Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Shirahoshi couldn't decide what was worse - the deafening silence that followed the impassioned speech she'd poured her heart and soul into, or the pity clap and near-silent smattering of applause from the few world nobles who bothered showing much in the way of a reaction at all.

Most of them had simply stared, or scoffed softly, or whispered to their fellow delegates at the Reverie about this 'behemoth fish' interrupting proceedings to 'make some ridiculous plea for us to take fishmen seriously'.

It'd been like a harpoon through her heart, a sick and twisting sensation in her gut as she sadly left the room as soon as it was appropriate to drift through a lovely park instead.

She'd hoped the sight of land trees - of things she'd never seen before - would lighten her heart after the heartbreak of her mother's message being received with such a tepid response; though was that really a surprise with how she'd been treated since she got here?

Shirahoshi felt hot tears brimming in her eyes, her lips pressed tight and wobbling as she hiccupped in the vain attempt to hold it all back.

At least she didn't have much of an audience, now. After she'd fled the speech, the group had become separated. Her brothers must have been around somewhere, but for the moment, only the bodyguard she'd been assigned for the trip was at her side. He looked much more like he was uneasy about their location, than about her tears.

"They were laughing at us…" Shirahosi murmured quietly. Some of them were , honestly barely holding it back while she was directly looking and trying to hide it behind their sleeves or with sidelong glances.

When they'd first arrived, they'd been given trouble at the gate. They'd had to use a seperate elevator to the reverie grounds. They'd been gawked at, whispered about, leered at by the people of the holy land, but Shirahoshi had held her head high until the speech drove it home just how little they cared about the hopes of her people.

"I don't know what to tell you, princess," her body guard muttered - low enough that it was hard to hear him. She wasn't sure if she was meant to hear.

Shirahoshi wiped at her eyes, letting the strange contraption helping her move about on land bring her to a tree for her to place her hand upon the bark and really feel it.

It felt nice, rough and earthy under her fingers, but the experience was soured by the hurt she felt.

"My mother's dream was to make a plea like that at the Reverie - to f-finally lead to a little equality and hope for Fishman Island." She bit her lip. "...I must have not been good enough. She...my mother...would have convinced them with her words."

Her bodyguard followed after her, staying close. He seemed extremely on alert, not that that was really surprising. But she wasn't sure his hand had left his katana's handle all day.

"I don't think you should blame yourself..." He looked away, as if he hadn't meant to say anything, or had thought better of it.

Shirahoshi looked back at her bodyguard - one of her people who'd come back to Fishman Island a couple years ago and been assigned to guard detail on her father's enthusiastic recommendation. Someone he seemed to hold a bit of trust in, especially given it's who he chose to watch over her in this 'holy land'.

"But it's true, Chu - I'm not half the person my mother was. And...and I can't imagine them treating her the same way."

"You can't imagine it because you respect her. But they wouldn't respect her any more than they respect you." Chu's tone was sharp, with an undercurrent of anger in it. He looked away. "Sorry. It's not my place to contradict you, princess."

She was struck for a moment, and she almost gave him a teary-eyed retort before the memory of those staring eyes, the barbed words - the mutterings of 'they'll let anyone in these days, won't they?' or 'damn fish' from people who pretended to smile at them in the streets of Mary Geoise.

Her fingers balled up against her dress, her shoulders shaking a little.

"No...no it's okay Chu. Can you....can you tell me more about that please? I lived in a tower most of my life, you know more than I do about - about humans. I was lucky to really mostly meet nice once. Nice-ish, anyway."

Mostly. There were some notable exceptions.

He rubbed the back of his neck rather bashfully, one hand still resting on his sword.

"I don't know what to say about it, princess. Most humans don't respect us. Don't see us as equals. They have no problem with keeping us as slaves. You're a... novelty, at best. Your mother would have been, too."

Shirahoshi winced, and her eyes stung as she took a deep breath. "A novelty at best..."

Her eyes closed and her shoulders shook as she leaned against the tree.

"...that makes sense with the stories I've heard---but I just don't understand why . My mother was sure we could make the humans understand."

"I would never speak an bad word about your mother," Chu said seriously. His fingers tensed on his katana. "I'm sure there are some humans who would and do understand. but the majority of them? They'll never accept us, princess. Not if we're just asking nicely."

Shirahoshi looked out over the sprawling city around them - so high over the ocean beyond that it was hard to feel a connection to it.

Looking down on everything, she thought with a sick feeling in her stomach. Her mother was a lovely woman, someone who believed with all her heart that nonviolent means could cause great change.

