"What do you mean you can't do anything?!"

  "Listen, you know just as well as I do that there's no way back. E-even if Joey were sent to a habitable dimension, even if he could get back to the portal, it w-wouldn't do him any-"

  "Shut up!" The young trainer took a deep breath, trying to keep his temper in check- not that it was working, evidently. "Listen… Joey is my best friend. We've been through thick and thin and Arceus help me if I don't want to at least try to get him back!"

  The man he was speaking to, a timid sort with mousy brown hair and a pair of glasses, sighed. "I know, Ethan. But out of the twenty-one others who have entered a space-time distortion, no one has returned. Not even Ingo, one of the Unovan battle subway's two bosses- and he's nearly champion level!"

  Ethan shook his head. "I know he's still out there, professor. If there's a way for him to get back, he'll find it. Even if it means going all the way to Raftel, he'll find it. I know he will."

  "I d-don't know what Raftel is, Ethan…"

  "Does it matter? I was just pulling a random example out of my ass, anyway. The point is, Joey is strong, he's resourceful, and hell, I can willingly admit that he's a lot smarter than I am. If anyone can get back, it's him."

  This was punctuated with a silence that lasted for several seconds; eventually, however, the professor cleared his throat.

  "Ethan, short of the interference of Palkia itself, I don't think Joey's coming back. And there definitely isn't anything we can do about it. But if Joey is as capable as you say he is, then there's no need to worry, is there? All we can do is wait."

  Ethan clenched his teeth, his eyes beginning to water. "W-what if I never see him again. What if I never see him again?! I can't fucking stand this, this… not knowing!"

  Professor Elm took a step forward, resting his hand on Ethan's shoulder. He silently comforted the boy, who had tears streaming down his face. Neither really wanted to accept the possibility of Joey being dead, but with every day that passed without him returning, it became harder and harder to ignore it.

  "Joey will come back," Ethan said. "I know he will."

  It took two whole days to sail to the Conomi Islands.

  Joey had quickly grown tired of the large expanse that was the open ocean; the most interesting thing that had happened on the way was an encounter with a feisty seagull. The bird had followed them for hours, and had not only stolen his lunch, but his dinner too. He could barely get to sleep that night due to the hunger pangs.

  He was certain the trip would be easier once he was on the Merry, though. There would be a lot more room to stretch in, and he wouldn't be stuck with arguably the two least entertaining members of the original crew. Zoro and Usopp were great guys, but they didn't make for good conversation partners- the former spent most of the time sleeping, and the latter was too jumpy to approach properly.

  This meant that once Joey finally caught sight of the pagoda-like structure that was unmistakably Arlong Park, he let out a sigh of relief. The atmosphere on the boat had grown stifling.

  "Land ho!"

  He chuckled excitedly, and smiled- he had always wanted to say that. The others joined him at the bow not long after, and looked over to where he was pointing. Zoro was silent for a few seconds, as he looked the place up and down, then he slowly began to unsheathe his sword.

  "So we hack our way in?"

  The three decidedly less bold passengers all immediately turned towards him, eyes wide in disbelief.

  "Are you crazy? We don't know anything about this place!"

  "Hell no!"

  "What are you thinking?!"

  Usopp took a deep breath, and then sighed. "All in favor of tying the swordsman to the boat before he gets us all killed?"

  "Aye."

  "Aye."

  "What the hell?!"

  Caught off guard and still weakened from his injuries, it didn't take much to get Zoro affixed to the outside of the ship's cabin with some rope, and he was left shouting in protest as he attempted to break out of his restraints. Meanwhile, Joey stood at the front of the boat and scanned his surroundings, looking for the Going Merry. Luckily, he had a decent enough excuse to recognize it- the caravel was anchored by the Baratie for a whole weekend, after all.

  It took a while for them to sail all the way down the coast to Cocoyashi Village, but once they did, it wasn't hard to spot the Merry. While it was obscured a little bit by the nearby rocky cliffs, once it came into view, Joey didn't even need to point it out- everyone noticed it immediately.

  Another thing they noticed were the three fish-men standing on the dock.

  In a brief moment of silence, Joey looked them over. Not unsurprisingly, the fish-men here looked very different from the ones he was used to- while general features and qualities were the same, the patterns, colors, and fine details more closely mirrored this world's aquatic life. They were also rather off-putting, as the line between human and fish blurred in such a way that was uncanny. He understood now why they were feared so much by humans.

  "Full speed ahead!" Usopp shouted. Joey reached for the wheel, fully intent on just ignoring him, but the sniper slapped his hand away before he could touch it.

  "Are you blind?!" he hissed. "Those are fish-men- Arlong's pirates! Is it so bad to have a little self-preservation?"

  "Get ahold of yourself," Zoro muttered.

  Joey sighed, but backed away, unwilling to fight over such an irrelevant detail- as long as things went the way he remembered, those guys would be coming after them soon anyways.

  "Hey, I don't remember seeing that ship before!"

