Before long, Hashirama Senju arrived at the entrance to Arlong Park.
At first, he had intended to break in from the front and kill every last fish-man inside. At the end of the day, they were nothing more than a bunch of nobodies who had been scared witless on the Grand Line and come here to throw their weight around.
With his strength, it wouldn't even take him a minute to wipe out every fish-man present.
But then he remembered what Rowan had said earlier—that the commotion should be a little bigger.
So he changed his mind.
"Got it."
He brought his hands together and shouted in a low voice, "Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands!"
In an instant, amid a deafening roar, the earth shook violently as a gigantic thousand-armed Buddha statue more than a hundred meters tall burst up from the ground and towered over the entrance to Arlong Park.
The tremors spread all the way from the front gate of Arlong Park into the village itself.
At that moment, every single villager in Cocoyasi Village saw it—that holy, terrifying, colossal, awe-inspiring thousand-armed Buddha rising from the earth.
Its body was taller than the highest tower in Arlong Park. Some of its arms were clasped in seals, some hung low, some were raised high, but without exception, every single one of them radiated unimaginable power.
The face of the Buddha was compassionate, its eyelids lowered as it looked down over all of Arlong Park.
Every fish-man there was dumbfounded.
Arlong included.
The appearance of the giant thousand-armed Buddha had been far too sudden. The fish-men's minds still hadn't caught up with what was happening. One second they had just been eating and drinking like always, and the next second a giant Buddha had blocked their front gate.
"W-who is it?!!!"
Arlong screamed in terror, looking up toward the top of the statue.
Standing there was a strange human.
Hashirama's gaze swept across the fish-men, who were filled with panic, fear, and dread. Then he lightly brought his hands together.
In an instant, the thousand-armed Buddha moved.
The first arm came crashing down from the sky and struck one of the fish-men with a thunderous boom. Before he could even react, he was smashed into a pulp.
The blood that burst out splattered across several of his nearby companions.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH—!"
One fish-man let out a hysterical scream. He was afraid now. Truly terrified. Instinctively, he turned and tried to run.
But before he had taken more than a few steps, the second arm of the Buddha came crashing down from above.
Boom!
The fleeing fish-man didn't even get to leave a last word before he too was pounded into a bloody paste.
Blood and guts sprayed everywhere.
The shadow of death swept in like a collapsing mountain and a roaring tsunami, instantly engulfing the hearts of every fish-man present. Those fish-men who had once delighted in oppressing humans were, for the very first time, truly learning what fear meant.
Then, in the next second, the third arm, the fourth arm, the fifth… the thirtieth, the fortieth…
An endless rain of gigantic arms descended from the sky, smashing into every inch of Arlong Park and the ground beneath it, leaving absolutely no room to dodge.
Arlong, captain of the Arlong Pirates, was smashed into meat paste by one of those descending arms.
Hatchan, Chew, Kaneshiro, and the other officers fared no better.
Not a single intact corpse was left behind.
The earth split apart. Walls collapsed. The once-glorious Arlong Park was reduced to powder beneath the bombardment of the thousand-armed Buddha, while towering clouds of dust rose into the air and almost swallowed the entire place whole.
The roaring continued without end for a full five minutes or so.
By the time it finally stopped and the dust began to settle, the once-proud Arlong Park had been reduced to ruins.
No—that wasn't even accurate.
It had become a crater.
There wasn't even a trace of the park left to be seen.
And the Arlong Pirates, who had oppressed Cocoyasi Village for years, had naturally been wiped clean in that thunderous destruction. There wasn't even a single body left behind.
Seeing all this, Rowan couldn't help slapping a hand to his forehead.
"That commotion was way too big."
Robin smiled and said, "Weren't you the one who told him to make a little noise?"
"I did," Rowan admitted, nodding, then looked at the slowly disappearing thousand-armed Buddha and muttered, "But I didn't expect him to use that."
In Rowan's mind, Hashirama probably would've used the Wood Golem Technique to deal with Arlong Park.
After all, against the Arlong Pirates, even the Wood Golem would already have been ridiculous overkill.
But he genuinely had not expected Hashirama to bring out True Several Thousand Hands.
That was overkill on an entirely different level. It was like using a butcher's cleaver to kill a chicken.
Still, Rowan had to admit the effect was amazing.
The whole of Cocoyasi Village had been shocked speechless. Everyone just stood there staring blankly in the direction of Arlong Park, not moving an inch.
The entire village had gone so silent you could hear a pin drop.
A little while later, Hashirama returned to report back.
"I have not failed you, Lord Rowan. No one in Arlong Park survived."
"With an attack like that, if the fish-men of the Arlong Pirates had survived, they wouldn't have ended up hiding out here playing king in the East Blue," Rowan said dryly. Then he waved a hand.
"Alright, let's head back."
Since Nami wasn't in Cocoyasi Village, Rowan couldn't be bothered speaking to the villagers.
The three of them headed toward the shore.
"Wait! The three of you up ahead, please wait!"
"Three benefactors, please, wait!"
Just as they were about to board the ship at Cocoyasi Village's harbor, two very different voices called out from behind them.
Rowan stopped and turned around, only to see a man and a woman running toward them at full speed.
And both of them were characters who actually had lines in the manga.
One was the village sheriff of Cocoyasi, Genzo.
The other was Nami's sister, Nojiko.
By the time the two of them reached Rowan's group, they were gasping for breath and drenched in sweat.
Rowan asked, "Is there something you need?"
Nojiko took a deep breath, then said with a complicated expression, "What happened at Arlong Park… that was your doing, wasn't it?"
Rowan nodded. "That's right. We did it."
There was no point denying something like that.
With a thud, Genzo dropped to his knees in front of the three of them.
"Thank you, benefactors, for saving everyone in Cocoyasi Village. Thank you so, so much."
During all the years the Arlong Pirates had ruled Cocoyasi Village, he had wanted more than once to save the village.
But the truth was, he was far too weak. He had no way of shaking the Arlong Pirates.
All he could do was watch as Nami voluntarily joined their crew and, at such a young age, ventured into the perilous sea. He had hated his own weakness again and again, but there had been nothing he could do to change it.
Now the Arlong Pirates, who had hung over their heads like a nightmare, had suddenly been destroyed, and the dark sky that had shrouded them for years had finally been broken open by sunlight.
It filled him with a gratitude toward Rowan and the others so intense that even kneeling here could not express one ten-thousandth of it.
Nojiko patted Genzo on the shoulder, gathered her courage, and said to Rowan's group, "Honored benefactors, I'm Nojiko, a villager of this place. I truly thank the three of you for wiping out the Arlong Pirates."
"So I would like to hold a celebration banquet. I hope the three of you will stay and give me—give all the people of Cocoyasi Village—a chance to thank you properly for your great kindness."
As she said that, she bowed deeply toward them.
"Please, the three of you—please accept our thanks."
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
— Currently You can Read 70 Chapters Ahead of Others!