The Mermaid Princess in Hard Shell Tower

At the Flying Pirates' ship, Vander Decken IX bellows for his enormous subordinate: "WADA-TSUMI!!!!!" A crewmate answers, "Nope, no response yet, Cap'n Decken!" Decken rages over the silence from the princess: "Has there still been no response?! Has Princess Shirahoshi replied to my letter yet?!" When told, "Uhhh... about ten years!" he seizes on the long wait as proof of an outside obstruction. "This must be the work of that detestable Neptune!! The fiend means to force Princess Shirahoshi into a political marriage!! I know it!!" he cries, convinced that Neptune locked her away in the steel tower to keep them apart. To Decken, this is romance; to everyone else, it is obsession. He declares, "Ah, the shame of it all!! Does he not see?!! The two of us are in love!!! I know it!!" and prepares another threat disguised as a proposal: "Once again, I shall send her... ...an axe embossed with the image of a rose...!!!" The giant puffer fishman Wadatsumi is identified as "Member of the Flying Pirates Oonyuudou Wadatsumi (Giant Puffer Fishman)."

The axe does not strike where Decken expected. It comes flying back toward the Flying Pirates with violent force as someone shouts, "It came flying back this way, Cap'n!!" and another complains, "You missed good and proper!" The weapon smashes through the ship while the crew screams, "GUAAH HHH!!" Vander Decken IX stands in the chaos, introduced as "Captain of the Flying Pirates Vander Decken IX (Bullhead Shark Fishman)," and insists, "Fools!! I never miss a target! I know it!! Bahohaho hohohohu!!" His speech becomes a theatrical death sentence aimed at Shirahoshi: "Princess Shirahoshi!!! No matter how I roam these ocean depths... I have yet to find another woman as vast and beautiful as you!!" If his love cannot be fulfilled, he says, she must die: "But I cannot allow you to live your life with another!! If that should happen, you must die!! Shirahoshi!! Either swear your undying love for me!! Or choose death!!!" To him, the whole matter reduces to one monstrous ultimatum: "Yes, your life is a choice... between 'death or marriage'!!!"

The scene jumps to Ryugu Kingdom's royal palace, where Hard-Shell Tower shakes with Shirahoshi's terrified cries. Guards shout, "It's coming from Shell Tower!!" and "That's Princess Shirahoshi's voice!! She's crying!!" Someone asks, "What happened to the guards at the tower entrance?!!" while another realizes, "Why is nobody by the princess's side?!!" The cause is the recent change of guard: "I must apologise!! There was a mix-up with the changing of the guard!!" Inside, Shirahoshi covers her eyes and screams, "UWAAAA AAAAAA AAHHHH HHHH!!!!" She calls for help: "Father!! Fukaboshi-oniisaaama!! Ryuuboshi-oniisama!! Manboshi-oniisama!!!" At her feet, Luffy throws up his hands, baffled and hungry, protesting, "Hey, hey, hey!! What's the matter?! I'm just a pirate who was looking for some food!!" Shirahoshi mistakes the intruder for an assassin and cries, "A human has entered my chambers to make an attempt on my life!!" Luffy snaps back, "I didn't know this food was yours, okayyy?!!"

The rose-marked axe comes ripping into Hard-Shell Tower. Luffy notices it with a sharp "!?" as the blade tears through the door and flies toward Shirahoshi. She barely has time to murmur, "Eh...?" before the weapon slams into the giant mermaid's body and pins her with a brutal impact. The page is almost all motion and impact: Shirahoshi groans, "NNNNGG HHAAAA HHH!!!" while the panels show the axe embedded against her and Luffy thrown into urgent action. The silence of the tower breaks into shock marks and heavy sound effects as Shirahoshi realizes this was not Luffy's attack but the kind of danger that has been reaching her room for years.

Luffy grabs the incoming axe and redirects it, sending it crashing away instead of letting it harm Shirahoshi. Outside the opened tower door, palace soldiers rush toward her and shout, "Princess Shirahoshi!! We are on our way!!!" and "Princess Shirahoshi!!!" Shirahoshi sees the tower door has opened and whispers, "...!!!" while one guard calls, "Look - the door is open!! What's going on?!!" The soldiers panic, asking, "Are you alright?!!" Luffy, breathing hard after the save, asks the obvious question: "Why is there an axe?! Where did it come from?!" Shirahoshi sits shaken and silent, while the guards crowd the doorway shouting, "Are you alright?!!" The threat has passed for a moment, but the open door means the princess's guarded isolation has been broken.

