Beside the Going Merry, the Straw Hat crew was about to depart from Little Garden.
"Look closely! My lizard won!"
"Your eyes are messed up! My rhino won!"
Sanji and Zoro stood atop their respective prey, locked in a heated argument. From the looks of it, neither would board the ship until a winner was decided.
"Good grief…" Nami set down the large sack of treasure in the cabin and sighed helplessly at the bickering pair. "These two are natural-born enemies."
"Hey, Sherlock, you decide—who won the hunting contest?" With no resolution in sight, Zoro and Sanji turned to find a referee, and Sherlock was the obvious choice.
Sherlock glanced at their catches, then said coolly, "You both lost."
"Huh??"
"The winner is Luffy." Sherlock adjusted his glasses, the corner of his mouth curling slightly. "After all, more than half the meat from those two dinosaurs is going straight into Luffy's stomach."
The green-haired swordsman and the lovestruck cook exchanged a look and fell silent.
The crew turned in unison to the blank-faced boy in the straw hat.
Though the sorcerer's logic felt off, he was undeniably right—the biggest winner of this hunting contest was their gluttonous, airheaded captain.
"Oh? I won? Hahaha, I'm awesome!" Luffy flashed a carefree grin.
(Like hell you should be happy about being called a rice bucket!) Everyone broke into a cold sweat, silently roasting him in their heads.
Along Little Garden's inland river, the Going Merry sailed slowly toward the open sea.
At the river's mouth, two giants stood on opposite banks, facing the ocean. Their massive capes snapped in the sea breeze as they gripped sword and axe, faces grave, as if seeing off the Straw Hats.
"You fought with your lives to defend our honor—your enemies are our enemies!" Brogy raised his giant axe.
"We will never let our friends' pirate flag break!" Dorry lifted his greatsword.
"Trust us—go straight ahead! No matter what happens!"
The giants spoke in unison.
"Got it!" Luffy answered seriously. "Straight ahead!"
Though they had no idea what was coming, the Straw Hats followed the giants' advice.
As the Going Merry entered the sea, the calm surface suddenly shuddered violently, as if something massive were rising from below. Luffy and the others grabbed the railings, staring in shock at the bulging water, speechless.
It was a goldfish the size of a small bird—no, a small island. Its red scales glinted blindingly in the sun; its maw was lined with mountain-like teeth; a pair of enormous eyes locked onto the tiny ship.
"Whoa… that's… that's insane! What a huge goldfish!!" Luffy gaped at the monster, then seemed to remember something. He grabbed a fishing rod from the cabin and thrust it toward a petrified Usopp. "Your time to shine, Fishing King! Show me your masterful fishing skills!"
Usopp's hands shook as he took the rod. The giant goldfish obligingly opened its jaws wider. The long-nosed sniper was now absolutely certain that maw could swallow an entire island.
"Straight—straight ahead!" Tears streaming, Usopp waved the rod—too small to even pick the beast's teeth—and roared. At this point, he could only hope his giant mentors would work a miracle.
Gotta finish the act I started, even if I'm crying.
"An Island Eater? I thought the author made those up." Sherlock calmly adjusted his glasses, not the least bit worried about being swallowed.
After all, the giants had promised to handle it.
"But against something this big, what will they do?" Curious, Sherlock activated his Shadow Mirror to watch Dorry and Brogy closely.
The giants stood motionless, gathering their focus. As their presence swelled, the air around them thickened. Even from afar, Sherlock felt two faint pressures that made him swallow nervously.
True domineering aura! (In every sense.)
At the peak of their momentum, an unfamiliar power—mist-like—flowed from the giants into their weapons. The century-old blades and axe, now infused with that strange energy, began to glow with a treasured light.
Then, with Nami's scream, the Going Merry was swallowed whole. The Island Eater closed its jaws contentedly and began to sink.
"Behold the mightiest spear of Elbaf…" The giants raised their weapons slowly, then swung with all their might toward the beast.
The sky churned; the heavens dimmed!
Two torrents of air erupted from their weapons and merged mid-flight.
"…Hakoku!!!"
The blast—carrying the heaven-shaking battle will of Elbaf's two mightiest warriors—roared toward the Island Eater with unstoppable force. Like piercing soft tofu, it punched an absurdly huge hole through the island-sized monster. The surge did not slow; it tore onward, straight as the unyielding soul of Elbaf's warriors.
The wind pressure was apocalyptic. It cleaved the sea itself, leaving a wound that refused to close. From above, it looked as if a god had carved a long scar across the ocean.
The Straw Hats felt the world brighten suddenly, then a gale slammed into them, sending the Going Merry airborne.
"So high!" Luffy whooped from his captain's seat, holding his hat, eyes sparkling.
