Sage-of-forbidden-arts: Yeah, neither do I personally. Eh, I didn't doubt the kiss, I just didn't know whether people would like it too much or not. Thank you and you have a wonderful day as well. Though it is really late to say that...well whatever, the sentiment is the same.

JamesLion15: Oh yeah, this has been a long time coming. Arlong will finally get his, no doubt. As for him pushing Luffy over the edge, read and find out my friend.

Guest: Very true, epic walk is epic. XD

Johnny Spectre: That my friend, is where you're wrong. I've had this battle planned for a long time now. More specifically since I posted chapter ten of this story. So be sure to read Luffy's fight with Arlong below, because it isn't anything like before, I promise you that.

Tonlor: Oh big time, it's finally time for some payback. I won't say much on the battles, as they're written below, so you can go read them for yourself. All of them are different though, in some kind of way at least.

AkaiArashi1: Thank you for your suggestions. And I don't usually update so much, but I've just been on a roll, so I went with it.

F-ckthesystem125: Thank you, and yes he does. When Nami said it was like she was Arlong's slave, everything from his past came rushing back, including his days with the Sun Pirates.

Dall365: You have? Why thank you so very much for sticking with me then! I only know of one person who's been here since the beginning and that's my friend F-ckthesystem125, so I'm glad to learn of this, as I now know I have two readers that have been here since the beginning.

A Frozen Shadow: Thank you very much.

GTI: Thank you, I appreciate that. As for giving you goosebumps, I'm glad I was able to convey how good that scene is in my story, especially with it being an altered version of the scene. Believe me, I've got changes. There are events coming that will have the same outcome, but come about in a different way. There are things that never happened that will happen. And of course, there will be things that happened that won't happen. As for Garp...well...he does deserve more blame than I do...technically.

As for my harem story ideas, thank you for letting me know your opinion on them.

The slavery makes you uncomfortable, got it. I will not recommend it to you when it eventually gets posted then. I wonder how you deal with the slavery in the actually anime though...

Dark Luffy, well yeah, that's the point. He will be a very different person. Cold, calculating to a certain degree, violent, and more brutal. In fact, the only time when he'll act like his happy self is when he's alone with his crew. And most of them won't be there. Zoro, Nami and Robin yes. Everyone else, no. He will have an almost entirely new crew, comprised of darker individuals.

Whitebeard Luffy, yeah, that's one of my favorite ideas too. And believe me, Luffy will still be Luffy, just a little different. As for being a good writer...I'm not so sure about that. I do my best though. Anyway, I'll tell you and everyone else whenever I put one of these up.

That's understandable, Vivi is a cool character in her own right after all.

Look a little further back than Amazon Lily in the anime and you'll find the girl who'll be joining. Who is it? You'll just have to wait and find out for sure.

That makes sense, I myself have not actually read any post timeskip chapters either, and I don't watch the anime unless it's dubbed, so I get my info about what's going on in One Piece elsewhere.

Guest who's asking about my other stories: No, Tsukune's Awakening and Naruto Exiled are not abandoned. I never abandon my stories, ever. It may take a long time to update because of real life, working on other stories, not being in the mood to write that particular story and so on and so forth, but I won't ever abandon a story, I promise. I will continue to write until the day I die. Will they be updated soon? I'm not sure, it depends on how everything goes these next few months. All I can tell you for sure though is this, they will be updated eventually, no matter what.

Now I hate when people do this, but you seem kind enough, so I won't delete this review, I'll just tell you not to do this again. Please, please, please, do not ask about my other stories in the review section of a different story of mine, if you have questions regarding a story that I haven't updated in awhile, please send them to me in a PM. It aggravates me to no end to see that I have a new review, only for it to turn out to be someone asking about a different story of mine.

So in closing, no those stories aren't abandoned, please don't ask me about them on the review section of this story, only ask me questions like that by private message and finally, have a nice day.

nightrunner30: Strawhat Vengeance huh? Not bad, but not exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks for the suggestion regardless though. Well I'm glad you love the story and while I do appreciate you giving a suggestion for the fight, know that I've had the fight between Luffy and Arlong planned out for a long time now and it will proceed as I wrote it, no outside influence can change that. I do like that you thought of that though, but you aren't the only one who did.

ImraanUOPF: Your fears are grounded in reality, as I have seen many awesome stories abandoned just as they start to get good. As I've said before though, the only way I will ever abandon a story is if I drop dead. Unfortunately it can take me a very, very long time to update sometimes, but I swear, I will never abandon a story. All I can truly do is promise you that. Anyways, as for the humor, well...I do my best to put humor in the story, however things are a little dark right now. It should lighten up soon enough. Then again, it could get dark again very quickly, you never know.

SeanHicks4: Thank you, I thought so too. To each his own, if you like the Japanese terms for One Piece better, then more power to you. I myself heavily prefer the English versions, so that's what I'll be sticking with. I don't let that stand in the way of me reading a story if I really like it though. I'll be honest though, it can bother me at times. Regardless, I do hope you continue to read and enjoy.

KratosTheGodofWar: Those aren't bad, good job. Thank you for your suggestions, and as I'm sure you can already see, while I didn't use one of them, they did help me come up with the title for the chapter, so thank you again.

Guest: It was only for a little while, and like I said, it's not like I can control it. I write when I'm in the mood for that particular fandom I'm writing for, I just can't do it otherwise. I would have gotten this one up sooner, but there were some complications, read further to see what they were. As for begging and threatening, I thank you for not doing either of those, especially the latter. When people threaten an author to update his story, it aggravates me to no end. Anyway, thank you and good day to you as well.

I know it's been over a month since the last chapter, and I'm sorry about that. I would have gotten this chapter up on the thirtieth of September, however, I had to pawn my laptop for reasons I don't wish to disclose. Which is also why I haven't been responding to PM's. And while I still don't have a laptop, last week I found I library that would let me listen to music and write, so I got to work. And this is the result, a thirty three thousand word chapter, hell yeah! My longest chapter for this story to date, and the second longest chapter I'v ever written for any story ever. I really hope you guys like it.

Also, a heads up, I'm closing the movie poll. I will let you know the results next chapter. As to when that will be up...I don't know, it could be awhile.

One more thing before we begin, Arlong is twice as strong as before, while Hatchan, Kuroobi and Chu are all a decent deal stronger. How much stronger exactly? Half of double. Meaning Hachi is as strong as one and a half of his original self, Chu and Kuroobi as well. So not twice as strong as before, but half of their power has been added to their original power. Okay I'm just gonna stop trying to explain, lest I confuse everyone even more.

Anyway, fight time again guys. Now these fights...I think these are some of the best fights I've ever written. Please let me know what you guys think.

Now then, here it is, the chapter we have all been waiting for! Please read, enjoy and review.

Johnny and Yosaku sat on the ground, bloodied and bruised all over, their backs against the gate to Arlong Park, their swords between each other, crossed like an x. They blocked the Cocoyashi villagers way, keeping them from entering the fishman compound.

"Are you two idiots okay?" Nojiko asked.

"Did Arlong do this to you?" Nako questioned.

When it was clear neither of them were going to answer, Genzo spoke up, "Move aside, we have business to take care of with the fishmen."

"When we finally found out the truth about Big Sis Nami, we were just as angry as everyone else was. But we held ourselves back, because she asked us too. But when Arlong betrayed her, we couldn't stand by and watch any longer. So we came here and challenged him, because we knew it was the only thing we could do to help her." Johnny told them.

"Yeah, but then we lost, but only by a hair." Yosaku added.

"We're sorry, but we can't let you through this gate. You have no chance of victory." Both bounty hunters stated together.

"You think we don't know that!? At this point we have no choice! He'll never let us go! He'll continue to use our lives to force Nami to be his slave for the rest of her life! We have to free her from his control over her, even if it costs us our lives!" Genzo exclaimed.

"Be patient, it won't be long now." Johnny informed them.

"You see we're waiting for the arrival of certain men." Yosaku explained.

"What certain men?" Genzo inquired.

"Don't worry, they'll be here soon, I'd bet my life on it." Yosaku assured them.

Dark clouds were looming overhead at this point, beginning to block out the sun, rain fall imminent. Even still no one paid that any mind, especially as Johnny and Yosaku stood, smiles crossing their faces, as they said, "They're here!"

All of the villagers looked back then, to see the same four teens that had been in their village earlier today. "It's them..."

"But why would they come here? Did they actually come to save Cocoyashi?" Genzo questioned.

Nojiko couldn't help the grin that crossed her face. "They didn't. I know Luffy and Zoro quite well, so believe me when I say that they aren't here for us. They're here for her."

Genzo's eyes widened at that, "Nami..."

"If those men can't handle Arlong and his gang, then there really is no hope. Not only for this island, but for the whole entire East Blue." Yosaku stated bluntly.

"Those are the faces of the four men who are here to change your destiny. Burn their images into your memory." Johnny told them.

As the four drew closer, Luffy spoke up, "Step aside.", he commanded.

And step aside they did, as the look in the hatless straw hat pirate's eyes let them know he wasn't messing around, all of them clearing to one side or the other. The four men walked right up the gate then, Johnny and Yosaku also stepping aside to allow them entrance. Rather than open the gates though, Luffy took a step back, cocking his right arm back as he did, before throwing it forward, ramming it into the gate and shattering it into nothing but a pile of rubble, drawing the attention of every fishman in Arlong Park to him and his fellow crewmates.

"What the?" Arlong questioned, shocked by the show of strength.

"Arlong!" Luffy called.

"Who might you be?" The shark fishman inquired.

"A pirate. The name's Luffy." The rubberman answered him, beginning to walk towards him as he did, his three crewmates standing back at the broken gates as he did.

The blue fismman's eyes widened a tad then, in realization. "That's the name of the punk Nami kept drawing...and the name that was written on that letter sent to her." He thought to himself. "And why are you here? What do you want with me?"

"I'm here to kill you." Luffy stated darkly, just as he reached the fishman, who sat down in his chair.

"You want to kill me? Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" Arlong couldn't help but laugh at that, the rest of the fishmen laughing along as well.

As he laughed it up, Luffy brought his right arm back before shooting it forward, ramming his right fist into the side of the Arlong's face, the force behind the punch knocking him right out of the chair, causing him to violently tumble along the ground, cracking the cement along the way as he did, until he hit the back wall of Arlong Park, his upper half breaking through it, falling through and coming to a stop as he hit his head on the ground outside. This left his upper half outside the compound and his lower half inside the compound. "That's for making my Nami cry!"

All the fishmen could only gape at this, completely disbelieving that their captain had just been laid out with a single punch. And while that wasn't the case, it did take the fishman a good minute to sit up, what looked like a nasty bruise already forming on his face. "Your Nami? I see, this is all starting to make sense now. You must be that love sick moron she was talking about." He grinned his shark grin, before speaking once more, "Hachi, summon Momoo."

"Right!" Hatchan turned to the water gates of Arlong Park then, before placing his hand around the bottom half of his face, proceeding to use his mouth like a trumpet, it actually working and sounding like a real trumpet, he made this sound for a good ten seconds before stopping. "Every one of you is about to become fish food! Momoo, rise!"

Out of the water then rose a giant white sea cow, with horns, a gold nose ring and green spots spread across it's body. With this creature out and at attention, many villagers gasped and spoke words of fear, Usopp's knees began to shake, and the fishmen seemed sure that it was all over.

Luffy, Zoro and Sanji on the other hand were completely unimpressed.

"Momoo, eliminate the intruders." Arlong commanded.

As the beast reared back ready to strike, Luffy stepped forward and proceeded to spin his upper half around and around, twisting himself until there were visible knots in his torso, before shooting his arms out, stretching them until his hands were able to grab ahold of the creature's horns. As he made sure his grip was firm, the thing began to cry, as while it had never met this man before, the look in his eyes told the thing that it was screwed.

Luffy let his torso begin to unwind then, and as his upper half began to spin round and round back the opposite way than he had twisted it, Momoo was lifted out of the water and began to be spun around as well, the raven haired pirate captain's strength more than enough to lift the creature. As he whirled Momoo around violently, he ended up hitting every single one of Arlong's cronies, minus Chu, Kuroobi and Hatchan, all of whom had dodged when the sea cow came there way, he also broke the sitting area of Arlong Park, the little roof for shade as well as the shark fishman's chair, all of which were nothing but rubble after being slammed into by the sea creature. "Gum Gum Pinwheel!" A second later and Luffy released his hold on Momoo's horns, just as he finished spinning around, sending the sea cow flying a good hundred feet as he did, the creature making a large splash as it landed back in the ocean a ways away from Arlong Park.

"His arms stretched!" Hatchan pointed out the obvious.

"He has devil fruit powers." Arlong remarked.

"I didn't come here to play your stupid games or fight your dumb cronies, I came here beat your ass into the ground Arlong! So step up!" Luffy exclaimed, turning to the fishman as he did so.

"Oh I intend to." He replied, as he got to his feet.

"Finally, let's do this." Luffy said, as he cracked his knuckles.

As Hatchan, Kuroobi and Chu stepped up to fight along with Arlong, Zoro, Sanji and Usopp stepped up as well, coming to their captain's side.

"Zoro, Sanji, Usopp...show no mercy." Luffy ordered them.

"Understood." They responded in unison.

Johnny and Yosaku were now standing, their blades held in their right and left hands respectively, the two crossing them like an x still, keeping the villagers from entering the fishman compound.

"You all best stay back, it's about to get real dangerous." Johnny told them.

"Yeah, there's no holding back, those guys are going to bring this place to the ground." Yosaku explained.

"You heard Big Bro Luffy, no mercy will be shown." They both said in unison.

While they were all listening to the two, they still couldn't help but get caught up in what they had already seen.

"Holy hell! Did you see that!?" One of the villagers questioned to all of his fellows.

"I did and I still can't believe it!"

"That straw hat kid just tossed that beast like it was nothing!" Nako said in disbelief.

"And did you see what he did to Arlong!?"

"He socked him in the face like it was nobodies business!"

"I can't believe there's a human out there that strong." Genzo said, also in a state of disbelief.

Nojiko's grin somehow managed to widen even further then. "I always knew Luffy was a monster...who knew that would end up saving this entire island in the long run?" Despite her words, she couldn't help but feeling there was one person who had known. "Bellemere...did you know he would come to save Nami and I? Is that why you seemed so at peace even in the face of death?" There was no real way to tell or not, and yet...Nojiko felt like that must have been it.

"Bellemere placed her faith in you Luffy, show that bastard Arlong why." Nojiko whispered beneath her breath.

Nami sat on her knees, her tears still somewhat fresh, clutching onto the hat atop her head as if her life depended on it. She hadn't so much as moved from the spot Luffy had left her at, almost catatonic, except for her hand keeping his hat on her head. But finally, she could no longer stand sitting around. "He's fighting for me right now...Luffy is fighting for my sake, they all are. I can't just sit here...I have to go help them."

With her determination renewed, she climbed to her feet, wobbling just a bit, as she felt a tad light headed, which was understandable considering the state she was in. She left the knife where it lay, as she checked to see how bad the wound she had inflicted upon herself was. Touching it, even it was barely, turned out to be a bad idea, as she had to grit her teeth quite hard to keep from yelping in pain, she had really done a number on her arm. She needed to clean it and cover it, so she headed for Nako's little clinic.

Once inside it only took a minute to locate the disinfectant, a clean wash cloth and gauze, pulling them out and setting them down, as she took a seat herself. Pouring some of the disinfectant on the cloth, she dabbed at her wound with it, hissing in pain every time it came into contact with her skin. She made sure to thoroughly clean it in spite of the pain, as she had done this many times and knew how important it was to do so. Once that was over, she moved onto the gauze, wrapping up her left upper arm and her shoulder with it, covering a bit more flesh than absolutely necessary, just in case. That over with, she pulled her disassembled staff out of her shirt and pieced it back together, making it whole once more.

With that done she headed back outside, before turning in the direction of Arlong Park. "I'm coming to help you guys!" She said aloud as she broke into a run, intent on getting to Arlong Park before anything could happen to her loved ones.

As Sanji and Zoro chose their opponents, that left Usopp with Chu.

"Guess that makes you my opponent, chu."

"Uh, eh, y-yeah, I guess it does." Usopp chuckled nervously.

The two just stood there for a moment, before Usopp suddenly exclaimed, "Cheap shot!", and sucker punched the fishman in the gut as hard as he possibly could, aiming to knock the wind out of him. And while it didn't have the desired effect, it did get him to hunch ever so slightly, as he grunted in pain. Despite it not working like he had planned, Usopp turned and tried to run, only Chu caught him by the shoulder before he could get more than a foot away. "Sorry, but even something cheap like that won't do much when it comes from weaklings like you, chu."

Usopp squawked in fear then, before whirling to face his enemy once more, pulling out a rubber band as he did. Taking aim at the fishman's face, he stretched it back, closed one eye and prepared to fire. "Usopp's Rubber Band Of Doom!"

As Chu flinched, removing his hand from Usopp so he could guard his face with both arms, closing his eyes in the process, the sniper turned tail and ran, dashing right out of Arlong Park as he did, not even bothering to actually snap the rubber band at the fishman.

Chu stood there for a few moments before he realized nothing had hit him, lowering his arms and opening his eyes, he was able to conclude what the long nosed human had just done to him. A blush of embarrassment staining his cheeks, he growled, "I'll get that long nosed punk!"

Moving to follow after him, he stopped once he reached the now gateless entrance, as he realized all the villagers from the village were there. His blush fading, he calmed himself and spoke. "All the villagers from Cocoyashi are here...am I right to assume this is an uprising then? That leaves us no choice, we'll just have to kill you all, chu."

As the villagers prepared to scorn and attack him, a voice called out, "Flame Star!"

