The New World was a sea of endless unpredictable dangers, and Raijin Island stood as a perfect example of that chaotic nature. Under normal circumstances, this terrifying place would be one of the very first islands a pirate crew could reach immediately after ascending from Fish-Man Island. However, because Monkey D. Luffy never bothered to follow a normal sailing route, the Straw Hat Pirates completely bypassed it during their initial entry into the New World. Their captain had suddenly decided to run off and watch a duel between Marine Admirals. After that massive detour, the crew sailed directly toward Dressrosa, and then they rushed all the way to the North Blue to participate in a massive war. Because of all those chaotic events, they completely missed their chance to visit this specific island.
None of them expected that after sailing around the sea for so long, the ocean currents and the wobbling needle of the Log Pose would eventually lead them right back here. The crew figured they might as well treat this place like their very first island adventure in the New World.
Dark, heavy storm clouds completely covered the sky above the island. Thick bolts of blue and purple lightning crashed down from the heavens without a single moment of pause. The continuous booming thunder shook the very air around the Thousand Sunny.
Nami stood on the grassy deck and muttered to herself while staring at the terrifying weather. She wondered what kind of scary place they had just stumbled upon.
The other partners stood beside their navigator and could not help but swallow nervously. They all silently guessed that Luffy could easily survive in a chaotic place like that. After all, their captain was entirely made of rubber, which meant he was completely immune to the deadly lightning strikes. However, Luffy did not seem worried about the weather at all. He just loudly demanded that Sanji pack him a massive pirate bento box for his upcoming adventure.
Feeling completely helpless about their captain's lack of self-preservation, everyone turned to look at Carl for some proper guidance.
Carl simply spread his hands and calmly explained the situation to the rest of the crew. He told them that the island ahead seemed to be called Raijin Island, though he admitted he did not know all the specific details about the place. He clearly stated that if any of them actually wanted to step foot onto that dangerous landmass, they would need to buy a special umbrella first.
Usopp could not help but laugh nervously when he heard that strange advice.
"Mister Carl, it is not raining water over there. It is raining solid lightning! Is a simple umbrella really going to be useful against that? You know what, just forget about it. I just caught a terrible disease that will instantly kill me if I land on that island, so I will just stay on the ship."
Everyone on the deck immediately rolled their eyes at the long-nosed sniper. Even though Usopp had grown significantly stronger over their journey, his cowardly personality remained exactly the same as always. Furthermore, the crew knew it was a foolish mistake to ever doubt Carl's words. The lightning swordsman acted like a living encyclopedia for the crew, and almost everything he told them usually turned out to be completely correct.
Despite their absolute trust in Carl, Usopp's nervous words did make a little bit of logical sense. Massive bolts of destructive lightning were constantly striking the island. Carl casually telling them to buy a simple umbrella to protect themselves felt incredibly unreliable no matter how they thought about it.
Right at that exact moment, several members of the crew sensed something strange approaching them using their Observation Haki. They quickly leaned over the wooden railing and looked down at the dark, choppy water.
They saw a very small, worn-down wooden boat floating aimlessly on the sea. The tiny vessel slowly drifted closer to the massive hull of the Thousand Sunny and the metal exterior of the Heart Pirates submarine. A creepy old lady stood perfectly still on the small boat. She held a glowing lantern in one of her wrinkled hands. Her sudden appearance in such a dangerous and desolate area looked incredibly scary.
A harsh, hoarse voice suddenly echoed across the water.
"Guests, do you want to buy an umbrella?"
The entire crew stood completely taken aback by the sudden offer. They subconsciously turned their heads to look at Carl in pure shock. He actually told the truth about needing an umbrella. Carl just shrugged his shoulders again. He knew from his past knowledge that a mysterious person sold umbrellas near this island, but he did not know anything about what would actually happen to the crew after they bought one. He figured they did not need to worry too much. The strange monk Urouge managed to survive his trip here completely safe and sound. With the overwhelming strength the Straw Hat crew currently possessed, nothing truly dangerous should happen to them.
Tashigi leaned over the railing and politely shouted down to the old lady in the boat. She asked the grandmother if buying one of those umbrellas would guarantee a safe journey onto the island.
Unexpectedly, the old lady did not answer the specific question. She just slowly repeated her exact same sentence.
"Guests, do you want to buy an umbrella?"
She sounded exactly like a soulless tool or a broken recording repeating the same exact line over and over again. The Straw Hat crew exchanged confused looks with one another. They did not understand what was going on, but none of them sensed any malicious intent coming from the old lady. It seemed she really was just a simple merchant trying to sell umbrellas, even though doing business in a deadly lightning storm felt incredibly strange.
Nami stepped forward and asked the old lady how much a single umbrella cost. The navigator spoke softly, but she already made up her mind. If the price turned out to be too expensive, she would absolutely never spend a single coin on it. Even if Luffy desperately wanted to explore the island, she refused to waste their hard-earned treasure. If worse came to worst, she would just let Luffy go to the island entirely by himself since his rubber body was naturally immune to the lightning strikes anyway.
The old lady slowly looked up and immediately gave her answer.
"The price is 10000000 Berry for one umbrella."
Nami's eyes widened in sheer outrage. She loudly accused the old lady of outright robbery. She immediately refused the offer and turned around to shout loud orders to her partners. She declared that they were not going to explore this island and demanded that Franky turn the ship around to head toward the next destination.
Just as everyone expected, the greedy navigator completely refused to pay such an outrageous price.
