Arlong's Downfall; Conqueror's Haki in the Present Day / Departure; Destination-Alabasta

Genzo put a hand on Nami's shoulder.

"Nami! That's enough! You've already done more than enough!"

"Leave the rest to us adults!"

Genzo's words brought Nami back to herself. She turned and saw the determination in the villagers' eyes. What she had done had stirred their courage.

Genzo drew the long blade at his waist.

"Arlong! We won't run away anymore. It's time to settle the score for Bellemere and all the evil your pirates have done!"

"That's right! Even if we die today, we'll make you pay!"

"How dare you treat our Nami like this!"

"Hah! The Seedlings dare fight back!"

"Men! Show them what happens when they defy the Arlong Pirates!"

The fighting broke out at once, but ordinary people were no match for Fish-Men. Soon, villagers began to fall.

Watching one person after another go down, Nami sank to her knees. She couldn't bear to lose anyone else, but this battle had come so suddenly. If I hadn't made that deal with Arlong, maybe none of them would have died.

At the thought of the one responsible, blood rushed to her head. She snatched up a wooden stick, tore free of Nojiko, and charged.

"Arlong! I'll kill you!"

But she was no match for him. Arlong raised a hand and flicked a finger. Nami flew backward and struck a tree outside the gates of Arlong Park.

The hopeless gulf between them made her eyes burn. Why did this happen? Why hadn't the Marines come? Why did Bellemere have to die? At last, she cried out in near despair, "Won't somebody help us?"

In her despair, a hand settled on her head and gently ruffled her hair. A warm, steady voice sounded beside her ear.

"I told you before. How could you trust a pirate's word? You silly girl."

Nami shuddered. She knew that voice all too well. It belonged to the Pirate Hunter she had hated so fiercely just days ago.

Tears spilled down her cheeks. "You big jerk! The money's gone, and everyone's... Help me! Please, help me!"

Arlong's Downfall and Conqueror's Haki Revealed

"Kid! I suggest you stay out of this!"

Sensing that the newcomer might be trouble, Arlong flung Genzo aside and fixed Dongze with a murderous stare.

"The Arlong Pirates."

"Heh."

"I'd really like to know who gave you the nerve to commit such atrocities in the East Blue. Was it that eel Fisher Tiger, or Jinbe of the Shichibukai?"

"If Otohime knew what you'd done here, she'd be angry enough to climb out of her coffin."

As Dongze laid bare one secret after another, the Fish-Men stopped fighting and turned toward him.

Arlong, Chew, and the other officers of the Arlong Pirates abandoned their opponents and surrounded him.

Murder flashed in Arlong's eyes. "Kid, who are you?"

"My name is Dongze. Perhaps you've heard of me."

"I came here for one thing: to see you all dead."

A chill ran through them. Who among the East Blue's pirates hadn't heard of Dongze the Pirate Hunter?

Several Fish-Men blurted out, "The one who leaves nothing alive!"

Seeing his officers waver, Arlong roared, "Men! We're superior beings from the Grand Line! Are we going to cower before some Pirate Hunter from the East Blue?"

His words steadied the Fish-Men.

In all their years in the East Blue, neither Marines nor pirates had proved a match for them.

Their natural gifts gave Fish-Men a head start far beyond ordinary humans.

Dongze's gaze did not shift. "If old Whitebeard learned what the Fish-Men under his protection were like, do you think his pirate flag would still fly over Fish-Man Island?"

His words struck where it hurt. The Fish-Men shivered. Without Whitebeard's flag, pirates would have carved up Fish-Man Island long ago.

Even they knew that King Neptune and the racial supremacist Hody Jones could never protect it alone. Any pirate with a bounty above two billion could slaughter them all.

Without Whitebeard's flag, Fish-Man Island might already have ceased to exist.

"Who are you, really?"

Arlong and the others' pupils contracted. No East Blue native should have known such things. For the first time, fear took hold of them.

Nami looked from Dongze to the vicious Fish-Men, who had suddenly grown tense and uncertain. Confusion crossed her face.

"Xiao Yi, what's wrong with them?"

Robin's expression grew complicated. She had never heard the secrets Dongze mentioned, but she could tell they concerned the Fish-Men's origins.

"They seem to come from a place called Fish-Man Island. For some reason, the legendary pirate Whitebeard protects them. What they're doing here might anger him, and they're afraid he'll hear about it."

Robin gazed curiously at Dongze, standing a short distance ahead of them. After spending these days with him, she knew he came from a small village in the East Blue. How could he know secrets of this kind?

Dongze knew too much. Arlong resolved to kill him. If word of this got out, Whitebeard's reaction aside, even Jinbe, the Knight of the Sea, would never forgive him.

"Men, kill him!"

Nami saw no fear on Dongze's face, and her racing heart suddenly calmed. Then she remembered how savage the Fish-Men were. "Xiao Yi, will he be all right?"

"Nami, do you believe in miracles?"

"Ah..."

His gaze seemed to pierce through the ages, and a soft sigh hung in the air.

Dongze looked at the Fish-Men and hesitated no longer.

He took one step forward. A tremendous force rose around him, as though heaven and earth answered him, and an overwhelming presence swept across everyone there.

The colored clouds stood still in the sky. Beyond the island, seawater surged backward.

Momoo, the Sea King lurking nearby, fainted before he could react.

