A/N:
time to earn that rating, my friends
ooo
The staff weighed heavily on his shoulder. He knew what it had meant to the villagers, to Nami. Even with that knowledge, he'd given into his impulse and ripped the symbol off its foundations.
He hadn't regretted his actions up to this point, and he wasn't going to start now. He was holding the representation of the island's suffering, and he aimed to recontextualize it all over Arlong's thick skull.
He glared at the fishman who'd shackled his friend for so long, the very same one who'd poisoned her dream.
Made her weep for so many nights he didn't even know about.
"Who's a—"
Luffy didn't let the giant shark finish the question, swinging Cocoyashi's symbol of grief with all of his might and little to no technique.
The makeshift staff struck true, the fishman flying off his seat even before the satisfying crack of steel against bone hit his ears.
Arlong slammed into the fence on the other side of the plaza and created a new gate in the concrete fence, the wall shattering and collapsing onto the downed man.
Luffy spun the Bo staff around his wrist with instinctual movements, all self taught. He'd learned the ropes hunting the beasts of Midway Forest back home, and he was willing to use every bit of his experience beating animals for the past decade against the ones that hurt his friend.
With another spin of his staff, he looked over his shoulder, taking a cursory look at the other fishmen surrounding him. They were still struggling to come to terms with his current position, standing next to the 'throne' Arlong was sitting in a second ago.
With a smirk, he slammed the heavy steel against the wooden seat, the wood cracking apart and splintering with a heavy roar.
"Oh, that sounded good," Buggy chirped from his belt, cackling. "Anyone else wants some of this, ya flashy fish bastards!?"
Luffy scoffed and decided to let his crew handle the stragglers, glaring at where Arlong had landed.
The action caused the fishmen to roar in outrage, rushing in a mob to strike him down while his back was turned.
An army of arms spawned around the closest before he could reach the red-vested stranger, sounds of broken joints crackling like the embers from a campfire followed, joined by the heavy boom of a kick that sent one of the tougher ones flying into the building next to the young captain.
Luffy hummed a simple tune, walking forward toward his quarry as the screams of men that tormented Nami filled the air.
"I'm Luffy," he answered the question Arlong didn't get to ask. "You made my navigator cry."
The rubble that covered Arlong shuddered; the arm of the fishman shot out and pushed some of the debris away. "You think you puny humies can stand up to fishmen?"
Luffy chuckled darkly, hearing the sounds of lead balls whizzing through the air, chaos erupting as his crew continued their unrelenting assault against the fishman. "You seem to have forgotten the rules of nature."
Arlong shot out of his spot, teeth glinting in the sun as he flew forward.
Luffy shoved the staff in his path, the saw-shark-man finding a mouthful of steel instead of flesh. They glared at each other as Arlong growled around the metal tip.
It was clear he wasn't going to let go.
Luffy didn't want it any other way.
Grabbing the staff with both hands, he lifted the heavy weight with a grunt, pulling Arlong off the ground with the sudden movement. The shark didn't even have time to react before Luffy thrust the beam of metal forward; the interaction of gravity and torque caused the shark's teeth to lose their grip, and the jagged tip of the scrap-turned weapon shrieked as it shot forth.
The entirety of Arlong's considerable weight was slammed into the top of his mouth with a resounding clang of metal against dense bone, drowning out the shark's painful howl.
Luffy swung the staff to the side, flinging Arlong off it with a fluid motion. The fishman fell and rolled onto his knees, growling and panting as he grasped his cheekbones, trying to quell the ache inside his mouth as blood pooled under his tongue, flowing out from his lips.
Luffy looked down at him with a sharp smile. "The weak should fear the strong."
Arlong looked up at him with shaky eyes. His pupils were dilated, sclera bloodshot with untold rage. "You… you dumb hairless ape."
Luffy let him get back up to his feet, glaring up at the fishman that tried to look intimidating with his taller stature alone. Blood poured from between his clenched teeth as he growled in an inhuman tune.
"I'll kill you," Arlong gritted out, clenching his hands as his knuckles popped and crackled, the loose shirt over his body starting to strain as muscles bunched together powerfully. "I'll tear you limb from limb and remind your kind where you sit on the fucking evolutionary chain."
