11. My Second Crew Vs Crew Fight

Luffy gave a loud sigh from the thinning dust cloud and I saw him brushing off his hat as he said "We've arrived. We've arrived."

"You bastard..." Zoro growled before he emerged from the wreckage with shark teeth and continued "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?"

"What do you mean? We've come to take Nami back." Luffy said, sounding like he thought Zoro was an idiot before he asked "Still haven't found her?" He then looked around and said "Oh yeah. Where are Usopp and Johnny?"

I pointed down the trench we carved through the rice paddy and said "Well, there's Johnny." Sure enough, the man was walking toward us looking haggard.

"Usopp?" Zoro asked, not looking towards the blue coated sword user before he stood up fully and said "That's right! This isn't the time to be idling around."

As Zoro started to run in the direction of Arlong Park, Luffy asked "What happened?"

Zoro stopped and turned around as he explained "That guy was caught by Arlong. If we don't hurry he'll get killed."

"He's dead." Johnny said, falling to his knees as he reached us.

"What?" Zoro asked.

"It's too late. Usopp-Bro is dead." Johnny said. He punched the ground and continued "He was killed! By Nami-Sis!"

Story Start: Conomi Island

As everyone else looked completely stunned (well except for Gin, but he had a frown on his face) at Johnny's words, I instead rolled my eyes, walked over to Johnny and dope slapped the back of his head. As the rest of the group stared in disbelief, Johnny gripped the back of his head and glared up at me as he yelled out "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!"

"For not using your Davy Jones damned Observation Haki, that's what!" I barked before pointing down the road and said "I can feel Ussop moving towards us right now!"

There was a moment of silence as the others focused the sense I had unlocked in all of them. Then several postures relaxed as they all realized that yes, Usopp was moving in our direction, and at a rather fast pace as well.

"I give him ten minutes to get here at his current pace." I said before looking up to the top of the small cliff Sanji's boat had crashed against, now glaring at the source of conflict I was feeling as I asked "So care to tell me what actually happened, and while you're at it, why you stole the Going Merry, Nami?"

The others startled and looked above us. Seriously, did none of them pay attention to what their Observation Haki should be telling them?!

Nami stared down at us, her face a mask of cold indifference. I probably would have believed it as well if I couldn't feel her emotions with my Observation Haki. Nami's eyes narrowed for a moment before she scoffed and said "Isn't it obvious? Why else would a thief steal a ship from the group she had been with? Clearly I was just stringing you all along!"

"Yeah? Then why steal the Going Merry when Johnny and Yosaku's boat the Marlin would be much easier to sail by yourself?" I questioned with a raised eyebrow. Oh, don't get me wrong, I was still incredibly pissed but if she wasn't using the Merry to move a lot of people then it would have made sense to steal the smaller boat.

Nami scoffed and said "The Going Merry's a nicer ship, as a thief I would naturally go for it over a smaller vessel. It's not like I wasn't the only one sailing it before anyways." She suddenly stiffened as I quick drew my Battlescout, looking down at the red dot now resting on her right knee.

"I really want to shoot you right now Nami." I said with narrowed eyes. My pointer finger was held straight though as I continued "There's currently only two, maybe three things stopping me."

Nami tried to go for nonchalant but I could feel her sudden razor focus with my Observation Haki belying her readiness to react as she asked "Oh yeah, and what reasons would those be?"

Her tenseness went up a level when I pumped the Battlescout and said "Well for one thing, I made the monumental mistake of teaching a snake a skill that is normally only seen in the latter portion of the Grand Line. Your Observation Haki might enable you to make me miss my shot. Course, I wouldn't let that stop me but the second is that as a loyal member of the crew, I follow my Captain's orders, and he is still set on bringing you with us as Navigator. Might be a bit hard for you to operate in the Grand Line with a shot out knee."

"And what's the third reason?" Zoro asked curiously even as he glared up at Nami, hand resting on the hilt of his sole remaining sword.

