Arlong Pirates

"Ugh, ugh, ugh!"

Luffy desperately pounded his chest, his face flushed bright red.

In the end, Zoro had to give Luffy a hard smack on the back before he finally caught his breath.

"I thought I was going to die! Sob!"

"What an idiot."

Zoro sighed. When he turned his head, he saw two women in black cloaks, one of whom was the person who had always struck him as strange.

Who exactly was this woman? Had they met before?

Kuina felt an inquisitive gaze on her and panicked for a moment before quickly calming down.

She was wearing a mask now. There was no way Zoro could recognize her!

Moyun silently moved to Kuina's other side, conveniently blocking Zoro's gaze.

"I think there's something wrong with Nami. You might not have noticed, but when she saw Arlong's wanted poster on that ship earlier, her expression turned very grim."

Actually, Moyun should not have been the one reminding them. It should have been those two lackeys of Zoro's.

But those two had disappeared from the very beginning, and nobody knew where they had run off to.

"Arlong? Who's that?"

"I've never heard of him either."

Usopp shook his head. Just as he was about to ask Zoro, who used to be a pirate hunter, he discovered that Zoro was already snoring away.

"Forget it. I'll explain it to you slowly later. If you're done eating, get on the ship first."

"Okay!"

The Straw Hat crew had barely stepped out of the restaurant when they found that their ship was gone.

"Where did our ship go?!"

Usopp cried out in despair. That was a gift from Kaya—how could it just disappear like that?

"There's a note here."

Olvia spotted a note pinned to the deck beneath a stone. Usopp hurried over and snatched it up.

"Dear big brother and his friends, we discovered that Big Sister Nami left with something heavy on her mind. We were afraid she might be in danger, so we took the ship to look for her. Don't worry."

"So they went after Nami. What do we do now?"

Luffy asked with some distress.

"You can take my ship. I'll bring you over."

Moyun snapped his fingers, and the group instantly appeared aboard a ship that was neither too large nor too small, but exceptionally luxurious.

"Haha, this is so fun! You're a Devil Fruit user too!"

Luffy clapped his hands and looked at Moyun curiously.

"Yeah. Sit wherever you like. I don't have any tea to serve you."

Moyun dropped onto the sofa and stretched lazily.

"I heard Arlong is fairly strong. He's a Fish-man who once caused havoc on the Grand Line."

"A Fish-man? What do they look like?"

"I heard Fish-Man Island on the Grand Line really has beautiful mermaid ladies!"

Red hearts had already begun appearing in Sanji's eyes. That place was also his ideal kingdom! When would he finally get to enter the Grand Line?

Although Moyun had not spent much time with Luffy and the others, he could be said to understand their personalities extremely well.

So he did not mind them interrupting at will. He simply waited until they had finished speaking before continuing.

"There's a force on the Grand Line called the Shichibukai. They are pirates officially recognized by the government."

Moyun paused, then continued, "The reason they are recognized by the government is because they hand over a portion of the wealth they seize from other pirates."

"Tch, so something like that exists."

Sanji raised an eyebrow, though he could accept it.

Even Celestial Dragons could cooperate with Marines. What was there that he could not accept?

The moment Moyun thought of Saint Charlos, he felt deeply irritated. If Saint Charlos could collude with a Marine, then there must be others helping him as well.

Perhaps Saint Charlos might even use those people to keep watch on him.

It would be bad if they reported him to the Five Elders.

Even as a Celestial Dragon, they would probably find every possible way to have him killed.

"One of them is a Fish-man who is also one of the Shichibukai. Arlong was once someone who stood on equal footing with him, and after coming to the East Blue, he became even more arrogant."

"I see. But why would Nami go looking for him?"

Luffy tilted his head. Could it be that Arlong had stolen Nami's meat?

"They probably have some history. We'll find out when we get there."

Moyun stood up, walked over to Luffy, and patted him on the shoulder.

"You'll probably have your hands full again when the time comes. Good luck, Luffy."

"Huh?"

Before Luffy could say anything, Moyun had already gone upstairs to train.

On a small boat, a woman with short orange hair gazed into the distance. As she looked at the island about to come into view, her heart felt unbearably heavy.

"Will I ever meet you again? You really are such wonderful companions."

"Once I buy back Cocoyasi Village, I'll come find you."

Nami looked at the large bag of Treasure behind her, her eyes filled with hatred.

When she was little, Arlong had brought his subordinates to Cocoyasi Village, seized the village, and killed her adoptive mother.

If Arlong had not seen that she had some talent for drawing Navigation Charts, she would likely have died on the spot as well.

"Arlong!"

This was now Arlong's base. For all these years, Nami had worked under Arlong so that one day, she could buy Cocoyasi Village back from him.

That way, the Villagers would no longer have to suffer oppression.

The small boat reached the shore, and Nami carried her money toward Arlong Park.

Looking at the sign hanging on the wall, she was overcome with mixed emotions. She was about to gather enough money.

"I'm going to kill Arlong!"

A child holding a huge mallet charged toward Nami, continually shouting.

"I'm going to kill Arlong! Arlong killed my father!"

Nami kicked the child to the ground and looked at him coldly.

"Arlong doesn't have time for a little brat like you. Get lost!"

"Waaah!"

The child stared stubbornly at Nami, his little hands still gripping the mallet tightly, unwilling to let go.

Nami pulled out a stack of money from her bag and tossed it onto the ground, her voice cold. "Take this money and get lost. Protect yourself first before talking about anything else."

"Nami? You're back. Why aren't you going in?"

A water channel at the entrance connected to the inside. An octopus Fish-man emerged from the water, frowning at Nami.

"It's nothing. I just ran into a troublesome brat."

Nami glared at the child lying on the ground and walked straight inside, silently praying that he would not follow her.

These Fish-men had no sympathy for human children. When the time came, even she would not be able to protect him!