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King Neptune, knowing his wife well, didn't need Rowen to elaborate, he could roughly guess Otohime's intentions.
In this world, Fish-Men and Merfolk suffered discrimination from humans. This discrimination had bred racial extremists like Hody Jones, who harbored deep-seated hatred for humanity.
Otohime's dream was for Fish-Men and Merfolk to live freely on the surface, advocating for coexistence through communication and mutual understanding with humans.
When Shirahoshi was six, Otohime learned a shipwrecked Celestial Dragon's vessel was requesting entry to Fish-Man Island.
Not wanting the cycle of hatred to continue, Otohime personally sheltered the Celestial Dragon, Donquixote Mjosgard, from the wrath of the island's citizens.
Her efforts awakened a change in Mjosgard.
Through this Celestial Dragon, Otohime returned with a signed petition from the World Nobles—agreeing to form friendly relations between Fish-Men and humans.
But while collecting signatures, she was assassinated, and the petition she had gathered was burned.
Hody Jones, at the time a respected soldier in the Ryugu Kingdom army, had claimed a human shot Otohime.
But Neptune, even after Otohime's death, was not swayed by this, he inherited his beloved wife's will, continuing to advocate for coexistence with humans. In Neptune's view, if he abandoned that ideal, his beloved wife would truly die—on a spiritual level.
And now, the full truth was revealed...
THE ONE WHO SHOT OTOHIME WAS HODY JONES!
Neptune and the others had no doubt about Rowen's words. Sky Sovereign was an Emperor. Fish-Man Island was but an insignificant power before him.
Why would he stoop to deceiving them with lies? Besides, the look on Hody Jones's face was all the confirmation they needed.
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"Have you lost your mind??" Jinbe snarled, his gaze turning chillingly cold as he looked at Hody Jones.
"JAHAHAHA! Humans are just the lowest form of life! Coexistence?? DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH! That's an insult to our GREAT Fish-Man race! And you, Neptune! Accepting the protection of the one who killed Boss Arlong! YOU DESERVE TO DIE TOO!"
Hody Jones shrieked like a madman, his eyes scarlet.
"Did the drugs make you stupid?" Rowen, completely unbothered by this fodder's barking, instead used his Observation Haki with keen interest to sense Hody Jones's emotional fluctuations. They were incredibly chaotic.
Hody Jones's primary method of increasing his strength was by consuming Energy Steroids—a 'vicious drug'.
This drug multiplied the user's strength, but at the cost of their lifespan. It also affected the user's mind, causing mental instability, just as Hody was now—completely devoid of normal thought patterns.
Arlong, for example, still knew fear when facing overwhelming power like Haki.
Hody Jones felt no fear.
In Earth terms—he was completely high!
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"The last one who spouted that nonsense, Arlong—do you know how he died?" Rowen asked, a crimson-black light flashing in his eyes.
Rowen, with his current status, had no need to engage with such fodder's barking.
"He lost everything that made him a fish-man and drowned in the deep sea. You... shall experience it as well." Rowen's eyes turned chillingly cold.
"Plunder!"
Under Hody Jones's horrified gaze, his body began to undergo a terrifying transformation.
His powerful physique, inherited from the immensely strong Great White Shark Fish-Man lineage, began to wither.
All his strength, from the depths of his very cells, was being stolen. This sensation of feeling his cells shrivel, watching helplessly—made even the drug-addled Hody Jones feel a terror that came from his very soul.
Then, something even more horrifying happened.
The gills that were the pride of the fish-men, the very feature that race supremacists like him used to claim their superiority over humans—they began to regress, shriveling away into nothing.
In just an instant, everything that defined him as a Great White Shark Fish-Man—vanished.
"What... WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME???"
Not just Hody Jones, but the other New Fish-Man Pirate officers were also stripped of everything that made them Fish-Men. Their bodies withered, their gills shriveled.
They collapsed to the ground, terrified and helpless.
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"Th-This..." Neptune and the others stared, dumbfounded.
