20: Chapter 20: Time to Eat Fish, Niche

The setting sun was like blood, staining the sky a tragic and blinding dark red.

On the mountain path from the orange grove to Arlong Park, large pools of viscous Marine blood flowed slowly along the muddy trail.

Rice lifted the iron chest, which weighed hundreds of pounds and was filled with one hundred million Berries, with one hand, walking steadily in the lead.

Leaning on a wooden staff for support, Nami walked behind, looking somewhat weak.

Makino spoke in soft, soothing whispers, comforting the distraught Nami.

Behind them, Nojiko, the village policeman Genzo, and the villagers who had followed from Kaya's manor were already too stunned by what had just happened to speak.

Looking at Colonel Nezumi in the bushes—his limbs hacked off, leaving only a bloody torso, haphazardly bound with tourniquets by Marine soldiers—they felt a chill crawl up their spines.

Ruthless, violent, and without a shred of hesitation!

This was the modus operandi of Garp's top disciple.

"Rice... that is Arlong Park up ahead."

Nami raised her head weakly, her pale, delicate face streaked with undried tears.

Seeing that eerie building, which stood like a high tower in the afterglow of the setting sun, she shrank her shoulders, still feeling a lingering fear.

"Nami."

"Don't be afraid."

Rice stopped and looked up.

At the end of his line of sight, a multi-story blue tower rose proudly from the ground.

At the top of the building, a black flag bearing the red jagged shark skeleton of the Arlong Pirates snapped in the sea breeze.

Arlong Park, the demonic stronghold that had enslaved Cocoyasi Village for eight whole years—a hell on earth—was right before them.

"Boom!!"

Without a word, Rice walked up to the thick, several-meter-high steel gate of the park and swept his right leg out violently, shattering the gate with a single brutal kick.

Amidst the flying steel fragments and dust, Rice took heavy, deliberate steps and strode into the wide courtyard of the estate.

"Who goes there?!"

"You're courting death! How dare you trespass into Arlong Park!"

Inside the courtyard, a large group of Fishman pirates, who had been drinking and carousing at the parasol bar, froze. Fearing that a battle might damage the facilities, the entire park immediately went into a state of alert.

They drew their scimitars and steel tridents, fiercely surrounding Rice and his group.

"Lahahaha! Nami, you actually brought humans here?"

On the high Arlong throne, Arlong sat with his legs crossed, holding a glass of red wine, looking down at Rice from his high vantage point.

Beside him stood his three top officers: Kuroobi, Hatchan, and Chew.

Arlong swirled the red wine in his glass, his cold, cruel shark eyes sweeping over Rice's bare, muscular upper body:

"A low-class human who can't even afford clothes dares to run wild in my park?"

Rice casually placed the iron chest on the ground.

He turned slowly, his deep, pitch-black pupils sweeping without a shred of warmth over the ugly faces covered in scales, gills, and fins.

"Low-class human?"

Rice sneered, his tone as chilling as a cold wind blowing from the underworld:

"A bunch of damp, cold-blooded reptiles that smell of fish and hatch from eggs—do you really have the right to judge humans?"

"In this world, any beast that attempts to enslave humans does not even have the right to live under the sun."

Rice tilted his head slightly, patted the massive head of Richie the lion beside him, and chuckled in a playful yet bone-chilling tone:

"Richie, go clean up that trash. Consider it dried fish; kittens love eating fish, hahahaha!"

"Roar——!!"

Receiving the command, the giant beast Richie let out a violent roar that pierced through the entire park.

To prove to Rice that he was absolutely "useful," this beast of the East Blue unleashed the wild ferocity within him.

His massive body turned into a golden blur, like a violent war chariot, crashing into the group of Fishman pirates!

In Richie's eyes, these slimy Fishmen had truly become the smelly "dried fish" Rice had spoken of.

He opened his blood-red maw, swatted a resisting Fishman into pieces, and then, like a house cat tearing into a small fish, cleanly bit a pirate in half.

Faced with such immense power and predatory instinct, the Fishman pirates crumbled under Richie's claws like torn paper.

"Aaaaah! Help!"

"This lion is treating us like food!!"

Miserable screams rang through the courtyard.

Outside the fray, Makino held Nami and Nojiko's hands tightly, shielding them behind her.

Her gentle, watery eyes were full of composure and reassurance; the air of nonchalance she carried, inherited from Rice, greatly calmed the terrified Nami and Nojiko.

"Damn it! Chew! Kuroobi! Hatchan! Kill that black-haired brat!"

Seeing the heavy casualties in the courtyard, Arlong could no longer sit still and roared in anger.

The three officers immediately took orders and launched a pincer attack on Rice in a triangular formation.

"Chew... low-class human, die!"

The kiss-Fishman Chew launched the first attack.

His long mouth bulged, he took a deep breath, and transformed the high-pressure seawater in his abdomen into countless lethal "water bullets" capable of piercing human muscle, firing them at Rice in a barrage that covered the sky!

"What are you spitting for! It's so light, are you watering flowers?"

Rice stood with his hands in his pockets, a devilish sneer on his lips.

His body swayed slightly in place, like a feather drifting in a storm.

[Paper Art]!

