Review: Behind the Veil by E.J. Dawson

 

I am going to make my Netgally reads a major priority this year and this book was the oldest download on my to read shelf. I really really enjoyed it and it makes me want to get back into watching Ghost Adventures. 

It is set after WW1 and we follow a woman who is living in Los Angeles and she has moved from Britain because she got chased out because of her work. She is a medium and she is legit. She has rules and routines for herself to keep her self grounded. She will refuse murder cases and she is all about giving closure to clients. She refuses to tell them how their loved ones have died because that will require her to go into the death and she could feel everything and she may get too far in that she may die in the same way.

One day a man named Mr. Driscoll comes to her door and begs her to come help his niece because she is having terrible nightmares and screaming about a man or dark shadow doing things to her. Mr Driscoll offers her money and she is refusing because he has seen Letitia without her veil and that is her comfort, along with her gloves. He touches her and she immediately see a dark shadow standing behind him and it takes her back to what made her go insane and have to be sent to an asylum.

The reason she left Britain is because she lost her husband in the war and she was pregnant. She went to a seance hosted by a woman who did not know what she was doing. She welcomed something evil into the circle through the ghost of Letitia's husband, and the evil spirit killed Letitia's baby and possessed her to kill the seance witch host.

There is another plot where some people are coming to Letitia to help find their missing daughters. She sees that they are being held in a dark place but she is adament that she cannot tell them where they are located or if they are still alive. One man gets so pissed, he goes to the police and tells them that Letitia is involved in the missing girls. It gets her in deeper when one of the girls that gets kidnapped is Mr. Driscoll's niece, and that the evil spirit who has been tormenting her, is the culprit.

I gave this a 4 star. I wanted to give it a 5 star because I was hooked and spooked, but then the ending was romance and not what I wanted. 

Review: Legend of Zelda: Four Swords by Akira Himekawa

 

I am finally continuing my read of the Legend of Zelda manga, much to my kids delight. This book has been on my desk the past two months since I read the last one. This book starts off with a group of bandits robbing one of the Hyrule towns. Link shows up and does a 4 Link body double thing and takes out the bandits. The King's Guard shows up too late and Link is so arrogant like he is big and bad. We learn that the captain is Link's father and he goes to Princess Zelda to see if she can talks sense into Link and get him to start obeying his father's orders.

I am confused by how the 4 Link thing happened, but my kid who is a Zelda nerd, told me to read this one next because it will make sense chronologically.

Princess Zelda tells Link of a dream she had of the Vaati returning and then we are told of the hero who slayed the darkness, was split into four versions of himself when he drew his sword. The handmaidens and Princess Zelda start praying for the seal and the four sword and then the handmaidens start disappearing. Princess Zelda then gets snatched and Link goes after her to try to rescue her. He ends up at the Four Sword Sanctuary and sees Vaati. Link takes the four sword which frees the demon and splits Link into four versions of himself.

They have to work together to defeat the shadow Link. Shadow Link releases his monster which destroys everything in Hyrule. Shadow Link sneaks in to the castle and turns everyone including Link's father into his minions to do his fighting. The four Links are already getting on my nerves with the nicknames and squabbling. Link learns that the Dark Link is his living shadow in the dark realm. Link is trying to fight Shadow Link and the blue maiden summons Link and sends light towards Dark Link. She tells them to head east because she can feel another maiden in the East Temple.

The four Links show up in a town where they see a crowd of adults very angry and demanding answers to know where there children are. The people see the Links and get angry because they say he is the one that stole the children. The Links also meet a little girl Erune and the people are angry at her too because she is still there. Link has a crush on Erune and that night, she is wanting to give away her doll and blue Link tells her that she should keep it. The doll starts talking to her and telling her that it it knows a place where they can play. 

They notice that she is gone and left her shadow behind. The also see the rock with the eye and they stare at it and then they are transported to the dark world. The find that all the missing children have been turned into toys. The Links start fighting the rock eyes and Green Link finds that the sword will power up by hitting monsters.

