Mysterious Devil Fruit

Following the direction indicated by the mountain bandit, the Red-Haired Pirates immediately rushed over. When they arrived, they found more than a dozen people in small boats on the sea.

Among them was little Luffy, tied up like a rice dumpling and lying in one of the boats. One of the people on the boat spotted them and immediately reported to his boss, "Boss, they're here."

Grat, the younger brother of the mountain bandit Gram, saw a large group of people arrive on the shore and shouted, "Which bastard killed my brother? Swim over here right now, or I'll throw him in!"

Then Grat lifted up little Luffy, who was tied up like a rice dumpling, preparing to throw him into the sea.

When Shanks saw this, he shouted at Grat, "I killed your brother, Gram. What kind of man picks on a child?"

Just as Grat was about to speak, a Sea King known as the Lord of the Coast suddenly appeared on the surface. It was dozens of meters long, though not as large as the Sea King that pulled Ye Feng's ship. The mountain bandits immediately scattered in all directions, and two or three minutes later, only Grat and little Luffy remained on that stretch of sea.

The Lord of the Coast stared with its scarlet eyes at little Luffy, who was tied up in Grat's hand.

Grat noticed it as well. He said to Luffy, "Kid, since that Lord of the Coast likes you so much, go keep it company."

With that, he threw the tied-up little Luffy onto the boat and jumped into the sea himself, swimming toward the shore.

But just as he entered the water and thought he had escaped disaster, the Lord of the Coast behind him, which had been staring at little Luffy, swallowed him whole.

After eating Grat, the Lord of the Coast turned and swam toward the small boat carrying the tied-up little Luffy.

When little Luffy saw the Lord of the Coast swimming toward him, he fainted from fright.

The people on the shore became even more nervous at the sight, and Makino screamed in terror.

"Ah!" At that moment, a red figure shot out and dashed toward the boat. Seeing that the Lord of the Coast was about to bite little Luffy, Shanks, who was speeding toward him, made a terrifying decision.

The Lord of the Coast bit the small boat into its mouth in one gulp, but it found that there was no one inside—only a severed arm.

Turning to look beside it, it saw a red-haired man floating on the sea, holding little Luffy up with his left hand to keep him from falling into the water. His right shoulder was empty.

Seeing this, the Lord of the Coast opened its bloodstained maw again and bit toward Shanks.

But before it could reach him, Shanks fixed it with a pair of eyes filled with Conqueror's Haki.

Then, with the same domineering manner as Teach, Shanks said, "Get the hell out of here!"

The Lord of the Coast immediately dove back into the sea. At that moment, the unconscious Luffy opened his eyes and saw that Shanks was holding him in his arms with one left hand.

His other arm was gone, and the sea had been dyed crimson with blood. Little Luffy immediately grabbed Shanks's shirt with his tiny hands and cried loudly, "Shanks, where's your right hand?"

Shanks did not answer little Luffy. He merely smiled and swam toward the shore.

That was how Shanks and Luffy's promise came to be: Luffy would gather ten companions, set sail, and return the hat to him.

The scene returned to the present. Following the route by which that thing had been calling to him, Ye Feng and Avril walked until they stopped before a large tree. He handed the money in his hand to Avril, then placed his right hand against the tree's bark.

Seeing her brother touching the bark, Avril, who was holding Ye Feng's sword beside him, asked, "Brother, what are you doing?"

Ye Feng quietly said to Avril, "Don't speak yet." Then he closed his eyes again and continued sensing the thing's exact location.

After hearing that, Avril obediently closed her mouth. About three or four minutes later—

Ye Feng, who had his eyes closed, finally confirmed where the thing was and opened them. He said to Avril, "Give me the sword."

Avril obediently tossed Ye Feng's sword to her brother. Ye Feng caught the sword flying through the air with his right hand and swung it at the tree. The enormous tree split into two, and its upper half crashed to one side with a tremendous roar, startling the birds nearby into flight.

Then he sheathed his sword and walked forward. In the center of the stump left by the severed tree, he found a blood-red fruit resting in a hollow.

Ye Feng stepped forward, took it into his hand, and sensed it. He discovered that this was the thing that had been calling to him.

What is this?

Avril stepped closer, looked at the blood-red fruit in Ye Feng's hand, and asked, "Brother, what is that?"

Ye Feng looked at Avril and said, "It's a Devil Fruit. Do you want to eat it?"

The moment Avril heard that, she immediately shook her head. "No. Absolutely not. If I eat it, I won't be able to swim anymore."

After hearing his younger sister Avril say she did not want it, Ye Feng put the fruit into his pocket.

Then he said to Avril, "Let's go. We're heading down the mountain."