A hulking blue-skinned fish-man stood above a human in a bloodstained Marine's uniform. Around them were the screams of the dying.

"You…" the Marine groaned, struggling to lift up a pistol. "You won't get away with this…"

The fish-man grinned, revealing two rows of sharp teeth. It was a sight that could, and had, caused humans to faint in terror.

"What are you blathering about?" said Arlong, captain of the Arlong Pirates. "We already have."

Then Arlong lifted up his foot and slammed it down, crushing the Marine lieutenant's head effortlessly.

Hmph… these are the sorts who are meant to keep the world safe…?

A distant memory flashed through Arlong's mind, a memory of a certain Vice-Admiral. That memory caused his massive body to shudder.

No, there's no way anyone like that would come… not for a small matter like this…

Arlong breathed out in an attempt to relax. He left the cabin and arrived at the sunlit deck of a ship.

On the deck were dozens of fish-men and over a hundred dead Marines. The former didn't have too many wounds, which was fortunate.

One of the fish-men, a tall one with broad fins on the sides of his arms, approached. "We've taken control of the whole ship, Captain Arlong."

Arlong nodded. "Has Take sent out the decoy message yet?"

"He has," replied Kuroobi, one of the officers in the Arlong Pirates. "That should keep the Marines away from us for a while."

Even if the Arlong Pirates could kill the Marines on this one ship, they could hardly fight against the entire organisation. For that reason, Arlong had ordered one of his subordinates, who was good at modulating his voice, to mimic a desperate Marine and claim the Arlong Pirates had fled east by swimming. In truth, they'd be sailing this ship in a completely different direction.

Arlong glanced at one of the hatches that led below decks, which had trails of bloody footprints leading from it. Until very recently, he and the rest of his crew had been imprisoned down there.

But these weaklings couldn't keep us down… They're not like that rubber boy, or the Pirate Hunter… If I'd pulled myself together earlier, we could've broken out earlier…

-ooo-

An hour before, Arlong was slumped against a wall of his cell. A thick set of shackles bound his wrists together, with the chain additionally looped around an iron post fixed to the floor.

Arlong could see his crewmates in other cells. They were all restrained as well, and they looked completely empty of the will to fight.

Time passed. Arlong didn't say a word, nor did he stir from his position. But as he looked around at his crew in shackles, he felt a growing sense of rage.

When we were in the Sun Pirates… we took in many escaped slaves… we swore that none of them would ever be locked up by humans again…

And when the crew split, with some of the men coming with me… I swore I'd keep them all safe.

He remembered coming back to Arlong Park to see his men lying on the ground everywhere, defeated by the Pirate Hunter. He remembered seeing that rubber brat swing Momoo around, causing even more injuries, even more destruction. Those memories made him clench his fists hard enough to draw blood.

A pair of Marines entered the prison deck, their footsteps echoing in the narrow space.

"Whoa… look at them all."

"You never saw fish-men before?"

Arlong lifted his head slightly. The two Marines couldn't be older than their early twenties. Their casual expressions certainly showed a lack of experience.

"I can't believe they kept their racket going for so long on that island."

"Huh? What d'you mean?"

"I mean, how could fish-men be that tough on land? Wouldn't they just dry out after leaving water?"

Arlong still didn't show any visible reaction. He simply waited patiently, even as his heart thundered with rage.

"Didn't you hear what the captain said? Fish-men are ten times stronger than us! We should be careful—"

"Come on, they're not dangerous now! There's no way they can break out of these cells!"

The Marines came to the front of Arlong's cell.

In the next couple of seconds, Arlong stood up, tore the chain of his shackles apart with pure strength, then reached between the bars of his cell. He grabbed the two Marines by their necks.

"G-Guh!?" one Marine gasped. "Y-You—!?"

Arlong tightened his grip—it wouldn't do for these fools to call for help, after all.

"The reason we were in power for so long," Arlong said, pulling the Marines right up to the bars, "is because we're far superior to you land-dwellers."

Arlong snapped the two fools' necks, then carefully lowered their corpses to their floor without making any sound. He tore off a ring of keys from one of the Marine's belts. Even if he was strong enough to bend the bars of his cell, using the key would be quieter and less tiring, especially when he had to free his crew as well.

Hmph, this prison ship is nothing compared to Impel Down. The jailers there wouldn't have let anyone with the keys just wander near the cells on a whim.

"C-Captain?"

Arlong looked up to see one of his subordinates in the cell opposite his. It was Pisaro, an ocean sunfish fish-man, and he was staring in shock.

"Just wait there, Pisaro," Arlong said, his voice gentler than before. "We'll all be free soon."

Arlong tried the keys one by one until he unlocked the door of his cell. Then he stepped out and began unlocking the other cells.

