The Elementalist Lucia [One Piece x OC fanfiction]

XXXVIII - Hate or forgiveness, friends or ennemies

Jinbei then took the time to tell them everything. He told them the story of the people of Fishman Island, recounting with fervour the unshakeable will of Otohime who had long campaigned for the inhabitants to sign a petition to the world government so that they could leave the seabed and rise to the surface. He warmly detailed the exploits of his former captain, Fisher Tiger, who wanted above all to free the oppressed from coercive justice. He told them how the two struggles had been in opposition to each other, but with the same distant goal. Lucia listened without speaking, her throat constricted, with terrifying images in her mind. Jinbei told them how Arlong was already overstepping his bounds, and that Tiger made it a point of honour that his men should not become murderers, he did not want them to become like those men they so despised. He was not fighting for hatred and revenge, only for freedom. If they gave in to their anger, it would be future generations who would pay the price. Their lives had changed when they had taken on board their ship a little girl who had been a terrified former slave, who had known only hatred and violence, for whom survival meant acting like a slave. Fisher Tiger had marked her with the seal of the sun pirates to erase the trace of the Celestial Dragons and then they had finally managed to break the little girl's fear, giving her the chance to cry, to express herself freely. They had helped her to rebuild herself, and for the pirate crew, seeing this human suffer so much, had finally made them understand that they should not become a source of terror for all humans. Lucia had tears in her eyes as she heard this, caught up in an emotion that completely overwhelmed her. Hatchan looked puzzled at her tears.

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

"Yes..." Lucia breathed without further explanation.

Jinbei explained that the little girl, named Koala, had been adopted by the entire crew, before they took her back to her home village. The race barrier had finally been broken. However, it was on this very island that the drama of the fishmen crew occurred. The Navy was waiting for them and, without warning, riddled the pirate captain Fisher Tiger with bullets after he had brought the girl back to her family. They had finally defeated the Navy, retrieved their battered captain and set sail again without delay. Fisher Tiger needed an immediate transfusion, but he refused it. The blood bags that were to save him had been found on a Navy warship, and the blood belonged to a human being. Tiger flatly refused to have the blood of a human in his veins. In reality, Tiger had also been a slave of the Celestial Dragons. He had known submission, contempt, violence, hatred, intolerance. On his deathbed, he admitted that the fight he was waging was good, that in reality it was the way he was waging it that was unsustainable, that they had to listen to the queen who continued to preach her good word, tirelessly. A better foundation had to be built for the generations to come, unaware of such hatred, that they should not be left with this anger. And so Fisher Tiger died of his wounds. Thereafter Arlong definitely chose the path of violence, giving vent to his rage and hatred, and he was imprisoned.

Jinbei had reported all the events to the king and queen of the Ryugu kingdom. On the island too the situation had degenerated, the inhabitants had decided to go back on their commitment and took up the queen's petitions, convinced of the evil nature of the humans and afraid. They no longer believed in their sovereign's words. She was working hard to provide a better future for their children and was faced with a wall of ignorance and fear. In order to ease the tensions between the fishmen and the humans, Jinbei accepted the government's proposal to become a member of the seven warlords and the crew of the sun pirates was divided into three clans. The former slave pirates were able to return to the island and reunite with their families without being pursued by the world government, and the newly freed Arlong chose to fight his own battle of hate.

The arrival of a Celestial Dragon on Fishman Island changed the course of events, and he washed ashore after being attacked by sea monsters. Contemptuous and arrogant, the descendant of the world's nobility threatened the inhabitants with his weapon and insulted them. Facing him were the fishmen, who were also driven by their hatred for humans and, above all, were the former slaves of this Celestial Dragon. Armed to the teeth, they had only one idea in mind: to slaughter him on the spot. But when they fired, the queen stepped in at the last moment, taking the bullets instead of the human, but fortunately for her, the wound was not serious. Finally, she managed to convince her subjects not to shoot the human. Instead, the Celestial Dragon rushed to retrieve his weapon and take the queen hostage, threatening her life. Terrified, the 6-year-old Shiraoshi broke down in tears and screamed, and then something that no one could have imagined happened: sea monsters landed on the island and destroyed the Celestial Dragon's ship, scaring her to death in the process, before turning away and leaving. Once the incident was over, the nobleman was treated and when he left, Otohime insisted on accompanying him to see the surface with her own eyes, wanting to bring back a first-hand account of human behaviour on the surface. She returned a week later, full of enthusiasm, having managed to convince the Celestial Dragon to join their cause and had provided them with a letter in which he validated the Queen's petition on behalf of the world's nobility. Following this news, the inhabitants regained hope, galvanised by the dedication of their sovereign, and petitions poured in, each signature being a step closer to their emancipation on the surface.