In giant bed inside a room equally big, a room highly decorated, lies a young boy of approximately 4 years old seemingly in a deep sleep, rests while being watched by a couple of mermaids and a lot of guards.
*Gasp*
Neptor, who previously thought of being dead suddenly comes out a stupor, feeling as if he has been sleeping for a long time.
Muddled thoughts, inability to control his body…if not for the comforting presence of the water, his mind would be in further disarray.
'Had they managed to save me? How is that even possible? I was at dead's door
with a big hole on my stomach made by Manta's laser.', he tries to reason with difficulty while aiming to move his body around.
After a few moments he accepts that it's not having any effect at all and decides to stop trying, seeing the futility of his efforts, the intense numbness preventing his movements.
'What is going on? Why do I feel like this? The only possible explanation that comes to my mind is that they indeed managed to save me and my body is recover-', suddenly he pauses for a few seconds and feels his mind clearing and body a little more lighter.
'…the experience inside the void feels so much like a dream that I even find difficult to find it real and remember it…so it seems something heard my wish and brought me here…thank you?', he hesitantly tries, feeling a little anxious to know he was being observed.
As he didn't expect a response, imagine his surprise when he faintly hears a voice inside his head. 'Fufufu. From now on you are on your own, if you end up inside here again, you will have to find your way out on your own'.
"...!?", the shock of receiving a response is so great that he opens his eyes immediately and tries to get up but is unable to as his current body feels too weak and coupled with an intense headache hammering his head, he decides to keep lying down.
*Ugh*
Luckly for him, the presence of other people in the room to clear his doubts is a relief. Seeing the boy movements, causes a commotion to spread through the room with beautiful women quickly approaching him with worried faces.
"The prince is awake!", starts the first one to approach, she quickly turns to the standing guards, "Hurry up you lot, quickly notify His Majesty.".
"H-hai"
"Maroshi-sama, how are you feeling?", questions the doctor near his bed.
Looking at the guy who is talking to him, elicits an involuntary response from the boy despite feeling unfamiliar and still familiar with the name.
"…hum…"
*Ugh*
"…intense numbness and a heavy headache.", despite the awkwardness he feels about being reference by this name, he still feel an strange connection to it.
"I see…it seems the recent events had a greater impact than imagined in His Highness, what is the last thing you remem-", his further inquiries are interrupted by the opening of the doors that allows the entrance of a giant being and another one accompanying him.
A massive merman, with full orange beard quickly approaches him to know about his state. The smaller figure with him is a merman with blue-sea hair with shark features.
"…maroshi, good to see you are finally awake-jamon", starts the king, prompting the confused boy to look at him.
"We were worried. You were irresponsive in the past few days", continues the other
'Neptune/father?'
'Fukaboshi/brother?'
He freezes for a few seconds, when, suddenly, he is assaulted by a sudden increase in his headache.
*Urgh*
*Uuurgh*
In response to his confused mental state, the water present in the whole room starts to behave frantically, alerting everyone in the room.
Just as Neptune was preparing for the worst, the water returns to the previous calm state, bringing peace to the room, with the boy's pants being the only sound being heard.
*Pant*
*Pant*
"…father…*Pant*…brother…I am fine", he takes a few seconds to regain his breath, he tries his best to control his emotions but is unable to as tears begin to flow from his eyes.
At his side, his father looks at his situation with a difficult face, feeling so much regret for not being present when his family needed him the most.
And the brother observing his state and imagining what must be passing at his younger brother head brings him an urge to cry just as he kept doing for the past few days, but not willing to appear weak in front of his brother he resists it.
While trying to control himself, the now named Maroshi browses through his now fully awakened memories trying to make sense of it.
'It seems, this time, instead of being thrown inside a dead body, a new one was created for me…and only after such a huge mental shock my memories returned...One Piece, huh'
Quickly remembering the most recent and impactful event, he tries his hard to control his emotions.
'…mother finally managed to collect her signatures...', remembering her delighted face when she did it brings another row of tears flowing on his face, his now younger body influencing him more than he thought.
