Fishman

The group of seven including Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, Nami, Johnny, and Yosaku were sailing towards the 'Conomi Islands', their destination, Nami's home, and a group of islands that houses countless people in hopeless despair.

No one needed to hear the full reason that they were going to fight the 'Arlong Pirates'. All they needed to know was that some idiot fish messed with their navigator. There is no need for more reasons or explanations.

Sanji was in the kitchen, preparing a pre-fight meal for Luffy, lost in thought. He was thinking back to how he ended up joining the crew for good.

Flashback*

They had just returned from the fight, and Luffy immediately appeared in front of Zeff with a wounded Zoro over his shoulder. There was no need for words as Zeff called out to Patty and Carne to come to patch him up as best as they could.

The rest ran over after seeing where Zoro was lying down and were pleasantly surprised that the two cooks seemed to know their way around the first aid kit. It wasn't a permanent fix, but it'll do till they get to the 'Conomi Islands'.

After they had him patched up as best as they could and put the first aid kit away, Zeff nodded at them to which they nodded back and ran into the kitchen. Sanji made to follow him, but Zeff grabbed him by the collar.

"You're no longer welcome here, brat," Zeff told him as he threw him onto the ground in front of Luffy, who was grinning as he sensed his real emotions. Sanji looked up at Zeff in shock before he shot to his feet, looking pissed off.

"What the hell do you mean, old man?!" He shouted at him, also sensing Zeff's emotions. He knew the old man wanted him to follow his dream. Their dream. But, he couldn't, at least not yet. He hadn't repaid him yet. Zeff scoffed at him, also sensing Sanji's real emotions.

"You heard what I said, you damn eggplant!" Zeff shouted at the kid, trying to make him see he could repay him by following the dream they shared, by finding that magical sea. Sanji scowled at him.

"You can't get rid of me, old geezer!" he said, practically trying to convince himself of the fact that he needed to stay. The old man just snorted again.

"Watch me." Just as Zeff said simply. As if it were a cue, Patty and Carne came back into the restaurant through the kitchen, each carrying tons of suitcases. The sight made Sanji's eye twitch. As he was about to kick those two idiots to 'West Blue', Luffy appeared in front of the two and helped them carry the suitcases while leading them to the 'Going Merry'. Sanji was frozen by the sight, it became ten times harder when he felt Zeff's hand land on his shoulder.

Luffy looked over his shoulder at Sanji with a grin. "We'll be here for five more minutes. Let's turn this world upside down, Sanji! Shishishishi!" Sanji heard him laugh as he walked out the front door with the two idiots and all his stuff. When Zeff took his hand off of his shoulder, he took out a cigarette, placed it in his mouth, lit it, and took a long hit as he looked around 'The Baratie' for what would be the last time for a while.

He walked towards the door but froze when he heard Zeff speak up.

"Find your happiness, Sanji." The blonde started tearing up and couldn't help it. He turned around with tears flowing down his eyes and got down on his hands and knees.

"Thank you! Thank you for saving me, for showing me what the love of a father is, for teaching me everything I know, and for letting me pursue my dreams! Thank you for everything!" Sanji shouted out as tears appeared in the corners of Zeff's eyes.

"Damn, I knew I shouldn't have said anything..." Zeff muttered getting a sobbing laugh in return. All of the chefs poured into the room, tears streaming down their faces.

"I'll miss you, you bastard!" "You better stay safe, shithead!" "If you die I'll kill you!"

Their way of saying goodbye was enough to get Sanji to stop crying. He laughed as he wiped his eyes and stood up.

"Hahahaha! Thank you for everything, guys! Look out for me in the news!" He smiled at them, turned around, and walked out the door. As soon as he got outside, he saw everyone on the 'Going Merry'. Luffy smiled at him when he saw him.

"You ready, Sanji?" He asked him, making him smile.

"Of course I am, Captain."

Flashback End*

Sanji wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes after he tossed the cigarette on the deck and stomped it out.

He thought back to what he witnessed when Zoro fought that 'Mihawk' guy. The overwhelming strength.

Don't get him wrong, he knows that he is strong. Zeff taught him both forms of 'Haki', his 'Red-Leg' kicking style, which he adapted into his 'Black-Leg' style, and he has his flames too. Thinking about his flames made him grimace.

