"Nami, Zoro, Sanji—you're all okay!"
Hearing the familiar voices, Luffy snapped his head toward his crew.
The disappointment weighing down his heart vanished in an instant, replaced by a surge of bright energy as he scrambled back to his feet.
"Don't come any closer! It's dangerous here!" Remembering there was still a terrifying enemy nearby, Luffy frantically threw his hands up to stop his companions from approaching.
"Relax. Nami already explained everything to us. This time, it's all thanks to this guy."
Rubbing his sore ass, Zoro spoke with an awkwardness he couldn't quite hide.
"Damn it! Why is it never me who gets to pull off the hero-saving-the-beauty routine?! And you, mosshead bastard—STAY AWAY FROM NAMI-SAN!" Sanji glared at Zoro and immediately erupted in anger.
"Thank Arlong? Why would you thank him?! That guy is just—" Luffy blinked, utterly confused.
He had clearly mistaken the person's identity!
"Wait, Luffy, he's not Arlong! This is the guy who defeated Arlong and saved the whole village!" Nami quickly stepped forward to cut off his confusion.
"Huh? So you're not him?" Luffy stared in shock, his eyes wide with bewilderment.
"I never said I was Arlong. No, wait—looking at this face of mine, don't you find it familiar at all?" Cain, still maintaining his pink, Human-Beast form, smiled as he asked the question.
Luffy frowned hard, leaning in to study the towering figure carefully for a long moment before blurting out.
"If you're not Arlong... then who are you?!"
"YOU IDIOT!"
Imitating Garp flawlessly, Cain planted a fist full of 'brotherly love' squarely onto Luffy's skull.
Coughing lightly to ignore the stunned gazes of the Straw Hats, Cain turned and walked toward the nearby ruins.
"Did any of you notice that bag hanging off his ass?" Nami suddenly whispered, her tone full of curiosity.
"It is kind of weird." Zoro and Sanji nodded in unison.
"OWWW! This guy hits just like Grandpa—why does it hurt so much?!" Luffy paid no attention to the conversation, merely clutching his swelling head and howling as he rolled around in the dirt.
"But those pink scales on him are different from the fish-men's. They're actually kind of cute." Perhaps because she was so grateful he saved Cocoyashi Village, Nami found Cain's pink scales unusually pleasing to look at.
"NAMI-SWAAAN!" Sanji bit down on his handkerchief, immediately breaking into powerless, jealous sobs.
Standing beside the ruins, Cain overheard the exchange and felt a deep wave of embarrassment.
The 'bag on his ass' Nami noticed was originally a prop used to disguise his long dragon tail.
If he wanted to pass himself off as a Fish-Man, he had to hide that glaring flaw.
Even though he deliberately concealed it, he hadn't expected Nami's sharp eyes to catch it anyway.
Wearing a giant sack over his tail felt as awkward as climbing a snowy mountain in summer clothes.
Cain hurriedly tore the strap off and flung the bag aside into the rubble.
Recalling Garp's strict teachings that a fighter must never let down their guard, Cain instinctively flared his Observation Haki.
Turning his head, he caught sight of Usopp quietly waking up.
During the earlier chaos at Arlong Park, Cain had deliberately avoided stepping on anyone unconscious.
He never expected Usopp to wake up at this exact second and watch him undress a sack from his tail.
A surge of sheer panic and shame rose in Cain's chest.
He took a step forward, intending to threaten the sniper into keeping his mouth shut!
To Nami, those pink scales were cute.
But to Usopp, the towering monster glaring right at him looked terrifying.
'I'm dead! I'm dead! I'M DEAD!'
Seeing Cain slowly approach him with a dark, stern look in his eyes, Usopp twitched twice before his eyes rolled back into his head, fainting all over again.
Cain let out a helpless sigh, his massive body swaying slightly as he reverted to his normal human form.
Picking up the straw hat that had fallen during the fight, he dragged Usopp and Johnny out from the rubble and set them down next to Yosaku, who was still passed out.
He never intended to hurt any of them in the first place; he simply scared them a little and tied them up to lure Luffy over.
That was all there was to it.
Brushing off the dust, he changed into a fresh set of clothes, slung his bandage-wrapped staff over his shoulder, and walked back toward Luffy's group.
