Arlong picked up a big chunk of cement that had fallen off of his home base. "Pirate Queen?" he repeated, snorting. "You think a mere human like you can become someone like that?" He tossed the piece of rock up and down like it was a pebble. "Can you bite through a column with your power?"
"So what?!" Lucy shouted defiantly. "Don't try showing things off that don't matter!" She threw a punch and smashed a boulder to smithereens, again making my jaw drop. No one I'd ever known, not even Cracked-Up Chuck, could destroy such a huge piece of cement with one blow! "I can break that column without having to bite it."
Yosaku laughed and gave her the thumbs up. "Ah! Well said, Lucy-aneki! In the end, the result's the same!"
"You're so stupid!" the shark fishman spat. "The whole human race is pathetic! You couldn't even save yourself in the ocean! You can't do anything!" He bent his knees and dived forward, gnashing with his teeth, but Lucy simply stepped to the side and dodged.
She stretched out and grabbed Johnny and Yosaku swords, which were still where they'd fallen after Zoro's defeat. My captain retracted her arms, bringing the swords with them, grinning and yelling, "And when I can't do something, I have others with me to help me do it!" She held up the swords and laughed. "Shishishi!"
"When did Lucy learn how to sword fight?" I frowned, tilting my head in confusion.
Nami simply shrugged.
Lucy slashed and hacked, letting out a battle cry, but Arlong simply backtracked and weaved through all her attacks. "Take that, and that, and that, and that!"
"What the hell are you doing now?" Arlong asked, amused. "You're just waving them around."
With one swipe of his keen nose, one of the swords was sent spinning out of Lucy's hand, and it stabbed into the ground a good fifteen feet away. Lucy seemed unperturbed by this.
"I'm not interested in fooling around with you," the fishman sneered. My captain pulled back and attacked again, but he caught it in his mouth and bit down, chomping it to little pieces of tempered steel. "How boring."
"Then eat this!" she shouted, and stretched her arm back. It barreled at Arlong with a rubbery snap and smashed into his face. His eyes widened and he was thrown back. Lucy was lifted off the ground in reaction to the opposite force created by her punch, and she landed smoothly.
The teeth of the enemy captain shattered.
"Arlong's teeth broke!" the villagers gasped.
He dropped to the cement harder than a sack of potatoes.
"Of course I don't know a damn thing about swords, you dumbass!" Lucy bellowed. "I don't know how to navigate, either. I can't cook. I can't control water or see into the future. I can't even lie!"
"Oi!" Usopp complained, drawing his hand across his chin.
"I KNOW THAT I NEED OTHERS TO HELP ME IF I WANT TO KEEP ON LIVING!" she proclaimed.
Arlong, still lying on the ground, laughed. "Ha! You sure are useless. How pitiful." He sat up and crossed his hands over his chest. "And such a pathetic girl is their captain? They must really resent you. Why should they risk their lives to save someone like you?" He rubbed his cheek. "Someone they can't be proud of. Why should they have to call you their captain? What can you do?" Arlong stood.
Lucy clenched her fists. "I CAN BEAT THE CRAP OUTTA YA!"
Nami grinned and chuckled happily.
"Yeah, I'll back you up!" Usopp shouted.
I smirked and pointed at her. "Oi, Lucy! If you die, I'm gonna kill ya!"
Nami hit me over the head. "And what sense does that make?!"
"YOSHA!" the villagers cheered. "GO AT IT! KICK HIS ASS, RUBBERGIRL!"
"GO, LUCY-ANEKI!"
"GO GET HIM!"
Arlong looked up and glared at all of us. "SHUT UP! You've got to be joking, weaklings!" His broken teeth popped out of his mouth, only to be replaced by a brand new set on the spot.
"Eh?! His teeth grew back!" Lucy noticed.
"It's because I'm a shark," the bastard explained. "My teeth will grow back over and over, with stronger ones each time!" He ripped out his own set of teeth, making me wince, and another set immediately appeared. "However many times, as many times as I need." He ripped out another pair with his other hand, and yet another set grew back.
I blanched. "Oh, that's just sick," I groaned.
"This is a trait that the Heavens have bestowed on me."
"COOL!" my captain exclaimed. My jaw dropped at her stupidity.
"Are you beginning to understand just how superior I am?" Arlong held out his hands with the teeth inside, gnashing the teeth together. My eyes widened. Oh, shit! Now he didn't have one set of those super-strong teeth—he had three ! Lucy was in thrice as much danger! The fish stick called out the name of an attack. "Twist Gum!" He threw his arm forward and closed the teeth, almost getting Lucy, but she leaped backwards and out of the way. He pushed forward, punching and gnashing his three teeth, and one attack came so close that the teeth snipped off some of Lucy's red vest.
"Lucy!" I cried.
