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Her feet are moving on their own, Nami not even thinking of what’s doing as she moves. She doesn’t even give Zoro any attention, his eyes following and questioning her every move. She’s afraid that if she meets his eyes, she’ll stop what she’s doing and give in. However, she can’t stop, not after finally finding the lead that she’s been looking for.
After everything she’s sacrificed and done for this story, she refuses to let this lead go.
She comes to a full stop outside of the office door that she’s knocked on for years. Each knock is packed with excitement, some with frustration, others with despair-- she wonders what today’s knock will be packed with. What emotions will be packed behind the knock, what will Jinbe think and hear when she does so, how will she feel after knocking. Though, there’s no time to think or contemplate the theory of emotions behind knocks, not as Zoro continues to stare at her from afar.
She needs to get away from those prying eyes.
Knocking quickly, Nami waits for Jinbe to answer. It’s only a few seconds later that she hears a “Come in!” through the door, the young woman following said invitation.
Closing the door behind her, Nami is met with a familiar sight. Jinbe’s office has always been her favorite place in the entire building. It’s an office space that showcases the older man’s love for journalism and his team. Pictures of him, family, and employees cover the walls. Pictures of his articles, awards that he’s received, and even the occasional articles written by his employees. Somewhere on the wall is Nami’s first ever article written for the company. She still remembers the day he put it on his wall, she had to leave his office so she could go cry in the women’s bathroom. It was sweet, definitely the sweetest thing that a man has ever done for her.
“Nami!” He says, pulling Nami’s attention towards him. Jinbe sits behind his desk, his glasses sitting promptly on his face and a smile that matches the sun outside. Just like his office, Jinbe radiates warmth and comfort.
She aspires to be just like him in the future. Office and position included.
“What a pleasant surprise to see you,” he says. “How are you today? Have you been sleeping, eating-- oh, would you like any coffee? I can brew you some.” He stands to his feet, ready to get up before Nami stops him.
“No, I’m fine, thank you!” She tries to match his smile, though she's sure that it lacks the warmth and comfort like his. “I’m alright and yes, I have been sleeping and eating properly. Thank you for asking.” Leave it to Jinbe to go into Dad Mode when it comes to his employees. “I just… wanted to talk to you, that’s all. Ask you something actually.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Oh?” Sitting back down, Jinbe leans forward. “Well, take a seat and ask away! I’m curious to know what it is.”
Nodding her head, Nami takes a seat in one of the chairs in front of his desk. She has to fight the urge of sinking into the soft cushion, afraid that if she’s too comfortable that she’ll lose all hope and desire to speak to Jinbe. “So, um, I’ve been doing some reading lately. Not like books or anything, don’t have time for any of that--” Or a desire really. “-- Just, you know, articles by different journalists. Mostly the journalists here. For example, I read Cavendish’s piece about the Miss America contest! That was great, though, a little weird to have a man write about an event about women--”
“Uh huh.”
“Oh, and I read Perona’s article about today’s horror movies and how they’re no longer frightening. That instead these movies are just trying to shock people, nothing about it is scary. And I gotta say, she did an amazing job on that article! You should really congratulate her for that.”
“So I should.”
“Right, yeah, you should.” Nami doesn’t know what she’s saying. She’s stalling, that she knows, unsure of how to ask her question. Fidgeting slightly, she continues, “I’ve also been reading some of your articles.”
Jinbe perks up. “Really now?”
“Yes,” she says. “You already know that I’m a big fan of your work, I mean, you’re the reason why I’m working at this specific company. You’re my inspiration.” None of it is a lie, it’s all true. Jinbe is the reason why she’s working at The East Blue and he is her inspiration. Her idol even. Nami never lies when it comes to her idols, especially when the person is Jinbe. Which is probably why it’s so hard for her to say what she wants to say. Afraid to hear what he has to say, of what he has to say about Doflamingo and their connection together. She’s afraid to be crushed by the cruel truth and reality of the man she looks up to. “O-out of the articles that I read, there was one that stood out to me.”
“Is that so? Which one?”
“Oh, uh, it’s one of your old articles.” Taking a deep breath, Nami spits it out. “It’s the interview you did with Donquixote Doflamingo. The one from 2006.”
Almost like a snap of a finger, Jinbe’s entire demeanor changes. His smile is gone, eyebrows knit together, and his lips in a thin line. There are rare occasions when Nami sees Jinbe without his usual smile. Whenever it’s time for team meetings or even company meetings, he tends to sport a serious and focused expression whenever someone is talking. Nami wants to say that the expression that he has right now is similar to this but… it also feels different.
He looks… uncomfortable more than anything else.
“Ah, that article,” he says, taking his glasses off and rubbing the bridge of his nose. “It’s been a while since someone brought it up.” He looks up at Nami. “I’m surprised that you’re bringing it up.”
She awkwardly shrugs. “I was just… looking and reading, that’s all.”
“Yes, looking and reading,” Jinbe repeats. “Nami, while I’m honored and grateful that you’re looking into my old articles, I am curious to know why you decided to read that one. And why bring it up to me.”
