Chapter 41: Unforeseen Ripples

Third Person's PoV:

On an island of the archipelago on the Conomi islands, there was a certain village that was the home of a certain cat burglar.

The place is called Cocoyasi village. With a nearby village named Gosa and the infamous and greatly feared Arlong Park also being on the same island.

A few hours ago, news of the Gosa village being unable to pay the required amount of money and being destroyed by the Fishmen pirates circulated through out the entire island.

Before, there used to be a few peacefully settling villages on the island, but as the years passed, the number dwindled due to the pirate's interference.

With such a news spreading, everyone under Arlong's rule became more and more agitated and the previously suppressed rage and anger were about to come boiling to the surface.

However, when the people of Cocoyasi thought about the suffering lone girl who worked so hard for all of their safety, their nerves calmed down a bit and their mental endurances had to be forcefully increased again. They had to grit their teeth and swallowed their rage back down.

However, two concurrent incidents occurred that made that calming tonic become impossible to be utilize.

Soon after the Gosa village was literally turned upside down, a marine captain came to the Cocoyasi village in search of a certain cat burglar. Upon discovering that Nami wasn't home at the moment, the rat faced bastard did not halt in his endeavors, instead, he became more motivated to complete his task.

Marine captain Nezumi had an agreement with Arlong. Arlong was becoming more and more suspicious of Nami's long absence, thus, he took preemptive measures. If he took away all of Nami's money, she wouldn't be able to tell it was his doing since she wasn't on the island at the moment.

As this thought ran through his mind, Arlong ordered Nezumi to go search for the nearly 100 million Beli that was definitely stashed away in the orchard.

On their way, the marines were stopped and questioned by the suspicious Genzo. As the village peacekeeper, he naturally felt responsible for what goes on in the village. As such, he had to step up when the marines were suspiciously sniffing around in their village instead of fighting Arlong.

Genzo was unable to stop them from reaching the garden of tangerines. Upon reaching the orchard, a beautiful woman with blue hair stepped out from the ordinary house. She looked a bit more mature than Nami and was in fact, the navigators sister.

Upon seeing the gathered Marines, Nojiko and Genzo felt an unplesant feeling well up within themselves. It was as if they could already feel something bad was about to happen.

Nezumi ordered his marine grunts to start searching for the hidden money while he himself just stood there. The look on his face was nothing but mockery.

As Nami's sister, Nojiko obviously knew about the deal Nami had with Arlong as well as the place the 100 million was stashed. In fact, she was the one who informed Genzo and the rest of the villagers.

As Nami was currently out, presumably searching for more treasure to reach her goal, Nojiko and Genzo could not allow these marines to trample all over that girl's sole hope.

As a result, they had to interfere with the marine's search. They were only two people, while their enemies number around a dozen. Only equipped with a single shotgun while Genzo had his barehands for defense, the two decided to risk it anyway.

After a few moments, some of the marines had fallen, nevertheless, the two were already at the end of their ropes.

*Bang*

An unforgivable and unforgettable sound rang out in the middle of the orchard. With it, the sound of a body hitting the hard ground followed.

Nojiko immediately rushed over to Genzo's side, while the man was clutching at his bleeding stomach.

"Gen-san! Gen-san!!!" The girl desperately pleaded with him. Seeing that there was no longer any resistance, the marines carried on with their business as if nothing happened.

While clutching at her own bleeding arm, Nojiko roughly shook Genzo who was bleeding out and becoming colder by the second.

Both of their eyes had tears welling up within and streams of water slowly poured down their cheeks. All of their pent up emotions rushed forth and extreme sorrow overtook both Genzo and Nojiko.

"N-Nojiko...tell..tell Na-chan to f-forget about us...that that girl h-has a bright fu..future ahead of her." With blood, tears, and snot coming out of his face, Genzo feebly grabbed Nojiko's hands as he pleaded with her. "I-I only wi..wish I could've seen h-her....(smile one last time.)"

Nojiko gritted her teeth so hard that, unknowingly, blood started trickling down the side of her lips. Without even being able to finish his last words, the village peacekeeper's head tilted and there was no more movement. He had passed away....

"Aaaahhhhh!!!"

Under the disdainful gazes of the marines who were leaving as they found the money, Nojiko cried her eyes out and roared towards the heavens in sadness.

After a few minutes, someone from the village who had overheard the sad howls of a woman who sounded like she went mad came rushing over. Seeing the sight before him, he was in disbelief and rage overcame him instantly.

That man went back to gather the rest of the villagers and in no time, Nami's orchard was filled with a bunch of men and women who are all holding some kind of weapon.

Expressions of rage and anger were all on their faces as they grieved over the loss of Genzo. Thinking back on what the marines were there for, the conclusion of this being Arlong's doing was quickly made. Who else but that despicable pirate would think of doing something like this.

"We...have been suffering under Arlong's rein of terror for long enough!!" A man suddenly stepped up and shouted. He was one of the biggest in terms of muscles in the village so he immediately assumed the position of leader. Nobody even thought about objecting.

"THAT'S RIGHT!!!" The people present shouted back with much more vigor.

"We, have endured it to this day because of Na-chan!!!" He continued, "BUT NO MORE!! We've had enough with this. Not only did they steal Nami's hard earned money, they even killed Genzo!!"

"YEAHH...!!" War cries rang out all through out the island as men and women alike rallied up for the confrontation of their lives.

From the start, they knew that none of them were a match for the fishmen pirates, however, so what? They didn't care. If they died, so be it! All of them were prepared for it. All they wanted right now was to kill some fishmen along with their inevitable deaths. If they could kill one or two fishmen before being done in, each and every one of them would be satisfied.

...

On the Merry,

The Strawhat pirates were completely unaware of the changes that have been happening since the few hours of their travel. This is especially true for a certain blonde.

As the ship neared the island closer and closer, Nami's emotions were becoming more and more wild. Suddenly, she stared straight ahead into the direction of their destination.

A bad feeling washed over her, and for some unexplainable reason, she felt incomparable sadness emerging within her.

Just as the crew were minutes away from reaching the island, something that was comparable to the Merry Go was lurking under the ship.

With the island now in sight, the emotions everyone previously had were more heightened. For those who felt excited, they became even more restless. For those who felt fearful, their shiverings were unceasing.

Suddenly, the figure of a giant sea cow suddenly emerged from underneath the Merry. When compared, the seaking was slightly bigger, which just made it's entire image more menacing.

"Rooaarrr..." the seaking growled threateningly as if showing off its might towards these weak humans.

"Waaaahhhhhh....it's a seaking!!!!"

Catching the sight of the seaking that was making itself more menacing, nobody except for Johnny and Yosaku panicked. This was true even for Usopp which surprised them.

Everyone else just stared at the seacow as if it was an idiot with deadpanned expressions. The reason was that they were already exposed to the truly gigantic Manni. As Sanji was a capable fighter, he didn't even flinch at the sight of the cow.

The cow tilted its head in confusion when it only got the desired reaction from two of the people onboard. Striking its pose once again, it renewed its threatening aura and roared once more. This was a huge mistake as it's roars attracted the attention of something that was hidden way deeper in the ocean.

Then, without any warning, the seacow, which was incomparably arrogant a few seconds ago, suddenly got dragged into the deeper parts of the sea. All that was left in its place were huge bubbles that popped up continuously and slowly, the blue ocean was died red for a few moments before being washed away again. The seaking, Mohmoo, would never emerge from the sea ever again.