"I'm telling you, that damn guy isn't me!!"
"Neptune, if you want to fight, then fight. Why the hell are you spouting all these self-righteous excuses?!"
Faced with Arlong's defiant denial, Neptune gritted his teeth, making one last attempt to reason with him.
"Arlong, we have eyewitnesses and evidence. Are you seriously still trying to deny it?"
"Return Fukaboshi, Ryuboshi, and the Left Minister to me. Name your conditions—we can negotiate, even if it's about Fish-Man Island itself."
Fish-Man Island?
Hearing something he wanted, Arlong's fury wavered, and his walnut-sized brain finally caught up.
Would Neptune really need to frame him? That didn't quite make sense.
And looking at the angry expressions across from him, it really seemed like something had gone down at Ryugu Palace that he hadn't heard about.
But the problem was… he really didn't know where Fukaboshi was.
Sure, that picture looked like him, but he swore it wasn't.
Right now, Arlong wasn't looking to go to war with Ryugu Palace. His ideal plan was to arm everyone from Fish-Man District to the teeth, and then launch the unification war for Fish-Man Island.
...
As the tension built and both sides reached a deadlock...
From among the spectators, Senor Pink subtly signaled toward a strange merman in the crowd.
Bang!
"Ugh—it hurts!"
The Right Minister stared blankly at the blooming blood on his chest.
"?!"
Everyone's gaze snapped to the unknown merman.
Kuro's face was filled with fanaticism.
"Arlong-aniki! Ryugu Palace is clearly pushing us around!"
"You've been partying with us this whole time—you haven't even left Fish-Man District!"
"They just wanna dump all the blame on you! I say we fight!"
With that, Kuro lifted his Flame Shell and fired. A blazing fire dragon surged toward the palace guards.
Arlong, the supposed center of this whole event, was dumbfounded.
Why the hell are you shooting?! If you're gonna shoot, at least target Neptune!
That twelve-meter-tall target—how could you miss it?!
What's the point of sneak attacking the Right Minister?!
...
"Stubborn fools!!"
Neptune gave his final verdict on Fish-Man District, thrusting his hand forward.
The surrounding seawater condensed rapidly, colliding with the incoming fire dragon.
Boom!
Water and fire clashed. The moment they touched, an explosion ripped through the air.
A massive cloud of steam engulfed the battlefield.
As if it were the signal, both sides raised their weapons and charged.
Boom boom boom boom!
Gunfire, flames, and lasers blasted through the thick fog.
"Fish-Man District has invaded Ryugu Palace, attacked the Emperor's envoy, and kidnapped Fukaboshi and Ryuboshi. Their crimes are unforgivable. Wipe them out completely!!"
Neptune's voice came low and furious from within the mist.
Caught up in the chaos, Arlong still hadn't figured out what the hell was happening.
But one look around, and he knew—there was no time to think.
He pulled out a Type-4 Enhancement Pill and swallowed it in one gulp.
A high-grade formula containing IQ extract—Donquixote's little gift of friendship.
Within every fish-man's body lies the genetic legacy of their ancestors.
And in that instant, all those genes awakened.
Voices and shadows of Arlong's ancestors surged through his mind.
Ancient sawtooth sharks, primordial sharks, rift-jawed sharks, prehistoric mackerel sharks, cave-loving sharks...
But none of them were the strongest.
Until—one appeared.
A colossal shark that blotted out the sky, each of its teeth as thick as a grown man's forearm.
An overwhelming craving welled up in Arlong's heart—this was the essence of life striving for evolution.
All of it happened in under a second.
ROAAARRR!!!
A thunderous roar burst from Arlong's raised chest.
Everyone present felt a chill to their core—the primal fear of standing before a predator at the top of the food chain.
...
Then, as if countless creatures writhed beneath his skin, something began crawling under Arlong's flesh.
His skin tore inch by inch, blood spurting out. His body stretched taller and wider, his clothes shredded by the transformation.
Crack crack crack crack!
His bones ground together in an agonizing chorus as they swelled like ballooned steel rods.
His already razor-sharp teeth fell out one after another, replaced by longer, harder saber-like fangs.
Everyone fell silent at the sight of Arlong's sudden mutation.
"What… what the hell is that thing?!"
Dread crept into every soldier's heart.
Instinctively, the Ryugu Palace guards opened fire.
Arlong didn't move an inch—he seemed to be in some kind of trance.
Boom boom boom boom!
Explosions erupted nonstop, drowning the area around him in thick smoke.
"Arlong-aniki!!!"
Hody Jones and the others cried out in alarm, but they were being held back by guards and couldn't get through.
Meanwhile, Neptune had finished charging his next attack.
A massive whirlpool of seawater spun wildly around his trident, forming a gigantic water gyro.
With a mighty heave, he hurled it.
The spinning vortex raced toward Arlong like a mobile fortress.
Everything in its path—buildings, walls, roads—was pulverized with ease.
And fish-men in its way? Turned into red mist in a heartbeat.
...
But at that very moment—
From within the billowing smoke and debris, a massive, scale-covered blue-gray claw lashed out.
It slammed into the spinning vortex.
BOOM BOOM!!
In that instant of impact, the claw buckled under the force and was flung backward.
But the water gyro was in even worse shape—it shattered explosively.
Dust and smoke were swept away.
And then they saw it.
Arlong's body—now enormous and every bit as imposing as Neptune's—stood revealed.
Every inch of him was covered in diamond-shaped scales that shimmered with a faint metallic sheen.
His previously muscular build now looked like it was made of pulsating tumors—huge bulges of raw power.
Neptune was shocked. He turned toward Senor Pink, still floating above the battlefield.
"This strength and body size—?!"
"Huh? Oh, it's just temporary. He's burning his life for it. Won't last long. You better be careful, King Neptune."
With that, Senor Pink turned and slipped away. From here on out, it was Fish-Man Island's own problem.
The longer the fight dragged out, the better for his family.
...
Ryugu Palace soldiers, shaken by Arlong's transformation, started to lose morale.
How were they supposed to fight something like this?
In contrast, Hody Jones and the other fish-men were elated.
"OOOOOH YEAH!!"
"Arlong-aniki, you're huge!!!"
"Even Neptune's ultimate move didn't do a damn thing!!"
The torrent of water seemed to bring a shred of Arlong's sanity back.
Feeling the overwhelming power surging through his body...
He suddenly remembered Kuro's mysterious grin when he handed him the enhancement drug.
"This stuff won't disappoint you."
And it hadn't.
It really hadn't disappointed him at all!!!
With his eyes glowing blood-red, Arlong charged toward Neptune.
Clinging desperately to his fading sanity, he let out a thunderous roar that shook the entire island.
"Listen up, all of you!"
"Today marks the day we unify the will of Fish-Man Island!!"
"Whether you're a fish-man or a merfolk—if you insist on maintaining this rotten hierarchy where merfolk rule over fish-men—"
"Then nothing will ever change!!"
"Fish-men need far more meat than merfolk. So why are we the ones stuck living in the resource-starved slums of Fish-Man District?!"
"Why do we always have to endure human exploitation like some damn geisha?!"
"Let me be the one to correct the history of mistakes we've suffered until now!!!"
ROOOOOAR!!!
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Fanfic is finished 527 chapters in total on p@treon/tambeerg