Chương 8: Listen Up!

"Burp! Ahh, that was satisfying!" said Jhin with a big smile. But Bartolomeo, who as beside him wasn't feeling good. His face looked terrible and it seemed he really wants to kill someone.

"My money... my money... my money... no money... Shit!" Bartolomeo could only grumble. He did not have the guts to say it to Jhin.

Earlier...

"Boss, how much was all of it?" Jhin asked the restaurant owner. He has just finished eating.

"N-No need to pay." answered the boss while trembling a little. He really needed them to pay, but his instinct were telling him not to. He imagined that if he let them pay, something even more terrible will happen to him and his little restaurant.

"Just tell me how much was it, tell me honestly. A good food must be praised an be paid." Jhin said. Jhin was still not used in robbing or stealing things. That's what pirates do, right? In his previous life, he has not even stolen a single thing. As all of the things he wants, he will buy.

"8,650 Belly." said the owner. His heart relaxed a little.

"Okay. Oh, Bartolomeo, pay the man." said Jhin casually.

"What did you say?!" Bartolomeo got angry. As a small thug, he did make money, but not enough to lived richly.

...

"Stop sulking already! Let's go! Nyahaha!" Hearing this, Bartolomeo was exasperated and helpless. All of his hard earned money was lost in a second.

"So... where is your ship. If your ship is crappy, Hmph... I'll leave immediately, even if you kill me!" Bartolomeo snorted. He found a way to get out of this. He already instructed his subordinates to ride in the pirate ship they robbed. He also explained that the recruitment is over since he was going to become a pirate.

They reached the port of the island where 2 ships were anchored side by side. The one looked normal while the other looked creepy.

When Bartolomeo looked at the ship, he was shocked. Even with pirates, it is still rare to see a really creepy ship. It looked like a ghost ship, well, it is, technically. Good thing he changed the tattered sails, or else...

"What is with that ship? So creepy.." said Bartolomeo and even shivered a little.

"That is my ship, I call it the Golden Black Pearl. Or just Pearl. Cool, right?" Said Jhin proudly.

"This is just the imitation of the legendary Black Pearl. We need to hurry to Water 7 and get it upgraded. Or else, it would be wrecked easily." There are many mysterious and dangerous place at the Grand Line. Even the entrance, Reverse Mountain is already so dangerous. Dangerous that it crushed hundreds maybe thousands of ships.

"Water 7? Where is that?" As a little local thug, Bartolomeo have barely any understanding of the Grand Line.

"It is in Paradise, Grand Line." As he said that, trace of excitement filled his eyes.

"Okay.. You don't have a Jolly Roger?" Bartolomeo noticed that the sail was pure black.

"Not yet. I do not have a trademark of my own yet." said Jhin. He jumped on the Pearl and Bartolomeo followed but he did not jumped. He created a stair with his devil fruit ability and walked on to the ship leisurely.

"This.. Although this ship looks creepy, it is actually good." Bartolomeo was amazed.

"Let's Go!" they lowered the sails and pulled the anchor. And sailed against the wind.

Jhin wanted to go to the floating restaurant, Baratie but he changed his mind. What would he do if he gets there. Even if he wanted to invite Sanji to join his crew, Sanji is still too young. And the other chefs in the Baratie are old men.

As for a chef, Jhin already got one on his mind. But he needs to go to Conomi Island and visit the Arlong Park!

They easily got the map to Conomi Island from the boss of the restaurant. Jhin tried to integrate it with the system map, but it did not work. It seems that he needed to explore the place himself for the system to generate a map.

...

Loguetown marine Base!

"Pere pere pere pere." A den den mushi in the corner of a room repeatedly and it only stopped when Smoker finally talked. There was still 2 cigars on his mouth.

"This is Smoker." he said through the den den mushi.

"Smoker-taichou! The pirate ship from Orange town moved. But it seems to be going to a different Island. What should we do captain?" said a manly voice from the den den mushi.

"How many are on the pirate ship?" asked Smoker.

"Two... There are only two, Captain!" answered the man on the other line.

"Two, you say?! Then why bother reporting?! You could have taken care of it yourself!" shouted Smoker angrily.

"It is because we were not sure if it was really a pirate ship. It has no Jolly roger and it was really creepy." answered the man. His voice was shaking a little.

"What do you mean?!"

The man on the other line began describing the Pearl to Smoker. When the call finally ended, He again sat on his desk. At this time, a knock came from his door.

"Enter!"

A young navy soldier entered the room and saluted Smoker. It was the same young navy soldier from before.