She'd looked up to her because of the happy memories before she'd lost her in an act of cruelty.

But there had been others who'd disagreed. The hero of Fishman Island, Fisher Tiger and the Sun Pirates, had fought so hard to save their people suffering above. Even Arlong the Saw, and those who'd come to the conclusion that violence for violence's sake was right.

Chu - he used to be a pirate, didn't he? He'd know a lot about how hard the surface was. She bit her lip. "I'm...noticing that, Chu. I'm honestly a bit...nervous. They seemed to think I was making a joke when I suggested....suggested that we were all people."

"It is a joke to them, princess. The people this high up? They barely even see other humans as people. We're... dinner and a show." Chu's wide mouth twisted into a grimace as he spoke, fingers tightening again as he looked away. "Sorry, your highness."

Her expression took on a note of horror as what he said rolled through her.

Luffy and his friends had treated them so nicely, even if he could be a bit rough , but well meaning.

It was like - it was like the difference between the crushing pressure of the ocean and the safety of Fishman Island's bubble.

She looked down at the ocean far below with a whimper. "Dinner and a show...?"

Chu opened his mouth to answer - but they were interrupted by a loud cough and a rough voice.

"Your highness! So this is where you've been hiding!"

Shirahoshi startled, her fingers scraping some bark off the tree in surprise as she turned around, careful not to send her large tail swishing too fast. It'd only make the humans even more disdainful of her if she'd hit one by accident.

"H-huh? I was just getting some air after the meeting..."

It was one of the human marines. Garp? The big, unpleasant looking man with the beard.

"Your father's worried sick about you," the man chided, as if she were a naughty child and not the princess of her race. "You can't go off on your own like that!"

Shirahoshi caught the look on Chu's face - a sneer as he pulled his sword very slightly from his sheath.

"I wasn't on my own, though---" her voice sounded more innocent and naive than she wanted it to as she pointed to Chu. "I have my bodyguard with me, Mr. Garp."

Garp looked at Chu with the kind of expression one might turn on an overzealous pet who had made a mess. "Well, you know, princess. Can't be too careful!"

She wasn't sure what to make of the man - he acted friendly enough...but she felt talked down to. That same condescension that was making her heart sink since the moment she landed on this strip of land. It didn't feel friendly at all.

Human land - in the middle of their holy city she reminded herself.

She gave him a weak smile and shrugged her shoulders. "...I suppose not. But I am an honored guest of Mary Geoise, aren't I?"

He was just a moment too slow to answer. "...So you are, princess."

Chapter Text

She'd run into her brothers again - they'd been worried about her too, but Shirahoshi had convinced them that she was fine.

With her usual bright cheer, she'd told them not to fret over her too badly and that her father was the one in need of protection more than her! And when she'd softened them up, she declared her intention to see the human world to it's fullest with a trip to the shopping district to see what souvenirs she could find to bring home for her and her friends.

Really, it was an excuse to see the sights - to stubbornly take in as much of the human culture as she could while she was above the waves.

Even if they didn't want her here, she could at least insist they deal with it for a little bit while she enjoyed herself.

Chu kept himself glued to her side, hand still rather menacingly hovering around the hilt of his sword. He seemed even more nervous here, in the heart of the city, than he had out in the little park area they'd retreated to before.

Despite her broad and happy smile as she floated carefully down the street to the parting of crowds , ducking her head to look at merchandise as they passed, Shirahoshi couldn't blame him. The looks they were getting weren't very comfortable—the Celestial Dragons all seemed to leer, and the nobles whispered.

But she couldn't let it get to her. This was her chance to see the surface her mother dreamed of. This was her chance to show everyone that mermaids and fishmen were kind, that they were just like them and could co-exist here in the bright and invigorating sun!

So she smiled and waved when eyes fell on her, and politely excused herself when she bumped against things, and expressed enthusiastic praise for wares in shops—because if they saw she was a girl like any on the surface, they'd have to understand why she'd made her plea for equality at the great table. They'd see that the bigotry she was warned of , that she'd recently felt, was wrong!

Despite that, everyone seemed to look to the human escort who was trailing behind her to respond to, instead of her. Garp and some of his marines. Even though she'd insisted she'd be fine, they'd come along. At least the marines were mostly holding bags.

It felt less like an armed guard marching her through the streets as a show if they were holding bags, right? It was more like they were helping her out that way. Like friends, or—she didn't know, good hosts.

