Iris stood next to Nami and watched as Luffy and Arlong started to fight. It didn't seem like the odds of victory were in their favor with as monstrously strong as Arlong was, but all that Iris could do was place her hopes in Luffy and back him up if need be.
Luffy picked up some swords that were on the ground and started swinging them at Arlong. It was obvious by the swinging that he had no swordsmanship skills and Arlong blocked one of Luffy's strikes easily with his nose. He moved his long saw-like nose in a motion that flung the sword up into the sky and away from them, and he shattered the other sword with his teeth.
"Are you grasping at straws now pathetic human?! It's obvious you don't know how to use them!" Arlong said with a laugh.
"Of course I don't know how to use swords! Idiot!," Luffy shouted as he punched Arlong in the jaw. His punch had enough force behind it that Arlong's teeth broke. The humans watching were amazed that Luffy had managed to shatter Arlong's teeth, but that really didn't mean much to Arlong. Sharks had a unique ability to regrow teeth almost instantaneously. Sharks anatomy was structured so that they had backup teeth hidden in their gums that would quickly replace the teeth that had come out.
"Watch out Luffy! He'll regrow his teeth!" Iris shouted.
"Really? That's a strange skill, but it doesn't matter how many times he can regrow his teeth. He won't be able to beat me even if he regrows them a hundred times," Luffy said without taking his eyes off of Arlong. "And of course I can't use swords, stupid! I also can't navigate, fight in the water, cook, or lie," Luffy continued. Arlong looked puzzled as Luffy proclaimed what he could not do, but Iris couldn't keep a smile from forming on her face. Luffy knew he couldn't do it all on his own, which was why he needed a skilled crew. He listed off things that he couldn't do, however each of those skills were something that one of them possessed. Each one of them had a skill he needed, and him knowing that made him a much better captain than Arlong.
"How foolish! It must be quite difficult for these people to follow such an incompetent captain. Why even bother fighting to protect a captain that can't do anything? At least you realize how worthless you really are... Is there anything you can do?" Arlong bellowed.
"I can beat you," Luffy said with a grin. Arlong stopped laughing and glared at Luffy as broken teeth were replaced. Arlong started shouting about how insignificant and inferior humans were and went on the offensive. He started biting at Luffy and Luffy dodged Arlong's attacks. Luffy probably had no idea that if Arlong were to bite him in any vital area that this fight would be over; even if he was a rubber man there was no way his body was equipped to deal with a jaw like Arlong's. Even her jaw was a force to be reckoned with, though she wasn't fond of biting into others and getting the taste of blood and flesh in her mouth.
Arlong stopped biting at Luffy to explain that every time his teeth regrew back that the new set was stronger than the last, which Iris wasn't so sure about. He then put his hands to his mouth and pulled out the set of teeth, regrew the teeth again and pulled out another set, and then finally grew in a set that he left in his mouth.
While it was a handy skill to have it didn't mean that loosing teeth didn't hurt. She had lost teeth over the years and it still hurt just as much as she imagined it would hurt for a human. So with Arlong pulling out an entire set of teeth it would have to hurt quite a lot.
"This skill is a gift from the heavens that was bestowed on us! It is one more reason that us fishmen are superior to humans! You're going to regret having been rescued. It would have been better for you to have drowned quietly in the sea! Can you now see just how much better we fishmen are?!" Arlong roared.
Iris then noticed that Nami was looking at her from the corner of her eyes and Iris looked at her. Her initial reaction was to snap some sort of sarcastic remark, but she stopped herself. She would have to relearn how to interact with Nami, and it wasn't going to be an easy thing to do. The past week or so that she had been traveling with Nami she couldn't think of many times that she responded to the girl very nicely.
"Can you do that with your teeth too?" Nami finally asked.
"Yeah," Iris responded as she nodded her head. "I don't like to though. It hurts, and it's a rather ugly thing to do. It mostly comes in handy when I get into a fight and lose just a tooth or two," she continued. She could hear the villagers murmuring among themselves at her comment and she had to quiet the anger that was continuing to rise in her. These people had a reason to dislike her for being half fishman. She had to keep telling herself that these people were radically different than the racist pigs that she had seen go after her father.
When Arlong had finished his rant about how much better fishmen were than humans he started going after Luffy with the two sets of teeth in his hands and the set in his mouth. He looked ridiculous in doing so, but it was a strong attack despite how silly it looked. Luffy dodged Arlong's attacks for a bit, and then Arlong got in an attack that Luffy wouldn't be able to dodge.
