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.
The tragedy came on a day when everything was going well, fishmen and mermaids of the island were happy, the crate was being filled with leaves without interruption. Then a fire broke out and set the paper ablaze. Otohime panicked and asked that the petitions be saved first. And in the midst of the chaos and the flames, a shot rang out. Blood flowed. And Queen Otohime fell to the ground, her chest pierced by a bullet. That day, surrounded by tears and sad smiles, promises of a better future and well-founded fears, the ruler of the Ryugu kingdom died before her children and subjects. Finally the shooter was identified as a human. Hody, who was a member of the royal guard at the time, exposed the assassin's body for all to see, bringing to the surface the hatred that Otohime had tried to diminish and make disappear. At the queen's funeral, Prince Fukabaushi urged the people of the fishmen to rise above their hatred and take up their sovereign's work where she had left off.
Jinbei took a breath and looked around at the pirates who had been listening without blinking. He told them that petitions continued to be signed, that discrimination continued to be fought relentlessly on the island. They had tried to find Arlong to bring him to his senses but nothing had been done, he had already bribed a number of men and soldiers, causing the disasters known in Nami village. Jinbei bowed, apologizing. Sanji, outraged, declared that since he was guilty, he simply deserved to die. Lucia frowned, still at Hatchan's side, and was about to intervene when Nami spoke up. With great calm, she explained that Jinbei had nothing to do with Arlong. The two stories were different. It was Arlong she was after, no one else. She explained that she had nothing against the fishmen, nor against him. She gave him her best smile and told him that she was happy and that he shouldn't be unhappy about it. Jinbei was stunned, he replayed in his mind the last words of Otohime and Fisher Tiger, he started to cry, touched by her mercy and kindness. Lucia smiled with relief and even laughed a little as she saw Hatchan crying too.
A sound of falling broke the weeping and wailing. Slowly, Luffy fell backwards and everyone discovered that he was sleeping.
"HE DARED???" shouted Lucia. "I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!"
"Lucia you're scary!" shouted Chopper.
Sanji shouted and kicked him in the face.
"Yeah?" muttered Luffy, yawning. "Oh I slept well..."
"Unbelievable," Sanji replied, "I thought you were much too quiet too."
He looked at Jinbei who was crying, Nami who was smiling, Lucia too, without understanding. Lucia stood up when Jinbei spoke again:
"Let's take stock of the situation, at the palace, Hody and his men have taken control and captured the king and his soldiers. And we don't know what happened to your four friends."
Hatchan hesitated before revealing that he knew of Hody's plans.
"There is a big difference between him and Arlong, Hody is willing to sacrifice all those who oppose his war against the humans, he does not hesitate to kill fishmen. And this year there is going to be the Reverie, many petitions have been collected, King Neptune is ready to reveal to the world his plan to emigrate to the surface."
A videophone interrupted their discussion to project the image of a fish-man, whom Hatchan identified as Hody. Hody spoke and officially introduced himself as the new captain of the Fishmen crew, Hody Jones.
His speech was chilling. He launched a huge manhunt for those who had signed the petition, gave orders to find the straw-hat pirates and, above all, proclaimed the execution of King Neptune, which would take place in three hours. At the same time, Zoro, Usopp and Brook, all three prisoners in the palace, would be drowned, locked in a cage as the water slowly rose in the room of their detention. The Mermaid Princess was horrified, the crew looked grim, Lucia was pensive. Luffy was the first to react:
"So... they're offering 400 million for my head? Since when did they come up with that bounty?"
Faced with his stupid look and his big proud smile, Lucia clenched her fist and slammed it down heavily on her head:
"THIS IS REALLY NOT THE TIME!"
Sanji exhaled a little smoke:
"It looks like Hody wants to fight us..."
"If Hody wants to fight, let him come !" declared Luffy.
"Wait", Jinbei calmed him down.
Jinbei advised Luffy and the princess to stay here and not get involved in this story. Hatchan explained that he was afraid of the mermaid's power to summon sea monsters. He then enlightened them by telling them that he would not hesitate to kill her if she appeared in front of Hody. Shiraoshi showed some doubts when they mentioned her power but Jinbei did not give up and ordered her to stay.
"Well, if all is said, I'm going !" declared Luffy.
"No!" replied Jinbei. "You mustn't go."
Lucia frowned, the problem was complicated. If humans opposed the fishmen, there was no doubt that the people would once again confuse the issue, and that would only reinforce their hatred for the surface dwellers. She sighed. The problem is that once Luffy has an idea in his head... it's hard to get him to forget it...
"Jinbei, they have members of my crew... plus people I love will be in trouble if I don't do something..."
Emboldened by his anger, Luffy went so far as to challenge the former Warlord. For a moment Jinbei squinted, remembering things.
"Fighting alongside you, I almost forgot whose brother you were..."