The Links defeat the stone Arrghus and make it to the Eastern Temple where they find the yellow maiden. She gifts them a moon pearl that will open a portal to the dark world and aid them in battle. The Links then get in a boat and head towards Death Mountain. They are heading the wrong way and go over a waterfall. Green Link wakes up alone with the other three Links gone. Link walks into a village where an evil freezing wind has started to kill the crops and animals.

Link goes into the cave where the wind is coming from and falls into another world. He runs into a boy boeing chased by people who are blaming him for setting their village in fire. The boy then gives Link his weapon because Link has lost the four sword. He runs into a forest where he sees three little turnip orb things that work for Lord Ganon. 

Link wakes up from his massage and he runs into the sand storm. The elder is not against his travels to the pyramid, saying that the pyramid lets those enter who are worthy. Link enters the pyramid and see the bones of other travelers. He hits a monster with the four sword and the energy is sucked out. A see through knight then shows up and battles Link. Link runs towards a light and realizes it is moonlight. He takes the pearl and opens the portal and it makes the Knight whole. Link can then hit him and he smashes the armor. Turns out it is a knight from Hyrule who was taken over by Vaati. 

Link learns that Valensuela wasn't taken by Vaati and that he is trapped by a bigger evil than Vaati. Red Link finds Blue Link frozen and uses the heat tool to unfreeze him with the help of a fairy that was sent by the Blue and Yellow maiden. Red and Blue Link go into the Temple of Darkness and it is Vio who lures them in because he has been taken to the dark side. 

A dark monster is trying to feed off the fear of Red and Blue Link, but they are to busy arguing with each other that the monster has to yell to get their attention. They light lanterns with the help of the fairy to stun the monster because he hates light. The four sword starts pulsing with energy and that lets Vio know the others are safe.

Green Link moves a boulder because someone is trapped underneath. A little fairy wannabe shoots out and tells Link that he is on the search for force gems. He then runs away after a Hinox shows up and goes after Link. Link defeats it and Red, Blue and Green find Vio sitting on a throne and ruling Death Mountain and now working for Vaati and Shadow Link. Green starts fighting Vio around the Lake of Lava. Turns out that Vio fakes killing Green to earn Shadow Link's trust. 

Vio and Shadow are toasting in the fire temple with the hinoxes. Shadow then tells Vio is plan to turn on Vaati and seal him back in, but when he does that, he can't defeat Ganon because Ganon is the one who let Shadow out of the dark mirror. Shadow tells Vio that the only way to defeat Ganon is to get Princess Zelda to imbue her powers into the mirror. 

There is commotion and Shadow goes to the mirror and learns that Green is still alive and that Vio is a traitor. All four Links are back together and with their four swords, they blast Shadow Link. They think they have won, but Vio tells them about the dark mirror. Link's father is awoken and we don't know by whom. 

The four Links are happy to be together again and they have realized that they work better together than separate. They go back to the Four Sword Sanctuary and are met by the six shrine maidens. They tell the Links that they have to go to the Towers of Winds and rescue Princess Zelda. We see Princess Zelda and Link's father together. She tells him that Link is dead and that the darkness is taken over Hyrule. She tells him that the enemy is disguised as Link and there are 4 of them. Link's father realizes too late that this Princess Zelda is an imposter. Link's father is posessed exactly like Valensuela.

The four Links get to the top and try to open the doors. They go to use the jewels and they realize they need more. Link's father shows up and battles Link. Blue Link uses the force energy to take out their father and he gets blasted. Princess Zelda turns into Vaati and the rest of the knights of Hyrule have been released from the spell. They give the Four Links their jewels to help defeat Vaati. 

Shadow Link gets pushed through the mirror by Lord Ganon into the room where Princess Zelda is. She starts to feel sorry for him and he is angry and not wanting her pity. She tells Shadow Link that he is part of the light because he is a part of the real Link. The dark cloud grabs Princess Zelda and takes her because she is the last pure light that can shatter the darkness. 

