Chapter 226: Twin Capes and Baroque Works

The Going Merry gradually approached the Reverse Mountain of the East Blue; the sound of heaven-shaking waves reached their ears, and the ship's speed grew faster and faster as it charged toward the high-mountain waterway before them.

A moment later, the ship entered the ascending waterway, its speed suddenly increasing rapidly; a gale blew in their faces, making it nearly impossible for anyone to open their eyes.

"Such speed... even if one were speeding on a highway, I doubt it would be this fast!"

For a ship to reach such a speed is a terrifying thing; the water's buoyancy causes the entire hull to lift, floating on the water almost like a skipping stone, which in turn makes controlling the direction even more difficult.

Usopp shouted that he was going to die, die, die, but his hands held the ship's wheel firmly; this guy is also a god of war in desperate situations—the more critical the situation, the more god-like his performance.

Of course, it could be said that the people of the Straw Hat Pirates all have a bit of the "god in a headwind, reckless in a tailwind" trait, though this trait is just more obvious in Usopp.

With Usopp at the helm and Nami giving directions, the Going Merry charged to the very peak of Reverse Mountain without any danger.

But just as they reached the peak and looked downward, Usopp's expression changed drastically:

"Oh no, oh no, oh no, I'm going to die, die, die!! There's a ship coming from the other side!!"

Uchiha Feiyu came to the deck and happened to see a massive Pirate ship charging toward the Going Merry from the side, and he frowned slightly:

"Is this a Pirate from the West Blue?? Talk about bad luck..."

The currents of Reverse Mountain connect the Four Seas, and ships from the Four Seas converge here simultaneously; because of this, when riding the reverse waterfall, one might just happen to collide with a Pirate ship coming from another sea area.

Of course, Reverse Mountain is very large, and the reverse waterfall is quite long, so the probability of having bad luck and colliding is actually not very high—it is just clear that the Going Merry's luck this time is not very good.

This is only because Reverse Mountain is the gateway to the Grand Line, with many ships coming and going; otherwise, it is possible that not a single ship would collide for a year or a year and a half.

But luck is just that kind of thing; seven or eight out of ten ships traveling from Reverse Mountain to the Grand Line will shatter directly against the stone walls of Reverse Mountain, and among the remaining two or three, about 1/100 of the ships will collide with ships from other sea areas; clearly, Uchiha Feiyu and the others hit this 1/100 chance of bad luck.

At this moment, the Pirate crew on the opposite side was also screaming in terror, but under the impact of the seawater, the ship had no power to resist and charged directly toward the Going Merry.

Uchiha Feiyu, however, was unhurried and spoke calmly:

"Long-nose, just keep the helm steady, leave the rest to me!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the Sandai Kitetsu at Uchiha Feiyu's waist was instantly unsheathed, carving out a blood-colored arc as he rode the wind and waves toward the ship opposite.

A crack was instantly carved into the ocean; the Pirate ship that had been charging over was immediately split in two by the sword light, and with a boom, it shattered completely under the impact of the current.

The Pirates on the ship instantly turned into fireworks filling the sky, scattering everywhere; some slammed directly into Reverse Mountain, turning into a mist of blood, while others fell into the reverse waterfall, revealing their heads for only a moment before disappearing.

"You damn bastard... go to hell!!"

Following an angry shout, a bald Pirate with a receding hairline flew out from the Pirate ship, his hands transforming into wings in mid-air as he flew over.

"This guy... is the captain of the West Blue's Vulture Pirates, a guy with a bounty of 29 million berries... his name is..."

Usopp was still shouting when a flash of blade light appeared, and that captain of the Vulture Pirates let out a miserable cry and fell from the sky; Uchiha Feiyu's figure flickered past, appearing behind the captain, then he grabbed the back of the captain's neck with one hand and stepped on the air to return to the ship's deck:

"Pay attention, Long-nose! Don't hit the mountain wall!"

"Ah!? Oh, oh, oh..."

The dumbfounded Usopp finally came to his senses and hurriedly agreed repeatedly; occasionally, when he looked up at Uchiha Feiyu, his eyes were filled with fear.

To the cowardly Usopp, Uchiha Feiyu's strength in splitting a large Pirate ship with a single sword was enough to intimidate this guy.

(Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, when are you guys coming to save me!!)

