Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 222 FIXING MISTAKES

“Ruin a wedding?!” Nami yelled as Zoro dropped the anchor. “What? Why?” 

“The princess of Fishman Island is like 16 years old,” I said. “She shouldn’t be getting married. Something is not right here. Jimbei was supposed to meet us, remember, Luffy?” 

“Right, maybe he just got busy,” Luffy said. We had befriended the fishman after the drama with Ash, and he had promised to meet us when we showed up on Fishman Island. I was beginning to worry more as the seconds ticked by. 

“No, something is not right,” I said. “There is no one here. Do you see a single pirate ship docked besides ours? There is something bad going on.”

“Shouldn’t it be a good thing to have no pirates?” Nami asked. 

“Not here,” I said. “Fishman Island thrives on pirate tourism. Since us pirates are the only ones that can’t get past the Red Line legally. We have to come this way.” I knew in canon that Hordy Jones and his crew enlisted or killed all the pirates that came by. But if he was gone, and Vander Decken wasn’t around, then what the hell was going on?

“Just trust me. We need to go, and fast,” I said. “We can check out the island later. We need to find this wedding and stop it….probably….most likely.” 

“Whatever,” Nami said. “How do you propose we go about this? I assume you want to be quick?” I nodded. Pulling a large wave of water from around us I made a long platform about 15 feet long and 4 feet wide then froze it. 

“Jump on,” I said. It didn’t take long for them to excitedly get on the flying frozen surfboard. Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp laughing as I flew us up over the heights of the buildings then further into the island. 

The crew marveled at the sights, planning where they wanted to go after this. None really understanding the predicament this place could be in. I didn’t remember everything about the One Piece Manga, but I did remember Fishman Island, just because it was the arc after the long awaited 2 year time gap. I remembered looking forward to it after Oda took off like a month to work on his plan. Granted, Fishman Island wasn’t the best arc, but it set the stage for the New World. 

I scanned the ground, seeing literally no one around. Then I caught sight of a small group. They were running in a hurry off to the right. I turned us and moved along to chase after them. The crew was pointing down to this or that weird building. I was getting more on edge as we left the main town. Far ahead I noticed more fish people converging at a point. I sped us up. 

“Faster! Faster!” Luffy yelled as he clapped his sandaled feet. 

“I want to learn to do ninja stuff!” Chopper yelled. 

“Holy cow, what’s that?!” Usopp yelled as we came to where everyone else was headed. There was a large natural bowl shaped into the rock floor of the island. A high ledge around it the majority of the fishmen and merfolk were congregated around it. They appeared to be everyday citizens. Sanji yelled down to the mermaids on floating bubbles and the like. 

I recognized the area immediately. Lowering us closer to the ground I pulled us around to land on the ledge. The slab of ice ground to a halt and I jumped forward. Pushing through the gathered people as I made my way to the edge. 

The large bowl was filled with thousands of fishmen. A quick glance told me that they were pirates. All faced the other end of the inner bowl. At that end was as I feared. Hordy Jones stood on one platform. He was a big man, supposedly a great white shark fishman. With curly black hair down his back and wearing a beret he looked like a jackass to me. Behind him was the giant king Neptune. A merman, he had a huge body with a fish tail and human torso. With a thick curly beard and length of hair he was more flabby than muscular. His body was covered in deep gashes and bruises. Just like his 3 mermen sons next to him. 

The king and his sons had men holding spears at their throats. Ready to kill them at any time. I almost missed a beaten and bloody Jimbei beside them. He was a hell of a lot more beat up than I’d seen him back in Impel Down. The now white skinned Hordy told me the fishman had already overdosed on that strengthening drug so it was no surprise Jimbei had lost whatever fight that had happened. 

A hundred feet away from the platform was an altar. On one side of it stood the beautiful Princess Shirahoshi. Long pink hair the mermaid was as large as her father. A long white wedding gown covered most of her torso and fish tail, but she was easy to recognize as she openly cried. 

In front of her was a much shorter Vander Decken. The creepy Dracula worthy fishman laughed as he faced her. “Quit with the crying Princess Shirahoshi. Or your family is dead.”

Shirahoshi sniffled loudly and the fishman priest between them continued talking. I began to channel chakra into me. Growing angry as I stared at the merfolk and fishmen willing to simply stand around and watch their Royal family get killed. Just like in canon these stupid people were unwilling to help. I couldn’t stand it. That’s when I got the quest. 

“Weston, calm down,” Robin said, grabbing my arm. “What’s going on?” I turned to see that the other Straw Hats had joined us. 

“That guy is threatening to kill the Princess’ family if she doesn’t marry him,” I said pointing. “Luffy, go kick that pale guy’s ass. Zoro, Sanji, I need you to kick the asses of those guys threatening the king, his sons, and Jimbei. Everyone else start kicking the asses of those people down there. They’re all pirates that work for those guys.”

“That’s all I needed,” Luffy said, cracking his knuckles. He grabbed the edge of the bowl and began moving backward as his body stretched. 

“What?! We need more than that?!” Nami yelled. 

“Sorry. Don’t have the full story, but can’t let this marriage happen,” I said. I felt bad but moved the water in Zoro and Sanji’s body to move in front of Luffy. They yelled angrily as Luffy let his feet lift up then all 3 were shot in the direction of Hordy Jones. 

Jumping off the edge I pulled out my Jitte. Pouring water out of the Jitte the crowd below began to react as Luffy slammed into Hordy, a yelling Sanji and Zoro with him. A platform of water under me I shot toward Shirahoshi and Vander Decken. My anger continued to boil up. Pushing power through me. 