"Funny." Luffy pushed his foot back, spinning the staff around his neck and holding it with his other hand, "I was thinking the same thing."
As she pushed her fruit farther and farther, a logical part of Robin questioned just what she was doing. This wasn't her fight, she would gain nothing out of it. She knew why the fishmen could bear a grudge like this.
And yet, with Nami tearing up at her side and the villagers watching in awe as her current captain started dismantling Arlong's empire from the top down, she couldn't help but lend all the hands she could; a saccharine smile spreading across her lips.
Fishmen weren't lying when they claimed they were ten times stronger than an average human. Unfortunately for them, she wasn't anything average, especially compared to the people of East Blue.
Her fingers and arms strained as she glared out to the open battlefield, arms blooming from the weakest men of the small army of fishpeople, grabbing their limbs, twisting in angles they couldn't bear as their joints cracked and popped.
She could see marine uniforms again.
Her anger towards the crew that had taken a mother from her daughter crescendoed with the imagined sight. The arms grappling the men grew fiercer, additional limbs blooming out of the backs of their heads, clawing at their eyes, drawing blood. Their screams stoked the rekindled inferno raging in the pit of her stomach.
A dark part of her smiled wider, relishing the chaos she was creating, overpowering the pesky calculating logic still itching in the back of her head.
She decided that she'd earned this one-sided —downright cathartic— battle.
She'd earn her epithet if it was against men like this.
One of the fishmen who struck her as more than simple cannon fodder glared at her from across the wasteland of his ruined comrades. His chest swelled forebodingly, and his large lips puckered.
A spit attack… Fascinating.
As much as she'd love to return fire with her powers, she was pushing against the limit of limbs she could sprout already, and decided against trying to outmuscle one of the stronger opponents with the current strain on her fruit.
"Usopp, if you could."
The sniper perched upon the fence let out a loud yelp at her call. Robin could see him jerk and whine about repercussions, fear audible in his shaking voice, but still took the shot.
Robin's smile grew sweeter as the lead pellet struck the side of the cyan fishman's face, causing his shot to go wide and strike one of his comrades in the chest.
That second fishman fell with a new hole through his torso.
"My my, he's a powerful one, isn't he?" She mused, still glaring at the plaza. "Could you keep him occupied for me, Sniper-san? I've got my hands quite full."
Usopp released a trembling breath, then steeled his resolve with a deep inhale.
"Handling one measly fishman is the least a great warrior of the sea could do.."
Kurobi was struggling to settle into his proper stance.
Every time he'd attempted to do so, the human in the suit landed a kick on his chest that made even his ribs ache, and sent him stumbling back.
The man was relentless, and his kicks were heavier than his thin frame suggested.
It didn't make sense. Fishmen bones were dense enough to endure the heavy pressure of the deep seas. Yet this puny human kicked with enough strength to make his pressure-tested ribs rattle in his chest.
"And that's for making Nami cry!"
The pieces fell into place, and Kurobi finally got a chance to breathe as the man in the suit paused to light a cigarette.
"That bitch," he wheezed, wiping the spittle off the side of his lips with the back of his arm. "She put you up to this, didn't she?" He rose to his feet, and finally settled into the stance for his fishman karate. "What's she paying you, mercenary?"
The mercenary spat out the smoke he'd just lit with a scoff. "You're getting on my nerves, guppy."
Kurobi fired forth his 40-brick punch with reckless abandon, fist striking true onto the man's sternum, sending him flying off with the satisfying snap of a cracked rib.
"Fool," Kurobi growled, smirking at his handiwork. "I'm a 40th-degree master of Fishman-karate. You can't beat me in close combat!" He announced with a dark cackle, rolling his shoulders. "You humies can't even stand after a strike like that."
He nearly choked on those words as the man in the suit sat up with a wince, glaring back at him with malice in his eyes. "I've tasted kicks from a chef missing a leg that were harder than that love tap."
Kurobi growled, dropping into his stance again, and blocking an incoming kick with his arm, the cartilage of his fin aching from the impact. He pushed past the pain, swinging his arm out and shoving the blonde off-balance, striking with his other fist, hitting him in the—
The man spun and blocked his kick with his calf, his leg somehow withstanding a punch that could shatter boulders.
