Chapter 616: Anniversary for Revenge

From Coral Hill, residents stare up at distant shapes circling overhead while a Den Den Mushi call to Ryugu Palace goes unanswered. Too far off to make them out clearly, Luffy notices the same figures. The ones trying to reach the palace turn out to be the border patrol, warning that suspicious newcomers have slipped into the Fish-Man District without looking like ordinary visitors. Mounted on the very sea beasts the crew first saw on arrival, the shapes resolve into Hody, Decken, and the pirates following each of them.

Hody proclaims this the day Fish-Man Island unites in spirit, declaring that surface humans who cannot breathe underwater belong under fish-man control. Decken cheerfully marks it as the anniversary of his engagement to Shirahoshi. Tallying the Neptune Army's genuine threats, Zeo names four worth fearing: the three princes plus Neptune. With Jinbe's crew confirmed gone from the island, Hody orders his forces to fan out and seize their assigned districts, vowing the Ryugu Kingdom ends today.

Down at a fish bus stop, defeated guards lie sprawled after a woman slips past them. The escapee is Nico Robin, who has caught wind of a Poneglyph hidden in the Sea Forest and believes it holds secrets of the Void Century. Back inside the palace, a bound pirate's arm flops onto the three levers that govern the bubble's entrances, accidentally opening the corridor out. Neptune insists only Luffy could have spirited his daughter away, prompting Brook to argue he never saw the princess leave, all while the king misjudges her true, enormous size.

In the deep-sea ship graveyard, Franky meets Den, a Bering wolffish merman who is Tom's younger brother. Den explains how dormant genes let fish-men and merfolk of one family take wildly different forms, then agrees to coat the Thousand Sunny. He also points out the silhouette of Jinbe, a wanted man barred from the island, waiting nearby for someone.

Rika, Ripper, and Rokkaku reappear for the first time since the Diary of Koby-Meppo cover arc, and Luffy's updated wanted poster is visible at the Shells Town base. It is established here that Hody once served in the Neptune Army. When the sea monsters reach the open main gate, the ministers recognize both Decken and Hody to their dismay. Hody suspects the trap-like convenience of finding everyone already bound, while Decken, learning Shirahoshi has vanished, uproots a tree-shaped coral and rides it after her, swearing she will perish in blood rather than belong to anyone else.