Fish-Man Island, Gyoncorde Plaza.
On a cliff, a great white shark Fishman in a gray Neptune Royal Army guard uniform aimed a rifle at Queen Otohime below. She was giving an impassioned speech, advocating for Fishman migration to the surface.
His name was Hody Jones, a small-time hoodlum from Fish-Man Street.
Hody utterly disdained Queen Otohime's idea of peaceful coexistence between humans and Fishmen.
Having grown up in Fish-Man Street, the most chaotic part of Fish-Man Island, he was always surrounded by Fishmen who harbored deep resentment towards humans.
Growing up hearing various rumors of human persecution of Fishmen caused Hody to be filled with hostility and hatred towards humans from the bottom of his heart.
Furthermore, he always felt that the Fishman race was the most perfect and superior race. He believed inferior races like humans were only fit to be slaves to the Fishman race!
Therefore, Hody Jones's biggest dream was to become the hero of the Fishmen, lead them in war against humans, and then rule the entire world!
However…
Recently, Otohime had brought back a signed letter from a Celestial Dragon from Holy Land Mary Geoise. This caused her petition for land migration, which previously had almost no support, to gain traction among many Fishmen. She'd collected tens of thousands of signatures in just a few days.
Hody felt that with Queen Otohime's ability to brainwash and rally people, coupled with her status as a member of the royal family, the Fishmen of Fish-Man Island would respond to her call. They would apply to migrate to the surface and reach an agreement for peaceful coexistence with humans.
To stop the progress of this matter, Hody secretly paid a human to secretly set fire to the signed petition.
Soon, he saw the three large bamboo baskets next to the circular platform catch fire. They contained the signed petitions, and thick black smoke was rising!
Hody looked at the crowd below, which had fallen into chaos, and a cold, cruel smile appeared on his lips.
Simply burning the petition could, at most, only delay the progress of the Fishmen migrating to the surface. Unless the culprit was eliminated…
Otherwise, the Fishmen wouldn't wake up from their unrealistic fantasies!
Hody slowly raised the rifle in his hand, aimed at Queen Otohime standing on the circular platform from a distance of hundreds of meters, and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
Along with the sound of a gunshot, a burst of blood instantly bloomed on the left side of Queen Otohime's chest as she stood on the platform, and her entire body weakly collapsed to the ground.
Seeing this scene, the smile on Hody's lips became even more pronounced, and his heart was filled with the pleasure of a successful plot.
However…
What he didn't know was that not far from him, near a coral reef, a shark named Megalo, a mount of the Neptune Royal Army, had witnessed the entire process of him shooting and assassinating Queen Otohime!
Gyoncorde Plaza.
The Fishmen stared at Queen Otohime lying on the platform, and they instantly fell into shock and panic.
"Ah, ah, ah!"
"The Queen has been shot!"
"How could this happen!?"
...
Seeing this situation, Jinbe, who was guarding below the platform, quickly turned his head and shouted loudly to the nearby Kings Army:
"There's a sniper nearby, quickly protect the royal family!"
After speaking, he quickly scanned the surroundings of the plaza, determining the approximate direction from which the sniper had fired based on the Queen's gunshot wound.
Immediately after, Jinbe, filled with grief and anger, flashed his figure. Like an arrow shot from a bow, he darted out...
In the crowd, facing the sudden change, Sharley unconsciously pursed her lips and turned to look at the silver-haired young man standing beside her.
"Sephiroth...!"
Sharley called out to him, but didn't say anything else, just looked at him with eyes containing inexplicable emotions.
"Ah~ I see..."
Mr. Sephiroth sighed softly. He drew the butcher knife from his waist and, using Observation Haki to locate, opened a spatial door to the cliff above the plaza.
At this moment, he had already guessed in his heart what Sharley's divination prophecy was...
She had suddenly said she wanted to go shopping, and coincidentally ended up at Gyoncorde Plaza where Queen Otohime often gave speeches. She had also asked him about whether humans and Fishmen could coexist peacefully...
He guessed that Sharley must have seen a divination prophecy about Queen Otohime being assassinated!
Mr. Sephiroth thought that even if Queen Otohime hadn't been assassinated today, Sharley would probably have begged him to protect Queen Otohime's safety in secret.
When facing his sister, Mr. Sephiroth had always been soft-hearted, and he felt that he might not be able to bring himself to refuse Sharley's request, and there was a high probability that he would agree to her…
After Hody finished shooting Queen Otohime, he prepared to quietly leave the scene of the crime and also deal with the subsequent cleanup.
However...
A spatial folding door suddenly appeared before him, quietly opening, and on the other side of the door, a strange silver-haired young man walked out.
