Part 10 - Who ordered sushi? 21/??

"Bastard, you just needed to wait, and your turn would come too!" Yosaku's face twisted into a grimace that barely resembled a smile.

"For my kin, I'll tear you apart! " Arlong roared.

"Idiot, you've been dead for a long time, you're just too dumb to realize it!"

And without further ado, Yosaku and Arlong began trying to kill each other.

"And after all this, you still have the nerve to talk about my bloodthirstiness?" Zoro grumbled, watching the scene unfold.

Arlong, fully living up to his captain status and reputation as the strongest pirate of East Blue, methodically destroyed his own base alongside Yosaku. Yosaku, while holding Arlong off, didn't forget to slice up every fish-man that came his way, both those conscious and those lying unconscious. He did this only to further enrage the already frenziedly roaring Arlong.

"Yosaku only turns into that sometimes, while you're a cold-blooded killer all the time… Besides, Yosaku is just a bloodthirsty little monster, while you're just a Monster," Nami said with a smile, patting the frowning Zoro on the cheek, causing him to scowl even more. "Besides, unlike Yosaku, you get so amusingly angry," she giggled as Zoro shot her an offended look… or rather, a threatening look. Definitely! Well, at least that's what Zoro would like to believe. Nami's laughter didn't give him much hope about the real state of affairs.

At about the same time, Johnny got tired of just watching:

"Alright, time to finish this, or else Yosaku will take all the fun," the guy said, cracking his knuckles for effect.

Kurobi's gaze, for the first time since the boys' arrival at Arlong Park, showed something very much like fear. And it was understandable why. Thanks to Yosaku's efforts, only about twenty fish-men remained alive, including Arlong and Kurobi. Only the last two were still conscious. One of them was destined to die in the next ten seconds.

Reacting to Johnny's threatening tone, Kurobi attacked with what the guy perceived as one of his strongest blows. To Johnny's eyes, the attack was no different from the previously used Kurobi Hyaku Mai Gaward Sei Ken (Hundred Straight Strikes). Although the strength and speed of the execution far exceeded the mentioned strike, it still wasn't enough.

Shifting to the side, Johnny caught Kurobi's arm in his own, and, with a forceful grip, — a distinct crunch of bones was heard — used his Devil Fruit power for the first time since the beginning of their fight. Johnny's hand burst into brilliant golden flames. Arlong Park was shaken by a thunderous roar of pain. Although Kurobi likely screamed not only due to the pain but also from shock. Both fish-men and humans have an instinctual fear of fire.

Taking advantage of the surprise and peculiarity of his attack, Johnny slammed his right elbow into Kurobi's solar plexus with all his might. The fish-man, eyes wide open and mouth agape, fell to his knees. Kurobi instinctively clutched his burned — or rather, seared to the bone — arm to his stomach, covering it with his healthy hand. Johnny then grabbed Kurobi's upper and lower jaws with his fingers, forcibly prying his mouth open wider. Throwing his head back like Chuu had, Johnny took a deep breath and then, bending over Kurobi, exhaled a stream of continuous fire straight into his widely opened mouth. The scream that started was cut off almost immediately — the flames quickly incinerated the fish-man's tongue, throat, and lungs. Flames burst out of Kurobi's nose, eyes, and even ears. It was hard to say how painful his death was before he died, but one thing was certain: it looked absolutely horrifying.

If things had gone differently, Johnny would have simply killed Kurobi, and that would have been that. But, like with Yosaku and Zoro, Luffy's principles came into play. Principles that Luffy had carefully instilled in each new Straw Hat member and then nurtured. One of those principles was straightforward and unambiguous: "Any member of the Straw Hat crew is untouchable." The fish-men dared to harm Nami. Therefore, all fish-men had to die, and preferably the most horrible death. No leniency.

"K-Kurobi!"

Lifting his gaze from the twisted dead body at his feet, Johnny saw Arlong's look directed at the body of the aforementioned Kurobi. For a few seconds, the local fish-man gang leader looked as though he was on the verge of tears… but it didn't happen. Instead, Arlong's gaze lost all remaining traces of humanity. If Arlong had almost gone mad with rage when Yosaku dealt with Chuu and Hachi and began killing the other fish-men, now he had gone mad without any "almost" involved. Yosaku, who was closest to him, was blasted backward at bullet speed by the fish-man's punch to his crossed swords. He crashed through the Arlong Park building's wall and disappeared inside.

It was Johnny's turn. However, the guy didn't wait for the enraged Arlong to reach him and attacked with a wave of fire in front of him — Johnny always did this when he wanted to delay someone. That's why the guy didn't see how Arlong scooped water from the pool with his hand and… threw it? More accurately, shot it straight at the advancing wave of flames. The wave instantly stopped as if it had hit an invisible wall, and Johnny, on the other side of it, was hit by a few drops of water, crashing through the wall and disappearing inside. To Johnny's senses, it felt as if he had somehow been struck by an invisible bull.

Arlong, not waiting for his opponents to recover and come outside, entered the building himself through the breach left by Yosaku's flying body. For a few seconds, there was silence, followed by a muffled explosion, and all the windows on the first floor were blown out by a wave of fire. Another explosion, another wave of fire, and another explosion followed. The explosions didn't stop; the entire Arlong Park building shook from its foundation to its roof, and smoke began to billow from various parts, signaling the start of a fire. At one point, a wall of the building was literally cut in half by what Zoro and Nami recognized as the so-called "Kiribachi" — a saw-shaped sword with massive teeth. Zoro recognized the weapon by sight, having seen many such items during his pirate hunts, while Nami knew it was Arlong's favorite weapon, though he hadn't used it in a long time. Why? There hadn't been any strong opponents in East Blue before now.

After some time, windows on the second and third floors burst out, followed by those on the fourth floor. A few minutes later, the roof of Arlong Park shattered to pieces, and a massive jet of flames shot into the sky, engulfing the entire fifth floor. For the villagers, it became clear that no matter how the battle ended, nothing would ever be the same. Even if Arlong managed to win in the end, most of his gang had already been wiped out. This meant he would no longer be able to control the local waters as tightly as he had before today.

It's quite understandable that after eight years of enslavement and the total dominance of the fish-men, the villagers, despite everything that had happened and was happening, still couldn't fully believe that Arlong and his gang could actually be destroyed. And not at some point in the future, but today, literally in a few minutes. This didn't mean they had lost hope for such an outcome. On the contrary, their hope was stronger than ever. They were overwhelmed with hope. The villagers watched the already blazing building with a desperate mix of fear —they couldn't even imagine that a battle like the one they were witnessing could be real—, hope —Arlong is strong, but the people fighting him are just as inhumanly strong— and despair —if even such monsters couldn't deal with Arlong, then they certainly had no chance.