"That would be the small kernel of joy and hope she felt when she laid eyes on us that she's doing her best to ignore right now." I said and Nami outright flinched at my words.

She quickly rallied though as she crossed her arms and said "You're wrong, the only joy I'm feeling right now is being back home."

~"You're lying."~ I sing sang as we all felt the bitterness practically dripping off of Nami's psyche as she said those words.

Nami grit her teeth and seemed to lose any patience with trying to pull an act with other Observation Haki users around and said "Look, you want the Merry back? She's docked two miles along the coast that way. (she pointed in the opposite direction from Arlong Park then recrossed her arm) Just grab Usopp when he gets here and go! You are not welcome on this island."

Luffy crossed his own arms with a furious scowl and said "No! We're not leaving here without you Nami, you're my navigator, our NAKAMA!"

Nami scowled and turned in a way that we could now see her left arm and she shouted "I already have a crew, see!"

I stared at the tattoo on her left arm wide eyed. It looked exactly like the mark on the flag flying over Arlong Park. A moment later though, I narrowed my eyes and as I started listening to my Observation Haki again said "So, you're not just a con artist working for Arlong, you're his property as well."

Nami jerked back like I had just physically slapped her.

"What?" Sanji asked, feeling like a furious volcano three seconds from erupting.

"Focus your Observation Haki on that tattoo." I told him and the others.

Nami's expression became horrified at what was happening as everyone else furrowed their brows. A moment later, Luffy's expression became pure, absolute, APOCALYPTIC. I'm talking making Davy Jones quake in his sea logged boots as the air around him shimmered, his still infantile Conqueror's Haki BEGGING to be cut loose on the absolute BASTARD that had put that mark in his chosen Navigator's skin.

The others weren't that far behind as they sensed what I had. Pain, grief, hopelessness. Ethereal chains that nevertheless were unbreakable. Mocking laughter overlayed with a sense of Absolute Possessiveness, one that said 'You are mine, and you will NEVER escape me.'

I peripherally noted Usopp's pace kicked into overdrive, our Sniper clearly having sensed the others' titanic rage and booking it. The only one even remotely close to looking calm was Gin and even he had a death grip on his Tonfa handles, ready to smash some skulls in. Me though, I still had my weapon aimed for Nami's knee, a fact Sanji was quick to notice.

"WHY THE FUCKING HELL ARE YOU STILL AIMING AT HER WITH THAT YOU WALKING FUR COAT?!" Sanji roared as he launched a kick at me only to begin hopping on the other foot cursing while holding his kicking leg after it had slammed into my Armament Haki.

"She's still an enemy. Her being a slave doesn't change the fact that she stole our ship, along with all of our stuff except for what we had on us at the time." I stated cooly causing Nami to flinch again, though I'd wager it was from me calling her a slave rather than from any guilt for what she did.

Sanji looked like he was about to make a second try at caving in my ribs, Armament Haki be damned when Luffy sternly said "Enough you two."

There was no denying our Captain when he was tapping into that, no matter how instinctively and I found myself lowering the aim of my Battlescout without any conscious input from my brain. Seeing this, I let out a sharp tsk and shot the ground by my feet before sheathing the weapon.

It was at that point Usopp came rushing up to us, a dust trail thrown up from the dirt road due to his speed. Our Sniper slid to a stop, immediately putting hands to his knees as he gasped for breath. A few moments to get his breath back, he looked up as he asked "What's wrong guoooh shit!" He immediately paled at the look on Luffy's face, the fact that the air was STILL shimmering around him, and probably actually feeling the aura of the Conqueror up close and personal for the first time for good measure. Giving a heavy swallow, he asked "Luffy, what the hell?!"

"Future Pirate King partially unlocking his Conqueror's Haki way earlier than I ever thought he would." I explained offhandedly even as I kept Nami in my peripheral.

"This is only partially awakened!?" Usopp asked incredulously.

