"Hmm, should I start by calming down those angry villagers over there?"
I formed wings and flew up, then landed in front of Genzo—the villager at the very front—with a hero landing.
The impact of my hero landing kicked up a cloud of dust, bringing the villagers to a halt.
"What is this?!"
"Huh? Nami’s companion?"
"Don’t stop us!"
"I’m not stopping you. I’m just saying I go first. Hehe."
"Nami’s the only member of my adventure crew, so I’m first."
"I don’t really care."
Usopp.
"You really have to give the guy credit for being such a coward."
Zoro.
"I’ll leave the villagers to you for now."
"And this isn’t a fight. It’s an execution."
"An execution should be held in public!"
I left the villagers to them, then smashed down the gates of Arlong Park so the people outside could get a good view.
"What the hell?!"
When the gate was destroyed, the fish-men inside Arlong Park stared at me in surprise.
I grabbed the necks of the two fish-men at the front who tried to stop me and used Absorption.
I’d gotten increasingly proficient with Absorption. Small fry like these now turned into old men in no time.
Once they had turned old, I casually hurled them against a wall.
"It’ll be time to eat soon. Let’s get this over with, you half-fish bastards."
"!!!!"
"Half-fish?! You inferior species!"
"What are you talking about? You all look like failed experiments no matter who sees you."
"You guys are seriously disgusting-looking!"
"Bleurgh."
At my provocation, the small fry charged me all at once.
I formed wings. Maybe because I’d been using Absorption so frequently lately, they seemed bigger than before.
Bigger was better.
Using low-altitude flight combined with an application of the Six Powers’ [Shave], I beat them down. Whenever I ran low on stamina, I used my wings to interfere with their attacks while absorbing two at once, putting on a one-man show.
It looked like I had more or less cleaned up the small fry.
"If you’re going to come up on land, at least wash yourselves. My fists smell fishy now."
"..."
"Oh! There you are."
I recognized Arlong from the unusual shape of his nose.
"You bastard."
Then, using the Six Powers’ [Shave], I passed through the Arlong Pirates’ officers—
—and beat the crap out of Arlong.
"Who the hell are you?"
He couldn’t even react before getting punched, yet there he was.
Arlong, that half-fish poser, tried to act tough as he spoke to me.
"Today, every last half-fish bastard here will be executed."
"How dare you!!"
"For killing Nami’s mother."
"For ruining Nami’s life."
"And for making Nami cry."
"You fool! I’ll make you fish food! Come out, Momoo!"
The octopus-looking fish-man said, blowing a horn with his own mouth.
That bastard has six arms. Disgusting.
Then a gigantic monstrous creature that looked like a dairy cow emerged from the seawater in front of Arlong Park.
It was the culprit that had destroyed Chabo’s village, Gosa Village.
"If we catch that thing, is it beef? Or fish? Usopp?"
Zoro asked Usopp.
"Is that really what matters right now??"
"No. Huh? Nami?"
Nami was staring at a sight that was impossible to believe one person had accomplished alone.
The fish-men who had tormented her villagers lay sprawled on the ground, with only the officers still standing.
She knew Jin, Luffy, and Zoro were strong, but she had never realized they were strong enough to defeat so many fish-men.
After all, Arlong was the sworn brother of Jinbe, one of the famous Seven Warlords of the Sea.
"Zoro, aren’t you going to fight?"
Jin was strong, but she was still worried, so she asked Zoro.
"I don’t know. My body is itching for a fight, but..."
I flew into the air and drove my fist down into the head of the giant cow-like fish.
The cow monster collapsed without having done a single thing after making its entrance.
"He took down a monster from the Grand Line in one hit!!!"
"Amazing..."
The villagers looked utterly stunned.
"There’s a human who can stand against fish-men..."
"Is this really a battle happening in real life?"
Hmm... I guess it was something they couldn’t even imagine in East Blue, the weakest sea.
"If we’d known it would turn out like this, we should’ve stepped in from the beginning."
"Arlong, you just stay over there and rest."
"If the boss gets angry and starts rampaging, chu♡, Arlong Park will be ground to dust."
I watched as the three officers stepped forward, running their mouths.
I could have slaughtered them in an instant, but there was a reason I didn’t.
When someone talks big and then gets crushed, it’s twice as humiliating!!!
Now I remembered. The stingray-looking one was the bastard who gave Genzo that scar.
And that perverted-lipped bastard was the one Usopp beat.
The octopus was Zoro’s!
But here, they’d all be one-shot by me!!
Using a combination of wings and the Six Powers’ [Shave], I launched the stingray bastard into the air.
While he was up there, I knocked out the octopus and big-mouth bastard with my fists, grabbed both of them by the necks, and used Absorption.
Just as they seemed halfway absorbed, the stingray bastard fell from the sky.
The instant he hit the ground, I stepped on his head so he couldn’t get back up.
Like a soccer player controlling a ball with his foot the instant it drops to the ground from high in the air.
That trap was godly.
"Arlong, if you alone get on your knees and beg, I’ll let even all these half-fish bastards go."
"What do you say? Interested?"
I smiled as I spoke to Arlong.
"...Really?"
"Yeah. I don’t lie about things like this."
Arlong closed his eyes, his body trembling.
But thinking of his longtime friends and comrades lying defeated, he got down on his knees.
"S... sorry..."
"No, Arlong. Not to me—to Nami, and to the villagers."
Having to apologize not to me, who was stronger than him, but to the humans he had looked down on all this time was humiliating for Arlong.
But then again, wasn’t everything about being here a history of humiliation?
"I’m truly sorry!! I’m sorry."
Arlong’s body trembled as if he were being consumed by humiliation.
