CHAPTER 27 ARLONG PARK

CHAPTER 27 ARLONG PARK

It was 5 days of sailing to get to Nami’s hometown of Gosa. During that time Zoro recovered, Luffy and Usopp fished, Sanji cooked and hit on Nami, and Nami and I read the Haki book. The start of the book was philosophical. Discussing the spiritual energy in people. How some had more than others and awoke the different Hakis at different paces.

We had to take lots of breaks while reading. Very headache inducing I was able to wrap my head around it more easily since I had chakra. But it was upsetting to know that it really was different from my Naruto world power. Different but not completely.

How it was different was something that slowly dawned on me as I read the book. Haki was the vessel. And chakra was the water. As in spiritual energy was what held chakra in your body. It’s what made up the chakra pathways and reservoir that held the bulk of chakra in your gut.

When someone was using the Armament Haki they were actually increasing the size of the pathways to cover their skin. So the Haki was the black armored skin that appeared. But what really gave people increased strength while using Haki was that their body where the armament was being used was filled with chakra.

The pathways were increased in size allowing the chakra to pour into it from the reservoir at their center. When this happened you used the chakra exponentially, causing you to wear out. And this was also why usually only the strongest people could use Haki. They had a lot of chakra so they could handle it.

The book itself didn’t talk about chakra of course. Either people hadn’t figured out how to use it yet or they focused too much on the Haki. They talked about Haki being the vessel and the internal spiritual energy. Not the 2 different types of energy they actually were.

I found this very helpful since it made it possible for me to teach others to use chakra. In the Naruto world people could access chakra when they were only 10 years old. I hoped it wouldn’t be too hard to teach my crew that was closer to 20 years old. But it was proving difficult.

Showing them the book it was like herding cats. Zoro wasn’t interested until I told him that Mihawk basically beat him with a kitchen knife because he used Haki. And Luffy wasn’t interested until I told him it might lead him to learn how to walk on water.

Usopp and Sanji weren’t too hard to convince since there wasn’t a lot going on on the ship. But after Luffy fell asleep while reading I gave up for now in hopes to refocus on Arlong.

Once Nami’s home came into view she started having second thoughts. Angrier somehow, on a hair trigger for snapping at everyone, we all walked on egg shells. I moved my favorite spot a little further away from the helm for the time being.

“I’m thinking we should make contact with my village,” Nami said. She was chewing her nail as she stared at the shore. Pacing back and forth nervously.

“No,” Luffy said. “This is our first pirate war. I want to enjoy this.”

“What about Buggy?” Zoro asked. “Was that not a pirate war?”

“I forgot about him,” Luffy laughed. “Yeah I guess that was too. Either way, I don’t care. Let’s attack them head on.”

“I vote we stay on the ship,” Usopp said. “I’ll man the cannons. We can shoot them from shore.”

“They’re fishmen. Water is their element,” I said. “We need to keep their focus on the land. Besides, if Luffy is going to be fighting Arlong we don’t want him anywhere near the water.”

“True,” Luffy said. “Unless you can teach me that catra crap.”

“Chakra,” I said for the 20th time. “It’s chakra. And at the pace you’re going it will take another 5 years. We aren’t waiting that long. We need to do this now.”

I knew how this fight went in the manga, and it was overly complicated. Lot’s of drama between Nami and Luffy as she fought asking for help. It took them a while to really get into the fight. Then when they did start fighting Luffy spent the majority of the time underwater where he was useless. I had full faith in Luffy being able to bring the guy down. Especially with me there.

“Who wants breakfast?” Sanji asked as he stepped out of the kitchen. He held 6 plates in his hands expertly.

“I’m not hungry,” Nami said. Still chewing her nails.

“You should eat something,” I said digging into the parfait Sanji had made. “We might have a long day of fighting ahead of us. Alright, this is what I’m thinking.” I rolled out a piece of paper. Drawing on it I made a line for the coast, a circle for Gosa Village, and an X for Arlong Park. I didn’t bother with details since the easier to understand the better for Luffy.

