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Chapter 9:
The Coup
Save for a few calls about minor bits of destruction, this morning of the Fishman Kingdom was slow and peaceful. King Neptune sat on his throne, regal and attentive, as he and his ministers discussed the going ons that needed discussed. King Neptune was a merman of giant height with a thick, red-orange beard and a red nose. He was shirtless, showing off a great chest of hair while a blue tail held him upright.
The information they discussed seemed unconnected, but the timing still concerned the royal. There were a string of robberies over the past couple of weeks that still remained unsolved and the New Fishman Pirates had been usually quiet the last few days. On top of that, reports of the Straw Hat Pirates' explosive entrance were beginning to surface. A call from Namur of the Whitebeard Pirates had confirmed the rumor, dispatching the three princes and the royal gondola to look for them. Though Fishman Island was smaller than most countries on the surface, it still boasted a population of over five-million. With so many humanoids running or swimming about, humans -even humans as conspicuous as the Straw Hats were said to be- can be hard to find.
With all of this controlled chaos and information flow, it stands to reason that many would not be paying attention to the world around them. And with the calm nature of the underwater nation, the guards were quite relaxed as well. In their complacency, the guards had forgotten to truly keep watch at their posts.
As a result, the palace had no warning before the attack started.
The first sign of trouble began with a bubble growing from the western side of the palace. The bubble grew rapidly, faster than the guards could react, pushing the water from the throne room as air replaced it. The few that were quick enough to try anything stabbed at the bubble with their tridents, but their actions were in vain. The bubble's coating continued to push past, forcing the fishmen to shift from using their gills to their lungs.
"Oi!" one of the ministers called, the Minister of the Right who was a seahorse fishman. "On whose orders was the throne room filled with air?! Only the king or the princes have such authority while in the castle!"
"It wasn't us, sir," a servant responded quickly. "His Majesty has not scheduled the next aeration day for another week. Word has been sent to the pump room, but there has not been time for a response."
"Intruders! Intruders in the cas-aaugh!"
As if the world were playing a cruel trick on them, the dying scream of the runner the servant had sent echoed from the western hallway. His words, or the ones he managed to vocalize, washed over those in the throne room.
This set the company of soldiers there with the king and ministers on guard, but that did not prepare them for what was to come. The humans came like a hoard of fictional undead, shambling on unsteady, zombie-like legs toward a shocked Ryugu army. Every one of them looked worse for wear, several with broken bones or bad limps but each and every one with a bleeding injury somewhere. The one in the lead, an emaciated pirate in a captain's coat that was little more than waterlogged rags, raised a cutlass dripping with fresh blood. Their half-dead countenance scared the soldiers, the fishmen swallowing while preparing for battle.
"Find it!" the pirate called. "For our lives, find it!"
"What is the meaning of this, jamon?" King Neptune demanded, getting up from his massive throne as his soldiers formed a line between him and the invaders. He readied his giant trident, silently hoping he would not need to use it. "Identify yourselves! Who are you? How did you get in here, jamon?"
"Lower the bridge!" another of the humans yelled, this one in the ruined clothes of a Paradise merchant. "Do it or he'll kill us!"
"Who will?" the Minister of the Left, a catfish fishman, questioned.
None of the humans answered the king or the minister as the first row of them came into range of the front line of soldiers. The desperate sailors threw themselves into the fray with a primal scream, bloodshot eyes wild with fear at something that wasn't there but most certainly a threat. Every time the soldiers were forced to cut down one of the humans, it seemed like another two replaced them, a stream of starved people coming from the west corridor.
"Your Majesty!" the Minister of the Left called, having to raise his voice to be heard over the clang of weapons. "Something is wrong with them! No person fights like this! It's like they never end! How did they get here?"
Another limping group of humans flowed from the hallway, joining the fray.
"The west wing!" the Minister of the Right realized. "Your Majesty, these humans are coming from the direction of Princess Shirahoshi's room!"
"Shirahoshi?" Neptune asked, only for the implication to hit him a moment later. His eyes widened, crazed with parental fear. "Shirahoshi!"
