**Chapter 10: Trial by Fire**
The small cutter sliced through the calm waters, leaving Shells Town—and a transformed Coby—in its wake. The mood on deck, however, was not one of unified celebration.
"My Berries! That was *my* treasure!" Nami wailed, clutching her chest as if physically wounded. She pointed a trembling finger at the now-distant town. "I worked so hard for that! I dodged, I stole, I lied! And you just… you just gave it all away!" Her grief was genuine, a deep-seated panic at seeing her hard-won financial security vanish in a act of grand philanthropy.
She lunged at Luffy, her fingers hooked into claws, looking every bit like an enraged caracal. "Give it back, you rubber-headed idiot!"
Luffy didn't even turn his head. With a subtle shift of his weight, a technique so refined it was barely perceptible—**Instant Step**—he was simply three feet to the left. Nami stumbled past him, grabbing at empty air.
"That treasure never belonged to you, Nami," Luffy said, his voice calm but leaving no room for argument. "It belonged to the people Morgan stole it from. We were just returning it." He finally looked at her, his gaze steady. "And stop worrying about money. I told you, I'll take you to a place that makes that look like pocket change. A true 'Golden Country'."
"Hah! As if! And stop dodging!" Nami shrieked, frustration boiling over. She lunged again.
This time, Luffy's hand shot out, not to strike her, but to plant itself firmly on top of her head. Despite her flailing, he held her at arm's length with infuriating ease, her arms windmilling uselessly.
"Now that you've officially joined this crew," Luffy stated, his tone shifting from captain to drill instructor, "you can't afford to be dead weight. I don't carry mascots. A navigator is vital, but a navigator who can't defend herself is a liability."
He released her, and in his other hand, a small, weathered, leather-bound book appeared as if from nowhere. He tossed it to her. She fumbled and caught it. The cover was blank, but the pages within were filled with dense, precise script and complex diagrams.
"This is a copy of Gol D. Roger's personal training notes on Haki," Luffy explained, as casually as if he'd handed her a grocery list.
Nami's jaw dropped. "The… the Pirate King?!"
"To start, I'll teach you the basics of two techniques: the **Instant Step** you just saw, and the **Collapsing Fist**—a strike that bypasses armor to damage the internals. But theoretical knowledge is useless without practice."
He reached out and placed a hand on her head again, this time gently. *System,* he commanded internally. *Allocate 500 Alteration Points. Increase Nami's training speed for Observation and Armament Haki by 50x for one year.*
*Ding. Directive confirmed. -500 Transformation Points. Nami's two-color Haki training acceleration active. Significant alteration of character trajectory detected. Reward: +500 Transformation Points. Current total: 2000.*
Luffy's eyebrow quirked in surprise. The system was rewarding him for investing in his crew's growth. Efficient.
To Nami, the world suddenly snapped into hyperfocus. Her mind, always sharp, felt like a polished lens. Her senses heightened; she could feel the grain of the wood under her feet, hear the individual lapping of waves against the hull, see the minute shift in the clouds above. A vast, unfamiliar energy seemed to hum just beneath her skin.
"W-What was that?" she stammered, feeling both terrified and incredibly alive.
"A training aid," Luffy said with a small smile. "Now, the theory is uploaded. Time for the practical."
"P-practical? How do we practice?" Nami asked, a cold sweat breaking out on her brow. A dreadful premonition filled her.
Luffy's answer was a fist flying toward her face.
It wasn't a technique. It wasn't enhanced by Haki or his Devil Fruit. It was just a simple, straightforward punch. But to Nami's newly awakened instincts, it screamed *DANGER*. A massive, flashing neon sign of peril lit up in her mind.
"Are you insane?!" she shrieked, throwing herself sideways. The punch whistled past her ear. "On this tiny deck?! There's nowhere to go!"
Luffy didn't answer. He just threw another punch. And another. Nami scrambled, dodged, and weaved like a cornered animal. Even so, a glancing blow caught her shoulder, sending a jolt of pain through her. Another grazed her cheek, and she knew a bruise was already forming.
"Stop! Stop hitting me! I want a different teacher!" she cried, finally dropping into a crouch and covering her head.
"Then I'll cut you," Zoro said, utterly deadpan. "I'll swing, you dodge. Same principle."
Nami's head snapped up. "You're both insane! Fine! Luffy, you… you continue!" Facing fists seemed marginally better than facing live steel.
Just as Luffy wound up for another punch, a lookout's cry came from the crow's nest of a ship emerging on the horizon. A large, garishly painted pirate galley, its sails adorned with a grinning clown's face.
Luffy lowered his fist, his attention captured. "Well, look at that. A live training dummy has arrived." He squinted. "Bounty of 15 million Berries. The 'Great Pirate Clown,' Buggy. Also known as 'Thousand-Sword Showman.' A former apprentice on the Oro Jackson, alongside Shanks."
Nami paled. "The immortal Buggy?!"
Zoro uncrossed his arms, a predatory glint in his eye. "Over 10 million? Good. I hope he puts up more of a fight than those Marines."
"Are you both listening to yourselves?!" Nami yelled, her voice cracking. "Fifteen million! They say you can't kill him! He'll chop us to pieces!"
