Disclaimer: If you recognise it, surprise, I don't own it.
Chapter 22– Rage.
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"AAAARGGGH!" I roar, rushing forward, raising the shovel high above my head and belting ahead to bury it in the saw-nosed fuckers stupid head. I am not stopped, there is no command to impede my actions, and there are no restrictions on me at this moment keeping me at bay. I rushed forward without even a halt in my step when by all rights, the commands of Nami given earlier should have stopped me as I brought my foot forward for the first time.
A saner person would probably have thought about this, contemplated it, and sought out the meaning behind it and why the commands were suddenly lifted. But I don't claim to be sane. I never have done it, and I certainly will not in future because I don't give a shit about any of that at this moment, and all I care about is turning this long-nosed fucker in front of me into sashimi.
I am so filled with this raw hatred that I even contemplate just subduing him and then cooking his friends and eating them in front of him. Would that even be classed as cannibalism since they are technically a different species altogether, even if they are sentient? Just one of the many ludicrous thoughts that ran through my head during my sudden bought of insanity induced by the fact I had just buried my best friend in two separate pieces. Then his murderers just destroyed our home and the only place I had memories together with him.
"DIEEE!" I scream as I suddenly appear in front of Arlong, drawing surprised gasps from his surrounding crew, and then I cleave my makeshift weapon down to his head, edge first to split him in two. As an arrogant guy like Arlong and someone from the Grandline who is bound to be strong, I fully expected him to try to block or even capture my weapon. I would not even be surprised if I was suddenly blown away, having underestimated him. But none of those things happens.
Instead, Arlong acts with surprising caution and sidesteps my clumsy attack, my shovel barreling past him and plunging into the sand, kicking up a storm that surrounds us. I don't question why he is so wary of me and even why he seems to be not underestimating me like he did previously when we first met. Instead, all I am thinking about is my next move. And so I pull and heave my shovel outwards, only to hear a large crack and for the handle to be lifted up without the shovel attachment on the end. Uncaring, I swipe it to the side where Arlong had dodged, blowing away the sand in the air only to reveal nothing at my immediate side where I thought my enemy to be.
In my fugue, after seeing my enemy not being where I expected him to be and only wanting to batter his face in, I spin around, expecting him to be on my other side and trying to attack. Still, when I swing the broken handle in that direction, there is no one there either, but this time I do not have the time to move on to my following action as that choice is quickly taken away from me as I feel a hand grasp the top of my head.
And then I am driven face first into the sand, my whole head being forced into it and then sunken so that my head was implanted straight down, the rest of my body then being pulled taut by the sudden pain and attack from nowhere, resulting in my body becoming rigid and unflexible as my feet point upwards towards the sky, my body staying in that position for a few moments.
And then the massive sharp-fingered hand releases my head, and I collapse like a puppet that has had its strings cut. A loud vibrating ringing resounded on the inside of my skull and disorientated me, not allowing me to continue with my former course of action and instead forcing me to bring a stop to all of my movement, my body merely twitching when I tried directing it to carry on.
I lay there, my head buried in the sand and finding it hard to breathe. But even with my ears blocked, I can still hear the mocking laughter surrounding me. My head still ringing and pounding, I try to move so I can get back up, but my body refuses to listen to my commands no matter how much I try to force it to.
I try, and I try, but nothing comes of my efforts. I don't know how long I try for, but eventually, I am able to use my limbs once more, and so I don't waste a second and move my hands to push against the ground. But before I can push my head out of its sand tomb, I feel that giant rough hand on my body once again, grasping one of my legs and then pulling me up by it like a fucking chicken.
The sudden rush of sand against my face and the whoosh of air as I am pulled up disorientates me further, and I find myself dazed and unable to react to the sudden change in my circumstances. And finally, when my mind manages to reorientate itself, I can see the grinning, sharp-toothed smile of Arlong looking at me upside down. Immediately my foot lashes out, trying to kick him in his smug face, but my attempt proves to be futile as my foot comes nowhere near him.
His mocking cackles remind me of the fact that there is a severe height difference in our frames, and our body types are widely different, along with him being fully grown and myself being a child. He is holding me at arm's length, and his arms are way too long. My leg doesn't even reach far enough to surpass his elbow. Realising I won't be able to smash his face in held tightly in his grip like this, I start to twist and turn, but my efforts to free myself result in minimal results. His fingers dig painfully into the skin around my ankle, and my movements exacerbate the pain, but I don't let that stop me.