After catching that vulture-man, Uchiha Feiyu stuffed him directly into a wooden barrel filled with seawater; this is the customary practice for Pirate crews without Sea Prism Stone when dealing with Devil Fruit Ability users as captives.

This was the first Devil Fruit Ability user Uchiha Feiyu had caught, so naturally, he had to study the power of the Devil Fruit properly.

Even if he himself did not need the power of a Devil Fruit, which was full of flaws, it would be excellent for cultivating subordinates.

After experiencing the danger of nearly colliding with a ship from another sea area, the rest of the journey was smooth sailing; the ship rode the current of Reverse Mountain downward and entered the Grand Line, and they did not encounter the whale Laboon blocking their path.

In fact, the appearance of the whale Laboon is an even lower-probability event than the collision of ships from the Four Seas; one must know that the Pirates coming from the Four Seas are not all weaklings, and among them, there also exist some powerful people.

If Laboon frequently appeared at the foot of Reverse Mountain, it would likely have been hacked to death by some powerful Pirates coming from the Four Seas long ago!

For example, the Red-Haired one from back then had lingered in the East Blue for a period of time; if he had suddenly encountered this giant whale blocking the path when he went back through Reverse Mountain, he probably would have hacked it into two pieces on the spot!

Aside from such powerful people re-traversing the Grand Line,

the other sea areas are not the "weakest sea" like the East Blue; there is no lack of powerful Pirates who have already mastered Haki or possess powerful Devil Fruit Abilities. Although Laboon is large, its Power Level is actually mediocre; if it really appeared frequently to obstruct the shipping lane, accidents would have happened long ago.

Uchiha Feiyu didn't really care about not meeting that big whale; this could only be said to be the big whale's good luck, not his good luck, because he is the kind of powerhouse who could make that big whale have an accident.

"Finally... we have arrived at the Grand Line!!"

"Woohoo!! Is this the Grand Line?!! It's amazing!"

Looking at the overjoyed Nami and Usopp, Uchiha Feiyu waved his hand:

"Don't be so happy just yet; the climate of the Grand Line is not so easy to adapt to, and we still have to get a Log Pose."

A Log Pose is an essential item for traveling between various islands after entering the Grand Line; a Log Pose can record the magnetism between islands in the Grand Line and point directly in the direction of the island.

This thing is a must-have item for sailing in the Grand Line; in fact, when they were in Loguetown, because of Uchiha Feiyu's hint, Nami had bought some, but those were all blank Log Poses.

Uchiha Feiyu estimated that there should be Log Poses filled with magnetic force in Loguetown, but clearly, they wouldn't be sold openly. Don't look at how Smoker implemented a policy of catching the big and letting go of the small for the Pirates in Loguetown; when it came to contraband like Log Poses, he was quite strict.

Actually, it was also because Uchiha Feiyu and the others left too early; otherwise, it wouldn't have been difficult to get a Log Pose already filled with magnetic force, whether from Loguetown or from the Marine.

As for now, Uchiha Feiyu turned his gaze toward the lighthouse at the bottom of Reverse Mountain.

"Let's go to the lighthouse and take a look; the lighthouse keeper there might have a Log Pose filled with magnetic force."

Although Uchiha Feiyu also knew that this lighthouse keeper was the Ship Doctor of the Pirate King and not someone to be trifled with, it was just buying a Log Pose, not going to hack someone, so naturally, he had no qualms.

"Squatting at the beginning of the Grand Line and selling Log Poses... that's actually a pretty good business!"

Nami blinked her eyes; whenever business was mentioned, this little cat-burglar who cared deeply about berries was always very sensitive.

Whether that Crocus who was squatting at Twin Capes actually did business in Log Poses, Uchiha Feiyu wasn't quite sure, but considering he easily gave a Log Pose to the Straw Hat Pirates back then, he imagined the possibility of him doing this kind of business was high.

Otherwise, if he only had one Log Pose, and he gave that one to the Straw Hat Pirates, what would he use himself?

Soon the Going Merry sailed to Twin Capes, and Uchiha Feiyu jumped off the ship directly, but he did not see that trendy-dressed Ship Doctor.

"Not here? Could it be that he went out in the Laboon submarine... or maybe he went out to sea to hunt?"

After searching a circle, Uchiha Feiyu had to confirm one thing, which was that this lighthouse keeper of Twin Capes was not here at the moment.

