Work Text:
Arlong squinted as the light pierced the blinds, hitting him in the eyes. He growls as he rises from his bed, striding towards the offending source of light. With a swift movement, the blinds unfurl, revealing his kingdom before him.
Whatever irritation he felt dimmed as he looked down upon his crew, standing tall and proud in the sun, not hiding, standing above humans, in a land where the strongest reign and the weak serve.
He smirks as he spots the small dinghy on the horizon belonging to his ever so dear map maker reached the dock. She was an exemplary example of what a human was: driven by greed, fearful of the fishmen, and willing to betray her own kind for the scraps of survival.
Dressing in his finest floral print he began to make his way down to the main plaza of his Park. Scanning across the way, he watched as Hatchan was trying to teach Moomoo some new tricks, with Kuroobi standing behind, trying to convince him that it was a bad idea. The rest of his crew had rightly cleared space for whatever this mess was about to unfold.
The sound of the gate creaking open, grabbing his attention.
The short form of his mapmaker slinked in, her eyes cast downward, her hair falling infront of her eyes. She was wearing the tanktop Hatchan had just bought her for her thirteenth birthday, one that showed off her mark.
One that made her look ever so similar to Koala.
He grit his teeth as the flash of anger tore through his body, the grief over what that pest, what her kind, had done to Fisher Tiger. Arlong’s one weakness was that he was not strong enough of a Fishman to carry on his brothers vision, his hatred and spite were far too great. The years among the humans of this isle had done little to cool the fire, if anything it stoked it.
Her footsteps had come to a halt when she was within arms reach.
This snapped him back to the present. He looks down upon the orange haired girl before him.
“Tell me my dear mapmaker, was your venture not successful? I don’t see any treasure?”
This was not the first time she had returned with nothing to show for it, yet she didn’t seem to rise to the bait. She was just standing there.
Good. That means that she had learned her place as a human, quiet.
“Ah! Nevermind! There’s always next month. Although, with all the maps that you have procrastinated on making for me, I might have to-“ “Why?”
The words were so small that he barely heard them. Startled he looks back down at Nami with more intent.
Did she just interrupt him?
“How dare you interrupt me you wor-“ “Why did you kill my mother?”
Once again she interrupted him. His anger boiled under his hide. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Hatchan and Kuroobi turn to face this conversation.
But he steeled his resolve. He needed to be careful, the last time he beat Nami, she was unable to make maps for him for a month. They take so long to heal. So breakable.
So the brat cared about that scum he killed so long ago? Well let her know the truth. Fists were not the only weapon that he had available.
“I killed her because she did not know her place. I killed her because she was weak. I KILLED HER BECAUSE-“ “you’re a piece of shit.”
A dead silence rung across the plaza.
Arlong could hear Hatchan in the distance saying something, but it was drowned out by the roaring of blood in his ears.
He grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up.
“WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?”
As he lifted her higher and higher, he eventually got a look at her eye’s, and in that moment time seemed to slow.
Each time when he looked into her eye’s, he had seen fear, weakness and desperation; all reminders of that filth Koala.
But this time was different.
As he gazed with anger at this human before him, the monster stared back at him with the same look. It was the same expression that he saw in the mirror when he thought about his brother, when he thought about the Celestial Dragons.
A look of pure hate.
That moment was all that Nami needed. As the life was slowly being strangled from her, she reached up and placed her hand over his heart; and with the last of her breath, she uttered the words,
"1,000,000 Volt Strike"
Arlong’s world erupted into white.
Hatchi could only watch in shock as the air crackled and burned at the heat of the lightning that wreathed around his captain. He could feel the charge dance across his skin as Nami’s attack channeled her anger.
Then in a moment it ended.
Arlong’s body collapsed onto the ground as Hatchi watched, waiting. There! A sign of life! Arlong’s charred chest quivered and began to rise with shallow breaths.
That was then Nami took a step forward towards the unconscious Arlong.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Kuroobi scream in anger, as his brother-in-arms charged at the young girl.
“THOUSAND-BRICK-FIST!” He cried out, only for his attack to pass right through Nami to the other side.
Without so much as a glance, Nami raised her hand and fired another blast of energy, tearing through the karate-master and through the building of Arlong Park itself. Hatchi could only watch with horror and dread as Kuroobi’s muscles spasmed and he collapsed in a heap.
Nami had yet to say a word.
Hatchi’s mind was reeling. Devil fruits were a rarity in the East Blue, a logia especially. How on earth did Nami get her hands on one this powerful?
A flicker of movement drew his eye back to Nami, he watched as the small girl began to walk towards the body of his Captain. The hate still ever present in her eyes.
Hatchi begins to move, crossing the short distance as fast as he can; and yet it was not enough. Again, and again, Nami unleashed blast after blast of lightning on the body of Arlong, lighting up the entire Park, blinding Hatchi as he tried to push through it.
The smell of ozone was intense as he finally reached the epicentre. He couldn’t take it anymore.
“Please Nami! Please stop!”
For one brief moment Hatchi’s spirits were raised as Nami seemed to pause, and turn her head towards him.
“Why? ... Why should I?” She says, almost casually, before she turned her entire focus onto him. “HE didn’t stop when I begged to rest my bleeding hands. HE didn’t stop when the people of my village cried for mercy! HE DIDN’T STOP WHEN HE MURDERED MY MOTHER INFRONT OF ME! SO WHY SHOULD I STOP?”
The air charged and crackled as she screamed at Hatchi, and as Nami finally looked him in the eye, and Hachi felt as though he were being crushed to death at the bottom of the ocean. The raw hatred on her face. The pain. The anger. The tears.
Hatchi didn’t know what to do. He knew what Arlong did was wrong, and yet he went along with it anyway. This was karma, she reaped what he had sown.
He couldn’t think of a good reason, he could try and plead that they would never return, but she wouldn’t believe that. He wouldn’t. He could try and give his own life, but he knew that it was not enough.
After a beat, Hatchi desperately stuttered, "... because you're better than this. You're better than us. We can leave now and never return. You don't have to do this."
He could see Nami shaking, the air was filled with ozone as sparks seemed to dance around her fingers, as she turned her head away from him and back toward the still breathing body of Arlong.
Arlong squinted as the lightning pierced his eye’s, hitting him in the chest. He coughs as he rises from unconsciousness. He opens his eye’s and see’s what he expected to see each day: a human with an expression of pure hatred towards fishmankind.