It only took a few days for the Arlong Pirates to notice the small, almost deserted island to the southwest of Cocoyashi. It took them several more weeks for them to notice that it wasn't completely deserted.

Despite the fact that his pockets were filled to the brim with berries, Arlong decided he wasn't going to let some side-island humans get away without paying his tax.

Arlong, Hachi, and Chew made way to the island on a bright, sunny day. Despite being in the northwest Conomi was close enough to the Grand Line to be considered a warm Summer-Spring climate, but winter had just left, leaving the mornings frosty and the afternoons warm. The air was heating up quickly despite it being only March, and it promised long hot days when summer fully arrived.

The island itself was covered in flora, ranging from teeny flowers to towering fruit trees. The beach had shimmering sand and was lined with coconut trees, while the thin forest held other fruit-bearing trees. There was only a single dock on the island, and it faced towards Cocoyashi. A single boat was tied to the dock, small and rickety. If it were not for that dock, perhaps the Arlong Pirates would have overlooked the tiny island completely. After all, it was only four miles long, and three wide. The highest point was a small hill, covered in tangerine trees. Supposedly, there was a freshwater spring amongst those trees, so there was no need to leave the island for fresh water.

According to the villagers, the island used to home a small family, but they hadn't been seen in years. Now, it was home to a strange hermit of a woman who only visited Cocoyashi to pick up things she couldn't make herself. While Arlong doubted this woman would be a cash cow, he had to get SOME beli off of her if she insisted on living in his vicinity.

Arlong walked along the dirt path through the trees with a sneer on his face, while Chew and Hachi followed wordlessly. The island was noisy with a variety of birds, but otherwise seemed deserted. After ten minutes, however, they reached a clearing.

Arlong wouldn't really call it a town. There were only four buildings, although it looked as if there had been more at some point. The ground was disturbed where they had been, and the foundations were left a mess. It was obvious where those materials had gone, however. They had been merged into a center building, which looked like a house from the front, but the backside had clearly been expanded.

The house had a cozy white fenced porch, blue paint and darker blue siding. It was two stories tall, and the second floor had a balcony leading out over the roof of the porch. A swing was fixed to the porch ceiling, and it blew gently in the spring breeze.

Arlong sneered at the picturesque house in disgust.

The second and third buildings were both greenhouses, and they held a wide variety of plants. Whoever lived on the island clearly spent a long time gardening. A basket filled with freshly picked vegetables sat on the ground near the first greenhouse's door.

"Nyuu, there's definitely a person living here, Arlong-san. Someone picked these today." Hachi noted, pointing at the basket.

The fourth building was connected to some wind turbines, and also had shoddy solar paneling on the roof. There was electricity on this island, Arlong realized. The fourth building must have been a generator host.

"If this doesn't pan out, we can make a second base here." Arlong said, grinning. This island would be the perfect hole to toss Nami into. She could sustain herself and make maps for him and he wouldn't even have to be bothered in the slightest by her stupid human self.

"It's pretty nicely furnished." Hachi agreed. "We should check the house first, since that's where the humans would most likely be."

Arlong nodded, and walked up to the house's door. "After all, it would make me a bad landlord to not check up on his tenants." Arlong rapped on the door a few times, and waited a few beats. There was no answer yet. So Arlong did the only reasonable thing - he broke down the door.

"Hello, is anyone home?" Arlong asked, grinning toothily as he stepped into the house.

It was silent for a few seconds.

"Actually, yes. I was about to get the door." A feminine voice said, low and husky. Arlong turned towards the sound of the voice, and was met with a human woman drying her hair with a towel. She had just stepped out of the bath, apparently, as her clothes were sloppily tossed on and her skin dripped with every step she took. She looked like even less of a threat than that marine woman he'd taken care of a few weeks ago, but her expression was absolutely petulant and disrespectful. She clearly didn't know her place.

The only human on the island was only a smidgen over five and a half feet tall, had cotton-candy pink curls that weren't intimidating in the slightest, scowling steel blue eyes, and ochre brown skin that seemed to glimmer like molten copper due to the water running down it. Arlong scowled at her thin neck and imagined how easy it would be to break it, or perhaps her willowy arms would fracture at his weakest touch. She was thick around the waist and thighs, but it wasn't muscular. The corner's of Arlong's mouth pulled into a toothy smile as he acknowledged that she was just as weak-bodied as the rest of the filthy humans he had taken over earlier in the month.

