“Can you really slice me with that thing?” Ace teased, grinning like a little scamp. The outline of his body blurred with heat haze. In moments, the flickering turned into proper flame.
His entire body was fire. Ace’s Flame-Flame Fruit powers were in full effect.
“If you wish, I will riddle you with holes!” Isuka said, on the move before the words had left her mouth. Her narrow sword jabbed with blinding speed.
“Whoa!!”
Though made of fire, Ace was so surprised by the force of her attack that he instinctively dodged out of the way.
“Captain Ace!”
“We gotta help the captain, boys!”
The crew surrounded Isuka at once, but she spun and swung her sword with incredible speed and ferocity. It was like she was surrounded by an invisible wall, so complete and dangerous was her defense. You could try to walk through that wall, but there was no way you wouldn’t emerge pierced all over from that sharp, shining sword tip.
Isuka the Nailer. The name made much more sense now.
“Do not attempt to run, Ace! Cease your ineffective resistance and surrender to justice!” Isuka demanded as she attacked.
“So if my resistance is effective, would that be okay?” Ace teased, avoiding her sword.
They couldn’t be more different, I thought. But then something about Isuka’s fighting style struck me as strange.
She was alone. We had many members. One could only expend so much stamina. With the way she fought, fatigue was bound to set in eventually. So why did she choose to come over to the ship alone? She’d brought all these ships and men. Why not use them? It almost seemed like she was buying time…
By the time the thought occurred to me and I spun around to look, the Navy ships were already circling in our direction. Slowly but surely, they were completing their encirclement.
She used herself as a decoy!
She’d inserted herself into enemy territory to draw all attention to herself. Such boldness forced us to respond, and when there was a disruption such as this on the deck, sailing of course became an afterthought. Now the other Naval ships had surrounded us…
Suddenly it made sense to me that one of the ships in particular had stuck tight to our tail. It was intended to keep us focused on just one direction without paying attention to the others.
“It’s over now,” said Isuka, pointing the tip of her sword at Ace.
“Aaaaaaaaah!”
Just then, there was a scream from off the ship. It had obviously come from one of the Navy ships surrounding the Spade Pirates’ vessel.
“Looks like we made it just in time,” I muttered, relieved. We had reached our destination at sea in the nick of time.
“Were you so busy chasing after us that you failed to notice the rocks underwater?” I taunted, looking toward the enemy ships—one of which in the blockade was noticeably tilting.
We had reached the reef.
If you passed this way without realizing it, you’d get stuck between the crashing waves and the underwater rocks and have no safe escape. If you were lucky, the rocks might scrape a hole in your bilge and sink you—as had just happened to the ship nearby.
It was clear from the start that the enemy fleet was going to attempt to surround us. I didn’t expect a senior officer to infiltrate our ship alone and distract us, but from our standpoint, we just needed to prevent them from forming a full blockade. That’s why I had steered us over here: to slip through the rocks and make an escape where they couldn’t get in front of us.
They must have picked up speed and rammed right up onto one of the pointed rocks underwater. The battleship looked badly damaged; it was keeling farther and farther over by the moment. People and barrels toppled over the railing into the sea.
Waves are chaotic in a reef area like this. Among the craggy points, they swirled and crashed in unpredictable patterns. And because the churning water sharpened the rock formations, they could do a lot of damage to an unsuspecting victim.
“You could have just paid attention to the rocks and chosen not to chase us.”
The fallen sailors were at the mercy of the waves. Even an experienced swimmer would have difficulty in these conditions. Isuka promptly sheathed her sword and placed a foot against the railing.
“What, are you running away now?” Ace demanded.
“I’m going to save them, you fool!” she cried, and jumped straight between the whitecaps.
We rushed to the side of the ship to watch. Isuka swam cleanly through the choppy waves, reaching out for her struggling subordinates. When she got one, she would move him to a floating barrel or wood plank before heading to the next.
“She’s incredible,” Skull said, whistling in admiration.
But the waves were just a bit too strong. Isuka was at their mercy. She’d get smashed by one, then pop her head out of the water a moment later, over and over. She gave every bit of flotsam to her subordinates, so she had nothing to hold on to herself.
Ace watched her struggle. Then, without a word, he threw a flotation ring over the side. Isuka struggled against the waves but succeeded in grabbing the ring. Despite her predicament, she glared up at the Spade Pirates’ ship, and Ace at its side, with fury in her eyes.
“Why did you save me?!” she bellowed.
“Dunno,” Ace said simply. He turned his back on her.
“Fire Fist! I will capture you next time! I will make you regret helping me!” Isuka shouted after us, as our ship continued on its way.
“She’s a good person,” Ace said, looking back at the reef area as we passed.
A superior officer who prioritized saving her own subordinates over her personal goals—in that sense, she was a good person. And the plan for her to slip onto the enemy ship alone to buy time was probably her idea, not just because she was the strongest on the ship.
But…
“I dunno, the thought of having such a fearsome woman chasing after us this whole time is kinda depressing,” I said with a sigh.
“Hey, it’s better than that sweaty, beardy guy before her, right?”
“Well, that’s true… I don’t want to have to deal with that type ever again, either.”
Ace and I shared a look and laughed.
“Well, time to get back to our celebration. C’mon, let’s party!”
And with that, he revived the festivities.