AN: Only when doing research for this chapter did I realise I'd gotten the base of the (future) New Fish-Man Pirates wrong. Unlike my previous mistake with canon, this time I decided to edit the previous chapter slightly to fix it.

The base of Hody's gang was an old school that lay within an immense clam shell, situated at Noah's base. It had originally been built in the hopes of helping the orphans in the Fish-Man District, raising them up into proper citizens. On breaks, the students would've been able to go out and admire Noah, the wonder of Fish-Man Island.

But like everything else in the district, it had been abandoned and left to rot. A gang of criminals lived there now, and they were hardly the first to do so.

Arlong followed Hody into the school, passing between the limestone pillars that decorated the front.

The water inside the school was even murkier than in the rest of the Fish-Man District. Dozens of people filled the hallways and rooms originally meant for education, now used for drinking and gambling and maintaining weapons.

There was a buzz of excitement when the gangsters spotted Arlong.

"It's him…"

"He's the one that the boss…"

"Man, he looks even more intimidating in real life!"

"Yes, Arlong himself has come here!" Hody said jovially. "A graduate from our district, one of the original Sun Pirates!"

Arlong said nothing. He simply looked around at the crowd of thugs, brutes and thuggish brutes.

Most of them don't have the look of true believers. They're like remoras, latching onto the biggest predator around to feed on the scraps and to not get eaten themselves. None of them would be a big deal in a fight.

…Then again, I thought that of those damn humans back on Conomi, and look where that got me… Plus, I'm still not back at a hundred percent yet. I can't afford to be careless.

Arlong clenched one fist. That was the only external sign of the emotions boiling within his heart.

Just like I can't let these scum get away with what they've done…

"I'm sure you're all itching to talk to him!" Hody said. "But there's too many of you lot, so you'll have to wait! Once me and the officers are finished, then you can talk to him, if he's still interested!" He turned around. "Is that fine, Arlong?"

Arlong forced himself to appear relaxed. "It's fine," he said.

The crowd gave Hody and Arlong a wide berth as they proceeded through the old school. In barely any time at all, the two fish-men reached their destination.

Deep within the school was a large room that might have originally been planned for assemblies of everyone in the school. However, the construction had never been finished, leaving scaffolding around much of the walls. On the other hand, there was plenty of decorative coral around to liven up the place.

In the centre of the room was a table and several sofas. There were fish-men sitting on the sofas, some of whom were even larger than Arlong, but they all stood up when he and Arlong entered.

"It's really him, muchhi!" said a towering giant squid fish-man. He held out four pairs of hands. "C-Could I shake your hand, Arlong?"

"Me first, dosun!" said a hammerhead shark fish-man, nearly as tall as the giant squid and even bulkier.

"I… I always knew this day would come…" said a wobbegong shark fish-man with a wavy pattern of blue and purple on his skin. "I always knew you'd come back to the district…"

"Look at me!" said a cookie cutter shark fish-man hopping up and down. He was merely the size of an average fish-man, meaning he was dwarfed by everyone else in the room. "Do you still remember us, Arlong!?"

Arlong looked around. He faintly remembered these faces, filled with just as much adoration as in the past. It was clear that they hadn't heard of his defeat by humans in the East Blue… only natural since it was the weakest and least-important sea, so news from there rarely reached the Grand Line.

"It's been years…" Arlong said. "I remember giving speeches to brats like you. But I have to say I don't remember all your names…"

"Of course you wouldn't, we were just some of the kids who you used to educate," Hody said. "Let me introduce them! This here is Ikaros," he pointed at the giant squid, "Dosun," the hammerhead, "Zeo," the wobbegong, "and Daruma!" the cookie cutter. "We've been friends since the old days, and now we're leading this gang together—and before long, we hope to become something even bigger! Arlong, you see this tattoo we all share?"

On the belly of Hody, exposed by his open shirt, was a tattoo resembling a sun but with a large hole inside. In this hole was a diagonal stripe and a stylized human missing their head. Similar tattoos were present on Ikaros' right shoulder, Dosun's left arm, Zeo's flap of skin that covered his legs and Daruma's right arm.

