Arlong the Saw, former member of the infamous Sun Pirates, was a fishman of many talents. He could splash water from his hands with the force of bullets. His razor-sharp teeth could bite through concrete. And, of course, he could fight for days with incredible strength and stamina that only grew tenfold when submerged in water.
All that being said, he was also very quick to anger. Today was supposed to be a huge payday. Not only from the human peons that he allowed to live in his territory, but from Nami. She was maybe one more haul away from achieving her goal. It would be such a shame if she suddenly lost her money…
But then one of his collection groups came back, one of them needing his hand stitched back together and the other one ranting about how some lion-woman mauled him! Arlong directed them both to the sickbay but he wanted a proper explanation. Obviously they were hallucinating.
And then another group limped back, this time one of his crewmen missing his entire right foot! He rambled that Kuina the Pirate Huntress had arrived alongside a pair of blonde women that could weaponize gems and summon swarms of bees! Okay, now he was scoffing. Like a bunch of humans let alone a gaggle of GIRLS could possibly do this!
And then it happened again. And again! And AGAIN! Halfway through the day and half of his crew was a total wreck! And Arlong was pissed. Sure, he needed the money to fund further expeditions. But more than that, someone was going after his crew, his brothers. This was no random rebellion from the islanders. Someone was targeting him, deliberately sabotaging his operation. He was ready to literally bite someone's head off.
"Hey Arlong! It's me! I have your money ready!"
The shark-man whipped around to the entrance of his base and saw none of than Nami grinning like crazy as she skipped inside. He barely noticed the straw-hatted man that was hauling a huge wooden box covered in dirt.
"Huh? Nami? What is it? You can't possibly have pulled off another heist that quickly. Even you have limits…"
Nami just laughed, sounding way too happy for his liking. "Oh, very funny Arlong! You're right, I just counted all of the loot I managed to grab and guess what! I finally have it! 100 million beris!"
Arlong's eyes bulged as the burly man dropped the box, a heavy clatter coming from within. The fishman looked at this new man, not liking the sharp glare he was giving. "Who's this guy?"
"Oh, just the captain of that ship," Nami jerked her thumb to the Going Merry now anchored in the park's only inlet, "Don't mind him, he's still pissed that I conned him. Go on, check it for yourself!"
Arlong ripped the lid off the coffer and gasped at the huge load of cash inside. Most of it was covered in dried blood and soil but money was still money. He easily hauled the vault over his shoulder and headed inside to count it on the pretense of making sure Nami fulfilled her end of the deal.
As soon as his back was turned, Nami turned and gave a beaming smile to Luffy who just nodded back. They could both feel the rage rippling off of the infamous fishman as he stalked inside, and the rest of the crew were too shocked to notice anything was up. Arlong's whole gambit with that corrupt asshat of a Marine fell through, and now he had no choice but to honor his word from all those years ago.
Arlong returned twenty minutes later, looking extremely miffed for someone who just got paid a king's ransom. In his purple scaled hands was a piece of rolled parchment which he handed to Nami.
"This is an official agreement between the Arlong Empire and Cocoyashi Village. As of now, none of the villagers living there will have to pay the monthly taxes. Show this to the head of the village and have him sign it, and I'll consider it legitimate."
Arlong then went on a bunch of contingencies and rules that came with this new treaty, the biggest being that it would instantly be rescinded if anyone in Cocoyashi incited rebellion in any of the other villages on the islands. Nami had to fight rolling her eyes the whole time until Arlong extended a hand to shake, cementing their deal was done.
"It's been a pleasure doing business with you, captain! Buuuuuut…"
"But what?"
"You know, now that you mention it, it seems a little unfair that only my village is exempt. Do you think maybe we could work something out?"
Now the fishman's eyes lit up. "Oh? What did you have in mind?"
"Well, this guy here is pretty strong. You know, for a newbie pirate… I think I might just get into bounty hunting!"
A few of the Arlong Pirates snickered at that but their captain just raised an eyebrow. "Really? And would that happen to include me?"
"Of course not, don't be silly! But there are lots of other criminals that have pretty big prices on their heads. So, maybe if I brought you enough money, you could make all of the Conomi Islands free?"
Arlong just stared at his navigator for a minute straight, waiting for the punchline. When she just kept smiling, he looked her dead in the eye like she was an idiot. "You're asking me to pack up my entire operation here?"
"Oh, I know, it won't be cheap! But with this clown on my side, I'm sure that I can make any amount of money in no time! What do you say, I'll practically have the entire ocean mapped out for you by then!"
"Hmmmmm… I'd need a pretty huge payment for something like that, no matter how exceptional your charts are… I'd say an even two billion beris ought to do it!"
Arlong's smile could have peeled paint. Nami looked down, her bangs shadowing her face as her shoulders began to tremble. Luffy's fist curled hard enough to turn his knuckles white as Arlong patted the girl on the back.
"Now, now, don't be too upset. The same rules apply as before. No interest and you can take as long as you need. Heck, I'll even let you pay this one in installments!"
Nami then lifted her face to reveal that she was desperately trying not to laugh. One look at the fishman's confused face was too much and she broke into a laughing frenzy on the spot, falling to her knees as the rest of the Arlong Pirates looked alarmed at her breakdown.
