The weather was lovely tonight. A bright moon hung in a sky dusted with only a few stars, and the Little Fish rested quietly on the calm surface of the sea.
Darian and his crew had finally reached the waters surrounding Alabasta. Given their current speed, it would likely take them only another half-day to reach the desert kingdom's coastline.
Since entering the Grand Line, Darian had observed a distinct meteorological pattern: the climate in the immediate vicinity of an island was relatively stable, protected by the island's own magnetic field. However, the open sea situated directly between two islands was where the climates violently clashed, resulting in the Grand Line's notorious, ship-breaking storms.
Because they were moored safely near a coral reef in Alabasta's stable waters, the sea was calm enough that Darian had felt bold enough to sneak down into the guest cabins to hold his private, twisted party.
As they approached her homeland, Princess Vivi couldn't sleep well. The anxiety over the impending civil war kept her tossing and turning. Consequently, she had been wide awake when she heard the heavy, rhythmic thudding begin in the cabin down the hall, making it even harder for her to fall asleep.
The same was true for Robin.
Years of fleeing from the World Government and surviving in the treacherous underworld had made Robin extremely wary of her surroundings. She was an incredibly light sleeper.
Just a few nights ago, Darian had engaged in a passionate tryst with Carmen on the deck. Later, Darian had brazenly carried the naked chef right into the cabin Robin was sleeping in and continued his assault. Robin was already on high alert regarding the Captain's boundless, predatory stamina.
Having managed to protect herself for twenty years by assuming the worst of every man she met, Robin had always been extremely cautious. How could she possibly sleep peacefully on a ship captained by a monster who radiated literal demonic lust?
Nami's Cabin.
Perhaps it was some kind of bad premonition.
Nami was dreaming. She dreamt that Darian was seriously injured in a brutal, bloody battle with Crocodile. Seeing Darian's body pierced by a hook and covered in blood, Nami jolted awake from the nightmare with a sharp gasp.
While Nami was dreaming of him dying, Darian was currently indulging in carnal pleasures with Mikita and Alvida down the hall. He truly was a scumbag.
Nami opened her eyes, her heart pounding against her ribs. She found that the cabin was still dark. She sat up, wiping a sheen of cold sweat from her forehead.
Hearing Nami's sudden movement, Vivi—who had been lying on the adjacent cot with her eyes wide open—was so frightened of being caught awake that she immediately squeezed her eyes shut, pretending to be deep in slumber. Fortunately, Nami, still disoriented from the nightmare, did not notice her stiff posture.
Nami breathed a heavy sigh of relief after glancing at Vivi and Marianne, who both appeared to be fast asleep beside her. It had just been a nightmare. He was fine.
Yet, the sudden nightmare left Nami with a lingering sense of unease. She felt a knot of anxiety tightening in her stomach.
She picked up the brass clock from the bedside table and saw that it was already 1:30 AM. Knowing Darian's habits and his current restless state, Nami knew that he was definitely not asleep. He was likely up on the deck, freezing and frustrated, standing watch.
Wanting to check on him to calm her nerves, Nami quietly slipped out from under her blankets.
Hearing Nami get out of bed, Vivi—who was still pretending to be asleep—wanted to call out to stop her, but she bit her lip and kept her mouth closed. She didn't know how to explain why Nami shouldn't go out there. She couldn't very well say, "Don't go in the hall, I've been eavesdropping on the Captain having a threesome for the past hour!"
Mikita and Alvida's room was separated from Nami's room by a small lounge area and the galley. If you didn't listen carefully, the ambient creaking of the ship's hull usually masked any sounds coming from the other side.
However, when Nami softly opened her door and stepped into the dark lounge, she froze.
She saw faint light leaking from the crack beneath Mikita and Alvida's door. More damningly, she heard the unmistakable, muffled sounds drifting down the corridor: the wet, rhythmic slapping of flesh, breathless, overlapping groans, and the violent, frantic creaking of a sturdy wooden bed frame groaning under immense weight.
Nami was a very intelligent, street-smart girl. Upon hearing those sounds, she naturally understood exactly what was happening.
A cold, heavy stone dropped in her stomach. Even though Nami had been somewhat mentally prepared for this inevitability the day Darian allowed two beautiful, ruthless female pirates to board the ship, the visceral reality that he was actually sleeping with them right now made Nami feel a sudden, sharp, suffocating pain in her chest.
Her strength seemed to drain away instantly. She swayed on her feet, leaning heavily against the bulkhead for support.
