"What do you guys want to eat for lunch?" Sanji asked. After sailing for a few days, the Straw Hats just entered the northwestern region of East Blue.
"Meat!"
"Stir-fried bean sprouts!" Yosaku followed up on Luffy.
"I'd like fish and chips." Johnny shared.
"I could go for Pike, or any fish really." Usopp informed Sanji
"White rice and any protein, preferably Sea King." The fitness fanatic replied.
"I like fruits, so could you prepare a fruity meal for me Sanji~. Surprise me."
"Of course Nami. Anything for my fiery haired princess~" Sanji swooned over Nami while heading towards the kitchen.
Everyone then all went back on their own businesses, except for Usopp. He approached Zoro, asking to practice his observation haki some more. "I really feel like I'm close to being able to activate it on command." he told Zoro.
"To be fair Usopp, You were able to activate it in less than 8 seconds, if I correctly remember the last session we had,. That's pretty much on command against most opposition we have." Zoro said, but he still went to get a stick, readying to help Usopp train.
"Yeah, but most opposition we have, I really won't even need haki for. For the one that I do, most can close the distance in less that time." Usopp said as he blindfolded himself. Zoro then continued to train Usopp with very quick and potentially painful strikes in varied angles with his stick, while he himself trained with weighted pistol squats using the other hand.
Nami also went on to train her haki, but more specifically on her armament haki. She repeatedly kicked at a crate, obvious frustration on her face. 'Such a dumb training!' she internally grumbled, but she still kept at it, understanding on how important and powerful haki is.
Johnny and Yosaku once asked Zoro what they were doing, to which Zoro briefly explained haki to them, but the two then immediately gave up after their first session, getting no results. Now the duo simply became the crew's de facto cabin boys, doing odd chores here and there.
They had a peaceful journey, some might even say relaxing, sailing towards Conomi Islands, but all things must come to an end. "Food is ready!" Sanji called to them that the food was ready, and they were all about to come in to eat when Momoo arrived. The building sized fish cow monster emerged from the depths, charging towards their ship.
"A giant Sea King!" Usopp shouted
"Is that a fish cow?"
"Don't those things come from the Grand Line?! Why is it here?!"
'How did Arlong already know?!' Nami was panicking, speculating as to how Arlong could've known about them.
"All of you guys, back off. I wanna try something." Zoro called everyone back and went closer to Momoo. When it was about to attack, Zoro stuck his hand out and focused his Conqueror's haki on its direction. The beast then froze a few meters away from Merry.
"mumoo..." it lightly sounded. Momoo became more submissive. It bowed its head, as if waiting for his master's orders.
"Let's not make the food wait." Zoro then calmly told the shocked crew.
"What type of haki was the one you used earlier then?" Sanji started asking questions about what they were doing while he was cooking, and what Zoro did to command Momoo to pull their boat.
"That was Conqueror's haki. It's very rare that you'll even be able to awaken to it's use, much less have it. It's the only type of haki that not everyone can use and not everyone can train to grow stronger at, you can only hone your control. Luffy's the only other one I know, for a fact, that has it in our crew."
"Spoilers!" the man-child complained.
"Luffy, it's an ability that you're required to be proficient in just to even be able to compete with the top Pirate King candidates. Better you know it now and actively train it, than let you be in the dark on this one." Luffy pouted at Zoro's fairly reasonable statement.
"We're here." Usopp called out when he saw the shore in the distance.
They all finished whatever's left of their food and came out on the deck. Everybody was tense, and even though they didn't have their weapons drawn, they still had them on the ready. If you ignore some of the ruins in the far off distance, one could even say that it seemed peaceful.
"Pull us at the dock." Zoro commanded Momoo, who was gently pulling Merry towards Cocoyasi Village.
They then started unloading, except for Johnny and Yosaku, with all the money they had, all the money they looted from Buggy, the Black Cats, and whatever they managed to salvage from the Krieg pirates, plus Zoro's contribution.
Zoro gave Nami 4 million, the remaining 4 million left that Nami needed to complete the 100 million. He got it by exchanging cash from Johnny and Yosaku for Krieg's left gauntlet, minus the big diamond, which Zoro took.
They received a few looks while moving through Cocoyasi. On the surface, they looked wary and skeptical, but underneath the surface, Zoro and Luffy felt their hope when the townspeople looked at them. They passed through the town proper, further in land through a small forest.
Finally, they then arrived at a farm of mikan trees, with a small house, on a hill. There they met a blue-haired girl named Nojiko, Nami introduced and invited them in.
"So, what's their deal?" Nojiko discretely asked, wondering whether they were Nami's victims.
"They know about Arlong...I have enough to finish the deal. And if Arlong reneges, they'll...help me against Arlong." Nami explained, still clearly not completely confident about their prospects.
Nojiko raised her eyebrows at that and sighed.
Sanji then knelt in front of her. "I'll make the same pledge I made towards your sister, Miss Nojiko. I shall vanquish those aquatic monsters terrorizing this domain." He dramatically swore, his right hand balled into a fist over his heart and his left hand holding Nojiko's.
