…
Clink!
The wheel settled across my hand as Arlong rolled his shoulders with a satisfying crack sound.
"You promised her something, didn't you?"
I looked at him.
His sharp grin widened. "Nami wouldn't just bring people here. She doesn't trust humans."
Nami's face tightened.
Arlong looked past me toward her. "So what did he promise you?"
"Don't talk to her, fish", I exclaimed
His eyes returned to me. "Oh?"
"You heard me."
Arlong laughed. "You come into my home, break my gate, throw one of my officers through two walls, and now you give orders?" "
"Yeah, what you gonna do about it? "
Several fish-men started muttering behind him. Hatchan still held his swords, with the others strapped around his waist. Chew had moved away from his table entirely and was watching now, arms folded, and Kuroobi was still somewhere inside the building reconsidering the structural integrity of Arlong Park.
RIP gang.
Although nobody looked particularly worried as of yet.
Arlong then started his attack, and there wasn't much ceremony to it. One moment I had my fists raised, the next his fist folded into my stomach and the courtyard became a blur of broken wood and stone. I hit the wall beside the entrance hard enough to crater it, barely got my feet underneath me, and found Arlong already standing there.
His palm covered most of my face.
"Oh, fu-"
My head went through the wall.
"Kai!" Nami exclaimed.
"I'm good!" I yelled.
Although it was less good when Arlong ripped me back out and threw me across the courtyard, but the general sentiment remained.
The fish-men laughed while I rolled onto my shoulder and caught myself near the pool..
Yep.
Definitely stronger than Kuroobi.
Arlong walked after me without hurrying. "You humans never understand the difference between us."
I rolled onto one knee. "Oh, good. Speech time."
His smile disappeared, and he attacked before I could fire off another insult.
Ol' mate Kuroobi had spent the better part of our fight drilling one lesson into me, intentionally or otherwise: meeting everything with more strength was pointless when your opponent was clearly stronger.
Arlong's next punch still carried enough force to smash me backwards if I caught it normally, so I didn't. I instead turned my forearm past my chest, my other hand caught his wrist, and I moved with him instead of planting myself against him.
It was Arlong's own momentum that carried him past me. I stepped across his body, hooked the arm and turned my hips.
He hit the ground and smacked into the courtyard on his back.
Technique bitch!
Arlong was soon back on his feet, but the laughter behind him had now thinned out. Hatchan's mouth was slightly open, and Chew had unfolded his arms but still kept his stupid fuckboy ahh expression.
Arlong may've had the physical upper hand, which was something I'd obviously adapt to soon.
I just had to be patient.
So when he landed properly, one shoulder-check sent me through another table because apparently Arlong had invested heavily in furniture he didn't care about.
He drove me backwards, but the last punch slipped across my forearm instead of through my chest. I caught his elbow on the way past, turned with him and planted him into the stone for the second time.
He came up swinging.
Clink!
I stepped outside it and drove my palm beneath his ribs.
Arlong moved.
Only a couple of steps, but he moved.
The courtyard quietened further.
"There we go," I muttered.
"What!?" Arlong exclaimed, confused.
I think he felt that last one. His next fist passed my cheek while mine landed in his stomach, and this time his body folded around it before a second punch lifted his feet completely from the ground.
Arlong crashed through the chairs beside Chew.
Now nobody was laughing.
I rolled my shoulder and glanced towards Nami. She wasn't watching me anymore and had her sole attention on Arlong. I think she couldn't believe she'd ever see him like this.
Arlong pushed himself out of the wreckage with blood running from the corner of his mouth, which he wiped away with his thumb, looked at the smear for a moment, then came at me with considerably less interest in proving a point.
Good.
I was ready for another punch. However, I wasn't ready for the slimy bastard to bite me!
His teeth sank through my shoulder.
"AH! FUCK!" I yelled
Arlong ripped his head sideways before I could get him off, tearing flesh with him. I shoved him away and stumbled back with one hand clamped over the wound, warm blood already running down my arm.
"You bit me!?"
"My teeth can crush cannonballs!" Arlong roared.
"WHO GOES AROUND BITING CANNONBALLS?!" I rebutted.
A few of Arlong's damaged teeth were already replacing themselves, which was in and of itself disgusting to look at.