"Shahahaha! Stop struggling, you little shit! A pitiful human like you could never escape my grip. Though I have to admit, you are a bit more durable than the other pissants in your species. But that doesn't mean anything when you are still just as stupid. SHAHAHAH!" As I struggle, I try to contemplate what has just happened and how I was struck down so suddenly without any sort of warning. And then I realised what he meant by me being stupid because I actually am.
I ran straight at him very aggressively, with no plan in mind other than to attack him straight up. However, my movement was very telegraphed, and it was very obvious just how I would strike at him, not to mention the fact that I screamed die at him. I might be strong and fast, relatively at least, but I don't have any technique or experience, which this guy clearly does, and he evaded me and counterattacked without difficulty. He had jumped straight up, high into the air, and while I looked around like an idiot, he had come straight back down and used the gravity to accentuate his attack and take me out in one palm straight to the top of my head.
Shaking my head, I ignore my flaws and try and focus on the here and now. And while my legs might not be long enough to kick his teeth in, they are easily capable of reaching other parts of him. Lashing out again, my free leg smashes into the forearm of the arm that is holding me at a distance. My shin impacting against his rough blue skin sends my bones shaking, but I know from just how deep I dug in that it definitely hurt him as well, but he shows none of that on his face.
Arlong snarls and tightens his grip on my leg, almost painfully wrenching it in two but not quite. I freeze up from the sudden pain, and using that time, Arlongs other hand whips out to grasp the leg that I had just damaged him with and ensnares it in his tight grasp before shoving it towards my other leg and then using a single hand to grab both of my legs leaving only my hands free. Still, they are incapable of doing anything but wave in the air right now due to the distance between us.
Before I even have the chance to panic and figure out how to free myself, a strong fist suddenly embeds itself in my stomach, twisting my guts around the bludgeoning hand driving into me. My mouth widens into a soundless scream, voice and air being cut off inside me, and all I manage to get out is some spittle from the force pounding into me.
"D-Detoro-Kun!" I vaguely hear someone shout, but I don't have time to focus on that. The blood is rushing to my head, the oxygen in my body has been cut off, and I am starting to black out. The combination of these two things proved too much for me. Trying to work through the pain, I begin to take deep, slow breaths, trying to regulate the oxygen within me and stabilise myself.
"Oh, Nami. Is that this brat's name? Shahaha! Look at him, his head is turning all red, and he sounds like he is dying. I guess I should let him down since he still needs to be alive to help make our new home." My body is suddenly in free fall, having been released. Thankfully when I landed painfully back on the ground, it was on my back, the distance was not that much, and I could still breathe. I ignore the conversation that is going on around me in favour of taking care of myself.
When I finally tuned back into reality, my anger has diminished, and I no longer find myself uncontrollably angry and wanting to pulverise them. Or rather, while it is muted now, and I still do feel those things, my body refuses to move to act on those impulses. Looking around, I can see the surrounding fishermen, except Arlong, looking at me in caution. At the same time, the man himself is standing facing my destroyed house and talking with Nami, who is worriedly looking in my direction.
"What do you think, Nami? We can even get you your own room to work in." Arlong is saying something to her, but she is looking back at me and notices that I have refocused. Her gaze then turns stern and warning as she glares at me, though no less worried, warning me not to attack them recklessly and get myself killed. So I guess I know now why I can't attack anymore, and it is because Nami doesn't want me to, and I have to abide by that. Though I wonder how I was even able to rush him in the first place since Nami had already told me not to.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
"Hm, oh, the brat is finally back. Shahaha! Amarillo Detoro, you are quite impressive for a human, though that means you are still incredibly weak. It is a good thing that you aren't so fragile since you have a lot of work to do." Arlong says, looking back over his shoulder at me with a vicious grin and a malicious glint in his eyes while Nami's stern gaze wavers as she looks on worriedly. A sinking feeling begins to stir in my gut, and I try to inquire further on the matter, but all I can manage is a questioning grunt, my head still not settled properly though Arlong seems to intuitively understand.
