Ultimate Fruit

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Chapter 79: Warm Up

As everyone got ready for a fight, the doors opened with a loud boom and they all saw a group of injured pirate humans appear.

“The humans have invaded!”

“Protect the royalty!”

Lucas frowned seeing the fishmen guards surround King Neptune as well as Otohime, the princes, and the princesses.

Not only were those guards looking warily at the invaders that just arrived, they were also looking wary towards Luffy and the rest. And to think that they were partying happily just a few seconds ago...it was evident that their distrust of humans isn't as shallow as they appeared to be.

King Neptune and Otohime also noticed this and sighed.

Neptune spoke up to ease the minds of the guards.

“Judging from their appearances, they seemed to have been thrown here by Vander Decken using his ability...Shirahoshi is here so naturally, their destination also landed them here. Make sure to protect our guests as well.”

“Y-yes! As you command!”

The guards knew their mistake and quickly rearranged themselves when Lucas stopped them.

He smiled and shook his head.

“Let these guys deal with them. They’re already itching for a fight.”

“Haha, they sure look it. Besides, old man, you’re not letting me deal with Hody so let us deal with these human pirates instead.”

Ace laughed and put on his hat with a grin. The tips of his fingers started to turn into fire.

King Neptune smiled wryly and nodded.

“Very well then.”

“U-umm, will they be alright?”

Shirahoshi asked while tugging her huge hands onto Lucas’ clothes. Her little sister, Kirahoshi, also looked up at Lucas with worried eyes.

Before Lucas could even speak to reassure them, Luna spoke first.

“Un! Don’t worry! My Mommy, Uncles, Aunts, and Big Sisters are super strong!”

“I see. Little Luna, you trust them a lot huh?”

Shirahoshi’s mood relaxed seeing Luna smile. She asked Luna while lifting her up along with Kirahoshi on her palm. Kirahoshi also stopped looking worried and was taken in by Luna’s Emperor level cuteness!

“Waa! Luna-chan! You’re so cute~!”

“Hehe~ Of course, my Daddy is the strongest!”

“Hehe, you like your daddy a lot huh?”

“Un!”

While the girls were chatting amongst themselves, the few men heard their conversation as well and became all the more fired up!

The reason being, they couldn’t accept someone saying that there is another person who is stronger than them!

Zoro was the first to step up.

“Luffy, no need for you to move. I’ll deal with this.”

“What are you saying? I’m the captain! I should deal with this!”

“Let me handle these guys, I’m the weakest before. It’s time I show you what a warrior of the seas is all about!”

“My bones are shivering from excitement! But then again, it may be the cold since I don’t have flesh and skin! Yohohohoho!”

“You guys, this is my territory! Don’t butt in my fight!”

“Captain Ace...what are you doing joining them…?”

Marco sighed looking at his captain who was joining Luffy and the rest in their nonsense.

Lucas laughed and thought the situation was funny.

“Do you guys want me to do it instead?”

Hearing Lucas’ suggestion, they all went quiet for a few moments.

The next second, Luffy shouted.

“The most people defeated is the strongest!”

“Ack-!? Hey, Luffy! It’s not fair to get a head start!”

Usopp quickly chased and pulled up his slingshot.

“All is fair in food and war!”

Lucas sweated.

Isn’t it supposed to be love and not food!?

The others also moved as well. The girls just looked at the overly excited guys and sighed. For some reason, they weren’t in the mood to fight anymore.

Plus, the enemies this time are too weak for them to showcase their moves.

Naturally, the fight ended in just a bit more than a minute.

Lucas shook his head as well as the enemies weren’t able to give Luffy and the rest a challenge. As such, he wasn’t able to measure their strengths for the moment.

Well, there’s Hody and his gang so Lucas wasn’t worried about not giving Luffy an enemy to fight.

When the fight was over, Shirahoshi and Kirahoshi clapped.

“Wow! Luffy-sama, you are very strong!”

“Waa! So strong!”

Luna patted her chest as if she was the one being praised.

Since she was cute, everyone just laughed and smiled at her.

Zoro sighed, still unsatisfied with the lack of action in the fight just now.

“What do we do with these guys?”

“Well, locking them up is fine. We can send them off to the surface and hand them to the marines later. What’s more important is how to deal with the one who sent them.”

King Neptune sighed as well. Vander Decken has been harassing his daughter for the last couple of years yet he is unable to catch him.

