Fish-Man Bright

In the latter half of the Grand Line, in the sea known as the New World, lay an island called Punk Hazard.

It was an uninhabited island of rolling mountains. Though it was covered in lush forests, no people had ever lived there. Because it was close to a Marine base, even pirates were unwilling to land there.

But in truth, that was merely the surface.

Beneath the island stood a vast experimental facility. It was the base of the Marine Science Unit, where all kinds of cutting-edge research unknown to the outside world were quietly underway.

Deep within the base, in a room made entirely of metal, Bright was drenched in sweat as he did squats.

Bright looked very young, and he truly was. He was only sixteen that year, yet already stood over three meters tall. He was large and powerfully built, but not at all bulky.

His skin was a little too fair, softening even his rugged features somewhat.

He seemed to have been exercising for a long time. His clothes were completely soaked through with sweat, yet he continued squatting and standing like a machine.

The reason he had kept doing that movement was simple. He wore handcuffs on his wrists and shackles on his ankles, so he could only manage relatively simple exercises.

Bright was certainly not at this research base as a researcher. On the contrary, he had been brought here as a research subject.

"Huff—"

At last, Bright's body reached its limit. He collapsed onto the floor with a heavy thud, gasping for breath. It took quite a while before his breathing gradually calmed.

"I wonder how Arlong and the others are doing. It probably isn't easy for them, considering they're in Impel Down."

He leaned awkwardly against the wall, muttering to himself.

The reason it was awkward was that a sharp dorsal fin pierced through his clothes on his back, preventing him from fully leaning against the wall.

A closer look would reveal three slits on each side of Bright's neck, extremely sharp teeth, and webbing between his partially visible fingers.

"Seriously, do I even have the room to worry about them? I can barely save myself."

Bright muttered under his breath.

I'm probably the worst transmigrator ever, aren't I?

He had only remembered it not long ago: he was originally a transmigrator, someone from a world entirely different from this sea.

And the world he was now in was the setting of a manga he had followed throughout his previous life.

Transmigration really existed, and he had even transmigrated into the world of a manga.

All he could say was that it was truly bizarre.

In this life, Bright came from Fish-Man Island, a kingdom ten thousand meters beneath the sea that connected the first and second halves of the Grand Line, where fish-men and mermaids lived.

More precisely, he came from the Fish-Man District of Fish-Man Island. Bright had spent the first thirteen years of his life there.

Bright was a fish-man, but not entirely.

It was obvious from his appearance. Compared to fish-men, he actually looked much closer to a human.

He was mixed-race, or rather, a half-fish-man.

One of his parents had been a fish-man or mermaid and passed down fish-man blood to him, while the other had given him human blood. He did not know which was which, since he had never met either of them.

But it did not matter. Neither side changed the fact that he had been abandoned in the Fish-Man District.

That place was the most chaotic part of Fish-Man Island. It had originally been an orphanage, but later became a gathering place for delinquent boys.

Bright suffered quite a bit there because of his unusual identity.

Fortunately, the leader of the Fish-Man District, a man named Fisher Tiger, had not been willing to watch a child with fish-man blood flowing through his veins die before his eyes.

That was how Bright survived his childhood, gradually earning the recognition of the fish-men in the Fish-Man District through his physical advantages.

From a very young age, he had always followed behind several big brothers: Fisher Tiger, Jinbe, and Arlong. Of course, the one he admired most was Fisher Tiger.

So three years ago, when Fisher Tiger caused an uproar in Mary Geoise, returned to Fish-Man Island, and formed the Sun Pirates, thirteen-year-old Bright joined without hesitation, becoming the youngest member of the crew.

After three years of carefree sailing, the nightmare still arrived.

They had merely wanted to return a certain child to her hometown, but the humans on that island betrayed them. The Marines ambushed them, and Brother Fisher Tiger died because of it.

Consumed by rage, Bright followed the furious Arlong to take revenge on the humans of that island, only to encounter a certain man.

A man who would soon receive the title of "Kizaru."

Even now, whenever Bright recalled the light that had flashed before his eyes that day, he still felt lingering fear.

That monster had displayed overwhelming strength.

It was during that brush with life and death that the memories sealed away by his rebirth were finally completely unlocked.

Bright remembered everything.

But it was already too late. Brother Fisher Tiger was dead, and Bright could not escape either.

Everyone was arrested and sent to Impel Down.

However, Bright, who had regained the memories of his previous life at that time, was not too worried about it.

Because he knew that within a year at most, Jinbe would agree to the government's request and become the new Shichibukai. In exchange, all arrested members of the Sun Pirates would be released.

