If they did not leave now, the ship would soon depart Drum Kingdom. But if they left now, the patient's condition would certainly worsen.
Chopper had no idea what to do for a moment. He stood there in a daze.
"If you want to go back now, then go back," Luffy said, clearly enjoying the spectacle, as if he did not care whether Igaram lived or died.
"Luffy, you bastard..." Sanji could not help rubbing his head. He had never realized that Luffy had this side to him.
"I... Doctor Kureha told me that I must never give up on a patient!" After thinking for a while, Chopper finally looked at Igaram and nodded. "Once the patient gets better, please stop the ship and let me go back by myself!"
"How can we do that?" Luffy seemed very pleased with Chopper's answer. Rubbing his head, he grinned. "You ate a Devil Fruit, so you can't swim, right?"
"I can find another ship to take me back!" Chopper said with certainty.
"Then come with us!" Luffy said again. "We'll come back to this country too. When we do, let's work together to free it from the Ice Witch's curse!"
Chopper's eyes lit up. "Really? Is that okay?!"
"Of course! Then your country and Doctor Kureha's won't be so cold anymore!"
"!" Chopper was very simple-hearted. He soon became immersed in the future Luffy described, and for a moment, he could not help looking forward to it.
Luffy was simple-hearted too, just like Chopper, who had only become 'human' after eating a Devil Fruit. Perhaps that was exactly why he had been able to persuade Chopper so easily. Pure-hearted people naturally gravitated toward one another.
Chopper agreed to Luffy's proposal. The Going Merry gradually sailed away from Drum Kingdom, following the Eternal Pose toward Alabasta.
To celebrate Chopper joining them, everyone decided to hold a party. While Sanji jumped into the sea to catch fish, Usopp suddenly materialized his bow and arrows again.
"It's happening again!"
In his field of vision, a gigantic monster appeared, one only he could see clearly. It was a Menos Grande. Ever since they had left the East Blue, Hollows had been appearing with steadily increasing frequency, and they were growing stronger too.
Usopp had also discovered that the concentration of reishi seemed denser on the Grand Line, and that he became stronger in such an environment.
Since he was the only one who could see this Hollow, it was naturally his job to deal with it. But this time, the Hollow seemed somewhat unusual.
Normally, after one of these gigantic monsters appeared, it would attack Usopp, seemingly wanting to devour his soul. But this time, after tearing open space and descending onto the sea, the monster did not attack.
Instead, its body seemed to be undergoing some kind of change, as if every part of it were trembling.
Usopp had been preparing to defend against its attack, but when he saw the monster's strange behavior, he froze for a moment, unsure what was happening.
Usopp knew very little about these monsters. Although he had fought them for years, it would be fair to say that he knew almost nothing about them. He only knew that they were man-eating monsters like demons. Where they came from, what they actually were, and what their purpose was—all of it remained a mystery.
They seemed capable of speech, but Usopp had never communicated with them. Both sides instinctively sensed that the other was their natural enemy, an enemy they would fight to the death. Enemies only needed to fight.
Now that he saw the monster reacting so strangely, Usopp could not help wanting to observe it. He wanted to learn more about them so that he could deal with them better in the future.
They had only just arrived on the Grand Line, yet these monsters were already becoming stranger and stranger. The deeper they traveled into the Grand Line, the stronger these monsters would probably become.
"Usopp, what is it?"
When Usopp failed to move for a moment, Luffy asked curiously.
He could vaguely see the shadow of a Menos Grande ahead, but he could not make out its details.
"...The... the mask... it's cracking?!" Usopp stared at the scene before him and spoke in astonishment, even fear!
In his field of vision, the mask on the gigantic monster's face was actually cracking little by little!
Ever since he had first seen these monsters as a child, Usopp had known that they all wore masks. Not a single one had ever been an exception. It was one of the defining traits of their species.
They had a large hole in their bodies, and every one of them had a mask on its face, as if whatever was missing from the hole had transformed into the mask.
Yet now, the mask on this gigantic monster's face was disappearing?
Usopp had never seen anything like it before. He could not help feeling bewildered—and afraid!
As the mask on the monster's face disappeared, the power within it grew increasingly terrifying, as if it had been reborn. It let out a roar, its body twisted, and its originally enormous frame began to shrink.
From Usopp's perspective, the enormous amount of reishi that made up the monster was rapidly compressing. As it compressed, the monster's power became even more terrifying!
"Rain of Light!"
Driven by fear, Usopp knew that the monster might be undergoing some kind of evolution. Once that evolution was complete, it would possess unimaginably terrifying power. He could not simply sit back and wait. He had to stop it from completing its evolution!
Usopp instantly fired countless arrows of light. A massive amount of reishi gathered, and then countless reishi arrows shot toward the shrinking monster. In an instant, the converging arrows swallowed it whole.
But Usopp did not dare relax his guard. He stared fixedly upward, watching the monster as it continued to transform.
"Damn it! It's still alive!"
Usopp's expression changed dramatically. He sensed a powerful reiatsu appearing ahead. The next moment, that reiatsu erupted and crushed all the gathered arrows.
A person appeared above them. Yes—the original monster had twisted and compressed itself into a 'human.' It was a man. More than half the mask on his face had disappeared, revealing a pair of indifferent eyes. He had pale blue hair, and a sword had appeared in his hand.
"There are actually still Quincies in the human world."
The man noticed Usopp below and spoke with some contempt. "What a pity that you're so weak."
In an instant, he appeared on the ship, immediately putting everyone on guard.
Usopp had wanted to warn Luffy and the others, but once he saw the man arrive on the ship, he noticed that Luffy, Zoro, and Nami were already prepared for battle.
"You... you can see him now?" Usopp asked in surprise.
