Chapter 293
Zaraki ignored Yamakaji, ignored Gion, and ignored the royal family's relief.
His eyes remained fixed on Madame Shyarly while the amused curve of his mouth only grew wider.
"Who said I was joking?"
He raised one hand and casually pushed aside several spearheads hovering near his throat.
The movement looked almost lazy, yet the guards holding those weapons felt numbness shoot through their arms and were forced backward half a step.
"I'm not saying the man in the straw hat you saw doesn't exist, and I'm not saying whatever you saw can't happen someday."
Shyarly's eyes narrowed slightly.
Zaraki continued.
"I'm saying that isn't the disaster you should be worrying about right now."
He swept his gaze across the harbor, then slowly turned and looked beyond Ryugu Palace toward the deeper sections of the city.
"Because the problem I'm talking about..."
His expression sharpened.
"...is already here."
The words landed heavily enough that even Neptune's eyes filled with immediate suspicion.
Zaraki lifted one hand slightly.
"Why don't you look behind you?"
Almost without thinking, the entire harbor turned in the direction he indicated.
Sharp breaths sounded everywhere.
Across the coral ridges forming the distant backdrop of the city, silhouettes had appeared.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
More figures crouched atop surrounding buildings and along access routes that should have been under constant royal surveillance.
Fish-men armed with blades, spears, axes, and firearms filled the high ground, while enormous sea beasts waited among them like living siege weapons.
An army.
And somehow, while the confrontation at the harbor had consumed everyone's attention, the approaches to Ryugu Palace had already been compromised.
Neptune's enormous body began trembling.
The color vanished from his face.
"This..."
His voice cracked.
"How is this possible?!"
He spun toward his guards.
"Where are the patrols?! What happened to the palace watch?!"
One of the officers hurriedly raised a Den Den Mushi.
Nothing.
The creature's eyes remained dull.
No connection.
Another guard tried his own line.
Still nothing.
"Father!"
Fukaboshi's voice carried an alarm Zaraki had not heard from him before.
"Look over there!"
He pointed toward one of the secondary defensive passages leading into the palace district.
Its local protective membrane and checkpoint had been torn apart from the inside, leaving the access route completely exposed.
Not Fish-Man Island's enormous outer bubble.
A palace defense line.
One that should never have failed without help from someone who knew exactly how the royal guards operated.
One word immediately burned through the minds of everyone present.
Rebellion.
Then someone came stumbling through the distant street.
A Ryugu Palace guard.
He was covered in blood, his armor broken, and he half-ran, half-fell toward the harbor before screaming with what little strength remained.
"R-REPORTING, YOUR MAJESTY!"
His voice shook with desperation.
"The patrol network was sabotaged! The Den Den Mushi lines were cut before we even knew anything was wrong!"
Neptune's pupils contracted.
"The Hard-Shell Tower..."
The guard's face twisted.
"THE HARD-SHELL TOWER HAS BEEN BREACHED!"
Neptune went rigid.
"PRINCESS SHIRAHOSHI..."
The guard choked.
"PRINCESS SHIRAHOSHI IS MISSING!"
The words hit harder than the sight of the rebel army.
Neptune staggered, his trident striking the stone with a heavy thoom.
"Shira... hoshi..."
Then laughter rolled across the harbor.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
A massive shark fish-man pushed his way to the front of the rebel formation.
His build was thick and powerful, and madness burned openly in his eyes as he stood atop the back of an enormous sea beast.
Hody Jones.
Captain of the New Fish-Man Pirates.
"NEPTUNE!"
Hody spread his arms.
"The old era is over!"
His mouth opened in a savage grin.
"From today onward, Fish-Man Island belongs to me!"
"If you know what's good for you, take your people and get out of my way!"
His voice became a roar.
"HAND OVER RYUGU PALACE!"
Neptune's face turned iron blue. Fukaboshi and Ryuboshi were no better, while every fish-man still loyal to the royal family stared at the rebels with murderous hatred.
The harbor became unbearably tense.
"Zaraki..."
Yamakaji swallowed, cold sweat running down the side of his face.
"What exactly do we do now?"
This was no street fight, pirate raid, or minor uprising.
Someone had sabotaged the kingdom's communications and patrol routes thoroughly enough to let the New Fish-Man Pirates launch a full-scale coup while the royal family was occupied at the harbor.
Zaraki glanced toward Hody Jones.
There was no concern on his face.
If anything, he looked entertained.
"Whatever comes, deal with it."
He rolled one wrist, producing a sharp crack from the joint.
"No rush."
The corner of his mouth slowly rose.
