Nami's Confusion

"Hey, relax. As you can see, I'm the one who wiped out the Arlong Pirates. But I mean you no harm, so long as you can take me to where they stored their treasure."

Gato put away Bright Light and spread his hands.

Hearing Gato's words, Nami could no longer even hold onto her three-section staff. It fell straight to the ground. Covering her lips with her delicate hands, she trembled for a long while before pointing at the countless corpses inside. "You killed them all? What about Arlong?"

"Yeah, I did. As for Arlong... you mean that guy, right?"

Following the direction Gato indicated, Nami looked into the park. The once-mighty Arlong was half-kneeling motionlessly on the ground, his eyes wide as though he had seen something unbelievable. Even his saw sword had been snapped in two.

She felt all strength leave her body and sank to her knees. She did not know whether she was grieving or rejoicing, but tears streamed down her face without her even noticing.

Perhaps there was some satisfaction in seeing a great enemy avenged, but more than that, she had been shaken by the horrific scene and could not bear it.

Nami was kind by nature. Even though Arlong had oppressed her for so long and had caused her to lose her adoptive mother, she had never harbored the venomous thought that she absolutely had to kill him.

She had only hoped to earn enough money to buy back her hometown, so that no one else would have to suffer the pain she had endured.

Now that Arlong was dead, the crisis threatening her hometown had been resolved. But she had never imagined it would happen this way.

She began to worry about her own fate. Compared to someone like Gato, a villain who slaughtered an entire pirate crew at the slightest disagreement, Arlong seemed far more merciful.

After all, no matter how awful Arlong was, he had still exercised some restraint. Aside from her adoptive mother, those who paid enough money had not been in much danger, and were even spared harassment from other pirate crews.

"Enough. Don't tell me you were that attached to them. As long as you help me find Arlong's treasure, I won't do anything to you."

Gato had never been good at handling a crying woman, and he was beginning to grow impatient. Any thought of befriending an original character had been tossed out of his mind.

It was not as though he had never tried such things in the Naruto world. And what had happened? He had still died.

When facing danger, only oneself could truly be relied upon. If you were useless yourself, then even if others wanted to help, they might not be able to.

Nami eventually came back to her senses. She was still a strong girl, after all. Putting away her three-section staff, she knew it was completely useless against Gato.

"I know where his treasure is, but you may be disappointed. He's spent heavily building Arlong Park over the years, so there probably isn't much Beli left."

Nami spoke calmly, forcing Gato to look at her in surprise. How ridiculous. The so-called aura of the East Blue's overlord was not even comparable to that of a girl. Did they really think being pirates was some child's game?

"Promise me you won't hurt Cocoyasi Village, and I'll take you there. Otherwise, even if you turn this place upside down, you might not find it."

Gato felt a little awkward. Hurt them? If cutting that village into a complete mess counted, then it seemed he had already done exactly that.

The best course now was not to create any unnecessary complications. Nami clearly did not seem to know what he had done, so he would find the treasure first.

As for whether Nami would resent him later and bring some kind of retaliation from the protagonist's crew upon him, Gato did not care in the slightest. If he could be caught up to by a group that had started so much later than him, then he would be nothing more than "just that."

Even if they were protagonists.

Yet perhaps it was precisely because of this complete lack of restraint that Gato developed the wicked urge to "train" Nami a little. He wanted to see whether someone with the status of a female lead in the original story would have her personality and fate altered by his influence.

He pretended to think it over, then said to Nami with exaggerated surprise:

"Cocoyasi? I feel like I've heard of that place... Oh, right! That's the village that made me learn the name of the Arlong Pirates. If it's that place, then sorry—I killed a few people there."

Upon hearing that Gato had been to Cocoyasi and had caused casualties, Nami could no longer maintain her composure. She demanded furiously:

"What did you do? I will never take you to that treasure!"

"Didn't I say so? I killed a few people. It couldn't be helped. The moment I got off the ship, they wanted to kill me. You can't expect me to surrender without a fight, can you?"

Nami, who had only just gathered the strength to stand, collapsed back onto the ground. Even as spreading blood stained her skirt red, she showed no reaction.

"Huh? What's with that expression? Does that place have something to do with you? Don't tell me you're the witch those people in Cocoyasi were talking about!"

Gato put on a look as though he had figured everything out and continued:

"Don't joke around. Are those people really worth cherishing so much? In their eyes, you're an utterly evil witch."

Nami raised her head, her voice earnest and furious. "You don't understand anything. They were only deceived by the image I showed them. They didn't know about the darkness I carried, that everything I did was to buy back this village. Wasn't it only natural for them to see me that way? I prepared myself for this a long time ago!"

Gato nearly blurted out, "Please, tell me your story," but that seemed a little out of character for him.

Without Gato even asking, Nami seemed unable to stop once she began talking about it. This had been a heavy burden buried deep in her heart, and after the shock Gato had dealt her, for reasons she did not understand herself, she wanted to confide these secrets to a "murderer."

Thus, Gato's vague memories of Nami's past became clear once more through her account.

When she finished, Gato merely sneered.

"I see. Loving the house because of the person? How sincere—and how stupid."

Nami's eyes widened. One reason she had said so much was perhaps because she feared Gato and hoped to win his sympathy. Instead, she received such an evaluation.

Ignoring her reaction, Gato continued, "Are those people truly worth protecting like this? From what you said, the people in your village were fairly well-off, right? Then when your adoptive mother died, did anyone offer a helping hand?"

"Even if one hundred thousand Beli per person every month was indeed more than they could bear, did they really not have even a little extra?"

"You should know that the most Arlong ever collected from your village at once was thirty million Beli. What was another mere hundred thousand on top of that? If everyone chipped in a little, wouldn't that have been enough?"

"Think about it carefully. Was Arlong really the only factor in your mother's death?"

Gato was like a masterful devil now, tempting the human heart. He did not force any of his own ideas upon her; he merely laid out some ugly facts and allowed seeds of resentment to take root.

Already emotionally distraught, Nami fell into confusion.