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Nami was not having a good time.
She was currently locked in some creepy castle with Usopp, who was talking about how not scared he was. (Nami chose to ignore his shaking as he said this.)
Now, don’t get the wrong impression, Nami wasn’t scared by any means, more annoyed than anything. She was just about to earn a boatload of berri! She’d be much richer if not for an old stupid trap. Everything was going great too!
The crew of the Going Merry had stopped at an island to restock food and medical supplies. Nami had overheard some of the townspeople speaking about an old abandoned castle outside of town. Old abandoned castles most likely meant money (castles were where rich people lived after all! Nami definitely wouldn't have minded some new gold jewelry.)
She inquired further and asked the townspeople why no one had gone to see if there was anything in there.
“It’s full of traps! One of my neighbors decided to check it out and never returned…”
Traps huh? Nami chuckled to herself. Traps couldn’t keep her from the prospect of money! She ended up running into Usopp on her walk to the castle. He wasn’t thrilled about the idea of an old, trap-filled castle, but after Nami threatened to raise his debt, he seemed a little less reluctant to go. Ideally, she would have brought Sanji with her, but he was out shopping for food, and she didn’t plan on stopping him, not after Luffy finished off the last of just about everything.
Speaking of Luffy, she definitely didn’t plan on bringing him to any sort of castle. He’d run off on his own looking for some adventure or someone to fight.
And… Zoro? Well if she could even find him, he’d be guaranteed to get lost in a place like this.
The castle wasn’t hard to find, it was a castle, after all. Nami stood at the large front door. It didn’t look that scary, Usopp seemed to feel otherwise, though.
“It seems my Can’t-Go-in-the-Scary-Castle disease is acting up!”
“I’ll half your debt if you come with me.” (Nami definitely wasn’t going to half his debt.)
“Ah, I’m cured!”
Upon entering, nothing seemed off. The front entry was relatively empty. Nami didn’t see anything of value. The duo continued past two large winding staircases into a large ballroom covered in dust and cobwebs. Nami spotted a rather expensive-looking vase on the other side of the room and dragged Usopp over to it.
She picked up the vase and examined the side of it. There were no markings that would pertain to any noble family, nor was there any sort of gold-like weight to it. She returned the vase to its stand and sighed.
“On to the next room, I suppose.” Nami had hoped to make some easy money right off the bat, but of course, when was anything easy? Nami glanced over at Usopp, who seemed to be debating if he should follow her or make a run for it. It seemed his heroic side won over and he hurried after her.
“N- Nami… are you sure this is safe? It’s no problem for the Great Warrior of the Sea, Captain Usopp, of course…”
Nami ignored him and continued through the castle, but it seemed to be empty of anything of value. Was there even treasure here in the first place? Just as she was deciding whether or not to even continue further, something shiny caught her eye. The duo had wandered through most of the large castle, finally having made their way to the bedrooms. The bedroom they were currently in was on the small side compared to the others, and more broken down than the previous rooms.
What looked to be a small side table (though after all this time, it was rotten and breaking down, so it was hard to tell) sat near the corner of the room. In the middle of the broken-down mess, there was a shining silver jewelry box. Nami felt herself smile. Finally, something of value! She moved over to the box to pick it up.
As she lifted it from the wooden scraps, she heard something click on the other side of the room. She barely had time to register the noise before she and Usopp were dropped roughly into a room below them.
Well, that's how they ended up trapped. Now the next step was trying to figure out how to get out. She knew someone from the crew would find them eventually, but Nami wasn’t sure how long that would take. She didn’t feel like waiting in a musty dungeon for any longer than she had to.
Nami sighed to herself and looked down at the jewelry box that she’d managed to hold as she’d fallen. She saw a small lock on the front of it. She’d have to pick that later, but for now, she tossed it to Usopp.
“Store that in your bag. I’m not leaving this place without at least a little money.”
Usopp dropped the box into his bag with shaking hands and walked up to Nami holding a flashlight that he thankfully had the sense to bring. He seemed to gain a bout of confidence on his short walk.
“Not to worry, Nami! The great Captain Usopp will get us out of here!”
Nami sighed once more.
“Well then “Captain Usopp”, what do you propose?”
“Uh… There must be some door in here somewhere, right? No one would build a dungeon without any way to check on their prisoners!”
Nami thought for a moment. Usopp was right, of course, but where would that door be? The walls looked to be made of stone, without any doors in sight.
“Let me look,” said Usopp “I’ve got the eyes of a sniper, after all.”
Usopp approached the wall closest to them and began looking it over. Something seemed to catch his eye and he waved Nami over. Upon closer inspection, Nami could just barely make out a faint outline. Definitely a door.
“Well, not too bad, “Captain Usopp”” Nami said, as she felt over the door for any sort of button.
There didn’t seem to be a button, but the door was old and worn down. With a little help from Usopp, they managed to pull it to the side enough for them to slide through. The doorway led to a large staircase spiraling toward the upper part of the castle. Of course, they weren’t out of this yet.
“Not much we can do but climb.” Said Nami, trying to keep the dismay at the large staircase out of her voice. It didn’t seem to work, because Usopp simply nodded with a look of disappointment on his face.
______
When the duo finally reached the top of the staircase, Nami decided that she never wanted to see any sort of stairs again. Usopp seemed to feel the same way, as he almost immediately collapsed at the top of the stairs. The staircase led to a large platform with a door connected to it. The door wasn’t locked, so Nami got away without having to pick the lock.
Opening it revealed the entryway to the castle. Nami heard Usopp let out a sigh of relief at the sight. The two made their way out of the castle. (Thankfully without any other trap doors opening up.) Nami breathed in the fresh air gratefully. She wasn’t planning on heading back into that castle ever again. At least she escaped with something of value, right? Speaking of which, now that they were out of the castle, she should see what was in her jewelry box.
“Usopp, toss me that box I gave you earlier, will you?”
Usopp complied, and Nami got to work on opening it. Usopp watched over her shoulder with interest. Hopefully, this trip was at least worth something.
Nami smiled to herself when she heard the tell-tale click of the box unlocking. She opened it to find…
Nothing.
The box was empty. It must have been a decoy simply meant to lure someone into a trap. Nami sighed for what felt like the thousandth time today. A trip to a broken down castle, and no money to even show for it.
Well, at least the box was pretty.