Chapter 37

Disclaimer: If you recognise it, surprise, I don't own it.

Chapter 19– Inevitability.

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Looking back at my home and island for the last time, I feel a whole host of emotions that I can't quite quantify or put into words. So I look away, determined to be back someday soon to free all the villagers. Then, with resolve burning in my heart, I grab the oar and thrust it down into the water, and I push myself further off into the sea. And then I switch sides and push the boat forward and then the other.

I continue to paddle slowly, but my home behind me still beckons. So I continue to paddle, but I turn around so that I am rowing backwards to look at the island, which I am entirely leaving for the first time in four years, and the first time ever I am doing so alone. Every time I had left the shores of my home, I have always been accompanied, like on the fishing boats where I was joined by other fishermen, and when I went to Troga with Garp.

This is the first time I am setting out on my own, truly alone, and I don't know what is out there. It is a bit scary, but so what? Setting out to sea, isn't this what I always wanted? To have a journey? Though I didn't think it would be in these circumstances. Shaking myself from these thoughts, I focus back on rowing, ready to watch my island slowly sink out of view as I travel out onto the ocean.

Hmm, that is weird. Now that I think about it, I have been rowing all this time, but my rowboat hasn't really moved that much. I was too caught up in my own thoughts to notice, but even though I had been paddling, my boat hadn't gone anywhere and was still relatively close to the shore.

I turn around to see what could be delaying me when I spot a tiny fin poking out of the sea right in front of my boat. Seeing what is causing the problem, I temporarily put down the oar in the boat and move forward towards the small fin. But, unfortunately, it seemed I had rowed out too suddenly, and I had caught a fish of some kind underneath my boat, and I was still too close to the mainland. So the fish is stuck between my boat and the sand beneath the water, keeping my boat from moving no matter how much I paddle.

"Stupid bloody fish..." I mutter out as I move towards it, I was having a real emotional moment right there, and you ruined it. I was hardening my resolve and anything, coming to terms with setting out to see on my own with nothing to depend on except my own body, and you ruined it.

Wanting to just get going as soon as possible, I look down at the fin poking out of the water. It must be a big sucker because I am quite a bit out from the shore, so it has to be big to impede my boat's movement like this. Since it is stuck, then I will just have to free it and stop it from barricading my path.

Reaching down, I grab hold of the meaty bluefin and try to use it to yank it out from underneath the boat, but it doesn't budge in the slightest. What kind of fish is this? It is big and heavy, and it has this weird thick fin thing sticking out the top of its head. Oh well, I have seen more bizarre animals and fish before. With the number of strange things I have seen, this really doesn't phase me.

Since yanking on the fin alone isn't working, then I have to use two hands, and I need another point of leverage. So, tightening my grasp upon the fin with one hand, I reach my other down into to the water and start to feel around for something of the fish to latch onto and use to drag it out and move it away. Fumbling around, my hands brush against scaly skin as I search around for something to grab, and eventually, I feel something long and hard.

Feeling around it is very long and with many prominent ridges, ending in sharp pointy ends. They will definitely cut if I whammed my hand against it, but not if I get a proper grip. So, grabbing hold of the ridge thing attached to the fish, I use it and my hold on the fin to yank the fish out. And it is working, as it starts t rise out of the water. And as it does, the water begins to pour off of it, and I get a good look at it.

Blue rough skin. A black hat-shaped sort of thing covering its head and shadowing its eyes. Surprisingly human-like ears, although they are blue. The thing I am holding onto appears to be its long sawtooth-like nose. And the fin I was holding onto was coming out of its wide neck, though I have let go of the now as the fish seems to have been let free and is rising of its own will. It has a wide mouth with sharp teeth and a long chin.

It wears a green scarf around its robust neck, underneath which there is a black trench coat it wears around its shoulders. Though the coat is left open to show the blue muscled torso, and on the left side of its chest, there seems to be some sort of a tattoo, that is shaped like a... sun.

...Fishes don't have tattoos, right? My thought goes unanswered as this thing rises out of the water to a height where my hand can no longer reach its nose, and I realise I was never pulling on it in the first place. I look down at the water from which it is rising, where I can not even see its legs yet, and it has risen to be much taller than me now. Though what I do see is its arm reaching out to reveal a big blue human-like hand that's fingers are connected by a thin skin. And that webbed hand is resting on the front of my boat, impeding its path and making it completely stationary.

