Taking in a Stray Cat

by fmdevil

AU: Despite the rumors about Kuraigana Island being home to a Green Demon who carries three swords; the cat burglar Nami couldn't pass up the huge score of treasure said to be left on the island.But when she is caught by the Demon, the Demon's friends and family find out and try to make him keep her.But how does Nami feel about all that?

14. Chapter 11

Taking in a Stray Cat: Chapter 11

…

After shockingly witnessing the colorful ship burst through the gates of Arlong Park; Nojiko, Genzo, and the rest of the Cocoyasi Villagers hurried the rest of their way to stone wall that surrounded the complex. As they approached cautiously they noticed a large hole had been broken through the wall, and lying on the ground underneath that hole was the still body of a large fishman. Genzo held his hand up to stop the rest of the villagers from proceeding as another yellow skinned fishman with bright orange hair crawled through the hole to check on the one that was lying on the ground motionless. All the villagers did nothing, and said nothing as they only observed what was happening from a distance; they were still in shock at what was unfolding in front of them. From where they were standing they couldn't quite see exactly what was going on, but they could hear it: they heard painful screams and loud explosions on the other side of the wall as the battle started to heat up between the fishman and whoever the mysterious pirates that had crashed through the gates were, but the strangest sound the villagers could hear was a loud and joyful "Shishishi..!" laughter that could be heard even from where they were standing. But all of the villagers' observations soon went back to the yellow fishman as he spoke to the large one lying on the ground.

"Hody-sama, are you alright?" Hammond questioned with concern in his voice as he tried to help the larger fishman to his feet.

"How dare…" Hody began to say through ragged breaths. "How dare he?!" Hody was able to stand up onto two shaky legs, weary from the pain coursing through his entire body from the impact of smashing through the stone wall. "How dare a filthy human touch me?!" Hody's voice bellowed out, causing all the villagers to shake in fear that the enraged fishman may turn their way to take out his obvious anger on them, but he didn't turn to them, instead he quickly grabbed Hammond by the open sides of his shirt, pulling the dagger tooth fishman towards him, and telling him in a menacing tone "give them to me!"

"Give… give what to you Hody-sama?" Hammond questioned shakily.

"The bottle of energy-steroids you're hiding in your pocket baka!" Hody was no fool, he knew that Hammond had stolen a bottle of steroids from the supply that they were going to give Arlong, most likely to sell behind Hody's back for some extra Beli, which usually Hody couldn't have cared less what the pike conger fishman had planned for the steroids; Hody didn't desire money, he desired power and vengeance, and as long as the steroids would've been used by a fishman to possibly kill some humans, he would've ignored Hammond's antics… but now was different, because "I need them! So give them to me dammit!"

"Of course Hody-sama." Hammond agreed as he reached into his pocket with a shaky hand, and pulled out the bottle of pills before presenting it to his captain. The great white shark fishman quickly snatched the bottle from Hammond's hand, and tore the top off as quickly as he could, before dumping the entire contents of at least 50 pills into his mouth. "Hody-sama, that's too many!" Hammond exclaimed with concern. "No one has ever ate that many at once, who knows what kind of strain that will have on you…"

"AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH..!" Hody screamed out as his body doubled over in pain, while Hammond and the rest of the villagers could only watch on in shock.

-0-0-0-0-

Inside the complex of Arlong Park the battle continued as Arlong's and Hody's men desperately tried to subdue the incredible power of the Straw-hat pirates, but despite the superior numbers of the fishman, Luffy and crew could not be pushed back.

Nami could only watch in amazement of the strength of her nakama, as each one was able to take down fishman after fishman. To her surprise, even Usopp and Chopper, who had seemed so terrified only moments before on the ship, now seemed unstoppable as the sniper took down multiple enemies with his Kuro Kubuto*, and Chopper's body transformed into a different form that she heard him refer to as Kung Fu Point, and he was able to easily defeat multiple enemies with agility and precision. Her attention was often drawn towards the boisterous voices of Franky and Brook, whose laughs of "Yohohoho", and calls of "SUPER" could be heard after they landed successful attacks on their own opponents, but would soon be brought elsewhere though, as two gigantic feminine legs would appear behind Robin, and the legs would soon start stamping down on the shocked fishmen fighters below, as Robin just stood in one spot with her hands crossed in front of her chest, and she had a small amused smile on her face. Nami continued to watch on in awe at the sight of Sanji repeatedly taking to the sky, only to descend quickly into packs of the Fishmen fighters, and make short work of them while using sequences of well-placed kicks. But it was of course Luffy's strength and fighting that amazed her the most, as he easily pummeled enemy after enemy, all while laughing joyfully with his signature "Shishishi…", Nami could tell Luffy was enjoying himself, that he was happy to be in the heat of battle again, and feeling the rush of adventure and danger.

To Nami's surprise, Zoro had actually been reserving himself, choosing to instead stay near her side, and only attack any fishman fighter that would unwisely try and attack him, or herself. She could tell he was itching to jump into the fray, and test his might against the fishmen, but he wanted to protect her more, which she was truly grateful for. Sure, Nami could hold her own in a fight, but she would be lying if she said that she wasn't still terrified of the fishmen monsters that had caused her and her family so much pain and suffering for so many years, and even though being around Zoro and the rest of the Straw-hat Crew made her feel strong and secure, there were just some battles she couldn't fight… yet.

"What are all you baka doing?!" Arlong bellowed from his relatively safe spot near his palace, alongside Hatchan, Chu, Kuroobi, while Hyouzou stood several feet away, never even bothering to remove his lips from his gourd. "How are you all letting these weak humans make you all look like pathetic worms?!" Confusion and frustration were clear and evident in Arlong's eyes, as he couldn't believe what he was seeing. In his mind the fishmen race was invincible, and yet he was watching eight measly human pirates destroy his unbeatable army with ease. "Someone put a stop to these damn humans already!"

