Right.

I turned right, my boots pounding against the cobblestones as I raced down the street.

The tall buildings of white stone loomed on either side, casting long shadows that stretched across the uneven paving. Stacks of barrels, some overflowing with rope and netting, others tightly sealed, lined the edges of the street, creating a narrow, obstacle-filled path. My breath came in ragged gasps, but I didn’t care. This was it. I could feel it. Nami was just ahead, and if I could catch her, I could get everything back.

The side street twisted slightly, opening into a small clearing between the buildings. I slowed slightly, scanning for any sign of her, my heart pounding as adrenaline surged through me. I sped up again.

Then it happened.

I rounded a stack of barrels a little too quickly. Before I could fully register what was happening, a staff shot out from behind another stack, catching me squarely in the shins.

I cried out, my legs swept out from under me. I instinctively twisted my body, managing to land on my shoulder rather than my face, but the impact still sent a jolt of pain through me. I hit the cobblestones with a heavy thud, my breath whooshing out of me.

I barely had time to process what was happening before Nami was on me. She moved with a predator’s precision, her bo staff pinning me to the ground as she loomed over me, her sharp eyes blazing with fury.

“Got you,” she hissed triumphantly.

I struggled beneath her, but she pressed the staff harder against my bare chest, forcing me to stay down. “You just couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you?” she snapped, her voice cutting like steel. “What’s your game, Tsujo? You’ve got one last chance to tell me the truth, or I’ll make sure you regret ever stepping foot in my path.”

My mind raced, desperation clawing at the edges of my thoughts. I tried to cobble together a lie, something, anything that might save me, but her sharp glare cut through me like a knife. “I already told you!” I stammered. “The Normu Normu no Mi! My Devil Fruit- it makes me seem normal-”

“Bullshit!” she snarled, her voice cracking like a whip. She leaned closer, her eyes boring into mine. “If your powers don’t work on me anymore, why the hell would you come after ME?! Why not go back to being a grope-y creep with every other poor woman on this island?”

“I-” My voice faltered, my breath catching in my throat. I had no answer. She was too sharp, too quick, and my story was unraveling right in front of me.

Nami’s eyes narrowed further, her sharp mind clearly working overtime as she studied me like a puzzle she was determined to solve. “You must have needed something from me,” she said slowly, her tone laced with suspicion. “Something I took.”

She reached into her pocket, and my heart stopped as she pulled out the earrings, “These, huh?”

“Back at the shop.”, she said slowly “When I showed you these. For a split second, you looked… ****. Like you couldn’t breathe without them.”

I swallowed hard, my gaze locked on the glinting gold as panic clawed at my chest. “No,” I lied, the word barely more than a whisper. “They’re just… they don’t mean anything.”

Her lips curled into a cold smirk. “Nope.” she said flatly, her fingers tightening around the earrings. “So, what are they? Some kind of power booster? Your real Devil Fruit powers?”

“They’re just- just a good luck charm! That’s all!”

“Liar,” she said simply, slipping one of the earrings onto her ear. My breath caught in my throat as a wave of dread washed over me. “Let’s see what they do, shall we?”

The cold metal of the first earring slid easily into Nami’s earlobe. She fastened it, the small click echoing in the sudden silence of the street. Tilting her head, she waited for… something. A rush of knowledge? A surge of power? Anything.

Nothing.

She felt exactly the same. Her brow furrowed, a flicker of disappointment mixing with her suspicion. Were these things duds?

Then she fastened the second earring. Again, nothing. No voices in her head, no sudden understanding of the universe, no magical transformation. She was still just Nami, and the idiot pinned beneath her staff still looked like he’d just swallowed a lemon whole.

But… something was different.

He was calmer. Not relaxed, exactly, there was still a flicker of fear in his eyes, but it was muted. Almost… expected. Like this whole situation, being pinned to the ground by an angry woman with a bo staff, was perfectly normal.

Nami narrowed her eyes, studying his face. Before, he had been a whirlwind of frantic energy, **** lies tumbling from his lips. Now, he was… subdued. Almost resigned.