"Shahaha! There is a reason I destroyed your home, I am not a cruel man, after all, and I would not do such a thing for no reason. This will be the ground for our new home, and sadly your home was in the way of my new vision, so it had to be removed." He punctuates his point by lightly kicking a piece of debris which used to be a supporting beam in my house, and sending it flying across the ocean, watching it disappear with glee. And I just look at my home, reminded by his action that my house has been destroyed and once more, that impossibly large rage bubbles forth, ready to spill forth and make itself known, and yet I can not act on it.
"And with it gone, the construction of Arlong Park can begin, the construction you will be in charge of. Before it was destroyed, I looked around your home, and it was quite nice. You did a good job on your own home, but I expect you to do a better one with my own." My rage, unable to be released, starts to fester inside me, but I cannot act on it. This guy destroyed my home and now expects me to be the one to build on top of the remains for his and his crew's new house or park or whatever. And now that Nami's orders are back in effect, I can't act on it anymore, so it is best to try and stifle these feelings now than allow them to start hurting me.
"Shahaha! Aren't we lucky, boys! Not only did we find a single prodigy child, but we found two! One of the little geniuses will draw us a map, and the other will build us a home and then whatever else we need. SHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" He starts to laugh uncontrollably as I and Nami glare daggers at him, which he clearly feels but ignores, not bothering himself with us or our feelings as he already has a hold over us. Myself and probably Nami really hate this man, but that doesn't seem to bother him, and there is no getting out of this.
"W-Wait, it took me four years to build my home, and you want me to build a place big enough for your entire crew. There is no way. You would need materials, money and a lot of labour, more than just myself, to get it done. Oh, and I am not going to fucking do it. So instead, I will figure out a way to pay that fucking tax, so you can go find some other idiots to build your park." I try to quickly debunk what he is asking me to get out of it before I realise I don't need to try and worm my way out of it and can just say straight no. Why should I?
This fucking asshole is going to kill my best friend, destroy my home and take over the entire island and then expect me to happily build on the shattered remains of my home a new building for him and his ilk. Like fuck that is going to happen. I don't care if this mother fucker decides to kick the shit out of me or whatever. I literally have nothing left, and I refuse to bow down before him.
Before, I had my home, and I had George, and that was really all I really had. Sure, I have the villagers and Mummy Mee and Daddy Dee, but they can look over themselves and those people, while friendly, aren't as close. The villagers I know purely through the quantity of time I spend in the village, running into them and talking to them in my jobs and while they are nice they only really bother with themselves and even my bosses, if I don't do a good job, then they wouldn't keep me around.
And Mummy Mee and Daddy Dee, while I appreciate everything they have done for me, they got rid of me at the end of the day. They didn't leave me helpless, but I was kicked out because the other kids disliked me and were scared of me when they were the ones picking fights with me. So they got me a home, but other than that, they got rid of me and kept their distance because I proved to be too much trouble.
And then, when Captain Nezumi came along, and he stopped the little bit of help in the form of money that they were giving me, they just let it happen. The only reason Captain Nezumi was even able to do such a thing was because I no longer lived at the orphanage, so the easy solution would have been to just bring me back in. But they didn't. They let me go with no support to fend for myself. Now admittedly, I can look after myself, but they didn't know that. I was just a child, a capable child, but a child all the same, and they kicked me out because it was easier for them. Right now, at this moment, I don't care about this island. It could go burn for all I care, but there is no way I am listening to this fucker.
"Hoh? You don't want to? Shahaha... You fucking brat! You think-" Arlong starts quite calmly, but I can hear the burning fury building as he talks. His voice was getting more severe as he turned around to pin me with a furious glare, and I was getting the distinct feeling that if I wasn't going to work for him, then I wasn't going to get the chance to pay the taxes. I would end up sleeping with the fi- ew, no. They would probably end up eating me, but I don't give a shit. I refuse to bow down, I have nothing left to lose, and I am sure that Arlong can see that as I glare right back at him as I stand back up on my two feet.
"HE WILL DO IT! SAY YOU WILL DO IT, DETORO! HE WILL DO IT. HE IS JUST UPSET BECAUSE HIS HOUSE IS GONE!" Before Arlong can get too riled up and before I can say too much, Nami quickly shouts and draws his attention and, in the process, cements a command for me that I have to obey. Nami has given the order, and now I can feel it deep inside that I will have to build this fucking Arlong Park.