Kurobi stared as the man skidded to a halt after tanking his attack. "Who… are you?"
"Ex sous-chef from Baratie," the man announced, staring him down with a dangerous glint in his eyes. "And you're all getting fileted, you walking entrees."
"Don't kid yourself" The stingray-man clenched his fists, falling back to his fighting position. "You can't defeat me, let alone Arlong!"
"You're right," the cook hummed, standing up to his full height and tapping the tip of his shoe on the ground. "That's what we have that shitty red-vest for."
Kurobi's world shattered when he heard Arlong howl in pain. His eyes twitched, his martial arts stance breaking down in a panic when he attempted to shoot a glance back toward where Arlong was sent.
The cook answered his worries with a kick to the ribs, causing him to buckle in pain.
"You sure you can look away from this fight, guppy?" The human snarked, eyes promising death.
Kurobi steeled his resolve and shakily got back to his feet.
Nami wanted to fight. Desperately so, but her legs just wouldn't move. She was watching the people that had abused her, locked her in a room until her hands bled from drawing too many maps, eyes hazy from hunger and thirst.
Every last one of them was in the process of getting their teeth kicked in.
She gasped, ignoring the tears running down her cheeks, leaning on her staff as she saw Luffy shove the weapon he built into Arlong's maw, making the damned sharkman howl in pain.
She'd tried killing him numerous times in her younger years: poison, mercenary ambushes, everything. She'd yet to hear the shark make anything close to the sound he had made. Genuine pain, blood dripping from his mouth.
Her tears intensified, and a hand went up to hold the side of Luffy's straw hat shakily. He was doing it, and he hadn't even resorted to using the powers of his devil fruit.
He was gonna do it.
She let out a happy sob at the thought.
He was going to free them all.
"Behind you, captain!"
Luffy bent under a swipe from a stray fishman on Buggy's warning, dodging the attack from the pirate that had managed to sneak through his crew's blockade. Luffy grabbed the offending arm of his would-be-attacker and tossed him back over his shoulder.
The captain smirked as he noticed that the fishman he'd sent careening forward hit something Arlong had tossed his way in the opening, the nameless grunt groaning as a shockwave hit his back, tumbling down and starting to leave a pool of blood below.
"Yikes, guess you don't mind friendly fire huh, fishbrain?" Luffy quipped, a wide smile on his face. "A captain shouldn't hurt his crew, you know!"
"You're one to talk!" Buggy shot back incredulously.
Arlong growled, lifting his hand and growling, "you're talking a lot for a vestigial species." He tossed his hand forward, and Luffy noticed the droplets of water headed his way a beat before they hit him, managing to cover his head before the shotgun-like blast hit his body.
"Just some water will do you in."
Luffy cackled at the bold words. "Man, you're dumber than I am."
Arlong glared on as Luffy dropped his guard, ignoring the shallow wounds he'd taken from the blast. "You still think you're the apex here."
Arlong's teeth grit in rage, and Luffy capitalized on it, swinging the staff up with all of his might, catching the man below the chin.
With a bone-chilling crunch, the shark's teeth shattered, even more blood flowing out from the wound on the roof of his mouth.
Arlong stumbled back, holding his jaw and glaring back at the man with rage. "Idiot," the man gnarled out between broken teeth. "Let me show you something you might understand."
Arlong snarled, a new set of teeth jutting out from his gums. "Nothing you do will leave any lasting impact. You'll die and leave behind nothing."
Luffy tilted his head with clear anger in his eyes.
"Let me show you what evolution has blessed me with!" Arlong bellowed, grabbing his teeth and yanking the set cleanly off, then repeating the motion, holding a set of jaws in each hand. "Do you think the weapon you wield can match the gifts of mother nature!?"
Luffy slammed the tip of his spear on the ground, the steel giving a satisfying chime from the force. "I'm wielding more than a weapon, dumbass. Don't you recognize it?"
Arlong stopped at the question, looking at the scrap metal for a second.
His eyes widened when he realized it.
"You…"
Luffy smirked. "Me."