She immediately pulled her hand off. "For all it's worth, I sincerely hope you guys succeed."
They were saved from any more of Sanji's disgusting behavior by noises outside. Everyone gathered to look at a squad of Marines headed by Nezumi, a rat looking Marine captain, guided by Genzo, a middle-aged uniformed man covered in scars.
"What are you doing here? This is a property of an Arlong pirates officer." Nami threatened him.
"I don't know about any pirate officer here. I'm here because I heard you were a thief, and I'm here to confiscate everything you stole." Nezumi smugly replied.
"That's not fair! She stole from pirates!" Nojiko voiced her concerns but Nami held her back.
"Can I take care of him?" Nami turned towards Zoro who offered to solve their current problem. "Not here...Later." she whispered to him.
They made a mess of things and 'found' her stash. They then left arrogantly, as if they've accomplished something impressive. Zoro left not long after them, while the rest stayed, trying to comfort the sisters.
He followed them till they're far enough away from the farm. He then appeared in front of them and made a meter wide gash on the ground, cutting off the road. Bloodlust rolled off Zoro, freezing them all up purely from his presence.
"Y-y-you, wha-AAAHHHHHH!" Nezumi tried to intimidate Zoro and pointed at him, to which Zoro simply chopped Nezumi in half, from the index finger of the hand he used to point at Zoro, towards the opposite hip. His guts and blood spilled all around the Marines. That's when hell truly broke loose.
Nezumi was horrified when he saw his insides falling off the lower half of his body. He started losing his energy fast, both from going into shock, and from the extreme bleeding from bisection.
Some of his closer companions immediately fired at Zoro, to which Zoro bisected simply one of them, horizontally this time. Like a puppet with strings cut, he collapsed on the ground with his halves separated, and panicked, the half deliriously tried to connect himself to his other. The other shooter immediately tried to run away to no avail. He barely managed to reach the back of the group before Zoro decided to send a flying slash at his neck, decapitating him, his head rolling on the floor. This was when the Marines finally realize, this wasn't a fight, they were simply lamb to the slaughter.
After the carnage, one of the marines dropped on all fours and puked his lunch out. The rest of them then one by one got the idea of dropping their weapons kneeling towards Zoro, begging him to spare them, making themselves as meek and harmless as possible.
Nobody among them dared move when Zoro started kicking the separated body parts towards the deep gash on the ground, even if they thought they saw the bisected people's eyes still twitching.
After Zoro sent a fiery flying slash towards the bodies, lighting them ablaze. Some of them could've sworn they heard a gargled scream in the inferno. The smell of bacon that permeated around from the carnage didn't make it feel better. None of them would think the same of pork belly ever again.
"Carry back the money you stole and fix the mess you made." Zoro ordered them. Absolutely none of them hesitated to follow Zoro's orders considering his earlier demonstration, and the fact that with the fire on his back, he currently looked like a demon from hell. Zoro was very convincing to them right now.
They followed Zoro's command quickly, but still carefully enough so that they didn't mess anything up. The Straw Hats were slightly bemused when the marines showed back up and tried to fix everything with a complete 180 in terms of attitude.
After they were done, they simply stood a respectable distance away from Zoro, waiting for his orders. They were sweating bullets, waiting for any other order the demon had for them, all of them hoping that at the very least, they aren't burned alive.
"You can just g... Actually after you guys go, tell your base that Arlong Park will fall to the Straw Hat pirates." Zoro nonchalantly gave them his last order like he didn't just butcher their superiors like insects.
They were slightly confused, but simply nodded their heads and got the fuck out as quickly as they could've.
"Usopp, can you go fetch those two? Tell them I need them in Arlong Park to do what I asked them to in case things go south. Let's meet up at the village center."
Usopp nodded and went to fetch Johnny and Yosaku, while the rest of the crew simply recounted the money to make sure they did actually have 100 million. They then carried the money towards the village center and met up with Usopp's group.
Genzo went up to them and revealed that the whole village knew. Nami then looked around her and saw everyone was expectantly looking at her.
"Don't worry everyone, by the end of this afternoon, the village would be free." Nami sincerely promised to them.
They made the march towards Arlong Park.
With the Arlong Park on sight, Zoro then lightly elbowed Nami.
"Start summoning your clouds, you know your abilities require time for set up." he reminded her.
"Do...Do I really have to?" Nami hesitantly answered, clearly still hoping the deal simply goes through.
"Not really, but if things go badly, it would be best if you're more ready to fight by yourself, just in case." Zoro told Nami, but in his mind, the fight's already a foregone conclusion.
She accepted his advice and started prepping the atmosphere. Soon enough the skies around Arlong park became filled with clouds, high and low pressure areas.
"Ah! You're back. Long trip?" Arlong greeted gleefully when he saw Nami. The over 8 foot tall saw shark Fishman flashed his sharp teeth at them. In his hand, there was a bleeding body of a boy. "We're so happy you're back, safe and secure."