Question

Fwoosh—

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom...

The bombardment continued.

The CP guards under the Celestial Dragon Saint Lolowim swiftly took over the Navy's various interception points across the island.

These points were originally meant to intercept Aiven Lindsey, but to avoid harming civilians, most of the weapons used were blades, with even firearms being rare.

But the CP organization didn't care about any of that.

They were a private guard force directly under Saint Lolowim, answerable only to him and fully obedient to his commands.

Thus, with complete disregard for civilian lives, they immediately deployed powerful thermal weapons.

They even had the exorbitantly expensive "Handheld Portable Cannon"!

Moreover, these CP guards' targets weren't just Aiven Lindsey—they also included everyone fleeing, sparing no one.

Boom!

"D-Damn it!"

After the blast, a figure in tattered sailor clothes burst out of the black smoke, stumbling and running.

He was one of the slaves from the arena, once a pirate captain with a bounty of forty million Berries.

While sailing near the Sabaody Archipelago, he was betrayed by his crew, eventually reduced to a slave, barely surviving until now.

Now that he had a chance to regain his freedom, he was unwilling to give it up easily.

But Aiven Lindsey's act of killing a Celestial Dragon was a world-class crime, causing both the CP organization and the Navy to act simultaneously, making escape by sea far more difficult!

"That monster madman killed the Celestial Dragon—go after him! Why are you staring at me?"

The pirate captain couldn't help but curse loudly.

As he fled into a residential area, searching for a small boat to escape by sea, he was spotted by CP guards patrolling nearby.

Without any hesitation, the CP guards raised their handheld cannons and prepared to pull the trigger.

Seeing this, the pirate captain, in desperation, grabbed a little girl hiding by the roadside and threatened the CP guards:

"I have a hostage! You wouldn't dare fire!"

"..."

The CP guards didn't answer, instead slowly approaching.

To calm the pirate captain? Or... to get a better aim?

The pirate captain felt his scalp crawl, stammering with a dry laugh: "You wouldn't dare fire, right?"

Click!

The sound of a trigger being pulled rang out, and the cannonball launched!

Just as the pirate captain and the little girl were about to be hit by the shell, a black shadow rushed in—over six meters tall, massive and deformed—and stood in front of them.

Boom!

The cannonball struck the shadow's body, and the explosion's black smoke quickly engulfed the three.

As the smoke slowly cleared, Lindsey in his Earth Demon Form stood firmly on the ground, arms raised, with only a trace of gunpowder residue on them.

Completely unharmed!

In truth, Lindsey had a "physical body"—skin and blood like any ordinary person, not as indestructible as an ancient stone tablet.

But his ability was a Zoan Mythical Beast Type, rarer than even a Logia Type. In his full Zoan Transformation, Lindsey's defense was astonishing.

Even without using Armament Haki, mere firearms and cannonballs couldn't harm him in the slightest.

Perhaps a strike from a great Swordsman could?

Lindsey wasn't sure—he hadn't tried it yet, so he'd like to test it if given the chance...

"Huff... I'm... saved..."

The pirate captain gasped heavily, but his hand, driven by muscle memory, still gripped the little girl's neck.

He was a wanted criminal who often escaped Navy pursuit by taking hostages, but it was useless against the CP guards.

"Hey."

Just as the pirate captain was marveling at his narrow escape, another figure appeared behind him and tapped his shoulder with a finger.

The pirate captain, confused, turned to look.

At the same time, the figure extended his left arm and smoothly pulled the hostage little girl from the pirate captain's grasp.

"What?"

The pirate captain was dazed. Looking up, he saw a red-skinned Fish-Man face.

It was Fisher Tiger, traveling alongside Lindsey!

"Ah—"

Before the pirate captain could finish even half a word, Tiger had already covered the little girl's eyes with his left hand while raising his right arm, clenching his fist, and slamming it down hard.

"Despicable coward!"

Thud!

The pirate captain was driven straight into the ground, dead beyond any doubt.

Tiger valued honor and loyalty, so he naturally looked down on a vile pirate who would take a little girl hostage.

Even as a fellow escaped slave from the arena, he could not condone such behavior!

"It's alright. Go hide somewhere safe."

Tiger gently released the little girl, then couldn't help frowning slightly as he turned his gaze toward Lindsey in front of him.

"This is getting troublesome..."

Having once been a slave himself, Tiger knew full well that so-called "slaves" were a motley crew.

