"Uh… well…"
"Actually…"
"Shyarly's just a kid…"
Neptune and the others trembled, faces stiff under Darren's half-smile.
Suddenly—
"Shyarly, wake up! Explain yourself to Vice Admiral Darren!"
Neptune seized the unconscious girl by the shoulders and shook her so hard her head lolled. Cold sweat beaded his brow; his jaw clenched.
She didn't stir.
"Forget it…" Darren muttered, settling cross-legged and propping his chin on his hand, elbow on his knee. "I never put much stock in prophecies anyway."
Divination was vague at best. From the look of Shyarly's trance, she'd grasped nothing concrete—only fragments and impressions.
Trusting scraps like that led to bad calls and worse consequences.
Better to do something useful: make more trips to Wano to see Kaido-sensei, train harder, and stop clinging to fog. In the end, this world bends to strength. Pinning hopes on a prophecy without the power to back it up is stupid. As for the parting line—"You're going to die"—he didn't spare it a second thought. Who escapes death?
Seeing no anger in the Marine Vice Admiral's face, Neptune and the ministers exhaled as one.
Puru… Puru…
A sharp ringtone cut the air. Darren paused, fished a Military Den Den Mushi from his coat, and answered.
"This is Darren."
"Young Darren, what's the situation on Fish-Man Island? I've already dispatched Garp to reinforce you!" Admiral Sengoku's anxious voice crackled out.
Garp? Darren frowned. He hadn't seen him.
"Admiral Sengoku, I haven't made contact with Vice Admiral Garp, but the Roger Pirates have already fled Fish-Man Island."
"They escaped?!" On the other end Sengoku snapped upright, voice hard. "What exactly happened?"
If it were just Darren, the Roger Pirates wouldn't have needed to run. Sengoku knew Roger's reckless, battle-drunk nature too well—he never passed up a worthy fight once it started.
Darren sketched the encounter in brief. Silence held the line. After half a minute, Darren said, "Admiral Sengoku? Still there?" and casually plugged his ears.
Neptune and the others blinked—then recoiled as a torrent of fury blasted from the shell.
"You little brat! You used Enma on Fish-Man Island?!"
"Have you lost your mind?!"
"Fish-Man Island is a World Government member state! I praised your maturity!"
"What if you'd lost control? You could have slaughtered millions of Fish-Men!"
"Would you shoulder that responsibility?!"
"Damn it! What's the casualty report?!"
…
Sengoku's roar thundered; the Den Den Mushi's face flushed and steamed in imitation.
He knew Enma's power too well.
The day after Golden Lion's attack on Marineford, Headquarters had convened a closed-door session with the Marine Special Science Group to assess the Demon Blade's ceiling after it had "consumed" the More-More Fruit.
Sengoku could still hear Borsalino's vague conclusion:
"Enma's output depends mainly on the user—Darren—and how he develops the fruit. But even at fiftyfold size and speed from the More-More Fruit, the baseline destructive force could approach a Marine Buster Call."
Enough to erase half of Fish-Man Island.
"Answer me, Young Darren!" Sengoku snarled, grinding his teeth when silence stretched. His knuckles whitened on the shell.
Darren scratched his ear, voice unhurried. "Relax, Admiral. I exercise proper discretion. In fact, I'm at a victory banquet with King Neptune and the Ryugu ministers right now."
"If you don't believe me, ask them."
He pushed the shell toward Neptune, tipped back a bottle of sake for a long pull, and sent the king the slightest glance.
Neptune flinched, then pasted on a warm, almost servile smile for the Den Den Mushi. "Admiral Sengoku? Neptune speaking."
"Vice Admiral Darren is absolutely correct! We're hosting a victory banquet in his honor at Ryugu Palace. Had he not arrived in time to drive off the Roger Pirates and their monstrous crimes, we'd have been lost!"
"Damage? Oh—nothing serious, just the front gate. A minor inconvenience."
"Yes, yes, rest assured. We'll treat Vice Admiral Darren like royalty—make him feel at home!"
"From now on, Fish-Man Island will be his second home! He can visit whenever he likes!" The words began halting, then flowed with conviction. By the end Neptune was thumping his chest.
Minister Turtle stared, stunned; the other ministers looked away, mortified.
Neptune finally managed to cut the line, exhaled deeply, and returned the shell to Darren with both hands.
Darren took it, paused a beat, and said, "Actually, I didn't come here only to pursue the Roger Pirates. There's another matter."
"Please, speak freely," Neptune said, solemn again.
"I want to meet Fisher Tiger of Fish-Man Island," Darren said, a faint smile on his lips. "I have a business proposition for him."
A business proposition?
Neptune and his ministers traded looks. "But Vice Admiral Darren," Neptune answered reflexively, "Tiger isn't a merchant. He's an adventurer."
To be continued...