It's Not Just the Thought That Counts

Nami knows what matters most.

Set after the time skip, but only because of a comment Nami makes. It refers to something I think is rather important that I have not yet seen anyone mention.

The palace is shaking from the various individual battles proceeding outside as Nami makes her way through the interior's plain stone corridors. She's managed to avoid the notice of the few groups of guards still scrambling around while she sneaks after Orgulous, this stone pile's owner.

The Strawhats had only come to this island because it lies on the line between their last stop and place to which the eternal pose is pointing them. They had gotten to spend a few hours restocking supplies and enjoying the island's nice weather. But (of course) something was off.

The nervousness of the villagers became increasingly apparent until an incident involving Luffy, an elderly street vendor, her scrappy granddaughter and the local leader's enforcers had brought the whole situation out into the open.

The island had been taken over by a pirate crew that had decided that the entire place would make an excellent retirement village. They had settled in and spent the last few years bullying the locals into building them a plain but absurdly large fortress on the hill overlooking the village.

Their captain, a short, broad man wearing a coat with lots of gold buttons, tassels, and (Nami would swear) shoulder pads, had stood on a balcony overlooking the palace courtyard making the usual declarations regarding his general superiority to the people he's mistreating, until Luffy had signaled the end of his speech by picking up one of the jackass' lieutenants and throwing him through the balcony railing, causing both the dictator and his subordinate to disappear into the building in a cloud of rubble.

Luffy had roared up at the hole in the wall, "You ruined that nice old lady's meat pie stand! I'm gonna punch you the face!"

Usopp had given Luffy a pained look, but before he could protest the lack of a proper dramatic declaration, the lieutenant had burst back into the courtyard and he and his two companions had lead a large group of guards into the fight.

However, their leader had not reappeared.

After a few moments Nami had realized Orgulous must be running away and had used a blast of air from her staff to vault up through the gap in the balcony railing.

She follows the man quietly until he finally stops and presses a wall sconce causing a hidden door to open.

Jack pot! She quietly sidles sideways until she can see into the room, as she hoped it's a treasure room rather than an escape route. The dictator is inside muttering to himself and sweeping valuables off of shelfs into a sack. She moves to the side of the door and starts charging up her staff.

He strides back out of the room and turns to keep heading down the hall with his sack full of gold. Nami levels her staff and releases a lightning bolt into his back. Blinding electricity crackles over the man and the bag, some of it even rebounding into her staff.

Much to her dismay, when the sparks clear the enemy leader appears irritated but, sadly, unharmed. He smirks at her, "Tatata, that stung hussy," he pulls at the lapel of his now charred coat, "and you've ruined my favorite jacket."

Craaap, of course. Of course it wouldn't be that easy. Just because this man threw his subordinates in the way and scurried off in order to save his own hide, she shouldn't have assumed he's weak as well as a coward.

He sneers at her expression and pulls a small pistol from inside his jacket. Ok, it seems like she should be able to deal with that, but there's obviously there's a trick to it. She scoffs, "You're going to kill me with that pea shooter?" She angles her staff in front of her, "I may not be a heavy hitter, but I'm still a Strawhat. Frankly, I'm insulted."

"Tatata, I ate the amp-amp fruit, it allowed me to decrease the damage of your bolt to a mere static shock and it also allows me to do this." He raises the little gun and fires it with a pop.

Nami jumps to the side in a roll at the same moment there is a loud shattering sound and a hole the size of a watermelon is ripped through the stone wall just behind where she had been standing. She gapes for a second.

Ok, screw this.

Nami swirls her staff to create a thick fog obscuring the hallway.

A few moments later she is runs out of the ground level cloud bank with the dictator's treasure bag slung over her shoulder. She sweeps her staff around again to create a series of mirages as she runs back toward the courtyard where she'd last seen most of the crew.

The regular rumbling of buildings being demolished and walls toppled has been slowing, so she supposes the fighting is already mostly over.

Nami weaves and dodges as her mirages are dissipated one by one by bullets passing through them.

