Half a month later.
On the calm sea, a pirate ship bearing a Jolly Roger of a skull within a square of white bones slowly sailed in from the distance.
The people aboard were none other than the newly formed Door Pirate Crew!
Now that they were a pirate crew, they naturally needed an emblem.
That unique skull-within-a-white-bone-square design was the pirate crew's emblem, specially designed by Natsuya.
At that moment, however, Natsuya's attention was not on the emblem. He raised an eyebrow and looked ahead.
An island's outline was slowly emerging on the sea ahead.
Nami's face immediately lit up. "Lord Natsuya, that's Jaya Island ahead!"
"We're running low on supplies, and the Log Pose seems to have a problem too. It's been pointing at the sky the whole time!"
"Let's resupply on that island and ask about the Log Pose while we're there."
Natsuya looked surprised when he heard that.
He was not surprised about the supplies or the Log Pose. He was surprised that the island ahead was Jaya Island.
In the original story, Luffy and the others had gone through quite a few events on Jaya Island!
He had not expected to arrive here himself without even realizing it.
Of course, it was not strange.
Although they had previously planned to head straight for the Sabaody Archipelago, their previous location had only been near the entrance from East Blue to the Grand Line.
There were obviously numerous islands between those two places.
Jaya Island was one of them.
Natsuya had not cared much before, but now that they had actually arrived at Jaya Island, an idea stirred in his mind.
It was worth mentioning that after half a month of recovery, his injuries and lingering aftereffects had completely healed.
Once he recovered, Natsuya naturally resumed his usual ability development and training.
However, he had never had a chance to test his previous theory about users with multiple Devil Fruit abilities.
It was not that Gin was unwilling to cooperate. He simply did not have that many Devil Fruits on hand!
Aside from the Door-Door Fruit, he only had one Monkey-Monkey Fruit!
So even including Natsuya's own Door-Door Fruit, it was still impossible to conduct experiments on a multiple-Devil-Fruit user.
Because of that, besides learning Haki, Natsuya had another task to accomplish.
That was to obtain Devil Fruits whenever possible.
But Devil Fruits were not something he could just find whenever he wanted.
Although Natsuya could use the Door-Door Fruit's power to steal Devil Fruits from ability users, he had never had the opportunity.
But now that they had arrived at Jaya Island, it seemed that opportunity had appeared?
Just as Natsuya was thinking this, Gin's voice suddenly rang out.
"Captain Natsuya, something seems to be happening over there."
Natsuya followed the sound and looked over.
Nami looked over as well.
The direction Gin indicated was directly to their left.
There, two strange-looking pirate ships seemed to be conducting some kind of underwater operation.
The moment he saw those two pirate ships, Natsuya's eyes flashed. "Let's go take a look."
Nami naturally had no objections and immediately steered their pirate ship closer.
Noticing Natsuya and the others approaching, the people on the two pirate ships immediately stirred.
Soon, voices carried over.
"Friends on the other side, we are the Masira Pirate Crew and the Shojo Pirate Crew!"
"You may also call us the Saruyama Alliance."
"We are conducting a salvage operation on the seabed. We hope you will not come any closer."
Nami and Gin's expressions changed when they heard that.
When traveling the seas, intelligence was extremely important.
So both Nami and Gin had gathered a great deal of information about the Grand Line.
Nami in particular had retained her old habit of gathering intelligence whenever she had the chance.
Thus, the moment she heard them identify themselves, she immediately recognized them.
"The Shojo Pirate Crew—their captain Shojo has a bounty of fifteen million!"
"The Masira Pirate Crew—their captain Masira has a bounty of thirty million!"
"I've never heard of the Saruyama Alliance. Did they join forces?"
As Nami spoke, she gave the two ape-like men across from them a deep look before turning to Natsuya. "Lord Natsuya, what should we do!?"
It was obvious that the other side did not seem to welcome them.
Natsuya merely curled his lips into a smile.
Now that he had confirmed they were the Shojo Pirate Crew and the Masira Pirate Crew, he wanted to approach them even more.
"Keep moving closer."
Since Natsuya had said so, Nami naturally had no objections and continued steering.
Although the two opposing captains had bounties higher than Gin's, Natsuya was backing her up, so she was full of confidence.
Come to think of it, she had Garp and Hawkeye to thank for that.
Nami now had nerves of steel. She hardly cared when facing anyone with a bounty under a hundred million.
Shojo and Masira on the other side both changed expressions at once.
They were not merely conducting a salvage operation.
At the same time, they were guarding Boss Cricket, who had dived beneath the sea.
If Natsuya and the others came over and caused trouble, Boss Cricket might be in danger.
Realizing this, Shojo and Masira exchanged a glance and silently agreed to teach these inconsiderate pirates a lesson.
But just then, a sudden change occurred!
An enormous shadow suddenly descended from the sky!
The shadow was so huge that it covered both the Shojo Pirate Crew's and Masira Pirate Crew's ships, with plenty to spare!
Shojo, Masira, and the others froze before instinctively looking up.
Then every one of them turned pale!
A gigantic ship had appeared in the sky, plummeting down at high speed!
"What!?"
Shojo and Masira were instantly horrified.
The change had happened far too suddenly!
They could not react at all and could only watch helplessly as the giant ship was about to bring disaster upon them!
But at that moment, an Air Door suddenly appeared in the sky!
The door swung open, and Natsuya's figure leisurely emerged.
After glancing at the giant ship overhead, he did not say a word and performed a midair backflip.
"Tempest Kick: Zhou Duan!"
A brilliant blue glow surged from Natsuya's foot. Following his movement, it formed a massive azure crescent moon that flew toward the giant ship!
Then, a shocking sight unfolded!
The mountain-sized ship split directly into two, its cut incomparably smooth!
"Whaaaat!?!?"
Watching the azure crescent vanish into the sky, Shojo and Masira stood dumbfounded, their mouths hanging wide open!
The giant ship that had seemed like certain doom to them had been effortlessly cleaved apart by a young man in a suit!!
Then came two thunderous booms.
The two halves of the giant ship crashed into the sea beside them, creating a tremendous roar that mirrored the turmoil in Shojo, Masira, and the others' hearts.
Then, when they clearly saw the handsome face of the young man in the suit, Shojo and Masira were even more shocked!
"Wait, that person is..."
"Natsuya, the hundred-million-berry pirate!?"
That handsome face was exceptionally familiar!
It was clearly Natsuya, the hundred-million-berry pirate they had heard about not long ago!!
So the person they had just intended to teach a lesson was Natsuya!?
Realizing that, Shojo and Masira could not help feeling a chill run down their spines.
Looking at it that way, the sudden appearance of the giant ship had actually been a stroke of luck for them.
Otherwise, the ones split in two now might have been them!!
Of course, they were not exactly safe yet.
Natsuya had clearly intended to approach them just now. What did he want?
Before you continue