Next Bonus, 100!!
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Jinbe lay in a pool of his own blood, the amusement park of his youth now a grim tableau.
This had once been his playground. It was a place where countless children from the Fish-Man District had come to find a sliver of joy.
But now, it was corrupted.
When Jinbe had found Hody Jones and his New Fish-Man Pirates, they were here, poisoning the minds of children with their venomous ideology.
Fish-Men are the chosen race, granted power by Heaven to punish humanity!
Humans are born evil!
Fish-Men are the supreme race!
We must bring judgment upon them!
Never forget the hatred and rage you feel for humankind!
Queen Otohime and the rulers of the Ryugu Kingdom are traitors to their own kind!
We will wage a holy war against humanity!
Jinbe had stepped forward. He had refuted Hody's claims, rebuking him for force-feeding hatred to the children.
Hody had tried to recruit him.
When Jinbe refused, he had ordered his crew to attack.
The New Fish-Man Pirates were no match for Jinbe. He had beaten them all senseless.
But he couldn't bring himself to kill his own people. He had tried to reason with them, to talk them down.
He had underestimated Hody's malice.
Hody had been indoctrinated from birth to believe that humans were an inferior, evil species. His entire being was a hollow vessel for a vengeance he didn't even understand. In his mind, he wasn't a Fish-Man—he was the physical embodiment of his people's hatred and darkness.
To make Jinbe stand down, Hody had taken the children hostage.
To protect them, Jinbe had been forced to drop his guard.
The New Fish-Man Pirates had swarmed him, leaving him grievously wounded.
Believing Jinbe was on the brink of death, Hody hadn't finished him off. Instead, he had his blue-ringed octopus Fish-Man, Hyouzou, inject him with a deadly poison.
He wanted him to taste despair before he died.
The children around Jinbe were split into three factions.
One group idolized Hody. They watched Jinbe bleed with cold indifference. Some even wanted to strike the final blow themselves.
Another group wanted to help. The Sun Pirates were a symbol of hope in the Fish-Man District.
The last group was lost, timid, caught in the middle, swept along by the tide of violence.
Their differing ideals had turned them against each other.
'And yet...' Jinbe thought with a chilling certainty, 'if it were a human lying here... they would not have hesitated.'
Hyouzou's poison paralyzed his nerves.
Jinbe couldn't move.
He was still trying to talk the children down.
"Children, listen to me," he rasped. "Lower your weapons. Do not raise them against your own kind. Let go of your hatred. If you live with hatred in your heart, you will see only hatred in return, until it consumes you completely."
But no one was listening.
"Cough... Hey! What are you kids doing??"
An old Fish-Man had arrived with Aladdin and the rest of the Sun Pirates.
"Boss Jinbe!"
"What happened?"
"Who did this to you?"
The Sun Pirates rushed forward, easily separating the fighting children and gathering around Jinbe.
"Aladdin," Jinbe said, surprised. "What are you all doing here?"
"It was Madam Shyarly," Aladdin explained. "You were gone for too long. She was worried something had happened, so she came to us."
Jinbe's injuries were grave. If it weren't for his immense fortitude, he would already be dead.
Aladdin and the others rushed him back to the main island, to the doctors of the Ryugu Kingdom.
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Jinbe was dying??
When Jin received the news from Madam Shyarly, he and Robin were at Mermaid Cove, admiring the various mermaids.
He was completely baffled.
'What the hell? This isn't how the story is supposed to go.'
Had the flapping of a butterfly's wings just erased Jinbe from the timeline?
He and Robin, led by a flounder mermaid named Kairen, rushed to the Ryugu Palace.
The royal doctors could do nothing for Jinbe.
In his despair, Jinbe had mentioned Jin.
He couldn't afford to worry about "exposing" himself now. Besides, the real threat had already been identified.
And so, Madam Shyarly had sent for Jin.
"King Jin!"
Prince Fukaboshi, Aladdin, King Neptune—they were all there.
They had heard the full story from Madam Shyarly.
Jinbe was lying on a massive seashell bed, the blood on his body already crusted over. A sword was embedded in his chest, piercing his heart.
It was a fatal wound.
No one dared to pull it out.
And his skin had a bluish tint—a clear sign of the poison.
The venom of a blue-ringed octopus. It caused neuromuscular paralysis, respiratory failure, cardiac arrest.
"The poison has reached his heart," Jin said. "By normal means... there's no saving him."
The last glimmer of hope died.
But Madam Shyarly heard the unspoken words. "And by abnormal means?"
"There's still a chance."
Hope flared anew.
"Really?"
"How?"
Jin glanced at the other Fish-Men. "All of you, leave. How I save him is my business."
"But—" the Sun Pirates hesitated.
"What? You don't trust me?"
"Of course we don't trust you!" one of them blurted out. "You're a human! Our former captain, Fisher Tiger, died because a human refused to give him blood!"
Jin let out a short, humorless laugh. "Is that so? Aladdin, Jinbe... is that the 'truth' you've been telling them?"
King Neptune, Madam Shyarly, and Prince Fukaboshi all looked at him, confused.
Aladdin's eyes widened. "Did Wilson tell you?"
Jin just looked at him.
Aladdin closed his eyes and let out a long breath. "At the time... it wasn't that the humans refused to give blood. It was Captain Tiger... He refused to accept human blood. We lied... for the sake of his reputation."
"All of you... get out," Jinbe gasped, using the last of his strength. "I'm a dying man. Whether I live or die, it's no one's fault. If I die, Aladdin... you will be the third captain of the Sun Pirates. And... find Hody Jones. He's planning something. He won't just let this go."
"Boss Jinbe!" the Fish-Men cried out.
Jinbe turned his gaze to Jin. "I choose to trust you. My life is in your hands."
"Alright," Jin nodded.
King Neptune, Madam Shyarly, and Aladdin led their people out and sealed the doors, leaving Jin and Robin alone with Jinbe.
They were still worried, but there was nothing more they could do. They had to leave him in the hands of the human king.
Jin walked up to the seashell bed. "You're a cunning one, aren't you, Jinbe?"
"You saw through it?"
Jinbe took a deep breath. A current of water swelled within his body, gathering the poison and directing it all toward his left arm.
His mastery of Fish-Man Karate was superb.
Before the poison had fully taken hold, he had already ingested a quantity of water, using it to isolate his vital organs and control the spread of the venom.
When his left arm was completely saturated with the poison, Jinbe weakly sat up, pulled the sword from his heart, and with a single, swift motion, severed his own arm.
He had saved himself.
Robin was astonished.
'So it was all an act? You, the honest, noble Jinbe... you were faking it? But why?'
"Now," Jinbe said, his voice strained with pain, "I need your help. To stop the bleeding and treat the wound." Sweat beaded on his forehead. "The children of the Fish-Man District... Hody's madness... it showed me how terrifying hatred can be. Something has to change. Just as you said, it's time for me to do something. To try and change things, like Captain Tiger and Queen Otohime did. And trust... trust is the cornerstone of all communication. By letting you save me, you will gain their trust. You will heal the wounds of doubt left by the deaths of Captain Tiger and Queen Otohime, and you will melt the hearts of those filled with hatred. That was my plan."
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