"Captain, the army is ready!" The young navy soldier again reported.

"Good! The battle will be delayed for at least a week or a little longer. Wait for me, I will personally instruct them. You're dismissed!" commanded Smoker. When he was stationed here, every Pirate who passed in this island were caught. Never has been anyone to escape.

...

Six Days later, they could already see the shadow of an Island. As they got closer, they could also see a tall building right after you walk in the entrance.

"Arlong Park!" said Jhin. "This is Arlong Park, ever been here before, Bartolomeo?" Asked Jhin. After this 6 days of traveling together, Bartolomeo's attitude towards Jhin changed. There was already respect in his voice when they talk to each other.

Jhin forced Bartolomeo to learn how to use his Devil Fruit abilities. He gave him some ideas on how to use his Bari Bari no Mi. What he did not know was that Jhin only got that ideas from the future Bartolomeo. All of his abilities today were still the same when gets older. It's just that it was weaker and has smaller range.

Jhin 'gave' him the idea of coating his other hand with a sphere of force field making his punches more powerful. The reason it only works on one hand is because Bartolomeo needs to cross his middle and the index finger in order for his Devil Fruit Ability to activate.

Jhin tried attacking the barrier head on but he could not break it. It was like an invincible wall. But right now, Bartolomeo's range of attack was just a 4 meters. In the anime, it was not shown exactly what his total limit was but it was way larger than today.

"No... I only heard some rumors about someone called Arlong. They say he's a merman." said Barto casually. He already knew that they are here to recruit a chef for the ship. And since they have been eating basic cooked fish for 4 days, he strongly agreed to Jhin that they really need a cook in the ship.

"Drop the Anchor." Jhin instructed, which Bartolomeo immediately did. They are already right before the gate. The Arlong Park was located just beside the ocean, it was only protected by some wall. The

Arlong Park was not really a park, it was more like a base of Arlong's operation. It had only a single large building that has 6 floors. There was 3 separate pools that was connected directly to the ocean. The back of the Park was surrounded with rice farms.

Arlong Pirates only take in mermen. The only exception was Nami because of her navigation skills.

And since the enemy was fellow pirate, he won't be nice either.

"Prepare to rush in!" Jhin said.

"Ok!" Knowing that they were gonna cause some big trouble, Barto got excited.

They jumped over the wall and landed on the cemented ground. Jhin exerted his muscles performed a back flip in the air and made a stomping gesture.

Bang! Bricks flew around everywhere. Even the land vibrated a little before finally calming down.

"That was a nice leap, Hehehe!" Bartolomeo's creepy laugh echoed.

"Listen up, people of Arlong Park!" Jhin shouted on top of his lungs. His voice echoed to every corner of the park as he walked towards the shade. He already sensed earlier that there were several presence. Probably around 15 people in total.

...

In the shade, several people were present. But the majority was fishmen and the remaining 4 were humans. Not just any humans, they are wearing marine clothes. There was even the guy seating, his clothes were for the position of captain. They were discussing their business transactions when they heard the loud bang, followed by that shout.

"Listen up, people of Arlong Park!"

When Jhin and Bartolomeo finally reached the shade, Jhin continued.

"I am-" Jhin did not finish his words as it was interrupted.

"You... Who allowed you to ent-" a muscular, blue skinned, and thick lipped fishman suddenly spoke but he also was not able to finish. It was because he felt a terrifying pressure coming from the young man.

"When someone is talking, you should not interrupt!" shouted Jhin. He released level 1 Conqueror's Haki.

"Alright! Women in the left! All men on the right!" seeing that no one moved, Jhin did not mind.

"I'll count to ten! I'll start killing if you are late by 1 count! ..... One!" He slowly released level 2 Conqueror's Haki. He wanted to pressure them to the point that no one will dare to resist.

Bartolomeo who was watching was impressed. He never expected Jhin to this. From the moment Jhin released his Haki, nobody dared to make a move nor have the courage to speak.

"Two!... Young lady there at the top! Are you sure you don't want to come down here?!" Jhin raised his head to look at the top of the 6 floor building that was designed like an inverted cone. There was a small room there and Jhin guessed that it was probably Nami.

In the show, Nami was basically locked up by Arlong to do many paper works and map navigation. He did not overly mistreat her and even considered her as one of the special ones among humans.

Why is Jhin doing this? It was because he did not want to kill, not yet. He only needs to kill those he need to. He came here to recruit Hatchan aka Hatchi, as his cook.