Saving Me, Saving You | Sanji

Time to Kick Some Ass

Now

The fire was gone but the smell and damage remained. Arlong and his crew left nothing untouched. The charred remains, if one could call them remains, of the homes broke Reyna's heart when they stepped foot into Coco Village a few hours after the crew spotted the blaze. The stench of burning debris wafted through the entire area and the remaining smoky haze darkened the sky.

"This is-" Words escaped Reyna's lips at the carnage surrounding them.

"Arlong did all of this?" Sanji asked. "Why?"

"To punish the villagers," Nami answered. "And to punish me."

"You don't think anyone got caught up in this, do you?" Reyna questioned.

"By the look of the angry mob walking directly towards us, I would say everyone made it out alive," Zoro said, a hand resting on the hilt of one of his swords.

"What's going on?" Nami asked the large crowd of townspeople that gathered around them.

"Nojiko told us about your sacrifice," Genzo explained. "We didn't know. Can you ever forgive us?"

"There's nothing to forgive," Nami sniffed, her eyes bouncing back and forth between the people grew up with. "Coco Village is my home."

"Then it's our turn to sacrifice. We're done living in fear. We're going to march on Arlong Park. If those fish-men want a fight-"

"That's not a fight. That's a massacre," Nami interrupted. "You will all be killed."

The people of Coco Village had guts. Reyna'd give them that. But Nami was right, even with their weapons and decent-sized group; they didn't stand a chance.

"Please," Nami pleaded. "This isn't your fight. It's mine."

"No," Luffy exclaimed, his face full of determination as he spoke to the crowd. "This is our fight. Right, guys?"

"Finally, I get to cut something," Zoro said first.

"As long as you don't overdo it. We're running out of bandages already," Reyna replied.

"I don't know if Zoro knows how to not overdo it," Usopp added. "And how are we going to defeat Arlong anyway? We saw what he did at Baratie."

"Every creature has a weakness," Zoro shrugged.

"Even bulletproof ones?"

"I'll know it when I see it," Luffy said. "And when I do, I won't hesitate."

"Damn," Reyna glances down at her arms. "That gave me chills. No wonder you're the captain. So, what's the game plan?"

+++++

Reyna bounced up and down with excitement as they approached Arlong Park. Well, internally anyway. Her adrenaline was off the charts. It had been a long time since she'd been in a fight at such a scale as what was to come.

Usopp shot two smoke bombs over the gate (he must have been overjoyed that he made more the previous night), surely alerting the fish-men on the other side of the wall that they had company.

Luffy kicked the door off its hinges, sending the two wooden panels to the ground. Staring at the crew were at least two dozen of Arlong's pirates, their expressions slightly confused at the baffling sight of a small group of humans attacking them on their turf. Reyna quickly unsheathed her sai, twirling them in her hands in preparation for battle.