Fish-Man History

"It feels good seeing you again, Luffy." Jimbei said. "You look much stronger than before."

"They said you weren't here so I thought I couldn't meet you." Luffy replied.

"Oh, I thought you came here because of my message."

"Huh? What message?"

"That's odd."

"Boss Jimbei-sama. It's been a long time." Shirahoshi said with a smile.

"Ah, Princess Shirahoshi-sama, you're here too." Jimbei said before realizing what just happened. "Wait. Eh?! Princess Shirahoshi?! Why are you here?!"

Imai couldn't help but laugh at Jimbei's reaction, the warlord's eyes nearly popped out of his sockets.

While the others were busy talking about their personal stuff, Imai decided to wander off by herself a bit. But first, she had to deflect the ax that was heading towards Shirahoshi.

"He's persistent." Imai muttered.

"He got beat up so badly and he's still throwing a bunch of things." Luffy said.

"Luffy! Look at what you've done, why did you bring her out here? It's too dangerous." Jimbei said.

"Eh?! It wasn't me!" Luffy exclaimed as he pointed to Imai. "It was her!"

"It's fine, Jimbei." Imai reassured him. "I can protect her, ain't that right Princess Shirahoshi?"

"Un, she's my knight in shining armor!" Shirahoshi said with excitement. "She swore that she would protect me."

"But still…I think it's a bit careless." Jimbei muttered, though he didn't doubt Imai's knight abilities. It was just that it didn't suit her.

"So, what's the real reason you wanted to come here, Shirahoshi?" Imai asked.

"To visit a grave."

Shirahoshi stayed in the same praying position for a long time, she didn't move a single inch, and kept praying.

"That grave is her mother's grave who was also known as Queen Otohime." Jimbei explained. "Vander Decken's relentless courtship happened right after her death. That's why the Princess couldn't attend the funeral and stayed inside the tower for over ten years."

"And I'm guessing the reason she's praying for a long time is to tell her all the things she wanted to tell her mother." Imai said.

"Yeah, you guessed it correctly."

"I've been in a similar situation as her, so I understand a bit."

Soon enough, Nami had arrived with someone else. After a small talk, they finally go to what was currently going on.

"So the Princess's father was captured by the Arlong pirates and Hordy was the one who injured Hatchan." Jimbei said. "I left a message to you guys but it seems you guys were already caught in the trouble."

"Caught in the trouble..?"

"I've been very thankful for those people who stopped the Arlong Pirates running wild in the East Blue. That was you guys wasn't it?" Jimbei asked.

"Yeah, it was us." Luffy replied.

"Thank you. Let me express my gratitude and I want to apologize at the same time." Jimbei said, causing the others to be confused. "The person who is responsible for letting Arlong loose in the East Blue was me."

"What do you mean you set Arlong loose?" Nami asked.

"I know about it." Sanji said, drawing attention. "When Luffy and I first heard of the name Jimbei of the Seven Warlords, that's what Yosaku told us. In exchange for joining the Warlords, Jimbei set loose a terrible man into the East Blue."

"Was that what he said?"

"You probably don't remember it." Sanji said. "But when I saw that you were with Jimbei in the newspaper, it raised a lot of questions in my mind because I thought Jimbei was the one pulling Arlong's strings."

"And what you thought was true." Imai added as she glanced at Jimbei. "You should be careful of your next words, I have a feeling they wouldn't let you go if you say something wrong."

"As a matter of fact, this beautiful navigator, Nami-san, had her homeland taken over by Arlong." Sanji said, causing Jimbei to be shocked. "And she's been through hell because of it. So depending on what you say, I might not forgive you."

"It sounds like you had a bad experience."

"Yes. It would never make me change the way I feel about Arlong, but until I went to Sabaody Archipelago two years ago, I never knew that such tough fish-man were persecuted by humans."

Nami continued.

"When Camie was captured and I was chasing after her, I couldn't believe what I saw. Sabaody Park looked exactly like Arlong Park that Arlong built."

Hatchan then suddenly got on four legs.

"I'm not saying this because I want you to forgive me, but Arlong despised humans. He saw them as an inferior race and used them as a tool. But we went too far. Ever since we were kids, we yearned for the world humans lived in."

Hatchan continued to explain the relationship between fish-man and humans. Two hundred years ago, despite the Ryugu Kingdom being brought into the World Government, and the fish-man establishing friendly terms with the humans. Humans still despised fish-men.

At the beginning of the Great Pirate Era, humans mercilessly invaded Fish-Man Island. They took over everything until Whitebear stopped them and took the island as his own, but that didn't stop the humans from despising Fish-Man.

"I know that you already saw it in Sabaody Archipelago. The reality." Jimbei said. "Even though the government bridged the gap between fish-men and humans, those who held real power were much more bigoted than the others."

"Those celestial dragons, huh." Imai said. "They're all corrupt, every single last one of them."

"Yeah, but two people rose up on the Fish-Man Island to change our hopeless history. One was Queen Otohime, she kept trying to tell the islanders to live in harmony with humans. And the second one was the hero who freed the slaves, Fisher Tiger."

"Yet, some of the freed slaves went against the goverment which made Shirahoshi's goal to establish good relations with humans harder to achieve." Imai said.

"That's right. And Fisher Tiger threw himself away to free the slaves that were suffering all this time. He formed the Sun Pirates that I was part of."

"That's what the tattoo on your stomach was."

"Yes, but there's more to it. Let's talk."