Arlong shot forward, arms outstretched, all three sets of teeth glinting hungrily. Luffy countered with a side-swipe with his staff slamming those outstretched arms aside before following up with a strong kick to the fishman's chest, his chitinous boots clanging against his ribs with a satisfying crunch.
Arlong was sent careening to the side, tumbling head over ass with a wet cough, spitting blood on the ground.
"Look around, Arlong," Luffy ordered, prowling towards the shark. With a casual flick, he smashed his staff onto the head of the cannon fodder that had tried to attack him before, the fishman embedding an inch into the perimeter wall. "See where you stand."
Arlong shook his head, glaring at the man, then threw a glance around the plaza, seeing Kurobi struggle with the blonde, countless clusters of his men breathing heavily on the ground, limbs bent the wrong way, Choo fighting a losing battle against the combination of arms sprouting from his body and a barrage of lead pellets.
His rage grew past the limits, and his eyes growing slitted once again, giving into the unrelenting anger that was festering in his skull. "My men…"
Luffy glared down at him. "What's wrong, fishy? Need some water?"
Arlong roared, adrenaline pumping wildly in his veins as his body released all its limiters. In a blink, he'd closed the gap between him and Luffy, teeth bared and hungry for flesh.
For the first time in the battle, he caught meat and his teeth dug in greedily.
Luffy didn't even flinch as he caught the incoming bite with his forearm and the staff, serrated teeth digging deep enough to scratch at the bone and steel.
He didn't give Arlong time to savor it.
With a roar, he slammed the shark back into the ground, grabbing his sawlike nose and stomping down on his elongated chin, forcing his jaw open and retrieving the arm out before the shark could regain the breath he'd knocked out of his lungs.
Not missing a beat, he gripped the man's nose tight enough to draw blood from his palm, lifting and swinging him into the marina in front of the plaza, making the sharkman skip like a stone across the still waters.
"C-captain, you know he's going to be ten times strong—"
"Don't care," Luffy cut into Buggy's warning, clenching his arm, uncaring about the blood pouring from the bitemark. "I'm going to tear him to shreds. No devil fruit, no powers. While he's at full strength." He switched hands, gripping the staff with his less damaged hand. "His ideals of being the strongest die with him."
He glared out towards the sea, watching the dorsal fin of the shark resurface, doing laps around the small pool of ocean water in the flooded drydock, attempting to prowl.
Then suddenly, the massive sea vermin shot out from the waves, blitzing forward like a bullet, nose glinting in the sky.
"Shark dart!"
Luffy barely managed to dodge the surprisingly fast attack, the serrated nose tearing the side of his exposed shoulder as Arlong shot forth, slamming face-first into the wall, embedding his nose halfway through the concrete.
Luffy glared at the idiotic sight.
Arlong growled and punched forward, the wall of his tower crumbling and freeing him. "Your idiocy knows no bounds, damn ape. Don't you know we get ten times stronger while wet?"
"Oh wow, I never considered that, you bipedal fish." Luffy droned, cleaning out his ear with a pinky. "Next, you're gonna say you've won already."
Arlong's forehead grew new veins at the unimpressed tone of the human captain's voice, and shot forward to prove his claim.
His mouth latched onto the side of Luffy's shoulder and chest, teeth grinding against bone once more.
Arlong knew his prey was now done for and took his time, rolling his jaws to inflict as much pain as possible.
"Don't move."
"You think that's gonna stop me?" Arlong laughed with a mouthful of human, his teeth still grinding into Luffy's ribs. "You're going to d—"
"He wasn't talking to you." Buggy clarified, voice shaky.
Arlong's eyes left the side of Luffy's face and looked forward, seeing a hooded woman with raised arms, pieces connected. The arms… she has a Devil fruit!
His next thoughts were derailed as something hit the side of his neck, and a burning pain engulfed all of his senses. The sensitive flesh of his gills roared in pain as he felt the human in his jaws spear his hand in and clench, tearing a chunk off his neck with an angry roar.
He couldn't help but howl in pain, and Luffy used the moment to grab his nose again, wrenching his mouth off his shoulder.
"That was it? All the talk about how strong sharkmen are, and you couldn't get a single bite out of me!?" Luffy roared, anger growing to lengths Arlong couldn't comprehend in his pain, clutching his torn gills pouring with blood. "I'm ending this."