Iris could feel fear start to take over her mind, but it was quickly relieved when she saw that Luffy had used one of the defeated fishmen as a shield. When Arlong realized that he had attacked one of his own kind rather than the human in front of him, he became upset. That feeling then turned to anger and he roared as he started trying to get Luffy even more furiously that he had been doing just moments ago.
Luffy managed to land a kick to Arlong's face with enough force that the giant fishman was sent backwards and a set of his teeth were knocked out. Iris wondered if perhaps Arlong taking out his teeth to use as weapons made his teeth more likely to come out on their own. It seemed like his teeth would have to be much looser than hers as she couldn't imagine hers popping out from a kick like that.
Luffy then proceeded to grab the teeth that had popped out and stuck them in his mouth. "Hey Iris! I've got teeth like you now! I can bite like a shark!" Luffy shouted and chomped the teeth together. He really should be taking the fight more seriously, but Iris couldn't help but laugh. He looked rather goofy with Arlong's teeth in his mouth, and nobody other than Luffy would come up with such an idea.
"Not quite. My teeth are better than Arlong's," she said tauntingly with a laugh.
"Aww... Can I have some of yours then?" Luffy asked.
"No," Iris replied.
"How long will you continue to insult me?!" Arlong roared and landed a blow on Luffy. It looked like Luffy was barely being able to dodge Arlong's attacks now, and Arlong was able to grab onto Luffy with one of the sets of teeth in his hands. Luffy cried out in pain and then bit down onto Arlong's shoulder with the pair of teeth he was wearing. Arlong was able to easily swat Luffy away though, and the teeth remained behind in Arlong's shoulder.
Arlong took the opportunity to brag about his race once more, and informed Luffy about how it wasn't just the teeth that made fishmen better than humans. Fishmen also had superior jaws, which wasn't entirely true. His statement held true for sharks like Arlong and Iris, but other types had jaws no different than humans. Saying that all fishmen had such powerful jaws was like saying that a house cat had the same force behind their bites that a lion did because they were both cats.
The continued fighting for awhile, and then Arlong disappeared. He had gone into the water right beside where they were fighting, and his dorsal fin could be seen poking out of the water as he swam. Luffy hadn't seen Arlong get into the water and thought that it was only a shark swimming when it was pointed out that Arlong was in the water.
Iris was curious to see what Arlong would do. Was he going to try and shoot water at Luffy as a weapon? Hopefully Luffy wouldn't do anything dumb enough that Arlong would be able to pull Luffy into the water. She didn't think she'd manage long in a fight against Arlong in the water to save Luffy in the state her body was in.
Arlong suddenly came shooting out of the water like a torpedo towards Luffy, and Luffy was barely able to avoid taking a direct hit. Arlong crashed through the building behind them with his saw-like nose piercing the wall. She could hear Arlong calling the attack "shark darts" as he tried to get Luffy again, but his nose got stuck in the concrete when Luffy dodged it.
Iris couldn't help but laugh at the stupid sounding name for the attack. She knew that it probably wasn't appropriate to be laughing while a battle was going on in front of her, but she couldn't help herself. Arlong took himself so seriously and yet he named his attack shark darts? Some of the villagers looked at her funny as she stood there trying to contain her laughter, and Arlong glared in her direction as he pulled his nose out of the ground.
"What is it you find so funny?" he asked her in a very controlled tone.
"Your attack... Shark darts? Really? You're telling me that's the best name you could come up with? Sounds like something a small child would come up with," as she tried and failed to contain her laughter.
"Does it matter what it's called when I will be skewering that pathetic captain of yours with it?" he asked. It was apparent that he was losing the control on his anger he was trying to keep as his voice started shaking a bit. His focus was completely off of Luffy now as she became the target of his anger.
"I can't figure you out. You want humans to take you seriously and to fear you, but you're so stupid! Stupid attack names, and your stupid feelings are hurt when it's pointed out. I can't take you seriously, so why would anybody else?" she taunted.
A new Anger then flashed in his eyes momentarily that sent a chill down her spine. She had seen that look once before, and it was the only time that she had ever seen her father lose control andbeat the crap out of a human. When she had been 14 and helping him out at the bar a pirate had come onto her, and her father called the pirate out on it. When the pirate didn't care that she was so young a furious anger came out of her father, and he beat the pirate to within an inch of his life. That was the same feeling that she had just gotten from Arlong.