Clink!
Fortunately, my shoulder pulled itself together beneath my hand. As the torn skin crawled closed and the bleeding slowed, the wheel gave a small shift.
Arlong saw it.
His eyes narrowed.
I rolled my shoulder, but then he lunged at me again.
Fine. Science time then.
I got my forearm between his teeth and let him clamp down.
Pain shot up my arm and his jaw flexed hard enough that I felt the pressure through the bone, but this time there was no wet tearing sound. His teeth hadn't broken through the skin and stopped in its tracks.
Arlong tried biting harder.
I looked at the arm in his mouth. I grabbed the top of his head with my free hand and drove my knee into his face.
His mouth came free, and he staggered back.
I quickly followed up. He tried to swing, and I slipped it; my elbow catching his jaw. He responded with a shoulder that cracked against my chest, but I kept close, caught his wrist and turned beneath it. Arlong hit the ground once again.
I planted my foot against his chest but then Arlong grabbed my ankle, and he ripped me off my feet and swung me directly toward the pool.
Shit!!
I twisted midair and caught the stone edge with one hand, just barely a misfortunate splash; however, I wasn't able to stop my feet from hitting the water.
Strength disappeared completely from my legs immediately.
Clink!
Never mind not completely, but I still felt a slight drain.
Arlong, for all his negatives, had keen observations.
"There it is!" He exclaimed.
I kicked myself backward before he could reach me and rolled across the courtyard, seawater dripping from my boots.
Arlong stood between me and the pool.
He smiled. "You've eaten a Devil Fruit!"
I glanced toward Nami, he face had gone pale. All she could do was look at me, concerned, so I gave her a calm smile, trying to reassure or calm her as best I could.
Her expression didn't improve though
Tough crowd, I guess.
Arlong tore a section of stone railing free and threw it at me, though I simply moved aside.
He came through the dust behind it, nose-first, and started using everything at his disposal. His fists and shoulders mixed with sudden bites and that ridiculous saw nose whenever I got too comfortable fighting at close range.
The first clean hit from it carved across my ribs and launched me through part of the outer wall, which left me lying in the rubble wondering how exactly I'd reached the point in life where getting stabbed by somebody's nose was a legitimate concern.
I left the ground. The building behind me received another unnecessary renovation as I broke through the outer wall, hit something wooden inside and bounced back into the courtyard through the same hole.
Clink!
Arlong came through the opening.
I pushed upright.
"You have a stupid nose."
He stopped.
Of all the things I'd said, that one apparently got him.
"My nose is the pride of my species!" He yelled.
That one annoyed him enough to get another charge out of him, but the second strike only scraped across my side before I turned away from the edge.
Arlong followed with a punch that destroyed the wall behind me, and I answered by driving my shoulder into his chest and forcing him backwards.
Arlong could still overpower me when he got the right position, but his opportunities kept disappearing as I'd focus more on my technique than outright power. He came after my throat, and when I knocked the hand aside, he immediately changed levels, wrapped both arms around my waist and started driving towards the pool.
Ah. I think he was starting to realise that the longer this continued, the worse it was getting. He definitely couldn't've grasped what my power was, but understood the issue with taking any longer.
I slid several feet before my heels dug into the courtyard. Arlong tightened his grip and pulled with all his strength. My boots scraped another few inches across the stone before stopping completely.
He growled and tried again.
I looked down at him.
"Bit late for that fishy boy!"
Arlong's face twisted at the name. He shifted his grip and tried lifting me; my feet left the ground by an inch.
Clink!
I locked my hands around his waist.
Arlong stopped.
"Actually," I said, "my turn!"
I lifted him.
His feet cleared the ground easily.
I straightened with him in my arms, turned away from the pool and hurled him across the courtyard. He smashed through one of the tables near Chew, wood scattered everywhere.
Arlong dragged himself out of the broken stone; Nami's lack of fear of him, which she had previously had, seemed to anger him more than anything, like she thought HE was actually going to lose.
Whatever remained of his pride in our fight ended there.
"Hatchan."
The octopus fish-man froze.
"Eh?"
"Chew."
Chew glanced towards his captain.
Arlong spat blood from his mouth.
"Kill him!"
