บท 99: Flying Fish Riders
"You know Hatchin? Are you friends?" Camie asked wit a curious smile and a tilt of the head.
"Ah, well... um..." Nami felt awkward now. "We're not friends. When Hachi was in Arlong's crew, he helped him hurt a lot of people I care about."
"What?" Camie was becoming despondent. "S-so you won't help him?"
"No, we won't help that guy." Zoro spoke plainly.
"A-alright. I'll just have to save him by myself!" Camie slapped her face and hopped over to the edge of the ship and jumped overboard.
*CHOMP*
Then a sea king swallowed her whole before she hit the water.
"""AHHHHH! SHE GOT EATEN AGAIN!""" They shouted.
After a quick rescue operation, Camie was back on the deck of the ship in a depressed mood.
"I'm useless. I can't even swim in the ocean let alone save Hatchin..." Camie said with tears threatening the edges of her eyes.
"I guess there's nothing for it. We'll save Hachi. At least he never personally harmed anyone in my hometown, even if he supported Arlong." Nami sighed.
Camie leapt onto Nami with a hug and streams of tears sprayed out of her eyes like water hoses. "THANK YOUUUU!"
Since Nami agreed, no one else had any objections to saving Hachi from the slavers.
Camie called out to the ocean and spoke with a school of fish who came to the surface.
"They'll lead halfway to the Flying Fish Riders' base. They won't go any further though, because they're scary." Camie explained.
"Oh, mermaids can talk to fish? Sort of like how Chopper can talk to land animals, though I suppose he IS a land animal. Yohohoho!" Brook said.
They followed the fish for a while, but suddenly the fish scattered. Soon the reason became apparent when they saw a few men riding some sort of flying fish.
"It seems they intend to do hit and run tactics to attack us." Cherry observed. "Cabernet, teach them who rules the sky."
A sudden gust of wind battered against them and Cabernet had vanished.
*Splash Splash Splash*
The three Flying Fish Riders plunged into the ocean. The flying fish themselves were unharmed and ran away back to where they came, abandoning their riders.
The crew fished the unconscious riders out of the ocean. Cabernet was already back on the ship.
Once they were tied up, Cherry taps each one on the forehead in succession. They slowly came to consciousness and groggily looked around.
"Wake up, sunshine." Cherry lightly slapped the cheek of the one who had had the den den mushi.
"MmmMMm?!" The poor man was awfully confused as he tried to speak through his gag. One moment he was about to capture some pirates for a sweet payday and the next he was the one who was caught!
*Purururu*
The den den mushi rang. Cherry answered it.
"Come back to base. Let the Straw Hats come to us." A voice said through the den den mushi.
"We're coming alright, but your boys will be staying with us." Cherry answered.
"Who is this?" The voice asked.
"Harpin D. Cherry, along with the Straw Hat pirates. You'll give us the octopus fishman and we'll let your boys live, how does that sound?" Cherry asked nonchalantly.
"What?! W-well, if you kill them I'll just kill the fishman!" The voice spoke without much confidence.
"Okay, then. If that's how you want to do it." Cherry hung up the receiver.
"AHHHH! He's going to kill Hatchin?!" Camie panicked instantly.
*Purururu*
Cherry answered it.
"DON'T DO IT! I WON'T KILL THE FISHMAN, I PROMISE!" The man screamed through the den den mushi.
"Oh, you changed your mind? Alright, let's do the exchange instead then." Cherry said calmly.
"F-fine, just hurry up! I don't have all day!" The man on the other end hung up this time.
Camie let out a deep breath in relief.
They pressed onwards and soon saw their destination on the horizon. It was a stone dock built in a shallow portion of the ocean in a crescent moon shape with a number of wooden buildings with straw rooves.
As they got closer, a cage could be seen suspended over the water containing the ink soaked figure of Hachi. No one else could be seen on the structure.
"There are three fishmen in the water and a few dozen more people riding those flying fish deeper down. There's one person hiding amongst the buildings with a large animal as well." Cherry naturally found them all easily.
"I'm over here, Camie! Don't worry I'm okay!" Hachi said.
"Hatchin why are you all black, did you get burned?" Camie exclaimed.
"Maybe they were roasting him for lunch." Robin commented, to Camie's increasing horror.
"No, this is... nevermind that! This is a trap, you have to get away from here!" Hachi warned.
"No! I'm going to save you!" Camie tried to jump into the water, but was caught by Cabernet.
"They're waiting in the water, remember Camie-chin?" Cabernet explained patiently.
"AH! I forgot..." Camie stuck her tongue out and tapped her head with her knuckles.
A warbling sound of flying sword slashes rang out from Cherry towards Hachi's cage.
"AHHHH?!" Hachi saw his whole life flash before his eyes.
The cage and the ropes binding Hachi was cut away without leaving a scratch on him, and he plopped into the water free from his bindings.
Cherry saw that the ambushers below started to move, so she and Cabernet threw their three hostages in different directions into the ocean. Still bound by ropes and gags, they naturally wouldn't be able to swim.
As expected, a few of the flying fish riders broke off from the main group to save their comrades whilst the rest rushed upwards to fight.
The three fishmen were quickly taken care of by Hachi, then the battle started in earnest.
It was very chaotic as there were quite a few of the flying fish riders, but they didn't stand a chance against these battle harden pirates.
At some point Luffy fell from high in the air into the building with the lone man and animal. He came running back out with the man riding the animal on his tail.
The Flying Fish Riders' leader, Iron Mask Duval, started to rant about getting his long awaited revenge against Sanji, but annoyingly didn't elaborate on how Sanji had wronged him.
Luffy eventually got fed up with it and kicked his helmet off, revealing his face. Shock and surprise washed over the Straw Hats. His face looked just like the terrible artist rendition of Sanji's face on his wanted poster. Now it all made sense, he'd been falsely attributed to Sanji's crimes.
"Wow, Sanji. Why didn't you tell me you had an identical twin brother?" Cherry asked, keeping a straight face.
"Geh!" Her words pierced into him like a thousand swords. Immediately he jumped into action, kicking Duval across the face.
"Did you even consider all the easy ways to change your appearance?! Like a different hair style?!" Sanji shouted annoyed.
"Oh, yeah I guess I could have!" Duval was enlightened, but he didn't care. He just wanted revenge.
The battle raged on once more. Franky unveiled another weapon of the Thousand Sunny, the Gaon Cannon that was hidden in the figurehead's mouth, which shattered the buildings in front of the ship and knocked out many of the flying fish riders.
Sanji got caught in an iron net, but he tore the net apart with a haki coated kick. Then he finished off the battle by kicking Duval in the face repeatedly and at a progressively faster rate. Finally Duval collapsed the the ground unconscious.
They all got back on the ship once everything calmed down and followed Camie's directions to reach the Sabaody Archipelago, where they would be able to start the descent to Fishman Island.
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