“Everything I do is perfectly normal,” she muttered under her breath.

He opened his mouth, likely to deny it, to launch into another pathetic excuse, but the words didn’t come. He just stared at her, his eyes wide and… accepting.

A slow chuckle bubbled up in Nami’s throat. The sound was low and mocking, laced with a touch of disbelief. This was almost too easy. She had to test this.

Lowering herself into a squat beside him, her sharp eyes gleaming with mischief, Nami could feel his gaze locked on her every move. He didn’t try to struggle or speak; he just… watched.

Casually, her hand reached down, resting over the bulge in his pants. Her fingers flexed, giving his nice big soft cock and balls a slow squeeze as she studied his face. “What even is wrong with you?” she muttered, half to herself. “You’ve got this gorgeous cock, and yet you needed these stupid earrings to get what you wanted? Seriously?”

Her fingers flexed slightly, her grip firm. He twitched under her touch, a barely perceptible tremor that ran through his body. She noticed, of course, and let out a derisive snort.

“But no,” she continued, withdrawing her hand with a casual pat, “you just had to be a complete idiot about it.”

A pair of punks was sauntered by, their footsteps echoing in the narrow street. They looked like the kind of troublemakers who would normally jump at a chance to heckle someone in Tsujo’s position, but they barely spared the scene a passing glance.

The man was a towering figure, over seven feet tall with light green, slicked-back hair and sharp sideburns. His pointed teeth flashed in the sunlight as he smirked at his companion. He wore brown pants with a thick, studded black belt and an open yellow and red striped coat with a fur-lined collar, showing off his toned abs and a bold purple tattoo on his chest.

Beside him, the woman was equally striking, tall and statuesque with a full figure and short red hair. Her piercing blue eyes scanned the street with disinterest. She wore a dark blue coat with a lighter wave design at the bottom, the pink interior visible from her rolled-up sleeves. Beneath the coat, her midriff was bare, her ample chest wrapped tightly in a bandage-style breast band.

Nami’s sharp mind caught the lack of reaction from the pair, and her lips pressed into a tight line. They weren’t even paying attention to her- to this. She straightened up slightly, calling out to them. “Hey, you two!” she said, her tone sharp enough to make them pause. “What do you think of this?”

The man’s sharp-toothed grin widened slightly as he shrugged. “Looks pretty normal to me,” he said in a lazy drawl, his eyes briefly flicking over her before settling back on Tsujo. “What, is he your boyfriend or something?”

The woman tilted her head, her blue eyes narrowing slightly as she gave Nami and Tsujo a once-over. “Yeah, I mean… nothing weird about it. Just a couple doing… whatever,” she said, her tone casual but slightly distracted.

Certainly seemed to be working on them too.

She reached down and, without hesitation, unzipped Tsujo’s pants. His soft cock spilled out into her hand, thick and heavy even in its flaccid state. She gave it a slow stroke, watching the way it twitched under her grip.

“And this?” she asked, looking back at the pair.

The man's smirk widened into something more lascivious as his eyes lingered on the scene. “Well, now that’s a bit more interesting,” he said, his tone still casual but laced with amusement. “Cute lady like you handling something like that? Can’t blame a guy for being curious.”

The woman’s gaze sharpened, her head tilting slightly as she appraised the hefty piece of meat in Nami’s hand. Nami could almost see the calculations going on behind her piercing blue eyes. Finally, the woman spoke, her tone matter-of-fact. “Looks like it might hit that magic number when it’s hard,” she said, her lips quirking slightly. “Big-dickgasm territory, maybe.”

Nami’s lips curled in mild amusement at the woman’s assessment (a fellow connoisseur, huh?) but the real takeaway was the ease of their reactions. She had gotten their attention, but they weren’t alarmed. They weren’t questioning her actions, just reacting with casual interest, as if this was nothing more than an idle street-side attraction.

Just like how she had let Tsujo join her in that changing stall. Just like how she’d let him finger her pussy like it wasn’t that big a deal before she’d even seen that big dick. How she’d let him treat her face like his personal sexy toy!

