The Blade of Revenge

Nami advanced on steady legs, drawing closer step by step.

Beneath her feet lay the glass Luffy had shattered. Its crisp crunching echoed through the empty Arlong Park, jarringly loud.

She did not lift her head, and her pace remained measured.

She carried the steel sword borrowed from Zoro's waist casually in one hand, its tip angled down beside her. Now and then, the sharp blade brushed the glass fragments on the ground with a faint metallic clink.

Arlong had been sitting back in the high-backed chair with his eyes closed, but as Nami approached, his eyelids involuntarily twitched twice.

He could clearly sense the intense hatred radiating from the orange-haired girl walking toward him.

That hatred weighed on his chest and chilled his fingertips. Even his shoulders, resting against the chair, began to sink inch by inch.

It was not as though he had never met humans who wanted to kill him.

Back when he ruled Cocoyasi Village, that same emotion had burned in almost every villager's eyes.

But their hatred had been hollow and powerless, a feeble struggle that could find expression only in their eyes amid their despair.

The hatred of the girl before him, however, had grown fangs ready to devour him.

She really could make his death a living hell!

Arlong slowly opened his eyes.

He had originally intended to behave himself and play his part to the end.

As a supporting actor Shirahoshi had forced to return and shoehorned into this script, he had long since told himself that since he would die either way, he might as well do it with some dignity.

But he simply could not.

He feared that his death would be anything but dignified.

Arlong sucked in a sharp breath, and his muscular body shot out of the chair