Part 10 - Who ordered sushi? 22/??

"Nami… "—Nojiko's voice, pressing her hands to her chest and now looking at the burning Arlong Park, was barely audible amidst the surrounding noise. At some point, the girl had managed to return to her sister, and now stood next to her. "Nami, oh my god, who did you bring with you?"—on the other hand, it was probably not the noise but Nojiko's exhaustion that made her struggle to speak.

From the perspective of an ordinary village girl, which Nojiko actually was, everything happening seemed like she was witnessing the realization of some childhood fairy tale or legend. It should be noted that she was witnessing a rather dubious realization. If Arlong and his gang were playing the bad guys to the fullest, then a couple of 'heroes' could have played them two hundred percent. One set of monsters was killing another set of monsters right before her eyes.

"Don't worry, Nojiko," Nami said with a slight smile, not taking her eyes off the burning building. "Even though the boys are scary enemies, they are also absolutely irreplaceable allies. Moreover, now I and they are part of one family, which means you are a little close to them too. So you have nothing to fear, especially now that I'm here. Rest assured, I'll make sure they behave," saying this, Nami, much to Zoro's displeasure, patted the swordsman sitting next to her on the head.

Another explosion occurred, and through the fifth-floor wall, amidst a pile of burning debris, flew Yosaku and Arlong. More precisely, Yosaku flew on top of Arlong. Pressing his feet into the fish-man's back and holding onto his hair with one hand, Yosaku smashed Arlong's bloody body face-first into the concrete, not far from Nami. Almost immediately, Arlong Park began to collapse with a deafening roar, sending clouds of dust into the air. The villagers had fled outside the gates when Arlong Park had just started burning, so they now watched from the sidelines as their hated stronghold of the fish-men crumbled like a house of cards. If not for Zoro, Nami would have had to flee with Nojiko as well. However, the swordsman was sitting next to her, and with just one swing of his sword, he blew away all the dust and debris.

"And where is Ryu?" Nami asked Yosaku as soon as the echo of the collapsing building's roar faded. "The question is removed," the girl added immediately when a good half of the building's debris was simply vaporized by a pillar of fire shooting into the sky. "Then all that remains is to sum up the results." Nami said, moving towards Yosaku.

Immediately understanding what exactly the girl wanted, Yosaku dismounted from Arlong's back and, leaning over the fish-man's body embedded in the concrete, grabbed him by the hair. Lifting Arlong by his black mane, Yosaku forced the fish-man to look at Nami, who had approached them. Arlong's pained, hazy eyes met the girl's slightly contemplative gaze. Squatting down, Nami placed her hands on her knees and interlaced her fingers. Still gazing thoughtfully at the heavily breathing Arlong, the girl slightly tilted her head to one side.

Arlong looked terrible. Deep cuts, undoubtedly made by Yosaku's swords, covered the fish-man's entire body and bled profusely, while numerous burns —clearly the work of Johnny— looked extremely painful. Even Arlong's once thick hair was reduced to singed, matted clumps. From the fish-man's clothing, only blood-soaked shorts remained: the colorful shirt, ushanka hat, and sandals were gone. Though Yosaku, holding Arlong by the remnants of his hair, was not looking any better in terms of clothing: he was left with only his tattered, blood-stained, and dirty red pants. Only Johnny, who had managed to escape from the rubble, had managed to keep his clothes almost intact, though their white color was completely gone. However, unlike Yosaku, who, for understandable reasons, had no wounds, Johnny had several deep, bleeding cuts on his right arm and side.

Nevertheless, Nami took note of the boys' condition and appearance only to some extent. The most important thing was that they were alive: everything else was of minor importance. As the girl had repeatedly convinced herself, to definitely kill any member of the Straw Hat crew, it required, at minimum, decapitation, and in one specific case, even that might not be enough. In general, if any of the boys could walk on their own, then worrying about them was unnecessary. What concerned Nami more was Arlong and her own emotions. Specifically, the almost complete absence of these emotions. She had waited so many years for this moment, and now that it had finally come, she felt nothing. Nami felt as if her boys had not dealt with the hated fish-men but with ordinary pirates. It seemed like, how many of them were there and how many more would come? Routine.

"You know, I tried so many times to kill you over these long eight years, tried to set up a watch on you, find some killer capable of dealing with you, and now, when it's finally over with you, I can't even properly rejoice."

"Nami…" whispered the shaken Nojiko, and the villagers surrounding them at that moment looked no better.

Nami had never told her sister about her numerous attempts to get rid of Arlong. In fact, she hadn't told anyone except Luffy. And now, for Nojiko and the others, it was a real shock to learn that over these eight years, the girl had not only tried her best to gather the necessary ransom for the village but had also tried to solve their common problem through more radical means, so to speak. Luffy had been greatly amused by this fact at the time. Why? Simply because, at their first meeting, the girl had so fervently believed that Arlong would definitely keep his word and sell her the village, but she had also repeatedly tried to kill him. Nami had regretted telling her captain about this a thousand times. Luffy still occasionally reminded her of it and, as Nami strongly suspected, planned to keep reminding her, if not until the end of their lives, then for a very, very long time. Nami could honestly admit, even if only mentally, that she loved Luffy to the point of madness, but often, to the same madness, she wanted to strangle him with her own hands. A constant contradiction. That's how it always was with Luffy.

"All your beloved fish-men are dead, your empire is destroyed, and now you've been captured by the very people you hated and despised so much... and you're still alive to realize it. My captain would be pleased; you were defeated entirely according to his rules. Now there's only one thing left to decide: finish you off right now or send you to prison to suffer for the rest of your life?"

A heavy silence hung in the air, stretching on and on. At one point, it seemed as if the gathered villagers had stopped breathing altogether. Only Johnny and Yosaku waited indifferently for Nami's final verdict. The girl, almost without blinking, kept her gaze fixed on Arlong's eyes. The fish-man remained silent too. He made no attempt to threaten or beg for his life. To be honest, Arlong didn't try to do anything at all. If it weren't for his pained, clouded eyes, one might think he was completely indifferent to what was happening, as if he were merely a bystander rather than a participant. No, Arlong was not under any illusion that this was not happening to him; he wasn't concussed or delirious from the pain. Arlong had simply broken.

As Nami had said, everything Arlong had believed in was destroyed, and his precious kindred, whom he valued so much, were dead. Arlong was still alive, but he felt a hundred times worse than if he were dead. A vivid example of Luffy's methods. However, that was why Nami could not decide whether to kill him outright or keep him alive to suffer in prison for the rest of his life. On one hand, she wanted to turn this page of her life and move on, but on the other, after all the pain Arlong had caused her and her loved ones, Nami couldn't determine what the right choice was. After all, even if she was ready to turn this page and forget everything as a bad dream, the same couldn't be said for the others. What would be better for them? At that moment, Nami desperately wished that her crazy captain was there to make the decision for her. Luffy always knew what to do. Fortunately for her, Luffy did indeed know.

*********************************************************************************************************

Please support with power stones. More PS = more chapters

Also 100 chapters. Congratulations to me and to every reader