Bab 6: Chapter 6 Fish are Food not Friends?
Once again my romantic visions of sailing on the open seas have been crushed. Sailing is such a pain in my rear, moving the sail and the rudder, and making sure we're going in the right direction when every direction looks the same. It was at this point that I decided that I was going to get a crew together. Then I'll make them sail the ship and take on the small fries, because this loner thing while nice isn't very convenient. As much as I enjoy my father daughter adventure, it isn't practical with the circumstances. *sigh*
"What's wrong Papa? That's the zillionth time you've sighed?" Silk, who was sitting on a barrel next to me while I'm on the helm asked.
"I'm just thinking, are you really okay sailing with me? Don't you want to stay on an island and make friends?" It's not that I wanted to get rid of her, I was genuinely concerned about her future.
"Hmm, I don't know papa. But I know that I'm happiest when I'm with you." Her sweet smile hit me right in the heart. I didn't say anything more, instead I ruffled Silk's hair while a small genuine smile made its way onto my face.
"Agh! Stop that Papa! You're messing up my hair."
"Haha you're such a rascal, I'm happy when Silk is with me too." Eventually her pouting over her hair turned into happy giggles.
-The next day-
It didn't take long to make it to the Conomi Islands, it was already visible in the distance. In fact with my superior vision I could see the blurry image of the triangular building with orange roofs known as Arlong Park. "Papa! Papa! I can see the island now! What's on this island?"
"Well Silk, on this island are the vicious Arlong Pirates. A group of fishmen pirates that have enslaved an island and have terrorized their people."
"That's awful, you gotta beat up those bad guys for sure! But, what are fishmen?" She put on an indignant expression when she heard about what the pirates were doing, but that changed to confusion when she asked about fishmen.
"Ah, my bad. Fishmen are a race of people with features of aquatic creatures, and have been said to have a strength of 10x a normal human. They normally live on an island under the ocean somewhere in the grandline."
"Hmph! That doesn't matter, my papa is 100x stronger than anyone!" Her confidence in me brought a smile to my face. This won't change the difficulty of this fight though, as much as I want to say it'll be a walk in the park it won't.
Arlong has roughly around the same STR as me, but my AGL and STA should be higher than him. The difficulty of this task comes with fighting a group inherently stronger than regular pirates and not to mention his officers that are only slightly weaker than Arlong. But somehow this challenge makes my blood boil with excitement.
Somehow we managed to sneakily dock the ship on a shore a little bit away from what I assumed to be Cocoyashi Village. After dropping the anchor I took Silk on my shoulders as we began walking towards the village. Along the way I started humming a beat from an artist I used to like in my previous life. (A/N: ZOLDYCK - Origami on YouTube) Soon Silk also joined me while humming my tune, and we continued our quiet nature walk.
Eventually we made it to the village, and seeing it in person I could see the hardship this place had to endure. The buildings were worn and slightly decrepit, the atmosphere of the people was a mournful silent anger. While most of the civilians looked like they barely had enough to eat. Me and Silk got a few odd looks, likely because they didn't recognize us and because I was armed with a sword.
Along the way of our tour of the town I felt my armed being forcefully pulled by someone, while I could overpower them I wanted to see where this was going. Eventually the mystery person led us into an alley between some houses. "You must not be from around here, any of the people here know it's suicide to be carrying a weapon in the open. Who are you, and why are you here?"
Turning towards the source of the femenine voice that had been reprimanding me I was surprised to see Nojiko. A young woman with short blue hair with a red ribbon worn as a headband and teal eyes. She had tattoos on display going from her right arm to her collarbone. "Me? I'm Luciano and this is my daughter Silk, and we're just seeing the sights."
She scoffed at my answer, "Well Mr. Luciano this isn't a great spot to take your daughter on a tourist visit. Don't you know? This island is under the control of the Arlong Pirates and they'll kill you if they see you with that weapon of yours. So do the smart thing and get out of here."
"Mouu! Big Sis my papa is the strongest and no pirates can beat him. You should be thanking him. He's going to save this island and beat up the bad guys!" Silk pointed her finger at Nojiko while lecturing her.
"*Sigh* I'm sure your papa is pretty strong, but these are fishmen and no humans can beat them. You should tell your papa to give up, after all he's gotta look after a firecracker like you." She visibly softened while talking to Silk.
Before Silk would get any more worked up I decided to interject. "Now, now Silk, you shouldn't point at people, it's rude. This nice sister is just worried about someone getting hurt, you shouldn't be so hard on her."
A look of enlightenment appeared on Silk's face, "Ah! So this big sis is just worried about us. She must be a nice person!"
Silk's goofy smile broke Nojiko's cold persona, and she couldn't help but be more honest. "That's right, which is why you guys should leave, this island isn't safe."
It's obvious that Nojiko and a lot of the Cocoyashi people have given up and have chosen to silently endure rather than grasp at any hope in front of them. But I can't agree with this mindset.
