Chapter 80: Chapter 80
80
"Damn humans" Arlong growled in a mixture of fury and disbelief from where he was looking angrily at the humans.
He wouldn't accept it. The Fishman won't lose here… not again. But he had to do something… he could already see the straw hat shooting down the Fishman that jumped on the water with his fingers. The boy called it air bullets.
Maybe some kind of wind devil fruit. But his primary concern was the blonde human, he was also powerful. But his fighting style… it seemed familiar. He didn't know why… But he had to be careful. Even though Arlong was confident in his ability, he had a backup in case something like that happened. But he was saving it for the Mario kid, he was sure he could take the blonde man without it.
"Don't underestimate us, humans." Arlong barked he had his saw-like sword on his side. "We will never be beaten by mere humans."
"Luffy," Gin told Luffy in his ever-respectful manner, stepping over to his captain. "Arlong is alone. Are you sure you don't want to take him yourself? You are the captain."
It was a tradition of pirates that only captains fought captains. While the crewmates fought off the rest.
"No," Luffy responded, ever so casually. "Sanji can handle it… also I want to know what's his current ability… how much stronger he is compared to others, and how I should make his training plan for the near future."
"As you wish captain." Gin gave a short nod, accepted as it is.
The rest of the crew looked at Luffy and blinked. That was an odd thing… but those of who had sailed with Luffy for more than a day would know how serious he was with his training.
Even while being the strongest in the crew he would train the hardest. He would drag the poor six-armed monkey along with him.
The first few days they thought that Sparky was around the same level as Luffy in terms of strength. Because the monkey was easily able to keep up. But then they discovered that the monkey had always used his devil fruit powers to slow Luffy down.
Meaning Luffy was using restrictions on himself and his abilities. And that's not to mention the fact that Luffy had a special bracelet that was made of sea stone. Which he would wear and use when fighting Kuina and Zoro.
Luffy explained himself, you don't become the strongest by only dreaming, but by working. His moto was hard work and grind… whatever that meant.
No wonder he was so strong. It only motivated the others to train as well. Even Usopp was gaining some visible definitions of muscles from his workouts. Though Luffy cleared it was just him burning off the excess fat, and muscle building took time, unless he learned Seimei Kikan.
They didn't understand what it was but, they didn't ask. Luffy would include them into their routine when they were strong enough. So it wasn't that odd that Luffy wanted to see Sanji's current abilities.
Even they didn't see the blond cook fight seriously. Aside for him fishing sea kings of course.
"You fish bastard, I will never forgive you for what you did to Nami and Nojiko." Sanji said, his usual air of comedy and calm was replaced by coldness and fury. "I will end you."
"Let's see you try." With that, Arlong charged first. Swinging his large sword over to Sanji. Who jumped above the swing, spinning above the blade and delivering a flaming kick to the fisherman's chin.
But Arlong was the captain for nothing, he recovered quickly and grabbed Sanji by the flaming leg and slammed him to the ground.
Sanji was a bit surprised but used his other leg to kick the Fishman and roll away from getting slammed.
Both opponents looked at each other. In the brief exchange it became clear that while Sanji had the speed advantage, Arlong was quite the sturdy foe.
The battle continued, with Arlong on the losing end. Not only was Sanji faster being able to avoid the fishman's giant sword with ease, he was also delivering furious kicks to the fishman, scorching him with his flames.
With another kick Arlong was smashed into the building.
Sanji was still without a scratch and was casually dusting his clothes. "Is that all the oh-so-great Fishman are capable off… no wonder you ran with your tails behind your back,"
Arlong growled… he didn't like it one bit.
Luffy on the other hand was impressed with how Sanji was. He was still holding back mind you, maybe using half of his strength, by his estimation. The cook used to fish sea-kings of course his kicks would be powerful.
The reason why Sanji was dragging the fight longer was because he wanted to truly hurt Arlong. Not that Luffy would have done otherwise, but… it seemed that Sanji was doing it not for only Nami's sake either.
This didn't happen in the original. But then again this Sanji was more driven.
The canon Sanji was a tragic mess who didn't value himself, he saw himself as a useless mess that didn't need saving. Only after Whole Cake Island did he start valuing himself. That was the tragic hero Sanji was.
But this Sanji wanted to destroy his family. He was driven by revenge… so of course his story would be different from the original one. And Luffy could see why Arlong and Nami's story would hit home for him. More so if it was driven by vengeance.
Luffy moved his attention elsewhere. Sanji wasn't the only one fighting a fishman, the pink-haired Coby was also fighting one. A Fishman martial artist… what was his name again? Kuroobi.
The same fishman that in the original fought Sanji. Coby was nowhere near Kuoobi's level, but was getting up every single time because of his devil fruit. He was struggling a lot, it was given, Usopp wasn't helping anymore under Luffy's command.
Coby had grown in the past days, but he was far from any suitable level. Even the fight with Gin, was won, because Gin hadn't eaten for three days and he had some help from Usopp and overly relied on his fruit.
If Coby wanted to grow, he needed to push himself beyond his current abilities. Plus Ultra and all that stuff. But it was also teaching Coby about humility… losing can also make you grow. If not Luffy would have given up long ago after getting beaten up by Garp.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone