The Sea's Curse

Seeing Brother Long cut them down with ease, and realizing these things didn't seem all that powerful, Hachi, Chuu, and Kuroobi also grew bolder.

"Six Sword Style: Octopus Gate of Opening!"

"Wrist Blade Slash!"

"Water Cannon!"

The three attacked in turn...

Although Chuu and Kuroobi had both trained in Fish-Man Karate, their techniques were completely different. The Cartilaginous Fish-Man Kuroobi used the bony fins on his arms to slash like blades, while the Kissing Fish-Man Chuu made use of his ability to suck up and spit out water, specializing in firing saliva infused with Water Power from his mouth!

Hachi, meanwhile, had trained in Swordsmanship. His style took advantage of his six arms, all of which were exceptionally nimble.

Kuroobi's Wrist Blade Slash tore huge wounds in the inorganic abominations. There was no blood, but all kinds of "parts" went flying.

Chuu's saliva bullets could pierce the monsters, but they didn't seem to care about having a few holes punched through them. Even when they were nearly shattered, they could still move!

By comparison, Hachi's Six Sword Style seemed a little like "Scraping Therapy."

There was no helping it. The three were about evenly matched in strength, but Hachi was better suited to fighting opponents with high attack and low defense...

His Six Sword Style formed an airtight defense and excelled at blocking. However, his arm strength was relatively poor for a Fish-Man, so his swings lacked power.

"Cover me!" Chuu called to Hachi, then leaned over the side of the ship and started gulping down seawater. His chest swelled as if he were about to unleash a "Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique."

Hachi put on a display of the Entangling Combat Technique, holding off two opponents at once as they traded blows...

Just as two of his swords were caught in an inorganic abomination's chains and things looked bad, Chuu had finished drinking his fill!

"Giant Water Cannon!"

Chuu spat out a "water ball" half the size of a person. It hit one of the monsters and blasted away nearly half its body.

Chuu and Hachi soon figured out the trick: one would keep the monsters busy to buy time, while the other used a technique that took a while to prepare but could kill in a single blow.

Arlong was slaughtering the monsters by then. He'd cut down four of them in no time, but when he looked up, he realized their numbers hadn't decreased at all.

As he wondered why, something tightened around his ankle. Arlong saw that a severed hand from one of the monsters had grabbed him!

At the same time, he realized the monsters kept regenerating...

"What are you standing around for?" Kuroobi shouted at Sig, sounding annoyed.

Ever since the fight began, Sig had been holding his forehead with one hand and leaning against the broken mast with the other. He hadn't joined the battle at all...

"Tch. That's human blood for you—cowardly!" Arlong muttered irritably. Then he swung his sawtooth blade at his ankle, sawing off the "hand" that had grabbed him.

Then Arlong called out, "Get off the ship first! We'll sink it from the sea!"

Arlong was reckless, but he hadn't lost his reason.

If they couldn't kill the monsters, they could simply sink the entire ship—a proper Fish-Man solution.

But just then, Sig suddenly ran, dodging an attack from a passing monster as he raced into the cabin!

"Hey! Little Fei!" Hachi couldn't stop him in time.

"Idiot!" Arlong cursed furiously. "You can't rely on a half-breed!"

Then Arlong said to Kuroobi, Chuu, and Hachi, "What are you waiting for? Get down there and scuttle the ship."

With that, Arlong swung his sawtooth blade, driving back several monsters before chasing after Sig into the cabin.

They were Fish-Men, after all. It wouldn't matter if they sank along with the ship.

Sig staggered into the cabin. The first level below the deck was normally where the crew lived and rested.

But what Sig saw now were rows of cells lining both sides...

Parts of the cells, including their doors, looked just like the "iron gates" they'd seen earlier. They seemed completely out of place, as if they hadn't been part of the ship originally.

"Hey, bastard! Why are you running around like that?" Arlong caught up from behind and grabbed Sig, who was staggering as he walked.

"Hm?" Arlong's expression turned puzzled.

Even through Sig's clothes, he could feel that Sig's skin was... slippery?

Most Fish-Men had skin like that, but because Sig was a "half-breed," his skin had been more like a human's. He'd only had fish scales.

What's more, Arlong's palm keenly sensed wisps of a cold, sinister energy seeping out of Sig.

"Below..." Sig said with difficulty.

"What?" Arlong looked at him in confusion.

"Go below. There's a sound." Sig turned his head. His neck twisted at an unusually sharp angle, like a bird of prey looking back over its shoulder.

His expression was pained, but also stubborn!

"Below?" Arlong studied Sig carefully. He could tell that Sig's behavior was strange... and that he was serious.

Arlong didn't stop him. Instead, he swung his sawtooth blade at the deck beneath them, intending to cut straight through.

"Huh?" Arlong let out another puzzled sound.

The deck had split open, but the sensation... why did it feel so much like the monsters they'd just encountered?

Arlong was puzzled, but his hands didn't hesitate. He hacked away with even more vigor, and soon he and Sig were falling together into the second-level cargo hold.

It was so clean it could starve a mouse. There were almost no supplies left...

"Still below! The sound's still below!" Sig said, his condition seeming off.

"A sound? The sound of your brain filling with water?" Arlong scoffed.

Sig was already staggering as he jumped straight down the ladderwell. The lowest level was the ballast hold. On the Sun Pirates' Sea Bass, it was the crew's favorite place. There was seawater here, and branches and leaves from the Eve Tree had even been brought in to channel sunlight down.

But the ballast hold of this "ghost ship" was weighted with sand and gravel, all packed into sacks. Since it was at the bottom of the ship, the air was very damp.

At the same time, something that shouldn't have been growing on a ship hung here...

A thick, arm-sized, trunk-like growth had broken through the floor of the ballast hold and risen about half a person's height. It stood right along the ship's centerline. Perhaps it had grown from the keel?

The "trunk" had no branches or leaves, but a strange fruit hung from it like a lantern!

"Hm? What's this?" Arlong circled around the thing and hefted his blade, seeming to consider cutting it down.

Arlong hadn't expected Sig to know, but Sig answered, "A treasure cursed by the sea."

"Ha? You're still thinking about that story?" Arlong said mockingly.

"No. It's this... or you could call it a 'Devil Fruit'!" Sig said with absolute certainty, as if he'd somehow learned a great deal without realizing it.

"A Devil Fruit? This thing?" Arlong had heard of Devil Fruits, but the Fish-Man Race despised them, so he'd never seen one before.