Though they had heard the rumors—this was the first time they had seen it with their own eyes!
The world's most dangerous, most vicious ability.
The power unique to the man who could plunder anything—Sky Sovereign!
He had stolen their very essence as fish-men. To see it happen, to watch the entire process, was to truly understand the terror of the man standing before them.
This ability was monstrous...
He was like an emperor, no, more than an emperor. If you angered the other Emperors, death was the likely outcome. But if you angered Sky Sovereign, even death was a luxury.
Neptune and the others knew very well—for Hody Jones and his crew, losing everything that made them Fish-Men was a fate infinitely more painful than simply killing them.
To have their entire identity, their source of arrogant pride, stripped away, leaving them as grotesque abominations that were neither human nor fish... they were no longer even Fish-Men—they were, utterly and completely, racial trash.
"Mmph! Mmph!"
And Sky Sovereign didn't even have the interest to listen to their horrified screams. Threads shot out, gagging their mouths. Neptune and the others could truly see the utter despair in Hody's eyes.
This was a fate worse than death. And death was not an option.
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"Is this handling acceptable to you, Jinbe?" Rowen asked, looking towards Jinbe.
"Sigh... this is all due to my negligence," Jinbe sighed.
As fellow countrymen and former followers, Jinbe had been somewhat lenient with Hody Jones and his crew. But he never imagined their hatred for humans was so immense, even leading them to assassinate Queen Otohime.
Jinbe knew humans had never done anything egregious to Hody Jones. Hody Jones was a complete madman, just wanting to vent his inner hatred and negative emotions. Jinbe could not tolerate such actions.
He fully accepted Rowen's judgment!
"I'll leave them for you to deal with," Rowen said, looking at Neptune. His meaning was clear: Killing them would be too merciful.
They had the audacity to insult an Emperor—they would endure a fate worse than death. For a fish-man supremacist like Hody Jones, there was no greater torture than to be stripped of their race and imprisoned, forced to live every second as an unidentifiable creature.
This was the price for angering an Emperor.
"Yes," Neptune and the other royalty, naturally understanding this, nodded grimly in acknowledgment.
The guards quickly dragged Hody and his men away to the dungeons.
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"Your daughter... she's been dealing with some harassment, has she not?" Rowen asked, looking at Neptune with a smile.
"Y-Yes," Neptune, not hiding anything, sighed and recounted the facts.
Sky Sovereign Rowen's Observation Haki, amplified by the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, was an open secret. Nothing on the seas could be hidden from this man.
"Mark-Mark Fruit," Rowen nodded.
"Sky Sovereign, you want...?" Fukaboshi asked cautiously.
"Let's go. Take me to see your daughter. To find a Devil Fruit user's location, direct contact with their ability is the fastest way. The legendary Mermaid Princess... possesses an unbelievable power, doesn't she?" Rowen said with a smile.
His Observation Haki had already sensed the immense potential dormant within Shirahoshi.
The power of one of the Three Ancient Weapons—'Sea King' Poseidon.
"Don't worry. Rowen won't harm Shirahoshi," Jinbe, knowing what Neptune and the others were worried about, reassured them.
"V-Very well," Neptune took a deep breath. Indeed, nothing could be hidden from Sky Sovereign. Even the power within Shirahoshi had been detected by him.
The ability to summon giant Sea Kings was a terrifying power, far too great for the Ryugu Kingdom to handle. The only one who 'could' handle it was the man before them.
Besides, if Sky Sovereign had ill intentions, why bother protecting the island in the first place? With his power, they would be helpless.
"Please, follow me," Neptune and his three sons led the way.
Because she was targeted by the Mark-Mark Fruit user, Vander Decken IX—who, after being rejected, had switched from sending love letters to throwing weapons—Shirahoshi was forced to live in the Hard-Shell Tower for her own protection, with only her pet shark, Megalo, for company.
"This is the Hard-Shell Tower," Neptune sighed, looking at the structure.
Nami and the others felt a pang of sympathy for Shirahoshi. A Mermaid Princess, yet she lost her mother at a young age—and then, after her mother's death, the young princess had to hide here.