Vander Decken could be very dangerous if I didn’t handle this correctly. The fishman had eaten a Devil fruit. A very unique one, I couldn’t remember what it was called though. I knew that if he touched something with his hand he could throw anything at it and the object would always reach them. Years ago he had fallen in love with the princess and touched Shirahoshi. Then spent the following years tormenting her by throwing weapons at her. Forcing her to stay locked away in her own home. Hidden from the rest of the world as huge axes or spears pummeled the building she was in. 

Vander Decken didn’t know what hit him as his arm extended out to pass along a giant ring for Shirahoshi. The water around my Jitte sharpened and I sliced through his forearm with ease. Luckily it was the arm I wanted to cut off. 

The arm I cut off had a gloved hand, which should have been the one he touched her with. Thus solving the issue of Noah’s Ark. A giant ship that he was supposed to throw at her when she spurned his advances. The ark was utterly enormous, probably the biggest ship ever built and had the potential to crush Fishman Island. 

Vander Decken screamed out in pain as his arm fell to the ground. Dropping the giant ring from the dead grip it rolled to me. “Nami will like this as a tiara,” I said, picking up the ring. It had a gold band and the largest diamond I had ever seen mounted on it. 

“Who the fuck are you?!” Vander Decken yelled. 

“I’m Weston,” I said. “And you’re lucky I don’t want the Anti-Hero role here too or else I would have killed you.” I moved the curved water blade of the Jitte to his neck. “How dare you threaten this girl, you sick fuck! I’m not going to bother asking her what I should do, because she would tell me to forgive you. So I’ll just kick your ass.” 

“What?!” Vander Decken yelled but I jumped up, dulling the water around the Jitte as I hit him in the head with it. He was knocked into the sidewalls around us. I wasn’t done though. Jumping to him I hit him a lot more times for good measure. Using Nen and Haki to figure out which one hurt the guy more. He was beaten and bloody by the time I was done. 

“Are you alright?” I asked the princess as I came back to her. 

“Um yes, but my family,” she said weakly. 

“They’re fine, my friends are handling it,” I said pointing at the platform behind her where the others were fighting. It looked like the other royal family members had the weapons away from their throats at least. 

Making a hand seal I made 5 clones. 4 ran off to watch over the king and his sons, and maybe Jimbei if he absolutely needed it. The other stayed with Shirahoshi as I ran into the fray of the other Fishman pirates. 

Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji could handle Hordy and his direct subordinates. It was a good time for them to show off their skills. Me, I wanted to just punch people. Still angry at the situation I couldn’t help but worry that I might have led things to this end. So it was up to me to fix it. Unluckily for these guys, the only way I knew how to fix things was by beating them up until I felt better about myself. 

I punched the first man, he looked like a lion fish, he barely lasted one blow as I poured my all into it. He was thrown back and bowled over 3 more guys as I moved into my more natural fighting style, my fists and kicks. 

I brought it all to bear as I mowed over them. Armament Haki in one arm, my fist covered with Nen in the other. I was doing my best to try to mix them, but it wasn’t working as well as I would have liked. One or the other was all I could manage at the moment. I settled on Haki or Nen in either arm like I did with my hot and cold fists when fighting. With that thought I added pulling in energy from my left arm, and pushing it our of my right, putting on another layer of damage as I continued on my rampage. 

Observation Haki telling me those trying to attack from behind I kicked back and continued moving on. At one point a huge amount of foes thought to surround me. Sending out my Conqueror’s Haki, they passed out in a wide circle. Dropping unconscious at my feet and I was moving through them again. 

After a half hour of making my way through them I got to the rest of the Straw Hats as they were attacked by the lackeys of Hordy and Vander Decken’s crew. “Weston! You have to time to tell us what’s going on?!” Nami yelled angrily as she sent another lightning bolt out with her Climatact. 

“Uhhh-“ I stopped as a giant man walked into the large bowl. He was over 100 feet tall. “Later, unless you want to fight that guy.”

She turned, seeing him she turned back around. “Fine, go do whatever. But I expect answers,” Nami said. 

“I’ll tell you what I know now, then you can go fight him,” I offered. 

“No, go fight him then you tell me,” she ordered. 

“What have you been doing for 2 years? Can’t you take on a giant now?” 

“I can,” she said, pointing her bow staff at me. “But I’m not stupid enough to volunteer for it like someone I know.” 

“Fine, fine,” I said, letting out a sigh. “Hey Watanashi or whatever the hell your name is!” I yelled at the giant. “I’m gonna kick your ass!” The giant turned to me, growing angry he threw a punch down my way. I jumped up hitting him hard in the chin only for him to fall backward balling his eyes out. 

Disappointed with the fight we continued on. It was reminiscent of the last time we fought fishmen. Arlong and his crew were so long ago, each of these fishmen were probably as strong as he was. But we were beating them easily. 

Fishman after fishman went down. Luffy brought out his gears, mixing in his Haki as he fought Hordy Jones. They were all over the place as they fought it out, but it was easy to see that even empowered, Hordy was no match. It took time but eventually the leader was brought down. The others gave up soon after. 

Tired but pleased this was finished I went up to the platform to find Jimbei sitting with a happy smile on his face. “You better explain what the hell happened here,” I told the big guy. 

“That’s fine,” Jimbei said. “It started years ago-“

“Nope nope,” I interrupted quickly. “Start with the last few days.”  

He frowned but nodded. “That will take longer to explain.”

“Ugh,” I groaned. Not wanting to listen to a 20 chapter background on the fishmen but sure that some people didn’t know the story. “Just prepare a feast for the captain and we can talk about it later.” I pulled the man to his feet and we began helping the royals out of their chains.