Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball or One Piece
A Warrior in on Unknown Seas
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(Commi Island – Nearing Arlong Park – With Goku and Nojiko)
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"You don't have to do this!"
"I do."
"What are you, some kind of hero?"
"I'm not."
"Then why are you doing this?!"
"Cuz I want to."
This was how Nojiko's and Goku's "argument" – if it could even be called that – had been playing out since Goku set out on his singleminded pursuit to bring about an end to Arlong's reign of terror. At first, Nojiko had attempted to push him back again like she tried in her home, but no matter how hard she pushed Goku just kept expressionlessly marching forward, as though he was a robot pre-programmed with the thousand year old mission goal: to crush Arlong and the fishmen.
Nojiko then climbed onto his back and tried choking him into unconsciousness in her near desperation to stop his charge but she didn't have anywhere near the strength to even make him gag for breath much less break his stride.
"You're kind," She told him while still trying to choke him out, failing miserably in doing so. Her face was even turning red from the sheer exertion she was putting into her hold, "I get it! I get why you want to do this, but please don't! Don't throw away your life like this!" She was left frustrated when the boy remained silent.
She soon ceased struggling when she felt him rear his fist back to strike at something. Peeping over his spiky head, she gasped when she saw an enormous closed gate in front of them, 'We're here already?!' Putting Goku's stance and the gate together, she easily deduced what he was about to do, 'Wait. Is going to-?'
"HYAAH!"
That was a yes.
Goku didn't even have to so much as touch the concrete wall blocking entry to Arlong's domain to plough through it. The sheer force of the punch alone produced a powerful shockwave, blowing poor Nojiko off of his back with a cry of alarm where she plummeted to the dirt floor on her back, lost for words as she listened to the ear-splitting noise the punch's shockwave had made alone.
Gingerly sitting up on her knees, Nojiko stared in wonder at the swirling dust clouds slightly concealing the now obviously open entrance, "Whoa…" She murmured. She switched her gaze to Goku's back, gawking at him in a new light. 'I guess bullets really don't affect him after all."
"WHAT THE HELL?"
Goku sauntered through the dust cloud, stoically ignoring the general hostility from the surprised humanoid sea people. Over a dozen alerted fishmen all stood, sizing him up with a measure of caution. His spontaneous breakthrough had more than done the trick notifying them to his presence and Goku couldn't say he was displeased with that. The silent stealth approach had never been his style.
"Well, well, well," Goku's gaze honed in on the one he had searching for since setting foot in the lion's den – a tall, light blue-skinned coloured shark-based humanoid sporting a yellow cabana shirt decorated by many black lightning-like spots left unbutton to display his beefy physique and a distinctive crimson red sun-designed tattoo on his left peck, green-coloured shorts with a purple sash tied around his waist and a pair of sandals on his feet. Long, spiky raven hair stretched down to his back from under his brown bowler hat, casting a dangerous shadow over his enraged gaze, "What do we have here? A puny human too big for his britches?" He stood up off his makeshift throne, the sunlight shining a lethal glow on his saw-shaped nose.
"I take it your Arlong," Goku stated impassively.
Arlong frowned. The audacity of this worthless human to speak to him in such a manner would not go unpunished, "So you've heard of me, human," He countered, staring the boy's unflinching gaze down.
Goku flashed forward in a burst of speed, looking like nothing but a blur to everyone present. Arlong's companions were left frantically trying to trace the boy's inhuman speed while Arlong himself met the cold fury of the martial artist just inches from his face. He recoiled in surprise, instinctively lashing out with a left hook aimed at his adversary's face only for Goku to effortlessly evade it and bury a powerful fist in his gut, taking the wind out of his sails.
"Argh!"
It was only due to Arlong's strangled cry of agony which allowed the still searching fishmen to find Goku, with his arm driven so far through his abdomen it looked as if his arm was coming out of his back.