Before Chu knew what was happening, he was hit with a small spherical object, that upon impact combusted, covering him in flames. The shock and sudden pain caused him to lose his footing and fall back onto the ground, beginning to roll around frantically, trying to put the fire out. He managed to do so after a few moments and proceeded to stand up, looking back toward the villagers as he did, looking past them to the one who had fired that pellet and set him on fire.

There Usopp was, down on one knee, his slingshot out and having just been used. "Did ya think I was just gonna run away and abandon my friends? Not happening!"

Snarling in anger, Chu quickly rushed past the villagers toward Usopp, completely forgetting about them as he did. And Usopp took this as his cue, shooting to his feet and proceeding to haul ass outta there, leading Chu away from everyone else as he did, since the big lipped fishman wouldn't allow the long nosed human to get away from him at this point.

This chase went on for a good minute or so, both participants running as fast as they possibly could, before Usopp came to a stop and turned to face his fishman enemy, who was still a god ten feet away. Grabbing some ammo, he began to fire on his opponent. "Lead Star!"

It hit him directly in the chest, and while it didn't hurt him, he did come to a stop, beginning to look around as he did. "What was that, a mosquito?" He wondered aloud.

Usopp felt insulted at that, even more so when he realized the blonde was being genuine when he said that. "I'll show you mosquito! Exploding Star!"

It hit it's mark dead on, exploding on impact, covering his face in smoke for a moment. When the smoke dissipated however, he didn't look hurt in the least, rather he just looked annoyed. "So it was you. And what was that pathetic attack?" He looked over to a small pond that they happened upon, before bending down and proceeding to suck all the water out of it into his body, there not being much in there though he finished rather quick. After that he turned back to face his human enemy, "Now let me show you-", only to realize he was on the run again. "Damn coward! Get back here!"

As he prepared to run after him again, the sniper came to a sudden stop, dropping to one knee after turning around to face him once more, his slingshot read to be fired. "I wasn't running that time you bastard! Flame Star!"

Considering what had happened last time this guy got hit with a Flame Star, the marksman was hoping for a repeat performance. Only, to his disappointment, the fishman dodged the projectile this time, moving toward him as he did.

"As I was saying, let me show you a real attack! Squirt Gun!" With that he spat some of the water he had sucked up, it coming out with great speed, flying at Usopp like a bullet, which the long nosed teen managed to dodge just barely by throwing himself onto the ground. "What was that!?" He asked himself aloud.

"That was my Squirt Gun. As for how it works, I doubt a human like you would understand, chu." Chu said, obviously talking down to him as he did.

Usopp's eyes narrowed then. "From my end, it looks like you spit water out at such pressure and speed that it works almost the exact same as a pistol. Am I right? Or am I right?" He falsely questioned with anger, not liking the way he was being talked to.

Chu look surprised by that. "Well...yeah actually, that is how it works."

"Then don't accuse other people of being ignorant when you're the real ignorant one." Usopp bit.

"What was that!?" Chu inquired, growing angry as he did.

"You heard me!" Usopp told him, getting to his feet as he did.

The fishman growled at that. "Squirt Gun!"

As the shot of water came racing at him, the sniper managed to dodge it, before beginning to run away once more.

"You really are a coward! Squirt Gun! Squirt Gun! Squirt Gun!"

Three shots of water came at Usopp from behind, the first one whizzed past his head, missing him by a good half foot, the second zoomed past his his legs, missing him by three inches, the final one just barely grazed his torso, literally only damaging his overalls not even drawing blood from him. However, Chu didn't know that, so as the third shot grazed him, the marksman cried out as if he had been shot and fell forward onto the ground, just barely managing to roll onto his back and make it look believable as he did. "Ketchup Star." He whispered beneath his breath.

"Finally got the damn long nose." Chu stated to no one in particular.

He strolled over to him then and looked down at him, running his eyes over his from, examining him. His eyes were closed, his torso was covered in blood, his arms were sprawled out on either side of him, he didn't seem like he was breathing, so he must be dead. He kicked him just to make sure, and when he got no response, he was assured that he was indeed dead. "Time to get back to Arlong Park, chu."

He turned and began to walk at an only slightly brisk pace, muttering to himself as he did, "Damn weakling cowards being able to run so fast, it's simply aggravating, chu."

"What was that about cowardly weaklings!?" He heard the voice of his enemy call out from behind him.

As he whirled to face him, he was hit with three projectiles, all of which exploded on contact. "Triple Exploding Star!"

Once again, when the smoke dissipated, no harm had been done to him. "I thought you were dead, it was foolish of you to get up. You should have stayed down, taken the way out when it was presented to you. Now you'll die because of your stupidity, chu."

"Oh yeah!? Well we'll just see about that now won't we!?" Usopp shouted. In spite of what he was saying, his shaking knees revealed that he was quite scared at the moment.

"Squirt Gun!"

The marksman threw himself to the ground once more to dodge the water bullet, before proceeding to crawl into the surrounding woods, to take cover from anymore attacks. Which proved to be the right thing to do, as they were right next to a small lake at this point, and Chu noticed that. Bending down, he sucked up a decent deal of water, before standing up and turning to face the woods. He looked around for a few moments, before it was clear he wouldn't spot him like this. "You can't hide from me! Squirt Machine Gun!"

With that he began rapid firing those water shots, one after the other bombarding the trees around, breaking through the trunks all the way with ease. As Usopp watched this happen from where he sat behind a particularly guarded tree, he had to keep himself from squawking in fear. This water shot bombardment kept up until at least a hundred shots had been fired, and one certain tree had taken more than it's share of the damage and was dangerously close to falling over at that point. It creaked as it came down, slamming into the ground, causing all it's leaves to rustle as it did.

Usopp looked at the tree in horror. "He turned that tree into swiss cheese!" He swallowed the lump in his throat then, as he fought back tears of fear and panic. "That could've been me!" He thought frantically to himself. He then pictured himself being hit by all those dangerous squirts of water, causing him to shudder at the mental image of himself full of holes. "I don't wanna be swiss Usopp!"

The long nosed teen wanted to run so bad, no he needed to, it was like a feeling in his gut and an ache in his bones, like his whole body was telling him, 'Run away!'. "But I can't, I can't run! How could I face Luffy and the others if I ran away like nothing more than a coward when they all put their lives on the line? How could I call myself a man if I don't stand and fight?"

"Fine, if that won't work..." Chu turned around then and leaned down to begin sucking up water once more. Only this time, he went on longer, not stopping for awhile longer than normal. Once that was the case he stood up straight and turned towards the woods once more. "Squirt Cannon!" He proceeded to shoot a large ball of water almost a big as he was then, the ball slamming into two trees and exploding on impact, breaking the trees in half and causing them to fall over, while little water droplets went everywhere, hitting hard enough to rip up grass and rip off bark. However, even after this, he was no closer to hitting Usopp.

Growling in annoyance and aggravation, Chu decided that enough was enough. He stepped into the lake then, not going all the way, stopping at calve deep water, before leaning down and beginning to suck up water once more.

Usopp closed his eyes tightly as his inner struggle drew to a close. "If I fight, I might lose, if I lose, I'll die...but...at least I'd die a pirate." He came to his decision then, opening his eyes as he did.

Having sucked up so much water that he looked like a balloon, his stomach having expanded quite a bit, Chu seemed to be ready. Turning around to the woods for the final time, he prepared to end this. "Ultimate Squirt Cannon!" What Chu proceeded to expel from his mouth was a monster blast, easily dwarfing his previous attack by tenfold over, as it collided with part of the surrounding forest and exploded, wreaking destruction across the land as it did.

Usopp had hit the deck, as he didn't want to be hit by any chance, so all he got to perceive was the sound of it as it exploded. Once he was sure he was in the clear, he sat back up, looking over to see where it hit and went bug eyed. "OOOH! NO WAY! THAT'S NOT GOOD!" He was referring to the fact that the blast of water leveled an whole section of the forest, trees uprooted and scattered about, broken in halve, broken in thirds, nothing but piles of timber, all varying in degrees of having been destroyed.

As he marveled at the sight, he had poked his head out, allowing Chu to see him. "Damn it, why should I have to waste my time with such an idiot?" He remarked bitterly.

Usopp heard this of course, turning to look at him, deciding to end this before it got any further out of hand. "Who you calling idiot!?" With that he pulled a glass bottle out of his pack, before proceeding to toss it at the fishman.

It was a good throw, as the bottle went spinning all the way at him, but Chu was better, catching it upright in his right hand without even cracking it as he did. His curiosity getting the better of him, he looked down at it. "Huh, sake?"

"Lead Star!" The metallic ball hit the glass bottle dead center, shattering it and soaking the fishman in the liquid. He stumbled back, as he rubbed at his eyes, cursing his opponent as he did. "Why you little sunuva bitch!"

Once he had gotten his eyes to stop stinging, he looked back to where Usopp had been, the teen now gone. "Is this the only way you can fight coward!? Hit and run!? How pathetic!" He began moving toward where he had last seen the sniper then, already having a good idea where he was.

Usopp sat behind the tree once more, hiding from his enemy. "I can do this, I can do this, I know I can! I'm not a pretend pirate anymore! I don't play, because I'm the real thing! I'll beat this guy and show Luffy and everyone else that my fake pirate days are over!"

Chu knew where he was and proceeded to kick the tree he was hiding behind, breaking right through it and causing it to fall over, while Usopp used all the strength he could muster from his legs and leaped from his crouching spot, ending up upside down in the air, his head only inches from hitting the ground as he prepared to fire his slingshot.

"What did you say was over?" Chu asked disinterestedly.

"This whole fight! Alcohol lights on fire! Special Attack: Certain Kill Flame Star!" With that he fired a pellet that when it hit the big lipped fishman, ignited his entire body in flames, it doing so because of the alcoholic beverage covering him, the fire also burning hotter because of this fact.

As Usopp hit the ground, managing to make his upper back take the impact, Chu began to freak out, running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.

"AHHHHHH! Fire! It burns! It burns so much more than last time!" Realizing stopping, dropping and rolling probably wasn't the best idea, he turned toward the almost dried up lake he had been sucking up water from. "Water! Water, water, water! Must get to the water! WATER!"

Seeing what his opponent was doing and knowing he would just douse himself and get back up, Usopp quickly shot to his feet and followed after him. "Wait a minute, where do you think you're going!?"

Quickly pulling out his small mallet that he used to help him build stuff, he lept after the fishman, reaching him just as he was stepping foot into the water and clonking him over the head as hard as he possibly could. "Usopp Hammer!"

The fishman was knocked down into the small body of water then, a lump already forming on his head as the flames were put out, while Usopp landed a few feet away, hitting the ground under the water somewhat hard from leaping and landing. Said water wasn't even deep enough to drown in while lying down.

Before he could even think about celebrating his victory, Chu began trying to get up. "You bastard!"

"Eeeh!" Usopp squeaked in surprise, jumping to his feet before rushing over to the fishman and beginning to try and make him stay down. "Usopp Hammer! Usopp Hammer! Usopp Hammer! Usopp Hammer! Rubber Band Of Doom! Usopp Hammer! Usopp Hammer! Usopp Hammer! Usopp Hammer! Usopp Hammer!"

Usopp began to pant, as he now stood over the very much unconscious Chu, who had ten big lumps on his head, his eyes rolled back into his head, lying face down in the water. Once he managed to catch his breath, he put up his mallet and realized what he had accomplished. "I did it, I beat a fishman. You see that loser, I beat your ass!" A very large smile crossed his face then. "I can't believe I actually did it! Who's a pirate now!? I am! I am Usopp the pirate!"

His delight didn't last long, as the adrenaline began to wear off and he felt pain shoot through his body, causing him to fall to one knee. "Oh crap!" Looking down, he found the source of the pain. There was a small group of tiny holes in his abdomen, on the left side more specifically, blood leaking from them, he had been hit by one of that fishman's attacks. "It must have been some of the droplets from that first Squirt Cannon of his, because these holes are too small to be from his regular shots."

That thought triggered a few things to flash in his mind.

The things Nami had said the fishman had done, her story about how they ruined her life, took over her village and made her their slave.

The villagers eight year long plight.

Luffy's order to, 'Show no mercy.'. Why had he given them that order? Usopp knew why. They would never stop. They would simply do this again after being defeated. Whether they came after Nami or not, they could still come after this village, or another one altogether. They had to be put down. But could he do it? Could he follow through? He hadn't been able to with Kuro and he hated that bastard more than anyone else in the world. Could he overcome his inability to kill simply because his captain ordered him to?

Usopp got to his feet then, keeping pressure on the tiny holes in his torso with his left hand, as his right hand reached back for something he had kept tucked away since the night before.

Last Night...

Usopp sat at the dining table in Nami's and Nojiko's house, as Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Johnny and Yosaku all slept on the floor, spread about the modest sized house. Nami was sleeping in the bed. Nojiko was nowhere to be seen.

The long nosed teen hadn't woken up, in fact he had yet to be asleep. His mind was dwelling on everything that had happened since they had arrived here. That plus the fact that they could end up fighting the fishmen, who were supposed to be ten times stronger than the average human, also rested heavily on him. He was frightened about the prospect sure, but he felt that if it was for one of his crewmates, who was he to run away?

His attention was pulled from his thoughts, as Nojiko sat beside him. "Huh, Nojiko, where'd you come from?"

"I was staying in the village so everyone could have a place to sleep. But that doesn't matter. What does matter is that you four might be going up against Arlong and his cronies soon."

"Wha-but didn't you try and stop me from doing just that earlier? I had that fishman in my sights, I could-"

Nojiko shook her head as she cut him off. "First I didn't know you were a part of Luffy's crew, second yeah, you could have gotten all of us killed. I mean, do you honestly think you're strong enough to take on Arlong on your own?"

"I-" Usopp opened his mouth to boast and say he could handle a hundred of the guy, but stopped himself as he thought back to Kuro. "N-no, I-I don't think I could."

"Exactly. Luffy and Zoro are monsters, I spent three years with the guys, believe me, I know. If anyone can do it, it's those two. And from the looks of it, that Sanji guy you guys recruited seems close to the same level as them, so there's no need to worry about him either. You on the other hand, are just as weak as the rest of us normal people."

"Well...yeah, I guess." Usopp admitted, not liking to admit that he was in fact weak.

"That's the point, you're just like the rest of us, and yet you're going to take on fishmen. It's suicide. You'll most likely die if you fight one by yourself. That's why I want you to take this, just in case." She presented a flintlock pistol to him as she said this.

"A pistol?" He questioned, as if disbelieving of it being there in her hands.

"Yeah, you know how to shoot it right?"

"What!? Of course I do, you're looking at the best damn sniper in all of the East Blue, the marksman of the Straw Hat Pirates!"

"Straw Hat Pirates?" Nojiko inquired.

"Yeah, Luffy, Zoro and I decided on a name for our crew a couple of days ago. I mean it makes sense, we-"

"Yeah, that's good and all, but just take the damn gun already." Nojiko interrupted him.

"But I don't understand why. I already have my slingshot and my own ammo, so why do I need a gun?"

"That way you can defend yourself, no matter what happens. You're Nami's friend, so I don't want anything happening to you. I can literally count how many people who can make her smile on one hand and you're one of them. I don't want her to lose any of you."

Usopp was touched, he was, but after what happened with Kuro, he didn't think he could kill anyone. "But I don't think...I don't think I could use it, not like you're intending me to. I don't think I have it in me to just kill someone like that."

"I'm not saying you have to, I'm just asking you to take this with you in case you get into some trouble that you can't seem to get yourself out of. You don't have to kill anyone, I just want you to take this to defend yourself with in case anything really, really bad happens, that's all."

Silence reigned in the room then, lasting for a good half a minute, before Usopp finally took the weapon from her. "Alright, I'll take it with me, just in case."

"Just in case." Nojiko affirmed, nodding her head once as she did.

Usopp brandished the flintlock pistol, his grip on it firm as he did. His breathing sped up a little, as did his heart beat, as he wrestled with himself on what he should do. As he did though, Nami's recounting of what happened the day the fishmen arrived kept echoing in his head...over and over again. Until, he heard Luffy's voice break through her voice, so clearly it was as if he was standing right beside him, "Zoro, Sanji, Usopp...show no mercy."

With that, Usopp took aim, the barrel of the pistol no more than six inches away from the fishman's head, and he fired, the bullet speeding out of the gun and ramming right into the back of his enemy's head, ripping and tearing through his flesh and bone before bursting out the front of his head, blood, skin tissue, and brain matter polluting the ankle deep water once it did. And with that, Chu was dead.

Usopp could only stand there, wide eyed and staring at what he had just done, a mix of emotions running through him. He had just killed someone, ended their life. That was all that kept running through his head.

He wasn't sure how long he stood there, frozen, but he didn't so much as twitch, until it began raining. Once it did, he looked up at the sky, as the drops of water washed over him, causing the ketchup that was still left on his body to begin running off, as well as the blood from the holes in his abdomen. Bringing his head back down, he dropped the pistol, it making a small splash as it hit the bottom of the small lake, before turning around and proceeding to make his way back to Arlong Park, where the others were waiting for him.

Usopp vs Chu

Winner: Usopp

Sanji and Kuroobi stared each other down for a moment, before the fishman brandished a single cutlass, causing the cook to quirk his visible eyebrow at that. "You're a swordsman?" He inquired.

"Indeed I am. It may not be my preferred fighting style and I may not be as proficient with a blade as Hachi, but my skill level should be more than enough to take down a pathetic human like you."

"Is that so?" Sanji questioned. "You haven't even seen what I can do, talk about underestimating your opponent."

"We'll see about that."

Kuroobi pivoted forward then, going for horizontal slash as he did, which his blonde enemy fell back into a handstand stance to avoid. Before he could try and attack from said stance, the ray fishman lunged toward him, attempting the same slash just from a different direction. His well dressed opponent simply pushed off the ground with his hands, leaping back several feet, landing on the cement feet first, now facing the fishman once again, as he stood upright once more.

