"Waaaaah! You won't get anything! *sniff* I won't give you anything! *sob*"
Nami watched the expression on Luffy's face with a broad smile, all the while doing her best to suppress the urge to rush over to the crying princess and start comforting her. Frightened half to death, constantly wiping away the stream of tears pouring from her eyes with her hands, and then there were those adorable little sniffles and sobs of hers. Some people became scarier than a world war when they cried, while others—like the princess—only started looking unbearably cute and defenseless. The sort you immediately wanted to hug and pity. Nami had to keep her hands tightly clasped behind her back, afraid that otherwise she would lose control of herself. A crying Nefertari Vivi, princess of Alabasta, looked small, cute, and utterly defenseless. They were aboard the Heart Pirates' submarine, and the barely dressed Vivi, huddled in the corner of a fold-down bunk, was 'negotiating' with Nami and Luffy, who had come to see her. Mostly with Luffy, of course; Nami preferred to watch such a magnificent show from the sidelines. It was not every day she got the chance to see the guy at a loss.
"You can do whatever you want to me, but I still won't give in! *sniff*"
The Straw Hats and the Heart Pirates had been stuck on Cactus Island for five days now. Johnny, their newly minted pyromaniac, had unwittingly screwed Law and his crew over in spectacular fashion. After Luffy's rampage aboard the submarine more than a month earlier, repairs had never been fully completed. The Heart Pirates simply did not have enough spare parts and materials to restore all the damage; Luffy had really outdone himself that day. That was why they had placed certain hopes on Whisky Peak, but who could have predicted that Johnny would simply burn the entire town to the ground? Admittedly, the fire had never reached some buildings, others had only burned partially, and several small ships still remained. One was the ship Zoro had tried to escape on, while another had brought Miss Valentine and Mr. Five. They could obtain the missing materials needed to finish repairing the submarine from all of that, but doing so required time and manpower. Law could have made the process much easier and faster with the power of his fruit. He could have, if Luffy had not roped the 'Surgeon of Death' into what Law himself considered idiotic work alongside Usopp and several members of the Heart Pirates. But Luffy was not the sort of person who listened to reasonable arguments, so Law had no choice but to resign himself to it and go along with him yet again.
"Waaaaah! Alabasta doesn't have any money! *sob* I won't let you bleed my people even drier! *sniff*"
And so, amid all that, Sleeping Beauty finally deigned to wake up on the third day. Unfortunately for the beauty, Luffy was the first person to find out. A completely bewildered Igaram instantly lost his head for the second time—Law did not even bother asking why Luffy wanted it, simply fulfilling the request, which, as it turned out, was a mistake—after which a delighted Luffy bounded off with it straight toward the Heart Pirates' submarine. Only to come racing back a couple of minutes later with his eyes bulging and drag Law away for the second time to save the princess, who had unexpectedly died again. Who could have imagined that some 'harmless joke' involving Igaram's severed head blurting the by-now almost traditional "VIVI-SAMA!!!" directly into the barely conscious princess's face would make her spray a whole stream of blood onto the ceiling and promptly die again?
At the moment when every diagnostic machine began shrieking and the girl's heartbeat on the monitor flattened into a straight line, it was impossible to tell who had been more terrified—Igaram or Luffy himself. The former had lost his beloved princess again, while the latter had become very worried about his billions! Fortunately for everyone involved, Law was capable of miracles, both literally and figuratively. That did not stop him from trying to cut Luffy into pieces after saving the princess yet again. Luffy did not take offense in the slightest and obediently let himself be chopped apart, after which various pieces of his body spent another eight hours running around the area and getting in absolutely everyone's way. Law was no fool. He learned his lesson. All of them.
"You won't get anything! *sob* You can even ki... ki... kill me! WAAAAAAH!!! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!! *sniff* *sniff* *sob* *sob*"
The next time Vivi woke up was a day later, and Law refused to let anyone near her. He gave the girl another full day to rest and made sure her condition was stable before finally allowing Luffy access to his victim—but only with Nami present. Law had long since had time to assess the strange dynamics within the insane family and understood perfectly well how useful the girl was when it came to restraining Luffy's destructive tendencies.
As it turned out, however, everyone had underestimated Vivi by a great deal.
Luffy had barely begun 'negotiating' before the princess immediately broke down into hysterics, effectively ruining his entire game. What was the point of trying to frighten someone who was already terrified out of her mind? From there, the only remaining steps were fainting or a 'roof leak.' Vivi refused even to hear about any debt or agreements. At the same time, she was absolutely convinced that her refusal would result in inhuman torture and abuse, inevitably ending in a bloody death. The terror of having to die again made her practically choke on her own sobs and drown in tears. And that was exactly what left Luffy at a loss. Normally, people who were that terrified were ready to sell their own mothers, but apparently not Vivi.
"Waaaaah! I know, I know! You're going to kill me again now! *sniff* And I still won't agree! *sob* But I don't want to diiiiie! *sniff* I'm scared! *sob* I don't want to diiiiie! WAAAAAH!!!"
Nami understood perfectly well that this was not the most appropriate time for amusement, but she could not help herself. Moments when Luffy lost his composure or was genuinely caught off guard were worth their weight in gold to the family. The guy was staring at the sobbing Vivi as though she were some extremely dangerous, enormous mechanism whose workings made absolutely no damn sense. Something along the lines of: which lever was he supposed to pull to finally make the thing shut down? And not shut down in the drastic sense, where everything around it exploded into pieces, but simply switch off peacefully? In the end, he did exactly what any other normal man in his place would have done.