"In your words this island isn't safe, that means that as long as the Arlong Pirates have been here you haven't been safe. To me it sounds like you've given up and chose to simply endure. Know that the only people you can save like that are those that survive. In your mind you drew the two of us next to the enemy. When you compare us to them, you think to yourself. Impossible, right? In your eyes we're two insignificant dots in the face of an insurmountable enemy. What you don't realize is that it doesn't matter how weak or small you think you or I are. With this small body, I will surpass every enemy! You can simply watch on the sidelines because in the end the Arlong Pirates will simply be a small stepping stone on my path."
Nojiko's hands clenched until they drew blood, and with tears in her eyes she faced me with a furious expression. "You don't know anything about what we've suffered. So don't go running your mouth like you know everything. It's not wrong to not want to see people die in front of you!"
"No it's not wrong, but how many will you continue to say goodbye to while you wait? Will your nightmare ever end? And how many bodies will you have to bury on the way? I don't claim to be a hero, but if there are people suffering in front of me I'll do my damndest to help them whether they want it or not. Plus I won't die, I can't die. I have a daughter to look after and my ambitions I need to fulfill." Nojiko simply bit her lips and refused to face me in response.
[Ding! You've emboldened a village to usurp their tyrants becoming the liberator of their nightmares with your impassioned speech. You've earned 30 Infamy Gems]
It seems that the shouts had alerted the other villagers and hearing my speech they've regained their spirit. Soon a man with a pinwheel hat and a body covered in scars approached me with a scrutinizing gaze. "My name is Genzo, I'm the leader of this village. We heard your argument with Nojiko over here… Boy do you mean what you said? Can you truly beat the Arlong Pirates?"
"Leave it to me." Boasting wouldn't do anything to reassure them, my actions will speak for themselves.
"The Village of Cocoyashi puts their hopes in you young man. Even if you should fall, we'll fight for our home too." After that all the residents of Cocoyashi took up arms, even if said weapons were only brooms or farming tools. I had Silk stay with Nojiko who also decided to come along.
On our way to the entrance of Arlong Park we were stopped by a young girl with orange hair. "What are you guys doing! You're going to get killed! Please stop! I have a deal with Arlong once I get him 100 million beri, I'll be able to buy the island from him. I'll get the money so please wait!"
Genzo walked up to Nami and gave her a one armed hug, "Nami we already know about the deal. But you should know Arlong would never keep his end of the deal, we're going to fight for our home. We even have help from a powerful man, thank you for everything you've done for us…"
Nami proceeded to desperately try and stop the villagers with tears in her eyes, but none of them would stop for her. Left behind she fell to the ground crying in agony, certain she would lose the people she loves. I truly felt bad that it went like that, she was only a kid and didn't deserve to suffer so much. In the end things would work out though.
-In front of Arlong Park-
We finally made it in front of the gates of Arlong Park, to my surprise there was already a group of fishmen guarding the front of the gates. It seems they somehow found out about the village's insurrection and had prepared to stomp them out. "Alright we're finally here, everyone I need you to stay a safe distance away I don't want you to get caught in the crossfire. Leave it to me, I'll show you the hope you guys have wanted."
Slowly walking up to the gates I conjured a blue translucent gauntlet on my right hand and applied the "rupture" aspect onto it. As I got closer the fishman group in front of me sneered at my confidence, completely believing they would never lose to some puny human. I started feeding energy into my gauntlet, then into my legs making the ground slightly crack with my every step.
From experience I know that to successfully fight a group there are three steps. First break chaos into the group so they can't organize, second pick off the weakest, and third finish off the rest. With my attack ready to go the group in front of me no longer looked as confident, intimidated by the glowing gauntlet.
I jumped high into the air passing over the gate completely and making my way into the center square of their base. With all my physical strength I plunged my fist to the ground with a devastating impact. I hit the ground and created fissures all around me. Then I unleash the energy in my gauntlet.
Light blue energy erupted from the fissures and caused a large explosion sending the fishmen flying left and right. The towering building that proudly stood like a monument soon came crashing to the ground. Meanwhile I had already left the area by flashing to a blade I threw in the air earlier.
Once I made it back to the ground I looked at the destruction I had caused. The field was full of broken rubble and the pool leading to the ocean was filled with debris and the remains of the building. The Arlong pirates were not so fortunate, many were crushed underneath and others were strewn around here and there. While I would like to feel confident with the results, that attack alone cost me two-thirds of my stamina. Hopefully I will only have to worry about Arlong now…
As if on queue a man with blue skin, a saw-like nose, shark-like teeth and long black hair broke out of the rubble. Looking at me with absolute hatred and bloodshot eyes, he shouted at me, "YOU! FILTHY HUMAN! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE! RAAAAAA! YOU'LL PAY!!!"
Meanwhile I responded with the only words that could come to mind at the moment, "Hello there."
-Meanwhile with the villagers-
They were in absolute shock, their mouths comically falling to the ground. After all, in the matter of seconds Arlong Park had become nothing but rubble before their very eyes. They soon began to cry tears of joy at the sight. Meanwhile, little Silk started pulling on Nojiko's hand to grab her attention. With a smug smile on her face and her chest puffed out proudly she spoke, "See, see! I told you my Papa is the strongest!"
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone