Chapter 17 Luffy Reveals His Ninjutsu, Instantly Defeats the FishmanLooking at the three guys before him, their eyes gleaming like searchlights, Luffy grinned, revealing a set of pearly white teeth: "Yosh, since you've been so earnestly begging me, I'll show you! Water Release: Water Shark Bullet Technique!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a gigantic shark, entirely formed from seawater, leaped out of thin air, opening its massive jaws to swallow the entire ship whole. It then enveloped the hull and sped off towards Arlong Paradise.
A row of huge question marks instantly appeared on everyone's foreheads: "???"
"Glug glug... Help... me...!"
"I wanted to interact with you all as an ordinary person, but instead I've been met with estrangement."
"I'm not pretending anymore. I'm a one-in-a-billion ninjutsu genius! I'm laying my cards on the table! Put me down right now!"
A few minutes later, Luffy was bound hand and foot to a chair, but he still forced a serious expression as he spoke.
"Shut up, you idiot! If we hadn't been lucky, the whole ship would have drowned from your crappy ninjutsu!"
Just now, Luffy's Water Shark Bullet was indeed cool; the giant shark that appeared and carried the ship at sea was exhilarating.
But clearly, not everyone has Kisame's lung capacity and physique for underwater breathing.
Five minutes later, Luffy finally noticed that Joseph and Johnny inside the water shark's belly had rolled their eyes back and given up struggling, so he hurriedly dispelled the ninjutsu.
Then, he was pinned to a chair and tied up like a dumpling by the furious crew, terrified he might cause any more trouble.
Fortunately, after all this commotion, the outline of Cocoyasi Village was faintly visible in the distance.
The first thing that came into view was the towering, imposing Arlong Park.
"Is this the lair of Arlong, the fishman who escaped from the Grand Line?"
Usopp, leaning against the ship's railing, binoculars in hand, nervously stared at Arlong's Paradise in the distance, his voice trembling. "Nami... she just came to this godforsaken place alone to gather information?"
"The most important thing right now is to find Nami's Going Merry, right?"
Johnny, also lowering his voice, said like a thief, "Let's check if the ship is docked near the island."
"What are you two whispering about like mosquitoes?"
Zoro looked at Usopp and Johnny, who were so nervous they were practically about to wet themselves, with a puzzled expression.
He suddenly grabbed the Wado Ichimonji beside him, stood up as if nothing had happened, his eyes sharp: "Very good, now that we're here, let's storm in!"
"What!?"
Usopp, Johnny, and Joseph's eyes bulged out instantly, their jaws almost hitting the deck.
Usopp, exasperated, yelled, "Is your brain made of muscles? Are you an idiot? Why are you going straight to hell mode?!"
"We don't even have a single clue!"
"The enemy is that legendary fish-man! He's a monster!"
"Shouldn't we have a well-thought-out battle plan first?! Hey!"
"Luffy! You're the captain, stop messing with this green-haired guy!"
Everyone turned to look at Luffy, who was tied to the chair, hoping he would say something fair.
But Luffy just chuckled, and suddenly his body melted like ice cream, turning into a puddle of clear water that splattered all over the floor.
"What the hell?!"
"Oh my god! The captain melted! Luffy turned into a puddle of water!"
Water clone technique.
A physical clone created using water. While its fighting power is only one-tenth of the original, it's more than enough to fool people.
It turns out that while Luffy was being interrogated and tied up, he had secretly created a water clone to take the blame, while his real body had already slipped away unnoticed.
Zoro, one foot on the bow, his Wado Ichimonji pointing directly at Arlong Park, exuded domineering arrogance: "I hate all that complicated stuff! Who cares if they're human or demon? I'll just hack my way through and solve the problem! *cough*"
Usopp and Johnny behind him exchanged a glance, a resolute glint in their eyes.
The next second, Usopp magically produced a giant inflatable rubber hammer, swung it around, and smashed it hard against the back of Zoro's head.
Thump!
After a muffled thud, silence fell.
The chair that used to tie Luffy up now had a new owner, Zoro's personal throne.
"What are you guys doing on deck? It's so noisy! Can't a person cook in peace?"
Sanji emerged from the cabin, a carrot in hand, looking annoyed. He looked up and saw Zoro bound hand and foot. "Huh? Where's that idiot Luffy? Why is this seaweed-haired guy tied up here instead?"
