Chapter 689: SFDI - 689
Fish-Man Island is an island enclosed by a double layer of bubbles, with seawater between the two membranes.
For pirates, if they intruded illegally, they would fall between the two membranes, ultimately leading to their ship being destroyed and their lives lost.
The normal entrance to Fish-Man Island, however, has not just one layer of bubbles but also a sea current that allows ships to pass.
The circular entrance with the seahorse statue was quite conspicuous, and Drake quickly located it.
But suddenly, several large shadows appeared in his vision.
The group turned their heads and found several strange creatures behind them.
These creatures, about ten meters long, had the heads of lions, giraffes, and rhinoceroses, but their bodies were shaped like marine life.
These are the unique creatures of the pirate world, sea beasts—as their name suggests, they are beasts that live in the sea.
Most sea beasts are like this, as if pieced together from wild animals and torpedoes. The sea lions here are truly "sea" "lions."
However, these creatures were not Drake’s main focus; he was more interested in the people riding these sea beasts.
Strictly speaking, there are two races on Fish-Man Island: Fish-Men, who have human upper bodies and fish lower bodies, and Merfolk, who have human bodies with fish-like characteristics.
Riding the sea beasts were both Fish-Men and Merfolk, but these individuals also exuded an aura of malice.
A Hammerhead Shark Fish-Man riding a sea giraffe said, "Huh? It’s strange that humans can swim here!"
A Cigar Shark Fish-Man riding a sea rhinoceros said, "They look so annoying. Should we take care of them?"
Saying this, they looked at the Blue-Ringed Octopus Merfolk riding a sea lion, clearly waiting for the opinion of the strongest among them.
The Octopus Merfolk took a swig of alcohol, let out a burp, and looked at Drake’s group with drunken, hazy eyes, saying, "Let’s first ask if they’re willing to join us! Didn’t Hody Jones say he wanted to recruit humans? These guys look pretty strong."
Drake couldn’t stand it anymore and said, "Hey! Have you guys talked enough to yourselves? I’m not interested in getting entangled with you. Get out of the way before I lose my temper!"
Drake had already noticed the tattoos on these individuals. Most of them bore two patterns: one was a jagged shark, and the other was a human figure with its head and body separated within a sun pattern.
An event that shocked the entire sea once occurred: the Fish-Man adventurer Fisher Tiger climbed from the Red Line to Mary Geoise with his bare hands and freed numerous Celestial Dragon slaves imprisoned there.
After that, Fish-Men and Merfolk who followed Fisher Tiger, along with the slaves he rescued, jointly formed the Sun Pirates.
To cover the brand of the Celestial Dragon’s Hoofprint on the slaves, the Sun Pirates all bore the sun mark on their bodies.
Later, Fisher Tiger was betrayed by humans and died refusing a blood transfusion from humans. The Sun Pirates then split up.
Jinbe inherited Tiger’s hopes and wishes, becoming the second captain of the Sun Pirates and a Shichibukai.
However, a faction of Fish-Men and Merfolk led by Arlong, who harbored even greater hatred for humans, split off and formed the Arlong Pirates, persecuting many human islands in the East Blue, including Nami’s hometown.
The jagged shark mark on these individuals was precisely the symbol of the Arlong Pirates.
Fish-Men and humans are subspecies branches of humanity, but not only Celestial Dragons, even many ordinary humans hold discriminatory views towards Merfolk and Fish-Men, considering them fish rather than humans.
The consequence of this discrimination was a widening gap between the two races. It also made Arlong’s rhetoric—that Fish-Men, with their superior strength and ability to survive underwater, were a superior race while humans were inferior—quite popular among some extreme Fish-Men and Merfolk.
Especially in Fish-Man District, a large number of Fish-Men and Merfolk agreed with this viewpoint.
Fish-Man District was originally a place where the Ryugu Kingdom housed orphans, but due to chaotic management, it eventually became a gathering place for criminal elements, filled with lawless thugs.
The former boss of Fish-Man District was Fisher Tiger, but Jinbe, who inherited Tiger’s position, was ostracized by another faction of Fish-Men for his overly mild attitude towards humans.
This faction of Fish-Men and Merfolk identified more with Arlong, and Hody Jones was their leader.
Unlike Arlong, Hody Jones was more malicious, cruel, and extreme.
To create conflict between Fish-Man Island and humans, he even shot and killed Queen Otohime of Ryugu Kingdom and framed human pirates for it, causing the plan for Fish-Man Island’s relocation to be aborted.
The second symbol on these Fish-Men and Merfolk was the mark of the New Fish-Man Pirates he formed.
Hearing Drake’s refusal, the Hammerhead Shark Fish-Man said, "A mere inferior race, daring to be so arrogant! This is the bottom of the sea, our world of Fish-Men...!"
Drake had nothing to say to people like this, nor did he want to listen to their nonsense. His body moved like an arrow released from a bow, shooting forward and leaving a trail of bubbles in the seawater.
The sea lion roared, but as Drake approached, black-red lightning flashed from his eyes, directly silencing its roar, and Drake’s punch deformed its face, sending it tumbling to the side.
Although fighting underwater, with his strength somewhat diminished by the water, Drake’s punch was still more than a sea beast could withstand.
The Octopus Merfolk descended, but not forgetting to take a swig from his sake gourd. At the same time, he drew the sword at his waist and slashed at Drake.
Drake raised his hand and caught the blade, then kicked the Octopus Merfolk away.
Fighting in the sea was somewhat disorienting. That Octopus Merfolk used its flexible body to absorb most of the force from Drake’s attack, so although it flew quite far, it wasn’t seriously injured.
Drake twisted his body and grabbed the horn of the charging sea rhinoceros, swinging the giant sea rhinoceros to smash into other charging sea beasts.
The other Fish-Men intended to attack, but they were sent flying by Erza, who had changed into the Sea King Armor, and Juvia, who used water magic.
After dealing with these individuals, Drake led everyone towards the entrance of Ryugu Kingdom on Fish-Man Island.
As the first antagonist of the new arc in the original story, Hody Jones and the New Fish-Man Pirates he led were not particularly high-class.
These people believed Fish-Men were superior to humans, yet they failed to see the reality that humans were far stronger than Fish-Men.
Hody Jones believed his ability to overturn the status of humans and Fish-Men relied on potent drugs, which could only be described as laughably foolish.
Drake felt that even bothering with such people lowered his own standing. He only hoped Hody Jones’s fish brain would clear up and he wouldn’t bring trouble upon himself.
Drake hadn’t traveled all the way to Fish-Man Island just to fight people like him.
The next Chapter is under review. I have posted it again; please skip to the revised version!
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