She shuddered at the memories and then without warning, she smacked his nuts through his pants with a sharp flick of her wrist. He let out a strangled wheeze, his body curling slightly as pain shot through him.

Nami looked back to the pair of punks, her smirk widening. “Thanks for the insight,” she said lightly. “Now get lost.”

The man chuckled, the woman giving one last calculating glance at Tsujo’s exposed cock before they sauntered away.

Nami tilted her head, her sharp eyes gleaming as she tapped one of the earrings lightly with her finger. "Now I think normally you'd be telling me everything about these earrings right about now, don't you think?"

Tsujo’s mouth opened slightly, like his brain was still catching up to what was happening, and then it happened, his lips started moving, words spilling out before he could even think to stop them.

Nami blinked in mild surprise as he started rattling off explanations. Well, that’s convenient. She hadn’t even meant to trigger anything, just referencing what she already knew about the earrings, but clearly, there was more to them than just making a person normal.

Tsujo was too busy talking to see the look on her face sharpen with realization. This wasn’t just a tool to make people accept whatever was happening. It also had a second function: making everyone believe something completely new was normal.

Damn, she thought, listening intently as Tsujo spilled everything.

And yet, as he talked, she found herself… unimpressed.

Oh sure, on paper what he did should have been horrifying, but when she actually listened to the so-called "Normalities" he had created, they barely even registered as a big deal. Liking big dicks? She already did. Big-dickgasms? Those had always been a thing. The oral discount? She always secured great deals. Barmaids being whores? Was that even a change?

The realization sat oddly with her. Was he really messing with people's heads? Or just reinforcing things that were true?

She could just barely wrap her mind around the idea that the world had been different before, that he’d actually changed her memories.

That thought sat uneasily until he started talking about what he’d done to Tashigi.

That made her pause.

Her jaw tightened as he explained, his words tumbling out unbidden. He had convinced the marine officer to give him a guided tour up to the scaffolding where he'd fucked her. Nami knew all about that lewd tradition that glorified pirates and hated it. She was sure it would have been a particularly awful experience for a Marine. And making the woman have a fetish for fucking sword-hilts? Giving her a burning passion for wielding a sword with her pussy?!

Yeah, no, Nami thought, her grip tightening on her bo staff. That's not something I’m letting slide.

Tsujo clearly knew he had just sealed his fate because for the first time since putting on the earrings, she saw real, raw panic in his eyes.

Nami made up her mind instantly. "Alright, you’re coming with me," she said, standing up. "We’re gonna make things right."

The Marine base was laughably easy to stroll through with the earrings on. Nobody questioned her presence. Nobody asked what she was doing. She was just normal there, a pirate walking freely among her supposed enemies, dragging a still-dazed Tsujo along behind her.

She spotted Tashigi in the training yard, instructing a group of recruits. Even from a distance, Nami could tell she was a woman who took her job seriously. A little too seriously, if you asked her.

“Tashigi!” Nami called out, waving.

The marine officer turned, her sharp blue eyes landing on Nami first before flickering to Tsujo. A flicker of recognition crossed her face, followed by something unexpected, a faint blush. “Oh,” she said, adjusting her glasses, her voice strangely soft. “It’s… you.”

Nami's brow lifted. "You remember him?"

Tashigi coughed awkwardly, suddenly very focused on adjusting the hilt of her sword. "Of course. We had… a very thorough tour of the city." she admitted, her voice quieter. "And, uh… I had a rather-" She cleared her throat. "Intense reaction."

Nami stared at her. Was she actually fondly remembering her big-dickgasm with this idiot? She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay, look, that’s not why I brought him here."

Tashigi frowned, confused, as Nami continued. "I want you to feel your normal amount of outrage for what he did to you."

It was an unthinking statement, one meant to just make her react like anyone should, but the moment the word left Nami’s lips, she felt the shift.

Tashigi’s entire face darkened. Her breath hitched, her fingers curling into a white-knuckled grip on her sword. Her expression twisted into something volcanic, something murderous.