"The good part is only just starting."
...
Yamakaji felt as though his heart were about to leap straight out of his throat.
The situation had gone completely beyond anything a diplomatic escort should have needed to handle.
Thousands of rebels had surrounded the palace district, the kingdom's communications had been sabotaged, and Hody Jones stood above them with all the arrogance of a man who already believed Fish-Man Island belonged to him.
Yet Zaraki still wore that infuriatingly relaxed expression, as though he were watching someone else's play.
'For God's sake... this is a full-scale national rebellion, not a stage performance.'
"Father!"
Fukaboshi shook an ordinary Den Den Mushi in his hand, his expression turning increasingly desperate.
"We still can't contact Ryugu Palace! The internal lines are dead!"
Nothing answered him.
King Neptune's already pale face turned completely bloodless.
If the Hard-Shell Tower had been breached while every major communication route had been severed, then the worst-case scenario had already happened.
Right on cue, Hody Jones' laughter rang out again.
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
He clapped his hands.
Several of his men pushed an enormous rust-covered prison cart out from behind the rebel formation.
Inside was a figure so huge that the word delicate should have been impossible to apply to her, yet somehow it still did.
Heavy reinforced chains bound her wrists, waist, and tail.
Around her neck was a thick metal collar fitted with an obvious blinking receiver and explosive charge.
Beautiful pink hair hung messily around her shoulders, and tears rolled endlessly down a face so gentle and innocent that almost any living creature would have felt instinctive pity at the sight.
Princess Shirahoshi.
"SHIRAHOSHI!"
Neptune's roar tore through the harbor.
His eyes instantly flooded red.
"PRINCESS!"
The loyal guards around him erupted as well.
Inside the cage, Shirahoshi heard her father and desperately shook her head.
"Father...!"
Her voice trembled with sobs.
"Don't worry about me!"
"Please... run!"
"You all have to get away!"
"Run?"
Hody's grin spread wider.
"No one is going anywhere today."
He savored the despair twisting Neptune's face before turning toward Fukaboshi.
"Come on, Prince."
Hody spread his arms mockingly.
"I'll give you a chance."
"Come save your precious little sister."
"BASTARD!"
Fukaboshi finally lost control.
Weapon in hand, he launched himself forward like an arrow released from a bow. More than a dozen of the royal family's finest guards charged after him.
"Stop them."
Hody waved one hand dismissively.
Then his eyes shifted toward Shirahoshi.
"Prepare the execution."
His grin became vicious.
"Let the old king get a good look at what his daughter's head looks like when it comes off."
The rebels surged forward like sharks catching the scent of blood, swallowing Fukaboshi and his men beneath sheer numbers.
At the same time, a vicious-looking fish-man carrying an enormous axe stepped beside Shirahoshi's prison cart and raised the weapon overhead.
"NO—!"
Neptune's eyes nearly burst from their sockets.
His trident swept outward with enormous force, blasting several pirates aside as he charged toward his daughter.
But there were too many enemies.
The rebels came in wave after wave, bodies and weapons piling into his path.
Neptune knew exactly what he needed.
If he could reach one of the surrounding waterways, Merman Combat would allow him to use the water itself against the rebels.
Hody knew that too.
That was why every accessible route toward the water had been deliberately clogged with troops and sea beasts.
"Do it!"
Hody barked.
The executioner swung.
The enormous axe screamed toward Shirahoshi's neck.
Shirahoshi squeezed her eyes shut.
"STOP—!!"
Neptune's scream no longer sounded human.
Everything he had stubbornly clung to—his dignity, his fear of Shyarly's prophecy, his suspicion toward the Marines, and his refusal to place his daughter's fate in the hands of an outsider—collapsed in the face of that descending blade.
He turned toward Zaraki.
"ZARAKI!"
His bloodshot eyes were filled with desperate pleading.
"Please!"
"Save my daughter!"
"Save Shirahoshi!"
"If you save her, I'll attend the Reverie!"
Neptune's voice cracked.
"Fish-Man Island will remember this debt! JUST SAVE HER!"
What Neptune did not realize was that Zaraki had already stopped watching.
The instant the axe began its descent, the faint amusement in his golden eyes disappeared.
At some point, his stance had changed.
Still relaxed.
But no longer idle.
A pressure had already begun gathering around him before Neptune finished speaking.
"Seriously..."
Zaraki murmured, sounding more irritated than dramatic.
"You really had to make this whole thing so ugly."
His gaze cut straight through the battlefield and locked onto the executioner.
Then something erupted from him.
Overwhelming will.
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