EPISODE 07 : THE GIRL WITH THE SAWFISH TATTOO
( nojiko the guardian )
THE STRAW HAT pirates reached land before the afternoon. by then, zoro's legs had miraculously healed and he no longer needed to be all over anjali.
though, he still kept close enough so that their shoulders occasionally brushed together as they walked around the village — or, what was left of it, anyway.
one of the houses was completely torn from its foundations, the roof impaling the already ruined earth.
"never seen that before." zoro murmured.
anjali was walking in between him and sanji, everyone staring at the ruins of what was once a village with sadness in their eyes. this was where nami grew up.
was this really what she wanted to return to?
"what could have done this?" sanji asked quietly.
"arlong and his pirate crew." anjali responded through gritted teeth, hands clenched as her eyes went dark at the sight of what the fishmen had done.
"oh wow, great observation there! didn't realize arlong was the worst fish in the east blue!" buggy screeched, sarcasm oozing out of every word he spoke.
sanji was carrying him around, and anjali glared down at the sack before slamming her fist into it.
"ow!" the clown cried out, and didn't utter another word.
"that's one way to shut him up." sanji said, a small grin painting his face.
"he had it coming." anjali shrugged.
they continued their walk around the destroyed village, getting closer to the soft chatter of voices in the distance with every step they took. at last, they reached a clearing where a large crowd of people were gathered around.
anjali assumed they were the villagers. their faces were bleak and miserable, tugging at her chest and making her heart ache. even if her type of misery wasn't the same as theirs, anjali could imagine how they felt.
a heavily scarred man was standing, facing the crowd, a wooden box in his hands. he regarded the villagers like a friend, gently and with a frown.
"please, everyone. we don't have much time, and we're short again this month."
a villager stepped up, placing a few more coins into the wooden box. "is this enough?"
the uniformed man shook his head sadly.
"do we have time to get some more?" the villagers began clamoring, distress straining their voices and lining their faces.
"no."
a ringing silence filled the air, and anjali turned her neck so fast it could've snapped, the sound of a familiar voice echoing in her mind.
"you don't." nami, her arms crossed and tattoo fully exposed by her tank top, walked in through the already torn-down gates.
the people began whispering amongst each other, their eyes looking at her with something that definitely wasn't happiness.
one of the villagers, a woman with electric blue hair and a heart tattoo across her chest pulled away from the crowd, her eyes filled with anger and betrayal as they focused on nami.
"you've got a lot of nerve showing your face here." the woman spit at nami's feet as if she were the most vile thing in the world.
it was silent for a few seconds, everyone watching the tangerine haired woman.
"got something for me?" she asked the man in the uniform.
he stared at her silently, his hands begrudgingly extending so that nami could snatch the box out of his grip.
her fingers lifted the top, eyes scanning the coins within. "you're short."
"nami, please." the man pleaded, finally gathering his voice. "this is all we have. arlong has bled us dry."
anjali watched the woman she thought she had once known completely change before her eyes. this wasn't nami, the straw hat crew's navigator. this was nami of the arlong pirates.
"then find more blood." she replied coldly.
a nami anjali didn't know.
the villagers dispersed back into their crumbling homes, leaving the crew to finally approach nami.
"nami." anjali murmured as the girl caught sight of her once family, eyes hardening into stone when she realized that they had somehow found her.
"what are you doing here?" she stormed over, box in hand, glaring at the five.
"i could ask you the same thing." luffy replied, stepping closer to her.
"this is where i belong." nami shot back.
the straw hat searched her conflicted eyes. "i don't believe that. this is not you."
"no." the woman shook her head, bile rising in her throat and fire leaving her tongue. "this isn't the me you want me to be."
"nami," he said softly, taking a step closer. "if you need our help —"
"no. i don't need any of you." she snapped, exhaling deeply. "arlong wanted the map, and i conned you into getting it for me."
her gaze landed on anjali, and for a moment that indifferent façade fell to reveal the guilt behind her lies. but it was gone as soon as it arrived, and nami's face became stony once more.
"we were never friends. i didn't care about any of you. it was all lies. i was never part of your stupid crew." she snarled.
anjali's eyes stung with hurt, her only comfort being the green haired man beside her who had gently slipped his hand against hers.
"you don't mean that." luffy said softly.
nami didn't bother clarifying whether it was true or not. "take the rest of these clowns and sail away from here. i never want to see any of you ever again."
shoulders raised and muscles tensed, nami turned and walked away, leaving behind the only crew that had cared for a lowly thief like her.
usopp broke the silence by chuckling nervously, scratching his head. "okay, that went about as bad as it could. so, back to the boat before the fishmen find us?"
anjali shook her head. "this is too . . . strange. her words and her actions don't line up. there's something deeper going on."
"my thoughts exactly." sanji nodded in agreement.
"she was very clear she wanted us to leave." zoro said, replying to the chef with a scowl.
"you don't know women. they never say what they mean." he snapped back.
"not true." anjali frowned, turning to the pirate hunter in thought. "is it?"
the green haired man shrugged in response.
"don't you guys get it? she's one of them." usopp interrupted. "she's a bad guy. the villagers are terrified of her."
the four other crew members shared a look.
"not all of them." luffy replied with a small grin, looking off into the distance.
