A Map of the World - A Tragic Past and a Broken Dream

Childhood - A Map of the World: A Tragic Past and a Broken Dream

Nami is an orphan found a map of the world by Bell-mère, a female Marine, on a hostile battlefield. The marine adopted her along with Nojiko, another child with her, and the three became as close as a real family.

As a child, Nami developed a love for drawing maps and navigation, and the dream to draw a complete map of the world. However, Bell-mère's tangerine trees provided only meager means of support and they were unable to afford anything other than the bare necessities. As a result, Nami could not afford the navigation books, leading her to often steal them from the village bookshop. One day, Bell-mère scolded Nami when she got caught stealing; however, she applauded Nami's first drawing of the island as the first step of her dream to map the world and put faith into Nami that she really could do it. 

In one year, in which the price of tangerines fell due to a large supply, Bell-mère had to eat only tangerines and give most of the food to Nami and Nojiko, but did not let on how bad the situation was to Nojiko and Nami. One day, Nami was given one of Nojiko's dresses by Bell-mère (who simply turned the sunflower on it into a lion) and Nami was offended. Nami wanted her own clothes not Nojiko's hand-me-downs. During the argument, Nami said she did not consider Nojiko a real sister, causing Bell-mère to slap her. Nami then ran off, saying that she wished she were adopted by rich people. Bell-mère is greatly touched, and she decided to spare some money and prepare Nami's favorite meal even though it would break her budget. She sent Nojiko to fetch Nami while she prepared the meal. Bell-mère protecting her daughters. 

Bell-mère protecting her daughters.

Just at this time, the infamous fishman pirate Arlong who took over Conomi Islands came upon Cocoyasi Village, their adopted hometown and imposed a fee on every single adult and child in the village in order to 'live'. Since Bell-mère could not pay for her entire family's monthly fee for living, she was used as an example by Arlong to demonstrate to the townspeople what will happen to them if they ever go against him or fail to pay the fee. Bell-mère is then brutally murdered by a shot from Arlong in front of Nami and Nojiko. 

Arlong forcing Nami to chart maps

Nami was then kidnapped and forced to become a cartographer for Arlong after he noticed the quality of her maps at such a young age. However, Arlong struck a deal with Nami: if she brought him 100,000,000, he would free her village. At Bell-mère's death, she tells Nami and Nojiko to be strong and that "If you can survive, then happy times... lots of them... will come your way". This encourages Nami to work hard to buy Cocoyashi from Arlong, believing that once she freed the village, she could pursue her dream and find happiness. At the beginning of the series, Nami had spent eight years making maps for Arlong and stealing treasure from pirates in order to buy back her village.