Chapter 59: You Guys Took Your Sweet Time!
Leaving Shark Town and walking along the main road for a short while, Lufia suddenly stopped in her tracks.
"Hmm?" She tilted her head and looked ahead.
Ralph and Sanji followed her gaze.
A boy around ten years old was walking toward them along the road.
Dried blood still stained his forehead, and he clutched a cutlass tightly in his hand. His expression was particularly complex—the pain that follows rage, mixed with resentment.
When the boy spotted the Fish-man being dragged behind Ralph, his eyes widened instantly.
"A Fish-man... It's a Fish-man!"
As if recalling terrible memories, he shouted and charged forward, raising the cutlass with both hands to strike the unconscious Fish-man!
"Damn Fish-man! Die—!"
Just as the cutlass was about to descend, a hand reached out from the side and grabbed the boy by the collar.
"Hey."
Sanji's voice rang out, "This isn't something a kid like you should be doing."
With a light lift, the boy was hoisted into the air, his legs kicking wildly.
"Let me go! Let me go!" The boy struggled, his eyes fixed fiercely on the Fish-man on the ground. "I'm going to kill him! Kill these damned Fish-men!"
Lufia walked up to the boy, crouched down, and met his eyes at his level:
"Who are you? Why do you want to kill Fish-men?"
The boy gasped for breath, tears suddenly welling up:
"My name is Chabo... I'm a resident of Shark Town... The Fish-man Arlong destroyed my village and killed my father... I'm going to Arlong Park to kill Arlong and avenge my father!"
His voice choked with emotion, but his grip on the cutlass remained tight.
Lufia blinked and pointed in the direction the boy had come from:
"But... isn't the direction you came from Arlong Park?"
She thought for a moment and suddenly understood:
"Oh! I get it—did you get lost too?"
The boy's face flushed bright red.
He lowered his head awkwardly and muttered softly:
"I... I had already reached the entrance of Arlong Park... but a scary woman stopped me. She said Arlong wouldn't meet someone like me... She beat me up and chased me away..."
As he spoke, he grew more aggrieved and began to exaggerate:
"That woman was carrying a golden rod, and she had orange hair... So ugly, so mean, so terrifying! She's practically a witch!"
Sanji's face instantly darkened.
"You little brat..." His voice dropped dangerously low, "Who did you just say... was ugly?"
Chabo, not yet realizing the situation, continued to complain:
"That witch! With orange hair, so fierce, and she hit m—"
Thump!
Sanji's fist lightly tapped Chabo on the head.
"Listen carefully,"
Sanji said through gritted teeth, "That lady is our ship's Navigator, Miss Nami! She is the most beautiful woman in the East Blue—no, in the entire world... one of them! If you dare speak ill of Miss Nami again, you little brat, I'll kick you into the sea, got it?"
Chabo froze.
He looked at Sanji, then at Lufia and Ralph, and suddenly understood something:
"You... you're with that witch? You're all lackeys of the Fish-men?!"
As soon as he said it, he himself felt something was off:
"But... why are you dragging a Fish-man?"
Ralph released the Fish-man's foot, letting it thud to the ground.
"We attacked this Fish-man."
He spread his hands, "To prevent the Fish-man Pirates from taking their anger out on other villagers, we chose to bring it along. As for where we're going..."
Ralph paused, looking toward the faintly visible outline of buildings ahead:
"We're going to Arlong Park, to deal with those Fish-men."
Chabo's eyes lit up.
But then, confusion appeared on his face:
"If you're here to deal with Fish-men... then why did that woman stop me from killing Arlong?"
Ralph sighed.
He walked up to Chabo, crouched down, and met the blood-covered boy at eye level:
"Simple—because what you're doing is suicide."
Chabo became agitated: "I'm not afraid to die!"
"Right," Ralph nodded, "Once you've made up your mind, you should be unafraid of death to accomplish it. But your goal isn't to die."
He pointed at the knife in the boy's hand:
"Your goal is revenge. When you lack the ability, you should choose to endure. Because once you're dead, your goal can never be achieved."
Chabo's eyes reddened:
"Endure? Until when? Until I grow up and can't even remember what my father looked like?"
Ralph was silent for a few seconds.
"At least until you have the ability to achieve your goal," he said slowly, "or... until you can achieve your goal using someone else's ability."
Chabo lowered his head, looking at the knife in his hand.
He knew he didn't have the ability now.
...
The boy raised his head, with a final hope in his eyes:
"You'll help me, right?"
Ralph rubbed his chin.
"Our situation... can't really be called 'helping'."
Sanji laughed nearby:
"Our situation is called 'going the same way'"
Lufia also nodded, her expression serious:
"That's right, we have our own reasons for defeating Arlong, but it has nothing to do with you."
After speaking, the three continued east along the main road.
Ralph started dragging the Fish-man again, Sanji lit a cigarette, and Lufia bounced along at the front.
Chabo stood in place, stunned for a few seconds.
Then, gritting his teeth, he followed.
"Hey!" Sanji looked back, "Kid, don't follow us."
Chabo didn't speak, just silently followed behind, maintaining a distance of three to four meters.
Lufia glanced back and grinned:
"If he wants to follow, let him!"
Ralph didn't speak, just quickened his pace.
Sanji shrugged and also sped up.
The three walked faster and faster, until they were almost jogging.
Strangely, although Chabo was young, he wasn't slow at all. Gritting his teeth, he desperately moved his two legs and actually kept up with the trio's pace.
The journey gradually turned into a race.
They passed through an orange grove, went by Cocoyasi Village, and continued running forward.
Finally, the outline of buildings appeared ahead.
"Is that... Arlong Park?" Sanji narrowed his eyes.
Lufia was already striding toward the main gate.
Ralph dragged the Fish-man along.
But as they approached the gate, all three sensed something wrong.
It was too quiet.
...
"There's the smell of blood," Sanji said quietly.
Lufia directly pushed open the gate.
"Creak—"
The sound of the door hinge turning was particularly jarring in the silence.
The scene inside made everyone freeze in their tracks.
In the courtyard of Arlong Park, a dozen or so bodies lay scattered in disarray... no, a dozen or so "fish" bodies.
Fish-man corpses.
Some had fallen by the pond, others lay sprawled across the corridor, each bearing fatal sword wounds.
Clean and precise, each strike lethal.
And right in the center of this chaotic scene of fallen fish-men, on a bench beside the pond, sat a figure.
Green hair, a torso wrapped in bandages, the white Wado Ichimonji held close to his chest.
It was Zoro.
"You're really slow to arrive!"
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