42 Desperation

"Damn, they've arrived already! You two, hide!" said Albert with fear as he pushed Shun and Toma back.

After pushing them back, he pulled out a stack of bills from a drawer to pay the monthly tax.

"Whatever they do, do not go out under any circumstances" Albert warned sternly as he looked at Shun and Toma.

Toma nodded repeatedly with fear; he had no intention of going out as he valued his life more. In contrast, Shun remained silent and somewhat annoyed.

Just when they had finished their task and were about to complete the mission, those cursed fishmen arrived. How unlucky could they be? All he wanted was to obtain information about the pirates of Eldorrago as soon as possible.

Albert turned and headed for the door; his legs were trembling with fear, but he had no other choice if he wanted to stay alive. When Toma saw Albert's trembling back, he furrowed his brow and felt powerless.

He looked at Shun and noticed his usual blank expression, shook his head, and knew that while Shun was very powerful for his age, he didn't think he could defeat Arlong, a pirate who had been in the Grand Line, the world's most dangerous ocean.

As soon as Albert left, he quickly closed the door. Instantly, both Shun and Toma headed to the window overlooking the village. They crouched halfway so that only the top half of their heads was visible and observed the situation.

Shun was curious about what these fishmen would look like in person. He could see that just like Albert, all the villagers began to leave their homes in an orderly fashion, even Inés with her two children.

As his sight was moving he could finally see 3 figures standing in the middle of the deserted street with arrogant expressions.

One of them was a gyojin about the size of a grown man, his blue skin was fair, and he had curly brown hair. He wears a purple short-sleeved shirt, with buttons and pink stars. His pants are tan shorts and he wears sandals on his feet. Shun did not recognize him, so this gyojin had no bounty on his head.

The second fishmen was thinner and taller, his skin was almost pale and on the back of his head, he had a reddish colored fin on his hair, something very strange and striking. He wears a blue short-sleeved shirt with yellow stripes. He also wears shorts and sandals. Shun didn't recognize him either.

Finally, the last fish men was in the middle of the 3. Shun seeing him could easily recognize him.

"That's Chew! He has a bounty of 5,500,000 berries, the other two have no bounty" Toma said fearfully.

Shun nodded and looked more closely at Chew the only difference was his big lips and his skin was bluer. All 3 fish mens wore the Arlong pirate tattoo on a visible part of their bodies.

"Looks like their tiny brains are working after all, they no longer try to hide in their homes and ignore our calls" Chew said as he nodded seeing that all the humans had come out of their homes in an orderly fashion.

"Yes, we had to have killed a few for them to learn, Arlong-sama was very benevolent, appreciate it" said the lanky gyojin with a smile.

Albert, Ines, and all the villagers stared at the ground in frightened silence, afraid to make eye contact with the gyojins.

"Say thank you scumbags!" shouted the lanky fish man angrily at being ignored.

"T-thank you..." said them at different times the villagers in shaky voices.

"Higher!" shouted the other gyojin who had so far not spoken.

"T-thank you!"

"Add Arlong-sama!" ordered the lanky fish-man.

"Thank you Arlong-sama!" shouted all the villagers in fear.

The gyojins upon seeing this smiled, it gave them great satisfaction to hold in the palm of their hands the lives of all these weak humans, who all they could do was obey them.

Shun turned his head and could see Toma biting his lip and clenching his fists tightly.

"Enough with the games! We'll start with the list and we'll get the monthly tax. That's right, I almost forgot. From now on, there is a small increase in the tax" Chew said with a smile waiting to see the desperate reaction of the villagers.

"W-what, why? I could barely pay the current fee, I won't be able to keep up the payment for long" said one man as he plucked up his courage.

Most of the villagers also went on to murmur in disagreement, they knew that getting more money would be very difficult.

"Shut up, if they want to live find a way to get money!" shouted Chew, at the sound of his angry shout all the villagers fell silent.

"Yes, steal or kill someone" said the lanky man with an evil grin.

"Starting this month adults will pay 150,000 berries and children 100,000 berries" commented Chew.

"I will give you 5 minutes, to take the remaining money out of your houses" added Chew.

All the villagers headed home quickly, Albert entered with a sad and helpless look on his face. He didn't say a word to Shun and Toma and went straight to his room, under his mattress he took out the last remaining berries.

