Sadgeo is not Joy Boy.
This point, was already within Orin's expectations from the very beginning.
After all, Orin was not trying to create an unbeatable father for himself, but rather to give this world a bit more excitement, so instead of saying that Sadgeo was a clone of Joy Boy, it would be more accurate to say he was an artificially created child of destiny.
"Hoo~"
Sitting calmly at the table, savoring a Fish-Man Island–exclusive drink, Orin let out a breath and opened one eye, then looked toward Madam Shakky beside him.
The two had known each other for a very long time—after all, she had once told fortunes for the Roger Pirates when she was young, foretelling the imminent birth of the Sea King, and Orin had been quite interested in coming over to have a reading himself.
"Long time no see, Shakky. You've really become more and more beautiful~"
A faint curve appeared at the corner of Orin's mouth.
The current Shakky already fully possessed the physique characteristic of a shark mermaid—voluptuous and well-proportioned, a cool and elegant mature woman, her size even a bit larger than Orin's.
"For Orin-sama to take the interest to come here~"
Slowly taking a drag from her cigarette, Shakky stood up and poured Orin a cup of coffee.
Orin, however, showed some distaste, because he hated bitter drinks the most.
With a snap of his fingers, he added a full three packets of sugar and milk, only then taking a slow sip.
"I'm just here to join in the fun~"
"It seems Orin-sama already knows the inside story behind the disturbances on Fish-Man Island?"
Shakky had not made prophecies for a long time, but she still had her own information channels and knew that some uninvited guests had arrived on Fish-Man Island.
"You could say that…"
"And while I'm at it, I want to see who Fish-Man Island will ultimately fall to."
There was a playful edge to Orin's smile, because he had also seen that members of Big Mom's pirate crew had arrived on Fish-Man Island ahead of time.
As well as some hooligans who had spontaneously banded together—the so-called New Fish-Man Pirates' lackeys.
This Fish-Man Island really is lively enough~
Should I increase the difficulty for them a bit~
...
On the other side,
Luffy and the others had already adapted to the situation after arriving on Fish-Man Island. With Camie's help, they successfully entered the island's interior, and learned that the New Fish-Man Pirates planned to overthrow the Ryugu Kingdom and take revenge on humans.
"Surrender, Straw Hat, and Neptune!!!"
"We're going to take control of this country, take advantage of this year's World Conference, and then kill all those human kings, to declare the existence of us fish-men to the world!!!"
The anger of a people is never something produced by an individual, nor something that can be controlled by one.
Even though the original captain of the New Fish-Man Pirates, Hody Jones, had been casually killed by Orin many years ago, the years of discrimination and persecution suffered by fish-men and merfolk alike, as well as the death of Fisher Tiger, had continuously added fuel to the flames of rage.
So the internal conflict among fish-men was bound to erupt sooner or later.
History would still happen—this was inertia itself.
That was why Orin held no excessive prejudice against the Celestial Dragons, nor excessive goodwill toward the Revolutionary Army, because in a certain sense, the two were the same kind of people.
Correspondingly,
Orin also had no rose-colored glasses toward their source—the Twenty Kings or Joy Boy.
And so he ultimately created Sadgeo.
Joy Boy represented white, while that fellow Sadgeo represented black—two inheritors of wills bent on overthrowing the Celestial Dragons.
Joy Boy, to Roger, to Luffy;
Sadgeo, to Rocks, to Teach;
The monster formed from the fusion of these two lines of inherited will.
Add to that Shanks, a man entangled in black and white alike, and Sadgeo would become a man of both black and white, one who would bring surprises to the World Government.
And naturally, he would be instinctively at odds with Luffy, the true inheritor of Joy Boy, as well as with Blackbeard.
This was the manifestation of black and white converging on the same destination, yet contradicting each other.
"Opposing humans, huh~ What a deep resentment~"
"Can the power of the fish-man race be used by me?"
"Hehehe…"
Sadgeo stood within the Ryugu Palace, looking at the assembled fish-man army outside. Luffy and the others had already gone to meet them in battle, and King Neptune also wanted to go protect his people, but it was clear there was something inside the palace that concerned him even more.
"Could it really be… that you've returned?!!!"
"But how is that possible…"
Sadgeo felt a bit puzzled.
"You know me?"
The legends of Joy Boy were naturally deeply rooted in every generation of Fish-Man Island's leaders. As former subordinates of the Sea King, they had been entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the Promised Ark Noah, and of course knew Joy Boy's traits and descriptions.
Even if they had never seen his true face, the feeling he gave should be exactly like the one before them now.
"Well… more or less…"
"Is that so? Then I'll keep it short. Follow me and cause some chaos, fish-men!!!"
"Overthrow the World Government!!!"
At this moment, Sadgeo's face bore both the righteousness and innocence belonging to Joy Boy, and the ambition belonging to Sadgeo.
"What?!"
"Overthrow the World Government…"
Sadgeo smiled at this.
"That's right. I know it, you see—if you want to become the king of the world, you have to defeat the current ruler of the world, don't you?"
"Well… relying on myself alone might be a bit difficult, so I can only drag in… and rally the whole world!!!"
"But…"
Neptune's face was drenched in cold sweat at this moment.
Logically speaking, the stance of the fish-men should indeed be to stand with Joy Boy and resist the World Government.
But no matter how you looked at it, something felt wrong about the current situation!
This Joy Boy seemed different from the one in the legends…
Just then, an unusual disturbance appeared in the plaza outside the Ryugu Palace.
"What is this?!"
Everyone looked up at the sky. It was a wooden ship so enormous it was absurd.
Standing together with Shirahoshi, Queen Otohime—who was trying to persuade the rioting fish-men—also turned pale upon seeing the ship, and then heard a series of voices in conversation.
"We've brought Noah…"
"We've been waiting for the day of destiny, and have never given up on standing our ground!"
"Come confront Joy Boy!!!"
Sensing these thunderous conversational wills with Observation Haki, Queen Otohime's face went deathly pale.
Luffy's Conqueror's Haki surged wildly, knocking the fish-man rebels to the ground one after another, and then he looked gravely at the massive ship.
"This is bad!!!"
He immediately began inflating his fists like mad, trying to resist the catastrophe with brute force.
And Sadgeo, at this moment, also appeared, looking with delight at the somewhat decayed Noah.
"A ship like this is perfect for me to sail!!!"
Shirahoshi wore a worried expression, her pupils trembling as she looked toward Noah at the horizon.
"Our king, please don't worry. We're just here to demand an explanation from Joy Boy…"
The super-giant Sea Kings towing Noah looked at Shirahoshi with guilt in their eyes, but even more so with indignation.
Then they turned their gaze, sensing the auras within Fish-Man Island…
"???"
"How come… there are two Joy Boys?"