One Piece: Trainer of Kings

"Very good! Very energetic!" Akira grinned with obvious satisfaction at Nami's enthusiastic response to the treasure display.

He then turned to face her with exaggerated formality, placing one hand behind his back like a military officer preparing to issue orders.

"Navigator Nami of the Straw Hat Pirates, listen to my command!"

His voice carried mock authority as he continued the theatrical performance. "Now I order you in the name of the vice-captain of the Straw Hat Pirates..."

He paused for dramatic effect, watching as anticipation built in her amber eyes.

"Find a hotel to accommodate these two guys," he gestured toward Luffy and Zoro, who were still energetically discussing their earlier battle. "Then come shopping with me!!!"

"Yes, sir!" Under the intoxicating influence of so much wealth, Nami snapped to attention and replied with military precision.

But then her brain caught up with her automatic response, and she froze mid-salute, blinking in confusion.

"Wait... shopping?!" Her voice cracked slightly as the implications sank in.

Half an hour later, after successfully helping Luffy and Zoro locate a suitable restaurant and ordering enough food to feed a small army, Akira led Nami through the bustling streets of Shells Town.

Although Morgan's tyrannical rule had left the settlement far less prosperous than in years past, the community retained the essential infrastructure that came with hosting a Marine base. The variety of shops and services available would be more than sufficient for their immediate needs.

As they walked past merchant stalls and storefronts, Nami's expression shifted from confusion to dawning realization, then finally to complete exasperation.

"So you asked me to go shopping with you because you want me to help you bargain?!" she exclaimed, her voice rising with incredulous disbelief.

She fixed Akira with a look that combined speechlessness with pure contempt, as if she couldn't decide whether to laugh or throttle him on the spot.

Akira rubbed the back of his neck with an embarrassed smile. "Please help me out here~ I really don't have any experience with this kind of thing."

His expression grew more sheepish as he continued. "So I had to recruit you, veteran merchant that you are!"

"Really~" Nami sighed with theatrical resignation, throwing her hands up in defeat. "A bunch of grown men who can't even handle basic shopping. What am I supposed to do with you people?"

She shook her head with the weary patience of someone dealing with particularly troublesome children.

"Fine, fine. Tell me, what exactly do you need to buy?"

"Ah!" Akira tapped his chin thoughtfully, his strategic mind already cataloguing their requirements. "Actually, the list isn't too extensive."

"Daily supplies, exercise equipment, navigation tools... oh, right!" His expression brightened as he remembered their most pressing need.

"Most importantly, we need a ship!"

"A ship?!" Nami's eyebrows shot up toward her hairline, her voice rising to a near-shriek. "Please don't tell me you've been sailing the East Blue without an actual vessel!"

"That's right!" Akira snapped his fingers with cheerful confirmation. "Nami, you really are as sharp as they come!"

"Your deductive skills are impressive!"

SMACK!

The sound of Nami's palm meeting her forehead echoed off the surrounding buildings as she staggered backward in complete disbelief.

"You don't even have a proper ship, but you're out here talking about becoming the Pirate King and the World's Greatest Swordsman and all that nonsense?!"

Her voice carried the strained patience of someone whose worldview was crumbling in real time.

"How much of an idealist can one person possibly be?!"

"Hehe, what can I say?" Akira smiled with unrepentant cheerfulness. "We're still in the early stages of our adventure!"

He waved off her concerns with casual dismissal. "Anyway, let's tackle the most urgent priority first, securing proper transportation!"

Nami frowned, her practical nature immediately asserting itself. "Don't blame me for not warning you ahead of time..."

Her tone grew serious as she delivered the harsh reality check. "With the amount of money you've got there, you won't be able to afford anything resembling a decent vessel. We're talking basic fishing boat territory at best."

"That's perfectly fine," Akira replied with the confidence of someone who already had a plan. "I just need something temporary with enough deck space for Luffy and the others to move around comfortably."

His mysterious smile suggested hidden knowledge as he continued. "I've already got my eye on a proper ship we can acquire from another island. This current purchase will only be needed for a few days anyway."

"What?!" Nami stopped dead in her tracks, spinning around to stare at him in absolute bewilderment.

"You mean to tell me you're planning to spend several million berries just to have a temporary floating platform for the next few days?!"

She struggled to find words adequate to express her horror at such financial waste. "You... you..."

The accusation of insanity hung unspoken in the air, but her expression conveyed the sentiment perfectly.

However, Akira simply shrugged with infuriating indifference. "Hmm? What's the big deal? It's just a few million berries."

"Just... a few million?" Nami's voice became dangerously quiet as she bit her lip to prevent herself from screaming. "You rich people always talk in such an infuriating way!"

If I could actually beat you in a fight, she thought with murderous intensity, I would have killed you already for that casual attitude toward money!

The memory of her own desperate struggles to accumulate even a single million berries made his careless spending feel like a personal insult to everything she'd endured.

But just as she was lost in fantasies of violence, Akira suddenly stopped walking and turned around to face her.

Nami felt a moment of panic, wondering if he'd somehow developed mind-reading abilities and heard her homicidal thoughts. But instead of accusation, his expression showed genuine concern.

"Nami," he said quietly, his tone growing unusually serious. "You seem to... value money quite a lot."

"...Hmm?" She blinked in confusion at the sudden shift in conversation. "Of course I do! Who in this world doesn't like money?"

"No," Akira shook his head with decisive certainty. "There are plenty of people who like money, but your relationship with it goes way beyond normal appreciation."

