Seeing Slardar hesitate, Tengetsu Ares simply hooked an arm around the sea tribesman's shoulders and grinned. "Settled, then. From now on, you're part of my unit."
"Eh ?!" Slardar stared, stunned.
Before he could react, Ares had half-dragged, half-guided him along. Kaidō watched, smiling to himself. With Slardar aboard, big brother Ares's squad would be that much stronger. He was more than happy to see their ranks grow.
"Hahaha…" Captain John chuckled. "Looks like whoever runs with Ares turns out to be a monster."
Kaidō stood six or seven meters tall a little giant with a hulking build already a "monster-in-training" aboard the Rocks Pirates, no, a trainee crewman. Slardar, meanwhile, was a two-century-old sea tribesman with a savage visage even scarier than Kaidō's. Just a look from him could send lesser men bolting. Underwater, he was nearly unmatched.
They'd only managed to recruit him because they'd met an even rarer kind of monster Ares.
Otherwise… in the sea, none of them could have fought Slardar to a standstill. Alone, he could have wiped out their entire party.
Silver Axe trailed behind with Wang Zhi, the two of them supporting each other. "Ares is finally gathering his own people," Wang Zhi said, sounding oddly wistful. "Sure, his Sixteenth Division only has the three of them…"
"But those three," Silver Axe added, "could outmuscle half the other divisions put together."
Three men, and a force no one could afford to ignore.
They reached the shore. Even the rough-hewn raft they'd used earlier had been carried off by the surf.
"Looks like we're building another raft," John sighed.
Ares laughed. "Did you forget about me?"
"You're all banged up and need treatment. It'll be faster if I ferry you."
He shed his human form, coiling through the air as a great azure dragon. His tail dropped like a living gangway.
"Climb aboard."
One by one they went up the tail and onto the dragon's back.
"His recovery is obscene," Silver Axe muttered, more awed than jealous. "That gash on his tail already scabbed over."
"Try training like Ares for a few years and your recovery will improve too," Wang Zhi sniffed.
"Yeah… I'll pass." Silver Axe shivered at the thought, remembering Ares's brutal regimen. That wasn't training for humans.
"Strange… why hasn't the Sea Siren princess caught up?" John wondered aloud.
Silver Axe blinked. "Right you said she'd been chasing us. How come she hasn't shown herself?" He shuddered, face twisting. "Better if she doesn't."
They didn't know that someone else had drawn her attention.
The first to flee had run straight into the trap she'd set by waiting and watching: the Lone Crimson Red Count Ledfield.
He ran.
She pursued.
He had no wings wide enough to carry him from her eyes.
Ledfield would later decide this was the unluckiest day of his life.
Hachinosu (Beehive Island).
At the island's fringe, aboard a pirate ship, Katakuri tore into desserts with his dislocated, eel-like mouth gaping wide. He didn't yet have the nickname "Dogtooth" nor the habit of hiding his mouth.
After stuffing himself, he patted his stomach and belched. A short rest, and he rose, turning to Perospero. "Watch the younger ones, Perospero. I'm going to train."
Perospero frowned. "Katakuri, your injuries just healed. If you keep copying Ares's training, your body's going to break."
Bruises still shadowed Katakuri's skin.
"I can feel myself getting stronger. Captain Ares's methods work how else would he become a division captain of the Rocks Pirates in just over a year?"
"Even Mama might not beat him now."
Reverence flickered in Katakuri's eyes. On Hachinosu, Ares's deeds had become a myth.
He grabbed a hefty wooden staff and dragged it along behind him.
"Stubborn brat," Perospero muttered, flopping onto a sofa and happily running his absurdly long tongue over a lollipop.
Katakuri strode along the crowded docks, packed with pirates. Taunts drifted after him like gnats.
"Look, it's Big-Mouthed Eel off to torture himself again!"
"Hah! Think copying Ares will make you Ares? Dream on!"
"Try 'stupid.' Plenty here copied Ares's training and crippled themselves. There're a hundred idiots laid up in the clinic right now!"