Charging him this time, Kuroobi attempted to impale him on his blade, only the chef sidestepped just in time, causing him to pierce one of the stone walls of Arlong Park, burying his sword several inches into the thick wall. As Sanji tried to take advantage of this by getting in a kick while his sword was stuck, the fishman blocked the attack with his left arm, as he yanked the cutlass out of the wall with his right hand, cracking the wall a few inches in all directions as he did.

As the blonde pulled his leg back, he had to shoot the other one forward, to intercept and block Kuroobi, as he tried to smash him with the butt of the sword. They both pulled back, but the human was the one who got the next move, throwing a straight kick, aiming for the ray fishman's abdomen, only to be blocked by the blade of his cutlass.

He pulled back and attempted to step back as well, so he could launch another attack, but the fishman wasn't having it, rushing the cook, getting in close and unleashing a barrage of slashes against him, horizontal left, horizontal right, vertical up, vertical down, diagonal left downward, diagonal right upward, diagonal left upward, diagonal right downward, x formation and finally a good thrust of the blade to skewer him.

Sanji back stepped twice in quick succession to avoid the first two swings of the blade, used his left foot to kick down the blade when it came up at him, used his right foot to kick up the blade when it came down at him, swayed to the right when the blade came down in a diagonal manner, swayed to the left for the diagonal retreat of the blade, swayed left once more for the left up diagonal swing and swayed for the final time to the right, to avoid the last diagonal slash. He had to quickly block the blade twice back to back with his right foot, to avoid getting an x carved into his chest, and when it was thrusted at him, he side stepped, before bring his left leg up and down again, slamming his heel down into the blade, breaking it in half and knocking it out of his opponent's hands.

"So, how are you going to fight me now?" Sanji questioned, his foot firmly pinning the broken sword to the ground.

"Fishman Karate: Hundred Brick Fist!" As Kuroobi's arm shot forward and his fist rammed into his opponent's midsection, the blonde couldn't help but cough up a bit of blood. And while the strike had been strong enough to send him flying or at least skidding back, he had prevented that by grabbing ahold of his enemy's arm as it hit him. What the teen was really grateful for was that the punch hadn't aimed at his chest, because that would have hurt like a bitch, considering his ribs still wouldn't be fully healed for awhile.

"My swordsmanship is nothing compared to my preferred fighting style. I am trained in the martial art known as Fishman Karate and am a level fourty practitioner of the art."

"Good for you." Sanji wheezed out sarcastically, his cigarette still in his mouth despite having just coughed up a bit of blood.

"What you just took was my Hundred Brick Fist, capable of breaking through one hundred-"

"Yeah, I really don't care." The chef stated honestly, letting go of the fishman's arm as he did, before turning just a bit and shooting his left leg out at his enemy. "Tendron!" The side kick had a major impact, as his foot rammed into the middle of the fishman's collar bone and sent him skidding back nearly a dozen feet, the nonhuman yelping in pain as he did.

Once he had stopped skidding, the ray fishman spoke, "Not bad...", he groaned in pain as quietly as he could then, "...for a human anyway." Taking his hands off his collar bone, which he had been clutching in pain, he walked a few feet closer and spoke again. "You seem to be quite skilled considering your species, so why are you here? Is it really for that backstabbing traitor Nami?"

"Watch how you talk about a lady around me fish, or you'll end up being my next side dish." Sanji warned.

"A lady huh? You rushed into certain death for one lousy girl, I think that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." Kuroobi stated honestly.

"First of all, as far as I can see, the only one who's going to die here is you. Second, lousy girl? If you dare insult Nami again, I promise you'll go from fishman to fish-sticks, got that?"

"Chivalry? From a pirate? Seems just a little fake doesn't it?" Kuroobi pointed out.

"I guarantee you there's nothing fake about my desire to help a beautiful lady in need." The cook told him straight up. "With that said, the only way to help her now, is to take you out."

"You think you can actually defeat me? Why? Just because you landed a single kick?"

"No, because I'm stronger than you." Sanji told him bluntly.

"If you really think that, then it looks like I'll just have to acquaint you with the true superiority of the fishman species."

"Go ahead, if you think you can." The blonde taunted.

The fishman charged him then, going for a strong right straight once he was close enough to attack, which his opponent sidestepped before launching an attack of his own, bringing his right leg up for a nicely placed kick to the side of the nonhuman's head. The dark haired nonhuman blocked the blow with his left arm, bringing it up just before the kick could connect, proceeding to try for a right hook the moment afterward. Which the chef blocked, placing his right leg back on the ground while bringing his left one up, intercepting the fist with the sole of his shoe, stopping the punch in it's tracks. The fishman then simply tried for a left hook, but that too was stopped, pushing off the fist with his left foot, the cook forced it back and met the other one with the same foot, only this time he didn't give his opponent time for another attack.

Pushing the fist back with his foot, the well dressed man lowered his left leg as he brought his right leg up, doing so too fast for his enemy to block or counter, and rammed his shoe clad foot into the side of the ray fishman's head, causing him to stumble several feet to his right as he released a grunt of pain. Following up, the pirate cook closed the distance between them and slammed the length of his leg into the long haired fishman's side, cracking a few of his ribs upon impact and causing him to bite his tongue to keep from yelping in pain, cringing as he grasped his left side all the while. His enemy in pain, the pirate chef launched another kick, this one a straight left kick, aimed for the face.

Kuroobi was left hurting from that kick to the ribs, but he still had enough of his wits about him to block the incoming kick, using the fin extending from his right arm to do so. Bringing his left hand away from his hurting side as well, he caught his human enemy's foot, as he tried for another kick, after putting his other leg down of course. Not letting him try for another, he stopped him from even moving again by shooting his right knee up and slamming it into his abdomen, causing him to hunch over in pain, his mouth opening for a cry of pain only for nothing to come out, the wind knocked out of him. Not stopping there, the ray fishman pulled his knee back before repeating the attack with his left knee, bringing it up and slamming it into the blonde's gut, almost causing him to puke. Not satisfied with that, he pulled his left knee back and used his right one again, slamming it into the same part of his torso, and while it didn't cause him to throw up, it did manage to get him to hack up some blood, it also managed to get that cigarette out of his mouth, said tobacco stick landing in the blood, causing it to be put out.

Pulling his knee back once more, Kuroobi quickly launched another attack. "Fishman Karate: Forearm Sledge!" Bringing his right arm up above his head, he proceeded to bring it racing down, ramming the fin extending from his elbow down into the back of his opponent's neck, knocking him to the ground, the blonde managing to catch himself in the all fours position, but was forced to let out a yelp of pain regardless. The fishman then pulled back his right leg and shot it forward, kicking the well dressed man hard in the face, knocking him over onto his back on the ground, his head literally only an inch or so from touching one of the walls of Arlong Park.

Even after being hit with that succession of attacks, the cook wasn't showing any signs of staying down, beginning to get to his feet only a moment after he hit the ground. With his enemy busy getting to his feet, the fishman karate user prepared to use another one of his strongest moves. "Fishman Karat-" Before he could even finish the attack name, Sanji had gotten to his feet and damn near flew over to him, moving so fast he didn't realize he didn't have any time, the chef's right foot buried in his gut with great force, causing the wind to be knocked out of him and for him to hunch over, his mouth coming open for a cry of pain, only for nothing to come out. Not stopping there, he pulled his foot back and shot it forward again, slamming it into the fish bastard's gut a second time, before pulling back and slamming it into him again, hitting him three times in a row like he did to him before. And just like his human enemy, the fishman couldn't help but hock up some blood from being kicked hard in the gut three times in a row.

Pulling his leg back, the pirate cook took a step back and kicked the ray fishman in the left side of his head again, causing him to stumble to his right again, almost falling on to the ground as he did. Not letting him off with just that, the blonde moved over to him, brought his right leg up and brought it down, slamming his heel down into the back of his opponent's head, knocking him to the ground, though he managed to catch himself from eating the cement by going into the all fours position. Going for one more kick, he pulled his right leg back and kicked out, slamming the sole of his foot into the left side of the fishman's head, nearly cracking his skull as he did, hitting him so hard that as he was knocked over onto his back on to the ground, blood began to flow from his left ear, a nasty bruise also beginning to form on that side of his face as well.

His enemy down for the moment, Sanji pulled out his pack of cigarettes, retrieving one of them from said pack and placing it in his mouth, proceeding to pull out his lighter right afterward, using it to light up. Now that he had another nicotine tube, he placed his pack and lighter back in his suit jacket and took a drag, waiting for the long haired fishman to get up all the while.

Kuroobi was once more in the all fours position, as he did his best to get back to his feet. His head was spinning from being kicked so hard, his left eardrum ruptured for sure, and his head also pounded like no one's business, a massive head ache plaguing him at the moment. He hadn't felt this much pain since his last battle with the Marines back when he was a Sun Pirate, and while that had been worse, this took second place, as they were the only ones who ever kicked the crap out of him and his fellow fishmen, until now that is. That fact angered the ray fishman greatly.

Managing to get to his feet, he had to catch himself, as he nearly stumbled back and fell. As he did this, his human opponent just stood there, waiting for him to get it together, which only angered him further, said anger morphing into rage. "What do you think you're doing human!? Just standing there, waiting! Is this suppose to be your way of showing me pity!? Well I don't want it or need it! Fishmen are superior in every way to you foolish and weak humans! So hurry up and fight me already!"

"Pity? No, this isn't a show of pity. I don't have any pity for you in fact. I'd just prefer to kill someone who's on their feet and able to defend themselves." Sanji told him bluntly.

"You honestly think you can win!? You cocky, weak, pathetic human! I'm the one who will win this battle! You aren't strong enough to kill me!" He slipped into his fishman karate stance once more then. "Now you will witness the true power of fishman karate! When I hit you with that brick fist before, that was just a sample of things to come. My ultimate attack is ten times as powerful...and the chances that you'll survive it, are ZEROOOOO!"

Both men pivoted forward to attack then, but it was Kuroobi's that hit. "Fishman Karate: Thousand Brick Fist!" He threw his right arm forward with all the strength he had, ramming it into Sanji's chest, causing him to scream in pain as his still healing ribs were violently broken all over again, and he was sent flying back into one of the walls of Arlong Park, passing right by the broken gate as he did. He slammed into the wall hard, his body embedding itself halfway into it, sending cracks of varying inches in length throughout the immediate area of the wall. He fell out of the wall then, leaving an indentation of himself in it, as he fell onto the ground on all fours and began to dry heave for a moment, before something actually came out, the blonde beginning to vomit blood.

While he only threw up blood once, dry heaving a little bit once more afterward, it was still a good amount of blood, so much that a normal human would feel woozy and possibly need a doctor. The blonde tried to get up, but his chest was screaming in pain, so much so that he felt agonizing pain beyond what he had felt when they were broken the first time. In spite of himself, he fell out of the all fours position face first onto the ground, right into the puddle of blood he had just regurgitated.

His human enemy no longer moving, Kuroobi was sure that he was dead, as in his mind there was no possible way a human could survive his ultimate technique. Nevertheless, he spoke as if he could hear him. "See? You weren't strong enough to defeat a fishman, no human is. As long as we're around, you won't be able to protect anyone. All you accomplished was sealing that woman's fate, as with your presence here, there can be no doubt she betrayed us, even in spite of his fondness of her, Arlong will have to see that."

With that he turned around to see how Arlong and Hatchan were faring in their battles, only as he did, he realized his octopus comrade was nowhere to be seen, the same could be said for the green haired swordsman he was fighting. But that wasn't what caused his eyes to nearly pop out of his head, his jaw dropping in surprise and shock, "A-Arlong?" He questioned disbelievingly, never having seen his captain in such a state before.

Before he could fully register the scene before him, stepping forward out of instinct more than anything else, a voice called out to him. "Hey fishface!"

Whirling around to face the blonde he was sure he had killed, his eyes managed to widen to the fullest degree. "You...you're still alive!? H-how...?" He inquired, his disbelief more than evident.

Sanji was struggling to get to his feet, barely managing to make it to all fours at this point, spitting out the left over blood in his mouth as he did. As his body shook in pain with every movement, he forced himself to one foot and a knee, slowly getting there. "I'm not done yet...I can still fight. Something like that is noth-nothing compared to the kind of hits I've taken. That damn Geezer hits a thousand times harder than you ever could, so if I couldn't take something like this, I'd have died years ago." He wheezed out, coughing up a bit more blood as he did. He wasn't bluffing, but that punch had done more damage than it should've to begin with. If it wasn't for the fact that his ribs were already messed up, he wouldn't be having such a problem right now.

Finally getting to his feet, he wobbled a bit, but kept himself from stumbling at all. He took his jacket off then, using it to wipe all the blood of his face and get it all out of his hair, since he had been lying face down in his own thrown up blood after all. Once he had done that, he tossed it aside, taking his tie off and throwing it aside as well, not bothering to get a third cigarette, the second one having come out of his mouth when he puked up blood, as he was going to finish this first before he tried to have a smoke again and to make sure that happened, he was prepared to go at the fishman with everything he had this time.

"Even if you managed to survive my ultimate technique, you still won't-" Kuroobi couldn't finish his sentence, as he had to bring both arms up and block a strong left kick from the pirate cook, the force behind the attack causing him to skid back a bit regardless. With the ray fishman's guard up, the chef put his leg down as he shot the other one up, bringing it from behind and slamming his foot into the back of his nonhuman opponent's head, knocking him forward face first into the ground, hitting it with a resounding smack. "What was the crack about not being able to protect anyone!?" Sanji growled.

Taking half a step back, he raised his right leg into the air, extending it to the fullest as he did. "Epaule!" He brought it down then, ramming his heel into his enemy's right shoulder, breaking it and causing him to cry out in pain as he did, the force of it forcing him into the ground causing said ground to crack several inches in all directions. "And what are you going to do to Nami exactly!?"

Sanji then kicked the ray fishman in the jaw, doing so with enough force that it literally knocked him up onto his feet, the long haired man looking ready to collapse any second. With that Sanji jumped into the air, reaching a good six feet off the ground as he prepared to end the fight. "Nothing, that's what! I'll kill you before you can touch her! Collier Shot!" Shooting his right leg forward, he rammed the length of it into his enemy's throat with all his might, crushing his trachea upon impact, knocking him straight onto his back on to the ground, cracking it even further, about a dozen inches in all directions.

With his windpipe crushed to such a severe degree, the fishman could no longer even so much as hope to breathe. He clutched at his throat desperately, as if he could someone stop the agony he was in and get himself breathing once more. Blood began to flow from his mouth as the orifice began to overfill with it, all the while the long haired nonhuman began to suffocate from a lack of oxygen.

Quickly realizing that while he would still be in bad shape, if he could get himself into the water he would at least survive the mortal injury that had just been inflicted upon him, the fishman turned himself over onto his front side and began to crawl toward the water.

Sanji, who had landed gracefully on both feet, made no move to stop the ray fishman as he crawled across the cement ground to what was his only salvation. In fact, he turned and walked away, heading toward his blood stained jacket as he did. It took him a few moments to reach it, and once he did he didn't bother to pick it up, simply crouching down and pulling out his cigarette pack and lighter. Retrieving a cigarette, he placed it in his mouth, flipped open his lighter and lit it, before placing both the lighter and pack of cigarettes back in the jacket.

Turning to face his struggling to survive enemy, he saw him mere inches away from the water that could save his life. But just as he as he got there, just before he could pull himself into the water, his lungs gave out on him, and he suffocated to death, his body going limp, causing his arms to splash into the water as they began to dangle lifelessly. And just like that, Kuroobi was dead.

Sanji took a long drag of his cigarette then, taking his time before pulling it out of his mouth and exhaling, still gazing at the body of the now deceased fishman as he did. Then, without a word, he turned and made his way over to where the villagers of Cocoyashi village stood, just outside the compound, completely flabbergasted by everything they were seeing.

Sanji vs Kuroobi

Winner: Sanji

Zoro stood across from Hatchan, as he drew his blades, speaking while he did, "Looks like it's you and me Octopus."

"My name is Hatchan, I already told you that! Speaking of which, you tricked me you jerk!" Hachi accused.

"Tricked you?" The green haired man questioned, placing the grip of one of his blades between his teeth afterward.

"Yeah, tricked me! You didn't tell me you were the Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro!"

"I told you my name to your face." The swordsman rebutted, his words rather clear considering he had the grip of a sword in his mouth.

"Yeah maybe, but you didn't tell me you were The Zoro!" He tried to rationalize.

The three sword wielding teen quirked a brow at that. "You're not actually serious are you?" He inquired.

"Of course I am, I don't like being tricked!"

The eighteen year old couldn't help but sigh at that. "Whatever. Look, are we going to fight or not?"

Hatchan's eyes widened in realization at that. "Oh yeah, I forgot." He seemed to calm down then. "Alright, let's fight."

With that Zoro pivoted forward and slashed at his opponent with all three blades, the fishman ducking at the last second to avoid being beheaded. And while he did prevent the blades from touching his flesh, he didn't actually stop himself from getting cut, as the swords chopped off all five of the tops of his spiked hair.

He quickly realized this as he stood up, reaching for his missing pieces of hair and grabbing nothing but air. "You bastard, my hair!" He shouted angrily, his teeth grit. "But it's okay, it's only hair, it'll grow back." He said suddenly, much calmer than he had been a second ago, as if someone had reminded him that it wasn't such a big deal.

Zoro simply watched silently, as his opponent had his little mood swing, not sure how he was going to act next.

He seemed to remember that he was supposed to be fighting, and placed his attention on his enemy once more. "Now Zoro, you can't beat me, I have six hands that'll mesmerize you with their wiggly beauty!" The fishman said, as he began to wiggle all six of his arms.