Arlong's request would not go unheard, as two of his most trusted nakama would decide to finally enter the fray. First it was Kuroobi; he had noticed that Brook was nearby, and currently the skeleton had his back towards the Fishman Karate practitioner, as well as Brook seemed quite distracted after having successfully felled several fishman soldiers. Kuroobi wasted no time in bridging the distance between him and Brook, and having no problems with fighting dirty, he quickly tried to Palm Strike the swordsman from behind, but his strike did not meet Brook's back, and instead met the sole of Sanji's shoe.

"Oi, what's the big idea of attacking a man from behind, you shitty fish?" Sanji said with a cigarette hanging loosely in between his lips.

Having now noticed his nakama and Kuroobi directly behind him, Brook quickly turned around to face them with a startled expression visible on his skull. "Ah, thank you Sanji-san! You literally saved the skin on my back… though I have no skin. Yohohoho!"

"Tch…" Kuroobi sounded off at the expert chef. "For you to be able to stop my attack, I'll admit that you're above average for a human, but don't think for a moment you stand a chance against the superior might of my Fishman Karate." The Ray-Fishman decided to concentrate his attention onto Sanji instead, and launched a series of attacks towards the cook…

-0-0-0-0-

The other one of Arlong's most trusted nakama to join the fight was Chew. He had been watching the large Franky continuously assault his fellow fishmen with attacks that the cyborg called Weapons Left, which consisted of machine gun fire coming from his left hand, Strong Right which allowed his fist to be propelled forward and retract back to the forearm with a chain, and the most annoying of all in Chew's opinion was the Nipple Lights, that were literally bright lights that would flash from Franky's nipples, that the cyborg had been using to blind his enemies before pummeling them with an attack. Chew had seen enough of the shipwright's antics and decided he was going to try and put a stop to it with a gun of his own.

As Franky was just about to land another Strong Right on a fishman soldier, Chew quickly used his Mizudeppo* to spit a strong stream of water at the large man, which caused Franky to stumble back a couple of feet due to not being prepared for the attack, but besides the initial shock of being attacked from a distance with water, Franky was otherwise unfazed. "Ow, so you want to trade off some fire power with me, huh big lips?" The cyborg jeered in response to the smelt-whiting fishman's attack. "Then let's see how you like my WEAPONS LEFT!"

Franky took aim and started firing in Chew's direction, but the fishman was able to avoid pretty easily and returned a series of shots of his own. "You better not think you're the only one capable of rapid fire, Chu!" The blue-skinned fishman yelled to Franky before sending a volley of water streams at him with his Hyappatsu Mizudeppo* technique…

-0-0-0-0-

Arlong let a sinister sneer form on his face as he watched his trusted nakama join in on the battle, he truly felt that this was going to be the turning point, and that with superior fighters like Kuroobi and Chew leading the charge, the human pirates before him would soon meet their defeats. Any doubt that he had been feeling was fading quickly, and in his mind he knew that initially the inferior human scum had just caught them all by surprise… but there was also no denying that those scum had done quite an amount of damage to the fishmen ranks, and that it was going to take more than just Kuroobi and Chew to finish the job.

"Oi, Hyouzou!" Arlong barked at the octopus merman. "Quit drinking and make yourself useful. You're supposed to be the best swordsman on Fishman Island, get out there and prove it."

Hyouzou removed the gourd from his mouth and looked at Arlong with glazed over eyes before responding "Hic… You're not the one… hic… paying me…" His speech was slurred, and the drunken expression on his face was evident for all to see. "Hic… either do it yourself… hic… or pay me… hic…"

"Tch. You damn drunken baka… fine, I'll pay you whatever you want, but only if you actually go out there and kill some of these damn human vermin." Arlong conceded through bared teeth.

A smirk befell Hyouzou's face at Arlong's promise for reward; he quickly drank the rest of the contents of the gourd, unsheathed a sword, and readied himself to show off his skills to his new client, now it was just a matter of picking a victim. His hazed eyes fell on the form of the strange Tanuki* who was in the middle of combat with a few other fishmen soldiers, and with his target selected he prepared himself to go in for the kill… but suddenly went pale and keeled over in pain. "ARRRGGGHHH…!" He screamed out before clutching his stomach with one of his arms, before falling forwards towards the ground.

"Dammit, have you drunk yourself so stupid that you're completely useless?" Arlong seethed through grit teeth, after realizing that Hyouzou was probably out of commission before he even did anything. "What about you Hachi?" Arlong questioned the Octopus Fishman, starting to get angry that he had yet to jump into the battle. "Don't just stand there dammit, do something!"

Hatchan was hesitant to participate in the battle, because no matter how much he tried to see where this battle would benefit the Fishman race, he just couldn't. He had been watching his fellow fishmen getting hurt by these human pirates, and knew that other fishmen would continue to get hurt in future battles to come as well. Sure he still believed that fishmen were naturally stronger than humans, but he also knew that war came at a cost, and this battle was just a reminder of how high that cost could be. Plus if he was being honest, he couldn't really blame the humans for what they were doing right now. Despite his loyalty to Arlong, Hatchan had never wanted to rule over the humans like his fellow nakama, he had merely dreamed of being accepted by human society, and had thought that he may be able to find a way for that dream to come true by following Arlong and living on the surface where the humans were, but he was starting to see how wrong he was, because as long as fishmen like Arlong and Hody were around, there could never be peace between the two races. He had watched Arlong's tyranny for years, and knew that Arlong didn't want to live with the humans, he wanted to destroy them, and as long as the humans feared fishmen like Arlong, and himself, they too would want to destroy all fishmen. Regardless of how much he didn't want to, Hatchan felt that the only means of survival at this moment was to fight.

"Nyu… What do you want me to do Arlong?" Hatchan asked his captain as he readied his six cutlasses for battle.

"That's the spirit Hachi." Arlong was pleased to see that Hatchan was on board and ready to fight. "I want you to show these humans that we won't be taken lightly. Go out there and kill that damned Roronoa, and then drag that traitor Nami back over here so I can personally make her watch me kill every damn human on this island."

Hatchan felt sick with guilt for the next words he spoke, but he truly believed that this was the only option he had "Nyu… Yes Arlong."