"Arlong!" A pink-skinned octopus-based fishman with grey spike-styled hair shouted in worry, wearing a sleeveless dark orange, red-striped top with matching shorts and sandals. Similarly, to Arlong, he also possessed a dark red coloured sun tattoo, except his version was planted on his forehead.
Goku threw the limp Arlong down at the feet of his enraged fishman brethren trying to glare a hole through him at the treatment of their leader, "That was for Bellemere."
"Bellemere?" Hachi pondered, cautiously keeping one eye on the evidently powerful human and the other on Arlong catching his breath from the lethal punch. That name sounded similar on his tongue but it had been a long, long time since he had encountered anyone referring themselves as stepmom.
Something seemed to click for Arlong, though, "Bellemere, huh?" Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he chuckled malevolently, "I haven't heard of that name since I took over this dump." His gaze intensified in dark expectation, "So, my little Nami sent you here to take us down, huh human?"
All at once realization struck Arlong's men like an electrical surge. "That's right! Bellemere was Nami's mom!" Hatchan stated.
"So, Nami did betray us after all," A grey-skinned fishman decked out in a dark blue coloured Gi with a black sash deadpanned. He literally never trusted the bitch anyway. He had been suspicious of her since day one. After all, what sane person of any species would trust the people who butchered their only mother-figure and enslaved their people? Arlong always told them humans were stupid, weak people but he didn't buy they were that stupid that they couldn't plot vengeance.
"That's right," Goku answered Arlong, feeling violently appalled at the fishman's proposal of such a thing, as if Nami would ever remain faithful to the creatures who murdered her mother. His eyes erupted in a shower of intense flames symbolizing his fury. He growled, "I'll make you pay for what you've done!"
Arlong frowned in irritation, "Don't get ahead of yourself, you worthless human. You may have gotten in one lucky shot but you still don't have the power to take all of us out!" He roared, hauling his arms skyward and throwing his head back. "We fishman are the superior species of the world."
Goku dematerialized again, causing Arlong to reflexively put up his guard; for all the good it did. None. A world of pain blasted him full force under his chin, fortunately (or unfortunately) catapulting him into the pool with so much force the very water itself felt as hard as concrete.
"Arlong!"
"Damn you!" Kuroobi roared, lunging in on Goku with a left hook which the boy caught effortlessly, "You're pretty strong for an above-average human but you're still a fool for throwing your life away for one girl."
Goku once again spoke through his actions, not words, tightly clenching a fist with his free hand and rearing back, letting it fly through manifested air-rings of immense power. Kuroobi paled, sensing the pure lethal intent radiating in waves off the appendage. He desperately rose his arms to shield himself from the damage but only had those also obliterated along with his entire torso, leaving him nothing but a head, legs and a few fragments of his two incinerated arms. A helpless, stunned expression flashed across the face of his decapitated head before his remaining body parts fell lifelessly to the ground.
And he wasn't the only one. Eight other fishman that had been behind or slightly to the side of Kuroobi when he had a hole explosively punched through him also suffered the effects of the punch's devastating power.
"Guys!" Hatchan cried, panic-stricken; an expression mirrored by the rest of his brethren. And that wasn't even the scariest part. No, it was the fact that he couldn't see their guts, meaning the shockwave of the boy's one jab evaporated everything within their torsos. He had never seen anything like it. It was unheard of. A human teenager had totally annihilated multiple fishman just by punching one. Suddenly, he completely regretted ever harbouring ambitions of trying to takeover the East Blue, "You killed them…" He glared at the teenager, seeing him in a new light; one that had retribution written all over it.
"Like you killed Bellemere," Goku countered impassively. Hatchan bristled.
"Die!" Another Fishman came jumping over Hatchan swinging.
Goku casually lifted a hand, bellowing out an utterance of, "Kial." An invisible air wave cannoned out of his open palm, forcefully sending the random fishman grunt back at the alarmed Hatchan before blasting them several miles skyward, a'la Team Rocket. A small twinkle signalled their exit from the battlefield.
