Barus's Quirk

Cut a fish open? Does this guy have no common sense...? Putting aside the size of a sperm whale, the mere thought of harming that whale is absurd. Would an ant really attempt to dissect an elephant?

Shouldn't the priority now be getting this whale off the ship and preventing it from further disrupting the journey?

Seeing that Jilan remained motionless, as if mocking his absurd idea, Barus sheathed his gun and placed his hand on Jilan's shoulder. "Boy, do you think I'm joking? I don't like joking. I'm going to cut open that whale's belly."

Barus continued, talking to himself, "It's been a long time since I've seen anyone dare to kill on my ship. This guy's got guts. I'm quite interested in him. Even if it's just a corpse, I'll teach him a lesson for angering me. Not just for revenge for the dead, but for my own dignity."

Jilan once saw a movie where a person who had only eaten one bowl of noodles was falsely accused of eating two bowls but only paying for one. The shop owner was also persuaded by the person to also say that he had eaten two bowls of noodles.

The man who ate the noodles was speechless, but he had only eaten one bowl and stubbornly refused to pay for two. To prove his innocence and to prevent his actions from putting his companions in trouble, he pulled out a knife, cut open his stomach, and took out the undigested bowl of noodles...

Now, Jilan suddenly had that feeling: she said the person who attacked her was dead, but in fact, he was the sperm whale in front of her. No matter how she tried to embellish it with words, trying to say that the person ate two bowls, a bowl of noodles is just a bowl of noodles, and even if you cut open his stomach, there was nothing inside.

Isana was the whale in front of them. She was eaten by the whale, but completely, without leaving a single scrap. The human named Isana has now disappeared.

"... What do you want to do?" Jilan finally spoke.

Barus raised an eyebrow. "What, young man, you already believe me?"

"You're the captain, you're in charge of this ship," Jilan said helplessly, rubbing her forehead. "But I think the most important thing right now is to get this whale off the ship so it doesn't affect the ship's balance, right?"

"I don't care what you think, I care what I think." Barus walked towards the whale, stroking its flat head. "I believe in the Voyager's load-bearing capacity. It's just a whale, after all. It can handle it. Besides, don't you think such a rare sperm whale is worth hunting?"

"Okay, I get it, it's like a hunter trying to farm big and small gold." Jilan sighed. "You've convinced me, so, what should I do now?"

At this point, the second mate had already used the loudspeaker to send everyone back to their rooms. However, due to the sperm whale's rampage, wildly wagging its tail, the loudspeaker hanging on the deck had been knocked off, and the deck's surveillance cameras had become ineffective.

Whether it was the theft of Little Red Riding Hood, the Dark Shadow's mobilization of the passengers attending the press conference to track them Kaminari, or the impending attack on Kaminari and his group, Jilan and Barus were completely unaware of what was happening inside the cabin. They only thought that there was a giant whale resting on the deck.

It was precisely this lack of intelligence that allowed them to leisurely contemplate methods for dissecting the whale on deck. If the captain had known at that moment that his trusted first mate was dead, he would never have wasted his time on the whale, and naturally, the events that followed that he would later regret would not have occurred.

"Your name is Jilan, right? The runner-up in the U.A. High School Sports Festival. How do you think we should dissect this guy? It looks like its flesh is quite firm; it shouldn't be easy to cut it open, right?"

If Ueno were here, she would probably already be proudly introducing her invention, "arrange the guard," which is absolutely perfect for dissection work. However, Jilan clearly didn't know about this invention. He just shrugged and said irritably, "How would I know? Wasn't this your suggestion, Captain? To cut something like this open, it's impossible without a suitable cutting machine, isn't it?"

Jilan had tested the hardness of the Isana fish tail; even the Sheer Heart Attack couldn't penetrate it. Although the flesh on the belly of the fish might be slightly more tender and lack that firmness, it was definitely not something that could be easily cut open with a kitchen knife. At the very least, it would require legendary kitchen utensils, such as the Eternal Spirit Knife and the Garuda Knife.

Jilan has given up arguing whether cutting open the sperm whale's belly was right or wrong. He'll just do whatever the captain wants. If they don't find Isana after cutting open the whale's belly, Jilan can argue that this special whale might have a stomach with extremely strong digestive power, and that the bandit has been completely digested.

Jilan had no intention of protecting Isana. He had genuinely wanted to kill him before, and Jilan had never forgotten that. Even if he were killed by someone else, it would be only natural, since he wasn't even human anymore.

Thinking of this, Jilan suddenly said, "By the way, Captain, if you can't find him in the stomach, try looking in the back of the sperm whale's neck. Oh, whales don't have a back of the neck, so you can try looking in the top of its head. Maybe there's someone hiding in its brain."

"Huh?" The captain's forehead creased with annoyance. This brat in front of him wasn't holding back at all; he really dared to say that...

"I understand your suggestion. The head, right? I'm quite interested in that too..." Barus smiled. "However, besides machines, nature holds something even sharper, you know?"

Jilan looked at Barus without saying a word.

"Aren't you a student at U.A. High School.? You're more outgoing than usual. You're making me think I'm seeing a grown-up Pro Hero." Barus shrugged helplessly. "Okay, here's the answer: water. Water is softer than anything else, and sharper than anything else. You know about water jets, right? They can cut through steel plates."

Since recognizing Jilan's identity, Barus has stopped being wary of him. He has had many interactions with Pro Hero from U.A. High School, including some life-or-death friendships. Although he is not Pro Hero under the island nation's official organization, he has become interested in Jilan and has the idea of teaching him a lesson.

Jilan frowned and replied, "Of course I know, but where would we find the tools to Compress water?"

Suddenly, a thought struck Jilan: "Wait, Captain, do you have the Quirk to Compress water?"

"Haha! Correct answer!" Barus laughed, hands on his hips. "Young man, now I'll show you what an adult can do!"

Suddenly, Barus's body transformed at a speed visible to the naked eye. The white human's body seemed to have been given an Avatar extension, turning into a three-meter-tall, light blue body. Its head was as agile as a dragon or a snake, and fish fins appeared on its back, closely arranged along its spine. Behind it, a thick, light blue tail appeared, looking quite dreamlike.

"Is this... the captain's Quirk?" Jilan murmured. Although she had seen descriptions of him in some materials, seeing him in person this time felt like seeing a mythical elf, filled with an unreal feeling.

"That's right, that's my Quirk, Barus!" the captain said proudly.

Jilan was speechless for a moment. "... No matter what, using one's own name as Quirk is still a bit too narcissistic, isn't it?"

"Haha, that's not narcissism, young man, you're still too young!" Barus wagged its tail triumphantly. "Barus is the Destruction Curse from the movie Castle in the Sky, nearly a hundred years ago, symbolizing destruction and rebirth. Sure enough, a young person like you wouldn't understand!"

Jilan certainly knew about the animated film, but he knew that if he mentioned it, the older man might think he had found a kindred spirit and start rambling on and on. Jilan had already figured this out in their short time together; this man was definitely an egotistical person with himself at the center of his world.

So, to avoid trouble, I'll just say I don't know here.

Jilan thought to herself.