OPSR: Chapter 17

Months had passed since I defeated Arlong and claimed his bounty. It was only 7 million, not the 20 million it would be in the future, but any amount was a welcome bonus, and it was all mine that I didn’t have to share with Zeff. I made sure to rat out Nezumi to Garp; he’d have an inspection show up at some point, at which time all his underhanded dealings would be exposed.

I wasn’t sure if he made the deal with Arlong before I killed him, but that’s also why I took it to a different branch to claim the bounty. Already, I could see the ripples of change I had made in the timeline as Genzo died in the fighting along with several other strong men of the village. They might have lived long lives in the anime where they had children, but that would never be the case now. Only knowing that many lives would be spared from Arlong’s attacks over the years helped with my decision to fight him.

Speaking of which, my strength was now terrifying. I was far stronger in my human form to start. If I were close to an average fishman in strength, I surpass it now. Arlong was far beyond the ten times strength compared to humans that fishman were known for. He was actually much stronger than his anime counterpart, and that went for many of the fishmen I just slew.

Truth was, they had given up on their dream, which already hurt their maximum potential, but then they’d drink and party for ten years on top of that, of course, it would affect how strong the fishmen crew was just from lack of training and aging poorly. Arlong might have been above thirty times the strength of humans; even in the anime, he was ripping houses from the ground and flipping them over with ease.

In my fishman form, I was over his own strength, possibly reaching thirty-five times, maybe even more. I assumed I was beyond OG Sanji was before the timeskip. I pushed myself to the limits, and now I was as skilled as Zeff at cooking and far beyond him at fighting, learning everything he could teach me already. Now wasn’t the time to sit back and relax, though. I still needed to get stronger and come up with a few inventions. I had waited until the first initial confrontation was over.

In a few months, if everything went right, I wanted to start heading to Skypeia to get the thunder fruit before Enel consumed it. Hopefully, get a few more useful fruits along the way.

…

Third Person point of View

Like ripples in a pond, the changes Sanji made were already making waves. Genzo had died, but Bellemere survived. The hope of the village wouldn’t be pushed onto Nami, allowing her to grow stronger than the weak and feeble, half-starved girl she grew up to be at the start of the original story. Her sister was already much different, but the same benefits of having money to feed themselves and learn more than they ever had in the original One Piece were still happening.

The Baratie was much more successful than it had ever been in the manga. Zeff was a brilliant cook, but had absolutely terrible business sense, and this new Sanji didn’t. It meant that many eyes that had never bothered to view the Baratie now were looking at it like the lucrative target it was. Luffy might have had the smallest change, even though she had the flame fruit now instead of the gum fruit. She still planned to go to sea once she turned seventeen, and that put me on a timer to figure out what I wanted to do by then.

Zoro was stronger, with Kuina alive and me as a stronger rival, she pushed herself beyond her previous limits. She still couldn’t defeat me, but by the time the original story started, she’d be passed cutting steel, perhaps even seeing the initial stages of armament haki, at least if I could show her the basics by learning it first.

Kaya and her family were all still alive, the tragedy was averted, but the initial evil that viewed them in the original still might come after them, perhaps for a different reason this time. Things were changing, but with change came unexpectedness. Sanji was just about ready for his trip to Skypia when one of those unexpected things happened.

…

Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom “Why the hell is there a warfleet here?” I yelled over the sound of cannonfire landing near us. The few ships nearby were crashing against our ship as the water was churned up by the waves. It didn’t appear that they were trying to sink us, more like warn us for what was to come. A massive ship approached that dwarfed our own; it served no real purpose here in the East Blue except to put a target on itself.

A man jumped down to ours, followed by some of his other crew members, and as he stood up, I recognized him by his armor. Krieg was here. Once again, around nine years before he arrived in the original, but why was he here right now? While I was trying to put the pieces together, he spoke. “We’re here to collect a protection tribute for not sinking you… How does all the money you have sound?”

Beside him were his two commanders, most likely assuming we weren’t going to fight, but the thing was… Krieg wasn’t even on my radar anymore. He drew the unlucky straw and came in front of me right before I left, otherwise I’d have killed him when I got back for doing this, but since I’m still here… Killing him now seemed to be the right thing to do.

Alvida paired off looking at Gin, while Carmen paired off against Pearl. Before the fighting could even start, it was over. I didn’t let him do anything, no poison grenades, or thorn shield, or hidden weapons. His head was removed from his body mid-speech as I moved faster than most eyes could track. The group of cheering pirates went silent at the sight, but before anything else could happen, two of the nearby ships exploded.

“AHA-HA-HA-HA! It looks like you need some help, brat. Well, it’s a good thing your food is so good, and thanks for the assist with these pirates. I’ll make sure to mention you when I take them in! Aha-ha-ha-ha!” Garp appeared and sank another ship before they started to turn and flee. My eyes widened as his words sank in. He was going to steal this bounty from me!

Well, if he was going to do that, I might as well rob the main ship he ignored to chase the others. Men were still aboard, but now that they were captainless, they put up no fight, and I didn’t bother killing them. Rushing into the ship, I hoped this idiot had something worth more than his five-million-bounty. Krieg was a much smaller captain, only ten warships in his fleet instead of the fifty he’d have when he went to the grand line. I stared, slack-jawed, at the chest I just opened with a devil fruit inside. I had spent enough time looking for this particular one that I could recognize it on sight. I just stumbled across the barrier fruit.