"Hehehe, s-sorry, I… I didn't mean to… AHA! Crack like that… But I just… It's so DAMN funny…"
Nami reached around and rapidly assembled her bo staff, pointing one end at Arlong as she glared at him with all the hatred she could. "…How damn predictable you are."
"I don't appreciate this joke, Nami," they said at the same time, only proving her point. While Arlong grimaced at the disrespect, the redheaded woman paced around him.
"Eight years I worked myself half to death. Dodging bullets, ducking bounty hunters, looting pirate ships and bandit hideouts, all for the day where I could sleep again at night. All so I could at least know that my home, the only family I never knew, were safe from your insanity."
Nami's knuckles turned white as she gripped the staff with all her might. "And this whole fucking time, you were stringing me along. I'm nothing but a tool to you, a prized catch you don't want to let go. Well, guess what?!"
Nami bared her inked shoulder. "I! QUIT! I'm doing what Belle-Mere should have done the first day you got here and THROWING YOUR ASS OUT!"
The Arlong Pirates all stood frozen, staring at Nami as she bared her teeth and aimed her weapon square at the captain's throat. They then proceeded to laugh themselves silly, many falling to their knees.
"Oh no, someone look out! The little girl has a stick!"
"Quick, Captain Arlong! We better swim out of here!"
"As if some stupid little brat could take us on! GWAHAHAHAHA!"
Luffy looked around and noticed one especially strange looking fishman off to the side. A bipedal octopus complete with eight suckered tentacles for arms and a shock of white hair pointing off in several directions. Unlike the rest of his crew, he was looking down in shame. Luffy suspected this was Hatchan, or Hachi as his friends called him, the one reluctant tagalong in this whole gang. Now he understood why Nami said to go easy on him.
He then glanced outside at the gathering crowd of people from Cocoyashi Village. At the head of the pack were Nojiko and Genzo, both looking in from the park's gateposts in anticipation as the rest of the town mumbled and squirmed behind them.
Arlong, having finally calmed down, looked down at the navigator like she was as threatening as a light breeze and smiled. "Now, Nami, I understand things haven't been easy for you. But you really shouldn't act out like this. We're all adults here, so why don't we sit down and talk this out."
"I've got a better idea…" Nami cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "NOW!"
Seven women all immediately jumped onto the barristers along the park's east wall. All of them glowered at the crew of fishmen, even as many of them panicked.
"Oh shit, is that Kuina the Pirate Huntress?!"
"Forget her! It's that pink one you should be scared of! She's some kind of lion thing!"
"I can still feel the beestings…"
"W-What's going on?! What are all these girls doing here?!"
"We're Nami's crew," Makino declared, "And this is your last warning! This island belongs to the Straw Hat Pirates now! Leave or we'll throw you out!"
"NAMI! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!" Arlong snarled, "You're the one who brought these intruders to attack my men?!"
"No, I did. I'm the captain of this crew, and we're here to beat you down."
"Is that so now?! Then tell me, boy, how are a bunch of pathetic humans like you supposed to beat an entire crew of fishmen like us?!"
"Like this!" Luffy's arm stretched back dozens of feet before ricocheting ahead, "GUM-GUM PISTOL!"
The elastic punch slammed Arlong in the face and sent him flying into the front wall of his own base, much to the total shock of everyone save his crew. But while the other fishmen stared in horror at someone actually knocking their captain down a peg, the townspeople were whispering to themselves.
"Mommy, did that really just happen?!"
"Look at him, he was barely even trying!"
"Maaan, that looked like it hurt!"
"Serves that monster right! You show him, Luffy!"
"Where'd this guy come from?! That was insane!"
Arlong slowly ripped himself free of the white stone wall, rage billowing off of him. "So, this is how it ends, Nami. I hope you can stand dying for this."
"You're not going to lay a hand on her," Luffy yelled, "I'm gonna make you pay for everything you've done! ATTAAAAAAAAAAACK!"
The Straw Hat Pirates leapt into Arlong Park and started attacking every fishman in sight. The fishmen ran up to meet them, assured that they could easily throw these intruders out long before their captain would have that rubber-brained moron broken in half.
Oh, how the people of Cocoyashi Village would love to recount how utterly wrong they were…
Kaya stayed planted along the wall, summoning her gems to snipe any fishman who tried to escape the yard. She didn't care if that was to attack the villagers or just to save his own hide, she sent a sparkling shot at them to keep them boxed in. She looked towards Makino and admired just how far the barmaid had come.
Surrounded by three fishmen, the greenette calmly dodged around their attempts to grab and surround her thanks to Observation Haki. When one of the aquatic menaces overstepped his reached and stumbled, she crouched onto her knees and planted her hand on his stomach.
"Paterson Palm!"
The fishman was sent flying into the park's inlet with a bloodied stomach, the other two watching as Makino used the momentum of her own attack to slide between them and grab ahold of their knees. They looked down just in time to see her smile as her grip tightened…
"Glock Grab!"
She let out a burst from each hand and the pair of fishmen collapsed in agony as their legs were now thoroughly broken at the vital joint. Makino stood just in time to spot one of the big names of the crew walking up to her. Standing over eight feet tall with bright blue skin and an extended pair of lips several inches away from the rest of his face, Makino thanked Nami for keying them in on the three lieutenants of the crew.
"So, you're Choo. You don't look like someone wanted for 5.5 million beris."
"Flattery won't get you anywhere, human. You should be more careful with guns. You might end up hurting yourself."
