The Slaughter of Fish-Man Island
Natsu stood Susanoo's eyebrows, her hands still behind her back.
He looked at Vander Decken, whose four arms were trembling but who was still holding on on the deck, and said in a calm tone, as if he were pronouncing a pre-written verdict: Would a person care about the questions of ants at his feet?
Vander Decken's pupils contracted sharply.
He finally recognized those eyes: scarlet pupils, swirling Tomoe, the Demon-Subduing Ghost Clan, the Uchiha.
He swung his giant axe, using all four arms simultaneously, the axe blade enveloped in a dark, domineering Haki as he slashed towards Susanoo's breastplate.
Natsu didn't even blink.
The giant axe struck the dark gold armor, sparks flew, and the axe flew off—a nick appeared in the blade, and it tumbled and crashed into the distant shipwreck ruins.
Natsu took out the Sealing Talismans from her sleeve and held it between her fingers.
The residual dark red energy on the talisman was still struggling weakly, maintaining a faint resonance with the four-armed monster on the deck.
He held the talisman up to eye level, pinched it between his index and middle fingers, and gently squeezed it.
The talisman shattered, the seal was broken, and the dark red energy that had been compressed to its limit dissipated completely.
At the same time, Susanoo slowly raised his right hand, and dark golden Chakra condensed into a Tang Saber in his palm.
"But whatever, it's just a noisy ant anyway."
The blade fell.
The dark gold blade cleaved through the deep sea, splitting the entire Shipwreck Graveyard in two.
Vander Decken IX vanished in a flash of blades—not even having time to let out a scream.
The lingering force of the blade tore a long rift through the seabed rock, and the turbid current, carrying rubble, swallowed the shipwrecks and loot piled up for who knows how many years into the abyss.
Natsu retracted Susanoo and floated lightly back onto the broken mast.
He glanced at the shipwreck slowly sinking into the chasm, then at the few henchmen who had jumped overboard and were now trembling as they clung to the broken planks.
He didn't make another move; he would take care of the remaining Wood Clone that had escaped.
He withdrew his gaze, pinched the spell mark of the Flying Thunder God with his fingertips, and vanished in a flash above the collapsing Shipwreck Graveyard.
When Natsu landed on the corridor outside the Hard-Shell Tower, Quan was sitting on the edge of Shirahoshi's bed, holding a seashell hair clip that she had bought from the market in the Ryugu Palace. It was pinned to Shirahoshi's smooth pink hair.
Shirahoshi had stopped crying, though her eyes were still a little red and she would sniffle occasionally, but a very faint smile had appeared on her lips.
Seeing Natsu push the door open and come in, Quan looked up, winked at him, and didn't ask, "Is it resolved?" -- He was back, so it was resolved.
Natsu walked to the bedside, glanced at the Crooked seashell hair clip on Shirahoshi's head, and said expressionlessly, "It's crooked."
Quan pouted, took the hair clip off again, and carefully put it back on.
Bai Star Ninja but chuckle softly, then quickly covered her mouth and glanced cautiously at Natsu Yin.
Natsu didn't say much, but simply sat down on the edge of the bed, took out the Sealing Talismans that had completely lost its luster from her sleeve, and placed it on Shirahoshi's bedside table.
"The mark has been removed; that person will no longer appear." He looked into Shirahoshi's large eyes, his tone unusually gentle. "From today onwards, you can leave the Hard-Shell Tower at any time. Go wherever you want."
Shirahoshi stared blankly at the blank talisman, her eyes welling up with tears again. But this time, Quan gently took her hand and said tenderly, "Today is a happy day; you should smile."
From outside came Neptune's voice, which he could barely contain as he lowered it. He was instructing his servants to immediately prepare for the dismantling of the Hard-Shell Tower, and he also sent someone to inform the whole city that Princess Shirahoshi could finally leave the tower.
When Izumi led Shirahoshi out of the Hard-Shell Tower, Neptune and the three brothers, who were waiting outside, were stunned. Then the three princes practically pounced on Shirahoshi, laughing and crying at the same time.
Surrounded by her brothers, Shirahoshi, for the first time without the high walls obscuring her view, looked up and saw the azure sea beyond the dome of the Ryugu Palace, saw schools of fish swimming in the sunlight, and saw the world beyond the Hard-Shell Tower that she hadn't been able to see with her own eyes for several years.
She lowered her head and wiped away her tears several times, but in the end she couldn't hold back and cried even harder than she had in the tower, but this time she cried with a smile.
Natsu and Quan stayed on Fish-Man Island for several more days.
Together they watched the sunrise over the coral reefs of Mermaid Bay, visited the bioluminescent jellyfish swarms in the Deep-Sea Canyon, and went to that local food stall that Neptune highly recommended.
Izumi, holding a skewer of grilled sea monster meat, stood atop the Ryugu Palace Tower and suddenly said, "If only I could bring Shirahoshi back to Origin Island."
She shook her head as soon as she finished speaking, saying that no, Shirahoshi was a princess and the Ryugu Palace could not do without her.
Natsu leaned against the railing and didn't reply.
He was thinking about something else—if the user of the Mark-Mark Fruit dies, the Devil Fruit will be reborn.
If some kind of long-term deterrent could be left on Fish-Man Island, it might be more effective than a Flying Thunder God Kunai.
However, this matter is not urgent; we can go back and discuss it with Fugaku and the others.
He pulled himself out of his thoughts, reached out and tidied Quan's hair ribbon, which had been ruffled by the sea breeze, and said, "Tomorrow I'll take you to see Neptune and discuss the matter of the Heavenly Star Guard setting up a permanent outpost on Fish-Man Island."
Quan's eyes lit up, and he looked up to ask him if he could come often in the future.
Natsu looked at her expectant expression and the corners of her lips curled up slightly.
Yes, you can come often in the future.
On the west side of Fish-Man Island, there is a small cargo port far from the Ryugu Palace. This place, which used to be where fishermen unloaded their cargo at night, has now been transformed into a battlefield.
Blood soaked into every crack of the stone slabs on the dock, and the thick smell of rust mixed with the salty smell of the sea churned in the undercurrent.
Hundreds of corpses littered the entire port, piled up from the unloading pier all the way to the corner of the warehouse, not a single one intact.
Severed limbs, broken bones, twisted weapons, and crushed flintlock pistol parts lay scattered on the ground, soaking in blood alongside the unseeing faces of the dead, their dark red hues appearing unreal under the faint, cold light of the seabed.
This pirate crew comes from the New World, and consists of several hundred people, including several combat captains with bounties exceeding 100 million.
They couldn't make it in the New World, so they came Four Blues to try their luck.
While passing Fish-Man Island, the captain wanted to replenish their slave inventory—after all, according to their outdated intelligence, the Whitebeard Pirates had already withdrawn from the New World, leaving this deep-sea Paradise as an undefended piece of meat.
At this moment, the captain with a bounty of over 200 million was lying face up at the feet of Natsu's Wood Clone.
His pupils were not yet fully dilated, and the last image before his death remained—countless thick wooden spikes simultaneously burst forth from the ground, walls, and overhead shelves, instantly piercing through his hundreds of elite men, whom he was so proud of.