Chapter 16: Battle of the Captains

And now for the finale of the Arlong Park Arc! I got those six reviews I wanted, you y'all are getting this on Wednesday. I hope this fight isn't too short and it was highly based off of the fight from the anime. Anyway, I'm sure you don't care for my ramblings, so onward!

Chapter 16:

Battle of the Captains

"Hachi..." Arlong muttered in a mixture of disappointment and disbelief from where he was sitting on a piece of debris. His eyes moved over each of his most-trusted friends. "Kuroobi... Chew... To think you three would be beaten."

"Don," Gin told Luffy in his ever-respectful manner. "Arlong is alone. Would you like us to fight him?"

"No," Luffy responded in a serious tone. "He's mine." Luffy stepped forward as his male crewmates went to stand between the pirate captains and the people of Cocoyashi Village. Despite his protests, Zoro ended up getting help from Gin as to not reopen his wounds. Usopp had took up residence in the hole Sanji's body had made in the wall around the park. When they got there, they found someone they thought they had left in the village.

"NAMI-SWAAAAN!" Sanji yelled, his body seeming to turn into noodles at the sight of the orange-haired girl wearing Luffy's hat. She had her bo staff out, but Zoro and Gin doubted that she would be able to use it with her bandaged shoulder. "DID YOU SEE WHAT I DID? ARE YOU IMPRESSED?"

"Shut up, Ero-cook," Zoro growled, pushing himself off of the former Krieg pirate. "The fight's not over yet."

"Luffy," Nami whispered, eyes locked on the pre-battle banter.

"Do you know the biggest difference between you and me?" Arlong asked, standing so that he towered over the rubber teen. He still did not know of this human's power, Luffy had not fought yet, but Arlong knew that he should not underestimate this boy if he had the respect of the infamous Roranoa Zoro.

"The nose?" Luffy answered honestly, cracking his knuckles. "The jaw?" Luffy seemed to come to a revelation and pointed to his hand. "Webbing!"

"Species!" Arlong roared angrily. He swiped at Luffy before throwing his head forward to bite at the other pirate. Luffy danced away as quickly as he could. Arlong continued his assault, trying to take the teen's head off with his teeth.

"Gum-Gum Pistol!" Luffy's arm stretched, surprising the fishman who was thrown into the far wall, again. He rose from the wreckage undamaged.

"So you ate a Devil Fruit. This just got more interesting." Arlong shot forward, his webbed fist striking Luffy's face. The blow did no damage, but the force threw Luffy back. He landed on his neck in a way that would have killed him had he not eaten the Gum-Gum Fruit. With Luffy knocked away, Arlong took the time to prepare for a new attack.

He reached into his mouth and yanked out his teeth, leaving his gums exposed. Due to his shark heritage, they completely grew back a second later. He repeated the process with the other hand, so he had one set of teeth in each hand and one in his mouth.

"Tooth Attack!" Arlong shouted, shooting forward. Luffy scrambled out of the way. Where Arlong's teeth hit the concrete, it cracked and splintered to leave tooth-shaped potholes. The fishman gave that no mind and attacked again and again. Luffy countered with an unannounced Gum-Gum Pistol. Arlong lost his hold on the teeth he was holding and the ones in his mouth broke.

"Gum-Gum Whip!" Luffy's leg shot out, blindsiding Arlong and smashing him into the building, his broken teeth falling from his mouth. There was no movement. "Is it over?" Luffy questioned, disappointed.

Arlong burst from the building with a cry of rage, a crazed look in his eyes and a weapon in his hand. It was about four feet long with six triangular blades coming out of one side.

"It's the Saw Blade," Nami gasped. Neither Luffy nor Arlong heard her as they were too busy fighting. The fishman swung the blade horizontally and Luffy jumped over it, but Arlong lunged forward and delivered an uppercut to his jaw that rocketed Luffy to the upper level of Arlong Park. He cashed through the far left window of the highest level, the map room.

Luffy found himself surrounded by paper maps. Crashes outside indicated that Arlong was coming and he wasn't taking the stairs. The fishman smashed the wall beneath the broken window and stepped through the new hole to see Luffy holding a feather pen stained red with old blood. Arlong pointed the Saw Blade at him, placing his head between two of the triangular blades.