"Considering we're not on our knees foaming out of our mouths from an inexperienced Conqueror blasting out his Will in all directions? Yeah, partially." I confirmed and Usopp let out a wheezing sound.

Luffy though had kept his gaze laser focused on Nami this entire time. And now that his entire crew was here, he ordered "Nami, explain."

Nami could no more deny Luffy when he was like this than Sanji or I could and we learned about a Marine who saved two kids that she adopted only to be killed by an invading pirate, one of her daughters enslaved by that pirate even more thoroughly than the rest of the island's residents because the bastard saw how good at map drawing she already was at eight years old. We then learned about the deal Nami had made to save her village, along with just how close she was from doing so. She was short just a measly one million Berri. Throughout her tale, most of the others just got steadily angrier, even Gin becoming more pissed under the calm façade he was putting on.

I wasn't worried about them though, instead I kept a worried eye on Luffy. He was the one who could knock us flat on our asses without touching us if he further unlocked his newest ability after all. Thankfully for our continued collective consciousness though, while his rage reached truly unbelievable levels, he was somehow keeping that shimmering field around him from expanding more than a foot away from him. (Or maybe that was only as far as it could go right now?) When Nami finished speaking, there was a few tense moments of silence before Luffy turned to the left and started walking down the road as he said in a soft but dangerous tone "Let's go."

"Aye Captain." All of us males, even the Bounty Hunter duo said together as we filed after him. I made a mental note that Johnny and Yosaku might actually be sticking with us longer than I had previously thought they would but kept that thought to myself.

Behind me, I could feel Nami's surprise quickly turning to horror before my enhanced Zoan hearing heard her clamber down the small cliff. She quickly sprinted up to then in front of us. But just as she opened her mouth, Luffy gave her a look and her mouth immediately clicked shut, the orangette moving out of the way seemingly without thought. We walked right past her and she stood staring after us for a few moments. But after that brief time, she quickly caught up with us again, hanging back behind us. I kept part of my Observation Haki focused on her just in case, but I didn't think she'd actually be doing anything back there. I had to blink though when Luffy's arm stretched back to her and dropped his Straw Hat onto her head.

When we reached Arlong Park, Luffy blasted open the doors into the interior and as we walked through, I saw several fishmen lying around knocked out under the gondolas covered in bandages. While they had clearly been treated to they were also clearly not combat capable and I looked at Zoro with a raised eyebrow as I asked "Your work I presume?"

"Yep." Zoro said with a smirk.

Arlong glared death daggers at Zoro from his beach chair throne before he turned his attention to Luffy at the front of our group and demanded "Who are you to come barging into my home like this, you inferior human?!"

I could feel Nami trembling in my Observation Haki from where she was hiding behind the wall as Arlong spoke.

Luffy snorted steam out of his nostrils and said "I'm the one who's going to kick your ass then have a seafood buffet, with Shark Fin Soup as the starter."

I blinked at that, surprised at the (for Luffy at least) rather witty comeback.

Arlong's already angry eyes turned bloodshot as he asked "You dare talk that way to me? A Fishman, the biological superior to you puny humans?!"

I snorted and as everyone looked towards me, I said "Buddy, say that after you can bench press an entire Marine Battleship, full crew, cannons, and fully stocked like Garp the Fist does. Biologically superior? Ha, the only thing different about you to humans that isn't brought about from dealing with a different environment is the fact that you have gills on your neck allowing you to breath underwater. But what happens when pure oxygen is put through those gills?" I scoffed and said "The only thing superior about you that I can see is that you're a superior asshole."

Arlong grit his teeth but before he could say anything, Luffy said "Enough talking." The next moment he was by Arlong's chair and smashing a fist into the side of his head launching him into the perimeter wall which shattered around him.

Arlong's three officers, an Octopus, a Manta Ray, and a Stern Whiting all stared in surprise only to get blasted back as well by Sanji, Gin, and Zoro, the three fishmen joining their captain in craters blasted into the wall.

