"That flag is..."
On the pirate ship with the fish-head bow, a blue-skinned Fish-man holding a telescope spotted the pirate ship in the distance.
Instantly, his widened eyes became bloodshot, and cold sweat dripped from his forehead.
The Jolly Roger flying atop the mast, featuring crossed burning kunai and senbon.
This Fish-man had seen a emblem in the World Economic News Paper newspaper dozens of days ago.
It represented a great pirate with a bounty of one billion Berry, Higanbana Sakura!
"Boss Tiger, it's terrible, boss!"
The blue-skinned Fish-man immediately slid down from the crow's nest, stumbling and staggering as he rushed towards the cabin.
The wooden cabin door was slammed open. The Fish-men inside, drinking and eating meat, looked up, their gazes converging on him.
"Patsu, why are you so panicked... what's going on..."
The red snapper Fish-man sitting among the Fish-men took a large bite of roasted meat, chewing while pouring wine into his mouth.
"B-B... Big Boss... huff... huff!"
Patsu breathed heavily, his words slurred.
Seeing this, Jinbei beside him poured a glass of beer and slammed it in front of him.
Lifting the glass and downing it in one go, Patsu finally caught his breath and shouted: "I saw Higanbana Sakura's ship!"
Wiping the sweat away, Patsu saw his companions fall silent, while an unusual presence appeared behind him.
Turning his head mechanically, in his ghost-seeing expression, the tall figure of a young girl appeared at the cabin doorway.
"Big Boss, she... she..."
In Patsu's trembling voice, Fisher Tiger pushed the table aside, stepping past the Fish-men with varied expressions.
Under everyone's gaze, the two stood facing each other, their expressions dark.
The deathly silent atmosphere made the sound of many Fish-men swallowing their saliva clear.
Just as many Fish-men who had recently joined the Sun Pirates thought an inevitable big battle was coming, Sakura and Fisher Tiger bumped fists.
"Yo, long time no see, Uncle Tiger!"
Sakura withdrew her hand and tossed a jar of wine she was dragging behind her towards Tiger.
"Hahaha, you've grown into a remarkable great pirate!"
Fisher Tiger didn't stand on ceremony either, taking the wine and drinking heartily.
Watching the two chat and laugh, Patsu, who had delivered the message earlier, cautiously moved deeper into the crowd until he was next to Jinbei, who had poured him wine earlier.
"Jinbei, what's the deal with that human pirate? Why is she so close to Big Boss?"
Jinbei crossed his arms, his fierce face hard to read: "She is... someone who climbed Mary Geoise with Tiger boss in the past to free the slaves!"
"Hmph, in the end, she's still human. Maybe she just finds it profitable?"
The gloomy-faced shark fish-man Arlong let out a disdainful laugh.
"Arlong, are you slandering the benefactor who helped us escape Mary Geoise?!"
The doctor, Aladdin, a mustached lizard fish-man who had been a slave and received the girl's help, now had fierce flames burning in his eyes, staring fixedly at Arlong.
"Tch!"
Realizing he had gone too far, but unable to apologize for a human, Arlong turned his head, grabbed some roasted meat, and tore into it.
Just as the atmosphere between the several Fish-men became stiff, Fisher Tiger's call for a party reached them, giving them a way to step down, and they each went to busy themselves.
A few minutes later, the aroma of grilled Sea King drifted with the wind. The joyous songs of fish-men and humans echoed over the sea.
Kuina and Koala, who were about the same age, chased after Leviathan, who had regained her streamlined figure. Many Fish-men well-disposed towards humans took out food to feed the two youngest children on the ship.
Sakura and Tiger sat by the grill, drinking wine heartily.
"How have you been these years?"
Fisher Tiger put down his large wine cup, wiping the wine overflowing from the corner of his mouth with his arm.
"What else? Just being chased around the world by the government guys!"
Sakura looked at the rippling wine in her cup and smiled.
"At this point, it's too late to regret climbing Mary Geoise with me."
A slight unfamiliarity quickly dissolved in the wine. Fisher Tiger refilled his cup with fine wine and raised it to Sakura.
"Hahahaha, would there ever be a pirate in the world who regrets their adventure?"
Sakura looked at him teasingly, also raising her wine cup to clink with his.
"Absolutely not!"
Fisher Tiger finished his wine and laughed from the heart, a rare occurrence.
Since escaping Mary Geoise, Fisher Tiger had been fighting the devil in his heart while straining to pull the entire Sun Pirates together, preventing his subordinates from falling into the abyss.
In front of this fellow adventurer, much younger than himself, he shed the burden he had carried for so long.
"To be honest, before seeing you again, I had always kept my worries buried deep in my heart."
"I deeply feared my foolish actions would undermine the correct path chosen by Princess Otohime."
Putting down his cup, Fisher Tiger took a deep breath and looked towards the sparkling sea in the distance.
"So I restrained my subordinates from killing day after day. Lately, I've started to feel a bit overwhelmed."
"That's fine, Uncle Tiger!" Sakura took roasted meat from the grill. "We are pirates. Refraining from killing is the greatest resistance pirates can offer."
At this moment, Sakura didn't know what words to use to resolve the conflict in Fisher Tiger's heart.
The conflict between hatred and reason had made this former hero of the seas lost, and this state of mind constantly tormented his will.
So much so that in her Observation Haki's perception, his strength was far less powerful than when they first met on Sabaody Archipelago.
Fisher Tiger sighed lightly: "It's just a helpless move when one can't find the way forward."
Hearing his words, Sakura frowned: "Your current state isn't right. Continuing to lead the pirate crew like this will cause trouble sooner or later. Why don't you return to Fish-Man Island for a while to recuperate!"
"It's already too late!" Fisher Tiger looked fondly at the noisy Fish-men below.
Bounded by the firelight from the grill, the Fish-men on the ship gathered into two distinct factions.
One faction stood in the light, playing, laughing, and having fun with Koala and Kuina.
The other faction hid in the unlit areas, staring at the laughing girls with eyes full of resentment.
After Fisher Tiger's fame as the [Liberator of Slaves] spread throughout Fish-Man Island and he formed the Sun Pirates, he had long become another leader of the Fish-man Race. Fish-men carrying hatred from being harmed by humans continuously flocked to his banner.
If Tiger were to let go now, these armed fish-men, who deeply hated humans, would run amok, becoming a lingering, heavy shadow over the peaceful exchange between humans and Fish-men.
"So, Sakura, I want to ask you for a favor...."