"Luffy's a water clone, he ran away a long time ago. As for Zoro… this guy was about to mindlessly charge into Arlong Park. For everyone's safety, we had to reluctantly subdue him."
Zorro's forehead veins bulged, and he whimpered through his mouth, "I told you to untie me, you bunch of bastards!"
"Brother Zoro, you're seriously injured, your intestines are practically spilling out. You should lie down and rest now."
Usopp, smiling like a benevolent old mother, comforted Zoro with concern, "Just stay here and be a good mascot."
As he spoke, Usopp "accidentally" pressed on the bandage on Zoro's chest, causing Zoro to wince in pain, his eyes rolling back and nearly fainting.
Sanji, standing nearby, was completely bewildered, utterly unable to follow their train of thought:
"Huh? What kind of ridiculous plot is this?"
Usopp turned to Sanji with a serious expression and explained earnestly, "Anyway, our strategy is to find Nami first, confirm her safety, and then decide on our next move. Otherwise, if we alert Arlong and attack his paradise directly, what if something happens to Nami as a hostage?"
Upon hearing the name "Nami," Sanji's previously lazy expression instantly turned incredibly serious, and he nodded emphatically in agreement: "You're right. Miss Nami must be imprisoned in a dark cage by that evil and ugly Arlong right now, and I am the knight destined to rescue her!"
In an instant, a two-million-word epic of a hero fighting a dragon to save a princess flashed through Sanji's mind, his entire body softening into a noodle-like shape, a freakish grin spreading across his face as he wriggled around like a fool.
Johnny nudged Usopp: "What's wrong with the cook? Poisoned?"
Usopp waved his hand dismissively: "Never mind him, he's just a hopeless infatuation. Let's find the Going Merry and meet up with Nami first."
The two underlings nodded decisively, deciding to ignore the cook who was currently in a rut.
Meanwhile, Luffy had silently stepped ashore from the coastline of a remote town.
"Using the Samehada bullets is definitely faster than that wrecked ship, though it uses up a bit of chakra. But... where am I?"
Luffy shook off the water droplets, curiously surveying his surroundings.
And what he saw next made him realize that the entire town looked like it had been ravaged by a typhoon and then bulldozed.
The houses weren't just collapsed; they'd been completely turned upside down with extreme violence.
Yes, literally upside down—roofs embedded in the mud, foundations facing the sky.
"I remember now, this is the village that Arlong destroyed because they didn't pay enough protection money, right? What was it called again?"
Luffy stroked his chin, racking his brain for plot details.
The scene was one of utter devastation. Dried, blackened bloodstains littered the broken streets, and a faint, pungent stench filled the air.
Luffy didn't see any corpses strewn about; clearly, the surviving villagers had secretly collected and disposed of the bodies.
In the center of the ruined houses on either side, there was a deep, wide chasm, as if a prehistoric beast had just crawled across it, leaving behind horrific tracks.
"This must be the work of that manatee MooMoo, right?"
Luffy crouched down to examine the ditch in the ground, clicking his tongue in amazement. "It's definitely huge, even more exaggerated than in the anime."
"How did you know about MooMoo?"
Just then, a rude voice suddenly came from behind, followed by a huge shadow that completely blocked the sunlight from Luffy's view.
A strange smile suddenly appeared on Luffy's lips. His head, as if boneless, rotated 180 degrees backward, staring at the fish-man behind him with a chilling gaze, and said in a eerie tone:
"Because... I'm the wronged soul that it dragged into the sea and drowned..."
"What the hell?!"
The fish-man behind him trembled in fear, his legs gave way, and he slumped backward onto the ground.
Luffy chuckled as he turned around, his neck cracking as it returned to its original position.
Two fish-men with bluish-green skin, bizarre fins on their heads, and extremely ugly, scruffy appearances stared at him in terror.
"They say you fish-men are all brawn and no brains. I didn't believe it before, but now it seems your intelligence has definitely run out of credit."
Luffy launched into taunts without hesitation, giving the two fish-men the middle finger.
The still-terrified fish-men looked closely and, seeing Luffy's shadow, breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't a ghost after all.
"You little brat! How dare you try to scare me with your tricks?! You're tired of living and want to be reincarnated!"
The frightened fish-man, enraged, roared furiously.
He sprang to his feet, his massive fist whistling through the air, aimed straight at Luffy's face.
The terrifying force even compressed the air, creating a series of sharp whistling sounds.