The Octopus Fishmen wasted no time in moving to carry out his orders; he quickly ran across the battlefield towards his targets, the famous Pirate Hunter, and someone he thought he would never have to fight, Nami. He made no efforts to try and be sneaky like Kuroobi and Chew had, and approached Zoro head on instead. The human swordsman's one good eye locked directly onto to Hatchan as the fishman continued to charge, and he readied himself for Hatchan's attack. As Hatchan closed in, he leapt into the air, and tried to bring all six of his cutlasses down onto Zoro, only to be stopped with ease by two of Zoro's swords. The two swordsmen were locked into a standoff as Hatchan tried to push Zoro backwards to gain the upper hand, but the Pirate Hunter stood firm and only applied enough strength to keep the octopus fishman at bay.

Nami stood several feet behind Zoro, and could only watch the confrontation unfold. She was shocked to see that it was Hatchan trying to fight Zoro, as she had always thought a little higher of him than the rest of Arlong's crew. "You too Hachi?" The navigator questioned from where she had been standing. "I know you're loyal to Arlong, but I always thought you were the good one, and you would eventually see that he is wrong, and needs to be stopped."

Hatchan didn't make eye contact with her, in fact he lowered his gaze for a moment before bringing it back onto the Santoryu Master, and responding. "Nyu… It's your fault Nami, if you hadn't have betrayed Arlong two years ago, than it would've never got his far. He would've come to his senses and forgot about trying to rule over the humans, and maybe just chosen to try and live amongst them instead."

"That's bullshit and you know it Hachi!" Nami snarled at him. "I didn't betray Arlong, I was always going to pay him to release the village, even after he stole all my money! He's the one that betrayed me! And deep down you know that he was always going to betray me! Arlong would never chose to live amongst us, he hates us, and will always hate us! The only one you're fooling is yourself if you actually think he will change."

Hatchan didn't respond to her, he instead tried to shut her out and ignore her words, but he couldn't ignore them all, and he knew she was right. He knew that no matter how much he wanted to be accepted by the humans, Arlong wanted no part of that, and deep down he always knew that Arlong would need to be stopped one day… but he also felt his own sins were too great, and that if Arlong would have to be stopped, he should have to suffer the same fate.

"Oi squid…" Zoro barked at Hatchan, bringing the octopus fishman's attention fully back onto him. "What the hell are you playing at?"

"Nyu… I'm an octopus, not a squid, are you stupid?" Hatchan questioned, confused at Zoro's remark. "And I'm not playing at anything, Nyu… I need to defeat you, and take Nami back to Arlong."

"Tch," Zoro sounded off at the Fishman's response. "If you really mean that, than why aren't you fighting for real?" The Pirate Hunter finally decided to put an end to their little standoff, and he put some force behind his blades to send Hatchan back several feet. "You have no killing intent behind your blades. It's like you want to lose." Zoro's expression, and his words, were harsh. He was not amused that the Octopus Fishman wasn't putting any heart into the battle, and felt that this exchange was a waste of his time. "If you're not going to even try and put up a decent fight, than you should just run away and get out of my sight."

Hatchan could only stare at Zoro with disbelief after being thrown backwards so easily. He could tell from just looking at the man before him that he was well outclassed and stood no chance of beating him in a fair fight. 'Fight or run, and get out of his sight…' Hatchan pondered to himself. Though Zoro was right about the fishman's heart not being in the fight, he couldn't just run. "Nyu… I don't have a choice, I have to fight." Hatchan told the Pirate Hunter. "But I will get out of your sight, Nyu…"

The Octopus Fishman quickly shot ink out of his mouth towards Zoro, catching the Santoryu Master off guard. Zoro was just barely able to turn his head to the side to avoid a direct hit to his one good eye, but despite turning his head, some ink still managed to get into his eye, and effectively blackened his vision.

Seeing that his surprise attack worked, and that he had his opponent stumbling, Hatchan wasted no time in moving in for the kill. He bridged the gap between them, and drew back his swords to land the killing blow.

"Zoro!" Nami screamed out in panic, hoping that maybe if she alerted him, he would be able to jump out of the way of the fishman's attack, possibly into the pool where he might be able to wash out some of the ink. But Zoro didn't jump out of the way… nor was Hatchan able to land his killing strike, because just before all six blades were to make contact with their intended target, Zoro countered with "Tatsu Maki*" and sent Hatchan spiraling into the air in a whirlwind pain, before the Octopus Fishman landed into the water pool that was only a couple of feet away.

Afterwards the water had settled from the splash, Zoro put his two swords away and turned towards Nami, before pulling his black bandana off of his arm and begin to wipe the ink off of his face. "I was afraid you couldn't see him." Nami spoke, still a little shaken from having been so close to the action.

"I couldn't." Zoro stated nonchalantly. Continuing to wipe the ink from his face and eye.

"If you couldn't see him, how were you able to know where he was?" She questioned him with a range of mixed emotions, ranging from confused, impressed, and a little remorseful because regardless of what Hatchan was trying to do, she didn't feel that he deserved that. "And did you really have to kill him?"

"Hmph…" Zoro let out a grunt, to show that he understood her feelings. "A true swordsman should be able to master all of his senses for battle. I don't rely on just my sight, especially since I only have one eye left." Nami nodded her head to show she understood, before looking down at the pool regretfully. "And don't worry about the squid, I didn't kill him." She looked back at him in shock, as well as hope, awaiting his continued explanation. "If he wasn't going to take this seriously, I saw no reason to do so myself, I only used two of my swords and just enough of my strength to show him just how far apart we really were. He'll be fine as long as he doesn't stress the wounds I've given him."

Nami only stood and looked on at Zoro in awe; she knew that he was strong, but to be able to beat Hatchan who was one of Arlong's strongest crew members with such ease, and without sight… the pure idea of it was almost impossible to comprehend. In her twelve years that she had dealings with the fishmen, she had always known that they were too strong to be defeated by any one force, but now, after having seen it herself, after watching fishman after fishman fall at the hands of Luffy, Zoro, and the rest of the crew, that reality had crumbled apart. Her dread and despair of thinking she may always be enslaved by Arlong's tyranny was disappearing with the defeat of each fishman. And with only a handful of fighters left to fight alongside Arlong, Nami could feel her and the villager's freedom finally in her grasp. She felt a huge weight being lifted from her shoulders with each passing moment.