"Th-Thank you, Captain Arlong," Pisaro said. "But… the other Marines…"

"The other Marines?" Arlong scoffed. "In the past, we've crushed even greater numbers of Marines! We won't lose to them now. So, who will fight with me?"

-ooo-

Returning to the present, Arlong watched his crew toss the corpses of the Marines overboard. The fools had clearly been useless in life, so at least in death they could contribute to the marine food web.

A tall fish-man with a long snout and puffy lips approached. This was Chew, another officer of the Arlong Pirates.

"It shouldn't be more than a minute before they're all gone, Captain," Chew reported. "Where should we go next?"

Arlong closed his eyes in thought. It would be easy to suggest finding some other defenceless island to raid—there were plenty of those in the East Blue, and his crew's morale had improved after breaking free from captivity. If they were more careful this time, not staying in one place, they might even avoid recapture.

Then a new thought occurred to him. It sounded pitiful, unfitting for veteran pirates like them, but…

Arlong waited for all the corpses to be tossed overboard, then stood on top of the poop deck to drew his crew's attention.

"Men," Arlong said. "When was the last time any of you got to see home?"

The crew looked at each other uncertainly.

"A-About than ten years, Captain."

"It's been fifteen for me."

Arlong nodded. "It's been too long for all of us. For example… when was the last time any of you ate proper blobfish stew, the kind made with giant blobfish from the Underworld of the Sea?"

Several fish-men began to drool openly. They muttered the names of various other dishes they missed from their childhoods.

"And I'm sure you've got old friends or family you'd like to visit," Arlong continued. "So it's time to go back home, back to Fish-Man Island. Who's with me?"

"I am!"

"I'll come with you, Captain Arlong!"

"I'm ready to go right now!"

Arlong nodded again, then smiled. This would only be a short visit to meet loved ones as well catch up on the latest news at home. But it would be good for all of their spirits.

And it would be at the bottom of the sea, where they'd be safe from impossibly strong humans…

No… that's not why we're going there!

"C-Captain? Are you okay?"

Arlong looked up to see a six-armed octopus fish-man—Hatchan, another of his officers.

"I'm fine," Arlong said, forcing a smile on his face. "Just… thinking. Actually, I should be asking if you're all okay. You were hurt quite badly… back on Conomi Island."

Hatchan flexed all of his arms. "I'm okay, too! Those cuts I got from Zoro are healing nicely!"

"Good, good. Just try not to overwork yourself, wouldn't want to open up those cuts again…"

Arlong went around and checked on the rest of his crew. Some had fresh wounds from the recent battle and almost all had older wounds from the battle against those human pirates. None were in mortal danger, but he did advise the more-wounded ones to lie down and asked others to tend to them.

I miss having Aladine in the same crew… now we don't have any proper doctors, just a few with first aid knowledge. If the Marine doctors hadn't fixed us up earlier…

Arlong clenched his teeth. The Marines had only done so because live prisoners were better than dead bodies for showing off to citizens, proof that the Marines could even keep mighty fish-men in captivity. Still, it was a fact that many of his crew were still alive thanks to humans. That fact made him want to smash up the ship, sink the Marines' property into the ocean…

...but he forced that urge down. He couldn't let his temper get the better of him again.

While walking around the prison ship, Arlong tugged at his long, serrated nose, his pride as a sawshark fish-man. That had been straightened by one of the Marine doctors… after it had been bent by the final blow from a human boy.

How could he be so strong…? He couldn't be more than twenty, probably younger than that, and his Devil Fruit shouldn't increase his strength…

There was also Zoro, the Pirate Hunter. He'd gone into the battle already having severe sword wounds, yet he'd been able to defeat Hatchan and—together with the kick-using martial artist—put up a fight against Arlong himself.

There shouldn't have been anyone like that! That's the whole reason we… went to the East Blue… and left the Grand Line…

It was common knowledge that the East Blue was the weakest of the five seas. Arlong and his crew were from the Grand Line, the world's most dangerous sea with the strongest inhabitants. They should have faced no real opposition in East Blue, provided that they avoided drawing attention from Marine Headquarters.

Arlong looked at his webbed hands. These possessed strength far beyond the average human's, able to throw simple water with the force of bullets. With these hands, he'd taken the lives of many humans, some of them today. And even so… he'd lost to a human of the East Blue in battle, without any trickery involved.

I've gone soft… we all have. Otherwise, we wouldn't have lost to humans like them.

Returning to Fish-Man Island would have another benefit. By going through the Grand Line again, braving its countless hazards, they would be able to get back in shape. They'd trim away the fat from eight years of relative peace on Conomi Island.

And, once we're done on Fish-Man Island… we'll remind this world why they should fear the Arlong Pirates.