Zephyr's gains in the Fish-Man District were truly enormous. Under the treatment of the military doctors aboard the ship, Kujaku, who had been gravely injured, finally woke up after two days of unconsciousness.
Through Kujaku, Zephyr also learned the true identities of Arlong and his group of fish-men.
The pirates captured by the Marines kept their mouths shut. Even though they had realized that the Marines might have discovered what they had been doing on Fish-Man Island, they still clung to a shred of hope and had no intention of admitting to their crimes.
Although Zephyr had learned the rough outline of the entire incident from the rescued mermaid girls, as long as those fish-men refused to talk, he had no way of fully uncovering how their influence was distributed across the island.
A New Marines captain was connected to pirates, and these people even possessed the secret drug "ES" from Ryugu Palace. Their network on Fish-Man Island was likely deeply entrenched and tangled. If they were not uprooted this time, it would be exceedingly difficult to catch them slipping again.
The intelligence Kujaku provided after waking up was extremely useful, but the investigation seemed to have run into an invisible wall once more, unable to dig any deeper.
Just as Zephyr and his students began conducting a full-scale investigation into the Fish-Man Island disappearance cases centered around Arlong and the others,
Jinbe and his people suddenly discovered that Arlong had vanished. Along with Arlong, Kujaku, who had been tasked by Virgo with keeping an eye on him, had also disappeared.
This was a major incident. Jinbe might have viewed Kujaku as nothing more than a low-ranking officer from headquarters, but Virgo and Smoker knew exactly who she was. If Kujaku had gone missing, it would be nothing short of