After comforting Nami, Chiga kicked Arlong, who was still gasping for air.
After some thought, Chiga waved to the remaining fish-man underlings, signaling them to come over.
The fish-men looked at him blankly, pointing at themselves, unsure who Chiga was calling. Chiga glared at them impatiently, and the fish-men immediately scrambled over.
Clang! Chiga threw a gun onto the ground and said, "Whoever takes this gun and shoots your captain once, I'll spare their life."
The fish-men immediately looked at Chiga in horror. For a moment, no one dared to move.
Chiga didn't waste any more words and simply said to himself, "I'll count to three. One."
"Two…"
Bang! Before the second number was even finished, a slightly shorter fish-man had already snatched the gun from the ground and fired a shot at Arlong without hesitation.
Arlong, lying on the ground, trembled violently—but he still wasn't dead. The fish-men's physique was simply amazing!
The fish-man who fired the shot immediately looked at Chiga with hope. Chiga nodded, indicating that he could leave.
The fish-man felt as if he had been granted a royal pardon. He bowed three times to Chiga with all his might, then took off running. He swore in his heart that he would never appear in a human town again.
The other fish-men, seeing this scene, immediately went crazy, scrambling for the pistol on the ground. As they fought, they started hitting each other. Before long, several fish-man corpses lay haphazardly across the ground.
Chiga watched the scene with interest, then kicked Arlong again and said, "Still breathing? Look how noble your fish-man race is. They really fight their own kind to the death."
Arlong didn't say a word. At this moment, he was more despairing than Belle-mère had been just now. His faith had completely collapsed. There would be no salvation. He just wanted to die.
Chiga clapped his hands, and the fish-men, who had been fighting moments ago, immediately quieted down.
"All right, the one who looks like an octopus—yes, you. Come here."
Chiga was referring to Hatchan. During the previous struggle, he had remained motionless, standing there with a sorrowful expression as he watched his own kind slaughter each other.
Hearing Chiga's summons, he shivered and walked toward Chiga, trembling.
Chiga used Universal Pull to draw the gun from a fish-man's hand, then handed it to Hatchan and said, "You—fire the last shot."
Hatchan held the pistol with trembling hands, feeling as if it were the heaviest thing he had ever held in his life.
Seeing Hatchan still standing motionless, Chiga raised his hand toward the group of fish-men behind him and unleashed a Shinra Tensei.
After consuming the Gravity-Gravity Fruit, Chiga's Shinra Tensei was more than twice as strong as before. A single ordinary Shinra Tensei now directly blasted the group of fish-men into a pile of scattered parts.
"Ah!"
Seeing this horrific scene, Hatchan completely broke down. He aimed the pistol at Arlong and fired several shots in quick succession. Arlong finally fell silent, tears still visible on his face.
Chiga nodded in satisfaction, indicating Hatchan could also leave.
Hatchan numbly turned to go, but Chiga suddenly called out to him again.
"Oh, by the way—if you go back to Fish-Man Island, tell Jinbe that Arlong and these fish-men were killed by me. Tell him he can come find me if he has any business. My name is Uchiha Chiga, and I'm currently a Marine Headquarters Captain. Got that?"
Hatchan nodded, and Chiga waved his hand, letting the mentally shaken Hatchan leave.
At this point, the Arlong Pirates—who had been so arrogant just moments ago—were nearly completely wiped out. The villagers of Cocoyasi Village subconsciously shook their heads, confirming that they weren't dreaming.
Chiga turned around and gave the villagers a kind smile, which caused them to instinctively take a step back.
Although Chiga had lived there for ten years, they still couldn't connect the man who had just slaughtered fish-men like dogs with the quiet fishing boy they remembered.
However, Nojiko and Nami didn't care. The two girls, one on each side, helped Belle-mère approach Chiga, sweetly calling him "Brother Chiga." Belle-mère, on the other hand, looked at the somewhat unfamiliar young man in front of her with a complicated expression.
Less than a year had passed since their last farewell by the sea, and yet the young man before her had grown to such an extent.
She had already heard of Chiga's battle with Silvers Rayleigh, and now she knew—the power he displayed just now was likely only the tip of the iceberg.
What terrifying talent. Why was the gap between people so vast? Belle-mère smiled bitterly and shook her head.
Nojiko, beside her, asked with concern, "Belle-mère, what's wrong?"
Belle-mère turned to her with a smile and said she was fine.
Nami, looking at Belle-mère's injuries, had hatred flash in her eyes. She looked at Chiga and said, "Brother Chiga, I want to join the Marines! I want to kill pirates!"
Nami was completely fed up with pirates. Chiga looked at the determined orange-haired girl with a bit of helplessness, thinking that if he took her to join the Marines at her age, he'd be scorned by the rest of the force.
Belle-mère, despite her injuries, grabbed Nami's ear and said, "How old are you? What kind of Marine are you going to be? And did you forget what Arlong just said?"
Nami shook her head like a drum, defiantly replying, "But Brother Chiga is also a Marine, and he saved us! And he's a high-ranking Marine now, isn't he? Can't he decide something like that with just one word?"
Hearing that, Chiga smiled. While being a Marine Headquarters Captain wasn't a low rank, it wasn't exactly "high command" either.
Still, he noticed Belle-mère's earlier words. He pinched Nami's cheek and said, "We'll talk about joining the Marines when you're older. First, tell me what Arlong said."
Nami's expression hardened. She immediately exaggerated the story about Captain Nezumi, and Nojiko, beside her, nodded tearfully. She knew that as long as Brother Chiga was here, they wouldn't be mistreated again.
Chiga's expression darkened. He stood silently, then glanced in one direction and asked, "I understand. Don't worry, I'll handle this. How is Granny Risa?"
Belle-mère replied weakly, "She's safe. When we got word of the Arlong Pirates, I hid her and the older villagers in a secure room."
Chiga nodded, relieved, and bowed to Belle-mère in thanks.
Belle-mère struggled to stop him, saying, "No, you saved us. What I did was nothing!"
Hearing this, the villagers—who had been frightened earlier—came forward one by one.
"That's right, Chiga! You're the hero of the village!"
"We were just scared… we didn't even thank you!"
"Thank goodness we had you, Chiga!"
Chiga looked at the villagers quietly. Their sincere gratitude made his anger burn even hotter. His body began to float upward. He closed his eyes, sensing something in the distance, then shot off like a bullet.
Below, Nami tugged on Belle-mère's sleeve. "Belle-mère, why did Brother Chiga leave so suddenly? Where's he going?"
Belle-mère watched the sky and replied, her voice laced with hatred, "He's going to clean up the scum in the Marines."
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I'd drop an additional chapter.
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https://www.patreon.com/Zphyr_
I created it today, And I'm still trying to learn how to use it.
One thing I noticed was I couldn't group each fanfic.
So I took another approach by creating a folder and adding the links to each chapters
It's more organized and easier to read.
I pinned the folder, You can check it out.
I'm going to be posting 5 different fanfiction on the p@treon account
And i bet y'all would love it.