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Chapter 86: Hakoku Sovereignty
The banquet concluded quickly.
Before leaving Little Garden, the Straw Hat crew scrambled to gather a large amount of fresh ingredients, vegetables, and fruits from the island. Although the island was fraught with danger, its abundance of natural resources was staggering. It had sustained two giants for a century, so one could only imagine the reserves it held.
The hunting competition between Zoro and Sanji ultimately failed to produce a clear winner. The prey they brought back were almost identical in size. Because of this, the two nearly came to blows right there on the island, fortunately being pulled apart by the others just in time.
Dorry and Brogy watched their endless bickering, a look of nostalgia and realization dawning in their eyes. This familiar scene was like a key, unlocking memories sealed away for years.
Back then, their century-long duel had begun because of a little girl's innocent question: "Lord Brogy, Lord Dorry, who caught the bigger prey?"
"Brogy... I remember now."
"Gahahaha... me too."
"Thinking about it now, it really was a boring reason." Dorry shook his head, his tone carrying a hint of self-mockery, but then his gaze sharpened intensely. "However... that prey back then was definitely bigger than yours!"
"...Huh?" The smile on Brogy's face vanished instantly. His expression darkened, and he retorted in a muffled, angry voice, "Bullsh*t! Mine was clearly the bigger one!"
"Damn it! You want to fight right now?"
"Bring it on! We've been fighting for a hundred years anyway! Let's settle this once and for all today, Dorry!"
The situation took a sharp turn, mirroring the dispute between Zoro and Sanji just moments ago. The two giants were ready to come to blows after barely exchanging two sentences, the tension escalating instantly.
However, they ultimately suppressed the urge to fight immediately. The volcanic eruption was their agreed signal for battle. Moreover, their new friends were about to set sail, and they had to send them off in the grandest manner possible!
Watching the Going Merry slowly drift away from the coast, Dorry raised the massive sword in his hand high and shouted with a voice like a bell:
"Friends! Remember! No matter what appears ahead, please head straight forward!"
Brogy also shouldered his terrifying giant axe, his hearty laughter echoing through the bay:
"We two, in the name of the warriors of Elbaf, shall open the path for you!"
The two giants stood like ancient gatekeeper gods holding up the sky, positioned on the left and right banks of the waterway. They watched as the Going Merry slowly sailed out from the channel between them, entering the vast open sea.
Not long after, right on the Going Merry's course...
Rumble!!!
The originally calm sea suddenly boiled as if a violent explosion had occurred on the seabed. Monstrous waves wrapped in mist rushed into the sky. Amidst the churning water that seemed capable of overturning heaven and earth, a shadow so massive it defied imagination gradually surfaced, revealing its terrifying true form.
It was... a goldfish!
A prehistoric beast with a body size comparable to an island, blotting out the sky. Before it, the Going Merry was so tiny it didn't even compare to one of its eyeballs.
"What the...!! Wh... what kind of monster is that!!"
Nami turned pale with fright at this sudden terrifying sight. Her legs went soft, and she collapsed against Ganyu, her voice screeching with a sob.
"Turn around! Turn the ship around! Run for your lives!!"
The others on the ship were also dumbstruck by this unprecedented behemoth. They had truly never seen such a gigantic creature in their lives.
Usopp's expression, however, looked a bit odd. He frowned, muttering to himself: "A giant goldfish... I feel like I've heard of something similar before?"
Ganyu tilted her head slightly, her autumn-water eyes reflecting the hideous, massive monster opening its abyssal maw. Like Laboon at Twin Cape, this monster seemed to have noticed her on the ship.
However, it didn't look very friendly. That look full of appetite, the gradually widening maw, clearly meant... it wanted to swallow her.
Ganyu blinked, an inexplicable urge rising in her heart to revert to her true form and test her strength against this giant goldfish.
"Luffy, do we need to change course?"
She asked in a gentle tone, masking the abnormality beneath her voice that ordinary people would miss.
Only Zoro's pupils constricted as he shot her a sharp look. This woman, she isn't thinking of...
"Of course not!"
Luffy shook his head decisively. His eyes were bright and exceptionally serious.
"Didn't Uncle Dorry and Uncle Brogy say so? Let us... head straight forward!"
"Hey, hey! Stop joking! It's completely different from Laboon! It really wants to eat us as a snack!!"
Nami was terrified to the extreme, desperately tugging on Luffy's arm and shaking it, trying to get this one-track-minded captain to change his suicidal decision.
However, just as her crying faded, two shouts like exploding thunder, containing supreme power and resolve, rang out from Little Garden behind them!
"Hakoku Sovereignty!!!"
The next moment, the world seemed to lose its color, and the surrounding air appeared to be instantly evacuated. A sharp shockwave traversed the horizon, slamming heavily into the goldfish's massive body.
Boom!!!
A deafening explosion resounded through the clouds.
A massive, clean hole was blasted straight through the goldfish's mountain-like body, transparent from front to back.
The Going Merry seized the opportunity, riding the wind and waves generated by this majestic power. As if lifted by an invisible giant hand, the ship cut through the waves, briefly leaping into the air to pass thrillingly yet precisely through the smoking giant hole in the goldfish's body.
"Th... this is... the warriors of Elbaf!!"
Usopp was moved to tears, gazing at the two figures standing tall in the distance. He silently swore in his heart that in the future, he would definitely visit that legendary "Warrior Village," Elbaf, to see it with his own eyes!
Luffy stood alone at the bow, waving his arm vigorously toward Little Garden, shouting at the top of his lungs:
"Uncle Dorry! Uncle Brogy! Let's meet again someday!"
The Going Merry had already sailed a great distance, far enough that the two giants on the island couldn't possibly hear his voice clearly.
But they understood Luffy's gesture of farewell.
They raised the broken weapons in their hands, shattered after unleashing their combined ultimate technique, and shouted heroically:
"Move forward! Friends!"
...
The first night after setting sail from Little Garden.
It was time to sleep in the female crew quarters.
Ganyu lay on the soft large bed. To her left was the steadily breathing little girl, Marianne. To her right was a well-behaved sleeping Princess.
The female crew quarters only had two beds... a relatively spacious large bed and a hanging hammock.
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