One Piece: SSS-Rank Haki at Age Seventeen

At the same time, the dreamlike streets and districts of Fish-Man Island had been completely swallowed by the shadow of violence.

BAM! BOOM—!!

The thunderous collapse of buildings mixed together with the screams and cries of terrified civilians.

In a secluded alleyway, a young mermaid with a pale blue tail had been cornered against the wall.

Her back pressed tightly against the cold stone as she crossed her arms protectively over her chest, her face filled with fear and defiance.

"W-What are you trying to do?! This is Fish-Man Island! King Neptune won't let scum like you get away with this!"

Her voice trembled with fear, yet she still tried to uphold the dignity of the royal family.

"Neptune? Hahahaha!"

The Fish-Man pirates blocking her path burst into harsh laughter. The shark Fish-Man leading them stepped forward with a cruel grin, a massive blade resting on his shoulder.

"That senile old king? Let me tell you something—Boss Hody already led our brothers into Ryugu Palace!"

"It won't be long before this country gets a new ruler! When that happens, we make the rules!"

He pointed toward a portrait hanging on the wall beside them.

It was a portrait of the late Queen Otohime smiling gently—a treasured keepsake found in countless homes across the island.

"Now then, I'll give you a chance to live."

The shark Fish-Man licked the edge of his blade, malice gleaming in his eyes.

"Spit on that hypocritical woman's portrait, and I'll let you go."

"N-No… Never!"

The young mermaid trembled violently. The fear in her eyes was instantly replaced by overwhelming grief and anger as tears streamed down her cheeks.

"I would never do that! That's Queen Otohime! She gave everything for peace!!"

"Tch. Ungrateful brat!"

The shark Fish-Man finally lost patience, vicious killing intent spreading across his face.

"Then you can go to hell together with that portrait!!"

He raised the heavy blade high overhead and slashed down toward her!

The mermaid shut her eyes in despair.

CRASH—!!!

The agony she expected never came.

Instead, she heard the sharp explosion of metal shattering, and fragments brushed coldly across her cheek.

Trembling, she slowly opened her eyes.

The giant blade aimed at her had shattered into over a dozen pieces midair, clattering loudly onto the ground.

And standing between her and the attacker was a man she had never seen appear.

A tall blond man.

A cigarette dangled casually from his lips, his hands tucked into the pockets of his suit pants. Through the drifting smoke, his sharp profile looked cold and composed.

"Ah… what a heartbreaking sound."

The man slowly turned his head toward the frightened mermaid.

The coldness on his face instantly melted into a spring-like gentleness.

"Beautiful lady, are you hurt? Forgive me for frightening you."

The sheer contrast left both the mermaid and the shark Fish-Man stunned.

The next second, the blond man's gaze shifted toward the armed Fish-Man.

The warmth vanished instantly, freezing into icy killing intent.

"Trash like you dares raise a weapon against a lady?"

Before the words even finished, his figure blurred.

BAM!

The shark Fish-Man couldn't even see what happened.

A terrifying force slammed into his abdomen, launching him backward through the wall behind him. His fate was unknown.

"Sanji! We've mostly cleared this side, but there are too many Fish-Man pirates around!"

A long-nosed sniper and a skeleton musician rushed into the alley.

Usopp wiped sweat from his forehead, his voice tense.

"The three princes and the Ryugu Palace guards are trying their best to suppress the chaos, but these lunatics who took the Energy Steroids are wrecking everything! They can't cover the whole island!"

"Yohohoho~ What a dreadful mess."

Brook adjusted his top hat, his hollow eye sockets scanning the devastated streets.

Sanji took a deep drag from his cigarette and slowly exhaled.

Within the smoke, his eyes became razor-sharp, as though flames had ignited deep inside them.

"Heh… a bunch of rotten fish asking to die."

His voice was low, suppressing astonishing fury.

"To think these bastards would attack such beautiful ladies… in the paradise of my dreams."

"And now they want to destroy this peaceful island?"

WHOOSH!

The moment his words fell, blazing orange-red flames suddenly erupted from his right leg, engulfing his entire lower limb in roaring fire.

"Leave it to me."

Sanji's voice was cold as steel.

"I'll burn every last one of these scumbags… until not even ashes remain."

SZZZT—!

The flames surged violently.

Tiny blue sparks crackled and danced within the fire.

In the next instant, Sanji's body seemed to merge with flame and lightning itself, transforming into a blazing streak too fast for the naked eye to follow as he vanished with a shrill sonic burst.

"Uh… did Sanji just call this place the 'paradise of his dreams'?"

Brook tilted his skull slightly, resting a bony hand against his chin.

"I thought his dream was to find the legendary sea containing fish from every ocean… the All Blue?"

Usopp looked toward the direction Sanji had disappeared, then glanced at the blushing mermaid staring dreamily after him.

It seemed he suddenly understood something.

Shrugging helplessly, he spread his hands.

"Well… a man's dreams can sometimes… expand a little."

Inside Ryugu Palace, the banquet hall had already been reduced to ruins.

BOOM—!!

Hody Jones was blasted backward violently, crashing straight through a gigantic coral sculpture before embedding himself deep within the shattered base.

"GWAAAH—!!"

A massive mouthful of dark blood mixed with fragments of internal organs burst from his mouth, splattering across the floor.

He barely managed to raise his head.

His bloodshot crimson eyes looked ready to burst from their sockets as they locked onto the blue-skinned Fish-Man standing beyond the dust cloud.

The man who had not moved even a single step from beginning to end.

"Cough… H-How… is this possible…"

Hody's voice was hoarse and broken, filled with madness and disbelief.

"How can you… be this strong…"

He had swallowed more than thirty Energy Steroids—enough to make an ordinary Fish-Man explode to death!