She scrambles around a corner and, to her relief, sees her captain standing in the hallway looking back and forth, "Luffy! The guy you're looking for is over here!" Her call is punctuated by the suited man skidding around the corner and firing again.

The bullet hits the rubberman and rebounds into a wall with another explosion. Luffy looks irritated, "Hey coward! Leave my navigator alone!"

Nami ducks and Luffy's fist shoots over her head. A second later look of confusion passes over Luffy's face and she turns to see that Orgulous has Luffy's wrist in his hand. The Amp-amp man whips around and Luffy goes flying over her head, past the dictator and through a wall. Unfortunately, he snags on the bag of treasure on the way over and it follows him through the hole in the wall.

The tyrant starts up with his annoying laugh again, "Tatata," but just as he takes a breath to say something, Luffy's arms shoot back through the hole, grab the blowhard by the sides of the head and yank him backward through the opening.

Nami runs over to look for the bag Luffy made her drop. She groans in frustration when she sees that the gold and jewels have been scattered half way across the courtyard on the other side of the wall.

Orgulous is finishing up his explanation of his devil fruit power, he taunts "…So you see, your attacks can hardly hurt me."

Luffy looks unimpressed, "That's the lamest devil fruit ever."

The dictator puffs up in affront, "Imbecile! My powers have allowed me to overcome normally unbeatable foes with ease!"

"But it's boring," Luffy starts to steam, "and easy to beat too."

The next moment there is a blur and both of them disappear through a new hole in the wall with another loud crash.

Nami jumps down, picks up the sack and starts scooping valuables back into it. As she works she can hear regular crashing, probably Luffy using Orgulous to demolish the rest of the fortress.

Despite the noise, she is so focused on picking up the scattered valuables that she almost doesn't notice when the fighting comes back around to her courtyard.

There is a rapidly approaching roar and Nami looks up to see a wave of debris surging toward her. She has just enough time to duck and cover before there's a blast of wind as the roaring rushes past her.

But there's no pain. She cautiously opens her eyes and looks around.

Zoro is standing with his back to her, facing in the direction the blast had come from. She is in the middle of a clear area spreading out in a cone behind him. He must have cut the explosion.

Zoro looks over his shoulder at her. Nami takes a deep breath to calm her nerves and looks the swordsman in the eye, "Thanks."

She returns to gathering up the scattered jewelry. Orgulous may be a pompous coward but he has good taste. Some of this stuff is really well made. With a little polishing it will fetch a nice price at the next city they come to.

She tsks in annoyance when she comes to the edge of the clear area; the blast tumbled everything into a pile along what remains of one wall of the courtyard. It's going to take forever to find some it now.

Zoro is gaping at her. He looks forward to double check that the fight has moved off, then drops his stance and turns to face her, "Are you insane woman!"

"I often ask myself that same question. Are you going to help me or just stand there being surly?" She heads toward the wall, "I think most of it ended up over here."

Zoro doesn't help her dig, but he doesn't leave either. He just stands there, two swords out, looking impatient while she rummages through broken bits of stone and wood.

A few pieces of jewelry later, he uses some kind of flying slash to disperse another wave of debris. As he swings, the reflection of light off one his blades causes some glimmers within the pile.

"Zoro!" Nami calls out urgently. He turns toward her in alarm, as she continues, "Do that again, I saw something."

The swordsman's jaw clenches, but before he can demand they leave, she cuts him off, "It's gotten quieter. You Know most of the real fighting is done," she raises an eyebrow, "Unless you want to intrude on Luffy's fun?"

Zoro scowls at her. She doesn't understand it, but she knows the Monster Trio has an unspoken, yet firm rule about not breaking into each other's fights.

She matches his impatience with her own, "If you'll just reflect some light over here, I can get the last couple pieces and we can go."

He grumbles, "Greedy witch," but lifts a sword horizontally and angles it back and forth. Nami spots what she's looking for and quickly starts digging again with a grin on her face. Almost done.

Nami doesn't see when an enormous black fist rears out of the rubble of the palace, the knuckles pointed in their direction.