She looked at Zoro gratefully, and wanted to thank him, but noticed his attention was elsewhere. It was on Sanji and his battle with Kuroobi. Nami also turned her attention to it just in the nick of time to see Sanji land his finishing blow on the Ray Fishman. "Collier*!" He shouted out before his foot met the neck of Kuroobi, knocking the fishman out, and sending him flying into a nearby wall. Nami felt more weight being lifted off of her shoulders as she watched the chef remove a cigarette from his pocket, and enjoy a victory smoke. With one more of Arlong's crew defeated, Nami could feel her freedom that much closer.

Nami took a moment to just stop and observe the palace grounds; she looked at the numerous bodies of unconscious fishmen strewn about, and the victorious forms of most of the Straw-hat Pirates standing above those bodies, completely unscathed. She could hear the battle becoming quieter, in fact it was almost silent except for one exception. "Weapons Left!" Nami heard Franky scream as he continued his exchange of firepower with Chew, only for fishman to continue to counter with Hyappatsu Mizudeppo. Nami narrowed her eyes at the cyborg, she could tell that he was just playing with Chew and could end the battle at any time, but chose instead to continue the charade as some kind of show of macho bravado. She was just about to stomp over there and end the battle herself, but was beaten to the punch by…

"Midori Boshi: Impact Wolf*!" Usopp shouts as he launches an impact dial directly towards Chew. Said fishman turns towards the shouting just in time to see a large green chunk of grass in the shape of a wolf heading towards him. Chew's face goes pale as he realizes that he doesn't have time to avoid the attack, and it smacks him directly in the face, knocking him out, and sending him hurling backwards in the process.

"Oi! What's the big idea long-nose bro?" Franky questioned in protest to Usopp. "He and I were having a match to see whose firepower was superior, and I was just about to show him that his was never a match for my onslaught of Super Franky Firepower!" The cyborg struck his signature pose at his proclamation.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk…" Usopp responded while waving a finger at the larger man. "True firepower isn't about the amount of shots you can fire, it's about the amount of shots that hit their target." Usopp had a confident smile on his face as he stood tall, puffed out his chest, and said "And I, the Great Captain Usopp, only need one shot to prove that I have the ultimate firepower!" before striking his own signature pose with his thumb pointing to his chest.

Nami let a large smile of her own cross over her face at the sight of the two men bickering about who had the greater firepower. She almost wanted to laugh, because their argument didn't even matter, what mattered was that one more of Arlong's crew had fallen. One more fishman soldier was down for the count. All that was left of Arlong's crew, was the Saw-shark Fishman himself. Nami's eyes became serious and hardened as she turned her attention onto Arlong. She wanted to see the look on his face as he realized that his great fishman race had lost, and his expression spoke volumes, it was one of disbelief, and if Nami was correct, it was also an expression of fear.

"This is impossible!" Arlong screamed out in frustration. "How can this have happened? This must be some kind of joke! My brethren have been defeated… by these vermin?"

"Kuh… kuh…" A large fishman laying near Arlong coughed out, drawing the saw-shark fishman's attention. Arlong didn't know the fishman, it must have been one of the ones that had showed up with Hody. "Kuh… don't worry Arlong-sama." The fishman spoke as he shakenly stood to his feet. "It's not over yet. We still have the energy steroid." The fishman quickly popped a steroid into his mouth, and after only a moment passing after swallowing, the energy returned to the once defeated fishman "RRAAWW!" The large nameless soldier screamed out with a newfound vigor, a scream that was like a rallying cry to other defeated fishman, as several others also stood to their feet, ate the steroid, and also regained their fighting spirit.

"Shishishi!" Luffy laughed excitedly. "So you guys still want to fight? That's great, because I was getting bored. Gum-gum…"

"Uchimizu*!" A voice shouted from outside the palace grounds, before a small concentrated ball of water flew towards Luffy. The rubber-man was just barely able to stop his own attack, and put his arms up and channel his Busoshoku Haki* before the small ball of water struck him with a great force which was strong enough to send him hurling backwards straight through the walls of Arlong's Palace.

All attention went to the direction of Luffy's attacker, and shocked eyes fell on the form of a much different looking Hody Jones, who was standing just on the outside of the Arlong Park walls, through the hole that Luffy had punched him through before the battle had begun. Hody was almost unrecognizable because he no longer had his large belly, or his dark hair, and instead his body had become much more muscular, and his hair had turned pure white. Hody visibly seethed with anger and hatred, and his murderous intent for Luffy was radiating off of him. "This little game of yours is over." He spoke menacingly. His words were to all of the Straw-hat crew, but mainly to Luffy. "I'll make you pay for having the audacity to put your hands on me, you pathetic land-worm!" Hody reached out each of his hands, one to the left side of the hole in the wall, the other to the right, and with only a slight movement of his elbows, he destroyed more of the wall in an almost explosive fashion, causing bricks and debris to go flying in almost all directions. "RRAAWW!" He screamed out as he ran through the now bigger opening, straight into Arlong's Palace through the hole he had knocked Luffy through to finish off his prey.

Part of Arlong wanted to protest the fact that Hody was destroying his Palace, as well as the wall that separates his Arlong Park from the outside world, but he was too in awe of what he was seeing transpire around him to voice his complaints. He had heard other fishman speak of the benefits of the energy-steroid, but not even he had imagined how powerful the drug was. He could only sit back and watch as the newly revitalized New Fishman Pirates charged at their enemy with vigor. "Hic…" Arlong heard from right behind him, causing him to turn to see Hyouzou start to get himself upright. Arlong's expression became even more shocked as he noticed that like Hody, Hyouzou's appearance too had changed, as the Octopus Merman's hair had also turned pure white, undoubtedly from the effects of the energy-steroid. Arlong also noticed a sinister sneer on Hyouzou's face, and a bloodlust in his eyes.