Taking his trident in hand, King Neptune charged into the battle. Humans flinched, not knowing how to react as the goliath of a merman bore down on them. The king himself gave a battle cry of "Jamon!", sweeping his weapon across the small army of pirates. Humans and a couple soldiers went flying from the force, King Neptune plowing into the vacuum left behind in their absence. His shadow loomed over the battle, eyes seeming to glow.
"You will regret entering my castle!" the ruler of the ocean floor roared. "Jamon! Jamon! Jamon!"
A feminine scream echoed through the palace, the voice causing every fishman in the area, the king included, to turn their head. Their communal reaction was all the distraction the mob of desperate humans needed to spread out, overwhelming the defending army with numbers to the point where they could not limit the intruders' movements. With such an opportunity, it was only a matter of moments before they found what they were ordered to.
"I found it!" the human yelled, pulling the coral lever in his hand before any of the soldiers could stop him. Nothing in the room changed, but the quiet droning of machines told the fishmen that the palace was now connected to Fishman Island and that whomever had sent the humans was on their way.
Such a thing happening at all, much less as quickly as it did, was a black mark against the Ryugu army, but they had simply been outnumbered and caught off guard. The absence of the three princes down on the island looking for their guests of honor must have been the opportunity their unknown adversary had been waiting for.
King Neptune, however, could not find it in himself to care about that at the moment. His daughter -the one the Pirate King, Madam Sharley, and the Voice of the World had all predicted as being an integral part of positive change in the future over 20 years ago and, more importantly, his precious not-so-little girl- was in danger and he needed to protect her. Releasing another yell, he swiped his trident through the humans in his way and charged toward their origins.
"Move or I will move you, jamon!"
"Stop him!" another of the pesky humans ordered, said man throwing himself onto the tail of the king. Neptune barely noticed the extra weight, such was difference between the giant merman's strength and the weakened human's mass. The call, however, did attract the attentions of others without a foe to fight, the humans swarming to the king in a desperate bid to please whatever leader had sent them here in the first place. They climbed up onto the royal, tugging at his beard and hair, while pulling is fins and still more knocked the crown from his head.
"Release me at once, jamon!" Neptune demanded, flinging humans from his body. They would not stay down, however, despite the injuries they sustained. A pair of merchant-clothed individuals with swords they could barely lift jabbed the weapons into the king's tail, drawing blood from between the scales. "You maggots! Move aside, jamon!"
"We can't let you go!" another human sobbed, tears running down his face to land on his soaked marine uniform. "He's too strong! I'm sorry, but I want to live!"
The king batted the bawling marine grunt and his shaking dagger to the side, but his body was starting to sag under the weight of all the humans clinging to him. He had barely arrived at the entrance to the west wing, each push forward a struggle through the surface-dwellers and his lack of legs, when a new voice entered the fray, bringing the fight to a grinding halt.
"Well, well," the voice commented, turning attention to the double-doored entrance where another company of fishmen had appeared. "Honestly, I was expecting to have to wait longer for you dogs to do what you were told, but I guess you aren't quite as useless as I'd thought you were."
"W-We did what you wanted," one of the humans, the former pirate captain, stuttered, a new gash on his right arm bleeding. "Please, let us go like you promised to."
The fishman he was addressing didn't bother looking his way, several drops of water forming in his palm before he slashed it through the air. The water droplets raced toward the human, shooting through his skull before he knew what had happened. The other humans cowered as the new corpse dropped, a shocked, betrayed expression frozen on the face forever.
"And who are you that dares to enter my palace, jamon?" King Neptune demanded, ripping the shocked humans off his body and leveling his trident at the murderer.
"Wait, I recognize him," the Minister of the Left muttered. "Of course! Hody Jones! You served as a member of the Ryugu Army! How dare you attack us! Have you no loyalty? No shame?"
"Loyalty? Shame?" Hody laughed. "What king of joke is that? I never had either to begin with. I only joined the army all those years ago for the training it gave me. Now that I'm stronger, I can take the throne and rise to power where I belong. Fishman Island has no need for a weakling who wants to coexist with humans." He spat the final word like it was a poison, a foul taste in his mouth. "That's why I'm taking the throne from you, Neptune."