Makino had to bite back a laugh. Was he seriously thinking all of that was just her using hidden guns? She didn't bother to correct him. It would be way better to just prove him wrong.
The smelt-whiting fishman rushed up to attack her but the greenette was more than ready. She leaned backwards from his left hook and put all the Armament Haki she could muster into a sweeping kick that only just made his leg twitch.
"Nice try!" His fist then sank into her gut, sending Makino halfway across the courtyard. She rolled to a stop, groaning onto to look at Choo drinking water from the dock. She promptly broke into a run when she remembered the exact details of Nami's intel on this guy…
Makino poured on the speed as Choo's water bullets shot around her, putting holes in the tiled floor and forcing many of the other fishmen to duck for cover. But the blue bully was so distracted that he didn't notice Kaya readying an entire barrage until…
"Fifty-Carat Firestorm!"
She launched dozens of gem shards the size of pocketknives, swirling in all different directions. He managed to deflect or knock many away but he still nicked dozens of times and a few unlucky shots got lodged in his torso or his shoulders. Choo angrily turned to strike the blonde down only for Makino to bear-hug him around the torso.
"The hell?! Get off of me!"
"Not a chance! GATLING GAMBIT!"
Makino pushed the Burst-Burst Fruit's powers to its limit, her entire body exploding like one massive spray of gunfire. She was flung off the towering pirate, clearly groaning in pain but looked up to see Choo's entire body riddled with pockmarks.
"W-What the…?" he coughed through a mouthful of blood, "You're just… A stupid… Girl…"
"Wrong," she said through her entire body aching, "I'm a Straw Hat Pirate, and someone needed to take you down a peg…"
"Holy crap, one of them got Choo!"
"Do all of these girls have freaky powers?!"
"Uh, Captain Arlong?! What do we do?!"
"You kill them all, you moron!" he answered obviously only to be knocked aside by an angry high kick to the head.
"Touch anyone on my crew and you're dead!" Luffy growled, "You're fighting me! Now let's go!"
"Gragh! FINE! You want to die so badly?! I'll make an example out of you!" Arlong charged ahead teeth first ready to take a bite out of Luffy. The young man dodged with time to spare, ducking aside and landing a Haki-infused knee to the shark's gut that made him sputter.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Carina and Nami had joined forces once again. Several of the fishmen took the redhead's "betrayal" personally and were out for her blood. Even as Nami reminded them she never really wanted to work with them and Arlong blatantly broke their agreement, they weren't so keen to listen to her.
And now, thanks to Carina, they weren't able to listen to anything. She shifted her volume up and down on the toss of a coin, going from normal to nigh deafening in a second. One booming punch from her sent many of the flippered freaks tumbling into the drink. And with them distracted, Nami was free to launch sneak attacks. She summoned cloud barriers to block their punches, then sent her bo staff poking through her shield to nail them in the kneecap or groin.
Worse than that, as they learned, Nami had gotten enough finesse with the Nimbus-Nimbus Fruit to keep the little tuft from where her staff broke through intact. And that tuft could easily be electrified. Arlong then finally had to admit there was one major weakness to fishmen – they were incredibly susceptible to zapping.
"LOOK OUT!"
Nami grabbed Carina by the shoulder as something rocketed out of the lagoon right where they had been standing. Another fishman, just as tall as the others but dressed in a blue gi with large protrusions sticking out of his elbows.
"Damn it, Kuroobi! You almost hit us!" yelled the navigator, angering the manta-man even more.
"You're going to lob insults at us?! I'm going to break you in half, you little turncoat!"
"Is that so?" Kuroobi turned to find Reiju casually tossing one of his comrades over her shoulder, "Because I think I'd be a much more fitting challenge."
"Hmph, you humans are all the same. You break so easily… Don't waste my time!"
Reiju just smirked as her Zoan transformation took over, muscles burgeoning and fur growing as she became a lion-woman. "Perhaps you're right. Then it's a good thing I'm not just a human!"
The pinkette pounced with a ferocious growl, knocking Kuroobi off his feet with a shoulder-charge. The manta ray-man furiously scrambled to put some space between him and the predator woman, readying himself with one foot behind him and his hands in fists.
"I don't care what you are! You still can't compare to the power of Fishman Karate!" His left hand was suddenly swirling with water as he rushed ahead. "Arabesque Brick Fist!"
The aquatic attack sank into Reiju's stomach, making her wince and be grateful for how Zoan fruits toughened up their wielders. Otherwise she'd be short several ribs and coughing up a pint of blood.
"WHAT?!" he cried, "How can a human withstand that attack?!"
"Get the picture yet? I'm a chef, like I'd ever lose to a FISH!" Reiju swiped with her claws, leaving gashes in Kuroobi's arms. The two were soon locked in a deadly dance of feet and fists trying to pummel the other into submission. Several other fishmen noticed, rushing to Kuroobi's aid only for a swarm of hornets to descend on them.
"I don't think so!" Sally crowed. Her swarm now numbered in the hundreds, buzzing around her in rings to deter any from getting close. That is, until she notices a fishman decide to take the kamikaze approach and charge through the fleet and grab her by her wrists.
"Ha! Got you now, freak!" he taunted, "Can't control your little bugs without your hands!"
And indeed without her arms to conduct them, the yellow and black battalion started flying limply around until they all flopped onto the tiles and disappeared.