"You've got to be kidding me." Zoro groaned. "I just had to get stuck with the idiot didn't I?" Brushing his annoyance off, the green haired man prepared to attack once more. "Yeah, whatever, let's just get this over with."

He came at the fishman with all three blades once more, only this time, Hatchan didn't try to dodge. "Now you will see my skills! Hachi's Triple Sword Catch!" The octopus man positioned two hands at each blade, attempting to clamp down on them with two hands each, so as to keep them from actually reaching his body. Only he tried to grab ahold of them just a second too late and ended up with three cuts across his chest for his trouble. "Ow, that hurt!" He yelled in pain, as he began to bleed.

"Well no shit!" Zoro shouted at him, becoming aggravated by his apparent lack of brain activity. "I better just end this quick, that way I won't have to deal with a headache afterward." He sighed.

With that in mind, he went for a potentially fatal slash against his nonhuman enemy, only for said enemy to leap off the ground at the last second. "Hachi Suckers!"

The swordsman looked up at the fishman then, to see him sticking to one of Arlong Park's support beams, his arms wrapped around it and his suckers helping him stay up there. Wondering what the octopus man was up to, he stood his ground and waited for the nonhuman to make the first move.

Ten seconds...

The green haired combatant hadn't so much as twitched, his eyes boring into his opponent, watching for the slightest move, so that he would be ready to dodge, block or intercept anything he threw at him. The same could be said for the fishman, as he just stared down at his human enemy, unblinking as he did.

Twenty seconds...

He blinked a few times, wondering if he was missing something. What was his enemy doing up there? Was he buying time? But what for? Maybe he was waiting for him to make the next move? Or perhaps he was distracting him? The swordsman took a quick glance behind him, nothing there, and quickly returned his eyes to the octopus man.

Thirty seconds...

"Don't just sit there, get down here and fight!" Zoro demanded, his annoyance and aggravation clear.

The fishman just blinked at him a couple times.

"Are you coming down or what!?" He growled, anger building thanks to his frustration.

"I would but...Hachi's suckers...are stuck."

Zoro couldn't help but face palm at that. "How stupid is this guy?" He wondered to himself.

"Are you just going to keep running scared from me every time I try and attack? Are you that much of a coward!?" He asked angrily.

That seemed to get to the octopus. "Shut up! I've just been playing around with you is all!"

"Then hurry up and get serious already! I don't have all day!"

"Fine, but I have to warn ya, humans can't defeat me. I could tell you why, but I think it'd be more fun to show you. Yeah show, I'd like that. I think you're really gonna enjoy it a lot too." Hatchan said, once more in a good mood. "Be right back, it's time for you to see what I can truly do."

With that he climbed up the support beam to the second level of Arlong Park. Detaching his suckers, he entered the building through a window and began rummaging around for a few moments, the noise created by him doing so just barely audible to the swordsman outside. After a few moments he came back out, wielding a sword in each of his six hands as he did. "Now you may tremble at Hachi's way of six blades!"

"A swordsman huh? Alright, maybe this won't be so bad after all." Zoro remarked, most of his frustration and anger melting away, a small grin crossing his face as they did.

The pink skinned fishman jumped down to ground level, turning to his opponent as he did, "Now I can show you the might of my six sword style!"

"I can't wait." Zoro stated somewhat mockingly.

The two sword wielding combatants charged each other and clashed blades, two of the fishman's swords hitting each one of the human's, both going back and forth trying for attacks and being blocked by the other's blades. This little clash of their's didn't last long, only a handful of moments at best, before they broke apart, getting a couple of feet of distance between each other.

That's when Hatchan took the initiative. "Tentacle Sword Overload!" With that the octopus man rushed his human enemy, flailing his swords wildly all around, almost looking like a complete novice simply trying to play at being a swordsman. However, as the green haired man scrutinized his opponent's movements, he could see the method to this ridiculous attack. With every passing moment, he moved his arms a bit faster and handled his blades with a bit more skill and finesse, it was hardly even noticeable, but it was there nevertheless. Odds were by the time he got over to him, those uncontrollable swings of his would turn into a deadly barrage of slashes, a very sloppy deadly barrage, but still a deadly barrage regardless.

Still the three sword style swordsman stood his ground, waiting as his fellow swordsman drew closer, not moving until he was mere inches from getting carved up. With the fishman so close, it should have been difficult to escape unscathed, however, Zoro weaved and flowed through the blades as if he had done it a million times before, not even looking the slightest bit worried as he did, hell he almost looked bored. As he did this it presented him a chance to perform one of his signature techniques, but he decided against it, merely giving the octopus man another three slashes to his torso as he bypassed him, there not being so much as a scratch on him after doing so.

As three more cuts appeared across his abdomen, blood seeping slowly from them, Hatchan turned to face his enemy, who now stood behind him. At first he appeared confused, most likely because the human combatant hadn't so much as sustained one injury after moving through the flurry of sword swings, but then he became angry, as he realized he had been cut again. "How dare you cut me like that! Now I'm mad! I'll kill ya bastard!"

"I already cut you before, what difference does it make now?" The eighteen year old asked.

Hatchan growled in anger at that. "Why you!" The octopus fishman brought all his swords together out in front of him then, their back edges all pointed inward toward each other, the blades all arranged in a circular array. "Way Of Six Swords: Octopus Pot Stance!"

"Nice guard, but what good is it if you bring it up before your enemy attacks?" Zoro questioned.

Hachi didn't bother to answer, beginning to run at him after he spoke. "New Year's!"

"An attack?" The green haired teen wondered, before proceeding to block the six blades from piercing his body with two of his own three blades.

"Open!" Hatchan broke his sword formation then, bringing all his swords away from in front of his chest, splaying his opponent's swords apart, leaving him completely open to attack. Said human opponent figured this out just a moment too late, "Crap!"

"Body Slam!" Hatchan thrust his whole body forward then, ramming his head into Zoro's chest as hard as he possibly could, knocking him off his feet and sending him flying several feet up and back, causing him to reach a good ten feet into the air, before coming down and crashing into the water below, making a decent splash as he did. His enemy now in the water, the octopus man followed, diving into the water, where he would have the advantage.

Once Zoro was submerged in water, he realized just how badly he had screwed up. No it wasn't that he had allowed his enemy to surprise him, it wasn't even that he had allowed a fishman to get him underwater where said fishman would have the advantage, no it was something far worse. When he hit the water, his grip on his blades had faltered for a moment and because of that the swords were now sinking to the ocean floor, leaving the swordsman without his weapons.

"I have to get them back quick!" He thought to himself, being careful not to let any of the air out he was keeping in by holding his breath. Going downward head first, he began to dive, swimming as fast as he could to get to them. He made pretty good headway, halfway down in only a few moments, then again, he did have very good upper body strength.

He would have gotten his swords back in just a few more moments, if it wasn't for Hatchan, who came speeding at him from the side, hitting with with slashes from all six of his blades before he could even try and defend himself, swimming off speedier than he had gotten to his enemy. Said slashes didn't cut too deep thankfully, but they did draw blood, the cuts ranging across the eighteen year old's upper body, two on one arm, two on the other and two more across the abdomen.

They hurt and it did get him to let a bit of his oxygen out, bubbles rising as the air was introduced to the water, but he kept his cool and stopped anymore from coming out, and while he did keep one eye on the fishman, there really wasn't much he could do, so he simply continued his descent toward his swords.

Hatchan didn't come for another round of slashes, instead going down to where the swords were, planting his feet firmly next to them, as he looked up at the human he was combating. Now in position, he began to spin his swords at a rapid pace, doing so for each blade a different way but making sure they all spun in the same direction. Only a few moments of doing this, he brought a mini-whirlpool into existence, right below the swordless swordsman. "Correction..." Zoro though to himself, "I'm in the middle of the whirlpool!"

The green haired man was spun about like crazy, his vision almost blurring from the speed of being revolved in such a way. "Sunuva bitch!" He cursed the octopus fishman in his mind, losing more of his precious air as it was all but sucked out of his lungs, the bubbles dissipating from being whirled around as well.

He wasn't in the whirlpool long, as it flung him further away from Arlong Park, a good twenty feet in the opposite direction of it in fact. And as the spinning came to an end and he was able to right himself, he noticed something. Now deeper into the sea away from Arlong Park, he saw the floor of the ocean was even further down, which meant if he didn't hurry up, it wouldn't be long before he was in the middle of the ocean with all the sea life and it would cause damage to his body for him to reach such underwater pressure. Considering his durability though, he'd probably be fine as long as he didn't get taken dwon there at a rapid pace. Either way, whether it was dangerous or not, Zoro didn't care, what he did care about though was that it would be a hassle. He needed to retrieve his swords and end this fight, and that would be harder to do the further away from Arlong Park he was.

Focusing on the objective at hand, he located his swords and began to swim down and toward them, moving just as fast as before, determined to get ahold of them. Hatchan noticed him making his second approach and quickly swam up at him, passing by him and giving him another good six slashes, more blood being released into the water. Despite being cut again, he kept moving this time, which the octopus quickly took note of. Turning down to face him, he swam down even faster, aiming to cut him up from behind. This time he managed to jerk his body out of the way just in time to avoid taking any more damage, though that only postponed the further attacks, but at least it kept any wounds or scars from being inflicted on his back.

He was close now, just a few more seconds and he could grab them. Hell, if it wasn't for the sheathes he carried on his waist he'd be swimming a bit faster and would already have the swords in his hands and, well, mouth. Those few seconds, the pink skinned fishman could make use of those few seconds, and he made sure to do so. He came back around again, inflicting another six slashes, speeding off and coming back round again, moving at top speed as he did and hit his fellow swordsman with even more slashes from his blades, releasing more blood into the water.

Once more Zoro didn't allow it to slow him down, taking the cuts without releasing any air, as he finally grabbed ahold of his swords. He had to let a bit more oxygen out to pop one into his mouth, before locking the other two in tight grips with his hands. Turning so he was facing upward, he began swimming, needing to get above water, to the surface, because he didn't have much air left. If he didn't hurry, he could black out from lack of oxygen, so he needed to hurry.

To complicate matters, Hachi was coming back around again. Zoro wasn't content to just take the hits or dodge this time, so as the octopus got in close, he proceeded to shove the blade of his Wado halfway into the fishman's shoulder, releasing more blood into the water as he sank half of the sword into his enemy's flesh, causing him to yelp in pain.

The green haired teen yanked the blade from his opponent's flesh, releasing more blood, before beginning to swim toward Arlong Park, going up at the same time so as to reach the surface as soon as possible, while Hatchan too swam, doing so away from his enemy and toward Arlong Park as well.

Sharks were approaching, all the blood having drawn them, but as they got close to Zoro, ready to take a bite out of him, he gave them one of the most frightening glares he could muster and they seemed to think better of it, simply because his eyes were like that of a predator, one they could tell was far greater than them.

While they swam away, looking for food elsewhere, Zoro finally broke through to the surface, beginning to take in deep breaths of life saving oxygen, well as deep of breaths as he could with a sword in his mouth, as he continued to move toward the edge of Arlong Park, so he could climb back up onto land.

He saw Hatchan reach the edge and climb up onto land a few moments before he did so himself, only now realizing that it was raining as it did. "When did it start raining?" He wondered to himself. It didn't really matter, he was already soaked as it was, though the rain might help wash the rest of the blood of him from the thirty slash marks across his front side, thankfully only one or two of them had any real depth.

"You sunuva bitch, you stabbed me in the shoulder!" Hatchan shouted in rage.

"No shit, you were just trying to kill me stupid. Why wouldn't I retaliate?" Zoro inquired, not even angered by the stupidity anymore.

"Oh, good point." Hatchan admitted, seemingly forgetting just how mad he was for a moment. It quickly came back to him though. "Why won't you just give up and die, there's no way you can win!"

"We'll see." He replied.

The octopus man growled at that. "Way Of Six Swords: Octopus Pot Stance!" He exclaimed, as he took the same position as before.

"This again?" The human combatant questioned.

Hachi ran at him like before then. "New Year's!"

"I can guarantee you, this won't play out the same way as last time." The green haired teen told the octopus, before proceeding to block the six blades from piercing his body with two of his swords.

"Open!" Hatchan broke his sword formation then, bringing all his swords away from in front of his chest, splaying his opponent's swords apart, leaving him completely open to attack. Said opponent not bothering to stop him from doing so.

"Body Slam!" Unlike like last time, when Hatchan threw his body forward for a headbutt, Zoro brought his right knee up to meet the fishman's face, slamming it into him full force, breaking his nose, causing blood to begin leaking from his nostrils, and causing him to reel back from the impact, shouting out in pain as he did. "OW!"

Stumbling back a few feet, he locked eyes with his fellow swordsman, his rage clear. "You asshole! You broke my nose!"

The pirate swordsman just blinked at that, wondering to himself as he did, "Is this guy really that stupid?"

Snarling in rage, Hatchan spoke up once more, "There's no way you'll survive my next attack! You've just gotten lucky so far, that's all! You'll never beat my six swords with your three, I have twice as many swords as you, don't you get it, six is more!"

He chuckled dryly at that, no real mirth in his voice as he did, his eyes hardening a tad. "Three swords...six swords...it doesn't matter. You may have more swords than me, but mine will always carry more weight than yours!" Zoro proclaimed with a fire in his eyes.

Silence reigned over the two for a few moments at that, Hatchan quirking a brow at those words, finally speaking as he did. "Weight you say? It may not look like it but my swords actually weigh quite a bit. Over three hundred pounds each to be exact. They weigh much more than your puny human swords." He explained, his rage all but evaporating as he did.

"I meant the burden-oh forget it." Zoro sighed in annoyance, not wanting to bother trying to explain to this moron what he meant.

Without warning, Hatchan attacked then. "Way Of Six Swords Ultimate Technique: Waltz Of The Six Swords!" The octopus fishman began to spin all six of his swords out in front of him in the same direction and the same way then, like a fan blade, moving them faster and faster until, to the normal human eye, they were nothing but a blur. As he did this, he dashed forward toward his human enemy, moving as fast as he possibly could. "You can't possibly survive this!"

Zoro didn't bother to respond, he simply took a specific stance with his blades before lunging forward and unleashing his signature technique. "Oni Giri!"

Hatchan stopped dead in his tracks as his fellow swordsman lunged past him, all six of his blades breaking in half, as three particular slash marks were carved into the pink skinned fishman's abdomen, blood seeping from them as he fell to his knees, barely keeping himself from collapsing onto the ground as he did.

There, on his knees, he began to pant, he couldn't take much more of this. Nevertheless, he forced himself to his feet and turned toward his human opponent. "Hachi won't...let you win. Arlong says fishmen are superior, they aren't ever supposed to lose. So I can't lose to you!" With that he reared back for a second, before he began spitting ink out his mouth like a fire hose. "Hachi Ink Jet!"

Zoro had turned to face his nonhuman enemy by then, and jumped to the side to avoid the blast of black ink, it colliding with the right wall near the gate, near covering it in said black ink. It seemed the octopus man had been expecting him to do this though, as he was charging him now, throwing each of his fists forward over and over again, faster and faster as he did, intent on pummeling the green haired swordsman. "Octopus Fritter Frenzy!"

Zoro met him head on once more though, spinning himself and his swords around for one full revolve, doing so with such force and speed, he was able to create a small human sized tornado with subtle dragon like features to it, that carved several slashes into his fishman opponent, while also taking him off his feet and forcing him several feet into the air. "Dragon Twister!"

It dissipated after a few moments and Hatchan came falling back down, hitting the cement with a loud, wet smack, the fishman groaning in pain as he did. "Defeated...by...three sword...style."

"So fish, now you finally understand the weight I carry in my three swords. You satisfied?" Zoro inquired, sheathing two of his blades as he did and turning to face his downed opponent.

Slowly, he walked over to Hatchan, his Wado still out, gripped in his left hand, as he came to a stop before the octopus man, now standing directly over him. "My Captain's orders were to show no mercy." He stated, letting the defeated swordsman know what he was about to do. He would have said what that meant quite bluntly, but the fishman seemed to understand what he meant by it. "Oh..." Was the octopus's only response.

"I'll make it quick." He reassured him, bringing his blade up as he prepared to strike down Hatchan with it. "Wait Zoro, don't!"

The green haired man stopped himself then, his sword having been coming down until that moment, the tip of the blade only a centimeter from piercing Hatchan's chest at that point. His eyes went to who had spoken, to see Nami. Her left arm was bandaged up and she was wearing Luffy's straw hat, other than that she looked the same as earlier.

She came over to him then, explaining why she had stopped him as she did. "Hachi isn't like the others, he never treated me cruelly. He never hit me or called me his property, he actually tried to cheer me up and make me feel welcome here. He doesn't deserve to die like this. Please, don't kill him." She implored the green haired swordsman, despite not actually begging.

Hachi couldn't help the tears that began to overflow and run down his face then, "Nami..."

Zoro didn't say anything to that, he simply sheathed his Wado Ichimonji, letting Hatchan know through actions that he wouldn't be taking his life this day.

Zoro vs Hatchan

Winner: Zoro

By the time Nami arrived, rain was pouring down, soaking everyone out in the open. Usopp wasn't far behind her either, approaching everyone.

When Usopp spoke her name in concern, she turned around and was happy to see he was okay. But she didn't bother to assure him that she was okay, as she turned back around and walked past the villagers of Cocoyashi, to the broken gates, where Johnny and Yosaku stood guard, Sanji also standing near them, since his battle was apparently over.

All the villagers spoke her name in concern when she showed up, Genzo, Nako and Nojiko were no exceptions, as they all wondered if she was okay. They were also worried about the bandages wrapped around her arm, all of them wondering what had happened to her.

"Nami, is everything alright?" Genzo questioned.

"What happened to your arm?" Nako inquired.

"Nami..." Was all Nojiko could honestly say in the presence of the orange haired teen.