"You think you're a match for me, jamon?" the king asked. He raised his trident, bringing it down to stab the traitor "Ridiculous! You are hereby banished for treason, jamon! Leave my kingdom at once, Hody Jones!"
Hody reacted instantly, tossing a pair of pills into his mouth before raising his arm. His hand caught the king's trident by its central point, a pressure wave exploding from its sudden stop. The king strained, trying to push his weapon further, but in vain.
"What?" he demanded. Never had his size and brute strength ever been negated so thoroughly by such a smaller opponent.
"As I said, you're weak," Hody grunted, snapping the point off. "Capture them!"
Coming at his call, a wave of New Fishman Pirates raced from behind their captain, quickly overpowering the tired and demoralized soldiers. They were wrapped in rope and disarmed, unable to fight back. Fishman pirates swarmed over the king like their human prisoners had done only moments ago, binding him in thick chains.
"No, please!" the voice of the princess begged, closer now. Those assembled turned as the Mermaid Princess was dragged into the throne room, her wrists cuffed with an oversized pair of metal handcuffs. Dragging her was Coribou with Caribou and Vander Decken beside him. "Please let me go!"
The Mermaid Princess was a beauty, long pink hair and a full, beautiful face. Her hair was styled so that it almost looked like a pair of rabbit's ears and her tail was vertically striped in a pattern of pink and red. Her blue eyes were teary, large drops leaving a trail of tears in her wake as she was dragged along. She had inherited her father's size, making the young girl of 16 tower over everyone save the king, which only served to showcase the immense strength of the human pulling on the cuffs.
"Shirahoshi!" Neptune fretted, his arms straining against the metal holding them behind his back. "Decken! I should have known you would be a part of this, jamon!"
"Baaaahohoho!" the captain of the Flying Dutchman laughed. "But of course, father-in-law! You've kept me and my darling Shirahoshi apart for ten years now, but a love as strong as ours can't be broken by something as small as a father's temporary disapproval!"
"But I don't want to marry you," Shirahoshi protested weakly, only for her to cry out as Coribou gave a tug on her chain.
"There's no need to deny yourself any longer," Vander Decken insisted, a glint of madness in his eye. "I'll take care of you. I'm quite rich with all the treasure I've taken over the last decade you know. Baaahohoho!"
"Get away from her!" Heedless of his pride as a royal, Neptune bodily threw himself at Decken, the madman giving a cry of fear as he scrambled out of the way. The giant merman hit the floor with a resounding bang, crushing Caribou and Coribou beneath his bulk. "Don't you worry, Shirahoshi. I'll protect you, jamon."
"F-Father," the girl whispered, only for her to gasp as a sticky, brown goo started leaching out from underneath the king. Neptune didn't have time to react before he was thrown away from his daughter. Where he had been stood Caribou, the man reforming from the muck that now stretched across the floor.
"This has been more fun than I thought it would!" Caribou laughed, leaving his swamp out in case he needed it. Coribou rose from the muck, unharmed but blinking with confusion, not unlike his regular state of being.
"Just do what I told you to, human," Hody grunted, turning to his men scattered across the room. "Someone find the snail connected to the alert system. I have an announcement to make to the island."
"This is madness, Hody!" the Minister of the Left yelled. "The people will never accept you as a king! No tyrannical overlord wannabe like you ever lasts long!"
Hody blinked, frowning slightly before stepping up to the minister. A look of rage crossed his face for a moment, the pirate captain pulling a sword from a soldier's belt and stabbing the catfish fishman Minister in the stomach. He gasped, instinctively curling himself around the blade before falling over, blood slowly pooling under his body.
"Does anyone else have anything to say?" Hody asked.
"You will never get away with this, jamon!" Neptune warned them, twisting around so he could glare at the intruders. "My sons will never let this stand, nor will Moby Dick. You cannot beat a Yonko, jamon."
"That's where you're wrong," the smaller fishman replied, a sinister grin crossing his face. "It might cost a few years of my life, but I have the power to rival any of the big names in the world, and I will use this power to flaunt the superiority of the Fishmen to all those humans up there who think themselves better than us. The ones you foolishly want to become friends with. Fishmen belong at the top! Not trapped down here where we are isolated from the world. I will bring us to the surface and claim it for our own. By force! Now break the doors and flood the palace. I'm sick of looking at these whimpering humans. Drown them."
