39 Chapter 39: Story of a Hero Part 2

Third Person's PoV:

Nami gasped silently with one hand covering her mouth. Her eyebrows were raised up in disbelief and her irises revealed themselves to their full glory. The others were also in disbelief as well.

Luffy didn't know the exact implications of slavery being common among the world nobles, but he knew one thing...taking people's freedom away from them was a very bad thing, therefore, he did not have a good feeling towards it.

"The three were close like brothers. Along with other fishmen of the Fishman District, they formed a pirate group. They called themselves the Sun Pirates and Fisher Tiger was the first captain. Jinbei is the current captain." Josh continued on while ignoring the other's fearful gasps.

"Arlong already had plenty of reasons to hate humans. Since he was young, he witnessed many of his friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and neighbors, who he grew up together with, being captured and sold like rare animals by humans." He said. Traces of disgust could be found on his face.

"How much do you think they were sold for?" He suddenly asked. The others shook their heads as an answer. With a frown, Josh pointed his finger down on the table repeatedly as he said, "A single mermaid would sell for at least 100 million Beli!"

"1-100!? 100 million!?"

The price was ridiculous! No wonder people captured and sold them off. Although that is not an excuse, the greedy nature of humans can get the best of them sometimes and make them do horrible things...and these are pirates who didn't care about raiding a town full of innocent civilians.

After Nami heard the amount, a flash of Beli signs entered her mind briefly, but an even stronger feeling of nausea and disgust quickly suppressed her desires and her face changed into that of a person suffering from motion sickness.

"Anyway, Fisher Tiger rescued his fellow fishmen from the hands of the world nobles. Along with many other human slaves owned by the world nobles, he took them all away from the "holy" city of Mary Geoise. Burning down the place in the process." Josh said. Although it sounded like that was the climax of the story, it was far from it. The real twist was just about to start.

"Some of the slaves did not have a means of transportation to get back home, so the Sun Pirates personally travelled all over the seas to bring them back home safely to their families." Josh said with a faint smile. A good feeling radiated off of him as he said so. The others couldn't help but smile as well.

"He's a hero!" Usopp said. "Not only did he free them, he also personally brought them back home safely."

"Yeah. I'd love to meet a person like him." Luffy also said. He always loved stories and tales of great heroes who did heroic acts like this.

"The world nobles imprinted tattoos on the bodies of every slave they owned. No matter if they were old, young, or adults. The slave marks are burned into their skin so that it would be impossible to get rid of..." Josh also added. "To mask this, the Sun Pirates burn off the world noble's insignia with their own—a sun. This way, nobody would be able to tell if they used to be a slave or not. This is also the reason why they are called the Sun Pirates, and their Jolly Roger is that of a sun."

"I see..that makes sense. It'd be bad if the world nobles found them again and took them back." Zoro unexpectedly deduced. He was dead accurate with his assumption, which greatly surprised Josh. He could only numbly nod.

Taking another swig of the last bottle remaining in his hand, Josh passed it over to Zoro, who downed it in one go. By now, Josh was feelingmore than a bit tipsy. The alcohol content was high and although Josh wasn't a teetotaler, his experience with alcohol was minimal.

With a faint trace of redness appearing on his face, Josh stubbornly continued with what he wanted to convey. "On the last trip of their self assigned mission to deliver the slaves home, an incident that truly changed Arlong occurred. Although there already existed some feelings of prejudice and hatred towards humans in Arlong's heart, this was the event that truly made him act upon it."

"The last person to be dropped off was a little girl. Once they got there, guess who was waiting for them on the island?" Josh asked with disdain in his tone. His expressions were becoming more and more like that of a drunkard.

"Who was it?"

"Was it the world nobles?"

"Those bastards deserve to die!"

Swaying slightly to the side, Josh got up from his seat and wobbly made his way towards the other side of the table. He sat next to Nami who was in disbelief that he was actually this drunk from the wine. She didn't even feel a thing.

Putting his arms around Nami's shoulders, he leaned in closer to her face. Everyone was pretty absorbed in the story so when they witnessed the sudden actions of Josh, they were all dumbfounded. Sanji looked like a volcano that was about to erupt.

"Let..lemme tell you...the marine admiral Kizaru was waiting there to greet them! The girl's parents actually called the marines to let them know that the Pirates were delivering their precious daughter home!" He said.