"Grr, get off of me!" Sally pulled with all her might but the scaled-covered swashbuckler easily held her in place. But thanks to a little Observation Haki, she knew she didn't have to panic for long…
"One-Sword Style: Flying Cut!"
Kuina unsheathed her sword fast enough to release a razor-sharp blade of air that lobbed Sally's captor's arm clean off at the shoulder. He howled in pain, leaving Sally free to give her a stomach punch that floored him before hopping on top of the barricade surrounding Arlong Park.
"Phew, that was close…" she sighed, "Guess I got too cocky…"
"Hold it right there!" Hachi cried, "I won't let you and your nasty bugs sting anybody else!"
"And I won't let you shoot ink at her!" Kuina dared, "You're the swordsman of this crew, right? Come on, face me and let's see what you've got!"
"Huh?! That's not very nice, yelling at people!"
Kuina tilted her head. This was the guy with the second-highest bounty of the crew, only beaten by Arlong? Strange and spacey as the octopus-man might have been, he quickly proved his status as he pulled out six impressively thick cutlasses.
"Hahaha! Prepare to face my Six-Sword Style!" Kuina charged in to meet him, only to actually be forced back from the first clash. Each of his swords felt like trying to cut down a brick wall! The bluenette's smile grew. Finally, a real challenge!
Meanwhile, at the front of the park was Arlong trying to grab ahold of Luffy and squeeze the life out of him. Unfortunately for him, and much to the delight of the rest of the village, the straw-hatted lad used Paper Arts to easily evade his every grapple. As Arlong's glare grew more and more heated, Luffy was just a smoldering grimace that seemed to taunt him.
"Stop that, you damned human!" he growled, "You're just toying with me! Don't you know who I am?!"
"Yeah, a bastard. That supposed to mean something?"
"I'm going to bury you at the bottom of the ocean!" Arlong finally went in for a bite, his infamous shark-teeth wrapping around Luffy's arm.
"Iron Body!" His arm also turned black thanks to Armament Haki for a double-layered defense.
The shark-man bit down, only to snap in disbelief as his pearly white fangs broke against his skin. "W-W-WHAAAAT?! HOOOOW?!"
"No way!" Nojiko balked, "Arlong's bitten through cannonballs with no problem!"
"So, who's weak now?!" Luffy yanked his arm free and backhanded Arlong to the ground, the invisible armor still surrounding his limb and making the fishman's jaw ache. Though his teeth regrew in an instant, much to Luffy's surprise, it was clear that Arlong still felt something off given how he rubbed his chin.
"C-Captain?!"
"Hey, eyes on me!" Reiju snarled, landing an Armament-laced kick of her own that forced Kuroobi into the sky. While her Haki wasn't near her captain's level, it was still enough to sent the manta-man dozens of feet into the sky before crashing back down into the floor.
"W-What is this?!" he gibbered, "No human is this strong! I-I'm a fortieth-level dan of Fishman Karate! And a pirate worth 9 million beris! I won't lose to some nobody!"
"Oh, if only you knew…" Reiju chuckled in her head before finally letting her full-beast side mode out. Her entire body shifted to a quadruped, her arms fully changing into beastly legs ending in paws. The ten-foot long lioness let out a massive roar, the only signs it was Reiju being the pink hair and clothes still attached to her furry torso.
"You want a fight so badly?! Then I'll give you one!" Reiju pounced in an instantly, pinning Kuroobi to the ground and leaving the fishman to desperately try and protect his throat. While the pinkette never did go the jugular, she went for everything else. By the time she finally leapt off him and changed back to normal, the fearsome warrior was left bleeding from scratches and bites all over his body and shuddering in terror.
"KUROOBI, NO! YOU ALL ARE DEAD MEAT!"
"Eyes on me, dipshit! GUM-GUM WHIP!"
Luffy's elastic legs bashed into Arlong's side and once again sent him toppling to the ground. He only got a moment's reprieve before Luffy rushed up and laid on a Gum-Gum Bazooka that drove him into the ground. Then a Gum-Gum Spear to the back that actually bent his dorsal fin.
"GRRRRAAAAAAAAAH! How is this happening?!" he screamed, "You're a pathetic, lowly human! Inferior to me in every single way!"
"You keep saying that! Get up and prove it already!"
"GLADLY!" Arlong leapt to his feet, then jumped onto the tile shingles surrounding Arlong Park's lower level. He effortlessly shoved his arms through the wall and emerged with a massive eight-foot long blade made up of serrated steel triangles.
"Pft, is that all you got?" Luffy scoffed.
"Let's see you laugh when I chop you into ribbons, FILTHY HUMAN!"
Speaking of swords, Kuina and Hachi's clash continued. While the young lady had agility and the added cutting power of Armament Haki, the octopus had much denser swords and very strong defense. His "octopus-pot stance" proved quite capable of blocking her attacks. And underneath that goofy exterior was someone willing to use debris and ink-traps to blind her.
"You bunch of mean girls!" Hachi yelled, "You've hurt all of my friends!"
"Sucks, doesn't it?" she bit back, "Not so fun when you're getting kicked around just like everyone else, isn't it?!"
"W-Well, yeah… But…"
"Don't try to weasel your way out of this! I'm finishing you off right now!" Kuina activated the Wait-Wait Fruit, a crimson glow covering her body as she readied the Wado Ichimonji. Sunlight glinted off the blade as she held it in an underhanded grip below her left thigh.
