—Broadcast—
The gambling had concluded with Nami holding approximately half of Sakura Island's portable assets, and none of the people she had taken them from appeared to bear genuine grudges. This was the arrangement. The Straw Hats understood implicitly that Nami being allowed to win extravagantly was a form of collective celebration — they were giving her the game because they were glad she was back and glad Chopper was back and this was how the crew expressed relief.
Luffy's hat had never been worn by any crew member besides Nami. That was a matter of record. Zoro had accumulated enough personal debt to the navigator over the years that losing his swords was less a defeat than a settling of accounts, principal plus interest, and he had handled it with the dignified silence of someone who understood the calculation even if he didn't like it. Robin had been eyeing the lace sunglasses for months and saw no reason to pretend otherwise. The only people who had not played were Usopp and Kaya, who had assessed Nami's dice abilities independently and arrived at the same conclusion.
Tsunade was a different matter.
The strange doctor, who had spent years treating illnesses without accumulating savings — most of her income went back into the island, the rest disappeared at casino tables — was the kind of gambler who believed that the next roll would correct everything the previous rolls had done. She was wrong about this every time and it did not update her belief. The casinos that knew her had long since stopped trying to collect debts from her, having learned the hard way that this was a debt-collection strategy that ended with someone in the sea. They simply welcomed her to return and lose more.
Nami recognized this type on sight. She had exploited it without mercy.
"I can lend you money if you want to keep going," Nami said, watching Tsunade with the benevolent expression of a person who wants very much for a outcome to occur. "As long as you have something I consider valuable as collateral."
"Lend me some," Tsunade said immediately, and patted herself in the way of someone confirming available inventory. "I'll get it all back."
"Master —" Kaya began.
It was Usopp who intervened, stepping in with the timing of a man who had been watching his future wife manage a disaster for the last hour and had decided to be useful. "Sanji's almost done with the food. Is there any wine on the island? Bring out whatever you've been keeping. We'll count it against the debt."
Tsunade looked at him with immediate suspicion. "Did Kaya tell you about the wine?"
"He guessed," Kaya said, quickly.
Usopp had not guessed. He had heard, via Observation Haki that had quietly developed to cover several kilometers of range over years of practice, a conversation in which Kaya described her master falling down drunk and requiring a change of clothes. The wine had been implied. He was not going to explain any of this.
Nami made a face at Usopp that communicated her precise opinion of his intervention. Usopp received this with the calm of a man who had decided in advance which side of this he was on.
Tsunade grabbed both of them and dragged them toward the wine cellar with the decisive energy of someone who has found a reason to open the good wine and is using it before she changes her mind. Forty years of brewing, sealed in the dark. The Straw Hats would be the first to try it. There were worse reasons to open the treasure.
From the direction of the kitchen, Sanji's voice cut across the noise: "Food is ready. Someone come help me — there's too much for one person to carry."
He was wearing the apron Kaya had lent him, which was not designed for his dimensions but which he had accepted without complaint because it was Kaya's and the least he could do was wear it. He had been cooking since the morning. The smell coming out of the kitchen had been doing things to the crew's attention for the past hour.
Zoro, Luffy, Chopper, Marlin, and Brook moved toward the kitchen in a body. The fact that three of them were primarily motivated by immediate consumption rather than assistance was a dynamic Sanji had navigated before.
Luffy began eating before the first dish reached the table. This was not a surprise to anyone.
The presentation was something, though — Sanji had cooked for celebration before, but the sheer quantity of high-grade seafood Marlin had brought back from the sea gave him material he didn't usually have. Each dish looked like it had been arranged for a portrait rather than consumption. The crew ate it before anyone could verify that impression.
When Tsunade came back from the wine cellar with three large jars in her arms, flanked by Usopp and Kaya carrying two more between them, the seal-breaking became an event.
She pried the first lid open in the middle of the courtyard where everyone could see it, and the smell reached the table before the jar did. Cherry blossom wine, forty years old — not the sharp alcoholic punch of the rum the crew usually drank, but something that moved through the air gently, warm and floral and deep, the smell of something that had been patient for a very long time.
Even people who did not drink wine stopped what they were doing.
Nami raised her wooden cup. She was still wearing the straw hat. She had not given it back yet and did not appear to be in a rush.
"We're here for a better tomorrow," she said. "The adventure of the Straw Hat Pirates continues. Drink to the next stage."
It was not a long speech. It was the correct speech.
Glasses up.
The cherry blossom wine was not what any of them expected. Light — the taste of it was light, almost like something that was not wine at all, with a sweetness underneath that didn't announce itself until the aftertaste. Then the aftertaste arrived and everyone understood why Tsunade had been brewing this for forty years.
"I would marry this," Zoro said, with complete seriousness.
Tsunade received the compliment with the satisfaction of an expert who has had her expertise recognized by the appropriate people.
The rum they had been drinking at sea, by comparison, was reviewed quietly and unfavorably by everyone present. The difference was significant enough that nobody felt the need to use diplomatic language.
What followed was what follows when a crew that has been carrying accumulated weight for months finally finds a reason to put it down all at once: competitive drinking, loud singing, the volume of people who have been worried about things and are now not worried about them. Zoro and Luffy attempted a song. Brook produced a version of the same song that was significantly better. Chopper ate steadily through all of this with the focus of someone making up for months.
Kaya had intended to mention the alcohol content of the cherry blossom wine before the third round. She had not expected the third round to arrive so quickly. By the time she organized the thought into words, Nami had already taken her hand, poured her a cup, and given her the look of someone who will not accept a practical objection at this particular moment.
Kaya drank it.
The night continued.
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