100,000 vs. 10

A few hours earlier in the Sea Forest, Luffy tries to charge away immediately. He shouts, "Outta my way!! I'm going to beat those guys up!!" Jinbe blocks him and insists, "I keep telling you to wait!! Just listen to what I have to say!!!" Luffy snaps back, "What relationship do you and I share?!" and Jinbe answers without hesitation, "We're friends!!" That word is exactly why Jinbe cannot let Luffy act rashly. He explains that the simple bond of fishman and human as friends is what both races have failed to achieve for many long years. When he says Luffy must not fight Hody, he means Luffy must not do it blindly. Luffy must defeat Hody not as a violent human suppressing fishmen, but as "the hero of this island!!!"

Luffy recoils from Jinbe's idea at once: "A hero?! Forget it!!!" He declares, "We're pirates!! I like heroes a lot, but I don't want to be one!!" Jinbe demands, "Do you get what being a hero means?!" Luffy explains it through meat: pirates eat meat and have big parties, but heroes give meat to poor people, and he wants to eat meat. Jinbe cuts through the argument by promising, "Then I'll give you plenty of meat, so do as I say!!!!" Luffy immediately agrees: "All right!! It's that simple?!" Jinbe then lays out the operation. He and Megalo will let themselves be captured and infiltrate the plaza. Once there, someone hidden inside Megalo must slip out, find the Celestial Dragon's letter and the key to the king's chains, and steal them from the enemy. After that, Jinbe will ask Luffy to save him, and Luffy's role is simply to answer that call.

Jinbe asks if anyone can handle the theft, and Nami immediately volunteers: "Stealing is my specialty!" Robin agrees to help, and Nami says that with Robin's help it should be easy enough. Jinbe continues: after the king is freed, he will call for Luffy. If Luffy appears from inside Megalo at that moment, everyone will understand that the rescue was planned together. Shirahoshi must wait somewhere safe outside the plaza, ready to take the recovered letter and flee with her father. The rest of the Straw Hats must go to the palace and save their captured crewmates, then all gather at the plaza. When Jinbe says they should work out the palace rescue themselves, Sanji explodes, "What kind of plan is that?!!"

Robin asks how the citizens watching will react. Nami notes that the people of Fishman Island and the Fishman District respect Jinbe deeply, and Chopper adds that if they see Jinbe entrusting his life to Luffy for the king's rescue, everyone will surely cheer for Luffy. Luffy agrees only because it is Jinbe, but grumbles, "I don't really want anybody cheering for me! It throws me off!!" Sanji imagines beautiful mermaids cheering and declares that with that support he could defeat any demon emperor. Jinbe thanks them, then senses that Luffy still has something on his mind. Luffy brushes off the need for an operation name: "Who needs a name?! Let's just go!!" Jinbe nevertheless begins, "We shall call this operation ..."

Back near and around Gyoncord Plaza, the plan has worked. The people see Hody and his officers struck down and understand that Straw Hat Luffy is a pirate and a human, but he is on their side. They repeat what matters most: Princess Shirahoshi cried out to him for help, and he came to save the island with Boss Jinbe. The voices rise around the plaza, calling, "Straw Hat!!!"

Hody snarls at them as "filthy... human pirates!!!!" while the Straw Hats regroup. Brook is dazzled by Shirahoshi and says, "The mermaid princess is as beautiful as all the rumours say! Yohohoho!" He begins, "Say, would you be so kind as to show me your -" before Nami stops him with a blow. Pappag complains that they could never have escaped without his help, but the crew answers that they made it to the exit by themselves. Someone asks what that whale was, and the crew says they found it on the way and had it pull the ship. Franky announces, "I have two new awesome weapons!! Who wants to give 'em a test run?!!" Nami hands over the recovered letter: "Here you go - the letter you wanted!" Jinbe receives it gratefully as the hope of Fishman Island left by Otohime. Shirahoshi then notices Luffy's new way of addressing her and asks what he just called her.

Shirahoshi apologizes, saying this all happened because she chose to conceal the truth. Jinbe refuses to let her carry it as guilt. He tells her to be proud, because resisting the passing on of hatred is a noble act. He prays that the seed she planted will grow to cover the entire island, and he does not deny the years she spent shouldering the truth alone. If the day comes when everyone can think as she does, he says, barriers and conflicts between fishman and human will fall away with the greatest ease. This time, though, he asks her to let them help protect that seed of hope.

