scarlett pivoted in place, "Then I'll be off."

"W-Wait!" Nami quickly said, stopping Scarlett before she even took a step, "...Can I ask you something?"

Turning back to her, Scarlett looked over the dark bags under her eyes and nodded, "Let's move to a more private setting, I've a feeling this is going to be a long talk."

Nami smiled weakly, "Yeah, me too. Come on, I know a place." She then said, beckoning the woman to follow her.

Scarlett followed her to a lone cliff, not too far from the village, and atop of it was a grave. Giving a moment for the dead, she paid a quick respect for whoever rests there before taking a seat in front of Nami, who'd been quietly observing her movements the moment they arrived. Scarlett looked over the trees as she patiently waited for Nami to say something.

It was after a few minutes that a sentence was finally formed.

"I don't- I don't know if I should follow Luffy to the Grand Line." Nami confessed, looking frustrated as she did. "It's been too long since I've actually enjoyed my time here, and I would really love to be able to catch up with my sister, Genzo, and the other villagers... If I leave now, who knows when I'll be able to return - if ever?"

Scarlett hummed, "Well, it is your choice to make - whether it is to stay or make your own adventure as a Straw Hat." She let that set in for a moment as the girl gnawed on her lips before continuing. "But it sounds like you already knew what you want. Is it that you just wanted a push to be convinced? To not feel guilty for leaving your family behind once more?"

At first, it seemed as though Nami was going to get all defensive at her. However, that fire quickly diminished as the strawberry-blonde girl knew it to be true. She could only pull her legs together and lay her head on her knees. She heaved out a sigh, dreading the moment when she would have to say goodbye again, dreading the words that she would receive, dreading the hurt that she may cause to her family.

"You know." Scarlett spoke up when the silence started to strectch for a beat too long, "Every person that I talked to already knew that you would go."

Nami looked up in shock. "They do?" She gaped.

When the woman nodded, she let out a small laugh of disbelief and covered her face, "...I should've known. They even knew about my deal with Arlong all those years ago and pretended to be oblivious to it for me."

Scarlett merely hummed.

Nami's shoulders then slumped as though she was finally free of the burden plaguing her mind.

Another bout of silence.

"Say..." Scarlett turned to see the girl looking right at her. "Can you help me with something?"

"It depends." Scarlett tilted her head and smirked beneath her mask, "Would you be owing me favour?"

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"Have we finished loading it all?" Luffy asked, just as Zoro passed Usopp the last crate of food onto the Going Merry.

"Yeap, this is the last one!!" Usopp said, carrying the wooden box to the storage.

Sanji exhaled a puff of smoke, "Since we got lots of provisions. We're good to go now." He said before starting to look around the deck. "Where's Nami-san?" He turned to the dock in hopes of spotting their navigator, only to find Zoro's two friends from his bounty hunting past.

Jhonny and Yosaku were in their signature poses as they bid their goodbyes to the Straw Hats. "This is goodbye for now, but we look forward to the day we meet again somewhere!"

Zoro grinned down at his buddies. "You guys, take care."

"Hey, hold on! What about Nami-san?!" Sanji interjected before they could continue with the farewells.

The swordsman rolled his eyes at him, "Maybe she's not coming." He said, more to spite the cook than anything.

"Huh?! Why not?!" Sanji shouted, angrily pointing at Zoro, "You made another pass at Nami-san again, didn't you?!"

The man scoffed at the accusation, "As if."

Usopp pondered off to the side. "Oh, yeah. She already achieved her goal, so there's no reason for her to join us." He mumbled. "She might even be happier here than going off to be a pirate."

"Then what about my happiness?!" The woman-obssesed cook cried. He then turned to Luffy with an ultimatum, "If Nami-san isn't on the boat, then 48.72% of my reason for being on the boat is gone!"

"That's a rather low percentage, Sanji." Usopp pointed out.

"No, it's not." The blond huffed, "The other 50% is only due to the fact that Scarlett-san is here."

Scarlett, who had been watching idly from the mast, cooed, "Awe, I'm flattered, Swirly-chan."

At some point, the ruckus from the dock caught all of their ears as they watched the villagers try to figure out where Nami was.

It was then that Nami chose to reveal herself.

"Nami-san!!" Sanji's joyful cry pulled the villagers' attention her way.

"NOW, SCARLETT-SAN!" came her voice, which confused almost everyone within the vicinity before starting to run through the crowd.

"Aye aye." Scarlett replied playfully, then called, "Kuro."

Splash!

Thump.

"It's up." was his response as said man casually stood by the recently-pulled anchor of the ship. Not a second after, Scarlett unfurled the sails, and the Going Merry started moving almost instantly.

"Hey, they're setting sail!"

"Wait!"

"We still haven't thanked you!"

It was easy for the others to realize what was happening, and the villagers started to block Nami's path so they could thank her for all her deeds to the village. However, after almost a decade's worth of experience in conning and running away from numerous pirates, Nami was just too agile for them. In the end, the girl managed to jump onto the sailing ship and reveal all the wallets she nicked during the commotion.

It was a rather anticlimactic farewell between the Cocoyasi Village residents, or was it actually climactic?

