Villagers Pretend Not To Know Doctrine
The seed
Ch. 70: Nami is publicly called “Arlong’s witch” by Chabo and Nojiko. The Ch. 70 chapter installs the reputation as public-fact without nuance — Coco Village’s surrounding region knows Nami as Arlong’s enforcer.
The payoff
Why this matters
The doctrine’s structural payoff: the moment the village’s pretend-not-to-know breaks (this chapter, in Genzo’s confession) is the moment Nami can stop pretending as well. The collective-protective-pretense breaks simultaneously on both sides in Ch. 80 — the chapter is the mutual-revelation chapter.
Forward-pattern: the collective-protective-pretense mode recurs throughout the series (Robin’s I-don’t-know-you in the Ohara backstory; Sabo’s I-don’t-remember-you in the Dressrosa arc; the Wano peasants’ I-don’t-know-Toko during the Orochi era).