Chapter 24
Luffy vs. Arlong
"Shahahaha... Not bad for a pathetic human. But you might have been happier had you died peacefully under the sea." Arlong sat in the rubble of some of his courtyard. Luffy had retaliated against him after he had been saved from drowning, thanks to his first-mate Maxwell.
Now Luffy does some warm up exercises, "Huh? No, I'm pretty happy to be rescued. Hmn-Hmn!"
"Do you understand just how angry I am...?" asked Arlong. "The seething rage I feel after seeing my beloved brethren be crushed by you pathetic insects...! Within time, you'll come to see that you were better off dying peacefully in the ocean."
Maxwell and the others had backed off so that Luffy could have his fight. They sat near the villagers as they watched the fighting go on.
"I wonder if Brother Luffy will be alright... Even with that fierce attack just now, it didn't affect Arlong at all...!" Yosaku was watching this all with baited breath. "Enough about that! Did you see that giant iceberg!?" Johnny pointed out to his partner.
"Attack Luffy! I'll be backing you up!" Usopp yelled from his hole in the wall. Nami sweat-dropped looking at the sniper. He was still hiding. "Enough with your back up."
Sanji lights a cigarette and talks with Genzo and Nojiko, "If he dies... you'll all be killed."
"And it'll also be the end for East Blue," Nojiko supplied. Genzo hummus in agreement.
Zoro sat beside Maxwell, "So... you finally found your dream?"
"Hahaha... yeah," Maxwell looks away a little bashful. "Being here, in this ocean. It reminded me why I wanted to get out of the Circle so much. I want study magic, my magic, without being hunted for it."
"What about the Navy?" Zoro asks.
Maxwell waves him away, "Eh, that's Luffy's problem. But I don't mind helping him out a bit."
Zoro leans back and chuckles, "Hehe, well first-mate, I guess every king needs a good old advisor to keep them on track."
"...Not that old, damn it..." Maxwell however, does think about it. "...An advisor, huh...?"
"Do you know what hopeless difference there is between you and I?" Arlong asks Luffy.
"Nose?" Luffy refers to his saw like nose. "...Or jaw?
"Is he... joking around...?" demands Yosaku.
"No... I think he's serious," responds Johnny.
"Webbed hands!"
"IT'S OUR RACE!" Arlong lunges forward with his shark like jaws. He keeps trying to bite Luffy, but the rubber-man keeps dodging. Arlong does pin Luffy against a pillar though. Ready to bite his head off. Thankfully Luffy literally pulls his head out of the way and Arlong bites down into the pillar.
Usopp heckles, "Ha, look at that idiot! He bit that rock pillar! His teeth be br—"
The pillar crumbles under Arlong's jaws.
"AGH! HE BIT THROUGH THAT PILLAR!?" the bounty hunters scream. Luffy does get out of Arlong's grip thankfully.
Sanji knew some fish anatomy, "...If he got bit by that, he wouldn't just get bite marks... His bones would be chewed right through!"
"This is the power that we fishmen are born with," Arlong boasts, "A power that the heavens did not bestow upon your race. Which is why YOU are the inferior species! We're on completely different levels, form the moment of birth!"
"So what!?" Luffy pulverizes what's left of the pillar. "Don't het cocky just because of that. I don't need to chew through stone to crush it!"
"Haha~! Nice one brother!" "That's right! The end result is the same!" Maxwell looks over at the bounty hunters, "Do we really need the commentary?" The two deflate, "Sorry bro..."
"Such frivolous objections...!" Arlong charges forward, "You humans truly are an weak, idiotic, pathetic race! What can you do!? You can't even save yourself from drowning!"
"It's because I can't do anything, that I need help!" Luffy picks up two sword lying around from the underlings. "Shishishishi!"
Maxwell raises an eyebrow. Sanji looks over to the first mate, "Does he even know how to fight with a sword?" "No, he does not."
"NGAH~!" "The hell? You're just swinging around those swords randomly...!"
Luffy threw one of them at Arlong's face, "I don't have time to play around with you. Got it!?" Luffy swings the other but it's broken in Arlong's jaws. "Enough with your stupid little g—"
"Shut your trap!" Luffy still uses his momentum to spin around and socks him in the teeth. Arlong's teeth break from the punch, and Arlong holds his mouth in pain, "HHHHMMMM!"
"Of course I don't know how to fight with swords, you dumbass!" Johnny and Yosaku look at Luffy, not sure what's going on.
"I don't know a thing about navigation either! I can't cook! I can't clean! I can't do magic! And I can't lie either!" Usopp takes a slight offence to that. "I'm confident that I wouldn't be able to survive if other people aren't there to help me!"
"...Shahahaha...," Arlong sits up from his recent blow to the face. "Aren't you quite honest about admitting how worthless you are. Must be quite hard for your teammates to deal with such an incompetent captain like you. It's a wonder why'd they'd even try to save you..." Nami smiles, knowing just what kind of person Luffy is.