I nudged Usopp and when he looked towards me, I pointed up to the porch roof of the main building and said "We should take an overwatch position."

"Ooh, good idea." Usopp said and when I switched my legs to were-lemur mode he quickly hopped on my back and I leapt up to the top of the porch then leapt to the other edge. I went back to human form as the pair of us drew our weapons and took a knee side by side.

We were all set to support the four (Johnny and Yosaku were still at the destroyed gate, though they had swords drawn) when the octopus shot up to his feet and let out a trumpeting call.

The water surged as something large came in from the ocean, a shadow matching up to a semi familiar presence in my Observation Haki. Frowning, I said "Should have figured that thing was theirs."

"What?! What's coming?!" Usopp asked in a panic.

There was an explosion of water and the massive sea cow came up, still having that anime red bump on its head. Usopp's eyes popped out as he saw it but I said "Don't worry, it's big, not dangerous."

The cow saw who was under the porch roof and immediately began fearfully sweating gallons as Luffy said in disinterest "Oh, it's the bull."

"I suppose since it's an enemy I could finish the prep process and we could have some grilled bull." Sanji mused.

The sea cow did the smart thing and turned around as it began to swim away. I lowered my Battlescout, prepared to turn back towards our more humanoid opponents when Arlong opened his mouth.

"Oi Momoo, what are you doing?"

'Momoo' went completely still as Arlong turned his head towards him and said "Well, if you want to run away, I won't stop you. Do you understand Momoo?"

As rage began to replace the fear I thought 'I certainly don't.'

The massive sea cow spun around and charged back towards us. I started to pump my weapon only for Luffy to flatly state "I've got this." Hearing his sandals tap on the ground, Usopp and I both stood up to watch Luffy walk to the edge before he…slammed his feet into the concrete…what? A moment later, it became clear that it was to have an anchor point as he spun his body around about a dozen times before his arms stretched out to grab Momo's horns who went right back from enraged to scared.

"Oh, that's not good." I said getting that sinking feeling and told Usopp "Get off the roof."

My warning was matched by Zoro who said "Oi, we gotta go!"

"Why, what's he doing?" Sanji asked.

"I don't know but it's not good." Zoro said and running footsteps matched Usopp's and mine as we sprinted across the roof and just as we leapt off I grabbed Usopp. My legs bent as I landed next to Gin, Sanji, and Zoro, shifting them back to fully human as we all turned and watched Luffy unwind, pulling the sea cow out of the water as he called out "Gomu Gomu Pinwheel!"

Getting away was definitely a good call as the porch roof was smashed apart by the swinging monster, Luffy making a dozen spins before he released the monster and sent it flying back out to sea.

Luffy panted and said "I didn't come to waste time with animals." Turning, he pointed at Arlong and said "I'm here for you!"

Arlong closed his eyes for a moment as he said "That's perfect…" opening them to show a glare, he continued "because I feel like killing you right now."

As the others moved forward to berate Luffy, I tapped Usopp's shoulder and said "New plan, go provide long range support at the wall."

"Y-yeah, good idea." Usopp said with a shaky thumbs up before he quickly darted to the wall.

I began making my way to the others only to see the Octopus Fishman squirt out a massive blast of ink. Most of the others managed to avoid it but Luffy got the full blast, unable to move with his feet pinned.

"Oh that dumbass." I muttered as the Octopus lifted up a damaged piece of roof that had to be twenty feet wide and threw it down on top of Luffy's position. I would have shot the octopus in the arm to make him drop the chunk of stone on his own head if Sanji hadn't already been moving.

Sure enough, the piece of rubble split down the middle revealing Sanji in front of Luffy with foot upraised. Exhaling smoke from his mouth, Sanji said "Che, I really did choose a rather troublesome guy to follow didn't I?"

"Yep." Zoro said with a grin.

The ray scoffed and walked forward as he said "I'll admit you seem skilled, for a human. But do you really think you can stand up to us fishmen?"

