Why? Why did I ever think that nothing in this world could weird me out anymore? I should have known there were millions of possibilities and encounters which could affect me in that way. Why the hell was that sea monster-cow hybrid thingy so flipping huge?
Who the heck suggested using this gigantic water creature to find Nami? How was this thing going to take us to where Nami sailed off to? Does it even know what Arlong Park is and could it get us there more quickly?
Oh, yes, it seemed it could. That stupid friend of mine, Sanji, the only one with such bright ideas had suggested that. Did I oppose? No, not really. But it wasn't my fault! The sea-cow was just so cute that I got distracted before I could say a word.
So now I regretted not opposing to the idea in the first place…as the ship was now sailing through the air at an unmatched speed. The sea-monster then 'cleverly' hit a cliff head on and then sent us flying towards dry land. Thank you very much cow-hybrid, that was a wonderful thing to do and so clever.
If I die and Sanji lives through this incident, I am so going to haunt him and a few other people as well.
My eyes were shut tightly as the wind gushed past my face.
"Ahhhh!~," I screamed, holding onto Luffy for dear life. Maybe his rubber body would make the impact less painful.
"Yahoo, we're flying!" Luffy yelled out at the top of his lungs, arms flapping about energetically to add to his enthusiasm. The ship then suddenly dropped, rapidly descending towards the forest ground. The tiny ship then knocked down tree after tree, the stumps and branches slowly decreasing our speed on our way down.
"Someone stop this freaking ride!" I screamed loudly, opening an eye slowly before shutting it again 'Otherwise there might be an accident on the ship's deck,' I added in my thoughts.
We burst out of the green forest and into a marshland. With a second look I suddenly saw someone in front of the boat. It was…Zoro?
"Zoro, there you are!" Luffy called out excitedly before we slammed into him. We smashed into solid ground forty meters further away. Somehow in the crash, my head was literally catapulted against the floor boards, adding to my dizziness.
The back of my neck was aching a bit and my veins were pounding against my skin. I squeezed my eyes together, trying to relieve the pain that was surging through me. This is going to hurt when I wake up.
I felt my body leaning against something, something I could just not make out. I slowly cracked an eye open before the other one followed. I calmly breathed in and out, relaxing my tense muscles. I was leaning against a tree, sitting down on the ground, unharmed.
I saw that Sanji, Zoro, and I were near a clear road. I looked to my left to see a small town nearby. I then proceeded to glance around and saw that there was this woman standing opposite our group. She was called Nojiko, the older sister of our crew member Nami. After a little chat Luffy left, not wanting to hear what Nojiko had to say. She then started to talk about her younger sister Nami. I closed my eyes and listened to the story.
"Ever since she was nine, Nami carried a heavy burden," the dark skinned teen began.
"Our adoptive mother sacrificed herself so we could live." Nojiko sighed heavily before continuing,
"Arlong and the merman found out that Nami had the talent to make maps. He used her and he still is." The thought of Nami being used like that was awful, she must have gone through a lot of things in her young life.
"He made every villager pay a fine to live. He even made a deal with Nami at her young age. She can buy the island from Arlong's reign for 100,000,000 bellies." Now that made me gape! So much money!
"She is almost at her goal, but with you here on this island…it is only a burden for her, it makes things a lot more complicated. Please just go away," Nojiko practically stated as she explained the tale. It seemed that she wanted us to forget Nami, to just leave her behind. The older sibling wanted to protect Nami as well, fully knowing her situation, but she seemed so afraid that things might go wrong.
Nami's story was very tragic. I had thought mean things about her, especially about the way she had acted towards Sanji, but she was like a little child fighting against the bogeyman that waited for her behind closed wardrobe doors. You couldn't win unless your parents helped you get over it…or maybe friend aiding you in your fear.
A while later…
Nami sat there in the middle of the road, eyes wide open from shock and realization. The marines had somehow found out about the illegal money hidden underneath the Orange Garden and they had looked all over, digging in every pile of dirt they could find to take whatever she had collected. But how had they found out? There was only one person…no, merman who had known about that and it was Arlong.