"YOU CALL YOURSELF FIT TO BE A CAPTAIN WHEN YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE AN OUNCE OF SELF-CONFIDENCE!? JUST WHAT EXACTLY CAN YOU DO!?"
"I can beat you!" Luffy grins.
The villagers cheer at Luffy's confidence.
"Alright, Brother Luffy!" "Haha..." "Damn straight." "I'll kill you if you lose..." "Get him Luffy!" "And I'll back you up!"
"ENOUGH BABBLING YOU PATHETIC HUMAN!" The broken teeth fall out of Arlong's mouth and are replaced with new ones.
"Ah! His teeth grew back!"
"I am a shark after all. My teeth will grow back every time. And these new ones are always stronger than the last! No matter—" Arlong pulls out his set of teeth, and they grow again, "How many times—!" He pulls out the second set.
"This is the gift bestowed to me by the heavens," Arlong poses with his old jaws held like miniature sharks. And his teeth are grown again, "Now do you realize just how much superior fishmen are?"
"TOOTH GUM!" Arlong starts attacking with the dentures, like pincers or snap traps. Luffy holds up one of the fallen fishmen as a shield, "Wah!? My fellow fishman!"
"A-Arlong... it hurts..." "Whew." Some of the villagers look relived as well.
"Why you...!" "Hmm... that gives me a good idea." "You used my crew as a shield, you little brat!"
"You don't have any right to say anything about that, because you did it too." Maxwell tries to think of when Arlong actually did that. Or was Luffy spouting nonsense again?
"Tooth Gum!" Arlong does his dual jaw assault again. This time Luffy dodges every chomp, and counters with a kick to the face. It knocks Arlong back and knocks out another full set of teeth.
He gets back up again, "You! How many times have I told you that's it's worthless to destroy my teeth? Don't you get it?" Arlong shows off his gums.
"So Luffy's good idea is..." "Look! I have the same teeth as you now." Luffy had put the knocked out set in his own mouth, so now he had two rows of teeth.
Maxwell facepalms. It was dumb and unsanitary.
"How long will you continue to insult me!?" Arlong lands a glancing blow with his Tooth Gum.
Luffy falls back, "Agh! A shark bit me."
"STOP PLAYING SROUND!" the bounty hunters yell.
"Who said I was playing around!"
"Tooth Gum!" Luffy uses a piece of rubble to block. But as soon as he falls back Arlong finally snags him with a jaw set. And he laughs when he finally has caught him.
Luffy however takes this opportunity to chomp down on Arlong's shoulder, piercing his shark shin. It's enough from Luffy to get free. "Ha! How was that? You got hurt by your own teeth!" Luffy jeers at the fishman.
"It is my teeth, but you're jaws aren't strong enough." Arlong takes them off, "Listen! Shark's teeth have the power that can destroy a human's body in just one bite." Arlong lunges at Luffy, "This is the real power of a sharks jaw!"
Arlong gets Luffy's elbow in his mouth, "AGH!" but Luffy doesn't hesitate, "Yah!" He uses his new found leverage to pound Arlong's head into the ground. It loosens Arlong's hold and Luffy rolls away.
Usopp looks at the scene, anxious, "Is his arm okay?"
"If he waited for another second, he could have lost his arm," sighed Genzo.
Sanji comments on the fight, "A guy like him doesn't have time to worry about that."
Arlong gets up jumps into the water. "Luffy! In the sea!" Usopp calls out.
"Under the iceberg?" The ice from Maxwell's spell was still there from earlier. Luffy notices a fin sticking out of the water, "It's just a shark!"
"THAT'S ARLONG!"
The fin disappears, "What? He dove to the bottom." Luffy crotches closer to the water, "Did he escape?"
Arlong shoots out of the water like a torpedo and crashes into the building. Luffy got hit, however he had moved out of the way just in time. But even a glancing blow could hurt at that speed, "Ouch! That hurt!"
Arlong walks out of the hole he made, "Ho! He can escape? Sha haha, but matter how many time he can escape, this hellish game will continue. SHARK ON DARTS!" The fishman shoots himself at Luffy again.
Luffy gets out of the way and Arlong misses but— "His nose is so strong! That stupid shark. He can use his nose to destroy the floor!"
Arlong keeps using this move, able to get a few slices on Luffy. Arlong jumps into the water again, hiding in the deep. Everyone starts to get worried, but Luffy refuses to leave. "I will catch him and destroy his nose! Come at me, shark!"
Maxwell watches in anticipation. He knows that this battle can't go on for much longer.
"Do you not how what 'hide' means!? You only barely managed to dodge his attacks!" Usopp yells. "If he land a direct hit the next time, you'll die!"
"Gomu-Gomu no shield!" Luffy pulls his fingers in his grip.