"Nami, are you okay my dear?" Sanji asked sincerely upon seeing her.

"Nami, are you alright?" Usopp repeated his question from a moment ago.

"Big Sis?" Both Johnny and Yosaku questioned, wondering whether she was okay or not.

As another battle came to an end, she quickly tried to get through, though neither of the bounty hunters would let her do so. "Sorry Big Sis, but if you go in there you'll just get hurt. You need to-"

"Let me through, now!" She commanded, the two quickly obeying her as she did.

This allowed her to enter the compound and prevent Zoro from killing Hatchan, who was the only one of the fishmen who hadn't made her life a living hell, the octopus man having actually treated her with some decency and a bit of kindness.

With Zoro sheathing his only drawn blade, she knew that he would not take the fishman's life. "Thank you Zoro."

That's when her eyes wandered, looking for Luffy, wondering where he was. She had had just seen Usopp and Sanji outside the compound, and here was Zoro, so that only left the rubber idiot who had stolen her heart.

That's when she saw it. "Holy shit." She couldn't help but say this aloud, her eyes widening to the maximum, completely in disbelief at the sight before her. It was something she had never ever thought she would see in a million years, something she thought completely impossible, and yet, here it was, right before her very eyes.

With their crews facing off, that left Luffy and Arlong to go toe to toe without interruption.

"You can't honestly think you can kill me me. Nami has tried countless times, all to no avail. Assassination, poison, sneak attacks, anything and everything her devious little mind could think up and still nothing ever worked. What chance do you possibly have? You mere humans could never kill me, a mighty fishman!" Arlong proclaimed arrogantly, smirking his shark grin as he did.

"No holding back this time." Luffy said aloud to himself.

"What was that?" Arlong questioned, not catching what the teen had just said.

"I said I'm going to go all out." The hatless straw hat pirate answered, popping a crick in his neck as he did.

"All out you say? When exactly were you holding back? You haven't even fought yet." The shark fishman pointed out with a sneer.

"In the fights up till now, I've held back, as I worried that if I used all of my strength I'd needlessly kill someone." Luffy elaborated, images of what he did to the kids back in Fusha when he was a child and how he had broken Nami's wrist by just playing around with her flashing through his mind as he said this.

The nonhuman's sneer widened at that, "A pirate with a conscious huh? How ridiculous."

"It's been less than a month since my voyage began and someone is already trying to take one of my crew from me, so this time, I won't be holding back. This will be the first fight I go all out on." The raven haired man informed him.

"Is that bit of information supposed to intimidate me? You can't scare me boy. I am a fishman, I am superior to you in every way! The same goes for my entire species! You can't hope to beat a fishman you-"

Arlong was cut off, as Luffy rammed his fist into the side of the fishman's face, sending him straight to the ground, the blue skinned man hitting it with a loud thud, cracking the concrete a bit as he did.

Another bruise forming on his face, he got back to his feet again, annoyed but unperturbed by the strength behind the blow. "If that's all you have then-"

Before the sharp teeth having man could finish his sentence, he received another two blows from his younger opponent, said blows causing him to stumble. Taking advantage of that, the sixteen year old socked him in the side of his jaw, knocking him to the ground once more, while also shattering his teeth from the force of the impact, the cement ground cracking a bit more as the large nonhuman hit it.

As said teeth broke apart into nearly a hundred pieces, falling out of his mouth as they did, the sawshark man grunted loudly in pain. Sounds of disbelief could be heard from the villagers as this happened.

Arlong sat up, revealing his toothlessness as he smiled, "Don't get cocky you brat, this is nothing." With that said, his teeth grew back, this set replacing the broken original ones. "With every set of teeth I go through, they grow stronger and stronger. This is just one of many traits that we fishman possess that make us greater than you pathetic-"

"Would you just shut your mouth already!? I'm sick of hearing you talk!" Luffy exclaimed, as he delivered another powerful punch to the side of his enemy's head, knocking him back to the ground and shutting him up for the moment.

"Besides-" Luffy continued, "-this fight has nothing to do with fishmen and humans and which one is better or whatever. I'm fighting for Nami! I'm here to make you pay for what you've done to her! That's what this fight is about!"

"What I've done to her? And what exactly have I done that was so awful? I give her everything she needs, water, food, a place to sleep, money, a purpose. and all she has to do in return is draw up maps and charts. Just what is so bad about that?" Arlong inquired, his sneer having returned, as he climbed to his feet for the third time.

Luffy's anger morphed into rage then, the scowl he had been wearing growing, his eyes projecting the deepening of his anger just as well as the expression on his face did. "What about the fact that you've held her village hostage for eight years!? Or the fact you killed her mother, Bellemere!? And what about the fact that you've been lying to her and using her and treating her as if she was some kind of slave!? What about all of that huh!?" Luffy shouted at him, knocking him down to the ground again with another strong strike, cracking the ground a bit more as he did.

"A slave you say? You have no room to talk! It was your filthy, disgusting species that-" Arlong was on all fours, about halfway to getting back up, when Luffy shot his right arm forward and rammed his fist into the side of the blue skinned man's face once more, the force behind the punch causing it to break skin, first blood finally being drawn. The attack also caused his sentence to get cut off and for him to be knocked back to the ground once again. "Shut your face! I don't want to hear it!"

The shark fishman's eyes were wide in disbelief, as lying face down, he brought his left hand to his face, where he felt the wetness on his cheek and proceeded to bring it into his field of vision. When he saw that he was indeed bleeding, the last punch having indeed broken skin, blood slowly trickling down the nonhuman's face, his eyes managed to widen even further. "Impossible! Impossible! How could some weak human punk cause me to bleed!? I am a fishman! I am at the top of the food chain! No human opponent should be able to hurt me, let alone draw even a drop of my blood!" He thought vehemently to himself.

Attempting to get off the ground once more, the older of the two combatants got to his knees again, preparing to climb to his feet. Before he could though, the sole of his younger opponent's sandal was slammed into the side of his head, knocking it into the back wall of Arlong Park, causing it to violently crack in all directions for about ten inches.

The kick put his whole body against the wall, which was good for him, slightly anyway, because he had to use said stone construct to keep himself from falling back down onto the concrete ground. Using the wall for support turned out not to be the best idea, especially since his whole body was against it, because the young pirate shot forward with another kick to the head, ramming the fishman pirate's head through the wall, his upper body also slamming into the stone hard enough to break through, causing a small section of it to collapse on top of him.

Even though that was the case, the long haired nonhuman didn't get a second of reprieve, not even to lift the rubble off of him, as his short haired enemy grabbed him by the ankles and pulled him out of the destroyed section of the wall. Not even a moment after his eyes were greeted by what was around him, instead of the darkness of being covered in small pieces of stone, a fist was slammed into his face, causing the back of his head to ram back into the concrete, cracking it almost a dozen inches in every direction. This blow was also the first one to pull something from him besides boasts, grunts and shit talk, it caused him to yelp in pain for the first time in a long time.

Said yelp didn't appease Luffy, not in the slightest, as he grabbed his larger opponent by his nose and yanked him upward, pulling him off the ground as he shot his right knee forward, ramming it into his face as he pulled him into it, causing more damage than just a knee strike on it's own. Said assisted knee strike shattered the man's teeth for the second time, as well as causing him to begin bleeding from both corners of his mouth, a bit of red life liquid dribbling down to his chin from both of said corners.

Falling back onto the ground, the sawshark fishman accidentally ended up swallowing a few pieces of his broken teeth, not that it particularly mattered, but it did make him feel even more humiliation than he already did at the moment. Turning over so his face was adjacent to the ground, he made another attempt at getting to his feet, spitting out the remaining pieces of his shark teeth as he did.

By the time he got onto all fours, his teeth had regrown, but no later than a second after that, a fist was rammed into the back of his head, the momentum behind the punch smashing his face into the ground, his nose forced down into the concrete, the entire thing burrowed into said material. Even though that was the case, it did not soften the impact in the slightest, as the force of his face hitting the ground caused the cement to crack twelve inches in all directions before it gave some and morphed to the blue skinned nonhuman's face, sinking down a little. It also caused his teeth to shatter for the third time and for his head to bust open. He might have even screamed in pain from this, if it wasn't for the cement keeping anything coming from his mouth from being heard.

Once more the rubberman didn't allow his enemy even a moment of rest, as he reached down and grabbed ahold of the back of the older man's head and wrenched his nose out of the ground, yanking his head upward to do so. A small hole that could be seen through, the ocean the sight which would greet anyone who wanted to look, was what was left behind after the fishman and his saw like nose were pulled up from the ground, not to mention the indentation of his face in the cement.

The hatless straw hat pirate let go of the older man's head, allowing him to fall to the ground for the umpteenth time since this had began. He hit said ground with a light thump, groaning in pain after doing so. Said groan went on for a few moments, as he began trying to get to his feet once more, the groan turning into one of exertion. Unlike the last few times, his opponent allowed him to climb to his feet, once on his feet he turned to face said opponent.

Blood was running down his entire face, said sticky substance coming from his forehead, and he was panting a bit. He looked like he had just been in a bit of a nasty scuffle, though he had only been hit a dozen times, add the fact that he had yet to land a single blow to it and it was rather embarrassing, no, it was downright demeaning to the proud fishman.

"I won't allow you to humiliated me like this! I. AM. A. MIGHTY. F-" Arlong threw a strong left straight as he grew louder, but Luffy effortlessly caught it with his right hand, locking it down in a tight grip, as he cut the older pirate off. "A fishman? So what? What does it matter what species you are!? Something stupid like that shouldn't determine the value of someones life! Just because you aren't human doesn't mean you can treat people like you do! So cut all that fishman are better crap!" As Luffy stated this, he increased the strength of his grip until he crushed the fishman's hand, shattering all the bones in his fist, causing him to cry out in pain as he dropped to his knees, clutching at his human enemy's wrist, as if he had enough strength to force him to let go.

The nonhuman's attempts to dislodge the human's hand were numerous, but none attained the result he wished them too. In fact, at one point, he was just about pawing at him, the pain almost always continuous since the grip was constant, which caused his strength to ebb away.

Eventually, he could take no more. "Let...le-let...go. L-let g-go. P-plea-please, le-let go. "

Luffy didn't show the slightest bit of sympathy or compassion to the down on his knees pirate, said pirate practically begging at that point. The younger pirate remained stoned face, not caring that his opponent was in incredible pain at the moment. "This pain you're feeling, it's nothing, absolutely nothing compared to what you put her through. You're not getting off this easily. Now, stand up." His eyes were incredibly fierce as he ordered Arlong to do this.

Arlong did as he was told, even in spite of his nature, standing up despite the large amount of pain he was in, the look in the rubberman's eyes compelling him to do so. After he had though, he became sickened with himself. "Why am I obeying the order of a lowly human!? This filthy, disgusting piece of useless waste is beneath me, I am greater than him! I do not take orders, especially from a pitiful human! I am a powerful and proud fishman! I will not let this stand!" He was so convinced of fishmen superiority, he couldn't accept what was happening. His mind couldn't comprehend that there could be someone stronger than him who was human, especially not one who's nothing but a brat from the weakest of the Blues. In doing this, he blocked out the instances of being defeated by the Marines from his mind.

So he prepared to strike, his defiant nature returning. Just as he shot his head forward, to take a bite out of human, said human knocked him down hard, hitting him with a strong left hook while also letting go of his hand. The blow took him off his feet and put him on the ground once more, lying over dozens of cracks in the concrete.

From there the beating continued.

Punch. Kick. Knee Ram.

Smash. Bash. Crack.

Slug. Clobber. Bruise.

There were no shouts of attack names or stretching from Luffy, as he took his opponent apart with blow after blow, pulverizing him, no mercy given as he beat the shark fishman into the ground.

Straight Punch. Right Hook. Left Hook.

Pound. Pummel. Fracture.

Crash. Concuss. Break.

He didn't stop for even a moments rest, not allowing his enemy even a second of respite. Even when it began to rain there was no lull allowed in the assault on Arlong.

Jab. Strike. Slam.

Stomp. Pound. Crush.

Thrash. Snap. Shatter.

After several minutes, something finally managed to break Luffy from the trance he was seemingly in, to where he could see and hear nothing but his enemy, and that was these words. "Holy shit."

Even still, he didn't register who said them, hell he still wasn't aware that people were watching this fight, if you could call it that, so intently. What he was aware of though, was that it was raining, he was soaked, he was panting a bit and that despite the fact that his left fist, a good deal of his torso, most of his legs and his right arm from elbow on down were covered in blood, said red liquid dripping off his tightly clenched fists and onto the ground, he hadn't sustained a single injury. All the blood on him came from Arlong, who lie limp and broken in a pool of his own blood before the young man's feet, having been brutalized to the highest degree to where ninety eight percent of his body was caked, soaked and smothered in his own life liquid.

It was, quite frankly, a miracle he was even alive, let alone conscious, which he indeed was, even if it was barely. With the state he was in though, he did indeed look quite dead, which was why disbelief was more than warranted to anyone who lived under his rule when they saw him like this.

There was so much blood that it layered, making it thicker, which was why it washed away slower than it usually did. The rain was washing it away, just at a slower pace than normal. Because it was washing it away though, a mixture of blood and water began to form and trickle down toward the water gate of Arlong Park, toward the ocean.

Even still, despite the state the shark fishman was in, Luffy wasn't done with him yet. "Get up."

"Please...no more." Arlong rasped out, his entire body already wracked with agony, so much so that even a single twitch of movement sent shocks of severe pain throughout his entire body. "It hurts...all of it...everything hurts...so much...so please...please...no more." As he finished pleading with the younger pirate, a deafening silence washed over Arlong Park, no one daring to make a noise, the disbelief and shock making every villager as well as Nami deathly quiet.

Said silence lasted for several long moments that seemed to just drag on, before it was finally broken. "Get up." Luffy repeated himself, his eyes narrowing as he did, showing to everyone he didn't give a damn about the fishman's pleas.

Arlong couldn't keep the expression of shock mixed with some fear off his face at that, having hoped against hope that pleading with him would have worked. Nevertheless, he did still have a bit of his ego and defiance tucked away, that when mixed with his prejudice against humans, they urged him to get to his feet and show this brat his might. That plus the fact that the one who had brought him to this point of agony was telling him to get up, had him getting off the ground and onto all fours, and then onto just his knees, as he prepared to fully climb to his feet.

As he planted one foot on the ground and one hand on the knee of that same leg, his other hand pushing against the ground to help him get up, already more than halfway to his feet, his entire body shook horribly, the pain that wracked his form enough to kill a normal man a hundred times over. Just before he could actually lift his other leg and place his second foot on the ground, he received the sole of his human enemy's sandal in his face, as he was kicked hard in the face, knocking him over on to his back onto the ground for the countless time, yelping quite loud in pain as he did.

"Get up." The raven haired teen told the blue skinned nonhuman, saying the words for the third time.

The older of the combatant's eyes were on his opponent then, glaring at the rubberman, his anger having returned as he realized the human brat was taunting him, though his fear didn't fade. "Goddamn this human scum!"

Still, in spite of the anguish he was in, he did as he was told and began trying to get up off the ground. He got on to all fours once more, as he prepared to try and force himself to his feet. Before he could leave the all fours position however, the human pirate brought his right foot up and back down again, stomping on the shark fishman's back, the force of it slamming him back into the concrete, giving it another few cracks and causing him to cough up a to capacity mouthful of blood.

Rolling over onto his back, the captain of the Arlong Pirates began to pant heavily as he splayed his arms out to his sides, having been trying to hide at least one part of his exhaustion and it finally coming out. His eyes once more found their way to the one who was putting him through such torture, his anger still present though fading, as panic and fear began to overtake him. They were doing so because of a single reason, his life was hanging in the balance. He was a hair's away from death and it was all too obvious. And that frightened him a great deal.

"Get. Up." Luffy commanded, his tone much harsher than before.

Arlong was caught between trying to continue the fight, his pride and prejudice screaming at him to do so, or refusing the human's command, his defiance and ego screaming at him to do so. Either way, he was trying his very best to bury the fear and panic he felt, refusing to allow himself to fall into a frightened hysteria because of some pathetic human brat. "I won't lose to some human filth! I refuse! I can't die here, by his hand, I won't allow it! I AM ARLONG, A MIGHTY FISHMAN!"

With those thoughts raging in his head and a sudden burst of adrenaline, he tried to lunge upward, but before he even got fully off the ground, Luffy brought his right foot down hard, stomping on his right forearm with great strength, snapping part of his arm bone completely off from the rest of it, which caused him to slam back down onto the ground, as he released a scream of agony so loud it hurt some villagers ears.

He rolled onto his side and clutched just above the break with his other hand, while he grit his teeth as hard as he could to keep from screaming any further, the signs of nasty dark black bruise forming on the nonhuman's skin, said nonhuman only able to see it because the rain was washing the blood off him, though at a rather slow rate. And while he stared at the nasty break, he didn't dare move it, as he already knew the anguish that waited him if he did.

"Get up." Luffy ordered the fishman once more.

This time however, the shark man showed no signs of complying, cradling his broken arm as he tried to keep it together, his fear and panic rising to new heights.

"I said get up!" Luffy shouted, as he stomped on the older pirate's messed up arm, eliciting a cry of agony from said pirate, as he went into a state of half convulsions from the intense pain.

Luffy watched him as he convulsed, his eyes hard, almost dark, not so much as a shred of sympathy or empathy within. He held nothing but hate for this man, nothing less.

Once the fishman was still once more, the hatless straw hat pirate prepared to continue the deadly beating, but stopped as said fishman spoke up again. "Stop, please stop, I beg of you! I give up, you win, so for fuck's sake just stop!"

Luffy didn't seem affected by his enemy's begging, nevertheless he continued to do it, in hopes that he could get out of this alive. "If you let me live, I'll leave, I promise! I'll take my men and leave this island and I won't ever come back, I swear!"

