NOVEL WEB Chapter 100: CHAPTER 100
Lord Rin! He's fighting someone on the east side of Fishman Island we don't know who it is!" Guard B gasped, barely able to stand. He had rushed back the moment Guard A had taken over his post, not daring to waste a second.
"What?! Rin is fighting again?" King Neptune bellowed, rising to his feet. It had only been a few days since the battle against the rampaging Sea Kings caused by the mysterious earthquake under Gironcorde Plaza. For Rin to already be fighting someone else was bewildering and concerning.
"You said Rin got into another fight?" Artoria, seated nearby, heard the guard's words and stood abruptly, golden eyes narrowing. Enel and Casa, seated with her, looked equally puzzled. Hadn't Rin simply gone out to run a final errand before departing Fishman Island? Why had it turned into combat?
"I don't know exactly," Guard B replied, still winded. "Some residents from Coral Hill reported intense fighting happening near the eastern reef. We dispatched scouts immediately, and when we arrived Lord Rin was already engaged in battle with a man we couldn't identify."
"When Rin left earlier," Artoria said, voice measured but troubled, "he told me he was going to fulfill one last promise to Princess Shirahoshi before leaving. I assumed it was something sentimental perhaps a farewell gift. I never imagined he meant to confront someone in her name."
"A final promise…?" King Neptune echoed, perplexed. "What could he mean by that?"
"Yes… it's him. It must be him!" a soft, trembling voice came from the entrance. Princess Shirahoshi stood at the threshold of the audience chamber, her tall frame shaking, tears brimming in her large blue eyes.
"Shirahoshi?! When did you get here?" King Neptune exclaimed, startled. He had ordered elite guards to remain stationed outside her chamber how had she slipped past them again?
"Your Majesty," one of the guards stammered, stepping forward. "Just now, Princess Shirahoshi insisted she had something urgent to tell you she said it involved life or death. We thought it best not to delay—so we escorted her here…"
"I entrusted her to your care and this is what you do?!" King Neptune roared, fury crackling in his voice. "If anything had happened to her, I'd see every one of you demoted to seaweed pickers!"
"Princess Shirahoshi what's wrong?" Artoria rushed to her side, gently grasping her trembling hand. The Princess looked pale, stricken with fear, as if haunted by something terrible.
"H-He… Brother Rin went to find him," she whispered, clutching Artoria's arm tightly. Her voice trembled with memories.the ones she had tried so hard to forget. She could still see that man's wicked smile, hear his voice laced with malice, saying things that sent chills through her scales.
"Shirahoshi!" Artoria's sudden, forceful shout snapped through the room like a blade. The air pulsed with a faint magical pressure just enough to jolt the princess from her frozen fear. Shirahoshi blinked rapidly, as if returning from a nightmare.
"Lady Artoria… Is Brother Rin facing him?" she asked again, eyes wide with alarm. Though the others had no idea who this mysterious he was, Shirahoshi's fear made it clear this wasn't someone ordinary.
"Him?" Artoria frowned. "Who is this person? Why are you so afraid?"
"Do you remember… during the Sea King incident when you were fighting the giant Sea Kings near the plaza?" Shirahoshi asked, voice growing steadier. "Do you remember how I appeared suddenly, right after you were wounded?"
"Yes," Artoria replied slowly. "You'd run back even after I escorted you safely to Ryugu Palace. You helped us in that moment, even though it was dangerous."
"I… I was halfway back to the palace, when someone blocked my way," Shirahoshi recalled, voice trembling again.
That day, after slipping free of her guards, Shirahoshi had rushed toward Gironcorde Plaza. She had been worried about her people and about Artoria. She'd moved quickly, faster than any of her guards could keep up. But just when the plaza came into view, someone had stepped into her path, halting her abruptly.
"Y-You… Who are you?" Shirahoshi had asked at the time, instinctively sensing something wrong about the man. He was a fish-man—like many others on the island but something about his aura was wrong. Dark. Malicious.
"Princess," the man had said, wearing a grin too wide to be natural. "Why don't we shake hands first then you can ask questions later."
"Shake hands?" Shirahoshi had asked, recoiling. "What is it you want from me?!"
It had made no sense. He hadn't attacked her. He hadn't raised his voice. But the request the tone sent a cold shiver down her spine. No one asked to shake hands like that. Except…
"…Van der Decken IX," Artoria whispered aloud, piecing it together. He was the only fish-man infamous for obsessively trying to touch Princess Shirahoshi. A single touch, and he could use his cursed Target-Target Devil Fruit to hurl weapons at her from anywhere in the world.
"He smiled when he saw me," Shirahoshi said, voice hollow. "And he said the most frightening thing… 'I saw what you did at Gironcorde Plaza. You cried, and the Sea Kings answered. You're the one I've been looking for.'"
The room fell deadly quiet.
Van der Decken IX—long presumed missing or drowned after Luffy's assault on Hody Jones and his New Fish-Man Pirates during the chaos of the Fish-Man Island rebellion was somehow back. But not the same. Now, his body had become a vessel for something darker. Something ancient. And it was that entity Rin had gone to confront alone.
"You… what are you talking about? I don't understand," Shirahoshi had replied at the time, terror tightening in her chest.
But Decken's possessed form had only laughed.
"Oh, but you will. You've only just begun to scratch the surface of what you truly are, Princess." He leaned closer, voice chilling. "And Rin Pandora he's the key to unlocking it."
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