Chapter 173

"Usopp, if before you even boarded the ship, you had to face a pirate with a 95-million-Berry bounty from the Grand Line, would you dare?"

The final question left Usopp silent.

To be honest...

He didn't dare.

Even now,

Usopp was still just a pirate with a 30-million-Berry bounty...

Sima Di shrugged; now everyone understood the gap between them, right?

Everyone understood.

Then...

"Zoro, you three—you'll each get thirty minutes of Haoshoku Haki pressure every day," Kurokasi said.

Zoro and the other two nodded vigorously, showing not the slightest fear.

They had never dreamed they possessed the potential to awaken Haoshoku Haki?

This was amazing!

Especially Brook, who laughed excitedly: "Yo ho ho ho—"

Usopp, watching from the side, grew even more silent, even beginning to doubt himself...

Was he really that weak?

Seeing Usopp seemed off, Merry prepared to go comfort him.

【Don't go. Let him think it through himself.】

But Sima Di halted them with a mental link.

Usopp, who had never experienced the "Seven Seas Capital: Soldiers vs. King" incident, had been too well protected within the Straw Hat Crew—he had to figure out these truths for himself.

Rise up and strive?

Or just drift along?

If he still held the latter mindset,

Usopp would only grow more strained following the current Straw Hat Crew.

Most of the Straw Hat Crew didn't understand Sima Di's intent, yet even Luffy raised no objection.

Because everyone believed Sima Di was acting for Usopp's own good.

"Let's go," said Sima Di.

"Huh? What about that kid?" Franky glanced at the unconscious Dibaru.

He's a promising talent who awakened Haoshoku Haki—nurture him, he'll become a strong fighter.

"No! I refuse!" Sanji shouted: "One of us stays, the other leaves! Him on board means I'm off! No compromise!!!"

If Dibaru boarded, wouldn't he be driven mad every single day?

"Aww—then forget it. I didn't say anything," Franky waved his hands rapidly.

Thus,

the Golden Merry continued sailing in the direction Little Eight indicated.

They soon found the target octopus-ball ship.

But...

"God? Pappagu? Strange, aren't they here?" Little Eight scratched his six heads.

This reminded Sima Di...

Wasn't there a mermaid named Kami who was supposed to come rescue Little Eight?

If he remembered correctly,

she had been swallowed by a sea beast, and during digestion, encountered the Straw Hat Crew, who beat the beast until it vomited them out.

Now...

Who knew if she'd been digested yet.

Sima Di pulled out Jack the Captain's Luo Pan, picturing Kami's face—the needle spun wildly in circles.

What's going on?

Had she already been digested?

"Splash—"

"Boom!!"

A colossal sea beast surged from beneath the ocean, slamming hard into the Golden Merry's hull, trying to capsize it.

This was when the advantage of the ship's entire Adam Tree construction became clear—the beast's impact inflicted zero damage on the Golden Merry.

Even...

As the Golden Merry was flung into the air, just as it reached its peak and began to fall, nearly a hundred nozzles opened beneath its hull, revealing the wind-shells acquired from Skypiea.

The Golden Merry simply hovered midair!

But everyone assumed Sima Di had acted, so they weren't amazed—their attention remained fixed on the sea beast that had rammed them.

This left Merry slightly disappointed.

The next moment,

the bottom and stern deck of the Golden Merry opened, revealing several dark nozzles that blasted thick beams of energy; the ship shot like an arrow toward the beast, then sharply turned ninety degrees at the last instant to dodge.

"Yah! Di, don't scare us like that!" Nami complained.

Sima Di spread his hands, indicating his innocence, then turned to look at the culprit: Merry.

Until this moment,

Only then did the crowd realize that the Going Merry was actually flying on its own!

"So awesome! A Merry that can fly!" Luffy's eyes lit up with golden gleam.

"Merry is amazing! Franky is amazing too!" Chopper said excitedly.

"Is this really a ship? Are you sure it's not a spaceship?"

"Yo ho ho ho—what a powerful ship!"

The crowd's praise made Merry quite smugly put her hands on her hips.

It puffed her pride up something fierce.

She immediately activated the weapon system, every energy thruster ready to serve as a cannon barrel at any moment.

But......

"Wait!" Sima Di called a halt.

Only then did he notice that the compass needle in his hand was pointing straight at the sea beast before him.

So it was because Kaimi was right under his feet, and the compass had no downward direction to point, that it had been spinning round and round.

Then......

"Sanji, go give its belly a few heavy kicks. There's a surprise."

A surprise?

"Whoosh—"

Sanji shot out without hesitation, trailing a long string of afterimages as he reached the sea beast's belly, and delivered several kicks with a series of "thud thud thud."

.......... 0

Overwhelming!

Suddenly!

Kaimi's swelling chest rippled, and from her collar an orange starfish struggled out, greedily sucking in a breath of air.

"This is the taste of free air......"

"Bastard! What did you do to our mermaid Princess!"

Sanji delivered an explosive kick, sending the starfish flying toward the sea.

But Hatchan dove and caught it with his body, the price being that he slid across the deck and slammed hard into the ship's railing.

One could see just how forceful Sanji's angry kick had been!

"Hatchan, you dare save it? Believe it or not, I'll kill you along with it!" Sanji looked on the verge of going berserk.

Hatchan quickly endured the pain and explained: "This starfish is Pappagu, he's the Master of the mermaid Kaimi in your arms. He was probably hiding from the corrosive stomach acid inside the sea beast, he didn't mean to take advantage of her!"