One Piece: The Salted Fish Fruit

Even the naval high command could not sway the resolve of their comrades once the fighting began.

In an instant, a powerful punch was thrown, and layers of air waves were generated on the deck. The strong wind pressure swept across and destroyed everything around it.

"Zeffa! I'm your opponent." Mabi watched as her companion, who had taken several punches from Zefa and was forced to retreat, roared inwardly, drew her long sword from her waist, and charged forward.

Tear! The fist and the blade collided. Even Zephyr's Admiral-level Armament Haki crumbled and dissipated under Mabi's immense force. The sharp blade slashed horizontally at his fingers without any hindrance.

The opponent's aged fingers slightly lifted, and the bent joints instantly pointed towards the broad spine of Mabi's blade. Under the reaction force of this collision, the four fingers moved several times faster, and the skin of the aged fingers narrowly avoided the oncoming blade.

After dodging, he leaped backward again, and Maby naturally wouldn't give him another chance to retaliate, her entire body following his every move.

As he moved, the blade instantly rose and slashed downwards. The powerful force that erupted just inches from his body broke through the Armament Haki and entered his body, causing Zephyr to retreat once more.

Just then, two figures descended from the sky! It was Zephyr's adjutant and others who had come running over using the wind-blown sails!

"Teacher, we're late! Straw Hat Pirates, stop right there!" A clear female voice echoed across the entire deck. Having just arrived, she instantly analyzed the situation from the pirate flag.

The Straw Hat Pirates completely dominated their teacher! They absolutely cannot allow their teacher to suffer even the slightest humiliation!

With a flick of her wrist, a pale purple glass jar was pulled from her back and appeared in her hand. Since these madmen were someone even Teacher Zephyr could hardly defeat, it would be even more difficult for the two of them to achieve victory.

Who are you?! Why should I listen to you?!

"Aion!"

"Who I am is not important! What's important is that if anyone dares to lay a hand on me, I will detonate the explosive rock, which is capable of destroying half an island. Whether you believe in its power or not, we will all die the moment it's opened." Looking at the Straw Hat Pirates below who were eyeing him menacingly, Ain's cold face was filled with determination. With a slight exertion of his slender fingers, the glass shell filled with liquid immediately made a cracking sound as it shattered.

At this moment, the container in her hand was already half broken, and it would probably shatter and detonate the explosive rock inside at any moment.

"lay down!"

"Give up on chasing Zephyr!" Maby roared. The powerful sound wave blasted directly into Zephyr's brain, causing her to faint briefly. She then regained consciousness and glared angrily in Maby's direction.

Long battles had made her spirit as tough as steel, and weaker attacks were simply no match for her.

"Straw Hat Pirates! Hand over Zephyr's mechanical arm and let them leave."

Otherwise! We'll all perish together.

Ain's threat made everyone stand still, waiting for Luffy's orders.

"Mabi, that's what she said!" Luffy reminded her, sensing her emotions.

"The explosive rock is real! It can detonate an area of ​​hundreds of meters around it as soon as it comes into contact with air!"

Mabi watched as two or three people from the surrounding ships would occasionally brandish those pale purple glass jars as a show of force. Even though she had taken the explosive rock from Ain, others still possessed it. In her Observation Haki, the explosive rock sealed in the glass jars was no different from a stone; if she forgot to use even one and it was detonated, it would cause immeasurable damage.

"Alright, we'll let you go! We'll still defeat you when we meet again." Luffy nodded upon hearing Maple's affirmation, his determined gaze fixed on her without wavering.

Bang! Mabi kicked the robotic arm directly towards Zefa, forcing him to support and install it himself.

"Hehe! I'll be waiting for you! Ain, let's go!" Zephyr, now equipped with mechanical limbs, looked at the Straw Hat Pirates, determined to imprint their images deeply into his memory.

"Teacher, you go first for your ideals! I'm afraid they'll change their minds. After all, the Straw Hat Pirates have a history of escaping unscathed from the hands of an Admiral." Ain looked at her teacher's aged back with a hint of admiration in her eyes, but when she saw the Straw Hat Pirates all looking in her direction, her resolve returned.

