Fish-Man Island is a truly wondrous place, no matter how you look at it.
The island itself is made up of two parts, one large and one small, and each is protected by two layers of coating.
Even the interior of Fish-Man Island is divided in two, as though a sphere had been sliced cleanly down the middle.
The upper half is filled with air, while the lower half is filled with seawater.
Because the higher areas receive more sunlight from the Sunlight Tree Eve, the upper half of Fish-Man Island has much higher housing prices and living expenses. It is the most prosperous and lively part of the island.
The lower half, on the other hand, is where most fish-men and merfolk live, and the deeper you go, the cheaper everything becomes.
Take Fish-Man Street for example. The most rundown area on the island lies at the very bottom of Fish-Man Island, deep beneath the sea.
Sunlight can barely reach this place. To make matters worse, the enormous ark Noah rests on the seabed below. This massive vessel, nearly a quarter the size of Fish-Man Island, sits there like a mountain and blocks part of the light, making the place even darker.
Fish-Man Island does have land, technically speaking, though it would be more accurate to call it coral formations shaped into islands.
Although the fish-men of Fish-Man Street are infamous throughout the entire island and even feared by many, some legendary figures have also come from this place.
For example, Tiger. And Jinbe.
Of course, besides those two, there is also a young fish-man who is not even ten years old yet but is already quite famous on the island. Her name is Shyarly.
...
In the dim streets of Fish-Man Street, little Shyarly stepped outside after locking her door.
She wore a blue hooded robe that looked similar to a shrine maiden's outfit.
Looking at the unusually quiet street, Shyarly took a deep breath. Her large eyes and cute face were filled with excitement and happiness.
How many days had it been already?
In the past, this place had been a chaotic land filled with lawlessness.
Even though heroes like Tiger and Jinbe existed, compared with the luxurious world above their heads, this place still felt like hell.
But now...
The troublemaking fish-men who used to roam the streets had disappeared, and the bullying that once happened everywhere was gone.
All of this began half a month ago, when the Sky Pirates arrived at Fish-Man Island.
Thinking of this made her so happy that her tail fin swayed excitedly as she swam upward, heading toward the brighter waters above to meet the human friends she had recently gotten to know.
As she swam higher and the light grew brighter, Shyarly soon spotted two familiar figures.
Her eyes lit up and she happily called out,
"Arlong-aniki! Hachi-aniki!"
...
Fish-Man Island, lower section, coral reef area, inside the seawater-flooded merfolk apartments.
Two patrol groups moved through the area.
One was led by Arlong, and the other by Shark Fish-Man. Each commanded a squad from the Sun Army and the King's Army.
From the way the two sides looked at each other with clear displeasure, it was obvious that making the fish-men of Fish-Man Street and the soldiers of the Neptune Kingdom live peacefully together would not be an easy task.
Fortunately, there was a special mediator present.
Hachi.
He was responsible for communication between the two sides.
Arlong considered himself a fish-man with great ambition. In the past, however, he had never known what tool he could use to realize those ambitions.
Simply put, the strength in his hands had been too weak.
But now things were different.
The Sun Army had appeared.
If he could bring this force, nearly a thousand strong, under his control, then not only Fish-Man Island but even the human world itself would be something Arlong dared to challenge.
More importantly, this was not simply a fantasy.
It was something that could very likely become reality.
And in Arlong's mind, the key person who could make this dream come true was standing right beside him.
Hachi.
Within the newly formed Sun Army, his respected elder brother Tiger would eventually leave Fish-Man Island as a pirate. As for Aladdin, he tended to remain neutral.
That meant if Arlong could pull Hachi over to his side, then when the opportunity appeared in the future, he might be able to overthrow Jinbe and take his place.
Hachi might look like someone with little foundation, but Arlong knew something others did not.
In the eyes of Yemu, the captain of the Sky Pirates and the one who helped establish the Sun Army, Hachi held great importance.
Otherwise, Yemu would never have directly appointed him as a senior officer.
Not to mention that Hachi was the one who had once saved Dark King Rayleigh's life.
If his dream could truly come true, then...
"Using money from those stupid humans to build my own army!"
The more Arlong thought about it, the more thrilled he became.
As for that human being frightening? So what?
He knew very well that Yemu was a Devil Fruit user.
And this was the ocean.
While Arlong was lost in excited fantasies, already imagining the Sun Army within his grasp, a familiar voice suddenly reached his ears.
He looked down and, sure enough, saw his little sister Shyarly swimming toward him happily.
Although Arlong still wore an annoyed expression, he spoke anyway.
"What are you doing here?"
Hachi also greeted her.
"Hello, Shyarly!"
"Hachi-aniki, hello! Arlong-aniki, I was going to find Ayala and the others..."
In the past, if Arlong heard that his sister wanted to go play with humans, he would have either scolded her harshly or lectured her for quite a while.
But this time, he simply nodded.
"Go tomorrow. They aren't on the island today."
"Not on the island? Did they leave Fish-Man Island? But they didn't even say goodbye!"
Shyarly looked visibly disappointed.
Seeing this, Hachi pointed upward and tried to reassure her.
"Don't worry, Shyarly. Captain Yemu and the others haven't left. They just went above Fish-Man Island with Big Brother Tiger today to look around. They'll probably be back tonight."
Shyarly immediately brightened again.
"That's great! But what's there to see up there?"
She looked up curiously.
"Who knows."
Arlong clicked his tongue, clearly unwilling to keep discussing humans with his sister.
"Alright, go home. I still have patrol duty."
"Okay."
Although she still looked a little disappointed, Shyarly turned to head back toward Fish-Man Street.
Just then, a thunderous explosion suddenly echoed across the entire Fish-Man Island, and the whole island began to tremble.
Before Arlong, the Shark Fish-Man, and Hachi could even figure out what had happened, a frantic shout came from above.
"This is bad! Leader Arlong, Leader Hachi! A huge number of ships have appeared outside Fish-Man Island. Human ships. They're bombarding the island!"
Everyone was instantly shocked.
Looking up, they saw a Neptune Kingdom soldier rushing over to deliver the report.
At that moment, no one had time to care about their previous hostility. They quickly swam toward him and asked,
"What exactly happened?"
"I don't know. They didn't identify themselves. But there are a lot of ships, more than thirty of them, and nearly ten thousand people. King Neptune was worried that letting them enter would cause chaos on Fish-Man Island, so he refused them entry. And then they..."
Before he could finish speaking, another wave of explosions erupted.
The surrounding merfolk and fish-men began to panic when they heard the blasts.
"Damn humans. I won't let you get away with this."
Arlong snarled as he gripped his massive serrated blade tightly and shot upward toward the sea surface.