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Chapter's Events:
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"Your majesty, please allow us to…!!" The doctors surrounded the queen, who had been shot, trying to save her, but she stopped them.
"… so no matter who… is responsible for this…" Queen Otohime continued speaking to her three children, who were drowning in tears.
"Please do not feel any anger on my behalf…"
"I would never wish for you to be consumed by anger and hatred on my account…" The mother pleaded with her children not to fill their hearts with rage and hatred because of what had happened to her.
"M… mother…" Shirahoshi wept as she saw her mother in that condition.
"Shirahoshi… you must be strong…" Otohime felt that the end of her life was near, but her concern about what might happen if Shirahoshi's power was triggered made her resist closing her eyes forever.
"Unhh… Unhh…" Shirahoshi fell into shock and was on the verge of screaming.
…
("If anything were to happen to send Shirahoshi… into an even greater state of shock than she experienced that day…")
…
The brothers Manboshi and Ryuboshi remembered their mother's last words.
"Uwaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!" Shirahoshi screamed.
"Wait!!! Shirahoshi!!!" The two brothers began singing and dancing to stop their little sister's cries from summoning the Sea Kings again.
But the others did not understand this and thought it was out of place to dance and sing at such a tragic moment.
…
"Mother…!!"
"I swear that I will collect the signatures once more!!" Fukaboshi fell to his knees, crying and vowing.
"We three brothers will become great warriors, just like our father…!!"
"And as we promised you, we will protect Shirahoshi with our lives!!!"
"So please, do not worry!!!" Sob… Sob Sob
Fukaboshi's tears flowed like a waterfall at this moment.
"We are so close…"
"I know you can reach… the light of the sun…!!!" These were the last words Queen Otohime spoke.
…
[Otohime and Tiger (End)]
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On Fish-Man Island, the readers held their breath for a moment, their hearts breaking at the tragic scene on the manga's page.
"How could Queen Otohime die in such a way…" A mermaid's tears fell; she couldn't bear to watch the scene.
"This is impossible… Why did this happen… everything was going so well…" Another fishman felt deep sadness and shock.
"Who did it…? Who shot the queen?! Who set fire to the signatures?!"
Another fishman's eyes turned red with hatred. Queen Otohime was kind to everyone, even villains—how could anyone shoot her in cold blood?
"Even in her dying moments, she didn't want her children to be filled with hatred and anger…" A mermaid girl covered her mouth, tears streaming down her cheeks in grief.
When the two brothers began foolishly dancing and singing to stop their younger sister from screaming, this dramatic scene added even more sorrow for the readers… now they understood why those brothers always spoke as though they were singing.
Fisher Tiger felt overwhelming sadness when his eyes fell on Otohime's dying face.
Unlike his own death, filled with anger and resentment, this woman's death was peaceful. Her face was smiling, though her eyes were full of tears.
She left precious words for her children before passing away: not to let anger and hatred fill them because of what had happened to her.
This, in particular, filled Fisher Tiger with grief.
"How can such a pure person exist in this world…" Even the hardened Fisher Tiger could not hold back his tears at this moment.
He had cried only twice until now—the first was in the scene of his own death, and the second was now.
Beside him, Jimbei and Hatchan also could not hold back their tears.
"Why did this happen… everything came so quickly…" Jimbei said in sorrow, then added, "I can't believe such a disaster happened while my counterpart was there…"
"As expected, it must have been some filthy human pirate who did it! Humans again! Damn humans!" Arlong shouted, gritting his teeth in hatred.
Unlike him, Hody Jones's eyes were full of suspicion as he saw his counterpart holding up the "human responsible for the incident," showing him to the public as the killer.
"This…" Hody Jones felt he was doing something he would never truly do. What love for the queen was he talking about? This was utter nonsense.
Yet he never thought his counterpart might be the true culprit—he too believed it was the human pirate who had done it.
Fisher Tiger's face darkened at the sight, but then he calmed and thought for a moment… "So this is what was supposed to happen? My death… Otohime's death… but it seems this will not happen in this life."
Thinking rationally, Fisher Tiger felt grateful for the existence of the One Piece manga, which had not only changed his life and Otohime's but the lives of many others as well.
For example, Jimbei at his side would no longer bear the burden of the island's safety alone—now it would be everyone's responsibility.
…
King Neptune's heart ached as he watched the scene—Otohime's dying moments beside her children, while his counterpart was absent.
"How did this happen…"
The queen's death had always been inevitable; her grave had appeared even before this flashback. This meant he had been mentally prepared for this moment, but when it finally came, he discovered he was not prepared at all.
Everything Queen Otohime had done until now, since her first appearance, had made Neptune fall in love with her—even though she was only a character in a manga! Her actions, her morals, her qualities, her wisdom—all were so perfect! As if she had been born to be his queen… her role as a mother and as a wife was also extraordinary. She was absolutely perfect… such a woman, even he felt pain and jealousy that another man had her. Though those feelings had begun to fade since he saw the Goddess of the Store, Meriem…, this did not mean he had no affection for Otohime from the manga.
When the scene of her death arrived, he discovered he carried many feelings that all exploded at once into tears at that moment.
Especially when he saw his counterpart in the next chapter, tormented with grief, unable to execute the culprit with his own hands because of his wife's final wish.
Only then did Neptune realize he had truly failed as a husband. Without the One Piece manga, he would have married Otohime and gone through all the events of the manga alongside her, until this fateful day arrived, too.
"I failed to protect her, just as Rob said…" Neptune wiped his tears and sighed in sorrow. He now understood why he had never been given another chance in this life to be with Otohime again.
…
In Ohara, Otohime was shocked by everything that had happened.
She was not the only one shocked—Olivia and the others were too. Sorrow and helplessness filled everyone in the Art Store.
Everyone felt that Queen Otohime's death should never have happened… she had done nothing to deserve being killed. They had never expected her to be murdered. When her grave first appeared, most readers thought she had died of illness or in some kind of accident… very few expected it to be murder.
"Is it over…" Otohime wiped her tears as she looked at the scene of Manboshi and Ryuboshi singing and dancing to cheer up Shirahoshi.
That particular dramatic scene made her truly feel defeated… these two filial sons, despite their grief and pain at that moment, had not forgotten their promise to their mother—to prevent Shirahoshi from falling into shock, which might unintentionally cause the Sea Kings to rampage and flatten Fish-Man Island, costing millions of lives.
But what upset her more was seeing the rat Vander Decken exploiting the chaos to touch Shirahoshi and bind her with his ability. "So from this moment on, Shirahoshi became a prisoner of this villain's power."
Her expression soon changed again when she saw Hody Jones holding up the human pirate and declaring him the killer.
"Sigh… my counterpart's efforts have scattered like a mirage because of this bastard."
Otohime glared at Hody Jones in annoyance. How could she not deduce who the real killer was?
She was certain Hody Jones was the culprit.
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Upcoming chapter titles (spoilers):
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Chapter 950: Jimbei's Words.
Chapter 951: Hody Jones Attempts to Seize the Throne.
Chapter 952: Joy Boy!
Chapter 953: Jimbei's Opposing Stance.
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