Black trousers, a crisp white suit, and a distinctive white cap rested on his head.
It looked strikingly similar in style to a high-ranking Marine uniform, just without the word 'MARINE' printed across the back.
Garp had prepared the outfit for him in advance—a silent, stubborn hope from the old man that his grandson would remember his roots.
"Y-you... you're..." Luffy stared at the familiar face, his gaze dropping to the few strands of pink hair peeking out from beneath the white cap.
His eyes suddenly lit up like fireworks!
"Long time no see, Luffy." Cain rested the long staff on his left shoulder and smiled warmly.
With his free right hand, he gently placed the treasured straw hat back onto his little brother's head.
"CAIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!"
The moment he recognized him, Luffy exploded with wild excitement.
He yanked both hands backward, stretching his rubber arms out across the courtyard to wrap Cain up in a crushing hug.
"No way! Luffy, you actually know this guy?!" Zoro yelled, shocked all over again.
The man before them possessed terrifying strength, yet he was an acquaintance of their idiot captain?
"Well, that does explain a few things. I think Nami-san mentioned earlier that this was some kind of test for Luffy, they must have known each other already."
Lighting a fresh cigarette, Sanji slowly exhaled a stream of smoke.
"Oh, right. I forgot to introduce myself."
Only then did Cain realize he hadn't actually given them his name.
Letting Luffy continue hanging off his neck like a monkey, he smiled warmly at the crew.
"My name is Chad Cain. I'm Luffy's older brother."
"EHHHH?! A monster like you is Luffy's brother?!" Even Nami looked full of sheer disbelief.
She never imagined their goofy captain had such a terrifyingly powerful brother!
But Luffy's joyful expression suddenly darkened.
He abruptly whipped his head around and shouted at his crew.
"EVERYBODY RUN! THIS GUY IS A MARINE! HE'S HERE TO ARREST US!"
At once, Zoro, Sanji, and Nami tensed in high alarm, weapons drawn.
Naturally, they knew how the Marines dealt with pirates, and this man's overwhelming strength went far beyond anything they could hope to defeat right now.
Zoro and Sanji had only just joined Luffy, and Nami had only just acknowledged this pirate crew as her true home.
But Nami's mind buzzed with doubt.
If he really was a Marine, why did he urge her earlier to join Luffy's crew?
Luffy's panicked warning made Cain freeze dead in his tracks.
He had almost forgotten that Luffy knew about his 'former' status as a Marine, and he definitely hadn't expected his idiot brother to blurt it out so directly!
In the next second, a vein bulged on Cain's temple.
His forehead darkened with pitch-black Armament Haki, and he slammed a brutal headbutt right into Luffy's skull.
"GAAAH!" Luffy cried out in pain, his rubber arms instantly letting go as he clutched his swelling head, returning to rolling around in the dirt.
"My foolish little brother, your dear big brother is no longer a Marine! I am a pirate now." Cain's tone was sickeningly gentle, as if patiently soothing a crying child.
"Really? No, that can't be right!" Luffy squinted suspiciously, rubbing his bruised head.
"With Grandpa's personality, there's no way he would just let you go out to sea! You definitely have to be someone else in disguise, right?!" Luffy knew Garp's terrifying temperament far too well to believe it.
"I..... didn't expect you to be that sharp, Grandpa really wouldn't let me go so easily, but I snuck out. Judging by the timing, he's probably chasing after me right now."
Unable to resist, Cain flashed an evil smirk and teased him.
The very second Luffy heard Garp was on his way, he jolted in absolute terror, scrambling to his feet to physically drag Nami and the others away.
"WE HAVE TO GO! RUN!"
It was actually true that Garp was coming.
Besides dismantling the Arlong Pirates, Cain hadn't forgotten about the rat-faced Captain Nezumi extorting this island.
In fact, the very first thing Cain did upon arriving at Cocoyashi Village was deal with them.
Those corrupt Marines had already been brutally beaten down one by one, left so thoroughly incapacitated that they couldn't even send out a distress signal.
Cain had already dialed Garp on his private Den Den Mushi, specifically asking the old man to bring a squad over and lock every last one of those scumbags in Impel Down.