Still no affect. In fact, Luffy was preparing for another strike, and judging from the look on his face, this next one would be the last, it would be the killing blow. Horrified at this prospect, Arlong reached the peak of his desperation. "NAMI'S YOURS!" He shouted at the top of the lungs.

Those words stopped the rubber pirate in his tracks, and seeing he had caught his attention, the sawshark man continued on. "That's what this is really about, isn't it? You want her for yourself right!? Well you can have her! As one pirate captain to another, I am giving you permission to take her, she is no longer a part of my crew, she's all yours! I relinquish all rights to her, alright!? She can navigate your ship or whatever you want, I don't care! Just please, I'm begging you, show mercy!"

"Mercy?" Luffy asked aloud, his head lowered as he did, stray locks of his raven hair blocking his eyes from view. "Mercy!?" He clenched his bloody fists so tight he almost drew his own blood, as his head shot up and the look of rage on his face intensified. "You killed Bellemere, what do you know about mercy!?" Luffy cried as he drove his fist down into Arlong's face, his nose ripping through the flesh of the rubberman's hand but that not stopping or even lowering the momentum of the blow, as it crashed into his face and rammed it down into the concrete, embedding his head into it and creating nearly another two dozen more lengthy cracks in the cement. Which caused his skull to crack violently and almost collapse under the strength of the strike and for his nose to break, it bending at an awkward angle, still damaged by the impact despite having pierced the fist it was caused by.

Silence...there was no sound coming from anywhere around aside from the sound of the heavy rainfall, not even the sound of breathing, not even from Arlong. His eyes had rolled back into his head, he was completely still and his chest lacked the rise and fall that signaled that a person was still alive, in other words, he looked dead.

Luffy yanked his fist back then, tearing the jagged nose out of his hand, it causing a bit more damage to him as he did, since it was bent at an angle and all. He spared one more glare for the fishman, before turning around to face Nami and Zoro, the only two inside the compound, excluding the dead bodies and Hatchan.

That changed as Sanji and Usopp entered Arlong Park, coming over to the other three. There were no words between them, only silence...no one sure of what to say at the moment, their minds all filled with thoughts of something different.

What none of them seemed to notice was that Arlong's hand was still twitching, a moment later his eyes returned to normal as he took in a lungful of air and let it out with a gasp, which was covered by the sound of the rain, the long haired nonhuman lucking out when it came to that. His eyes shot to and fro, as he tried to calm his racing heart, which was beating so hard and fast it was like it wanted to leap out of his chest. On top of that his mind was going a million miles an hour, filled with thoughts of hate, self loathing for lowering himself and groveling before that human, reassurance that it was all he could do to stay alive so he could kill him, humiliation that he had been so utterly defeated, wrecked like some kind of nobody and questions of what had happened with his fellow fishmen, his brothers.

That's when his eyes landed on the body of Kuroobi, lying there, hanging off the edge of the concrete, his hands in the water, a trail of blood showing where he had crawled from. It was obvious that he was dead, which caused Arlong's eyes to widen considerably.

He then found his eyes on Hatchan, who looked close to half dead, it being obvious in the shark man's mind that they hadn't gotten around to finishing him yet.

No matter where he looked he couldn't find Chu, which caused his stomach to drop.

His brothers...they were being killed off one by one...and he had done nothing to stop it, could do nothing to stop it.

Finally, his eyes found Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Sanji.

They had yet to speak to each other, but stared at one and other intently. How long had they been doing so? Arlong wouldn't know, he couldn't tell seconds from minutes or hours at this point, he was nauseated, disoriented and in an incredible amount of agonizing pain, so he was fighting just to stay conscious.

As he stared at them, his thoughts wandered. "That straw hat Nami's wearing...it belongs to that brat she used to draw as a child...that punk...that's him...and he's..." And a memory he had long forgotten returned to the forefront of his mind.

A Little Over Eight Years Ago...

Fishman Island

Arlong stood at the docks, watching as his crew boarded the ship, which would take them to the East Blue. Hatchan was speaking jovially with Kuroobi and Chu about something or other, as they helped load the ship, ushering their fellow fishmen onto it as well as they did. While watching his brothers get ready for departure, he thought over everything that had happened in his life that led him to this point. His Father abandoning him, growing up in the slums, otherwise known as the Fishman District, being exposed to human bigotry, sailing with his crew, joining Fisher Tiger's crew, their adventures together, picking up the slave girl, the ambush of Foolshout island...and Tiger's death.

Then came his rage and need for revenge, which served to nearly kill him, as he came close to meeting his death at the hands of Vice Admiral Kizaru. Next came interrogation and imprisonment in Impel Down. He still wasn't entirely sure how many years he spent there, before Jimbei joined the Warlords and had him released. How enraged he was, that one of Tiger's closest companions could even dare to think about becoming a government dog, it sickened him. They came to blows over it, and as much as he hated to admit it to himself, he got his ass handed to him, showing just how strong the other fishman had become.

Despite their differences, the two went their separate ways without killing each other, which led to now, where Arlong stood as he prepared to set out.

There was one last thing though...his sister, well half sister, Sharley. A man, who claimed to be his Father, though he had no real way of telling whether that was true or not, had left her with him fifteen years ago, when he was just fifteen and she was only three. When he asked as to why she was so different from him, the man had told him that she was born to a different mother, before taking his leave.

She did not share her brother's views on humans, fishmen superiority or anything at all actually, their opinions radically differed on just about everything, so they weren't exactly close. Nevertheless, Arlong knew it would be many years before he saw her again, so in spite of the fact that they weren't on the best of terms, he decided he should see her before he left. Especially since the last time he saw her, which was about a week ago, they had a huge fight, bigger than just about every other fight they had ever had before.

Letting the others know he'd be right back, he left the docks.

As Arlong arrived at where Sharley was staying, he sighed before opening the door and entering the building. Moving through a few rooms, he came to the back, where she sat.

"Brother." She greeted.

"Sister." He returned the greeting.

Neither spoke then, content to wait for the other to speak first. This wait lasted nearly an entire minute, before Arlong sighed once more, and spoke. "My crew and I have finished preparations. I just came to say goodbye."

"I see." Sharley said, acknowledging his effort. "Thank you, I appreciate it." She said evenly, if a bit stiffly, though a hint of kindness was in there too.

"Good." He replied, before realizing he sounded a bit rude. "I mean...you're welcome."

It was a stiff, uncomfortable and somewhat awkward conversation and it had barely to begin, and yet, it was possibly their most civil conversation to date.

After a few minutes, it came time for the older of the two to leave.

As he turned to do so though, Sharley brought up the object of their giant fight a week ago. "Brother...please, heed my warning."

The blue skinned fishman nearly growled at that, turning back so as to face his younger, yet bigger, sister. "Must you bring that up!?"

"You must understand, my predictions are never wrong! You've seen the truth of this yourself!"

"Yeah well, you're wrong about this one alright!?" He shouted.

"For once, could you please listen to someone else besides yourself!? I beg of you, please, do not face him!" She implored him.

"How could you think me so weak!? I cannot lose to inferior trash like that, your vision was wrong!" He snarled at her. "Now, if you're done insulting me, I have a ship to get to!" He told her harshly, before turning to leave once more.

"Please Brother, whatever you do, you must not face that man!" She insisted, even as he exited the establishment, slamming the door closed behind him as he did.

A deathly silence hung thickly in the room, as Sharley was left alone. A dozen moments passed, before she reiterated the vision she had before, speaking as if Arlong was still there. "You will meet your end at the hands of a man wearing a straw hat. I have foreseen it. It will come to pass."

The beginnings of tears formed in her eyes, as she whispered beneath her breath, "Farewell...Brother."

Arlong's eyes were wide as wide could be, terror flooding his body as he realized this brat was the one Sharley had spoken of. "This...this isn't possible! It's been eight years, her visions never come true that long after she has them! This has got to be some kind of mistake! It just isn't fucking possible! I can't die by the hands of some human brat from the East Blue! I won't! I refuse!"

His mind was dealing with a heavy storm of thoughts, as he came to a decision that he wouldn't have if he wasn't so damn desperate. "I...have to use it..."

Reaching into his sash, he pulled out a small steel tin he had tucked away in it, which was broken into pieces, having sustained damage during the beating he took. Nevertheless, he looked inside of every piece, until he found what he was looking for...a small white pill, only it was in pieces as well. He managed to find all the pieces however and popped them in his mouth, not bothering to chew as he swallowed them all down.

"I won't let that bastard get away with this, humiliating me, bringing me so close to death, killing my brothers, he will pay for it all!" It was then that the effects of the pill kicked in, as he felt his strength return and his muscles expand a little, increasing the size of his physique a bit. He didn't feel like his normal self anymore, he felt ten times better. "It's just as that sunuva bitch said, I feel ten times more powerful than before."

From there, Arlong's eyes locked onto the one who had put him down, as he tore his head out of the concrete and climbed to his feet, everything that had occurred this day racing through his head as he did. "He barged into my domain, killed my brothers, beat me down like a dog and broke my proud nose, ordered me around, and did what all humans do, act like they're so much better than all of us fishmen! I won't stand for it! The Arlong Empire will come to fruition and fishmen will rule this world! But for it to happen, I must lead! Which means I can't die, so he must die! And he will die! Because I am mightier than him! I am superior, for I am a fishman!" The blue skinned nonhuman thought frantically and hotly.

The sound of the ground cracking and crumbling as the captain of the Arlong Pirates tore his head out of it alerted the Strawhats, as they turned to face the man.

"YOU WRETCHED HUMAN! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME, A MIGHTY FISHMAN!?" Arlong roared, as he finally stood erect, the pupils of his eyes changing into slits, making his eyes resemble those of a Sea King, popping his nose back into it's proper place as he did.

"His eyes..." Nami whispered to herself, eyes wide with shock and terror. "I've never seen them like that before."

"AHH! He looks like a freaking Sea King!" Usopp shouted fearfully.

"Damn fish should know it's time to just give up and get cooked already." Sanji remarked, annoyed by the fishman.

Zoro remained quiet, though he did move to draw his Wado. Before he could though, Luffy stopped him, holding his arm out in front of him so he couldn't move on the shark man. "Take the others outside so they don't get caught up in this."

"Right." The swordsman acknowledged the order, sheathing his blade, which he had barely begun to draw, as he ushered the others outside of the compound, where the villagers all were with Johnny and Yosaku, dragging Hatchan along with him, so he didn't get killed.

Once it was just Luffy and Arlong, minus the deceased Kuroobi of course, the two stared each other down. Between the two, the rage could almost be physically felt, as the two hated each other more than anything else in the world at that moment.

"You had my brothers killed!" Arlong near shouted in anger.

"They deserved it for what they did to Nami." Luffy responded coldly. "And you deserve the same."

"What could you possibly know!? Every member of my crew is twice your age, they've experienced things you've never even imagined! You know nothing of what they and I have been through, you have absolutely no right to judge us, you human scum!" He spat venomously.

Luffy's eyes narrowed at that. "So what? It doesn't matter what happened to you and your crew, no matter how bad it was, it still doesn't give you the right to do what you've done. You enslaved a little girl, forcing her into a life of servitude under the same people who murdered her mother before her own eyes. You took away her mother and her freedom. And for what? Because of some money? You're a true monster."

Arlong snarled at that, before reaching into his mouth and ripping his teeth out of his own head, the things coming out entirely intact. As his teeth grew back, he repeated what he had just done, using his other hand this time, yanking his teeth out so they could regrow. When they did, that left him with three sets, one in his mouth and one in each hand. "Tooth Attack!"

Luffy ignored his slight fascination with this technique, as his anger overrid it.

With that the nonhuman lashed out, using his removed sets of teeth as weapons, doing so by clenching down on them and making them bite.

"YOU FILTHY, DISGUSTING PIECE OF TRASH! YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME AND MY BROTHERS!" The fishman cried, as he tried to pierce the rubber pirate's face with the right set of teeth.

Luffy swayed to the left to avoid the attack, having to sway to the right only a moment later as his opponent tried for the same with the left set.

"YOU COME INTO MY DOMAIN, ORDER ME AROUND LIKE SOME KIND OF DOG, DEMEAN AND BELITTLE ALL I HAVE DONE AND KILL MY BROTHERS! FOR THAT YOU WILL DIE BY MY HAND!" He yelled near the top of his lungs, as he came at his enemy faster, continuously trying to nail him with his removed teeth sets.

Sway left, sway right, sidestep, dodge right, dodge left. As Luffy avoided Arlong's Tooth Attack, it became apparent the shark man wouldn't be able to get the best of him this way. So, after the teen swayed out of the way again, instead of using one of the sets of teeth he had yanked out, he shot his neck forward and tried to take a bite out him, the young pirate quick stepping backward to avoid being chomped on, nearly slipping as he did, the ground slick from the bloody rainwater.

As the older of the two combatants tried to take advantage of this, he brought both sets of his removed teeth forward to clamp down on the rubberman. Said man made of rubber jumped to avoid them, only bothering to put enough strength in his legs to get him a few feet into the air, which the long haired nonhuman tried to take advantage of as well. Shooting his head forward, he tried to take a bite of him again. The hatless straw hat pirate grabbed him by his nose and used that as his handle so he could pull himself overhead of the blue skinned pirate, avoiding the teeth still in his mouth, as he went over him and came down behind him, landing on his feet without incident, having to let go of his enemy's rigid nose to do so.

This didn't deter Arlong, as he whirled around to face the human, beginning to come at him with all three sets of teeth once more.

Sway left, sway right, duck, dodge right, dodge left, quickstep backward, jump left, stop from slipping, jump right, sidestep, jump back, jump up, stop from slipping, backstep and stop. As Luffy came to a standstill, his larger enemy shot his right arm forward, the set of teeth his hand held snapping and ready to clamp down on him.

The smaller of the two combatants swayed to the left and caught ahold of the larger one, grabbing him by his right wrist with his left hand, locking it in a tight grip so he would have to work to get it out of his grasp. From there the rubber pirate brought his right hand up and took hold of the teeth the nonhuman held, one quick jerk removing them from his possession and placing them in his younger enemy's.

As he did this though, he was left open for the other set of teeth, which the blue skinned pirate quickly brought forward to use. Before he could cross his left arm with his right arm, which would allow the left set of teeth to get at the raven haired human, said human lifted the pirate's arm at just the right moment, causing him to sink the left set of teeth into his right arm, blood drawn from each hole in his arm because of each tooth.

With that Luffy used his right arm to bat his opponent's left one away, throwing his right arm away from him with the hold he had on it. This left the fishman open to attack, capitalizing on that, the sixteen year old gripped the shark's teeth like he had, only they were wide open, not ready to bite down and shot his right arm forward, burying the set of teeth into the pirate captain's chest, drawing blood as he did.

Neither sets of teeth seemed to cause much harm to the former Sun Pirate, as he was already bringing both arms back toward the rubber human, his hands open and ready to grab hold of him, looking to choke the teen to death.

Luffy, seeing this coming, acted. He brought his right hand up and caught the shark man's left arm, while he raised his left leg and kicked out at his right, his foot slamming into the set of teeth and forcing the sharp things deeper into the fishman's flesh as well as shattering them, also knocking the arm away. The next moment, he shoved Arlong's right arm away, before shooting his fist forward and ramming it into the set of the fishman's teeth in his chest, slamming them deep into his skin before they shattered, the shards cutting him up a bit more, causing him to grunt loudly in pain, blood beginning run from the chest wound as he did.

Arlong's newfound strength combined with his rage kept him from feeling most of the pain, which was why he didn't slow after his teeth cut him up, lunging forward with his neck just in time to catch ahold of Luffy, biting into his left arm, sinking his teeth deep into the teen's elbow, so deep he had ahold of the bone, which caused the sixteen year old to let out a cry of pain.

Luffy glared daggers at Arlong, looking into his eyes as he basically gnawed on his arm, trying to do as much damage as possible. Blood was running down his arm from the wound, which was sped up as it was washed off by rain water. But the blood flow quickly increased, as Luffy wasn't content with getting his arm ripped off, which it very well could if he wasn't careful, so he used the fishman's hold on his arm to his advantage, using his monstrous strength he proceeded to lift the larger pirate completely off the ground, bringing him overhead to the other side, before driving him down hard into the concrete, causing it to violently crack in several directions as the large body was embedded down into it. That combined with the previous damage this area of the ground had received from Arlong's beatdown, caused it to noticeable sink, becoming quite unstable as it was now several inches lower than the rest of Arlong Park.

Neither combatant seemed to care, as Arlong still had his teeth clamped down tight on the rubberman's left arm, while Luffy stood slightly crouched over the downed fishman, not worried in the slightest about the fact that he had just worsened the wound caused by the bite.

Seeing as the sawshark man still had ahold of his left arm, Luffy raised his right arm before bringing it down with great force, ramming his fist into the older pirate's chest, the impact of the blow causing the unstable part of the ground to shake somewhat, sinking a bit more because of the impact of flesh against flesh against concrete.

At this point Arlong was biting down so hard that his teeth began to crack, as he fought to keep his hold on his opponent's arm.

Luffy brought his arm back and shot it downward once more, slamming it down into the fishman's chest, the might behind the blow proving to be too much for both Arlong and the concrete below him, as his teeth popped out of his head and he coughed up blood, the ground beneath him finally gave way and broke off, falling down into the ocean, hitting the water and making quite a large splash.

As that near ten foot hunk of concrete sunk into the ocean, taking Arlong with it and causing blood to cover the surface of where he went under, Luffy stood up, having been just an inch from going down with it. He was panting a little, as he removed the set of his opponent's teeth that was buried in his left arm, all but yanking them out. More blood flowed down his arm as a result, not that he seemed to care, or even notice, as he took the bloody teeth and tossed them into the ocean.