…
"Wow…" Nojiko murmured breathlessly, having remained statue-esque on her knees since being flown off of Goku's back from the shockwave of the teen's punch, unable to tear her gaze away from the dreamlike scene playing out in front of her. She didn't even want to pinch herself to snap herself out of any potential dreamlike scenario she may have been in. This was all she'd ever wanted for the past eight, miserable years; to see the terrible monsters who had oppressed her people finally given what they had coming to them.
It was a most glorious sight to behold. They couldn't even lay a single finger on him as he thinned out their ranks within mere seconds, either by blasting others away with his air cannon-like technique or decimating them with singlular strikes to their torsos.
'Where did you find this guy, Nami?' She asked herself, suddenly realising Goku hadn't told her the whole story regarding his meeting with Nami. Goku didn't tell her HOW he beaten the villains terrorizing Orange Town, just that he did, so she had assumed he had simply beaten up powerless thugs. She never could've imagined he was packing this level of power.
"How dare you!" Arlong's murderous voice thundered across the vicinity and Nojiko flinched, coming back to reality just in time to find the humanoid shark torpedoing dangerously out of the water at an incredibly high-speed toward her village's would-be saviour, "How dare you kill my brothers, you filthy human!"
Goku easily plucked Arlong's saw-shaped nose mid-flight, standing firm despite the unbelievable force applied behind the shark's catapulting maneuver, 'What!?' Arlong looked like he was hit by two thousand bolts of sheer electricity from the colossal shock written all over his face, 'What is this human? I put everything I had into that. He should be skewered!"
The sounds of a blade's shard shattering in his ears alerted him to the teenager's next set of intentions. His eyes widened.
"NO!"
A first-class package of searing agony was delivered straight to his nose from his brain – signed, sealed and delivered.
Goku tightened his grip on Arlong's nose, effortlessly shattering the sharp blade saw of a nose, the injured shark dropping like a pile of bricks and rolling around in severe pain.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Arlong!" The few remaining fishman cried out.
Even Nojiko winced, "That looks painful."
Tears of rage and pain sprung to Arlong's bloodshot red pupils. He shot a murderous glare at the teenager, "I'll kill you, you worthless human!" Goku temporarily lifted his stoic mask to raise an eyebrow at Arlong removing his own teeth before another set quickly took the place of the ones now in Arlong's hand. The shark removed those too and rushed the martial artist with two sets of teeth for weapons.
Definitely one of the strangest method of attacks he had ever faced, but hey, he once saw a guy rub his finger against his sweaty family jewels before pointing it at his best friend, utilizing the stench to initially disorient him. It worked up to the point Krillin's brain eventually reminded him he didn't have a nose to actually smell.
Arlong's shark teeth attack was pretty tame by comparison.
"DIE!" He roared, only to gallop through an afterimage of his hated foe. He reoriented himself and hastily looked around, "Damn him! Where the hell did he go?! Shockingly gentle taps alerted him to Goku's presence right behind him and he hastily turned around right into the incoming path of Goku's roundhouse kick, smashing through his shark teeth and flinging him into the building through a yellow painted wall.
"Over there." Goku quipped, straightening. Acknowledging the gawking expressions of the remaining fishman with a nod, Goku crossed his arms and spread his legs as though he was getting ready to block an incoming train. Light sapphire-coloured Ki began to clad his body, mesmerising all those in view of the almost otherworldly glow luminescing the entire area, 'Sorry, Piccolo. I'm borrowing this.' He snarked and threw his arms overhead in an eagle-spread, unleashing the fiery, combustible Ki circulating on the outside of his body from his person in a small heat dome, condensed enough that Nojiko wouldn't get caught in the crossfire.
"Kyaa!" Unfortunately for the older daughter of Bellemere she was still knocked back by the intensity of the blast's shockwave. That seemed to be the running theme with all of Goku's attacks. Hell, just him punching for enough to generate an aftershock. The young woman shielded her eyes with her forearm from the ferocity from the gale blowing against her face, shoving herself back up to her knees with the other hand, just in time to witness the leftovers of Arlong's goons utterly incinerated in the scorching explosion expanded from the boy's body, 'Great. He can also blow himself up.' She sassed, but at this point she was only being snarky in an attempt to better stifle her shock.