"There's nowhere else to run," Arlong sneered. "It's just you and me, here, in the highest level of Arlong Park. We will finish this now."

"What is this place?" Luffy asked, undaunted by the large weapon by his throat.

"This is the room where I made Nami draw all of her sea charts for me," Arlong answered. He saw no reason to deny his foe an answer since said foe would be dead soon. "Her talents are too good for human scum like you. She belongs to me and I will use her to bring about the Mighty Arlong Empire!"

"I don't care what you say!" Luffy retorted. "Because Nami is my navigator!"

"You want her the navigate your schooner? What a monumental waste of her potential. She will continue to draw sea charts for me." Luffy reached up and grabbed the blade before him as his other hand set the pen down. Arlong tried to move the blade, but for some reason it wouldn't budge. Luffy squeezed, shattering the sharpened triangle in his grip.

"No!" Arlong yelled in disbelief. That weapon he been with him even back in his days with Fisher Tiger and the Sun Pirates. How could a mere human child break it with only his bare hands?

"Use her?" Luffy growled out angrily. "You bastard! What do you take her for?"

Arlong tried to play off his nervous laugh as confidence. "She's an inferior creature, but she has risen far above her peers. If you are all sewer rats, she's a feisty little kitten. After all, she is adorable." Luffy couldn't help but to agree, but no one needed to know that, so he kept quiet. "She has her place, and it's next to me! So Nami will forever be my tool! SHAHAHAHA!"

A desk flew by Arlong's head, smashing through what was left of the the wall and scattering its contents to the wind. Two bookcases, one broken in half, followed.

"What do you think you're doing?!" the fishman shouted. Luffy kicked a work bench where Nami had spent many hours drawing, sending it out the hole as well. The falling furniture brought memories back to the girl, but that did not impact the fight. "Stop it now!" Arlong yelled, swinging at the teen with the remainder of his weapon. Luffy hopped out of the way, leaving a stack of sea charts to be cleaved in half by the broken blade. "My charts!" The stacks of papers were thrown out the window by Luffy, much to Arlong's dismay. They floated away the wind. Arlong grabbed the neck of the younger pirate as he bounced past to wreck more of the room, slamming his head into the wall and chocking him.

"Damn you, you human boy!" Arlong cursed, his pupils shrinking in rage. "That was eight years of work, eight years of planning and preparation, wasted!" Luffy flailed his arms, breaking more of the room as his fists randomly stretched. To stop him, Arlong when to bite down on his neck and sever his jugular, but Luffy knew that a bite to the neck would kill him. He reached forward and grabbed Arlong's nose. The serrated sides bit into his fingers, but Luffy cared not for his own pain. With a sharp twist, the proud nose of Arlong broke.

"I get it now," Luffy muttered as the fishman cried out in pain. "This isn't Nami's room. It's her jail cell and the only way for her to be free is to destroy it." Luffy threw his right leg through the ceiling and brought it down before Arlong could react. "Gum-Gum Battle Ax!" Every floor below the shark-man was crushed by the force. At the bottom lay Arlong, beaten and broken.

The structural damage was too much for the building. Cracks formed and widened. Walls came apart. A massive dust cloud was kicked up by the falling rubble as the building fell in on itself, but no one emerged from the wreckage.

"Luffy?" Nami asked, worry lacing her voice. She shuffled forward a few steps. "Luffy?! LUFFY?!" The building's remains shifted, and out of the top rose the bloody form of a teen pirate. He was breathing heavily and covered in scrapes. He sucked in a breath.

"NAMI! YOU'LL ALWAYS BE MY FRIEND!"

Arlong Park had fallen.

The people celebrated. Men kissed their wives, children played, voices sang. Nami, through her tears, rushed forward to hug the wobbling teen and he climbed down. She cried into his shoulder, eight years of pain and suffering coming out all at once. Before she knew what she was doing, she'd kissed him.

Nami backed off after several seconds, a scarlet blush over her cheeks. She handed Luffy's hat back to him, unable to look him in the eye. Luffy didn't know why (Dadan had never really explained), but he'd felt really happy when their lips had touched. He leaned in and captured her lips once more. Nami's eyes widened before she melted into the kiss and wrapped her arms around him. Somewhere in the crowd, Sanji's voice cursed Luffy for stealing his beautiful Nami-swan.