"One-Sword Style…"
"I-I won't let you hurt anyone else!" Hachi readied his six swords, all ready to slice her apart.
"CRASHING TIDE!"
In the span of five seconds, Kuina stood behind Hachi. Her sword is now coated in blood as well as Armament Haki. Her legs ached from using Shave on top of her Devil Fruit power, but she didn't care. She clicked the legendary blade back into its sheath.
Hachi fell to the ground, almost paralyzed from the shock. His beloved swords, each weighing over six-hundred pounds, laid in pieces around his feet. He barely even noticed the gash across his chest. Deep down, he thanked Queen Otohime that he was still alive. She could have easily sliced him in two.
"HATCHAAAAAAAAAN!" Arlong anguished cry rang out over half of the Conomi Islands. All three of his trusted lieutenants were now half-dead on the ground, along his dozens of brothers in arms. The remains of his signature weapon lied all around him, shattered against Luffy's Iron-Body-toughened muscles. His bloodshot gaze turned to the insufferable pirate who just would. Not. DIE!
"Don't you get it yet?" Luffy spat, "You've lost. Get out while you still can."
"DON'T YOU DARE TALK DOWN TO ME! I AM ARLONG THE SAW! I WILL CRUSH YOU, YOU-!"
"SHUT! UP!" Nami's bo-staff smacked her former captain in the throat, "It's always the fucking same with you! 'Puny human' this! 'Superiority of fishmen' that! Blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-fucking-BLAAAAH! You can take your damn empire back to whatever abyss you crawled out from, you MONSTER! GET! OUT! OF! MY! VIL-LAGE! JUST! FUC-KING! DIE! AL-REA-DY!"
With every syllable, Nami's staff smashed into Arlong's skull. While he barely felt the blows, her screams worsened the concussion Luffy gave him. She gave one final scream of pure vitriolic rage as she broke her staff into pieces, pouring as much Armament Haki as possible. She actually managed to smash his eye hard enough to give him a shiner that would last for days afterwards.
Luffy then placed a gentle hand around his trembling navigator, silently calming her down until she could walk back towards the others. He then looked out and saw his crew, while not unscathed, standing proudly over the fearsome Arlong Pirates with victorious smiles all around.
"It's over. Your little empire is done, Arlong. Nami is part of my crew, and my friend. I'll never let you hurt her or her home ever again."
"P-Please, stop!" Hachi cried, "We don't have anywhere else to go! W-We can't go back to the Grand Line, they'll find us!"
That made Nami's eyebrow quirk. The others all looked to her for answers but found none. Luffy grabbed Arlong by the throat. "Who's he talking about?"
"None of your damn business…"
"T-The slavers!" Hachi croaked, "P-Please, we can't-!"
"HACHI, SHUT UP!" Arlong yelled only for Luffy's grip to silence him.
"What? Slavers? What are you talking about?"
Seeing as how he was thoroughly overpowered for once, Arlong decided to fess up. About how he was once a member of the Sun Pirates under its founder Fisher Tiger. Sally immediately recognized the name from a book she read before, the fishman who escaped from captivity and infiltrated Mariejois to rescue others of his kind. Once Fisher Tiger was killed by Marines, the crew began to weaken as Arlong was arrested and Jinbei became a Warlord partially for his release. He even explained that the sun tattoos on his and several of the crewmembers were to cover up the brand given by the World Nobles.
"So, now do you see?" Arlong growled, more humiliated than ever, "Humans will never accept us. The Arlong Empire was to encompass the entire East Blue, so that we can strike back at those who imprisoned us."
Several long seconds of silence followed. The others noticed that any fishmen that were still conscious were flinching at the memories their leader brought up. Nami then knelt down, staring the shark-man dead in the eye.
"Do you expect us to forgive you?"
"No, you humans wouldn't understandAAAAAAAH!"
Everyone noticed that Luffy's Armament-Haki coated leg was now crushing the fishman's knee to the point of almost breaking it. The sheer anger radiating off of him made even his own crew nervous.
"You… Fucking… Bastard… They wouldn't understand? Of course they do! Because you did the exact same thing to them! And you wanna play the VICTIM?!"
"Luffy?" Makino asked, "I understand you're angry at him but-"
"Everyone, get out," he ordered, his voice leaving no room for argument, "I'm dealing with this guy myself, and I don't want any of you to get hurt."
The ladies all looked to each other, realizing just how serious he was. He even took off his straw hat, the first time any of them had seen him without it on dry land, and place it on Nami's head. The redhead looked up in amazement as he gave her a trusting glance. "Make sure nothing happens to it, okay?"
"Y-Yes, Captain!" she sniffled, before leading the rest of the crew out of the park. They joined the crowd of spectators and watched as Luffy stepped back from Arlong.
"Get up."
The fishman slowly got back to his feet, a noticeable limp on one side. He brushed aside the obvious fear in his stance before baring his infamous teeth. "You should've finished me off when you had the chance."
"Don't worry, I will. I'm just gonna prove how wrong you are first."
Arlong growled at the cocky display before charging ahead, ready to punch Luffy's head off. The young man leaned to the side, his eyes closed and his head facing the ground. The shark-man balked before trying again but only hitting air. The others all watched, either in awe or horror, as Luffy seamlessly avoided everything thrown at him without looking. Even when Arlong went for kicks and bites, the result was the same.