"Looks like I'll have to wait a while... I don't know when that old man will be back; without a Log Pose, it's very troublesome in the Grand Line."

"Feiyu, there's a ship coming from the other side!"

Just at this moment, Nami, who was standing at the bow of the ship, shouted out loud. Uchiha Feiyu was slightly stunned, turned his head, and swept his Observation Haki across, indeed seeing a small vessel in the distance.

"A ship coming from the Grand Line... That's strange, what would a ship from the Grand Line be doing coming here?"

One can only enter Reverse Mountain, not leave it; while it is not entirely impossible to leave the Grand Line, it is absolutely impossible to pass through Reverse Mountain. Therefore, generally speaking, there are only Pirates from the Four Seas coming down from Reverse Mountain, and one has never seen a ship from the Grand Line come to this side of Reverse Mountain.

"Could it be a supply ship delivering goods to this guy who guards the lighthouse?"

Uchiha Feiyu's eyes rolled as he formed a hypothesis. If Crocus wanted to live here at Twin Capes, he certainly couldn't rely solely on fishing for food; he would need to have some exchanges with the outside world, and there should be ships arriving at fixed times to deliver supplies to him.

However, Uchiha Feiyu soon realized he had made an incorrect guess, because he had already seen the two energetic young man and young woman on the bow of the ship.

A man was holding two baseball bats in his hands, wearing a crown on his head and a strange green outfit, walking back and forth on the deck and doing somersaults from time to time.

The other was a girl with blue hair, dressed like an energetic young woman, wearing clothes with strange patterns, and looking over here with binoculars.

"So it's people from Baroque Works, and it's even Princess Vivi and her partner. I remember they seemed to have come here wanting to hunt the whale Laboon to obtain Laboon's meat as food for the Bounty Hunters of Whiskey Peak..."

To be honest, Uchiha Feiyu did not know how to describe this behavior. Although the island whale has a relatively gentle personality, among sea beasts of the same size, it can be considered to have the lowest Power Level.

But that refers to sea beasts of the same size! With Princess Vivi's meager skills, plus a useless Baroque Works Agent, facing Laboon, would they really not be sneezed to death?

In any case, Uchiha Feiyu did not understand how these two could be so bold as to come here to trouble Laboon.

The small sailboat was quite fast and soon arrived at the pier of Twin Capes. Mr. 9, the partner of Princess Vivi, was the first to walk down, holding two metal baseball bats, and swaggered in front of Uchiha Feiyu.

He first looked at Uchiha Feiyu twice, then rummaged through his bag for a moment, and finally frowned:

"Huh? You're actually not a Pirate!"

"So you were looking for a Bounty? I'm sorry, I am not any kind of Pirate. My specific profession should be an adventurer plus a Bounty Hunter."

Uchiha Feiyu said calmly, but unexpectedly, after hearing this, Mr. 9's expression became even uglier:

"A Bounty Hunter? Isn't that a colleague then? Good grief, to actually run from the Four Seas to the Grand Line, has the Bounty Hunter profession become this competitive now?"

"Hey, kid, which sea area did you come from?"

"That... we came from the East Blue!"

The one who spoke was not Uchiha Feiyu, but Usopp, who had just run down from the ship. Hearing this, Mr. 9 raised his head even higher and snorted:

"The East Blue, that weakest of seas? I have heard that there is a Pirate Hunter named Zoro there who once refused our Baroque Works' recruitment. Could it be you!"

"Zoro? Has his name already spread to the Grand Line? And what kind of force is Baroque Works?"

Usopp muttered to himself, only now discovering that his former companion was so awesome! How had he not noticed... well, actually, he had known for a long time that Zoro was awesome; after all, not just any swordsman could be praised by Dracule Mihawk, the world's greatest Great Swordsman.

"Hmm!? You really are that Pirate Hunter Zoro? Isn't your hair green? Could it be that you feared the power of our Baroque Works and dyed it black!"

Mr. 9 was clearly misunderstanding Usopp's words. He did a few somersaults, holding his two baseball bats and striking a pose, which made the corner of Uchiha Feiyu's mouth twitch.

"What's going on? What happened? Mr. 9?"

"Are we going to fight? Feiyu, is the person opposite a Pirate?"

Princess Vivi and Nami, the two women, seeing that a conflict seemed to have occurred, also ran over, looking at each other with guarded expressions.

(End of chapter)