Countdown: 71 hours and 30 minutes.
Fish-Man Island, 10,000 meters deep in the ocean.
The once-dreamy bubble wrap still envelops this underwater kingdom, but the interior is now completely different.
The once vibrant coral structures were now covered by a thin, grayish-white film. The Fish-Man Island walked aimlessly through the streets, their eyes vacant and their smiles stiff. When they met, they no longer argued or spoke; they simply nodded mechanically and then passed each other by.
Forgetting, like a colorless and odorless poison, permeated the entire island.
"How could this be..." Princess Shirahoshi stared in disbelief through the observation window of the Deep Sea Ark at her homeland. "Only three days... We've only been gone for three days..."
" The Forgetter ' erosion is far more efficient than expected," the Star Speaker beside her said in a deep voice, his silvery-white eyes scanning the bio-energy field of Fish-Man Island. "The entire island's 'collective memory field' is being systematically erased. At this rate, in 72 hours, Fish-Man Island will have no historical memories left, becoming a... blank new civilization."
"Blank..." Shirahoshi gripped the seashell necklace on her chest. "Isn't that... death?"
"More terrifying than death." That was Ge Xiaolun's answer, as he led a squad of Super Soldier Company accompanying her. "Death at least preserves the past. But the civilizations erased by the Forgetter will even lose proof of their existence— Poneglyph will become meaningless inscriptions, legends will become nonsense, and heroes will become unfamiliar names."
The Deep Sea Ark is anchored in the coral forest surrounding Fish-Man Island. It's not yet covered by a grayish-white membrane, but an unsettling "calm" already permeates the air.
"The plan." The Star Speaker pulled up a 3D map of Fish-Man Island. " The Great Deep-Sea Hollow is located three thousand meters directly below Fish-Man Island. It's the sacred birthplace of Sea Kings and the location of the ' Pillar of Life.' According to Miss Robin, the Balance Field Fragment is sealed there."
"But we need to solve two problems first." Ge Xiaolun pointed to two red dots on the map. "First, the Forgetter, ' The Singing Mermaid' —its song is the source of memory erasure; we must stop it from singing."
"Secondly, there are the ' Followers of Forgetting ' who have emerged within Fish-Man Island. They voluntarily accept oblivion, believing it to be the only way to eliminate racial hatred and achieve lasting peace. They will protect the Forgetter at all costs."
Shirahoshi closed her eyes, sensing the pulse of the deep sea. As Poseidon, she could hear the heartbeat of the ocean, and also... the heartbeats that were disappearing.
"I heard it..." she whispered, "The mermaid's song... it's beautiful... but so sad..."
"Sad?"
"It's crying." Shirahoshi opened her eyes, tears welling up. "It doesn't want to do this... but it can't control itself... like... a manipulated puppet."
The Star Speaker pondered, " The Forgetter might be Chaos beings forcibly implanted with a 'program' by Ithaqua. If we could restore their self-awareness..."
"Then let's give it a try." Ge Xiaolun made up his mind. " Princess Shirahoshi, can you use the power of the Poseidon to communicate with it?"
"I'll give it a try." Shirahoshi stepped out of the deep-sea ark, her huge pink fishtail unfurling in the deep sea. She closed her eyes, opened her arms, and an invisible wave spread out from her.
That was the call of the Poseidon, a vibration that resonated with all marine life.
A few seconds later, the response came.
But it didn't come from the Forgetter, but from within Fish-Man Island.
The grayish-white membrane suddenly surged violently! Thousands upon thousands of Fish-Man Island poured out from various buildings on Fish-Man Island. Their eyes remained vacant, but their movements were perfectly synchronized, like a well-trained army.
Leading the Shirahoshi were three familiar faces:
The Left Minister, the Right Minister, and—her brother, Prince Manboshi.
"Brother..." Shirahoshi's voice trembled.
Fukaboshi raised his head, his eyes devoid of their usual gentleness and wisdom, only a Void, calm emptiness. He spoke in a mechanical voice:
" Shirahoshi, come back."
