Neptune knew how serious the situation was and immediately ordered the Left and Right Ministers to begin preparations.
Most important of all were the sweets that Big Mom had personally demanded.
Given Big Mom's obsession with desserts, if Fish-Man Island failed to present something that satisfied her, the only outcome awaiting them would be destruction.
The Left and Right Ministers hurried off to make arrangements.
Jinbe, his mood heavy, also took his leave.
Neptune wanted to offer some words of comfort, but nothing came to mind.
In the end, it all came down to one thing—
Fish-Man Island was simply too weak.
...
On the streets, Oguro was strolling around with the women.
It was hard to imagine that Fish-Man Island, which had almost no interaction with the surface world, was actually more advanced than humans when it came to fashion.
The women's eyes sparkled as they bought piles of clothes, having everything delivered straight to the ship.
Once they'd had their fill of shopping, Oguro took them to the Mermaid Café.
The owner there—Madam Shyarly—was a world-famous fortune teller.
Oguro was extremely interested in this mermaid who could foresee the future.
He couldn't help wondering… what would his own future look like in her predictions.
...
Inside the Mermaid Café.
Shyarly lazily stretched her graceful body.
Although many people acknowledged her prophetic abilities, she rarely performed divinations.
After all, if everything in life depended on prophecy, what meaning would living even have?
At times, Shyarly even felt her power was closer to a curse.
Knowing that something was about to happen, yet being powerless to stop it—that despair could drive someone mad.
She lifted her long pipe and took a puff—
—and suddenly, an inexplicable sense of dread surged up from deep within her heart.
"What is this feeling…? Is something about to happen?" Shyarly's expression grew heavy.
The last time she felt something like this was when Queen Otohime was assassinated.
Uneasy, Shyarly hesitated for a moment, then reached beneath the counter and took out the crystal ball she used for divination.
If something major was truly about to occur, she needed to be prepared in advance.
She absolutely could not allow another tragedy like Queen Otohime's assassination to happen again.
As Shyarly murmured softly to the crystal ball, an image slowly emerged.
It was Fish-Man Island's harbor.
King Neptune was welcoming a group of people.
They looked like pirates.
They seemed to be preparing to take down Whitebeard's flag.
But at that moment, an enormous shadow descended over the harbor.
The pirates were forced to stop.
They stared at the shadow in shock, as if they had seen something utterly terrifying.
The pirate leader was clearly afraid… yet he didn't seem willing to retreat.
Then, the image inside the crystal ball was stained blood-red.
At that sight, Shyarly's body began to tremble uncontrollably.
Even though Fish-Man Island had little contact with the outside world, she still recognized that pirate flag instantly.
One of the Four Emperors—
The Big Mom Pirates.
Members of the Big Mom Pirates would die on Fish-Man Island.
The consequences of that didn't even need to be imagined.
Big Mom was not Whitebeard.
Offend her, and she would absolutely come back for revenge.
When that happened, how could Fish-Man Island possibly survive?
Thinking of this, Shyarly didn't dare waste another second and immediately prepared to head for the palace to see Neptune.
But before she could leave the counter—
Ding!
The café door was pushed open.
Oguro walked in.
The moment he saw Shyarly and the crystal ball before her, his eyes lit up.
"Madam Shyarly, hello! My name is Oguro. I came here specifically to seek you out—I'd like you to give me a fortune telling."
At that instant, Shyarly felt her legs go weak.
Sith Oguro.
The Soul King of the Holy Spirit Empire—the man who had shaken the Summit War.
A figure no weaker than the Four Emperor Big Mom herself.
Faced with someone of this caliber, no matter how urgent things were, Shyarly could only fulfill his request first.
Forcing a polite smile, she said,
"Your Majesty Oguro, it is my honor to divine your future."
She placed her hand on the crystal ball and began trying to foresee Oguro's fate.
But in the very next second, Shyarly's expression changed drastically.
The crystal ball showed nothing.
There was no image of Oguro's future at all.
It was as if some invisible force had completely blocked her prophetic ability.
This had never happened before.
Even with Whitebeard, one of the Four Emperors, she had been able to predict his death from across the seas.
Yet now, standing face to face with Oguro, she could see nothing.
No—
It wasn't that she saw nothing.
Everything inside the crystal ball was shrouded in a massive black shadow.
And she recognized that shadow.
It was the very same one from her earlier prophecy—
The shadow that slaughtered the Big Mom Pirates.
Shyarly thought in horror,
"So… this Soul King intends to go to war with the Big Mom Pirates on Fish-Man Island?"
The instant that thought formed, Shyarly felt as if her head had been struck by a heavy blow.
No warning.
No visible form.
A blow that seemed to come from nowhere.
Though she didn't know its source, the dizzy Shyarly somehow understood its meaning perfectly.
A warning.
She had divined someone she was not meant to divine.
And so, she was warned.
This warning did not come from Oguro himself.
It came from—
Fate.
Or rather—
Rules.
The moment she realized this, cold sweat poured down Shyarly's forehead.
Just who exactly was this Oguro?
To think that even the unseen rules of the world would warn her because of him.
From a certain perspective, she herself was also favored by those rules.
After all, her prophetic power came from them.
There was only one explanation.
Oguro was even more valued by the rules than she was.
After reaching that conclusion, Shyarly's expression turned utterly despairing.
Heavens above…
If a child of the rules was going to fight the Big Mom Pirates on Fish-Man Island—
Could Fish-Man Island even continue to exist?
...
Oguro had no idea what Shyarly was thinking.
But just moments ago, he too had felt a vague sensation of being watched.
So this was what it felt like to have one's future predicted.
Truly fascinating.
Unfortunately, that sense of peep was quickly crushed by his own spiritual pressure.
According to the system's explanation, Oguro was the Soul King—a true creator god, a god of souls.
The Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the Living World.
Shinigami, Hollows, humans—
All existed under his authority.
Shinigami like Soi Fon were merely secondary agents, granted fragments of the Soul King's authority.
And all true gods shared one defining trait—
They could not be directly perceived.
They could not be directly touched.
For mortals to gaze upon a god was an act of blasphemy.
For mortals to touch a god was to be erased by divine might.
Though Oguro had not yet fully mastered the Soul King's authority, his essence was still that of a god.
Shyarly's rule-level prophecy was an attempt to peer into the divine nature of a god, violating a fundamental taboo.
That was why the rules themselves had issued a warning.
Oguro could only sigh in admiration.
The Soul Society really did live up to being an epic-tier divine realm.
The sheer scale and gravitas were on another level.
"I'm sorry, Madam Shyarly," Oguro said sincerely.
"It seems I didn't think things through properly."
He offered her a genuine apology.