"Alright! Let's go!" As the commander, Zephyr glanced deeply at Ain's presence, his eyes twitching slightly. Without saying a word, he led his subordinates away.

Watching her teacher walk away into the distance, Ain slightly pinched the glass, which had been in a stalemate, and it shattered instantly.

Chapter 232 Capture! Discussion!

"Let go! Instant teleport!" Seeing what she did, Mabi teleported to her side as soon as she crushed the glass with her fingers, forcibly snatched the glass jar from which the solution had already spilled, and then teleported away again, appearing thousands of meters away from the Sunshine.

Drop it! Teleport away.

boom!

A fiery red mushroom cloud spread out in the distance, and soon after, a gust of wind blew directly to the location of the Sunshine, causing everyone to sway from side to side.

"This! This!" Nami stared at the mushroom cloud in the distance, speechless. It had just split open on the ship. If it weren't for Maggie's teleportation ability, she probably would have been sent flying into the sky by the explosion.

"Wow! That was brutal! I almost died!" Usopp clasped his hands together in prayer for his chance to survive.

The group immediately surrounded Ain, looking at the helpless girl. Their lives had been decided in that instant! If the Sunshine had been bombed to pieces, probably few of them would have escaped.

However, they had never dealt with prisoners themselves; others always handled it for them.

"Kill it or feed it to the fish!" Mabi said, seeing everyone's helpless expressions.

Have we ever killed someone who didn't resist?

"no!"

"no!"

“Killing prisoners is shameful,” Zoro said, yawning.

"You evil pirates, I'll let you do whatever you want to me now. From now on, Professor Zephyr will use your blood to write down all your deeds." Ain stared coldly at the crowd surrounding her without fear, her icy eyes filled with hatred for everyone.

“Another person blinded by hatred.” Mabi sighed upon hearing the anger in her voice. After all, as someone who knew that all her friends had been killed by pirates, and whose teacher had watched helplessly as that enemy became a tool in the hands of the Marines, she had gone completely mad.

Maggie understands the hatred in Maggie's heart, but she won't explain it, since it's an innate bias; pirates are always seen as the evil ones.

"Usopp, give me a Seastone!" Maggie asked, holding the rope tied behind her with one hand. Without using her Devil Fruit power, Maggie knew what she was up to. After all, the rope tied to her hand while she was backing away was just a bunch of elements that hadn't come together yet. Once she was backed away, she could easily escape.

"Here you go." A sea stone the size of a soybean was tossed over by Usopp. Mabi immediately grabbed Ain's jaw and opened her mouth to let it go down her esophagus. Only by imprisoning it inside her body in this way could it be difficult to escape. She could just keep feeding it regularly.

After untying the ropes from her arms and looking at the limp Ain, Mabi grabbed her by the back of her collar, placed her under a shade tree on the deck, and retied her. Ignoring the desire in Ain's weak eyes, she turned and left.

"How is the Franky Sunny?" Mabi asked as she watched the group clearing away the debris from the earlier crash. After all, it was a home-ground operation, and everyone had the ability to cut down ships. Even though they had removed Zephyr's mechanical arm in advance, the spread of the fist's energy still caused some damage.

"It's not a big problem, but we need to find a dock to repair it, since many of them are already damaged beyond repair," Franky reminded.

···

"What's next? Are we going to go after Zephyr? After all, the dynamite rocks are meant to destroy the foundations of the New World. He's already blown one up, and there are only two left. If we blow them all up, we won't be able to sail anymore," Mabi reminded them, sitting cross-legged on a flood-control boulder. She had already explained the purpose of the dynamite rocks to everyone when they were looking for the shipyard.

"Of course I'll go find him and get revenge! He's my target, I'm going to beat him to a pulp! He almost killed us!" Without Mabi's suggestion, Luffy took the lead in announcing his target. After all, just because he's a pirate and the Pirate King, he was attacked by him, and no one could swallow that insult.

"Then we need to start gathering information about him, since apart from the navy, we have no idea where the remaining two islands are."