He knew that she had tried and it sickened her to think that he would be so twisted, that he would broke his promise...how could he? She cried, flinching as she kept stabbing her tattoo, the wrenched symbol of Arlong's pirate crew. How she hated it, the indescribable feeling of hate and hopelessness.
"Why?"
A hand snatched her knife and stopped her from doing any more harm to herself. Luffy stared down at her, taking in the picture he saw in front of him. With tears running down Nami's face, she said those words, the words she never ever wanted to utter:
"Help me, Luffy."
Luffy tilted his head to the side once, grabbed his treasured object and placed his straw-hat on her head for safe keeping. He walked a few steps forward and leaned back, arms spreading from his body mass,
"YEAH, of course I will help you!"
Oh, god. If there was any god listening up there in the sky, can you please at least wake me up! Or not let me die on my seventh day of being a weird ass pirate? As I wished for the best to come, Luffy just marched towards Arlong Park, a weird aura surrounding was a huge house in the direction he was walking to, at least the size of a fourteen story building. It was blue with black trimming.
It had a sign on the front of, 'Arlong Park'. There was a pool in the back garden connected with the vast ocean. It had a black gate and stone wall as fencing. This place was maybe ten miles away from the town. One good bash from Luffy's fist and the entry crackled, rages building in the pits of our villagers were there to take back their homeland from Arlong's cruel hand. Zoro and Sanji were also there to fight, while Usopp and I would be the back-up in case someone needed help. I just hoped that nothing would go wrong and that the fight wouldn't last.
"Which one of you is Arlong?" Luffy questioned loudly, earning a weird look from the merman.
"You," he gritted his teeth.
"Don't you dare make my navigator cry ever again," Luffy announced, steaming. My eyes just popped right out of my skull, the sheer boldness of our captain amazing walked over to the leader, tightened his fist and just punched Arlong's persona and sent him flying.
This merman's appearance failed my expectations, he didn't look very…intimidating, at least not what I had expected. I was looking more toward the creatures in the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest than this.
"How dare you treat our boss like that!" another merman shouted towards my Captain, rushing forwards, aiming at Luffy in an attempt to attack. I gasped as Luffy did not move and I felt hooked to the place where I stood - next to Usopp - near the gate.
A sudden gust of air passed me and Sanji came out of nowhere. He turned in his heals and kicked the sea being away from the captain. He then gently placed his foot back onto the ground.
"Don't interfere," Sanji snorted, "this battle is only between Arlong and Luffy, so get lost,"
Sanji earned a sneer as he stood next to Luffy, but the merman did not do anything else. Zoro walked toward the group of pirates, leaving me and Usopp standing at the exit. I took a look around, the atmosphere heating up. Arlong glared at our Captain, a scoff appearing on his face. There were some mermen standing around him, not ready to give up just yet.
Usopp flinched a little at the Swordfish's piercing taunt and I stood I also did not really like the look of that expression. I could not hear what the mermen were whispering about, but I think it was about us. The two bounty hunters Johnny and the other guy whose name escaped me for now stood at the gate, not letting the villagers through.
I was too nervous to listen to what the mermen and Arlong were saying about us, I was shaking from fear and anticipation. When would they start to move or even attack?
A sudden noise grabbed my attention and the cute, huge sea cow from before came out of the body of water connected to the ocean. I just stood there with a smile on my face, it was still adorable! No matter how harshly it had treated us and itself.
But as much as I had liked its arrival, I didn't approve of it attacking us. Who knew something this cute could be so dangerous after all? Stupid,but not an easy opponent due to its size.
"Don't mess with me!" Luffy grabbed the cow's horns in rage, flinging him around and hitting every single merman standing nearby. I hid behind a pillar, Luffy's strength admirable.
Then a different voice made me look back at the situation, an octopus man snarling at the Crew. He obviously worked for Arlong as a chef, but he also hadn't been present when the whole issue had started. None the less he went absolutely crazy and sprayed Luffy with black ink.
"Luffy!" I called out when I saw that the octopus merman was holding a huge rock in his hands, ready to slam it down onto the poor boy. 'Oh no,' I thought to myself.
