It looks no different from in the old days… Everything's just a step away from collapsing… both the buildings and the people.
Arlong was now swimming down a street of the Fish-Man District. It was a stark contrast to even the poorest and darkest areas of the main island.
There was less light here because of the shade of the giant ship Noah, an almost island-sized behemoth that had been around ever since the founding of the district. This meant far less seaweed and coral growth, and plenty of dark corners for criminals to do business in. As for the sunlit upper parts of Noah, those were the exclusive domain of whoever currently ruled the district.
The buildings were ramshackle constructions of stone and kelp fibres, few of which had decorative colours. There were no signs to show which were shops, nothing to help any visitors… not that those were common here. In the Fish-Man District, only those who knew the local secrets could survive.
The water was murky and turbid, due to weaker currents in the Fish-Man District compared to its surroundings. Coming here from much clearer and refreshing water, Arlong practically choked on the thick soup of his home.
And then there were the local inhabitants. The Fish-Man District was similar to Fish-Man Island in that both fish-men and merfolk called it home—the names were due to some old history that Arlong didn't care for. But the people here were mostly thin, dressed in whatever fabrics they could scavenge, and had haunted looks in their eyes.
None of these people challenged Arlong as he swam past. Their senses had to be sharp in order to survive in the district, so they could easily tell that he was someone they shouldn't pick a fight with. Even the small children lurking in the alleys, who'd normally try to pickpocket anyone carrying valuables, kept their distance from him.
None of 'em's noticed Ahab, Arlong thought, paying attention to the expressions and lines of sight of the locals. I didn't really think that would stop him doing his job… Still, I thought at least someone would spot him, with so many around…
Arlong himself didn't even need to look over his shoulder. The octopus fish-man had been following behind him ever since his arrival at the Fish-Man District. While he might not be native to the place, it seemed that decades of experience as a top-tier pirate allowed Ahab to stay undetected here.
It does make me wonder… how would I have turned out, if I stuck with Jinbe? If I kept sailing the most dangerous sea in the world, fighting… fighting the good fight against strong enemies?
After a few moments of introspection, Arlong shook his head.
There's no point wondering about what I can't change. And the reason I left in the first place was because I could never get along with Jinbe, after Brother Tiger was no longer around…
And I wasn't the only one who thought that way… all the boys who came with me agreed…
That brought Arlong back to the events of yesterday, when he'd explained his situation to his officers.
-ooo-
In a room of a cheap Fish-Man Island inn, Arlong stood facing his three officers.
"I'm sorry… Captain…" Kuroobi said, tears welling up in his eyes. "We heard Jinbe had come, and we tried to find you…"
"It's not your fault," Arlong said reassuringly. "I was the one who went straight to that bastard for a… meeting."
"We can't just leave you to be punished alone, choo," Chew said.
"That's right!" Hatchan cried. He grabbed Arlong's arms using all six of his own. "You can't fix up the Fish-Man District by yourself, nyoo! We'll help out!"
Arlong felt relief beyond measure at these words. These three were the core of his crew, the members who'd been with him before the Arlong Pirates had even been a thing. They'd fought through the fiercest of battles together, surviving precisely because they'd stuck together with bloody-minded persistence.
And yet, his bonds with them were also why he couldn't just accept their help.
"Thanks, but… not just yet," Arlong said. "This is something we have to keep secret from the others, at least for now. And I'm already going to miss Hodge's wedding, it'd be too suspicious if you three missed it too."
"But at least one of us could join you now," Kuroobi said firmly.
Chew was of a similar mind. "Or once the wedding's over, choo, we can go around and reveal the secret, get everyone who's willing to come."
Arlong shook his head. "No. The whole reason we came back home was to relax… and, for those who want it, get a new chance at life. All of you must have dreams other than being pirates. For example… Hatchan, haven't you sometimes talked about opening a takoyaki shop?"
"Nyoo!? Y-Yes, that's right…" Hatchan admitted. "But that's not more important than helping you, Captain Arlong!"
"If you want to make me happy, then I want as many of you as possible to get better lives," Arlong insisted. "Only if you've given that a try first, and still want to help, then you can come with me to the Fish-Man District. And even that has to wait 'til after the wedding."