But Nami was Nami. She was a survivor. Even knowing that the reality behind that door might be exactly what she feared, she needed to confirm it for herself. She refused to hide in the dark.
Nami staggered down the short hallway toward the room.
At that exact moment, inside the cabin, Darian was completely lost in the haze of his demonic arousal, utterly unaware of the impending disaster.
He was holding Alvida's incredibly long, smooth legs pinned back over his shoulders, driving his hips forward wildly. One of his hands was roughly kneading her soft, heavy breasts.
He had his head turned to the side, deeply kissing Mikita, their tongues frantically entwined. Mikita was hugging his neck tightly, rubbing her own soft breasts against his arm and chest, eagerly trying to bring Darian even greater pleasure.
It was a scene of absolute, uninhibited debauchery.
Nami reached the door. She didn't knock. She gently pushed the unlatched door open a crack.
She saw the man and the two women tangled together on the bed in a highly explicit, lewd embrace. Nami was so shocked by the sheer brazenness of it that she clamped a hand tightly over her own mouth, afraid that she would scream and shatter.
She watched the man who claimed to love her, the man who had promised to give everything for her, vigorously ravaging two other women at the same time. He was completely devoid of his usual, gentle composure; he looked like a wild, starving beast with nothing but carnal desire in his mind, aggressively venting his lust.
At first, Nami was profoundly heartbroken. The betrayal stung deeper than any knife.
But Nami was the "Little Thief Cat"—a girl who had dared to steal treasure from ruthless pirate crews all by herself. Seeing Darian's shameless behavior, and watching the two female pirates eagerly catering to him, Nami's heartbreak instantly flash-boiled into pure, unadulterated fury.
"You absolute bastard!"
With a loud, tear-choked scream, an enraged Nami kicked the door completely open. It slammed against the bulkhead with a deafening BANG. She rushed into the room toward the bed.
Hearing Nami's furious scream, Darian—who had been entirely lost in the physical bliss of the moment—was violently jolted back to reality. The sudden, massive spike of adrenaline and sheer panic caused his body to involuntarily contract.
He thrust hard into the deepest part of Alvida's "garden," and his control shattered. He erupted instantly, flooding her.
Feeling the thick, scalding liquid rush deep into her womb, Alvida's long, white legs clamped instinctively and tightly around Darian's neck. Her hands gripped the soaked sheets. The intense, overwhelming stimulation of his sudden finish made her eyes roll back, and she let out a loud, incoherent groan of ecstasy.
Seeing the woman on the bed reach orgasm around her man right in front of her eyes, Nami, burning with demonic rage, didn't hesitate.
She leaped forward and delivered a vicious, flying kick directly to Darian's exposed buttocks.
The intense, humiliating stimulation left Darian's mind reeling. By the time he pulled his mouth away from Mikita's and turned his head to look at Nami in horror, Nami's bare foot had already connected.
In her absolute, heartbroken rage, Nami's attack wasn't just imbued with her gag-manga Armament Haki; her body was practically ablaze with the aura of a Conqueror. Her flying "Kick of Love" was physically impossible to defend against.
THWACK!
Darian felt a blinding pain in his backside. The sheer kinetic force of the kick sent the three naked people on the bed tumbling over each other, rolling into a tangled, disheveled pile of limbs against the far wall.
Standing over the bed, breathing heavily, Nami looked down at the shocked, disheveled Darian. Tears were streaming down her face, but her eyes burned with furious fire.
"You lying bastard!" Nami roared, her voice cracking. "Since you like these two pirate whores so much, you can just live in this room with them!"
Still somewhat bewildered and reeling from the pain and the sudden climax, Darian watched helplessly as Nami turned on her heel, stormed out of the room, and violently slammed the door shut behind her.
The slam echoed through the entire ship like a cannon shot.
Rudely interrupted and caught red-handed, Darian finally came to his senses. The haze of the Devil Fruit lifted, leaving behind only the cold, crushing reality of his massive mistake.
Ignoring the groans of the two women untangling themselves from the sheets, Darian scrambled to his feet. Completely naked, he ran to the door and threw it open.
He sprinted down the hall. Fortunately, Nami didn't run up to the deck to lower the lifeboat and abandon ship; instead, she had run straight back to her own room, locking the heavy wooden door behind her.
Darian slumped against the bulkhead, breathing a momentary sigh of relief. If Nami had actually boarded the lifeboat and left in the middle of the night, there really would have been no hope of fixing this.
The violent commotion had woken everyone on the ship.