The guards pour into the room, terrified that Shirahoshi was attacked. They ask, "Are you hurt at all...?!!" and, seeing Luffy in her grasp, cry, "Ahhhh! What are you doing?!" Shirahoshi protects him by insisting, "It was nothing, really...!!" and explains, "I... I apologise for causing you alarm...!! ...I think ...I must have had a bad dream, that is all...!!" The guards remain suspicious: "Was there an intruder?!" and "We were so worried when we heard your plaintive cries! Who on earth opened this door?!" Shirahoshi whispers to Luffy, "Let me goo!!" while he tells her, "Shhh!! Be quiet...!!" At the bottom, the guards reveal the wider situation: Luffy is the pirate who saved Megalo, and they believe the case has become complicated. Luffy, hanging upside down, mutters, "Hm...?" while a guard admits, "Ah, yes. There is something else that I should speak to you about..."

The guards report the accusations against the Straw Hats. They say that, under suspicion of kidnapping the missing mermaids and as a precaution against possible future misdeeds, "...the decision has been made to confine the entire Straw Hat crew to the palace dungeons." The swordsman, Zoro, has already been apprehended at the palace ahead of the others. The three crewmembers who arrived most recently at the castle have likely also been captured, but Luffy, the captain last seen entering with those three members, is missing. The guard concludes that Luffy must still be somewhere in the palace and must be found. Shirahoshi listens with anxious silence as the soldiers declare they will apprehend his other crewmates across Fish-Man Island and protect the kingdom. The guard laments, "It pains me greatly that we are forced to greet Megalo's saviours with chains and cells rather than the planned celebrations." After noticing that five minutes have passed, he says, "In that case, we will be leaving!!"

Once the immediate panic eases, Shirahoshi thanks Luffy: "I must thank you ever so much." She apologizes for the guards' behavior, saying, "I apologise for the rudeness of the guards just now... Please forgive them." She had never imagined he was the one who saved Megalo and asks, "Your name... is Luffy-sama, yes?" Luffy answers awkwardly, "Uh-huh." She then asks the question that matters to someone locked away from the world: "And you are a pirate... does that mean you are a bad person?" Luffy refuses to define himself for her: "...Hm? ...Uhhhh... I dunno. You can decide that yourself." She tells him his companions have been captured, and he answers with confidence: "Yeah... but don't worry. They'll never be able to keep my friends captured for long!!" Luffy asks about the axe, and Shirahoshi explains that it came from Vander Decken-sama, a man angry because she refused his marriage proposals. His cursed power, "Mato Mato," lets him target her from anywhere, so she can never leave the tower: "...as such, I am never permitted to leave this Shell Tower, for it would be far too dangerous for me to be out in the open...!!"

Shirahoshi reveals the cost of Decken's curse: "...It has been ten years now... Ten whole years?! You must get pretty bored!" Luffy sits on an enormous plate of food while she explains that even the guards cannot spend more than five minutes in her presence because of her father's orders. Her only real companion is Megalo: "And so I have nobody to talk to but my beloved Megalo... He is my only friend in the world." She sadly adds that she was supposed to throw a party for them, though she knows it will not happen now. Luffy, still eating messily, mumbles through food, "MNGLPHR MMBGLN, BRLPHMNG HRNGLG FRMLLRM NGLPMNGHL PHRNG!" and clarifies that the shaggy old guy said he would throw a party but kept getting told off, so he followed the smell into the room. When Luffy finally understands who she is, he exclaims, "Those guys were calling you 'Princess,' right? So are you the mermaid princess?!" Shirahoshi smiles and answers, "Indeed. I'm the daughter of King Neptune. My name is Shirahoshi!!" Luffy bluntly replies, "Huh... that's a weird name."

Shirahoshi begins asking questions about the outside world. She says, "I don't think you can be a bad person after all," and asks if pirates go on "adventures." Then the questions pour out: "Have you ever seen the 'sun'?" and "Also... have you seen the many types of 'flowers', or the half-covered creatures known as 'animals'? Have you ever been to a green location known as a 'forest'?" Luffy tries to keep eating: "Too many questions!! Hold on a minute, I'm eating!!" Shirahoshi leans close and says, "My, how large your cheeks are!" then pokes them. Luffy spits food, mumbles, "MNB PHU!" and snaps, "Don't do stuff like that!! What was that for?!!" Shirahoshi immediately collapses into tears: "I... I... I am sorry...! Please do not shout at me with such a loud voice...! You are a scary person after all... Luffy-sama...!!" She wails, "UWAAAAAHH!! Nobody has ever got angry with me beforeee!!" Luffy panics and tries to stop her: "Whoa, whoa... I wasn't trying to make you cry! Stop that!" but finally judges her plainly: "Man, you're a real crybaby for someone so big..."