"Forget the hatred, forget the pain, forget everything between us and humanity."
Here, there is only peace, only tranquility, only eternal oblivion.
The Left Minister chimed in, his voice equally hollow. "History is the root of suffering. Why must we remember the past of enslavement? Why must we remember the humiliation of discrimination? Forget it... Forget everything, and we will find true happiness."
The Right Minister spread his arms wide. "Look! There's no more strife on the island. The Fish-Man Race and Merfolk live in harmony, without class distinctions, discrimination, or conflict. This is the utopia we've always dreamed of!"
Shirahoshi bit her lip. "But that's not real!"
"Does authenticity matter?" Fukaboshi countered. "Isn't happiness more important than authenticity?"
"There is no such thing as true happiness!" Shirahoshi shouted. "If we don't even know why we are happy, what is the meaning of happiness?! If we forget who hurt us, how can we prevent that hurt from happening again?!"
She pointed deep into Fish-Man Island: "And haven't you noticed? It's not just the pain that's being forgotten! Even happy memories are disappearing! Do you still remember your mother's laughter? Do you still remember the afternoons when your father taught us to swim? Do you still remember the days when my siblings and I played together in the coral garden?!"
Fukaboshi's expression softened slightly.
But just then, the singing began.
From the direction of the Ryugu Palace in the center of Fish-Man Island, came a beautiful, ethereal, and heartbreakingly beautiful female chorus. The song had no lyrics, only pure melody, but every note was like a gentle tentacle, caressing the softest part of the soul.
Forget it... forget it...
Let everything reset... Let everything restart...
Only those who have no past... possess the future...
The fleeting wavering that had just appeared in Fukaboshi's eyes was instantly erased. His expression returned to its empty one.
" Shirahoshi, this is your final warning. Join us, or... be forcibly forgotten."
Behind him, tens of thousands of controlled Fish-Man Island stepped forward simultaneously. They held no weapons, but the oppressive sense of their uniformity was more suffocating than any sword or blade.
Ge Xiaolun immediately ordered, " Super Soldier Company, prepare for battle! Note: Do not harm civilians; prioritize breaking free from control!"
"Wait." The Star Speaker suddenly grabbed Ge Xiaolun's shoulder. "Let me handle this."
He flew forward, hovering beside Shirahoshi, facing Fukaboshi and tens of thousands of islanders.
"Do you know who I am?" the Star Speaker asked.
Fukaboshi coldly replied, "Former commander of the Triangle Bodies, now a lackey of the Order."
"Do you know that the Triangular Body Civilization also faced the same choice as you?"
The Star Speaker's voice was amplified through thought, entering the minds of every Fish-Man Island:
"Billions of years ago, the Reapers descended upon our home planet. They presented us with a choice: accept 'order,' become vassals of the Reapers, lose all Chaos characteristics but survive; or Resistance, and be completely wiped out."
"We chose Resistance."
"The result was that 99% of our compatriots were Harvest, and civilization was almost wiped out. Our group of fugitives hid in the Spacetime Crevice, living like Nezumi for hundreds of millions of years."
He paused, his silvery-white eyes sweeping across the crowd:
You might say, then why not choose to obey? At least you'd survive.
"Then let me tell you—those Triangle Bodies branches that chose to obey did indeed survive. But what became of them?"
The Star Speaker spread his hands, and two images appeared in his palms:
The image on the left shows ancient Triangle Bodies freely roaming in Chaos Nebula, displaying a myriad of forms and brimming with creativity and possibility.
The image on the right shows Triangle Bodies structure that has been ordered up to a uniform rhomboid shape, with a neat and uniform behavior pattern, lacking any individuality or variation, like a mass-produced part in a factory.
"They survived, but lost their 'self'," the Star Speaker said in a low voice. "The promise the Forgetter made to you is exactly the same as the promise the Reapers made to us: forget the pain, gain peace."
"But the price is—to forget everything, to lose everything, to become nothing."
"What's the difference between living like that and being dead?"
