Hello, everyone! Here's a new chapter for you all!
I learned something called Causal Responsibility and I tried applying it to Jinbe. Sorry, Jinbe.
If it feels a bit rushed, you're not alone. I woke up today with a lot of ideas, and that started the writing process.
I forgot those ideas when I got to the part.
I do not own One Piece as that belongs to Eiichiro Oda, Toei, and whoever else owns it.
The two fighters didn't let a moment pass as the fight started.
Luffy had rocketed towards Jinbe, while the fishman took up a stance to receive the attack. The rubberman had left an arm back from his original position, so he believed to know the attack that was coming his way.
What he didn't expect was for Luffy to dodge to the side, moving past Jinbe and attempting to punch him in the side.
The former Shichibukai blocked the attack, but when he tried to move away, predicting Luffy's bullet from behind, Jinbe was locked in place by Luffy, who had held onto the fishman.
Deciding that attacking would be better in this situation, he prepared an "Gosenmaigawara Seiken", and waiting for the last moment, unleashed his attack.
The uppercut had taken Luffy by surprise, and sent him back, but he was still capable of forestalling his own attack while he had been hit.
Jinbe was surprised when Luffy's fist, instead of attacking him, grabbed onto the larger fishman and pulled him closer with strength that he had not expected from the pirate captain.
"Gum Gum..." The rubberman twisted his legs until they had become a large coil and his feet grabbed onto Jinbe's head.
"...Hammer!"
Jinbe was unable to react as he was spun in the air and slammed into the ground, head first. The attack was one he hadn't seen before, and was quite effective.
"I didn't spend two years twiddling my thumbs, Jinbe! If you're worried about my safety, you shouldn't be!"
"...You are correct. I have seen you as Ace's brother, and a close friend, but I forget that you are a pirate! Life is always dangerous for a pirate! But I will not falter... Hody is Fishman Island's problem! We will deal with it ourselves!"
Luffy listened as Jinbe picked himself out of the newly formed crater in the ground and face him with a determined expression. Luffy, who had refrained from manifesting, could only sigh.
"...I don't get it. Why are you refusing help? Aren't we friends?"
"It is because we are friends that I am refusing your help." The fishman took up his stance as Luffy watched in a mixture of confusion and frustration.
Princess Shirahoshi couldn't follow their attacks, but was wondering why two friends would fight with such ferocity, although that was buried behind a mountain of fear in her heart as violence itself scared her.
"If Hody threatens my friends, I will kill him! Didn't I say that already?!" Luffy yelled back at Jinbe, refusing to take a fighting stance.
"You have, and I appreciate the sentiment, but I cannot let you do that! For the sake of Fishman Island..." Jinbe sighed, his breath filled with stress and resignation.
"...And for you and your crew. I will not let my friends fight this battle that I have caused."
Luffy clenched his fists tight. He could tell that there were more reasons than the ones given. Jinbe, who he had known to be a very proactive and knowledgeable person, would know that more allies would be better, and he wouldn't have made a terrorist. Not willingly, anyway.
"...You have not used Haoushoku..."
"I haven't."
"Why have you not manifested?"
"I will never be a monster to my friends." A dark look crossed Luffy's face, one filled with sadness and pain, "Not again."
"...Will you not reconsider? Fighting like this...does not do any of us good."
"No. Fighting here might be for the best. Whoever feels stronger about this issue, will win."
"...I understand."
A quiet moment passed by as they prepared themselves. Then, they both shot towards each other
The princess watched as the two beat each other with their fists. Jinbe would use the moisture in the air to attack Luffy, and the rubberman would sometimes use Busoshoku to block and attack the fishman.
Taking a "Samegawara Seiken" to the face, Luffy, instead of taking a few steps back to recuperate, used a Buso-powered "Bazooka" to send Jinbe, who blocked the attack, skidding back a few feet.
"Ha...ha...what is that? Even though I'm made of rubber, and you're not using busoshoku, you're still hurting me...?"
"I am manipulating the water in the air to hurt you."
"What, like, vibrations?"
