Even though he'd never visited this place personally, Jerry knew they were about to land at Nami's hometown, and the building Carrot and the others were discussing was the infamous Arlong Park.
As a former member of the Sun Pirates, Arlong had been arrested by Admiral Kizaru in his early years, but regained his freedom when Jinbe joined the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
Afterward, he'd reorganized the Arlong Pirates, come to East Blue, quickly occupied numerous villages, and established his base camp on the outskirts of Cocoyasi Village.
However, because he'd spent a substantial sum bribing Captain Nezumi of the 16th Marine Branch, the Marines remained unaware of Arlong's activities in this region.
In reality, Captain Nezumi's strength alone wasn't sufficient to defeat the Arlong Pirates. What's more, driven by greed, the corrupt officer had never considered reporting the situation. Instead, he'd continued allowing Arlong and his crew to do whatever they pleased.
Soon, the Black Star Pirates found a suitable coastline and disembarked.
Little Bonney jogged ahead, turning back to call to everyone, "Come on! There might be a line at the amusement park!"
"We're coming!" Carrot replied, walking quickly forward with Kotatsu padding alongside her.
Everyone exchanged amused glances and smiled as they headed toward the so-called amusement park nearby.
"Oh!" Little Bonney continued running without stopping, chatting with Carrot over her shoulder. However, she failed to notice several figures wearing cloaks and hoods emerging from around a corner ahead.
The sneaking individuals also didn't expect children to be running around in such a location. Before anyone could react, their leader collided head-on with the rushing Bonney, and both tumbled to the ground.
The impact caused the leader's hood to fly off, revealing a thin man's face. Most striking were the three long horizontal whiskers resembling a mouse's on each side of his face.
"Captain! Are you alright?" The two men following behind were momentarily stunned. While speaking, they quickly drew their pistols and aimed them at little Bonney.
Realizing his identity had been exposed, the commander stood up, glared fiercely at Bonney, and shouted, "Whose brat is running around here? Seems I need to teach you some manners on behalf of your parents!"
Then he raised his left hand, turned his head, and made a throat-slitting gesture to his two subordinates.
"Who are you supposed to be? You want to fight?" Little Bonney stood up with one hand while gently rubbing her head with the other.
Meanwhile, the captain's men displayed vicious expressions, their fingers tense on their gun triggers, ready to fire.
"Bonney, we're here!"
Suddenly, rapid footsteps approached. Without hesitation, Carrot rushed toward one of the armed men while Kotatsu pounced on the other.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Swish!"
After a burst of chaotic noise, the scene returned to calm. Carrot and little Bonney stood before the fallen trio of sneaks, dusting off their hands with satisfaction.
"Bah! You wanted to teach me a lesson for my dad? You really overestimated yourselves!" Little Bonney spat angrily at the man called Captain, then walked over and stomped on him a few more times for good measure.
"Meow!" Kotatsu agreed approvingly while Carrot nodded emphatically beside him.
As the rest of the crew approached, Jerry gave them a thumbs up with obvious amusement. "Wow, you guys are incredibly efficient. It only took a few seconds to knock them unconscious?"
"Hehehe, it wasn't as impressive as you make it sound," Carrot replied, scratching the back of her head while laughing softly.
Little Bonney kicked the commander aside once more and raised her arms triumphantly. "Alright! Let's keep moving forward!"
Everyone nodded. Since Bonney wasn't dwelling on this minor incident, they naturally wouldn't worry about it either.
So they continued straight toward Arlong Park nearby.
"It seems kind of deserted," little Bonney observed, having visited amusement parks during their travels through various seas. "Maybe there's nothing fun inside?"
Carrot recalled the lively amusement parks they'd visited previously and said with the confidence of experience, "Probably. There were lots of people when we went to other places."
It wasn't just the two girls—everyone except Jerry felt the same way about the eerily quiet atmosphere.
Cavendish even used his Observation Haki to sense the situation and discovered very few people inside, confirming this wasn't a proper amusement park.
Carina's thoughts drifted to the past. She vaguely remembered Nami mentioning some fragments about her hometown, but she hadn't paid much attention at the time. Nami had been vague and hadn't provided many details.
Looking at the closed entrance before them, little Bonney spread her hands like a disappointed adult. "Looks like this place has shut down! There's no fun to be had here."
"Eh? It's closed? I wanted to see what exciting attractions they had in this place that looks like the Sabaody amusement park..." Carrot's face fell, her disappointment evident.
"Who's making all that noise out here? Are you looking for death?" A rough male voice suddenly erupted, and the tightly closed side door slowly creaked open.
When everyone looked toward the source of the voice, they saw a pink-skinned man leaning against the doorway, slightly swaying while shaking a wine jug in his hand. He was obviously quite drunk.
"A fishman?" Everyone's attention focused on the fins protruding from his head and the webbing between his fingers.
"Is this a real fishman?!" Little Bonney's eyes lit up initially, but within moments her lips pressed tightly together as her mood inexplicably plummeted.
At this moment, she couldn't help recalling the past. Just a few years ago, her father Kuma had asked her where she wanted to travel once she recovered from her illness.
Bonney's first answer had been Sky Island, and her second had been Fishman Island. Now, seeing an actual fishman under these circumstances filled her with complicated emotions.
Noticing her good friend's sudden distress, Carrot gently patted Bonney's back before turning to glare at the fishman. "Isn't this supposed to be an amusement park? Why are you yelling at us?!"
Although she didn't understand why Bonney had become so upset, Carrot's intuition told her it was somehow related to the fishman before them.
The fishman startled, his slightly intoxicated eyes slowly clearing as he began carefully examining the strange group of people before him.
His gaze finally settled on Carrot, and he narrowed his eyes with a sneer. "Where did you ignorant humans come from? Who told you this was an amusement park?"
"Shioyaki, are there humans out there? If they're strangers, get rid of them quickly and don't disturb our celebration!" An extremely arrogant and impatient voice echoed from within the compound.
The pink-skinned fishman Shioyaki turned around and raised his wine jug to acknowledge the command.
Then he turned back, bent down, and gave Carrot a hideous smile. "Even though you don't look entirely human, you can only blame yourself for associating with humans."
As he spoke, Shioyaki suddenly raised his hand to strike Carrot's head viciously.
A thunderous crash suddenly erupted as the door completely shattered, and a figure flew into the "amusement park" at tremendous speed.
Jerry slowly lowered his foot, tilted his head and scratched his ear casually, then took a leisurely step forward.
"Let's go," he said calmly. "I want to see who's so impressive that they have such 'courageous' subordinates."
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