The human captain grabbed hold of the robust serrated cartilage once more, yanking the bipedal shark forward by it, and as the fishman stumbled still in shock from the pain spiking from his gills, Luffy slammed his staff down onto the saw-like nose.
With a horrific crunch, Arlong's most defining feature broke at its base.
With the cartilage broken, only his skin was holding his nose attached to his face as Luffy dragged the rest of Arlong by it, flinging him into the tower behind them.
Arlong had more adrenaline than blood pumping through his veins as he managed to get back onto his feet, not even feeling the pain from his nose anymore. He glared back at the man, insensate with rage, and grabbed his Kiribachi off the wall. "I've rarely had the chance to use thi—"
"No."
With a swing, Luffy's staff hit the blade Arlong was holding, causing the serrated weapon to go wide, the man rushing into the opening he'd made and shoulder-checking the shark deeper into the tower, tossing the fishman captain through another wall.
Arlong coughed and swung the blade out with all his terrifying might, all technique forgotten in primal animalistic rage boiling in his veins, the blade slicing a support pillar clean in half after Luffy simply jumped over the blind attack, slamming the staff down onto his head again.
A concussion set in as Arlong's vision started blurring, barely seeing the man as he started wildly swinging the blade, not caring what he cut into while trying to keep the man away from him until his vision cleared.
Sounds of groaning concrete met his ringing ears.
"Luffy! The tower's going to collapse!"
Arlong's eyes widened as he realized where he'd been kicked into.
"Good." the captain growled, his dark smile etching itself into Arlong's vision.
The main support beam.
The building fell on top of them.
The village gasped as their apparent savior, and his tyrannical prey disappeared into the confines of Arlong's building, sounds of destruction their only clue to what was happening.
They had all been holding their collective breath since the shark had managed to bite into the red-vested man, all turning to Nami and the woman standing next to her when the two let out gasps of horror. The hooded woman assumed the same stance she'd used to attack the other pirates for a second, only to drop it when the red-vested man ordered it.
Then, they'd seen the glorious sight of the man tearing a chunk out of Arlong, ruined and gored bits of gills slapping onto the ground with a wet sound before the sound of Arlong's nose snapping against Belle-mere's memory woke them back up.
There wasn't a dry eye in the crowd.
Then, with a groan, the massive tower started skewing to the side, clouds of dust escaping from its many roofs as it let out a tremendous crack, something important breaking audibly as the building started to shudder.
And then, much like the Arlong pirates, it crushed into itself; concrete, rebar and wooden beams came barreling down, utterly destroying the building.
The crowd started cheering at the sight, men hugging their wives, parents crying and hugging their children tight as they watched the oppressive building crumble, unable to keep their elation quiet.
"Luffy…. Luffy's still in there!"
Nami's sudden call jerked everyone back to reality and the cheers died, people watching in horror as the orange-haired woman rushed towards the cloud of dust still hanging where the tower once stood, trying to find their savior amongst the rubble.
She didn't need to search for long.
As the cloud settled, they could see the man holding Arlong up by the scruff of his shirt, panting, the head on his hip coughing up a cloud of debris.
The shark wasn't moving.
Nami's feet screeched to a halt, looking at the sight of Arlong's unmoving body. His nose was hanging limply against his face, blood dripping from inside his mouth and the wound on his neck. All his muscles lax, bonelessly hanging from the spot Luffy was holding from.
"Luffy…you…"
The captain looked away from Arlong's beaten and broken body, and shot a smile towards her. "Told you."
He dropped the body of the fishman, and speared the staff he had carried the entire battle through his chest, embedding it onto the concrete foundation. His job complete, he clapped his hands together, wiping the dust off his vest, not caring about the blood starting to stain through.
Nami screamed with glee and tackled the man into a hug onto the ground.
Cocoyashi Island's eight-year-long nightmare had ended with the sounds of laughter between two pirates.
ooo
A/N:
aaaaaaaaaaaand fish is cooked
hope y'all liked the meal, but it might still be a little raw if my beta readers are to be believed :P
feedback is much appreciated, and its giving me the wind in my sails so keep at it hehehe, see you on the next chapter!
