The next morning, just as the first light appeared in the sky, a loud engine sound spread across the harbor.
The water shook with it.
A specially modified speedboat was waiting at the edge of the dock.
On the pier, Smoker wore a heavy leather jacket with the collar turned up against the cold sea breeze.
His short silver-white hair was a mess from the wind.
Smoker watched the speedboat slowly pull away from the dock.
Then he took a deep drag from his cigar.
"Vroom——!!"
The engine roared, and white spray burst out behind the boat.
In the blink of an eye, it disappeared past the horizon.
Smoker was left standing there alone, blowing smoke toward the empty sea.
"What are you looking at?! Don't you have work to do?!"
Smoker suddenly turned around and yelled at the people behind him.
A group of soldiers stood there, still yawning after assembly.
"Look at you! No discipline at all!"
Smoker barked. Smoke rose from his back and formed several huge fists that waved in the air.
"Since you don't have to go out to sea and die, you're going to train like your lives depend on it! Everyone, fifty-kilometer weighted run! If anyone dares to slack off, I'll personally break your bones! No breakfast until you finish!!"
"What?! Fifty kilometers?!"
The soldiers all let out a groan.
But under Smoker's hard glare, no one dared say another word.
They could only pick up their gear with bitter faces and start running through the dawn.
Out on the wide sea, the speedboat raced southeast at an incredible speed.
Inside, Aiden was at the wheel.
He held it with one hand, his expression focused and calm.
As the trip went on, the sea became stranger and rougher.
Hidden currents began to move under the surface, and the speedboat rose and fell hard with the waves.
It felt like riding over the back of some giant beast.
Aiden quietly spread out his Observation Haki.
It covered several nautical miles like an invisible net and caught every hidden reef and whirlpool.
Because of that, the speedboat moved through the deadly waters with ease.
Gion stood on the deck, holding the railing with both hands.
The sea breeze blew through her soft long hair, and a few strands stuck to her cheeks.
She did not go back inside to rest.
Instead, she stayed alert and watched the sea around them.
The farther they went, the lower and heavier the sky became.
The blue water slowly turned black, and it became impossible to see what was under the surface.
After some time, a wall of gray-white fog suddenly appeared ahead.
It stretched from the sea to the sky.
It was so thick it felt solid, like a wall cutting the world in two.
Even the strong sea breeze could not blow it away.
Instead, the fog rolled in a strange way.
Deep inside it, low sounds could be heard.
It was hard to tell whether it was wind or the breathing of some huge creature.
"Is this... the edge of the Calm Belt?" Gion narrowed her eyes and tried to see through the fog.
But even with her eyesight, all she could see was white.
"Hold on tight."
Before she could respond, Aiden's voice came from inside.
Boom!
The speedboat suddenly sped up and charged forward.
It rushed straight into the fog-covered sea.
The light disappeared at once.
Everything turned into gray-white chaos.
Vision was blocked immediately, and they could barely see more than a few meters ahead.
Other than the sound of the boat cutting through the waves, everything was too quiet.
Sizzle—— Sizzle——
The instruments in front of Aiden suddenly started jumping wildly.
The compass needle spun in circles, and then the glass cracked from the strong magnetic interference.
"The magnetic field here is completely messed up."
Aiden glanced at the ruined instruments but did not care.
His hand on the wheel stayed steady.
Just then, a strange smell came in with the cold sea breeze and reached Gion.
It was sweet, but in a strange way.
It was not like any normal flower smell.
It was thick and heavy, mixed with the smell of rotten fruit.
At first, it almost made people want to breathe in more.
"What is this smell?"
Gion frowned slightly and took two instinctive breaths.
A second later, her expression changed.
Thump, thump, thump.
Without warning, her heart started beating hard and fast.
Her blood rushed faster through her body, and a strange heat rose from her stomach to her head.
It felt like being half drunk and half ready for battle.
Her hand tightened around the hilt of her sword.
A flash of violence and irritation crossed her eyes, feelings she normally would never let show.
For a moment, she even wanted to draw her sword and slash at the fog ahead.
"Something's wrong!"
Her control as a top fighter made her notice at once that something was affecting her body.
She was about to take a deep breath and calm herself down.
"Don't take deep breaths."
Aiden's voice came at just the right time.
Then something dark flew through the air and landed perfectly in Gion's hands.