“I don’t know, I guess I’m just curious--”
“Curious?” He’s not buying it, she can see it on his face, in his eyes. “What sparked this curiosity?”
Nami feels uncomfortable and nervous. It’s different from when she walked in just a few minutes ago, the confidence that she walked in with left her. Now, she’s a bottle of nerves, unsure of how to ask her boss, her idol, a simple question. Honestly, Jinbe might be able to worm it out of her, his journalism skills starting to kick in during this talk. “It’s just-- I don’t know-- Jinbe-- Ugh!” Nami groans, sliding more and more into her seat, the words that she wants to say on the tip of her tongue, though it's hard for her to say them. “Okay, you got me. I wasn’t reading everyone’s articles, I was looking something up. Well, someone… I was looking up information about Donquixote Doflamingo.”
Jinbe says nothing, he just watches her so Nami takes that as a chance to keep going. “See, I have this… friend who knows him.” Her stomach churns as she refers to Vivi as her “friend”. “More than knows, they’re… close. Really close and it’s my first time learning about this guy. And me being a good friend, I decided to look him up. You know, just to make sure he’s cool.”
“Mhm.”
“Yeah and that’s when I came across your article,” Nami says. “Wanted to hear from you about this Doflamingo guy and know if he’s… cool.”
“I see.” Jinbe is silent and Nami has nothing else to say. She didn’t lie, not necessarily, she just… didn’t tell him everything. Which is fine, she’ll tell Jinbe everything after she writes this article. For now, she just needs to hear it from him. She needs to hear Jinbe talk about Doflamingo, tell her everything he can, or at least give her a hint about something, anything that she could use for this article.
She desperately needs her idol to talk.
Jinbe stands up and Nami almost does the same. He gestures for her to sit down as he walks over to his window. He stares outside and Nami stares at him, watching and waiting for him to do more. “It’s been a little under twenty years since I wrote that article, honestly, it’s been under twenty years since anyone brought it up,” he says. “No one really talks about it, which I understand, no one here really wants to talk about Mr. Donquixote.”
Mr. Donquixote, she thinks. “And why don’t they?”
Through the window reflection, Nami can see Jinbe smile, it’s small and bears no light. “Because it’s not a good idea to speak of Mr. Donquixote so casually. Not unless you have a reason to.” Finally, he gestures for Nami, the young woman taking that as her cue to get up. Slowly, she made her way towards him, stopping next to him, first looking at Jinbe before looking out the window. They’re silent for a few seconds, the two just looking out at the world and the people walking outside. Once again, it’s Jinbe who breaks the silence. “You came here to learn about that man, so, I’ll tell you about him. I was young when I first met him, and still new to the job. Back then, I was a lot like you.”
“You were?”
“Yes,” he says. “I was wide-eyed, ready to write, always looking for the next story to work on-- I could never just sit down and enjoy life! I was always on the move.” Nami frowns, a little annoyed at the resemblance between them. Though, maybe that’s a good thing. It means that in the future, Nami will become just like Jinbe and that’s one of her goals in life. “And there was a story that I really wanted to write. I wanted to interview Donquixote Doflamingo. Back then, he was a fairly new businessman who brought the Donquixote family back up after losing most of their power and fortune as a child. At the time, I wanted to interview the man who was able to make his family great again despite the disaster they faced.
“Whenever I brought the story idea to my supervisor, he would always push it to the side. He would say that it was impossible, that Mr. Donquixote was busy, or that I needed to focus on something else,” Jinbe says. “But I was young and stubborn, I refused to take no as an answer.” Shit, the two of them really are alike… “It took weeks, a month even before it happened. My supervisor calls me into his office one afternoon and told me that I needed to prepare for an interview with Mr. Donquixote. I was thrilled, it was finally happening. After so long, I was going to interview Donquixote Doflamingo.”
He takes a deep breath, his eyes following a bird that sits alone on a cable power. “I immediately prepared the questions I wanted to ask him, questions that I believed to be perfect and would make into an amazing interview. But, for the first time ever, my supervisor asked to see my questions,” Jinbe says. “It was strange. He never did that and it wasn’t like it was my first time interviewing someone but he still wanted to look over my questions. Said that he wanted to make sure everything was ‘okay’. Apparently my questions weren’t ‘okay’ enough for him.”
“He made you change them?”
“Worse than that, he gave me questions to ask Mr. Donquixote.”
Nami has heard of it before, of supervisors who censor and control their employees and what they write. Some journalists get fired from their jobs if they fight against their company’s and continue to write whatever story was on their mind. Former classmates from college had been victims of censorship, some of them still are and have simply grown used to it, no longer as loud and proud as they were when they were in school. Nami and her team are all lucky to have Jinbe as their supervisor.
“I was furious when it happened, so I stormed into his office and demanded an explanation. Though, despite my obvious anger, my supervisor met me with a stoic and unmoving expression. Told me either I use the questions given to me or he’ll give the interview to someone else.”
“I’m guessing you went with the former.”
“That I did,” Jinbe says, nodding. “I couldn’t lose the opportunity, not when I was literally begging for it for weeks. I had to swallow my pride and use the questions given to me.”