Seeing this scene, a strong sense of alarm instantly arose in Hody's heart, and he subconsciously raised the rifle in his hand, preparing to shoot this suddenly appearing guy directly.
However...
Boom!
Dark red lightning flashed and disappeared in the void, and before Hody could even react, a vast and majestic Conqueror's Haki instantly enveloped his entire body.
Under this extremely powerful pressure, Hody's eyes rolled back. Without even a chance to pull the trigger and shoot, he instantly fainted, his body collapsing weakly to the ground.
"Hey! Big shark, don't leave! You should have witnessed the entire process of him shooting Queen Otohime just now.....?"
Mr. Sephiroth shouted towards a nearby coral reef.
Hearing this, Megalo, who was originally preparing to sneak away, cautiously poked its head out and looked at Mr. Sephiroth with a nervous expression.
In the distance, Jinbe, who was searching everywhere for the sniper, sensed the sudden, powerful aura on this cliff when Mr. Sephiroth used Conqueror's Haki.
So, he immediately sprinted towards the direction of Mr. Sephiroth and Hody with all his might.
In just two or three seconds, Jinbe crossed hundreds of meters, arriving in front of Mr. Sephiroth, fully demonstrating his powerful physical technique and speed.
Looking at the silver-haired young man in front of him, Jinbe was suddenly full of surprise.
"You are... Sephiroth? What are you doing here?"
Mr. Sephiroth pointed to Hody lying unconscious on the ground.
"This guy is the culprit who shot Queen Otohime. If you don't believe me, you can ask this shark....."
Saying this, he pointed again at the large shark hiding behind the coral reef not far away.
Jinbe frowned, and said in a deep voice, "Megalo, is what he said true?"
Hearing this, the big shark immediately nodded repeatedly in confirmation, verifying Mr. Sephiroth's words.
"Alright! Since you, the former commander of the Neptune Royal Army, are here, I'll leave this to you to handle!"
Seeing that Jinbe had arrived, Mr. Sephiroth was too lazy to deal with Hody, this small fry.
Saying this, he swung the butcher knife, opened another spatial door, and stepped in.
.......
In the center of Gyoncorde Plaza.
The four members of the royal family standing below the circular platform, after their initial shock and surprise, disregarded the guards' attempts to stop them and quickly ran onto the platform, surrounding Queen Otohime.
"Mother!"
"Mother!"
"Mother!"
Sharkstar's eyes were filled with tears, and he said mournfully, "Damn it, who did this!"
Ryuboshi wiped the tears from his face and urgently shouted, "Quickly call the ambulance!"
"Mother, you must hold on!"
Fukaboshi held Queen Otohime and cried uncontrollably.
Shirahoshi stood frozen below the platform, looking at her mother lying in a pool of blood. She pursed her lips tightly, tears streamed down her face like rain, and her heart was filled with unbearable grief.
Queen Otohime lay in Fukaboshi's arms, looking at her youngest daughter, her eyes filled with tenderness. She said in an extremely weak voice, "Shirahoshi, even if I'm gone in the future, you must learn to live on strongly...."
"Wuwuah-!"
Listening to her mother's instructions, Shirahoshi finally couldn't hold back and burst into tears, the sound waves spreading outwards.
In the ten thousand meter deep sea, the Sea Kings, some of whom were thousands of meters long, seemed to have received some command. They all rushed towards Fish-Man Island, towards Shirahoshi's direction.
Just then, a spatial door opened on the platform. Mr. Sephiroth, holding the butcher knife, stepped out and shouted towards Shirahoshi below:
"Hey! Little sister, stop crying! It's really noisy!"
The guards below the platform, seeing Mr. Sephiroth's sudden appearance, immediately raised their sabers and aimed them at him.
On the other side, Shirahoshi, who had been shouted at, immediately stopped crying, looking at the sudden Mr. Sephiroth with an uneasy expression.
"Who are you? Are you the culprit who injured Mother.....?"
Sharkstar looked at the dark saber in the silver-haired young man's hand and stepped forward, blocking in front of Queen Otohime.
Mr. Sephiroth explained as he sheathed his saber, "If I wanted to kill someone, you wouldn't be able to stop me at all.... The real culprit? I've already caught him and handed him over to Jinbe!"
Queen Otohime, lying in Fukaboshi's arms, said in an extremely weak voice, "Sharkstar, this Mr. is a Marine... He won't hurt me..."
"Mother..."
Before Sharkstar could say anything, Mr. Sephiroth had already reached out and pushed him aside, walked up to Queen Otohime, and squatted down.