"But you said-!"
Hody grabbed his trident, stabbing the protesting marine through the chest. The doors cracked and shattered, releasing a torrent of water into the room. Humans screamed, trying to swim upward to maintain their lives even a little longer while the New Fishman Pirates laughed. Vander Decken, Coribou, and Caribou surrounded themselves in a protective bubble, also laughing at the panicking humans.
"Captain, the snail."
"Good" Hody grinned, accepting the snail from his subordinate as he watched the last panicked throws of the humans with glee. "I have an announcement to make, and some revenge to take."
Gyoncorde Plaza
"Check check," a deep voice called, all motion in the plaza coming to a stop. "Am I live? Perfect. Greetings, residents of Fishman Island and all unwanted guests. Talking to you is Hody Jones, captain of New Fishman Pirates. And by the end of the day, that will be King Hody to all of you. Now I'm sure you all are wondering what I mean. Rest assured that your beloved king and princess are not too harmed, and they will remain that way as long as I get what I want. On this island currently is a certain human crew of pirates known as the Straw Hats, the same group that destroyed the dreams of my role model, Arlong of the Sun Pirates. When all of them are at my feet, captured or dead, then I will return King Neptune and his family safely. If you fail to do so, I will kill them all and take the title by force. People of Fishman Island, you have until midnight. May the hunt begin!"
The Straw Hats in the plaza froze, every eye around them now staring at them, though the emotions within varied. Some held shock, as if they had not recognized the humans that had been nearby. Others held clear hostility, though those were tempered with caution since the Straw Hats were known even in the depths in no small part to the words of Hachi and Namur. Still others held no emotion at all, as if they were still trying to comprehend the announcement that had just gone out to the whole island. Still more had pity, though it was anyone's guess what motivated such a reaction. There was a pause, but the speakers through which the voice came still gave a crackle, indicating the transmission was still going.
"It has come to my attention that some people may believe I'm bluffing," the voice of Hody announced. "This should show you otherwise." There was movement from the other side of the call, followed my the strangled, dying gasps of several people.
"My men!" a low, booming voice shouted. "Hody Jones, you bastard! They have nothing to do with this!"
"I'm just making a point, you washed-up giant. You lot down there better bring me the heads of the Straw Hats or the humans better come themselves. Otherwise I'll kill a soldier every ten minutes until I get what I want. Chop chop."
The sound of the call being shut off echoed across the island, giving way to utter silence as everyone tried to understand what just happened.
"Captain?" Coby called slowly as a few bystanders started approaching the group. The Ryugu soldiers with them seemed torn, duty toward their king fighting against the orders they had been given before the royals' lives had been put in danger. The pirates and Kaku responded defensively, forming a circle with Camie, Pappagu, and Ace in the middle. "I think we might have a problem."
"What are we supposed to do here?" Grace questioned. "They're civvies. We can't fight them or they'll die. Some of them, at least."
"Billy isn't big enough to carry us all," Nami muttered. The citizens were beginning to close in around them, those who were clearly sympathetic making no moves to stop their fellow fishmen and merfolk. The crowd surrounded the pirates, pinning them inside the plaza with no clear way out.
Suddenly, a giant, feminine hand bloomed from the ground below the pirates, holding them all in its palm. An arm soon followed, bending at the elbow before throwing the group. Fishmen stared, shocked and surprised, as the pirates made an unexpected retreat via random giant hand to the top of the sheer cliffs that ringed the plaza.
"Holy cow!" Usopp gasped, unable to properly balance.
"Weeeee!" Ace laughed, hands up as if on a ride as Billy swooped in to scoop up Nami, Ace in her arms. This was just like the big roller coaster thing on the Saba-place!
"Well, that's a wrench in our plans," Merry offered, using rope to pull Usopp and Chopper to the cliff where she and Robin were standing while the others made their own landings, Nami and Ace on Billy's back. The mermaid that had been in their company, Mina, was nowhere to be found. "I don't know about you guys, but I want to fight this Hody guy."