Arlong took in this symbol and, trying valiantly to sound calm, said, "It looks like… the Jolly Roger of the old Sun Pirates."

"Yes!" Hody said. "At the moment it's just a lowly gang's symbol, but we're planning to form a pirate crew and use this as our Jolly Roger! We're planning to leave this place and show everyone on the surface that they should fear us! Just like you've been doing, Arlong!"

Arlong clenched both of his fists, and his heart thudded with rage. Yet none of these misguided idiots seemed to notice. Was their hero worship of him just that strong that they couldn't possibly imagine him being angry at them?

"I see," Arlong said flatly. "Then since it's been years… would you mind telling me everything you've been up to? How'd you make it this far?"

"Of course, of course!" Hody said. He led Arlong to one of the sofas, and Daruma hurried over with a bottle and a stack of ceramic cups.

Arlong sat down and silently watched as the drinks were poured out. He picked up his cup and took only a sip—too much and he might lose control too early.

"So, where to start…" Hody said. "After you stopped visiting, we grew up like most of the kids in the district. I'm sure you know what that's like, and you didn't come here to hear about something boring like that. The first important thing…" he swirled around the booze in his own cup, "would be when we heard Fisher Tiger had died, been killed by humans."

"That told us that Fisher Tiger wasn't the hero who could save fish-men, after all," Zeo said.

Arlong suppressed the anger that flared up at those words. It wasn't even their fault, really; many people would lose hope in someone who'd perished before finishing his goal.

"And it told us we had to take matters into our own hands, muchhi," Ikaros said. "Even if we were still teens at the time, we had to fight for our race ourselves!"

"Kya! We started out by punishing those idiots who saved human lives!" Daruma said.

"Saved… how?" Arlong asked.

"Fisher Tiger died because of humans, dosun!" Dosun said, slamming his meaty fist on the table. "Because of humans who refused to donate blood to him when he was dying! That's something we fish-men can't ever forgive, right, Arlong?"

Arlong was briefly lost for words. He remembered the lie he'd told to protect Fisher Tiger's legacy quite well. But he had no idea how to clear up that misunderstanding now.

"We heard of a fish-man in the main island who'd given blood to save a human," Hody said. He shook his head slowly. "This was after Fisher Tiger's betrayal by humans, yet there were traitors who didn't even care about that. So… we went to his house one night, and burned it down."

Arlong found his words again easily enough. "…With him inside?"

"Him and his family, kyakya!" Daruma said. He grinned, showing off his razor-sharp teeth. "They'd probably have the same stupid beliefs as him, so we couldn't let any of them live!"

"…I see," Arlong said. "And from rumours I've been hearing in the district, that wasn't the only time, was it?"

"No, we kept hunting down any other traitors we found," Zeo said. He brought his cup to his lobe-lined mouth and drank in a surprisingly elegant manner. "It wasn't just about literal blood, of course. Any fish-men or merfolk who gave significant help to humans, we punished."

"Of course we had to be careful too, dosun," Dosun said. "We put on masks, only went in the dead of night, didn't stick to a regular schedule or do it too often."

"Kya! Now there's no one in Fish-Man Island who'll do anything as stupid as giving blood to a human!" Daruma said.

"Though they still do business with humans, muchhi," Ikaros said disdainfully. "But even that'll change soon enough!"

"…I'd like to ask what you're planning," Arlong said, forcibly maintaining an even tone. "But for now, tell me what else you did in the past."

Hody and his crew cheerfully obliged. Over the next ten minutes, Arlong heard about how they'd grown to become the dominant power in the Fish-Man District. He paid little attention to Hody joining the Neptune Army to learn combat skills, which he later passed on to others. He didn't care about the others building connections in the district and stirring up anti-human sentiment. All this he'd been expecting.

And then he heard something that made him freeze.

"…couldn't let that stupid queen keep spreading her poison," Hody said. "So I came up with a plan to get rid of her and ruin her message at the same time. I paid a human pirate to set fire to her box of signatures, then while everyone was distracted, shot her from a distance. Finally, I killed the human and shouted out that he'd been the shooter."