Then he quickly left the house, afraid of being reproached for taking too long.

"The 5 minutes are up, I'll start calling, don't be long and get through quickly" Chew said with little patience as he pulled out a list.

'What do I do...? What do I do? What do I do?' Ines thought nervously as she looked around. She had already gone home and searched everywhere and only got 50,000 berries more, however, this was not enough for the current prices.

Her heart began to beat faster and faster, she felt that at any moment it could burst out of her chest. She watched nervously as each person passed by and paid the monthly tax to Chew, she wanted that moment to never end and not to say her name.

The other two gyojins next to Chew carried two large bags, where the villagers deposited the money, not without first being counted by the gyojins themselves.

Ines looked at her two small children, 'There is only one thing I can do...' she thought while her whole body was sweating nervously.

'Ines, Arthur, and Alice' Chew called out as he looked up.

At the sound of her name, Ines' body began to tremble and her heart was pounding a mile a minute.

"Mother...?" asked her son Arthur with fear.

"Ines, Arthur, and Alice! Come in quickly!" shouted Chew furiously.

"C-come on follow me" said Ines finally reacting, as she made her way to the center of the street.

"One adult and two children. That would be 350,000 berries" said the lanky gyojin.

Ines was unresponsive and a nervous twitch could be seen on her pale face.

"Give me the bag!" said the gyojin taking the bag out of Ines' hands and started counting the money.

"Tsch, useless humans can't do something so simple" he added in an annoyed tone while counting the money.

After a few minutes, he finished counting and with a frown said, "There are only 250,000 berries here, did you hear the new prices right?"

"Y-yes I know... It's all I have" replied Ines stammering and looking at the floor.

...

"Inés, Inés, Inés... The prices are not for decoration, we must respect them. With 250.00 berries you have two options. The first one in which you and one of your two children live. And the second option your two children live and you die. Tell me which one you choose? In your case, I would choose the first one, since two useless human brats won't be able to work to pay for the next month" said Chew with a smile.

"No, please! Give me one more month, I swear I will get the money and pay you" said Ines in desperation.

"No, no, that's not how things work. Choose quickly, I'll give you 20 seconds" said Chew.

"Please someone lend me money, I swear I'll pay you back!" shouted Ines as she looked at all the villagers.

All the villagers who were watching the situation attentively before averted their eyes and became silent. Seconds passed and no one responded, Ines eyes were full of tears, she lived all her life in this village and no one wanted to give her a hand, although deep down she understood.

In the situation they were in if someone lent her money, she or he would put her life at risk, as it would be difficult for her or his to pay the next month.

Toma heard Ines shout and understood the situation, he gripped his sword tightly and seeing that no one wanted to help her he was about to get up and leave the house to face the gyojins.

Shun grabbed his shoulder and shook his head. With Toma's strength, it was impossible to take on 3 gyojins and one with a bounty of over 5 million. As for Shun, he had no plans to get involved, he just wanted to call Catalina and tell her that they finished their mission.

"Time served. Tell me, Agnes, what decision did you make?" asked Chew amused.

"M-my two children will live" replied Ines in a trembling, but resolute voice.

"A stupid choice" said Chew with disdain.

"Pisaro, take care of her" added Chew.

"Leave it to me" said the lanky gyojin named Pisaro.

"Listen to me my kids, they must be strong and survive in this world. Arthur take care of your sister and Alice be good. I love the two of you very much" said Agnes as she cried and hugged her two children.

"Mother don't..." said Arthur as he started to cry. Alice, although she didn't understand much was also crying.

Shun seeing this frowned and remembered his mother and brother. He felt an unpleasant churning in his stomach.

"This is why I hate children" Pisaro said as he pulled out his gun and pointed it at Ines' head.

Ines looked fearfully at the gun pointed at her head, however, she preferred this, rather than have one of her children killed.

"You bastard!" exclaimed a voice full of fury.

Before Pisaro could pull the trigger he felt a great pain in his hand. He could see how a sword was embedded in his hand with the aim of cutting it.

How the sword stopped halfway before it could cut the hand, the person who did it quickly withdrew it, even so, it caused a large and deep cut on the gyojin's hand.

"AAAAHHH!" cried Pisaro in pain as he let go of the weapon and his hand looked like a fountain spurting blood.