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Hannabal.
Inside the municipal hall, Mayor Enru stood with his entire management team—the Minister of Finance, the Chief of Security, the Harbormaster, the Arena Foreman, and others.
They were here to report on their progress.
Jin had been to Skypiea and back down to Jaya, but he hadn't actually been gone for very long.
The meeting was brief.
But it was necessary.
It was a vital process for everyone involved, both up and down the chain of command.
For Jin, it was a chance to see who was actually working and to cement his authority. If he were to simply let them be, this lot might be wary of him now, but give them an inch, and they'd take a mile. Let them go too long without oversight, and the whole system would rot from the inside out.
Sure, there were honest men among them. But who could maintain their passion when ground down by the daily grind? It wasn't a matter of replacing a few bad apples.
It was human nature.
It didn't need to be tested; it simply was.
For his subordinates, it was a chance to get some face time with the king, to show their worth. It was a path to promotion.
It gave them something to strive for.
After the meeting, Mayor Enru arranged for Jin to stay at a quiet, heavily guarded estate on the outskirts of the city.
It was there that he met with one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the "Knight of the Sea" Jinbe.
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The door to the drawing-room opened. A young man walked in—elegantly dressed, with a commanding presence and handsome features.
He was a perfect match for the photograph in the newspaper.
Jinbe rose to his feet—a solid, deliberate movement. He gave a slight, formal bow. "Your Majesty. I am Jinbe."
Jin just smiled. He took a seat first, then gestured to the chair opposite him.
"Sit, Jinbe. What brings you to me?"
He studied the Fish-Man. Jinbe was a whale shark Fish-Man with wild, wind-swept eyebrows and sideburns. He wore his hair in a topknot, a short, thick black beard on his chin, and a lightning-bolt-shaped scar at the corner of his left eye. He was a large, powerfully built man with two massive teeth protruding from his lower jaw.
The symbol of the Sun Pirates was tattooed on the center of his chest. He wore a patterned yukata and traditional Wano-style wooden sandals.
Jinbe sat. "I have come on behalf of King Neptune of the Ryugu Kingdom on Fish-Man Island—"
"—I bring his blessings, and a gift."
He gestured to an ornate box on the table between them.
Jin nodded but didn't open it. "Very well. I accept his gift. Please thank King Neptune for me when you return."
A wave of relief washed over Jinbe.
The Ryugu Kingdom was not a member of the World Government. Most of the kings of the member nations, for reasons of race or security, refused to deal with them.
Jinbe had come here on a long shot. He couldn't afford to miss any opportunity.
The fact that Jin had accepted the gift meant there was a chance.
"I heard that you recently defeated one of the Seven Warlords, Doflamingo," Jinbe said. "It is truly astonishing. In my youth, I was nowhere near as powerful as you. Your wisdom and your radiance shine as brightly as the sun..."
He sat stiffly, offering polite, flattering words.
Even pirates had to play the game.
A playful smirk touched Jin's lips. "That doesn't sound much like the 'Knight of the Sea' I've heard about."
Jinbe had earned his moniker for his chivalry and his strong sense of responsibility.
But Jin knew that the younger Jinbe, much like Arlong, had harbored a deep malice toward humans.
He had been a street tough in the Fish-Man District. After his boss, Fisher Tiger, had left on his adventures, he had become his successor.
Later, he had joined the Neptune Army, rising through the ranks to become its commander.
When Fisher Tiger had returned after freeing the slaves of the Celestial Dragons, the former members of the Fish-Man District had rallied around him, forming the Sun Pirates to protect him from the World Government. Jinbe had left the army and joined them.
In the early days, he had often killed humans in retaliation. It was only under Fisher Tiger's influence, and after learning the bitter lesson of the endless cycle of revenge, that he had begun to re-examine the relationship between Fish-Men and humans. His methods had changed, and he had grown distant from Arlong.
But in Jin's view, it was more likely that Jinbe had simply recognized the potential of humanity and had realized that to be their enemy was to be annihilated.
And so, he had begun to seek peace.
From the very beginning, Jinbe's first priority had always been the protection of Fish-Man Island.
For that, he had joined the Warlords.
He had called Whitebeard "Pops."
When Whitebeard fell, he had pledged himself to Big Mom.
And when he saw Luffy's potential, he had "backstabbed" her and jumped ship.
Back home, a man like that would be called a turncoat.
And that was one of the reasons many fans felt that Jinbe wasn't a good fit for the Straw Hat crew. His bonds were too shallow. It felt as if he had only been added to the crew to resolve the conflict between humans and Fish-Men, to represent a certain "correct" ideology.
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"I can guess your true purpose here," Jin said, cutting through Jinbe's clumsy flattery. "You want me to recognize the Ryugu Kingdom? Or perhaps to put in a good word for you at next year's Levely?"
Jinbe nodded. "Your perception is admirable."
But Jin just shook his head. "It's not that simple. The issue of race is not something one or two people can change. The plight of the Fish-Men has both internal and external causes. The external causes—the pirates, the slave traders, the oppression, both seen and unseen—you know all about. So I'll just talk about the internal."
"Within the Fish-Man race itself, there is a faction of extremists who hate humans and who tarnish the image of your people. I don't mind you taking revenge on the slavers who capture mermaids, or the pirates who prey on your people. But you only dare to raise your hand against those who are weaker than you, and in doing so, you only provoke more hatred from humans. Even those who sympathize with you are disgusted by the actions of those Fish-Men and are forced to be on their guard. For example, Arlong and his crew, who tried to establish a 'Fish-Man Paradise' in the East Blue and brought nothing but suffering to the humans there."
Jinbe's eyes flickered. 'So Arlong went to the East Blue? And from the way he's talking, he's probably been dealt with.'
A quiet sigh escaped him.
"Arlong and his crew were released from Impel Down because you became a Warlord," Jin continued, his words merciless.
"—And they went to the East Blue and slaughtered innocent people. And it's not just Arlong. Other members of the Sun Pirates have become slave traders themselves, burning and pillaging. Is that right? Don't you hate the human slave traders? Or does it not matter when it's your own people doing it? Or is it that you don't hate oppression itself? You just hate that you're not the ones doing the oppressing?"
"These are problems that you, Jinbe, the 'Knight of the Sea,' have just ignored? Or have you simply turned a blind eye? You are the one who unleashed that evil. You bear a great responsibility. You are responsible for half of their crimes."
Jinbe was speechless.
"If you don't clean up your own house, if you don't deal with the cancer within your own race, and just continue to play the victim... then no one can help you."
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