"This nonsense again?" I asked, rolling my eyes even as I brought my Battlescout to my shoulder. I paused from pumping it though when Sanji said "Don't bother wasting your ammo Matt, this Stingray Tinga isn't worth it."

Said Manta Ray's eyebrow twitched before he cracked his knuckles then took a martial arts stance and said "Right, I'm going to make your death as painful as possible."

"Guess I'll take the blushing bride then." Gin said with a smirk as he idly swung his tonfas in circles. The Smelt Whiting snarled at that as he said "I'm going to break your teeth on those weapons of yours when I shove them down your throat."

"And I'll be paying Roronoa Zoro back for tricking me earlier!" The octopus shouted as he tried to slam more rubble down on the swordsman only for him to leap out of the way.

Zoro unsheathed his sword as he asked "Are you still hung up on that? Worry more about what I'm going to do to you now calamari."

The Manta Ray shooting forward to slam a palm thrust into Sanji's torso that he swayed out of the way of thanks to his Observation Haki seemed to kick things off and the rest of the fighters erupted into motion, seemingly automatically splitting up into pairs as Gin deflected water shots from his opponent with his tonfas as he tried to close the distance, his opponent trying to keep the range open despite his earlier bravado. The Octopus threw more rubble at Zoro who either dodged or sliced the rubble apart as he tried to get close only for the Octopus to jump up and latch on one of the remaining pillars. He said something about turning into his 'true form' but I couldn't focus on what he was talking about.

That's because Arlong was suddenly by Luffy, shoving a hand into the concrete.

"Oi, what the hell do you think you're doing?!" I barked as I shifted my legs back to were-lemur form and leapt forward.

Arlong caught the punch Luffy threw at him with the free hand and laughed as he said "Why, helping him wash off all that ink of course! SHAHAHAHA!" Arlong lifted up the chunk of concrete Luffy was in, still laughing.

"The fuck you are!" I shouted before I took one more leap and my Armament clad foot slammed into Arlong's chest. Arlong coughed out in surprise, letting go of Luffy and staggering back a few steps. I quickly shifted to Zaboomafoo to avoid having the chunk of concrete hit me as I landed then went back to human as I pointed my Battlescout at Arlong and said "If you think we'd let you do that while the others were fighting your officers then you're even dumber than how ugly you look."

Arlong idly rubbed a hand at his chest and said "So, there are two Devil Fruit users on your crew, a Paramecia and a Zoan. I'm surprised, it's rare for a crew in this ocean to have one Devil Fruit User on it, never mind two. And on top of that this crew seems much smaller than usual. No matter, you'll fare just as poorly as that fool behind you."

My Observation flared in warning a bare instant before Arlong was in front of me. Instead of him taking out my throat with his teeth, he wound up clamping down on my Armament Haki'd left forearm. His eyes widened when he felt resistance and tried to apply more pressure causing me to wince. But even as I did so, I lightly tossed my Battlescout so that way I could hold the pump with my right hand. I quickly pumped it once then tossed it again to hold the handle. Arlong's eyes went even wider as I put the barrel to his left eye and gritted out "Smile, you son of a-"

I pulled the trigger and Arlong yelled out in pain as he staggered back, hands going up to where his eye used to be. Unfortunately, it turns out that Arlong actually was superior to humans in the durability department as my weapon's round hadn't done more than destroy the eye. As Arlong's remaining eye glared death and retribution upon my soon to be corpse, I blinked once and said "Well alright then, blades and nails it is."

So saying, I sheathed my Battlescout, pulled my knife off of my belt with my left hand, and flicked it out while shifting to were-lemur form as I did so.

"OI MATT, HE'S MINE!" Luffy shouted behind me causing my ears to ring.

Absentmindedly bringing a finger to my ringing right ear, I said "You want him? Get your feet out of the ground and then you can whale on him all you like. But for right now? This racist bastard's mine."

