Part 10 - Who ordered sushi? 8/??

"And what will happen next?" Nojiko spoke up again. "Judging by what I heard, Arlong really has no intention of keeping his promise to Nami."

"WHAT?!

Everyone present immediately turned to the elder who had come with the marines, who had remained standing in place after their hasty departure. Apparently, the man didn't know what to do next. However, he couldn't ignore Nojiko's words.

"Arlong doesn't intend to keep his word and sell our village to Nami," the blue-haired girl explained to the elder.

"WHAT?! You mean... you mean all these eight years we endured... all of it was in vain?!"

"And where did Gen-san find out, I wonder, that I intend to buy our village from Arlong? "Nami asked, irony evident in her voice. "Nojiko, is there anything you want to tell me?" she added, folding her arms across her chest.

Nojiko immediately took on a slightly embarrassed look, but before she could answer, the elder took the floor.

"I made her tell me everything," Gen-san explained, pulling the brim of his cap down over his eyes as if trying to hide from Nami's gaze. "I couldn't believe that you had actually sold out to Arlong, so I got the whole truth from Nojiko. And I told the others. We know everything, Nami, and we always knew. But we didn't tell you anything in case you…"

"Decided to run away, so you wouldn't be tormented by guilt and all that," Nami casually finished the man's sentence, waving her hand in the air.

Nojiko and the elder stared at the girl in shock.

"You... you knew?" Nojiko asked. "And for how long?"

"Not that I knew for sure about it... Luffy, hearing the whole story, immediately assumed that you would definitely blab to someone. For some reason, he couldn't believe that a ten-year-old girl could keep her mouth shut for long," Nami smiled a little maliciously at her sister. "And I've told you before, Luffy has never been wrong in front of me. So, maybe I didn't know anything for sure, but, in my opinion, it doesn't make much of a difference."

"Now I'm curious about what Arlong will do if you bring him the money now?" Johnny smirked, realizing that Nojiko and Gen-san couldn't find the words to answer Nami.

"He'll take it, and then he'll come up with something else, since it didn't work out with the marines" Nami shrugged. "Luffy talked about it."

"No, that's understandable, I'm just curious about what exactly he'll come up with."

"Want to find out?" Nami raised an eyebrow.

"No thanks!" the guy immediately backed off. "Who knows how long he'll be thinking? And what then? Wait until he comes up with a new idea?"

"Okay, guys, I'm going," unexpectedly, Zoro got up. "The sailors rushed so hard that if I don't hurry, they might actually manage to escape.

"What about us then?" Yosaku turned to Nami. "Shall we go deal with Arlong?"

"Yes," the girl nodded, "just grab a few things first."

"Won't he get lost by any chance?" Unlike the others, Johnny continued to look suspiciously at the figure of Zoro, who had already disappeared among the trees.

Unlike the marines, the swordsman headed straight to the harbor, through the forest, not through the village.

"As far as I noticed, he usually gets lost if he's fooling around, doesn't use Observation Haki, if Luffy didn't give him any orders and didn't ask him for anything. However, now he's busy, not fooling around, using Observation Haki, and carrying out Luffy's task, so he's unlikely to get lost," Yosaku reassured his friend.

"Then we better hurry. I don't know exactly what instructions Luffy gave Zoro, but I strongly doubt it will take him much time. If we don't hurry, Arlong might not be left for us. Nami, what things did you want to grab?" the guy turned to the girl. "Take them quickly, and let's go!"

"Don't worry, just a couple of things, and we can set off," Nami replied, and had already taken a step towards the door of the house when the concerned exclamation of the elder stopped her.

"Nami, are you really planning to fight Arlong and his gang?! The three of you?!"

"Don't worry, Gen-san," the girl smiled at him. "Everything will be fine," Nami said the same words to him that she had said to her sister a little earlier.

"Allow... allow me at least to gather people! If Arlong really decided to break his word, then the other villagers won't stand aside!"

"Nami, Gen-san is right," Nojiko supported the elder. "Neither I nor the other villagers can just stand aside when something like this is happening. We will all fight!"

"To be honest, I'm not even planning to fight, but, as Luffy would say, what the hell no? You can gather people! The people absolutely deserve to see the end of Arlong no less than me," saying this, the smiling girl disappeared into the house, leaving Nojiko and Gen-san silently digesting her response. Although, they understood the main point quite quickly, so Nojiko, saying that she would help Gen-san gather all the villagers, rushed off with the elder towards the village.