Pirates: How Many Divisions Do the Five Elders Have? The Sky Split Apart
With Arlong killed, the other Fish-Man officers and grunts were no match for the highly motivated elite navy.
The battle was quickly coming to an end.
Standing before Arlong's charred corpse, Nami, handcuffed, hesitated to strike, her hands poised to whip the body.
Nami ignored the Fish-Man minions cursing her as a traitor.
She couldn't help but think of what had happened a few hours earlier.
She dropped all pretense and reserve, and begged the man for help in the mud, and the man nodded earnestly.
"Joe..."
"As expected of Mr. Ma Qiao!"
Just as Nami was overwhelmed by a huge, complex mix of emotions, unsure whether to cry or shout, Tashigi pushed up her glasses and sighed.
While everyone was still fighting the stubborn Fish-Man, the Root Division elites wearing cloaks with the character "Root" on them, led by Commander Twitch and Advisor Ma Qiao, had already surrounded and sealed off the main buildings of the Fish-Man Paradise.
"I only thought of leading the troops to pursue the fleeing pirates, but Mr. Ma Qiao thoughtfully considered that we must immediately protect the scene and safeguard the crucial evidence that could uncover the corruption within the 16th Branch!"
Tashigi greatly admired the strategic vision of Ma Qiao, Twitch, and others.
Nami frowned, sensing that something was amiss...
"I'm probably overthinking it."
Nami shook her head. "If they were really looking for treasure, they shouldn't have left me, a member of the Arlong Pirates, out there. Without my help, Arlong's money won't be so easy to find..."
Boom!
Just then, a deafening roar, like a meteorite impact, accompanied by a tremendous tremor that shook the earth, came from afar.
Nami stumbled and lost her balance, but a large, steady hand adorned with thirteen gemstone rings firmly grabbed the back of her collar.
"Is this what a friendly sparring match between top-tier experts is like...?"
Ma Qiao, carrying the Cat Burglar, looked up at the other side of the woods, then turned to Garen and shouted:
Petty Officer First Class Garen! Starting today, your training volume will increase tenfold. I'm sure you have no objections...
And... Tashigi Petty Officer First Class, do you still have the healing medicine I gave you last time? Also, prepare a few more bandages! Let's go meet Captain Smoker!
5 minutes ago.
On the other side of the woods.
Although Hachi has eight tentacles, six of them are arms, and it only has two legs that it can use to run.
Arlong, who was almost instantly defeated, could hardly buy him much time.
Soon, Hachi was cornered by Smoker.
Smoker, half-elemental and floating in mid-air, looked at Hachi, who had stumbled and stopped in front of him, weighed the weapon in his hand, and a self-deprecating expression appeared on his face:
"I must have been out of my mind to believe that Scarf Kid's nonsense..."
The idea of a powerful figure who once subdued Dark King Rayleigh with his bare hands... is just too far-fetched...
Draw your sword!
Let me see what he means by '!'
Smoker's mindset is quite complex.
For the first time in his more than ten years in the navy, he had the idea that the pirates he was going to defeat would reveal their trump cards.
The deeper the love, the harsher the criticism.
If Ma Qiao is indeed a big talker like Montblanc Noland...
My own stance can be very troubling...
Shaking his head, Smoker's gaze sharpened as he pressed forward step by step.
Although Octopus Hachi drew six swords from his waist and assumed a defensive stance, he lacked the Courage to fight and simply retreated step by step.
"The game is over..."
Smoker finally lost his patience, raising his Jitte high, just like Kizaru stomped on Zoro in Sabaody, the Jitte hovering in mid-air, about to fall.
Wow!
Sough!
Just then, a white light approached from afar, piercing through layers of trees and lifting up sand and grass, like a javelin flying close to the ground at high speed.
Smoker felt a gust of wind hit his face, and then, as if he had been hit by a cannonball, he was sent flying to the side.
"Cough cough cough..."
Smoker finally came to a stop after crashing into several trees, snapping them in half.
He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and stared in shock at the figure slowly emerging from the billowing dust.
"Who are you? How did you manage to hit me? Masaka..."
A term popped into Smoker's mind—"Armament Haki".
But this is the East Blue!
It's not the New World!
How many people have Logia user, these past few days?!
Smoker couldn't help but complain inwardly.
But soon, he couldn't find the words to complain anymore.
She even forgot to breathe, her eyes glued to the man standing there after the smoke cleared.
To be precise, he's an old man.
"Wow—that startled me! There's Logia user in the East Blue!"
A disheveled old man with long silver hair and a beard, wearing glasses, a shirt, capri pants, and flip-flops, wiped nonexistent beads of sweat from his forehead, gave a flippant smile, and waved.
"Yo! Hachi-chan, long time no see!"
"Rayleigh!"
Octopus Hachi rubbed its eyes in surprise, "How did you get to the East Blue?"
This old man is none other than Silvers Rayleigh, the legendary first mate of the Pirate King Roger, also known as the Pluton.
He scratched his head and chuckled, "Well... I heard that the person who saved me is in trouble, so of course I have to come and help!"
Hachi asked in disbelief, "Ra... Rayleigh, you didn't swim here, did you?"
"Yes! The fastest way to get from Shakky's place to the East Blue is definitely by swimming across the Calm Belt... You see..."
Rayleigh pulled out a Fish-Man from behind him, whose eyes were seeing stars from the high-speed chase. "Thanks to your friend from Fish-Man District who risked going ashore to warn me a week ago, otherwise my old arms and legs wouldn't have made it even if I worked myself to death..."
"My friend?"
Hachi scratched his forehead with his paw, unable to recall when he had such a friend.
However, looking at that large mouth, streamlined head, and webbed limbs...
Without a doubt, this is a genuine, purebred Fish-Man.
It's absolutely true at first glance!
"Hachi... I'm so glad to see you're alright..."
Ma Qiao's seventh Retainer, Fizz the Tidal Trickster, slowly awoke, revealing a relieved expression upon seeing his close friend. Then, his head lolled to the side, and he fell back into a coma.
"Young man!"
Hachi, who wasn't very bright to begin with, immediately shed tears of emotion.
"Alright, Hachi, you take Fizz and head back to Fish-Man Island. I'll handle this mess!"
With a side whip kick, Rayleigh easily sent Smoker, who had finally managed to stand up and try to retaliate, flying.
This scene was even more relaxed and carefree than when Smoker and Ma Qiao were beating Arlong earlier.
But Rayleigh knew very well that the real trouble didn't come from there.
He slowly turned his head, gazing at the surging sea, and adjusted his glasses with his Middle Finger, a villainous glint flashing across the lenses:
"Old buddy, you wouldn't want to see one of the navy's young geniuses fall like this, would you..."
"Haha, of course! I didn't expect you to actually have a Fish-Man friend..."
A hearty, aged voice rang out from the waves, "What I never expected was that we old folks from the last era would meet again in this small place in the East Blue!"
"A small place? This is the East Blue, the birthplace of monsters like Roger and you!"
Rayleigh laughed heartily, and in a flash, flew close to the sea surface once again.
Amidst the waves, a small boat bobbed up and down.
Garp laughed as he tossed aside the oar that he had almost broken, stepped onto the deck, and threw a sudden, sharp punch in response.
Boom!
Smoker had managed to withstand the two careless kicks from Rayleigh.
But the aftershocks of the clash between the two top martial arts masters of the era sent him flying.
Before losing consciousness, Smoker saw the two seventy-year-old men exchanging blows—
The sky has cracked open!
--A side note--
"The Weird Dao Cultivation Game," a friend's excellent work, you should give it a try.