“We don’t want to get the village involved. Arlong Park is a big walled in courtyard with a tall tower and pooled access to the sea.” I had gotten the information from Nami, as if I didn’t already know all this. “We don’t want the fishmen in the water. What I think we should do is rush in and simply attack. Land there, fast and quick. Usopp, you stay on the boat and use your slingshot to do what damage you can. Everyone else on land fighting these guys.”

“I need to get a couple of swords,” Zoro admitted. “My last 2 broke.” Mihawk had shattered his weak blades with a slash during their fight. He currently only had 1.

“From what Nami says they will have plenty there,” I said. “We can steal you 2.” Zoro nodded.

“What about me?” Nami asked.

“I thought you’d want your own revenge,” I said. “You land with us. We take on the big guys and you use your bow staff to knock any down that try to get up afterward.”

“There’s no way that’ll hurt them. These guys can lift houses,” she squeaked.

“I think you’ll find yourself stronger than you think,” I said. “Only Arlong and his top guys are that strong. Everyone else is pretty normal.”

“You sure this is a good idea?” She asked. “I mean, it’s just 6 of us.”

“Oh hell yeah, us 6 could take on anyone,” Luffy said, grabbing her parfait and stuffing it in his mouth. “We could-” He stopped as shadow blotted out the area over us. The 6 of us turned to see a large sea monster. The top half of the monster was 20 feet over the water. It was a sea cow. A literal sea cow, horns, a bull nose, white skin and black spots and everything.

“What do you want?” Luffy asked the cow. It actually mooed at us. The cow looked to the plates that were discarded. “That’s our food. You don’t get any.” Zoro pushed his remaining sword out of his sheath by an inch. All of us staring at the beast it didn’t seem to understand the trouble it was in.

“Who are you?” Arlong asked as we stopped in front of them.

“I’m Luffy, I’m gonna be king of the pirates!”

The group of fishmen burst out laughing. “Well, I hope you are prepared to die,” Arlong said. “Your ship there will prove a little useful in paying back what this place called me.” He looked behind us. “And I guess our deal is off Nami. It’s fine, after you’re dead I’ll get that trove of cash you have behind your house. I will get a much bigger place built with all the money you have.”

“You won’t have a chance,” Sanji said. “You’re all going to pay for what you did to my Nami.”

“You can have her,” Arlong said. “You will have plenty of time together when you’re sleeping at the bottom of the ocean.” He nodded to the karate master. The fishman pulled a woman through the crowd. She had short cut blue hair with a red ribbon in it.

“Nojiko!” Nami yelled, noticing her sister brought forward.

“Nami, what’s going on?”

“I-I”

“Nami is part of our crew,” I said. “We are helping her with these tadpoles causing her all these problems!”

“Ha,” Arlong said. “You know, we knew you’ve been up to something. That’s why we paid a little visit to town today. Who knew your sister would come in handy?” Arlong reached behind his back pulling out his weapon. It was a pole with large scythe/teeth blades sticking from it. The blades were black. Arlong extended his arm pointing the weapon in front of Nojiko’s throat.

“Guess she gets to die first,” Arlong said with a wicked smile.

“No!” Nami yelled.

I poured chakra throughout my body. Plenty rested, I made it the distance with one jump. Kicking the blade away I grabbed Nojiko by the back of her shirt. My foot stamping on the face of the karate fishman I jumped the both of us back to the line of Straw hats.

There was stunned silence as I landed by them. Dropping Nojiko down we turned to look at the fishmen. “Oh I’m learning that catra shit,” Luffy said. “But after this.” His arms extending back they stretched behind him. “After I kick this Arlong guy’s ass.”

“Not if I get to him first,” Sanji said running forward.

“Weston, what do I do,” Usopp yelled. “I was supposed to be on the ship.”