"Hm, are you Detoro? Are you going to build my new home on top of this pile of shit you used to call home?" Arlong says, purposely demeaning me and being a prick about it. He is making this incredibly difficult on me, pushing me to the very brink and seeing if I will crack, and I can see that he is finding pleasure in pushing me into this moral quandary. But, unfortunately, the decision is out of my hand, and so I grit my teeth and nod my head in affirmation.
"...Yes. I will do it. But I will need materials and a workforce, and you will have to specify exactly what you want." So I say, going along with the new restriction rather than trying and fighting it only to hurt myself and end up doing it anyway when I can resist no longer. Right now, the only hope I have is that this command will fade eventually, just like the one Nami placed on me not to attack the fishmen that disappeared a few minutes ago, allowing me to attack Arlong before Nami made it again.
I theorise that commands and orders have to have intent and feeling behind them, which could be both a blessing and a curse. For example, she could order me to do something, but if she doesn't actually want me to do it, then the command will not come into play. Also, if she wants me to do something but doesn't correctly tell me, then I don't have to do it. Instead, she has to say it to me for it to come into effect. And also, commands don't have to be rescinded by Nami. They can be lifted and fade on their own, depending on the circumstances.
Just like earlier, the command Nami gave after I woke up and met her in that shack and revealed my intentions to kill them all. She gave it to me, and it was in effect since I couldn't leave the shack if I intended to kill any of them, but for some reason, later on, the command disappeared. Thinking back, it was after burying George and coming back and seeing Arlong order my home's destruction that the restriction was taken off.
My only guess is that after seeing and helping me bury George's body and feeling my hurt, and then seeing their dastardly behaviour in destroying my home, Nami no longer felt that I should not kill them. Instead, she thought that I had every right to, even if it was just for an instance. But an instance was all that was needed for the order to disappear, and she would have to make her intentions known again to have it placed back on me.
"Whatever, go sort it out, brat. Go find some other humans and the materials, and then we will talk. Now leave. The sight of you is bugging me." Arlong says, uncharacteristically not doing his evil laugh and then shooed me away with a hand. I swear, everything this beast does is purposely done to anger me, and for a second, I think I can see a glimpse of a smile on his face when he sees me grit my teeth out of anger.
The bile inside me begins to rise, and I find it unbearable to keep it down, but I am not allowed to attack him. But there is more than one way to relieve yourself of anger, and while violence is almost everybody's go-to, there is always cursing. So I take a deep breath, and my mind quickly starts filtering through all the swears and insults I have in my dictionary to begin insulting the pieces of shit before me and lessen this weight inside of me.
"Stop, please, Detoro. Don't mess it up now. Just wait, and be patient." Nami, seeing that I was about to make a wrong move, quickly stopped me and whispered to me quietly. She grabs my hand and starts to pull me away from the beach, and I have no choice but to follow, but I still stare back, looking at the fishmen with pure vitriol. For some reason, Arlong looks a bit disappointed as we leave with no further words. The sadistic bastard probably enjoys this.
With Nami leading me by the hand, we walk back along the path, and when Arlong and his crew, and more importantly, my home, disappear from view, I finally stop staring backwards, and some of my anger begins to bleed away. I then turn to Nami, not questioning where we are heading since I don't particularly care at this moment and instead look at her questioningly.
"Don't push it and ruin things, Detoro. I know it is hard, I want to smash his face into pieces as well, but we can't. We will just die for no point. We have to be patient, and then soon, this will be solved. People will notice this. Merchants and traffic will stop coming through here, cut off and then the marines will investigate and come kill these bastards. We just have to be patient." Nami explains quietly, as if afraid that the pirates behind us would still somehow be able to hear us. This is actually viable since some fish have echolocation and stuff, so maybe they could.
"What happened to getting one hundred million berries and buying the island back? You changed your tune, didn't you?" I say because her plan before was just to gather that money no matter how many years it would take. And now, suddenly, she has realised that is a dumb, stupid plan and reverted to something that makes more sense.
"I- I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I wasn't thinking. And then, seeing that stuff... back there, I just... Whatever, come on, let's go." She says, not properly confirming what had changed her mind. Personally, I think she got a lot more time to reflect as she made that decision under duress, stuck inside a shack. Plus, she then helped me bury George and then saw them destroy my home. Something in there changed her mind.
"Where are we going?" I don't have a home anymore, and I can't stay with any of the villagers since they have their own selves and their families to look after. So I don't know where to go now, and I am definitely not staying back there with those assholes.
"We are going to my home..."