"That is close, but not quite. It is directly affecting the water molecules, not using vibration on them."
"...Molli-quels?"
"...It is beyond your level of understanding."
The rubberman looked at his fists and remembered a certain man who made the earth shake.
"...Vibrations...do they make things hurt more...?"
The fishman sighed.
"I would prefer to put it a different way. Vibrations, if used correctly, can accomplish what Whitebeard-sama was capable of. However, the only man who has the power is Blackbeard."
Jinbe looked at Luffy with remorse, having mentioned the man who had taken Luffy's brother away, but the rubberman didn't react.
"Is it...like this...?"
Luffy, who seemed to be in deep concentration, closed his eyes and held his forearm with his other hand.
His hand started to vibrate violently, before seeming to settle down.
"...I'm sorry, Luffy-kun, but I'm not going to hold back with this attack." Jinbe prepared another attack, giving Luffy time to prepare himself.
Luffy's skin turned white, and his face morphed into his devil's. His hand turned black as he concentrated on it, despite Jinbe's warning.
The fishman took a moment, before charging towards Luffy, his hand prepared to attack.
Luffy's eyes shot open, flames burst from his hand, and he rushed Jinbe, who had been taken by surprise, but not unprepared.
"Samegawara Seiken!"
"Gum Gum Red Hawk!"
Their fists collided, and the area around them suffered damage from the force.
Jinbe expected his attack to pierce Luffy's and attack him directly, but instead, his own hand was being forced back.
Luffy's fist, though cloaked in flames, was shaking violently and Jinbe realized something.
"Luffy-kun...are you using fishman karate!?"
Instead of words, Luffy roared as he directed his fist away from Jinbe, and into the forest. Although Luffy was left open to Jinbe's attack, he felt as though he couldn't move.
The trees were wreathed in flames and their forms were warped, as though they were hit with his own "Karakusagawara Seiken", and he could even see that his own fist suffered some of the effects.
And in an instant, the trees were blown back with so much force that they were shattered into tiny pieces. Jinbe's hand was also blown back, and it felt numb after receiving such a violent blow.
The two took deep breaths. Luffy, out of exertion, and Jinbe, from pain, shock, and also from exertion.
In the end, Jinbe fell to his knees.
"No, it was not exactly fishman karate...but your vibrations interrupted my own attack...in other words...a counter..."
"Sorry, Jinbe. I didn't mean to do that." Luffy sighed as he returned to normal.
"No, I thought it was a very good attack." The fishman collected himself and stayed on his knees, "Since you have won, I have no right to stop you."
"Then tell me, Jinbe! Why don't you want me to help you?!" The rubberman was tired and hungry. Plus, fighting with friends, though it was normal, was never this serious.
"...It has to do with many things. Things that I fear, I am unable to explain."
"Is it Arlong?! I already knew about Arlong!"
The fishman was shocked as he looked at Luffy in surprise.
"What? When?"
"Back when I ended him! Robin told me that some guy named Jinbe released him!"
"All the way...back then?!"
"If I'm given an enemy, I don't usually forget, Jinbe! That wasn't your fault!"
"I...the reason I wish for you to remain not get involved...is because I wish to fix my own mistake."
"Your own mistake? What did you do to this Hody guy to make him bad?"
"...Nothing. I did nothing, even when I realized when he harbored ill-intent towards King Neptune-sama."
"Then how can you take responsibility for him?!"
"It is a long story, Luffy-kun." Jinbe held regret in his voice as he remembered the late Queen Otohime, and how he had not believed in her. How he ignored her good intentions and great ambition to make humans accept seapeople, and how he had contributed against her.
"If you feel this much pain for this, then there's no way you're responsible!"
"My inaction has already cost people their lives, Luffy-kun! I must take responsibility!"
"Are you talking about Hody, Arlong, or both!?"
Jinbe paused, at a loss for words.
"I...-"
"How do you plan on taking responsibility?! By putting yourself through needless pain and pushing others away?!"
The fishman remained silent.