Ace. His face burned into the fish-man's retinas as he stepped back and took up a fighting stance:
"Are you ready... kid?"
Lucia cleared her throat:
"At the risk of interrupting this little clash of two dominant males I'm going to ask a rather silly question: who do I get to beat the crap out of the other?"
"Stay out of this, Luce!" growled Luffy.
"Ooooh I'm going to interfere because there's no one to catch up with the other, eh, we have a kingdom on the verge of collapse, thousands of terrorized civilians, a king who's going to be executed, captured pirates and you two think that the best solution is to hit each other because you want to settle this yourself? Tell me that I'm not the only one who finds this absurd!"
"Let him do it Lucia," Jinbei said, "if he thinks he knows better than me how to handle this situation, let him try to defeat me."
"NO BUT ARE YOU SERIOUS HERE?" Lucia shouted.
"Please calm down," Camie whimpered.
"Luffy, Jinbei, what the hell is wrong with you!" screamed Nami, exhausted
"Whether you like it or not, I'll go to the palace and rescue my friends, then I'll smash that bastard Hody's face in," Luffy growled.
"And I'm telling you to stay here," replied Jinbei calmly.
"Luffy, would you please try to connect two of your neurons for five minutes," Lucia said. "I'm obliged to give you a briefing since you were sleeping miserably, but Jinbei explained to us that this kingdom has quite a history of violence between humans and fishmen and is having a hard time healing from it, if you go to confront Hody like that in this state of mind, you'll only be reopening a wound that's only just beginning to heal, and at the same time, you'll be undoing years of sacrifice and hard work."
"I want to save my crew!" answered Luffy through his teeth.
"You're not going to fight, are you?" Sanji was astonished
"Stop it, stop it!" Chopper agreed.
"Luffy, Jinbei, please calm down... "Shiraoshi whimpered.
Luffy rushed to Megalo, the shark, to take him to the palace but Jinbei stopped him with a punch that sent him flying away. Luffy got up with difficulty.
"But... how is that possible", Nami wondered. "With his rubber body he shouldn't have felt anything."
"That's the secret of fish-man karate," Jinbei explained. "The mastery of the water in the circle of its user. Shock waves are sent from the water in the atmosphere to the water in the opponent's body. Every living thing is a mass of water."
Lucia was stunned, she had felt the force of this blow to the very core of her being. It's insane... Jinbei gave her a little look:
"Enjoy this demonstration if you want to learn..."
"This is no time to be a teacher! Stop your show immediately, both of you."
Luffy got up, furious, triggered his second gear and struck a blow that Jinbei easily parried. As they threw themselves at each other, Robin stepped in between the two opponents, putting a stop to their fight. The double she had created dissipated and just as she was about to take the blow in spite of herself and the fists crashed into the other's face, Sanji took a beating in the middle. With a gentle smile, Robin emerged from a section of the forest, telling them not to fight again. Lucia sighed:
"Thank you Robin for being the incarnation of wisdom!"
"You're welcome", answered the young woman, still smiling.
Jinbei and Luffy got up, a little calmed down, and Jinbei tried to explain the situation once again to Luffy. He reminded him of the discrimination and the history of violence between humans and fishmen. Yet they could not stand by and do nothing, the lives of their friends depended on it. Sanjj asked Hatchan if his injuries were due to the fact that he had tried to defend the humans and that Hody had wanted to eliminate him as a result. The octopus nodded. The cook continued to explain that if they had to fight, then they would do so, according to their captain's wishes. Lucia smiled.
"Well," she continued, "now that everyone is calmed down, let's get on with it. I agree with the cook, Jinbei, we can't just sit here and do nothing. I can't imagine this country going through this never-ending human-fish thing again. So if we're going to be hated, too bad, we'll make sure it's not the humans they're angry at, but only the Straw Hat crew, it wouldn't be the first time they've made enemies."
"Easy for you to say, you're not one of them," Nami giggled.
"Lucia..." Jinbei gasped.
"I'm doing this for you, Jinbei," she continued. "Even though you downplayed it throughout your story, you are one of the most affected by this crisis. In memory of our little stay at Impel Down and to thank you for saving Luffy, I owe you this. And I warn you, if you do that again I'll kill you on the spot," she concluded with a dark look.
At the place of execution Hody had arrived with his men, bringing King Neptune. Once there, he slaughtered the soldiers who were still trying to defend their sovereign. He then took prisoner the three princes who arrived to save their father after defeating them. When Shiraoshi, on the back of Megalo the shark, together with Jinbei, arrived near the Toncorde Square, they were taken prisoner in turn by the fishmen and brought to the side of his father and his brothers. A crowd had gathered around the square, compact. The civilians were terrified. Hody laughed contentedly as the three bodies were dumped in front of him, his whole plan was going perfectly. All that remained was the Straw Hat crew. Out of the depths of the caves and nearby quarters, he then summoned and intervened human beings whom he had captured and made into slaves. They now numbered 30,000, and had 70,000 weapon-wielding fishmen under his command. In all, there were no less than 100,000 men from the fish-man district who would fight for him and his ideals in his war against the humans. As the outlaws shouted encouragement, Hody savoured his victory.
