"Nereus, I completely forgot about her..."
Patting his own forehead, Mandfeish found the root of the problem—other than Jack, there was also that violent maniac Nereus.
Out on The Sea, she operates on the same logic as Jack: once it's confirmed they're enemies, taking them out first is never wrong.
It's not just that she's hot‑tempered; you could say the whole Gyarados clan are a bunch of irritable tough guys.
If you don't provoke them, you can still coexist in peace, but once you piss off a Gyarados, getting away won't be so easy.
Mandfeish's territory isn't far from the entrance to the New World, positioned like a pincer with New Fishman Island, so that he can provide support at any time if something special happens.
Thanks to this excellent geographical location, a lot of Hundred Beasts members hang around here, and for a time Nereus also spent quite a bit of time here; right after she ate the Onyudo, she stayed here for a while learning human customs.
But after Melo was born, Nereus showed up here far less often. She's the queen of the Gyarados clan appointed by Arceus; Grand Line, Four Seas, many sea areas have seen her figure, and she's even left behind some legends of sea giants.
She only appears here once or twice a year, so Mandfeish hadn't thought to connect this to her.
"Melo, what did Nereus do with you the last time you met her?"
"Mm... we ran into a group of pirates; they wanted to catch Mermaids, and then Auntie Nereus blew all of them sky‑high."
With Nereus's appearance, the island's coastal batteries stopped firing as well. These coastal guns couldn't hurt Nereus anyway; with the blessing of her Scale Armor and her Mythical Zoan fruit, her Defense Power was not low, and taking those shells head‑on was nothing.
But shelling your own side never looks good, and out on The Sea, Nereus is an existence even more terrifying than a heavy artillery barrage; even without bringing her clan, just her alone can overturn an entire stretch of sea.
Humans are ultimately land creatures; outside of a few exceptions, most people have an extremely hard time dealing with Nereus at sea.
With her there, the remaining enemies basically don't even count as a problem.
And that was exactly how it went. Nereus's appearance shattered the psychological defenses of this rookie pirate crew.
"Captain! There's a monster! Same kind of monster as the one we met at Inverted Mountain!"
"No, bigger than that one!"
"Shut up! I can see it!"
On the small boat, a one‑eyed pirate gripped his swords with both hands, a trace of fear in his eyes as he looked at Nereus.
He'd lost that eye at Inverted Mountain; after bombarding a school of Magikarp to clear the way, they'd been retaliated against, and their pirate ship had been flipped by nearby Gyarados.
Though he'd been lucky enough not to die there, a shard of broken plank had stabbed him blind in one eye.
Gyarados flip ships, but they don't eat people, so plenty of pirates have escaped from their hands.
On the Grand Line, this captain regrouped his men and then made it into the New World.
When they tried to resupply by plundering, they'd already gotten a lesson from the island's coastal guns, and now, of all things, they'd run into another Gyarados.
"I'm not the same man I was back then! Today I'll show you monsters how strong I've become!"
Feet planted on the gunwale, the captain leapt high into the air with his twin blades, as if trying to wash away his old humiliation. But before he could launch his attack, Nereus had already raised a towering tsunami.
The murky seawater blocked his vision. Just as he was about to swing his blades to cleave the wave in front of him, a huge hand wrapped in red scales burst through the surf ahead of him and slapped him straight down into the water.
...
On the other side, Melo kept waving her hands around, trying to make Mandfeish understand what she meant. In truth, even if Melo said nothing, Mandfeish could picture the battle in his head.
He himself was a Gyarados ability user and was very familiar with a Gyarados's abilities. Back in the day he'd even sparred with Nereus, so he knew her fighting style very well.
The Gyarados's Species Value leans toward physical attack; their close‑combat ability is extremely strong, but Nereus usually starts by using ranged attacks to clear out enemies, and only then does she move into melee.
"So... Nereus taught you that?"
"No, but I also wanted to beat up all those slave traders. Mom hates slave traders the most. I can't do Eruption, I can't throw leaves, and I can't create tsunamis or fire off light beams, so I could only use external tools."
Eruption, creating tsunamis, firing light beams—Nereus could do all of those, but the bit about throwing leaves made Mandfeish feel something was off; as far as he remembered, Melo didn't know any plant‑type expert.
"Who's the one throwing leaves?"
"Miaona. She's got a seed ball in her hand that she can toss around like a yo‑yo. The two of them are both super strong."
"They're older than you, and that's power granted by Lord Arceus. Don't worry, Dad's prepared something for you too."
Rubbing Melo's head, Mandfeish let her in on a bit of the secret.
Thinking back, he'd originally just wanted to retire. In order to secure better retirement conditions, he started grinding.
He'd almost saved up enough, and then he fell in love, so he started building up family capital and seeking a higher position. He finally became a High-Level Official stationed outside and achieved that goal.
But retirement only got further and further away. Now that his own affairs were settled, the current Mandfeish was accumulating family capital for his daughter; the merits he'd racked up were meant to trade for an ability for his daughter too, to give her more self‑protection.
As one of the few officers who had a family in tow, he had relatively more concerns.
He more or less figured out why his daughter had started admiring heavy firepower; as long as she hadn't fallen in with some weirdo, it was fine.
"Dad, when are we going back to Wano Kuni? I want to play with Miaona and the others."
She did have playmates here, but those playmates couldn't really let themselves go.
Her dad was the island's highest‑ranking officer; even if the kids didn't care, their parents did, and that always affected things in what they said and did. Only kids like Miaona and Wolf, who were also children of High-Level Officials, didn't care about that sort of thing.
For Melo, Miaona and Wolf—whom she'd actually spent less time with—felt more easygoing and close.
"We'll head back soon, once I've wrapped up my current work. Still, there really are a lot of people today..."
Besides Nereus, Mandfeish also spotted a Viking Ship approaching. Its size already made it clear who was on board—the Giant Race.
On the ship were Hajrudin and the others. After Yamato sniped them earlier, they'd become subordinate Mercenaries of the Hundred Beasts, carrying out various merc jobs in the New World, and they'd only come here this time to resupply.
When they saw someone trying to attack the island earlier, they'd wanted to lend a hand, but Nereus had simply taken action faster.
"Hajrudin? Hajrudin! What's wrong with you?"
"Gerd, I think I'm seeing things. I just saw a Devil Fruit user of the Giant Race who can swim."
Hajrudin took off his helmet and kept rubbing his eyes, a hint of doubt in his voice...