The Name

"Names?"

Louis pondered.

Then he glanced at Yelena before looking at Uta, whose face was full of anticipation. "What do you think we should call it?"

The two of them fell into thought.

"The Pure White Angel!" Uta planted her hands on her hips, her face brimming with pride as she looked at Louis, clearly expecting him to praise her.

Uta's naming method was simple: she'd named it after the color of the wings on Louis's back.

Meanwhile, Yelena crossed one arm over her chest, lowered her head, and gently rested her other hand against her chin. A thoughtful look flickered in her eyes.

"Flesh Ripper..."

"What do you think?" Yelena explained. Among the enemies Louis had faced, there seemed to be very few who'd left behind intact corpses.

They were either torn apart by her or reduced to ashes by Louis, returning to the ecosystem.

So she thought the name Flesh Ripper was quite fitting.

But when Uta heard it, her eyes nearly rolled back in her head. She couldn't believe that Yelena, who was usually such a gentle big sister, had come up with a name that ghastly.

What Uta found hardest to accept was that Louis actually looked like he was considering it.

"That sounds a little better than Corrupt Angel, I suppose..."

Uta nearly choked.

What was wrong with these two?!

"In that case, we'll call it..." Louis glanced at the pitch-black flag and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Uta couldn't take it anymore and reached out to interrupt him.

"The Archangel Pirates!" Louis declared solemnly.

"What?" Uta swallowed the words she'd been about to say. How had things suddenly taken a normal turn?

She stared up at the two of them in bewilderment, only to find Louis and Yelena looking back at her with faintly amused expressions.

"..."

"You two!" Uta's face flushed with anger. She'd figured it out— they'd been messing with her!

"You already had a name for the Pirate Crew, didn't you?!"

But Yelena only softly denied it.

"No, we didn't!"

"Louis came up with that one based on what you said."

Uta blinked and looked at Louis.

He nodded in confirmation.

Uta relaxed. Archangel was fine. As long as the name didn't include words like "flesh-ripping" or "rotten," it would do.

"But..."

Yelena continued.

She crouched down and gave Uta an awkward yet polite smile.

"Uta looks so cute when she's been fooled..."

"??"

Uta's violet eyes widened.

How had the gentle, considerate big sister from before turned into someone as mischievous as Louis?!

"..."

Yelena's mischievous side seemed to have been nothing more than Uta's imagination. By nightfall, she'd returned to her usual gentle self.

This left Uta feeling uncertain. On impulse, she wanted to take out a Den Den Mushi and ask Hongou to diagnose Yelena over the phone.

But after Louis dealt her a reprimand, she settled down again.

Late at night, in the area of the warship that had been converted into a hall, Uta's captivating melody rang out from the nearby bathroom.

Louis leaned against the modified sofa. As he listened to the perfect melody, he picked up a book covered in strange writing and studied it carefully.

The book's contents explained how to teach a child of a few years old to make puppets that were highly efficient at killing.

It was an artifact from another world, a starter gift from Louis's cheat. Unfortunately, that thing had left too quickly, without providing an advanced edition or the crucial Chakra Seed.

Later, Louis had found the Life-Life Fruit on Bika in Sky Island, and this Children's Textbook seemed useful again.

Since then, whenever he had some free time, he'd take it out to read, preparing to create something capable of taking part in high-level battles.

Louis didn't expect to make a creation that could defeat a monster one-on-one. But at the very least, it had to be able to hunt down Vice Admiral-level opponents and above in group battles.

Louis had already picked a name for this creation.

"Skywing Species."

As Louis's hounds, they'd been given a rather infamous name.

It was also a way of giving the other name he'd chosen for himself some justification, making it feel more significant.

"Rumble!" Terrifying thunder sounded outside the warship. Louis thoughtfully closed the book and turned toward the window.

Blazing white lightning streaked across the sky. The once-calm sea had risen into wave after wave, crashing against the hull and rocking the ship back and forth.

Dense raindrops, driven by the storm, pelted the deck. Their roar drowned out Uta's singing, and the entire ship grew noisy.

The ship entered the storm. The warship's sails automatically furled, and the living warship stood atop the churning sea, pushing forward against the terrible storm.

Louis slowly approached the window. His deep gaze seemed to pierce through the storm and settle on the sailboat within the range of his Observation Haki.

The next moment, Abente Heim plummeted from ten thousand meters above, piercing the clouds within the storm. But because it was so enormous, it descended very slowly.

Just then, Uta's voice came from behind Louis.

"Another rainstorm, Louis?"

Uta poked her head out from behind him. Her two-toned hair was wrapped in a bath cap, and wisps of steam rose from her skin.

Her violet eyes instinctively turned toward the sea, where white light flickered again and again.

"It's a storm, but it's more than just a storm."

"Get ready. You may have to board the Island Cloud at any moment." Louis turned to look at Uta and Yelena, who had appeared at some point with a warhammer in hand.

"There's a powerful figure passing right by us."

Uta was taken aback. Once she'd recovered, she hurried back to the room assigned to her and changed into suitable battle clothes. Then she picked up her short sword and pistol.

Finally, she brought along the telescope Yasopp had given her.

Yelena gripped her warhammer, her gaze growing sharper. She asked in a low voice, "Powerful... How does he compare to Shanks?"

Shanks was the strongest person Yelena had ever met, so she could only measure the opponent against him.

"Stronger than Shanks," Louis replied.

Yelena silently tightened her grip on the warhammer and said nothing more.

Just then, Uta returned to them.

"Is it an enemy?"

"We'll know when we meet."

Louis picked up his spear and the Seven Star Sword from beside the sofa, then slowly headed out through the cabin door.

On the deck, a hurricane sent torrents of rain pouring down. Blazing white lightning crisscrossed the sky, briefly illuminating the night shrouded by the storm.

Louis pushed open the door and stepped outside, carrying his spear and holding the Seven Star Sword as he walked into the wind and rain.

Yelena and Uta followed close behind.

At the same time, ice spread out, forming a huge Ice Umbrella several meters above Louis's head.

No matter how fiercely the storm raged or how violently the waves churned, the three of them remained dry.

As time passed, a huge sailboat appeared and disappeared in the distance, briefly revealed by the flashes of lightning.

Uta took a deep breath and raised her telescope toward the sailboat several nautical miles away.

She saw four thick masts rising above the storm, dragon shapes winding around the sides of the ship, and a Dragon Head standing proud above the sea at the bow.