It wasn't over, Luffy was aware of that, as he stood stock still, his eyes trained on the exact spot his opponent had submerged at. He was dealing with a fishman, water was their natural element after all.

Several moments passed as he waited, which allowed the rain to wash whatever blood that was still on him off, with the exception of the blood coming from his bite wound of course, as it continued to bleed.

Then Arlong came flying out of the water, completely free of blood and his teeth regrown, his arms at his sides and his body upward at an angle. His body moved with great momentum as it barely missed it's target, the young pirate who lept to the side to avoid being hit. "Shark Darts!"

He continued until he was nearly two dozen feet in the air, quickly coming back down because of a thing called gravity. Using that to his advantage, he turned himself around so he was facing downward, toward his opponent once again. "Shark Darts!"

With that he was racing down towards his target, and said target, seeing this coming, quickly threw himself backward, hitting the slick ground and sliding near a dozen feet before coming to a stop, nearly ramming into the walls near the gateless entrance as he did. It did the job of getting him out of harms way though, as when the fishman hit the concrete, nose first, the impact sent cracks of ten inch length in every direction, the point of contact giving a bit as well as breaking, as the nonhuman's nose tore through the cement and punctured through to the bottom. Once he removed his smelling appendage, there would be a hole that if you looked into, you could see the ocean.

Nearly slamming his head into the wall of Arlong Park near the gateless entrance wasn't ideal, but throwing himself back had prevented him from being impaled by that nose of the blue skinned man's, which was what had mattered at the moment. Then again it wouldn't have really done any damage, seeing as he was made of rubber, not that he was thinking about that as he got back to his feet, so as to not leave himself vulnerable.

Ripping his nose out of the ground, Arlong retrained his sights on Luffy, before using his hands and feet to push and kick himself off the ground and toward the young pirate, coming darting straight at him. "Shark Darts!"

Knowing it was best if he didn't get hit, the dark haired teen took a quick step forward and threw himself to the ground, breaking into a combat roll as he did, which allowed him to evade the attack while also putting him on his feet once more once the maneuver was complete. It had been risky, as he could have slipped, but he didn't need to worry about blunt force injuries or anything like a twisted ankle, thanks to his devil fruit ability, so it wasn't that bad of a call.

Missing his target for the third time, the captain of the Arlong Pirates rammed into the wall near the entrance to his compound, his nose embedding itself to the hilt inside it, sending numerous cracks along it. Recovering from his failed attack quickly, he heaved backward, removing his saw nose from the stone and using all four limbs to throw himself off of it and back toward his enemy, causing parts of it to break in the process, crumbling to the ground and damaging the wall greatly. "Shark Darts!"

Just as the rubberman turned around, his opponent was bounding toward him once again, which gave him very little time to dodge. He managed it anyway, as he jumped over the larger pirate, using enough strength to put him a good ten feet in the air, allowing the nonhuman to pass under him harmlessly, his momentum dying down after a few more moments and causing him to fall into the ocean once more.

Once Luffy landed back on his feet, he came over to where the concrete had broken off from, looking down into the ocean, intent on catching a glimpse of his opponent, who he knew would be coming back any moment.

Exactly as the the young pirate predicted, Arlong came shooting out of the water soon after, coming up with a cry of, "Shark Darts!"

Prepared for this, Luffy grabbed his right hand's fingers with his left hand and proceeded to stretch them out several inches in front of his face. "I'm ready for you this time bastard! Gum Gum Shield!"

Arlong collided with Luffy, his nose passing through the space of one of his stretched fingers and coming so close to piercing his face that there was merely an inch of distance between the sharp appendage and the rubberman's flesh. But while the young man did stop himself from getting skewered by that nose, he wasn't able to stop all the momentum his enemy had built up, which was so great that he was taken right off his feet when they collided, soaring upward to nearly fourty feet above Arlong Park, his fingers stretched over the fishman's face at that point.

Undeterred by this development, Luffy adapted, entwining his unstretched fingers with his stretched ones before stretching them both out to a much greater degree, making sure to keep ahold of Arlong by his nose as he did, since he had to pull his arms back and therefor the fishman. His fingers stretched several feet, entwining with one and other all the while, until when he was done stretching, his ten fingers had formed a net, which the blue skinned fishman was now trapped in. "Gum Gum Finger Net!"

From there, Luffy bent back before throwing himself forward along with his finger net, sending Arlong plummeting down toward the ground with a single heave. And when he hit, he did it hard, slamming down with a loud wet smack, sending dozens of cracks throughout the ground, also causing it to give as his body embedded itself somewhat into the concrete. It also caused him to yelp in pain, as a bit of blood flew out of his mouth.

Not done, Luffy put his feet together, bending his knees as he did, and shot them down toward the older combatant, stretching them to allow them to reach him. "Gum Gum Spear!" His feet rammed down into the sawshark man's gut, causing him to spit up some blood and for the ground to crack some more from the impact, as well as pushing his body a bit deeper into the cement.

Still not finished, the rubber teen shot his arms down, his fingers having already returned to normal size and to their normal non-entwined positions, and grabbed ahold of his opponent's arms. From there he snapped towards his arms, sending him hurtling head first down toward the sharp teeth having individual. "Gum Gum Rocket!" He crashed into the fishman head first, ramming his head into the nonhuman's solar plexus, causing him to hack up a large mouthful of blood and to gasp in pain since the air was knocked out of him, while the impact drove him even deeper into the concrete, riddled it with even more large cracks and caused that part of the ground to shake, becoming unstable from all the abuse it's taken, sinking a little as it did.

Luffy pulled himself off of the shark fishman, but didn't bother to give him a moment to pull himself together, as he kicked him hard in the side, cracking some of his ribs and knocking him over so his face was against the ground, which muffled his loud groan of pain. Then the young pirate captain backed up, taking several steps back so as to put space between him and the shark.

This allowed Arlong to work himself to his feet without interference, which meant he was able to get back to his feet in only a few moments. He did pause once he was on all fours though, his head over the water, just staring down at it for a few moments, thoughts running wild in his mind. These few moments allowed him to clear his mind however, and while that didn't take him out of the berserker mode he seemed to be in, what with those slitted eyes of his, it did allow him to calm down a little. Snapping out of it, he got up.

Once he was on his feet, he turned to face his human enemy, to see him holding his fists up in a fighting stance, showing he was ready to continue, the fierceness in his eyes not having faded even a bit. "Look at you, so sure you're the one winning. That's one of you humans biggest faults, your arrogance blinds you to the truth. You think this is a fight? This is no fight. I am a fishman, my strength, resilience, speed and skill far outmatch yours. To battle you would only be a waste of my time. I would crush you!" Arlong claimed with the utmost certainty.

Luffy didn't seem the slightest bit fazed, not so much as blinking at that claim. "Don't believe me?" He questioned with a bite, but did not recieve an answer.

"I'll prove it to you." With that said, Arlong brought his right arm back, which was covered in rain water, his palm open. He kept it there, as he continued to speak, "You see, I don't even have to lay a finger on you. You humans are so fragile that I can kill you just by playing around with a little water. That's the difference between you and me. Now here, see for yourself!"

With that Arlong shot his right arm forward, looking like he was swatting at something. In doing so, using the massive strength that he attained thanks to the drug he took, he sent all the water droplets that had been on his arm soaring toward Luffy, which quickly converted into deadly arrows though mere kinetic force. "Shark Arrows!"

Luffy's eyes widened as he realized he had no time to dodge, crossing his arms in an x in front of his face, to protect his head from the damage to come. Just as he did, the water arrows hit, a dozen of them drilling into his body, six into his torso, four into his legs and two into his arms, the water ripping and tearing through his flesh until they emerged out the other side of him, where they returned to their original forms and hit the ground. The rest of the water shots that had been sent flying had all hit the building behind the rubberman, piercing through the stone and riddling the pride and joy of Arlong Park, the tower, with holes.

Despite the twelve holes in his body, all of which had blood flowing from them, running down his clothes and skin, Luffy was still on his feet. And as he lowered his arms, he made eye contact with the sawshark man, a scowl on his face as he did. In spite of the pain that wracked his body from that attack, the young pirate had refused to voice it, not giving his opponent the satisfaction. However, as he tried to take a step forward, blood spurt from his mouth and he lost stability, nearly collapsing face first into the ground, the teen catching himself before he could, his hands slamming into the concrete to prevent it, his knees following suit, all of them embedding themselves a few inches into the cement as they did, creating even more cracks in it.

Down on all fours, his face adjacent to the blood he had just spat up, the young man looked like he was bowing or groveling, which made Arlong sneer wickedly. "You see, this outcome was predetermined. We fishmen have been on an entirely different level than you pathetic humans since the beginning of time. You are inferior, it only makes sense for you to bow before us. You're so weak, your presence on this planet is deplorable. Don't you think your time on this planet has come to an end?" He questioned rhetorically, quite smug as he did.

"No, I don't." The young man answered bluntly. "My time on this planet has only just begun you see, because I...I am the man who'll be King of the Pirates!" He proclaimed with absolute conviction.

"Ahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" The fishman laughed. "Don't be foolish, a puny human like you couldn't possibly conquer the Grand Line." He stated as if fact.

Luffy didn't respond this time, as he tried to get to his feet, going for the right one first only to almost slip before he could try the other one. This put him on one knee, with his other leg stretched out against the ground, only the left side actually against it.

Seeing this caused the blue skinned nonhuman to begin laughing once more. "Ahahahahahahahaha! Look at you human, you can't even get to your feet! Ahahahahahahahaha!"

The ground was covered in bloodied rain water, not all of it streaming down to the water gate and into the ocean. This made the ground very slick, which was why, injured as he was, the teenage pirate was having difficulty getting his footing. Nevertheless, he wasn't deterred, as he took a few deep breaths, before forcing himself to his left foot, using his hands to force himself up, sliding his right leg back over to him as he righted it, breaking into an impromptu run as he did.

Overconfident in his abilities, Arlong made no move to stop his enemy.

Even though it was only ten feet to the sawshark man, Luffy didn't hold back very much on his leg strength, near embedding his feet into the ground with every time they made contact with it. He nearly lost his footing halfway there, slipping and having to catch himself, so as to prevent himself from falling to the ground. He did so successfully, continuing his short dash towards his opponent, cocking his right arm back as he neared him. Finally close enough, he lunged forward, shooting his right arm forward as he did.

Arlong brought his webbed hand down and attempted to catch the fist, grinning a large shark grin as he did. Only, when the fist made contact with his palm, instead of it stopping the punch, the momentum behind the attack drove his own hand back and into his gut with tremendous force, causing him to nearly double over as he hocked up a large mouthful of blood.

Not stopping there, Luffy pulled his fist back, as he stepped past the long haired fishman, before turning and grabbing him by the back of his head. From there, he proceeded to force him downward, ramming him face first into the ground, burying his nose in the concrete and making the ground even more unstable, it shaking a bit as it sunk a few more inches, and then of course there were the dozen new cracks from the impact of the fishman's face against the cement.

Stumbling back, the hatless straw hat pirate almost fell into the ocean, having to stop himself from doing so and right his position, placing both feet firmly back on the ground. Once steady, he moved forward toward his opponent, who was already on his knees, having torn his nose out of the ground and began getting up a moment ago, and kicked him hard in the back, knocking him back to the ground and causing him the slide forward several feet.

That done, Luffy took a few steps back, as he shot his right arm back, his fist sideways as he stretched out his arm. And as he stretched out his arm, he broke into a run, heading straight for his fish like enemy, who was on all fours, facing the rubber teen.

His arm lengthened to a good twenty feet before stopping, though even as it did, he didn't, rushing toward the captain of the Arlong Pirates. Only a moment from reaching him, he snapped his arm back, causing it to come careening toward the long nosed shark. Both Luffy and his fist reached him at the same time, the sawshark on his knees, the rubberman's fist slamming into the fishman's chest with great force. "Gum Gum Bullet!" The strong blow caused blood to fly from his mouth as he was knocked straight back into the tower of Arlong Park, breaking through the wall and hitting the floor of the first floor.

Shortly after, Arlong emerged from the building, breaking a bit more of the stone wall of the first floor as he did. And when he came out, he was a wielding a large black saw like blade. It looked very dangerous, not to mention it was as big as the fishman himself. "I've had enough!"

"The Saw Blade!" Nami gasped upon seeing it.

"YOU FUCKING HUMAN TRASH! I WILL END YOU WITH THIS BLADE!" With that exclamation, Arlong lunged forward with a mighty swing.

In an effort to avoid being cleaved in half, Luffy threw himself to the right, hitting the ground and rolling to cover more distance, stopping at the wall on the right side of the entrance before standing.

Undettered, the sawshark fishman broke into a spin with the sword, the blunt side of it leading the way, as he lept over to his opponent, moving much more gracefully than one would expect him to.

He fell short of reaching the younger combatant, though that turned our to be on purpose, as he came to a stop and righted his position, before coming at the teen with another mighty swing. Which he ducked under, saving himself as the stone wall was sliced in half, though not cleanly, jagged marks and extra broken stone very much present as it happened.

Almost all of the villagers let out frightened gasps as the Saw Blade nearly came at them as well.

Pulling back, the jagged nosed fishman brought the blade upward before bringing it down, aiming to cut this rubber pest in half. Said rubber being avoided being hit however, as he tumbled between the nonhuman's legs, which caused the Saw Blade to carve into the ground, sending cracks all along the cement. Even more were created as the thirty something year old yanked the saw blades of the sword out of the ground, which had embedded themselves somewhat.

Coming out behind the enraged shark didn't grant the pirate teen more than a second of time, as he whirled around swinging, which forced the sixteen year old to jump over the weapon to evade any damage. The blade cut right through the other stone wall by the gateless entrance, what was left of it after Arlong had collided with it earlier anyway.

For the second time, the sawshark fishman brought the blade over head and brought it down, still trying to cut up the other combatant. Just like the other times though, the young pirate captain dodged, having landed back on the ground before the blade could get him and jumping to his right to avoid it again. It's saw like blades embedded themselves in the concrete once more, sending cracks all along it as they did. And just as before, when they were ripped out of the ground, it simply damaged it more, creating more cracks in the hard material.

Having avoided the large blade once again, Luffy took a couple of quick steps back, just in case his enemy came at him again and got farther than he was supposed to.

Unlike the last few times, when Arlong turned to face his younger opponent, he didn't go straight for him. Instead, he took hold of his blade with both hands, locking his hold on the grip tight, before placing it directly in front of him, holding it straight upward as he did. "You won't survive this next attack human!" With that statement, he kicked off the ground as he leaned forward, sending himself shooting forward toward the raven haired teenager, looking like he was using Shark Darts. However, unlike Shark Darts, he began spinning mid-air, revolving faster and faster every nano second, until he was whirling around so fast that the sound of the blades of his sword going against the wind sounded like a buzzsaw. "Shark Shredder!" With the blades facing outward, this technique turned Arlong into a faux living buzzsaw, looking like one to.

Upon seeing this darting at him, Luffy's eyes widened considerably, before his body kicked into action. Just as it reached him, the young man leaned back, placing his hands against the ground as he did to keep himself stable, and got as low down to the ground as he could like that. And while it did allow him to avoid the brunt of the attack, the spinning blades of the Saw Blade were still able to reach him enough to give him several slash marks across his body, a few on his legs and a few on his abdomen, tearing up his vest some, cut marks in addition to holes from that water arrow attack in it.

Once the shark man had fully passed over him, the rubberman stood back up, before turning to face the still spinning nonhuman, jumping back several feet as he did. "That was close." He remarked to himself.

As Arlong came to a stop, his spinning ending as he landed on his feet at the edge of where the concrete had broken off from Arlong Park and fallen into the ocean, he turned to face his rubber enemy, scowling as he did. "You must be the luckiest sunuva bitch in the East Blue! No matter though, this time I will hit my mark, don't doubt that you human scum!" With that said, he performed the attack once more, shooting toward the human combatant, spinning like crazy as he did. "Shark Shredder!"

Luffy prepared to dodge, but just before he did, he realized where he as standing. Turning his head so he could see behind him, Nami, Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, Johnny, Yosaku, Nojiko, Genzo, Nako and the rest of the villagers were right there. If he moved, it would be them that met their end. Even if Zoro could stop the attack, which he had a chance of being able to do, it was too big a risk, especially since there would be casualties whether the swordsman could stop it or not, and the chance that one of those casualties could be one of his friends, or heaven forbid, Nami or even Zoro himself since he would try and take the damage to protect everyone... "No, I refuse to take that chance."

His choice made, Luffy turned his head back to stare at the oncoming fishman buzzsaw, only moments away from colliding with him. Taking a step forward, he threw his arms out in front of him as he met the whirling shark, his hands finding his shoulders and latching onto them tight, the blades of the Saw Blade ripping into him as he did, tearing up his vest and shorts, as well as his torso, legs and arms, carving deep gashes into his body with every passing moment. His teeth grit, he hissed in pain as he stood there and endured, blood flying everywhere, splashing onto the ground all around him as well as just a bit of it landing in front of the ones he was trying to protect.

"Luffy! NO!" Nojiko screamed, shocked and frightened by what she was seeing.

"BIG BRO LUFFY!" Johnny and Yosaku yelled, nearing tears as they did.

"LUFFY!" Usopp and Sanji shouted, worried greatly for their friend and captain.

"LUFFY!" Zoro exclaimed, his concern flowing off him in waves.

"LUFFY!" Nami cried, her eyes as wide as could be, horrified by the sight before her.

Luffy held tight to Arong's shoulders even as the pain turned to agony, and in doing so, he was rewarded as he eventually forced the fishman to stop spinning, rendering him nowhere near as dangerous as before.

