Gyo-Jin Pride Chapter Four
A Different World
Gosa Village: Chuu stood in the ruins of what was once a small house, staring in awe and fear at the sights around him. Arlong had really lost his temper this time, the entire town had been turned on it's head, literally, houses and businesses torn from their foundations and flipped onto their roofs, bodies lying in the streets, crushed by Momoo's assault, which was gentle in comparison to Arlong's rage. They had come to try to avoid this, an empire of dust is worthless,
they were making good money off of Gosa's citizens, but Arlong was too angry, too wild to contain, to listen to reason. None of the others even fought, everyone just stood back and watched as Arlong raged through the town, then summoned the Great Sea Cow to perform the Coupe de Grace. He looked at his fellow Gyo-Jin in the fading light, Hatchan was standing in shocked silence, and even the unshakable Kurobi looked pale. What a waste, he told himself, and only himself, if Arlong heard any doubts in this rage he might even kill one of his own...How could they profit from this? Because one man dared to strike at Arlong, the entire town had been crushed.
Chuu saw a small boy in a green cap and orange shirt, standing in the rubble...The face was vaguely familiar, Chabo, was it? He was holding what appeared to be a cracked and rusted sword, and was staring at Arlong with death in his eyes. The boy started toward Arlong, and Chuu was seized with a sudden terror, if Arlong was attacked, again, he might destroy the whole island . He started to head towards the boy, but a woman rushed from the shadows and forcibly pulled Chabo into the relative safety of the trees...His mother? It made no difference, a wise woman, Only a fool or a madman would charge into the jaws of a mighty Sea King.
Boulder Cove, Stone Island: Chuu walked along the black sand beach, surrounding by cliffs on one side and a craggy reef a few hundred yards off shore. He noticed some human children splashing about in the surf, they didn't seem to notice him, occupied as they were with splashing water into each others faces. A few hundred yards down the beach, Togorogiri was walking arm in arm with that human girl, Katarina. Such things as this could never have happened in Arlong's domain...Chuu found it hard to accept that his friend was going to marry a human woman, from a race he had so long believed to be inferior to their own, but he tried to reconcile himself to that fact, he had conceded that Arlong had been wrong about many things, perhaps his ideas of racial superiority were among those things, and she was pretty, for a human... But old prejudices die hard.
Stone Island was a living testament to the ability of Gyo-Jin and humans to live together equally, most paid little attention to race as they went about their daily affairs. There were a few, of course, who tried to stir up trouble, but they were in the minority, and mainly ignored by most folks altogether. Chuu wondered how, and why, it had come to be this way.
"Chuu!" Katarina waved him over, "We were just talking about you! How do you like it here" "It's nice, peaceful, quiet, nothing like Kokayashi, chu" "Yeah, we decided a while back that it was best to respect each other. There were some...ugly times, things happened that no one wanted repeated, everyone, well, almost everyone, decided it was best for all of us to get along." Togorogiri's expression turned slightly dark, it was clear he didn't want to talk about those "ugly times." Chuu decided not to press him. He looked down at his arm, at the Mark of Arlong boldly tattooed across his upper arm, as he'd walked through town that mark had earned him more than a few curious glances, and even some angry stares.
It was clear that Arlong and his philosophies were not welcome here. "What about Jimbei-Sama??" Chuu asked, quickly changing the subject, "is this part of his territory? Chu." Jimbei was the mysterious leader of the Gyo-Jin pirates, and the only Gyo-Jin among the Seven Great Warlords of the Sea. Arlong had been his right hand, it was Jimbei who'd sent them to the East Blue, to begin their conquest. Chuu had never met him personally, but from what he'd learned by way of Arlong, he was a very dangerous man. "As long as his tribute gets paid, he doesn't care what happens." Came the reply. It suddenly occurred to Chuu that Jimbei had not made any move since Arlong's defeat, no retaliatory strikes, no repercussions at all. He'd heard rumors that Jimbei had paid off the Navy to have his surviving men released, (No Gyo-Jin would abandon his men to humans), but beyond that he made little effort to re-group them. Arlong had failed, he was of little use to Jimbei anymore...
"I heard that Hatchan's back," Togorogiri spoke up, "He's starting a floating Taki stand, kind of a miniature Baratie." Chuu smiled, Hatchan was the best Gyo-Jin cook he knew, if anyone could pull it off, he could. "I hope he makes it, chu. We'll have to visit someday" "It might be sooner than you think, we just got a contract," Togorogiri said happily, "They want us to salvage a sunken Naval vessel, it's fairly near Stone Island, at Skeleton Reef, and nobody's better than Gyo-Jin at deep sea salvage" "My first honest job." Chuu thought, then a sudden realization hit him, "What will the Navy think when they see me"
To be continued...