"Yeah. I don't know why, but after he changed from that monster into this form, we could see him," Luffy said in a deep voice. In his field of vision, the gigantic monster that had previously been only a vague outline had suddenly become tangible, changing from a creature nearly a hundred meters tall into a human of ordinary stature.
Even so, Luffy did not lower his guard just because the enemy had a human-sized body. Nami and Zoro felt the same way, because they could all sense the evil aura radiating from the man before them.
It was almost as if he had come straight from hell!
"After becoming an Arrancar, the nature of my reishi became closer to matter particles, so it is only natural that I can appear in human eyes." The man grinned. "Don't worry. After becoming an Arrancar, I need souls to fill my stomach, so I won't be fighting for a while."
"What exactly are you?!" Usopp asked. "And what is a Quincy?!"
"What? You don't know anything?" The man raised an eyebrow. He did not look nervous at all, perhaps because he had the composure of a powerful man.
His body instantly appeared behind Usopp again, one hand resting on his shoulder. Everyone's pupils contracted as they stared at the man in disbelief. He had moved so quickly that not one of them had noticed how he had done it!
Usopp felt his entire body turn cold. If that man had not merely patted his shoulder, but had instead intended to crush his head...
A powerful fear rose in Usopp's heart. For the first time, he understood how terrifying these monsters were—terrifying enough to take his breath away.
He had fought these monsters since childhood, but he had always been stronger than them. So although he knew they ate people, he had rarely truly felt the threat. Now that he had reached the Grand Line, he finally felt it: the terror of death standing within arm's reach.
The air exhaled by the man behind him was like a breath from hell, chilling the soul.
"Listen carefully. I am a Hollow, and I am now an Arrancar. Although... I am only an Arrancar who was once a low-level Menos Grande, a Gillian, one day I will become an Adjuchas, and then the mightiest Quincy. When that day comes... I will be the master of Hueco Mundo, the master of the world!"
The man's voice was not loud, yet it carried a hint of madness. He threw back his head and laughed, and then the space behind him seemed to split open, revealing a pitch-black abyss.
"As a Quincy, don't you dare die just yet. Your soul is too weak right now. Even if I ate it, it would hardly be satisfying. Hurry up and grow stronger. When you do, I'll come back to savor your soul."
The man did not kill Usopp. Instead, he watched Usopp's trembling body and laughed loudly. The next moment, his body sank into the darkness behind him.
Once he entered the darkness, the gaping space quickly returned to normal. The space that had been torn apart filled in little by little, soon sewing itself completely back into its original shape. The Arrancar vanished without a trace.
"..." Usopp felt cold all over. The man's words still echoed in his ears, and Usopp could clearly sense the killing intent contained within them.
"So those monsters are called Hollows." Luffy broke the silence, sounding curious. "Are they demons?"
"Probably not. I've never heard of a demon like that," Nami said uneasily.
The enormous evil aura she had sensed earlier had made her body tremble. That man had actually called himself a low-level Menos Grande...
W-Was he kidding?!
The aura that man released had been even more terrifying than Muzan Kibutsuji's. If that was only a low-level one, then what kind of terrifying monsters were the mid-level and high-level ones?
Could it be...
Could it be a Demon Lord?
But she had never heard of a demon species called Hollows. At the very least, the information made public by the Black Order contained no mention of such a species.
Zoro had never heard of Hollows either. However, he had noticed that the man carried a sword, which piqued his interest.
If these Hollows—no, these Arrancar—all carried swords, then things would become very interesting.
While they were thinking about the Hollows, Sanji's voice came from the other side of the ship. He and Ben climbed out of the sea, dripping wet and carrying fish. "What are you guys doing? We were pulling on the rope for ages, but nobody answered, so we had to climb back up ourselves."
The two of them had not been on the ship earlier; they had gone into the sea to catch fish, so they had not seen what happened.
"Ben knows a lot of things. Do you know about the monsters called Hollows?" Nami asked eagerly when she saw him.
Ben was the youngest, but he knew more than any of them. He was not only from the Grand Line; he came from the second half of the Grand Line, and knew far more than they did.
But Ben shook his head in confusion. "Hollows? I don't know. Are they some kind of amazing creature?"
Nami immediately looked disappointed. But then a man's voice rekindled her hope. "I know."
Everyone turned toward the source of the voice. Igaram emerged wearing a hospital gown, looking somewhat frail.
Chopper followed beside him, watching his condition with concern.
Igaram said quietly, "I have heard of the Hollow species, but only in passing."
"There is information about Hollows in Alabasta. If you go to my country, you are sure to find something useful."
"What a coincidence," Nami said, a hint of suspicion in her eyes. "Old man, even if you hadn't told us that, we would still help rescue your princess. You don't need to lure us with information like this."
That Arrancar had clearly set his sights on Usopp, and Usopp was their crewmate. They could not simply leave him to fend for himself. Since that was the case, they had to strike first and gather information about their opponent.
Igaram shook his head. "I'm telling the truth. It's only that my rank is not high enough. The Alabastan royal family has signed a contract with the Soul Reapers for generations. I once heard the king speak of Hollows and Soul Reapers, but I truly do not know the details."
"But I think the king must know something. If you can rescue Alabasta from Kallet's grasp, you will certainly gain something from it."
Come to think of it, the Soul Reapers had also played a part in the final battle against the Demon Lord Aatrox. That was the first time Igaram had learned that Soul Reapers existed, and the first time he had discovered that such wondrous beings existed in Alabasta.
"Great! Then we can accomplish two things at once!" Luffy said when he heard that. "Let's go to Alabasta and knock Kallet flying!"
Soul Reapers, huh? Luffy wondered what they would be like. He was becoming more and more excited about their trip to Alabasta!
----
You can read 30 chapters ahead on patre on
patr eon.com/JYouyi