"You're still as reckless as ever, Merry!" Usopp yelled, getting up from where he'd landed on his face. "We just got here!"
"Anyway, good news bad news," Merry continued, ignoring Usopp's fretting. "Good news, I can feel Sanji again and he's somewhere on the south side. Also, Franky and Sunny are moving pretty fast, so they're in the water by now. Bad news, this." She gestured to the plaza and their surroundings.
"Come on, guys," Luffy cut in. "Our path is obvious."
"What do you have in mind, Captain?" Brook asked.
"That Hood person is threatening the island because he's got the king and princess, right? So if we just take them from him, he won't have any power." Luffy shrugged, as if that answer was the most obvious answer in the world. "So, we'll find out where he is and kick his ass."
"Kick ass! Kick ass!" Little Ace echoed.
"Luffy, you moron!" Nami yelled, punching her husband over the head with the hand she wasn't using to hold their swearing son. "What have I said about language around Ace?"
"Oh, language!" Ace babbled. "That's ʎɜχ ɭøɻɛ! And hand is ɻɛʁ!"
"Very good, Ace," Robin complemented, bending at the waist so she was eye level with the toddler in his mother's arms. She held up a finger, booping Ace on the nose. "But watch your pronunciation. It's øɻɛʁ, ok? ɻɛʁ is-"
"Six, right?" Merry interrupted.
"Wrong," Robin frowned. "It's forest, not hand or six."
"Ok, Auntie-sensei! øɻɛʁ!"
"Is now really the best time for a lesson?" Amy questioned. "I think we have bigger fish to fry."
"Your timing is spot on, Amy," Coby cut in. "Though I'm not a fan of the accuracy." He pointed upward to a cloud in the sky. Or at least, the pirates thought it was a cloud. Their assumptions were proven to be incorrect as the shape lowered, revealing itself to be a massive sort of eel wrapped in bubbles and with a sort of structure built around its middle, a wooden sphere and an open sitting pavilion under a red roof of cloth all surrounded in a bubble. Three separate figures popped their heads out from above the creature, their gazes quickly finding the humans and extras below.
"Straw Hats, LA-TE-DOE!" the figure on the left all but sang, pointing their way.
"We need to get them!" the figure on the right nodded, doing a sort of dance. "Akamambo!"
"Straw Hats, halt!" the figure in the center yelled at them, the shadow of a trident all but shining in the skylight.
"Though we outnumber them, discretion may be the better of valor," Brook suggested. He pulled his guitar out, quickly coaxing a soothing lullaby from its strings. The eel, the trio on its back, and a fair number of citizens in the plaza below felt their eyes grow heavy without their permission, about half succumbing to sleep within seconds. The oarfish fell from the sky, slamming into the corner of the cliff and knocking its passengers loose before sliding off into the plaza below. Luckily, no one was underneath it. The center merman, a buff youth with blue hair that matched his tail, was fighting off the sleep that had claimed his two traveling companions.
"Usopp Hammer!" Usopp yelled, smacking the merfolk's head while Chopper simultaneously called "Rosario Hoof!" The pair of surprise attacks landed in perfect sync, knocking the unprepared youth into unconsciousness.
"What have you done?!" Pappagu gaped, pointing at the three unresponsive mermen at the pirates' feet. The one on the left was short and round with red hair, the one on the right almost reedy with orange skin. "You just assaulted the princes of Fishman Island!"
"WHAT?!" Nami, Brook, Usopp, and Chopper (still in his Arm Point) screamed, the latter three hugging each other. Chopper quickly got his wits about him, wiggling out of the PanicHug™ to shift back into his Brain Point and check the princes' vitals.
"A prince is a king's kid, right?" Luffy blinked as their doctor confirmed that they were only sleeping or, in the case of the blue-haired prince, not seriously injured. "Oops. Oh well. We'll tell the king sorry when we save him."
"Daddy's gonna be a king," Ace supplied helpfully. "That makes me a prince! Giihihihi! Prince Ace~, Prince Ace~! Sounds like Princess~, Prince Ace~! Giihihihi!"
Prince Ace~! Prince Ace~! Rum echoed in Gin's mind, slightly out of sync with the boy and for no other reason than to annoy Gin, not that anyone else could hear it.
