38 Chapter 38: Story of a Hero Part 1

Nami's PoV:

As the topic of Fishmen was brought up, an uneasy feeling welled up within me.

Do I hate fishmen?

My face slowly morphed into a pained expression without my control and tears threatened to leak from my eyes...holding it together, I gathered my thoughts one more time.

Every fishmen I know have done some horrible thing or another. While I am sure not all fish people are like that, I could feel a sense of repulsion welling up.

Did I subconsciously gain prejudice towards fishmen?

Unknowingly, my silence made the room that was previously abundant with sound quiet down. Shuffling my feet uneasily, I glanced back up at the blonde that asked this question.

"I..I think I hate them—" I finally responded. Being unsure of yourself is not a good feeling. Before I could let out another word, Josh immediately moved onto another topic all of a sudden.

"Well then, let me tell you a story. This is the tale of the 'Adventurer' Fisher Tiger." He said. Josh still had that sympathetic look on his face that was urging me to throw a punch.

I'm not some weak little girl anymore. I already know the cruelty of the world, maybe even more so than the man himself. I don't need him to sympathize with me.

"You should let me finish when I speak!" I sneered. Feeling a bit pissed off for no apparent reason. "While I hate fishmen, I don't think all of them are like Arlong and his crew."

After saying that, Josh had that annoying smile on his face that just screams 'I know'. Hasn't anyone ever told him? Nobody likes a know-it-all!

"How are Ane-san and the Arlong pirates related?" Unexpectedly, it was Johnny that spoke up. They were bounty hunters, so it is natural that they knew of Arlong.

Once again, I had to retell my entire life story. By now, I was more used to speaking about myself. Hopefully, it'll be for the last time. Once I was done talking, the atmosphere in the room shifted.

Sanji had an absolutely livid expression on his face. Veins popped out of his forehead and he seemed to be too angry to speak. While the rest of the crew's expressions were more tamed compared to Sanji and Luffy's first reactions, they, nonetheless, had unpleasant looks on their faces.

"T-that fishman! Wait until I, Captain Usopp, g-get my hands on him!" Usopp was the first to express his feelings. Although his hands were trembling from what I can only assume to be fear, it still felt warm that they worried about me.

"That's the current situation with Nami." Josh simply stated. Staring straight at me, he continued, "There is actually a reason for Arlong's hatred towards humans."

This instantly made me angry. I clenched my fist together in preparations to punch Josh, logia or not! Was he trying to excuse Arlong and his crew for what they did to the islanders!? What they did to Bellemere!? To me!?

Raising his hands up in defense, Josh hurriedly tried to explain himself. With sweat pouring down the side of his face, he said, "I'm not trying to defend him! I'm just saying that there is a reason behind his unrelenting hatred towards humans."

"It was a long, long time ago..." he started to say with a faraway look on his face.

"You have 3 seconds to explain yourself! Any longer and I'll cut your manhood off..." I abruptly cut him off. Hmph! That is more than he deserves for his earlier comment.

"Wait..what!? No..the story is kind of long—" Josh stammered while holding his genitals tightly. Everyone else was doing the same with their faces turning purple.

"Fine! Explain." I cut him off again before he could list a myriad of excuses.

"To understand Arlong's hatred, we must go back all the way to Fisher Tiger, who is known as the 'Liberator'. Care to guess why people called him that?" Josh said.

"Did he free a bunch of meat that were taken hostage!?" Luffy excitedly interjected with a worried frown on him. Who the hell would be so free as to keep meat hostage!?

"Why does it always have to be meat with you?" I sighed in resignation once again. That's been happening way too often lately. By now, most of my anger had dissipated, but they don't know that, do they?

"I'm just gonna ignore that talking monkey...Anyway, Arlong grew up together with Jinbei and Fisher Tiger on Fishman District of the Ryuuguu Kingdom on Fish-Man Island. Basically, it's the slums." Josh started his story. Everyone listened attentively.

"Those names..! I thought they sounded familiar..they are notorious pirates!" Yosaku exclaimed loudly all of a sudden. His expression showed traces of fear in them.

"What do you mean? I've never heard of them." Zoro simply stated with a sleepy countenance. Someone should really give him a good slap.

"A-aniki...you've really never heard of them before?" Johnny also piped up. The disbelieve on his face grew even larger when he saw the confused looks on everyone else as well.

"Jinbei is one of the seven Shichibukai! Warlords of the sea. I heard that Jinbei sent Arlong to the East Blue. And the name Fisher Tiger also sounded familiar.." Yosaku explained even further. The confused gazes didn't disappear after that, in fact, it just made everyone more confused. Was a Shichibukai or whatever really that important?

"I'll tell you guys about them another time. All you guys need to know is that Mihawk is also one of the seven Shichibukai." Josh said, he looked like he was intending to forcibly continue with his storytelling.

Gasps of surprise and amazement filled the room. This Jinbei character was on par with the greatest swordsman in the world!?

"And no, Jinbei did not send Arlong to the East Blue! They had a falling out. If he knew what Arlong was doing, he'd be the first to rush over to stop him. Just let me finish talking." Josh said impatiently.

With a nod of agreement from everyone, he carried on, "As I was saying, they grew up in the slums. Back then, humans, mostly pirates, would come to Fish-Man Island to kidnap fishmen so they can sell them off to slavers."

"What!? That's not possible. For as long as the World Government has been established, slavery of all kind was banned from practice. Who would buy them?" I shouted in protest. This was the basic law that everybody abided by.

"Who would buy them? Hahaha...that's a funny question. Those fat pigs at Mary Geoise had too much free time on their hands. Some of their favorite past time is buying Fishmen slaves. It is probably happening right now as we speak!" Josh laughed a mirthless laugh. There was no humor present at all in his voice.