Shameless?

At Nojiko's explanation, Rodney finally understood. The Marine branch colonel who had colluded with Arlong was Nezumi.

The colonel of Marine Branch 16 had joined forces with Arlong, colluding with pirates and officials, bullying the villagers, accepting bribes—in short, a shameless disgrace to the Marines. Without him, Arlong could never have ruled the villages around Cocoyasi Village so arrogantly.

That man had committed plenty of filthy deeds under the name of the Marines. In the original story, he had even stolen the one hundred million Berries Nami had painstakingly saved to buy back her village.

He was truly despicable and shameless.

He had come to collect his usual bribes from Arlong today, never expecting Arlong to be wiped out.

So he sent people to investigate. One villager let something slip, and when he heard that Rodney was still bedridden, he developed malicious intentions and planned to make a profit off Rodney.

Unfortunately, they had picked the wrong person.

"Let's go, Big Slug Sister. My body has recovered enough to move, so a few Marines still aren't worth worrying about." he said.

Nojiko said worriedly, "But your body..." She was still concerned about Rodney's condition. After all, he had been bedridden for several days.

Rodney shook his head. "That makes it more interesting. They're just a rabble, so there's no need for me to use my full strength. Heh, Miss Nojiko, please support me. I'm going."

"...All right." Since he insisted, Nojiko had no choice but to help him toward Colonel Nezumi.

There was an orange grove near Nami's house. Bellemere, the adoptive mother of Nojiko and Nami, had planted it to sell oranges and help support the household. She had been a strong person and an excellent Marine.

Outside the orange grove, the villagers of Cocoyasi Village had blocked the Marines. The man leading them wore a rat-shaped hat, had shifty eyes and a lecherous face, and sported six rat-like whiskers.

He gave a sinister chuckle. "What do you people think you're doing? Don't you know I'm a Marine Colonel? I came to pay my respects to the great hero who killed those vicious pirates. What are you doing? Are you trying to oppose the Marines?"

"Hmph! Pay your respects to a hero? Why didn't you lift a finger when the Arlong Pirates were here? Are you even Marines?" The speaker was a middle-aged man in brown clothes, with a windmill spinning on his hat and several crisscrossing scars on his face.

Mr. Arlong—a true man. He had been gravely wounded by Kuroobi's blade while protecting Nami's mother, leaving him in that state.

He treated Nami like his own daughter. If nothing unexpected had happened, he might have started a family with Nami's mother. It would certainly have been a happy family.

Nami, standing beside him, spoke up as well. "Hmph! You're all in league with the pirates!"

Colonel Nezumi looked at her and sneered. "If I remember correctly, weren't you one of the Arlong Pirates too, little girl? What's the matter? I suspect you're connected to the Arlong Pirates. Take her back!"

"Touch little Nami, and see what happens!"

"Lay a finger on her, I dare you!"

"No one is allowed to hurt our precious girl!"

The villagers had originally come of their own accord to stop the overbearing Colonel Nezumi. They had little to say. They were grateful to Rodney, but they did not want to clash head-on with the Marines. They intended to stall for time and have Nojiko take Rodney away. But once Colonel Nezumi said he was going to arrest Nami, everything changed.

Who was Nami?

She was the apple of their eyes. They had watched her grow up, and she was like family to them. Nami had braved wind and rain for the sake of the village, stealing treasures on the open sea, where the slightest mistake could cost her life. How could that not break their hearts? How could it not enrage them?

Colonel Nezumi's words were like a spark thrown into a powder keg, igniting the villagers' fury.

We could endure your usual collusion with the Arlong Pirates, but you were not going to touch our precious girl!

The villagers' attitude changed, frightening Colonel Nezumi into taking a step back. Coming to his senses, he drew a pistol, aimed it at Mr. Arlong, and shouted, "Scum! How dare you oppose the Marines? You're asking to die!!"

Though the villagers were frightened when he drew his gun, they did not retreat. They glared furiously at Colonel Nezumi, making their resolve clear.

At that moment, a voice rang out. "I'm Rodney. Who wants me?"