WHOOSH!
Just then, an axe, thrown from the deep sea by an unknown force, hurtled towards them.
"The signature of the Mark-Mark Fruit's ability."
Rowen didn't even raise his hand.
CRACKLE!
A bolt of crimson-black lightning materialized from thin air, and the axe clattered harmlessly to the ground. In that same instant, Rowen's Observation Haki locked onto the ability's signature.
VMM!
With the aura as a reference, locking onto the target with his Rumble-Rumble Fruit-enhanced Observation Haki was trivially simple.
"Not too far,"
Rowen raised his right index finger towards the sky.
"Divine Judgment——"
"Huh?" Neptune and the others stared in confusion at Rowen, who seemed to have done nothing. 'Sky Sovereign acted? Why was there no sound?'
"Let's go. It's dealt with," Rowen stated with a calm smile.
"Ah?" Neptune and the others were stunned. What did he mean, 'dealt with'?
"Nami," Rowen looked towards her.
"Here," Nami proficiently produced a pomelo.
"Grant."
Rowen transferred the plundered Mark-Mark Fruit ability into this ordinary fruit.
GURGLE! GURGLE!
Soon, the pomelo writhed and changed, becoming a special fruit with strange swirling patterns.
"The Mark-Mark Fruit... would be useful for the elite warriors of the Kuja," Rowen mused, weighing the Paramecia fruit in his hand.
The Kuja warriors were all excellent archers and Haki users—with the Mark-Mark Fruit's ability, they would be even more formidable.
After his Conqueror's Haki evolved, Rowen could directly steal the power of those killed by his Devil Fruit abilities.
Devil Fruits, being manifestations of human desire, were also a manifestation of Rowen's own inner power as an ability user. Through this connection, he could use his Rumble-Rumble Fruit to assassinate targets remotely and plunder their abilities without needing to be physically present.
"The Mark-Mark Fruit!" Seeing the fruit, Neptune and the others' eyes widened.
That was the very ability that had imprisoned his daughter. For it to be in Sky Sovereign's hands could only mean one thing.
Vander Decken IX had just been assassinated.
But how? It had been completely silent...
"Rowen used the Clear-Clear Fruit to conceal the power and sound of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit. That way, Fish-Man Island wouldn't be thrown into a panic," Nami explained with a smile.
"I-I see," Neptune and the others wiped cold sweat from their foreheads.
SO, SO SCARY!
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"Does this mean... Shirahoshi can live freely on Fish-Man Island now?" Fukaboshi and the other princes asked, their faces filled with excitement.
They doted on their youngest sister. But because of that damned Vander Decken IX, Shirahoshi had been forced to hide in the Hard-Shell Tower, unable even to pay respects at her mother Otohime's grave.
But Shirahoshi was also very strong—though a crybaby, she never blamed anyone. And only now did they know she had kept her mother's dying wish, the truth of her assassination, buried deep in her heart.
Their sister, though she seemed weak, was actually stronger than anyone.
"Not just live freely on Fish-Man Island,"
Rowen's words made Neptune's pupils constrict sharply.
Could... could he mean?!
But Neptune didn't ask now. He just pushed open the doors of the Hard-Shell Tower.
"Wh-Who's there?" A delicate, timid, beautiful voice sounded.
"Is that the Mermaid Princess's voice? So sweet," Nami marveled.
She then glanced at Kaya. Kaya's voice was already very gentle and sweet. But this voice's sweetness surpassed even Kaya's.
"It's us, Shirahoshi," Neptune's fond voice replied.
Then, the lights of the Hard-Shell Tower turned on.
"WOW! SO BEAUTIFUL!"
The moment they saw Shirahoshi, Nami and Kaya gasped, their eyes sparkling. Robin also smiled. Perona's large, doll-like eyes blinked.
"Check Traits."
——
Trait Detected (Shirahoshi): 'Sea King' Poseidon (Special) (Not Fully Awakened)
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