This time, Sage was being very patient.
This trip he only brought the Demon Race and a few Fishmen out to sea; he didn't even take Jabra and the others, just to make sure no information leaked.
"Let them keep searching. Marika, go prep the food. When they come back up, we'll throw a banquet."
Sage laughed. "The King isn't stingy enough to starve his soldiers, and I'm way higher up the ladder than the King. My people risk their lives for me; of course I've gotta throw them a banquet worthy of that!"
"Alright, I'll go get ready."
Marika smiled slightly, turned, and headed toward the kitchen.
Cooking was way more popular than fighting.
For three days straight, the Death Star just stayed there, quietly waiting for the Fishmen who dove down and came back up every day to notice something off. After partying at night and getting good rest, they'd dive in even more diligently the next day, trying to find anything different.
They didn't want to disappoint the Governor's expectations, so they tried to inspect every corner down to the tiniest detail.
On the third day, Sage had just finished a set of moves against the Poneglyph in the Cultivation Room, then took a shower and came out wearing only a pair of pants, his lean upper body bare. He pulled a bottle from the liquor cabinet and sat there drinking and resting.
Right then, Lily and Renedia barged into the Captain's cabin together and said straight out, "We found it!"
Sage froze for a moment; the corners of his mouth instinctively curled up. He happily poured himself a glass and downed it in one go. "Where!"
"That's exactly what I was about to report..."
Lily paused. "The location is a bit of a problem."
She picked up a regional map of Wano Country and pointed at the Hakumai Region. "Old Wano is basically a scaled-up version of present Wano. The position the Fishmen found is in Hakumai. If you scale it up proportionately, what they found is still the 'Hidden Harbor' spot. There's no sea floor there, but one lucky guy found a mechanism—a secret passage. There's an ascending shaft deeper inside; you can't see the end of it."
"But some of the Fishmen saw mechanical devices along the passage going up..."
She took out another sheet, a drawing done by one of the Fishmen who could sketch. It wasn't very detailed, even a bit rough, but from the drawing you could still tell the structure was precise, to the point that Sage could see a bit of profundity in it.
"Same as what you figured."
Lily said, "That '藤山' is very likely a cannon platform!"
"Heh heh heh heh, hahahahaha!"
Sage let out a low laugh that grew louder and louder. "What are we waiting for then? Use the submarine, send people in, drag the whole thing out!"
"That's where the problem is."
Lily said, "The entrance to the secret passage is very small, the submarine can't get in. The shaft is also long. If we don't want to cause any Destruction and still excavate it completely, just being good in the water isn't enough. As humans, we can't survive in the water—we still have to rely on Fishmen."
As she spoke, she looked over at Renedia. "You explain."
"Technically, it won't work."
Renedia shook her head. "The sketch is crude, but the interior structure is way too precise. I don't dare randomly mess with it; best case is we keep it intact. Cutting openings from the sides is definitely a no-go. If we work from the bottom up, I estimate there's a long stretch with no seawater. Fishmen can't get that far, and likewise, our people can't hold their breath long enough to get through the water-filled segment going up."
"And there's a big chance that even if they make it up there, that space is gonna have surprises—suffocation and whatnot. Normal people can't handle that crap."
"What about Ability Users? How about Jean Bart?" Sage asked.
"Still no good. Very likely we'd cause Destruction." Renedia said, "Honestly, I can't fix this thing, and the blueprint looks completely different from the current Pluton."
"Right now I strongly suspect that blueprint only inherits part of Pluton, not the whole thing."
Renedia said, "In short, the best method is to get a ton of Fishmen. We can have the Fishmen transport seawater up to the top first, all the way, and only after we thoroughly figure everything out, they move the water back out. I've checked—inside the mountain, it's not affected by the current seawater. If we move it out bit by bit, we can eventually hollow out the entire mountain."
Lily picked up the thread. "But we don't have enough Fishmen. Even if we draft every single Fishman from Totto Land, if you add up all the Fishmen on our turf, it's only about two hundred."
"How many do we need?" Sage asked.
Renedia did a mental estimate and raised one little finger. "With the workload, if we have a thousand, and they work carefully and slowly, we can finish in a month."
"We can't wait that long. The later it drags, the more likely the World Government notices. Short on manpower, huh..."
Sage thought for a moment, then narrowed his eyes. "If I remember right, Fishman Island hasn't changed its flag yet, has it?"
Contrary to his impression, Fishman Island hadn't switched to Luffy's flag. Back then on Fishman Island, the double Four Emperors pressure from Sage and Big Mom on Luffy meant Fishman Island never seriously thought about hoisting Luffy's flag, and Luffy himself didn't intend to make them bear his flag either, so Fishman Island was still flying Big Mom's.
After that...
After that, Sage just stopped thinking about it.
The deep sea and the sky never interested him much.
Sky Island was maybe a little better, since over in the West Sea there really was a route you could take.
But the world under the sea, ten thousand meters down—he didn't just never go have a look, he couldn't even be bothered to imagine it.
That place was the true ultimate in defense.
But now...
"We still have Fishman Island's contact info, right?" Sage asked.
Lily nodded. "We do. You want to reach out to them?"
"Yeah, get Neptune. It's about time..."
Sage bared his teeth in a grin. "During the World Conference, Lucci mentioned an amusing incident. That Pomacea canaliculata we let go tried to kidnap the Mermaid Princess and failed, caused quite a stir."
"Pomacea canaliculata?"
Renedia blinked. "What's that?"
"Apple snail. A snail full of parasites."
Marika came up from downstairs, set some snacks out for Sage, then put a few plates of desserts on the coffee table and gestured for Lily and Renedia to help themselves.
"Snails, when paired with spices and sauces just right, make for delicious dishes. Apple snails don't; they've got too many parasites. If you eat them, even someone well trained will suffer like hell, and their insides will get infested."
"Mm, parasites..."
Lily pondered for a bit, then glanced at Sage. With that one glance, she suddenly got it.
"Sage, you mean that Heavenly Celestial Dragon? The one you let go in the end? Charlos?"
"Scum-snail. Pomacea canaliculata is just scum-snail. That's right."
Sage laughed. "This incident made Neptune furious, filled him with distrust toward the World Government. Perfect timing to give him a call."
Of the three Heavenly Celestial Dragons they'd caught, the daughter was bought back, the father was executed, and that scum-snail was used to bargain.
He never thought that just by surviving, the bastard would bring him a pleasant surprise.
Sometimes you just have to quote a famous saying.
An idiot "friend" is still an idiot.
Works in every world.
"And this is also the perfect opening—a great route."
Sage grinned viciously. "The sea routes might be blocked, but the deep sea passages still work. My cargo can't get past the Red Earth Continent, but Fishmen can... they're born transport specialists, and it's about time I put them to use!"
"The World Government and Fishman Island are at odds; they don't want to walk with them. I'm a Sea Emperor with the biggest territory out there, ruling the first half of the New World, and Fishman Island still doesn't want to walk with me... are they trying to die on the seafloor?"
If they can shoulder Big Mom's flag, then carrying Sage's flag isn't a big deal.
When development hits a bottleneck, you've gotta find new paths. As the era changes, you change with it; otherwise, you get smashed to death by the waves of the times.
Dragon Palace Kingdom, Fishman Island.
This place he could afford not to visit, but he could not afford not to have!
It's about time!