'System..System...I think the alcohol is getting to me. Can you clear my head?' Seeing that he was acting abnormally, he quickly asked the system for help.

[But I thought the Host didn't want the system to mess with the host's mind, body, and soul?]

Instead of immediately proposing a solution, the system questioned Josh in return.

'It's fine this time. I give you permission.' Josh replied back in a bit of irritation.

[Clearing the Host's system's of alcohol...the system has used 100 points to flush out most of the alcohol in the Host's body.

Poison Immunity has gone up by 0.002%]

'Thanks'

The feeling of dizziness slowly retreated and Josh's mind became clear again. He didn't immediately take his arm off of Nami though. She wasn't unwilling, why should he, as a man, back down? Taking small advantages like this shouldn't be a problem right?

"What happened next? Did the sun pirates fight the admiral!?" Luffy asked impatiently. The story Josh was telling them was very interesting to him and he couldn't wait to find out what happens next.

"Tiger, Jinbei, and Arlong got off to personally make sure that the girl got home safe and sound...once the marines spotted them, there was a huge fight. Unfortunately, Fisher Tiger was badly injured and he was dying..." Josh said in a solemn tone.

"Tiger was a very respected man among the fishmen, although he was a pirate. Almost every fishmen and women loved and respected him. In order to not worsen the relationship between humans and fishmen, Fisher Tiger made Jinbei and Arlong swear to not tell the truth about what happened and then passed away...He was a true hero...." Josh finally concluded. By now, he was in a solemn mood. Not just him, everyone was feeling the same way.

"Uhh...he..he was a great man...ugh...and a hero!" Luffy suddenly bawled out. Tears were streaming down his face. Usopp mirrored his actions while muttering, "What a hero...I'll be like him someday."

"The lie Jinbei and Arlong came up with was that Fisher Tiger was injured and lost too much blood...none of the humans were willing to donate any blood to him, that was why he passed away." Josh also added. Thinking back, he couldn't understand why someone like Jinbei couldn't come up with a better lie. That lie actually had some impacts in terms of the relationship between Fishmen and humans.

"This is why, to this day, there is a law in the Ryuugu Kingdom that donating blood to a human was forbidden." Josh said.

"There is such a law?" Sanji asked in disbelief. It seemed ridiculous to him, but he could also understand where they were coming from.

"Josh-aniki, you know a lot about this. Could it be that you've been to Fishman Island before?" Johnny suddenly raised a question. The curious cats in everyone's hearts were stirred after hearing this, especially Sanji. It was one of his dreams to one day visit Fishman Island and meet a lot of beautiful mermaids.

"Well...I've seen the place a few times.." Josh answered while looking down slightly towards the table. It wasn't a blatant lie as Josh did indeed see Fishman Island through the many episodes of the arc.

"The place is probably one of the most beautiful in the entire world. And I'm not just talking about the mermaids...although they are beauties incomparable to humans." Josh quietly added, but this was heard by everyone. Excitement grew in their hearts as they anticipated the day all of them would visit the island.

"After Fisher Tiger's death, Arlong wanted to get revenge on the humans, but Jinbei didn't feel the same. They had a falling out and after losing to Jinbei, Arlong took some of the fishmen on the Sun Pirate who sympathized with him and came to the East Blue. This is how the whole thing started...." Josh said.

"Before all this, you said Jinbei would stop Arlong. Why doesn't he do it?" Sanji asked after everyone's emotions settled down a bit more.

"He doesn't know. Arlong is probably paying off a corrupt marine so that his actions in the East Blue doesn't get on the newspaper. Jinbei is one of the most honorable and dutiful Fishman I've ever heard of...his moniker of 'Knight of the Sea' isn't just for show.." Josh replied back. The answer seemed to satisfy everyone as there were no more questions for the time being.

The time was only around mid afternoon after Josh was done telling his story, so the crew headed towards Nami's home island to settle the whole ordeal with Arlong.

Armed with the knowledge of Arlong's past, Nami's determination to save her family and friends grew even more.

While she now understood the reason behind Arlong's hatred for humans, she had no intentions of forgiving him for what he did to her. However, the slight prejudice she unknowingly held towards all Fishmen was quelled after hearing Josh's story. As the saying goes, words could connect people better than fists.