He was convinced by Zeff to try to get used to it once he saw him with his leg on fire, completely fine, when he was fighting off some 'Grand Line' reject. He didn't want to get them as strong as they could because he could tell once they reached a certain temperature, his body would need to change to handle those temperatures.

The idea of letting his body become anything similar to 'them' like 'he' wanted made him want to vomit, but with guys like Hawkeye in the way of his Captain's dream, he might be forced to sacrifice something. Whether that something is a friend or his humanity is completely unknown to the current him.

His thoughts were cut off when he heard Nami yell that they would be docking in an hour. Well, gotta bring all this damn meat to that food vacuum of a Captain he has.

.

.

Nojiko's day started like any other one. She woke up, picked the mikans from her farm, cursed those damn Fishmen from within the safety of her mind, and go talk to Bell-mère before going to bed, which is what she was now doing under the moonlight.

That normal day became not-so-normal when she saw a pirate ship sailing straight towards her. She tensed up and was about to run back to town to warn Genzo when she saw a familiar head of orange hair.

She was frozen still as the ship sailed towards her and the back of the island. She walked over to them in a daze.

When Nami saw her sister walking toward her and her friends, making her smiled and ran toward her.

"NOJIKO!" She yelled out as she jumped onto her sister, knocking them both to the ground and shaking Nojiko out of her daze.

"N-Nami?! What's going on? Who are these people? Why are you with pirates?" She fired off question after question making Nami laugh. Nojiko froze, not having heard her laugh in more than ten years. She smiled softly at her sister.

"Hahahaha! Don't worry, Nojiko! Everything will finally be over!" Nami said, shocking her sister again. Nojiko turned to the young men walking off of the ship her sister arrived on. She instinctively knew these were the people that filled Nami's heart with hope when she couldn't.

Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp got off the 'Going Merry' with serious expressions. Johnny and Yosaku soon followed and the two immediately looked at Luffy who looked back at them.

"Johnny, Yosaku, I need you guys to go ahead and make sure the villagers don't get involved in the fight." The two nodded and immediately disappeared using the crude version of 'Shave' they could manage.

This sight made Nami smile and made Nojiko feel the feeling that Nami had been drunk off of the last few days.

Hope.

There was no need for words as Luffy looked at Nami, who immediately pointed in the direction of 'Arlong Park'. Once she did, the four immediately started walking in that direction. Nojiko looked confused before remembering what Nami just told her, which made her face pale and realize what they were there for.

She tried to push Nami off of her to stop them, to not let more people die for nothing, but she was held down by Nami. She turned to her sister and gasped when she saw nothing but confidence on her face.

"They'll win," Nami said simply, getting off of her and holding her hand out. Nojiko took it with an expression of disbelief.

"Can they really win?" She asked making Nami's face morph into complete seriousness.

"If they can't, everyone will die."

.

.

Inside 'Arlong Park', all of the 'Arlong Pirates' can be seen gathered around their captain.

"She should be pretty close by now, huh?" The fishman with pointed elbows asked his captain. A blue long-nosed fishman sitting on a throne-like chair broke out in laughter hearing the question.

"Shahahaha! You're right, Kuroobi! She should practically have all of it by now!" He yelled out with an evil grin. He looked over at a fishman with elongated lips.

"Chew, go grab me the den-den mushi! I'm gonna give that Nezumi a call!" Arlong said to his subordinate. After all, he can't go back on his promise…

"SHAHAHAHA!"

BOOOOM!*

The iron doors to 'Arlong Park' were launched off of its hinges. They all looked over at the dust cloud it kicked up to see four male silhouettes through the smoke.

The one in front unsheathed his blade and swiped it, getting rid of the dust covering their forms.

They saw a man with a large nose and an equally large slingshot, already drawn and ready to fire.

To his right was a green-haired man carrying three swords, already unsheathed and in a ready stance.

To the swordsmanship's right, was a blonde-haired man in a suit with a lit cigarette in his mouth as his foot started smoking.

Standing in front of all of them, was a straw hat-wearing teen with a cutlass in his right hand, left hand still clenched in a fist, glaring daggers at all of them.

"Which one of you is Arlong?" The teenager asked them. The long-nosed blue Fishman smirked in response.

"That would be me, and who are you? " He answered and asked the human who started slowly walking towards him as soon as he confirmed his name.

"I'm Luffy, I'm a pirate," Luffy responded as he cracked his knuckles.

