【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

Chapter 488 Vander Decken

Before Zoro could take any action, the Ryugu king suddenly burst into tears and begged them for help, demanding that they aid the mermaid princess. Zoro twitched his lips speechlessly, "We're pirates! And enemies at that!"

"I never expected that the Straw Hat crew, with whom we have such a deep connection, would help us break through the Ryugu Palace."

Nami looked at the fishman who was speaking with a puzzled expression. She frowned when she saw the Arlong symbol he had revealed. Listening to his words of admiration for Arlong, Nami's eyes widened in shock. Arlong's cruel face flashed before her eyes in an instant, and Nami pursed her lips.

"Are these guys actually fishmen who inherited Arlong's will?" Usopp exclaimed in shock.

"What is that guy doing?!"

"Damn it, seawater is flooding in!" Zoro said through gritted teeth. He hadn't expected that fishman would come up with such a plan, breaking down the wall and letting the seawater rush in. They had a Devil Fruit user in their team, that bastard!

"Same Yabu!!"

"Get down! The water droplets are turning into arrows!" Zoro shouted a warning, then quickly swung his sword at the charging fishman, "One-Sword Style: E'gang Bird!!"

"That bastard actually used his comrade as a shield, that's outrageous!" Usopp exclaimed incredulously as he watched Hody shield Zoro's attack with his comrade's body.

"Hey, listen to me! Miss Nami is nowhere to be found!" Brook said in a panic, looking at the seawater at his feet. "And the situation here is bad; I'm losing my strength."

"Negotiations with this country have broken down," Zoro said in a deep voice, looking down at the fallen soldiers. They had already agreed on their terms, but this had happened. "We failed to keep our promise to safely return all the hostages!"

"Slaughter Neptune's army and the Straw Hat crew! I'm going to take over this country!"

……

"Hachi, what happened?" Luffy ran towards Hachi, who was lying on the ground, in shock. "What happened to your injuries? Who did this to you!?"

“He just wouldn’t tell us anything, he just kept telling us to leave the island…” Chopper explained.

"Princess Shirahoshi!?" The surrounding fish-men exclaimed as they watched the mermaid emerge from the pufferfish's mouth. "The mermaid princess has been kidnapped!? Princess Shirahoshi has really been kidnapped!"

"Wow, it's huge!" Chopper stared at the mermaid in shock. "Princess? Could you be...? Sanji, you absolutely can't look!!"

"Cowardly Star, why did you come out of the shark's mouth?!" Luffy shouted angrily. They had gone to great lengths to stuff her in.

"I'm...I'm sorry, Mr. Luffy, please don't be angry... Waaah..."

"You actually made the princess cry! You wicked pirate, you are unforgivable!!" the surrounding fishmen shouted angrily.

Luffy and his crew were completely oblivious to their surroundings. Chopper was frantically trying to stop Sanji from turning around to look at the mermaid princess, Luffy was telling the mermaid princess not to cry and asking Hachi who had beaten him up like this, Sanji was making the decision to risk his life to see the mermaid princess, and then he was completely petrified the moment he turned his head, while Qi... just watched the show.

The only change was that Luffy and his crew were suddenly tied up by angry residents. Qi raised an eyebrow in surprise, somewhat taken aback by this development, but not too surprised, and didn't even intend to help.

These fish-men posed no threat to them; they were just playing around. However, when a giant coral flew towards the mermaid princess, Qi did help to block it.

"Who are you?" Qi looked at the man who came with Coral with suspicion. After he blocked Coral, the man fell to the ground. "It's very impolite to propose to a young girl right away."

"You're the bastard who throws things at cowards!?" Luffy glared angrily at Vander Decken, who was lying on the ground.

"This is my love with Shirahoshi! Why are you interfering?!" Vander Decken stood up from the ground, glaring angrily at the man who had blocked his attack, then shouted at the mermaid princess, "Shirahoshi, marry me!!"

"You're not my type..." Bai Xing shouted with tears in her eyes but with utmost seriousness.

"You wretched woman! Since you don't love me, keeping you alive is just an eyesore!" Vander Deikun shouted in a fit of rage, "Die, Shirahoshi!!"

"Run! Princess Shirahoshi!" the fishmen cried out in terror.

"Don't run away, stay there, Coward! If you run away, I won't be able to protect you!!" Luffy shouted.

“Hey, don’t move.” Qi blocked Vander Deikun’s axe that he was about to swing at Princess White Star. “She is someone our captain wants to protect.”

"Mind your own business!!" Vander Deikun yelled angrily. "Take this!"

"You're getting in the way a little," Luffy said sharply, instantly releasing a small amount of Conqueror's Haki, causing the fishmen who were holding them to fall down one by one.

……

After Luffy jumped off the shark, Lucci followed suit and walked in another direction. Sure enough, a short while later, he saw a familiar figure in front of a stall selling grilled sea monster meat. He immediately rushed over and punched the figure in the head.

The barbecue in his hand fell to the ground due to the unexpected blow. Ace clutched his throbbing head, staring at the fallen meat and growling under his breath, "Bastard!"

Ace angrily raised his head to glare at the culprit, only to be met with a familiar face. Ace's anger instantly subsided. When he stared at Lucci, whose face was clearly filled with anger, he couldn't help but nervously rub his head. "Lucci, what are you doing here?"

"I was about to ask you what you're doing here!" Lucci crossed his arms and glared at Ace. "Why didn't you answer my calls!?"

"I fell into the sea," Ace said helplessly, shrugging.

"So you're eating barbecue here all by yourself, separated from the group?" Lucci quipped, buying some barbecue from the stall as he did so.

“You have to pay me back.” Ace immediately grabbed more grilled meat from the stall as Lucci paid, remembering the piece of grilled meat that Lucci had just knocked away from his hand.

Lucci glanced at Ace speechlessly, gave the stall owner some extra Berries, and then led Ace back to where Luffy and the others were. When they returned, Luffy seemed to have just been in a battle with a group of people, and there were a bunch of fish-man residents lying dead around them.

Lucci looked on in bewilderment at Luffy being tied up, and Sanji being tied up after turning into stone. Lucci was untying Chopper, and the mermaid princess was untying Luffy.

"Luffy, what are you guys playing at?" Ace stood in front of the bound Luffy, grinning as he munched on the roasted meat in his hand.

"Ah, meat!!" Luffy instantly stuck his head out, wanting to bite into the roasted meat in Ace's hand.

Ace grinned and dodged away, then stuffed all the grilled meat into his mouth right in front of Luffy, chewing triumphantly, "No way."