On the other side of the island.
Aboard the Nautilus.
Lilith was sorting through nautical charts when she suddenly frowned. The next moment, she focused and activated her Observation Haki, extending its range to its limit of thirty-six kilometers.
A battered sailing ship was heading toward the deserted island, less than five kilometers away.
Lilith immediately sounded the alarm.
The members who had stayed aboard gathered at once.
"Lilith, what's wrong?" Uncle Joseph asked, holding a great axe.
"A sailing ship is approaching the deserted island. Everyone, stay alert."
"I see."
Lilith picked up a Den Den Mushi and informed Noah.
In less than ten minutes, Noah and his group returned to the Nautilus using their flame thrusters, then put the ship back into a card.
Everyone hid in the jungle along the shore, quietly waiting for the sailing ship to approach.
Half an hour later.
Noah could now see the sailing ship and the pirate flag flying above it.
That pirate flag? So it's the Blood Knife Pirates. But these guys are in pretty rough shape. The Navy's wanted poster said they had three sailing ships and around two hundred men. Now there are only forty-eight left.
As soon as the Blood Knife reached the shore, a small wooden boat was lowered.
Four pirates rowed the boat toward the beach, preparing to land.
At the same time, a blue-haired man standing on the deck transformed his hands into a pair of wings and flew toward the beach.
Blood Knife's vice captain, Guro!
Noah and the others made no attempt to stop the pirates from landing.
About half an hour later, Blood Knife Tanaka Taro, who had lost an arm, finally stepped onto the beach with the help of a bald pirate.
"Boss, take it slow," Parrot Guro said, holding a chair.
"Cough, cough, I'm not dead yet. Go get some food ready," Tanaka Taro said with a gloomy face. Then he cursed through gritted teeth:
"Damn old bastard! He said I was wicked and unfit to use that sword, and he even refused to teach me Ryuo... I hate him! You old bastard, you were just jealous of my talent and worried I'd surpass Koshiro, so you deliberately refused to teach me! Just you wait. I'll make your Shimotsuki Clan pay for this arm!"
While Tanaka Taro was blaming everyone but himself.
Noah had already confirmed there were no News Coos nearby, no small creatures on the pirates, and no Navy Flame Photo Hero in the vicinity.
The next moment.
Noah activated the dozen or so bomb cards buried on the beach.
Boom, boom, boom...
Flames shot skyward in an instant, and shrapnel from the explosions sprayed in every direction.
"Aah..."
"Help!"
The moment the explosions went off, Tanaka Taro and Parrot Guro's Observation Haki warned them of the danger. Disregarding their wounds, one leaped into the sea while the other tumbled into the air.
Parrot-man Guro was flapping in midair when, before he could catch his breath, a bullet pierced his wing.
At the same time, a tremendous force slammed into his back, smashing him into the sea.
Tanaka Taro had just burst out of the water when he looked up and saw a dark figure crash into the sea not far away.
The next second, a steel gauntlet coated in Armament Haki appeared before his eyes.
"Damn it!"
He drew his sword and raised his hand.
A punch. A collision.
Sparks flew as Haki clashed.
Tanaka Taro's eyes widened. "Nani? Haki?"
Vic gave no answer, raining punches down on Tanaka Taro.
Clang, clang, clang...
Gauntlet and katana clashed fiercely for six or seven exchanges.
"Pfft... damn it... If that old bastard hadn't chopped off my right hand, how could I..."
Boom! Tanaka Taro took a heavy blow to the back of his head.
Crack! Without hesitation, Vic crushed the bones in his only remaining hand.
Lilith appeared in the air behind and above Tanaka Taro, casually tossed out a noose, and dragged him into the air.
Vic, meanwhile, dove into the sea to look for Parrot-man Guro, who had been knocked into the water.
At this point, on the beach.
Noah had only detonated a dozen or so bomb cards, leaving the rest to the others.
The bombs had killed more than a dozen outright, but the thirty-odd remaining pirates were still full of life. This really was the pirate world, where everyone was a meat tank and a health sponge.
Ray, Tomani, Lilian, and Mary fired at the pirates from the jungle with rifles or pistols.
Anthony and Joshua swung their long swords, joining forces to behead a big, burly pirate on the spot.
Uncle Joseph had transformed into his half-beast form. The two great axes in his hands whistled through the air, each swing taking down a pirate.
Jay controlled more than a dozen graphite puppets, sending them to gang up on pirates who tried to flee.
In less than ten minutes, the thirty-odd pirates had been wiped out as easily as chopping melons and vegetables. Only two pirates who had knelt and begged for mercy were left alive.
Meanwhile.
Vic had also fished the dying Parrot-man Guro up from the seabed, in addition to Blood Knife Tanaka Taro, whom Lilith had tied up.
Less than ten minutes after the battle began, the Blood Knife Pirates had been completely wiped out.
And that was without Noah going all out.
Did anyone really think his bomb cards could only kill a dozen or so small fry?
His strongest bomb card held a ton of gunpowder and a large quantity of iron nails and steel balls. The instant it exploded, everything within a fifty-meter radius would be blasted to pieces.
Not to mention his poison gas cards, napalm cards, white phosphorus incendiary cards, and the like. He had not used a single one of them.
This battle had really been a training battle.
It was meant to train the family members and help them quickly grow accustomed to the atmosphere of killing.
"Vic, Joshua, move these pirates' bodies together."
"Lilith, Anthony, go search the pirate ship."
"Uncle, give the others some psychological counseling."
Lilith picked up Anthony, and the two flew toward the pirate ship.
The three pirates who had stayed aboard the pirate ship had already kicked the bucket. Their faces were blue-black because the pirates aboard the ship had been Lilith's first targets. She had used environmental camouflage and killed the three pirates with a fast-acting poison.
The two searched the cabins one by one.
To avoid missing any hidden compartments or the like, they did not hesitate to cut through every cabin with their blades.
More than an hour later.
Lilith looked at the treasure worth less than three million Beli and the banknotes totaling more than one million Beli, then shook her head. "Let's go!"
As they left, Lilith casually stuck one of Noah's incendiary cards onto the pirate ship's deck.
The two captured small fry had already given up what they knew about the Blood Knife Pirates.
Tanaka Taro was one of the refugees from Wano Country. His father had been a follower of Shimotsuki Kozaburo, while he himself had been Kozaburo's disciple.
A few days earlier, he had returned to Shimotsuki Village to demand a cursed sword and the method for training Ryuo from Kozaburo. The two sides had fought a major battle, in which Kozaburo had cut off one of his hands, while he had killed Koshiro's wife.
Unfortunately, the man was of little value to Noah. Under Mary and Noah's joint interrogation, Tanaka Taro handed over a set of Isshin-ryu Swordsmanship and a set of Blood Demon Swordsmanship, after which they gave him a quick death.
As for whether Tanaka Taro would tamper with the swordsmanship training methods, the answer was that he had indeed deliberately left many hidden dangers in them. Unfortunately for him, between Mary's Observation Haki, which could sense emotions, and Noah's divination cards, he could hide nothing and ultimately had to confess everything.
Unfortunately, there was no Ryuo, the advanced application of Armament Haki.