Nami's calm voice echoed throughout Arlong Park.
For a moment, the air fell completely silent.
All the fishmen looked toward Arlong, this was a scene none of them had ever imagined witnessing.
Now only two choices lay before Arlong.
First: take the 100 million berries that Nami had brought, acknowledge the deal, and watch her buy back her village's freedom.
Or the second choice...
His gaze slowly shifted away from the chest filled with 100 million berries. His eyes fixed on Nezumi, who couldn't help but shudder. This was the moment of truth, would their partnership hold, or would Arlong throw him under the bus?
He lowered his head, staring at the money in his arms. Then, as if sudden inspiration struck him, he stood up and cleared his throat twice.
"Wait just a minute!" He pointed at Nami's chest of money. "Isn't that the money stolen from my warship? Nami, I strongly advise you to return the 100 million berries you stole from the Marines immediately! Even if you are a member of the Arlong Pirates, I won't let this crime slide!"
Nami looked at Nezumi.
"Shameless."
"That's what I should be saying to you! In the past you only targeted pirates, but now you even steal from Marine funds! Arlong, is this really how you control your crew members?! Give me a proper explanation and hand over those 100 million berries, and I'll be generous enough to overlook this incident!"
He delivered those words with perfect self-importance, as if he truly believed in the justice he was supposedly representing.
Some of the fishmen couldn't help but burst into laughter.
Hearing them laughing, Nezumi's face twisted slightly, but he forced himself to endure it. This charade had to be maintained.
Arlong, meanwhile, understood exactly what Nezumi was doing. He didn't bother hiding the contempt in his eyes as he looked at the pathetic human, but casually reached over and took Nami's treasure chest, tossing it to Nezumi like it was worthless garbage.
"This is my oversight. Don't worry, it won't happen again."
"That's more like it! In that case, I'll be taking my leave now!" Nezumi said, clutching the chest as he prepared to make his exit.
But before he could take more than a few steps, a sudden voice brought all laughter to an abrupt halt.
"Wow, no Oscar for you guys."
Every eye in the park searched for the source.
Then, without warning, a perfectly square opening appeared in the ground near where Nami stood.
A man jumped up from the underground passage.
"Who the hell are you?!" Arlong snarled.
All the fishmen immediately went on high alert.
Marcus completely ignored them, walking calmly to Nami's side.
"You ready for this?" he asked her quietly.
"Yeah..."
The two spoke to each other as if no one else existed.
In the next instant, the ground began to crack beneath everyone's feet.
The fishmen stared as the fissures spread instantly across the entire courtyard, creating a spiderweb pattern.
"What the hell?!"
CRASH!
The ground completely shattered and collapsed, creating a massive sinkhole. All the fishmen, along with several buildings from Arlong Park, plummeted straight into the abyss that had suddenly opened beneath them.
At the bottom of the pit was a square passage, and standing within it was a familiar group of people.
The Straw Hat Pirates had been waiting.
"They really all fell down... Devil Fruit powers sure are incredible." Sanji said, cigarette dangling from his lips.
The others in the crew were already used to Marcus' abilities, but the sheer scale of this trap still impressed them.
The fishmen who survived the fall, after a brief moment of disorientation, quickly scrambled back to their feet. A drop of less than thirty meters wasn't nearly enough to kill creatures as physically powerful as they were, though it certainly hadn't done them any favors.
Arlong immediately spotted the Straw Hats waiting below, as well as the man who had appeared and was now helping Nami down into the pit.
"NAMI! So these are the helpers you brought?"
"ARLONG! I'm gonna send you flying!"
The moment those words left his mouth, Luffy launched himself forward with a Gum-Gum Rocket punch aimed directly at the shark fishman's face.
The two clashed in the center of the pit, and the real battle began.
Seeing their captain under attack, the other fishmen immediately prepared to join the fight.
Kuroobi squared off against Sanji, recognizing him as a martial artist worthy of his attention.
Hatchan found himself facing Zoro, who was already drawing his swords.
But Chew didn't immediately engage Usopp as might have been expected. Instead, his eyes were fixed on Marcus from the moment he'd appeared.