Impel Down was not a good place, but if it was only for a year, Bright was confident he could endure it.

But when they arrived at Impel Down, something unexpected happened.

All the fish-men were escorted off the ship and sent to Impel Down, except Bright.

"Someone is very interested in your bloodline," Kizaru had said.

Then he brought Bright here.

Bright had not expected the strength he had relied upon in the past to become the thing holding him back.

His bloodline truly was rather special.

Bright was a Megalodon Fish-Man.

In this world, Megalodons were also ancient fish that had vanished from the seas long ago. But unlike in his previous life, the Megalodons of this world were said to have been even larger—super Sea Kings exceeding a thousand meters in length, ocean overlords that ruled the Blue Sea in ancient times.

Yet although Megalodons had disappeared, the Fishman Tribe and Mermaid Tribe had inherited the bloodlines of every fish. The bloodlines of newborns on Fish-Man Island were random, and fish-men and mermaids carried within them the bloodlines of every fish that had existed since ancient times.

Children born to the same pair of fish-man or mermaid parents often possessed completely different bloodlines. Any bloodline hidden deep within their bodies could awaken.

Bright had been very lucky. The fish-man half of his bloodline was a Megalodon, which had not appeared on Fish-Man Island for a very, very long time.

As a half-fish-man, the reason he had been able to grow up safely in the Fish-Man District was largely thanks to that bloodline.

There were differences even among fish-men. The Megalodon was naturally one of the highest-tier bloodlines among them all.

An ordinary fish-man possessed an average of ten times the strength of an ordinary human, while Bright himself was roughly ten times stronger than an ordinary fish-man. After years of training, he was absolutely like a little superhuman.

It was through that strength that he had found his footing in the Sun Pirates.

But now, because of that same strength, he had caught the attention of someone named Vegapunk. That man wanted to glimpse the power of ancient times through Bright's bloodline.

That was why Bright was imprisoned here now.

It had already been more than three months.

During those three months, he had been exceptionally well-behaved. He ate whenever the Marines brought food, trained silently whenever they left him alone, and cooperated obediently whenever the research required it.

The Marines had gradually relaxed their attitude toward him.

So—

"Should be about time, right?"

Bright intended to do something. He did not want his life to end inside this base.

He went into the bathroom attached to the cell and took a shower, then lay down on the bed and stared blankly into space.

Time gradually passed.

"Tonight's fish feed."

The serving hatch beneath the tightly shut metal door opened. A Marine outside passed in a tray piled with food, then casually took away the empty tray Bright had left by the door.

Bright stood up. Because of the ankle shackles, he could not take large steps, but at least he was not reduced to hopping around.

He walked to the door, picked up the tray, returned to sit on the edge of the bed by the wall, and began eating dinner.

The food could be called lavish: several fragrant baked white rolls, accompanied by several large chunks of equally aromatic roast meat, followed by a bowl of vegetable salad and a bowl of meat soup, with a large bottle of water at the end.

The nutrition was balanced, and the calories were plentiful.

It was hard to imagine that this had been prepared for a prisoner.

There was not even the slightest sign of humanity's discrimination against fish-men.

But Bright knew there was only one reason he received such treatment: Vegapunk did not want him to become malnourished.

Just like fattening up a lab rat.

But Bright did not mind. That was not a bad thing, was it?

Things were already like this anyway. Having good food was better than having none.

However, Bright did not finish it. The food that normally would only leave him eighty percent full even if he licked the plate clean was eaten more and more slowly that evening. In the end, he simply frowned miserably, looking sickly as he left half the meal untouched.

Bright seemed to be in great discomfort. At last, he placed the tray by the door, turned off the light, and lay back down on the bed.

He tossed and turned in bed, clutching his stomach with a pained expression.

After keeping that up for about half an hour, Bright was unable to sleep no matter how much he shifted around, so he got out of bed to exercise again. He sprang up, turned on the light, planted himself upside down in the middle of the room, and began doing handstand push-ups.

He continued for over an hour, until Bright was once more soaked in sweat.

Then Bright's body, which had been as steady as a mountain, trembled. Immediately afterward, he suddenly crashed to the floor with a thud.

Bright's expression became extremely twisted. Combined with the sweat covering his body, he looked utterly ferocious. His body curled like a shrimp, both hands clutching his stomach as every muscle in his body trembled.

He turned his head toward a corner of the room, then forcibly turned it back, clenching his teeth so tightly that he did not make a single sound.

It looked like he had been struck by a sudden illness.

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