"That story still makes me laugh whenever I hear it!" Daruma said. "All those guards, and not only did they not keep the queen safe, they still have no idea who really did it!"

Hody chuckled. "It was a trick, but that fool had been tricking them first, misleading them into wanting peace," he spat out the word like a curse, "with the humans. And she was a queen, me just a thug-turned-soldier. I used whatever methods I needed to succeed. I'm sure you agree, Arlong."

"…"

Perhaps Hody and the others were being presumptuous, but why wouldn't they be? Years ago, Arlong was the one who'd told them of the "holy war" between humans and the people of the sea. Arlong was the one who'd described humans as irredeemable scum, taught the district's children to blame everything on humans.

And in truth, Arlong had never liked Queen Otohime. He'd been disgusted by her continued preaching of peace even after Fisher Tiger's death. He'd felt vindicated when she was, supposedly, assassinated by humans.

After all, that incident proved Arlong had been right to abandon Fisher Tiger's path, right to treat humans as slaves.

Back in the present Arlong pushed away his drink and stood up.

Hody blinked. "Arlong?"

"…You based your symbol, your planned Jolly Roger, on ours," Arlong said quietly. "Do you know why Fisher Tiger chose a sun in the first place?"

Hody's gang exchanged confused glances.

"Because a lot of the crew was slaves that we freed," Arlong said, gazing at the hollowed-out sun that these pathetic followers used. "And Fisher Tiger didn't want them to feel out of place. So he came up with that sun-shaped brand, to cover up the slave brand. He branded us all that way, so we'd all be equal."

"We… We didn't know that…" Hody said, looking down at his own tattoo.

"I don't blame you, we never made that part public," Arlong said. He took two steps around the table, bringing him to Hody. "And here's another little fact about Fisher Tiger. Back in the days of the Sun Pirates, he made us never kill humans in our raids. He said it would've just worsened relationships between our races, that we were liberators instead of just common criminals."

"Fisher Tiger did… what!?" Ikaros said.

Hody shook his head in disbelief. "Then he's an even bigger fool than we thought—"

If Vice-Admiral, now Admiral Borsalino had been in this room right now… he still couldn't have stopped what Arlong did next.

"YOU DON'T DESERVE TO EVEN SAY HIS NAME!"

Propelled by Arlong's fist, Hody flew backwards, slammed through the scaffolding and then hit a stone wall behind, cratering it.

"What the hell are you doing, muchhi!" "You bastard!" "How dare you, dosun!" "Why!?"

Hody's friends jumped to their feet. In the case of Ikaros, who'd been on the same sofa as Hody, this involved him jumping up from the wreckage of what had once been a sofa.

"Arlong… why!?"

Hody himself was extricating himself from the wall. Blood trickled down his face, while his eyes were filled with a mix of shock and pure rage.

"I argued with Brother Tiger, again and again!" Arlong said, emotions pouring out like a volcanic eruption. "I've killed humans myself, including one who never had anything to do with fish-men! But I've never killed one of my own kind! I RAN INTO SOME FISH-MEN PLANNING TO SELL A MERMAID TO HUMANS! EVEN SCUM LIKE THEM, I JUST HANDED OVER TO AUTHORITIES!" Pure red filled his vision. "YOU IDIOTS AREN'T HEROES OF FISH-MEN… JUST MURDERERS!"

"Arlong…" Hody said. "YOU TOLD US TO FIGHT THE HUMANS, TO DO WHATEVER IT TOOK!"

"AND I WAS AN IDIOT AS WELL!" Arlong shot back. "I SHOULD NEVER HAVE SPREAD POISON LIKE THAT TO BRATS LIKE YOU!"

Arlong and Hody's gang stared at each other for a while. Even though their argument had to be audible to everyone else in the school, no one came to investigate. Of course, no denizen of the district would be stupid enough to investigate this.

"…Arlong," Hody said. "I don't know what happened to you out on the surface, but it's turned you weak."

Arlong laughed mockingly. "I'm weak? Maybe, I did come running back home because I lost to humans, after all! But better that than being a bunch of dead idiots, planning to raid the surface WHEN THEY'VE GOT NO IDEA WHAT'S UP THERE!"