Usopp stared at the majestic rift below, dropped the fishing rod, and sobbed with excitement.
"So this is the power of Elbaf's warriors?" In that moment, Usopp's resolve to visit Elbaf hardened.
Sherlock gazed at the gaping hole in the Island Eater, speechless. The giants' world-shaking might was simply too overwhelming.
"Let's go, friends!"
"Yohohoho…!"
"Kababababa…!"
Dorry and Brogy tossed aside their ruined weapons, watching the departing Straw Hats, and laughed heartily.
"1714… 1715…"
At the stern, Zoro trained furiously, sweat pouring as he swung massive dumbbells. Hard to believe this was a man who'd been gravely wounded not long ago.
After his fight with the gale swordsman, Zoro had barely won—but the battle made the green-haired swordsman realize he needed to grow far stronger.
"Honestly, that woman disappearing is a real hassle." Zoro muttered regretfully. He sorely missed that "training equipment" which could freely adjust its weight.
Who knows what Miss Valentine, still hiding in Little Garden, would think if she heard.
Yet the lovestruck cook shared an oddly similar sentiment—one missed a handy tool, the other a beautiful lady. Completely different motives.
"These two are full of energy…" Sanji emerged from the kitchen with a tray of pastries, glanced at the goofy captain and long-nosed sniper dancing on the railing, then turned to fawn over Nami and Vivi.
"Lovely ladies, I made these heart-shaped sweets just for you!"
"Thanks, Sanji." Nami said weakly. For some reason, ever since leaving Little Garden, the navigator had felt drained. She turned to the blue-haired girl. "Vivi, can you check the pointer?"
Vivi nodded, taking the Log Pose pointing to Alabasta, her eyes resolute.
(Almost home—Alabasta!)
"Whoa, those pastries look amazing!" Luffy and Usopp drooled, drawn by the scent.
Sanji swatted their thieving hands. "Hey, don't steal the ladies' food! Yours are in the kitchen—go get them!"
Luffy and Usopp bolted for the galley, Carue the duck quacking innocently behind them.
The two girls shared a smile.
Sanji huffed, then shouted toward the stern: "Oi! Zoro! Sherlock! Hurry up or Luffy'll eat your share!"
Sherlock ignored the yell. He sat gravely in the cabin, toying with a dinner knife, deep in thought.
The giants' farewell strike had shaken the sorcerer deeply. He had a hunch his lack of powerful attacks was about to be solved.
The breakthrough: Elbaf's mightiest spear, Hakoku!
Through the Shadow Mirror, Sherlock had witnessed the full sequence—from preparation to execution. Setting aside that unfamiliar power, the earth-shattering strike had inspired him.
Gather. Compress. Explode.
Those were the three principles of Hakoku, as Sherlock understood it.
He had no clue about the final explosion, but for gathering and compression, he'd already made theoretical breakthroughs.
Ordinary sunlight feels warm, but focused through a magnifying glass, it ignites grass and starts fires.
That was gathering—a quantitative change becoming qualitative.
Sherlock had once created a move that focused sunlight like a lens, but it was only good for starting fires—hardly useful in combat. Long prep time, and the power was weaker than a high-explosive mirror bomb.
But now, a new idea struck.
Mirror entities!
With a flip of his hand, over a dozen mirror dinner knives materialized above his palm, floating slowly. The finely crafted utensils gleamed with metallic luster—beautiful.
He arranged them in a neat, rotating formation, pondered, then willed two knives to break off and cross in front of his eyes.
(Whether theory becomes practice depends on this!)
His heart raced with nerves. Sherlock took a deep breath, held it.
Mirror fusion!
Like two water droplets merging, the knives intertwined under his control until they fused into a single, brand-new blade.
Success!
Joy surged through him as he examined the first product of mirror fusion.
The shape was unchanged—if anything, it looked slightly more refined.
Had he looked closer, he'd have noticed extremely fine black mist coiling along the edge.
At a thought, the enhanced knife zipped around the cabin—swift, agile, like an eagle soaring freely. A stark contrast to the lazily floating others.
Whoosh! Under his command, it stabbed straight into the wooden table. What once struggled to cut medium-rare steak now sliced clean through to the hilt. Sherlock's jaw dropped.
"This knife feels linked to my mind. Harder to control, but I can wield it like an extension of myself. And this power… this is just two fused. What about five? Ten? A hundred?"
Excitement flashed behind his lenses. But just as he prepared to experiment further, the cabin door burst open.
"Bad news, Sherlock!" Sanji barged in, face grim. "Nami… she collapsed!"
!!!!!
Sherlock's pupils shrank to pinpricks. His focus shattered; every mirror knife cracked like glass and dissolved into the air.
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