UNDER THE NEW titles of 'pirate hunters' the straw hat crew had deceived the village head (if that was who the scarred man was, anyway) into giving them the name of the fearless woman who had previously spat at nami's feet.
they were now here to collect arlong's bounty, on their way to the tangerine grove on the farthest end of the village, searching for nojiko.
she was regarded as the grove's guardian, being the only one to tend to the trees after the passing of her adoptive mother.
to get to her home, the crew had to trek through what felt like miles of trees filled with round, juicy tangerines, legs aching and calves burning by the time they had reached the old wooden house.
the door was ajar as they climbed up the porch steps, and suddenly a shock of blue hair appeared out of nowhere, gun pointed at luffy, who was leading the straw hats.
usopp jumped and hid behind a pillar, and zoro angled his body so that it shielded anjali. she looked over his shoulder to the blue haired woman.
"turn around and leave. now." she demanded, arms slightly trembling as they adjusted the shotgun in her grip.
"that's what i've been saying." usopp said offhandedly.
"hey, i saw you earlier." luffy greeted. he didn't look too scared at the barrel of a shotgun pointed at his chest. "i think maybe you and i have something in common."
the woman's lips curled into a smile, and she removed the safety clip on the trigger. "i've got the gun, and you're standing in front of it. what could we possibly have in common?"
luffy's smile stretched. "let's start with nami. seems you know her very well."
anjali watched nojiko's face warp into many different emotions, before at last settling in a scowl. "she's a thief with no conscience. and when there's no more left to take, she leaves and doesn't turn back. now get off my property."
"nami's part of our crew." luffy told the woman. "she's our friend."
nojiko's eyes widened, and she searched luffy before shaking her head. "my sister doesn't have any friends."
my sister.
anjali stared long and hard at the woman. she had grown up with nami. this was the person who knew her best, and if they grew up together, then she would know why nami grew up to be the way she is.
"the sooner you realize that, the better."
"sisters." sanji said thoughtfully. "that makes sense. both as beautiful as each other."
"not the time." anjali murmured, before sidestepping zoro and presenting herself to the blue haired woman.
"nami's our navigator, and she's our friend. we want to help her."
nojiko chuckled softly, no humor to her laughter. "you can't help someone who refuses to be helped. you're not special, and i can't help you."
anjali frowned, but said nothing. it seemed nami wasn't the only one with a razor-sharp tongue that knew how to stab all the worst places.
"how about a meal?" sanji interrupted once more.
the tattooed woman blinked in surprise.
"an exhance of sorts for your valuable time and information." the man elaborated.
"you cook?" she raised a brow.
"he's a waiter." zoro grumbled. anjali elbowed him in the ribs and smiled at the woman.
"he's our chef. the best cook in the east blue." anjali grinned, hoping to butter up the woman for information on nami.
"ain't got much to cook with." nojiko said doubtfully.
sanji smirked. "you'd be surprised how much i can make with very few ingredients. what do you say? we have a little dinner, a little conversation."
she lowered her gun. "fine. but there'd better be dessert."
wow, anjali whistled lowly. this guy's good.
she and the blonde shared a brief high five before zoro pulled anjali close, guiding her into the old wooden house with a scowl.
THE RICKETY TABLE was barren of anything other than a wispy tablecloth as the six waited in anticipation for sanji to present them their meals.
"dinner's served." he said at last, going around and handing everyone a bowl of some type of salad or maybe even noodles.
nojiko was the first to finish, her eyes wide and tongue blessed after the meal.
she caught usopp's eye, who grinned and said, 'told you."
"you know, this is the best thing i've eaten in my entire life." the woman admitted.
sanji smiled. "listen, there's plenty more where that came from, but . . ." he looked around the room for a brief second. "first, we really need to know about nami."
nojiko's smile faltered, and she looked down at her plate, lips pursed in thought. "the truth is,"
"our mother was a retired marine."
"she wasn't really our mother, nor where nami and i really sisters, but we had grown up together."
her eyes grew misty, and she tucked a piece of her blue hair back underneath her red headband.
"when arlong took over the village, he found out she wasn't fully paying for us. so he . . ."
she trialed off.
anjali couldn't understand. how could such an event make nami wish to be closer to arlong instead of as far away from him as possible — unless it was to ultimately betray and destroy what he built?
"wait." usopp scratched his head in confusion. "nami's working for the pirate that killed your mother?"
nojiko sucked in a deep breath and nodded.
anjali's brain was running through every memory, every word nami had ever spoken and every action she had made, trying to find things that were out of place.
the puzzle pieces were slowly fitting the big picture, and anjali knew. nami was not the traitor she made herself out to be.
in fact, it was quite the opposite.
⚔︎ AUTHOR'S NOTE !
very non zoro and anjali centered ik, i just couldn't add too many scenes but hopefully next chapter i'll be able to 🙏
im trying to make each ep a few more chapters than before bc we're almost coming to a close and i don't want that yet but the writers block is slowly getting to me 😣
also im sorry for missing yesterday's update i was js too tired and i knocked out early 😥 hopefully i can get a sec update by tmr but no promises 😞
pls lmk if there are any mistakes in the spelling or anything so i can fix it !
also don't b afraid to vote or comment, i will probably (very likely) reply!!!!
happy reads!
─── ANNIE