External Propulsion

"Is this the Asura Pirates you were talking about?" Smoker asked Hina beside him as he watched the pirate ship fleeing at high speed.

Hina was somewhat stunned as well. Bandages still wrapped around her body, and she held a cigarette between her lips. "Hina is surprised. They probably chose to flee after seeing how many warships there were."

"The higher-ups gave orders that they must be wiped out. They have around two billion worth of treasure aboard, and the higher-ups said that money must be kept safe," Smoker said.

"You're not going to disobey orders again, are you? Hina is worried." Hina glanced at Smoker. She clearly knew this old classmate of hers well. He was a Navy colonel now, though he had been a rear admiral not long ago—until he had acted on his own to arrest a national regiment.

"If we let them get away, then all our talk is meaningless. Are we supposed to keep them around and invite them to dinner? All ships, listen up. The moment they enter bombardment range, open fire," Smoker said, taking out a Den Den Mushi.

His voice carried across all ten warships. There were five warships under his command, plus five supplied by the fortress where Hina was stationed, making ten warships in total.

Of course, these ten warships could not compare to the Buster Call warships of Marine Headquarters. Warships came in several grades, with different specifications. For example, when Luffy and his crew were in East Blue, they encountered Iron Fist Fullbody, a Navy captain. His warship was only slightly larger than the Going Merry. The warships used by other officers were in the same class.

Warships from different fortresses also served different purposes. Their specifications, length, carrying capacity, and so on all varied. Without question, the Buster Call warships were the highest grade.

Though ten warships looked intimidating, they were merely ships somewhat larger than Rogge's.

Still, warships were built with speed in mind so they could pursue pirates at sea. Don't be fooled by what you saw in anime—how could a warship possibly lose to an ordinary pirate ship in speed? The fact that the Navy could maintain peace on the seas showed that its strength was far from as shallow as it appeared.

There would be no treasure aboard a warship, nor would it be decorated beautifully like Rogge's ship and filled with all sorts of things.

Warships contained only three things: people, food, and ammunition.

Combined with their pursuit-oriented design, Hell once again faced the same problem as before. They were about to be caught again.

"Start the external propulsion," Ham said with a frown as the warships steadily closed the distance.

"Is it really okay for us to leave the route?" Ares asked.

"Don't worry. Our Log Pose records are still stored. At worst, we'll switch to another route and come back later," Ham said.

"Ah, Sky Island..." Rogge sighed as he lay over the railing, his face full of conflict.

Cook lifted a cover from the top of the helm, revealing a button beneath it. He pressed it directly.

"Clang, clang, clang!!!"

Collisions sounded from beneath the stern. Before long, thick black smoke poured from a metal pipe extending from the rear of the ship.

A wooden panel beneath the helm opened underwater, and a propeller extended out before beginning to spin rapidly.

"That is..." Hina showed a surprised expression when she saw the black smoke rising from the pirate ship.

"An engine." Smoker's face darkened. He clearly knew what it was. He had not expected Rogge's ship to have external propulsion. Now the gap might widen again.

"Oh-ho, we're speeding up!" Rogge said happily.

"Luckily, we have the wind at our backs right now. Otherwise, we might not be able to build up speed. If we were sailing against the wind, we'd need to lower the sails," Cook said.

"Looks like this ship really is pretty good." Rogge happily ran to the bow. Going fast really was different—riding the wind and breaking the waves.

The warships behind them were also left farther and farther behind. The distance they had worked so hard to close was slowly widening once more.

"So this is sailing? It feels free." Holding Billy, Jerry looked at the sky, then at the sea. It was his first time seeing the sun, and he could not help staring at it for a long time. Billy, that stupid dog, stared at the sun with him. In the end, man and dog both clutched their eyes and rolled around on the deck.

"Two idiots," Jelly could not help remarking when he saw that.

The warships clearly had no way of catching Hell with its external propulsion. Smoker could only grit his teeth and watch them leave, until the ship finally disappeared from view.

"They got away," Hina said blandly. It was not her responsibility anyway, so she could say whatever she wanted.

"Go to the next island and wait for them. If they haven't changed course, their Log Pose should still point to the next island," Smoker said through gritted teeth.

"That will take a long time. We should notify Headquarters," Hina said.

"There's no need to report to those old men. All they do is sit in their offices and give blind orders," Smoker said.

Hina ignored Smoker and headed toward the Den Den Mushi to make her report. Since the pirates had escaped, catching them at sea was no longer possible. They could only follow Smoker's suggestion and try their luck at the next island, to see whether the pirates would continue along this route.

But anyone with half a brain knew that once they had escaped, even an idiot would know the next island would definitely be an ambush. How could they possibly keep following the original route?

Headquarters planned to hand the matter over to another team. Smoker should just stay put and stop causing trouble. If not for his strength, his record, and his relationship with Admiral Aokiji, he would probably have been kicked out of the Navy long ago.

Once the warships could no longer catch up, Cook shut down the external propulsion. After all, they had not stored much fuel. This was not powered by cola, and finding somewhere to replenish fuel would not be easy. There were not many places in the world that produced oil, and the vast majority were controlled by the World Government and major powers.

"Are we really changing course?" Rogge became listless again at the thought of not being able to go to Sky Island.

"For now, we have to change course. If we continue along the original route, the Navy is probably already waiting for us," Ham said.

"Then what do we do? We can't get back on the route. Are we going to drift around at sea? The Grand Line is so dangerous," Jelly said.

"You'll probably all die, and then I'll take all the treasure here for myself," Cook said.

"You bastard! You actually had that idea? I'm going to kill you!" Jelly shouted.

"He was joking. I still have this." Ham took out another Log Pose.

"There's another one?" Rogge asked in surprise.

Ham nodded. "This is a blank pointer. As long as we activate it, it can gather the magnetic forces between nearby routes. Then we can completely change course and keep going."

"You can do that?" Rogge had never heard of such a thing, but after Ham activated the pointer...