"No, Arlong. Who apologizes so casually? I can’t feel any sincerity, and it’s making me want to crush the thing under my foot right now, you know?"
I said, pointing at the stingray bastard beneath my foot.
"I apologize... I apologize..."
"..."
The villagers had received his apology, but none of them said a word.
"Then shall we call it settled?"
"Th-then..."
"Yeah. As promised, I’ll let them go."
I snapped the necks of the two fish-men whose Absorption was complete.
"!!!! No!!!!"
This time, I stomped on the stingray bastard’s neck and broke it, then walked over to Arlong, who was on his knees in despair.
"Arlong, if losing a brief, fleeting moment of hope makes you suffer this much—"
"—it makes me feel like I’m the real bad guy. When you’re the truly bad one."
"Even when the only hope she had protected for eight years was taken away, Nami tried to protect it again."
"Unlike a weakling like you."
"Hehehehehe..."
Arlong began laughing as his mind snapped.
This bastard was mentally weak too.
"What the hell do you know!!! Do you even know what us fish-men suffered at the hands of humans?!"
"Do I need to know?"
I grabbed Arlong’s nose and broke it.
Seriously, the shape of Arlong’s nose made it look like it existed solely to be broken.
I couldn’t help myself.
Arlong screamed just because his nose had been broken.
"Arlong!!! Arlong!!! How can you scream because you can’t even endure this?"
"My anger hasn’t been eased at all by this, you know?"
"Everyone! I’m really sorry, but things that are truly hard to watch are about to happen..."
"Could you all please step away now?"
At my words, most of the villagers retreated.
The ones who remained until the end were Nami, Nojiko, and Genzo.
"Nami..."
"Jin, I’m going to watch until the end... I promise. I’ll never hate you because of this."
"Zoro, Usopp..."
"I don’t enjoy tormenting the weak, but I do like evil getting punished."
"I am the great pirate Captain Usopp."
I had actually planned to start by cutting off their limbs, but I no longer wanted to do it while my crew watched.
Hmm, was this the humanity preserved by bonds between people or something??
I gave up on my limb-severing divine art. Instead, after killing every fish-man in front of Arlong’s eyes, I finally absorbed and killed Arlong.
That was when I awakened Armament Haki.
While I took revenge on Arlong, Nami, Nojiko, and Genzo, who had stayed behind, cried their eyes out as they watched every single moment without looking away.
"Finished!"
I turned around with the brightest expression I could manage.
Nami ran up to me and hugged me, even though I was covered in blood from tormenting Arlong.
"Nami!! You’ll get blood on you!!"
"Thank you."
Nami buried her face in my chest and said it through tears.
"I told you I’d come save you."
Zoro stood there with his arms folded and eyes shut, trying to look cool.
Usopp was crying as he wiped his nose.
I had been just a tiny bit worried that everyone might be disappointed after seeing me kill people.
Thankfully, that didn’t seem to be the case.
As we cleaned up afterward, we gathered every last bit of Arlong’s wealth and contributed it toward rebuilding the village.
I told the villagers and Nami to destroy Arlong Park or use it however they wanted.
We gathered the charts Nami had been forced to draw for Arlong separately and burned them.
We also killed and buried the Marine who had been buried in Bell-mère’s field.
Well, it was a little worrying if the Marines found out. If Grandpa Garp learned that I killed a Marine, he’d probably be sad—assuming he didn’t know that someone who fully deserved to die had died.
Genzo told me not to worry because he would handle it himself, though.
That evening, everyone raised cups in celebration, and laughter filled the air.
Without Nami noticing, Genzo took me to Bell-mère’s grave.
After we paid our respects with a brief moment of silence before her grave—
"...Nami will board your ship and set off on a dangerous journey, won’t she?"
Genzo asked me as he looked at Bell-mère’s grave.
"If you betray Nami’s feelings, I will never let you go."
"Once a crewmate, always a crewmate!"
"No, Nami’s feelings... Sigh... This isn’t something I should meddle in."
"Anyway, don’t make Nami sad. Understood!!"
"Yes, sir!!!"
Overwhelmed by his imposing presence, I answered in a rigid attention stance without even realizing it.
What was that? Did the old man have Conqueror’s Haki?
The next morning—
We had finished clearing everything up and were ready to depart. As we waited for Nami at the dock, she appeared behind the people who had come to see us off.
"Set sail!!"
After saying that, Nami sprinted toward us at full speed.
"She’s running this way? What is she thinking?!"
Usopp said.
"Well, let’s do as she says. She’s our navigator, after all."
"Don’t tell me that girl is trying to leave without even saying goodbye?"
"Nami! At least let them say goodbye properly!!"
Displaying absurd jumping power, Nami leaped toward our ship as it moved away from the dock—
—and landed on the Going Merry.
"Why?!!"
The villagers looked disappointed.
With her back to the villagers, Nami lifted the bottom of her T-shirt slightly from her waist. An utterly impossible number of wallets fell out.
"Ah!!! My wallet is gone!!!?"
"Mine too!!"
"Me too!!!"
"Take care, everyone."
Holding up a single bill, Nami said it teasingly.
"That damn little brat!!!"
The villagers all shouted in unison.
But soon after—
"Come back anytime!!"
"Stay healthy!"
"Hey!! Don’t forget your promise!!!"
Genzo called out to me.
To show that I understood, I gave him a thumbs-up.
"Well then, everyone, we’re off!!"
We once again headed for Baratie, the sea restaurant where Luffy would be waiting.
And when we arrived at Baratie...
We found Luffy and Sanji beating up an obnoxious captain who claimed to belong to Marine Headquarters, along with the Marines under him.
What???
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