Chapter 186: Fishman Island, Arlong's Youngest Brother
By the end, even Gion was starting to feel like it sounded ridiculous.
Did that Donquixote Doflamingo from the North Blue really have ambitions that big?
But Roy's eyes did not look like he was making things up.
In Gion's view, Roy was like this: sometimes cunning, sometimes shameless, but when it came to truly serious matters, he was reliable.
Just like the duel with the Golden Lion.
Roy's sudden headbutt had sent Shiki crashing down.
Even if Roy paid in blood, the enemy still took the heavier damage.
Roy was certain Doflamingo had already set his sights on far more than the North Blue.
That man had been spoiled rotten by the criminals around him since childhood. He wanted something, he got it. Someone offended him, those criminals handled it for him.
And if something as small as a road annoyed Doflamingo, those people would not "fix" it.
They would blow it up.
Do not mistake it for friendship.
It was training.
They were shaping Doflamingo into evil, carving him into something extreme.
If Donquixote Rosinante could be called a gentle angel, then Doflamingo was a devil in the eyes of countless people. Even his own brother saw him as rotten.
For someone who could get whatever he wanted since childhood, a so called protagonist who started life with everything except the death of his parents, Doflamingo's goal was never going to stay small.
And now Doflamingo had even planted a spy inside the Navy.
Vergo.
That alone was proof.
Several days later.
Fishman Island.
This was the end of the first half of the Grand Line, ten thousand meters beneath the Red Line, deep in the sea.
It was also the route pirates used to reach the New World.
After resupplying here, a ship could continue onward, though the deep sea currents still carried their own risks.
Along the way, Roy and Gion ran into neither sea kings nor fishman pirates who hated humans.
At this point in time, Fisher Tiger, Roy's "imitator," had not yet been killed by the Navy's trap.
Arlong and Jinbe still followed behind Tiger, calling him big brother again and again.
And the Fishman Island kid who would later pick fights with the world was currently just that, a kid, idolizing Arlong and his big brother like they were legends.
In short, maybe the warship's presence was simply too intimidating.
They did not encounter a single fishman pirate or human pirate.
"Those guys are avoiding us," a Marine lieutenant commander said on deck, fists clenched and expression sour.
The entrance to Fishman Island was right ahead. Now that they could see the traffic, it was obvious that most ships bound for Fishman Island were steering wide to avoid them.
The strong arrive first, and the weak get out of the way.
That was the idea.
"No big deal," Roy said from the side, still disguised, laughing softly. "We go in and wait. New pirates always need Fishman Island to resupply."
"That's right," the major said with a grin, clapping his hands.
Roy stared ahead, speechless.
In this world, it always felt like people traded their brains for tougher bodies.
Cipher Pol gathered intelligence, then suddenly appeared at the perfect moment to fight like frontline soldiers.
Pirates planted spies in the Navy. The Navy planted spies in pirate crews. Cipher Pol planted spies in everyone. Even families planted spies in rival families.
They called it undercover work.
If Roy were being honest, most of it looked like bad acting.
Kanjuro was the perfect example. Even before the truth came out in Wano, anyone paying attention could tell something was off.
And the main characters?
They were walking invitations for trouble.
Roy looked at the captain and sighed. In any other world, Roy would question how someone like this ever earned that rank.
But in the world of One Piece?
Fine.
That tracks.
As the warship entered the route toward Fishman Island, Roy glanced into the distance.
Fishman District was actually a massive area outside the main island, not inside it.
The warship passed through the protective bubble and sailed into Fishman Island itself. To be honest, Navy warships rarely came here in recent years.
After all, the Navy and world nobles could apply to use the elevator route across the Red Line.
A warship passing through Fishman Island like this was unusual.
Inside Fishman Island, most residents lived in two main types of areas.
One was a mixed zone where outsiders could stay, with businesses and neighborhoods that felt like normal life. Humans could live there without issue.
The other was entirely underwater, built for fishmen and mermaids alone.
And no, do not assume the fishmen and mermaids here lived happier lives than the orphans in Fishman District.
On one hand, many had no one to care for them and often went hungry.
On the other hand, they were constantly harassed by pirates heading to the New World, which made safety a daily worry.
The living conditions on both sides were not that different.
That was also why Fishman Island produced so many extremists.
The world had never been kind to them. No one guided them properly. And many people above the surface looked at them with prejudice.
A lot of that prejudice came from nobles and Celestial Dragons, parasites with too much power and nothing better to do.
But when the people at the top discriminate, it becomes an example for everyone below.
In that kind of environment, you could not expect every child to grow into a good person.
A knight errant like Jinbe was truly rare.
Roy sat aboard the warship as it docked in the human friendly zone of Fishman Island.
Living inside a bubble world thousands of meters beneath the sea was a strange feeling, like living inside an ocean that existed inside another ocean.
On shore, beautiful mermaids waved and greeted them warmly.
Unfortunately, Fisher Tiger was still evading the Navy, and Jinbe was still following his big brother.
Roy was not going to get a chance to meet Jinbe.
"How long are we staying?" Roy asked Gion.
"Until afternoon," Gion replied.
Roy raised a brow. "Then we catch a few pirates before we leave?"
"Mm."
The moment she said it, the Marines lit up.
To be honest, almost none of them knew Roy's real identity. Gion never told them who he truly was.
Only Tsuru's trusted confidants, the ones absolutely loyal to Tsuru, knew anything about it.
Everyone else were simply hands and feet.
They had all heard the story about Roy defeating the Golden Lion.
But none of them had actually witnessed the duel.
So when they heard that their commander's mysterious boyfriend was about to make a move, the entire warship felt like it had just been injected with adrenaline.
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