Goku stood in the centre of the now charred, pitch-black concrete ground – the only spot that wasn't burned – and turned toward her, smiling apologetically. She nodded dumbly, giving the young man all the pardon he needed. He swiftly looked away from the girl, expression sharpening in resolve before he abruptly blurred out of view, moving so quickly he all but teleported to the girl's untrained eyes.
She didn't even realise she was lightly clenching the dirt in between her clenched fingers, "Do it, Goku-san."
XxX
(Moments Before - With Arlong)
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"Damn it!" The shark man raged, slowly climbing out of the cratered wall the freakishly powerful human boy had slammed him into, throwing rubble off of his broad-shouldered form with a tremendous look of wrath blazing in his eyes. "Just where the hell did he come from!?" He bellowed, his voice echoing off the walls of his tower. It was completely unfathomable to think Nami could just recruit such an impossibly powerful warrior in the East Blue seas. The East Blue sea was the weakest of the four seas by far. It had been the reason Arlong had chosen it in the first place.
An image of the cat burglar's smugly smiling face floated unbidden through the recess of his mind. He seethed, "You won't get away with this, Nami," He assured, crushing a stone slab in his gigantic palm. His murderous thoughts of retribution were instantly put on stand-by from a horrifying uproar of an unmistakable detonation echoing just outside of his tower, drowning out the unquestionable cries of his allies. He jerked up his head like a whip, "No, my brothers!" An unearthly glow reflected off the shells of Arlong's horrified eyes.
By the time it faded, Arlong found neither hide nor hair of any of his fallen blood-brothers. Just plenty of blackened ground and the current outlet of his wrath standing stoically in the middle of it all before turning his head to address someone else.
"I'll kill you!" Arlong swore, removing a heavy, large spiky blade off a nearby shelf and rushed to the recently-made entrance. Fortunately, the boy was generous enough to meet him half-way, obstructing the light with his sudden materialization. Arlong wasn't complaining. He was in too much of a blind rage to, "You won't get away with this, you filthy human!" He released a mighty swing of his blade at the human's neck.
Goku raised his arm, expressionlessly acknowledging Arlong's widened eyes when three steel spike shards of his blade shattered as though his arm was made from plutonium.
"Just what the hell are you!?"
Another punch abruptly carried him to a whirlwind of pain and another wall, another crater forming around him; this time his forehead was the front-seat passenger. Blood freely cascaded from his forehead's open wound, dipping in between his dazed eyes.
Goku sauntered over to him, unforgivingly pulling him off the wall and gripping the pointy shark gin in between his long, unkempt raven hair. Staring upwards, Goku reached the ceiling with an almighty leap, slamming the already disoriented Arlong headfirst through the wood surface. Arlong's yowls of pains were entirely drowned out in this period in which he was forcefully driven through several floors of his own home until his tormentor stopped at one in particular – one filled to the brim with stacked sheets of paper.
Uncaringly throwing Arlong against a wall causing a table to tilt over and spill over a load of sheets onto the floor, Goku fixedly ambled over to the nearest pile, determinedly taking one into his hands and examining its contents.
A chart of the sea.
Just as Nojiko's memories had predicted. A section of the girl's memories led him to wanting to investigate Nami's imprisonment if only to offer the two some small semblance of closure. In her haunted recollection of event pasts, the older sister spent countless sleepless nights fretting over what those terrible monsters were doing to her sister to force her to pump out sea charts. Nami, brave and mentally strong as she was, never told Nojiko of all the things the Flshman forced her to do, but that didn't stop Nojiko's mind from speculating.
The paper rustled in Goku's grip as his hands visibly trembled. Coldly, he remarked, "Nami did all this, didn't she?"
