Chapter 135: The Sea Has No Qualification to Tell Me What to Do!

"..."

Nami stared blankly at the wanted poster, her entire body as if turned to stone.

Siano and Nojiko fell silent, sympathetically patting her shoulder.

But after only two pats, they exchanged a glance, then simultaneously turned their heads, their bodies trembling slightly as they desperately stifled their laughter.

"Meow?"

Mochi, however, took an interest; it climbed onto Nami's head, lay down there, tilted its head, and carefully examined its own image on the wanted poster.

"Meow~"

Mochi nodded satisfactorily, tapped the photo with its tail, as if saying, "Look how photogenic I am!"

"..."

A vein slowly bulged on Nami's temple.

She took a deep breath, striving to suppress the rage about to erupt, yet her voice still trembled involuntarily:

"Mo... chi..."

"Get down from there this instant!!!"

She suddenly reached up to grab Mochi from her head, but the little creature reacted with extreme speed, executing a nimble roll to dodge, then seamlessly leaping onto her shoulder and blinking innocently.

"Meow?"

"You're still playing dumb!"

Nami ground her teeth, "Why has all my merit been usurped by you! What, does this mean you're the one with the Mera Mera no Mi abilities? Does this mean you're the one worth 100 million Berries? Are those bastards at Marine Headquarters completely blind, aaaaaah!!!"

Mochi was finally caught, its face constantly distorted as Nami kneaded it; it hurt so much, and it looked aggrieved, wanting to cry but having no tears.

Ah Yin, lying by the railing, wagged its tail rapidly, watching the scene with schadenfreude.

Hehe, great, now finally it isn't me bearing all this.

What is Senior Yin showing off about?

Siano couldn't stand it anymore; he lifted his leg and kicked Ah Yin, sending it plunging into the sea.

"Talking so much to it is pointless; it doesn't understand anyway."

Siano rescued Mochi from Nami's hands, smiling as he placed it on his own head, "There, you usually let it cling to you like this, rarely separating; I reckon that's exactly why the Marines thought the flames that day were released from its body."

"So, the Marines mistook Mochi for a flamethrower, and you were the person holding the flamethrower."

Smoker exhaled a ring of smoke, murmuring softly, "Tsk, a cat climbing frame, huh..."

"Go die, Cigarette Man!"

Thud!

Nami, unable to bear it any longer, punched Smoker squarely on the head.

Smoker instantly became bruised and swollen; his cigar was knocked flying, and clutching the large, red lump, he looked incredulous:

"This makes no sense; you don't even know Haki, so how did you hit me?"

"Didn't I already tell you that fire suppresses smoke!"

Nami clapped her hands; after venting like this, she felt much refreshed, but upon seeing her own wanted poster still showing only 80,000, her small face immediately fell.

"There's still a chance."

Clutching the wanted poster, Nami went to the bow, gazing at the distant sea with determined eyes, "There must still be a chance; in the next battle, I will definitely prove once and for all..."

Prove my ass!

Nami suddenly chopped her hand down, tearing the wanted poster to shreds, scattering them toward the sea, and shouted tearfully at the ocean:

"There won't be a next time! From now on, I'll never pay attention to wanted posters again!"

Just you wait, Marine Headquarters!!!

Sooner or later, I'll personally follow my big brother to attack Marineford and turn the entire harbor into a sea of Xiong Xiong flames; let's see if you can still mistake my abilities then!

"This resentment... has already broken through the sky."

Everyone, looking at the orange-haired figure ahead, instinctively shivered.

It seems that for the next couple of days,

it would be best to try not to provoke her.

"By the way, Cigarette Man," Nojiko turned her head and asked, "What's your bounty? You skipped right over it earlier and haven't said yet."

"It went up a little."

Smoker withdrew his gaze from Nami's back, glanced at the wanted poster in his hand, and said, "It's 160 million now."

"Damn it, it's still so much higher than mine!" Nojiko said indignantly, then asked again, "What about Uncle Zeff and Sister Robin?"

"Same as Ah Yin; Old Man Zeff's bounty didn't change either, after all, he didn't act that day, which is normal. As for Robin..."

Smoker rummaged for a while, then raised his eyebrows in surprise, "... Strange, it seems there isn't one for her."

"None? How can that be?"

Nojiko, refusing to believe it, searched herself for a while, but indeed found nothing.

"That actually makes sense."

Smoker pondered, "After all, Robin didn't act that day either, and since we were in a desert region, she wore a local-style sun hat and sunglasses the whole time; I suppose the reporters didn't recognize her, so she wasn't photographed, meaning Marine Headquarters had no way of knowing Robin had joined our ship."

