Guidance

Sig stayed on the deck of the Sea Bass, watching as Willy led the fish-men who had boarded first to score the first victory. The battle aboard the warships was overwhelmingly tipping in the Sun Pirates' favor!

Sig suspected that the Navy had seriously underestimated the Sun Pirates' strength because they had twice avoided battle and fled.

Two standard fleets thought they could surround the Sun Pirates?

If they weren't going to send an Admiral, then they should at least bring a force on the level of a Buster Call to show they were taking this seriously, right?

Of course, Sig understood that the Sun Pirates didn't have a fixed island to defend, or even a set route when they sailed. The Navy couldn't scatter Buster Call-level forces across the entire sea.

But Willy was really putting a lot of trust in him. He hadn't even sent anyone to guard the Sea Bass's deck. Just then, the warship on the other side drew alongside, and its boarding plank came down.

"Those damn fish-men... Kill that fat helmsman first!"

Sig: ...

Jinbe wasn't famous yet out at sea, and the World Government had surely kept the events at Mary Geoise tightly under wraps. As far as the Navy was concerned, he was just a blue, fat guy who didn't seem to know how to fight.

And now this "fat guy" was focused entirely on steering the ship, firing alongside his own gunners while doing his best to twist and dodge the enemy's cannonballs.

It was hard to imagine a ship could be this nimble.

And for the shots he couldn't dodge... they had Aladdin, the Ship Doctor, who could dish out damage!

Since Jinbe wasn't fighting, Sig, as Second Helmsman, had to protect the main helmsman.

Clang—

Sig drew his sword.

"Do you know how to use a sword? If not, a fish-man's body is his best weapon," Jinbe reminded him.

Sig instinctively wanted to say that he didn't know any Fighting Technique, and that a blade would do more damage.

But just as the words reached his lips, he suddenly caught on to Jinbe's intentions. Was Boss Jinbe going to teach him how to fight?

As for Hachi...

It wasn't that Jinbe was playing favorites. Hachi was a rare Octopus-Man, and according to the taxonomy of the world Sig had come from, octopuses weren't even fish.

And though they might not seem very different in the anime, now that Sig was living among the Fish-Man Race, he could clearly feel the difference. Other fish-men either had scales or tough skin, while Hachi's skin felt like an outlier even among fish-men. His body was also less resistant to damage than that of an average fish-man!

But Hachi's advantage was that he had six arms, and he'd trained in Swordsmanship himself...

"Oh." Sig decisively tossed his sword aside, awkwardly raising his fists and spreading his legs into a stance like something out of a martial arts movie.

"Bend your knees slightly and lower your center of gravity to your waist. Don't put it on your knees!" Jinbe said sternly.

Sig hurriedly adjusted his stance. The Navy soldiers charging at him paused in confusion. At first, when they saw him throw away his sword, they'd thought he was surrendering. But now he was striking a strange pose?

An officer who looked like a Lieutenant waved his hand. "Take him down!"

Now that they were on the deck, the Navy had no intention of testing the waters with their guns first. Aladdin had also moved away from this side.

Sig: ...

What was this supposed to be? Strategically abandoning his position at the helm during a boarding action?

Though he grumbled inwardly, Sig's body had already tensed up.

He was even more nervous than he'd been the first time he fought someone and killed someone at Mary Geoise.

Back then, all he'd been thinking was survive. Just get it done.

Now he was far safer than he'd been then, and his thoughts ran wild despite himself. Am I doing well? Will Boss Jinbe focus on teaching me after this? I've never trained in Fighting Technique—will I disappoint him? What if I accidentally kill someone?

Fortunately, Sig's physical attributes were strong, and "combat aptitude" was also part of the enhancement granted by the Paths of the Divine. The Sailor Pathway's "Wrathful People," also called "Storm Guard," was a combat Sequence to begin with!

So Sig's body had good instincts...

Relying on his strength and speed, Sig used a wild flurry of punches to overwhelm the first man charging at him. He lifted the man up and swung him into the blades of the other Navy soldiers, making them hesitate for fear of hitting their comrade.

But the Lieutenant quickly ordered, "He's just strong! Cut off his arms! The World Government won't forget your sacrifice!"

Once the Navy stopped caring about casualties, Sig was immediately thrown into disarray. The gleaming blades sent a chill through him.

"Idiot! Those are just ordinary soldiers' blades. Focus and watch them! Even if one hits you, only a few angles and points of impact can actually hurt you! Their openings are far more obvious than that!" Jinbe's tone was much sterner than when he'd been teaching Sig to steer.

Hearing Jinbe, Sig's thoughts stirred, and he immediately understood what Boss Jinbe meant.

With the strength of these ordinary Navy soldiers, their usual slashes wouldn't be enough to hurt him. Even without Armament Haki, his scales weren't as hard as Arlong's skin, but they were still enough to protect him.

Only if they swung with all their might, putting everything into thrusting with the tip of their swords...

Though blades surrounded him on all sides, Sig didn't need to avoid every single one. He only had to watch out for the points where their swinging blades would strike with force!

Facing the sharp blades, Sig tried to suppress his fear, keenly analyzing and judging their movements. Before his opponents could put their strength behind an attack, he either knocked their blades aside or struck at their bodies and arms...

With Jinbe's guidance, Sig's combat ability rose at an astonishing pace.

But there were too many of them. If Sig had used his sword, he would have already dealt with his opponents. With no effective way to deal damage, the Navy weren't afraid of this "strange fish-man" at all, and closed in around him layer by layer.

Suddenly, Sig felt a sharp pain in his left arm. He'd taken a slash after all, leaving a wound...

"That little wound won't affect your strength! Don't get distracted!"

"Your waist! Your waist! Your center of gravity is in your waist. Is your waist growing out of your knees?"

"Hold him down. Tighten your abs and throw him up. Yes, that's it—slam him down!"

"Put your strength behind it! Don't make awkward attacks just because you think you see an opening. They won't do any good."

With Jinbe's guidance, Sig successfully took down a squad of Navy soldiers, including the Lieutenant. He could have finished them much earlier if he'd used his sword from the start, but the difference in what it meant was enormous.

Using his sword, Sig would only have been bullying grunts with the sharpness of his weapon and his own strength and durability. It wouldn't have helped him grow.

Watching Sig finally knock down his opponents, panting heavily, Jinbe broke into a smile.

Sig caught it out of the corner of his eye and understood Jinbe's intentions. Eighty percent of it was to see whether Sig had potential as a fighter. The other twenty percent... had been a final test!

After all, Sig was the only "Half Fish-Man" in the Sun Pirates whose background Jinbe didn't know. Now Jinbe could be sure that Sig hadn't known any Fighting Technique before. He couldn't be a spy.

By then, the whole battle was nearing its end. Jinbe lifted his hands from the helm, took a puff from his Pipe, and exhaled a cloud of smoke. "Whew... Sig, do you want to learn Fish-Man Karate?"

Sig was delighted. For just a moment, he wondered, I'm not a real fish-man. Can I really learn it? But then he remembered that Koala had even less to do with fish-men in the original story, and she'd learned it just the same.

"Master!" Sig blurted out.

Jinbe jumped and choked on his smoke. "Cough, cough, cough! What master? Idiot... Just call me Boss. I taught Arlong and the others Fish-Man Karate too..."