Arlong spasmed momentarily, shakily lifting himself up to his hands and knees. He was already battered, bruised, bloodied and noseless just from the short round of blows the teenage entity had delivered into his body with all the force of ten giants. The fist imprint Goku had engraved on his stomach from his first attack and the gash on his forehead from his last (before drilling him through the ceiling) were his most notable wounds.
Arlong panted, glaring ferociously at the titan, "That's right, you freak of nature." He admitted because as far as he was concerned this teenager was no human. Not one he had ever met. No human had the right to be as disgustingly powerful as him. He was so durable not even blades worked on him, "Eight years of hard work." Here, he began to laugh in dark arrogance, "As long as I have her by my side I can fulfil my ambitions. I can give her anything she needs as long as she continues to draw those sea charts for me."
A sharp tear breaking through the quiet air stopped him mid-rant, horrified eyes glued to the now two sides of the current sea chart Goku had in his grip, "What are you doing?!" He panicked. He was about to impulsively rush the boy again until he extended his arm open at the palm toward his face; strange sunshine yellow specks gathering in the middle to form a football-shaped orb, "…What the hell kind of Devil Fruit is that?" He muttered, a disquiet building in his chest.
Unexpectantly, Goku changed the direction of his arm from Arlong's face to a bundle of sea-charts. Frightening realization was painted across Arlong's face, "Nooo!"
Goku fired the Ki-blast like a cannon ball and it flown as per his directions, swallowing the targeted sheets whole and blasting another entrance wide open in Nami's previous prison in a small explosion before Arlong's terrified eyes.
"My charts!" He roared, bloodshot eyes of demanding vengeance turned toward Goku, "You've gone too far, you freak of nature!" He lunged forward, right into a backfist applied with enough force to send him hurtling vertically through the wall, making yet another exit.
"You can just watch everything if you've built with Nami's blood, sweat and tears fall before your eyes," Goku explained impassively, once more setting himself for a second usage of Piccolo's Super Explosive Wave, shrouding his entire body in an aura of sapphire.
…
As gravity resumed its usual of job bringing of whatever was hanging in the sky not actively resisting it back down to earth, Arlong was just shaking off the cobwebs from yet another blow of the young man's disorienting punches, still seeing stars in his eyes, "Damn him! I won't-!" He paused, seeing a new twinkle located in Nami's room but not being able to identify it with the stars in his already messed up vision.
Fortunately, or very much unfortunately, it didn't take long for the gleam to reveal itself, expanding to that of a cone-esque pillar of light and effortlessly engulfing his tower whole, producing a cyclone and tremendous quakes rocking the entire island to the core.
Arlong exponentially paled with his heart sinking to the depths of despair at the horrifying, nightmarish scene of his dream park going up in a great blue burst. If he wasn't falling he would be repeatedly hitting his head off of solid concrete to try and wake himself up from this soul-crushing nightmare. As it stood, he couldn't do that so unleashing a bloodcurdling bellow to the heavens was his next best reprieve.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Nojiko screeched, comparatively less than Arlong, shielding her eyes from the storm Goku's power had generated as the bangs of her hair whipped about.
C
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THREE
End of an Era Part 2
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(Elsewhere on Commi Island)
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"What the hell?" Said an alarmed middle-aged moustached gentleman dressed in a chocolate brown military outfit comprised of a short-sleeved collared dress shirt fitted with golden shoulder pads, shorts and a hat atop raven hair. The sudden violent tremor had caused him to stumble painfully onto the floor of his office.
He sat up with a pained groan, "What the hell's going on? An earthquake?" He wondered, curiosity compelling him to run outside and fear making him wish he had ignored his curiosity when he set foot on dirt soil, catching sight of an unearthly glow eclipsing the entirety of the island in pure height alone. The sky-scarping beam of ungodly power reached the very clouds themselves and separated them.
"What. In. The. World. Is. That?" The moustached general pronounced, wide eyes staring up at the blast in a mixture of awe and fear.
He wasn't the only curious one either. So many villagers had already spilled onto the soiled streets of Cocoyashi Village when they both felt and heard the tumultuous roar of the explosion rocking the entire island. They all gawked up in wonder and apprehension, all wondering the exact same thing.
