Chapter 276: A Hug Ten Years Late! The Princess's Transformation and the Flooding of Ryugu Palace
A moment later, Tatsuya extended his finger, pointing toward the broad plaza of Ryugu Palace below.
There, the tall, elderly King was looking up at the sky, watching like a statue frozen in shock.
"Go see your father."
"To protect you, he has been waiting for you in this deep-sea palace for ten long years."
Hearing the word "father," Shirahoshi's large, watery eyes filled with tears once again.
But this time, there was a hint of determination in her gaze.
She nodded heavily.
She reached out with her giant hands and wiped the tear stains from her cheeks with great effort.
Shirahoshi took a deep breath of the fresh deep-sea air, and then she swayed her magnificent and graceful pink fishtail.
This time, summoning the courage that had just sprouted deep within her heart, she used her own strength to carve a beautiful arc through the seawater, slowly swimming toward the plaza below.
Tatsuya descended slowly, following unhurriedly behind and to the side of Shirahoshi.
At this moment, the Ryugu Palace plaza was deathly silent.
King Neptune stared blankly at the beautiful, familiar, and massive figure in the sky that was drawing closer and closer.
His weathered old eyes were filled with unbelievable shock.
Even when the golden trident representing royal authority fell heavily onto the hard stone floor with a "clang," he was completely oblivious.
The elderly father trembled all over, terrified that this was just a fragile, illusory dream.
He feared that if he blinked even slightly, his daughter, who had been imprisoned in the Hard-Shell Tower, would disappear again.
It wasn't until Shirahoshi's massive body passed through the currents and truly landed in front of him...
"Father..."
Looking at the white-haired Neptune before her, whose face was already covered in tears, the grievances and longing in Shirahoshi's heart completely erupted.
She finally couldn't hold back anymore; while crying loudly, she lunged forward without hesitation and tightly pulled her elderly father into her arms.
"Shirahoshi... my dear daughter!"
Neptune cried out, tears streaming down his face.
However, since Shirahoshi's size had grown so much over the past ten years, the intensity of this tender hug suddenly became a bit excessive.
Her massive body completely enveloped King Neptune.
Shirahoshi nearly smothered the strong Fishman King to the point of his eyes rolling back, leaving him to wave his hands desperately from within his daughter's embrace.
Ten years of fear, ten years of darkness, and ten years of separation.
In this moment, it all turned into a flood of tears, pouring out onto the wide plaza.
The Neptune Army soldiers standing by in formation saw their delicate Princess safely exit that cage-like Hard-Shell Tower.
They were all moved to tears, unhesitatingly dropping their tridents and shields to cheer loudly in the plaza.
This deeply touching scene caused even Zoro, who had just been complaining about the banquet being interrupted, to fall completely silent.
With one hand on his sword hilt, he leaned against a coral pillar, arms crossed, quietly watching the reunited father and daughter; the cold, hard corners of his mouth softened slightly.
The rest of the Straw Hat Pirates, whether it was Nami or Robin, also wore gentle smiles.
They watched the scene quietly, sharing in this miracle and emotion belonging to the deep sea.
However, the tender and tearful atmosphere of the reunion did not last long.
As her emotions gradually stabilized, Shirahoshi withdrew from her father's embrace.
Wiping her tears, her gaze inadvertently drifted past King Neptune's shoulder, and she suddenly noticed the unusual figures in the plaza.
Besides the guards she had been used to since childhood, there were actually unfamiliar human faces like Zoro, Nami, and Robin standing there!
Furthermore, on the ground not far away...
That blond human, tied up like a rice dumpling with heavy iron chains, was also looking this way with a face full of confusion.
"Eek!"
Faced with the direct stares of so many strangers, Shirahoshi's cowardly instincts were instantly reignited.
She let out a short cry of surprise, her massive body like a startled little rabbit in the forest, instinctively wanting to find cover.
In the next second, under the stunned and blank stares of everyone present.
Princess Shirahoshi, who was as massive as a small mountain and stood over a dozen meters tall...
Actually "whooshed" with incredibly agile movements and hid behind Tatsuya, who had just landed.
She tried her best to curl up her massive body, using two giant fingers to carefully and gently pinch the hem of Tatsuya's black coat.
She tilted her massive head, using Tatsuya's body as a shield to reveal one watery, timid eye, shyly peeking at the Straw Hat crew opposite her.
The scene was filled with an indescribable sense of absurdity.
Tatsuya's originally tall and upright stature appeared utterly "tiny" in front of Shirahoshi's gargantuan size.
Yet, it was this seemingly thin figure that had now become the most solid "safe harbor" for the giant mermaid princess.
Watching this absurd scene, black lines instantly appeared on Nami's forehead, and the muscles at the corners of her mouth began to twitch uncontrollably.
She pointed unceremoniously at Shirahoshi in mid-air and shouted:
"Hey! I say, Princess, do you have some kind of misunderstanding about your own size?!"
"Being that big and hiding behind someone as small as him, you're completely exposed, okay?!"
"He can't even block a single strand of hair!"
After finishing her rant at Shirahoshi, Nami turned her target toward Tatsuya, shouting crossly:
"And you, you guy!"
"You were only gone for a little while; what kind of love potion did you give the Princess?!"
"Why is she so clingy toward you?!"
Hearing Nami's rapid-fire, sharp criticism, Robin, standing to the side, could no longer contain herself.
She covered her red lips with her fair hands and laughed so hard her shoulders trembled, her eyes full of amusement.
And right in the middle of this noisy, comedic moment, another anomaly occurred.
Sanji, who was tied up tightly like a dumpling by the iron chains, finally focused his gaze on the massive figure behind Tatsuya after fully waking up.
When he clearly saw Shirahoshi's flawless face—a face so beautiful it could topple kingdoms and was enough to drive any man mad...
The perverted chef's brain instantly suffered a catastrophic crash.
"This..."
"Is this the legendary beautiful Mermaid Princess..."
Within a tenth of a second, two giant red hearts exploded from Sanji's eyes, nearly popping out of their sockets.
"BANG!!!"
A dull thud that made one's scalp tingle rang out.
The hemostatic cotton in Sanji's nostrils was instantly blown away, and two streams of crimson nosebleed sprayed out like an out-of-control high-pressure water pump, carrying peerless kinetic energy.
This powerful reactionary force sent the bound Sanji shooting straight up toward the high Glass Dome of Ryugu Palace like a launched firecracker with a "whoosh."
"This is the happiest moment of my life—!!!"
Accompanied by a shrill cry of ultimate bliss, Sanji hit the ceiling hard and then fell back down in a free fall.
Just as everyone was left with black lines on their foreheads by Sanji's shocking behavior...
King Neptune also composed his emotions and walked forward with a face full of gratitude, preparing to officially thank Tatsuya.
"RUMBLE——!!!"
In the next second, a terrifying, deafening explosion suddenly erupted from the direction of the main gate of Ryugu Palace!
A violent shockwave swept in along with the seawater, causing the ground of the entire plaza to shake violently.
"Wooo—wooo—wooo—!"
An urgent, highest-level alarm sounded throughout the magnificent deep-sea imperial palace the moment the explosion subsided.
Everyone's expression changed drastically in that instant.
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