Cocoyasi Village

"Why was the Golden Merry docked in a place like that?" Usopp spotted the Golden Merry anchored along a stretch of coast from afar, but there was something strange about this shore. It was on the outskirts of Arlong Park, within the territory controlled by the Arlong Pirates.

"Let's fight our way in!" Zoro said, gripping Wado Ichimonji, the only sword he had left.

"Forget it. We're both injured right now." William did not recommend charging in directly.

He knew Nami was one of the Arlong Pirates' officers, though she had been forced into it. Nami, who had always relied on deception and stealing pirate treasure, actually believed that as long as she gathered one hundred million, she could buy Cocoyasi Village from Arlong. But she did not know that Arlong had never intended to let her leave, and Cocoyasi Village was the best bargaining chip he had.

"Huh? Luffy told us to bring that woman back no matter what! How are you going to handle this?" Zoro asked irritably. In his eyes, the quickest and most effective solution was to charge in. But he had forgotten that he was seriously wounded, and there were no ordinary people inside Arlong Park—only fish-men with twice the strength of humans.

If the three of them charged in alone, they would probably never come back. Leaving aside the fish-man grunts, Arlong, the sawshark fish-man, was stronger than Don Krieg. And he had three great fish-man officers: Hachi the octopus fish-man, Kuroobi the loach fish-man, and Chew the kissing gourami fish-man.

"What happened to this village?" The ship drifted along the coast to a port town not far from Cocoyasi Village, Gosa Town, only to find that every house there had been overturned. The entire town was a bizarre ghost town, and the traces showed that this had happened not long ago.

"How strong would someone have to be to flip houses over? And what are those marks on the ground?" Zoro could overturn houses too, but how bored would someone have to be to do something like that? What concerned him more were the marks on the ground. They looked like they had been left by some enormous creature, but aside from sea beasts, there did not seem to be any huge land creatures in the East Blue. And sea beasts would not appear in such shallow coastal waters, much less come ashore.

"Who knows? I'll head to the nearby villages and gather some information." With that, William used Silent Moon Walk to leave the ship and land first.

"That guy left in such a hurry. Isn't he afraid his wounds will burst open?" Usopp asked curiously as he watched William's retreating figure.

"Who knows?" Zoro mimicked William's manner of speaking with annoyance.

However, Usopp's worries were completely unnecessary. Zoan users naturally possessed endurance and healing abilities beyond ordinary people. Of course, if a Zoan Fruit user awakened their power, those endurance and healing abilities would become astonishingly potent.

Cocoyasi Village, a village near the western side of Arlong Park.

"The Arlong gang has come to the village!" The villagers at the entrance saw Arlong bringing his companions to Cocoyasi Village and cried out in panic.

"What's going on? Didn't they just collect the tribute?" The villagers muttered among themselves, wondering why Arlong had suddenly come to Cocoyasi Village in person. Although Cocoyasi Village was close to Arlong Park, Arlong did not often come here. Besides, they paid their tribute on time every month—the money they paid to stay alive.

"Could they have found out I was hiding weapons? Everyone, get inside!" a scarred, middle-aged man covered in stitch marks said quietly.

He was Cocoyasi Village's only police officer, Genzo. But his position as a police officer existed in name only, because during the eight years of Arlong's rule, there had been no thugs or thefts at all. Soon, however, Cocoyasi Village would not even have its only police officer, because he was about to be executed by Arlong for hiding weapons.

"Are you the bastard they discovered hiding weapons three days ago?" Arlong asked unpleasantly as he approached Genzo. Genzo remained seated as if nothing had happened before Arlong, the ruler of the area. How could that possibly put Arlong in a good mood? But Genzo knew that after offending Arlong's gang, he was bound to die anyway. How could he still live by watching Arlong's expression like before?

"That's right! Are personal collections forbidden under your rule?" Genzo answered bluntly. There was no point hiding something like this; it might even make things worse.