She caught it and looked down.
It was a gas mask.
"This is pollen from a plant that grows in this sea area," Aiden said as he kept steering.
"I heard an old sailor mention it in the tavern yesterday. The pollen affects the nerves and stirs up the body."
"For beasts, it makes them grow huge and go mad, turning them into monsters that only know how to kill."
"As for humans..." Aiden paused.
"If you breathe in too much, you won't mutate, but you'll lose your mind and become someone who only knows how to fight."
"You heard all that in a tavern?"
Gion looked at Aiden's back with suspicion.
Just from hearing one old drunk talk, he had prepared this much? He had even brought gas masks?
How far ahead had he thought?
But the strange reaction in her body did not give her time to think much more.
She quickly put on the mask.
As the filtered air entered her lungs, the sweet smell was finally blocked.
Gion took a few breaths and slowly forced the heat in her blood back down.
Her eyes returned to normal.
Her voice sounded a little muffled behind the mask.
"What about you? Did you only bring one?"
She looked toward Aiden in worry.
"I don't need one."
Aiden glanced back. In the dim light, a tiny blue spark danced on his fingertip.
A faint smile rested on his lips.
"Don't forget, I'm a Logia user."
"This kind of poison that affects the nervous system is useless against me. If I want, the heat in my body can burn away anything I breathe in."
As he spoke, a flash of electricity ran over him.
The air around him twisted slightly from the heat.
"——Logia types really are convenient," Gion muttered with a little envy as she adjusted her mask.
The speedboat kept moving through the fog.
The sea grew even more dangerous.
Suddenly, Aiden jerked the wheel hard.
The speedboat made a sharp turn on the water.
The boat tilted so far it was almost sideways, barely missing a huge dark shape that suddenly rose from below.
"Was that... a reef?" Gion asked in surprise as she looked at the massive thing that had almost scraped the bottom of the boat.
"No, it was a shipwreck."
Aiden glanced at it.
In the weak light, they could see a huge three-masted sailing ship broken into two pieces.
It had not been broken by crashing into rocks.
Several deep claw marks ran through the middle of it.
They were so large that it looked as if a beast the size of a warship had torn it open.
The wooden planks were bent, the keel was broken, and rotten seaweed hung from it.
The smell of death clung to it.
"It seems the information was right. This place really is dangerous."
As the speedboat went deeper, they saw more wrecks like that.
Some floated on the surface, and some were half sunk.
Without exception, all of them had been torn apart.
This whole sea area was like a giant graveyard for ships and sailors.
Finally, after about half an hour of sailing, the fog ahead began to thin.
A huge island slowly appeared before them.
It was surrounded on three sides by steep black cliffs, like natural walls keeping outsiders away.
The island was covered in thick forests.
The trees were unbelievably tall, some of them reaching hundreds of meters, and their canopies blocked out the sky.
In the dim light, the twisted branches looked like claws moving in the wind.
"This is... Merveille."
Aiden guided the speedboat onto a flat stretch of black gravel and turned off the engine.
The two of them jumped off the boat and landed on the slippery rocks.
The place was too quiet.
There were no waves hitting the shore and no cries of sea birds.
The sweet smell in the air was strongest here, mixed with the smell of rotten leaves and wild beasts.
"The ecosystem here... is completely messed up."
Gion gripped her sword hilt.
Her instincts as a top fighter made her whole body tense.
Everything in the air here made her uncomfortable.
It felt like something was watching them from everywhere.
The rocks by the shore were covered with huge claw marks and white bones.
Some of those bones were so large that it was hard to tell whether they belonged to humans or giant beasts.
"SCREECH——!!!!"
Just as the two of them stepped into the edge of the forest, a piercing cry exploded from high above them.
The sound was sharp enough to hurt their ears and shake leaves loose from the trees.
"Watch out! Above!"
Gion reacted at once.
She shouted sharply, and her right hand instantly pressed against her sword hilt.
"ROAR——!"
A huge dark shape dropped from the sky with a burst of foul wind.
It was a giant bird over ten meters long.
Its whole body was covered in pitch-black feathers that looked as hard as steel.
Its blood-red eyes held no caution at all, only madness and the desire to kill.
Its giant hooked claws shone with a cold blue light.
With a scream that cut through the air, it slashed down toward the two of them.
Its speed and power were already beyond that of an ordinary Marine Captain.