"STAND STILL, DAMN IT!"
"Okay."
Arlong readied knockout punch right between Luffy's eyes only for his purple fist to get caught in his foe's grasp. Arlong pulled with all his might to no avail. Even when he put his free hand on Luffy's shoulder and pried even harder, he couldn't budge.
"Grr, damn it! LET GO!"
"Make me. You're supposed to be stronger than me."
He yelled in anger before lunging in for a bite, only for Luffy's head to swerve out of the way the second beforehand. Arlong tried again and again, snapping his jaws in a frenzy only to miss even his hair every time.
"Told you you're wrong."
"STOP TOYING WITH ME!"
"Okay. Gum-Gum Balloon!"
Luffy suddenly took in as deep a breath as he could, his stomach exploding in size like he just swallowed a rowboat. The force of the blow once again launched Arlong back into his base, this time breaking through the front wall and standing back up in the dining hall. A slow rhythm of footsteps told him that Luffy was calmly walking in, not even bothering to hurry.
"Damn it… DAMN IT ALL! I WON'T LOSE!"
"Then stop yapping and prove it!"
Arlong finally snapped, entering a level of bloodlust usually reserved for angered Sea Kings. Now there was no grace in his movements, his fishman strength unleashed. His every footfall cracked the floor, his attacks were completely erratic. Any wall or piece of furniture in between him and his prey was demolished. Seeing Arlong like this was a true nightmare for the people of Cocoyashi…
…Which made it all the more surprising to see Luffy casually knock him back outside through another wall. Then they watched an arm stretch dozens of feet to sling him back into Arlong Park.
"Knock if off!" He grabbed Arlong by the shirt, covered his forehead in Armament Haki and headbutted the rabid fishman hard enough to draw blood. The titanic fishman took several minutes to snap back to reality, Luffy just standing there patiently as Arlong regained his senses.
"Ugh… How… Why didn't you attack me just now?"
"Don't need to. I'm going to beat you anyway."
"STOP THAT! YOU AND YOUR DAMN MOUTH! YOU'RE NOTHING NEXT TO ME!"
"Oh yeah? Let's see… Shave."
Luffy disappeared in a blur, landing a haymaker to Arlong's face that forced him to crash through the ceiling and plop back down on the second floor. Something poked him in the back. Turning around, he gasped to see Luffy behind him with his arms crossed.
"I'm faster than you." He then grabbed Arlong by the legs, effortlessly hoisting him and slamming him face-first into the nearest table with enough force to crash through the wood. Luffy then used Arlong like his own personal wrecking ball, flailing him around to break every object in the room. Once everything in sight was demolished, he dropped Arlong back through the hole in the floor like a sack of lead.
Arlong got up just in time for Luffy to land directly on top of him, stomping him into the floor hard enough to leave a crater several feet around.
"I'm stronger than you."
"Urrrrgh… Brat…"
Luffy then yanked his enemy back to his feet by his hair, Arlong trying to force himself free to no avail. His other hand found the three slits on the right side of the shark-man's throat. His other hand quickly moved to the other set on the left.
"Gills, huh? You can breathe underwater?"
"Of course I can! It's one of theGRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Pain like nothing else he'd ever known ripped through him as Luffy simply reached his fingers into the opening and crushed all of the flesh he could reach. Blood began to soak his hands as Arlong flailed and cried, tears dripping from his eyes.
"There. Now I can breathe better than you."
He tore off a piece of Arlong's shirt and wiped his hands clean like it was cheap cloth before tossing the red-stained scrap aside. Arlong now kneeled before his, looking up at him in genuine terror. "P-Please… Stop…"
"You could've stopped anytime you wanted in the last eight years. Tempest Kick!"
Luffy's foot swung upward faster than the wind, a blade of compacted air now crashing Arlong out through the east wall of the room. Once again Luffy leisurely followed him outside, his time grabbing him by the back of the neck and dragging him in front of the crowd of villagers. They all gasped at the sight of Arlong bloodied and beaten.
"What do you think, everyone? Has he had enough?"
"NOOOOOO!" They all roared, none louder than Nami and Nojiko. Everyone began yelling for him to be impaled, shot, decapitated, flayed alive, or even boiled and served with lemon. Those that weren't were cheering their lungs out for Luffy to win, praising him as their savior.
"Heh, and now I'm more popular than you!" Luffy spun in place a few times, Arlong yelling in panic as he was spun around before being flung into the air and crashing into the park's third floor like a bird crashing into glass. Another roar of cheers followed from the audience. Luffy spared a glance at Nami, the redhead practically beaming at seeing her slavedriver finally being dethroned.
"Everyone, give me some space! Gum…Gum…"
Luffy stretched both his arms back over a hundred feet, making the crowd part as they watched in utter glee at what was sure to come next.
"…BAZOOKA!" His arms surged forward, racing ahead of his body to smash Arlong back into his own headquarters to the delight of the islanders. Luffy still took his time strolling back in, leaping up to the higher floor from the ground with a single push of his legs. He stopped just front of Arlong, now motionless on a pile of rubble.
"S-S-Stop… I'm begging you…" the fishman pled, "W-What do you want? Money?"