Luffy's casual honesty makes Shirahoshi cry even harder. He laughs, "Eh?! I don't think I like you that much!! Ahaha ahahaha!" while she sobs, "Ehhhhh hhhhh?!" and then, wounded by being called a crybaby, says, "Th... Th... That's so horrible... N - Nobody has ever said anything so horrible to me before...!!" She demands, "You are a terrible person...!! Please, you must leave me at once...!!" Luffy continues eating, thanks her for the food, and comments, "Still, ten whole years in this place, huh? Don't think I could stand that." Shirahoshi tries to ask him to leave, but Luffy notices the obvious contradiction in her life: "Hey, isn't there anywhere you'd like to go?" She admits, "W - Well, of course there are many such places... but..." and whispers, "Yeah, there must be, huh...?" Luffy solves the problem in the most Luffy way possible: "Let's go somewhere, then!! For a walk!!!" When she panics, he grins and promises, "If anything comes flying at you again, I'll send it flying right back where it came!!!"

The chapter cuts to the Ryugu Palace main entrance. Soldiers chase the newly arrived Straw Hats, shouting, "Hurry up and catch them!! They're only three humans!" A voice calls, "Usopp-chin!! Nami-chin, Brook-chin!!" and another warns, "If you resist them any longer, you really will become criminals...!!" Nami argues that surrender makes no sense: "If we don't resist, we'll just end up as prisoners!!" Usopp adds, "It's their fault for picking a fight with us over some crazy reason!" Brook, still composed despite the chaos, says, "Nevertheless, we have no reason to surrender, Caimie-san." The palace entrance becomes a battlefield of fish-man soldiers and royal architecture as Nami, Usopp, and Brook stand surrounded but unbroken. Usopp declares the core of their position: "I'm not letting them capture me for something I haven't even done yet!!!"

Inside the palace confrontation, Brook coolly offers, "Should you so desire, I will gladly face you in combat..." while a soldier warns, "This crew have caused all kinds of crazy incidents... Even without their captain, they're a force to be reckoned with...!!!" Nami, glancing at a bottle, says, "Such a pity... I was looking forward to sampling the palace wine..." and Usopp reacts, "Did Nose used to be as imposing as all that?!" The royal soldiers rally under Neptune's name: "Do not falter, soldiers!! I see this for what it is - a prelude to the terrors to come!! They must be stopped at all costs!! To protect our proud nation!!!" Someone calls, "Neptune-sama!! Lend us your strength!!!" Usopp mutters, "...Oh, that's rich! We'd never have tried anything here... if you hadn't attacked us first!!" while a soldier boasts about the army compared to giant insects and declares, "Taste the power of my new weapon: Black Kabuto!!!" The page ends with Usopp gripping his weapon and deciding, "As such... I will capture them or the moment!!!"

The palace fight erupts. A soldier yells, "Take this!!!" and another calls, "Such force...!!" as attacks crash through the hall. The Straw Hats brace themselves amid tridents, bodies, and heavy impact marks, then Zoro suddenly enters the fight from the dungeons with overwhelming presence. Nami shouts, "Zoro!!" and Usopp stares in disbelief: "Zoro... I thought you were in the dungeons..." Zoro, grinning with his swords ready, gives the simple explanation: "I heard the sounds of merry-making... So I thought I'd come out and play!!" The chapter's palace-side tension flips instantly; the crew members who were supposedly contained are no longer easy prisoners, and Zoro's arrival means the guards' attempt to confine them is already collapsing.

The final story spread shifts to the Fishman District, "Noah," where Hody Jones receives Vander Decken IX. A lookout calls, "You wait there, Wada-tsumi." Another reports, "Captain!! Vander Decken-sama has arrived!" and Decken answers, "Ahhh hhh!" After being guided with "This way?" he recognizes Hody: "So... you're the one, right? The infamous fishman known as Hordy!! I know it!" Hody says, "You're pretty infamous yourself... Mad Captain, Vander Decken!!!" Decken replies, "It'll be a pleasure working with you..." The two villains shake hands, and Decken laughs, "Bahohohu!! The pleasure is all mine!! Hordy Jones!!!" Hody declares, "This alliance benefits us both!! Our goal is the same!!" Their shared goal is made explicit: to crush Neptune's army, "who have none of the pride befitting their races," to take the head of "Sea God" Neptune, and "to bring about the total destruction of the Ryuuguu Kingdom!!!!" As the two stand together, someone says, "...With this, there's nobody under the whole ocean to oppose us...!!" and another cheers, "This sure is quite the gathering!! Kyakya!!" The chapter closes by binding Shirahoshi's stalker and Hody's rebellion into one alliance.

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