Fukaboshi's expression wavered again. The islanders behind him began to stir, and a light returned to some of their eyes—the light of memory.
The singing suddenly turned shrill!
The mermaids' chorus turned into a shrill scream, and the sound waves transformed into tangible gray-white tentacles, wrapping around the Star Speaker and the Shirahoshi!
"Watch out!" Ge Xiaolun deployed Anti-Void barrier, but the sonic tentacles pierced through it directly—they were neither physical nor energy attacks, but conceptual attacks.
The moment the tentacles wrapped around the Star Speaker, he felt his memories rapidly slipping away:
--The memories of the Triangle Bodies Mother Planet are blurred.
The fear of fleeing has faded.
The initial shock I felt upon first seeing Allen has vanished.
"No..." the Star Speaker gritted her teeth in Resistance, "I can't forget... this is... my choice... my new life..."
A silvery-white light of order erupted within him! But the grayish-white tentacles coiled even more frantically, gradually eroding the light of order.
Shirahoshi wanted to help, but she was also entangled by the tentacles. As the Poseidon, her memories were far more vast—eight hundred years of history, the legacy of countless generations of Poseidon, the memories of the entire ocean...
"Mother..." she murmured, remembering Queen Otohime, "You taught us to live in peace with humans... but not at the cost of forgetting..."
Just as their memories were about to be completely erased—
The hatch of the deep-sea ark opened.
A figure stepped out.
That's Jinbe.
He sat cross-legged in the seawater, his hands clasped together, and his eyes closed.
Then he started singing.
It wasn't the ethereal singing of mermaids, but rather the ancient battle song of Fish-Man Island.
A rugged, hoarse, and powerful battle song.
The lyrics are sung in the ancient Fish-Man language:
[The blood-stained coral will not forget its hatred!]
[Broken chains never forget humiliation!]
But hatred is not meant to be perpetuated!
Humiliation is not meant to create new humiliation!
We remember this so that it will never happen again!
We fight for the freedom of our children and grandchildren!
Jinbe's song and the mermaid's song collided in the deep sea!
The grayish-white tentacles began to tremble and retreat. In the empty eyes of the Fish-Man Island, fragments of memory began to resurface:
They remembered Fisher Tiger, the hero who freed slaves.
They remembered Queen Otohime, the messenger who dreamed of peace.
They remembered their compatriots who had died in Mary Geoise.
They also recalled the times they fought alongside the Straw Hat Pirates.
Fukaboshi's tears streamed down her face. " Shirahoshi... I... I just now..."
"Brother!" Shirahoshi broke free of the tentacles and swam towards Fukaboshi.
But the mermaid's song suddenly changed tune!
It was no longer ethereal, no longer mournful, but angry.
From the direction of the Ryugu Palace, a grayish-white light shot into the sky! A gigantic figure slowly rose.
It was a breathtakingly beautiful mermaid, with a silvery-white fishtail as her lower body and a perfect human female torso as her upper body, her long hair flowing like seaweed. But her eyes had no pupils, only swirling gray starlight—exactly the same as Ithaqua's eyes.
She opened her mouth, but instead of singing, she uttered a command:
[Forget... or... destruction...]
In the deep sea, countless Black Shadow began to gather.
Sea Kings.
But these weren't the gentle Sea Kings Shirahoshi was familiar with. These Sea Kings also had gray, swirling eyes, and they were being controlled.
Dozens of colossal Sea Kings rose from the deep-sea trenches and surrounded Fish-Man Island. The smallest of them was half the size of Fish-Man Island, and the largest was comparable to the entire island.
" The Sea Kings... have been controlled..." Shirahoshi said, trembling.
"Because the ' Pillar of Life ' is being eroded," the Star Speaker said, pointing towards the Great Deep-Sea Hollow. " The Balance Field Fragment are crucial for maintaining the order of marine life. If the fragments are contaminated, the entire marine ecosystem will collapse."
Ge Xiaolun gritted his teeth. "We must get the fragment as soon as possible! But to get to the Great Void, we must break through the defenses of these Sea Kings and Forgetter!"
