"Guys, if my guess is right, you need to be careful about where we’re headed now."
Yosaku spoke to us.
"Huh?"
"The place we’re heading for is Arlong Park."
"It’s territory ruled by Arlong, a fish-man pirate who once sailed alongside Jinbe, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea."
"In terms of individual strength, he’s way above Captain Krieg!"
"Eek!!"
"I see. So I just cut him down?"
Usopp was terrified, while Zoro, despite his injuries, wanted to face another strong opponent.
"Zoro, lie down for now. And Usopp, I’m the one overseeing your training, and I’m way stronger than him, so quit being such a scaredy-cat..."
"Who the hell said I was scared?!"
Contrary to his words, Usopp’s legs were trembling like they were doing some kind of ridiculous dance.
"Should I go back and bring Luffy here?"
Yosaku asked me, apparently worried.
"Huh? No, no. It’s fine. I’ll handle this by myself!"
Fish-men who couldn’t even use Haki were just fish...
And since I was planning to kill them all, it was better if Luffy wasn’t here.
A short while later—
"I found it!! The Going Merry!"
Usopp announced as he peered through his telescope.
"It’s docked in a really suspicious place. This is a little ways away from Cocoyasi Village."
Johnny said while looking over a map.
"Oh, Johnny! Unlike a certain fellow bounty hunter, you’re actually good at finding your way!!"
I praised Johnny for his impressive grasp of the area.
"Jin. Is that ‘certain fellow’ me?? I’ll kill you!!"
"Don’t overdo it! You can barely even shout in your condition!"
Usopp teased Zoro, who was wrapped head to toe in bandages.
We moved the ship toward the small harbor where the Going Merry was docked.
Three male fish-men stood above the harbor.
Usopp, Johnny, and Yosaku chickened out, but I headed for the pier.
"Huh? Where’d you drift in from?"
"Ah, I’m just asking to make sure, but..."
"Huh?"
"You guys are with the Arlong Pirates?"
"That’s right!!"
"Perfect!"
"Huh?"
In response to my answer, I knocked down the three ugly, hook-wielding fish-men.
Then I used Absorption on all three of them.
Ahh, fish-men really were an excellent source of protein.
The three ugly fish-men became three old, ugly fish-men.
Yeah, I guess ugly really does last a lifetime...
"Did you defeat those fish-men?"
A little boy whose face was covered in scars approached, holding a knife.
"No!! If you mess with the fish-men—!!!"
A woman shouted as she ran over from farther back.
Short blue hair and a tattoo on her exposed shoulder. She seemed to be Nami’s sister.
"Haha, Jin, you should’ve left at least one for me!!"
Usopp appeared after I took down the fish-men.
"You really are strong!!"
Johnny and Yosaku helped the injured Zoro up onto the pier.
What a mess. What a mess...
And Nojiko, Nami’s sister, stared at the old, ugly fish-men in confusion.
She took the three old-and-uglies, our group, and the little boy back to her house.
"I’m Nojiko. I grow tangerines here."
"I-I’m Chabo, from Gosa Village..."
"I’m Origin. You can call me Jin."
"I’m Captain Usopp, a man of the sea!"
"Zoro."
"We’re Yosaku and Johnny, the bounty hunters who can make even crying children stop!"
Hm... The weaker they were, the longer their introductions got.
"Chabo??"
"Yes..."
"Why was a kid like you carrying a knife in such a dangerous place?"
I asked Chabo.
"I have to get revenge on the fish-men."
"The fish-men killed my father..."
"And they brought this enormous monster I’d never seen before and destroyed the whole village."
"An enormous monster? Then those strangely gouged-out paths were...?"
"Yes. They’re the tracks that monster left behind..."
"Chabo, what about your mother?"
"I still have my mother."
"Then protect her. I’ll get your revenge for you."
"That’s right! Arlong is nothing before Captain Usopp!"
"No!!"
"This is why outsiders are no good. You can just leave whenever you want, but it’ll be a disaster for those of us who have to stay behind."
"So I’d like you to take care of your business and leave as soon as possible."
"But isn’t it already too late, considering I turned those three fish-men into that?"
"..."
"Fine. Let’s make sure no one finds out. I’ll hide those fish-men properly."
The key to a perfect crime was having no witnesses.
In other words, as long as there were no witnesses wherever we went, it was fine.
"Whew. So why did you come here?"
"Ah, do you happen to know a woman named Nami?"
Usopp answered Nojiko’s question.
"Of course I know her. She’s famous around here as one of Arlong’s crew."
"What!! Nami is one of Arlong’s crew?"
"And here’s something even more surprising! This is the house where that witch grew up!"
"The witch and I are sworn sisters."
"Perfect. Then we can wait here."
"Huh? Didn’t you hear me? Nami is one of Arlong’s crew!"
Usopp spoke at Zoro’s words.
"I heard you."
"Then why?!"
"Luffy, our captain, told us to bring Nami back."
"Ah, Nojiko! Don’t misunderstand. We’re Nami’s crewmates."
"Nami specializes in betrayal. You’ve been fooled."
"No. Nami is our crewmate."
"Sigh... You’re the type who won’t listen to reason."
"Usopp, Zoro, wait here. I’ll go hide those fish-men."
