Chapter 202: Chapter 201
"Yeah, that's not a mouthful or confusing or anything," Elvis said, awkwardly scratching his head as he looked at Wilson.
"Look, the point is, you'll receive no judgment or prejudice if you end up joining us," I said, interrupting Wilson, who was about to say something.
"But you don't have to take word our word for it. You're more than welcome to come and meet the others yourself," I added, patiently waiting for Elvis to consider my words.
I couldn't blame the guy for his caution. Humans don't even shy from antagonizing fish-men in their own homes on Fishman island, and I can't even imagine what Elvis might have gone through so far away from home.
For all its goofiness, One Piece had some surprisingly dark elements in its story, and I've already seen how bad things could be for humans, the supposedly dominant race in this world, not to mention a fish-man.
"Then I just might take you up on that offer..." Elvis said after a momentary pause, nodding his head. "But there are things you need to know about me before we talk about anything else," he added as he turned to me, an aura of seriousness on his visage.
"Well, there are things you need to know about us, too. But you go ahead first," I replied, nodding my head as I stopped talking, waiting for him to elaborate.
"You might have already figured it out, but I'm hiding on Water 7, because there are people after me..." Elvis said as he sat cross-legged on the ground.
"It's a long story, so you might want to make yourselves comfortable," he added, gesturing for us to sit down.
I merely shrugged as I sat in front of him, Elly following suit while Wilson remained standing.
"Any way... Like most fish-men, I was born and raised on Fishman island," Elvis remarked, his tone marred in nostalgia. "I grew up as an orphan in Fishman-District. It was one of the harsher parts of our home, basically a slum, even though I hate to admit it..." he added, shaking his head.
"I won't bore you with the details, but I left Fishman-Island when I grew up because I wanted to see more of the world... See with my own eyes what all the fuss about the sun was, and how horrible humans really were. That kind of thing you know?" he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his index finger, an awkward smile on his face.
"I didn't leave alone either. I had a couple of friends with me. A couple of fish-men going on an adventure to see the world..." Elvis said with a fond smile.
"Or that's how it was supposed to be, at least, but..." Elvis added, the smile on his face disappearing, replaced by a grimace. "We ended up on Sabaody Archipelago..." he explained, his frown becoming more pronounced as electricity arced in his hair.
"Four young, naïve fish-men on an island crawling with slavers... I'm sure you can imagine how things turned out..." Elvis remarked, bitterly chuckling in self-depreciation.
"They quickly captured us after ambushing us on land and catching us off guard... and we were forced to wear slave collars, chained and standing in an auction with a bunch of humans bidding over us before we even knew it..." Elvis growled through gritted teeth.
"Four million berries. That's how much our lives were worth to these people. All four of us..." Elvis said, trailing off as he gripped his blue shorts hard enough for his knuckles to turn white.
"And ironically enough... it was another human who saved us from slavery..." he stated, taking a deep breath to calm himself. "He was a really weird old man, you know?" he added, slightly smiling as he mentioned the man.
"Said he let the slavers catch him so he could rob everyone here..." he added, chuckling as he shook his head. "He then just glared at the guards, and they started dropping like flies... the auction guests too," he added, heaving a sigh.
"Looking back on it, we should have just left after the old man removed our slave collars..." Elvis said, his tone regretful as he closed his eyes and turned to the ground.
"The others wanted to leave too, you know? But I couldn't just turn tail and leave like that, not after they treated us like animals. I needed to make them pay," he stated, opening a pair of regret-filled eyes.
"I was deep in blood and gore before the panicked screams of my friends and the other slaves snapped me out of it..." Elvis opened his palms and stared at them with a grief-stricken expression.
"My friends... they looked horrified... and the other slaves looked at me the same way they looked at the slavers..." he added, clenching his fists.
"But it wasn't enough for me, and I knew that killing these guards won't hurt the person in charge of the auction once I snapped out of it..." he said with a sigh, turning to us.
"I heard the guards talking about a treasure the auction owner was supposed to sell for an astronomical price... so I went for that instead..." he explained.
"It turned out to be a devil fruit, but it made no difference..." he said, his tone heavy with regret as he looked at us. "I took it when we escaped the auction and the archipelago... My friends, they didn't abandon me after what I did..." he added, struggling to keep a neutral expression.
"I only wish they did..." Elvis muttered, putting on a blank expression, but he couldn't help the single tear slipping out of his left eye. "We thought we'd put this whole thing behind us and keep exploring the world..." he added, promptly wiping his tear.
"We were too naïve..." he said, shaking his head. "It's not like we weren't careful, you know...? We kept exploring new islands, but we always tried not to draw too much attention to ourselves..." he explained, his expression bitter.
"But we weren't careful enough. We were ambushed again on a deserted island far away from the archipelago..." he explained, his helplessness audible in his tone.
"We ran out of food, so we had to stop there to gather supplies, and that's when they showed up..." he stated, growling at the mention of the people ambushing them.
"We were tougher and wiser than we were when we first went to the archipelago, you know? But so were our attackers this time..." he added, projecting even more helplessness and guilt.
"They said the devil fruit we stole belonged to a big shot pirate in the new world, who wanted to use it to make weapons, and even though we offered to return the devil fruit, they didn't listen..." Elvis explained, his face twisting in anger.
"Their leader said he'd have to make an example out of us," Elvis remarked, clenching his fists. "So we had no choice but to fight..." he added, his tone one of sorrow.
"Paco was the first to go... and then Jagger..." Elvis painfully remarked, electricity crazily arcing in his hair. "And even Eifel... she was the youngest and kindest one out of us, you know? The kind that would never hurt a fly..." he said, shaking his head.
"My friends... they all died... right in front of me. And I could do nothing about it, so I kept fighting until only their leader and me were the only two people still breathing..."
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