"Ohh? And what does a pirate want with me?" Arlong asked, discreetly getting ready for a fight. Luffy didn't answer the question as he raised his cutlass and applied as much 'Armament Haki' as he could manage. The sight made Arlong stand up and cover his arms in his own 'Armament Haki' to protect himself.

"Divine One-Sword Style…"

Luffy disappeared and reappeared right in front of Arlong, who could barely move his haki-clad arms to defend himself in time, and behind all of the surprised 'Arlong Pirates'.

"DIVINE DEPARTURE!"

Luffy sent out the strongest attack that Shanks taught him all those years ago, making Arlong question if this was a kid from the 'East Blue'.

The Fishman felt his 'Armament Haki' block the blow, but an instant later, he felt the attack cut straight through it and his tough skin.

BOOM!*

The next thing he knew, he was slamming through the walls of 'Arlong Park' and into the forest next to it.

BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

After crashing through a good amount of trees, Arlong felt himself crash into the ground and finally slowed down after bouncing off the ground a couple of times.

He looked down at his arms to see both of them with deep cuts on them, heavily bleeding. He snarled and used 'Shave' to get back to 'Arlong Park' in under a second.

.

.

The entirety of the Arlong pirates witnessed how a human teenager just sent their captain flying. The officers were shaken, being able to sense the strong 'Haki' the kid just used.

"Oi, this kid just used 'Haki'." Kuroobi, the unofficial Vice-Captain, said to Hatchan and Chew. They all exchanged looks before Hatchan and Kuroobi charged toward the kid who didn't even turn toward them.

"I'm counting on you." They heard him say and before they could do or say anything, they felt attacks coming their way.

"Collier"

"One-Sword Style: Disaster Harbor Bird"

They had to hastily block the haki-covered flaming kick and haki-filled, crescent moon-shaped flying slash aimed at their chests.

"WATER GUN!"

Chew sent countless water droplets as fast as bullets at the kid who sent his Captain flying. He saw the kid glance at him impassively and look back at the hole Arlong made in the wall. This made Chew snarl.

"FIREBIRD STAR!"

His snarl turned completely enraged when he saw his water bullets get evaporated by a flaming bird that came out of nowhere.

He turned to the only one of the four who hadn't moved and saw the long-nosed sniper already reloaded and aimed at his face.

"GRENADE STAR!"

He barely had time to apply 'Armament Haki' to himself before getting an explosion to the face. As Chew was sent to the ground, he noticed small bits of shrapnel digging into his skin. He growled as he whipped his head back to the sniper, but saw nothing.

"Hey! Over here!"

He heard shouting above him and looked up, seeing the sniper using 'Moon-Walk' about 50 meters in the air. They made eye contact before Usopp started jumping towards the forest, making Chew growl again.

"Get the hell back here!" The enraged Fishman yelled out as he ran after him.

Arlong picked that moment to return through the hole he made in the wall. He could sense the humans attacking his crew were strong, the one in front of him seemed to be the strongest. At least three of them also know at least 'Armament Haki', most likely 'Observation Haki' as well.

But, that won't be enough to beat the 'Arlong Pirates'.

He looked at the inferior human who was glaring at him. He scoffed and got into a stance with his left arm stretched forward and his right wound up by his side with his fist clenched.

"You're going to beg for mercy for that, brat!" He snarled out making Luffy's glare intensify.

"You're going to regret making MY NAVIGATOR CRY!" Luffy yelled at Arlong as he charged him with 'Ace' still out while covered in 'Armament Haki' and swung, sending a massive red compressed air slash at the Fishman.

Arlong did the same with his arms as he charged and punched forward, releasing a massive shockwave of force transmitted through the water vapor in the air, straight at Luffy.

BOOOOOM!*

Yo! 15th chapter done! I had to set up the fight as much as I could as I'm going to write a shit ton for the next chapter, it will easily be the longest chapter of the series so far. It's been a lot of fun writing it and thinking of creative ways to make the fights happen.

Anyway, the day this chapter will get posted will be the day I leave for vacation, so my bad if I can't respond to comments or make edits while I'm gone. I'll do my best to address everything when I get back. I'll have chapters prewritten and scheduled to post so don't worry about not getting any chapters, I just won't be around to make changes or stock up more chapters. I had more to say, but I had to go to the bathroom and I forgot it.

Thanks for reading and hopefully see you next chapter!