Chapter 63: 63. Cocoyashi village

Arlong Park

Arlong right now was having a meeting with Captain Nezumi of the 16th branch of East Blue. He was the one responsible for covering up for most of the ill works of Arlong from the bribe money he received from Arlong.

"Here is the payment for this month!!" Arlong said as he handed a stack of notes to Nezumi.

"Hahaha...I really like your straightforwardness. You are really different from ordinary pirates."

"Hahaha.. Normally I hate humans, but you are an exception."

"Ah well.. I should better leave. I can't stay here for a long time or others will get the wrong idea."

"You can always tell me about your enemies and I will happily get rid of them for you."

"That's not required at the moment. By the way, there is a new pirate group in the sea headed by a vicious Captain known as Straw Hat Luffy and Punisher Ken. Their bounties are 120 million bellies each. You should keep an eye."

Arlong almost spat the drink he had on his mouth hearing the bounty. His bounty was only 20 million. Though his bounty didn't exactly represent his strength, he sure as hell knew that he didn't have the strength of 120 million bellies.

"How is this possible? It's only East Blue. Nobody can have such high bounties here." Arlong refused to accept.

"I don't know. We are being advised to report to the headquarters if we come across them and not engage plus report back to the headquarters on first sight." Nezumi said as he showed the posters of Luffy and Ken.

It really was 120 million bellies!!

"I will inform you if I see them." Arlong was smart. He knew when he should hide. He wouldn't be here if it wasn't that. He was in East Blue because the Grand Line was where the big boys played and he didn't have much freedom there.

In addition, his relations with Jinbei weren't really good and he would never support him. Thus it was better for him to lay low. Since the navy had decided to give this Luffy such a high bounty, it was better to stay away.

But little did he know as he was having this conversation with Arlong, the Straw Hat pirates had already arrived at the village and they had already met the first fishman pirate from their group.

When the ship anchored at the harbor, Hatchi was busy fishing.

"Ooo Nami you are back.. Who are these people? Your friends?" Hachi said as he saw Nami with a few friends landing. Hachi was a little gullible and he tended to believe what others said, like Luffy.

Nami clenched his fist as she slowly brought out the wand. Over the course of time she had learnt the three forbidden curses and right now she was thinking of using one of those curses on this Fishman.

It was Ken who had stopped by holding her hand. Ken's Haki warned him that Nami was going to do something very bad.

"Calm down. I will talk to him."

"I want to kill him. Kill him..." Nami was murmuring under her breath. She could still remember the face of Belle-mere and the way she died.

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"I know but we will need to reach Arlong Park. There you are free to do anything but never use the forbidden curses. It will just make you crazy." Ken reminded her. Nami's body stiffened as he remembered the reason behind why the curses were forbidden.

"Oh so this is a Fishman. First time meeting one."

"He looks like an octopus. Suddenly I have a strong desire to make takoyaki." Sanji said.

"Takoyaki? I am the best person in the world to make takoyaki. Do you want me to make some for you?" Hachi said. All his life, he wanted to open a takoyaki shop but destiny just pulled him here. He was different from Arlong pirates.

He didn't really hate humans and even saved Rayleigh once and had great relations with Shakki. Seeing that Sanji was interested in takoyaki, he wanted to make some for these people.

"Really? You make the best takoyaki?" Luffy's eyes had already changed to takoyaki balls and was already dreaming of them. He had already forgotten the reason for coming to the village once food was dangled in front of him.

"Yes. Come with me. I will take you to my place." Hachi said and Luffy followed him like a willing follower.

"This idiot!!"

"Did he just forget about his reason for coming to the village?"

"He definitely did."

"Let's follow this idiot so that he doesn't do anything wrong."

Thus Ken and others followed behind Hachi who was eagerly talking with Luffy. For a moment everyone except for Nami and Ken were a little confused. They expected the Fishman to be a vicious pirate group but now it seemed like this wasn't true for all.

"Not all Fishman are as bad as you think. They have been oppressed for a really long time. Arlong is just the product of our hatred towards them. Arlong belonged to the Sun Pirates which was led by Captain Fisher Tiger. He once climbed the Red Line and freed many slaves which included both human and fishmen. Both Jinbei and Arlong belonged to that group. Later Fisher Tiger died and the pirate group was disbanded. That is the only connection Arlong has with Jinbei." 

Ken narrated the whole story of Arlong in just one breath. They didn't expect such a grave history behind Arlong.

"Then why is he here? Just for the sake of enjoyment?"

"After Jinbei joined the Warlords, he was the one who asked the government to leave his crew as he became the Captain of the Sun Pirates after the death of Fisher Tiger. In a sense he let go of Arlong and didn't care anymore."

"Then Jinbei is responsible for all of this?"

"If you have a dog in your home who is a little rude to others. Will you punish him just because he took a bite at others? Some might, but can you be heartless to do the same to that dog?"

Nami finally understood what Ken meant. Jinbei probably had no idea how cruel and atrocious acts Arlong was committing after he left.