What Kept You Alive

Hancock wore a spiked steel helmet over her head, completely sealing her face inside. The helmet's surface contained Seastone; the moment a Devil Fruit user touched it, they would lose all strength. Neither Hancock nor any other ability user could destroy it. The Seastone concealed Hancock's face and sealed away her Devil Fruit powers.

Hancock was no stranger to Fisher Tiger, but this was the first time she had met him face-to-face.

The tall, red-skinned fish-man had been tightly bound in chains in this sunless place for over two years. Despite enduring torture for so long, he remained strong—not because fish-men had exceptionally tenacious vitality, but more because of the Celestial Dragons' evil.

When the Celestial Dragons would not let you die, even wanting to die was difficult.

"Fisher Tiger!" Miming asked. "What kept you alive?"

Fisher Tiger lowered his head and looked at the Celestial Dragon before him, then at Hancock, whose head was covered by an iron helmet. He realized that this was Saint Jalmack's Son, the one who had shocked the entire Holy Land. His reputation might not spread beyond the Holy Land, but it had certainly reached the slave pens. Even the slave guards had been discussing it endlessly. With his keen hearing, Tiger had heard the full story over the past two days.

Then why had Saint Jalmack's Son, whom the Gorosei favored, come to see him?

Fisher Tiger remembered seeing him once before, back when Saint Jalmack's Son had still been a pathetic teenage Celestial Dragon. Even then, he had seemed somewhat different.

He seemed quite pleased to see his father, Saint Ni, suffer a setback.

It was not hard to understand a rebellious boy taking pleasure in his father's misfortune, but Saint Jalmack's Son had made it rather obvious. He had deliberately refused to let his father save face.

Still, there was no opportunity to be found in this. Fisher Tiger did not believe the boy could simply let him go.

Fisher Tiger laboriously looked toward the depths of the prison. "For them."

Miming walked deeper into the prison on the other side. In the water cells, he saw several iron cages containing Fish-Man Tribe children. They clamped their hands over their mouths and stared at him in terror, as though they would be executed the instant they made a sound. At first glance, these fish-man children looked like ordinary humans, but on closer inspection, webbing stretched between their fingers, gills lined their necks, some had fins on their backs, and their faces were somewhat strange and distorted.

A young Fish-Man Tribe member with a high ponytail and a mouthful of sharp teeth hung from a hook. His body bore foul-smelling slave brands, and he looked at Miming with tears endlessly streaming from his eyes. Another youth, who resembled an octopus, had an iron chain around his neck. He silently scrubbed the floor with his damaged suction-cupped arms. Every crack in the tiles was soaked with slaves' blood; wherever water was poured, bloody water seeped back out, filling the prison with the stench of blood. Two of his tentacles were missing, and judging by the grill rack and seasoning jars beside the furnace, they had likely been sliced up and roasted for someone to eat.

"What is your name?" Miming asked the fish-man youth hanging from the hook.

"Aladdin," he answered weakly. "I'm a sea catfish fish-man. I'm delicious. If you want grilled fish, eat me. The others taste awful."

"Aladdin!" The fish-man children covered their mouths as they cried, trembling all over in fear.

"I see." Miming understood.

This was how Saint Ni had tamed Fisher Tiger. Since Tiger had no family or friends who could be used to threaten him, they had to give him a bond. People who did not care about their own lives often cared deeply about the lives of others, especially the lives of their benefactors. These fish-man children were a heavy, invisible chain that had ultimately forced down Tiger's neck, harder than granite.

Hancock covered her mouth with her hand, but all she touched was the iron helmet, and a wave of dizziness and weakness immediately washed over her. This had been the condition Xia Luqianqian had set for allowing her to live after finally compromising. The key was in Miming's hands, though he had promptly given her another one for her to hide on herself.

Miming returned to Tiger's side and tugged the rope beneath the pulley. A bucket hung from the rope, and it dumped a bucketful of water over Tiger's head.

"Are you planning to let me go?" Fisher Tiger seemed more alert as he said coldly, "If you do, then I can help you by tearing your entire family to pieces!"

Miming snorted. "Stop talking big. With your strength, you simply can't do it."

"Tell me, great Saint Jalmack's Son, what do you want from me?" Pain showed on Tiger's face. "Unless you intend to ride me like a horse, I don't know what use I could possibly have for you." The young Celestial Dragon before him had some differences with his father when it came to how slaves were used. He had little interest in riding Tiger like a horse, and Tiger knew that much.

Miming said seriously, "You can try escaping from this Mary Geoise, then come back."

Tiger froze, then burst out laughing.

Leaving the Holy Land of Mary Geoise was utterly impossible. No slave had ever accomplished it. More absurdly, who would return after escaping?

"Impossible." Tiger sneered. "Even if you let me go, I could never escape. It's not that I won't; I simply don't have the ability. And even if I could escape, why would I come back? Ah, I understand."

Tiger said viciously, "You want to use these children from Fish-Man District to threaten me too, don't you? It's a game—a game like walking a dog! Isn't it?"

Only the place for walking the dog had been changed to Mary Geoise. They would release him and see whether he could come back alive; if he could not, they would kill these fish-man children. It had to be some vile, cruel game like that!

"Insolent!" Hancock could not hold back any longer. "Lord Miming truly wants to help you!"

"No. It is not me helping you." Miming stopped Hancock and spoke to Tiger with utmost seriousness. "I need you to help me burn this place—and this entire Holy Land of Mary Geoise—to the ground. Fisher Tiger, please! For the liberation of every slave in this Holy Land!"

Fisher Tiger felt as though he had just heard the most absurd thing in the world, and he was completely stunned. A Celestial Dragon was begging a slave from his own household to do something like this? What kind of joke was this? What trick were these despicable humans playing? Were they using fish-men to achieve their own goals?

Tiger roared uncontrollably, "You humans, how much longer are you going to toy with us fish-men?!"

"Tiger, this is your only chance. It is also the only chance these fish-man children have." Once Tiger had calmed down somewhat, Miming patiently asked, "Since you know perfectly well how slim your chances of survival are, think it over carefully. If I let you go, where would you escape from?"