Either way, none of them seemed to regret the way Nami chose to leave the island, so...

All's well, that ends well, she supposes.

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The Marines sure do act fast against people who stood in their way.

It probably had only been a few hours since they left Nami's hometown when a new batch of wanted posters were distributed. After haggling the prices down against the underpaid seagulls, Nami went to read the latest news of the Sea - they usually come with the newest pirate rookies, so Nami didn't think twice when some flyers slipped out of the pages.

She was just about to throw them out when a familiar face stopped her in her tracks.

Luffy, who'd been squatting beside her, saw the flyers and pointed at it in shock, "THAT'S ME!"

Nami let out a loud "Oh my God!!"

Luffy laughed, picking up his flyer. "We're wanted criminals now!" He said happily.

Usopp turned to see what the fuss was about and walked over to their captain. He slowly read it out, "'Dead or alive'... '30 million Berries'?!"

"I'm 30 million Berries, guys!!" Luffy happily boasted.

Sanji also walked over to the front deck. "That's a lot of-" His voice trailed when he saw the other parchment on the floor, "Wait, isn't that... Scarlett-san?"

Nami, being the closest to it, picked it up and examined the picture. "It is Scarlett-san!" She exclaimed.

"SCAR!"

The sudden burst was loud enough to take everyone's attention.

Scarlett and Kuro emerged out of both of their quarters, while Zoro jumped down from the crow's nest to see what all the ruckus was about.

"Lookie here, Scar! We have bounties!! Shishishishi!" Luffy waved the wanted poster up in the air, prompting her to come and take a look at it.

Walking over to them, Scarlett took the flyer from Luffy and scrutinized the picture on it. "That's a rather elegant picture they took." She hummed, wondering how the reporters from Baratie managed to get a good photo of her when she purposefully sat with her back against them. "I don't think I did anything of interest as of late. Why did I get a bounty?" She asked to no one in particular.

"I would think that battling a warlord and surviving is something of an interest." Kuro deadpanned by her side.

Scarlett rolled her eyes at her companion, "That was just a spar, Kitty-kun. That's nothing of a feat."

Kuro scoffed at her, but deigned to say anything.

"J-J-Just a spar?!?!?" Usopp spluttered, his eyeballs looked like they're about to pop out of his skull.

"What are you talking about?" Nami asked, clueless of what they were talking about as she'd already left by the time Mihawk arrived.

Sanji, ever the smitten, volunteered himself to catch Nami up with what she missed. The more the girl listened, the wider her eyes seemed to be.

"Th-Then, the old dude who'd been hanging around Scarlett-san was... Dracule Mihawk, the warlord?!" Nami exclaimed in shock, her hands shaking as she finally realized his identity. "Dear Kami, did I do anything wrong? I don't think I did-"

Letting Nami wallow in her panic, Scarlett returned to the parchment in her hand. Her eyes hovered downwards, where big bold numbers were printed.

฿50,000,000

"How much is yours, Scar?" Luffy asked as he plopped his chin over her shoulder.

Scarlett lifted the paper closer to him and shrugged, "Not much... But still higher than yours, Luffy." She added with a grin.

"Higher-?!" She couldn't tell whether the wheeze was from Nami or Usopp, since the both of them looked just as shocked.

Luffy, on the other hand, pouted. "Man, I thought I was gonna win this time." He whined, leaning his whole body onto her back as he sulked.

Scarlett patted his head comfortingly.

"Better luck next time, lil' bro."

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-After Arlong's Defeat-
Canon Nami: "After years of being forced to work for a group of pirates and leaving my family to collect an insane amount of money, I am going to join this one pirate who defeated my torturer and achieve my grandiose dream!"
Author: "Hm... Wait a second, is it just me, or is that a bit weird?"
Fanfic Nami: "After years of being forced to work for a group of pirates and leaving my family to collect an insane amount of money, I am conflicted whether I should join this pirate crew whom I just met for over a week to achieve a big ass, idealistic dream, or whether I should stay and catch up with my family."
Author: "Ah yes, that's more like it."
Fanfic Nami: "-And I just don't know if I really should go out into the sea again."

Scarlett: *Acting like a psychic and knows what Nami needed to here*
Fanfic Nami: "Oh, never mind then, let's gooo!!"
Author: *Shrugging* "...Well... Still more believable than the previous one, I'd say."

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Honestly, I didn't plan on giving Scarlett her bounty this early in the series, but then I remembered that I made her openly spar a warlord with journalists still in the restaurant- So, 50 million it is. Why? Because the big sis shouldn't lose to the lil bro.

To those who thought that 50 million was too little for fighting against a warlord, this is my reasoning - While she fought Mihawk, she didn't actually defeat him. And they both landed a scratch on each other, which wouldn't really say much about their prowess (or rather, Scarlett's prowess, since we all already know that Mihawk is freaking strong).

So in my opinion, even if the journalists thought her to be strong, the marines whom had never heard of her nor actually saw their interaction/battle would think that they were just exaggerating things up and only gave her the bounty on the impression that she survived after using all her strength against Mihawk who pulled his punches.

Next Chapter: "What the hell is this, Hawk-Eyes!!"

J Out!