Arlong's eyes were very wide in shock and disbelief, completely taken off guard by this, never having thought anyone capable of taking this attack head on. Before he could comprehend this, or digest it, hell, before his feet even touched the ground, Luffy let go of his right shoulder and brought his right arm back and proceeded to shoot it forward, ramming his fist into the sawshark fishman's face, the strength behind the blow sending him flying two dozen feet back, knocking him into the ocean once more.

Blood covered Luffy's body as he slumped forward, nearly falling face first onto the ground, managing to catch himself before he did and force himself to stand back up. He was covered in wounds that all bled profusely, but he had no time for pain or rest, this battle wasn't over yet. So, he walked forward, moving to the middle of Arlong Park.

Not long after, Arlong jumped out of the ocean, landing firmly on his feet on the concrete, the Saw Blade still firmly in his grasp. His slitted eyes were now severely bloodshot, as his grip on sanity became very loose, his rage at it's peak, he had lost it. "YOU!" He cried. "I REFUSE TO LET YOU MAKE A FOOL OUT OF ME ANY FURTHER! I WILL TEAR YOU APART! I WILL KILL YOU! YOU HEAR ME!? YOU WILL DIE!" With that, he lunged forward, bringing the Saw Blade overhead and downward as he did.

Dodging to the side, the rubberman thought he would have at least a moment of reprieve so he could prepare to evade further. However, that wasn't the case. For as soon as his feet touched the ground, Arlong had turned and flipped forward, bringing the saw blade overhead with him. Jumping onto the second floor, that should have given him at least half a second, and yet it did not, as Arlong brought the blade up at him, flipping upward as he did. So the sixteen year old lept to third floor, only for the sawshark to continue his pursuit restlessly, coming up as well. To the fourth floor the young man went and to the fourth floor did the fishman follow. Finally they reached the fifth and final floor, and as Arlong came up at him, Luffy was left with no choice but to throw himself through the window, having to go inside to avoid being skewered by those saw liked blades.

And as Arlong climbed through the now broken window, all the villagers were left to marvel at all the damage he had done to his tower and his already unstable ground outside in his chasing of the rubber sixteen year old.

Once inside the tower, Arlong located his opponent.

Luffy sat on the floor, his eyes wandering about the room, which was filled with maps, charts and books. A globe, desk and bookshelves littered the room. There were writing utensils, protractors and a bunch of other stuff the young man didn't know the name of as well. His eyes continued to wander, even as Arlong leveled the Saw Blade against him, all but resting it on his left shoulder, his head between two of the saw like blades of the sword. "There's nowhere else to run. You and me, here, in the highest level of Arlong Park. At last, the time of your death has come." His rage was still present, but he had lulled himself into a sense of superiority and dominance once again, so was calmer.

"This room..." Luffy muttered to himself, as he figured out who it belonged to.

"This isn't just any room, this is the room where I make Nami draw all of my sea charts for me." Arlong explained. "These sea charts are what she's worked on all these years. Just look around you, these maps are more valuable than any amount of treasure. You see, to us fishman collecting data about the ocean is a simple affair. But assembling that raw information into a useful chart is a difficult task. That's why we needed a surveyor. In fact that is the sole reason I am so keen on keeping that woman in my possession. She is absolutely brilliant. The accuracy of her charts is beyond comparison. She's too good for human trash like you. Her talent should be used solely for building up the might of the Arlong Empire!" He lifted his hands as he said this, taking the blade away from his opponent as he gestured to what was around him.

Luffy didn't respond, though his scowl did grow deeper, his eyes darkening and hardening.

"Now listen, Nami belongs to me. And you're interfering in our business, you human scum. She's not your anything, your lover, your friend or your navigator, she is mine!" Arlong proclaimed egotistically.

"Nami is my navigator." Luffy stated matter of factly, his voice low and dangerous.

"You really want her to navigate for a pathetic excuse for a captain like you? I guess you truly have no idea what a monumental waste of talent that would be. Look, there is no one else on the face of the planet that can draw sea charts with such accuracy and efficiency. That young lady has a gift. And there really isn't anything as ultimately regrettable as wasting natural talent. Staying here and drawing up sea charts for me is her only chance at living up to her full potential. In order for me to obtain world supremacy, her sea charts are absolutely vital. She will continue drawing her sea charts for my own ambitions. And once her charts give me full knowledge of all the worlds oceans, we fishmen will be totally invincible, and the world, shall kneel before us. The first step is this island, and then we'll move onto the whole East Blue."

As Arlong began to monologue, the sound of something hitting the floor caught Luffy's attention. His eyes wandered over to the object, as it rolled toward him, said object in question turning out to be a blood stained pen. Knowing it was Nami's, the young man felt a pull from the pen, so he picked it up. He brought it up close, so as to examine it, in doing so all sound fell away, as he blocked it out. "This pen...is stained in blood." He said ever so faintly, as if just realizing who's blood it was.

Something happened then, as he lifted his eyes from the pen to the desk it had rolled off of, he saw a ghostly image, that as he focused, became clearer.

An eight year old Nami sat at her desk, using her pen to draw something.

Arlong approached her from behind without her knowledge, and as he came to stand behind her, looking over her at what she was doing, he became angered. He yanked the piece of paper off the desk, presenting it to her as if she didn't know what she had been drawing, as he reprimanded her. "What the hell is this!? You're supposed to be drawing a chart! Is this what you do in secret!? Draw these pieces of trash!?"

Tears building in her eyes, Nami reached for the drawing, only to have it pulled out of her grasp. "Please give it back!"

The fishman promptly tore it in half then, letting the pieces fall to the ground. And as the young girl began to cry, he grabbed her by the back of the head and proceeded to ram her head into her desk, busting her head open, causing blood to begin flowing down her face and onto the wooden desk, as well as causing her to scream in pain.

Yanking her back by her hair, he wiped the blood off the desk and placed another piece of chart paper down. Then he grabbed her right hand and forced her to take a tight grip on her pen, so tight in fact that her hand began to bleed. He forced her to put the pen to paper, as he near shouted at her. "You are to draw maps and charts! Not stupid pictures! If I catch you drawing another one, I'll take you to the village and let you choose who'll take the punishment in your place! And I promise you, they won't survive! And when I run out of them, I'll hunt down this boy in the picture and kill him too! Now get to work!" With that he let go, turned around and left the room, slamming the door shut behind him as he did.

Nami cried her eyes out, as she did as she was told, drawing through hazy vision and pain, not even bothering to clean the blood off her face or hand, knowing it would only get her into further trouble.

It would be a long time before Luffy understood how he saw this, but right now, all he could focus on was what he had seen, not how he saw it. His rage was at an all time high, he had only ever been this angry once before, and that was the Bluejam incident. And yet, he didn't act, he bottled it up, not wanting to let it out yet. He would choose when it came out, and it wasn't time yet. But it would come out, and when it did...

"Now do you understand!? You could never use her like me, she would be wasted on you!" Arlong's voice rang in his ears, the sound of it reaching him once more. With that, the sawshark fishman leveled the blade at the rubberman once more, his head between two of the blades, just centimeters from touching his flesh.

Luffy dropped the pen back to the ground, before using the now empty hand to grab ahold of one of the saw like blades of the Saw Blade, more specifically the one that was at his throat, as he lowered his head so he was looking at the ground.

"She has her place and it's here beside me. Can't you understand that? I can give her everything she needs. And the only thing she has to do is continue drawing those marvelous charts for me. So Nami will forever be my tool, no my property, she is mine, I will own her for eternity! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

That was it, Luffy had finally had enough. As Arlong tried to pull the Saw Blade back so he could render his opponent's head from his shoulders, he found that he couldn't. He pulled and pulled but it just wouldn't budge, even as he used his maximum strength. So he looked down at the problem, to see the younger pirate had a hold on the middle blade and was keeping it from being moved.

"Tool!? Property!? OWN HER!? Just what the fuck do you take her for!?" Luffy questioned, his grip becoming so tight on the blade that it shattered into dozens of pieces, his head shooting up so he could make eye contact with his enemy as it did. And as he did, Arlong saw a look of pure fury on the young man's face, one that he had never worn before. Even more than that, a red glow emanated from the center of each of his pupils, said glow fading only a moment later but sending a terrifying shiver down Arlong's spine regardless.

"Tha-that was Conqueror's Haki!" The fishman thought with incredulity, as he stumbled back with Saw Blade in-hand.

As Luffy stood up, his arms from elbow on down slowly turned pitch black, beginning at his fingertips and stretching on up, until it coated the entire bottom half of his arms. "YOU DO NOT OWN HER!" He cried, as he rammed his fist into Arlong's gut with such force, that it caused him to double over and vomit blood, dropping his Saw Blade to the ground as he did. "That's Armament Haki! Ho-how the hell is this possible!? How could some no name human brat from the East Blue possess Haki!?" He wondered to himself frantically and fearfully, completely disbelieving of what was happening.

"She's not some property to be owned! She isn't a tool to be used and thrown away either!" Luffy stated, as he brought his right arm up and back down again, ramming his elbow into the back of Arlong's neck, sending him face first to the floor, hard, cracking the stone from the force of the impact. The blow also had the fishman spitting up blood.

"She's a living, breathing person! She is my friend and she's special to me!" He continued, as he brought his left foot up and then down, stomping on the shark man's back with great strength, the impact causing the blue skinned nonhuman to arch his back to a severe degree, as he coughed up some more blood, the force of the attack badly fracturing all of his ribs. A gasp of pain also forced it's way out of his esophagus because of the pain.

"She is my navigator! And I won't let you take her from me!" Luffy proclaimed, before using his right foot to stomp on the sawshark's head, driving his face into the floor and his nose through the stone, sending cracks along the entire thing in the process.

With Arlong down, Luffy turned his attention to his surroundings, his fury not even close to being doused. This room, this entire compound, it sickened him, he wanted it all gone, it had to disappear, so Nami would never have to see any of it ever again.

So he acted. He stepped up to a long wooden table, nearly a hundred charts sitting atop of it. Grabbing it with both hands, he cracked the wood with his grip before flipping the construct over against the stone wall, the force of the the throw causing the table to break right through and go falling to the ground outside, where it would surely shatter.

Turning his attention to the bookshelves, he went to the end of the row of them, before shoving the one at the end forward into the others, knocking one over, which in turned knocked another over and continued until they all toppled over, the one at the end of the line breaking through the stone wall, beginning to hang halfway out the building, teetering on the edge, close to falling out. The rubberman leaned down then and shoved the first fallen bookshelf into the others, the might behind that single heave caused that bookshelf to knock all the other ones out of the building, where they went plummeting to the ground outside, that single bookshelf sliding out after them.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing!?" Arlong shouted, after having pulled his nose out of the stone and his face off the floor.

Ignoring him completely, the young man came to another two long tables then, both stacked high with maps and sea charts. Lifting them with one hand each, he tossed them, sending them through the stone walls and racing toward the cement outside, where they would slam down and break into several pieces each.

On his knees now, Arlong grabbed hold of the Saw Blade and forced himself to his feet. "Goddamn you! That's eight years worth of work, eight years of planning and ambition!" He screamed with rage, as he charged the smaller combatant and used all his strength for the mightiest slash he could summon.

To the fishman's complete and utter shock and horror however, Luffy, who turned to face him, caught the Saw Blade effortlessly with his left hand, killing the momentum of the swing instantly, the fire in his eyes at the point of all consuming. "For Nami all this place represents is eight years worth of pain and suffering, this place is her own personal hell! So I'm going tear it all down!" With a single squeeze of his left hand, the young pirate captain tightened his grip to such a degree, that the Saw Blade broke in half, which caused the fishman who wielded it to stumble back in surprise.

Having no need for it, Luffy tossed the half of the Saw Blade he held out one of the windows, shattering it in doing so. The next moment, he had closed the distance between him and the shark, shooting his knee up and ramming it into the larger pirate's abdomen, causing him to hunch over and hock up some blood. From there he slammed his other knee into the long haired fishman's jaw, fracturing it and knocking him back onto the floor, on to his back, the blue skinned man losing hold of what was left of the Saw Blade as he did.

Stepping over him, the sixteen year old delivered a single, swift blow to the nonhuman's face, sending many cracks alongside the left side of his skull from the impact of the Haki coated punch. With that, Arlong looked out of it, his eyes rolled back into his head once more, blood actually seeming to come out of his left eye because of the powerful attack.

His attention shifted to Nami's accursed desk then, walking over to it, but not bothering to turn and face it. Shooting his right leg out without stretching it, he kicked it hard, sending it through the stone wall and crashing to the concrete ground below, where it shattered into pieces, the papers that were inside of it scattering to the wind.

Somehow, despite not looking at him, Luffy just knew Arlong was conscious, struggling to get to his feet behind him. He could just sense it. "Nami hates and fears you...so-" Whirling to face the fishman, their eyes met, as the young man finished his proclamation."I will destroy you and everything else in this world like you!" He almost looked like a demon, what with that terrifyingly furious expression on his face.

Luffy kicked his right leg up then, it stretching to reach it's target, as it punched through the roof, creating a decent sized hole in the stone. "Gum Gum Volcano!" His leg snapped back to him then, returning to it's original length. From there, he kicked off the ground, launching himself upward, where he went through the hole in the ceiling and went soaring high into the air.

Arlong, who was on his knees at that point, snarled in rage, his slitted eyes almost consumed in red from how bloodshot they were. "I...I-I WON'T LET THIS HAPPEN! HAKI OR NO HAKI, THIS BRAT WILL NOT STOP THE ARLONG EMPIRE FROM BEING BORN! FISHMAN WILL REIGN SUPREME!" Forcing himself to his feet in spite of the pain, he moved forward to where he was just under the hole in the roof. Looking up, there he saw the rubber pirate, high in the air. "WE FINISH THIS NOW, YOU HUMAN SCUM!" He cried.

Opening his mouth as wide as he possibly could, his body began to spin wildly and violently, as if he was performing Shark Shredder again. Before he used all his strength to kick off the ground and go shooting upward toward his younger opponent. "SHARK TOOTH DRILL!"

Luffy was nearly twenty feet above Arlong Park Tower, adjacent to the ground, as Arlong came shooting up at him. He punched forward with his right arm, then his left, then his right, then his left, his speed increasing with each punch as well as the length he stretched it to, even though they only hit air. That quickly changed, as Arlong got too close, Luffy smashed his face in with a strong right, shattering his nose and making it bend and crinkle at an awkward angle, also knocking him to where his back was facing toward the ground.

A second blow followed afterward, his left fist slamming into the shark man's chest, a third to the solar plexus, a fourth to the shoulder, a fifth to the gut. It was at that point that Luffy began throwing blows so fast that his arms almost became a blur, anyone skilled enough to keep up with his punches would see it as if he had a lot more than two arms, that was how much speed he had built up. "GUM GUM GATLING!" He cried, as he began to unleash his fury through a barrage of fists, all of which crashed into the fishman with all the young pirate's might behind each and every single one.

Arlong was bombarded with a storm of blows, all of which shattered bones and ruptured internal organs, the things coming so fast he didn't even have enough time to wail in the agony that was wracking his body. Said agony only increased, as the brutal assault continuously forced him downward at an ever increasing speed, until he slammed into the roof of Arlong Park Tower, where he busted through it to the fifth floor. Not more than a second and a few punches later, and he was breaking through the fifth floor and slamming down into the fourth floor, the stone of that floor all crumbling down to the lower level. From there the onslaught of fists drove him through the fourth floor to the third, then to the second, continuing until he lie against the concrete ground after breaking through the stone floor of the lowest level of the tower.

By the time his body smacked against the concrete, Arlong was barely conscious, hell, he was barely even alive. His skull had been caved in, his brain was hemorrhaging, his ribs had been shattered and were piercing several of his vital organs, causing internal bleeding, and just about every organ in his body had been ruptured, not to mention that, if one could see it, his skeleton from the waist up looked like nothing more than shattered glass.

Even still, Luffy persisted, his blood still boiling with fury. As he continued, each blow rammed Arlong into the concrete harder, creating more and more cracks every passing second, as well as forcing his body down into the ground, embedding it in the cement. And with each strike, the foundation of Arlong Park began to shake, becoming unstable from all the abuse it had taken today.

It only worsened, as Luffy fists eventually hit so hard, they began to rip into Arlong, forcing their way through his flesh, into his body and out the other side, where they met the concrete and damaged it further. As the sawshark fishman's torso began to be riddled with fist sized holes, that bled profusely, it didn't matter that he was in so much agony he couldn't speak, or that he couldn't breathe because his lungs had been punctured by his ribs, a blood curdling scream of anguish was still ripped from his throat because of all the intense pain.

This scream lasted for what seemed like forever, until Luffy's right fist rammed into Arlong's face and tore through it, the pitch black fist bursting out the back of his head covered in blood, as brain matter and bits of bone splattered on the ground, along with more of the red life liquid as well, finally silencing the fishman. And with that, his life came to an end. Arlong was finally dead.

Luffy let out a cry of triumph, as the presence he felt, that he knew was Arlong, disappeared. And even though that was the case, the gatling continued for several more moments, until the foundation of Arlong Park groaned loudly, before collapsing in on itself, the tower as well as the entire concrete ground caving in, the entire compound creaking as it broke apart and fell into the ocean, making a gigantic splash as it did. With Arlong Park completely destroyed, Luffy's triumphant cry came to an end, just as his gatling did. His arms snapped back to him, returning to their original length, as gravity finally overpowered him and brought him plummeting to the Earth.

As he fell, the rain finally subsided, the sun beginning to peak through the gray clouds, a few rays managing to reach the villagers of Cocoyashi, shining down on them.

Despite the fact that he was heading straight for the ocean, Luffy did nothing to try and save himself, as he felt everything melt away, even his burning fury, his eyes drooping as blood loss began to catch up with him. "Nami..." He mumbled to himself, before hitting the water with a splash.

Luffy vs Arlong

Winner: Luffy

To Be Continued...