Hody glanced in Ikaros' direction. The giant squid fish-man was already hurrying away to a set of crates that lay on one side of the room—residents of the Fish-Man District rarely went far from their weapons. He picked up various weapons in his many arms, then returned to pass them around.

"I used to look up to you, all of us did…" Hody said, grasping a red trident in both hands. "I guess the saying's true, never put someone on a pedestal because they'll betray you eventually." He spat. "You're the idiot, Arlong. If you wanted to kill us, you should've taken us by surprise, not given us time to arm ourselves."

Arlong laughed again. "Why would I need surprise? This won't be a fight. I'm just going to take out some trash."

Then Hody's gang charged, shouting battle cries. For most people, it would have been a terrifying sight.

For a veteran pirate who'd just fought a Warlord… it was like watching angry children.

First was Daruma. The cookie cutter shark fish-man shot through the water like a bullet, jaws gnashing together with enough force to bite through stone.

Arlong hit him from below with a kick, sending Daruma up and through the ceiling. This was accompanied by an increasingly faint scream.

Next was Dosun. The hammerhead shark fish-man wielded, fittingly enough, a war hammer, one so big that it had to weigh more than a ton. He screamed "DOSUUUNNNNN!" as he swung it in a mighty arc.

Arlong met Dosun's charge with his own, slipping inside the war hammer's minimum effective range. He thrust his fist into Dosun's solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him.

Third was Ikaros. The giant squid fish-man held a spear in all eight of his hands. The heads of said spears were, oddly enough, modelled after squids. He thrust them towards Arlong in a storm of lethal points.

"These'll suck all the water from your body, muchhi!" Ikaros cackled.

But Arlong knew, from many spars with Hatchan, the weakness of cephalopod-based fish-men. Their upper bodies were strong and dexterous, but their lower bodies were comparatively weak, unbalanced. So he threw a water shot that struck one of Ikaros's legs. This disrupted his barrage of spears, creating an opening for Arlong to move in and punch him in the face.

As for Zeo, the wobbegong fish-man had disappeared from view using his natural ability to change colour. No doubt he was hoping to attack Arlong from ambush.

Arlong grabbed the squid-spears from the now-reeling Ikaros and threw them haphazardly in all directions. This forced Hody to take evasive action… and one of the spears found its mark in Zeo's arm.

"ARGH! N-No, this… I was planning for this to happen!"

While reverting to his base colouration, Zeo quickly pulled out the spear, but his arm had already shrivelled up. He slumped and sank down to the floor.

"WHAT'S WRONG, HODY!?" Arlong called out. "Too afraid of the big bad Arlong, so you're letting your friends do the hard work!?"

Hody's only response was to swim rapidly at Arlong, aiming his trident at the latter's gut. Arlong grasped the trident with both hands—

—then Hody threw a water shot at Arlong's head. Arlong bent his head to the side, letting the shot barely graze his cheek.

Then Arlong, still with both hands on the trident, swung it upwards. The base of the trident slammed into Hody's chin.

"GUH!"

Hody threw a fist wildly. Arlong released the trident and parried Hody's fist, then countered with two punches of his own: one aimed at the stomach, the other aimed at the face. Both punches found their mark.

"ARGH!"

Hody recoiled from the assault. However, he still had enough presence of mind to swim away, putting some distance between himself and Arlong. He picked up one of Ikaros' spears that had pierced into the floor.

"DIE, ARLONG!"

Yet Arlong snapped that spear in half with an elbow strike to its shaft. He followed that up with another punch, and then another and then a third.

"IS THIS IT!?" Arlong roared. "WEREN'T YOU PLANNING TO ATTACK THE HUMANS ON THE SURFACE!?"

Arlong slammed his knee into Hody's groin. When the latter doubled over, Arlong grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him to the floor, face-down. Blood bubbled out from Hody's mouth.

"YOU EVEN KILLED YOUR OWN PEOPLE FOR THIS CAUSE, AND YOU'RE NOT EVEN STRONG ENOUGH TO CARRY IT OUT!?"