Conqueror's Haki.

It was the first time Dongze had used it before others since setting out to sea.

As his proficiency had grown, he had learned to control it freely. His Haki passed over Nami and the villagers.

It was also his best option now. A Slashing attack could only strike in one direction, and the villagers were mixed in with the Fish-Men.

The Fish-Men were not especially strong, but they came from the New World and had seen plenty. When Conqueror's Haki swept over them, they recognized it at once.

They had not expected it to be so powerful. They fainted almost as soon as they understood what it was. Of all the Fish-Men present, only Arlong remained conscious, struggling to stay on his feet.

"Conqueror's Haki!"

"How is that possible? How can someone like you be in a backwater like the East Blue?"

"Who are you?"

"If you kill us, Jinbe will never let you off!"

Nami stared, eyes wide with disbelief. What had happened? The Fish-Men who had always seemed impossibly strong had simply collapsed.

The villagers still on their feet were stunned too. The Fish-Men who had beaten them helpless moments ago now lay on the ground.

Were they dreaming?

"This..."

"Impossible!"

"Who is that man? He didn't even touch them, and they fell!"

To anyone unfamiliar with Conqueror's Haki, the sight seemed like something out of a story.

I hadn't even struck, and you were already down.

Robin's pupils narrowed at Arlong's words. "Conqueror's Haki!" She had only read about it in the books of Ohara's library. It was a presence possessed by one chosen person in a million, the bearing of a ruler born to stand above others.

She had never imagined the man she worked for held such a power.

As the pressure of Conqueror's Haki grew, the captain of the Arlong Pirates gradually lost consciousness. Until the very end, he could not believe someone like this existed in the East Blue.

"Nami, come here."

Dongze turned to the young girl beside Robin.

Still astonished and delighted, Nami hurried over in small steps.

"You big jerk, were you always this strong?"

Dongze bent down and stroked her head. "Do you want to take revenge yourself?"

Nami trembled. "You big jerk... Is everyone dead?"

"No. They've only fainted. These Fish-Men talk big, but they don't dare slaughter people indiscriminately in the East Blue. It's the home of Garp the Hero. Captain Nezumi's collusion with Arlong kept this hidden, but a mass killing would be the end of them."

Nami breathed a little easier. But she hesitated over his offer. She hated Arlong most of all, yet to her, punishment meant locking the Fish-Men in prison for life. Unless there was no other choice—as with the Black Merchants, whom the law could not reach—she did not want to take a life with her own hands.

Robin came over. "Sir, don't put little Nami through this. If someone has to do it, I'm willing."

Dongze sighed inwardly. Some things were better settled with one's own hands, so there would be no regrets later. But Nami clearly did not want to kill them herself.

After a moment's thought, Dongze said no more.

One of the Fish-Men posed a problem. Hachi had once saved the life of Dark King Rayleigh, the Pirate King's right-hand man, and would later treat the Straw Hat Pirates well. Killing him now seemed a pity.

Judging by what Dongze knew, that fool probably had no lives on his hands. He could be spared. As for the other Fish-Men...

"All right. I'll do it. If either of you kills them, their friends and family might come for revenge, and you wouldn't be able to fend them off."

"Hey, everyone! Carry the injured out. I'll finish things here!"

Once the villagers had gone, Dongze beheaded Arlong, the chief culprit, and Kuroobi with a single stroke. He gravely wounded the remaining Fish-Men and threw them into the sea. Whether they lived or died was up to fate.

He spared Hachi a fatal blow and simply tossed him into the sea.

With the sun sinking toward the horizon, Dongze finished what he had to do and went to Arlong Park to meet Robin and Nami.

He came to a stop and raised a hand. Forgotten Dust sprang from its sheath, spun once in the air, and dropped into his palm.

Then Nami saw something she would never forget. A pitch-black Slashing arc swept out before her in the shape of a full moon, growing wider and wider until it spanned nearly a thousand meters. It tore through everything ahead. Arlong Park, the place that had so often haunted her dreams, was reduced to drifting dust by a single stroke.

Robin's earlier words suddenly echoed through her mind.

"Do you believe it? That sword can work miracles."

So that sword really could work miracles.

Departure: Destination Alabasta

"Nami! Has our benefactor left?"

"Yeah."

Nami and Nojiko sat together on a pier in the warm sea breeze, their short, pale legs dangling in the water. They kicked at the little waves and talked distractedly.

"Nami, why didn't you ask him to stay a couple more days?"

"He couldn't stay. Just like we had something we needed to do, he has his own path to follow."

"Nami, you haven't fallen for her, have you?"

"Idiot! Who would fall for that big jerk?"

"I heard our benefactor left someone a hundred million Beli. Just the thing that person loves most."

"Nojiko! How many times do I have to tell you? That wasn't for me. It was for the village!"

In the end, Dongze had not taken Nami with him, gifted navigator though she was.

Robin was already aboard, and the ship was no longer safe. If Robin's adoptive father discovered she had vanished, he would surely come looking. Dongze remembered just how much Aokiji cared about his precious daughter.

Dongze was not confident he could stand against an Admiral yet. Aokiji's monstrous power could freeze dozens of miles of sea in an instant as easily as breathing. It was absurd. What would happen if his Devil Fruit power underwent Awakening? Dongze could scarcely imagine it.