Chapter 296
Something moved far below the island deep in the darkness.
Zaraki did not hear it.
His attention was on Noah.
He brought Nozarashi back with one hand while Armament Haki hardened his sword arm and the dark-gold pressure around the chipped blade compressed tighter along its edge.
No new trick, just the strength he already possessed, controlled as precisely as he could manage.
The short length of Seastone chain hanging from his wrist made the movement awkward, but it did not weaken him.
Zaraki's grin widened.
"One-Sword Style..."
The enormous cleaver moved.
"Severing Sea."
BOOOOOOM—!!
The ocean detonated along the path of the slash.
A vast cutting pressure tore upward through the water, its edge traced by dark-gold arcs of Reiatsu.
It did not split space.
It did not erase the ocean.
It was simply an obscenely powerful flying slash, concentrated tightly enough to remain coherent under the crushing pressure of the deep sea.
It struck Noah.
CREAAAAAAK—!
The ancient ark shuddered violently.
A huge section of the forward hull split open. Ancient timber and debris erupted into the surrounding sea as the force carved through several outer layers of the vessel.
Noah did not split completely apart.
But its descent faltered.
The enormous vessel twisted off its previous angle, its momentum disrupted badly enough that the entire ark began groaning under its own mass.
Vander Decken screamed from inside his bubble.
"NO!"
"My Noah!"
Despite the damage, the ark continued trying to correct its path toward Shirahoshi.
The Mark-Mark Fruit was still active.
Zaraki's arm trembled faintly from the effort.
Released Nozarashi drank greedily from his Reiatsu, and even with stabilization the cost was impossible to ignore.
He prepared to swing again.
Then the darkness beneath Noah moved.
Several immense yellow eyes opened in the abyss.
...
Several dim yellow "searchlights" appeared in the darkness.
No.
They were eyes.
Monstrous silhouettes emerged from the depths, each of them enormous even compared with Noah.
The surrounding currents churned violently as one gigantic Sea King reached out and seized one of the ancient chains hanging from the damaged ark.
BOOM—!
Noah's descent stopped.
The remaining momentum unleashed a brutal current that hammered into Zaraki's coating bubble and sent it spinning several meters before he forced it back under control.
"Sea Kings?"
Zaraki narrowed his eyes.
"Big ones."
The creatures showed no intention of attacking Fish-Man Island.
Instead, more massive jaws and limbs closed around Noah's chains.
Working together, the Sea Kings began pulling the damaged ark away from the island and toward the open darkness.
Far below, Shirahoshi stared upward with tears running down her cheeks.
She did not understand why they had come.
Neither did Neptune.
But the Sea Kings had heard the voice of their Queen.
The crisis appeared to be over.
Far beyond the range of ordinary human hearing, ancient voices passed among the creatures as they worked.
[The Queen called.]
[We must protect the promised ship.]
[Careful. It has already been badly damaged.]
None of those words reached Zaraki.
To him, the creatures simply seemed to exchange several strange calls before changing formation around Noah.
A furious scream suddenly came from the retreating wreck.
"That's my ship!"
"My revenge!"
Vander Decken IX clung to the interior of his coating bubble as Noah was dragged away.
Everything had failed.
Hody was dead.
Fish-Man Island still stood.
Noah was being taken from him.
And Vergo—the man who had helped arrange the timing and access for this madness—had clearly never intended to save either Hody or Vander once the island came down.
Vander twisted around inside his bubble.
"ZARAKI!"
"And you too, Vergo!"
His face contorted.
"You bastard! You were going to bury me with everyone else!"
Back inside the harbor, Vergo was in no position to answer.
Gion and Yamakaji had already engaged him.
Konpira had carved through part of his uniform, blood running from one shoulder, while Yamakaji and several Marine officers had forced him backward toward the remains of the plaza.
Vander Decken saw none of it.
His bubble had already begun fleeing toward another section of the deep sea.
"As long as I'm alive, I swear I'll—"
"You talk too much."
Zaraki adjusted his grip on Nozarashi.
He had no intention of chasing the man through the ocean.
One controlled attack would do.
Zaraki swung.
A narrow flying slash left Nozarashi.
It was nearly colorless through most of its path, with only faint dark-gold traces running along its edge.
Far away, Vander Decken's screaming stopped.
The slash passed cleanly through the coating bubble.
Then through the man inside it.
For a fraction of a second, nothing happened.
Then the bubble split.
Seawater crashed inward.
Vander Decken's body separated with it and vanished into the dark current.
Ding!
[Key Story Character "Vander Decken IX" eliminated.]
[Points acquired: 200.]
Zaraki stared at the number.
'Two hundred?'
His expression soured.
'Cheap bastard.'
After everything that had happened, two hundred points barely made a dent in the amount he still needed for the limited mystery box.
His gaze drifted toward the colossal Sea Kings hauling Noah away.
They were absurdly large.
Ancient.
Powerful.
For half a second, a thoroughly irresponsible thought crossed his mind.
'If the system actually paid out for random wildlife, those things would probably be worth a fortune.'
Then Zaraki dismissed it.
There was no evidence the system rewarded him for butchering random creatures, and the Sea Kings had just saved an island he had gone through considerable trouble to protect.
Besides, after the slash against Noah, Nozarashi was already drawing enough Reiatsu to make his arm feel pleasantly heavy.
Picking another fight out here would be idiotic even by his standards.
The enormous creatures gradually disappeared into the darkness with Noah.
Zaraki watched them go.
"They move pretty damn fast for fish that big."
Released Nozarashi slowly returned to its sealed form.
The short Seastone chain still hanging from Zaraki's wrist remained an irritating physical weight, but there was no supernatural weakness spreading through his body.
His exhaustion came from something much simpler.
He had fought a coup, dealt with Vergo's trap, released Nozarashi, and thrown a slash powerful enough to knock an ancient ark off course while maneuvering ten thousand meters beneath the surface.
Now that the adrenaline was fading, his muscles were beginning to complain.
"Enough swimming around."
Zaraki shifted his weight inside the coating bubble and began descending toward Fish-Man Island, using controlled kicks and the surrounding current to guide himself back toward the membrane.
No Geppo or Rokushiki.
Just an annoyingly slow trip downward.
...
In the plaza below, Neptune stood with his three sons while royal guards and Marines finished securing the battlefield.
Vergo was no longer standing freely among them.
He was on one knee with both arms restrained behind his back, blood running from several wounds while Gion stood beside him with Konpira still drawn.
Yamakaji had personally taken custody of the prisoner.
"You're going to have a very long conversation with Fleet Admiral Sengoku when we get back," he said coldly.
Vergo said nothing.
His face had become unreadable again.
Then Zaraki descended through the island's membrane.
His Bubble Coral coating dissolved as he returned to the harbor air.
Boots touched stone.
Neptune and the princes looked toward him.
So did Gion.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Then—something reached Zaraki.
It was only a faint voice.
Distant enough that he almost wondered whether he had imagined it.
He could not identify its source.
Could not tell whether it belonged to a person, an ability, or something else entirely.
The whisper touched the edge of his awareness once.
Then vanished.
Zaraki's golden eyes narrowed.
Whatever it was... it was new.