Chapter 73: The Rat

Nami left with the money from Arlong’s stronghold.

Ian was very reluctant to part with the beautiful Nami and that money. It was impossible now for Ian and Nami to get on board together. Ian thought about it, why should he leave some money for her?

Nevertheless, Nami, like him, is also a money-loving character. She was afraid that she is not stronger than Ian. She and Ian argued for a long time, and she did not give up.

Finally, Tashigi stood up to support Nami’s perspective. Arlong’s money was indeed stolen. So Tashigi also tended to return it to the victims. The Arlong Pirates had been at large East Blue for so long, but the marines were powerless against them. This has already made Tashigi feel guilty. For the sake of justice, Tashigi thought it would better to give the villagers some compensation.

With Tashigi’s help, Nami rolled up the money and walked smoothly. Although she waved at Ian vigorously when she said goodbye, Ian always believed that it was because she was happy to get the money, not simply thanking him, which made Ian look sad.

The marine soldiers on board saw the scene and whispered, “Look, the instructor’s expression is so sad, it must be because he was dumped!”

“I think so too. Didn’t we hear him say that this girl was his type?”

“Poor sensei, so young to have a broken heart!”

“This is youth!”

Ian could not hear these remarks. If he heard them, he would probably burst into a rage…

This time, more than 120 people were captured. These fish-men pirates were escorted to the warship by Tashigi. Ian searched around the stronghold, and found Hachi. But the so-called sea king Momoo, so far, it has not appeared. Nami forgot to tell him about it, which made Ian look confused. He didn’t know what the hell is going on.

The warship left the dock and set out to return to Loguetown. The not wounded or lightly injured marine soldiers were assigned to take care of the fish-man pirates. The injured ones were all on deck at this time, waiting for the ship doctor to treat them.

Ian was also helping. He took off Samanosuke Akechi’s card and replaced it with Yukina’s card. He was treating Tashigi’s wrist injury.

Arlong’s biting force was terrifying. Although Tashigi was bitten by him, his wrist bone had been broken. Ian slowly moved his Nen and placed it his hands on her wrist for a while. Suddenly, a slight white light rose. Tashigi was surprised to find that his original pain started numbing, and there was an itching feeling, the broken bones were slowly healing.

Ian actually used Yukina’s healing skills for the first time. He thought that he couldn’t use it on other people, but now after testing it, he found that he could.

Tashigi lifted her glasses and looked at Ian with curious eyes. Now she was sure that Ian was not an ordinary person. She had hardly heard of such treatment.

“Are you a Devil Fruit User?” Tashigi asked Ian, “If so, what kind of Devil Fruit do you have?”

“That’s Confidential!” Ian answered her without looking up.

The Devil Fruit ability can be said to be strange. In fact, Ian talked nonsense, even though if he has a healing ability from a Devil Fruit that won’t be a big deal, the Sword of the Darkness Flames can also be said to be a special sword skills, everything could well be explained and understandable, but because Tashigi has seen him using these skills while wearing Kairōseki handcuffs. So Ian couldn’t tell her anything.

Ian didn’t say that Tashigi couldn’t get to the bottom of it. He was very clear about this.

Yukina’s treatment for other people seemed to only play a role in recovering the physical damage. After healing the wound by stopping Tashigi’s bleeding, Ian called the ship doctor to come over and splint Tashigi’s wrist. Looking at her, he was afraid that she won’t be able to hold the sword for several months.

After her treatment, Ian helped healing the other wounded soldiers, and in the process, he found the wounded soldiers in high spirits.

Ian was worried that the marine soldiers would hate him. After all, he tricked them and brought them to fight with the Arlong Pirate Regiment. The wounded could be said to have been caused entirely by themselves, but now it seemed that the soldiers did not hate him.

What he didn’t know was that these lower-level soldiers didn’t have much in mind. In their opinion, it was the marines’ duty to fight pirates. From the day they joined the marines, they were taught to do this. Although they were fooled by Ian this time, it was a real fighting experience for them. This was a valuable experience, not to mention, their opponents were recognized as ferocious fish-men pirates, which was even more remarkable.

In the face of such opponents, they won a great victory in the end. These marine soldiers have an indescribable sense of pride and honor in their hearts. On the contrary, they were somewhat grateful that they joined him in this battle.

Shortly after the warship sailed out, the watcher at the top of the mast suddenly shouted to Tashigi and said, “Sergeant Tashigi, I found marine vessels in front of us, the number on their flag is… the 16th Branch!”

Ian heard that from below, and then, with a sudden movement in his heart, he secretly said, “Sure enough, here we go!”

Ian’s ship slowed down, while the 16th branch warships accelerated and approached them. The two sides quickly gathered together. On the 16th branch warships, a small boat was lowered. Several people sat on it and rowed towards Ian’s boat.

Near the side of the boat, a man climbed up the rope ladder eagerly, and as soon as he got on the boat, he shouted, “Which branch are you? Why did you come to my site, the 16th branch site to catch pirates?!”

Although this man was wearing the marines’ uniform, he had two rat ears attached to his marine cap. He also had a mouse mustache and a thief’s eyebrows. Who else would he be, if not the Captain Nezumi of the 16th branch?

