Silver Axe edged up to Captain John, squinting at the map. "Tell me… what if this treasure map is a fake?"
"Bait to lure whoever finds it into the Sea of Death and get them killed?"
The parchment looked old enough but age alone didn't prove a thing.
"No," John shot back, stubborn as bedrock. "When it comes to treasure charts, no one tops me. This one's real."
That much, at least, was gospel among the Rocks Pirates: John's two true loves were liquor and maps.
Wang Zhi stepped in. "Then explain this: we're at the point the map marks, and there's nothing here."
John stared out at the empty horizon, mouth working soundlessly, then dropped his eyes to the chart and scoured it again, hunting for some hidden cue.
"The mark is right. It has to be right. So why has the island… vanished?"
He kept muttering it the island's gone as he looked from sky to sea and made up his mind. "Wait here. I'm going down to have a look."
He believed in the map.
Wang Zhi nodded, but fixed terms. "You get one day. If we find nothing by then, we leave."
"Fine." John handed him the chart. "Keep this safe. I'll be quick."
He inhaled deep, packing his lungs with as much air as he could, and dove.
He arrowed down.
Fifty meters.
A hundred.
One-fifty.
Pressure that would pulp an ordinary man meant nothing to him. He plunged past a hundred meters with no gear at all and saw nothing. Below him yawned a black that felt bottomless; it pressed on his mind like a gaze returned stare into the abyss, and the abyss stares back.
Up on deck, Tengetsu Ares wiped his mouth, satisfied food and sleep were the only times he allowed himself to ease off. "It's been a while. Why isn't Captain John back yet?"
"Relax," Wang Zhi said, eyes on the waves. "He can hold out down there."
Silver Axe wasn't so sure. "Look, if there's no treasure, we should turn back. Every extra minute out here is flirting with death. Treasure's not worth more than our necks."
The mood caught; men around the deck grumbled agreement. Fighting they could stomach at least the stakes were clear but chasing a phantom island after hours in a killing sea frayed anyone's nerve.
"Quiet." Wang Zhi's voice cracked like a whip. "We wait until John reports."
Glug glug glug.
Bubbles churned up like a pot at the boil, pocking the surface with rings.
"Something's up," Wang Zhi frowned.
Men rushed to the rail, craning out over the water.
The sea humped and whoom a pillar of water blasted skyward, arcing back in sheets like a geyser.
Wang Zhi's jaw tightened. "Damn it. John's not up yet. That can't be good."
Kaido stepped forward. "I'll go. I'll see what's down there."
"I should," Ares said at once.
Wang Zhi weighed them, then nodded to Kaido. "You go. Ares, you may resist seawater, but it still shackles you."
He fixed Kaido with a hard look. "First sign of trouble, you surface. No heroics."
"Right."
Time was already burning. Kaido drew in a lungful and knifed into the sea.
Swimming was second nature to pirates. Barring Devil Fruit users, most were seals in human skin.
Below, Kaido's massive frame cut through the water like a tiger shark, power and bulk translating into startling speed. He dropped to nearly a thousand meters in no time.
In the dark, a lamp bloomed bright, bobbing a living beacon in a river-swift current. And there, lit starkly by it: Captain John and some kind of… fish-man?
"An angler fish-man?" Kaido's pupils pinched. "No merfolk?"
"No… that mug is pure fish-man. What the hell is that thing?"
He closed and the shape sharpened: a blue brute, a lantern dangling from a rod sprouting from its head. Its face was all fish ugly as a nightmare. Dark-blue hide sheathed cords of muscle not a step behind Kaido's and slick scales gleamed along its body.
In its hands: a huge stone trident, the tines ground to needles.
And unlike fish-men, the thing had a fish tail merfolk-style.
Which made it terrifyingly fast. Even underwater it moved like a Six Powers user, flicking away in a blur and circling John with predatory ease.
Kaido tried to shout, bubbles shredding his words to a garbled hum Captain John! I'll help! and lunged at the lantern-beast.
Idiot! John swore silently, panic sparking. He'd already tasted the thing's power: every stroke whipped the current into knots. Down here, one mistake killed you. He didn't dare open his mouth to warn Kaido sea would flood in like air.
The lantern-thing knifed toward Kaido like a torpedo and swept the trident. Water heaved and buckled, a compressed river breaking loose and ramming forward.
"Sea God Riptide!"
The creature's voice rang even in the deep. "Today, grave-robbers, you drown where you trespass! The treasure is not for you!"
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