I stared at him confusedly
Hatchan drew all six swords and Chew rolled his neck.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Can't fight alone now Mr. Fishy?"
Arlong just growled while Hatchan looked almost apologetic.
Six swords changed things immediately, although not enough that I was going to give Hatchan the satisfaction of admitting it. His involvement forced me to split my attention cause while I could read one or two blades fine, there were always another four finding some irritating angles around my guard. The first proper exchange left a few cuts across my side, back and thigh before I managed to catch one of his lower wrists and throw him off balance.
"This is bullshit!"
Hatchan smiled nervously. "I have six arms~."
"I noticed!" I said sarcastically.
Chew spat a compressed shot of seawater that slammed into my shoulder with enough force to twist me around, but the impact wasn't what mattered. Strength drained from the soaked arm almost immediately.
Clink!
I turned; water dripped from his lips.
"Oh, fuck you Bieber!"
Chew raised his brow, confused by the reference and fired again.
He spat again, but I ducked so the water bullet punched a hole through the wall behind me. Arlong came through Hatchan's guard a second later and hit me across the jaw.
Hatchan then caught me with three blades, which my body began repairing immediately, but there was a difference between healing and not being inconvenienced by getting cut six times in three seconds.
A gunshot cracked from somewhere behind them. The bullet hit my ribs and bounced.
I barely acknowledged it, as another shot passed my head.
Hatchan came in again. This time I stepped between two swords, caught his lower arm and kicked his legs from beneath him. He hit the ground in a blubbering mess of limbs.
Chew fired another water bullet, which I ducked.
It hit Hatchan, knocking him back down again.
I laughed, but then Arlong's fist caught my mouth.
Less funny.
Even with the other fishmen now involved, I felt like the fight was leaning back in my favour again. Hatchan's swords weren't cutting as they had at the start, Arlong had lost the luxury of overpowering me whenever he wanted, and I was learning to recognise the little movement Chew made before every shot, making them pointless. The seawater obviously remained annoying because even a glancing hit stole enough strength to inconvenience me, but it never stayed on me for long, and my body recovered faster each time.
Still, fractions of strength mattered when Arlong was trying to cave my skull in. I avoided another water shot and caught Arlong's punch against both hands.
His fist stopped, and I turned it aside and drove my knee into his stomach, and Arlong folded. I hammered a fist into his side, and his body flew through the stone railing beside the pool, taking half of it with him before crashing into the courtyard beyond.
Hatchan's swords then came down.
Three scraped uselessly across my back.
I grabbed two of his wrists, turned and threw him directly into Chew.
Both disappeared into a stack of chairs.
"Stay down!" I growled..
Arlong climbed from the rubble. For the first time since I arrived, he didn't have his usual arrogant face.
He genuinely looked frustrated.
"You human piece of shit!"
His voice came lower.
I cracked my neck.
"Me?" I said, pointing to my chest
A sound then cut across the courtyard.
BWOOOOOOOM! (idk how to write the sound of a horn, is this right?)
The sound rolled through Arlong Park.
Everyone stopped.
I turned towards the fish-man near the rear wall who had a large horn pressed against his mouth. He lowered it when he noticed me staring.
"What was that?"
I looked at Arlong.
His mouth curled.
Reinforcements then?
Great.
"How many more of you are there?" I sighed getting slightly fed up.
Something moved beneath the water.
At first I thought it was the pool settling after Arlong had destroyed half the railing, but the vibration grew into a deeper rushing sound from beyond the wall. Water began sloshing over the broken edge.
Nami's face went white.
That was concerning.
"Kai, move!"
The water exploded behind me..
Oh, for fuck's sake.
How did I forget about the FUCKING SEA COW?!
Its massive striped body rose over the wall with seawater pouring from its scales, horns cutting through the spray and a mouth large enough to eat my first boat without chewing
"HOLY SHIT!" I screamed as sixteen tons of aquatic mammal came down before there was anywhere useful to go.
The impact destroyed the courtyard beneath me.
Stone blew away in every direction as my body was driven flat into it, something in my chest cracking under the sudden weight. For several seconds I couldn't make out much beyond Momoo's confused groaning and the pressure trying to push my organs into neighbouring countries like a refugee.
Then the cheering started.
