In which an ex-pirate turned bar maid, with the most beautiful voice in the East Blue, meets Straw Hat captain, Monkey D. Luffy, and finds herself a pirate yet again. Sailing the vast seas in search of the One Piece, Ren finds the family she never h...
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_______________________________ XVIII. \\ BATTLE OF ARLONG PARK // _____________________________
BY THE time the Strawhats made it to the village, dawn had broken over the island and the battle had been waged to an end. As they walked through the town, everything had been destroyed, houses and trees burned to the ground, leaving nothing in its wake. The air was heavy and quiet...the weight of everything around them settling over them.
"Arlong did this?" Sanji looked around, "Why?"
Ren glanced over, seeing a tear sliding down Nami's cheek...and she wrapped her arm around Nami comfortingly.
"To punish the villagers," Nami swallowed, "And to punish me."
Ren's heart ached as she looked around, in disbelief of the level of cruelty and evilness it took for someone to do something like this. Arlong completely destroyed the village he'd been terrorizing all these years...leaving these people without a home. She couldn't imagine how the villagers had suffered all these years, and below the sadness she felt for the destroyed town, there was anger simmering inside her. Anger for what Arlong and his crew had done, and not only for these villagers, but all the victims of Arlong's cruelty.
Ren was pulled from her thoughts when she heard people approaching, and when she looked over, she saw the solider, Genzo, leading the crowd of villagers over to them, Nojiko at his side.
Ren looked around the crowd, noticing they were all armed with various weapons, mostly axes and wooden spears.
"Nojiko told us about your sacrifice." Genzo said, his eyes soft and sorry, "We didn't know...can you ever forgive us?"
"There's nothing to forgive." Nami told him, tears in her eyes, "Coco Village is my home."
"Then it's our turn to sacrifice," He said, "We're done living in fear. We're gonna march on Arlong Park. If those fishmen want a fight—"
"That's not a fight, that's a massacre." She cut him off, "You will all be killed."
He didn't seem swayed, "If there is no hope for us to buy our freedom, then I say we die trying to fight for it!"
The villagers yelled in agreement behind him. A fire in their eyes to take a stand and fight back against Arlong. Their message was clear. They'd had enough.
