Jinbe left.
On the second day of Cifer's lonely drift across the sea.
"Seriously, setting the plot aside, I really didn't know a thing about this world!"
Cifer pulled out a crumpled map. Jinbe had handed it to him before leaving two days ago, telling him to pick an island, find a navigator first, and then continue sailing.
Cifer had agreed casually at the time, but after Jinbe left, he discovered that he could not understand the map at all!
With no other choice, Cifer could only wait and see whether he might run into a passing ship and ask someone aboard for help. That was how he ended up drifting for two days.
Cifer had studied the map dozens of times over the past two days and still could not make sense of it. In the end, he chose to lie on the bow and sleep, securing his fishing rod as he fished.
"Got one!"
Who knew how much time had passed? The fishing rod suddenly began shaking violently, and Cifer finally opened his eyes.
Cifer stood up. At last, a tiny black dot appeared in his field of vision. A ship!
"Lucky day for you. I'll spare your life."
Cifer forcefully swung his fishing rod, sending a massive fish nearly two meters long flying toward the deck. But Cifer was in a good mood, so he simply kicked the airborne fish back into the sea.
Then Cifer quickly ran to the stern, condensed Spiritual Pressure into his fist, and threw a punch. With a sonic boom, Little Ul rode the force of his punch off the sea surface and flew straight toward the distant ship.
"What is that?!"
A wave of panic swept through the Marine warship sailing the Grand Line under Captain Hina Wright's command.
They were watching, wide-eyed, as something flew through the sky toward their warship!
"Could it be Golden Lion?!"
Hina, with pink hair, a red suit, a lady's cigarette between her lips, and a Justice Cape draped over her shoulders, could not help but worry. That was a powerhouse from the same era as Vice Admiral Garp!
But speculation was just speculation. As a Marine, Hina could not rashly attack before confirming what the object was.
Within a few breaths, Little Ul had become visible to the naked eye. Hina relaxed slightly when she saw no flag belonging to Golden Lion or any other pirate ship, but she remained on guard, ready to activate her power at any moment.
Bang!
Little Ul landed on the sea beside the warship, kicking up enormous waves that crashed onto the deck and soaked most of the Marines from head to toe.
Hina remained completely dry, and even the cigarette in her mouth was unaffected. Before the ship landed, several Marines had already formed a wall of umbrellas in front of her to block the seawater.
"So it was a warship!"
Cifer leaped beside Hina, causing everyone to raise their guns and point them at him.
"Everyone, lower your weapons!"
The moment she saw Cifer's face, Hina could no longer remain calm. She shouted for the Marines to lower their guns.
These Marines from humble backgrounds might not know Cifer, but Hina, as an elite from Marineford, found that face even more terrifying than Golden Lion's!
Golden Lion was old, after all, and had even cut off his own legs, so his combat power had naturally fallen sharply. But the man before her had fought an Admiral to a draw at the Sabaody Archipelago just days ago! She had no confidence in facing someone like him.
The Marines did not understand why, but they still obeyed and lowered their guns.
"You know me?"
Cifer was intrigued. Now that she knew he was a Bounty Criminal, what would Captain Hina do? Hunt him down like she did King Luffy?
"Black Winged Great Demon - Ulquiorra Cifer, recently listed by Marineford as one of the world's most dangerous great criminals!" Hina was so nervous that she did not even notice her cigarette falling to the ground. "Why is someone like you still wandering around the first half of the Grand Line? The New World is where you belong!"
"Seriously, I'm a great philanthropist." Cifer slowly walked into the warship's cabin, yet no one dared step forward to stop him.
When he came back out, he was holding half a watermelon and scooping it out with a spoon, bite by bite. "Contact your Fleet Admiral Sengoku. I have something to say to him."
He added, "If I have to go there myself, something may happen that none of us wants to see."
Though Hina was unwilling, she could only obediently pull Fleet Admiral Sengoku's Den Den Mushi from her pocket and make the call. Cifer immediately snatched it from her hand.
"Hina? What is it?"
"I'm Ulquiorra Cifer. I've heard much about you, Fleet Admiral Sengoku!"
Far away in Marineford, Sengoku abruptly rose to his feet and smashed his entire desk to pieces with a furious slap.
"Black Winged Great Demon! What exactly do you want? What have you done to my subordinates?!"
Sengoku desperately wanted to know the condition of Hina and the other Marines. After all, the man using her Den Den Mushi to contact him was someone capable of standing against an Admiral! A man branded by the World Government as the world's greatest evil!
"Them? Don't worry, not a hair is missing. But I'm taking a few people with me." Cifer sat in Hina's seat on the deck. "Having only one person on my ship would be far too boring."
With that, Cifer hung up the Den Den Mushi. To him, this was merely informing the parents, but to Sengoku, it was entirely different.
"You bastard!"
Sengoku on the other end of the Den Den Mushi was red with rage. Cifer was going to snatch Marines to be his companions, and he had even called to humiliate him!
"What happened?"
Vice Admiral Tsuru, her head full of white hair, had only come by for tea, yet she found Sengoku in a furious rage.
After listening to Sengoku recount what had happened, Vice Admiral Tsuru saw things differently.
"He did not seek out pirates as companions, and he did not kill when he encountered the Marines twice. That suggests he is not the sort of world-class villain the World Government has defined him as. Do you have room to maneuver with the Gorosei?"
"You mean... the Shichibukai?!"
Sengoku calmed down as well and began considering the possibility.
Having such powerful combat strength stand on the Marines' side would naturally be the best outcome. But he had killed a Celestial Dragon, and the entire world knew about it.
Damn Morgans!
Meanwhile, Hina and a middle-aged man from the warship had already boarded Cifer's ship.
"Captain Hina, I'll have to trouble you to serve as my navigator for the time being," Cifer said as he picked up his fishing rod again and sat at the bow.
"Hina is very angry!"
Naturally, Hina was extremely unwilling, but Cifer had threatened the lives of every Marine on the warship, leaving her no choice but to obey.
And Uncle Wright was here too!
That was right. Besides her, the other person forced aboard Cifer's pirate ship was her uncle, Hina Wright. He had originally been an ordinary Marine cook who followed the warship only to look after her, but Cifer had dragged him aboard because he needed a cook.
"Don't worry, Captain Hina. Once I find a suitable navigator, I'll naturally let you go," Cifer said, seeing her reluctance. "The cook too."
"You only need to travel with me for a while."
Before you continue