I take a step back and then look back up at whatever this thing is, and then I can properly see its face without it being hidden under a shadow and without all the water. Its eyes are looking down at me, narrowed and angry. But what scares me, even more is the feeling behind them, the sheer disgust and disdain for me in those eyes that want nothing more than to make me suffer and tear me to shreds.

"Thought you could run from Fishmen into the seas, stupid human?"

"Wha-"

*WHAM*

I am suddenly flying through the air with my old boat underneath, and I don't even know what happened. I wasn't hit or anything. I would have felt that. The boat that I was on was unexpectedly thrown like it didn't weigh anything by whoever it was that I just had the displeasure of meeting, and since I was on it, I was thrown as well.

"AGgh," I grunt as my back collides with the ground, the boat falling on top of me and shattering into multiple pieces, the debris hitting me as well and giving me a few scratches and splinters. Thankfully the boat was old and seemed to have weakened over time, so it broke pretty easily. Still, it hurt, and I mean emotionally as well as physically. That was the first working thing I ever made, and it has just been destroyed on the second time it has ever been used. Shit, now is not the time to be thinking about that.

I quickly get up and scramble to my feet, turning to face the ocean to see the same Fishman that just through me walking up onto the shore out of the sea. I know the attacking pirates were Fishmen, but I didn't think they would be... Fishmen. I was expecting something along the lines of Aquaman, you know? A man with gills, maybe some other fish features but predominantly human looking. Not actual fish people, who are entirely different colours and all fish-looking.

"This island is now under the Arlong pirates, and no one leaves." The Fishman speaks as he walks out of the sea and onto the sand, and I can see some other fishmen rising from the ocean behind him. They are... like the creature pirate things in Pirates of the Caribbean, the members of Davy Jones's crew that had all become part of the ship and therefore, they all became part of the sea. Except these guys are less disgusting, slimy and weird, though they look to be just as menacing.

"Now, the new rules are fifty thousand for children and one hundred thousand for adults. So... where is your family, kid? They have to cough up or die," The sawtooth who threw me speaks. Obviously, the leader and the others all defer to him.

"I don't have a family, and I don't have the money to pay you," I say as I settle into a stance, my hands by my side, ready to fight though I don't like my odds with the amount of them rising from the sea. But I will give as good as I get and take a few of them down with me if I have to, I wanted to avoid this, but now I will just have to deal with the cards I am dealt.

"Is that so? Hm, well, let's go check if there is anyone willing to pay for you before we get rid of you. Don't want to miss out on fifty thousand. Kurobi, Chew, Hachi, what do you think about this place?" The Fishman just ignores me completely, not even paying attention to my fighting stance and my blatant defiance. He doesn't even have any qualms with killing but is more upset at the idea of losing the fifty thousand I would provide for him.

"Um, Hachi isn't here, Arlong. You told him to bring the girl with us, so he is running here instead of swimming because the girl can't breathe underwater." So a Fishman with massive lips says to the aptly named Arlong. The guy is named Arlong, and the group is called the Arlong Pirates, real original. It seems that they have kidnapped a girl for some reason, which is worrying.

"Tch, pathetic humans. Well, what do you two think about building Arlong park here? Once we get rid of this house." The captain of the Arlong Pirates says, threatening the existence of my home. And for something as stupidly called Arlong Park, again, real original.

"That is my house," I said staunchly. It remains unsaid that I will not let them destroy it. After all the hard work I put into it, I absolutely refuse to let some uppity assholes come in and tear it down for some stupid park.

"Your house. You little BRAT! You said you don't have any money! Do you think lying is going to stop us from getting what we want?" Arlong threatens, walking towards me menacingly, his crew following after him and moving to surround me. I stay in the same spot, adamant about not letting them push me, but things are not looking good for me.

"I spent all my money on materials, so I could build it," I say, trying my hardest to stay calm and project that out as well. I don't want the pirate captain to think I have family or something and drive him to hunt them down because he will likely pinpoint Mummy Mee and Daddy Dee. But, I can't help the trepidation in my heart as these ferocious pirates all train their eyes on me, with sharp teeth and deadly-looking appendages at the ready.