From the Thousand Sunny, Shirahoshi cries out, "Thank you so much, everyone...! Waaaaahhhhhhhhh!!" The others note that she may not be a baby, but she certainly cries a lot. Hody's side shouts, "Take 'em out, Straw Hat!!" and "All right!" Vander Decken lies defeated amid rubble, and Hody spits, "What a useless ally you were, Vander Decken ...!" Hody realizes Jinbe has played him for a fool and says he should have known Jinbe would never allow himself to be captured so easily. His priority becomes clear: Shirahoshi must be eliminated without delay.

Hody turns his hatred on Jinbe. He says Jinbe seems very friendly with humans, and that it is men like him he hates most of all. Hody reminds him that he grew up in the Fishman District together with Fisher Tiger and Arlong, both of whom met their end at the hands of humans. Yet instead of avenging them, Jinbe allies himself with the very humans responsible. Hody calls Neptune brainless and says Jinbe is just as bad. Then Hody declares his future: once he is king of the island, he will change everything. The upcoming Reverie is the perfect opportunity; he will go to Mariejoa and slaughter all the human kings of the world, teaching them to fear the undersea kingdom.

Hody's ambitions grow even larger. After that, he says, he will drag all humans to the bottom of the sea and make them slaves. When he is finished, no human in the world will be foolish enough to defy the mighty Fishman race, pirates included. The word catches Luffy's attention: "Pirate King"...? Hody points to the powerful pirates gathered behind him and tells Luffy, "This is how you're going to end up, Straw Hat!!!" He laughs, "Jahahahaha ha!! What can a mere ten pirates achieve?! You're nothing, don't you get that?!!" With one hundred thousand warriors at his side, he orders his new Fishman Pirates to take the Straw Hats out.

Hody's army surges forward with a roar: "Haaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" Luffy steps toward them, and the chaos erupts around him. Nami shouts that something serious is roaring out there, but she is hiding because it is too scary. Franky tells her he is not sending her out yet and asks her to hang on. Usopp asks since when she was even interested in the new weapon. Zoro measures the numbers coldly: there are ten of them, so each would have to handle ten thousand, but strength does not always come in numbers, and these enemies are not even Marine elites. Luffy keeps walking while his friends call, "Hey, Luffy...!!!"

Luffy releases his will across the battlefield. In an instant, bodies collapse across Gyoncord Plaza, and the enemy can only scream, "Aaaaarg hhhhh!! What the heck?!!" Some shout that he took out half their forces in a single instant: "F... fifty thousand?!! What the heck did he do?!!" Hody stares in shock. Robin identifies it: "This is... Haki!" Brook says he has come this far in only two years, while Sanji grins that it is sovereign Haki, exactly what he expects from a man who calls himself his captain. Shirahoshi whispers, "Luffy-sama..." Luffy faces Hody and says, "You are Hody, right? I'm gonna have to beat you up myself. I don't care if you want to make yourself a king of some island or whatever..."

Hody sweats as Luffy finishes the thought that matters most: "But I'm the only one... who's gonna be Pirate King!!!" He launches forward, his enlarged arm smashing through the charging crowd with a heavy "Boooff!!" The fishmen panic at the sight of that arm, shouting, "What's up with that arm?!!" and "Here he comes!!!" Luffy's claim cuts through the battlefield more sharply than Hody's threats ever could.

Luffy crashes into the mass of enemies, declaring, "I don't care how many men you've got!!!" The Straw Hats answer the moment in their own ways. Jinbe says it is time to join the fray. Zoro wants to see whether the enemy can get around to surrendering before the Straw Hats wipe them all out. Sanji vows, "I won't let you destroy this mermaid paradise!!!" Robin calmly says the country contains an important piece of the world's history. Brook is overcome by the chance to perform and cries, "Such passion!! I feel I could start a concert!!" Nami says she is getting excited, Chopper insists, "I'm the ...pilot ...!!" and Franky prepares to unveil the Thousand Sunny's new weapon: "Time to reveal the Sunny's new weapon! I call it..." The name lands with force: "Soldier Dog!!!"

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