Arlong shoots out and hits Luffy. Only Luffy had caught him with his stretched out fingers. The rubber-man bonuses up and away as Arlong shoots forward.
"Shishishi! That move won't work on me anymore!"
"Shark on Darts!" "AGH!"
Arlong readies for another run, "You can't escape me."
"Hmph! You just got lucky that time! Scared me good!"
"Time to finish this!"
"As if I'll let you! Gomu-Gomu no NET!" Luffy uses his cross layered fingers, spreading and stretching them to make Arlong miss and get caught mid air.
"Followed by, SPEAR!"
Luffy shoots his clasped feet down at Arlong, his toes and sandals forming the point. The fishman crashes into the ground, even making him cough up blood.
The crowd cheers but Arlong isn't done yet, "Arlong's eyes changed!" The fishman's irises had changed into angry slits, much like that of a seaking.
"HOW DARE AN INFERIOR HUMAN..." Arlong grabs Luffy by the hair and he's falling, "DO THIS... TO ME, A FISHAMAN!?" and flings him into the tower.
Luffy pops up from the wreckage, "Ah... That was scary. Didn't hurt, but it looks like he's seriously pissed off... AH!" He see's Arlong charge at him with those berserk seaking eyes, "Whoa!" and jumps up as Arlong sticks his hand through the wall.
Arlong's arm pulls back and now he holds his weapon, Kiribachi. "That's one freakin huge saw!"
The two jump up roof top to roof top. Luffy jumping away from the saw, while Arlong tries to chop him with it, spinning as they hit each floor. The crowd can only watch as they go up, and up. All the way to the top floor. Another crash indicates they went inside.
"The window on the top floor...," whispers Nami. "It's the cartography room!"
Maxwell turns to the pirate thief, "You sure about that Nami?"
"I've been up there plenty of times to know what's inside...!" She clutches her bandaged shoulder.
...
...
It's eerily quiet now and everyone can only watch hoping for some sign of movement.
"Damn it...! Just what exactly happened to brother Luffy!?" "We've got no way of knowing what's going on up there!"
"Johnny! Yosaku!" The bounty hunter flinch as they turn too the mage you called them out.
"'Now her hand is raised, A sword to pierce the sun, With iron shield she defends the faithful, Let chaos be undone.' Don't lose faith you two. Believe! Luffy will win this." The two men are humbled by scripture, even if they had ever heard it before. Some of the villagers take solace in it as well, hoping for their salvation.
A desk flies out of the top floor, "What!?"
"Whew..." "It's just a desk..." "That scared me good. For a second I thought it was Brother Lu—" "Hey! Are you saying you don't believe in Brother Luffy's strength!?" "Hey, you were scared too, Johnny!" "Wah—no! Um—I uhh... thought it might be Arlong."
"Both of you! Shut it!" Zoro yells at them.
"Yes, Brother Zoro!" the two salute.
Nami meanwhile could only look up at the falling desk, "Luffy...?"
A bookshelf is blown out of another wall. Pretty soon more junk is being tossed out of the top floor. Wood, paper, debris, it all lands outside, crashing on the ground. "What's with all these things being thrown outta there?" asks Usopp.
"Seems like an intense fight is going on up there." Yosaku comments. Nami had her hand around her mouth and was crying. Nami silently thanks Luffy for what he is doing.
"W-What exactly is going on!?" cries a villager.
"It's stopped..." Sanji comments as debris stops falling.
*CRACK!*
A long leg stretches out of the top roof, destroying the shark monument with the Arlong flag. It them comes crashing back in, and the castle cracks under the impact, all the way to the bottom. A battle cry can be heard from inside as the building turns unstable.
Everyone can only look at the tower, shocked. "L-Look! That impact just now, Arlong Park is...!" "No way! It's all coming down!"
Yosaku turns to the towns people, "It's too dangerous! Everyone evacuate immediately!"
Nami tries to run in but is caught by Johnny, "Sister Nami!" "But Luffy's still in there!"
"LUFFY~!"
Everyone hides behind an Ice Wall Maxwell conjured. It blocked any of the dust or debris that could harm them, as Arlong Park comes crashing down.
!
!.
!..
...
Maxwell dismisses the ice and everyone looks at the wreckage of Arlong park, a mountainous pile of wood and stone.
"Which one of them won!?" "...After that destruction, I can't possibly imagine that—" "Luffy..."
A noise cracks from the top of the heap, and a figure stands up from the rubble.
It's Luffy.
"LUFFY!"
"BROTHER~!"
Usopp see all the blood dripping off him, "Is he alright...?" Luffy however, takes a breath.
"NAMI!"
Everyone looks up at him listening to what he has to say.
"YOU'RE MY CREWMATE, GOT IT!?"
The rubble falls to reveal Arlong, defeated, under the wreckage.
"...Got it!"
Usopp calls out, "He won!" and the villagers all celebrate the fall of Arlong Park.
"Shishishishi!"