His dark eyes studied her face with uncomfortable intensity. "So I have to ask..."

"Is there some kind of trouble in your life that requires a large amount of money to solve?"

"I..." Nami's voice caught in her throat as the question hit far too close to home.

She found herself unable to look away from his gaze, even as the humid sea breeze played with her orange hair, sending golden strands dancing across her face.

For reasons she couldn't explain, when she stared into Akira's deep, dark eyes, she glimpsed something that made her heart race, a flicker of understanding and compassion, as if he could see straight through to the pain she kept carefully hidden from the world.

It was as if he'd somehow looked into her soul and witnessed every moment of suffering, every desperate calculation, every sleepless night spent counting berries while her adoptive mother's life hung in the balance.

People bustled past them on the busy street, completely oblivious to the intense moment unfolding between the young man and woman who stood frozen in their private bubble of conversation.

"So..." After a moment of heavy silence, Akira spoke again, his voice gentle but persistent. "I guessed correctly, didn't I?"

He stepped closer, close enough that she could see the sincerity burning in his expression.

"Although I don't know what you've been through all these years, I need you to understand something important..."

His hand moved to rest reassuringly on her shoulder, the gesture carrying surprising warmth.

"Both Luffy and I genuinely want you as our partner. Not because of your skills, not because of what you can do for us, but because we believe you belong with this crew."

"So if you really are dealing with difficulties, whatever they might be, you can rely on us completely!"

The conviction in his voice was absolute, leaving no room for doubt about his sincerity.

"You've seen what Luffy can do," he continued, his tone growing more confident. "We just walked into a Marine base, defeated their commanding officer, and strolled out without a scratch."

His smile turned slightly predatory, though the warmth never left his eyes. "Do you honestly think there's any problem in this small corner of the East Blue that we couldn't handle?"

"Just... think about it, okay?" He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze before his expression suddenly brightened with renewed energy.

"But don't let heavy thoughts interfere with your work performance! After all..."

His grin became positively mischievous. "I really don't know how to bargain for anything!!!"

Before Nami could process the emotional whiplash, Akira grabbed her arm and pulled her forward through the crowd, leaving her mind spinning with possibilities she'd never dared to consider.

He was intimately familiar with the plot and understood exactly what kind of nightmare Nami was living through under Arlong's oppression. But rather than pretend ignorance and wait for the "right moment" to intervene, he preferred to plant seeds that might encourage her to seek help voluntarily.

After witnessing the overwhelming power Luffy had displayed against Zoro, he was confident that Nami would seriously consider their offer. The question was simply how long her pride and fear would hold out before desperation forced her to trust them.

He suspected that time would be shorter than she expected.

As the old saying went, small sparrows might lack size but possessed all the essential organs.

While Shells Town couldn't boast the scale of major trade centers, its status as a Marine garrison had attracted a modest but comprehensive collection of essential services, including three small shipyards operated by independent craftsmen.

These modest facilities primarily served the local fishing community, constructing basic vessels and occasionally handling maintenance contracts for the naval base. The quality of their work might not rival the master shipwrights of Water 7, but their products were functional and affordable.

After Nami deployed her considerable negotiation skills, Akira successfully purchased a second-hand sailing vessel for three million berries. While the hull showed obvious signs of previous use, it featured adequate deck space and a cabin configuration that could provide each crew member with a small private room.

With their transportation secured, Akira and Nami continued their shopping expedition with military efficiency, systematically acquiring supplies, equipment, and various items that would make their temporary home more livable.

Evening shadows were stretching across Shells Town's harbor when Luffy and Zoro arrived at the waterfront, their faces bright with anticipation and curiosity about their new vessel.

However, the moment they caught sight of their recently purchased boat, both pirates stopped dead in their tracks. The eager excitement in their eyes was instantly replaced by expressions of profound confusion and growing alarm.

Zoro was the first to find his voice, pointing at the bizarre scene before them with obvious bewilderment.

"What... exactly is that supposed to be?"

The small sailboat sat noticeably lower in the water than it should have, weighed down by four massive metallic objects arranged across its modest deck. Two of these imposing iron structures were connected by what appeared to be an enormous steel pipe, creating a contraption that defied easy categorization.

Just from observing how deeply the vessel sat in the harbor, it was clear these additions possessed tremendous weight, far beyond what any normal person would voluntarily load onto a boat intended for ocean travel.

"Ah?" Akira paused as if he'd forgotten about the unusual cargo, then his face lit up with a proud smile.

"Those are the barbells that you and Luffy will be using for your training regimen! I had the metalwork shop owner use every scrap of spare material in his warehouse to construct them on short notice."

His expression grew slightly apologetic as he continued. "Unfortunately, this represents the limit of what we could accomplish with local resources. When we reach Loguetown, we'll see if we can find more advanced materials for upgrades."

"..." Zoro stood in stunned silence for several long moments, his brain struggling to process the implications of what he was seeing.

Finally, he managed to speak, though his voice carried a note of barely controlled panic. "It sounds like... you're not entirely satisfied with the current results?"

He swallowed hard before continuing. "And these... contraptions... are intended for us to use?"

"Obviously!" Akira rolled his eyes with supreme confidence. "Do you think Nami and I would be capable of lifting equipment like that?"

What he received in return was Zoro's increasingly stiff and horrified stare, an expression that seemed to clearly communicate: "Do I look like someone who could lift those monstrosities either?!"

The evening breeze carried the scent of salt and approaching storms, but neither young swordsman seemed to notice as they contemplated the nightmare training regimen that awaited them aboard their new floating prison.