Shadow Link impersonates Vio and tells Green how to defeat Vaati. They defeat him and the real Vio shows up. Shadow Link goes to the dark mirror and shatters it. Shadow links dissolves because he has destroyed himself along with Vaati. Link says that Shadow Link wasn't evil, he just caused trouble because he was tired of being ignored. 

Lord Ganon makes his appearance and he is pissed that he has to kill the four Links himself and that Vaati and Shadow Link were weaklings. Pincess Zelda and the four Links combine their energies and try to trap Ganon's dark energy in the swords. They put the Four Sword back in the sanctuary and have sealed Ganon away. Link goes back into one. Hyrule is back to peace. 

Review: Stranger Things: One Way or Another by Cailin Schneiderhan

 

Another Stranger Things book read and I was hoping that it would give me what I wanted and was looking for in season 5. This is set right after season 4 where everyone is trying to move on from the rifts and earthquake. The military has moved in and Nancy, Robin and Jonathan graduate. The thing that pissed me off and made me angry was that they wore green robes at graduation. The stranger things finale had the boys class graduate in ORANGE!!!!!, which just makes me hate the finale of the show even more. 

This book is basically following Nancy because it is Nancy Wheeler mystery and she is so consumed with trying to find Vecna on her own. She thinks every flickering light and every time someone acts weird and paranoid, she thinks it is Vecna. There is no upside down trips or appearances made by Will or Eleven or Lucas or Dustin. Mike makes a brief appearance at the end. 

This is very fanfiction but the author wrote the Eddie book and in the author bio, it said that she worked on the show. In this book, there was no mention of her working on the show. She did give thanks to the Duffer brothers, which made me gag a little because they just shot the show in the preverbial foot and made it crap.

Nancy spends the whole book trying to figure out why Joey was killed. At first, she thinks he is being visited by Vecna because he is jumpy and freaked out. He calls Robin to meet him because he wants to talk, when they get to where he wants to mee, they find him shot dead. They also find a piece of paper next to hime with a list of numbers.

While reading this, I had to really focus and suspend my disbelief and sometimes, most of the "connections" were seemed a bit stretched. Like this thing happened, but we are going to link it to this that seems so unreal, but it is Hawkins and crazy shit is bound to happen. 

I am just once again disappointed with this stranger things material. I do have one more book that I am going to read, but I am patiently waiting for my library to get it. It is the book based on Dustin and it should have Eddie in it. 

Review: Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Baldree

 

This was one of my most anticipated books of last year and I am not a fan. It took me over a week to read because it was just so boring. I loved Fern in Bookshops and Bonedust and was looking forward to her being with Viv again. That is not the case. She has left her bookstore in Murk because she is feeling lost. She talks to Viv and decides to open a bookstore in Thune. Viv and Cal and Tandri help secure a location and also get the place up and running. 

It is not mentioned how long the store was open, maybe a day before Fern got piss drunk because she was still unhappy. She decides to talk to Viv about it, but ends up chickening out and crawling into the back of a random wagon and passing out. She wakes up face to face with a goblin who is prisoner. She crawled into the wagon belonging to the legendary oathmaiden, Astryx One Ear. She is a legendary elf who has fought countless battles and has numerous books about her. 

Astryx is taking the goblin who is named Zyll in to collect the biggest bounty ever. The problem is that Astryx, who is over a thousand years old cannot understand the goblin language. Fern can and she then gets to stay with the two of them and try to find a way to get back to Thune. 

It is a long boring adventure with some battle and action scenes, but they are few and far between. I found myself skimming the overly description scenes of the landscapes and the woods and the clothing. I could care less. I did really love Astryx elder blade Nigel and the breadknife that Zyll pulls out of her pocket. He is also an elder blade that unfortunately got turned into a breadknife by the forger because of beef between them. I found every scene with these two blades hilarious and it is what kept me reading.

I think that there is no more to this world that can be written about and if there is another book, then I would have to be a big fan of the characters or it just be about Viv once again. 

