Chapter 133: Magic Mirror, Nami, Who Is The Fairest Of Them All?
"Next time you try to steal something, at least be smarter about it."
"I already told you, I did not steal anything."
Nami and Nojiko walked through the orange grove, bickering the whole way.
DUANG.
DUANG.
Both girls suddenly staggered, clutching fresh bumps on their foreheads.
Bellemere had rapped each of them with her fists while she was in the middle of helping Roy and Hancock pick out orange trees.
Why did those two little devils have to bring up stealing right in front of customers?
Genzo had already spoken to Nami several times about taking things that were not hers.
To be fair, Genzo was a good man.
He was the police officer stationed in Cocoyasi Village, an honest, kindhearted uncle who helped their family without ever asking for anything in return.
More than once he had caught little Nami stealing and dragged her back by the collar, only to quietly pay for what she had taken himself.
Back when Nami was still a baby, Bellemere had just retired from the navy and had no idea how to raise a child. She did not even have a boyfriend, let alone experience with babies.
Then Genzo had appeared.
The tiny windmill on his hat spun in the breeze, and just like that, Nami stopped crying.
Ever since then, Bellemere had only had Nami and Nojiko in her heart. Everything else, including Genzo, she treated like a joke.
For Nami and Nojiko, it was honestly pretty strange to have an adoptive mother who had never even had a boyfriend.
Genzo, on the other hand, was like a father to them in everything but name.
He never asked for anything back. There was no blood tie, no formal bond, but his presence was closer to a father's than anyone else.
In the original story of this sea, after the Enies Lobby incident, that lovable Uncle Genzo had even enlarged Nami's bounty poster and hung it up in his own home.
It was a ridiculous and adorable family.
A family worth respecting.
Little Nami and little Nojiko huddled together, clutching their aching foreheads, lips puckered and eyes squeezed shut as they cried out in pain.
"It hurts!"
"We were just joking!"
Roy and Hancock both looked down at the two little girls.
Nami glared up at Bellemere, then shifted her gaze to the red haired big brother. Her eyes instinctively and very naturally slid down toward his belt.
His wallet looked very full.
She really wanted to empty it, not a single Berry left inside.
Roy glanced at the tiny orange haired girl, then at the blue haired one beside her.
Nami. Nojiko.
The current Nami gave him the strange feeling that the future Nami had been slapped back into childhood by a user of the Return Return Fruit.
Her soft pink cheeks and big round eyes were impossibly cute, and the short orange twin tails bouncing behind her head made her look even more adorable.
Her pigtails were still a little short.
She was dangerously cute.
The kind of cute that could threaten Chopper's position in the world rankings.
"Oh, are these your kids?" Roy asked with a smile. "They are adorable."
"Yes," Bellemere said, flustered but proud. "They were just playing around, please do not mind them."
The weather on the islands of the East Blue had been good lately, which meant the harvests had been bountiful.
That was good news, but it had also brought a different kind of hardship.
When everyone's oranges were sweet and plentiful, buyers had more choices.
Families like Bellemere's, who had no connections and no real way to distribute their fruit, simply could not sell effectively. They had no channel and no method.
Once you fell behind, the cycle turned vicious.
The more time passed, the worse things got, yet you still had to survive, so things got worse again.
Their oranges were not selling. With no income, Bellemere could only rely on her old savings to raise her two adopted daughters.
Life had grown very hard.
Nami wore clothes that Nojiko had already outgrown, and as for Nojiko…
Well, Bellemere always said they were new, but most of them obviously were not.
There was nothing else she could do. That was how helpless life was at the bottom when you had no money.
Some people flew too high and slowly forgot what life at the very bottom really looked like.
That was normal, no matter the era, the place, or even the world. It happened everywhere.
Roy stayed quiet.
His own life had improved the moment the old man had taken him in.
Later, when he had crossed paths with Linlin as a child, his circumstances had changed again.
He had Elbaf behind him. He had the Twenty Thousand Nations. He held the nun's inheritance.
The people walking beside him were all darlings of fate.
Toki, with the power to travel through time, was a living miracle. A true favored daughter of the heavens.
Hancock was freakishly talented, backed by the Amazon kingdom and her own overwhelming strength.
Roy suddenly understood why he had always been so fearless and carefree.
He had simply been living too well and had been protected too thoroughly.
His attitude had always carried the dangerous arrogance of someone who treated everything like entertainment.
"…Right."
He sighed inwardly and decided then and there that he needed to change.
He had to sink himself into the reality of those at the bottom.
Actually see them. Learn what their lives really looked like.
And no, that was not just an excuse to flirt.
As for Nami ten years from now…
That was a separate topic entirely.
This was called psychological conquest.
From a tactical perspective, victory always started with knowing your opponent.
Nami stood there with her hands behind her back, biting her lower lip and tilting her head as she watched the strange uncle who kept staring at her.
One big schemer and one little schemer, both quietly plotting their own tricks.
"Big brother, you are so handsome," Nami said suddenly, her face lighting up. "And big sister, you are so beautiful that Nami does not even know what to say. Big sister must be the most, most, most beautiful woman in the whole East Blue."
She beamed sweetly, though her clever eyes kept sliding toward the orange tree beside them.
She was already calculating.
If she was this cute and this good at flattery, that handsome big brother would definitely buy more oranges and more trees, right?
The more he bought, the more books she could get.
And the more clothes she could buy later.
"Can you two play with Nojiko for a bit?" Bellemere said quickly, glancing apologetically at Roy. "I will make you something delicious later."
Nami looked at Roy's wallet, then at her mother.
She did not trust Bellemere's sense when it came to money. The woman was an idiot sometimes.
If she handled this herself, she could drain that wallet properly.
"Let her decide," Hancock said, laughing. "Hahaha."
Little girl, well said. If you know how to talk, keep going.
For example, you could add that she was the most beautiful woman in the world. That would be very reasonable.
Hancock tipped herself backward in a self satisfied little lean, like an empress basking in praise.
"Big brother, come this way," Nami said, grabbing Roy's sleeve and dragging him toward one of the trees.
"…," Hancock's laughter died in her throat.
This little brat was not going to say anything more?
How infuriating.
"How about this one?" Nami pointed to a lush orange tree. "It is super cheap. Only five thousand Berries. And later it will grow lots and lots of sweet oranges. If you buy just this one, you will have more fruit than you can eat."
Bellemere opened her mouth. "Actually, that is…"
Too expensive, she had wanted to say.
But Nami shot her a vicious glare.
You idiot. If you do not sell it for more, how am I going to buy the books I want?
If we do not get a good price, who knows how long I will have to wait for new clothes?
"Mother Bellemere was thinking that we have many trees that grow this well," Nami cut in sweetly. "Big brother, would you like to pick out a few more?"
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