Jinbe stopped singing, stood up, and said, "This old man will clear the way."
"Boss Jinbe!" Shirahoshi exclaimed.
" Princess Shirahoshi." Jinbe turned around, a gentle smile on his face. "You are the Poseidon, the future of the ocean. And I—"
He assumed the starting stance of Fish-Man Karate:
"--This is the present state of Fish-Man Island."
"Before you Awakening your true power, let this old man buy some time for this island."
Before he could finish speaking, Jinbe had already charged out!
It wasn't a swim, it was an explosion.
Fish-Man Karate - Ultimate Technique - Buraikan!
With both fists slammed out, the water, compressed to its limit, transformed into two shockwaves that pierced through the deep sea, directly striking the two nearest Sea Kings!
"Roar--!" The Sea Kings roared in pain, but their wounds healed rapidly—they were strengthened by the Chaos energy.
More Sea Kings swarmed around.
Jinbe took a deep breath, and seawater rushed into his lungs— the Fish-Man Race's special respiratory system allowed him to exert 200% of his strength underwater.
" Fish-Man Karate - 5000 Tiles--"
"--Sea Ocean Current Shoulder Throw!"
He forcibly reversed the flow of the entire ocean! A massive whirlpool formed around him, engulfing more than a dozen Sea Kings!
But that's not enough.
The Forgetter Mermaid raised her hand, and a gray light flowed into the Sea Kings' bodies. Their wounds healed instantly, and their bodies even swelled up.
"This is never going to end..." Ge Xiaolun prepared to join the battle.
But the Star Speaker stopped him. "Your mission is to protect Princess Shirahoshi to the Great Void. Leave this to us."
"You?"
The Star Speaker looked at the Deep Sea Ark. The hatch opened again, and what stepped out was not Super Soldier Company Squad, but... the Chaos Remnants.
Twelve remnant warriors who have achieved order but retain some Chaos characteristics. They vary in form: some are as transparent as jellyfish, some have many tentacles like octopuses, and some resemble luminous deep-sea fish.
Leading the group was a former subordinate of the Star Speaker —a former elite Triangle Bodies warrior who now called himself " Tide."
"Commander," Tide said in broken Common, " The Ancient One sent us to help. The Chaos Remnants... owe the Threshold Bearer a favor."
The Star Speaker nodded. "Then let them witness the power of the combination of Chaos and order."
The twelve survivor warriors released their energy simultaneously! Their energy was no longer pure Chaos, nor pure order, but balance.
Platinum and dark purple light intertwined, forming a massive magic circle in the deep sea. The magic circle enveloped all the controlled Sea Kings.
" The Balance Purification Formation," the Star Speaker explained, "Will not kill them, but only purify Ithaqua's control imprint."
The magic circle is activated.
The Sea Kings ' gray eyes began to fade, returning to their original color. They ceased their attack, hovering blankly in the sea, as if they had just awakened from a nightmare.
The Forgetter Mermaid let out an angry shriek!
She charged towards the magic circle herself, her gray-white tentacles shooting out like a torrential rain!
"It's our turn," Ge Xiaolun said to Shirahoshi. "Let's go to the Great Hollow now!"
Shirahoshi glanced at Jinbe, the Star Speaker, and the Remnant warriors who were engaged in fierce combat with the Forgetter, gritted her teeth, and nodded. "Follow me!"
The two descended into the darkest part of the deep sea.
The deeper they went, the greater the pressure and the dimmer the light became. But the Poseidon's power in Shirahoshi's hands was like a beacon, illuminating the path ahead.
Three thousand meters later, they arrived at the entrance to the Great Deep-Sea Hollow.
It was a circular opening with a diameter of over a kilometer, its edges unnaturally smooth, as if it had been carved out by some enormous being. The inside of the opening was pitch black, so dark that even the light of the Poseidon could not penetrate it.
"This is it," Shirahoshi said. "The origin of marine life... and also the forbidden land my mother told me I must never enter lightly."