He pauses, take a deep breath otherwise he will never be able to finish reminiscing it.
'…then she was shot.', a force is emitted from him, pushing everyone back and scattering furniture around.
'And then…blank', he finishes it.
"Brother…what happened after…mother was shot?"
Fukaboshi, hearing his question turns to his father, asking silently for permission, and after receiving a nod, he starts to narrate it.
..
.
A few days ago
In fish-man island people spirit is all times high, despite their reluctance to, they chose to believe on the future the queen always describes to them, where they would finally be able to be part of the world, living freely under the sun.
For the past few days, people from all over the island came to give their support and signatures to Queen Otohime's cause, seeing their queen passion finally managed convince them.
On one of the many days after they started finally giving their support, in the city plaza where Otohime and the majority of the citizens were gathered, the joyful atmosphere was disrupted when, suddenly, the boxes containing the signatures burst into flames.
With it came chaos, all guards nearby trying to put out the fire, when, suddenly, a bullet sound echoed on the plaza.
Distracted with the situation of seeing her dreams being destroyed right in front of her Otohime's Observation Haki failed to feel the projectile reaching her.
Only due to the vast amount of blood the guards took notice of the Queen state, taking everyone present in a state of frenzy.
Her children, with the exception of the two youngest quickly approached her, the youngest prince frozen in shock and the princess on the verge of tears.
The boy snapped of his confused mental state only when after a few moments a soldier in a hill above them declared the responsible for this, fully gaining everyone attention.
Ignoring the citizens numerous cries of indignation, frustration and hatred for seeing again a human responsible for their tragedies, he lifted his trembling hand, letting his suppressed emotions take control of his actions.
*Rumble*
A sudden tremor passes through the island, unbalancing everyone and fearing happening the appearance of the sea kings again, they hesitantly look up.
But this time, instead of the giant behemoths, what they see is water from all over the island, floating up right above their heads.
Then water starts transforming and taking shape of innumerous water tridents.
First dozen, then hundreds using all the water in his range of control.
"Is this...the prince's doing?", states a near spectator.
Fukaboshi, looking at the stunning the spectacle, thinks as more and more tridents are formed, 'This…this is too much, he could control only small quantities, isn't this almost as dangerous as Shirahoshi's ability?'.
Above the hill right beside the soldier who announced it against his orders is the highly respected Shichibukai, Jimbe, looking up in frozen stupor.
"…not just the princess, but also the prince?", he unconsciously mutters.
'This isn't fish-man karate nor any of the merman's combat techniques…this is pure water control', he then strongly gulps his saliva imagining the kind of chaos the discovery of this would cause by the people above the water
'Not even Whitebeard-san protection would deter power-hungry people from trying invading this place'.
His musings are interrupted when the prince starts lowering his hand.
"!?"
"Hody! Dodge quickly!", he quickly jumps back before warning Hody.
And just in a blink of eye, all the weapons are launched on the hill, effortlessly destroying it and raising a field of dust in the area.
When after a few moments two figures jumps out of it, Jimbe and Hody that managed to avoid the full brunt of the attack because of the warning but still injured.
Stunned looking at the state of the hill and seeing as the boy is about to continue the attack Hody quickly throws away the human, 'Yes…kill him, you...one of the most closest to her and further demoralize these useless people from wanting to walk among them. Prove that walking among these scum is a pipe dream...'
Seeing the human, being injured further but still alive at the ground, the boy starts again with a follow up attack, this time with more potency, water from outside of the bubbles flows in in greater quantity than before.
Struggling to control this amount of water, the effects on the prince body are visible…blood flowing out of his eyes and ears and when he was just about to rain down thousands of tridents.
But just when the tridents barely moved, a figure quickly swims and spreads her arms in front of the human stopping the boy in his tracks.
"Shirahoshi!", exclaims Fukaboshi, finally finding his voice after the constant mood swings.
Looking at his little sister being brave enough to enter inside the attack range even with how much she is struggling to contain her sadness he decides to stop himself from continue the attack.
After a few seconds, the water floating above them are directed to the city outskirts with it, the boy immediately passing out due to exhaustion.