"It's over, this boy is dead."
Nojiko, hiding behind the wall of a dilapidated house, painfully closed her eyes, unable to bear witnessing the bloody scene that followed.
Thump!
A dull thud resounded.
"This... how is this possible?"
The fish-man's incredulous and terrified cry reached Nojiko's ears.
Nojiko opened her eyes abruptly, only to see a scene that shocked her to the point of jaw-dropping.
Luffy yawned listlessly, effortlessly deflecting the fishman's massive fist with just a single index finger.
"Is that all the strength you've got? Didn't you guys eat breakfast? Or are all fishmen cowards?"
Luffy smiled at the sweating fishman before him, asking gently.
The fishman instantly flew into a rage, feeling utterly humiliated: "What did you say, brat?!"
However, the next second, he wasn't greeted by Luffy's smile, but by Samehada, the large, unbandaged sword on Luffy's back.
A deafening "BOOM!" resounded, as if the air itself had been ripped apart by the impact.
The fishman's head snapped backward at an incredibly bizarre angle, a crisp cracking sound echoing from his neck, before his entire body slammed into the collapsed rubble beside him like a rag doll struck by a train, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The fishman companion standing behind him stared dumbfounded at the brat who barely reached his waist, his mind completely blank.
"Spent too long in the water, not only did your brain get waterlogged and rusty, but your ears also stopped working? I say, did you two not eat?!"
Luffy mocked the remaining fishman again.
The next second, a blur.
The fishman didn't even see Luffy's movement before feeling a sharp pain in his chest, then followed in his companion's footsteps, crashing into the rubble like a cannonball, lifeless without a sound.
Nojiko, hiding behind the wall, turned deathly pale:
It's over, the sky has fallen, the fishman is dead!
Arlong was an extremely fanatical racist; even if someone dared to slightly defy these noble fishmen, he would mercilessly slaughter the entire village.
Even possessing a fruit knife on ordinary days would be considered treason and punishable by death, let alone the fact that someone had killed a fish-man whom Arlong considered a brother.
'This is truly a disaster. Does this boy even know what he's done...?'
Nojiko felt a chill in her heart, only this one desperate thought remaining in her mind.
Meanwhile, Luffy seemed completely unaware of the impending storm.
He casually swung the Samehada, a greatsword still trembling slightly in his hand. Perhaps due to the Kisame template, he wielded the sword with incredible ease and fluency.
Moreover, Samehada was a living being, seemingly unaffected by the strange rules of this world.
Luffy's original physical strength, enhanced by the Nika Fruit, already made him a small monster in human skin.
Adding the "monstrous strength" from the Kisame template, even without Gear Second, a casual strike from Luffy could unleash the jet-like explosive power of Gear Second from the original story.
Those fish-men who boasted defenses ten times greater than humans were as fragile as tofu in front of Luffy now, crumbling at the slightest touch.
Luffy walked over and poked the already dead fish-man with his toe, then turned to the figure emerging from the corner and chuckled, "I saw you hiding there for ages, I thought you were planning to take root and grow there."
At this moment, Nojiko, her face contorted with rage, rushed up to Luffy and shouted, "How could you attack a fish-man! Do you know the consequences! This town of Goza suffered this devastating massacre just because one villager slightly disobeyed the fish-men's wishes!"
"Oh, I see. So, what should we do now? How about I give them CPR?"
Luffy innocently shrugged at Nojiko, his expression utterly irritating.
Nojiko rushed anxiously into the ruins to check: "Fishmen have incredibly strong physiques and tenacious vitality. Perhaps they weren't completely dead after those two blows. If they're still alive..."
Nojiko was about to suggest trying to save them or plead for mercy when she immediately spotted the two fishmen whose necks were twisted into pretzel shapes...
Nojiko felt a string snap in her head: ╯‵□)╯︵┻━┻
If they're still alive, that's practically a ghost!
Just then, a little boy burst out from behind another collapsed house, crying and screaming as he ran, a wooden stick in his hand: "Where are the fishmen! I'm going to kill the fishmen! I'm going to avenge my father!"
This little boy was one of the few survivors of the catastrophe in Gosa Town.
"Want to kill a fishman? Too bad you're too late. If you had come two minutes earlier, I might have spared your breath, let you poke around a couple of times to vent your anger."
Luffy smiled and pointed to the two twisted corpses in the rubble.
The little boy: "???"