Among them were not only innocent adventurers and commoners but also plenty of wanted criminals and desperadoes!

These people had also regained their freedom and scattered across Sabaody Archipelago, sparking all kinds of chaos.

From that perspective, Aiven Lindsey's act of freeing all the slaves seemed... wrong?

No, that wasn't right either.

Fisher Tiger's personality was straightforward, and he tended to get stuck in mental ruts.

The scenes unfolding before him had already left him confused about what kind of feelings he should hold toward "humans."

And what about his fellow slaves?

Should a scumbag as vile as that pirate captain have been freed from his slave collar?

Tiger really couldn't figure it out anymore.

Maybe Queen Otohime could give him the answer, or perhaps even she wouldn't know how to explain it.

So complicated...

But no matter what, there was one thing Tiger had to do now: escape this Sabaody Archipelago!

"Let's go."

Tiger stepped forward and patted Lindsey on the shoulder, then continued walking ahead.

But in the very next second—

Lindsey suddenly reached out, grabbed Tiger, and flung him backward with force.

At the same time, a sharp sword slash came diagonally, grazing right past Tiger's head!

Clang!

With a single strike, it cleaved through a large stretch of nearby civilian houses, the cut clean and precise.

"Tch!"

A dark figure flashed by—it was a CP Swordsman skilled with a blade.

Seeing his ambush fail, he planned to retreat temporarily and wait for another opportunity.

But before he could take more than a few steps, he suddenly stumbled and fell to the ground.

Lindsey had used the Earth Demon's ability, tearing a small opening beneath the CP Swordsman's feet to trap him.

Before the CP Swordsman could react, Lindsey had already rushed in front of him, grabbed a chunk of earth and stone from the ground, and slammed it down hard, burying him in the dirt.

After dealing with the swordsman, Lindsey tapped the ground lightly, sensed that no more CP Organization members were nearby, and signaled for Tiger to leave quickly.

Crocodile wasn't the type to shy away from trouble; he always liked to seize opportunities, so he was surely still waiting at the harbor!

Seeing this, Tiger nodded and followed along.

But just then, a small dark object suddenly struck Lindsey.

He looked down—it was just an ordinary stone, so unremarkable that even the Earth Demon Form hadn't detected it.

"Hm?"

Following the direction the stone had come from, Lindsey turned his head.

There, in the rubble of a collapsed house, a boy around ten years old was staring hard at Lindsey. Behind him lay his mother, bedridden and ill.

Their home was already more than half destroyed, reduced to a complete hazard, no longer livable.

"You bastard!"

The boy growled through gritted teeth. "I heard the broadcast. It's because you let those damn pirates go that our house got wrecked!"

"... "

The boy's body trembled as he feared being killed by the terrifying "monster" before him.

Fisher Tiger didn't think much of it, though.

This human, Aiven Lindsey, was far too cheerful—not the type to be riled up by words like those.

But to Fisher Tiger's utter surprise, Lindsey actually stopped in his tracks, turned back to face the boy, and growled in a hoarse voice, "You're the bastard!"

Fisher Tiger: "?"

Lindsey kept staring at the trembling boy and roared, "Let me ask you—was it me who destroyed your home?"

The boy hesitated, then shook his head. "N-No..."

"Was it me who fired indiscriminately?"

"No..."

"Was it me who just took an innocent hostage?"

"No..."

The boy could barely speak anymore, only managing a weak retort: "But if you..."

"If I what?"

Lindsey clenched his thick fists and slammed them into the ground, making the earth tremble for several paces around.

"Are you trying to say that if I'd just been content as a slave, if I hadn't defied the Celestial Dragons, if I'd accepted my lot, none of this chaos would have happened?"

Lindsey's bloodshot gaze was chilling—even Fisher Tiger could feel the twisted fury within it.

"Are you trying to say that if 'those who resist' never existed, all of you would have lived better lives?"

"Answer me—did not resisting really leave you unharmed?"

"Ha!"

"Interesting!"

"..."

Lindsey wanted to stay and keep arguing with the boy.

But this time, it was Fisher Tiger who pulled Lindsey away.

The Fish-Man dragged that monster who was bickering with a child and walked forward without looking back.

He didn't dare look back.

Because countless doubts were clouding Fisher Tiger's mind, making him more and more confused.

Was starting this riot "right" or "wrong"?

Was Aiven Lindsey a "good person" or a "bad person"?

Or perhaps this sea had mixed everything together so thoroughly that no one could tell who was who anymore...