Countless high-pressure water bullets, capable of shattering rock, grazed past his skin, fine hairs, and shoulders, yet failed to wet him in the slightest.

"How is this possible?! How could he dodge all of them?!"

Disbelief filled Chew's eyes.

"Swish!!"

Amidst the sound of air being torn apart, Rice's figure vanished instantly.

When he reappeared, he was eerily within half a foot of Chew.

Under Chew's terrified gaze, Rice sneered and extended his right index finger; due to extreme high-speed friction, the fingertip produced a shrill whistle in the air.

[White Dove · Finger Pistol]!

"Pfft!!"

A dull thud, like a sharp blade entering flesh.

Rice's index finger, like the sharpest steel rod, instantly pierced through Chew's long pointed mouth, straight to the back of his head.

"Why isn't your brain matter white? What kind of fish are you, a turtle?"

Rice retracted his finger calmly.

Chew's pupils dilated instantly, a spray of blood splattered, and his massive body collapsed limply into a pool of blood, dead with his eyes wide open.

"Chew!!"

Seeing his companion die, Hatchan fell into a frenzied rage.

His exotic octopus mouth bulged, and his six thick arms instantly drew six huge scimitars!

"Six-Sword Style Secret Technique · Six-Sword Waltz!!"

Accompanied by Hatchan's roar, the six huge scimitars spun rapidly in his six arms, instantly weaving into a storm of steel and blades, shredding toward Rice's body!

Rice watched the incoming blade storm, a bone-chilling coldness flashing in his eyes.

He let out a disdainful, cold sneer in his heart.

"Six arms? Just as well, I've been craving takoyaki today. I'll just cut off your extra octopus legs and use them as ingredients."

Rice sneered, his figure advancing instead of retreating. His right hand formed a blade, the muscles in his arm tensing to the limit, generating a ring of visible white air-cutting currents!

"Swish——!!"

Rice's right hand became a blade, instantly transforming into the sharpest butcher knife in the world!

[White Dove · Iron Blade Fang]!

The hand-blade swept across the air, producing a shrill whistle, and accurately sliced through Hatchan's six thick arms wielding the steel blades.

"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!!"

A chorus of harsh bone-and-flesh-shattering sounds rang out.

Six bloody octopus arms, along with the steel blades in them, were instantly severed at the shoulder by Rice's hand-blade.

Like six blood-stained wooden pillars, they fell heavily into the mud, and large sprays of blue blood gushed wildly from Hatchan's severed shoulders like a fountain!

"Aaaaaah!! My arms! My arms!!"

Hatchan knelt on the ground in pain, letting out a hysterical scream. Looking at his bare shoulders, he fell into despair.

"Screaming so miserably, it seems you're still fine. Makino! Remember to add extra cumin when you grill them later."

Rice's voice was icy, devoid of any warmth.

Of the three officers, only the cartilage Fishman Kuroobi remained in the blink of an eye.

Kuroobi trembled, but the pride he had cultivated from years of fighting in the Sun Pirates on the Grand Line would not allow him to retreat.

He roared, his muscles bulging like balloons as he assumed the standard Fishman Karate stance.

"Fishman Karate — Thousand Brick Fist!!"

This punch, the strongest power of Fishman Karate, met Rice's iron fist head-on!

"You call this karate? Get lost and go back to being sashimi!"

Rice mocked him with extreme coldness, not moving his feet an inch, and simply threw his right fist out casually.

[White Dove · Iron Fist]!

The two fists collided.

"Boom!!"

The violent shockwave of the punch shattered the hard marble floor nearby.

Kuroobi's fist, which was said to be able to shatter a thousand bricks underwater, was as fragile as a withered branch before Rice's meteorite-like iron fist.

"Crack!"

The bones of Kuroobi's entire right arm were instantly shattered by Rice's brute force, white bone shards piercing through his skin and protruding into the air.

"No... don't..."

Kuroobi let out a weak plea for mercy.

However, there was not a shred of pity in Rice's cold, black eyes.

His right hand, like a steel clamp, gripped Kuroobi's neck and applied slight pressure.

"Snap."

After the crisp snap, Kuroobi's massive body collapsed limply to the ground in the silence.

The battle was over.

With Richie's "kitten eating dried fish" cleanup, the surrounding low-level Fishman pirates had already been slaughtered.

Inside the wide courtyard of Arlong Park, there were Fishman corpses and pungent, bloody gore everywhere.

Faced with Rice's absolute power and slaughter, those Fishman monsters, who usually boasted that their physical strength was ten times that of humans, didn't even have a chance to resist.

Rice shook the viscous blue blood from his fist.

He turned slowly, locking his cold, black eyes—which seemed capable of freezing the entire ocean—onto Arlong, who sat on his throne, his face now pale as paper.

And behind Rice.

Nojiko and the village policeman Genzo, who had witnessed the entire Arlong Park being swept clean by Rice in a matter of minutes with brutal, demonic means, stood with their mouths agape, stunned like stone statues.

They watched the black-haired young man, whose aura was as powerful as a god or demon amidst the bloody storm.

In those eyes that had been numb for eight whole years.

At this moment, for the first time... a spark of near-manic hope for freedom erupted!