"You're really trying my patience, girl. You keep running that mouth of yours and I won't hold back even with you being a fishman," Arlong growled. Iris was going to respond to Arlong, but she stopped when Luffy took advantage of Arlong's distraction with her and punched Arlong hard enough to send Arlong flying back into the water.
"You probably should have hit him away from the water..." Iris said.
"Yeah... That wasn't very smart, you dumb ass," Sanji agreed, and the other people around started encouraging Luffy to move before Arlong shot out of the water again. Johnny and Yosaku looked like they were about to pee themselves, and Nami looked concerned as well. It seemed that everybody other than Luffy was concerned about the situation.
Iris watched on as Luffy stood at the edge of the water and the people around her continued to urge Luffy to move, but he refused. Hopefully he had a plan that was better than his last plan of putting Arlong's teeth in his mouth. Luffy then put his hands in front of his body and held them there with a confident grin on his face.
"Gum Gum Shield!" Luffy yelled out as Arlong shot at him. Arlong was caught in Luffy's fingers and the Luffy shot backwards up onto the side of the building. They continued fighting for a bit until Luffy attacked Arlong again and completely pissed off the monster. Arlong's eyes flashed with the same anger that she had seen moments ago when she had made fun of him, but this time the look in his eyes didn't disappear.
"He looks just like a pissed off Sea King," Sanji observed out loud. She had never seen a Sea King before, but she had no doubt that the look on Arlong's face was something similar to that of what most would consider a real monster. Luffy had better be careful with this fight.
Iris looked over her shoulder to see how Zoro was doing, and he still looked to be in awful shape. She was about to walk back to him since there really wasn't anything she could do currently to help Luffy, but her attention was drawn back to the fight when everybody started making noise about a weapon that Arlong had pulled out. It was a large sword/saw type weapon. It had the handle of a sword, but the blade was jagged like a saw. It was long and looked quite sharp.
Arlong tried repeatedly to get Luffy with the weapon, and started attacking the building as he chased Luffy up it. When they disappeared into the building she decided to go check on Zoro. She felt kind of torn about walking away from the fight, but at the same time she was worried about Zoro. Besides, if she couldn't see what was going on with the fight she wouldn't be able to help out.
When she got next to Zoro his eyes were shut and he seemed to be struggling to breathe. The bandages around his chest didn't look like bandages any longer from all the blood that had soaked through them, and he was definitely running a fever. If something wasn't done about him soon he very well might die.
"Luffy's beating him, right?" Zoro asked her.
"Yeah, I think so," she replied.
"Good. I'll kill him if he loses," Zoro said. His voice was strained; he shouldn't be exerting the energy to talk right now. She didn't know how he was still conscious with as much blood as he had lost, and there was no point in asking him if she could do anything for him because he would insist he was fine. She had only known Zoro for less than two weeks at this point, but she had already figured out that he was incredibly stubborn and didn't accept help from others easily.
When she heard some crashing she looked back to Arlong Park and saw furniture and papers falling out of the building where Luffy and Arlong were fighting. Suddenly something broke through the roof and continued stretching upwards, and then the building came crashing down. Debris started flying as the building collapsed and some of the debris was flying straight towards her and Zoro. Iris stood up and used her remaining strength to kick the large chunks of debris away from them as it fell.
She looked back to Zoro who was now sitting up and taking off the bandages that were peeling off anyway. "We really should find you a doctor..." she said but he shook his head and said that they should go make sure Luffy was alright first. "That stubbornness of yours is going to get you killed," she continued and he looked back up at her with a glint in his eyes and a weak smirk on his face; apparently he took her words as a compliment.
She held out her hand to help pull him to his feet and he grabbed onto it. She winced at the pain that shot through her joints when she pulled him up, but tried to ignore it. If Zoro, who was worse of than her, could overlook his pain then she could do it too. Once he was steady on his feet they started walking towards the now flattened Arlong Park just in time to see Luffy break out of the debris.
"NAMI!" Luffy shouted, "You're part of my crew! Don't you ever forget that!"
"Okay," Nami responded with tears streaming down her face. Iris thought about giving Nami an official welcome to the crew, but decided against it. They had kept a large distance between themselves up until now. Iris having sudden change of heart about Nami would be weird for both of them.
"Good job, captain!" Iris shouted cheerfully instead. Beating a monster as strong as Arlong was no simple task; he had blown away her expectations with beating the fishman as quickly as he had.
Suddenly there was a few new people near the villagers and Iris saw red when she noticed that it was a navy officer. The navy officer was going on about something or another, but Iris wasn't listening. The rage shooting through veins was even more intense than she had ever felt.
