"Hey! You unlucky brat, don't fall asleep! Keep your spirits up!"
"Look at that vulture above us. That look in its eyes... How sinister! How greedy! It's waiting, waiting for us to collapse so it can eat our flesh, drink our blood, and gorge itself!"
"Ha ha ha ha~~~"
"..."
At the critical moment when the garbage transport ship sank, Bankotsu used his monstrous strength to flip up a massive section of deck. That huge piece of deck had now become what kept both him and Chrollo alive on the vast sea.
Using the overweight giant sword Banryū as an oar and the enormous deck fragment as a raft, Bankotsu rowed forward with all his might. He even had the mood to talk and laugh with Chrollo. That was also why he had chosen to bring Chrollo along when escaping—he hated being alone.
But Chrollo was still young. He did not possess Bankotsu's abnormal mental fortitude or physical strength. Despite not eating, drinking, or sleeping, despite being severely injured and doing hard labor until his wounds split open and blood flowed from time to time, Bankotsu still looked full of vigor. Half a day and a night were enough to leave Chrollo, who had done nothing, utterly exhausted. His eyes were nearly closing.
"Rumble!!!"
Waves surged across the once-calm sea.
"Here it comes again."
Bankotsu muttered helplessly as he raised the giant sword Banryū.
"Roar—!!!"
A sea beast that had caught the scent of blood from Bankotsu's reopened wounds burst from the sea with a savage roar.
Over ten meters long, with a tiger's head, a fish's body, and countless centipede-like legs, the sea beast looked incomparably hideous. Its gaping maw was filled with razor-sharp fangs several feet long...
However.
"Seems poisonous. Can't eat the meat."
"Get lost!"
"Awwooo~~~"
"Splash."