A Bunch of Rebels (Please Keep Reading!)

Jinbe abruptly turned to look at Beiyuan Heng, his turquoise eyes instantly filled with incredulous shock as his brows knitted tightly together.

He had sailed the seas for decades and seen countless Devil Fruit users, yet he had never encountered such an ability. An inexplicable wariness rose within him.

Silence hung over the sea for a moment before Jinbe suppressed his surprise and asked in a deep voice,

"What exactly are you trying to do?"

His voice carried the weight unique to fish-men, with a trace of barely perceptible vigilance hidden beneath it. Even the seawater around him seemed to ripple slightly with his tone.

Beiyuan Heng gently shook his head, his voice completely calm.

"You should leave quickly. Don't waste any more time here."

After a brief pause, he raised his eyes toward the distant horizon and added,

"If nothing unexpected happens, the Marine reinforcements arriving will be Admiral candidate 'Kizaru,' Borsalino."

The moment the words "Kizaru" left his mouth, Jinbe's pupils constricted sharply. Every muscle in his body tensed, and the surprise on his face completely replaced his earlier caution.

Kizaru, the Marine monster rumored to possess the powers of the Glint-Glint Fruit?

Once that man set his sights on them, not only Jinbe himself, but even his companions would have no chance of escape.

As though he had anticipated Jinbe's reaction, Beiyuan Heng nodded slightly, his voice remaining calm.

"Yes. If he comes, all of you will probably be arrested. No exceptions."

Jinbe stared fixedly at Beiyuan Heng. He truly could not understand why a man in a Marine uniform would suddenly warn him, even indirectly giving him a way out.

So he asked in a deep voice, "Why are you saving me? We don't seem to have any relationship."

"I can't stand the Celestial Dragons. That's all."

Beiyuan Heng spoke lightly, with no attempt to hide it. There was a faint, almost imperceptible mockery in his voice.

"And in my view, you haven't committed any evil deeds for now. There's no need for you to become fish on the chopping block because of the Celestial Dragons' selfish desires and the Marines' orders."

The suspicion in Jinbe's eyes did not lessen. Instead, he grew even more confused. He leaned forward slightly and pressed on.

"Since you know how vile the Celestial Dragons are and have seen through the World Government's hypocrisy, why join the Marines? Rather than dirtying yourself here with them, why not join the Revolutionary Army and overthrow this rotten order together?"

To Jinbe's surprise, Beiyuan Heng did not hesitate at all. He slowly said,

"I don't think the Revolutionary Army is wrong. Their ideals may be right, but I only want to ensure that ordinary people can live peacefully now. The Revolutionary Army's resistance will ultimately trigger even greater wars, and the ones who suffer will still be those unarmed common people."

He paused, growing somewhat impatient as he waved his hand.

"For your captain's sake, I'll let you go this time. I hope I won't run into you again. Next time, I won't show mercy."

Jinbe's eyes shifted rapidly as he repeatedly weighed the pros and cons in his mind.

He knew Beiyuan Heng was not lying. He understood Kizaru's strength well enough, and remaining here would only mean walking into a trap.

After a moment, he finally nodded slowly and gave Beiyuan Heng a long look. His gaze was complicated, holding gratitude, suspicion, and a trace of indescribable admiration.

Then, without further hesitation, he plunged into the water. His body became a deep-blue afterimage as he swiftly swam toward the shore.

Beiyuan Heng remained submerged for a moment. Once he confirmed that Jinbe had gone far away, he slowly surfaced, wiped the seawater from his face, and shouted toward the Marine soldiers on shore,

"Watch out! That fish-man is heading over there! Get on guard!"

The Marine soldiers on shore had yet to react. Before anyone could even raise a weapon, Jinbe had already rushed near the coast.

His hands formed seals in rapid succession as he skillfully performed Fish-Man Jujutsu. A powerful force gathered in his palms, and he slammed them fiercely against the sea. A huge rolling whirlpool instantly formed and swept toward the shore.

Immediately afterward, fish-men all along the shore charged into those whirlpools without hesitation. Borrowing the force of the currents, they shot toward the deep sea like arrows released from a bow, leaving only a few blurred silhouettes in the blink of an eye.

Seeing this, Beiyuan Heng immediately swam rapidly through the water, moving like an arrow as he attempted to stop Jinbe and prevent them from escaping.

He was incredibly fast, closing the distance with Jinbe. Yet just as his fingertips were about to touch the hem of Jinbe's clothes, the flowing whirlpools suddenly vanished. Every fish-man had already slipped successfully beneath the sea, disappearing without a trace.

In this vast ocean, once fish-men dived underwater, they were nearly impossible to catch. Even if Kizaru came himself, he might not be able to catch up with them at sea.

Beiyuan Heng wore a helpless expression and sighed softly. His body slowly rose from the water, and he used Geppo, one of the Marine Six Powers, to step on the air and return to shore step by step.

He turned around and spread his hands at the bewildered Marine soldiers around him, his tone carrying a hint of regret.

"Everyone, go back and rest. What a pity. We were so close, but they still got away."

Just as he turned to leave, the corner of his eye suddenly caught a blinding yellow flash. It vanished in an instant, yet it carried a suffocating sense of pressure.

It was Kizaru!

He had still made it here.

Beiyuan Heng's heart tightened. Just as he was about to speak and report everything that had happened to Kizaru,

the yellow flash had already swept past him in an instant, racing in the direction Jinbe and the others had fled.

"Yasakani no Magatama."

Kizaru's voice, carrying a hint of lazy amusement, came from within that yellow flash.

The instant he finished speaking, countless slender yet devastating yellow lasers burst from the flash like a torrential rain, screeching through the air as they shot toward the fish-men who had not yet gone far enough.

Hearing the sound, Jinbe's expression changed drastically. He immediately roared at his companions behind him,

"Get underwater! Don't surface!"

The fish-men had already been frightened by the blinding lasers. At Jinbe's shout, they immediately obeyed, plunging into the deep sea and diving as far down as they could.

The lasers struck the sea in dense succession. Wherever they hit, the seawater was instantly vaporized by the intense heat, producing thick white mist that blanketed the surface. No one could see what lay beneath the vapor or determine whether the fish-men had been hit.

Kizaru hovered in midair, looking at the mist-covered waters. A trace of lazy helplessness appeared on his face as he gently shook his head.

With a flash, he returned to Beiyuan Heng's side, his voice carrying a teasing note.

"My, my, what a shame. They still got away. Looks like this mission is going to fail again."

Beiyuan Heng looked up at Kizaru, then turned toward the sea shrouded in mist.

Did you really want to catch them? You were clearly covering their escape...

Among the World Government and the Marines, aside from that one-track-minded Akainu, there really were far too many natural rebels.

Every one of them appeared loyal to the World Government on the surface, yet secretly had plans of their own.

He pushed down his thoughts and laughed twice, deliberately easing the awkward atmosphere before saying,

"It's fine. At least we've confirmed that the Sun Pirates are active in this area."

"And he's very likely hiding on Fish-Man Island."

Although Fish-Man Island was nominally a member nation of the World Government, it lay ten thousand meters beneath the sea, in a perilous environment.

The World Government had virtually neither the authority nor the ability to interfere with it and could only allow it to develop on its own.

Moreover, Fisher Tiger's acts of freeing slaves and attacking the Celestial Dragons' holy land had long since thoroughly enraged the World Government. What he had done was more than enough to make the World Government and Fish-Man Island completely fall out.

That was precisely why so many Marine soldiers had densely surrounded the Sabaody Archipelago.