"Hello. My name is Arlong. I've recently begun, shall we say, protecting Cocoyashi village." Arlong greeted, voice dripping with malice. If the woman was intimidated, she didn't show it at all. Instead, she merely rose an eyebrow inquisitively. "To receive this protection, you need to pay 100,000 berries for every adult in your family, and 50,000 berries for every child. Simple, right?"

"Sounds more like extortion to me." The woman sneered. Arlong's hand twitched in surprise, but he kept his malicious smile even.

"Think of it as you will. It's mandatory, after all." Arlong chuckled.

The woman appeared to be thinking about it. She walked over and set the towel on a table, and flung her pink hair over her back. Arlong couldn't help noting its unusual color for a human, especially as she turned to face him, expression serious.

"No. I think not." The woman said, tone neutral.

"Excuse me?" Arlong couldn't help but snarl. "It's mandatory for everyone in Cocoyashi Village."

"I don't live in Cocoyashi Village." The woman retorted, and put her hand on her hip.

"I say you do." Arlong growled. His patience was wearing extremely thin, and Hachi and Chew glanced at each other nervously. There hadn't been an insubordination so far, save for the incident with Nami, so they weren't sure what Arlong would do to this woman before he killed her.

"And I say I don't." She walked up to Arlong, and stared up into his eyes, completely ignoring his bloodlust. "So fix my door and leave, please."

"You dare to tell me what to do, you lowly human? I'll kill you!" Arlong snarled, and grabbed at her. He wrapped his hand around her feeble neck, and began to squeeze. She would pay for such disrespect with her lif-.

His hand went through her neck. She was still standing in front of him, perfectly unharmed, but his hand went through her neck. There was a faint buzzing sound, like static.

"You can't hurt me, Arlong. So get out. After you fix my door." She wasn't intimidated in the slightest. Arlong growled, and tried to hit her again. She sighed, in such a way that her annoyance sounded like she was trying to deal with a particularly slow child. "Didn't you hear me? You can't hit me if you tried."

Arlong glowered at the woman, and clenched his fists. "You have a devil fruit power. A logia."

The woman merely nodded.

"I'll kill you." Arlong promised. He meant it. He was going to end her.

"No, you won't." She said with such smug confidence that Arlong had to resist trying to hit her again. She was utterly infuriating. "I don't care what you do to Cocoyashi, Arlong. I'm the only person on this island. And I'm not stupid enough to leave with you in Cocoyashi. You can't kill me. You can't kill anyone I care about. So forget your money, fix my door, and get the hell off my island."

Arlong glared at her, trying his hardest to keep his composure, and then turned around and left. "Hachi, Chew, we're going home."

"Aren't we going to fix her door?" Hachi asked, glancing at the house in concern.

Arlong snorted. "Of course not!" He stomped towards the beach, not noticing that the woman was following them. Hachi only noticed a second before she slammed Arlong in the back of the head with her fist.

"You're fixing my door, you punk!" She snarled, and jumped back as Arlong turned around and swung at her.

"You stupid little human!" Arlong growled. "I wouldn't fix your damn door even if you did pay my fee!" He charged at her, almost reached her before a loud, shrieking sound made him drop to his knees and cover his ears. "Augh!"

"Fix my door," Bellowed from all directions, and the wind suddenly picked up, causing the grass to whip at their feet angrily. Arlong groaned as the terrible noise whistled through the trees and all around him, no matter how hard he tried to ignore it. Nausea threatened to overcome him, and Arlong tried to resist gagging as everything felt like it was moving unnaturally. The other fishmen also dropped to their knees, unable to ignore the whistling shrieks that surrounded them.

The woman stood still, mere inches from Arlong, and glowered down at him. Her hair whipped around in the wind aggressively, but she didn't stop the shrill sounds. Not even as Arlong dared to open an eye and glare at her hatefully.

Several beats passed, and the noise increased in frequency, causing the fishmen to all groan in pain. The very air began to reverberate violently, and they began to find it hard to breath.

"Hachi! Fix her damn door!" Arlong ordered, and suddenly the noise stopped. Arlong hesitantly looked up and uncovered his ears to see the woman smirking smugly at him, her arms crossed haughtily. His blood burned, and he desperately wished to kill her.

"Good. Would you like some tea while we wait?" The woman chirped with a disgustingly smug smile.

"No."

If you're on Ao3, you've already seen this floating around! If not, here's my completely self-indulgent Arlong/OC fanfic I've been working on in secret for far too long. I'm planning on updating it about once a week until I run out of buffer or until I get to a part I haven't written yet. I don't write things consecutively, so that might be a shorter timeframe than it sounds. Who knows! I sure don't. Have fun!