Although Fishman Street has changed a lot now, relying on intuition and a few remaining old signs, Tiger successfully found his former home - that dilapidated shanty town, which has now become a quite prosperous area.

Food court, various food stalls, all kinds of gourmets...

Among these stalls, a shop that makes takoyaki on-site caught Tiger's attention immediately.

There was a long queue of diners in front of the shop, with a seagull-patterned scarf tied on his head. The octopus fish-man named Xiaoba was very busy, with six strong arms each having its own division of labor, moving quickly and without hesitation.

He packed the secret takoyaki into boxes one after another in an unorganized manner.

"The hospitality is not good, please use it!"

Xiao Hachi wiped the sweat from his head and handed a freshly made takoyaki to the guest with a smile on his face. However, when he raised his head, he inadvertently looked at Tiger who was looking at him with a smile.

His face suddenly froze.

In order to sneak into Fish-Man Island, Tiger did disguise himself and carried a backpack, pretending to be a tourist. However, his physique, aura, and some details could not be hidden from those who had followed him since childhood.

Xiaoba...

Seeing that Xiaoba noticed him, Tiger nodded slightly.

The former reacted immediately and put down the kitchen utensils in his hands decisively. Regardless of the long queue of business, he shouted loudly to the surroundings:

"Sorry, everyone! We are temporarily closed today!!"

"Eh?!"

The diners exclaimed one after another. Many of them are repeat customers, and there are also foodies who come from all over the city.

Xiaoba didn't explain much, and hurriedly packed up his things and pushed the cart out of the crowd. Seeing this, Tiger followed him naturally, as if he was just on his way.

…

A few minutes later, Xiaoba's new home.

"Hahahaha! You have changed so much, Xiaoba!"

Tiger laughed, gave Xiaoba a bear hug, and patted the latter's back hard.

"...Tiger, brother Tiger!"

Xiaoba's nose was a little sore and his eyes were red - most of the children in Fishman Street didn't know who their parents were, or they simply lost their parents when they were young. Although Tiger was nominally the eldest brother of many of them, he

In fact, this eldest brother is like a father in many cases.

"Hey, you kid, why are you crying! Don't cry!"

Tiger smiled and let go of Xiaoba, took a good look at him from top to bottom, then nodded happily and said: "It seems that you have been doing well while I was away from Fish-Man Island.

Not bad, I actually became the owner of a takoyaki shop..."

"It's not just me, Brother Tiger!"

Xiao Ba rubbed his eyes and showed a big smile, "During the time you left Fish-Man Island, great changes have taken place here. Everyone is living a good life now!"

"Oh? Then you have to tell me carefully!"

Although it was planned that Tiger would go to Dragon Palace City today to meet the Neptunes for the last time, Tiger was more willing to stay with Xiaoba for a while than the two rulers of Fish-Man Island.

…

As the most well-known adventurer in the entire Fish-Man Island and the most loyal Fish-Man Street brother, even after Tiger became a wanted criminal by the World Government, many people in the Fish-Man Island would still welcome him, and even

Will risk being punished by the navy to help hide him.

But under such circumstances, Tiger regarded this time as his last return home in his life...

It's not that he plans to commit suicide, or that he has any uneasy emotions in his heart, but that he has made the same choice as "Drought" Jack, one of the three disasters of the Beast Pirates.

Yes, Jack and Tiger are both fish-men, but the former is a fish-man who ate a devil fruit. So although Jack will not drown in the sea, he still permanently loses the ability to swim.

As for Tiger, as a senior cadre of the Revolutionary Army, in order to realize his ideals and achieve the ultimate goal of the Revolutionary Army, he must obtain more powerful power - that is, become a Devil Fruit user who can no longer swim.

Such a choice cannot be said to be easy, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as difficult. Therefore, what drove Tiger to make such a choice was not only the pure ideal, but also the Devil Fruit itself...

Time goes back to one year ago, in the year 1506 of the Haiyuan calendar——

According to the information found by Luo and others in the old Simon safe house, Long took the cadres of the Revolutionary Army and arrived at an ordinary sea area on the third route of the paradise on a warship. However, when they looked around, they saw that this place was just

An ordinary, endless sea.

The lookout on the ship looked around with binoculars, but saw nothing.

(Really there is nothing? Even if there is an island and reef...)

