"Brothers, charge! Tear him to pieces and show him the power of our Tyrannosaurus Pirates!" Captain Riddle ordered his men.
"Yes, Captain! Just a single brat trying to steal our ship, he really doesn't know how to spell death." His crew members were highly agitated, their tone incredibly arrogant.
Even though the other party's bounty was higher than their captain's, in their eyes, their captain was the strongest.
However, in Riddle's eyes, his crew members were nothing but cannon fodder. He could get as many of this kind of crew as he wanted. He would never make a move recklessly without knowing the true depth of his enemy's strength.
The pirates drew the cutlasses from their waists and charged at Shirakawa with wild laughter. In their eyes, Shirakawa was like a piece of meat on the chopping block, ready to be slaughtered.
"The ignorant are truly fearless." This was Shirakawa's assessment of them. They seemed completely unaware that their lives were about to reach an end.
Right now, in Shirakawa's eyes, their movements were agonizingly slow. This indicated that Shirakawa's dynamic vision was getting better and better, and his speed was growing faster and faster.
Despite the combined attacks of a dozen people, not a single one managed to land a hit on Shirakawa.
"What the hell is this?" A bewildered pirate asked, staring blankly at Shirakawa. He felt like he was definitely going to slash Shirakawa, so how did his blade just pass right through his body?
This was entirely because Shirakawa's speed was simply too fast. In the split second right before the attack could hit, Shirakawa instantly shifted his body away and then instantly returned to his original position. It made it look as if the attacks were phasing right through his body.
"Well? Do you still want to continue?"
"Damn it, I don't believe this." One man pulled out a pistol and fired several shots right at Shirakawa.
However, immediately after, that pirate went flying backward and plunged into the sea.
"What just happened?" The other pirates completely failed to see what transpired. Their comrade was sent flying, and Shirakawa suddenly appeared in the exact spot where that pirate had just been standing.
"That was just a simple, ordinary attack. Don't worry, it will be your turn soon." Shirakawa's tone of voice was very even, but to the ears of these pirates, it sounded no different from the whispers of a demon.
They had just tried every method possible, yet they absolutely failed to land a single hit on Shirakawa.
"Is this the strength of someone with a bounty over two hundred million?" A pirate gulped, his voice choking up slightly. You really cannot judge a book by its cover. This was his current thought, and it was also the shared thought of every crew member on this pirate ship.
"Alright, I don't want to play with you guys anymore. All of you, get off the ship."
"What?"
Immediately after, Shirakawa completely vanished from the pirates' line of sight. One by one, the pirates were tossed into the sea by Shirakawa. Since this ship was going to temporarily serve as his vessel, he kept his attacks carefully controlled, trying his best not to damage the ship. After all, he did not currently have a crewmate who could repair ships.
In no time at all, every single pirate on the ship had been cleared out by Shirakawa.
"Hmm? Where is the captain?" After dealing with these ordinary pirate crew members, Shirakawa noticed that their captain was missing.
This ship was out on the open sea, and there were no islands around. It was impossible for Riddle to have left the ship, yet Shirakawa could not find a single trace of Riddle even after searching around.
"Is this guy part mouse or something? He really knows how to hide."
Left with no other choice, Shirakawa could only use his Observation Haki to carefully sweep every corner of the ship. He soon locked onto a specific spot, and a smile crept onto the corners of his mouth.
"And he calls himself a Tyrannosaurus?"
Hiding in a certain corner of the ship, Riddle suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, as if something terrible was about to happen to him.
"Impossible. I am hidden so perfectly, he will never be able to find me."
While watching Shirakawa fight his crew, Riddle had already felt the urge to retreat. Since his crew could not hit Shirakawa, it meant he would not be able to either. Lacking the necessary strength, he could not even comprehend how Shirakawa was dodging those attacks.
"Hey, come on up. Stop hiding." At this moment, a voice suddenly rang out from directly above Riddle's head.
"It must be a coincidence. He is definitely just trying to bluff me out. There is no way he actually found me," Riddle chanted silently in his heart.
"Look up. I am right above you." Riddle slowly raised his head, and sure enough, he met Shirakawa's terrifying face.
"How did you find me?" Riddle asked in horror. Logically speaking, the man shouldn't have been able to find him at all.
"You wouldn't understand even if I told you. Right now, I am giving you two choices. Choice number one, come up. Choice number two, go down."
"Up, I'm coming up." Riddle said hastily. He was a Devil Fruit user, so going down into the sea was equivalent to suicide. Going up meant there might still be a glimmer of hope.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. The 'Tyrannosaurus' is actually just a lizard. I can't believe you have the nerve to use that name."
That was right, Riddle was a Devil Fruit user who had eaten the Zoan-type Lizard-Lizard Fruit. Since the color of the ship's hull was relatively close to the color of his lizard form, Riddle had changed his skin color and clung flat against the side of the ship. If one were not paying close attention, he truly would be completely undetectable, and he might have genuinely managed to escape.
"Hehe, doesn't 'Tyrannosaurus' sound a bit more domineering?"
"Alright. Change back into your human form right now. Seeing you in this form is making me want to eat you. I have never tasted lizard meat before."
"Okay, okay, I will change right away." The moment he heard Shirakawa wanted to eat him, Riddle decisively transformed back into his human form. Even though he had eaten the Lizard Fruit, he was still fundamentally a human being.
In front of Shirakawa, he was acting extremely cowardly right now. He already knew he was no match for Shirakawa. In order to survive, it was best to keep as low a profile as possible.
"Now I will give you two more choices." Shirakawa held up two fingers.
"Number one, join me. Number two, jump down from here yourself."
"I choose one! I choose one!" Upon hearing Shirakawa's words, Riddle hurriedly replied. He had not lived long enough, and he did not want to die.
As for why Shirakawa asked Riddle to join, it was because this ship lacked even a single crew member to handle chores. If that remained the case, he and Jora would have to cook for themselves and navigate the ship themselves.
Now that Riddle had joined, at least some of the miscellaneous chores could be handed over to him.
"Very well, the Silver Pirates welcome you aboard." Shirakawa smiled and extended his hand toward Riddle.
Riddle quickly grasped it with both hands, tears welling up in his eyes.
Right at this moment, several pirate ships suddenly appeared in the nearby waters. Judging by their trajectory, their target seemed to be them.
"What is the situation here?" Shirakawa asked Riddle.
"These are all pirate crews that I have bullied in the past. They are probably here to seek revenge against me."
"Is that so? That means they are enemies." Since Riddle had already joined him, Riddle's enemies naturally became Shirakawa's enemies as well.
"You could say that."
The opposing side truly brought quite a number of pirate ships. There were seven of them in total.
"It seems you used to throw your weight around quite a bit."
"Hehe, not as much as you, Captain." Who else was like Shirakawa, immediately trying to hijack someone else's pirate crew the moment he came aboard?
"Haha, you make a fair point. In that case, I will show off a bit of my strength for you to see."
"Alright." Riddle also wanted to witness exactly what kind of strength Shirakawa possessed.
Following that, Shirakawa leaped onto the bow of the ship. He drew his blade, gripped it with a single hand, and swung downward. A streak of silver-white sword aura slashed across the surface of the sea toward those pirate ships.
The moment the silver-white sword aura reached one of the pirate ships, it instantly split into two halves, spreading outward into the surroundings and forming a T shape.
Those pirate ships were instantly cleaved in half. Even the split surface of the ocean failed to close up for a long time.
"Ah." Riddle opened his mouth in sheer astonishment, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. Whatever lingering thoughts he had about finding a chance to escape vanished in an instant.
Just how far would he have to run to escape the range of that sword aura?
/-\
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