The World Ends With You

Chapter 35: Such Misfortune

"Just pick anything! I'll pay you double,"

It was enough to shift Nami's mood from an annoyed one to a thankful one.

"Okay!"

A few hours(?) ago, Nojiko noticed that Nami was in shock. No, literally. It's been two days after the homecoming and dance and her sister seemed to be in a state of shock. Something must have happened. The blue haired elder thought of shaking Nami until she got her 'desired' answer, but for the moment she wanted to have her little sister take a breather.

Nojiko didn't plan to make Nami go to the school garden but one thing led to another, which led to the current situation the orange haired navigator had found herself in.

Nami was looking at the selects in the boutique while trying to calm herself from the events of that certain...

"Such misfortune."

She recalled the thing her partner did. Not Zoro, since he left her last minute for chips, but the idiotic friend of hers who was supposed to be on the dance floor with the Empress that time. Not that she didn't like it, but still. She was caught off guard and, for Goda's sake, it was Luffy! What the hell does he even know about...that?!

All told, she began shifting into a state of mild despair while she once again muttered, "Such misfortune."

Was it actually 'misfortune', though? It was the very thing that the Empress might kill for and yet Luffy...

And yet Luffy...

"SUCH MISFORTUNE!!!!"

The night after the dance she was only inside her room, after she took a cold bath, in, Nojiko's words, a state of shock. Nami didn't tell anything to Nojiko but she knew for a fact that once she returned home, her nosy and observant older sister would definitely squeeze the hell out of her. Of course, Nami came unprepared.

Despite holding three paper bags of newly bought clothes, Nami managed to turn the key inside the lock and open the door gently with ease. She removed the heels she wore and put them on the shoe rack on the side as she continued on to the living room.

"I'm home..."

Out from the corner of her eye, Nami saw a towel-dressed Nojiko with hair dripping. The older sister grinned. "You're back."

Such misfortune. Nami knew she was in for some intense questioning.

"Stop saying that!" Nojiko blared as she towel dried her blue hair.

They sat on the couch while Nami gave her the two bags of clothes she bought for them.

"Oh, was I thinking out loud?"

Nojiko sighed and ignored her.

"So, what happened back there?"

She was simply asking about why Nami stayed in her room the entirety of the night after the dance though she could guess. Nami didn't look sad that time; she just looked...shocked. And that's when Nojiko officially considered her younger sister to be under a state of shock.

Nami didn't reply immediately. She felt like she was being questioned by the cops for something that she did, not that she was the one who did it in the first place. Looking through that perspective, she was more like the victim than the culprit. The one at fault was none other than Luffy who did a certain unexpected gesture that made her, well, confused.

Again, what does Luffy know about that? He was far too innocent to know things like that and, if he did know, he was clueless when it comes to his own feelings. Either way, there's no way Luffy would do something like that unless...

Then she remembered the time when they were supposed to be doing schoolwork, but Luffy got drunk instead over a matter that was residing around Nami's left wrist.

That has to be it. Nami thought and her cheeks glew bright pink.

But there wasn't even no alcohol or, let alone, carbonated drinks served at the dance. There was also no way that Luffy would get drunk over meat or sweets. Or the coffee Brook double dared him to drink, under Chopper's watch of course.

"...Earth to Nami?"

She flinched and turned to her sister who had a pillow over her crossleg. "H-Huh?"

"I said, would you now tell me what happened back there?"

There was no point in hiding it. Right there, Nami weighed two possible outcomes of the scenario — Nojiko would tease her that they should be dating or Nojiko would become paranoid and think that something else happened — and either path involved her sister in it.

For the nth time, Nami muttered, "Such misfortune."