"Why?"
"Because the ' Pillar of Life ' is inside," Shirahoshi's voice was filled with awe. "It is the core of the rules that maintains the balance of all marine life. If the core is damaged, the oceans of the entire world will undergo abnormal changes."
Ge Xiaolun inspected the equipment. "The fragment left by Allen is inside. We must get it, activate it, and make it a weapon against Ithaqua."
The two swam into the cave entrance.
Darkness engulfed them.
This was an absolute darkness that absorbed even sound. Ge Xiaolun's Void Engine system issued an alarm. "High concentration of Chaos energy and ordered energy mixture detected... The two are in an unstable equilibrium... Warning, any external disturbance may lead to a massive explosion..."
Shirahoshi closed her eyes, relying entirely on Poseidon's senses.
She "saw" it.
At the bottom of the large cavity, there is a pillar of light piercing through the seabed crust.
The pillar of light was not a physical entity, but a pure flow of energy—a spiral of platinum-gold ordered energy and dark purple Chaos energy intertwined to form a stable double helix structure. This was the " Pillar of Life," the manifestation of the rules of marine life.
At the very center of the beam of light, a crystal was suspended.
The crystal is platinum gold, with a Sparks luster on its surface.
Balance Field Fragment.
But around the fragments were grayish-white chains—the " Rule Virus " implanted by Ithaqua. The other end of the chains was connected to the pillar of light itself, slowly corrupting the entire Pillar of Life.
"If the fragments are contaminated..." Shirahoshi said in horror, " the Pillar of Life will collapse, and all marine life in the world will..."
"Therefore, we must remove the fragments before the contamination is complete." Ge Xiaolun swam towards the pillar of light.
But just as he approached within a hundred meters, the beam of light suddenly trembled violently!
The grayish-white chains wriggled like living things, pulling away from the pillar of light and coalescing in the air into a familiar figure.
That was Queen Otohime.
Or rather, it is a phantom of Queen Otohime's image.
The phantom opened her eyes, which were filled with gray starlight. She spoke in the gentle voice of Queen Otohime:
" Shirahoshi, my daughter."
"Mother..." Shirahoshi trembled.
"Why Resistance?" Phantom opened his arms. "Forget hatred, achieve peace—isn't that my dream?"
"No!" Shirahoshi shook her head. "My mother's dream is to achieve peace through understanding and tolerance, not to forcibly create peace through forgetting!"
"But understanding takes time, and forgiveness takes courage," the phantom smiled. "And forgetting... takes only a moment."
"That kind of peace is a lie!"
"Even a false peace is better than a real war." Phantom's tone turned icy. "Look at the human world on the ground. For eight hundred years, war has never ceased. Hatred breeds hatred, violence begets violence. Do you really believe that understanding and tolerance can change all of this?"
Shirahoshi fell silent.
The phantom continued, "But forgetting is possible. If everyone forgot the differences in race, nation, and class, and forgot the hatred and pain of history, wouldn't the world naturally be at peace?"
" Fish-Man Island is proof of that. Look at Fish-Man Island now, how peaceful and tranquil it is. Isn't this what you wanted?"
Shirahoshi's will wavered.
She remembered the empty but serene faces on the island.
I recalled my brother's empty eyes.
I recall the tears my mother shed before she passed away.
Perhaps... perhaps forgetting really is the only way out?
Ge Xiaolun noticed her wavering. " Shirahoshi! Don't listen to it! That's Ithaqua's lie!"
"A lie?" Phantom scoffed. "Then tell me, where is the real way out? Peaceful coexistence between the Fish-Man Race and humans? Is that even possible? Eight hundred years of history have proven it impossible!"
"That's the past!" Ge Xiaolun roared. "The future can be changed! Allen is changing, Luffy is changing, everyone is changing! If you choose to forget without even trying, that's true failure!"
Shirahoshi shuddered.
She remembered Luffy's smile.
I remembered the image of Allen's back as he walked into the Gate of the Void.