His strength, speed, and recovery had all risen to unprecedented levels. Every cell in his body screamed with destructive power!

So why…?

Why did his strength, enough to split mountains and seas, still crumble uselessly like waves crashing against a reef?!

He had come here to conquer Ryugu Palace.

To trample the dignity of the royal family.

To crush the head of that so-called Yonko beneath his feet and proclaim Fish-Man supremacy to the world!

And yet—

He had been beaten down like some insignificant pirate by a casual strike!

"GRAAAAAAH—!!!"

Extreme humiliation and fury overwhelmed the last remnants of his sanity.

Hody roared like a beast, his crimson eyes nearly bleeding.

Using every ounce of strength, he forced himself out of the rubble and slammed one hand against a nearby intact wall lined with intricate pipework.

It was one of the key systems regulating the palace's seawater pressure.

"JINBE—!!!"

Twisting his head around, Hody revealed a savage grin filled with agony and malice.

"Even if I can't kill you… I'll make sure neither you nor your 'human masters' live peacefully!!"

"A Yonko? An Emperor of the Sea? At the end of the day, he's still just a filthy human!!"

"And in the deep sea, humanity's greatest enemy is—"

His muscles bulged as he pressed harder against the wall.

"—the sea itself!! If I destroy this barrier and let the high-pressure seawater flood in—!!"

THUD!

Before he could finish, his entire body suddenly trembled violently.

In that instant—

A freezing chill shot straight up his spine.

The shadow of death engulfed him like the icy currents of the abyss.

Hody's pupils shrank to pinpoints.

Almost instinctively, he slowly turned his stiff neck and looked past the ruined battlefield—

Toward the man in the straw hat seated near the throne.

Luffy wasn't even looking at him.

He merely stood sideways, head slightly lowered beneath the shadow of his straw hat.

Yet the moment Hody's eyes met him—

An overwhelming aura of cold indifference descended directly upon his soul.

Pure killing intent.

The kind possessed only by predators standing at the absolute top of the food chain.

Death.

So clear.

So close.

As though an icy scythe already rested against his throat.

Hody Jones' savage grin froze completely, replaced by overwhelming shock and disbelief.

This… this is a Yonko?!

Without even making a move—

Just a trace of unconscious killing intent, released from such a distance, was enough to make someone like him—who had consumed dozens of Energy Steroids and believed himself near invincible—experience true terror in the face of death?!

"HODY!! …STOP THIS AT ONCE!!!"

A roar as mighty as the raging deep sea exploded through the hall, snapping Hody from his daze.

Jinbe appeared before him almost instantaneously.

The usually calm and steady Fish-Man now wore only absolute fury and resolve.

His right fist drew back beside his waist.

Dense black lightning crackled wildly around it, radiating destructive force.

This was no ordinary Fish-Man Karate.

It was the ultimate fusion of supreme Armament Haki and countless years of mastery—

"Fish-Man Karate Secret Art: Buraikan!!"

A condensed black bolt tore through the air with the roar of war drums, striking Hody Jones square in the face at a speed beyond visual perception.

BOOOOOOM!!!!

Hody's head snapped backward at a grotesque angle.

His body spun violently like a top struck by an invisible whip before blasting away as a blue blur at terrifying speed.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM—!!!

Continuous explosions and collapsing walls echoed throughout Ryugu Palace.

Dust and debris carved a trail of destruction stretching hundreds of meters.

At the very end of the ruins, Hody Jones lay crumpled like a broken rag doll.

The crimson eyes once filled with ambition and fanaticism had lost all focus.

Only emptiness and death remained.

The berserk power granted by the Energy Steroids faded away like the receding tide, leaving behind only a shattered body and a soul on the verge of collapse.

"Hah… no matter how you try to deny it… no matter how strong you are… Jinbe!!"

Hody lay in the rubble, every breath carrying blood from his lips, yet he stubbornly raised his head.

"Queen Otohime is dead! She'll never open her eyes and smile at you again! That's an unchangeable fact!!"

"And you, Jinbe! Even if you stand with humans—even if you're strong enough to crush me with ease—you still can't deny it!"

"You can't deny that Queen Otohime fell to a human's bullet! Her blood was spilled because of human malice!!"

He coughed up another mouthful of blood, yet twisted his face into a sorrowful, distorted smile—as though he alone carried the suffering of Fish-Man Island.

"Everything I've done… the killing, the destruction, the taking… it was all for Fish-Man Island!"

"To stop more of our people from dying to human hypocrisy and betrayal like the Queen did! I'm cleansing this humiliation!!"

His words pierced through the hall like poisoned icicles.

Jinbe's massive body trembled almost imperceptibly.

He slowly closed his eyes, fists clenched tightly until the knuckles turned pale.

Not because Hody had convinced him—

But because the wound buried deep within his heart had been ripped open once more.

Queen Otohime's gentle yet resolute gaze before her death overlapped with the image of her lying in a pool of blood.

The pain was as heavy as the abyssal sea itself.

King Neptune lowered his enormous head deeply.

His thick orange beard trembled faintly.

In that moment, the mighty king looked decades older—a grieving husband and helpless ruler confronting an eternal wound that could never heal.

Around them, the Ryugu Palace guards—Fish-Men and merfolk alike—lowered their heads silently, their eyes reddening.

To them, Queen Otohime had long transcended her title as queen.

She had been a beacon.

A symbol of peace.

Her death remained a shared pain buried deep within the hearts of everyone on Fish-Man Island.

And Hody's words had stirred that grief once more, plunging the hall into suffocating silence.

However—

Just as that crushing silence threatened to consume everything—

"THAT'S NOT TRUE——!!!"

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