The Arlong of a few months ago would have dealt the finishing blow at this point, too consumed by rage to hold back. The current Arlong had learned how to control his inner fires, so he stayed his hand… not out of pity, but just to see what excuses this worm could cough up.

"Well, Hody?" Arlong growled. "What do you have to say?"

Hody gasped and convulsed. He began pushing off the floor with his hands, trying to get up.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM, GYABAN!"

A war hammer hurtled towards Arlong's head. He moved away from Hody and dodged the attack, but only just.

Wait, that was faster than before! I hardly saw him coming!

Arlong looked at Dosun, whose eyes were so bloodshot as to appear fully red. And he wasn't the only one.

"You'll pay for this, muchhi!" Ikaros declared, having picked up two of his spears.

"We're going to become the New Fish-Man Pirates, the ones who show this world the terror of fish-men!" Zeo said. "No one crosses us and lives, not even you, Arlong!"

Their eyes were also abnormally red. Moreover, the presence emanating from their bodies was completely different from before. And yet both of them had just taken major blows, blows that should have kept them down for a while.

Suddenly, Arlong sensed danger—he didn't know if he'd heard something, or smelt something, and he didn't have time to think about it. He just jumped back from his current position. Less than a second later, something burst through the ceiling and landed where he'd just been, accompanied by the sound of gnashing teeth.

"Should've just stayed still!" Daruma growled, his eyes similarly red. "It's been too long since I chewed on something tough!"

"What… did you do to your bodies…?" Arlong asked.

"Like I said, we'll do whatever it takes to succeed."

Hody stood up from the floor. The veins in his eyes become increasingly prominent until he looked just as red-eyed as the others.

"Even if it means shortening our lives!" Hody roared. "Even if it means killing you, ARLONG!"

"This isn't a Devil Fruit, or Haki…" Arlong said. "Did you take some weird drug!?"

"You should feel honoured, Arlong," Hody said. "You forced us to use up over half our stock of Energy Steroids. But it's worth it if it means eliminating another traitor!"

Hody's gang all charged at once again. This time, Arlong was forced on the defensive.

He moved his body on instinct, only realising after the fact that he'd dodged Dosun's hammer. Even so, the shockwave created as it slammed through the water shook him to the bone.

He evaded one of Ikaros' spears. The other sliced across his shoulder—still better than if it had pierced him, which would have been fatal in this situation.

He ducked under the whirling chains of Zeo, yet this left him open to Daruma's pounce. The cookie cutter shark latched onto Arlong's arm, sending agony throughout it.

Grr…! I'm normally the one using my teeth in battle…!

Arlong punched Daruma once with his free arm, but needed a second punch to make him loosen his teeth at all. Then Arlong grabbed Daruma and threw him towards Dosun and Ikaros.

Lastly, Hody approached. He hadn't bothered picking his trident back up, instead assaulting Arlong with his fists alone. Like his friends, he didn't even seem to notice the pain of the injuries Arlong had inflicted.

"JAHAHAHAHA! TOO CARELESS, ARLONG!" Hody said. "YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD BEAT US BY YOURSELF, ARLONG!? JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE SOME EXPERIENCE!? WE ARE THE NEW GENERATION! WE'LL DO WHAT YOU AND FISHER TIGER WERE TOO WEAK TO EVEN CONSIDER! WITH OUR NATURAL STRENGTH AND THESE ENERGY STEROIDS, WE'LL CRUSH ANYONE IN OUR WAY!"

Arlong could only focus on guarding himself. Fortunately, Hody and his gang hadn't improved their skills after taking this drug. However, whenever Arlong parried one of Hody's punches, his own arms felt like they would shatter. On top of that, all this fighting sent shocks of agony through Arlong's body—his wounds from Jinbe were on the verge of reopening.

"What's wrong, Arlong!?" Hody mocked. "Given up, now that you see you've got no chance!?"

Arlong didn't rise to the bait. He kept up his defence, watching patiently for any opening to exploit. It would happen sooner or later, thanks to the gap in skill between them.