She quickly ran through the villagers and jumped onto the unsuspecting officer and pinned him to the ground by sitting on his torso and holding his hands back with her still functioning right arm. The others with the navy officer tried to get her off of him, but between Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp they never made it to her.
"Get off me you filthy pirate!" the navy officer cried out. She positioned her legs so that she could place pressure on his knees while still keeping his legs down, and made it feel like she would break his knees. There was no way she would be able to do so from this position, but he seemed like a stupid enough man that he wouldn't know that.
"Please! Don't hurt me! Spare me!" the man cried out as she increased the pressure on his knees.
"How dare you ask me for mercy! You people didn't show my father mercy!" she screamed at him.
"I-I-I don't know what you're talking about!" he stuttered with a horrified look on his face.
"Four years ago a Tiger Shark fishman was arrested in the east blue. Where is he?" she screamed and the officer didn't answer her. She managed in all of her fury to get her left arm to work and she slapped the man across the face letting her nails dig into his skin as she did so. The pain as she slapped him was electric and immense, but it didn't matter. After four years of not being able to do anything to help find her dad, she was now face to face with a naval officer. Even if this man didn't have a hand in the arrest or her father he still belonged to the navy; he was guilty by association.
"I will kill you right here and now you piece of shit!" she growled.
"P-P-Please! D-D-Don't kill me! I don't know where the fishman is! I do remember his arrest... But I don't know anything else, I-I-I swear! You won't get away with doing this to me!" he squealed. This man must have absolutely no pride to openly act so terrified of her. That made her hate him even more.
"Your answer isn't good enough," she growled. She bared her teeth at him and fought the urge to sink her teeth into his neck. That would be the easiest and quickest way to end his life, but she wanted to keep herself above that. She didn't want that image ingrained in her friends' minds. Especially Nami.
"You're a monster! You're like Arlong!" he shouted when he made the connection of her being a fishman. Apparently he was so stupid that he didn't figure it out when she was asking about the fishman that was arrested, but showing her shark teeth made the connection clear.
"I'm nothing like Arlong!" she roared at him. "I'll give you one more chance. Where is the Tiger Shark fishman that was arrested four years ago?" she continued, trying to remain at least a little composure. If she lost it now she would look like a monster, and she couldn't let that happen. Not with what theses people had gone through. She couldn't let them think that all fishmen were monsters like Arlong.
"I said I don't know! I mean... I know he's imprisoned somewhere in the Grand Line, that is if he's still alive. But the Grand Line is large, and there are lots of prisons!" the man said and her anger rose even higher. She released his hands from her grip and used her right hand to punch him in the face breaking his jaw. How dare he suggest that her father might be dead!
"Iris... I've got some business with him too," she heard Nami say from behind her. She didn't move off the man, but she stopped pounding him in the face. Nami crouched down by the man's face and punched him with all of her might.
"You will give back all of my money that you stole from me, and leave it on this island. You won't take any of the treasure or money from Arlong Park either; it all belongs to the villagers here," Nami instructed. The man had tears running down his face and nodded his head in agreement. "If you go back on your word I'll let her kill you," Nami continued.
Iris knew by Nami's statement that she was now expected to let the man live. She hesitated in getting off of him though; it would take every ounce of control in her body to not kill him. She finally forced herself to stand up, but not without kicking her heel down straight into his torso as hard as she could, and then again in his crotch.
"You got lucky this time... You had better hope and pray that we never meet again. I will kill you without hesitation next time," Iris growled and then walked away from him.
"Remind me not to make you angry... You're kinda scary," Usopp said to her with a laugh obviously trying to lighten the mood somewhat. Iris forced a smile at him, but knew there was no way that it came across as genuine. Her blood was still boiling, but at least she got a little information about her dad. He was somewhere in the Grand Line, so she was safe to leave the East Blue with Luffy and the others.
With her anger still raging she decided to walk away from the others and let herself cool down. She looked around Arlong Park and saw the defeated bodies of the fishmen scattered around the park. The navy would soon come in and clean up this mess and arrest all the fishmen, and the only evidence of Arlong's terrible rule would be in the memories of the people that lived through it.
She walked to the rubble and kicked pieces of it over with her feet looking to see if there was anything of value. Perhaps there would be a sword. She still needed a sword of her own so that Zoro could teach her how to use one, and a free sword would be preferable to buying one somewhere. When she found a sword she bend over and picked it up. Hopefully this would be a good enough sword for him to teach her with.