Review: Rampage by Harold Schechter

 

This is the first story in this collection that got a four star. It kept my attention, but it did take me almost a week to read because of the subject matter and life. The subject matter is mass shooting. This is one of my biggest fears and one of the reasons why I decided to homeschool my children. There is even a mention in this about Columbine, West Virginia Tech, and Sandy Hook. The Sandy Hook shooting was the nail in the coffin on my decision because my oldest was the same age and one of the little kids, had the same last name as my children. The author even mentions that the people who suffered this and had to live through this would never know that this type of thing would become "the norm" in America today.

Howard Unruh is known as The Father of Modern Mass Murder. He is the subject of this story. He was a veteran of WW2 and he was fascniated with killing Nazi's. He was also described as shy, kept to himself, and read his bible. He was a gay man who if his secret came out, he would have been arrested. He starts getting paranoid and angry at his neighbors and start to think everyone is out to get him. 

He goes on a shooting spree throughout his town and killing business people and anyone who gets in his way, children included. When the police surround his home, he surrenders. When he is being interrogated, he admits that he shot everyone and he showed no remorse. He gets evaluated by 4-5 psychiatrists who all say that he is insane and can't stand trial. He then gets put into maximum secuirty for the criminally insane and lives the rest of his life in a mental institution. The victims do not get the justice they deserve and it pisses me off that people who get called insane, don't see the death penalty at all.

I am all for capital punishment. 

Review: Panic by Harold Schechter

 

First read of 2026 and I am continuing in the Bloodlands collection. Although these are true crime non fiction stories, this one was the most disturbing in my opinion. I have three daughters, and this was about sex offenders and rapes and murders of little girls in New York and Los Angeles.

These all took place around the start of World War 2 and prohibition. The first case is about a little girl who was found in a burlap sack. She was raped and murder by an Italian barber who had been arrested before for being weird and touching little girls. When he was suspected at first, he immediately confessed. The little girl was part of the American Nazi Bund and her troop mates sis the Nazi slaute at her funeral. 

The newspapers caused mass frenzy with sex crave killers. It was the type of news that takes everyones mind off what else is happening in the world. Another case was in Los Angeles where a degenerate lured three little girls into a ravine and rape all three of them and strangled them. He was at first denying and when the search parties were looking for the little girls, he took part to throw off suspension.

Reading that hit close to home, because in 2020, there was a little girl that went missing. She was found days later in the woods and the guy that took her was her neighbor and he helped look for her. My best friend was a 911 operator and she is the one that got the call about the girl being missing.

The last case that was mentioned in the book was about a little girl who lived in a tenement. Her mom sent her to play and to come back for lunch. She was found in the cellar and the way the author mentions that the killer forced his way while raping her was just the final nail in the coffin. I was very traumatized.

I ended up giving this a 3 star because it made me feel disgust and it made me terrified for my kids. 

Review: One Piece omnibus volume 7-8-9 by Eiichiro Oda * SPOILERS*

 

My 101st book of the year. I was cutting it pretty close again this year. I am obsessed with the title of volume 7... the crap gezer. It starts off with the Baratie cooks fighting Don Krieg's men. We meet Krieg's second in command, Invincible Pearl and his specialty move is called the Pearl Surprise. I find it realy funny that the see cooks have names like Patty and Carne. Reminds me of the cow villagers on Animal Crossing.

Sanji is fighting with his feet because he doesn't want to damage his hands. He also gave Patty his knife back and to hold on to it tightly while he died. Sanji is a hoot. I just got the ick from Invicible Pearl. He is monologuing and saying that he is the Iron Shield of Kriegs crew and that he has never spilled any of his blood, and oh that he is handsome too. YUCK!

Luffy shows up and Sanji gets a kick in on Pearl. His nose starts to bleed and he freaks the fuck out. He thinks he is back in the jungle where he grew up and he makes flames to keep the animals at bay. This guy is nuts. Sanji jumps the wall of fire while everyone else is panicking because they are afraid that the Baratie will burn down. Sanji basically says you cant be a cook if you are afraid of fire. 

