"You did save my life." she said as she jumped down next to him. "Follow me. I'll get you some food." Luffy jumped to his feet in excitement. "Really? Thanks!" he said, smiling. He followed her through the streets to an abandoned house. As she started making him some food, he was looking at her up and down. A blush came across his face as he smiled. He pulled his hat down again to hide his face as she came back.
"Here." she said as she placed the food in front of him, which he immediately started eating as he got himself under control. Nami just stared at Luffy as she wondered how she was going to get Buggy's treasure.
"Those guys seemed to be after you for some reason." Luffy said as he looked at her. "What'd you do?"
"I took their map." she said as she pulled a map out from under her shirt. "With this, I'll be able to get 100,000,000 berris no problem." "That's a lot of money." Luffy said with a whistle. He had once heard that it was to buy back her village from Arlong. He frowned as he remembered her on that dirt road, stabbing her tattoo of Arlong's mark after her village went off to fight him, knowing it was a lost cause, but unable to put up with him any longer. "Why that much?"
"None of you business." she said in a cold voice. "Now that I have this chart of the Grand Line, getting that money will be easy." she said.
"Grand Line?" Luffy asked in fake surprise. "You're a navigator?"
"Not to brag, but I'm the best navigator you'll ever find." she said with a small smile.
"Cool. You should join my crew."
"No!" she said in a harsh tone. "I despise pirates." Luffy knew where her anger came from, but he wouldn't give up. "Why not? The pirate life is fun." he said with a smile.
"Pirates are nothing but heartless monsters who take everything one cares about. I only love money and tangerines." she said. Luffy's eyes we covered by his hat as he looked towards her.
"Pirates are heartless monsters huh?"
"That's right."
"Then why did a pirate that came to my hometown years ago risk his life and sacrifice his left arm so that I could live?" he asked her, wondering what she could say to that. He looked up at her to see her eyes widen a bit. This had taken her by surprise to hear a pirate risking so much for someone else.
"A pirate...did that?" she asked in a quiet voice.
"Yep." he answered as he pulled off his hat to look at it fondly. He then explained his promise to Shanks about how he would return the hat Shanks gave him after he became King of the Pirates.
"Hmph. Well look who's the lucky one." she said as she walked over and looked out the window. She just couldn't picture it. A pirate, someone who robs and murders anyone they cross, risking their life for some random person?
"Did something happen to you?" Luffy suddenly asked her, pulling her out of her thoughts. She tense up as she looked back at him, seeing nothing but a blank face looking back. Her hand slowly went to her shoulder, which was covered by her shirt to hide that tattoo of Arlong's mark. She didn't know what it was about Luffy, but at that moment, her tension faded a little as she looked down.
"I'd rather not talk about it." she said in a bit of a sad voice. She sighed as she stared out the window. Thoughts of Bellemere came to her as she closed her eyes. She remembered how they were poor, how they would fight, how she started stealing because they had no money. She started to tear up as she also remembered their fight, how she ran off in anger, how her mother sacrificed herself so that she and Nojiko could live. She grasped her shoulder when memories of when Arlong forced her onto his to draw him maps, along with his deal to release her village in exchange for 100,000,000 berris. She missed her mother so much.
"Nami." Luffy said in a quiet voice. She turned to see that he was standing next to her. His hat shadowed his face, but she could still hear the sad tone in his voice as he continued. "Believe it or not, I also know what it's like to lose someone you care for."
"What?" she asked as Luffy undid a few buttons on his vest. He opened his vest up, and her eyes widened. She saw the jagged X shaped scar on his chest. "A very powerful person I met a long time ago killed someone I know." he said. "He tried to kill me too, but I got away thanks to some help, but not before he left me with this." he said as he pointed at his scar. He left out the parts about who was dead and who was the killer, but he wanted to let her know that he shared her pain of loss. He knew he would keep Ace alive this time, but the memory of it happening would never leave him.
Nami stared at his scar, unable to believe that Luffy went through something so similar to her own miserable past. She looked at her shoulder as Luffy buttoned up his vest and sat next to her. She then looked out the window again as she heard some pirates talking about finding her and getting the map back.
"Hey, you said you wanted to get 100,000,000 berris, right?"
"Yeah...why?" she said, wondering what he was thinking.