As she looked at the bodies of the fishmen she couldn't help but be utterly disappointed. This was not how she had envisioned meeting other fishmen would go at all. She had hoped to meet others that would welcome her as one of their own, and be good and decent people. Instead she met very hateful fishmen that she wanted nothing to do with.
She had also learned that it wasn't just the humans that were racist. Fishmen were racist as well, and perhaps she didn't have a place among them after all. She wasn't fully human or fishman, and she had never thought about that being a problem for the fishmen like it could be with humans. The thought upset her after putting fishmen on such a high pedestal all those years, but it was probably good that her eyes were opened to that fact.
That racism would also make the friendships that she was building with her crew mates feel that much more important. Only time would tell, but she had a feeling that these people would continue to not care about her heritage. She had seen how protective Luffy was of his crew mates on this island; he was willing to turn this island upside down for Nami. Zoro had shown that he was protective of her when Arlong had grabbed onto her, and Sanji would be protective of her because she was a woman. She would never like being treated different because she was a woman, but the fact that being half fishman didn't change his opinion of her made her happy nonetheless.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see a man from Nami's village behind her. "I'm a doctor. Let's get your arm set," the man said and she agreed. She looked around for Zoro who needed much more immediate attention than she did, but didn't see him. "If you're looking for your green haired friend I had your captain take him back to the village already," the man explained.
She followed the doctor to the village and into a building. The doctor offered her one of the beds, but she declined and sat on a chair. The doctor quickly bandaged up Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp before turning his attention to Zoro.
"Doc, you should treat her before you treat that moss head! Ladies first!" Sanji protested.
"I'm fine. My arm won't get any more broken while I wait. He probably should have treated Zoro first," Iris said.
"But-" Sanji started but she told him to stop. She could understand the doctor quickly bandaging the others since it wouldn't take more than a few minutes, but her arm would probably take a bit to fix. Sanji offered to wait with her until her arm was fixed, but she told him no and sent him outside.
The doctor went to work on Zoro and Iris could hardly watch. He cleaned the wound and then started stitching up Zoro. Zoro was screaming out in pain as the needle and thread pierced his flesh to sew him up. After what seemed like an eternity of hearing Zoro in pain the doctor finished and turned his attention to her.
"Alright... This is probably going to hurt. I'm going to apologize in advance," the doctor said. The doctor examined her arm and shook his head multiple times as he looked her over. "Arlong really did a number on your arm. You'll be lucky to get even close to normal use of it again," the doctor said.
"You should be more positive, Doc. Tell me I'll heal up and my arm will be even stronger than it was before," she replied. The doctor laughed a little and then told her to brace herself for the pain. He set her arm and she clamped her jaw shut to try and prevent herself from screaming. The pain of setting her was even worse than when Arlong had inflicted the damage.
After her had set her arm he put some splints along her arm and wrapped them tight with bandages. He wrapped up her shoulder too after treating the wound from Arlong's teeth and braced it so that it would heal in the correctly. He then put her arm in a sling and instructed her not to even think of using it for a minimum of 4 weeks. That wouldn't happen, but she told him that she would do as he said.
"That's a pretty good tattoo," the doctor said as he looked at her tattoo. "The line work is pretty steady," he continued, and she asked him about his obvious interest in tattoos. He got a big grin on his face a bragged that he wasn't only a doctor, but also a tattoo artist.
"Oh, well I've been wanting a new tattoo. I don't have a way to pay for one right now though," she said, and he said that he'd do it for free because of her help in defeating the Arlong Pirates. He asked her about what she want, and she told him that she wanted the symbol on the flag for their pirate group. He left her in the room and returned about 15 minutes later.
He sat down at his desk and quickly drew out a sketch of the skull and crossbones with the straw hat, and it was perfect. She didn't want anything too big, and she wanted it in a navy blue ink that matched her original tattoo that was placed under her left collar bone. He was hesitant to do anything to the left side of her body because of the injuries, but agreed to do it.
When he was done with the tattoo he handed her a small mirror and she couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face. It was absolutely perfect! The pain of getting the tattoo had been nothing compared to getting her arm set, and so it was barely noticeable and now she had a new tattoo that would always remind her of time on this island and of her friends. This place would not be something that she would forget.
She thanked the doctor and walked out of the building to find Sanji and Usopp sitting on the porch outside. Sanji lit up when he saw her and she turned her attention away from him. Usopp was staring at her new tattoo and she grinned.
"Like it?" she asked and pointed to the new tattoo.
