Warship

The ship sailed the seas once more, but this time, Werther was no longer alone.

Werther had not planned to adventure with anyone else, but Rabbit was different. At first, he had only regarded Rabbit as his savior, but after two years together, along with Rabbit's dependence on him, they had come to feel like family.

That was right. In Werther's heart, Rabbit was not a pet or anything else, but family. He had already experienced the pain of losing family once, so he would never allow such a thing to happen again. Never.

Rabbit had once wanted Werther to give it a name, but Werther refused. In his view, Rabbit should find its own name rather than have him casually name it like a pet.

As for Rabbit's Devil Fruit ability, after testing it, Werther discovered that the fur produced by the Fur-Fur Fruit was remarkably strong. Without using Haki or Lightning Mode, even he could not easily break free.

However, it was not without flaws. It was not as sharp as the String-String Fruit, though it was tougher.

So Rabbit was now fully developing its Sky Path ability, and had even created a technique of its own.

It wrapped itself into a ball with vast amounts of fur, then wove the fur into countless tentacles and raced across the ground.

When Werther saw Rabbit's technique, he was speechless. Just how afraid of dying are you? You already had a move for escaping through the air, and now you have one for fleeing on the ground too.

Yet at the same time, Werther felt even more at ease taking Rabbit on adventures. With Rabbit's current ability to escape, there were not many pirates in the first half of the Grand Line who could hurt it.

Traveling the sea with someone was always far more interesting than traveling alone. Werther had tried many times to coax Rabbit into drinking, but after trying it once, Rabbit refused to drink again no matter what. It even wore a look of disgust whenever Werther drank.

Though his attempts to coax Rabbit into drinking had failed, Rabbit had unexpectedly started eating meat.

It happened when the two were having lunch together. Perhaps Rabbit had been tempted beyond endurance by the scent of the meat, so it picked some up and took a couple of bites. After that, there was no stopping it.

Who knew how a herbivore digested meat? It did not seem to be suffering any ill effects either, though its waistline had visibly expanded lately.

One day, while Werther was idly teaching Rabbit combat techniques on the deck, he suddenly spotted a large warship approaching in the distance.

Werther had been at sea for some time, but this was still his first time seeing a Marine ship. As for which branch it belonged to, he had no idea.

He had assumed it was merely a chance encounter, but to his surprise, a messenger aboard the approaching warship began shouting.

"Ship ahead, stop sailing immediately and submit to Marine inspection. If you defy this order, we will resort to force."

This was the first time Werther had truly felt the Marines' dominance and arrogance at sea. Sure enough, there were few Marines who genuinely upheld compassionate justice.

What kind of person was Werther? He had been an assassin since the age of thirteen, and even he had no idea how many people he had killed.

Moreover, the two swords at his waist had recently begun giving him a strange feeling. Holding them no longer felt the same as before.

He ignored the warship ahead and continued sailing forward.

Meanwhile, aboard the warship, a Marine soldier saw what was happening and ran over to report to the officer behind him.

The highest-ranking officer on this warship was a gloomy man wearing a helmet and dangling a cigarette from his lips.

"Not stopping? And no flag either? Looks like newly emerged pirates. Sink them." At the gloomy officer's command, the warship began preparing to fire.

Seeing that the warship had stopped shouting, Werther no longer paid it any mind. But just as he turned away, his Observation Haki sensed cannonballs flying toward him from behind.

Drawing his twin swords, he slashed out several blue sword auras, cleaving the cannonballs in midair in half. The shells then fell into the sea and exploded.

"I didn't provoke you, and you dare provoke me? Today, I'll see just how capable the Marines really are." With that, Werther began gathering strength in his legs. Almost instantly, he leaped high into the air toward the warship, moving at an astonishing speed through the sky.

This was a technique Werther had developed using electromagnetic acceleration. It was similar to the Marines' Soru, but far faster.

Because he had practiced Lightning Thorn for so long, Werther's neural reflexes were practically inhuman. If anyone else used electromagnetic acceleration to move, they would be unable to react at such speed. But Werther was different. He could control this speed with ease, and after activating Lightning Mode, he became even faster.

Werther named this technique Flash.

After using Flash to reach the warship, Werther wanted to see who was so overbearing that they would bombard him simply because he had not stopped. Even if Akainu himself were on this warship today, Werther would fight him.

The man Werther saw was not Akainu, but he was still someone fairly well-known from the original story. Wearing a helmet and dangling a cigarette from his mouth—wasn't this Vice Admiral Onigumo?

It was Werther's first time encountering such a powerful opponent, and he could not help growing excited.

"Hehehe, hehehe. What luck, running into Vice Admiral Onigumo. You bombarded me for no reason, so today, you'll die here." Werther stared at Onigumo, excitement making him seem somewhat unhinged.

"Heh. There really are all kinds of people on the sea these days. Some pirate from nowhere actually dares speak to me like that. The ignorant truly fear nothing. You want me to die here? No, you'll be the one dying here." Looking at the unfamiliar young man before him, Onigumo did not think he was anyone important.

If he was a pirate, he had to be completely insignificant, without even a bounty. Though Onigumo could sense that his opponent had some speed, he considered it not worth mentioning. Under his chaotic barrage of blades, speed would be useless.

Werther realized he was being underestimated and laughed in anger.

He drew his twin swords and activated Lightning Mode, his aura changing completely. If he had seemed lazy and harmless before, he now resembled an asura surrounded by drifting red mist, sending chills down one's spine.

Onigumo had looked down on Werther moments ago, but once Werther entered his battle state, he completely discarded that judgment.

Although the young man before him was less than six feet tall, standing before him gave Onigumo an oppressive feeling.

Onigumo stared fixedly at the man before him. Though he was a cruel man himself, he felt utterly incomparable to this person. Just how many people had this man killed to possess such an aura?

Werther stopped wasting words on Onigumo and charged straight at him. His twin swords, black with pale blue lightning flickering across them, struck directly against Onigumo's eight blades, which were likewise coated in Haki.

The instant their attacks collided, the warship boomed and sank a large distance into the water.