She is just about to reach the last piece when Zoro grabs her by the waist of her skirt and hauls her backward and onto her feet.

"Hey!" she cries, still reaching. Then she looks up and sees an entire tower rolling toward them.

Zoro takes a moment to size up the cylinder and then uses several flying slashes to cut a wedge shaped hole in the side near what is currently the top. Nami clutches the bag to her stomach and closes her eyes.

The rumbling grows so loud it almost shakes her off her feet. Through closed eyes she can sense it getting darker and then lighter again. When the vibration fades she slits her eyes open to see that they are standing in the middle of a diamond shaped piece of courtyard that is now raised slightly higher than the ground around them.

Nami drops to her knees and looks for the ornately woven necklace she had been so close to retrieving. She whimpers when she finds it. The piece now more closely resembles gold leaf. Bits of gem powder drift to the ground when she picks it up.

Zoro looks behind him at the wide avenue the tower has created and then crosses his arms, "We're done here."

Nami nods sadly and drops the squished necklace into the bag. She'd just needed one more second!

Zoro takes in her expression and drops his arms to his sides, "You know you can't spend it if you're dead." This is almost a question, as if he's not sure at this point that she is, in fact, aware of this limitation on material wealth.

In response, Nami starts rifling through the contents of the bag to do a quick estimate. She relaxes; this should be enough to cover everything although they are going to have to wait till the next island to trade most of it. This island doesn't receive many visitors, so its people actually prefer barter of useful items over gold.

Zoro immediately becomes suspicious when she looks up and smiles at him, "I'm really glad you stopped getting cut to bits in every battle."

"Uh huh," he agrees warily, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"It's really cut back on expenses for Chopper's supplies. So," she lifts he bag, and sing-songs, "This should be enough."

Zoro gives her a flat look, which then morphs into cautious curiosity, "Enough for what?"

Earlier that day, on the Sunny

Nami sits on the floor of her room, her treasure chest unlocked in front of her and the ledger recording her appraisals of the chest's contents flipped open at her side.

Most of the valuables they acquire immediately go back into buying the things they need to survive, but she decided early on that all the particularly well-wrought pieces would be stored in her room. Some things are too valuable to trade away just anywhere. It's best to wait till they can find someone who will truly appreciate them and pay up appropriately.

Sadly, there are only a few jewelry cases contained inside the chest at the moment.

Over time she has been pleased to see that all her crewmates are excellent at creating miracles with only scraps and spare parts.

However, Nami had long been of the opinion that money, like water or food, is only a thing taken for granted by those who have never had to go without it. There are some things that, practically speaking, can only be acquired through trade or theft. On top of that, she is the only one who does much stealing and then only from the navy and other pirates.

Therefore, their money needs to be measured out carefully so they have enough to get what they need when they need it.

But there's a problem right now. Besides the usual expenses, three of her crewmates have come to her at different times gushing over a project that will be, to paraphrase their words, both useful and amazing.

She had questioned each of them hard, not just to evaluate the strength of their plan, but also to test their resolve. If they were going to get access to what little treasure the crew managed to acquire when they were constantly working for free, they had better know what they were doing and be ready to follow through.

None of them had cracked though. Maybe she had finally taught her crewmates something about laying out a proper budgetary proposal. Or maybe she's just getting soft.

It is hard to weigh one necessity or dream against another. And right now it seems impossible.

She could take the decision to the rest of the crew. Tell them the situation. Let each of her crewmates present their case and have them all make a choice.

But that doesn't sit right with her.

She had demanded the responsibility of managing the crew's highly variable resources way back when it was only her, Luffy, and Zoro.

Admitting now that they can't fund all her crewmates' projects feels like a failure on her part. It hurts her pride as the provident one their group.

So, if expenses can't be reduced then assets need to be increased.

The next island has to have stealable treasure on it somewhere.

Nami swears it will be hers.

Anyone else notice that Zoro hasn't gotten so much as a scratch on him since the crew got back together?