  And… there it was.

  Usopp let out a panicked scream, and immediately dove over the side of the boat, Johnny in hot pursuit. Joey started to follow them, but paused when he heard Zoro shouting at him.

  "Wait, you guys! Don't leave me here!"

  'Shit,' he thought. 'I should probably take care of that.'

  Joey swiftly turned back around, and dashed over to the rope that bound the swordsman. He soon found himself at a loss for words, however, as he was greeted by the most confusing mess of a knot he had ever seen in his life.

  "Hurry up!" Zoro yelled.

  "There's no way in hell I can untie this in- oh god they're getting closer shit shit shit"

  "Just cut it!"

  "With what?!"

  "My sword, dumbass!"

  "I don't know how to use a sword!"

  "Then figure it out, before those fish sticks catch up to us!"

  Joey huffed, and ran back to the front of the boat, grabbing Zoro's sword. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Usopp and Johnny already mourning him, and glared at them. "We're not dead yet, you know!"

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  "Your sacrifice will not be forgotten, Brother Joey!"

  Ignoring the two of them, Joey raised up the sword, and cut straight through the rope, along with the wall behind it. Ah well, at least they weren't using that boat later. He breathed a sigh of relief, then looked over to see the two fish-men scaling the side of the boat. Panicking, he immediately lunged over the railing and dived headfirst into the ocean, praying that they hadn't seen him. All of the bravery he had felt earlier had disappeared once he saw how fast they were, and he now wanted to avoid a confrontation.

  The next few seconds were a haze of blue and white, and he resurfaced face-to-face with a rather irate Zoro.

  "Why are you glaring at me?" Joey asked. "I just saved you from being captured!"

  "You helped tie me up in the first place!"

  "That's all water under the bridge. Let's get moving, before those guys notice we're gone."

  Zoro grumbled a string of curses, but reluctantly followed Joey as he began to make his way towards land. It didn't take too long for them to reach the shore, but it was enough to tire Joey out- he began to shiver as he collapsed onto the rocky outcrop. Zoro snorted as he clambered up behind him, and looked over at Usopp and Johnny, who were deep in conversation.

  "What a disaster… the houses have all been flipped upside down."

  Looking up, Joey did a double take- the entire street had been uprooted, as if a rampaging Tyranitar had torn through it. He wasn't even sure how Arlong had managed to do that, but it sure was impressive, at the very least.

  "Geez," he muttered, trying to make sense of the destruction. As he stepped forward, Johnny darted off to the side and hid behind a building.

  "Uh… Johnny?" Usopp asked, staring after him in confusion

  Joey groaned. "It's just us, guys. Got a little caught up trying to cut Zoro… out of…"

  He began to falter as he saw Usopp looking past him, fear in his eyes- before he could turn around, however, he felt a moist hand clamp down on his shoulder, and paled in realization. "There's a fish-man behind me, isn't there?"

  Usopp responded to this by running away as fast as he could, tears streaming down his face. Joey cursed him for his cowardliness, and slowly turned around to face the hulking figure behind him.

  "I almost missed you. You must be refugees. I didn't know there were any left!"

  If the fish-men were weird when seen from afar, they were much worse up close. A fish was simply not meant to have a human face, and despite being used to the wide range of expressions that a pokémon could pull off, Joey still found it off-putting. The guy also smelled like a sushi platter that had been left in the sun for too long, and he had to resist the urge to gag.

  Before he could say anything, however, a gust of wind blew past his face, startling him. He took a step back, and when he looked back up, the fish-man had collapsed on the ground, a slash mark crossing his chest.

  "Thanks," he said, glancing at Zoro.

  "No problem."

  'Remind me not to get on his bad side.'

  The two of them proceeded to follow Usopp down the street, picking their way over the rubble- Joey looked around for Johnny, too, but he had already scampered away to who knows where. Once they finally caught up with the crew's sniper, they saw him talking to a couple of people. Joey recognized Nojiko, but he was drawing a blank on the young boy that stood behind her.

  "Oh, hey guys!" Usopp said, turning towards them. "I was just, uh… Protecting these people! Right! That's why I ran away- I saw them, and-"

  He slowly trailed off as he saw Nojiko staring at him, daring him to continue. "Some people just can't take a good joke…" he muttered, looking to the side.

  "Is he always like this?" the tangerine farmer asked.

  Zoro nodded, and Joey mumbled something along the lines of, "Yeah I think so not sure cause I haven't known him for long but yeah."

  She sighed, and began to walk away from them. "Come with me. It's too dangerous to hang around here."

  Seeing no better alternative, Joey obliged, with Zoro, Usopp, and the kid following close behind.?

  "We're looking for a woman named Nami. Have you seen her?"

  'Finally,' Joey thought. 'It took long enough.' After sitting through a long conversation between Nojiko and the kid who had been with her, he was worried that they would never address the elephant in the room- the reason they were here in the first place. Luckily, Usopp had finally stepped in to ask the big question.