Luffy looked down at the broken walking shark in front of him, his gaze still hard as steel. "I don't want your money. Besides, Nami is gonna loot this place when I'm done anyway."
"LIKE HELL SHE IS!" Arlong finally got a second wind, leaping to his feet only for Luffy to land an uppercut to this chin that sent him flying headfirst into the ceiling. This time, he ended up getting stuck in the marble and desperately kicking his legs to free himself.
Luffy grabbed the back of the shark's left limb mid-kick and covered his hand in Armament Haki. With one swift palm-strike, Arlong's kneecap broke like glass and Luffy could hear him cry in agony from below. He nonchalantly repeated the process with the right leg and waited until Arlong stopped shouting before continuing. Luffy then grabbed both of his thoroughly ruined legs and forcibly yanked him back down. A good chunk of ceiling came down with him, pieces of stone smashing into his head and adding to Arlong's growing misery.
"P-P-P-Please… I-I'm done!"
"And now I know I'm tougher than you, have more Haki than you, and a better fighter than you."
Luffy hopped up to the recently damaged fourth floor, stretched his arms down to grab Arlong by the shoulders. He then recoiled his limbs to send Arlong crashing headfirst through the ceiling once again into the topmost floor of Arlong Park. Luffy once again followed him up, this time stopping to see the room he was in. Stacks of paper taller than him lined the perimeter. He quickly noticed a desk alongside the far wall, another piece of paper laid out next to a fountain pen stained with dried blood.
"What is this place?"
"T-The Map Room…" Arlong answered, "T-This is where Nami… Draws her charts… The best I've ever seen… You want them?"
Luffy looked down at the bloodied pen and could feel his blood boil. He could almost feel something miserable in the air in here.
"No, I don't want these. In fact…" Luffy grabbed the wooden desk and chucked it out the window, watching it fall and smash onto the floor below. He grabbed the bookshelf, no doubt full of atlases and cartography guides, and tossed it down as well. Then he started grabbing every stack of paper and watched the hours Nami was forced to spend on them flutter away, many landing in the water and soaking through immediately.
"W-What are you doing?! Those charts… They're invaluable! I-It's the whole reason Nami is…!"
Without missing a beat, Luffy grabbed ahold of the fishman and flung him out the window like a bag of trash. Arlong landed with a thud amongst the wreckage, noticing that many of his crewmen were staying away out of fear of being Luffy's next victim. They all watched as Luffy stood in the newest hole made in Arlong Park, daring any of them to come after him. Several of them fainted on the spot.
The young pirate jumped back down to the ground, walking off the five-story fall without missing a beat until he stopped in front of Arlong. The mighty fishman who once served under a Warlord, wanted for 20 million beris, the mastermind behind a new empire, was gibbering in utter horror as Luffy came closer.
"W-Wait, please! What else could you want?! You don't take money, you've ruined the charts, what else is there?!"
Luffy stepped down on his broken knee to shut him up, then clamped a hand around Arlong's jaw to stop him from screaming. "You want to know the biggest difference between us? I'm not a hypocrite like you."
He reached down to Arlong's infamous saw-nose and hoisted him up by it. Despite being several feet shorter than the towering fishman, the pirate was doing it with ease.
"You think I don't know about the World Nobles and their bullshit? Of course I do! And yeah, it sucks that they kidnap and enslave people! They all deserve to get their asses kicked! That's what I would do!"
"Y-You can't…" Arlong whimpered, "Hurting one of them… Means…"
"Yeah, yeah, an admiral comes after you. Know about that too. But guess what? I don't go around tormenting innocent people for something someone else did. And you should know better."
His voice dropped at that last sentence, his grip hardening on Arlong's nose until the rows of bone started to creak.
"You were enslaved, that sucks. So do you go after the assholes who did it? No! You run away from your captain and crew, turn an island full of innocent people into your playground, and start treating these guys just like you were treated?! If being a slave is so bad, why make anyone else do it?!"
"Because that's all humans do!" Arlong bit out, "You all hate anyone who looks different from you! They all hate me because I'm different!"
"No they fucking don't! They hate you because you've spent eight years killing them, stealing their money, and wrecking their homes! Why shouldn't they hate you after all of that?!"
He dropped Arlong to his feet, ignoring his cries from landing on his broken legs before dragging Arlong like a sack of trash once again in front of the people of Cocoyashi.
"When this guy first showed up, what did he do?"
"He attacked us!"
"He said this was now his turf!"
"He had his goons start robbing us!"
"HE KILLED OUR MOM!" Nami and Nojiko cried in unison.
"See?! You never even gave these people a chance!"
"They never would have accepted us!" Arlong argued, "You humans are all the same!"
"How could you possibly know that?!" Genzo argued back, "We all hate the World Nobles too! And these islands are so out of the way, they would've never looked for you here! Even if you came in a pirate ship, you could've explained yourself and we could have made an agreement! But you didn't! You stormed in here, killed one of my best friends for the crime of trying to defend her two little girls, and enslaved a ten-year-old for your own selfish ends! You're just like those damned Celestial Dragons, you monster!"
That last sentence finally made Arlong stop and pause. He… was? No, no that couldn't be! Those sanctimonious freaks treated people like tools for their amusement, acted above everyone else and used… money… to get away… with everything…
It was at that moment that Arlong knew, deep down, he messed up. And as Luffy threw him back into Arlong Park and stomped up to him, he realized it was WAY too late to fix anything.
