The Longed-For Amusement Park

Beneath Ryuuguu Palace, the connecting way shakes with violence. Zoro has cut into Hody Jones underwater, and Hody's men cry out, "BOOO OOOO OSS!!!" while Hody groans, "URGH HHH ...!" The fish-men cannot understand what they have just seen: "How is a human able to move faster than a fishman underwater?!" and "What the heck is that guy?!!" Hody refuses to let Zoro escape and orders his men, "All right, meeen!!! We are not letting that swordsman escape!!! Take your energy steroids!!!" The soldiers bite down with repeated "CHOMP" sounds, forcing power into themselves even as Neptune's strange presence makes one observer ask, "What is this un-naturally twisted aura?!!!"

The palace is collapsing toward submersion, and Neptune thinks past the duel to evacuation. "As I thought, I must evacuate all my men from the palace..." he says, then calls to Zoro, "One-eyed swordsman! It will not be long before the entire palace is sub-merged!! Grab onto my body!!" Someone points, "Over here, Zoro!!" Neptune measures his own failing strength: "Now it is just a question of how long my poor old back will hold out..." Then he gathers his soldiers with a command: "I am going to make a path! Come, my soldiers! This is not the time to fight!! Flee the palace!!!" The fish-men shout, "Neptune's going to do something ...!!" and "What is he ...?!" as the king releases "Merman Combat!!" and begins forcing a current through the palace.

Neptune's current erupts through the palace, sweeping people toward safety. The soldiers respond, "Yes, your majesty!" as he tells them, "Go forth, my soldiers!!!" Bodies tumble through the water with cries of "OWWW WWWW WWW..." Some enemies realize the royal side is not staying to fight: "...Why, those...!! They're running away without even fighting us!!" Neptune's men shout directions as the escape begins: "We're out of the castle!! Keep on going straight!!" and "Swim through the connecting way, and head for the inland regions of the island!!" The great technique, "Ultramarine!!!", drags everyone into motion while the palace behind them becomes a flood of bubbles, panic, and debris.

The current saves lives, but Neptune's aging body gives out. Someone begs, "H - hey, old guy ...!!! Get a hold of yourself!! Please!!" Neptune can barely answer: "Wha aaaaa aaat?!! My body...!! Unghh... It will not move!!" He laments, "Ahhhhhh!! How cruel the bonds of age can be!!" His men cry, "Your majesty?!!" and "King Neptune!!!" as he hangs helplessly in the water. Hody watches from the shadows while the current and the whale Hoe continue to drag the escape route open. The page shows that Neptune's power has bought time, but not control; his body has reached its limit while Hody's threat still remains in the palace.

Hoe and Megalo carry the king's side away from the palace. The rescued soldiers shout, "Thank goodness!!! You have saved us!!!" and Hoe bellows, "WHAAAAAAAAAALE!!" Neptune still groans, "OWW WWW WWW ...!" Far below, Zoro remains underwater and trapped in the aftermath of the battle. He mutters, "......!! I'm out of... breath ...!!" The page cuts between the huge whale, the escaping king, and Zoro's dangerously small human body in the sea. Zoro may have wounded Hody, but he is now at the edge of suffocation, with the water itself becoming the immediate enemy.

Across Fishman Island, the public panic spreads faster than facts. People shout that Shirahoshi was kidnapped by the Straw Hat right before their eyes, while another report says, "We failed to capture Vander Decken..." The crowd asks, "What's happened to the palace?! What's going on this island?!" and someone names Hody as the fishman trying to take over Fishman Island. Some cling to the idea that the princess promised to be back for dinner, while others assume the pirates forced her to say it. In the confusion, Hyouzou calmly sees profit rather than crisis. He laughs, "Kehihihihi Nothing was lost. What I just saw was that Straw Hat has a mermaid!! All right!!" He starts calculating how much money he could make if he captured and sold her, treating a terrified princess as merchandise while the island falls deeper into disorder.

At the Ocean Forest, Shirahoshi finishes weeping over the shock of hearing her father is in danger: "Waaa aaaahh hhhhh!! Father!!" Jinbe reassures her, "Do not worry, your highness. Those fiends are in no position to harm his majesty just yet!!" Shirahoshi answers, "...R... really ...?" and Jinbe says he must speak to Luffy and his companions for a short while. She promises, "But I swear to you, I will rescue his majesty for myself!!" and then thanks him: "Thank you... Thank you so much, Boss Jimbei-sama..." Sanji, buried under teacups and adoration, cries, "LLLL LLLA DIIII IIES!!" while Camie tells Shirahoshi, "Your tea." Nami asks the question that matters: "So, Jimbei-san... what do you mean when you say that you... ...unleashed Arlong upon East Blue...?"

Hachi sits wounded and ashamed, murmuring, "Nyu uuuu... Jimbei-san..." Sanji says, "I've heard the same thing!!" and recalls that years earlier, when Luffy first heard the name "Jimbei," Yosaku told them that "In return for his status as Shichibukai... ...that Jimbei unleashed a monstrous terror upon East Blue!!" Luffy thinks back too: "Of course, I'm sure Luffy's forgotten all about it. Hmmm... Did he say that...? I wonder how Yosaku's doing now!" Sanji admits the story bothered him after seeing Luffy and Jinbe together in the newspaper two years ago: "I gotta admit, I didn't know what to think. After all, up until then, I'd been thinking of Jimbei as something like the 'man behind Arlong'!" Sanji warns, "So, Jimbei... I'm ready to listen to your excuses... But you'd better choose your words carefully...!!" because Nami suffered more than anyone under Arlong's rule.