He immediately fired a high-pressure water bullet directly at Marcus.
SPLAT!
The water projectile hit Marcus in the head.
"What the fuck?! I got headshotted at the very start?" Marcus wiped the water off his face.
Chew stared in shock. His water bullets could punch through solid rock and had more power than most pistols. A direct headshot should have at least knocked the guy unconscious, if not killed him outright. What the hell was that skull made of?!
Nami was equally stunned by what she'd just witnessed. Everything had happened so fast, one moment they were falling into the pit, the next Marcus was tanking attacks.
But in the very next instant, Chew's head suddenly erupted in an explosion of smoke and flame.
Usopp had recovered from his initial surprise and taken aim at Chew.
Alvida hefted her iron mace and laughed. "I knew your body was tough, but that's just ridiculous!"
Kira called out with concern, "Are you okay? That looked like it hurt!"
"You're Chew, right? Usopp! Leave him to me, you handle the other fishmen!"
Usopp shifted his targeting away from Chew, focusing his slingshot on the other fishmen instead.
He swallowed nervously as he watched the enemies. "Falling from that height and they're all still able to fight... these guys really are monsters!"
Then he pulled back his slingshot and began providing sniper cover, exactly what his role demanded.
"Guess we're joining the party too. I heard fishmen are ten times stronger than humans," Alvida said as she leaped down into the pit to join the battle.
Kira hesitated for just a moment, then jumped in behind her, not wanting to be left out of the fight.
In the end, only Nami and Usopp remained at the edge of the pit, witnessing the battle from above.
Marcus walked step by step toward Chew.
"So you're the one called Chew… like the Chew-Chew Train?"
"Despicable!" Chew snarled, already preparing another water bullet attack.
"Despicable... Me? You fishmen rob Nami blind, then strut around handing her money to the corrupt Marines in public, and I'm the despicable one? That's some serious projection there, Thomas. Oh, and by the way… Thomas is a blue train"
"Ptooey!"
Another water bullet shot out.
Marcus instantly summoned an iron sword from his inventory and slashed the projectile apart in midair, the water bursting around him.
Without hesitation, he closed the distance and prepared for close combat.
But Chew didn't even have time to resist. Marcus slashed him multiple times, leaving him collapsed on the ground.
Marcus frowned as he looked down at his defeated opponent.
Seriously? That's it?
And it wasn't just his fight that had ended so quickly. Sanji and Zoro were having similarly easy times with their opponents.
Kuroobi and Hatchan were proving to be no match for the Straw Hat crew's combat specialists. Even Kira was managing to hold her own against the weaker fishmen grunts.
This was way easier than Marcus had expected based on the original story he remembered.
"What the hell? They're supposed to be way stronger than this..."
If Chew had been conscious and able to speak, he probably would have raged: "Try falling thirty meters yourself! We went from full health to multiple broken bones! The fact that we can still stand and fight shows how tough we fishmen are! If humans had taken that fall, they'd be dead on impact!"
Arlong noticed how quickly his crew was being defeated, and his instincts kicked into overdrive.
He broke away from his fight with Luffy and charged into Arlong Park's main building, emerging moments later with his signature weapon, a massive saw-blade sword.
But his target wasn't Luffy or any of the other fighters. Instead, he aimed directly at the stone wall of the pit.
"Trapping us in an underground pit was your biggest mistake!" Arlong roared as he brought his weapon down.
The logic was sound: they were right next to the sea, and if he could break through the wall, the entire pit would flood. Fishmen could fight underwater, while humans would drown.
He swung with everything he had, expecting the stone barrier to crumble under the assault of his powerful blade.
But the expected destruction didn't happen.
Only small cracks appeared in the wall, and right before his eyes, those cracks disappeared within seconds.
"What? What is this!" He couldn't comprehend what he was seeing.
But he didn't have time to puzzle it out, as the next instant brought a raging storm of rubber punches.
Luffy's Gum-Gum Gatling overwhelmed Arlong's defenses, sending him flying through the air.
Eventually, bruised and battered, Arlong crashed back down into the pit.