Day 28: Bill's Hardware

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Could Nami be acting any more natural? Could her smile be any more confident?

Perhaps, although she'd done this what seemed like thousands of times, on her way to make the millions of beli she needed to free her town. And while pirates were her usual targets, stealing pirates' booty held with it the threat of death. Here? The worst that would happen to them was a scolding look and a mild sedation. Nothing big, right..?

..Unless they took her and made her do the things that Luffy had been forced to do. That wouldn't be very fun.

Still, she was going to undertake this job with the utmost professionalism; just because they were on a different planet didn't mean that she would stop stealing things like she meant it.

Nami let herself into the store as if she were a regular. She looked around slowly - at first glance it seemed that it was a normal hardware store. Maybe with a bit better technology, but she could certainly deal with that.

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Nami made a mental note of the copper wire: it was loose on a spool, in a way it could quite easily be cut. Copper wire was endlessly useful; it was nearly invisible in the dark, could be used as a garrote, a trip wire, a - well. Usopp would thank her, most probably, but she was planning on keeping quite a bit of it for herself, if she was successful. Which she would be.

The best thing about a thin copper wire was that quite a bit could fit wherever she put it.

"Quite possibly," she was replying to Luffy, as if rather interested in what he was saying. "I'm about through poking around town for now anyway. It's kind of boring, don't you think? Even with all the pumpkins. We'll go for lunch soon." Sorry, Luffy, she was really saying. Sure, small talk isn't very fun, but we'll have to do a little bit more before we're through...

And these guys? Amateurs. One was pulling the I'm a cute little boy, no one would other suspect me act and the other had embraced I am this guy's big, bad boyfriend charade. Nami pretended not to notice neither them nor their acts; instead she looked amused at nothing in particular, then she looked around as if she was almost dazed. Two nurses here. This won't be too difficult...

It would be any minute before one of the chestnut-haired youngsters decided he was going to swipe something, and then everything would unfold. How did the navigator know they were going to steal something? Elite pirate skills. Or maybe the way the boys were whispering to each other had tipped her off, and their sudden act? Yeahhhh.

It was just so terribly obvious.

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Luffy had to admit he'd rather just get the show on the road, cause the distraction, grab the stuff, and make a run for it. But Nami always seemed to know what she was doing, and he wasn't about to go crushing her plans on purpose. (That usually resulted in less stuff and a punch in the face, and Luffy didn't exactly want either of that.)

So, all he had to do was chat with Nami, which was easy enough. It gave him something to do, at least. He was sure things would fall into place! Right now, the pirate was unaware of what was running through Nami's mind, but that didn't bother him. She probably had things covered. He just needed to listen for the Super Secret Code!

"Yeah, I guess it's kind of boring," Luffy admitted. "It'd be a lot more fun if I were eating something, though! I can't wait for lunch. Do you know what that Tasty Burger stuff is about? With a name like that, the food they've got has to be delicious, right?"

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"It sounds like bait, quite honestly," Nami said quietly. "Tasty Burger? That simply doesn't seem for a restaurant." Tasty Burger. What a name. Sanji would have said that the food should speak for itself and that such a label was probably them trying to convince the populace that the burger was, indeed, tasty. And for once, his words were seeming to ring true in her ears.

Pub and Pies, at least, didn't try to pull a fast one on them. It was a pub that also sold pies. No more, no less.

"I was thinking Twin Pines, though."

That was when Omi caused the distraction and shoddily pocketed the screws, and Nami had to raise her eyebrow at that. She raised her voice loud enough to get the boy's attention. "You're doing it wrong," she murmured.

It looked like they hadn't screwed up her plan too badly, though with a few more moves like that they'd all be in deep trouble.

The navigator took a step to the right, brushing the side of her chin with her fingers and taking a look at the hammers that were so conveniently beside the screws and the wire. "Wonder how much this hammer costs..?"

Nami took a deep breath, steadying herself. She'd have to work quickly.

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Luffy didn't see anything wrong with the name "Tasty Burger". If he had his own burger joint, that's pretty much what he'd call it. It was short, sweet, and to the point. What else did anyone need to know other than the fact they served burgers that were tasty? Any other name would just be a waste of time, right?

Though, if Nami had brought it up, he would have been forced to admit "Pub and Pies" wasn't half-bad either. Definitely better than something like Twin Pines.

The pirate paid no mind to the other two boys who were obviously stealing stuff. He'd leave those details to Nami. The only thing he knew was that if they got in their way, he wouldn't bat an eye at pushing if things came to shoving. They were pirates, after all! Plus, they'd gotten here first, so fair was far, right?

Once Luffy heard the Super-special Codeword, however, he straightened up, grinning widely. Yes! Time for a distraction! But what was he going to do? Hmm, he could pretend he was dying of starvation, or that maybe he really was crazy and obsessed with cats, or maybe--!

Eyes lit up with excitement, he was about to make his way over to the counter for The Distraction when his shoulder knocked against one of the shelves. In a split second, it shuddered, sending all sorts of wares spilling across the floor.

"W-woah!" Luffy stepped back, but his foot fell upon a loose nail. Shrieking, he jumped up, clutching his foot until his back hit another shelf. More things spilled onto the floor, throwing Luffy into a terrible, vicious cycle. "Woah woah woah!"

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If there was any doubt, that was doing it right.

In fact, that was doing it perfectly.

Nami moved quickly and easily as soon as the distraction started. It was louder than she'd expected, even though it was Luffy and that was the norm with him. But she didn't flinch, even when her captain ended up with a nail in his foot. In fact, she was reacting perfectly naturally, turning her head in horror and everything.

Simultaneously, though, she was unwinding a good amount - about five feet - of copper wire off the spool, and cutting it in an easy motion. After it had been wrapped around her hand enough times, she clasped her hand to her chest in terror, slipping the wad of wire inside her shirt. She'd secure it later, but this would do for now.

Nurses were starting to crowd around Luffy, and the store clerk had even looked up in horror, as if to say What the hell are you doing to my store?! But Nami kept working, even finding a little pocket wrench that made it into the pocket of her hooded sweatshirt before she grabbed Luffy by the hood of his sweatshirt and started dragging him back out the door.

"He'll be fiiine," she was explaining to the nurses, waving them off all of a sudden as she dragged him outside. "Terribly, terribly sorry, I can't ever take him anywhere, he makes such a racket. Timothy, let's get out of here before you make any more of a fool of me today." She waved off the nurses again in her mad dash to drag Luffy toward the exit. She was even blushing. As if she were embarrassed by the charade! Ha~

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