"That's my design from the flag!" Usopp shouted with pride. "You liked it well enough to get it tattooed on you?" he asked and she nodded. She explained that it was perfect for a tattoo because it was a representation of their group. She would always be tied to them with this mark on her body. It was kind of cute how happy Usopp was that she had his design tattooed on her. He looked like a giddy child whose artwork was being displayed by their parent.
"Ooh! You're even more sexy with a new tattoo! I love it!" Sanji cooed. She couldn't tell if he was staring at the tattoo or if he was really just staring at her chest, and if it wasn't for the fact that she was tired and sore she probably would have hit him. She let it go for now, but that didn't mean she'd let it go the next time it happened.
"Where did Luffy wander off to?" she asked them and they both shrugged their shoulders. She decided she would wander around and find him, though it wasn't like she had any particular reason to find him.
As she walked through to village it was filled with a joyous atmosphere, and there was good reason for it. These people had been imprisoned by Arlong for almost a decade and now they were free. There was a celebratory party planned for tonight and their pirate group had been invited, but Iris felt a little hesitant about getting too involved. The people here were wary of her, and she didn't blame them for that. The doctor was the only one she had come across so far that treated her with the same attitude he treated her crew mates.
She could feel the eyes of the villagers on her as she walked through the town. She took a deep breath trying to calm her nerves, and knew that she had to hide her annoyance at all costs. She kept repeating to herself that she couldn't be upset with these people. She knew she had an easily triggered temper, but today she was really finding how deep it ran through her. She knew 100% that these people were not at fault for being suspicious of her, but that didn't seem to stop her blood pressure from sky rocketing when they looked at her.
"Looking for something?" she heard a female voice say from behind her, and she turned around to see Nami's older sister. Nojiko walked up to Iris with a friendly expression and no obvious suspicion in her eyes. Considering everything that Nojiko had been through Iris didn't know how Nojiko could approach her so easily.
"I was looking to see where Luffy had gone off to..." Iris replied.
"He's over trying to sneak food that's being prepared for the big feast tonight," Nojiko said with a laugh. That seemed like Luffy alright. More often than not food was on Luffy's mind, and it seemed like he was always hungry.
"How's Nami doing?" Iris asked Nojiko changing the subject.
"She's doing better than I've seen her in years. I think she's really excited to be leaving here with you folks. She keeps talking about her new friends, and how she's going to be able to accomplish her goal of creating a map of the world. You guys must be pretty amazing to win her over like that," Nojiko replied and Iris didn't respond. She knew that Nami seemed to get along with the boys just fine, but at best the two girls had put up with each other on the boat.
"She means you too, ya know. She knows none of this is related to you. And she mentioned something about how seeing you act so emotional was weird. She was embarrassed for you," Nojiko said with a wink and Iris felt her face turn red.
"I'll get her for that comment..." Iris mumbled and Nojiko laughed. Nojiko also suggested going and talking to the villagers and getting to know them. It would probably be awkward since they all found out during the fight that she was part fishmen, but they would still be grateful to one of the people who helped defeat Arlong and his gang. Nojiko thought it would be good for them to get to know a fishman that wasn't entirely evil.
Iris watched as Nojiko walked away and was still annoyed that Nami would say such a thing about her. She had gone through a range of emotions today that she wasn't used to dealing with. Dealing with the emotions, in a way, was even more exhausting than the fight against the fishmen had been. Expressing her emotions to Nami had been difficult and unnerving, and the only thing Nami took away from it was that it was weird?
Iris tried to push the thoughts out of her head, but she couldn't quite shake the annoyance as she continued walking through the village. An older woman called out to get her attention and Iris walked over to her. She had a kind smile and kind eyes as she held out a glass of iced tea to Iris.
"I know it's not much, but it's hot outside and this is my way of saying thank you for freeing us. And for freeing Nami," the woman said. Iris smiled and grabbed the glass while thanking the woman. "You look like you're quite beat up... I'm sorry that happened to you," the woman said and Iris responded that it was nothing. While Iris stood there talking with the old woman a few other villagers sheepishly joined the conversation. After a few minutes had gone by all the awkwardness that was present in the small group left and Iris saw that these humans didn't hate her; they had no idea what to think of her since they had never met a fishman that wasn't part of the Arlong Pirates. They seemed to come to the conclusion that she was a good person, and they were okay with her.
After awhile had passed she excused herself from them and decided to walk back to the doctor's place and see how Zoro was. When she had left the room he was passed out and hopefully on his way to recovery. She realized that she had left the sword she picked up back there too, and so she needed to get it as well.