My fur and clothes faded into obsidian as I brought my Armament Haki to bare and Arlong actually looked worried for a moment when he saw that I could cover more than just a little bit of my body with the technique all at once. The next moment I leapt forward and slammed a kick at Arlong but he caught my foot with his right hand but I shifted into Zaboomafoo to get it out of his grip and moved around his hand onto his wrist and stabbed the obsidian black blade through the back of his hand. Arlong roared out in pain and brought his hand up and his head down as he tried to stab me with his nose but I swung under his wrist, tearing my knife out as I went. Landing on the ground, I stabbed him in the left leg earning a further shout of pain before I leapt away to avoid the left hand punch he threw down which cratered the ground.

My shift to Were Lemur as I pushed back forward allowed me to close the distance much quicker than if I had stayed small and I got my knife into his left bicep before I had to shift back to small and roll along his back to avoid his right arm's swipe. That roll allowed me to slice into the right side of his back before I shifted back to Were-Lemur form and slammed a double fisted punch into him Po vs Tai Lung Style, adding a blast of flowing Armament Haki for good measure. Tricky stuff to get working that, but it was certainly worth it going by how I managed to blast Arlong through the outer wall of Arlong Park's main building.

With a bit of breathing room, rather than pursuing, I turned to where my Captain was struggling to get his feet free and slammed my Armament clad foot into the block of concrete causing it to shatter. Giving a two arm wave gesture to the hole, I said "He's all yours Captain."

Luffy did that anime steam out of his nostrils trick before his extending punch slammed Arlong right back in to the building as he came charging out, Luffy quickly shooting after him. Well, so long as Luffy kept Arlong out of the water he should be able to make Shark Fin Soup out of the guy. … I just mentally saw Luffy actually ripping Arlong's fin off and Sanji making soup out of it.

Shaking my head from the thought, I looked to see how the other fights were going. Zoro was dueling the Octopus still, who had grabbed six swords. And Zoro just called for Johnny and Yosaku to throw him their swords… my head turned upwards as I watched them fly over my head. Hmm, good distance….and Zoro just pulled a Mihawk, with the added insult of launching Octoguy into a tornado. Oof. The exploding round Usopp hit him in the face with on the way down kind of seemed redudant to be honest.

Sanji apparently knew a surprising amount of recipes that could use Manta Rays and he was making the particular Manta Ray he was fighting absolutely furious as he recited them, avoiding all of his Fishman Karate strikes. And the not so poor guy looked (pardon the pun) rather tenderized as well, several bruises on his skin and a busted lip as Sanji swayed around a punch and retaliated with a kick to the ribs. Yeah, he had this.

That just left the Smelt Whitiiiiooooh so that's why Gin's epitaph is The Man Demon. Yeesh, forget the Manta Ray, that was being bruised and bloodied. The once light blue Fishman was now entirely dark blue and black from the bruises on all over him, he must have had at LEAST three bones broken in every limb, his rib cage was caved in, and he was missing a chunk of his skull, which was currently dripping off of Gin's left tonfa. Yikes, glad I never tried to actually test my Armament Haki against those canon balls masquerading as hand held weapons, Gin would have probably knocked me a good hundred yards from the Baratie if I had been stupid enough to try to hit the balls straight on with my limbs rather than having used my tail that one time to take advantage of physics…

A projectile shooting an inch away from my ear drew me from my reminiscing as Usopp took advantage of a clear shot and nailed the Manta Ray in the throat. As the Manta Ray choked in surprise, Sanji spun around him, kicked out both knees then ended the fight in a brutal kick to the back of the head that knocked him past dream land and likely straight to coma central going by that anime smoke coming off of his head. I was kind of surprised we didn't have a second caved in skull to be honest considering what Sanji did to Momoo but maybe he had held back just enough not to kill his opponent.

