If this were the usual Enel, after hearing Kaku's last words, he would have instantly shot lightning at him.
But this time, he didn't. Instead, he felt a bit surprised, "Why are you helping me?"
Kaku laughed heartily, "Hahaha, from the moment I decided to board this ship, I was prepared. No matter what happens in the future, I will face it alongside you all. Now that our captain has killed a Celestial Dragon, there's no doubt we'll face plenty of trouble in the future. The captain's strength is unquestionable, we don't need to worry about him. But we, on the other hand, are lagging behind. If we don't start improving ourselves, we'll just be a burden to Takumi. You don't want to rely on him to save you every time, right?"
Kaku's words left Enel silent once again.
It's true... Even though not all Vice Admirals in the world are on Garp's level, Enel had witnessed firsthand the strength of an Admiral. And then there was one of the Four Emperors, Whitebeard. They were all incredibly powerful figures.
With his current strength, the hope of defeating them wasn't very high.
Though he had grown comfortable with his lack of ambition, if his strength stopped improving, there was a real chance Takumi might get fed up with him one day and kick him off the ship...
After thinking it over, Enel made a decision, "Alright, let's go with your plan."
And just like that, the two of them happily reached an agreement.
Takumi didn't pay attention to their conversation, so he had no idea what the two were plotting.
In the following days, except for encountering a few unexpected bursts of bad weather, the journey went smoothly.
Soon, the ship flew into a perfectly calm and tranquil sea.
Takumi glanced at the system navigation, noting that they were close to Amazon Lily. It wouldn't take more than half an hour to reach the island.
"We're in the Calm Belt now," Kaku said as he stepped onto the deck. Looking at the eerily peaceful sea, he said worriedly, "I've heard Amazon Lily is in the Calm Belt, so we must be getting close."
"The Calm Belt?" Enel suddenly recalled something he read in a magazine, "Isn't that the gathering place of Sea Kings?"
Kaku nodded, "That's right."
Turning to Takumi, who was still fishing at the bow of the ship, Kaku said with some exasperation, "In a place where Sea Kings gather, there shouldn't be any fish to catch, right?"
Takumi remained calm, "Kaku, get ready."
Kaku blinked in confusion, "Get ready for what?"
Takumi smirked, "We're having Sea King for lunch."
As he spoke, Takumi swiftly reeled in his line, pulling the baited hook from the calm waters. Suddenly, a massive wave rolled in, and from the heart of the turbulent water, a ten-meter-long, red, centipede-like Sea King emerged.
"Uh..." Kaku's face stiffened with an awkward smile. "Is that a centipede? You can't eat those, right?"
"Be patient, there's more," Takumi said casually.
Suddenly, five more bizarre-looking Sea Kings surfaced around the centipede. Among them, a massive Sea Cow stood out, looking much more edible than the others.
Takumi pointed at the Sea Cow and said, "That one's yours, Kaku. Enel can handle the rest."
"Uh, fighting Sea Kings?" Kaku smiled wryly.
Meanwhile, Enel had already begun twirling his golden staff, striking the drums on his back twice. A Thunderbird shot out from the drum, piercing through the centipede-like Sea King closest to them.
However, the attack didn't do much damage to the Sea King.
"Heh, looks like these Sea Kings are more resilient than I thought," Enel smirked. He struck his drums again, this time unleashing a 60-million-volt Thunder Dragon.
When the Thunder Dragon pierced the centipede Sea King's body, the creature was thoroughly electrified, immediately losing consciousness and crashing heavily into the calm sea, causing a massive splash.
As for the other Sea Kings, they ignored their fallen comrade and surrounded the ship from all sides, preparing to attack.
Seeing no way to avoid the battle, Kaku sighed helplessly and unsheathed two newly purchased swords from Sabaody. Standing on the edge of the ship, he asked Enel, "There are still five left. Can you handle four of them on your own?"
Enel scoffed, "A few measly Sea Kings? To a god like me, they're nothing but trash."
"Other than Takumi, you think everyone is trash..." Kaku muttered before leaping high into the air, landing precisely on the head of the giant Sea Cow, which was still about thirty or forty meters away from the ship.
Kaku's jumping ability never failed to impress.