"Big-Mouthed Eel! Becoming a monster like Ares? Keep dreaming!"
The jeers rolled off Katakuri. He walked on, steady as a drumbeat. As for "Big-Mouthed Eel," he was long used to it.
He didn't care about eyes or words. He wanted power enough to protect his sisters in a world crawling with villains.
A super… sis-con.
Something thudded against him an egg, thrown from the crowd.
"Big-Mouthed Eel, wake up!" a voice sneered. "You'll never be anyone like Ares!"
Katakuri's brow furrowed; his steps paused for a beat.
Then he moved again.
A figure stepped into his path.
A pirate with an eighty-million bounty Zhi-yin "Kun" was back.
He was the Zoan user who'd tried to join Ares's division, only to be swatted aside by Kaidō in a single blow. He hadn't just failed to join Ares he'd lost face and reputation.
"Get on your knees and crawl under me," Kun drawled, looming over Katakuri. "Then you can pass."
"Sound good?"
Pirates crowded closer, eager for a show. Kun may have lost to Kaidō, but an eighty-million bounty still meant something.
"You couldn't beat Kaidō or Captain Ares, so you're venting on me?" Katakuri's crimson eyes odd and unwavering cut straight through him.
A flicker of embarrassment twisted Kun's face before rage boiled up. "You're Sixteenth Division, right? An official crewman. Let's see if you're qualified."
He swung.
The gale off his fist left Katakuri no time to react. The punch smashed into his face and sent him tumbling four or five meters before he slammed to the planks.
Kun snorted. "This is a member of the Sixteenth?"
"Pathetic."
"Babies like you should be home nursing."
He stalked toward Katakuri.
"Don't you dare insult the Sixteenth!" Katakuri erupted up from the ground, swinging the staff down at that rooster-combed head.
Kun caught it one-handed. Katakuri couldn't budge it; Kun lifted both staff and boy into the air.
"Against me, Zhi-yin Kun do you even have the right?"
With his free hand he drove a fist into Katakuri's face.
Blood sprayed. The sound was a sickening thud.
"Brat," Kun snarled, "drop the stick. You are not becoming a freak like Ares."
But Katakuri only tightened his grip, jaw set. "No. I won't let go. I'll train under Captain Ares."
"I'll get stronger!"
Another crack of knuckles. Another punch. "That eel-mouth of yours let's see how long you keep mouthing off."
Another blow. Katakuri's head swam; blood gushed, his face a ruin.
"I won't let go!"
"Won't, huh?" Kun's smile turned cruel. "Big-Mouthed Eel does it hurt?"
"Let go, crawl under me, and I'll let you walk."
Punch after punch drove blood into Katakuri's nasal passages. He choked on it, spat, and still didn't loosen his hands.
Kun's eyes flared. "How does a weakling like you get into Ares's unit?!"
Thud
"Why reject an eighty-million pirate like me, and take a useless brat?!"
Thud
"Let go!"
Thud
"Let go or you die!"
Thud
"Damn brat would you rather die than let go?!"
Kun's own knuckles began to ache. Katakuri had to be in agony but he never made a sound. He simply bore it.
Kun raised his fist again then froze.
No. He couldn't kill the kid. Katakuri wore the Sixteenth's colors. If Ares came back to a corpse, he wouldn't let it go.
Thinking of Kaidō. Thinking of Ares.
A bucket of ice water dumped through Kun's gut.
He hadn't meant to do more than humiliate the boy. He hadn't expected such stubborn silence, such iron hands, and it had driven him into a frenzy.
He dropped Katakuri and forced a sneer. "Lucky brat. We're done here."
Katakuri hit the ground with a wet thump. The world reeled; the voices around him turned to mush. Only one thought stayed clear:
Do. Not. Let. Go.
Kun glanced down, cold-eyed
and went sheet-white.
A colossal shadow fell over him. Killing intent like midwinter bled through his bones and froze him in place. Faces in the crowd twisted from amusement to dread.
His heart plunged.
A voice like a temple bell rolled from behind him.
"My crew," it said, "aren't for trash like you to mock."
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