Nami was shouting too, although hers was considerably less celebratory.
Most of my body had disappeared beneath Momoo. My head, one shoulder and enough of my right arm to be inconvenient were all that remained exposed.
I pressed my palm against the broken stone and tried to move.
Nothing.
Okay.
"Come on…" I huffed.
Arlong stepped into view above me, blood still running from his mouth.
"Well."
"Don't start you fucker!"
He stopped beside my head. "Don't what?"
"Start pretending this was your plan." I spat.
His smile faded.
Small victories.
Momoo shifted his weight, squeezing what little air I had managed to pull into my lungs back out again. The thing was absurdly heavy, but weight was still pressure, pressure was still a phenomenon. I just had to wait for it!
I pushed again.
Momoo moved.
Not much.
The cheering died almost immediately.
My arm shook under the strain as I forced my palm deeper into the fractured courtyard and raised the enormous bastard another inch. Momoo made a confused noise above me.
Hatchan stared. "No way…"
I gritted my teeth and kept going. My shoulder felt like it was being peeled apart internally, but the pressure changed as I held it, my body rearranging the effort across muscles that had never been asked to bench-press livestock before.
Another inch.
Then another.
Clink!
The sound carried beneath Momoo.
My arm steadied.
Arlong's eyes widened.
I smiled through the blood in my mouth. "Is this the best you can do?!"
I kept pushing harder.
Momoo rose. Slowly and painfully, the sixteen-ton sea cow started lifting off the ground.
There was no cheering now. Chew had forgotten to spit, Hatchan had lowered several of his swords, and even the fish-men holding Nami were staring at the growing gap beneath Momoo's body.
Nami wasn't.
She was looking at me.
"C'mon Kai!"
I got my elbow farther underneath myself.
Arlong kicked me in the head.
My head struck stone, and Momoo dropped several inches before I caught the weight again.
Ah fark. Kick a man while he's down huh?
Arlong kicked me a second time, trying to break whatever concentration I had managed to find. My skull bounced against the courtyard, blood spilling across my cheek, but I kept my arm locked and forced Momoo upwards again.
"Stay down."
I spat blood across Arlong's ankle.
"No."
Another kick landed near my temple.
The world blurred for a moment, yet Momoo was still moving.
Nami started struggling behind him.
"Let me go!"
One of the fish-men tightened his grip.
"KAI!"
Arlong glanced back at her.
"Watch Nami! This is how it'll always go!"
I dug my fingers into the stone and forced my elbow straighter. Momoo lifted another few inches, enough now that light showed beneath part of his body.
Arlong looked back down.
I smiled at him.
"Getting nervous?"
As if it wasn't enough, Chew's water bullet hit the side of my face.
Every muscle in my arm faltered at once.
Momoo slammed down several inches and crushed the breath from me.
"Chew!" Nami screamed.
The long-nosed fish-man looked uncomfortable for perhaps half a second.
Arlong didn't.
"Again."
Another blast soaked my exposed shoulder.
I could handle Momoo's weight. Not comfortably, but the wheel had already begun solving that problem. Arlong's kicks were becoming less effective against my skull with every attempt, and Chew's water never stayed on me long enough to leave me helpless by itself.
Together was different
Every time I managed to gather enough strength to start lifting Momoo again, Chew stole part of it. Every time my arm adjusted to the weight, Arlong drove my head back into the courtyard and forced me to catch sixteen tons before it settled fully. My body kept finding answers, but the three problems didn't politely wait their turn.
I still gained ground.
Just adapt, god dammit!
Momoo rose once more, my arm trembling beneath him while Arlong's next kick failed to knock me flat. Chew hit my neck with another shot, and I dipped, recovered, then pushed again before he could fire the next.
"This is such bullshit," I coughed.
Arlong kicked me.
"You brought Hatchan."
Another kick.
"Chew."
The next water bullet caught my cheek.
"And a fucking sea cow."
I forced Momoo upwards again and turned my face enough to look at him.
"Brother, just admit you needed help."
Arlong's expression twisted.
His next kick drove the side of my head deep enough into the courtyard to break the stone underneath it.
Everything blurred.
Nami's voice reached me from somewhere beyond the ringing.