Meanwhile, Enel manipulated the electricity from his body to control a chimney-like structure on the ship's top deck. Black mist spewed from the chimney, rising into the sky and forming a massive storm cloud filled with crackling lightning, about 100 meters above the ship.
This device was something Enel used to amplify his large-scale attacks. He had only used it once back on Skypiea and hadn't needed it since.
"Yahahaha! Let's see how you like the taste of endless lightning!" Enel laughed maniacally, raising his golden staff toward the cloud. Instantly, countless bolts of terrifying lightning rained down, avoiding the ship and striking the approaching Sea Kings directly.
"Endless Lightning" was a wide-area attack. Each individual lightning strike wasn't particularly powerful, weaker even than the Thunderbird, but being hit by dozens or even hundreds of bolts at once was no joke.
Soon, the struck Sea Kings were writhing in agony, letting out deafening roars.
The calm sea became turbulent as the Sea Kings' thrashing caused waves to rise.
Thankfully, the ship was flying above the sea, so it wasn't affected by the waves, though some spray still splashed onto the deck.
Enel was enjoying the sight of his enemies suffering, so much so that he completely forgot about his weakness as a Devil Fruit user. A wave splashed him directly in the face, drenching him. In an instant, his strength drained from his body, and with a loud thud, he collapsed onto the now-soaked deck.
On the other side, Kaku combined the Six Powers with his swordsmanship, putting in some effort to fulfill Takumi's task. After cutting a large chunk of meat from the Sea Cow, he returned to the ship, only to find Enel lying on the deck. Thinking they were under attack, he quickly jumped onto the ship from the Sea Cow's corpse.
Kaku set down the Sea Cow meat and hurried to check on Enel.
When he saw that Enel was drenched in seawater, and the deck was soaked as well, Kaku facepalmed, sighing, "You're a Devil Fruit user, how could you forget you can't touch seawater?"
Meanwhile, on the shores of Amazon Lily.
"Hey, look over there, something's strange with the sky."
A short-haired woman in a bikini, her hair orange, pointed to a distant storm cloud with surprise.
Her two companions, also in bikinis, gazed at the cloud, their faces showing similar astonishment.
One of them, a brown-haired woman with long, wavy locks, took out a telescope and looked toward the cloud. When she saw a ship flying above the sea, surrounded by Sea Kings, she was stunned. "Uh, is that ship flying? That's insane! Quick, someone report this to Lady Hancock! I'll keep watch here!"
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Without Enel's power to support it, the thunderclouds in the sky slowly dissipated, and the ship that had been flying smoothly lost its energy and started to descend.
Fortunately, the ship wasn't flying very high and landed gently on the calm sea.
But the four Sea Kings, still enraged from the earlier lightning strikes, roared and surged back toward the ship with renewed fury.
Kaku frowned as he watched the Sea Kings getting closer.
If it were only one or two, he could manage, but four at once? He wasn't confident he could handle them all...
"Captain Takumi, there are four of them left. How do we deal with this?" Kaku turned to look at Takumi.
Takumi leaped up to the top of the ship, drew his Sandai Kitetsu, and without a word, swung it horizontally. A powerful, invisible slash of sword energy spiraled outward in all directions.
If these had been ordinary Sea Kings, the sword slash would have either killed or gravely wounded them. But these four were far tougher than the Sea Kings Takumi had encountered in other seas, with the slash only leaving half-meter deep gashes on their thick hides.
They were a lot tougher than expected.
A single strike was only enough to injure them. Two more strikes should be enough to finish them off, Takumi thought as he prepared to swing again.
However, before he could act, the four wounded Sea Kings unexpectedly retreated, diving back into the depths of the sea and fleeing.
Kaku stood there, stunned, watching the Sea Kings—who had just been fiercely intent on devouring the ship—suddenly retreat in pain.
He had struggled so much to deal with one, and Takumi had scared off all four with just a single slash?
How powerful must he be to pull that off...
There was a question Kaku had been meaning to ask but hadn't had the chance. Now seemed like a good moment.
As Takumi jumped down from the ship's top, Kaku quickly spoke up, "Captain Takumi, I didn't realize your swordsmanship was this strong. Are you a dual-wielding swordsman?"
"No," Takumi replied casually.
