Arlong Park fell into an eerie calm. Only the steam rolling off Luffy refused to fade.
"Rare sight. A Devil Fruit user, huh?"
Arlong finally spoke. Truth be told, Luffy had startled him. As a pirate who'd prowled the Grand Line, his horizons weren't small.
How scarce were Devil Fruit users?
He'd been in the East Blue for decades and this was his first.
"I've changed my mind. You can join us," Arlong said, spreading his arms with a laugh. "Just like Nami—become one of us!"
"Nami is my navigator," Luffy answered, dead serious. "She has been since she boarded, and she always will be."
"Heh—hahahaha!"
Arlong roared, his officers with him.
"Did you see the tattoo on her arm? She's been one of the Arlong Pirates for ten years. Look—this is the mark!"
Chew bared his own tattooed arm.
"What if she were the only one with it?"
Luffy leveled a hand at Chew's arm, voice flat.
"Like this."
A crack of impact. Chew shrieked; the tattooed arm was severed in an instant.
Nami clasped a hand over her mouth, as though a void inside her had just been filled.
"What did you do to my crewmate, human?!" Arlong bellowed. A rabid supremacist, he saw fish-men as above all, and humans as vile inferiors.
"This is only the beginning."
Luffy's eyes stayed cold on Arlong. "You'll feel it too."
"Humans like you—"
"Don't get cocky!"
The fish-men snarled. Since coming to the East Blue, no one had dared give them face like this.
Arlong moved to step in himself. He'd seen it: Luffy was no pushover—Chew's arm proved that. Letting the others attack would be a waste.
"Go grab Nami. This no-name is mine," Arlong grinned. "I'll show you the power of a pirate worth twenty million Berries."
Luffy moved.
But his target wasn't Arlong. It was the fish-men around him.
Pay them back in their own coin.
It was a truth he'd grasped after cramming his head with books these past days. An empty skull had found a door to a new world once it was packed with knowledge.
Fish-men had ten times a human's arm strength?
Too bad he wasn't a normal human.
Luffy's speed was savage.
Gum-Gum Jet Pistol.
Gum-Gum Jet Bazooka.
Gum-Gum Jet Whip.
The upgraded blows were strong enough to flatten men who could harden their bodies like iron—these grunts didn't last a heartbeat. Beasts they might be, but before an apex predator, beasts still felt fear. Chew was already maimed; Kuroobi's chest was punched through.
Arlong was coming unglued.
"Fight me head-on if you dare!"
Moments ago the park had rung with mocking laughter; now it was dead silent.
Why was a foe like this in the East Blue?
A Devil Fruit awakened to this degree should be in the New World already!
"What's the rush?" Luffy grinned. "You're last."
For the first time, he felt the beauty of raw stats.
Days ago, Captain Kuro wouldn't have gone down this easily. Keep the headspace he'd had at the start of the voyage, and a fight with Arlong would have dragged on.
Turns out the hellish regimen had its perks.
One hour of sleep. One minute to eat.
A single-core brain had been force-fed every odd scrap of knowledge until it could keep up with relentless Devil Fruit development.
This was the payoff.
"Your turn."
Arlong, wild-eyed, hacked about with his saw-sword.
"Gum-Gum Jet… Gatling!"
The huge body was hammered midair into the wall of the great building.
"Die!" A red glint flashed in Luffy's eyes. The emblem branded over Arlong's chest—the symbol of his rule—was punched straight through.
How could this be?
Arlong stared, disbelieving.
Fish-men were supposed to be the noble race.
[Extra reward time acquired.]
[For the next three minutes, Armament Haki proficiency will increase significantly.]
"Armament Haki, huh?" Luffy had begun to tell the flavors apart: the brawling drills with Zoro nudged his Armament forward; lessons in navigation with Nami and shooting theory with Usopp, the strain on his mind—those honed his Observation.
He still didn't fully grasp what Haki was.
But a reward was a reward—and he'd take it.
"Nami! I never agreed to let you disembark."
"Sail with me!"
Luffy flashed her a grin.
Then he turned on the building before him, fists blurring again and again.
"Gum-Gum… Gatling!"
If a symbol existed, he would erase it utterly.