Now, it wasn’t just weapons that he threw, but human pirates!

At this time, Lucas spoke up.

“There is a way where you can deal with Vander Decken and Hody Jones.”

“If you are saying you want to help, I’d like it if you leave this to us. Matters of fishmen are best handled by fishmen.”

“There’s no need to be too uptight about it. Look, Vander Decken has indeed thrown these human pirates to the palace, but these human pirates said they were ordered by Hody. These two had formed an alliance and it seems their goal this time is to infiltrate the palace.”

Lucas smiled and walked over to the lever to bring down the water bridge and open the entrance to the Ryugu Palace.

“All we need to do is let them in and make them believe that their plan worked. As for the rest...well, let’s just say that we happened to be here as well.”

King Neptune smiled wryly.

“I suppose...if you happened to pass by and somehow beat Hody and Vander Decken...then there’s nothing we can do.”

Luffy looked confused about what they were talking about so he asked Lucas.

“I don’t get it but does this mean someone stronger is about to come?”

“Yep. Someone way stronger than the ones just now. In terms of strength...well, let’s say he is at least Shichibukai level when in water.”

Hearing that, Luffy’s grin grew wider.

“Shishishi! Let them in!”

“Aye aye, captain.”

Since the captain has ordered, there is no reason for Lucas to refuse.

He pulled down the lever and waited for Hody and his gang to arrive. King Neptune no longer said anything and simply waited calmly as well.

Lucas and Neptune looked at each other and nodded.

Actually, these two had already talked about this before. When the Strawhats arrive, King Neptune would invite them to the palace.

Afterward, arrange for Shirahoshi’s meal to pass near the main hall in order to attract Luffy and lead him to Shirahoshi. Luffy will then convince Shirahoshi to come out and Lucas will lead them back to the main hall.

Knowing that Vander Decken would form an alliance with Hody and would send human pirates to infiltrate, the scenario of Hody and Vander Decken arriving in the main hall will happen.

Under the premise that the Ryugu Palace was ‘attacked’ by Hody and Vander Decken, and that the ‘human guests’ were also present and just ‘happened’ to help defeat Hody and Vander Decken, King Neptune can convince the public that humans are not all bad. In fact, they had even helped rescue the royal family.

With this, the friction between humans and fishmen would lighten up even for a little bit.

Not to mention that King Neptune can finally get rid of the thorn in his kingdom, it was a win-win-win scenario.

Sure enough, a minute after Lucas pulled the lever, a new group arrived led by two individuals.

Hody Jones and Vander Decken!

Hody arrived at the scene and frowned.

Looking at the unconscious and captured human pirates, it didn’t seem to make sense that they were able to lower the bridge.

A trap!

Hody grimaced but didn’t panic. He was still confident that he could defeat everyone with his power.

Sadly, this arrogance would only cost him his life!

Vander Decken saw Shirahoshi and started to smile dirtily.

“Ah, if it isn’t my lovely Shirahoshi! How nice of you to go out of your way and leave your tower for me!”

Shirahoshi trembled upon suddenly being called out and tried to shrink herself behind Lucas.

“P-please don’t call me so familiarly...I don’t know you!”

“Gah-!? W-well, there’s plenty of chances for us to get to know each other better once we’re married!”

“Marry? But...you’re not my type!”

“GAH-!?”

Vander Decken suffered another invisible blow to the heart!

Hearing her, Lucas smiles wryly. He has heard of this line before in the anime and felt it was funny at the time. Now hearing it first-hand makes him wonder...just what or who is Shirahoshi’s type then?

If she had said that she doesn’t like Vander Decken, then it was fine. But by saying that he wasn’t her type means that Shirahoshi ‘has’ a type. Perhaps someone she likes.

Lucas is really curious about the answer but...for some reason, he felt that if he were to ask that, he would only be digging a huge grave for himself!

Lucas sighed.

Women...why are they always like Pandora’s box? Open it and you will find yourself full of evil thoughts!

Then, Luffy suddenly spoke.

“Oi! Are you the guy who’s been throwing weapons at her!?”

“Strawhat…! Is it you!? Are you the bastard who took my Shirahoshi’s heart!? Unforgivable! Unforgivable!”

Vander Decken stomped his feet angrily but didn’t dare to attack rashly. His confidence is only coming from the fact that Hody is beside him. If he were to attack just now, he would no doubt be sending himself to his own death!