Luffy immediately threw a massive tantrum. He whined loudly and stretched his rubber neck all the way across the deck to wrap tightly around Nami's waist. His rubbery face displayed a look of absolute reluctance to leave the area.
"Nami, just look at this island! It is completely full of adventure! Now that we are finally here, why can we not land and explore it? Do we not have plenty of money saved up anyway? It is perfectly fine to spend a little bit of our treasure on some umbrellas."
"Luffy, do you not understand how expensive basic supplies like rice, oil, and salt are these days? Excluding you and Mohmoo, we still have exactly 15 people on this crew. If one umbrella costs 10000000 Berry, the total cost for everyone would be 150000000 Berry! We could buy a powerful Devil Fruit with that kind of money. Only an absolute fool would use that much treasure just to buy a few umbrellas! In short, I completely disagree with this idea. If you want to go to the island so badly, you can just go there by yourself!"
Nami maintained a completely firm and non-negotiable attitude. No matter how much Luffy whined or acted cute, her stance on their finances remained unbreakable.
Trafalgar Law and Vinsmoke Reiju stood quietly on the deck of the submarine and watched the chaotic scene unfold. They looked at each other with completely dumbfounded expressions. This was the very first time either of them had ever seen an Emperor of the Sea acting like this. It truly felt like Luffy was being entirely manipulated and bullied by his own crew members. The rubber captain possessed absolutely no terrifying majesty or authority at all. Furthermore, Law noticed that when Nami counted the number of people who needed umbrellas, she clearly did not include any members of the Heart Pirates in her quick calculations.
Even though the Heart Pirates officially served as a subordinate crew to the Straw Hat Pirates, Nami still kept their financial borders incredibly clear. Law thought she truly deserved her reputation as a ruthless miser. Fortunately, Law did not care too much about Nami excluding them. Although they were an affiliated group, the Heart Pirates still operated as an independent crew. It was only natural that they should spend their own money on their own supplies. However, the current funds belonging to the Heart Pirates were somewhat limited. Nami had not given Law a very large share of the massive gold treasure they previously harvested from Skypiea, so he knew he needed to plan his future expenses very carefully.
Meanwhile, Jinbe stood near the helm and stared at the screaming navigator with a blank expression. The honorable Fish-Man was a relatively new addition to the Straw Hat crew, so he did not fully understand the specific social dynamics on the ship just yet. However, he quickly learned an important lesson today. Nami held total control over the financial power of the crew, which gave her the absolute highest authority on the entire ship. When it came to spending money, sometimes even the official orders of their captain were completely useless against her wrath.
However, despite her harsh words and terrifying temper, Nami actually possessed a very soft heart. She always preferred to make Luffy happy whenever she could. Under the constant pressure of Luffy's relentless begging and whining, her firm attitude obviously began to loosen just a little bit.
Nami crossed her arms and showed a deeply pained expression on her face, looking exactly as if someone was physically cutting off a piece of her own flesh.
"Fine. Then we will just buy 5 umbrellas. That means 3 people will have to share one umbrella together."
Luffy immediately smiled brightly and thanked Nami for being so incredibly kind.
However, the rest of the partners on the deck simply rolled their eyes and remained completely speechless. They looked closely at the physical size of the umbrellas resting in the old lady's small boat. Based on the dimensions, one umbrella could really only cover a single person properly. Nami actually expected three grown adults to squeeze tightly together underneath one tiny umbrella just to save some money. Her magical brain circuit operated exactly like a ruthless capitalist exploiting her own workers.
Nami glared at the complaining crew and firmly stated that she would only buy exactly 5 umbrellas and absolutely nothing more. She told them that if anyone wanted an extra umbrella for themselves, they had to spend their own personal allowance to buy it. She stood completely determined not to back down any further on the issue.
The crew could only laugh awkwardly and accept her harsh terms. They all knew that forcing Nami to spend the crew's money was essentially equal to causing her physical pain.
However, five small umbrellas were simply not enough to comfortably cover everyone.
Jango and Mr. 3 stood near the back of the group and suddenly showed very sinister smiles on their faces.
"Hey partners, the two of us just thought of a brilliant solution to this problem. We are actual pirates, right? Can we not just rob this old lady and grab all the umbrellas we need? If you feel bad about it, we can always just return the umbrellas to her when we finally leave the island."
The terrible suggestion actually sounded somewhat reasonable to a group of wanted criminals.
A second later, two loud banging noises echoed across the wooden deck. Nami and Tashigi stepped forward and violently knocked both men to the ground with a single, synchronized punch to the head.
Nami and Tashigi bared their sharp teeth in anger and aggressively growled at the two men on the floor. They loudly scolded Jango and Mr. 3 for being absolute scumbags who wanted to steal essential survival gear from an innocent old lady.
Luffy quickly joined the condemnation team and pointed his finger at his fallen crewmates, loudly agreeing that they were acting like complete scum.
Jango and Mr. 3 laid on the wooden deck and wanted to cry, but no tears came out. They only made that sinister suggestion to help out the crew and save them some money. They felt it was perfectly fine for Nami and Tashigi to ridicule them. After all, they were kind-hearted women who naturally cared more about innocent civilians.
However, they both felt that Luffy joining in to mock them was completely unfair. At the end of the day, the only reason they suggested robbing the old lady was because Luffy was such a financially weak captain who could not even convince his own navigator to spend a little bit of money on him.