“Do what you do best, Usopp. Piss those guys off. Especially that one with the lips. I think you can take him,” I said as Luffy stopped extending his arms back. They shot forward instantly hitting Arlong and knocking them both through the group of fishmen like a bowling ball.

“You think?” Usopp asked.

“I know,” I said. He nodded pulling out his slingshot. Shooting a pepper bomb at the large group they began crying out.

“Are you okay?” I asked Nojiko.

“I think so,” she said.

“Get her out of here,” Nami said. Pulling the bow staff from out of nowhere she had a stern look on her face.

I nodded. Pouring chakra out my shadow clone appeared. “Let’s go, blue,” my clone said, princess carrying Nojiko. He was soon running the surprised girl to the wall and running off to town. I looked over the fight to find somewhere to help. Zoro was fighting the octopus with only 1 sword. 1 against the 6 that the octopus had. He was still healing, but gritted his teeth striking at the guy.

Focusing on that first I moved into the crowd of fishmen. Luffy and Arlong were fighting one another, knocking people down. Luffy kept stretching out and slamming his feet, head, and fists into the leader. Arlong grabbed him, using his sharp teeth to actually pierce the body of Luffy’s body.

I grabbed 2 nameless fishmen and conked their heads together. Grabbing their swords I jumped over to the swordsman. “Zoro!” I said throwing the blades. He nodded. Jumping up for them he put his remaining one in his mouth while he grabbed the blades. Zoro then dropped down slashing down at the octopus.

After that I started knocking down fishmen. Their skin was hard, but my chakra infused body hit them harder and they were knocked out. One by one their numbers were being whittled away. At first we were on the losing side as the Straw Hats attacked their opponents. Adds would randomly start trying to get at us, causing my team to falter on the main targets. But as we knocked out the useless chum we started to pull ahead. Usopp had disappeared taking on his challenger out back of the burning building, but I was sure he was fine.

Then Luffy missed with one of his stretches. His head pushed into the crement of the wall surrounding the park. He tried to push out but couldn’t do it in time. Arlong used his intense strength to knock down the wall. It landed on Luffy’s head while he was still stuck. Knocking him out. Arlong picked up the wall section and threw it far into the sea, barely missing the Going Merry.

“Zoro!” I yelled. He looked over to see Luffy flying off. The slash on his chest bleeding through the bandages he was hurting. “Take Arlong for a minute,” I said.

“Busy,” he said. I jumped over grabbing Haccan. Throwing him with all I had into the ocean the octopus went flying.

“30 seconds while I get the captain,” I said. Zoro nodded and was running at Arlong. I ran to the shore and dove in. Swimming for all I was worth I found Luffy already at the bottom of the ocean. Cursing I kicked the brick concrete and it broke enough for me to get Luffy’s head out. Swimming back up the octopus noticed me and started swimming my way.

Using my water chakra I pushed the water around him away, forcing him to swim backward with it. With the extra distance I made it to shore before he could get us. Once on land I began pounding on Luffy’s chest. He spit up water and was soon back to the fighting. I ran over as Zoro was punched in his wound. Flying back I rushed over and caught him.

“Got him,” I said. “Good job.” Zoro grunted, gripping his sword he ran at the octopus as he resurfaced.

It was a fun fight. I was busy at all times. Luffy ended up breaking Arlong’s weapon with a punch then hit him so hard with another blow that he was knocked out. Zoro finally out-slashed the octopus and fell over half dead. I had considered helping, but this was an important fight for him too. Pushing him to be able to handle more pain and prove his insurmountable conviction. Sanji beat his opponent and helped me wrap up the adds. Even Usopp came out of the woods victorious.

I grabbed Zoro, throwing him over my shoulder I went to the others. The 5 of us stood battered, bloodied, but we still beat the fishmen pirates. I noticed Nami had knocked out a few of the nameless ones as well. She had tears in her eyes as she stared at the battlefield. Surprised that we were the ones that had made it.

The euphoria of victory was ruined as we noticed the marines walking down the path toward us.