The air in Arlong Park tasted of salt, blood, and despair. Nami's choked sobs were the only sound until a familiar, impossible voice cut through the haze.
"Hey."
Nami's head snapped up. Across the courtyard, leaning against a shattered wall, was a straw hat. Beneath it, a face pale with exhaustion but burning with a stubborn, undying fire.
*Luffy.*
A shuddering breath escaped her. He was alive.
"Don't look over there, fish-face," Zoro's voice, rough with pain, drew a line in the sand. He pushed himself up, one hand clamped over his bleeding side, the other tightening around Wado Ichimonji. His single eye fixed on Arlong with pure, unadulterated contempt. "Your fight is with me. Or are you scared of a one-eyed human, you half-fish mutant?"
The insult landed like a physical blow. The courtyard's temperature seemed to drop.
Arlong's massive frame went perfectly still. The amusement bled from his shark-like face, replaced by something primordial and cold. "I told you," he said, each word a shard of ice, "never to call me that again."
The threat hung in the air, a tangible promise of violence. But salvation was moving. Sanji, seeing his captain, saw the flicker of their last chance. He broke into a sprint, a lit cigarette dangling from his lips, his eyes only on the water's edge where Luffy was trapped.
*Just hold on, you rubber idiot. I'm coming.*
**THWIP! CRACK!**
A projectile screamed through the air and smacked Arlong square between his cold, dead eyes. It was a simple egg-star, but it snapped the fishman's murderous focus away from Zoro.
"YEAH! DIRECT HIT!" Usopp's voice, trembling with terror yet booming with false bravado, echoed from a hole in the courtyard wall—the very hole Sanji's body had made earlier. The sniper king stood revealed, slingshot drawn. "You leave Zoro alone, you overgrown guppy! The great Captain Usopp has you in his sights!"
From the sidelines, Johnny and Yosaku gaped. "He… he shot Arlong!" Johnny whispered.
"He's either the bravest man alive or the stupidest," Yosaku breathed, a spark of hope igniting in his chest.
"Zoro!" Usopp shouted, his voice cracking only slightly. "Fight without worry! I've got your back! I already took down one of his officers all by myself!" He flashed a wobbly but genuine grin at Nami, who stared at him with wide, disbelieving eyes.
Near the water, the village sheriff Genzo knelt by Luffy. "Boy, did you pull yourself out?"
Luffy's head lolled. His usual boundless energy was utterly absent. "Can't… move," he slurred, his voice faint. "Everything's heavy."
Sanji hit the pool's edge. "Hang on, Luffy!" he muttered, not breaking stride. He took a deep, sharp breath. *Our only hope. Don't you dare drown on us.* He dove into the dark water in a clean arc.
Below the surface, the world muted. Sunlight filtered down in distorted beams, illuminating Luffy's form, pinned under a monstrous chunk of rubble, Nojiko struggling uselessly beside him. Sanji kicked down, bubbles streaming from his lips. *Almost there.*
Above, the tension snapped.
Arlong hadn't even flinched at the rubber band. His gaze, full of predatory curiosity, was locked on Zoro. "Who was it?" Arlong mused, his voice carrying easily across the courtyard. "Who interfered with my justice? Who kept that straw-hatted fool breathing?"
"Worried?" Zoro taunted, raising his sword. "Good."
With a roar that was more a promise than a battle cry, Zoro launched himself forward. It was a desperate, powerful lunge, Wado Ichimonji aimed to cleave Arlong's smirking face in two.
**SHIIING!**
The sound wasn't of tearing flesh, but of metal meeting something impossibly hard. Arlong hadn't moved. He had simply tilted his head.
Zoro's eyes widened. His sword was caught, not by a hand, but by the fishman's long, serrated nose, holding the blade immobile without a scratch.
"My nose," Arlong said, a grotesque pride in his voice. "Saw-toothed and unbreakable. The pride of a sawshark fishman."
The hope that had flickered in the courtyard guttered.
And then, movement. A pained groan. Hatchan, the six-armed octopus fishman Usopp had claimed to defeat, stirred in the rubble. He sat up, dazed, and saw Usopp on the wall.
"You!" Hatchan sputtered, his faces twisting in rage. He'd seen the sniper's shot and thought it was for him. Humiliation and fury boiled over. His eyes then darted to the pool, where a stream of bubbles was rising.
*The cook. He's going for the captain.*
"NO YOU DON'T!" Hatchan bellowed. With a powerful thrust of his limbs, he launched himself not at Usopp, but in a perfect dive toward the dark water.
"Sanji!" Zoro's warning was torn from him, a moment of fatal distraction.
Arlong's smile was a slit full of daggers. "It's over," he stated, as if commenting on the weather. Then he moved.
His forehead, thick as granite, slammed into Zoro's chest.
The sound was sickening—a wet crunch of protesting bone. Zoro's breath exploded from his lungs in a choked, agonized cry. The sword fell from his nerveless fingers as he was thrown backward, skidding across the stone, a broken doll.
"ZORO!" Nami screamed, the sound raw and torn from her soul.
Underwater, Sanji's hands found the edge of the rock. He braced his feet against the seabed, muscles coiling. *Just one good kick!* He looked up, ready to strike, and saw a shadow descending fast. Not a shadow.
*Hatchan.*
The six-armed fishman was a torpedo of malice, spearing directly toward him, blocking his path to Luffy, blocking the light, blocking all hope.
Above, Arlong stood over Zoro's writhing form, his shadow swallowing the fallen swordsman. He looked toward the pool, where the water churned with the impending clash.
"Your hope," Arlong said to the entire broken village, to Nami's shattered spirit, "is about to be extinguished at the bottom of the sea."
In the deep, silent dark, with his air running out and a monster bearing down, Sanji met Hatchan's furious eyes. There was no room to dodge. No time to free his captain.
*Luffy…* Sanji thought, as Hatchan's powerful arms reached for his throat. *What do we do now?*