Robin lifted her coffee cup and took a sip, her gaze calm, saying nothing.

"What's wrong? Are you thinking to yourself, 'Ah, as expected, I still haven't been regarded as part of this ship's crew'? But that's fine too; at least someone like me with a dark past won't drag these guys down."

Siano sat down opposite her at the round table, laughing heartily:

"Don't worry; it won't stay hidden for long. Actually, I'm quite curious what expression the World Government will have when they discover you're on my ship; no matter how frantic they get, it seems useless."

"..."

Robin's fingertips trembled imperceptibly, causing tiny ripples in the black coffee within her cup.

She lifted her head, glanced at Siano, wanted to retort something, but ultimately fell silent.

Clearly, all along, it had been her who quietly hid in the shadows, silently observing others.

But this black-haired boy who had pulled her aboard always managed to turn the tables, seeing through her little schemes at a single glance.

Indeed, deep in her heart, just a moment ago, a trace of that self-pitying emotion had begun to rise...

"Where to next, Captain?"

Robin elegantly set down her coffee cup, naturally shifting the topic, and smiled as she said, "If I remember correctly, the next stop on the Alabasta route points to Jaya Island; shall we go there?"

"Jaya Island?"

Siano recalled for a moment.

If he remembered correctly, following the Knock Up Stream near there could take them out of the Blue Seas, toward the Sky Island region ruled by Enel?

In the end, he still shook his head.

"No, the World Government's level of attention toward us has completely escalated; continuing unchanged along this route carries too much risk, making it easy to fall into an ambush; we need to adapt."

Necessary precautions must still be taken.

He felt that Jaya Island was likely already swarming with Navy informants.

Perhaps pushing open the louvered door of some tavern, one would find some fellow wearing a peaked cap already waiting at the bar counter.

"I recall you have Eternal Poses for all the islands around Alabasta, right?"

Siano looked at Robin. "Here's the plan: remove Jaya Island, also remove any that mean backtracking like Drum Island, cover the labels on the rest, and let's draw lots."

Go wherever the draw lands?

Nojiko's eyes lit up: "What a great idea! I agree!"

"I agree too."

"Same here; after all, unknown adventures are far more charming."

The rest of the crew nodded one after another.

"Then wait here a moment."

Robin walked to her room and returned shortly with a backpack.

Clatter—

Over a dozen Eternal Poses with covered labels scattered across the round table, their glass casings refracting crystal-clear light under the sun.

"Come on, Captain."

Robin chuckled lightly, making a gesture of invitation. "A choice of fate."

"My luck has always been quite good."

Siano casually picked one up, examining it against the sunlight; the needle trembled slightly within the glass cover, then quickly stabilized, pointing northwest.

"Let's go! We're heading here!"

Laughing loudly, Siano tossed the pointer high into the air and caught it steadily. "To this... well, an island whose name I don't even know!"

In the blink of an eye, three days had passed.

The Curtain Call continued sailing at full speed across the sea.

And the climate of the Grand Line was always unpredictable.

One second, the sky was clear and sunny; the next, black clouds swallowed the entire sea area like a colossal beast.

Boom-rumble!

In the distant sky, flashes of lightning began to flicker faintly.

"It seems a tremendous storm is about to descend."

Nami rose from her rattan chair beneath the sun umbrella, looked up at the sky, and murmured.

By now, she had already recovered from the shock of the bounty; she extended her Bai Xi palm, feeling the flow of the wind, her expression Solemn. "This is far more terrifying than the previous several combined."

Just as Siano had said.

His luck was indeed always quite good; in the month-plus since entering the Grand Line, the Curtain Call had encountered very few natural disasters.

They had collided with storms only a few times, none of large scale, and thanks to the sturdy hull made from the Treasure Tree Adam, they had passed through without danger or surprise.

But this time, the situation seemed somewhat different.

"All hands, attention!"

Nami turned and shouted, "Furl the sails, take in both the mainmast and the mizzenmast, hard to port!"

Before her voice had even faded, raindrops the size of beans began to plummet.

At first, only a sparse few drops fell, but in an instant, it evolved into a torrential downpour; amidst flashes of lightning and claps of thunder, raindrops smashed against the deck with loud pitter-patter sounds, as if millions of pearls were shattering simultaneously.

"Damn it!"

Smoker clumsily threw on a raincoat and rushed toward the helm. "I'll handle the steering; Nami, don't stay on deck, go somewhere sheltered from the rain to give commands!"

"Mm, leaving it to you!"

Nami agilely flipped up to the open-air sword dojo on the second floor, arriving under the eaves.

