The mont Arlong hit the ground, Marcus watched as experience points erupted from every fallen fishman like golden fireworks.
He shot straight up to Level 36.
A four-level jump wasn't bad at all.
"Well... that was surprisingly easy," he said, scratching his head. He'd been expecting a brutal, drawn-out battle, but instead they'd achieved total victory. Zoro and Sanji weren't even breathing hard, let alone injured.
They'd completely crushed Hatchan and Kuroobi with overwhelming force.
As for Luffy, his rage ter had probably been maxed out from the start, he'd opened with a full combo and never gave Arlong a single chance to counter-attack.
But when he thought about it, the change made perfect sense. If Luffy hadn't fallen into the water first thing like an idiot... Sanji and Zoro wouldn't have been distracted trying to fish him out of the sea. They could have focused on the fight from the beginning.
And without Luffy as that chaotic wildcard factor screwing everything up... With everyone operating at full strength while their enemies were all suffering from broken-bone debuffs, how could they possibly lose?
So... It was all Luffy's fault for being reckless in the original tiline?
But this easy victory left Marcus feeling a bit frustrated. Up until now, he still hadn't experienced a real fight that pushed his limits.
During the Kuro arc, his opponent had escaped before things got serious.
Now this had been nothing more than beating up crippled opponents.
Nami stared at the entire Arlong crew lying scattered across the pit floor. She'd never imagined that the Arlong Pirates, who had ruled Cocoyasi Village with an iron fist for years, would be defeated so easily.
The speed of their defeat was so overwhelming that it felt almost surreal to her.
That's when Nezumi's pathetic figure caught her attention.
He was still clutching the 100 million berries she'd brought out earlier, hugging the chest like his life depended on it.
If it weren't for this bastard's protection, Cocoyasi never would have suffered for so long under Arlong's boot.
She pulled her staff from her chest... Damn, it was like her own personal fourth-dinsional storage space. Anyway, she walked straight toward the trembling Marine captain.
Nezumi panicked imdiately. "Y-you can't hurt ! I'm a Marine officer! If you attack , the Marines will retaliate!"
"Wait! Now that the Arlong Pirates are defeated, I can give you all their bounty money! If you're willing, you could even join the Marines! With my connections, I could get you positions at Headquarters itself! With your strength, you could all be ranked as Captains even at Marineford! You'd be Marine heroes!"
Nezumi tried his best to sound persuasive, but his voice kept getting higher and more frantic.
"D-don't co any closer!" he squeaked as Nami continued her steady approach.
In the end, he didn't resist at all. He didn't even draw the gun at his waist.
Even Usopp, who had been on high alert the entire ti, slowly lowered his slingshot.
Clearly, the man had been scared senseless by Luffy and the others' display of power. He'd forgotten how to fight back.
Marcus shook his head at the pitiful sight. "Why don't we just..." He made a throat-slitting gesture.
Nami finally shook her head after considering it for a long mont. "The Arlong Pirates were able to run rampant for years not just because of this man. From what I overheard from Hatchan during my ti here, Arlong is connected to Jinbei, one of the Seven Warlords. If we kill them outright, that Warlord might co here looking for answers. And then..."
She didn't need to finish the sentence. Everyone understood what she ant, they weren't ready to take on a Warlord of the Sea.
Marcus really wanted to tell her that Jinbei probably didn't even know what was happening here, and if he did find out, he'd likely co to clean up Arlong's ss himself rather than seek revenge. But he kept his mouth shut.
This wasn't his decision to make.
Alvida spoke up at that mont. "Actually... rember that Smoker guy I ntioned? He's one of the few decent Marines left. Word is he's a troublemaker within the Marine hierarchy, too obsessed with justice for their liking, so they exiled him to the East Blue. If we hand the Arlong Pirates over to him, it might be our best option."
Sanji took a deep drag of his cigarette and nodded. "I've heard of that Smoker too. Lots of rumors about him being a pain in the ass for corrupt officials, but yeah, he's got a reputation for being righteous. Turning these guys over to him should work out fine."
All eyes turned to focus on Nami and Luffy, after all, one was the captain and the other was the person most directly affected by this whole situation.
Luffy dusted off his hands and launched himself out of the crater.
His intention was obvious, he wanted Nami to make the final call about how to handle their defeated enemies.
But just at that mont, a weak voice echoed from the bottom of the pit.
"Nyuu... I'm sorry, Nami."
The speaker was Hatchan the octopus fishman.
He now had a distinctive X-shaped scar across his chest from Zoro's swords, but he still managed to sit up.
Zoro imdiately turned around, both hands resting on his sword hilts, ready for another fight.
"Nyuu..." Hatchan quickly waved his tentacles in surrender. "I give up. Honestly, even if you hadn't defeated Arlong, I was already planning to leave this place soon anyway."
Zoro was surprised by the octopus' honesty and looked to Nami for guidance.
Nami didn't lash out or contradict him.
"And also, last night when you ca back with your friends, I didn't say anything to warn Arlong. But... I guess this is just our karma finally catching up to us." Seeing that Zoro was no longer on guard, Hatchan sighed with relief.
He looked up at the sky through the opening of the pit.
"Nyuu... Don't worry about Jinbei coming after you. Even if he finds out about this, he probably won't seek revenge. He might even co here to apologize to you."
"What?"
"The things Arlong did here are exactly the kind of behavior that Jinbei hates most. If he knew the truth, he'd probably co to drag Arlong away in chains himself. That's also why Arlong paid that Marine captain so much money every year. The purpose wasn't just to hide what we were doing. Nezumi's main job was writing fake reports to Jinbei, making it sound like we were behaving ourselves. Nyuu... I actually tried to stop Arlong from doing the worst stuff..."
Hatchan sighed deeply, lowering his head to look at his unconscious captain. Finally, his gaze settled on Nami.
"Nyuu... I know that saying anything now is useless, but I still want to apologize to you. I'm truly sorry, Nami. For everything."
The enemy's sudden apology made everyone except Nami look a bit awkward.
The night before, they'd been openly discussing their plans right here at Arlong Park. That ant this octopus fishman had known everything that was about to happen, but still chose to say nothing and just... wait for the outco?
They had complicated expressions as they processed this information.
Nami's face showed the most complex emotions of all.
If you had to pick the least evil mber of the Arlong Pirates, it really would be Hatchan. His personality was the reason he was always left behind to guard their base while the others went out to collect "tribute" money. He'd never been present during the worst of their extortion runs.
Marcus wasn't surprised by this revelation at all.
In the original story, when Zoro had cut down all the fishn inside Arlong Park, what had Hatchan been doing?
Fishing.
Even at that close distance, there was no way he hadn't heard the sounds of battle. He'd told Zoro to stay quiet and led him away from the area. Looking back now, he'd probably known exactly what was going on but chosen to do nothing about it.
In the ani, this had clearly been designed as a codic mont. But when reality adapted itself to make logical sense, it turned out like this, a character who was complicit through inaction but remorseful about it.
Marcus considered these things while the others struggled with their feelings about Hatchan's confession.
Nami slowly exhaled a long breath, and the tight knot of anger in her chest loosened slightly at Hatchan's sincere apology. It didn't forgive everything, but it was sothing.
"Don't expect to forgive you. You're still an accomplice to everything that happened."
"Nyuu... I know. I'm sorry."
She looked around at the defeated Arlong Pirates, then up at her friends waiting for her decision.
"Take them all with us. We're going to Loguetown."
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