"Hic…" Hyouzou sounded off again before darting forward at an amazing speed. One of his six tentacles quickly picked up a sword that had been laying on the ground that a defeated fishman had dropped, and then another tentacle picked up a different sword, and so on, until he had picked up a total of seven swords. With his original sword he now had a combined total of eight swords. He wasted no time in putting all of those swords to use, as he started slicing wildly into all different directions, and causing what looked like a whirlwind of blades to follow him and his path of blind merciless destruction. Hyouzou showed no hesitation in what, nor who, his blades cut, for most of the victims of his attacks were not any of the Straw-hats, but of his own fellow fishmen instead. Their screams of pain did not make him falter in the least, if anything they only increased his bloodlust. But just because his first victims were his own nakama, didn't mean that the Straw-hats were safe from his violent path…

-0-0-0-0-

Zoro continued to observe the battle from his defensive position near Nami. He scanned the area, taking note of the revitalized fishmen beginning to square off with his nakama, he thought about joining in and taking on a few of them himself, but decided not to because he knew that his nakama would still make short work of their opponents, even if they were powered up slightly by the weird pill that he had seen them all taking. He took a moment to turn his attention onto the large tower like structure, where he had seen Luffy and Hody disappear into; he couldn't see the battle taking place, but he could hear and sense his captain fighting the great-white shark fishman inside the structure. Zoro had complete faith in Luffy, and knew that his captain would be able to handle his opponent, and he could feel the battle coming to an end, all that was left was the one that had been most responsible for Nami's pain, Arlong.

Zoro's sole gaze switched to the saw-nose shark fishman, and his expression hardened. Zoro felt the time had finally come to put an end to this. The swordsman had been waiting to do so because he had wanted the fishman to feel what it was like to watch everything he owned and cared about crumble before his eyes, just like what Arlong had done to Nami, and now with all of Arlong's closest nakama out of commission, it was time to cause him some physical pain. Zoro lifted the bandana that was still in his hand from when he wiped the ink from his face to the top of his head, and wrapped it around his head. He then slowly unsheathed Wado Ichimonji before placing it between his teeth. With all three of his trusted blades at the ready, Zoro started to take a couple of steps forward toward his target… but his attention was soon drawn to a different issue.

Zoro's attack on Arlong would have to wait, because just before he went in for kill, he took notice of Hyouzou's blind rampage. He watched as the octopus merman cut down his own people, which Zoro couldn't care less about, the problem was Hyouzou was zeroing in on Robin, who had her back turned to the merman as she was preoccupied with other enemies. "Dammit." Zoro cursed as he knew he had to stop Hyouzou. "Oi Nami, stay here and don't let your guard down. I'll be right back."

Nami gave him an understanding nod, and raised her three piece staff up to a defensive position, as Zoro dashed off to get in front of Hyouzou's attack. There was a clang of swords as all eight of Hyouzou's and all three of Zoro's collided together, just before the merman's swords could slice into Robin. "Thank you Kenshi-san. I was a little distracted, and hadn't noticed him." Zoro only gave Robin a grunt to show he understood, before pushing forward and causing Hyouzou to fly back several feet.

"Hic… Oh ho…" Hyouzou let out, impressed that someone could stop his swords. "Someone actually worth fighting… hic…"

"I wish I could say the same, but I have a feeling that you wouldn't even be able to cure my boredom." Zoro insulted the merman.

"I'm not enough to cure your boredom…? hic…" Hyouzou's face took on the look of anger, and he quickly launched a series of attacks at Zoro, which the Santoryu Master was easily able to avoid, and counter. After a few moments of furious swords clashing together, Zoro decided that he was done wasting his time with the octopus merman, and with a quick movement of his swords he successfully shattered all seven of the swords that Hyouzou had collected, and sent the merman flying back again.

"Tch…" Zoro sounded off dissatisfied, from the lack of a challenge. "Like I said, not even worth my time, but I never expected much from a frog in the first place." Zoro turned his back to Hyouzou and went to walk away, but stopped when he noticed movement behind him.

"I am not a frog!" Hyouzou shouted as he gathered up more swords, this time from the fishmen that he had cut down. "I am the greatest swordsman on Fishman Island!" Hyouzou sprung into the air, attempting a downward attack on Zoro, as the Santoryu Master still had his back to him.

Just before Hyouzou was about to land, Zoro quickly turned around and launched an attack of his own. "Rengoku Oni Giri*." A powerful cross cut met its intended target, sending Hyouzou flying into the air a third, and final, time before the octopus merman came crashing to the ground unconscious. "You might have been the greatest swordsman on Fishman Island, but to me, you're just a frog loudly croaking at the bottom of a well."

With the octopus merman defeated, Zoro felt he could get back to his desired target, Arlong. He turned his gaze back onto the saw-nose shark fishman. He noticed that Arlong had also been watching him as well, but unlike Zoro, it wasn't determination in Arlong's eyes, it was fear. Arlong could sense what was coming next, and after watching Zoro defeat Hyouzou so easily, his confidence in his own strength was quickly fading.

As Zoro took a couple of steps forward, Arlong took a couple of steps back. The fishman captain was starting to panic, he knew he was no match for the Pirate Hunter on land. He knew his only hope was the water. If he could just find a way to get to the water, maybe he could survive this whole ordeal. But the problem was Zoro was getting closer, and with each step the swordsman took, Arlong's path to the water was disappearing. Arlong took another step back, thinking maybe a little distance would allow him time to at least think of a distraction, but as his foot landed, he noticed that it didn't land on stone pavement, it instead landed on something metal. He looked down to see that his foot was resting on the blade of his sword, the Kiribachi*. The sword must have flew out of the palace while Luffy and Hody were fighting. Arlong quickly reached down and grabbed his sword. Feeling a little more confident with the sword in his hands, Arlong felt he stood a chance to at least hold off Zoro long enough to make it to the water. He was just about to go on the offensive, when the sound of large amounts of damage coming from the palace distracted him.