Nami isn’t sure if she would’ve done the same. She’s too prideful and stubborn, she would’ve kept fighting until something changes. Or walk out the door with all of her stuff sitting in a small cardboard box. Maybe we’re not too much alike after all, she thinks. Jinbe is a better person than I am.
“After a few phone calls and moving my schedule around, the interview day was upon me. We met here in The East Blue, just a few doors away from my current office. Out of the many interviews that I’ve done over the years, my interview with Mr. Donquixote will forever live with me. As if it only happened a few days ago,” he says. “It left a huge impression on me.”
“In a good way or…?”
Jinbe shrugs. “I’ll leave that for you to decide.” Nami doesn’t like that but doesn’t say anything else. “It was my first time seeing Mr. Donquixote, I’ve only seen pictures of him or him on TV. Seeing him in person… sent shivers down my spine.”
It reminds Nami of how she felt when she first saw Doflamingo. The moment the man looked up at her, everything within her went rigid. Even when he was talking, she could see how everyone would freeze up and avoid looking directly at him. The man’s presence alone frightened everyone who stood in the same room as him.
“The interview was fine, I asked the questions and Mr. Donquixote answered them. There was barely any small talk-- I didn’t want to stray away from the questions, out of fear of my supervisor, and Mr. Donquixote didn’t try to talk any more than necessary. The interview as a whole lasted for exactly twenty-five minutes, that I remember because I looked down at my watch to check the time,” he says. “By the end, Mr. Donquixote asked me if we were done and was getting ready to stand and leave. I should’ve told him ‘yes’ and sent him off but… something kept me from doing so. The question sprung from my mouth before I could stop it. I asked him about his brother, Donquixote Rosinante.”
Donquixote Rosinante, the dead younger brother. She remembers the different articles about the man, just the few that she even cared to open up, and the time Jinbe mentioned the man in his article. “What did you ask him?”
“I asked him if he found his brother’s death suspicious at all. Just like their parents, Rosinante died in a car crash just the year before the interview. I wanted to know Mr. Donquixote feelings about his death.” He’s looking at Nami now, though, it’s more like he’s looking through her than at her. “I almost regretted asking the question, almost told the man to forget it but then he… laughs. He laughs and sits back down. Told me that he did find it suspicious, though, he couldn’t bring himself to look into the matter more. Said that he was still trying to come to terms that he lost his younger brother.”
“Why did he laugh?”
“Even to this day, I’m not exactly sure why he laughed, I never questioned it. You never question a man who laughs when you ask him something like that.” Nami nods, agreeing. “I told him that it was understandable that he has yet to come to terms with Rosinante’s death, that it’s hard to lose someone so important to you. I even added that I’m sure that he and his brother had many aspirations for their company.
“When I said that, Mr. Donquixote looked me in the eyes for the first time as he said, ‘You’re very interested in my brother.’ I admitted that before Rosinante passed, I wanted to interview both of them. He said that he’s sure that his brother would have agreed to an interview. I’m still unsure if Mr. Donquixote would’ve done the same with his brother.” He sighs. “At that time, Mr. Donquixote had to leave, his secretary said that they needed to leave for another meeting. The two of us stood and shook hands. I stood there, watching and waiting for the two to leave the room before Mr. Donquixote paused and looked back at me. What he said to me will forever live and haunt me.”
“What did he say?”
“ It wasn’t easy to get where I am now but I did what I had to do for my family-- like any normal person would do .” Beat. “To this day, I still don’t know what he meant by that, no, I don’t want to know what he meant by that. I just… said nothing as he left.”
It sends a shiver down her spine. It sounds as if he just-- “And your supervisor, he let you include that?”
“Mr. Donquixote said that I could.”
She gulps, growing more and more suspicious and curious of this man known as Donquixote Doflamingo. She needs to know more, learn more, find out more information about this man and his connection with Vivi. The wheels are turning, the ideas are coming, she can see it all right now--
“Nami, I need you to understand and listen to what I’m about to say.” Jinbe snaps Nami back to reality. “The Mr. Donquixote that I met seventeen years ago is different from the Mr. Donquixote of today. Do me a favor and avoid that man. While I don’t know what you’re about to do, though, I have a feeling that I do… your life is more important than any story that you’re planning to write.”
She makes a face. “Do you think I’ll lose my life if I learn more about him?”
“I pray that you don’t.”
It’s quiet and Nami refuses to sit in silence again. Not after what Jinbe says to her. “I gotta go.”
Nami heads for the door, heart pounding and head reeling at the overload of information and feelings. She needs to go somewhere and just think to herself. Away from her coworkers, away from Zoro, even away from Jinbe. As she opens the door, Jinbe calls out to her again. What now, she thinks, turning to look back at the older man.
“As for your friend, I hope that you stay by their side and protect them. Anyone close to that man deserves protection.”
Nami almost laughs. Vivi is the last person who needs to be protected. “How are you so sure that my friend isn’t dangerous like Doflamingo?”
He smiles gently. “Because good and pure individuals gravitate towards you. Your pure heart calls out and welcomes them. That’s why.”
Nami doesn’t say anything else as she walks out, shutting the door behind her.