The seer, Shiarley, spoke up and said that she had had a vision, a vision in which a man would destroy Fishmen Island and that man was not Hody Jones... it was Straw Hat Luffy. Hurt in his ego and self-esteem, Hody threw a sharp drop of water at the mermaid that sent him flying and punctured his abdomen. Then, with a chilling clamour, Hody claimed responsibility for the assassination of Queen Otohime, the former queen of the Ryugu kingdom. With unhealthy pride, he blamed the queen and finally spat out everything that had been in his heart for so long, incriminating the former ruler in front of the princess. Otohime's death was simply a set-up by Hody, who had paid a human to set fire to the petitions before being shot by the fish-man. Shiraoshi gritted his teeth, his head down.
"I'm the one who murdered your mother!" shouted Hody, full of rage and pride.
Mute at first, Shiraoshi, with tears in her eyes, finally uttered words that no one had expected:
"I already knew..."
In front of the stunned audience, Shiraoshi explained that it was Megalo, her shark, who had witnessed everything and revealed it to her. She had then hidden this information to prevent people from hating Hody, in accordance with her mother's last wish, she had done everything to prevent the hatred from being perpetuated. She had sworn to have no hatred for her murderer, and for this reason the mermaid princess had been silent all this time, for ten years. While everyone was upset, Hody burst out laughing. He called her a fool and told her that she would forever be responsible for the death of her father, her brothers and literally the whole island. With a wave of his hand, he projected new murderous drops onto the bodies of the king and princes of the Ryugu kingdom. Shiraoshi tried to keep herself from screaming to death at the terrible spectacle before her eyes, but she couldn't help letting her resentment explode. Hody decided that it was time to execute his prisoners. In the ranks of the civilians, a new clamour began to rumble. The children, then the parents, began to call for the pirate in the Straw Hat to come and fulfill the prophecy of the seer, to destroy the island and bring this morbid scene to an end. Threateningly, Hody tightened his grip on his sword and raised it, ready to cut off King Neptune's head. The princes, Jinbei, Shiraoshi, all began to tremble. With a final desperate cry, Shiraoshi burst into tears as the blade split the air:
"I BEG YOU, COME SAVE MY FATHER!!! LUFFY!!!"
A strange noise stopped Hody in his tracks. Megalo twisted in all directions, gurgling uncontrollably before spitting. Hody squinted before being violently thrown backwards by the force of a kick he did not see coming. The fish-man flew across the square and crashed into the wall behind him. Furious, Luffy raised his head.
"Ah, there you are," growled Jinbei, "it took you a long time to decide. You did well, we can say that you fall at the right time!"
"JINBEI SHUT UP!" shouted one of Hody's disciples who threw himself at him, blade in the air.
He barely had time to move before he too met resistance and a dark slash opened on his chest, spurting out a spray of red blood. Calmly, Lucia sheathed her sword and tucked a lock of hair back behind her ear:
"It's always like that with him," she commented, "he has to make himself wanted."
"Are you all right, Miss Lucia?" asked Shiraoshi, worried.
"Yes, don't worry princess," she replied, "I was certainly better off in your hair than that idiot in the bowels of Megalo. On the other hand, I would like to express my admiration and deep respect for you princess, your self-sacrifice and kindness of spirit make you a great woman, or a great mermaid if you prefer. Don't listen to that scum Hody, you are not stupid, on the contrary."
"I thank you."
"Well, guys, shall we go?" she asked, smiling.
"We're on it," Nami answered, suddenly appearing in the square, the letter from the Celestial Dragon in her hands. "Robin will take care of the chains."
Without them expecting it, the chains opened, freeing all the prisoners. And above them in the sky, two shapes were clearly visible. A whale and, next to it, a well-known pirate ship. The Sunny fired into the wall that Hody had just crashed into, while the royal whale was busy evacuating the king and princes from under the noses of the Hody pirates. They realised that Jinbei and the Straw Hats already had a plan to save them. In the square, chaos ensued as the Sunny landed and all the members of the Straw Hat crew finally made their appearance. A thin smile stretched Lucia's lips. There's no denying it, they're amazing. They all went down to meet in the centre of the square.
"Hey Straw Hat Luffy, do you really intend to destroy this island with your men?" asked a fish-man from the cliff.
"Why did you take the Ryugu Palace? Do you also want to exterminate the royal family?"
"Friends... or enemies," Luffy finally spoke. "It's up to you!"