Clockwork Island wasn't what Nami expected it to be. Granted, she'd never been there before, on account of its natural defenses preventing anyone from slipping in unaccounted for. Not exactly something a professional thief would consider welcoming.
The bulk of the island was high above sea level, resting atop a spiraling pillar of stone, which itself was surrounded by jagged rocks. There was only one way in, and that one way was zealously guarded by the local military.
Of course, the three of them bypassed that entirely. The world at large didn't know that den den mushi had turned into a massive security risk, courtesy of Cherry, just yet.
Under ordinary circumstances, this wouldn't be an issue. No one on the island proper would assume they entered the country illegally when doing so was supposedly impossible.
*CROOONK* "REMINDER TO ALL CITIZENS OF DUNWALL. CURFEW BEGINS AT 8 O' CLOCK. THOSE WHO BREAK CURFEW WILL BE BROUGHT IN FOR QUESTIONING BY THE OVERSEERS." *CROOONK*
"What the fuck?" Nami hissed under her breath.
Although it was nowhere near the time specified, it was still morning in fact, the streets were far from bustling. The people that they could see were going about their business with haste and dour expressions.
"Look at this," Reiju stepped over, having bought a local newspaper. "Six months ago, the queen of this country was murdered, her daughter is missing, and the prime suspect is the Corvo fellow. Without a clear heir present, the whole country has been thrown into chaos."
"How awful…" Nami said. "I hope that poor girl is okay."
"Hm, smells kind of fishy," Cherry said, peering over Reiju's shoulder at the paper.
"You think so too, huh?" Reiju nodded. "The prison break is the most suspicious part. The guy was the head of the royal guard, yet somehow he was arrested right after assassinating the queen? Something like that should be the result of a conspiracy, but instead it reads like a crime of passion."
"And if it were a crime of passion…" Nami followed the line of reasoning. "Then where is the princess?"
Reiju smiled at her in praise. "Precisely. It's much more likely that Attano Corvo is the scapegoat, rather than the perpetrator."
"Well," Cherry spoke in a tone that Nami didn't like the sound of. "Not our problem is it? We have a shopping trip to finish."
Nami realized immediately what she was doing. A part of her was tempted to tell her to fuck right off, that they were going to go on the shopping trip and not go playing hero.
A much bigger part of her couldn't look at the face of little Kaldwin Emily and tell herself that she'd leave her to her fate, whatever that may be. How could Nami even look Vivi in the eye again, if she abandoned this princess, who was so much younger and more helpless than Vivi had been.
"Damn it, you fucking bitch," Nami cursed her anyways.
"Hey, there are always evil doers to vanquish and innocents to save. I don't want to spend all my time righting all the wrongs in the world, but if you want to spend your time doing it, then by all means~" Cherry gave her a toothy smile that said she already knew that she won this battle.
A whole shopping day down the drain, because Nami is too much of a bleeding heart to leave well enough alone. And there was no guarantee it would just be the one either! Fuck!
Meanwhile, Cherry gets to do one of her favorite hobbies; smashing shit and breaking balls.
Nami was just going to have to find a way to deal with her stress productively, maybe with a thunder storm or two.
"I already got what I came along for, so I'm good either way," Reiju chimed in. "It could be fun, toppling the leadership of a country; and for the right reasons this time!"
"Well, you're in charge, Nami," Cherry suddenly foisted all responsibility onto her shoulders. "What do we do?"
"Why are you asking me?!" Nami rejected.
"Because today is your day. Naturally, we're only doing things your way," Cherry smiled in barely concealed mirth. "Aren't you glad the boys aren't here to make a mess of things?"
"Not really, no!" Nami denied. Deep down, maybe she was pleased with their absence just this once, but sometimes Luffy's thoughtless choices were the best choices in hindsight. At least, they were often the choices that made it the easiest to sleep at night.
What would Luffy do if he were here?
Probably storm the nearest castle to rescue the princess, even not knowing if the princess would actually be there.
Yeah, that was stupid. She wasn't doing that even if she did know the princess was in there. Better to be sneaky about things like that. Luffy only got away with shit like that because he was Luffy.
"Right, so here's what we're going to do!" Nami confidently declared, then began to explain.
…
Reiju wasn't too proud to admit that she was a little excited.
The way she went about achieving an objective under Judge's purview mostly involved cracking skulls until they got what they wanted. Nami was far more subtle about getting what she wanted, which Reiju supposed made a lot of sense for a woman nicknamed "Cat Burglar" on her bounty poster.
*tick tick tick tock*
Reiju watched the fascinating automaton click clack past her hiding place, like an oversized tinker toy. Its four arms ending with massive blades told her they were anything but toys.
Thankfully they seemed pretty stupid compared to flesh and blood guards, which was saying something. She knew that this was East Blue, but there was a limit to incompetence. Come on, boys, you could at least spare a glance upwards every once in a while, couldn't you?
Well, that suited her purposes just fine; made her job pretty easy. Just sneak into the local prison and steal some records about one Attano Corvo.
After scouting around the place, she eventually found the warden's office. She could at least praise the architect for knowing better than to make a prison easily navigable by a stranger.
The warden wasn't inside, so she picked the lock and let herself inside.
'Let's see…' Reiju tapped her chin. Her eyes caught on the big safe behind the warden's desk. 'It can't be that easy, can it…?'
Reiju walked behind the warden's desk, opened the drawer right in the middle, and saw a scrap of paper with a 3 digit code on it.
'Idiot,' Reiju huffed and tried the code. Naturally, it worked. 'Oh, wow. That's a lot of gold.'
That all but confirmed that there was a conspiracy and that the warden was involved. Maybe it didn't have anything to do with the queen or Corvo and was just a human trafficking side gig, but either way she knew the guy was up to no good.
She left the gold and took all the papers. If the other two wanted the gold, they could get it themselves. As for the papers, she'd look them over later when she wasn't in enemy territory.
'I wonder if Cherry's end is going this smoothly?' Reiju idly thought as she made her way out.