"This 's goin' nowhere," said monk sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he ignored the voice in his head with practiced ease. "We're out'n tha open and can't stay. Camie, where's this Hody Jones guy?"
"Probably the palace," the mermaid said. "That's where royal announcements come from, I think."
"So we need to get to the palace," Luffy summarized. "That's easy enough. We'll go this way!" He turned and began marching in a random direction.
"You're as bad as Zoro-sensei, Captain," Coby muttered, grabbing Luffy as he walked by. "I don't know how good your Observation is, but mine is telling me that there's something way above us, and I've got a feeling I know what it is."
"That's-" Pappagu began.
"That's the Ryugu Palace!" Camie offered, cutting the starfish off. "You can't get there without an invitation, and not even Pappagu has been there before even though he's rich."
"Camie..." Pappagu cried. "I don't know whether to be annoyed or flattered." The pirates readily ignored him.
"Clearly, that is incorrect," Robin responded. "Hody and his band reached the palace without invitations. I see no reason why we cannot do the same."
"Like a music band?" Ace misunderstood.
"Ok, but how to we get there?" Grace questioned as Nami explained the word usage of 'band' as a group to her son.
"I... may have an idea," Coby began, glancing over the edge of the cliff. He and the others ignored the ringing of a snail in the in the blue prince's bag. "Pappagu, you aren't going to like it, though."
Den and Franky turned to each other as the last echoes of the announcement died away, the world around them still. Both metal man and merman blinked at the other, as if waiting for something. The air grew tense around them.
"So..." Franky began. "Uhh..."
"What are you doing standing around for?" Den questioned. "Locals know where we are, so hurry up and get on the water!"
"Oh, right!" Franky nodded, relief in his voice. He pulled a lever, panels on Sunny's hull opening to expose her paddlewheels to the light. "Let's super get going, Sunny!"
Not quite old or experienced enough to grasp the danger of the situation but knowing that it was her time to act, Sunny gave a roar and started moving, her paddles grinding against the sand. It was slow work, for Sunny was a heavy ship and the sand of the beach was fine and prone to give way, but the Brig Sloop reached the water just as a group of citizens and soldiers crested the hill behind them.
"They're getting away!" a voice yelled, but Franky and Den paid them no attention.
Sunny jolted as she shifted into full waters, none of her weight now supported by earth. The buoyancy was a welcome change and the ship bellowed out a laugh that took the citizens by surprise.
"Raaahahahaha! Bye-bye!"
"Which way is the Sea Forest, Den?!" Franky called, a surge of pride welling up at Sunny's outburst. Apparently, it had been the stress of being beached and losing Sanji that had limited her young mindset. Now that Sunny was in the water and with a member of the crew, she was back in top form, language pronunciation -if not full vocabulary- included. Idly, the cyborg compared his pride to that of a parent watching their child. Was the situation that different? Franky created the Thousand Sunny in every way, from blueprints to building. Even with Iceberg's help, Franky was Sunny's shipwright, but how does a living ship view that bond?
"Head south!" Den yelled, his answer cutting off the cyborg's mental questions. "I'll warn you, it's not going to be a fun ride unless you've got a bubble coral. It will take us almost 15 minutes after we submerge and the currents take over to get us to the Sea Forest."
"My workshop is airtight and most everything else is waterproof," Franky responded, turning the rudder to correct their path. "Once we start going down, we can jump in there and I'll show you what I'm working on. We can trust Sunny to follow the currents."
"Sounds good to me."
"Raah!" Sunny called. She zigzagged, whipping the rudder back and forth on her own accord. Ropes shot down from above, smacking against the top of the water before coming back up and repeating the process.
"What is it, Sunny?" Franky demanded, letting the ship do as she pleased because there must be a reason.
"People!" the ship answered simply. "In the water! Attack rudder and try to climb!"
"I didn't think they would go so far," Den commented, leaning over the railing to get a look at their attackers. They were mostly untrained citizens, though one or two Ryugu soldiers seemed to be directing them. That said, they had never tried fighting something like a sentient ship before. Still, the Sunny would have to shake them off before reaching the current or the people would know their hiding place.
