What is this?

Sig struggled to stay conscious, driven purely by survival instinct, though his awareness was already fading.

Just before he blacked out, Sig spotted light from the seabed. To make sure it wasn't an illusion, he forced himself to hold on a while longer. Drawing closer, he saw an island encased in a massive bubble...

It was vibrant and colorful, as if beckoning passing travelers, exuding an atmosphere utterly different from Mary Geoise.

Sig let out a relieved breath, then... the taut string snapped. He could no longer maintain consciousness. His eyelids grew heavy, and he fell into a coma.

Gurgle gurgle gurgle—

Hachi: ???

"Did your suckers suck out your brain? You're telling me this is one of our kind?"

"But... when I saved him... I really saw scales! Oh, right! He was breathing through gills too! Right here... weird, where'd they go?"

"Huh? You're not seeing things from fear after all that blood, are you?"

"No, no, Brother Long, look... this kid's so scrawny and injured too. If he weren't a Fish-Man, there's no way he'd make it here, right?"

"You dare talk back?"

As Sig gradually regained consciousness, roused by the noise, he vaguely caught the sound of an argument.

Beside the bed where Sig lay, the sawtooth shark Fish-Man Arlong was scolding Hachi—this idiot had actually dragged a human back to the Fish-Man District?

"Enough! Arlong, Hachi, it doesn't matter. Even if he's human, we'll just send him to Fish-Man Island later." Jinbe interrupted Arlong's racket.

This was already Fish-Man Island, but both Arlong and Hachi understood that what Jinbe meant by "Fish-Man Island" was taking him out of the "Fish-Man District," since they were about to set off, and the district wasn't fit for humans.

The "Fish-Man District" was a special part of Fish-Man Island, largely made up of a colossal "Sunken Ship." Legend said this ship would one day rise to the surface, carrying Fish-Men and Mermaids into true sunlight. But now, few still believed that tale.

Most Fish-Men and Mermaids only taught their children: don't leave Fish-Man Island, don't leave the seabed... and above all, don't go near the humans outside!

Of course, due to its unique location, Fish-Man Island was the only unofficial route connecting the first half of the Grand Line to the "New World" in the latter half—to cross the Red Line Continent, one either needed official clearance to transfer by land, or pass through the undersea tunnel beneath the Red Line, with Fish-Man Island at one end of that tunnel.

Countless pirates and unofficial travelers passed through here to enter or leave the "New World," so naturally, the island had a fair number of transient humans.

Thanks to Queen Otohime's efforts, despite the deep-seated distrust between Fish-Men, Mermaids, and humans due to the Slave Hunters, they generally managed to coexist.

But the "Fish-Man District" would never welcome humans.

It was now essentially an official orphanage. Fisher Tiger, Jinbe, Arlong, and the others had all grown up there as orphans.

Though it hadn't yet gained its later infamy—at least the islanders didn't strongly dislike the district—it had always been hostile to humans.

In Jinbe's view, saving a human was no big deal. Brother Tiger had saved countless human slaves before. It's just that humans didn't belong in the Fish-Man District!

"But I really did see it..." Hachi muttered, still unconvinced.

Arlong snapped, "Brother Jinbe has already spoken! Didn't you hear? Huh?" He brandished a fist the size of a clay pot.

Hachi instinctively covered his head, stepped back, and quickly nodded. "Got it! I'll go right..."

Sig struggled to open his eyes. Before him stood a sawtooth shark Fish-Man with a fierce face, a massive tiger shark Fish-Man built as wide as a square, and a starfish-headed octopus Fish-Man looking at him expectantly... He roughly guessed who they were.

"Hey, you're a Fish-Man, right?" Hachi immediately asked Sig.

"Idiot! Where does he look like a Fish-Man? At best a Merman... no! Even adult male Mermen don't have their tails turn into legs!" Arlong pointed at Sig's legs, his nose nearly poking Hachi's face.

"But it is strange... How did you withstand the water pressure ten thousand meters deep and hold your breath all the way here?" Jinbe's brows furrowed like rolling clouds, sensing something was off.

Sig caught Jinbe's suspicion and Arlong's disdain for humans.

Jinbe's doubt made sense—if he wasn't a Fish-Man or Merman and had endured the seabed's pressure purely through physical strength, he'd have to be a remarkable powerhouse in the world of One Piece.

Sig's current state clearly wasn't that.

"I... I don't know what happened. Usually, when I'm angry or excited, scales appear on my body.

Earlier, when this octopus brother mistook me for a Fish-Man and dragged me down, I was terrified too. But just when I reached my limit, suddenly it hurt here, and it seemed like gills grew out..."

Sig chose to tell the truth. Aside from not explaining his golden finger, everything he said was honest—Sig really didn't know why this was happening!

To make it more believable, Sig deliberately triggered his Fish-Man Transformation. Sure enough, from both sides of his neck down to his collarbone, rows of gill slits appeared.

Seeing this, Jinbe and Arlong were stunned. Hachi puffed out his chest, as if to say, "See, I told you I wasn't wrong."

Arlong's expression suddenly darkened. He bared his fangs at Sig and growled, "Damn it! Could those Celestial Dragons be running some experiment to steal the great power of the Fish-Man Race?"

"Huh?" Sig had no idea where he got that idea, but... it was oddly logical?

Sig quickly explained, "No, no, I've never been in any such experiment! In Mary Geoise... I was just a singer."

Jinbe nodded. "The Celestial Dragons don't have that kind of brains. The World Government's research facilities wouldn't run such experiments in Mary Geoise either."

How could such an important test subject just "escape in the chaos"?

"What about your parents?" Jinbe clearly had a different theory.

"I don't know. I've never met them." Sig continued telling the truth.

Before his transmigration, Sig had been an orphan from the very start.

"Brother Jinbe, even those filthy half-breeds don't look like this, do they?" Arlong looked at Jinbe, confused.

Normally, the offspring of Mermaids and humans didn't turn out like Sig. There were examples—Big Mom's 29th daughter was a Half Fish-Man, looking no different from a full Fish-Man, and Cocco's granddaughter had Mermaid blood but appeared completely human, just with excellent swimming ability.

Jinbe calmly speculated, "We've usually seen the children of Mermaids and humans. Do you know what the children of Fish-Men and humans look like?"

Arlong: ...