The three officers looked at each other uncertainly.
"…Captain Arlong, it wasn't just your choice to go to East Blue," Kuroobi said. "We all thought it was a good idea. If you're going to be punished, then the rest of us deserve it just as much."
"Maybe," Arlong said, "but it was my idea to set up in one place and make the islanders give us tribute. That's something I didn't lie to Jinbe about."
"But we went along with—"
"I'm the one who's taking this punishment for now," Arlong said firmly. "That's final."
It took another solid hour for Arlong to convince his officers to leave him alone and stay on Fish-Man Island. And even then, they said their farewells with dejected expressions and regretful voices.
Afterwards, Arlong had spent the night in the inn. When he woke up the next morning, his body didn't ache nearly as much as it had yesterday.
Though Jinbe's gone by now… that might be another reason why I'm feeling better…
After Arlong had his breakfast, lobster fried with seagrass, Ahab approached him again.
"Are you ready to start your punishment?" Ahab asked. "Or do you need another day to rest?"
"What, feeling sorry for the runaway?" Arlong said mockingly. "I'm fine. I've always been a tough one, you know that. And at first, I won't be doing anything too rough."
After that, the two of them began swimming from the island towards the Fish-Man District. And then, based on the earlier conversation with his officers, Arlong had another thought.
"Ahab… there's something I didn't mention before, since it wasn't related to… my own crimes."
"Your crew's crimes, you mean," Ahab said, not looking down at his charge. "But say it."
Arlong took a deep breath. "Just before we came back home, we ran into Macro's gang again—you remember them, don't you? And… they'd caught a mermaid, Caime was her name, and planned to sell her off to human slave traders."
Just remembering that moment sent a pang of rage through Arlong's heart again. Ahab, meanwhile, just raised an eyebrow.
"Did you kill them?" Ahab asked. "It would've been hypocritical, but this is one time I wouldn't blame you for."
"No," Arlong said. "Maybe I would've done it if it was anyone else, but… Macro, Gyaro, Tansui, they still used to be our brothers. I decided to keep them alive and turn them over to the law."
Which, in hindsight, was not too different from the punishment Jinbe had given to Arlong. If even Arlong was capable of such mercy, then it wasn't surprising for someone like Jinbe to do the same.
"…I didn't expect that," Ahab admitted. He almost… almost… sounded impressed. "Captain Jinbe was right after all, choosing you to fix up the Fish-Man District."
"Yeah, well, don't get your hopes up," Arlong grumbled. "Anyway, the reason I'm saying this now, is because those three got thrown into prison for fifteen years. You're part of Jinbe's Sun Pirates, so you should have a good rep with the authorities. I was wondering if you could… suggest that Macro's gang get let out to do their punishment in a different way? It would be nice to have help down in the Fish-Man District." He scratched the back of his head. "I don't know if those three'd accept it, but still, they might like the chance to go outside again."
"I'll think about it," Ahab said. "But for now, Arlong, you're doing your punishment yourself. I'll make sure of that."
-ooo-
That brought Arlong back to the events of the present. And even though Ahab was no longer visible, he would definitely be keeping his word.
Arlong thus carried out the first part of his punishment: investigating the Fish-Man District, finding out what had changed in all his years away, and what had stayed the same. For this, he continued swimming around for twenty minutes, looking and listening.
So far, Arlong hadn't come across anyone who'd recognised him. That wasn't too surprising. He hadn't shown his face here in over a decade, and the Fish-Man District was a big place that housed over a hundred thousand people.
At one point, Arlong spotted a group of four fish-men up ahead. They had slightly more meat on their bones than most locals, as well as brutal-looking scars and fierce expressions. It was one of the many petty gangs that roamed the district, looking for prey unable to hide in time.
Yet when this gang spotted Arlong, they looked away instead of reaching for the knives at their belts. They might outnumber him, but Arlong was bigger than any of them and had the atmosphere of a veteran fighter.
On a whim, Arlong decided to approach the gangsters. They looked frightened, yet relaxed when they realised he wasn't trying to attack them.