"Argh…" Everyone on the battlefield heard Hody scream in pain. "Damn you! You dirty trash! Why won't you just die?"

Suddenly Luffy came flying through the roof of the palace, breaking through the clay tiles, before landing on top of it, and glaring down at Hody through the hole he made. "There's no way you could kill me!" Luffy shouted, drawing all eyes onto him. "I have to keep living so that I can continuing being free!"

Nami in particular listened to his words closely, mesmerized at how Luffy, who originally appeared to be so young and foolish, could command such a presence. There was something about when he spoke of his freedom that made Nami's emotions start to stir.

"And I'll achieve ultimate freedom when I accomplish my dream! And my dream is to be King of the Pirates!" Luffy continued.

More emotions, and memories, started to stir in Nami with each of Luffy's words. She remembered something from so long ago. A dream she shared with her adoptive mother. 'I want to one day make a map of the world.' She remembered when she told Bell-mère that she had such a proud smile on her face, but as she looked at Arlong's Palace, and remembered all the maps that she had made for him, and not for herself, her heart pained.

"Nami!" Luffy shouted from on top of the palace. "From now on you'll be free as well! So that you can live your dream!" Luffy leapt into the air, and cranked back both of his arms behind him. "Gomu-Gomu Elephant Gatling!" He screamed out before both of his arms inflated and turned black because of his Busoshoku Haki, before he brought them both down onto the structure below him in a fierce barrage of continuous attacks. More screams of pain could be heard from Hody, who was still inside the palace, as bricks and roofing tiles went flying in all directions. Eventually the screams from Hody stopped, but Luffy's attacks did not, as he was determined to make sure nothing was left of the once tall and proud Arlong Palace.

Nami watched on, unable to look away for even a moment, despite the dangers of flying debris. Her body trembled due to all the emotions overwhelming her, emotions of excitement, happiness, and most of all relief. As the palace continued to crumble, brick by brick, a single map from Arlong's map room floated through the air before hovering in front of her face for her to grab. With that map in her hand she finally felt something that she hadn't felt in a long time, she truly felt free.

Eventually Luffy's furious punches came to a halt, and a cloud of dust from the destroyed palace hung over the battlefield. As the dust settled, a form could be seen standing on top of the rubble, and that form of course belonged to Luffy. His breath was a little staggered from all punches, but otherwise he was completely unharmed as he stood victorious, while a bloody and beaten Hody lay unconscious, with only his torso and head sticking out of the rubble. Everything became deathly silent as all eyes watched Luffy, waiting for his next movements, waiting for his next words; "Growl…" everyone heard from where Luffy was standing, causing some of the Straw-hats to smile, while others, like Nami, looked on in confusion. "Man I'm so hungry right now!" Luffy complained while crossing his arms over his stomach. "Aren't we done yet, I want to eat?"

Snickers and light laughter could be heard from some of the crew, Robin being one of them. "Not quite yet Sencho-san." She responded to her captain. "There are still two more."

All the eyes of the Straw-hats first travelled to fall on Arlong, who seemed to be frozen in place in shock at the moment, before moving on to look for the second person Robin was referring to. Eventually they all found who she had been talking about; standing just outside the wall of Arlong Park, through the hole that Luffy had originally punched Hody through, was the dagger-tooth pike conger fishman Hammond. At first Hammond made no movements, as he was absolutely terrified at everything he had just witnessed. He knew that there was no way he had any chance of surviving a fight with any of the monsters that were standing in front of him, monsters who all had their eyes trained on him at that moment. "This isn't what I signed up for." He spoke with an unsteady voice. "I'm getting the hell out of here." He was just about to turn around and run, but was cut off by a feminine voice behind him.

"Oh no you don't!" Nojiko called out, from her position just behind Hammond, and next to all of the villagers of Cocoyasi. "You're not going anywhere!" The entire group of villagers pounced onto the un-expecting fishman, quickly overwhelming him with their numbers. He screamed out in pain as all the villagers punched and kicked twelve years of frustration, anger, and hatred into him, until he passed out from the pain.

After Hammond was thoroughly beaten to a pulp the villagers all slowly started to approach the inner-grounds of Arlong Park. That's where they were able to see in full view what had transpired behind the walls: They got to see the rubble that was once Arlong's Palace. The battered bodies of fishmen and mermen everywhere. The look of shock, and possibly even terror on Arlong's face. And most importantly, they got to see Nami, standing in the middle of it all, along with the rest of the Straw-hats, and that's when they knew she had kept her promise, she had returned to free them all of Arlong's tyranny. And when Nami turned to look at them all, with the same emotions mirrored on her face as well, they knew that they weren't dreaming, but their dreams were still finally coming true. They knew that today, Arlong and his crew were finished.

"Argh!" Arlong screamed out in frustration, finally snapping out of his shock and breaking his silence. "Damn you! Damn you all, you worthless vermin!" The fishman seethed with rage as his words brought everyone's attention back to him. "You damn human scum! You've ruined and destroyed everything I've built! Damn you all! But especially, damn you Nami." Arlong lowered his voice and pointed a judging finger at Nami, to show that he blamed her the most for everything being taken away from him. "I know I'm finished." He spoke to her, with a venom in his words. "But don't think for a second that I'm the only one who is. If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me, partner."

Arlong quickly reached to the ground, and picked up the small box that Hody had given him of the Energy Steroids, before tipping his head back and eating all of the box's contents. Arlong then lowered his head as he chewed and swallowed, before suddenly clutching his chest for a moment, as if he had heart burn, and let out a small scream of pain "AAHHH!" But after the pain had subsided, an evil aura started to emanate from Arlong, and when he raised his head, his eyes had turned red with violent intent, eyes that were fixated on Nami alone.