She glanced nervously back at Garp and the marines with a little smile and a nervous laugh. "Mr. Garp…I'd heard there was a theater in town, do—do they sell tone dials of the musical numbers?"

"They might, they might," Garp nodded, stroking his beard. "I guess a homebody like you wouldn't be tired of shopping yet, eh? Let's go find 'em."

There was a subtle implication in his tone - like he would rather she be done.

It sent a prickle through her—an unfamiliar emotion with how sheltered and shut in she'd always been. Irritation. A sharp annoyance that lingered in her gut as she clapped her hands together.

"Why thank you, Mr. Garp! Alright then! Off to find a music store!!!"

Maybe it was spite—she didn't want to think what that meant about her. It wasn't very nice, but—then again, Garp's tone wasn't exactly nice either.

"And maybe then I'll head back to the palace."

Garp looked relieved. Chu's face almost took on a similar look, until he noticed it written on the marine's face - then his expression hardened with haughty stubbornness again. Probably feeling just a little similar to Shirahoshi herself.

As Shirahoshi continued deeper down the streets of Mary Geoise more people stared, gawked, whispered, smirked— but she continued undeterred. This was a mission of diplomacy, with every movement she made a representation of her peoples as much as it was a mission of fun, Of finding things to bring home to delight the few friends she'd made. If Luffy were here—the pirate who'd changed her life—she knew he'd be right there beside her excitedly seeing everything the city had to offer.

But she couldn't shake the strange, lingering dread as she passed clothing stores selling outfits no fishman or mermaid could ever wear, grocers, art dealers and the strange helmet-clad humans who she knew to be the most powerful people in the world. Even for someone as big as her, the buildings loomed taller than life.

There was something about this place that just felt wrong. Deep down in her bones, she felt like she could hear the sea beasts crying out for her to run. But she could see the sign for the theater and music shops ahead—just a little further down the way. So Shirahoshi swallowed her nerves and pressed on.

There was a bright spot as they found their way to the music store. Their group ran into another one of the diplomatic parties that had been brought for the Revelry. Shirahoshi recognized the king of Alabasta and his guardsmen. King Cobra had made a speech just before her own.

He had been just as passionate as she'd been—talking about the importance of the people, of broad and bright-spirited attempts to make overarching reforms after events like the attempted coup in Alabasta, Marineford, and other things Shirahoshi had little context for. Someone nearby her seat had whispered that perhaps he was so passionate because 'his daughter had gone off to be a wanton pirate' , something they snickered at when he'd made a plea for safety from pirates and corruption.

Shirahoshi wasn't sure she was entirely on board with the view of pirates as all that bad—but his passion was something that stuck with her. Espeically since he'd been perhaps the only one in the room who'd listened , even agreed, with her own plea for equality!

Even if she wouldn't tell him how fond she was of a lot of pirates—he was still a nice enough man that she waved hello. "Hello, King Cobra! It's me, Shirahoshi from the Neptune family!"

The man brightened as she caught his gaze, and he looked up - way up - to meet it. "Oh! Princess Shirahoshi! How lovely to run into you!"

It was the first genuinely friendly welcome she'd gotten on her whole trip, it seemed like.

The city seemed so much more inviting, so much brighter when someone was actually a little friendly! She beamed widely , before she shifted and lowered herself almost to the ground to reach eye level, nearly bumping into a stall in the process. "How lovely to run into you too! I thought your speech was very interesting!"

"Ah, thank you! I thought yours was a lovely sentiment, my dear." He smiled more widely at her. "I wish that my daughter could be more like you…"

Shirahoshi flushed, her long eyelashes fluttering in surprise. "Thank you! It's my mama's dream…but…oh gosh, I don't know about that, King Cobra! I'm sure your daughter makes an absolutely lovely pirate!"

Cobra looked suddenly like he was going to have a fit. He put his head in his hands. "Ah- her loveliness isn't in question, princess!"

Shirahoshi giggled, nerves creeping into her voice as she worried she said something wrong. "Oh ah, well—I'm sure she's a very nice pirate too? Like Sir Luffy!"

Suddenly she was very much regretting not being able to get news coos so easily down on Fishman Island.

"He told me he had to leave a friend behind as a princess who was also a pirate—b-back in Alabasta, so it's got to mean she's like Sir Luffy!"

The king made another strangled noise. "M-miss princess Shirahoshi! You can't possibly be defending pirates?"

She looked around at the looks of surprise on his retainer's faces—and the grimacing looks of the marines.