"I haven't been here for more than ten years," Arlong said truthfully. "Who rules the district now?"
"Ah… ah…" one of the gangsters, a short anchovy fish-man, blathered.
"It's… that'd be Hody's gang," another gangster replied, this one a slender moray fish-man. "Nobody dares to mess with them."
"Hody…"
Arlong faintly recalled a boy, one of many he'd passed his philosophy down to in the past. The name made him think of a shark fish-man like himself, but he couldn't recall the exact type.
"How many are in this gang?" Arlong asked. "Where's their base?"
The gangsters looked even more nervous. To ease their tongues, Arlong took out a thousand-berry note from his wallet—even in the fish-eat-fish world of the district, cash still had value.
"Um, the main group's not even ten guys, but they have over a hundred followers," the moray fish-man said.
"And… And…" the anchovy fish-man said, his body shivering incessantly. "Their base… it's at the old school in the west…"
"I remember it," Arlong said curtly.
After hearing a few more details, Arlong gave each of the gangsters a thousand-berry note. They might it spend it wisely or foolishly, or lose it to someone else in the district. That—for now—was not Arlong's concern. He was still in the information gathering stage.
There was now some whispering from the surroundings. The locals now had confirmation that Arlong was loaded with money—by their standards, at least.
Some of 'em might be willing to take a risk and pickpocket me… I'm not letting that happen.
Arlong glared at three different spots, each of which he knew concealed a person. Within the seconds, all the nearby presences melted away. They'd gotten the message.
-ooo-
The next day, Arlong finally encountered someone willing to call out to him.
"Hey there, handsome, interested in a good time?"
Those words were delivered in a slow, seductive voice by a purple-haired mermaid leaning out of a nearby alley. At first glance, she was a stunning beauty that one wouldn't expect from this run-down district. Closer inspection would reveal the waterproof makeup on parts of her face, to hide the marks left by the occasional rough client.
"You look like someone who left a while ago and then came home," the mermaid deduced. "Aren't you interested in experiencing what the district has to offer?"
"Yeah, that's exactly what I want," Arlong replied.
Arlong expected to feel a disapproving gaze on the back of his neck, but that never happened. It seemed his hidden observer knew his true intentions. Despite disagreeing in most things, Arlong and Ahab had once been comrades who'd trusted their lives to each other.
Meanwhile, the mermaid giggled. "I do like a man who's so decisive. Then, please follow me…"
The mermaid led Arlong into an empty shack with a single ragged mat on the floor. This wouldn't have been enough to muffle the sounds of a normal transaction, but most of the mermaid's clients wouldn't care. The only other option, besides shacks like this, was to do it out in the open.
And in any case, Arlong wasn't here for a normal transaction.
"My name is Eleria, what about yours?" the mermaid asked.
"Arlong."
"Well then, Arlong, what would you like to try first?" Eleria asked, her sea-green eyes twinkling with mischief. "I don't usually get men as sizable as you, but trust me, I can handle—"
Arlong sat down on the floor, putting him almost at eye-level with the mermaid prostitute.
"Let's get to business," Arlong said, taking out several bills from his wallet. "I'm going to ask some questions, and if you answer them, you get fifty thousand berries. That's all. It should be easier than your usual job."
"…This definitely isn't what I thought would happen," Eleria said, dropping her seductive tone. "Still, I can provide whatever services my client asks of me."
Even among the inhabitants of the Fish-Man District, prostitutes had to be especially well-informed. They needed to know which parts of the district were relatively safe and which would leave a prostitute a bloody corpse, knowledge which might need updating whenever a gang war shook up the district. On top of that, they could hear gossip both from their clients—who were more likely to spill secrets during and after the act—and from others in their profession.
"Are you sure you don't want any of my usual services?" Eleria asked. "At fifty thousand berries, I could answer your questions and still—"
"Even when I was a teenager running on hormones, I knew there were better—and safer—uses of my money," Arlong said. He didn't admit it out loud, but he'd only learned his lesson the hard way, after an encounter with a prostitute who would have knifed him if Brother Tiger hadn't come to the rescue. "And after getting old, I've lost any interest I had in sixteen-year-olds."