"Stop that!" she complained. When his body was turned away from her, she grabbed his arm—the one that had barely missed her—and tried to trap it, but he just laughed and ripped it out of her grip. There was a pause, and then he tore at her repeatedly with the teeth. Her screams filled the air.
"Oh, no!" I gasped. "He got her!"
"Lucy-aneki!" yelled Johnny and Yosaku.
Nami's eyes were wide with horror and her body was shaking.
"A-Arlong-san..." someone moaned. "It hurts..."
Lucy had grabbed the fatso from before and used him as a human... er... fishman... shield. She was kneeling behind him, totally fine. The fatso, however, was all cut up and bleeding. Lucy dropped him and stood, wiping a bit of sweat off her brow and breathing in relief.
"M-My brother!" Arlong said, shocked. "Why you... you rubber bitch! How dare you use one of my brothers as a shield!"
Lucy cocked her head to the side. "What are you talking about? You're the one who attacked him."
I sweatdropped. Only Lucy would have logic like that.
"YOU MORON!" I screamed angrily, though I was actually relieved she hadn't been hurt. "DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT!"
Arlong crossed his arms and gnashed the teeth. "Stand still, you rubber bitch," he hissed, "because I'm gonna rip you into pieces!"
She rubbed her chin. "Hey, I just thought of a good idea!"
"An idea?" Johnny repeated.
"What could it be?!" Yosaku wondered in a worried tone.
I held my aching side and tried to get some feeling into my hand, which had gone numb with pain. "Knowing Lucy, probably something stupid."
"TWIST GUM!" Arlong smashed and clawed with the set of three teeth and Lucy once again weaved through the barrage of attacks. One came so close that she was forced to jump and spin to dodge it. Then he thrusted with both arms and she ducked, planting her foot firmly on the cement.
She gave a quick kick to Arlong's right cheek with her left foot, a higher version of her Gum-Gum Whip . She stomped the ground as he dropped like tenpins, his newest set of teeth popping out of his mouth as well. He bounced and slid back, and she caught the teeth in her hands, grinning. "They came out!"
The bastard sat up, but he had another pair of teeth. "Idiot. How many times must I say this? It doesn't matter how often you break my teeth; they'll just grow back and get stronger! DON'T YOU GET IT YET!?"
Wait a minute... what was she doing with that pair of teeth?
"Lucy-aneki..." Yosaku said with an air of realization. "Could your idea have anything to do with...?"
She stuck them in her jaw, stretching her mouth so that she'd be able to fit them. "Look! Now I've got 'em, too!"
We all fell over anime-style.
"I-IT WASN'T A SPECIAL ATTACK!?" Johnny and Yosaku cried.
"How long do you plan to keep on fooling around?!" Arlong growled. He dived forward with his teeth but this time she wasn't quite quick enough. They ripped a cut just below her chest, taking a piece of her clothing with them and exposing a little of her chest. My face flushed red.
"Oi, idiot!" I called. "Haven't you ever heard of this thing called a 'bra?'"
Lucy fell back and rolled around, screaming, "AH! I'VE BEEN BITTEN BY A SHARK!"
"I DON'T CARE ABOUT THAT! JUST PUT A FREAKIN' BRA ON NEXT TIME!"
"YOU GOT BIT 'CAUSE YOU WERE FOOLING AROUND!" Johnny and Yosaku admonished.
"Who's fooling around?" Lucy pouted, looking ridiculous with those shark teeth. "I'm being dead serious!"
"TWIST GUM!" Arlong smashed the cement foundations of the complex with his attack but missed his target, who had rolled out of the way just in time. He swiped again and she leaped into the air. Lucy stretched, grabbed a piece of column that was lying around, and used it to block another "bite." She was thrown backwards, glaring at Arlong, who dived after her with his annoying 'JYAHAHAHA' laugh. The bastard slammed down in midair, smashing into Lucy's stomach and slamming her into the cement.
"LUCY!" I yelled.
Johnny and Yosaku moaned in sympathy. "Bitten again!"
Lucy sunk her new set of shark teeth into Arlong's shoulder and he released her, clutching his own wound in pain. I nodded, rubbing my chin. That actually was pretty smart. If she'd have tried to rip his hand away from her stomach, that would've just made the wound worse. Forcing him to let go saved her skin... in more ways than one.
"How's that?" she asked him. "How does it feel to get bitten by your own teeth?" She did a poor imitation of his laugh.
"Even if they are mine..." Arlong spat, ripping the teeth out of his shoulder, "your jaw is far too weak for them! Listen: Sharks tear flesh and limbs from the body of their prey. That's what a shark's true power is!" As my captain twisted away, he managed to catch her whole elbow in his mouth.
"Yowch!" cried Yosaku. "Aneki's bones will be broken!"
Nami stepped backwards in horror. "LUCY!" she yelled.
"AAAAAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!" shouted the future Queen of the Pirates.