"O-only some of them?" She squeaked, in her far reaching voice. "The Sun Pirates are spoken about like heroes by s-some folks…and Sir Luffy saved my people from destruction..."

Cobra nearly fainted into the arms of one of his courtiers, and started fanning himself. "I-I'm sorry, I have to go, my dear. I have… an appointment at the palace…."

"An appointment at the palace? Oh wow!" She was so happy for the out as her smile hitched nervously on her face "I won't keep you, King Cobra! G-Good luck!"

"Thank you my dear! And to you, as well! I'll be praying for the things you said in your speech," he murmured, as large men half carried him down the street toward the palace.

Chu watched him go with an incredulous look on his face.

"Chu—" Shirahoshi said with a shaky smile. "I don't think he liked pirates very much, huh?"

"Most people don't, your highness," Chu said, shaking his head. "Pirates tend to make a lot of royals itchy, in particular."

"But his daughter's a pirate, isn't she?" She asked as she started willing her assistive device to float forward, steering herself down the street with a little pout. "I think she might be Sir Luffy's friend, too."

Chu was about to answer when he was interupted.

Garp leaned in with his wide grin. "Forgive me for buttin' in your highness, but Cobra's not exactly thrilled that his daughter's a pirate. Part of the reason he's here is to petition along with the king of Dressrosa for harsher measures against the former warlords. Crocodile kidnapped his daughter to the pirate life."

"…." Shirahoshi chewed her lip, repeating him with a subtle wrinkle of her nose. "Crocodile kidnapped his daughter to the pirate life?"

That didn't exactly make sense, did it? Wouldn't she have found a way to escape if she was really kidnapped? It felt strange to her.

She glanced at Chu, still chewing on her lip as she asked. "Really? Did this Crocodile really kidnap her into piracy? And the Warlords are part of the ocean's social ecosystem—without them isn't there a l-lack of stability?"

"I can't say much about the warlords, or stability, princess," Chu murmured. "But as for Cobra's daughter, I think he would like to believe that Crocodile kidnapped her. The newspapers tell a different story."

She watched as Garp's brow furrowed.

Shirahosi bent down as they passed a sign that was just a little too low for her height— she still caused it to rock on it's chains as she didn't quite clear it.

"They do?" Her eyes lingered on Garp's reaction—he didn't look happy about it either. "I wonder what's true, then— I wish I knew more about her."

Garp cleared his throat. "Your highness, did you want to take a look at the music they have for sale, here?"

"OH!!!" Shirahoshi's attention was drawn from her thoughts on pirates, princesses and her worries to the facade of the music store, her smile flitting wide across her face. "Yes!! I've wanted a collection of tone dials for ages! And…"

She felt herself flushing. "I heard talk about this Miss Uta lately,and I'd like to hear her for myself!"

Chu was sure that this was the most on edge he'd been in his life. Far from the water. Surrounded not just by humans, but by Celestial Dragons. Back in the city where so many of the Sun Pirates had once been slaves. He kept his hand on his sword as he watched the princess - and tried to watch every other living being at the same time.

No one would forgive him if she was harmed on his watch, least of all himself. Even if it was her own naivete that had brought them all here.

Shirahoshi herself seemed to be caught between her enthusiasm and the weight of just how dangerous this place was. The whole walk here, her smile was forced and nervous as she talked herself into a pit of awkward conversation and trying to shrink herself down to look small under the gaze of the Celestial Dragons and even the humans.

It was only when they came up to the handsomely appointed music store that she brightened completely, holding tone dials delicately between her fingers as she hit play and listened with a look of delight with each one.

She was bobbing her head gently to one of the songs by the artist called 'Uta', utterly lost in the music while Chu took in the crowd. There were a few Celestial Dragons here, mostly near the rear of the store as they muttered amongst themselves—a few humans had lingered closer to Shirahoshi and her retinue, gawking mostly.

One of them, a strange girl in a military jacket with overlong sleeves , and a cap perched over a face mostly hidden in bandages, didn't seem to be paying any attention to Shirahoshi at all. Her eyes were closed as she held the dialphones to her ears and lightly bobbed her head in time to what might have been the same song Shirahoshi was enraptured by.

So far, not a one had made an aggressive move.

It didn't make Chu any more relaxed. Frankly, Garp and his marine brigade didn't make him any more relaxed, either. He kept wondering if the old man recognized him. If he was going to be hauled in with an old bounty poster.

There weren't any pardons for a pirate of his level. There sure as hell weren't any pardons for a Sun Pirate after Jinbei had finally cashed all his chips in.