Just what on earth was happening on their home?
One particularly observant villager noticed the lack of their present nightmarish reminder conspicuously missing. It would be quite difficult not to spot a huge tower bigger than any structure on Commi Island's small landmass, "Hey, I don't see Arlong Park!" He said, bringing that missing detail to the forefront of everyone's attention. What was seen or couldn't' be seen definitely couldn't be seen in this case.
"Hey, he's right." Another agreed.
"Do you think that blast is destroying Arlong Park?" Another proposed.
"Impossible." The moustached man denied, even though he wanted to believe it himself. It was so hard to believe. They had been living this ordeal for eight long years, abandoning all hope that anyone would come and rescue them from the Fishman's jaws. The only aspiration they all had of ever being liberated from under Arlong's heel was Nami buying the village from the shark man. That was it. They had given up all hope of being saved after a few uncorrupted marines had tried and failed to, being sunk to the bottom of the sea as a result.
They glanced down sombrely, telling themselves Arlong was just planning on building a new base of operations, that a hero hadn't risen to drive him out of Commi Island. They told themselves this, to comfort themselves so when this inevitably did turn to be a red herring they wouldn't be too distraught.
Not today, though.
"To hell with it."
Heads perked up at the moustached man.
"Genzo-san?"
"I'm going to go check this out," He informed them, turning his back on them.
To his surprise, the villagers all agreed.
"Then I'm coming too."
"If this is really the end of our nightmare, then I wanna be there to witness it."
"Me too. "
"Me three."
"Me four!"
It was unanimous. One after the other every resident of Cocoyashi Village joined Genzo on his march toward the destroyed Arlong Park. He cracked a smirk, holding his cap by the brim.
"We move."
XxX
(Whereas during the blast's detonation)
XxX
Luffy's crew relearnt the very definition of the word startle, damn near jumping out of their skins at the deafening noise threatening to split their ears from where they currently were, still adrift at sea heading to their next destination. Luffy almost fell out of his tub-like boat, Zoro bolted upright from his slumber and Nami gaped with dilated eyes of horror at the sight that awaited them.
"…No way," She murmured.
"What the hell is that?" Zoro yelled, utterly stupefied.
"That's so cool!" Luffy shouted cheerfully, unconditionally in awe glimpsing at such a display of power. Given that he was the only one not paralysed by the demonstration, it wasn't a surprise that he was first one to piece two-and-two together, "Hey, you think this is the signal Goku was talking about."
Nami gasped.
XxX
(Flashback)
XxX
"Remember, be careful! Arlong's no joke. I shouldn't even be telling you this, but-." Nami fretted on until Goku laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, don't worry. Everything's going to be okay," He tried to reassure her in his most calming voice. The girl had to admit; his quiet confidence of toppling Arlong was kind of comforting, "I'll signal ya when everything's all said and done!"
"How so?" Zoro asked, lazily cracking an eye open from where he already laid in Nami's much improved boat in comparison to Luffy's.
Goku crossed his arms and jabbed his chin, getting a deadpanned look from the cat burglar. Numerous seconds would pass before Goku would decide on his decidedly cryptic method of delivering a signal to his friends, "Just look at the sky! You won't miss it!" He quickly floated off his feet, throwing his hand over his shoulder in bidding, "Later." He soared away before Nami could grab a hold of his hand, bathing his body in an aura of crystalline white.
"Wait! What do you mean by that?!" Nami demanded of him to no avail.
"NIMBUS!" Goku rode away on a brilliantly fluffy yellow cloud which sped into existence at a blindingly quick pace, not only further staggering but frustrating Luffy.
"So that's what he meant about that nimbus-thing! He rides on a cool cloud!" Luffy explained, childishly stomping his feet and angry waving his fists in the air, "Get back here and lemme ride that cloud, you big jerk!"
xXx
(End of Flashback)
xXx
"How could I forget?" Nami asked rhetorically, a dry expression on her face.
