Cover
From the ship decks of the world, part 8: “Syrop
Onion, Carrot, and Pepper have grown older. They are reading delightedly about the return of the Straw Hat Pirates in the newspaper. Peppers as well as Carrot both wear the symbol of the Usopp Pirates on their clothing.
Storyline
Fish-Man Island 16 years ago: A robber flees from the army after a raid with a hostage. Queen Otohime is also among them, swimming after the thief as the fastest. She simply dodges his bullets. The goldfish mermaid finally catches the robber and knocks him to the ground, but Otohime screams in pain immediately after. Her hand is already broken due to her fragility. However, she will not be stopped, and despite the warning of the Minister to the Right, she attempts to beat reason into the criminal. The latter stole for his ten starving children, but the Queen believes those cannot be happy with things bought by stolen money. Shortly after, however, Otohime begins to cry and apologizes because although they live in the same kingdom, she cannot understand his feelings. The robber also starts crying after this, as he had seen no other way out. His store was robbed and burned down and there was nothing he could do for his children. Otohime then slaps him again, saying that this is no excuse. Again, however, she immediately starts apologizing again, since the royal family has to take responsibility themselves. Finally, the thief is led away with confidence restored from the queen’s words. The residents are delighted with her highness and she is also very popular among the children. A few come running to her, but she slaps the foremost one in the face as snot runs from his nose. Shortly afterwards, however, the two lie crying in each other’s arms.
The passionate and beloved Otohime often descended into the cities to speak to the people. Thus, she wanted the Ryuuguu Kingdom to move across the surface of the water, and they themselves take the first step towards humanity. She knows that the inhabitants have only bad experiences with those, but she also understands that her race has only met a small fraction of the humans. That’s why she has signed petitions, but most of the population rejects it. Jinbe doesn’t think much of her ideas either.
Otohime eventually comes back home to her children later. Shirahoshi was still a baby at the time, while the princes were also just little boys. The queen promises she will change the future her children will live in.
At the same time, the minister on the left demands that Otohime have her speeches recorded and that she not appear before the people herself, for her own safety. Neptune, however, denies this, since the queen owns Kenbunshoku and, according to her own statement, distance makes the heart grow cold. The minister is still concerned, however, as there are many pirates roaming the island and if Whitebeard’s protection is lifted, it could end badly. The king explains that his wife is prepared for that as well. The world she dreams of was also sought centuries ago by the ancestors of the fish people, but the attempt only ended in regret.
One day, the then 25-year-old Arlong, who was already captain of the Arlong Pirates at the time, stole one of Otohime’s petitions from a soldier and attacked the civil servant. However, Jinbe, who was then a member of the Neptune Army, stops him. While he doesn’t think much of collecting the signatures, he knows it is very important to the Queen. Arlong is delighted to see Jinbe again and calls him an old friend from the orphanage, the “Fish Man District”. However, the whale shark fish man only insults his counterpart. Suddenly, someone announces that the adventurer Fisher Tiger has returned, which visibly delights Jinbe and Arlong. After the greeting, however, Tiger has to leave right away, as he has something to settle at the Ryuuguu Palace.
In the beginning, the Fishmen’s District was a huge institution that took care of orphans. But soon corruption began to seep into it, the managers were evil and incorrigible persons. It became a lawless district where the outcasts of the island gathered. At the same time, the head of the orphanage Fisher Tiger left the island as an adventurer, the next oldest Jinbe became a member of the Neptune army, the rather ill-tempered Arlong drifted from then on as a pirate at the bottom of the sea, and the cruelest of them all, Makro, became a kidnapper of fish-men. But those close friends hardly believed their ears when they heard that Tiger was responsible for the attack on the “Holy Land” Mary Geoise. He was known simultaneously as a hero who had freed the slaves and as a nefarious criminal. His former brothers dropped everything and joined him. Each of them got the sun tattoo so that no one could tell the former slaves from the rest, and the Sun Pirates was formed. Numerous naval pursuers were sunk by these seemingly invincible pirates!
| Manga volumes | Fish-Man Island Arc (Manga) |
