East Blue · Orange Town.
Buggy the Clown, captain of the Buggy Pirates, watched as the Big Daddy Pirates burst onto the scene. Especially when he saw that each of their officers had a higher bounty than his own, a wary expression appeared on his face.
"Captain Buggy, it looks like the Big Daddy Pirates' ship is heading this way. Should we make a 'strategic retreat'?"
Cabaji the acrobat spoke up. He also served as the Buggy Pirates' chief of staff, and after seeing the Big Daddy Pirates' impressive lineup, his legs felt a little weak. He could barely keep his unicycle steady.
They really had taken down the East Blue Overlord, the Krieg Pirates—and with the terrifying feat of eight men attacking a force of five thousand.
"Captain, I think we should visit some other islands for a change of scenery, too. After all, staying on one island all the time can get a little dull."
Mohji the animal tamer knew Buggy cared about his pride, so he quickly came up with another excuse, tactfully trying to persuade him.
"Exactly! We're not afraid of the Big Daddy Pirates. We just happen to be heading off to plunder some other islands and replenish our supplies!
"Hurry, hurry! What are you waiting for? Pack up and set sail! Can't you see Richie's gotten so thin from hunger?"
Buggy the Clown immediately yelled at them. These guys had no sense at all. Didn't they know that time was money, and money was my life?
At Buggy's command, the Buggy Pirates' circus troupe immediately packed up and set sail. They hurried off, afraid the Big Daddy Pirates would corner them and slaughter them.
Meanwhile, Daddy had indeed considered stopping by Orange Town to take down Buggy the Clown.
But by the time they reached Orange Town, the Buggy Pirates had already cleared out, so Daddy and his crew headed straight for the Arlong Pirates in Cocoyasi Village.
"Buggy the Clown really does have the luck of a cockroach!"
Daddy thought of Buggy, who was like an indestructible little pest. He always managed to turn danger into fortune and reap all kinds of rewards. From a small-time pirate to a Shichibukai and then one of the Four Emperors—his story could only be called legendary.
Inside the Loguetown Marine Branch.
Smoker had repeatedly petitioned his superiors to let him leave his post and pursue the Big Daddy Pirates.
But every request had been rejected. His superiors had sternly warned him to behave and ordered him to guard Loguetown, this strategically important location.
This was the entrance to the Grand Line from the East Blue. Pirate crews could land there at any time, and the safety of the people and their property was extremely important.
Smoker could only wait until the Big Daddy Pirates landed in Loguetown before he could move in and capture Daddy.
Cocoyasi Village · Arlong Park.
Arlong looked at the wanted posters. The Big Daddy Pirates really had wiped out the Krieg Pirates, which surprised him.
Still, he thought Krieg was simply a worthless fool who'd been easily defeated.
He believed that the Fish-Man Race was the strongest race!
"Arlong, it's time to collect this month's protection money again!"
Chew, the kissing gourami Fish-Man, came in and spoke to Arlong. Over the years, they had collected a great deal of protection money from more than twenty nearby villages, enough to fund their food, drink, and entertainment.
These were the happiest days of their lives.
Compared with the dark, miserable life in Fish-Man District, they preferred this remote stretch of the East Blue, where they could bask in the sunlight and enjoy the thrill of enslaving humans.
On Fish-Man Island, they lived in constant fear of oppression. Here, they could unleash their strength and make humans experience what it was like to be oppressed.
Only here had they truly lived with dignity.
"Then collect every last coin! Don't let anyone pay a cent less! If any humans resist or can't pay, kill them on the spot!"
Arlong grinned viciously. On Fish-Man Island and in the Sabaody Archipelago, he was meek and submissive. But in the waters around Cocoyasi Village in the East Blue, he was the sole emperor of the Arlong Empire!
"Understood!"
The Fish-Man underlings split into teams of three and headed out to collect protection money from more than twenty villages.
Even three Fish-Men were enough to terrify an entire village into obediently handing over its money.
The Arlong Pirates, with fewer than a hundred Fish-Men, were enough to subdue more than twenty human villages. These humans were as cowardly and weak as livestock.
Earlier, Commodore Brannew, commander of the 77th Branch, had dared to lead a force against the Arlong Pirates without authorization. Arlong had slaughtered them all, leaving their bodies at the bottom of the sea.
That had made Arlong even more arrogant. He believed a Marine Commodore was nothing special.
He might not have known that the Marines had Headquarters and branch forces, and that there were three ranks of difference between them. For example, a branch captain was equivalent to a Headquarters lieutenant.
Brannew, as a branch commodore, was only about as strong as a Headquarters lieutenant commander.
Even when Daddy had first arrived in this world, he hadn't understood the rank system. He'd thought a branch captain was only one rank below a Headquarters captain, not three full ranks.
Branch captains like Captain Morgan and Captain Nezumi were equivalent to lieutenants at Headquarters. During the Paramount War, they would have been among the lowest-ranking grunts.
The highest rank in the Four Seas branches was branch commodore. Meanwhile, most commanders of fortresses in the Grand Line and New World were elite Marines from Headquarters.
The rear admirals and vice admirals stationed at those Marine fortresses weren't much different from their Headquarters counterparts. They were simply Marines from Headquarters who'd been assigned elsewhere. Depending on the importance of the fortress, they were either of equal rank or at most one rank apart.
Smoker, a disciple of Zephyr, had originally held the rank of Headquarters captain, just like Hina. But because of his hot temper and frequent disobedience toward his superiors, he'd been demoted three or four ranks and made a branch captain stationed in Loguetown.
Of course, Loguetown was an important location, too. It was possible his superiors had deliberately sent him there to temper his personality.
Later on, Smoker was promoted even faster than Hina. By the time he became a Headquarters vice admiral, Hina was still only a Headquarters rear admiral!
In the original story, Fullbody, a Headquarters lieutenant, had entered the East Blue from the Grand Line to pursue the defeated Krieg Pirates and capture Gin the Man-Demon. That showed how capable he was.
His rank as a Headquarters lieutenant was actually on par with that of branch captains like Captain Morgan and Captain Nezumi, and his personal strength was even greater.
As the Arlong Empire's monthly protection-money collection came around again, a trace of blood was left across more than twenty villages.
Under Arlong's rule, residents had to buy their lives every month: 100,000 for an adult, 50,000 for a child. Anyone who couldn't pay was mercilessly shot.
These payments had utterly crushed the poor families. The poor who couldn't escape this stretch of sea had all been killed by the Fish-Men.
The Fish-Men of the Arlong Pirates inflicted the oppression they'd suffered on Fish-Man Island tenfold, a hundredfold, upon the civilians in the waters around Cocoyasi Village.
Having gone from the oppressed to the oppressors, they acted even more ruthlessly, growing more tyrannical and more inhuman by the day.
This was hatred between two races.
When the Big Daddy Pirates' Dreadnaught Sabre entered the waters around Cocoyasi Village, they could still see smoke rising from several small islands.
Those were the scenes of people who couldn't pay the protection money being killed and their houses burned down.
Seeing these sights, even Daddy, who felt out of place in this world, couldn't help but feel a surge of anger.
Who wasn't a loyalist to their own race?
If they weren't one of us, kill them!
Before you continue