Sanji's face hardens as he tells Jinbe, "So depending on what you say next... I may not be able to forgive you!!!" Nami stays quiet, and memories of her childhood rise around her: "A map of the world, huh...? That I want to see!" Bellemere had smiled at her dream and said, "I guess that makes this map of the island the first step towards your dream!!" Jinbe admits, "It's true, Jimbei-san... The pain we caused to that girl is something we can never atone for... As long as we live..." The memory darkens into Arlong's conquest. He tells Nami, "From this day onwards, this island belongs to us!!! It's a pleasure to meet you all, filthy humans!!!" and, facing Bellemere, "Die for your worthless love." Nami's trauma is placed directly against Jinbe's confession, making clear why Sanji's warning is not empty anger.

Nami's memories continue. Bellemere screams, "Bellemere-saaaaaaaaaan!!!!" as Arlong's men mock the village: "We ain't got no food for a filthy human brat like you!!! Gyahahah!!" They command Nami, "So shut up and keep drawing those maps!!" Her hunger answers with "Grumble" while she works through "Scratch" after "Scratch," writing and drawing the maps Arlong wants. She remembers the ridicule: "A thief!!! That ruffian just stole our treasure!!!" "It's a brat!!!" "Like I care!! Shoot to kill!!" and "Take the brat's life!!!" Then comes Arlong's poisonous welcome: "Welcome home, our cartographer." Nami thinks through the long count of money: "Seven... Million to go ...!!" Arlong watches her and says, "Oh, look... You're back already...! Not that you have a choice." Nami stands trembling, trapped between survival and her impossible bargain.

Nami cuts through the pity with restraint. Jinbe says, "That must have been very difficult for you," but she answers, "Don't talk like it's got nothing to do with you!!!" Then she sets a boundary: "That's right. No matter what happens, I have no intention of feeling any compassion towards Arlong. However..." She explains what changed for her at Sabaody: "Until I arrived at the Shabondy Archipelago two years ago... I had no idea that a race as powerful as the fishmen had suffered persecution at the hands of humans. But when we were pursuing those slave traders who had captured Caimie... I saw something that made me doubt my own eyes. It hit me as soon as I set foot in Shabondy Park." She remembers the buildings: "It was the spitting image... ...of the 'Arlong Park' that they had constructed on our island!!"

Hachi tries to apologize through tears: "...Nyuuuu ... we all idolised that place ... I'm not saying this to earn your forgiveness, Nami...!! Arlong-san hated humans bitterly, resented them above all else... And what we did was truly wrong... But still..." Jinbe adds the root of that longing: "Even Arlong felt that same longing, ever since he was a child, to be part of that world." He explains the old status of fishmen and merfolk: "Up until two hundred years ago, fishmen and merfolk were officially considered types of 'fish'... Then, two hundred years ago, the Ryuuguu Kingdom became a part of the world government... The king was granted a place on the Reverie World Council, and we took the first steps towards peace with humanity..." But peace did not end hatred. "The humans never stopped hating us," he says. The pirate terror on Fishman Island "was the beginning of the Great Pirate Age...!!" and "...stays with me even to this day...!!"

Jinbe names the one who changed Fishman Island's fate: "The man who freed our kind from that terror... ...was none other than the late Whitebeard ...!!!" Whitebeard declared, "From now on... ...this island is my territory!!!" and "And so peace returned to our island." Yet Jinbe says the human hatred toward fishmen and merfolk lived on. He tells the Straw Hats, "You all must have witnessed the truth for yourselves on the Shabondy Archipelago," and adds, "It is a sad truth that the greater the authority a person possesses, the more he tends to fear change." The old discrimination sat among the central spheres of government, and in the middle of that seemingly hopeless situation, two individuals rose up "to change the course of history..." The page prepares the story of Queen Otohime and Fisher Tiger.

Jinbe identifies the first of those two people: "One... ...was Queen Otohime. As you know, she was Princess Shirahoshi's mother." Otohime preached to her people "the importance of living in harmony with humans." Then Jinbe names the other: "...was Fisher Tiger, the hero of slaves." Fisher Tiger chose the opposite path from Otohime: "He, for his part, resolved that fishmen and humans should go their separate ways. And so, breaking a great taboo... ...he mounted a lone assault upon the holy land of Mariejoa, freeing the slaves held captive there...!!" Afterward, "Following this great feat, he gathered the former fishman slaves... ...and formed a group known as the 'Sun Pirates'...!!!" Luffy recognizes the name badly, asking, "Thingy Tiger...? I've heard that name somewhere..."

Jinbe reveals the direct link: "Both I and Arlong, as well as Hachi... ...were once members of that pirate crew...!!" He explains that the dangerous band of fishman pirates, who had flagrantly defied the World Government, also sealed the fate of Queen Otohime and her dream of harmony between races. Jinbe compares their ideals without pretending either was simple: "Queen Otohime chose to endure the suffering of the present, in hope of building a better future... Whilst Fisher Tiger abandoned such hopes for the future, in favour of saving those who were suffering there and then..." When an "Enemy vessel sighted!" warning sounds, he concludes, "All I can say, is this... I cannot say which of their ideals was the greater."

The story flashes back to fifteen years ago on the Grand Line. A ship approaches, and the crew shouts, "Boss!!" "It's an enemy ship!! Nyuuu!!" "Boss!! Boss!! Boss!!!" In their base, someone snaps, "Quit your yapping, Hachi... You are a noisy one..." A panicked subordinate rushes in: "Boss Tiger!!! It's terrible!!!" The man at the center is introduced as "Captain Fisher Tiger (A seabream fishman) (saviour of the Pirate Empress Hancock)." Fisher Tiger looks up with a hard stare and asks, "Is it the Marines?" The chapter closes by moving from Jinbe's explanation into the living past of the Sun Pirates, shifting from apology into the history that shaped Fishman Island's present hatred and hope.

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