Nami froze under Arlong's intense gaze; all her memories of how much the fishman terrified her came flooding back to her all at once, and almost made her want to cower into a fetal position, but her body wouldn't even allow her to do that. Instead she could only continue to look at Arlong, with terror clearly evident on her face. Suddenly Arlong sprang forward in a lunge directly towards her, lifting his sword above his head, to undoubtedly bring it down onto Nami, and cleave her in two in the process. Everything seemed to move in slow-motion to Nami, as she could see the attack coming, but regardless of how much her mind seemed to be telling her to move, her body didn't seem to want to cooperate. Finally, just before the sword came down on top of her, her body finally listened as she was just barely able to dodge the attack before it sliced her in half, but the threat was far from over, because the force from Arlong's sword hitting the ground, caused the ground to crumble beneath both of them, sending both Nami and the fishman into the water pool.

As Nami felt herself sink into the water, a feeling of panic started to overcome her. Through her dealings with the fishman all through the years she had learned two thing: 1 = they were dangerous and should never be taken lightly on-land, and 2 = It pretty much meant certain death if you ever encountered them in water. She quickly looked around the pool, looking for the fastest path back to the surface. She knew she had to get on land quickly, or else she was a goner for sure, but the problem was she was already pretty deep, and swimming back to surface was going to be a challenge, especially once she saw that Arlong had already spotted her in the water.

The steroid fueled Arlong let a sinister sneer form on his face as he saw Nami try to quickly claw her way to the top of the water, he knew he had her dead to rights, and he wasn't going to let this chance escape. With one arm, he drew his massive sword behind him, before using his natural swimming abilities to quickly propel himself towards the defenseless Nami. He quickly closed the gap between them, his smile widening at the sight of the terror that was clearly visible on her face, and once she was within range, he fiercely swung his sword at her… only to have it stopped mid swing by the force of Zoro's three swords.

Nami felt some relief to see that Zoro had intervened, but also knew that the danger of staying in the water was still very real. The swordsman seemed to know exactly what she was thinking, because he gave her a quick nod of his head, and while still gripping the hilt of his sword, used his fingers to gesture for her to quickly escape. She knew that he planned to hold Arlong off, and was skeptical on whether to leave him to it or not, but decided to trust him, and again resumed her ascent towards the surface.

Despite Arlong's confidence in the water, as well as the adrenaline from the steroid clouding his judgement, the fishman was honestly a little taken aback by the fact that a human could stop his assault in water, but any initial shock quickly wore off, as he aggressively went back on the offensive. He quickly lunged at Zoro, believing that he could make short work of the inferior human, so that he could go back to the task of murdering Nami, but was again surprised when Zoro stopped his sword swing a second time. Arlong was in complete disbelief, especially once he noticed that not only did Zoro stop his attack, but the inferior human also managed to damage his Kiribachi in the process, and caused two of the six giant saw like blades to break off and sink deep down into the pool. When Arlong's disbelief started to wear off, he also noticed that because of the swordsman's interference, Nami had succeeded in her escape. "DAMMIT!" Arlong screamed out in frustration, before releasing his grip on his sword and letting it sink to the bottom of the water. Arlong started to fill with rage and hatred for the swordsman in front of him. The fact that Zoro denied him from his revenge against Nami was completely unforgivable. "You bastard! I'll rip you apart with my bare hands!"

-0-0-0-0-

Nami took a gasp of air as her head made it to the surface, several sets of hands quickly grabbed her and dragged her onto dry land. She looked around to see who was there, relieved and thankful that it was Luffy, the rest of the crew, and everyone from her village. But her relief was short lived as she still remembered Zoro was still in the water with Arlong.

"Someone hurry," She spoke out to Luffy and crew. "Zoro's still down there, he'll need help. There's no way he can beat Arlong alone in water." Everyone just looked at Nami and smiled, they were glad to see that she cared for their nakama so much, but none made any movement towards the water to save him. "What are you guys waiting for, don't you realize how dangerous fishmen are in water."

Luffy cocked his head to side as he continued to listen to Nami's words; he could tell she was concerned, and he wanted to say something comforting. He straightened his head before addressing her. "Don't worry Nami, Zoro can handle himself. Besides that, he would probably actually be mad if we tried to interfere."

Nami listened to Luffy, and she could tell by the rubber-man's confidence that she should trust in Zoro's abilities too, but she also still couldn't shake twelve years of fear and terror that had been ingrained into her by Arlong and the rest of the fishmen. She watched the water closely, wanting to get a glimpse of what was going on underneath the surface, despite both Zoro and Arlong being too deep for her to see them. The only thing she was able to see was the occasional violent splash of water, undoubtedly being caused by some movement below. Suddenly those feelings of doubt, dread, and terror, all returned to her tenfold, as the water became polluted by the crimson color of blood…

-0-0-0-0-

Arlong quickly started to dash around the pool, rapidly bouncing from one wall to the other. His movements were chaotic, and slightly hard to follow. It was almost as if the fishman was trying to confuse and disorientate Zoro, but if the swordsman was even the slightest bit nervous, he didn't show it. Instead Zoro just continued to wade in his spot, and follow Arlong's movements with his eye.

"What's wrong, you pathetic human?" Arlong jeered at the swordsman. "Are you frozen in fear? Well you should be, after all, there is no way you can match my speed and strength in the water. Shahahahaha!" Arlong quit jumping around and instead decided to go in for the kill. "You're in my world now. You don't stand a chance! Shahahahaha!"

To Arlong the next moment seemed to go in slow motion: As he started to close in on Zoro, suddenly the swordsman seemed to disappear, only to reappear right in front of him, and Arlong became very aware that he was now within Zoro's striking distance. Arlong couldn't believe what had just transpired, not only was the swordsman able to close in so quickly, but it was at a speed that he couldn't even see. 'Impossible' Arlong thought to himself, 'not like this, not in the water, not to some human…'

-0-0-0-0-

Nami covered her mouth, hoping that she could hold back the scream that wanted to escape her lungs as more blood started to fill the pool. She couldn't help but think the worse, as images of Zoro being torn apart by Arlong flooded her mind. She continued to stare intently at the water, hoping to see any sign that her worse fears weren't being met below the water's surface. Eventually she saw some movement from below the water, as a dark figure started to rise to the surface. But more dread would soon follow as the hand that broke out of the water wasn't Zoro's. She knew the hand all too well; that light shade of blue, and the jewels pieced directly into the fingers, it was Arlong's hand. Soon Arlong's hand grabbed hold of the wall surrounding the pool, and then his other hand came out of the water alongside it, before the fishman's head broke the water's surface, as he slowly dragged himself onto dry land. Arlong's head hung low, and his movements were sluggish, as he finally turned towards Nami, revealing a large diagonal cut running across his chest and stomach.