"Shishishishishi!" Luffy guffawed with a distinctive, hearty laughter, hardening a little into a sincere self-satisfied smile on his lips. He sobered, placing a hand on top of his head, "Goku's strong, right?" He proclaimed. Nami blinked away her mild annoyance over Goku's poor – or lack thereof – method of a signal to glance at Luffy, "He said he would kick that Arlong-guy's ass and he did." Zoro shared Luffy's smirk.
Nami silently looked at the captain and first mate with equal measure, the disquiet in her chest lulling and her heart soothing. For the first time since she could remember, she smiled. A true smile she felt all the way from her heart. Not even close to the fake ones she so often plastered to manipulate the scumbags of the world, "Yeah, "She agreed, feeling her heart swell with true emotion, "I guess he did." She stood tall, hands on her hips; free at last to decide her own fate and to chase her dream, "Well, guys. I guess I'm joining the crew after all."
Luffy erupted in joy, shooting his arms high, "Yeah! We got ourselves a navigator!"
"Here-here," Zoro acknowledged lackadaisically.
Nami faced away from the boys to stifle a sob with her hand, emotional tears freely flowing from her eyes, 'Thank you, Goku. Thank you.'
xXx
(Goku vs Arlong)
xXx
Back to the "fight" – if one could even call it that – Arlong was still beside himself, roaring in the distress over the loss of his precious tower and all his life work. "Noooooooo!" Nothing but a large circular platform-like charred patch of dirt the size of Arlong's beloved structure remained following the inhuman entity's colossal blast of sheer devastation. He glared murderously at said entity floating stoically in the area of the eradicated establishment, "You won't get away with this, YOU FREAK OF NATURE!"
He recoiled when Goku basically teleported in front of him. The spiky-haired teen inhaled a mighty breath, rearing a fist back fuelled with all the emotion of Nojiko and her sad recollection of the past eight years. A war cry erupted from his throat right before he hammered Arlong with a left hook, sending his sweat, saliva and blood flying through the clouds and shattering his teeth. He slammed into Arlong's another cheek with a right hook before battering his left again, unloading on Arlong's hapless cheeks with a relentless, unforgiving bombardment of left and right hooks; reminiscent to a boxer decimating his opponent.
Nojiko.
Nami.
Bellemere.
That guy with the Moustache.
EVERYONE.
He thought of them all from Nojiko's memories, using their sadness to charge his onslaught on the shark man. Arlong's damn near unrecognizable face could only be described as someone who had been bitten by ten snakes and a strung by a hundred bee hives. Swollen didn't even begin to cover it. His cheeks resembled tennis balls, his lips were stretched to cartoonish proportions and his eyes looked like grapes.
He could no longer see out of them.
And still Goku wasn't done with him.
Firmly ensnarling his face in a snake-like grip, Goku carried him high through the clouds, increasing their altitude more and more. Higher and higher still, until they hung above the clouds with the sun reflecting their silhouettes off of their fluffy surfaces, Nojiko watching him all the while with bated breath.
"Get him, Goku."
Goku spared the beaten usurper one last glance of complete disdain. Then, he plunged Arlong downward like a shooting star, plummeting with all the force of a falling meteor. A heated, fiery red shell of pure air-pressure shrouded the two's forms, parting the clouds in their descent. A grassy field was reduced to a smothering deep wide pit as Goku speared Arlong ferociously into the ground, producing another explosion.
An uncanny silence fell – the first one since the battle for Commi Island had taken place. Nojiko gingerly rose to her feet at last, her arms still raised from the last explosion, "Is it-?" She hesitated, taking two cautious steps toward the newly-formed crater before starting at a silhouette leaping out of the crater but it was only Goku, his demeanour having calmed, "Goku-san?"
Goku wore a placid smile, "It's over, Nojiko."