Chef Zeff puts the fire out with his peg leg. Krieg sends a fire ball towards Sanji and Luffy jumps in front of it with a gum gum bazooka. Gin has a gun to Chef Zeff's head. The fuck!!!! He also broke Chef's peg leg. The Bastard! Really love the question corner and Eiichiro Oda comparing the end of Sanji's eyebrows to the sun, moon and Earth because of circles.

Sanji is trying to patronize Crap Geezer and Chef Zeff calls Sanji an eggplant head and Sanji loses it...lol. Sanji is refusing to leave the ship because it is Zeff's pride and joy. Pearl got a hit on Sanji and Gin is wondering why the hell he wont leave. 

We get a back story on Sanji when he was nine and a apprentice cook. He was talking about the legend of All Blue and he hated that the cooks ate the scraps that the customers didn't eat. Chef Zeff ends up boarding the ship Sanji is on and takes everything. One of his pirates starts eating food, and Chef Zeff gets pissed and tells him that they don't eat other peoples food. Little Sanji attacks Zeff and mentions the All Blue and calls them crap pirates. Zeff continues to kick his little ass. The storm knocks Sanji into the ocean and Zeff ends up jumping in after him. They get stranded on a rock and have some food to last them 5 days. The end of the chapter has Zeff taking a massive rock to his leg and saying it is the end of him. Why did he do that???

Sanji ends up portioning his food to last him 20 days. He gets to day 70 and the poor kid is starving which makes his whole plot make more sense and how he hates seeing people go hungry. He goes to Zeff and sees that he still has a whole bag of food. Sanji rips open the bag and instead of food, finds treasure and now it all makes sense in why Zeff cut off his leg, which is gross. Zeff tells Sanji he had the same dream of the All Blue and that he wants to make a restaurant in the middle of the ocean and he'll do it if they get rescued. I love these backstories!!!! Sanji is fighting for the ship as a repayment to crap geezer for saving his life with the food.

Luffy ends up involving himself and he and Sanji start yelling at each other. Krieg is over it and Pearl tries to do one of his special moves, and Gin stops him, confusing the hell out of Luffy and Sanji. Turns out Gin wants to kill Sanji and Luffy. Luffy calls them all wimps, and that they are not tough, just that there are so many of them. 

Don Krieg is getting fed up with all of the sentimentality and wants to fight to prove who is worthy of being king of the pirates. Luffy immediately shouts that he will fight. Don Krieg gets pissed and pulls out an MH5 which has all of the pirates freaking out. The MH5 is a poison gas cannonball that Luffy bounces off of himself. Don Krieg tricked everyone into thinking it was the MH5 when it was really the Shuriken bomb. While Luffy is fighting Krieg, Sanji is fighting Gin, the demon man. They are going at it, and Gin is yelling die and hitting Sanji and Sanji gives hime one good kick, and Gin admits defeat and that he can't kill Sanji.

Krieg is fed up with Gin and removes him from the pirate crew which surprises the rest of the pirates because Gin was the most loyal to Don Krieg. He shoots the MH5 and Luffy finds a mask. When the fog clears, Gin is on top of Sanji pressing a mask to his face while he remained maskless. Gin sacrificed himself. 

Volume 8 starts off with Krieg still dissing Gin about disobeying him and that he deserves to die. Sanji asks Patty for the antidote and Patty says that it is for food poisoning and not for enemies. Patty needs to resolve his issues and prioritize current moments. Krieg is fighting with Luffy and he turns his cape on Luffy when he comes at him and it is covered in spikes. Luffy punches him anyway and knocks Krieg on his ass. Sanji and Zeff are impressed and Zeff tells Sanji to keep an eye on him. The coooks are trying to get Gin conscious and they are fighting because they are bad mouthing each other's cooking....lol.

Krieg has pulled out his mighty battle spear and is going to town trying to hit Luffy. Luffy keeps dodging and standing up and Krieg is getting pissed. Sanji is screaming chore boy over and over and Zeff is just standing there watching. He knows what is up. Luffy broke the spear. Luffy and Krieg are still trying to kill each other and Luffy is doing Gum Gum bazooka and bullet. Luffy is all bloody. Krieg traps Luffy in a net and throws him towards the ocean. Smart Luffy finds a way and does a gum gum giant gavel and Krieg. Luffy then falls into the ocean and starts drowning until Zeff tells Sanji and he has to jump in after him. 

