Chapter 623

The Sun Pirates secure an Eternal Pose to Koala's island and clean her up for the reunion, though the conditioned girl keeps scrubbing the deck. Aladine, the crew's doctor and former slave, advises letting her heal at her own pace. Arlong argues that humans raise their children to despise fish-men, while Jinbe counters that most people simply fear what they do not understand. Koala explains that very fear stems from ignorance, echoing Otohime's words. A warm montage shows her bonding with the crew before they reach Foolshout Island, where she is reunited with her weeping mother.

As Tiger leaves the village, Rear Admiral Strawberry ambushes him, revealing the villagers traded his location to the Marines in exchange for overlooking Koala's status as World Noble property. The crew scrambles as Marines surround their ship; they abandon it and steal a Marine vessel, but Tiger is left critically wounded. In the sick bay, Aladine prepares a transfusion using stored human blood, yet Tiger refuses, calling it tainted, and confesses he himself had been a Mary Geoise slave. Admitting Otohime was right, he dies. Arlong returns to avenge him and is brutally beaten and seized by Vice Admiral Borsalino.

Aladine is introduced as a former Neptune Army soldier and ex-slave. The chapter exposes how thoroughly the New Fish-Man Pirates misunderstood Tiger: humans never denied him blood, he refused it himself; he fought to abolish slavery rather than to slaughter; and he fully shared Otohime's dream of coexistence. Borsalino is shown already wielding the Pika Pika no Mi. The cover continues From the Decks of the World with medical student Kaya and Merry at Syrup Village.