What Tashigi was worried about finally happened, and it was very improper for them to go to other branches to catch pirates, so although she was the commander of the ship appointed by Smoker, she did not know how to answer him at this time.

Just then, Ian stood up. He went up to Captain Nezumi, extended his finger and poked him in the chest, and said, “Who are you? Who are you? As soon as you get on board, you started shouting loudly?”

The marine soldiers stared at Ian, not knowing how to describe it, ‘Instructor! Can’t you look at his rank? The other party is a captain! He’s a colonel! Is it really appropriate for you to poke people like this?’

Ian couldn’t really handle him. Now he’s a swordsman instructor at the Loguetown Marine Base. Although Nezumi is a colonel, he didn’t care about him at all. Under such circumstances, Ian was not polite to Nezumi at all.

‘Does Ian care about this rank? He doesn’t care at all.’

He continued poking hard at Nezumi’s chest and said, “What do you mean? What are you talking about? What is this ‘Your site’? Make no mistake! The whole East Blue is under the jurisdiction of the marines, and your 16th branch is only a member of the marines. What on earth do you want to say! You are the king of this area?”

“I…” Nezumi was choked by Ian’s barrage of questions and was silent for a while, but after a couple of seconds, he came back to his mind and cried, “Even though the whole East Blue is under the jurisdiction of the marines, It’s a defense area assigned to my 16th branch! You came to my defense zone to arrest people. Did you even inform me?”

Ian coldly snorted, “Why should I inform you? When you can’t manage your own zone incompetent, let the pirates get away with it, are the other branches not allowed to catch them? What’s your point?! Is that how you became a marine?”

In terms of tearing and pressing, Ian has seen too many people like him. In the face of people like Nezumi, Ian doesn’t mind being entangled with them at all.

If Tashigi and other Loguetown marine soldiers were initially uneasy because of this kind of rushing behavior and were afraid to face the interrogation of 16th branch, even after listening to Ian’s logic, they felt that Ian was right. Yeah, he couldn’t catch these pirates on his own territory. Pirates, aren’t they allowed to be caught by other marines?

“You… You!” Captain Nezumi was so angry with Ian that both sides of his beard turned up. He rushed forward to point at Ian and scolded, “You’re just a pirate hunter. What qualifications do you have to talk to me?”

Nezumi knows him. So it’s him who snitch on them and told the Arlong Pirate Regiment.

Ian laughed and said, “Who cares. Anyway, my boss now is Colonel Smoker. The marine headquarters has transferred him. Colonel Smoker, the famous white hunter. Whatever you want to say, discuss it with my Captain?”

Tashigi and the other Marines could not help but cover their mouths and keep looking: How shameless are you, instructor? When did Colonel Smoker become your boss?

Ian wasn’t that foolish. He couldn’t possibly talk to Nezumi as a pirate hunter. He simply guided them to the two branches of the marines. In this way, catching the Arlong Pirate Regiment became an internal matter of the marines. No matter how Nezumi and Smoker chatted, that was their business. It has nothing to do with Ian.

Therefore, Ian was so cheeky to pull Smoker into the matter…

Seeing Nezumi, this fellow seemed that he still wants to talk and entangle, Ian was impatient, slamming his feet, kicking Nezumi’s abdomen!

Nezumi was kicked out, and his eyes bulged out. He was standing on the side of the ship. After this kick, he tumbled and fell into the sea.

The followers of Nezumi on Ian’s warship, and a few marine soldiers from 16th branch, when they saw that their colonel had fallen into the water, they jumped down in a hurry to save their colonel. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Ian shouted, “Open the sails!”

The marine soldiers rushed to open the sails and quickly left the place.

Listening to the distant scolding from the mice on the sea, Tashigi got mad, “By doing this, you will bring trouble to Colonel Smoker!”

Ian shook his head, pointed to his head, and said to Tashigi, “Think about it, why can we enter Arlong Park so easily?”

Tashigi was no stupid. Why did the ships of the Arlong Pirates take them to their Park when they saw that they hadn’t fired any shells? And the skillful movements of Arlong when he took out the money and put it on the table? When these pictures were connected one by one, she suddenly understood something and said in surprise, “You mean…”

“Without proof, what can we do?” Ian shook his head and said, “Anyway, Arlong won’t tell on the 16th branch.”

Tashigi was not willing to look at the direction of the colonel Nezumi. Her sense of justice told her that things might be as she thought. Tashigi was extremely resentful for this kind of scum within the marines. So for a moment, she was secretly pleased with Ian’s kicking the mouse into the sea.

Ian, on the other hand, was now slightly worried.

Although Arlong was successfully captured, he wasn’t able to catch the mouse guy. With the greedy personality of Nezumi, who knows if, without Arlong, Nezumi would cultivate a new pirate regiment to be his money tree?

This is not an alarmist, but it is really possible. Once this happens, Nami, and her Cocoyasi village and the surrounding villages are in danger. Maybe after the Arlong Pirate regiment has gone, new pirates’ regiments will come out and continue to rob them… Imagine here, Ian also felt a little helpless, this was the new great era of pirates, the emergence of endless pirates, the ultimate victims are ordinary people, Ian didn’t know what Roger was thinking. Is this really a good thing?