Fish-Man Island's night was destined to be anything but peaceful.
The arrival of the New Marines had clearly drawn the attention of the surrounding residents. On Fish-Man Island, Jinbe and his men were practically synonymous with "security."
Noticing the New Marines' arrival, the residents who had previously been too afraid to leave their homes began poking their heads out. Before long, both sides of the street were packed with spectators.
The people of Fish-Man Island rarely had much of a nightlife. Most lived by the rhythm of working at sunrise and resting at sunset. With such unexpected entertainment suddenly appearing, it naturally captured many people's attention.
While waiting for Zephyr, Jinbe did not remain idle. Rather than driving away the curious onlookers, he took the opportunity to have his subordinates gather useful information from the crowd, hoping to reconstruct the entire incident from another angle.
He had not doubted Ace and the others' account. His many questions were simply meant to make the investigation more thorough.
Still, the accident had happened too suddenly, and Jinbe had not held much hope of learning anything valuable from ordinary residents.
But a startled cry shattered his assumptions.
"Th-That guy... isn't that Shul from Fish-Man District?"
"Wasn't he arrested for theft before? Why is he here? And why was he killed?"
Jinbe's subordinates had laid the two Fish-Man corpses side by side when someone in the crowd suddenly recognized Shul, whom Ace had killed.
His words caused everyone present to turn and look.
Virgo moved with incredible speed. His figure flashed, and he vanished from where he stood. Before Jinbe could react, he had already found the resident who had cried out. After giving him a brief look, he hurriedly asked,
"Shul—which one are you referring to?"
The person Virgo questioned was a male