"Do you think that it was your hand that killed people?! That robbed people of their freedom and took their loved ones away?!"
"...Yes. I do...-"
"Then!" Jinbe was grabbed by Luffy and the rubberman yelled in his face, "The only ones that can forgive, no, the only one that can forgive you is Nami! The one who suffered the most! The one who bore all of that pain from Arlong and tried protecting what was left!"
"Nami...? Your friend...was there?"
"Yeah!" Luffy stood Jinbe up and let him go, "Before you go saying what you need to do to be forgiven, you should talk to her first! I think she would think the same though. You're not responsible for what Arlong did."
"How? How could I ever be forgiven for that..."
"What do you think humans are, Jinbe?"
"...I have seen the worst scum walk the earth as humans, but I know that not all humans are the same. There are some, such as Whitebeard-sama, Ace-kun, and you, Luffy-kun, that are much kinder than others."
"Eh? That's not true."
"W-What?" Jinbe didn't expect that answer.
"Humans are selfish, power hungry creatures that do what they want. Some would do the worst things imaginable for the chance of more power. You know that, don't you?"
Jinbe stayed silent for a moment, turning to look at Shirahoshi, who had seen and heard everything, before turning back to his friend.
"Shirahoshi-sama...was taken to a Facility, like you, Luffy-kun."
"Really?" Taking a closer look, Luffy could see scars on the mermaid's throat.
"As a result, Fishman Island has become more reclusive. The residents are even more wary of humans than before, and the worst is that they believe that you will destroy their home. I cannot let people think of you that way. We would become no different than the humans that judge and try to subjugate us..."
Luffy frowned.
"That kind of thinking is wrong, Jinbe."
"How so...?"
"You can't stop people from thinking what they want. That's already too much effort, and you're taking their freedom away by doing that."
"But...I will not stand for such comments to be made, even when they do not know you like I do."
"Shishishi! Because people will be people! Let them decide for themselves what they want to feel!"
"...I see. So, even if humans are so awful, do you think that there will ever be peace between humans and seapeople?"
"What are you talking about? Everyone's the same. It's not that everyone is bad, but we all live selfishly, don't we? We need to eat, and that means we have to take. And when I eat all the meat, that means there's no meat for anyone else, but that doesn't stop me. Because it was mine to begin with."
Jinbe smirked, relaxing for the first time since Luffy's arrival.
"I suppose that is one way to look at it. I wished for the people to see you for who you are, a hero."
"I'm no hero, Jinbe." Luffy walked to pick up his hat. The princess didn't flinch from him, but stared at him with some fear, "I'm a pirate."
"But it is because they view you as a pirate that they fear you! The you I know is a hero!"
"I said, I'm no hero!" Luffy yelled out, "I admire heroes, but there's no way I could ever be one!"
"After all of this, you will insist that you are not a hero?!"
"Heroes save everyone, Jinbe! I..." Luffy stopped and his expression turned blank.
The two seapeople looked at the rubberman with varying emotions. The princess felt more sadness for Luffy at the despair in his voice while Jinbe felt failure.
"...I kill things, Jinbe. I take lives, and I live how I want, as freely as I want. I'm a pirate. I destroy to protect." The pirate captain set his hat on his head while looking down, "So that's why I'll help you take down Hody, but make no mistake. I'm not doing it for something like preventing the deaths of many people. Even though it's the right thing to do, I'm not doing it for that. I'm doing it because I'm your friend, Jinbe, and I'll help you protect your home."
"...Thank you, Luffy-kun..."
"Heh, no problem!" Luffy smiled back at the two before turning to the princess, "Even though you might not trust humans, I can say I understand why you wouldn't. And that's why..."
He stretched his hand up at her, surprising the mermaid.
"...I'd like to be your friend! Though I'm a rubberman, not a human."
The mermaid shook a little before her hand approached the rubberman's.
She started crying before she could take his hand, which made Luffy look at her in confusion.
Jinbe watched the two with a small, sad smile.
"...Even though you treat yourself as a monster, you might be the most humane man I have ever met."
Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
