"Boom!!"
With a deafening crash, Luffy slammed into the room at the highest point of Arlong Park, dragging Arlong along with him.
Sunlight streamed through the shattered windows, illuminating this place that had once been regarded as forbidden ground.
Luffy climbed to his feet. When he saw the scene around him clearly, he froze.
The room was piled high with nautical charts like mountains, densely packed and occupying nearly every inch of space.
And scattered across the broad drafting table were countless worn-down pens, some of their shafts still stained with long-dried dark red blood.
These were the traces Nami had left behind after being forced to draw charts here day after day, year after year, for eight years.
This was not a room.
This was a cage that had imprisoned that girl's soul.
"Shahahaha! See that, Straw Hat Kid!"
Arlong rose from the rubble, casually grabbed a handful of charts, and let out a greedy, triumphant laugh.
"This is that woman's talent! These charts are the most perfect masterpieces in the world!"
"As long as I have her, I can control the ocean currents of the entire world! She's a natural genius, the finest tool for conquering the world!!"
Arlong opened his mouth full of sharp teeth and pointed at those bloodstained pen tips.
"Even if she draws her hands useless, even if she bleeds dry, as long as she can draw maps like these, it is the greatest honor she can have as a human!!"
Luffy lowered his head, his straw hat hiding his eyes and concealing his expression.
Only his fists, clenched so tightly they had turned white, and the suffocating fury radiating from him revealed how he felt.
"A tool...?"
Luffy murmured in a low voice.
The next second.
"Make this pointless junk... disappear!!!"
Luffy did