Kaku blinked, a bit incredulous. "If you're not, then why carry two swords?"
"Why not?" Takumi glanced at him.
Kaku chuckled awkwardly, "It's not that. I'm just curious... Being able to wield Kitetsu already shows you're no ordinary swordsman. But if you're not using two-sword style, why carry two? And one of them is a wooden sword. With your power, you wouldn't settle for an ordinary wooden sword, so it must be special. But I can't sense anything unusual about it... Could you let me take a look?"
Takumi silently stared at the hopeful expression on Kaku's face for a moment. Then, without a word, he unhooked the Lake Toya sword from his waist and held it out for Kaku to see.
Kaku's eyes lit up, and he reached out to take it.
But before he could, Takumi casually reattached the sword to his waist.
Kaku was left standing there, bewildered. "Uh... weren't you going to let me see it?"
"I did," Takumi said flatly.
Kaku was speechless for a moment, then couldn't help but smirk. Of course, he really had only been shown a quick glance...
"Prepare the ship," Takumi ordered, looking in the direction of Amazon Lily.
Even though the ship couldn't fly anymore without Enel's power, it could still sail normally. Kaku, being the shipwright, knew the ship's structure and functions inside and out. Getting it moving again wouldn't be difficult for him.
But there was one problem: they were in the Calm Belt. Without wind, the sea was dead calm, and most ships that entered it couldn't move at all.
Kaku hesitated, "This is the Calm Belt. Without Enel's electricity, how are we going to move forward?"
Takumi glanced back at him calmly, "Don't worry about it. Just steer the ship."
Kaku didn't know what Takumi had planned, but he had no choice but to trust him.
Without further questions, Kaku headed to the control room—a place they rarely used—and began maneuvering the ship with practiced skill.
Meanwhile, Takumi moved to the stern of the ship. Using Moonwalk, he leapt about twenty meters into the air behind the ship. Gathering chakra, he manipulated the surrounding seawater, quickly forming a massive water dragon, which surged toward the area five meters behind the ship.
With a thunderous crash, the powerful force of the water dragon launched the ship forward.
Kaku, clueless about what Takumi had done, felt the ship begin to move and quickly adjusted the steering to keep them on course.
Takumi landed back on the ship's deck just as it shot forward.
On the shores of Amazon Lily, the girl who had been watching them through a telescope had seen everything. She had witnessed every move Takumi and his crew had made.
Her heart raced in shock, especially when she saw the ship 'flying' toward the island at an alarming speed. Her expression grew more and more tense.
"This is bad. It looks like their goal is to land on the island. We can't let them make it ashore!" Her brow furrowed in determination, and she grabbed a small whistle hanging around her neck, ready to call for reinforcements.
But before she could blow the whistle, the ship carrying Takumi and his crew soared over her head, crashing through several large trees before finally coming to a stop.
"Ugh, this is going to take a long time to fix..." Kaku stepped out of the control room, looking at the smashed bow of the ship with a headache.
Takumi, however, simply jumped off the deck and onto the ground.
The moment his feet touched the earth, a voice echoed in his mind.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host, for successfully reaching the sign-in location: Amazon Lily. Sign-in progress +10%. Current total progress: 10%. Reward: Conqueror's Haki +1 level. Current Conqueror's Haki level: Lv7.]
Instantly, a powerful aura radiated from Takumi, spreading rapidly in all directions.
The girl who had just been about to blow her whistle was still watching from a distance. But the moment Takumi stepped off the ship, she managed to blow her whistle for less than half a second before collapsing. Her eyes rolled back, and she fell to the ground, unconscious.
Even the little green snake resting on her shoulder fainted.
As for Kaku, he didn't pass out like the girl, but he was completely immobilized by the overwhelming pressure of Takumi's Haki. For a brief moment, he felt as if he were on the verge of death.
Fortunately, the sensation only lasted a second. Kaku quickly regained control of his body, though his forehead was damp with cold sweat as he stared at Takumi, who had already stepped onto the shore.
Takumi had half-expected a new skill as a reward.
But gaining another level in Conqueror's Haki? That wasn't a bad reward either.
"You stay here," Takumi said, turning back to the stunned Kaku still standing on the deck. "Watch the ship and keep an eye on Enel."
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