"…I'm fifteen, actually," Eleria said.
The shack was filled with an awkward atmosphere for a while.
"Look… let's just get to business," Arlong said. "My first question: what have you heard about Hody's gang?"
Eleria froze. Her eyes showed a new emotion, one she'd never displayed before: fear.
"…Are you planning to join them?" Eleria asked.
"I'm not even sure what sorts of people they are yet," Arlong said.
"Sorry, I forgot myself," Eleria said. She restlessly toyed with a lock of her purple hair. "I shouldn't be asking questions of a client… Yes, I do know a little about them. They're the most powerful gang in the district by far, after crushing all competition."
"I heard a rumour that they sometimes go to the main island," Arlong said. "What for?"
"…That's not a question you ask casually," Eleria whispered, almost too quietly to be heard. "But… fine, I'll answer it, I can't exactly turn down the money." She bit her lip. "And it's not a secret exactly… most people are just too afraid to talk about it."
Arlong was silent as he waited for an answer.
My first thought was that they're writing graffiti about fish-man supremacy, picking fights with the Neptune Army… I used to do that, a couple of times… But it wouldn't explain why everyone's so afraid…
"On nights the Hody gang goes out, there are fires in the main island," Eleria said. "Usually at one house, sometimes two. And… they say it's at the houses of people who'd… helped humans…"
Arlong's blood was replaced with ice.
-ooo-
"Arlong…"
"Arlong!"
Hearing his name again and again, Arlong blinked. He was now in a strange alley with Ahab standing before him.
"I… what was I doing…?" Arlong groaned.
"You just staggered out of that shack, not paying attention to anything, and I had to lead you here," Ahab explained. "Arlong, what the hell happened in there?"
Arlong hesitated for a few seconds, then he said it. Ahab clenched his six fists in quiet fury.
"Something like that was happening here…" Ahab said. "The punishment is on hold for now. Arlong, I'll help you take those bastards down, and I'll also send word to Captain Jinbe—"
"No."
Arlong slowly turned his head until it faced in a certain direction.
"This is my punishment. You said it before. So… I'll take them down."
"Wait, Arlong—"
Not even waiting to hear the rest of that sentence, Arlong swam up out of the alley, then began travelling towards the main feature of the Fish-Man District.
-ooo-
Noah, the so-called Ship of Promise, looked even bigger when seen up close. It utterly dwarfed the rest of the Fish-Man District and was half as big as Fish-Man Island. But while it was covered in coral and barnacles and other detritus, the ship itself was just as solid as it had been for generations. It was arguably the greatest wonder of Fish-Man Island, and also its greatest mystery.
At the moment, Arlong didn't care for such mysteries. He began swimming towards the ship.
Soon, two guards appeared to intercept him: one a grouper fish-man, the other a whiting merman.
"Who're you!?" the fish-man guard said, though his harsh words were belied by his trembling body. "This is the territory of—"
"I'm here to see Hody," Arlong said. "Tell him that Arlong of the… Sun Pirates is here."
""A-A-ARLONG!?""
Both guards stared at Arlong, their mouths gaping open.
"Th-The bosses talk about you all the time…" the merman guard said. "W-We'll let them know right away!"
Both guards swam away at high speed. If he had been in a normal mood, Arlong would have been shocked by this lack of discipline. As he was now, he just waited until the guards returned half a minute later, now with a third in tow.
"Arlong! It's really you! It's been so long!"
The boss of the gang was a great white shark fish-man. He had greyish skin, dark eyes, curly black hair and a portly build. He wore a pink cap, a fur scarf, a red shirt open in the front, blue shorts and sandals. And there wasn't a single hint of insincerity in his voice.
"…Hody," Arlong said. "You were just a brat when I last saw you."
Hody scratched his cheek bashfully. "That's right, all of us were… Dosun, Daruma, Ikaros, Zeo… But where are my manners!? Come in, let's talk sitting down and with drinks in our hands!"
While saying nothing more himself, Arlong followed Hody towards the latter's base.