"YOU STRAW HAT BASTARD! GET YOUR RUBBERY HANDS OFF OF MY NAMI-SWAN!" Gin sighed andsmacked Sanji in the face with a tonfa, knocking the chef unconscious and putting out the fire in his visible eye.

"Hold it right there!" a new voice yelled. The moment was shattered. From the road came Marine Colonel Nazumi and his contingent of lackeys. "What a lucky day for me. I saw everything and I must say, I've very surprised. I never thought Arlong would be beaten by a bunch of upstarts, but it doesn't matter. All of the credit will go to Colonel Nazumi of Marine Branch 16. Chichichi!" Zoro approached him with an angry look in his eye.

"You're the one that shot my apprentice," the swordsman growled, cracking his knuckles. "You're gonna pay for that."

"AGHHH!"

A moment later, Nazumi and his men lay on the ground, covered in bruises. "I... I'll get you," he mumbled through his cracked teeth and busted lip. "Luffy is your captain, right. This will have serious consequences!"

"We'll take our chances," Zoro told him. Nami unwrapped herself from Luffy's arms and walked up to the injured rat.

"This is for taking my money and destroying Belimere's tangerines!" She beat him with her bo, adding to his injuries. "And give me back my money!"

"I promise! I promise!" The girl kicked him into the water where he swam away.

"Usopp," she ordered, "Scruffy. Find their ship. I don't want them leaving without giving us that money. We'll need it for supplies after we've set out."

"Right!" The two took off, Gin complaining about being called "Scruffy".

The entire island partied for several hours, Usopp and Sanji making fools of themselves and Luffy stuffing his face the entire time. Gin had already won two drinking competitions and was in a third. Zoro, Johnny, Yosaku, and Coby were in the doctor's office, recovering. Zoro was getting his stitches fixed when Luffy popped in, sticking his head through the window.

"Hey, have you guys seen Nami anywhere?" he asked, a piece of meat on the bone in his hand.

"Why?" Zoro smirked through the pain. "You looking for your new girlfriend?"

"Girlfriend?!" Coby yelled in surprise.

"Yeah," Luffy answered without pause.

"Well," Genzo started. "If she's not in the village, there's only one place she could be. I wouldn't disturb her."

"Well, alright. Thanks."

"What girlfriend?!" Coby shouted. "What did I miss?!"

It was the third straight day of partying. All of the swordsmen had been released the previous day and were out enjoying themselves with everyone else. Luffy had wondered out of the village in search of a raw-ham melon: an entire watermelon covered in swaths of ham and entirely wrapped in bacon. He'd ended up on a hill overlooking the ocean. Before him was Genzo, a cross placed in the ground before him.

Luffy was silent. Now that he was dating Nami, Sanji and, surprising, Coby had pounded at least some proper etiquette into him through the partying. He'd learned that Genzo was the closest thing Nami had had to a father figure. He turned to leave, not wanting to disturb the man at the grave.

"Wait there a second," Genzo ordered. He stood and approached the pirate. "You know Nami has decided to join you on your adventure, correct?"

"Yeah."

"Then listen well. If I hear that anyone on your ship, you in particular, make Nami cry, I will track you down and kill you myself. Is that understood?"

"Absolutely." Luffy gave him one of his wide grins. "Nami's my navigator, my nakama, my girlfriend. I'd rather die than make her cry."

"Well you better not. She'd cry if you went and died on her."

"Trust me. I can't die until I've become the Pirate King with Nami as my queen." Luffy didn't wait for a response. He turned and headed back to the village.

Genzo smiled slightly as the pirate wandered away. Luffy had this fire inside him. He just knew that the boy wouldn't go anywhere without his friends and that they would help him reach his dream.

End of Chapter 16

There we go. We're done with the Arlong Park Arc and about to move on to Louge Town. I have a feeling that a lot of people will claim that Nami and Luffy's relationship is suddenly moving too fast, but I would like to point out that the won't be saying anything like "I love you" for a long, long time and their relationship will still not move quickly.

Read and Review!

-SwordOfTheGods