One of the marines caught him looking, giving Chu a rather nasty smile as Shirahoshi held the tone dial up with that naive, guileless look on her face. "this one! Oh I love it! I want the whole collection! Chu, can you bring me my purse? I'm going to buy a whole lot of these tone dials!"

Chu didn't like it. Every nerve in his body was screaming to get out of there. Get the princess out of there.

But what the hell could he do? "Of course, Princess, I—"

"Oh my. A mermaid in Mary Geoise—and such a large one too?"

A disgustingly haughty voice cut right through his reply—and the sudden quiet that fell over the shop spoke to the power it held over the gawking human.

And even the marines. The one young man who was giving Chu nasty grin blanched, the smile dropping from his face as he fell to attention for the Celestial Dragon who walked confidently up to the shop's open facade.

The bandaged girl paused, tilting her head a little to the side before putting the tone dial in her pocket.

The Celestial Dragon was ornamented in medals, hanging from his ornate jacket and catching the light in a harsh gleam that hurt Chu's eyes as the man bent back to look up at the confused and alarmed Shirahoshi.

The young man would be unassuming, lanky with an unimpressive mustache and a physique speaking to a lack of physical strength, if it weren't for his hand lingering on the handle of an ornate pistol and his head encased in the resin bubble that did nothing to hide the leer that perversely twisted across his face.

Even the Celestial Dragons in the shop seemed cowed, a muttering of 'a high noble house' filtering to Chu's ears.

"M-me?" Shirahoshi asked in a shaking voice. "P-please don't pay me any mind. I'm just here for the Revelry and wanted to take some tone dials home…"

Chu felt a terror he had rarely felt grip his throat. His sword was not going to be enough.

He knew his sword was not going to be enough. But it was all he had.

The Celestial Dragon tutted his tongue. "No, no—you won't need to take them all the way to the ocean just to let them get waterlogged with the rest of the fish."

He held his hand out with a twist of his smile. He wasn't alone. Dark suited men stepped out of his shadow, and from where they'd been laying in wait for an order "I'll make sure your new chambers is plenty stocked with all the tone dials your pretty head desires! You're mine now, mermaid."

Shirahoshi's eyes widened, her breath catching as she jerked backwards from one of the encroaching men—she didn't care where she was moving, clearly, becasue her tail smashed through the storefront with a shattering of glass and the falling of merchandise, opening a path out into the street "W-w-w-w-what??"

Her voice was heavy with terror. "You c-can't, I have to get back to my father…I'm a…a guest of Mary Geoise! A princess here for the Revelry!"

"Tch," the Celestial Dragon's expression darkened. "Not anymore— you're my slave, mermaid. Gentlemen, if a single scale is scuffed on her body I'll take the damages out of your hides. Now capture her."

Everyone was averting their eyes, too scared to look, too reverent to the demanding noble. The marines had gone stock still and only the bandaged girl stood watching with her hand under her chin—one hawk-like eye staring at Shirahoshi as the other cast in the shadow of her hat.

Chu moved in front of the princess. It was a hollow move. He knew that. He knew that there was nothing he could do in this situation but die.

And he would die. He'd die before he let them take the princess as a slave.

There was no point in being nice any more.

"I'm sorry, princess. But now you see what I meant about humans and our kind."

He drew his sword.

The Celestial Dragon's eyes fell on him, smile twisting wider in a way that was almost as monstrous as the man was inside.

"You'd raise a sword to a Saint?" he asked as he unhooked his gun to aim at Chu. "don't make me waste a bullet."

He glanced towards Garp and the marines. "…what are you people good for if not doing what you're told. Kill the fish and take my mermaid."

Shirahoshi's tail thrashed again as two of the black-suit clad men flung themselves towards them, one of them brandishing some manner of cannon that he aimed her way.

The facade of the shop across the street started to crack with the heavy thump of her tail, and the owners fled outside covered in plaster dust and rubble.

"You don't—I…I'm a guest of Mary Geoise!" she protested again. "Chu…I—" she started to sniffle, before tears welled up in her eyes "I don't understand how they can hate us so much!"

The princess started to cry.

Garp kept his hands at his sides. "My men and I take orders from navy officers only, sir. And there's no one but me, here."

Of course. Of course the marine assigned to protect them was completely fucking useless. He probably thought he was being kind by simply refusing to interfere.

Chu wondered how many of the dragons he could take out before he went down. Two at least. They weren't used to fighting. He'd paint the room red - or whatever color celestial dragon blood was - and somewhere Arlong would raise a toast to him.