Gin tosses Krieg over his shoulder and tells him that they have to start at zero since he is no longer the strongest man in the world. Gin tells Sanji that Krieg's dreams have now become his and that he hopes to run into Luffy again one day on the Grand Line. Luffy is still trying to get Sanji to join his crew, but he refuses to leave the restuarant to those crap cooks. He tells Luffy about the All Blue who has never heard of it. 

All of the cooks are eating and they start spitting out and dumping Sanji's soup. That pisses him off and then crap geezer joins in and punches Sanji. Luffy says that the soup is really good, and all of the cooks admit that it is tasty, but that Chef Zeff made them bad mouth it to get Sanji to leave and go to the Grand Line because that is his dream. 

Yosaku gets saved from the ocean and says that he tried to chase Nami's ship, but that she is headed toward an impossible place. Luffy wants to leave and Sanji agrees to go with him. We get more flashbacks of when Zeff bought the Baratie and Sanji started smoking and when the crap cooks started showing up. Sanji is leaving and he starts to tear up as he is telling Zeff that he owes him is life and then everyone starts crying. Yosaku starts telling Luffy and Sanji that the Grand Line is not paradise and that they have to get through the three main powers of the sea. The seven warlords of the sea, who are pirates that are recognized by the government. Mihawk is one of the seven warlords.

Yosaku is telling them that Nami was looking at the bounties and saw the one for Arlong Park which is in Fish Man territory. Luffy is drawing weird looking fish and Sanji is fantasizing about mermaids. We meet Saw tooth Arlong and he is giving a cut of his treasure to the marines. 

HOLY SHIT..... NAMI IS AN OFFICER IN ARLONG'S PIRATE CREW!!!! What....how... why???  

Zoro, Usopp and Johnny spot where Nami docked the Merry Go. Zoro plans to go in swinging, and Johnny and Usopp tie him up because he is still recupriating. Usopp's ego gets the better of him and he takes command as captain. He and Johnny then encounter the fish men and freak out. A ship from Arlong's crew shows up and Johnny and Usopp abandone ship leaving Zoro tied up and yelling. I honestly cannot wait to see this in the live action. I am still watching the first season. 

The little boy Chabo, who tried to fight Nami, ends up tripping Usopp thinking he is a fish man who helped destroy his village and killed his father. A girl stops Chabo and says that Usopp looks like a human, which is very funny. I do not like the anime Usopp because he long nose freaks me out. 

Nojiko knocked Usopp out when he tried to fight the fish man. She took him and Chabo to her house. She gets really pissed off at Chabo because he wants revenge and doesn't care if he dies. Najiko tells him to get the hell out and if he doesn't care about his life, then why should she continue to care about it as well. 

Nojiko tells Usopp that Nami is part of Arlong's crew and that she is also her step sister. Zoro is tied up in front of Arlong and Arlong is going on and on about how superior the fish men are because they can breathe underwater. Zoro sees Nami and hears that she is the surveyor in Arlong's crew. Nami and Zoro have words with each other and Zoro throws himself into the water tied up and Nami jumps in to save him. Then someone in the crew tells Arlong that the one with the long nose got away and headed for coco village. We learn about the tribute system. Everyone in the village has to pay Arlong and if one person can't pay, then the whole village gets destroyed. 

Volume 9 

One of the men in the village, Mr. Genzo has a weapon and that is against the rules because Arlong sees that as rebellion and now he has to die. Arlong is seconds away from killing Genzo in front of the whole village and then Usopp throws an exploding star. He tries to act brave and exaggerate how many men are ready to fight. Arlong recognizes that Usopp is a human and he gets pissed. 

