"It was you! Hody Jones! That day in the plaza… I saw it with my own eyes… you were the one hiding in the corner who shot and killed Mother!"
The moment Shirahoshi screamed those words through her tears, the entire Fishman District fell into a deathly silence.
King Neptune's enormous frame shuddered. He looked down at his daughter, still hiding behind Ace, and his voice came out shattered. "Shirahoshi… you just said Otohime was killed by Hody? This is not something to joke about!"
"What?! Princess Shirahoshi, are you absolutely certain you saw correctly?" Jinbe's eyes bulged as he stared at her.
"No way."
"Queen Otohime was murdered by Boss Hody?!"
"Is that true? No, no, it can't be! I don't believe it!"
Shirahoshi glanced at Ace, who stood before her and gave an encouraging nod. She thought of the mother she had just visited at the grave, and it was as if she drew from that moment the courage that had sustained her for six years. She wiped her tears hard and nodded firmly. "I did not see wrong! I saw it very clearly! The one who fired that shot was Lord Hody! I promised Mother that no matter who the culprit was, I would not hate them or seek revenge. That is why I kept it buried in my heart all this time. But I never imagined things would come to this!"
The street erupted.
"Impossible! Boss Hody killed that human to avenge the Queen!"
"This is a lie! The Queen was Fishman Island's hero!"
The fishman thugs who had been standing in front of Hody, who had treated him as their idol, now stood frozen. Some wore blank, hollow stares. Others roared with fury.
"Wahahahaha! What a show."
Jeno stood off to the side with his arms crossed, unable to hold back his laughter. "A pack of punks screaming about racial pride, and they've been played for fools by their own man for six whole years? That's just embarrassing."
"On this sea, nothing is cheaper than blind hatred whipped up by lies." Sabo pushed down the brim of his hat and drove the knife in without mercy.
"Yahahahaha! I could watch these lower lifeforms make fools of themselves a hundred times and never get bored." Enel sat cross-legged in midair, casually tossing his Thunder Staff from hand to hand, looking down at the crowd like they were circus clowns.
Then it happened.
"Shahahahaha… Shahahahahaha!"
Hody Jones, sprawled in a pool of his own blood, let out a piercing, manic laugh. He struggled to lift his head. His body was wrecked beyond repair, but his eyes burned with a sickening fanaticism.
"That's right. I killed her."
Hody spat out a mouthful of bloody froth and admitted it without a shred of remorse. "That stupid woman did nothing but cry and wail about peace with the humans day after day. If she had kept going, she would have filed down every last fang the fishman race has! Only her death could reignite the people's hatred for humans. And as it turns out, I was right. Wasn't I?"
"You bastard!" King Neptune shook with rage and slammed the butt of his trident against the ground.
Jinbe roared, "You damnable wretch! You murdered the innocent and kind Queen Otohime just to poison the relationship between humans and fishmen! Death is too good for you!"
The thugs who had been shielding Hody heard him confess with their own ears. In that single instant, their faith collapsed completely.
"Hody… you really…"
"What have we been fighting for all these years?!"
"Damn it! What were we even worth?!"
Dozens of the ringleaders collapsed to their knees in despair, wailing. Some even picked up the blades scattered on the ground and pressed them against their own chests.
"We don't deserve to live under the sun! Kill us! Let us atone for the Queen!"
"If you're all so eager to die, I'll grant your wish."
Ace stepped forward. A blaze of crimson-gold divine fire erupted in his palm. The terrifying heat flash-boiled the surrounding seawater in an instant, forming a thick ring of steam.
"You made the wrong choice. Now you bear the consequences. Vanish alongside this filthy street."
"Lord Ace! Please, wait!"
King Neptune dropped to his knees before Ace. Jinbe followed immediately, crashing down onto the stone pavement right behind him.
"Please spare these children! They were only deceived! They never meant to defy you. Hody, that monster, exploited their hatred!"
"Lord Ace… please don't kill them." Shirahoshi tugged at the hem of Ace's coat, sobbing quietly as she begged.
In that moment, Shark, who had been silent the entire time, walked up beside Ace.
"Captain."
Shark glanced at the fishmen kneeling in repentance, then turned back to Ace. "These fools may be stupid, but they still make a decent fighting force. If we can bring them to heel, the Eclipse Pirates would gain a significant underwater combat arm. That would serve our future plans well."
Ace looked at Shark, then swept his gaze over Neptune and Jinbe, still kneeling before him.
"Just this once."
Ace pulled back part of the flame, but his eyes stayed cold.
"The innocent and the ignorant, I can spare. But…"
Boom!
Ace's right hand swept forward.
The crimson-gold divine fire shot out like a precision-guided meteor and engulfed Hody Jones and the handful of core officers who had known the truth all along.
And it did not stop there. The fishmen Hody had successfully brainwashed into absolute loyalty, the diehards who had learned the truth moments ago and still refused to repent, were swallowed by the flames in the same instant.
"AAAAAAARGH!"
The screams lasted only seconds. Under that extreme heat, Hody Jones and all his vile schemes were reduced to a patch of black ash on the ground.
The firelight faded.
The several thousand ordinary fishman thugs still present stared at the ash, stared at the手段 that looked like divine punishment itself, and collapsed. Their bodies went limp. Not a single spark of defiance remained in any of them.
The clamor of the Fishman District died.
All that was left was a crowd of the ignorant, shattered by a terrifying miracle, kneeling on the ground, trembling and repenting without end.
Ace extinguished the last embers clinging to his fingertips and looked over the fishmen paralyzed by the divine judgment.
"Shark."
Ace turned to the fishman with Samehada strapped across his back. "This place is filthy, but these ones still have some fire in their bones. Since it was your suggestion, the screening is yours. What I want are fangs for the Eclipse Pirates, not brainless trash."
"Yes, Captain."
Shark took one step forward and stood before that field of ash.
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