Luo, who was looking around on the deck with Long and others, couldn't help but think of this - according to Old Simon, the top natural devil fruit that can create "Lily Carnation", the Sensen Fruit, is at this coordinate.

Luo previously thought that the coordinates they got were a small island that could be inhabited, or simply a desert island, but in the end there was nothing here.

After the warship circled around here for a while, the sound of the lookout's search to no avail came from the mast:

"Mr. Long, we have looked everywhere, and there is nothing around here...well, except for a coral reef."

The words added behind the watchman caught the dragon's attention.

"Coral reef?"

Long was stunned for a moment, then he frowned and ordered, "Lean over."

The warship slowed down slowly, and finally approached a large area of ​​plants spreading on the sea... It looked like a coral reef from a distance, but it was not. However, there should be reefs under the plants, which grow on the sea.

The plant on it is not floating algae, but some kind of plant.

"strangeness……"

The warship anchored here. After the ship stopped, Bello Betty, commander of the Eastern Army of the Revolutionary Army, looked at the patch of plants and couldn't help but murmured softly.

"What's weird?"

Lightning, the deputy commander of the Grand Line Army, asked back. He thought the other party had seen something... But just seeing plants growing on the sea was not a strange thing.

"No, it's nothing, it's just... I've just never seen this kind of plant."

Although Bello Betty appeared as a female warrior at the forefront of the battlefield every time after eating the superhuman inspiration fruit, she was actually a delicate noble lady who studied with various scholars since she was a child.

She is knowledgeable - and she can be sure that the plant in front of her is not a common plant.

"Betty, haven't you seen..."

Long fell into silence. After a while, he spoke again, "The ship is temporarily parked here. We are responsible for guarding it. Tiger, please go down and take a look."

Compared to the other senior officers on the deck, Tiger did have the least “qualification” after having wandered the sea for a long time before finally joining the Revolutionary Army. However, because of his feats in Marigio, everyone respected him very much.

and trust - the reason why he was allowed to take action now was simply because everyone else was a "landlubber" ability user, but he was a fish-man who was born to live in the water.

"no problem!"

Then Tiger suddenly plunged into the sea.

After Tiger entered the sea, fog gradually began to form on the sea, and the surrounding area became blurry... Long and others on the boat immediately raised their vigilance to the highest level.

On the other side, as Tiger dived, he discovered that there was a group of rocks below.

Tiger looked around, and after a general observation, he found a large area of ​​flora spread out on the sea. After entering the water, the roots began to gather together. It seemed that this was not a plant, but a plant... just like the shampoo field.

It's the same as the islands, but the scope here is much smaller.

After confirming that the plants were all gathered in one place, Tiger immediately swam towards the gathering place without thinking too much about it.

The main root of this plant spread out from the side of a volcanic reef pile. After Tiger circled the reef pile a few times, he discovered that there was a secret passage extending inward on the other side, so he followed it.

Start swimming along this passage.

The passage was winding, and after swimming for a long time, the narrow waterway began to widen, and then Tiger felt the air outside.

Inside is a cave, with a large amount of air blocked by sea water... The plant can also be seen in the cave.

In other words, Tiger found the growing point of the plant.

Wet stone steps, moss, stalactites... There is no doubt that this place can be used as a hidden residence.

The plant grew in the middle of the cave. After Tiger came to the cave, he first walked around the plant and then discovered a large number of boxes in the back corner.

He walked over and lightly kicked a box on the outside. Then he saw that the rotten wooden box was destroyed immediately, and a lot of golden gold coins rolled down.

But Tiger didn't pay attention to those gold coins, and he circled back to the front of the plant again.

There is a flat stone in front of it. Maybe someone once used it as a simple table, but now it has been curled up by the roots of this plant...

There seemed to be something placed on the stone. Tiger immediately used fishman karate to chop off part of the roots with his knife, and then took out the thing.

Is it a book?

No, it's a diary.

The material is not the parchment that pirates like to use most to draw treasure maps, but some kind of special paper, similar to tree bark. I am afraid it is for this reason that this diary can be used in this environment.

be preserved.

"July 28, 1997, sunny."

"My crew and I were lucky enough to leave the Kingdom of Gold, taking with us the big secret we found there..."

Tiger opened the diary at random, and then read the content on this page. The date of the diary made him feel at ease, because according to the information found by Luo and the others, the previous ability user of Sensen Fruit was an active person in the Five
To be continued...