A voice froze the room from the doorway.

"I'm afraid that's not true, Garp. You're dismissed."

A man all in black with a top hat shadowing his eyes filled the doorway.

Shirahoshi's tears were leaking down her face as she hiccuped and sobbed—her shoulders shaking as the dragon's men readied their cannons, her marine entorage bowed to let it happen, and the threat of enslavement hung over her head.

"W-who are you…are you gonna help me?" she asked in a shaky, hiccup-choked voice.

Somewhere far below the Red Line—far below the Holy City of Mary Geoise—a great bellowing cacophony cried out across the sea.

That—at the very least, drew the bandaged girl's attention, who shouldered her way out to peer at the horizon. "…I see." she whispered almost to herself.

"I don't have a lot of time for this," the man said. "There's been a political assassination. Just tell me what you need us to do."

He gestured with a toss of his head to the several people flanking him outside the door.

Chu knew that he wasn't there to help.

Shirahoshi recoiled again, her body tense as she glanced between each of the new faces surrounding her, pinning her against the broken concrete with only Chu between her and enslavement.

Somewhere far below, the Sea Beasts roiled in response to her distress—too far below to reach her.

Her eyes flicked from the man in the top hat to the girl in the bandages, who drifted from the new hole in the wall with a quiet sigh of breath.

Distressingly, she made another appeal to a human to have a heart for once. "P-please—you were listening to the Uta dials too, right? You're…you seem like a nice person! You have to t-tell them to stop, my father can't l-lose me too!"

The girl stared her down dispassionately with her light, golden eye, before she turned a strangely inverted eye to Chu. "To think they'd only send one guard to watch such a massive power—how foolish."

She tilted her head back at the man in the top hat with a soft, bandage-muffled voice. "Cipher Pol should hurry with this one Lucci— before the gondolas are ravaged by the sea's wrath. It wouldn't do for God's Knight's to have to get involved."

Foolish.

What was foolish was every setting foot or fin in Mary Geoise. Chu had known when he agreed to accompany the princess that he might not come back, and he had been right.

They were surrounded. The marines were useless. The king and his sons were far away, somewhere safer, one could only hope. This was to be the place of his death, and all he could do was choose how he would die.

His gaze narrowed on the woman. God's Knights. He knew them. And he knew she was one of them.

If he could take down only one target, let it be her.

Let his death, far from mother ocean, have some meaning.

"Princess, you have to try to get away."

It was barely out of his mouth before he made his move, feinting one way and then the other. He was fast. he'd always been fast.

He brought his sword down toward the bandaged woman's neck.

When the woman's eye fell on him, the strange golden iris bored into him with a strange pressure that crackled through the air.

The sword swung towards her neck, but it never got the chance to connect. A whispering sound like cloth on cloth filled the air as a white arrow flew up from her dangling arm, directing his swing to miss her face by centimeters and propelling him off balance, barely rustling the fringes of her hair.

"I said it wouldn't do for God's Vassel Blade to be involved in this, fishman," she whispered.

Chaos was all around them. Shirahoshi tried to run—not away but towards him , trying to save HIM as her hand reached out, her eyes wet with flowing tears.

"C-Chu! I'm not leaving you b-behind!"

Her hand never reached him, a bang filled the air as a net shot from one of the cannons pinned her clenched fist to the wall, and Lucci—the Cipher Pol thug, leapt up to place the heel of his boot against her throat.

His attention was drawn swiftly back to the God's Knight, who raised her hand. "be thankful that you still have your life when you dive off the cliffs of Mary Geoise—the Posidon will be safe in our hands."

Any counterattack—any retort, was cut short as a wave of her hand sent a pain rocking through Chu's body. Three arrows of pure white jutted cartoonishly from his chest. Cartoonish if not for the very real blood staining his shirt—if not for the very real way he could feel every inch of the razor sharp surface piercing through his chest and out his back.

This had been a fools errand, and he'd die like a fool. The pain started to feel numb and his body started to feel cold at the same time that the darkness crept in around his vision.

The princess… this wasn't how he wanted her to learn the lesson of how vicious humans could be. This wasn't what anyone wanted.

But it was foolish to expect anything different.

The last thing he heard as his vision went black, aside from the pained cries of Shirahoshi and the crackle of electricity was the whispery voice of the God's Knight.

"The Posidon…I'll inform the Saint that he'll have to find another mermaid to enslave. Cipher Pol should take it from here—the elders recommend Egghead."