  "Yeah," Nojiko said, smiling, "I've seen her. She's with Arlong's crew."

  Usopp's jaw dropped in disbelief, while Zoro leaned against the wall, tapping his foot on the floor. "I knew something was up with that witch," he said, moving his hand over to his sword's hilt.

  "That's right. She's quite famous in these parts- In fact, this is the house where she grew up! Nami is my stepsister."

  "What?!" Usopp yelled, going bug-eyed. Joey took this chance to speak up- he wasn't sure how much of a difference this would make, but given how he had already messed things up by helping Zoro off the boat, he figured it was worth a shot.

  "That's rather interesting wording," he pointed out. "Why famous? If she's with Arlong, wouldn't it be infamous?"

  "Huh," Usopp said. "You have a point, Joey. What's with that?"

  Nojiko's smirk slipped away, and she drummed her fingers on the table, sighing. "It's… not my place to tell you that. What's your business with her, anyways?"

  Usopp huffed. "I don't know if she's good, or bad, what, but she's clearly been planning to ditch us the whole time. All I care about now is getting our ship back- we'll find the Going Merry and go merrily away from here."

  "How long did it take you to think up that one?" Joey muttered.

  "And you two? Do you share his feelings?"

  "She's not worth finding. For once I agree with him- It'll be better for us to just leave."

  Joey nodded slowly, echoing Zoro's sentiment. He did, however, throw his own two cents in. "She's a navigator, right? Won't it be hard to find another one as good as her?"

  Nojiko's smile returned. "She's one of the best ones I know. If you want her back, though, you'd have to fight Arlong and his crew- they're not just going to let her go."

  "No thanks," Usopp said, shivering.

  "Well, anyways, the ship you're looking for… Is it that one?" Nojiko pointed over her shoulder, out the window- the Going Merry was anchored on a nearby shore, on a straight line through the tangerine field next to her house.

  "Hm," Usopp said, tapping his chin. "I'm beginning to understand the geography around here. Cocoyashi Village should be just west of here- that's where those guys came after us."

  Zoro cleared his throat. "Speaking of which, there's still one left. He didn't seem to have followed us past the boat, but you never know."

  "I'm sure we- I mean, you- can take him, should he make himself known," Joey said, rubbing his temples. "Otherwise, I don't think we need to worry about him. He probably left once he saw that the boat was empty."

  Before anything else could be said, however, a loud, gravelly voice caught everyone's attention.

  "Was it you, three days ago? The guy with the sword?"

  Joey had a pretty good idea who was speaking, and was beginning to feel rather uneasy. "That's not…?" he murmured, hoping that he was wrong.

  "Yup," Nojiko said. "That's Arlong… What's he doing here, though? We already paid this month's tribute…"

  "Tribute?" Usopp asked.

  "Every month, we pay him money so he doesn't slaughter us. If any one of us can't pay… Well, you've already seen what happens."

  Joey tentatively stepped outside the house, peering down the road towards the village, the others following suit. When he set eyes on Arlong, he had to resist the urge to immediately look away- if Don Krieg was bad, the shark fish-man was on a whole other level. He was bigger, more intimidating, and had the same off-putting appearance that other fish-men did, only much worse.

  "Got it, inferior humans?!" he yelled. "Don't think about anything- just work hard and give us our money! I need mountains of it! Your tribute will be the foundation of the Arlong Empire which will rule the East Blue!"

  To punctuate his words, he reached for the man in front of him- Genzo was his name, Joey was pretty sure of that- and grabbed him in a chokehold.

  "The possession of weapons is sedition- it's a threat to the peace of our dominion! And to prevent any future rebellions, I'm gonna kill you as an example to the rest!"

  "Okay," Joey muttered. "It's official- that guy pisses me off even more than Don Krieg."

  "Those swine!" Nojiko yelled, running towards Arlong. "How dare you, Arlong! In eight years we've never once failed to pay your tribute. Do you really think we have any rebellious intentions? Let Mr. Genzo go!"

  Arlong grinned, revealing his rows of large, sharp teeth. "Why does he need weapons, if not to fight us? For the peace and security of our realm, this man must die!"

  "I don't like where this is going…" Joey murmured.

  "Where the hell is Usopp?"

  "Yeah, I- wait, what?"

  Joey turned towards Zoro, alarmed. "What do you mean, where's Usopp? He was right here a moment ago!"

  "Well clearly he's not anymore, or I wouldn't be asking!"

  'Shit. If only I had noticed, then I could have stopped him from-'

  BOOM!

  Joey turned towards Arlong, and cursed under his breath as he saw that the fish-man was engulfed in a ball of flames and smoke. The disruption was enough to make him drop Genzo, but he still looked relatively unharmed.

  "What the hell was that?!" Zoro yelled.

  'How did that happen so soon? There should have been way more time before he used the…'

  "Exploding star!"

  Joey sighed in defeat. 'Well then.'