Tsujo barely had time to blink before Tashigi’s fist smashed into his jaw.

There was a sickening crack as Tsujo crumpled, blood spurting from his mouth as he choked on a scream. He hit the ground hard, but Tashigi wasn’t done. She stepped forward and kicked him with enough **** to send him skidding across the dirt.

Then, she froze.

The fury drained from her face as she looked down at her hands in horror. "Oh… oh no. That was-too much," she whispered, stepping back as Tsujo groaned pitifully from the ground, clutching his shattered jaw.

Nami sighed. "Yeah, that’s on me."

Tashigi looked at her, aghast. “What… what was that?”

“I’ll explain on the way,” Nami said, waving a hand dismissively. “But first, let’s get this creep in a cell.”

Tashigi had been happy to let Nami take charge of securing him away. Utterly ridiculous what you could get away with when everyone thought you were just normal.

With the earrings still snug on her ears, Nami smirked down at the pitiful, broken mess that was Tsujo. His jaw was mangled, his swollen lips barely able to part as he groaned weakly. Served him right.

She rolled an earring between her fingers at her ear, considering her next move. Leaving them in some hole somewhere or ditching them in the ocean? Too risky. Someone might stumble upon them, and who knew what kind of bastard would end up with them then? No, the best way to keep them out of unworthy hands was to lock them away where no one would dare touch them. And what better place than right on him?

Poetic justice. He’d get exactly what he wanted, his precious earrings, stuck on him for the rest of his miserable life. But he wouldn’t be using them.

Her smirk widened. Yeah. This is perfect.

Taking a breath, she focused. “It’s normal for no one to ever take these earrings off of Tsujo,” she said firmly.

The air seemed to hum as the words took hold, solidifying into reality. She thought she could feel the change settle in, that deep certainty that not a single person, Marine, pirate, or otherwise, would ever think to remove them. Good. That part was done.

Now she just needed to make sure the bastard couldn’t use them.

She opened her mouth, about to declare that it was normal for Tsujo to never say the word “normal” again when-

WHOOSH SWISH SWISH SWISH

Nami jumped forward as something barreled through the hallway.

Zoro!

The green-haired swordsman stormed past, not even sparing her a glance as he swept his way down the corridor... literally. A broom in each hand, and a third clenched between his teeth, he moved with purposeful strokes, furiously sweeping every inch of the base’s hallway as if he were locked in mortal combat with dirt itself.

What the hell is he doing here? Nami could only stare, momentarily frozen in disbelief. What the hell is he doing?

Still slightly bewildered, she shook her head and focused, quickly fastening the earrings onto Tsujo’s ears before anything else could distract her.

As soon as they clicked into place, something shifted. Like a weight lifting. This is fine. This is normal.

Then a flicker of doubt hit her.

Wait. What about when his jaw heals?

Her stomach twisted. If he could talk again, he could use the earrings to change what was normal all over again!

Her immediate reaction was to fix it, to undo the mistake, but… no.

She hesitated, her hands twitching at her sides. Him using the earrings is normal. It always had been. He'd been using them long before she'd figured it out, and it hadn’t really been that big of a deal, right? He was right where he should be. And besides, Tashigi knew all about his so-called Devil Fruit powers. Surely she’d make sure he stayed gagged.

Yeah. That was fine.

And she needed to get out of here before some Marine did recognize her.

With one last glance at Tsujo, now just another pathetic prisoner, utterly normal, Nami turned on her heel and strode away. The earrings were locked away. The problem was solved.

And she had better things to do.

First, getting out of here without getting caught. If Smoker or some hard-nosed officer got a good look at her, things could turn ugly fast. She should have made a ‘normality’ to secure her way out before giving up the earrings.

Second, Zoro. What the hell was he doing here, and why was he sweeping the halls like a damn janitor? She needed to find him before his dumbass got caught.

Third, and possibly most concerning, the Buggy Pirates were here. Tsujo had admitted it. That meant a whole new set of problems to deal with, because those clowns never operated quietly, and if she wasn’t careful, they could blow everything wide open.