Nami removed her hand from her mouth and could only look on in shock as Arlong tried to make a few steps towards her. He slowly out reached his hand towards her, as if wanting to wrap it around her neck, but was still too far away to do so. "Not like this…" He spoke through pained breaths, small amounts of blood escaping his mouth as he did so. "Not to some human…" Arlong's eyes then rolled into the back of his head as he collapsed forward, face first, onto the hard surface below his feet.

A strange silence befell the battlefield after Arlong collapsed. No one dared move, they could only look on at the fishman's defeated form in disbelief. Finally the sound of splashing water and a deep breath from the other side of the pool drew everyone's attention, as Zoro climbed his way to the dry land. He turned towards Nami and rest, and gave them all a serious, yet triumphant look, as he stood victorious without a single scratch on his body.

"It's really over isn't it?" A Cocoyasi Villager questioned aloud from their spot just inside the walls of the now decimated Arlong Park. "We're free, aren't we?" The emotions that were evident in the villager's voice were the same emotions that all the villagers, and especially Nami, were feeling; the emotions of relief, happiness, and most of all gratefulness. "WE'RE FREE!" The villager screamed as tears of joy started to pour from their eyes, and the excitement of their exclamation erupted cheers of celebration, and more tears of joy, from the rest of the villages.

Nami remained silent, choosing to revel quietly in her happiness, as her own tears of joy started to fall from her eyes. Without any words she gave Zoro a thankful look, getting a nod from him, before she then turned to Luffy and the rest of the Straw-hats, who met her look with smiles of happiness of their own. Nami clutched her hands together in front of her chest and lowered her head. 'Thank you mina*.' She spoke silently in her own mind, as if she was giving a grateful prayer to her saviors. 'Thank you for giving us our lives back. Thank you so much for setting us free.'

-End Chapter 11-

…

…

Author Notes and Translations:

Kuro Kubuto* = Usopp's post time skip weapon, the Black Kubuto which can change size depending on how much water he gives it.

Mizudeppo* = literally means Water Gun.

Hyappatsu Mizudeppo* = literally means Hundred-Shot Water Gun, which is Chu's equivalent of a machine gun.

Tanuki* = A Japanese raccoon dog that has been part of Japanese folklore since ancient times. Chopper is often confused with a Tanuki because he is small and can shapeshift.

Tatsu Maki* = Translates to Dragon Coil; it is Zoro's attack where he spins and causing a tornado that slices its opponents and sends them flying. He usually uses all three swords for this attack, but I changed it to only two in order to power down the attack a little. Side note: this is the attack he used to defeat Hatchan with in the anime/manga.

Collier* = Translates to neck, more precisely it is used by the French to signify neck meat. This is the attack Sanji calls out when kicking his opponent's neck, while Sanji is still on the ground. Side note: this is the attack that Sanji uses to defeat Kuroobi in the anime/manga.

Midori Boshi: Impact Wolf* = Translates to Green Star: Impact Wolf, the green star pellets are all plant based attacks, but the wolf shaped grass is just a diversion to make enemies not notice the impact dial at the nose of the wolf that does the real damage.

Uchimizu* = Translates to Water Shot, and is the attack where a small ball of water is flung from a Fishman Karate user's hand as a destructive projectile.

Busoshoku Haki* = Translates to Armament Haki… pretty sure I've already explained this one before, but just thought that another refresher would be good.

Rengoku Oni Giri* = Translates to Purgatory Oni Giri, and is Zoro's upgraded Oni Giri attack after the 2 year time skip. Side note: this is the attack Zoro uses to defeat Hyouzou in the anime/manga.

Kiribachi* = The Kiribachi is Arlong's giant black sword with six saw-toothed patterned blades, resembling a shark's saw-like teeth. I think it's kind of unfortunate that we never got to see Zoro match swords with Arlong in the original arc, because I would have loved to see how creative Oda could have got with a duel between the two.

Mina* = Translates to "everyone". I'm pretty sure I've translated this for everyone before, but a refresher is always nice.

Personal Translation Note: there are just some words that I have always liked in Japanese, even if they don't really have a special meaning, and mina is one of them, so I'll usually use the word mina when someone is speaking or thinking, but not in the narration. Nakama gets special treatment and is used even in the narration because I do personally feel that it means something a little greater than friend, and comrade always just sounds weird to me (it probably doesn't help that I always hear comrade said in a Russian accent even in my own mind ;-})

…

So this had to be the single hardest chapter I felt that I have ever written. Between trying to compose believable action scenes, while still not making the chapter too bloated… I wasn't sure if I could ever really finish this, but in the end, I was actually happy with how it came out. I also tried to set up the action similar to how Oda has several times in the manga where a different Straw-hat has an encounter with an enemy first, but eventually the fights get broke down to one on one fights with someone different (example: Usopp met Mr. 2 first, before Sanji ended up fighting Mr. 2 while Usopp and Chopper wound up fighting Mr. 4 and Miss Merry Christmas).

Sorry it took nearly 3 years to update this story, but in my defense/excuse, I've kinda had a lot going on in my personal life too, all good things = Work, a happy marriage to KimuraMinami, our first (and probably our last) baby girl, being a new parent being exhausting and all that stuff, etc.… Hopefully I won't have to take this long of a hiatus ever again, but I won't promise anything, because you never really know what life will throw at you.

Well… I know I said I wasn't trying to bloat this chapter, but it still did get rather long, and of course I can't leave the story where I left it… so I got at least one more chapter to go. Until then: Thanks for reading, and please review.

-fmdevil-