"Take this!" Hachi called out, aiming at the enemy pirate. The other merman cheered for their buddy, Hachi's esteem being boosted. He slammed the rock onto Luffy full force. I thought that was the end for our beloved Straw-Hat, but Sanji appeared and hit the rock, splitting it into two parts.
"Alright, that was great work Sanji!" I cheered for him and then I saw him swoon a bit. Typical reaction.
"I have to follow the craziest captain in the world," he said, holding his right leg up in the air, "I might as well start doing impossible things for him."
"Amazing, Sanji," Luffy practically sparkled, even though he was still covered in ink. I let out the air I had held in, the reliefs making me relax. I got out of my hiding spot and was getting ready, just in case these guys needed my help at a moment's notice. But I somewhat doubted that.
The fight continued on, Arlong not taking Luffy all too seriously. The merman race seemed to think high and mighty of themselves, at least it seemed that way. He managed to trick our captain and before we knew it Luffy was sinking towards the bottom of the pool, trapped in a concrete piece from the pavement.
I rushed towards the edge of the ledge and jumped into the cold water head first. I kept on swimming towards my captain, worry plastered onto my face. He needed my help, and I was there.
Luckily nobody had seen me dive into the clear liquid; otherwise the mermen would have stopped me. I saw two people trying to help Luffy. It was a man covered with scars and Nami's older sister, Nojiko, I think. I quickly swam next to the man. I saw him hitting with a hammer the rock that trapped his legs.
I tapped him and I grabbed the hammer. I pointed to the hammer and then to me. 'I want to help as well,' I thought to myself. He looked at me and nodded. I grabbed the hammer and slammed it onto the rock. I saw no difference, and I did it again and again.
'Damn water resistance,' I thought to myself. Then the two villagers had an idea. They started to stretch Luffy's neck to the surface. 'Good idea,' I thought as I continued to hit the rock forcefully. Of all times to be weak to water…devil fruit users weren't gifted as much as they thought they were.
As they started to leave, my lungs started to burn a bit, but I ignored it and continued. Luffy was ready to fight these mermen to save Nami with his life. I should be doing the same, I shouldn't cower behind a pillar and hope for the best...but what could I possibly do to fight?
The man came back and tapped my shoulder. I looked at him and he pointed at the surface. I nodded, knowing what he wanted me to do. I left the hammer there and followed where Luffy's neck lead. I broke the ocean's surface to see that Luffy was finally breathing. Nojiko was holding Luffy's head.
"Thank you," I said breathlessly, "that was a brilliant idea! I would have never thought of that myself." She looked at me and smiled.
"You're welcome," she replied kindly. I took a deep breath and went back to that elderly man so he could breathe again. I was halfway there when I noticed a merman in the water. He was fighting Sanji. 'With Sanji's kick, we can free Luffy,' I thought to myself.
I squint my eyes a little, with determination shining in the depths of them. I quickly swam towards the hammer I had left behind. The scar man's eyes bugged out as I swam to Sanji's fight. Sanji blew air into the merman's gills. It seemed to work. I noticed that Sanji needed to breathe. When the blue merman tried to follow him, I hit him with the hammer.
He turned around and threw a punch I barely managed to dodge. I could feel the immense power of the punch, but I failed to notice his fin like hands wrapping around my neck choking me. I lost all my air as I opened my mouth to scream and with that seen he punched me hard into the stomach. I lost all feeling due to the lack of oxygen. I think I coughed out blood, but the taste was mild.
I don't know what else had happened after that. My eyes rolled back into my skull and I blacked out completely.
"Oi, you dang fish, come out. I will slice you into pieces and make sushi out of you!" Sanji called as he managed to escape the water. The merman didn't think twice before breaking the surface. He grinned and held a bundle of something in his arms.
"It seems that you still don't get it," he said as he threw someone at Sanji's and Zoro's feet. It was Angelina. She was covered with bruises and blood was seeping from her mouth. Sanji's and Zoro's face darkened.
"I will defeat you," he said coming out of the water, "and then I will send you to the same place I sent her."
Sanji's fist tightened, he could hardly maintain his anger. Zoro sat down beside Angelina. He checked if she was okay.
"You will regret hurting Nami-chan and Angel-chan," Sanji said with a killer intent.