"There, there!" The steel door had barely slammed shut behind the fleeing Luffy before Nami finally stopped restraining herself. Vivi barely had time to understand what was happening before she found herself wrapped in the redhead's arms. "Don't be afraid, we won't hurt you. You don't want to confirm the debt? Then don't. Luffy was only joking. His sense of humor is... peculiar, so don't pay attention to it. We were planning to deal with this stupid organization and its Boss anyway. Just because. For free. So there's no reason to be afraid anymore, or to worry about your country. We won't do anything to you, and we'll even help save your country. So you don't need to cry anymore. Everything will be all right. Everything will be fine. Nothing threatens you anymore. Not you, not your country, and not your father. Will you tell me about him? You kept calling for him the whole time you were unconscious. You must love him, right? I don't have parents, but I do have an older sister whom I love very much too."
The quiet, soothing voice, gentle stroking of her head, tender embrace, and carefully chosen words gradually did their work. Less than ten minutes later, Vivi was already asleep against Nami's chest. If one considered only the physical side of things, the young princess was completely healthy by then. Law had done a magnificent job, practically surpassing himself. The girl did not even need to take any medication to prevent rejection of the donor organs. During the operation, Law had unexpectedly managed to make considerable progress in using the power of his fruit. With this new level of ability, he did not rule out that, in the future, he might be able to attach a human head to a crocodile without any subsequent rejection whatsoever. And that was only the tip of the iceberg. He still had to figure out the full extent of his new capabilities.
Miraculous Devil Fruit power or not, however, no one could die and undergo replacement of half their internal organs without any consequences at all. One's own death was not the sort of experience a person could simply shrug off. Medical practice, meanwhile, knew of quite a few cases where, after receiving even a single transplanted organ, a person began doing things completely uncharacteristic of them—but characteristic of the donor whose organ had been used. One could only guess how such a phenomenon might affect Vivi, considering that Law had transplanted a good half of Miss Valentine's internal organs into her. Thus, physiologically the princess was in nearly perfect condition, while her psychological state remained anyone's guess.
After that fiasco, Luffy stopped approaching Vivi and left her care entirely in Nami's hands. That did not mean he had decided to forgive the princess's debts or forget his deal with Igaram. No, Luffy had simply decided to pause the negotiations. He decided to let Nami gain Vivi's trust and patch up her shaken psyche. Nami did not object. Not to the 'gain her trust' part, but to the 'patch up her shaken psyche' part. The girl's maternal instincts quickly reached the output nature had intended for them, then smashed through the ceiling in one sudden burst and shifted into overdrive. Not only Robin, with her terrible life behind her, but now also a young princess who had endured such a horrific experience—and both of them needed looking after! There was a reason Nami used a staff as her weapon. The urge to protect and care for someone was practically in her blood.
For the frightened princess, nothing beyond constant care was required. By the end of the first day, Vivi no longer wanted Nami to leave her alone or even loosen her embrace. Things were a little more complicated with Robin. The black-haired woman had spent far too long relying only on herself and had never truly known normal human relationships, so Nami's excessive protectiveness burdened and attracted her in roughly equal measure. Or rather, if those feelings had truly been equal, Robin would not have kept trying to remain close to Nami all the time. From the outside it all looked so incredibly sweet and 'vanilla' that even the unflappable Zoro could not remain indifferent to the atmosphere. Poor Sanji's heart could barely take it at all, perpetually threatening to burst from the sheer overload of emotions inside him. Most remarkable of all, the expected conflict between Vivi and Robin never occurred. Whether Nami was responsible, or the horror Vivi had endured, or some other reason, the princess did not react in any way to Crocodile's 'right hand,' while the black-haired woman made no attempt to become her friend. Each of them talked to Nami, but throughout all the days that had passed, they had not exchanged a single word with each other.
"VIVI-SAMA!!!"
The day after her 'negotiations' with Luffy, Vivi stepped outside for some fresh air with both arms practically wrapped around Nami's arm and immediately caught Igaram's eye. For several days now, the man had guarded the Heart Pirates' submarine like a dog devoted to its master, hoping to see his precious princess as soon as possible. His reaction was exactly what everyone had expected. Even so, Vivi was clearly delighted to see him. So delighted, in fact, that she dared let go of Nami's arm and throw herself into Igaram's embrace. To complete her happiness, Karoo came running up soon afterward. Very loudly. The ground practically shook beneath his feet.
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD.
"Kwy-aaah!"
Servomotors howled loudly, and the enormous yellow duck—noticeably larger than before—plowed several meters of earth with his steel feet before stopping beside his mistress.
"Karoo!"
Overcome with joy, Vivi simply failed to notice anything strange, immediately releasing Igaram so she could hug not merely her beloved pet, but her best friend since earliest childhood. Abandoned, the man put on a strained smile at the sight of the greatly enlarged Karoo. Unlike Vivi, he knew perfectly well just how different the present Karoo was from the old one. And it was not only a matter of size.
"I'm so glad you both survived!"
Tears of happiness stood in Vivi's eyes. After what she herself had gone through, the girl had feared more than anything that Igaram and Karoo had shared her fate, so she was beside herself with happiness to see them alive. Yet sooner or later, every burst of joy comes to an end. As soon as Vivi's emotions more or less settled down, she began noticing various oddities about Karoo, after which the truth did not take long to reveal itself. The girl's post-traumatic stress instantly reached a new level. Nor did her subsequent introduction to Robin improve the situation in the slightest. Vivi once again attached herself firmly to Nami's arm.
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