The air in Cocoyasi Village was thick with a suffocating, practiced fear. Arlong stood in the center of the town square, holding one of Genzo's confiscated swords, a symbol of human defiance that, in his eyes, was nothing more than a pathetic toy.
"I have rules for a reason," Arlong began, his voice a low, menacing rumble that carried to every corner of the silent square. "I forbid you inferior humans from possessing weapons, not because they are a threat to me, but because they give you the illusion of hope. And hope," he sneered, his sharp teeth glinting, "is the seed from which rebellion grows."
He snapped the steel blade in half with his bare, webbed hands as if it were a dry twig.
"For this transgression, for daring to nurture that seed of rebellion, your sheriff, Genzo, shall be made an example of. You will all watch him die, and you will be reminded of the vast, unbridgeable gap between the might of the Fish-Men and the inferiority of your own fragile race."
He gave the order. Two of his officers slammed Genzo to his knees in the center of the square. Arlong raised his hand, his fingers spread wide, the webbing between them taut. His hand was a weapon, capable of tearing a man apart.
A wave of desperate courage surged through the villagers. They couldn't just stand by and watch. They started to move forward, a wave of unarmed, desperate people ready to die for their friend.
"STOP!" Genzo's voice was a raw, desperate roar. "STAY BACK, ALL OF YOU!"
He looked at his people, his friends, with eyes full of love and agony. "Do you want to throw it all away?! Everything we've endured for the past eight years?! The humiliation, the pain, the tributes paid in sweat and tears… we did it all so that our children could live! If you fight him now, he will destroy us all, and our suffering will have been for nothing! Please… stay back."
The villagers froze, their courage collapsing into a familiar, soul-crushing despair. They were trapped.
Arlong chuckled, savoring their hopelessness. He raised his hand for the final blow.
BOOM!
A small but powerful explosion erupted at Arlong's feet, sending up a cloud of smoke and pepper. He stumbled back, surprised and annoyed.
From the roof of a nearby building, a figure stood, silhouetted against the sun, his long nose a defiant finger pointed at the sky.
"HALT, YOU FOUL FISH-MAN!" the figure boomed, his voice shaking but filled with a theatrical bravado. "I am the great Captain Usopp! And I have brought my army of eight-thousand hardened killers to this island! They are hidden as we speak, their cannons aimed at your ugly head, ready to turn you and your men into fish food! Release that man and leave this village, or face my wrath!"
For a moment, there was a stunned silence. Then, Arlong's surprise turned into pure, berserker fury. Not at the threat, which he knew was a lie, but at the sheer, audacious insolence of a lowly human daring to challenge him.
"A human… dares to mock ME?!" he roared. He ripped a chunk of the cobblestone street from the ground and, with inhuman strength, hurled it at the building Usopp was standing on. The entire house exploded into a shower of splintered wood.
As Arlong prepared to go on a rampage and level the entire village, his own officers, Hatchan and Kuroobi, rushed to restrain him.
"Arlong-san, please, calm down!" Hatchan pleaded. "If you destroy the village, we can't collect the tribute money!"
"We'll catch that long-nosed liar and bring him to you at Arlong Park," Kuroobi promised.
Arlong, still seething, reluctantly agreed. He gave the villagers one last, hateful glare and then departed, leaving his men to hunt down Usopp.
In the chaos of the chase that followed, a lone figure walked into the village. It was Nami. The villagers who saw her simply turned their backs, their faces cold and silent.
The only one who approached her was her sister.
"Nojiko."
"Nami."
They walked together in silence, away from the village, to a simple grave on a cliff overlooking the sea. A small, cheerful pinwheel was stuck in the dirt, spinning in the sea breeze.
Nami knelt and placed a small bouquet of fresh mikan oranges on the grave.
She looked out at the ocean, her expression a mixture of exhaustion and a fierce, burning determination.
"Just seven million more Beli, Nojiko," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the wind. "Just seven million more… and then I can buy our village back."
Meanwhile, at Arlong Park, a different kind of silence reigned. An eerie, post-battle silence.
The grand, fortress-like structure was a wreck. And every single Fish-Man who had been left to guard it was lying on the ground, defeated, beaten, and piled up in a massive, unconscious heap.
Sitting calmly on the steps of the main building, as if waiting for a bus, was Roronoa Zoro. His one remaining sword, Wado Ichimonji, rested on his shoulder. He was wounded, he was tired from his escape, but he was victorious. He had single-handedly taken down Arlong's entire reserve force.
He was waiting for the boss to get back. The Pirate Hunter was back in business.