My hand was still pressed against the ground, Momoo still crushing everything below my shoulders, but the strangest part was that none of the individual problems felt impossible anymore. The weight had changed from something utterly immovable into something I could fight. Arlong's kicks were damaging the courtyard more than my skull now, and the weakness from Chew's seawater passed quicker every time he caught me.
The adaptations were working.
That didn't mean I was winning.
Chew fired again while I was halfway through another push, and the seawater struck the hand supporting almost all of Momoo's weight. My fingers lost their strength at the worst possible moment.
Momoo dropped.
All sixteen tons settled back onto me.
Air tore from my lungs and my arm flattened against the shattered stone.
For the first time since the sea cow landed, I couldn't immediately start lifting again.
Arlong crouched beside my head.
There was blood all over him now, most of it his, and I took a little comfort from that.
"You understand now?"
It took more effort than I wanted to answer.
"Not really."
"You lost."
"Bite me bitch-man!."
His mouth twisted.
Behind him, Nami was fighting against two fish-men holding her arms. I had seen her scared before. Cocoyasi was full of it, and even when she hid it beneath anger or money or insults, I had gotten pretty good at noticing.
This was different.
She was panicking.
And, annoyingly, that landed harder than Momoo.
She had spent years relying on herself because relying on anybody else had gotten people killed. Then I appeared, announced that I knew most of her life story, promised I could kill the monster who owned her village and somehow convinced her to gamble on me anyway.
At Port Tragedy, I told her the longer a fight went, the better my chances became.
On our ship, I watched her count the money she still believed could buy back her home.
In Nojiko's house, she had explained exactly what Arlong would do if I walked in here and failed. He wouldn't stop with me. He would go back to Cocoyasi, punish everybody who had watched me pass through and remind the village why nobody challenged him.
I'd known exactly what failure meant and still walked through the front gate smiling because I'd told her I could win, yet now she was watching Arlong stand over me.
Our eyes met across the courtyard.
Shit.
I pressed my palm down again.
My arm barely moved, but Momoo shifted enough for Arlong to notice. His foot came down on my wrist and the bone cracked against the stone.
"Enough."
Arlong stared at my wrist pulling itself back together, and whatever satisfaction he'd had disappeared. He didn't need to understand why; he'd seen enough to know that if he gave me time, I was getting back up.
"Momoo."
The sea cow groaned.
Arlong stood. "Take him."
The pressure disappeared so suddenly that my lungs dragged in a painful breath before Momoo's forefin swept underneath me.
I grabbed at the courtyard.
My fingers scraped across broken stone as the sea cow dragged me towards the shattered railing.
Nami's scream cut across the courtyard.
"NO!"
She tore one arm free and drove her elbow into the fish-man beside her, twisting hard enough that she nearly escaped before Hatchan caught her around the waist with one of his free arms.
"Hatchan, let me go!"
"Nami…"
"LET ME GO!"
I dug my fingers into another crack and stopped for half a second.
Momoo pulled harder.
Stone broke loose beneath my hand.
The pool came closer.
I tried finding another grip, but Arlong walked beside me and kicked my hand away before I could secure one.
Then the seawater touched my legs.
The strength disappeared from them almost immediately.
Fuck.
Momoo pulled me over the broken edge, lowering me deeper while I tried uselessly to hook one arm over the stone. The water climbed past my waist, and everything my body had been doing to keep me in the fight suddenly became harder to hold onto.
I looked up.
Arlong stood at the edge of the pool, bleeding badly enough that anybody else would have been reconsidering their afternoon.
Still alive.
That annoyed me.
The water reached my chest.
Nami was still shouting, though the sound had begun to distort beneath the surface sloshing around my shoulders. Hatchan had both arms around her now while she fought him hard enough that even he was struggling to keep hold.
Then, as Momoo dragged me farther from the edge, she stopped.
I could only give her a wide grin.
The water climbed over my shoulders, and the noise of the courtyard dulled around me. Arlong became a wavering shape above the surface; Hatchan and the others blurred with him, but Nami stayed clear.
Her eyes were fixed on mine.
She looked almost…heartbroken.
Just like she couldn't quite believe what she was watching.
Then Momoo pulled me under.
…
End of Chapter!
Word Count - 4095