"Ah, what a headache! Weapons only breed evil thoughts and violence. They are things that endanger peace!" Arlong said as if it were only natural. "We rule several villages. As the administrators, we do not like rebels. Failing to pay tribute is rebellion, and the port town Gosa Town, which was flattened, is an example."

"You inferior humans, listen carefully. All you need to do is work properly and hand over your money. We need enormous funds. Your tribute will become the foundation for the Arlong Empire's rule over the East Blue." Completely ignoring the furious villagers around him, Arlong lectured them. "Possessing weapons is a serious act of rebellion and an important factor in disrupting stability. So, to serve as a warning to the other villages, we must execute you on the spot."

"Arlong, this is outrageous! Haven't we been paying tribute on time for the past eight years? How did that make us rebels? Let Mr. Genzo go!" A woman with short light-blue hair suddenly ran out and shouted.

She was Nojiko, the adoptive older sister of Nami, the only human officer in the Arlong Pirates, whom the people around here called the witch Nami. Nojiko could ignore other matters or deal with them in secret, but Arlong was going to kill Genzo now. She absolutely could not stand by and watch.

"I said that possessing weapons is equivalent to rebellion. For the peace and stability of the Arlong Empire, this man must be executed today!" Arlong looked at the anger in the villagers' eyes and said teasingly, "Or do you want the whole village to disappear? As long as one of you attacks me, I'll wipe out Cocoyasi Village immediately!"

"Everyone, get inside! Don't throw away the efforts we've made over the past eight years for me alone. If we truly wanted to resist their rule, we would have done so eight years ago. If you want to live, don't attack!" The despairing Genzo saw that the villagers were preparing to resist for his sake and immediately tried to stop them.

He knew very well that if even one villager acted for him, then all of Cocoyasi Village would cease to exist. Even Nami, an officer, might not be able to preserve the village intact. Since he knew he was going to die anyway, he did not want to drag the entire village down with him.

"Mr. Genzo!" The villagers, furious but unable to speak out, could only watch as Genzo was about to be killed without being able to stop it.

Although the villagers wanted to resist, they were simply no match for them. Fish-men were born with twice the strength of humans, and that was only for ordinary fish-men. If Arlong Park had only ordinary fish-men, the villagers might have rebelled long ago. But besides the three great fish-man officers, Arlong Park also had Mohmoo, a sea beast Arlong had brought from the Grand Line.

Previously, a Marine colonel had led a warship here. Yet the warning shells they fired mysteriously failed to explode, and the entire warship was swallowed by a whirlpool that suddenly appeared and dragged it into the depths.

"Those are good last words! That's right, staying alive is what matters. Only the living can enjoy happiness!" Arlong said, gripping Genzo by the throat. "This guy understands the situation. He knows resistance is meaningless. When people live, they should act according to their station. From the moment every living creature is born, inequality is already predetermined!"

"Stop! Genzo didn't even use those weapons, so why?" Nojiko and the villagers resisted with words, one after another, trying to force Arlong to spare Genzo that way. But clearly, they had overestimated humanity's standing in Arlong's eyes.

"You're so noisy! Are you trying to rebel?" Arlong said impatiently. With just one sentence, everyone fell silent.

Arlong's racial prejudice came from the way humans on the Grand Line treated fish-men. Fish-Man Island lay directly beneath Mary Geoise, the holy land where the Celestial Dragons lived, and it was also a necessary passage between the first and second halves of the Grand Line. Fish-men were constantly harmed by human pirates and captured by slave traders, so Arlong naturally had no favorable impression of humans.

"Humans, watch carefully. Let me show you what happens to traitors!" Arlong slammed Genzo viciously onto the ground, took the blade from his companion, and swung it down at Genzo.

"Don't!" Nojiko shouted. This scene was exactly the same as when Arlong had killed her adoptive mother eight years ago. Furious, she clenched her fists and charged at Arlong.