It reminded me of how the Straw Hat Pirates risked their lives for Fish-Man Island.
"Mother..." she whispered, "What you taught me was 'courage'."
"It's not the courage to be fearless, but the courage to move forward even when you're afraid."
It's not the courage to never cry, but the courage to smile even when you're crying.
"It's not the courage to forget the pain, but the courage to remember the pain and still choose to forgive."
Shirahoshi raised her head, her eyes no longer filled with confusion:
Therefore, I will not choose to forget.
"I will remember everything—the hatred, and the kindness; the pain, and the hope; my mother's dreams, and her tears."
"And then, with all of this—"
She swam towards the pillar of light, towards the phantom of Queen Otohime:
"--Go and create the world your mother dreamed of."
The phantom's expression twisted.
"Foolish!" it shrieked as it pounced on Shirahoshi!
But Shirahoshi did not dodge.
She opened her arms and embraced the phantom.
Grayish-white chains instantly bound her body! Memories flooded back like a tide, only to be forcibly erased—
My memory of seeing sunlight for the first time is hazy.
The memory of her mother's assassination has faded.
--The memory of meeting Luffy has disappeared.
"No..." Ge Xiaolun tried to rush forward, but the beam of light released a powerful repulsive force field, which blasted him away.
Shirahoshi held the phantom tightly, her tears mingling with the seawater.
Even if I forget everything...
"I remember... I was Poseidon..."
"I also remember... I wanted to protect this ocean..."
I also remember... my mother loved me...
The phantom began to disintegrate.
The gray-white chains broke one by one.
Because what Shirahoshi embraced was not an illusion, but her own longing and guilt towards her mother. Queen Otohime's dream was never to make Shirahoshi the perfect Poseidon, but to let her become her true self.
The real you is afraid, hesitant, and prone to making mistakes.
But they will also make the right choices at crucial moments.
"Mother..." Shirahoshi whispered, "Please look at me."
"Watch how I finish the path you didn't complete."
The last chain broke.
The illusion vanished completely.
The beam of light regained its pure double-helix radiance.
Balance Field Fragment slowly drifted out from the center of the pillar of light and fell into Shirahoshi's palm.
The fragments pulsed warmly, as if saying: You did a great job.
Meanwhile, Fish-Man Island.
The mermaid Forgetter, who was engaged in a fierce battle with Jinbe and the Star Speaker, suddenly let out a shrill scream.
The gray vortex in her eyes began to disintegrate, returning to clear blue pupils.
"I... what am I doing..." She stared blankly at her hands, at the Fish-Man Island that was being controlled, and at the injured Jinbe.
Memories flood back like a tide.
She remembered—she was a Merfolk songstress from ancient times, captured, modified, and imprisoned in a cage of rules by Ithaqua, forced to become a tool of oblivion.
"I'm sorry..." she murmured, tears streaming down her face. "I'm so sorry..."
Her body began to become transparent. The backlash from the cage of rules began—once she was out of control, she would be completely erased.
"Wait!" Jinbe swam towards her. "Is there any hope?"
The songstress shook her head, revealing a sorrowful yet relieved smile.
Thank you... for reminding me of who I am at the very end...
"Please tell Poseidon..."
"Fragments of the Pillar of Life... not just weapons..."
"It is also... Key..."
"With all five Key gathered... it can unlock... what the Weavers left behind..."
Before she could finish speaking, her body completely dissipated, turning into countless specks of light that merged into the sea.
Jinbe silently lowered his head.
On Fish-Man Island, all the controlled islanders awoke simultaneously. They stared blankly at each other, at the grayish-white membrane around them, as memories flooded back.
Fukaboshi rushed to Shirahoshi's side. "Little sister! Are you alright?"
Shirahoshi clutched the shard, nodding weakly but firmly. "I got... the first Key..."
Countdown update: 65 hours and 22 minutes.
First stop, success.
But the losses were severe.
The truth about the Forgetter is more tragic than imagined.
The secret of the " Key " has only just been partially revealed.