Kaji and Kani followed Kama's line of sight.
There, at the entrance of a store selling shell accessories, a figure had just swum out.
It was an extraordinarily beautiful mermaid.
She had long, seaweed-smooth green hair, eyes as pure as sapphires, and a tail of an extremely rare shade, "starlight blue," sparkling faintly like a night sky.
Even by the professional standards of the Trident Claw slave hunters, this mermaid was unquestionably S-class.
She was a "treasure" capable of driving a Celestial Dragon insane!
"Gulp…" Kaji swallowed. "A masterpiece…"
"She only has two fish-men with her," Kama's breathing grew heavy. "Just two… they look like ordinary bodyguards, not Ryugu Kingdom soldiers."
"That's enough!"
Kani suddenly slammed his fist into his palm, his mechanical claw clanging loudly. "She's the one!"
Dorados's urging, combined with this sudden premium catch, caused their rationality to be instantly devoured by greed.
"Move!"
Kama gave the order.
The Trident Claw trio stopped hiding.
Three shadows shot out from behind the coral reef like arrows loosed from a bow.
"Who goes there?!"
The two fish-man guards reacted quickly and stepped in front of the mermaid.
"Out of the way, small fry!"
Kani roared with laughter and charged first. His enormous mechanical claws created a terrifying vortex even under deep-sea pressure.
"Crab Claw: Crushing Pressure!!"
BAM! BAM!
The guards didn't even have time to draw weapons before the colossal pincers smashed into them with overwhelming force.
Their shields and scales shattered like paper. They spat blood and were hurled away like rag dolls, slamming into a distant coral wall and instantly losing consciousness.
"AAAAAAAH!!!"
The starlight-blue mermaid screamed in terror.
"Hehehe… little beauty, don't be afraid. Come with us," sneered Kaji, lashing out his whip.
His target wasn't the mermaid; it was the surrounding fish-man civilians gathering nearby.
"Back off, trash!"
The barbed whip wrapped around a huge shop sign and yanked.
CRASH!
The multi-ton sign collapsed, stirring violent currents and clouds of debris, plunging the crowd into panic and chaos.
"Now!"
Kama's figure moved like a phantom, bypassing all obstacles and instantly appearing before the terrified mermaid.
He didn't use his sharp sickle blade. Instead, he used the blunt back of the sickle to precisely strike the mermaid's nape.
Thud.
Her scream cut off. Her eyes rolled back, and she fainted.
Kama swiftly produced a specially-made large net shimmering with the gleam of Seastone, tightly binding the mermaid's delicate body, and hoisted her onto his shoulder!
"Success!"
Karma shouted excitedly, "Retreat!!"
This sudden, lightning-fast assault plunged the entire shopping center into dead silence.
Immediately afterwards, earth-shaking roars of anger and cries erupted!
"Slave traders!!!"
"Oh my god! They caught... they caught Ariel!!"
"Hurry! Notify the Neptune Army!!"
"How is this possible... How dare slave traders come to Fish-Man Island?! What about Lord Haiiroyo's decree?!"
Fish-men and civilians screamed in terror, scattering in all directions, the scene utter chaos.
Meanwhile, the Trident Claw trio grinned viciously, carrying their "trophy" as they retreated at full speed toward the submarine.
Not far behind them, hidden in the shadows, Iron Wall Barricade watched coldly.
"A bunch of fools, making too much noise."
He muttered to himself. "Still, the 'goods' are secured. Time to prepare for departure."
He was just about to turn and retreat as well...
...Meanwhile.
At the Mermaid Cafe.
Behind the counter, Madam Shyarly was polishing her crystal ball, worry on her face.
Across from her, the lazy-looking fat man was using a small spoon to scoop up the last mouthful of his "Forest of the Sea" limited edition parfait.
"Mmm… delicious." Rehn squinted happily and yawned.
"This is..." Shyarly was about to say something.
"Hm?"
Rehn's hand, scooping with the spoon, suddenly stopped mid-air.
The laziness and drowsiness on his face vanished without a trace within 0.01 seconds.
In its place was an abyssal coldness, like a frozen cavern ten thousand years old.
BOOM!!!
A wave of Observation Haki so terrifying it was suffocating, erupted from Rehn like a tsunami, sweeping across the entire Fish-Man Island in an instant!
Inside the Mermaid Cafe, every customer and mermaid server felt, in that instant, as if an invisible giant hand was squeezing their hearts, almost choking them!
"…Heh."
Rehn had heard it.
He "heard" the explosion from the shopping center.
He "heard" the wails and screams of the fish-men.
He "heard" the word "slave traders."
He "heard"... the faint, terrified "heartbeat" of that starlight-blue mermaid, even in her unconscious state.
"Right under my watch…" Rehn slowly stood, tossing his Justice coat onto the chair.
"Beneath Lord Renzo's decree..."
His voice was very soft, yet filled with the oppressive stillness before a storm.
"...there are still 'scumbags'?"
"Lord Rehn?" Madam Shyarly looked at him in fear.
He did not answer.
BZZT-BOOM!!!
In the next instant, his entire body transformed into a blinding golden lightning bolt that seemed capable of tearing apart the deep sea.
KRAAAASH!
The roof of the Mermaid Café was pierced straight through by the lightning.
The beam shot across Fish-man Island's "sky" faster than human sight could follow.
...
Shopping District
The Trident Claw trio fled while carrying the mermaid.
"Hurry! Hurry! Lord Barricade is covering us!" Kama shouted.
BOOOOOOM!!!!
A white lightning bolt, ten thousand times brighter than a searchlight, descended unstoppable and struck directly in front of their escape route.
CRACKLE!!
Violent electricity raged across the ground, forming an impenetrable wall of lightning.
"What?!"
The trio halted abruptly, horrified.
As the lightning faded, a figure slowly formed, back facing them.
He was tall but not bulky, wearing only a simple shirt and vest, with a half-awake, lazy demeanor.
Yet the pressure emanating from him, vast as a god, made the trio and even the distant Iron Wall Barricade's pupils contract.
Rehn slowly turned around.
He glanced at the three obvious culprits, then at the trembling starlight-blue mermaid trapped in the net on their shoulder.
He smiled.
An ice-cold, murderous smile.
"Where did you punks crawl out from…"
His voice wasn't loud, yet every person present heard it clearly, like a whisper from hell.
"You dare capture mermaids in Lord Renzo's territory?!"
He slowly raised his right hand. At the tip of his index finger, a highly condensed golden sphere of lightning, enough to destroy an island, began to pulse violently.
"You…"
"Are you really not afraid of death?!"