And with that, the only fight still happening was the one in the building between Luffy and Arlong. I kept 'an eye' of my Observation Haki on that even as I folded my knife and clipped it to my belt before pulling out my phone. There should be…yep there it was:

Challenge: Surviving A Shark Attack: Go one on one against Arlong and come out with all your body parts intact. Reward: AR Blaster.

Challenge Complete

After saying yes to the prompt of if I wanted to collect the reward, I looked at the weapon that appeared hovering in front of me and which was spinning in mid air as I mused "Didn't think I'd be able to do your challenge given how Luffy acted when I shot at Krieg." Still, at least I didn't have to save up money to buy this thing down the line.

Like the Battlescout, Taifun had taken one of my possessions from home and did some magitech modifications. I had bought the Augnented Reality Blaster from the Dave and Busters arcade in Myrtle beach. The orange and black gun shaped device was like an inverse VR headset. You flipped up a smart phone holder that went along the barrel and used the phone's screen as you played the games on it. Along with the trigger, where a normal gun's hammer would be was a joystick and under that was four buttons in a diamond pattern. There also used to be a power button on its side. The other end had two 'barrels' though they hadn't actually been open tubes, just plastic covers.

But now was another matter entirely as I saw that the barrel shaped bits of plastic were now actual gun barrels. The smart phone holder was still there but the power button and battery life led indicator were gone. Speaking of batteries, the little latch on the bottom of the handle for two AA batteries was also gone. The four buttons had been modified as well, they now had painted symbols on them, a small flame on the right button, a lightning bolt on the bottom button, a snowflake on the left one, and a pair of parallel lines that quickly curved in opposite directions representing wind on the top button.

Reaching out for it when the handle was facing me, I mused "I'm going to have to make a sheath for you when we get back to the Merry." I opened the smart phone holder since there was a bit of paper sticking out of it and realized it was actually a manual for the magitech weapon. But before I could pull it out my Observation Haki registered Luffy's anger go from the high simmer it had turned into on the walk here right back to its 'oh god where are my brown pants!?' level of absolute rage.

Quickly closing the SPH then looking to where he and Arlong were in the main building, I called out "Nami, what room is that they're in?"

I swore I could hear her swallow even from the gate and she said "That's the room where I made and kept island maps and nautical charts."

"Well, that would certainly completely piss him off all over again." I muttered before a writing desk crashed out of the room followed by a deluge of shredded paper, Arlong's panicked shouting for Luffy to stop clearly going unheeded as a drying rack holding six different maps flew out the window and smashed apart on the ground.

I flinched when I saw Luffy's leg shoot up out of the roof of the building before it slammed back down inside and the whole building began to collapse.

"LUFFY!" Nami shouted and I scoffed as I said "Oh please, he's fine!" Seriously, learn to keep an 'ear' on what your Observation Haki is telling you people.

Sure enough, when the rubble finished settling on the ground (With the shark head resting at an angle, the flag hanging morosely like a funeral shroud) Luffy burst out of the rubble with arms held up in the air and a loud shout of triumph. Adding to the image of the conquering hero, he then proceeded to drag a completely KO'd Arlong out of the debris field by his three times bent nose. Oof.

The rest of us all moved to meet him at where the rubble ended and Luffy threw Arlong to the side before wrapping a now crowded Nami in his arms.

"You're my friend Nami, Nakama, don't ever forget that." Luffy ordered and Nami nodded.

As touching as such a scene might be (even for me, who wasn't quite ready to forgive that girl yet) it came to a sudden end when Usopp snapped his gaze out to sea and squinted his eyes for a moment before he said "Guys, there's a ship coming right towards us, I'm sensing at least seventy five people aboard…make that seventy six."

"Marines." Zoro muttered and I nodded as I asked "How soon till they get here Usopp?"

"They'll be in extreme canon range in less than thirty seconds." Our Sniper said.

"Figures they'd show up after the assholes are beaten." Johnny muttered and Yosaku nodded.