More so…

Vander Decken glared at the man wearing shark armor in front of Shirahoshi and gritted his teeth.

Why is this Shark Knight always getting in the way!?

Before Hody and his men had arrived, no, even before the thrown pirates arrived, Lucas had already donned his Shark Knight armor to preserve his identity.

If the marines were to know that ‘Lucas’ was still alive..it was unknown what they would do out of desperation!

Perhaps to Hody and Vander Decken, the only person they would find troublesome to deal with in this room was Lucas! As for Luffy and the rest...they are just humans. How can they be superior to us fishmen!?

Well, if they knew that the Shark Knight is also human...well, it would be an interesting sight to see.

Hody looked at his officers and spoke.

“I’ll deal with Shark Knight. You all deal with the Strawhats.”

Hearing that, a vein popped on Luffy’s temple. He clenched his fist tightly and glared at Hody.

“Oi. Do you think I’m not here? How about all of you come at me. I’ll deal with all of you myself!”

Zoro glanced at Luffy and sighed. The next moment, he relaxed and sat down as he closed his eyes without care.

Nami pouted but went back to Luna anyway. She wasn’t interested in the fight anymore.

Ace laughed and removed his hat.

“Since my little brother wants to take care of them on his own, There’s no need for us to step in as well.”

Actually, Ace also wanted to see how much Luffy has grown. The reason why he went along with their fight earlier was simply because the guys earlier were too weak for him to see Luffy’s strength. Might as well join them and deal with it quicker.

Everyone also stepped down when they heard Luffy. They all believed that Luffy wouldn’t lose. If he did...then he isn’t worthy to be their captain!

Hody frowned as he looked at Luffy’s small figure.

“Human, don’t think just because you're strong in the surface world, that you’re strong here as well. We are the superio- GAH-!!!???”

He wasn’t even able to finish his sentence when suddenly, he felt a strong pain on his stomach! The next moment, he was sent flying!

Everything only lasted for a fraction of a second and even the New Fishmen Pirates didn’t notice it at first when their captain was sent flying.

Only after a few moments when they saw Luffy’s arm was steaming red and the fact that their captain was no longer in his spot did it sink in.

“C-captain!?”

Hody groaned as he pulled himself out of the wall that he crashed on.

His eyes turned red as he glared angrily at Luffy.

This damn human dared…!!!

No longer speaking nonsense, his body shot forward with insane speed and his mouth wide open, ready to bite down on Luffy’s neck!

Luffy just glanced at him calmly and let him bite.

Hody expected to see his blood splatter and his head rolling on the floor. However, what happened was completely different from what he expected!

The sound of something shattering was heard. It wasn’t the sound of Luffy’s bones shattering...instead, it was the sound of Hody’s teeth being broken into pieces!

“W-what!?”

“His neck...turned black!”

“How hard can his neck be!?”

Seeing this, Lucas and Ace nodded.

Not bad. His Armament Haki is quite strong and it seems he’s able to freely control it as well without difficulty.

Lucas recalled the original version and felt that Luffy’s armament haki has gone up a notch here.

Luffy grinned and swung his fist down on Hody one more time!

This time, Hody learned from his mistake and dodged quickly!

Luffy let him retreat and simply stared at him.

Hody grimaced. He waved at a fishmen on his side who approached and presented him with a bowl of what looked like candies.

Lucas sighed seeing that.

“Energy Steroids...you know even if this stuff can make you stronger for a period of time, taking in a lot of it will only lead to your own destruction.”

However, Hody wasn’t listening to him at all as he took a handful of ES and gobbled it all up!

Hody’s whole body bulked up and he felt a surge of power run through his veins.

He didn’t have white hair yet like in the anime but he was definitely a lot stronger than just a moment ago.

“Hahahahahaha! This power…! Let’s see you send me flying agai- GHHH-!!??”

*BOOM*

Once again, before Hody could finish speaking, he was sent flying!

Luffy’s fist was clad in black as it steamed. This time, Luffy had used armament haki as well at the same time of his second gear attack.

Luffy frowned.

“What, did he even get stronger?”

The fishmen sweated at that. They all took a step back and looked at Luffy in fright.

Too scary! This human...is too powerful!

Luffy grinned and beckoned them with this steaming black hand.

“Like I said, why don’t you all come at me at once? Just right, after a meal, I needed to warm up!”

Lucas smiled wryly once again.

It seems he’s starting to pity Hody a bit now...