It took her much longer to get back to the doctor's place than she had anticipated because people kept stopping her to see if she was alright, and to thank her for her part in defeating Arlong. She realized that the villagers that had been staring at her weren't necessarily staring because they disliked her, but because they didn't quite know what to think of her. Once the old woman broke they ice by giving her a drink the rest of the town seemed to have been given a green light. She was happy that her suspicions about them were wrong.
When she got back to the doctor's place Zoro was now sitting out front, Sanji was running around trying to hit on the women, and Usopp was standing on a structure singing a song about how great he was to anybody that would listen. The feast had started, and the sun was starting to set into the horizon.
"How are you feeling?" she asked Zoro as she sat down on the porch near him.
"I'll be fine once I sleep it off," he replied. She could now smell all of the food that was around and her stomach growled. She thought she should go get some food before it all disappeared, but then Sanji appeared out of nowhere with a plate full of food for her. He asked her if she needed anything else and she asked him if he would go find something to drink; preferably some whiskey but she'd take any form of alcohol. She was capable of doing so herself, but sending him off on some mission would get him away for a bit longer.
She asked Zoro if he had seen Luffy and replied that he had, but Luffy was busy stuffing his face and was on a mission to find some meat and melon dish. Zoro then noticed her new tattoo and asked where she had gotten it, and she told him about how the doctor was also a tattoo artist.
"Huh... Well I guess that means you can't change your mind on being part of this crew," he said.
"I wasn't planning on changing my mind," she replied.
Sanji showed back up and sure enough he had found some whiskey for her. He didn't know if she had wanted it on the rocks, straight, in a mixed drink, or for shots so he brought her a bottle. She thanked him and took the bottle from him. She opened it up to smell it and was quite happy with it. It smelled warm and smokey, and just how good whiskey should.
She almost drank straight from the bottle as she had done many times back at home in her bar, but she knew that probably wasn't the best idea with all these people around to watch her. She went and found a couple of glasses and returned to her seat to find Zoro sleeping once again. She put the glasses down and poured some whiskey in a glass for herself.
She sat down and sipped on the whiskey letting the alcohol warm her throat as it went down. Not only was it good whiskey, it was strong. She could feel the pain in her left arm starting to diminish as she drank the alcohol. She rested her head against the wooden pole next to her on the porch and watched and the villagers celebrated their long awaited freedom. In that moment she was glad that she was able to be part of something so wonderful, and it didn't matter that she was half fishman and half human to any of these humans. All that mattered was that the evil that plagued this island was gone.
She woke up the next morning not remembering having fallen asleep. Somebody must have carried her off the porch, because she was on a bed inside the doctor's place. She went to push herself up and winced when she put pressure on her left arm. She quickly shifted her weight onto her right arm and sat up. She swung her feet over the edge of the bed and stood up. She grabbed the sword she had found at Arlong Park and walked out of the room.
The first thing she saw when she walked out was a grumpy looking Zoro being lectured by the doctor on how he needed to take better care of his body. She walked up to them and thanked the doctor for taking care of her once more, and for the tattoo. The doctor smiled at her and Zoro complained that it wasn't fair that doctor was so much nicer to her than him. The doctor continued lecturing Zoro but changed the subject of the lecture. If Zoro wanted people to be nice to him then perhaps he should be more pleasant like Iris was.
Iris excused herself from them and started walking back to where the Going Merry should be. When she got to it the ladder was already lowered, and so she stuck the hilt of the sword in between her teeth and climbed up the ladder with her still functioning right arm.
When she got on board she was surprised to see that somebody had planted some full grown tangerine trees on the ship. She was curious where they came from and why they were there, but she didn't see any of her crew mates on board yet to ask.
She then walked to her and Nami's room to see if Nami had taken all the money she had earned the couple days she worked at Baratie. She set the sword against the wall and much and to her surprise the money was still tucked away in her bag and kicked under her bed where she had left it. She stuffed the money back in her bag and shoved it back under the bed. Had Nami not seen where she had stashed her money? She had figured that Nami had been watching her every move up until when she took off with the Going Merry yesterday morning.
She plopped down on her bed and let her mind wander to the events from the past 24 hours. Her mind was significantly clearer now and her emotions had settled back down to a more normal place. She had learned a lot on this little island that she would take with her on her travels with Luffy and the others. The most important thing she had learned was that her father had been taken to the Grand Line, thought that piece of information wasn't entirely helpful with as big as the Grand Line is. It still was a piece of the puzzle though, and it was more than she had known before. She had also learned that fishmen could be just as racist as humans, and how ugly hate was.