"Give me a long rope!" Den yelled, a coil falling into his hands. "I'm going in."
"You don't have to-" Franky tried, though he seemed stumped on what to do with the assault. He couldn't do anything that would hurt civilians, much less anything deadly, severely limiting his options.
"I'll be back in a moment," the merman grinned. "The only thing in the ocean that comes close to a mermaid's speed is that of a merman.
His piece said, Den dove over the side, hitting the water with ne'er a splash. Running to the side, Franky caught glimpses of the brown of Den's tail as the brother of his mentor literally swam circles around the attacking group. The rope pulled tighter with each pass until nearly every citizen was clustered together inside the rope. Unable to get the room needed to swim, the bundle of merfolk and fishmen started sinking, those who had escaped the rope being forced to try to support those trapped.
Den returned to the deck with a powerful leap and a smirk, shaking water off himself and recovering his bubble tube.
"That should keep them busy long enough for us to get away. Hahaha!"
"As Tom would say, you did that with gusto!" Franky responded. "Super!"
"Current ahead!" Sunny warned, picking up speed as the water below her started moving.
"Thanks, Sunny," Franky nodded, retracting the ship's paddlewheels and making a slight adjustment to their course. "How's this super gonna work, Den?"
"It's not going to be fun. So..."
"That no-good, hateful, little lowlife!" Namur yelled, the last vestiges of Hody's demand fading into the air around them. Namur felt an eye twitch, the fishman turning to drive a fist into the closest surface. The hole he put into the cliff beside him smoked faintly, cracks zigzagging up its side until a section of it to the left came loose, the stone sliding down freely until it hit the sand and water with a puff. "When I get my hands on him...!"
"I don't like this," Sanji agreed, much more calm as he tried to understand everything, still smoking as he usually did. "So this Hody Jones guy has taken hostages from the royal family, those of the king and the p..." He trailed off, his eyes going unfocused as his brain finally started catching up to what he was saying. "Th... The... Th-The M-M-M-Mermaid P-P-Princess!"
He exploded into a tornado of hearts and noodle-like flailing, his mind forming a dozen and a half different images of what the princess may look like and how Sanji was going to save her to become her knight in shining armor.
"You stop that," the Whitebeard Pirate warned, rounding on the human. "Straw Hat or not, Princess Shirahoshi is a national treasure to our race. I won't let you-"
"Shirahoshi!" Sanji gasped, turning to the light in the sky as if all his prayers had been answered at the same time. His eyes turned to hearts, beating with the rhythm of his own. "A name so melodic must belong to a woman of unequal beauty!"
"Get it together!" Namur yelled, punching Sanji over the head. The hit drove the cook's face into the sand. "Princess Shirahoshi is called the most beautiful mermaid in the kingdom for good reason, but we have much, much bigger things to deal with than you trying to sign your own death warrant by making gaga eyes at our princess from across the island. She's only 16, anyway!" He took a breath, trying to calm himself so he could think about the situation rationally, a skill that had served him well many times over as a pirate of notoriety in the oceans that made no sense. "Hody must have King Neptune and the princess held in the royal palace; he couldn't hide them anywhere else and that's where the announcement came from. What we need is a way up there. Luckily for us, I have some connections that should get us there."
Namur turned to his snail, dialing another number into its shell. The invertebrate's eyes perked up, though they were unfocused as it tried to connect with one certain member of its kind. The snail rang for nearly a minute, no answer forthcoming.
"Oh not them, too," Namur growled, his eye twitching as he tried to not take his anger out on the poor creature. "Damn! Something must have happened to them. I hope they're okay."
"So that's a bust, then?" Sanji asked, raising one eyebrow. "I don't suppose you have any other brilliant ideas, do you. I could Sky Walk my way up, but I don't think I could make it that high alone, much less carrying you."
"As a matter of fact, I do have one more contact," Namur answered with a touch of defensiveness. "We'll have to meet him in person and I don't think I'll like the method, but he should have something that can help us get up to the water bridge connecting Ryugu Palace to the island. As a pirate, you might take interest in Fishman Island's underground, the organization of Challenger Deep."
End of Chapter 9
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-SwordOfTheGods