The Sperm Whale That Didn't Exist

It seems no one suspects I did it on purpose... Jilan secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and after organizing her thoughts, she said, "Actually, I wasn't thinking about anything too complicated, because I was originally searching inside the sperm whale with the intention of finding the intruder's corpse. But... while searching, I unexpectedly discovered something else."

"Ambergris...?"

"Hmm." Jilan nodded and continued, "Captains who have been dealing with marine life should know very well that Ambergris comes from the excrement of sperm whales. It is a solid mixture of the undigested beak bones of octopuses, squid, and other creatures that the whales swallowed, mixed with their secretions. It was used in ancient China as a medicine and spice."

Ambergris is extremely rare, more precious than its equivalent in gold. Previously, most Ambergris discovered by humans was accidentally obtained by fishermen from sperm whale excrement at sea. However, since humans learned of its value, fishermen have hunted sperm whales extensively to extract this precious substance, resulting in a significant decrease in the number of sperm whales remaining in the world today...

"I don't need you to explain all this to me, just get to the point!" Barus was getting impatient; he didn't need Jilan to give him a lesson in marine biology.

"Generally speaking, the longer a sperm whale lives and the larger it becomes, the more Ambergris it produces, and the greater the chance of it being sighted. Isn't it a bit too strange that a sperm whale the size of Isana has been swimming in the Hawaii waterway, which sees countless ships every day, and yet hasn't been spotted?" Jilan deliberately steered Barus's thinking in the wrong direction, making him subconsciously believe that his ship had encountered this enormous sperm whale.

Barus frowned. It was indeed strange. A sperm whale of this size would take many years to grow to its full size, yet there hadn't been a single sighting in all these years. The largest sperm whale officially recognized was only two-thirds the size of this.

Do you know why?

Seeing Barus's question, Jilan uttered a false conclusion she had reached in a brief moment of thought, "Because this sperm whale never existed in the first place."

It doesn't exist? Then what is that howling creature in front of us, a mirage!?

"This is no time for jokes!" Barus suppressed his anger, threw Jilan to the ground, and turned to face the frantically howling sperm whale. "I thought you'd say something insightful, but it seems you're just a self-absorbed idiot! Leave this to me. You go to the bridge and tell the first mate to send out a distress signal so the passengers can prepare to abandon ship at any time!"

Barus was utterly disappointed in Jilan. Even at a time like this, he was still spouting nonsense. Was he really a student of the U.A. High School? However, in this dangerous moment, Barus still wanted to get Jilan back to a safe place. Based on his years of understanding of the first mate, Barus believed that Jilan had probably already given instructions on the emergency measures he mentioned. Nevertheless, he still instructed Jilan in this way for no other reason than that he was the captain of this ship.

"Captain, your reaction is too extreme. Can't you let me finish what I have to say?" Jilan's body was already soaked through by the rain. Even though the captain angrily threw him onto the deck, he didn't feel any resentment or anger. He stood up and calmly said to Captain Barus, "Even if you can transform into a mythical being like a dragon, you still won't believe that the sperm whale in front of you doesn't actually exist?"

"That's because of my Quirk!" Captain Barus turned his head and roared at Jilan with his dragon-like head, but soon he realized something and said in an incredulous tone, "Quirk... you don't mean to say that the sperm whale in front of you is a product of Quirk!?"

Jilan was taken aback. She had only meant to change the subject, yet Barus had gleaned a glimpse of the truth from her words...

Indeed, Isana transformed into a sperm whale for some reason, most likely related to his Quirk. However... Jilan had no intention of telling him the truth at this time; he didn't mind letting Barus think in a slightly different direction.

"Quirk shouldn't turn you into an incapable animal, right?" Jilan immediately refuted Barus's statement. "What I'm trying to say is, since no sperm whales of this size have been observed, does that mean sperm whales of this size never existed in the first place? Is it possible... that it accidentally ingested something that caused it to grow so big?"

To avoid being interrupted by Barus, Jilan quickly explained, "The Ambergris inside the sperm whale is due to the undigested beak bone of the creature it swallowed. I suspect it may have accidentally ingested something that turned into Ambergris, a foreign substance that provides energy to its entire body, causing it to mutate. That's why its body became so enormous. My previous Hamon seem to have affected the fluid coating the Ambergris, making the energy supply unstable, which in turn stimulated the foreign substance, causing it to explode."

Barus's eyes fell on the area on the sperm whale's belly shrouded in smoke. "... You mean, as long as we take away the Ambergris, the sperm whale should be unable to move anymore?"

"While it may not be that simple, it will at least weaken most of its energy," Jilan replied immediately.

Jilan's claims weren't baseless. Isana had mentioned to him that the "Mad Rabbit" zookeeper took a portion of the Ambergris from his body after defeating him, and that Jilan was brought aboard by Isana because of his contact with the zookeeper. Jilan had reason to suspect that the energy that allowed Isana to transform into a whale, and the energy that allowed the zookeeper to turn animals into humans, both originated from the Ambergris.

If the Ambergris is removed from the sperm whale's body, it is highly likely that Isana will be unable to maintain the energy required to sustain her size.

"Boy, I understand... I'll handle this. Go back and relay what I just said." He paused for a moment, then his tone softened. "I misunderstood you earlier. I'm sorry."

"Don't you need my help?" Jilan asked, shaking her head.

"..." Barus replied in an unquestionable tone, "Passengers, you don't need to worry about that. I'll get you ashore safely. By the way, there's a Werewolf I knocked unconscious over there. He's a criminal, and a fight might break out later. Help me catch him and hand him over to the crew."

Barus, perhaps still uneasy, asked again, "You're from U.A. High School, you shouldn't be taken down by some unconscious nobody, right?"

Jilan shook her head speechlessly. "I'm just a student who's only been enrolled for a year..."

"Boy, you don't seem like a hero at all to me," Barus said abruptly.

Jilan's heart sank. Just as she thought she had given herself away, she heard Barus burst into laughter. "In my opinion, you're more suited to be a detective in Europe!"

Jilan shook her head speechlessly. "I hadn't thought about that."

Just as Jilan turned around, Barus solemnly said to him with his back to him, "Young Jilan, I'm entrusting this to you."

"You too, Captain."