I took the old, ugly bastards somewhere deserted, killed them, and buried them neatly.
I was a Mermaid Slayer now. Heh heh heh.
On my way back to Nojiko’s house, I ran into Nami.
"Hi!"
I greeted her with the brightest expression I could manage.
"Jin."
But Nami couldn’t do the same.
"When we first met, you said you were buying a village, remember?"
"Yeah..."
"Nojiko told me the rough details. Arlong rules this place, right?"
"Are you trying to buy the village from Arlong?"
"That’s right..."
"Nami. Do you really think Arlong will hand over the village just because you give him money?"
"I have no choice but to believe. It’s the only way."
"All right... Then have you gathered all the money?"
"Yeah, thanks to you..."
At the mention that she had gathered all the money, Nami managed a faint smile.
"Nami, do you remember the promise we made that day?"
"I remember..."
"Then that’s enough."
I headed to Nojiko’s house with Nami.
But in front of Nojiko’s house stood a Marine officer who looked like a rat, along with his soldiers.
Nojiko was there too, as was a man I hadn’t seen earlier, wearing a hat with a pinwheel attached to it.
"Squeak, squeak, squeak. I’m Nezumi, colonel of the Sixteenth Marine Branch. Are you the criminal named Nami?"
"A criminal? I’m a pirate, so of course I’m a criminal. But can you deal with the consequences? If you lay a hand on me, do you think Arlong will just sit back and do nothing?"
"Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak. We aren’t laying a hand on you. We merely received information that you stole 100 million Berries from pirates."
"Naturally, the Marines are responsible for holding stolen goods recovered from pirates."
"Hand over every last Berry you’ve gathered through theft so far!!"
"Search for the stolen goods!!"
"Yes, sir!"
"That money belongs to this girl! It’s money meant to save our Cocoyasi Village!!"
"Uncle Genzo? How did you know?"
Nami looked deeply shocked at the pinwheel man’s words.
"We all knew, Nami!"
"We couldn’t believe you would join the Arlong Pirates, so we pressed Nojiko for answers. Everyone in the village knew."
"But if you found out that we knew, then when you wanted to leave this place someday, we were afraid we’d become the ones holding you back. So we pretended not to know."
"Marines!! Do you think Arlong will let this slide?!"
Nojiko spoke to the rat-faced bastard.
"Who knows...? I wonder who gave me that information?"
I already knew it, but seeing it happen right in front of me pissed me off.
"Marines working for pirates after joining hands with them!!"
Nojiko spoke in fury, while Nami bit down hard on her lower lip.
"Usopp!! Zoro!! Yosaku, Johnny!"
"Make sure none of these bastards get away."
"Just leave it to me!!!"
Usopp answered as he climbed onto Nojiko’s roof with his slingshot.
"Finding a navigator really was one hell of a task."
Zoro spoke.
"Just trust us!"
Johnny and Yosaku said.
"Nami, these guys are on the house."
I wasn’t holding back anymore.
Using [Shave], ten seconds were enough to clean them up.
"You bastards think you’ll get away with this..."
"Yeah, shut your mouth!"
I decided to test which was tougher: the rat bastard’s mouth or my fist.
The rat bastard flew away with his face scraping across the ground before finally coming to a stop.
Yep. My fist was stronger after all.
"Colonel!!"
"Shh!!"
Zoro said, pressing a sword to the throat of the Marine who had just shouted.
"Eek!!"
Nami had collapsed to the ground in tears, and Nojiko was comforting her.
"Should we bury them so they can’t run away?"
Just in case, I turned every one of the Marines into old men.
Then, except for Zoro, who was still struggling with his injuries, we buried them together in Bell-mère’s tangerine grove.
"S-save me..."
"Who knows."
I looked at the rat bastard, who had now become an old rat bastard, and answered.
"Huh? But where’s the pinwheel man?"
At some point, the pinwheel man had disappeared.
"Uncle Genzo!!"
Nami, who had been crying, ran toward the village.
Seeing Nami run off, our group followed after her.
"This is it! Take up your weapons and fight!"
Uncle Genzo, his entire body and face covered in scars, gathered the villagers together and spoke.
"Eight years ago, we already swore once that we would throw away our lives."
"No matter how painful and humiliating their rule was, as long as Nami was safe, we decided to fight a war of patience and endurance."
"But this is their answer."
"There’s no hope left for us. More than anything, I cannot forgive those fish-men for toying with Nami."
"Any objections?"
It looked as though most of the village had gathered, and every one of them held a weapon.
"Of course there aren’t! Let’s go!!"
"Let’s fight!!!"
"Everyone, wait!"
It was Nami.
"Just wait a little longer! I’ll talk to Arlong one more time."
Nami forced a smile as she spoke.
"Enough! You’ve fought hard enough."
"You lot who say you’re Nami’s crewmates—look after Nami for us!! Let’s go!!"
"Don’t worry about Nami!"
Reassured by my answer, all the villagers headed for Arlong Park.
And as Nami watched the villagers leave, she collapsed and cried before speaking to me.
"Jin... Help me..."
"I’ve been waiting for that!"
I handed Nami Griffon, the sword Shanks had entrusted to me.
Then, as I passed the spot where the others were waiting, I spoke.
"Let’s go."
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