"Boom!"
A colossal shadow surged up from below.
"Splash!"
When it finally broke the surface, Perona, Robin, and the others saw it for what it was—a ship so impossibly huge that words barely fit. Even Robin and Redfield, who had witnessed the island-sized Golden City before, felt that even that ten-kilometer leviathan might seem small beside this behemoth. This vessel looked like half of Fish-Man Island in size.
"It's the Noah! It's Van der Decken IX! He's coming for me—what do we do?" Princess Shirahoshi cried, both hands over her mouth, panic and dread flooding her eyes. She had recognized the figure standing at the prow.
Neptune and the princes, still at the port to see her off, also exclaimed in shock. "It's Van der Decken IX! Damn him—how can he move the Noah?! Doesn't it require Sea Kings to tow it?!"
At the ship's prow stood a four-legged fish-man in a tiny top hat, upturned hair and beard, necklaces clattering on his chest. He cackled, "Bahahaha! Neptune, hand over Shirahoshi! Otherwise I'll ram your island to splinters with the Noah!"
"Hand her over!" his pirates roared behind him in chorus.
When Fish-Man Island suffered its upheaval, Van der Decken IX and his men had been absent on other business and missed the entire incident. Upon returning, his spies embedded in Ryugu Palace told him Neptune intended to send Princess Shirahoshi away. He immediately drove his secret weapon, the Noah, to strike—intending to threaten Fish-Man Island's safety and force Neptune to surrender the princess.
And he still had his trump card—Wadatsumi the Bald!
Even if this gambit failed, as long as Shirahoshi bore his mark, she could flee to the ends of the earth and he would still find her.
Creed never even spared him a direct glance. He said coolly to Redfield, "Cut them down. Leave no survivors."
"As you command, Captain."
Redfield stepped forward. With a flick of his umbrella-sword, an overwhelming sword intent roared skyward; the heavens turned blood-red, and the blue sea below seemed to dye to crimson. In that instant, the world's colors narrowed to two—blood-red, and killing intent.
"Hyakka Ryouran: Daiju (Hundred Flowers Riot: Great Tree)!"
At that moment, Robin unleashed her ability, raising a wall of blooming arms like a living hedge before Princess Shirahoshi. She was still young; Robin would not let her witness what came next.
Under that crushing sword aura, Van der Decken IX and his men locked up, bodies frozen and drenched in cold sweat as their knees turned to jelly.
"What sorcery is this? What Devil Fruit power?!" Van der Decken quailed, sick with regret, wanting to beg for his life—only to find he couldn't even force words past his lips.
"Damn…!" He mustered everything he had to spit out just two syllables—before the end arrived.
"Koumori-zan: Chi Umi (Bat Slash: Blood Sea)!"
Redfield's umbrella-sword fell. A bat-shaped blade wave roared forth, swelling with the wind into a surging sea of blood that devoured everything for dozens of li. The Noah and Van der Decken IX alike were ground to dust beneath the tide of sword-qi.
"Crack-crash!"
Countless splinters hammered the ocean like a rain of wood.
Back at the port, Neptune and the princes gaped, jaws nearly unhinged. That was the Noah—the ship as big as half their island—and a single slash had reduced it to the dust of history.
But joy soon broke across Neptune's face. If Van der Decken IX was dead at last, then the lurking threat that had stalked Shirahoshi for years was finally gone.
Such a racket inevitably drew eyes to that sector of the sea, and many witnessed the Noah's annihilation with their own eyes. As stunned as the onlookers were, Creed strode to the highest point of his ship's prow and declared, voice carrying across all of Fish-Man Island:
"Any who dare offend Fish-Man Island—this is the price!"
He had put his full strength into it; the whole island heard.
Some shuddered—what a ruthless man. Others were exhilarated—another perfect headline. Praise Creed! Bless Creed! They silently thanked destiny for letting their Fish-Man Island trip cross paths with this fated powerhouse.
Creed paused, then turned his gaze toward a patch of sea. "Wadatsumi the Bald—how long do you intend to hide?"
With a "whooomp," a titanic head broke the surface—dozens of meters tall, a thick ring of black whiskers bristling around the mouth. When he stepped onto a reef and raised half his body out of the water, his monstrous size became clear: nearly a hundred meters, a sea giant far larger than the average giantkin—a rare, enormous tiger-porpoise fish-man.
He was covered in cuts, blood bubbling out like little fountains—the aftershock of Redfield's slash had wounded him.
The instant he found footing, the giant fish-man dropped to his knees, palms together in supplication. "Spare me, great lord! Spare me! Please forgive Wadatsumi!"
Redfield's sword had terrified his simple mind into near incontinence. Wadatsumi—Van der Decken IX's henchman, not much for brains, usually served as the "tugboat."
"I can spare you," Creed said after a moment's thought, "but from this day on, you obey Neptune's commands and protect Fish-Man Island."
"Wadatsumi will obey! Anyone who dares offend Fish-Man Island—I'll pound them flat!" he cried, kowtowing in giddy relief.
Back aboard the Creed, Shirahoshi hurried forward the moment Creed returned to the deck, bowing deeply. "Thank you, Lord Creed!"
Creed had already done more than enough for her and for Fish-Man Island—"savior" was no exaggeration. Alongside her overflowing gratitude, a shy, budding admiration stirred in her heart.
"No need for thanks—it was nothing. Robin, take little Shirahoshi to my quarters to rest. Tidy things up; we'll be descending along the current soon."
Shirahoshi's body ran eleven or twelve meters in length; even floating inside a bubble ring, her height was still four or five meters. Aside from the captain's suite—broad and tall—the other cabins were far too cramped. Luckily, Creed had ordered Iceburg and the shipwrights to expand his quarters for training space; today, that investment paid off.
For convenience, Creed's own room was right next to Shirahoshi's.
That "convenience," of course, was so he could extract a certain special ability from Shirahoshi—one he found… particularly interesting.
(End of Chapter)
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