"Your injury is quite serious. The bullet is still a few inches from your heart. You need surgery immediately..."
Mr. Sephiroth grasped Queen Otohime's right hand and, while injecting vitality to slowly heal the wound, sensed the injury inside her body.
"Mr. Sephiroth, thank you! For helping me catch the culprit..."
"Alright, stop talking..... Do you believe me? If I perform the surgery for you, you have a ninety percent chance of surviving."
"Then I entrust my life to you..."
Hearing this, Queen Otohime agreed with a smile, without the slightest hesitation.
Having innate, mutated Observation Haki, she could easily judge whether the other person was lying.
Therefore, after discovering that Mr. Sephiroth was neither deceiving her nor harboring ill intentions towards her, she naturally agreed.
"Mother!" ×4 Compared to Otohime's calm acceptance, her four children were filled with surprise and disbelief. They simply didn't believe this suddenly appearing stranger. They wanted to persuade her, but Otohime raised her hand to stop their words.
"In that case, I'll take you for surgery!"
Saying this, Mr. Sephiroth picked up Queen Otohime's boneless body from Fukaboshi's arms.
He first sensed the vampire bats he had left at Sharley's residence, then drew the butcher knife from his waist, opened a spatial door, and walked straight in.
Seeing this, Shirahoshi and the other three hurried after them.
"Do you want to watch me perform the surgery?
I don't mind, but it'll be a bit bloody..."
After Mr. Sephiroth placed Queen Otohime on the bed, he opened his portable space and began to take out various surgical tools.
Sharkstar surveyed the room before asking, "Where are we?"
"The fortune teller Sharley's house, near the Mermaid Cafe..."
Mr. Sephiroth said as he unbuttoned Otohime's palace dress, revealing her fair and delicate upper body, ready to begin the surgery.
Finally, Sharkstar decided to take his brothers and sister out of the bedroom to wait in the house's living room.
Meanwhile, the news that Queen Otohime had been assassinated and taken away by the suddenly-appearing Mr. Sephiroth, and her whereabouts were unknown, quickly reached Ryugu. It reached Neptune's ears, causing him to instantly become flustered and furious.
Fortunately, Sharkstar contacted Ryugu in time using a Den Den Mushi, informing them of Queen Otohime's current location and that Mr. Sephiroth was operating on her.
So, Neptune immediately stopped what he was doing and rushed out of Ryugu on a whale, heading towards Coral Hill in Port Town.
...
Soon, Neptune, the Left Minister, the Right Minister, and the four royal children gathered in Sharley's living room, waiting anxiously.
Neptune, holding his golden trident, looked anxious, pacing back and forth in the living room. He wanted to rush in to see how Otohime was doing, but the two ministers persuaded him to avoid disturbing the surgery.
When he saw Mr. Sephiroth, wearing a medical mask, come out of the bedroom, he quickly went up to him and asked urgently, "How is it? Was Otohime's surgery successful?"
"Yes! The surgery was very successful, but the patient's body is quite weak and needs three to four months of rest to fully recover..."
Mr. Sephiroth instructed on the precautions as he took off his blood-stained medical gloves.
Just then, the door of the house opened from the outside, and Jinbe stood there, escorting a tightly bound Hody. He said respectfully, "Your Majesty Neptune, the chaos in Gyoncorde Plaza has been dealt with and completely subsided...
This man is named Hody. He assassinated Queen Otohime and is also the mastermind behind setting fire to the signed petition..."
Hearing this, veins instantly bulged on Neptune's forehead, his eyes widening. He looked at Hody, who was wearing a Neptune Royal Army uniform, and said in a deep voice, "Hody, why did you assassinate Otohime?
She is so kind; how did she offend you?"
Hearing this, as if he had heard something extremely funny, Hody laughed wildly like a madman:
"Hahaha! Why? Of course, it's because I couldn't stand her stupidity! She actually wanted to coexist peacefully with humans...!? It's simply a fool's dream! The residents of Fish-Man Street, they are just like me; they have always hated this idiotic woman! That's why I had to kill her and stop her unrealistic fantasies..."
Bang!
Listening to Hody's endless mocking words, Neptune finally lost his patience. He rushed forward, swinging his right fist, and smashed it fiercely into Hody's cheek. Blood sprayed from Hody's mouth as his eyes rolled back, and he tumbled five or six meters across the ground.
"Take this guy to the plaza... Execute him publicly!
To warn those Fishmen with malicious intentions!" Neptune gritted his teeth.
"Yes!"
Jinbe nodded expressionlessly, he lifted Hody, who had been knocked unconscious, turned around, and walked towards Gyoncorde Plaza...