Her soaked orange hair clung tightly to her cheeks; she casually swept it aside, narrowed her eyes, and gazed far into the distance through the curtain of rain; the strong wind blew against her face, yet it did not affect her sharp gaze in the slightest.

"Let's break through from the ten o'clock direction; the cloud layer is thinnest there! Going this way, we can exit the area covered by this storm at the fastest speed!"

"Understood!"

Everyone immediately sprang into action.

Smoker, without the slightest hesitation, followed Nami's instructions, rapidly turning the helm in that direction.

Nami's navigational talent had long been recognized by everyone.

Even Smoker, who had emerged from the Navy Headquarters Elite Camp, had to admit that among all the colleagues he had ever seen, Nami's navigational skills could be considered second to none.

Crash!

Suddenly, the wild wind intensified greatly, shrieking as it tore at the waves; the originally docile seawater abruptly flew into a rage, raising giant waves over a hundred meters high that came howling down to smash onto the deck.

Swish!

A black shadow swept past, and Sister Sister Guyina flashed to the bow.

"Wind Wall."

She whispered calmly, lightly pushing the sword guard with her thumb.

Zing—

Wado Ichimonji left its sheath, and a biting sword wind erupted violently in that instant!

In a flash, the air before the bow twisted and trembled; a rushing sword qi of wind, more than ten meters wide, barred the way, actually constructing a semi-transparent wall of wind above the deck.

Boom!!!

The surging hundred-meter-high giant wave crashed into the wind wall, yet its force, which should have crushed everything in its path, vanished instantly like mud entering the sea.

Only a small portion of seawater at the edges turned into fine rain sprinkling down on both sides of the ship's rails, causing absolutely no effect on the Curtain Fall.

"Eh? It was confiscated directly?"

Nojiko widened her eyes. "Did you learn this from that Wind Sword Technique manual too? It's too miraculous!"

Originally, she had prepared to act, intending to freeze this onrushing giant wave into ice and snow.

The giant wave came fast and urgent; in truth, she was not very confident about this.

She never expected that Sister Sister Guyina would use just one sword strike to easily resolve the crisis.

"Mm, I only achieved minor success with this move yesterday; it's perfect for a test run."

Sister Sister Guyina smiled.

Although her expression was calm, she was breathing slightly heavily; it was clear that compared to "Steel-Cutting Flash," this move consumed far more of her physical strength.

I still need to practice more.

Sister Sister Guyina sighed inwardly; the Wind-Manipulating Sword Art was truly too profound, and at present, she had only just grasped some superficial basics.

Confiscating a single wave crest was nothing.

If one fully mastered "Wind Wall," then according to what the secret manual stated, it could swallow up all forms of long-range attacks.

I wonder when I will be able to achieve that step...

She shook her head, regained her composure, and looked up.

Under the eaves of the second floor, Nami did not relax just because the giant wave had been easily confiscated; instead, she stared intently into the distance, her expression becoming even more Solemn.

Is it because the storm is intensifying?

Sister Sister Guyina turned her head back and looked toward the sky.

Within the pitch-black clouds, snake-like lightning danced wildly; every flash illuminated the entire sea area as bright as day.

The roaring sound of the sea waves grew increasingly dense, resembling the furious roar of a deep-sea behemoth, while the surrounding currents suddenly became chaotic and violent, beginning to churn rapidly like a whirlpool.

"No, no! These abnormal current phenomena shouldn't appear simultaneously..."

Nami stared fixedly at the sea surface, suddenly realizing something; her pupils contracted sharply as she shouted loudly:

"It's a super-large Sea King! The storm is too huge; it has disturbed the big fellow lurking on the seabed in this area, and it is venting its fury madly!"

As if to verify her words, the sea surface suddenly bulged upward into a massive hump with a diameter exceeding one thousand meters, and the surrounding sea began to churn violently as if boiling—

Boom!!!

A cyan tentacle thick enough to span a hundred meters burst forth from the water, carrying tens of thousands of tons of seawater, and smashed furiously toward the Curtain Fall!

Not good!

Sister Sister Guyina was greatly alarmed; she immediately drew her sword to intercept, but upon mere contact, she was smashed away directly by that tentacle and slammed heavily onto the deck.

"Sister Sister Guyina!" Nami cried out, her face pale as death.

Just at this critical moment—

Bang!

The cabin door of the training room was suddenly kicked open; a black shadow shot out like a cannonball, stepping onto the deck and leaving spiderweb-like cracks before soaring into the sky!

"Elbaf Spear..."

Siano's figure collided thunderously with the tentacle yet remained immovable; he grinned, and his right fist, wreathed in Haki, smashed violently toward that sky-obscuring giant figure.

"Kokujo!"

(End of Chapter)