They start chasing him back to Arlong park and then Nami walks into Coco village. All of the villagers hate her and slam the door in her face. We learn that the reason she wants the berries is so she can buy the village. Zoro is chilling in Arlong Park and he hears the dinner trumpet. He meets Hachi the fish man octopus who offers to take him to Coco Village.

Luffy, Sanji and Yosaku are eating in the boat and they see a Grand Line monster who is part of Arlong's Crew. It's called MooMoo the Sea Cow and it is a literal cow that likes roast pig. Luffy does a gum gum pistol and then Sanji thinks it is hungry. He gets pissed when the sea cow tries to eat him and they fight it. The sea cow goes away and they continue to eat. 

Arlong gets back to his base to see his men sprawled out on the ground. He then realizes that the man he has was Zoro and that Nami must be behind it. Nami is pissed because Zoro is fucking up her plans on buying the village. Arlong has a 20 million berry bounty on his head which is the highest in the East Blue. 

Nami fights Usopp to prove that she has betrayed the pirate crew and to keep her 8 years of work from being ruined. Arlong tells Nami that he won't go back on the deal and that he would slit his belly  before going back on a promise. Luffy, Sanji and Yosaku make it to the island and they learn from Johnny that Nami has killed Usopp. The village elders of Gosa got a message to the government and they have sent a ship to evacuate the remaining villagers.

The marine ship fires on Arlong park and Lord Arlong catches the cannonball in his mouth and chews it up. Arlong sends two of his crew to bust up the marine ship and they succeed. Nami confronts the straw hat crew and Sanji is so love struck. He is begging Nami to come back to them and Zoro wants to fight. Johnny is screaming and calling her a witch because she killed Usopp. Nami tells them to get lost and to go find another navigator. Luffy then decides it is the perfect time to take a nap. 

Yosaku and Johnny decided to split from the crew because they dont want to die. Usopp is walking through the village and thinking that Nami isn't a witch because she didn't kill him. He goes running on the beach to try to find Zoro and he finds everyone. They come to the conclusion that Nami isn't a witch...duh. Nojiko finds them on the beach and tells them they have to leave. Another marine ship shows up and is asking about Nami.

We get Nami's past where Genzo kept catching her stealing books and her foster mother Belle-mere flirting with Genzo to get Nami out of trouble. Nami stole the book because she didn't have money, but she really wants to be a navigator and sail the whole world and make a map. Belle-mere isn;t eating and she says that it is a diet. Nami says that she will stop eating and Belle-mere gets scary face. 

Nami hates that she gets hand me downs from Nojiko and she starts fighting and says that they aren't real sisters and that they aren't related by blood. Belle-mere gets furious and slaps Nami. Nami ends up running away to the center of the village. Genzo tells Nami the story of how Belle-mere ran away and came back a fighting sailor, and she brought two little girls with her, Nami and Nojiko. 

We get the story of when Arlong and his crew showed up and demanded 100,000 berries from each adult and 50,000 for children and that it supposed to be every month. Belle-mere is clueless to what is happening in the village and then her house is spotted. She tries to fight and Arlong takes her savings. He doesn't know about the girls. Belle-mere ends up paying for the girls and sacrificing herself. She gets shot and Arlong's pirates find Nami's drawn maps and takes her away. 

Nami comes back to the village and finds the villagers gathering to go and look for her. She tells them tearfully that she has joined Arlong's crew and shows them the tattoo and that they gave her money. Genzo is pissed that Belle-mere's sacrifice was thrown away and he bans her from the village. Nojika tells Luffy that Nami made a deal with Arlong and to buy the village back. 

The navy ship that showed up looking for Nami was called by Arlong and for them to confiscate Nami's money. The villagers tell Nami that they knew of her deal and they tell her she has to leave the island and that they are going to fight to death because it is what is right. Nami cries and she starts stabbing her tattoo. Luffy stops her and she asks him for help. This is the part that made me cry, he puts his straw hat on her head and goes to look for Arlong. He tells Zoro and Sanji to get ready and Yosaku and Johnny show back up to help because they heard the story while hiding in the woods. The volume ends with Luffy confronting Arlong.