The Marines Arrive

In a small town somewhere in the East Blue, people chatted excitedly about recent gossip.

"Have you heard?"

"Yeah, that one, right? The legend of the Super Human!"

"Yeah. They say he's a Devil Fruit user, but that guy was seriously satisfying. He even dared to kill Fish-Men! Those were Arlong's men—the great pirate worth twenty million Beli!"

A short-haired orange-haired girl carrying a bag of loot heard the keyword "Fish-Man" and instinctively stopped in her tracks before walking over.

"Excuse me, what were you just talking about? A Fish-Man was killed?"

"What? There are actually people who don't know?" The two stared at Nami in surprise.

"Maybe she just got back from sea. Listen, you know the Arlong Pirates, right?" The two people chatting glanced at the woman who had approached them.

She was covered in dust, as though she had just gotten off work from some filthy place. The faint curves of her body showed that she was a woman, though she was rather dirty.

Since she was a woman, they kindly shared this news that many people already knew:

"Listen, there's this ability user who killed Arlong's officers. Killed a whole lot of them, too. Arlong got so mad that he put out a bounty on him."

"I've also got some inside information. I heard Arlong himself got beaten into a pig's head by that guy. He only barely survived because his hide was so thick."

Whether Arlong himself had been beaten was still a hot topic. Judging by his slightly swollen face when he appeared in public, it did seem as though he had taken a beating.

But no one dared to be certain, and those who knew the truth had already been buried on that island beneath Arlong's cannon fire.

"That can't be true, right? Those are Fish-Men!" The girl who had approached them could hardly believe it. "How could anyone beat a Fish-Man?"

After drifting across the seas for so many years, she had also considered finding bounty hunters to kill Arlong.

But those bounty hunters would take her money with smiles at first. The moment they heard that the target was the Arlong Pirates, however, they would immediately leave without even returning the money.

Only a few relatively kind bounty hunters had told her that in these waters, no bounty hunter would dare trouble Arlong. As for those who did not know the inside story, they were all weaklings who would only be throwing their lives away.

Compared to Arlong, the pirate crews she had encountered at sea were truly nothing special.

She had nearly lost all hope. She never expected to hear, at such a time, that someone had dared to kill Arlong's men. It immediately caught her attention.

"It's true, little girl. Arlong was so furious that he issued a bounty. He said that whoever kills him can receive one favor from Arlong. Even providing relevant information will earn you a large amount of Beli."

The man took out a wanted poster and handed it to the girl.

The man on the poster wore a loose white shirt that exposed his solid chest. Even from a mere wanted poster, he gave off the impression that he was not someone to be messed with.

"No one knows what kind of fruit he ate yet. It must be something incredible. Legend says that when he activates his ability, his hair stands straight up and electricity flickers over his body. Just thinking about it makes him look so cool!"

"He must be an incredibly powerful ability user. Otherwise, how could he dare clash head-on with Arlong..."

"Then do you know where this man is?" The orange-haired girl looked up.

"Seems like he's in some village. Anyway, he's supposed to be nearly as strong as a Fish-Man. I don't go out to sea much, so I only know the surrounding terrain vaguely. What, a scavenger like you wants to claim this bounty too?" The man burst into laughter.

"Then go to a tavern. The bounty hunters there have the best information."

--

"The Marines?" Ling Donglai, who was asking around about merchant ships heading out to sea, looked toward the Marine fleet on the distant horizon.

The lofty Marine branch rarely visited such a backward village, not to mention that this place was tacitly considered territory assigned to Arlong.

"Seriously? With Marines like these in the Four Blues, it's hard for ordinary people not to become pirates."

Anyone could tell with their toes that these Marines had come for him.

After leaving the mountains, he had not even bothered concealing his tracks. He had immediately run into a whole group of bounty hunters.

Under such circumstances, it was only natural for the hunters to sell his whereabouts to Arlong, and for Arlong to sell that information to the Marines.

For them to arrive so quickly, perhaps the Marines had been lingering nearby all along.

"I heard this island is harboring pirates. Is that true?"

As the Marine warship docked, a colonel who looked remarkably like a rat stepped ashore.

"Oh? Found you. You're just standing here, and you don't even run when you see the Marines coming? Pirate, aren't you being a little too arrogant?"

Captain Nezumi raised his head and spotted the man whose presence stood apart from everyone else.

That man's aura was too eye-catching, too powerful!

"A pirate Devil Fruit user with a bounty of ten million Beli. By a fortunate coincidence, our branch has a pair of Seastone handcuffs, perfect for dealing with ability users like you!"

Captain Nezumi pulled out a pair of unusually crafted handcuffs from his coat.

"Now get over here and surrender, pirate!"

Marines on the Grand Line could get as many Seastone handcuffs as they wanted, but in a place like the East Blue, they were extremely valuable.

After all, the East Blue was known as the safest sea, and there were not many pirate Devil Fruit users here.

"Watch your manners, unless you want me to teach you some discipline!" Ling Donglai crossed his arms and looked at him with interest.

Captain Nezumi was one of the Marine scum of the East Blue. He often accepted bribes from Arlong and turned a blind eye to his actions.

In truth, even if he had wanted to do something about Arlong, he could not have. Arlong could wipe him out in minutes.

Captain Nezumi bullied the weak and feared the strong. He did not dare deal with powerful pirates.

The only reason he dared appear before Ling Donglai was that Arlong had not told him Ling Donglai's true strength, leaving his bounty at only ten million Beli.

And the Marine uniform was undoubtedly very useful. Attacking Marines meant challenging the authority of the Marines, so ordinary pirates would fire a couple of cannons at Marine ships from afar and leave, never confronting them head-on.

Even if they killed people and destroyed a village, their bounties would only rise a little, and the Marines would not take the initiative to pursue them.

But if they provoked a Marine, their bounty would double, and they would be labeled utterly heinous criminals.

At that point, in the East Blue—the Marines' backyard—they would most likely never make it to the Grand Line, since the Grand Line had fixed entrances and exits.

But what did any of that have to do with someone who wasn't even a pirate?

Ling Donglai had never cared about One Piece or the Grand Line.