Chapter 22: Hatsu

The days leading up to the confrontation were filled tension-filled, Nami spent all of her time training in silence as Hiko worked on his own project and Alvida kept them on course. When the time finally arrived Alivda stopped the ship offshore, Hiko told her to stay on board as he and Nami took a rowboat to shore. On the shore, Hiko pulled the boat onto the beach as Nami stared into the distance.

Coming up behind her Hikorubbed her shoulders, " You ready. " Letting out a deep sigh Nami nodded as she turned around and hugged Hiko, " Let's go kill the damn fish. " Smiling Hiko moved, dropping the anchor as Nami and he planned to take the small rowboat attached to the ship.

It wasn't long before Hikoand Nami was walking through the town, at first people were excited to see Nami at first but then they caught sight of Piku. Their eyes were automatically drawn towards his tail and gills, with Arlong occupying the island no one wanted to draw attention to themselves.

Their path was unobstructed as they walked towards Arlong park, the build was the largest around. The building as a multistory building with a red tile roof and a needle-shaped like Arlongs nose, " Stopping outside the wall surrounding the compound Hiko turned towards Nami, " Should I get rid of the other and draw out Arlong or do you want to kill them all. "

Taking out her staff had a surprisingly neutral look on her face, " I only want Arlong " Nodding Hikoplaced his hand against the wall, the white stone crumbled to dust revealing the ten's of fish-men lounging around the pool leading into the ocean.

Before the fish-men could react Hikolet lose his Ren along with his hostility, this was his bloodlust all the fish-men started to sweat as they couldn't take their eyes off of Hiko. No matter how much they struggled Arlongs crew wasn't able to free themselves from the invisible weight on their shoulders.

The wall collapsing hadn't been quite so the courtyard was flooded by fish-men, each and every one of them ended up freezing the exact same way. Scanning over the fish-men none of them matched Arlong description, " I'll take care of the extra's go find that bastard. " Nodding Nami walked into Arlong Park to go kill her torture. Before he started to fight Hiko looked over his stats, not eating anything for the past few days had stalled his progression but learning Nen was essential.

[Name: Hiko]

Race: Chimera Ant ( Pseudo King )

Titles: Proud, Waves Person, Eros Blessing, Blood Drinker, Nemesis

Lvl. 1 [0/1000 Biomass]

[Stats:]

Power: II [0/120 Biomass]

Endurance: I [20/40 Biomass]

Agility: II [0/40 Biomass]

Dexterity: I [0/120 Biomass]

Total Biomass: 0

[Skills]

Karada wa bukidesu Lvl. 5

Pinpoint Strike Lvl. 8

Massage: Lvl. 10

Healing Hands: Lvl. 6

Trading Lvl.1

Closing his status Hiko stopped using Ren allowing the fish-men to move again, they all looked at Hiko like he was death itself, " All of you will not escape with your lives decided how you want to die. " Looking at each other they were all silent before a fish-man Hiko recognized spoke up, " Who are you. " Grinning Hiko stared at one of Arlong lieutenants Chew, " That doesn't matter just know you can die happy knowing that you'll fall by my hands. " Using Nen Hiko launched himself at the closest pirate caving in his chest with his fist, the fish-men all stood frozen as they watched there now dead comrade fall to the floor.

Standing up Hiko looked at the blood covering his fist, ' I guess I can use it now. ' Sticking out his tongue Hiko tasted the blood on his fist, as he swallowed his Nen exploded outwards, but this time the energy was visible and a dark red in color. Arlongs crew watched in wrapped horror as the energy contorted to form a swarm of ants that crawled along the ground surrounding the fish-man's corpse. As the ant's fed on the corpse they grew larger and their red carapace turned almost black, when the fish-mans corpse was gone the ants started to move towards the other Pirates.

The men watched as a carpet of death moved towards them gritting his teeth Chew stepped forward, " Don't be afraid there just ants, even the weakest human can deal with them. " Chew's words seemed to encourage the fish-men who stopped retreating and started to use Fish-Man karate to attack the ant's on the ground. Hiko shook his head at their foolishness all they did was speed up their deaths.

As the pirates attacked, the ants started to surround the Fish-men and before they knew it the entire courtyard was surrounded, " Where did they all come from. " Grinning Hiko looked at the ant in the middle which was bigger than all the others, the queen was laying eggs every second as they hatched, forming fully grown adults.

Turning his attention back to the battlefield Hiko watched as his ants started to crawl onto the fish-men before dragging them to the floor and back into the horde of ants. Hiko knew there was no hope for the pirates to survive, for the past two days he had been experimenting until he finally found his Hatsu. He called them Mure Ari it was Japanese for swarm ants, using his Nen Hiko created ants that would feed off of the Nen of those that they ate growing stronger over time.

After a minute every fish-man was covered in ants from head to toe, most of them had stopped moving but a few of the more resistant ones still tried to fight back. Eventually the last of the Fish-men died as the ants consumed the rest of the corpses before they gathered together molding into a dark red honeycomb. Walking over Hiko leaned down picking up the honeycomb and tossing it into his mouth, this was what Hiko had mostly focused on.

Earth ants had an organ called a social stomach this was allowed ants to share the food they gathered between themselves, Hiko designed his ants to have this feature so as they ate each ant would store a little bit of blood and Nen. After the fight was done the ants would combine to form Royal Jelly, swallowing the ambrosia Hiko grinned as he felt an energy flow through his veins and his nen grow,

[Royal Jelly Eaten: 300 Biomass Gained]

[Arlongs Crew Defeated: 4000 PP]

Still chewing Hiko looked up into the large compound, ' Wonder how Nami's doing. '

Inside the compound Arlong was walking through his halls imagining a certain redhead, ' She should be close to collecting 100 million berries, I should probably tip off the Marines. ' Just as Arlong started to think about how close he was to creating a Fish-Man paradise a loud explosion like an avalanche came from outside, immediately Arlong looked out a nearby window to see Nami standing next to a hybrid.

" How dare he help a human he should be ashamed that he even has human blood running through his veins but to choose to help a human. " Arlong saw red and he couldn't wait to tear into the both of them, but his anger died when he saw the red energy come out of the half breeds body, " A devil fruit user, maybe I can convince him to join my cause. "

Just as the ants ate the first fish-man Arlong felt danger come from behind before one of the walls to Arlong Park exploded revealing Nami who looked at Arlong with intent to kill. Smiling Arlong turned toward Nami, " Nami I'm disappointed after you were so close to buying back your Island, don't worry I won't kill you now in fact you'll have a chance to live. I'll make your sister make the same choice your mother made all those years ago-. "

Arlong tirade was stopped as Nami lanched herself at the Pirate, smiling Arlong didn't bother to move out of the way of Nami's strike. She was only a thief and a navigator how could she hurt a proud member of the proud fish-man race. Instead of bouncing off his skin harmlessly, Arlong was thrown back coughing blood.

Before he could question why Nami could injure him Arlong was forced to doge as Nami lunged at him again, Arlong was on defense as he couldn't keep up with how fast Nami was going and he couldn't find his footing so he could use Shark Darts.

Gritting his teeth Arlong ducked under Nami's next swing before lunging forward trying to bite Nami's chest. When Arlongs teeth were a few centimeters away from Nami's skin before his head was batted into the ground. Lifting his head from the floor Arlong glared at Nami, " I'm going to enjoy this Arlong. "