To be honest
Ozz had a headache.
Lounging on a luxury cruise ship in swim trunks, bare-chested, a pair of fashionably loud sunglasses on his nose, he savored an ice-cold fruit juice.
He had stolen the ship. The quality was decent.
Face did not matter. A pirate robbing a vessel was the most ordinary thing in the world.
What did grate was the fury roaring from the Transponder Snail in his hand.
"Relax. I am really not angry."
At Ozz's level he acted as he pleased. The Hancock sisters slipping free was something he had already anticipated, and it did not touch his mood.
He no longer flared over rumors either. It was like the time someone smashed a bottle over Shanks' head at a bar, only not quite the same.
Call it altitude. Idle gossip could not rile him like some hot-blooded rookie.
His people felt otherwise.
Crocodile, for one, was spitting fire through the snail, the frame of the projection crowding Ozz's face to the edge.
"Are you kidding me? Do you understand what your name means right now? Recognize it."
When he first realized he had Ozz on the line, Crocodile had been delighted. The instant he heard Ozz had met Fisher Tiger and planned to make him work off his debt, the delight curdled.
"That bastard Tiger dragged the Black Emperor's name through the mud. We have to use the harshest measures so the world knows the Black Emperor is not dead."
Ozz clicked his tongue.
He had not died in the first place.
Still, the talk made the shape of his subordinates' thinking clear.
They had basked in glory for years. Now that their prestige had taken a hit, they wanted it back.
The problem was Ozz truly was not angry, and wiping out Fish-Man Island was out of the question. Besides, he had promised Tiger long ago to put him to work.
He weighed it back and forth.
There was no neat answer that satisfied both his people and himself. He finally spread his hands.
"Fine. Do as you like."
This was not softness. It was perspective. He had tacitly allowed Tiger's actions. If he had not, he would have warned him the first time they met to never touch his slaves.
Letting his men recover their pride, and forbidding Tiger from showing his face in the world again, seemed punishment enough.
At Ozz's consent, Crocodile brightened. He reached for another line, ready to vent thunder on Fish-Man Island and make the world remember
The Black Emperor still ruled these seas.
Ozz propped his head on one hand and gazed over the water, half amused as Crocodile bustled on the other end.
He drew breath to ask
"Hey, Crocodile, why did Hawkeye not pick up just now"
Before he could finish, muffled voices bled through from Crocodile's side, someone clearly talking to him.
Crocodile's expression turned odd.
"Ozz's forces have already taken Fish-Man Island."
Blurred fragments of conversation crackled through the line, impossible to catch cleanly.
What
Baffled, Ozz let crimson light flicker in his eyes and peered ahead of the present.
He froze.
Both of them sat there with faces caught between laughter and fury.
Crocodile felt furious.
Ozz felt amused.
While the two were still sorting it out, a fish-man wrapped head to toe in bandages stirred on the far deck.
Where
Where am I
Tiger's eyes opened to a fog of weakness. Pain screamed in every limb. He could only catch snatches of the voices nearby.
"The Black Emperor has taken Fish-Man Island"
That one sentence fell like a hammer to the skull. His pupils trembled.
He tried to beg. Half dead as he was, no sound came. Silent tears of regret poured down.
Why
Why did I soften back then
He wanted to shout at his past self. His rashness had brought calamity on Fish-Man Island.
If the heavens would grant him one more chance, he would never dare defy Ozz again even if it meant dying.
He would drag every slave he freed back in chains if he had to. Fish-Man Island mattered more than strangers.
But
His consciousness slid away. No chance remained to repent.
…
At the same time
A blast of news set the world shuddering. It flew across the seas on white wings and made countless eyes quake.
"After two years, that terrifying man has returned."
"The true emperor of the sea. Fish-Man Island's catastrophe."
"What is a king's majesty. The meaning of the Black Emperor."
News Coos blanketed the globe, dropping papers thick with headlines.
On the front page, a tall figure stood with a mass of underlings at his back.
Anyone with a little sea time or any real experience stared at that face and felt their jaws go slack.
They could tell themselves it was not real as many times as they wished. The truth was on the page.
Long-haired. Handsome.
Ozz.
"Wasn't the rumor that the Black Emperor was dead"
"Of course it was a rumor. A man like that does not die quietly."
"Fish-Man Island suffered for Tiger's sin. He freed Lord Ozz's slaves. What did he think would happen"
Those who hated Ozz gnashed their teeth. The ambitious scrambled for intel. His admirers celebrated.
In short, the sudden appearance of the Black Emperor's banner at Fish-Man Island set the whole sea to a boil.
Even the Five Elders took notice.
In the ancient hush of the council chamber, the Gorosei traded reports and compared notes, confirming and reconfirming.
At last Saint Marcus Mars let his wrinkled brow ease.
"Based on habits observed on scene and Cipher Pol intelligence, we can offer a preliminary judgment."
He tossed the paper onto the table with something like relief.
"The Ozz who appeared at Fish-Man Island"
"Is an imposter."
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