She could clearly see why her father had been so intent on trying to teach her to love humans. She imagined that there were plenty of fishmen just like Arlong who hated humans with a burning passion, and that hate turned them into relentless monsters. She knew that she would have to work on herself to be more like her dad. Her current reaction to people tended to be anger, but she couldn't let herself turn into somebody like Arlong. Hopefully traveling with Luffy would prevent that; she had now found a group of humans that she could call friends.
When she could finally hear some noise coming from other parts of the boat she hopped off her bed and made her way out to the main deck. She found Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp were all there and they were saying goodbye to Johnny and Yosaku. The only person they were missing was Nami now.
"Oh, you're already here!" Luffy exclaimed when he saw her. His normal goofy grin was on his face, and his straw hat placed on his head. She smiled back at him, and as she walked closer he seemed to notice the new tattoo on her chest. "Is that a real tattoo?!" he shouted, and she nodded her head yes with a laugh.
After Luffy had finished gawking at her tattoo he changed the subject and said that they should get going. Iris asked him about Nami, but he said that she was the one who said that they should set sail. Did that mean that Nami had changed her mind after all? Iris could blame her if she did, after all she had just been freed along with the entire village and it would be tough to leave that.
Sanji started whining about wanting Nami to come along as the anchor raised, but he stopped when they all noticed somebody running through all the villagers that had assembled to see Nami off. The crowd was making noise and Iris was able to see that it was Nami rushing through the crowd.
When Nami got to the edge of the dock she jumped and somehow managed to land on the boat. Iris was surprised that Nami had been able to as she hadn't figured Nami was that athletic. Sanji immediately started fawning over Nami as the villagers were making an unhappy ruckus as the boat started to sail away. Nami got a large grin on her face and started dropping wallets from her hands and pockets.
At first the villagers seemed upset to have their wallets stolen, but that didn't last. They started yelling for her to come back soon and about how much they would miss her and Nami shouted back her goodbyes to everybody she was leaving behind. Nami had a genuine looking smile on her face, and Iris hoped that they'd be able to start things off on the right foot this time.
Nami turned towards the rest of them and her smile faded slightly when her eyes fell on Iris. Iris sighed and asked Nami if they could go talk in private for a bit. Nami hesitated, but did agree to go talk with her. Sanji was protesting them leaving him with just the guys, but he stopped when Iris shot him an angry glare.
The two walked back to their room and once they were in with the door shut behind them Iris turned to face Nami, and put her hand out towards Nami. "Hi, I'm Iris. I'm half fishman and half human. I like fighting, and am going to rescue my dad, a fishman, from wherever the navy has him imprisoned," Iris said feeling stupid, but this was the first thing that popped into her head to do. She wanted to start over on their relationship, and she wasn't sure how to best express that. Hopefully Nami would understand what she was trying to get at.
Nami looked at her strangely, but then laughed and put her hand in Iris' and shook it. "Hi Iris, I'm Nami. I like money, and tangerines. I'm going to make a map of the world," Nami said. Iris smiled at Nami, and they each sat down on their beds sitting across from each other.
"I know it'll probably take awhile... But, I really do want to work on being friends. I can't take back the hell that Arlong and his gang put you through, and I know you've got a lot of scars left by them. I'll show you that we're not all the same," Iris said.
Nami looked down at the ground and they sat in silence for awhile. When Nami looked back up she had a fake smile on her face. She said that she knew that all fishmen weren't the same, just like all humans weren't the same. Her words weren't convincing though. Iris knew that Nami was at least trying, but it would take a lot trust on both of their sides before they would truly be friends.
"Aaand... I think I may have liked the angry Iris that I saw since we left your hometown more; it seems to fit you better," Nami said with a laugh when Iris didn't respond to her the empty sounding words.
"That's right... Your sister said something about that..." Iris mumbled as annoyance rose up in her. Nami laughed again, though this time the laughter seemed a little more genuine. Apparently getting a reaction out of Iris was funny to Nami, and that just made Iris more annoyed.
"Let's go back out to where the others are, maybe Sanji's cooking breakfast," Iris said as she stood up from her bed trying to look past her annoyance. Nami nodded in agreement and they walked back out where the others were. Iris could smell being cooked in the kitchen, Zoro was sleeping, and Usopp and Luffy were talking.
"Where are we headed next, navigator?" Iris asked.
"I've got the perfect place in mind," Nami responded.