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King Neptune, recognizing the gravity of the situation, immediately directed his Left and Right Ministers to prepare everything.
The most critical item was the dessert that Big Mom had specifically demanded!
Given Big Mom's obsession with sweets, if Fish-Man Island failed to provide a dessert that satisfied her, their fate would be total annihilation!
The Ministers rushed off to begin preparations. Jimbei, looking quite downcast, also respectfully excused himself. Neptune was sympathetic and wanted to comfort him but found himself at a loss for words.
Ultimately, the problem lay with Fish-Man Island's inherent weakness!
Out on the streets, Auguro and the ladies were enjoying a shopping trip. It was astonishing to see that Fish-Man Island, despite its almost non-existent interaction with the surface world, possessed a sense of fashion that surpassed that of humans!
The women's eyes sparkled as they bought numerous outfits, arranging to have them all delivered to the ship.
Once the ladies had shopped to their hearts' content, Auguro led them to the Mermaid Café. The owner, Madam Shyarly, was a famous fortuneteller known far and wide!
Auguro was intensely curious about this mermaid who could foresee the future. He wondered what his own future looked like in her predictions.
Inside the Mermaid Café, Shyarly stretched her lithe body in a languid manner. Although her divination ability was widely recognized, she didn't actually use it often. After all, what was the point of life if one had to rely on fortune-telling for everything?
In some ways, Shyarly even felt her ability was more like a curse!
Knowing that something terrible was about to happen yet being powerless to stop it—that kind of despair was enough to drive a person mad!
She picked up her smoking pipe and took a puff, when suddenly, an inexplicable dread surged from the depths of her heart!
"What is this? This feeling... is something about to go wrong?" Shyarly's mood grew heavy. The last time she felt something similar was when Princess Otohime was assassinated!
Restless and uneasy, Shyarly hesitated for a moment before retrieving the crystal ball she used for divination from beneath the counter. If a major catastrophe truly was looming, she needed to prepare. She absolutely could not allow an incident like Princess Otohime's murder to happen again!
As Shyarly chanted over the crystal ball, an image slowly materialized. It was the port of Fish-Man Island. King Neptune was welcoming a group of people. They looked like pirates!
They seemed to be in the process of replacing the Whitebeard Pirates' flag with their own!
But just then, a colossal shadow engulfed the port. The pirates' actions were forcibly halted. They looked up at the shadow in terror, as if they had witnessed something monstrous. However, their leader, though clearly frightened, didn't seem ready to back down.
Then, the image in the crystal ball was drowned in a wash of bloody red.
Seeing this, Shyarly's body began to tremble uncontrollably. Even though Fish-Man Island had little external contact, she could still recognize the pirates' Jolly Roger! It was the flag of one of the Four Emperors (Yonko)—the Big Mom Pirates!
Someone from the Big Mom Pirates had died on Fish-Man Island! The consequences were unthinkable!
Big Mom was nothing like Whitebeard; if she was offended, she would definitely seek revenge. If that happened, Fish-Man Island would have no chance of survival!
Realizing this, Shyarly didn't dare to waste another second and was about to rush to the Ryuuguu Palace to see Neptune.
However, before she could even leave the counter, the café door was pushed open with a small ding-dong. Auguro walked in and immediately spotted Shyarly and the crystal ball on her counter, his eyes lighting up.
"Madam Shyarly, greetings! I am Auguro, and I've come here specifically to ask for a divination!"
Shyarly suddenly felt her legs go weak.
Fuck Fuck Fuck!!!
The Spirit King of the Holy Spirit Empire, who had caused such an uproar at the Summit War of Marineford! This was a major figure, no less powerful than the Yonko, Big Mom herself!
With such a significant person showing up at her door, no matter how urgent her own concerns were, Shyarly had no choice but to satisfy his request first.
Forcing a polite smile, Shyarly said, "Your Majesty Auguro, it is an honor to perform a divination for you!"
Placing her hands on the crystal ball, Shyarly attempted to predict Auguro's future.
In the very next instant, Shyarly's expression changed dramatically. The crystal ball did not display any image of Auguro. It was as if an invisible force was completely blocking her foresight!
This had never happened before!
Even with one of the Yonko, Whitebeard, she had been able to foresee his death from across the ocean. Yet, face-to-face with Auguro, she could predict absolutely nothing!
No! That wasn't entirely true.
Everything in the crystal ball was shrouded in a black shadow. And she recognized this shadow! It was the exact same shadow from the previous prediction—the one that had killed the Big Mom Pirates!
"So, this Spirit King intends to wage war with the Big Mom Pirates on Fish-Man Island?" Shyarly thought to herself.
As soon as the thought formed, Shyarly felt a tremendous blow to her head!
There was no warning, no physical form. It felt like a sudden, heavy impact out of thin air!
Though she couldn't explain where it came from, the dizzy and disoriented Shyarly miraculously understood the meaning of the blow: A Warning!
She had attempted to predict someone she should not have!
And thus, she was warned!
This warning did not come from Auguro, the target. It came from Fate itself!
Or perhaps, the Rules of the World!
Upon grasping this, a cold sweat instantly drenched Shyarly's brow. Who exactly was this Auguro?
How could he prompt a warning from the cosmic rules?
She herself was, in a sense, favored by the rules, as her prophetic ability was granted by them! The only possible explanation was that Auguro was even more highly valued by the rules than she was!
Realizing this, Shyarly's face grew even more desperate.
Good heavens! If a Child of the Rules was going to fight Big Mom on Fish-Man Island, could the island possibly continue to exist?
Auguro was unaware of Shyarly's inner turmoil, but he, too, had felt a subtle sense of being peeped at from the great beyond.
"So this is what predicting the future feels like? Truly fascinating!" he thought.
Unfortunately, that feeling of being observed was quickly obliterated by his own Spiritual Pressure (Reiatsu). According to his system, Auguro was the Soul King (Reiō)—the literal God of Creation and God of Souls. The Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the World of the Living, along with the Soul Reapers (Shinigami), Hollows, and humans, all fell under his authority.
Soi Fon and the other Shinigami were merely secondary agents granted portions of the Soul King's power. True deities all shared a common characteristic:
They must not be gazed upon!
They must not be touched!
Mortals who gazed upon a deity would be seen as an offense. Mortals who touched a deity would be annihilated by the divine power (Reiatsu). Although Auguro had not yet fully mastered the Soul King's authority, his essence remained that of a God.
Shyarly's prediction from the conceptual level was an attempt to peer into Auguro's divine essence, an act that violated a fundamental taboo.
This was why she had been warned by the rules. Auguro could only marvel at how the Soul Society truly lived up to its reputation as an epic template for a divine realm—the sheer presence and power were unparalleled!
"I apologize, Madam Shyarly! It seems I was inconsiderate!" Auguro offered a sincere apology to the trembling mermaid.