The sea gradually calmed, and the Marines' lifeboats and warships had drifted far away with the waves.
Bubbles occasionally surfaced from the water, and every so often, broken planks and masts floated up.
Tsugikuni Yoriichi stood on the surface of the sea, quietly watching the waters. His Observation Haki had already penetrated beneath the surface, but there were countless aquatic creatures below, their auras tangled together and difficult to distinguish.
Under Yoriichi's perception, those few powerful auras were no longer in the water.
They were all Devil Fruit users?
What a pity!
Yoriichi thought to himself. He remained standing on the sea for several more minutes. After confirming that nothing else would float up, he murmured softly, then leaped into the air and flew swiftly toward the Dawn warship.
"Glug glug—" Only long after Yoriichi had left did a cluster of bubbles suddenly appear on the sea, followed by the corpse of a whale surfacing.
The whale's white belly faced upward, its abdomen swollen high like an inflated balloon.
"Pssh!" With a soft sound, a section of blade suddenly pierced through the whale's abdomen. Soon, the blade cut open a small slit, and a blood-covered, bedraggled figure struggled out of the whale's belly.
After successfully escaping the fish's belly, Saint Figerland Garling took several deep breaths of fresh air. However, the stench clinging to him still made him cough repeatedly, clearly unable to adapt to it.
"This is disgusting!"
"To make me suffer such humiliation... that bastard deserves death!!"
Saint Garling could not help complaining. He was extremely dissatisfied with his current situation. After he emerged from the whale's belly, several more figures crawled out after him.
A beautiful young woman emerged while dragging an old man along with her.
After being pulled from the whale's belly, Saint Jaygarcia Saturn