"There's no such thing as true immortality," Zoro scoffed. "He's just another Devil Fruit user. Probably the Chop-Chop Fruit, if the rumors are right."
"Like you?" Nami asked, turning to Luffy.
"I ate a Devil Fruit," Luffy confirmed, his eyes still on the approaching ship.
Nami felt a wave of despair. *I've joined a crew of suicidal maniacs.*
As Luffy and Zoro quickly explained the mechanics of Devil Fruits and Haki, a plan solidified in Luffy's mind. "We're not sinking this one," he declared. "Nami, you're going aboard."
"ABOARD?!" she shrieked.
Before she could protest further, Luffy's arm wrapped around her waist, and Zoro grabbed her other arm. In a blur of motion—a combination of **Soru** and **Geppo**—they crossed the gap between the ships and landed silently on the deck of the *Big Top*.
Luffy didn't hesitate. He released a precisely controlled pulse of Conqueror's Haki. It wasn't a wide-area blast; it was a targeted wave that swept the deck clean of every minor pirate. They dropped like puppets with their strings cut, leaving only a few key officers standing, stunned.
"WHO DARES?!" a voice roared from the captain's cabin. "Who attacks the ship of the great Captain Buggy?!"
The door burst open to reveal the man himself, his iconic blue hair and red nose a familiar sight even to Nami. Luffy's smile was unnervingly placid.
"This is Captain Buggy," he said, almost to himself.
"Red Nose?" Nami blurted out in shocked recognition.
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Buggy screamed, his face turning purple with rage. A knife materialized in his hand and flew toward Nami's face.
Luffy didn't move. Nami, her new instincts screaming, jerked her head aside, the blade grazing her hair. Her heart hammered against her ribs.
Luffy's smile widened, a sight that made Nami's blood run cold. "Nami, this is your exam. This ship is your arena. Don't worry, we'll step in if you're about to die. But you need to push him to his limit yourself." With that, he and Zoro stepped back, leaning against the railings as if watching a play.
"NO! I DON'T WANT TO!" Nami cried, pure terror taking hold.
But Buggy was already upon her, his pride wounded. "You think you can mock me?! Die!"
Nami was forced into motion, her body moving on pure adrenaline and the faint, new hum of **Observation Haki**. She ducked and weaved, Buggy's knives missing her by inches.
"Are you just going to run?!" Buggy bellowed, furious at being made a fool of. "**Chop-Chop: Festival!**"
Before Nami's horrified eyes, Buggy's body disassembled into a dozen flying parts, each armed with a knife, attacking her from all directions.
She screamed, but her legs were already moving, the basic footwork of **Instant Step** carrying her in a frantic, zig-zagging pattern across the deck. She was a blur of motion, barely staying ahead of the swirling storm of blades.
Zoro, meanwhile, had already **Shaved** into position behind Buggy's chief officers—Mohaji the Lion Tamer and Cabaji the Acrobatic Fighter—his swords resting against their throats before they could even blink. "Don't move," he growled. "The show's just starting."
"Try to observe, Nami!" Luffy called out, his voice calm amidst the chaos. "Listen! To his movements, to the air! His fruit must have a weakness! A center of gravity!"
Nami was sobbing now, tears streaming down her face as she ran for her life. "I'm going to die! Luffy! Zoro! Help me!"
"If you have breath to scream, you have breath to think!" Luffy shouted back, his tone hardening. "If you can't beat an enemy of this level, you'll always be a victim waiting for a savior! I've given you the tools! Now *save yourself*!"
The words struck her harder than any punch. *Always be a victim.* The image of Arlong Park flashed in her mind. Of Bellemere. Of her own powerlessness. A strange, cold fury began to mix with her terror.
"NO!" she screamed, not in fear, but in defiance. "I WON'T! I WILL WIN!"
Her mind, sharpened by the system's boost and forged in panic, suddenly stilled. The world slowed down. She could *see* the paths of the flying limbs, predict their trajectories. She saw Buggy's main torso, laughing maniacally, and his boots, planted firmly on the deck.
It was a gamble. A desperate, insane gamble.
With a final, tear-choked cry, she stopped running away and instead charged *forward*, straight toward Buggy's booted feet. She ignored a slash that cut her arm, a fist that grazed her cheek. She focused on one target.
"What is that crazy woman doing?!" Buggy yelled, confused.
Nami didn't answer. She put every ounce of her strength, every bit of her fear and rage, into a single, vicious kick aimed directly between the clown's legs.
There was a sickening *thud*.
The effect was instantaneous. The flying limbs froze in mid-air. The laughter choked off. Buggy's eyes bulged, a universe of pain and shock blooming on his face. His assembled body crumpled. The **Chop-Chop Fruit's** power released as his consciousness fled. He hit the deck with a final, pathetic wheeze and did not move.
Silence.
Nami stood there, chest heaving, blood trickling from a cut on her arm, her whole body trembling. She was crying, but they were no longer tears of fear. They were tears of shock, of relief, of overwhelming, staggering victory.
And in the wake of that silence, a new sense bloomed within her—a sixth sense that painted the world in clearer, sharper detail. She could feel the stunned awe of Buggy's officers, the approving pride from Zoro, the calm satisfaction from Luffy.
She had done it.
**Observation Haki: Awakened.**