I sighed and loosened my belt so that way I could put my new weapon between it and my pants then as I drew my Battlescout I adopted a chipper tone and said "Well, so long as they're not on Arlong's payroll, at least we won't have to worry about securing prisoners now."

Gin, Sanji, and Zoro all gave simultaneous snorts at that. Zoro gave Johnny and Yosaku their swords back and we all moved to the sea entrance to wait to see what they would do. Hopefully it'd be launch landing craft rather than cannonballs.

Fortunately, no cannonballs were launched as the Marine ship came incredibly close to Arlong Park, actually turning to the starboard before grappling lines were thrown out that hooked on the sea wall and several Marines pulled on the lines to bring the ship right up to the rock deck of the outer sea wall. This allowed multiple gangplanks to be lowered and Marines swarmed down. And while they were all armed, thankfully the rifles were kept slung over shoulders and swords sheathed in favor for the shackles held in their hands.

As the Marine grunts ran past us, their apparent leader, a man with purple hair in multiple folded ponytails as well as his goatee kept in the same manner, wearing the 'full' Marine outfit and a green scarf came walking down the gangplank as he said musingly "Not quite how I pictured arriving to Arlong Park but a welcome deviation none the less." Walking over to our group, he gave a small head bow and said "We witnessed the destruction of the building through our spyglasses, you have our thanks for dealing with these Pirate scum. I only wish we could have gotten here sooner to help. Ah, where are my manners? I am Commodore Pudding of Marine Branch 77. Civilians of this island managed to make it to our base and told us of the oppression they had suffered by the hands of these Fishman ruffians. I'm sorry to say that when an investigation was launched into just how Pirates managed to gain a foothold here under Branch 16's collective noses it was discovered that Arlong had one Marine Captain Nezumi in his pocket. Be assured that he, and all of the men that were complacent in his corruption have since been rounded up."

Nami was a swirling ball of rage at hearing a Marine had been working with Arlong. I had already figured that though given how long the Fishman had his webbed hand around the collective throat of these people. I was more interested in how this Commodore had apparently said all of that in one breath. That rage went straight to shock though as Pudding pointed straight at her left arm and continued "You're lucky they told us Arlong's crew conscripted you young lady or you would be having shackles placed on you right now as well. (The rest of the Strawhats stiffened at that) I strongly suggest you get that brand on your arm removed as soon as possible."

Nami gave a wooden nod and Commodore Pudding turned to snap his fingers towards his ship. Another Marine Grunt quickly appeared with a suitcase and a clipboard. Once he reached his surperior officer the man gave a brief salute motion with the clipboard holding hand before offering said clipboard. Pudding accepted it, drew out a fountain pen from his coat and signed the paper on it before he traded it for the suitcase.

Turning towards us, he presented the briefcase and stated "Arlong and his officers each had bounties." He then eyed the unconscious Momoo that was floating by the ship, still with swirly eyes before he looked back at us, lightly jerking his head to the creature and continued "And I added an extra two thousand for dealing with that monster. 42,502,000 Berries should be quite the windfall for your group."

Nami was apparently still in a funk at having dodged being arrested so I stepped forward and said "Thank you, these funds will be rather helpful I'm sure."

Commodore Pudding nodded and once I had hold of the brief case gave our group as a whole a nod as well before he began making his way into Arlong Park proper, his men already bringing prisoners out to the ship.

I watched him for a moment before I looked to Luffy and said "Captain, with your permission, I'd like to secure these funds in the Going Merry and ensure she's still in good condition." (And make sure my Switch was where I left it.)

Luffy nodded and said "Alright Tac."

I quick stepped to the land gate of Arlong Park before shifting to Were Lemur form, leap running along the coast. I had a ship to check over, and a flag to hide. Then after that I needed to actually read the manual for the AR Blaster. Hopefully I wouldn't need to use it on those Marines…

END

Standard Reminder to vote on the bimonthly poll for what storie I work on. I'll be changing up my routine so that one of the two stories I definitely work on will be those that haven't been updated the longest.