…But before that could happen, a heavy chain slammed into Arlong's ankles and wrapped around them. Then Hody's fist struck Arlong in the face, knocking out half his teeth.

Arlong would have fallen backwards from that impossibly heavy blow. But a second chain wrapped around his shoulders and arms, forcing his body to stay upright.

"Good work, Zeo!" Hody said. He bared his teeth. "Any last words, Arlong?"

Arlong remained silent and glared at Hody. However, he wasn't really thinking of the great white shark fish-man or his friends. He was thinking about other things entirely.

He thought about his first encounter with Fisher Tiger, who'd beaten him into the mud of the seabed… then helped him up again, and told him to fight for something more than just survival.

He thought about the days of the Sun Pirates, those happy days of beating up corrupt humans, striking the chains off slaves, drinking together with new friends in the parties that followed.

He thought about Koala, that human slave girl who'd smiled even as Arlong cursed her… and who the rest of the crew, even Macro's lot, had been kind towards.

He thought about Fisher Tiger slowly bleeding out, all thanks to the betrayal of humans… yet even then, he'd begged his crew to not continue the cycle of hatred.

"Nothing?" Hody said. "Fine. Then farewell, Arlong!"

Hody brought his mouth towards Arlong's neck, about to tear it out with his sharp teeth.

Brother Tiger… I failed you once.

Never. Again!

With a tremendous burst of effort, Arlong broke free of Zeo's chains. The metal links shot out in every direction, causing Hody's gang to flinch in surprise.

Arlong swam at Hody with quick kicks of his legs. Both fish-men thrust fists at each other.

Unlike before, there wasn't mindless rage in Arlong's fist. Nor was there hatred of humanity or a desire to protect his ill-gotten money. All of that had boiled away, leaving only a single, unflinching determination.

Arlong's fist brushed aside Hody's, producing the familiar sound of cracking bones. Then it landed in Hody's stomach and sank in.

"GWWWOOOOAARGGGHHH!"

Hody flew backwards again. He broke through the scaffolding, then the wall behind it, and judging from a series of explosions, through several more walls.

""""HODY!""""

Driven by rage, Hody's friends attacked Arlong from all sides. There was no way he could possibly dodge all their attacks, not when they were drugged-up.

So he didn't even bother.

Arlong raised his arms to guard against Ikaros' spears. The sharp-pointed squids on the ends met his skin—and glanced off, as if they'd hit solid steel.

"How, muchhi!?"

Arlong grabbed Ikaros by two of his arms, then swung him around into the path of Dosun's hammer and let go. There was a deeply satisfying wham, and Ikaros went flying as well.

Then Arlong swung his body to the side, and sharp teeth pierced his shoulder—Daruma had charged at him again. Arlong punched the cookie cutter shark once in the face. That was all he needed to force Daruma off, accompanied by a pained yell and a cloud of blood and loosened teeth.

"HOW DARE YOU, ARLONG!" Dosun roared, raising his hammer for another blow. "DIE, BAGYAAANNN!"

Arlong met that challenge by grasping the water with both hands. It felt different from when he normally did it—heavier, more solid—but he didn't pause to think about that. He twisted his body around and threw the water.

Dosun swung his hammer into the onrushing water… and it was the hammer that lost, its handle snapping in two. At the same time, Dosun was thrown back and out of the room through the opposite wall.

That left only Zeo. For him, Arlong simply waited. Soon enough, Arlong felt a shift in the water behind him, and he swung his right elbow backwards.

"Gah!"

Arlong felt a few ribs crack from his elbow strike, and he smelled the stench of even more blood entering the water.

"A-Arlong…!"

Hody reappeared from one of the several holes that now marked the walls. His eyes were still red, yet he was moving slower than before—even the best performance-enhancing drug in the world couldn't help when the body was just too damaged to function properly.

"You won't… stop us…" Hody gasped. "Traitors like you… and all those on the surface… will feel the wrath of the true fish-men…"

"Do you even know about who lives on the surface?" Arlong asked. He felt… an emotion adjacent to, but not the same as, pity for his enemy. "Have you even heard about minks, or longarms, or snakenecks?"