Hearing that voice, everyone instinctively stepped aside. Rodney arrived with Nojiko supporting him, while the enormous Big Slug Sister had shrunk to the size of a palm and rested on his shoulder.

This was a split-off body of Big Slug Sister. Her main body was too large, so she had split off a smaller one to stay with him.

"Mr. Rodney?"

"Your body hasn't recovered yet, Mr. Rodney. Why did you come out?"

"That's right, Mr. Rodney. Leave this to us. You don't need to worry."

"Mr. Rodney, why did you come out?! Your body..." Nami said in surprise when she saw Rodney. She gestured with her eyes for her sister to take him back. How could someone looking so sickly stay here?

Nojiko shook her head, indicating that she could do nothing about it.

Rodney said, "I'm Jotaro J. Rodney. What do you want with me?"

Colonel Nezumi holstered his gun. Seeing how weak Rodney looked, as though his body had been hollowed out, he relaxed his guard. So what if Rodney had killed Arlong, whom even Nezumi could not defeat? With his body this weak, surely he could not withstand a bullet.

He naively believed that weakened Rodney was someone he could manipulate.

After coughing once, he said, "I'm Colonel Nezumi of Marine Branch 16. I heard you defeated Arlong of the Arlong Pirates?"

"Yes. Is there a problem?"

"Of course!" Colonel Nezumi suddenly shouted. "You killed our target, even though we had been planning this for so long! You suddenly disrupted our plans! Jotaro J. Rodney, do you know what you've done?"

How shameless!

The villagers were furious. All you ever did was accept bribes. You never did a single thing for the people, and you joined Arlong in oppressing us. Yet now you had completely absolved yourself of your own crimes and were turning the blame around, trying to threaten our benefactor. How could anyone be so shameless?

Rodney blinked as well. He had never seen anyone like this—someone who could call accepting bribes undercover work. What was he thinking? Was he planning to become the Second-in-command of the Arlong Pirates, then wipe them all out in one fell swoop?

Was he putting on an undercover cop performance?

"Bullshit! You were the ones colluding with the Arlong Pirates and oppressing innocent people! If not for Mr. Rodney, who knows how much longer we would have had to live like that! Where were the Marines? You were collecting money!! And now you're slandering Mr. Rodney? Someone like you doesn't deserve to be a Marine!"

"Well said!"

"Someone like you doesn't deserve to be a Marine! Get out of our village!"

"Exactly! That's right! Get out, get out!"

"Get out of our village!"

"Get out!"

"Get out!"

The crowd was enraged. Finding their uproar irritating, Colonel Nezumi fired a shot into the sky and shouted, "What are you making such a racket about? Jotaro J. Rodney, the pirate hunter, I now suspect you of colluding with another pirate crew! Come with me to the Marine branch."

Now that was shameless. This was what shameless looked like!

Big Slug Sister said softly, "Lord Rodney, this human is truly shameless."

"Mm. This is my first time seeing someone so shameless too." Rodney nodded. "Dissolve the pistol in his hand."

"All right." Big Slug Sister spat out a stream of sour, acidic liquid, which landed precisely on the pistol Colonel Nezumi was holding.

Hiss!

One of Big Slug Sister's few offensive techniques, Tongue-Tooth Adhesive Acid, possessed incredible corrosive power. Even Snake Uncle had tacitly acknowledged that it was capable of killing him. Simply clinging to the pistol, it dissolved the gun until only the grip remained.

"This... this..." Mustering his courage, he looked at Rodney and said, "You're attacking the Marines! There are witnesses here!"

Rodney looked at him as though he were an idiot. "Come on, use your brain. Everyone just came out today to see how my injuries were doing. No outsiders came to the village, right? No one saw anything, did they?"

The villagers froze for a moment, then dispersed one after another.

"Come to think of it, it looks like rain. I need to go home and collect the laundry."

"I'll go with you."

"Same here."

The sky was bright and sunny, yet everyone claimed it was going to rain.

Rodney smiled. You can be shameless, and so can I.