In the adjacent cabin, Robin—who had been lying awake, listening to the entire disaster unfold—curled her lips into a wicked, highly amused smile in the dark. You got exactly what you deserved for bullying me that night, Captain, she thought to herself.
Carmen, who had also been woken up by the screaming and the door slamming, sat up in her bed, looking toward the door with deep confusion and a sinking feeling in her chest.
In Nami's room, Vivi couldn't keep up the act of being asleep any longer. The girl, Marianne, had also woken up, rubbing her eyes in fear. Looking at Nami, who was currently slumped against the locked door, sobbing quietly into her hands, Vivi didn't know what to say to comfort her.
"Nami... Nami, please open the door!"
Outside in the hall, Darian—feeling like a man who had just been sentenced to the gallows—gently knocked on the heavy wood. Having been caught doing such a shameless thing, Darian couldn't find the courage to demand she forgive him immediately. He knew he was entirely in the wrong.
After knocking softly a few times and realizing that Nami had absolutely no intention of opening it, Darian knew that continuing to cause a scene would only embarrass everyone further and make her angrier.
"Nami... I'm so sorry," Darian called out softly through the wood. "We'll... we'll talk about this tomorrow morning. Please, just try to get some sleep."
He turned away from the door, his shoulders slumped in utter defeat.
Back in her room, Alvida, now fully recovering from her post-coital daze, sat up on the ruined bed. Seeing Darian return to the room looking like a kicked, stray dog, she couldn't help but sneer, her massive ego bruised.
"What's wrong, Captain?" Alvida mocked, crossing her arms over her chest. "Did that little navigator girl get too big for her britches? Is this how a powerful Emperor behaves? Cowering before a teenager?"
Alvida was genuinely unhappy. As a proud woman, she believed she was no less beautiful or valuable than Nami. Yet, she could sense clearly in that moment that Darian truly loved and adored the navigator. His terrified, desperate reaction to Nami's anger proved it. His attitude towards Alvida and Mikita was purely physical—like someone playing with toys—which made her feel terrible and resentful.
Looking at the disgruntled Alvida and the somewhat frightened, bewildered Mikita, Darian sighed helplessly, running a hand through his hair.
"I acted impulsively tonight. I'm sorry," Darian said flatly, his voice devoid of its usual arrogant charm. "You two should just get some rest. We'll be arriving in Alabasta tomorrow."
As he spoke, Darian crouched down, picked up his athletic shorts from under the bed, and pulled them on. He offered no further comfort, simply turning and walking out of the room to return to the cold, lonely deck.
Hearing his heavy footsteps retreating up the stairs, Nami, who had been sitting on the floor with a gloomy, tear-stained face, finally breathed a shaky sigh.
Seeing Nami blocking the door, Vivi sat up on her cot and asked in a low, gentle voice, "Nami... are you alright?"
Seeing Vivi and Marianne looking at her with genuine concern, Nami wiped her eyes fiercely. She forced a strained, heartbreaking smile.
"Ahaha... I'm fine. It's nothing," Nami lied, her voice cracking slightly. "I'm sorry to wake you both up. Go back to sleep, Vivi. We're heading to Alabasta tomorrow. We have a Warlord to fight."
Seeing Nami put up such a brave front while clearly breaking inside, Vivi didn't know what to say. She simply nodded sadly and lay back down.
Up on the main deck, a slightly cool sea breeze blew in. The chill air finally cleared Darian's head, washing away the lingering haze of his Devil Fruit's lust.
Sitting alone in the captain's seat, staring out at the dark ocean, Darian clenched his fist. He could feel the increased physical power coursing through his veins from the double "Dual Cultivation" session, but he couldn't feel even an ounce of happiness.
The Outer Path fruit brought him boundless energy and rapid strength, but its demonic influence was almost causing him to lose his mind and his humanity. Indeed, easily gained power comes at a terrible price. The incident tonight reminded Darian brutally that he needed to train hard to improve his willpower, or he would destroy everything he cared about.
Of course, the most important reason for his misery was that Nami had found out in the worst possible way.
Darian knew this confrontation was inevitable. He knew he was a greedy scumbag who wanted to build an empire and a harem, and he had already been unfaithful multiple times. But he hadn't yet figured out how to sit Nami down and gently get her to accept his monstrous nature. He had been a coward, hiding it from her.
Looking up at the indifferent moon in the sky, Darian let out a long, shuddering sigh.
After a grueling, disastrous night, tonight was destined to be a sleepless one for everyone on board the Little Fish.
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