Arlong didn't use his fists this time. Instead, he swam behind Hody and wrapped an arm around the latter's throat, cutting off the blood to his brain.

"Let… go…!" Hody demanded. He slammed elbows into Arlong's chest, stomped on his feet. But in his current state, his struggles were useless.

"Give up already, you idiot!" Arlong said. "Before you wreck your body even more!"

Hody's struggles grew weaker, then ceased entirely. Arlong released him.

Only then did Arlong stop to examine his arms. They were covered in a distinctly metallic sheen, one that was tinged with dark blue. Yet even as he watched, that sheen flickered and vanished.

Did I just…? But I didn't even get proper training…

While lost in thought, Arlong heard someone else enter the room.

"…Didn't think you'd actually do what I said, and leave it all to me," Arlong said.

"I was ready to jump in if necessary," Ahab said, looking around at the carnage. "And there were a couple of times when it looked like I'd have to… but you won in the end, Arlong."

Arlong continued staring at his hands. "Was Jinbe hoping for something like this to happen?"

"Maybe not, he didn't know for sure what you'd encounter here," Ahab said. "Still… Haki is known to activate in desperate situations. Though you won't be able to use it at will without a lot more practice."

"That can wait for later," Arlong said. "More importantly… what happened to all the other guys in this place?"

"All gone, once the fighting started," Ahab replied. "Doesn't look like they had much loyalty in the first place."

"They never do," Arlong said. "Before long, some of 'em will be back to swear loyalty to who they think is the new boss of the district…"

After some thought, Arlong quickly swam around the old school and gathered up the core members of Hody's gang. They'd taken a drug which seemed to dull their sense of pain… and they'd all been hit hard enough to incapacitate them regardless. Without prompt medical attention, most of them would certainly die, and any survivors would be permanently crippled.

"…"

Arlong began giving them that medical attention. Using whatever materials available, he bandaged lacerations and splinted broken limbs or dislocated joints. He might not be a doctor, but he'd gotten into plenty of his fights into time, so he knew the basics. He tended to his own wounds at the same time.

"…You've already changed a lot, Arlong," Ahab said.

Arlong said nothing. He bent over Ikaros to check for signs of internal bleeding.

"Even I wouldn't be helping them, not after hearing what they did," Ahab said. "But you… I can't believe I'm saying this, but even if the captain hadn't met with you, then—"

"If you can't believe it, then don't say it, dumbass," Arlong growled. "You're wrong. I'm not doing this because I've gotten soft. It's just…" He left Ikaros and moved on to treating Hody. "Even if I never told them to go this far, I'm the one who filled these brats' heads with stupid ideas. The least I can do… is clean up my own mess."

"Yes… obviously I'm wrong, Arlong," Ahab said. "Fine. Then what do you plan to do next?"

That was an excellent question. With his newfound Haki—even if he'd only just used it for the first time—he was the strongest person in the Fish-Man District, excluding Ahab for obvious reasons. Yet strength alone couldn't fix the broken society that had given rise to idiots like this.

"There's no way to keep this lot locked up in the Fish-Man District…" Arlong began. "In the first place, there's no prisons in the district. People who lose in a fight either become an underling, if they can be useful to the new boss, or get killed right away." He sighed. "Don't suppose the Neptune Army would be willing to come all the way out here to pick up some more prisoners?"

"Normally, they wouldn't," Ahab admitted. "But these lot are the ones responsible for multiple murders over the years. And… I'm sure if the one asking was the hero who saved a mermaid from slavers, the authorities would definitely move."

Arlong snorted. "Hero" was not a title that could be associated with him in any shape or form. However…

"If I actually have a good rep with the law now, might as well make use of it," Arlong said. "The royals, the ministers, the government are always going on about how they serve the people. Let's see how far they're willing to go to actually show that…"

AN: Arlong's strength relative to the would-be New Fish-Man Pirates is something I pondered while writing this chapter. In the end, I decided to make him a match for all of them combined. He's a Grand Line veteran, after all, and events earlier in this story meant he's regained his edge after years of lazing around.