"Hey, Nami!"
"Yeah?"
"Did you ask to get that tattoo on your arm?"
"Of course not! Arlong said it was to 'initiate me' as his navigator as part of our deal!"
Luffy grabbed the groveling fishman's signature nose, his jaw set in angry snarl. "Then let's see how you like it!"
He ripped the appendage off like a hammer yanking out a bent nail, Arlong howling in pain as blood leaked from his face. That soon became the least of his worries as Luffy drove the saw-bladed nose into Arlong's left shoulder and carved into his arm. He franticly tried to push Luffy off but the other pirate just grabbed his right hand and crushed the fingers like twigs. Luffy kept slicing into the shark-man's arm until the elbow, a huge gash over a feet long now spilling blood as Luffy threw the broken nose away.
"You shot Belle-Mere in the chest, right? Let's see you like THAT!"
Luffy stood over top Arlong and concentrated. He coated his right hand in Armament Haki, toughened his muscles through Iron Body as much as he could while still moving, and remembered his training to use the Finger Gun. But now, instead of just moving his pointer finger, he carried that through his entire hand...
"Finger Pistol: Katar!"
Luffy's knifehand-strike easily punched the skin and sank right through the inked sun on Arlong's chest. The fishman gurgled in shock, his eyes swerving down to see that he'd truly been pierced. He watched Luffy slowly pull out, his fingers once again soaked in blood. Arlong then took a shuddering breath as his left hand tried to stem the bleeding only to feel the massive cut on his arm open even more.
"S-S-S-STOOOOOOOP!" he screamed, blood now pouring down his lips as he cried in open terror, "J-Just do it a-a-already! F-Finish me off!"
"Nope. There's still one thing left. Nami said she was throwing you out, so that's what I'm gonna do!"
Luffy started by doing several Moonwalks until he was a blip to the eyes of everyone else, hundreds of feet in the air. With a backflip, Luffy stretched his legs down until they crashed through the tiled floor of the park. Now that he was firmly standing, he began twisting his body like a corkscrew until his hundreds of feet of stretched-out limbs were coiled like a spring. And last of all, he reached down to grab Arlong one last time to pull him up to his chest.
The broken, bloodied fishman could only scream with all the energy he had left as Luffy released the tension, his legs spinning down into the ground and making his body spin like a top with Arlong stuck going along for the ride.
"GUUUUUUM…"
The other fishmen all watched in absolute horror as they watched Arlong being spun around worse than any cyclone in even the Grand Line. A few then felt droplets of water hit their heads. They looked up at the perfectly clear blue sky only to find that when they touched the wet spot, their fingers came back red. Several of them paled realizing that Arlong was literally bleeding all over them.
"GUUUUUUUUUUUUM…!"
As Luffy drew closer, the Straw Hat Pirates and the people of Cocoyashi wondered just what would happen. His arms seemed to be stretching out with a purple blur now being visible. As Luffy's rocketing, rotating arms dragged Arlong along, they all watched in wonder as the fishman was forced through the top floor of his own namesake park.
"No way!"
"He's going to demolish the place!"
"About fucking time!"
Nami and Nojiko actually started crying in relief as they watched Luffy spin Arlong overhead of them, then bringing him around to the next level. On and on it went until the second floor and the base finally collapsed on itself. The people cheered in absolute ecstasy as Arlong Park finally fell, a massive cloud of dush being seen from one end of the Conomi Islands to the next.
"CATAPUUUUUUUUUUUULT!" Luffy shouted as he neared the end of his attack, flinging Arlong away with all his might with his arms angled up. Friend and foe alike watched as Arlong's horrified face disappeared from sight in a flash as he was launched miles into the sky, officially evicted from his own turf. The tiny twinkle in the sky was just icing on the cake.
Luffy himself, however, could only see the world spinning as his eyeballs literally spun in his head. He grabbed his skull on both sides, waiting for his vision to clear before looking down and seeing his feet embedded in stone to the ankles. One haymaker in between them was more than enough to crack the tiles and easily pry himself free. Only then did he noticed the gaggle of fishmen looking at him in complete horror.
"What are you all waiting for?! Get out of here already!"
The soon-to-be disbanded Arlong Pirates complied immediately, screaming bloody murder as they all jumped in the water and swam for dear life from this monster who just treated their captain like a punching bag. Once they were all gone, the people of Cocoyashi poured in alongside all of Luffy's crewmates.
"Th-They're gone!" Genzo sobbed in joy, "They're really gone! WE'RE FREEEEEEEE!"
The entire crowd tore out of the park, planning on spreading the good news to every other village on the island. The only ones left were the Straw Hats, all hugging Luffy and each other in relief. Nami then walked up, still wearing her captain's beloved hat as tears ran from her eyes.
"Thank you, Luffy… Thank you so much…"
"No problem, Nami. I told you I'd do anything for a friend!"
She leapt into his arms, exchanging a deep, tender kiss before gently placing his hat back where it belonged. As years of pain and danger were finally paid off, all she could think of was one person.
"It's over, Belle-Mere… Thank you for looking out for me…"
Soooo, Luffy had a canon bounty of 30 million beris for bringing Arlong's house down and screwing over a certain dirty rat. How much do you all wanna bet he's going to be wanted for here? Tune in next time to find out!