The magic words she had been patiently awaiting to hear ever since Arlong took over her village. They permitted entry to the swarm of emotions swelling up her heart. She began to laugh in hysterical disbelief, tears unbidden gushing from her eyes, "Ha… ha... ha… ha," She took a step forward and another before breaking into a full-on sprint toward the boy, practically throwing herself at him and embracing his torso, still not sure whether she wanted to cry or laugh. She ended up doing both.
Goku let her cry/laugh into him, comfortingly stroking her hair and rubbing soothing circles on her back, "There, there. It's over now. You'll never have to go through anything like that again." He murmured in her ear.
"What's going on?" The two turned to find a crowd of astounded citizens all gawking at the absurdity Goku had so casually created with Arlong's body, Nojiko still with her arms wrapped around Goku's torso while the teen embraced her with one muscled arm. The moustached general who was the one who stepped forward, an awkward blush flowing over his moustache at the sight of two's embraced state; reminiscent to a father walking in on his daughter cuddling with her fella.
"N-Nojiko!"
"It's finally over, Genzo," The general blinked widely and rapidly at the implications, eyes beginning to pool witnessing his surrogate daughter's tearful smile and tear-streaked cheeks of unmistakable joy, "He did it! Goku beat Arlong. We're finally free!"
His jaw fell off in a silent gasp, as did everyone else's, petrified in stupefied disbelief waiting for confirmation to believe what all their hearts yearned for. Nojiko wiped her tears away with her sleeve (only for more to quickly follow) and smiled, gesturing to Arlong's grave.
Genzo stumbled over himself, nearly tripping before hastily dashing over to the edge of the recently formed mini Grand Canyon. The glorious sight that awaited him acted as the spark which ignited the wick of his heart erupting in bright, flashy lights symbolizing pure unrivalled euphoria he felt surge through his entire body viewing Arlong's unrecognizable face completely crushed by the colossal force of the meteoric fall. He trembled, eyes watering and smiling impossibly wide, like a bridge.
He turned to his waiting villagers and announced his findings in a roaring voice that could not go any higher, wanting the heavens themselves to hear his declaration.
"ARLONG'S DEAD!"
A brief, deafening silence reigned whilst they processed that statement.
Then, an eruption of cheers blared across the seas.
"YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"WE'RE FINALLY FREE!"
Goku and Nojiko watched the celebrations of Cocoyashi Village's residents with peaceful smiles on their faces. They shared a look with each other and laughed slightly until Nojiko reached up on her tiptoes and captured his lips with her own, softly kissing him and leaving the spiky-haired teenager frowning in confusion.
"What was that for?"
"Thank you." She said simply.
And that's all she wrote for this saga. Goku has diverged from the Straw hats and is forging his own path. As fun it would be putting Goku on Luffy's crew and having him interact with his homage counterpart I can't deprive Luffy of all the big boss fights, which Goku would undoubtedly end up taking if he were to join up with them since I'm not forcing canon to play out and I love Luffy just as much as I love Goku.
He pays perfect homage to the granddaddy of Shounen while still being his own likeable character, which isn't easy to pull off. Goku, despite being simplistic in nature, is a very tricky character to write. If you take his ignorance and selfish tendencies too far you risk depicting him as an obnoxious child instead of the likeable bundle of optimism that he is. I can only cite Naruto and Natsu as the examples of how NOT to write an Goku-inspired character. They're just annoying, hence why so many authors usually wind up making them OOC and why so many folk enjoy OOC Naruto stories. Hell, I'm guilty of altering Naruto's personality myself. Hehe.
Luffy, Gon and Ginji Amano (Getbackers) are three examples of well-done Goku-clones for me.
The Straw hats don't have the map to the Grand Line this time but that was intentional. This way, it'll force them to have a substituted adventure in place of Arlong Park. Best boy Usopp will get his crowning moment of awesome beating a stand-in Chuu instead off-screen. We'll play catch up with the Straw hats and Goku later down the line.
As for pairings, well, I'm pretty sure Nojiko will wind up being with Goku and that will probably be it. He may also end up getting another girl but two will be the minimum.
Shoutouts to all these wonderful people who took the time out of their day to review this. Bless you all
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