“We can infiltrate the navy to investigate. I heard that someone is playing a role that even the former Fleet Admiral Sengoku couldn’t recognize.”

Upon hearing this, Mabi's heart skipped a beat, as if an unseen hand was reaching for her.

"I need to pee!" Without saying a word, Mabi immediately activated her "pee escape" technique.

"Stop for a minute, you can make your escape after we've finished discussing it." Nami and Mia worked together, each grabbing an arm and forcibly pressing Mabi back onto the rock, squeezing him so he couldn't move an inch.

“Yes, I just heard that there’s a famous hot spring volcano nearby, and a lot of Marines have been spotted there recently, which fits our information-gathering route perfectly,” Usopp answered as he walked over from a distance.

"Then it's settled. I just heard the sound of a train nearby, which must be a sea train. Since it's nearby, there must be one."

"Then let's get started!"

So everyone started discussing what to do and whoever had nowhere to go would go to a hot spring together.

···

"I'm running to the branch again." Mabi tightened her snow-white cloak, ignoring the admiral lying below, and sifted through a pile of documents for useful information, checking if the Lava Pit was on this island. Once it was confirmed that the Navy wanted to protect the island, they would inevitably mobilize forces, which was exactly the information she wanted to find.

"Three lieutenant generals and five major generals arrived yesterday, along with three sailboats that can carry eight hundred people! It seems there's no escape here." With that thought, Mabi teleported away to hand the information to her partner, then continuously used her Observation Haki to scan the entire island to observe when Zephyr would land and attempt to stop him.

Three days later!

Deng!Deng!Deng!

A lively rhythm filled a bar, and on stage, two exotic women swayed and danced gracefully to the music. As they turned, their skirts fluttered slightly, instantly eliciting fierce howls from a large group of men below, making the entire bar incredibly lively.

"Ugh, my body feels so weak! I don't want to move after soaking in the bath," Luffy said listlessly, lying in the water tank.

"Hachi loves the hot spring!" Hachi exclaimed happily, his face flushed red from the heat.

"Phew! Maggie already explained the information a few days ago, we just need to wait quietly." Sanji flicked his fingers, turning them into red embers to light the cigarette in his mouth, and smoke billowed around him.

"Can I say they're here? On the other side of the island," Maggie said weakly as she emerged from the water.

"You pervert, why didn't you say so sooner?!"

Mabi's words were like a bombshell dropped into the water, startling everyone so much that they jumped up and frantically searched for their clothes.

"Hey, Uncle Aokiji, if you don't come out soon, we're leaving." Mabi didn't move, but shouted at the salted fish lying half-reclined in the pool above.

"Oh dear! How did you find out? It's not even convenient to take a bath now." A Gundam-like figure slowly emerged from the water, its full appearance appearing before everyone's eyes.

"Admiral Aokiji!" Luffy turned around and was so shocked that he sat back down in the water, his face full of disbelief.

Chapter 233 Zefa, utterly despondent!

"Aokiji!"

"Former Admiral!"

"Hey! Hey! Why is he here?" Everyone looked up and saw the familiar fluffy hairstyle. They immediately stepped back and kept their distance, watching the lazy figure warily. What was the purpose of this former naval commander who had fought against a modern naval admiral here?

"Don't worry, don't worry! Let's lower our guard. He's been here all along and would have made his move if he wanted to." Mabi looked at her wary companions. They must have misunderstood, but they couldn't help but misunderstand, since the pirates were the ones the Navy was after, and capturing them was the priority.

"Why! Why did he come here?"

Adjusting the towel around his waist, Luffy took a step forward and asked first, his eyes still showing wariness.

"Oh my! What an interesting little brat. You've said everything. Let's go outside and talk about this first. The flooding is still annoying."

"Ah! While we were focused on Aokiji, that Z who destroyed the Sunny has already arrived on this island. Maple, Brook, Sanji, Zoro, Hachi, let's go." Luffy seemed to have thought of something and interrupted Aokiji's request, rushing to the changing room, quickly getting dressed, and running out.

"Mabi, where is he?"

"The other side of the island!"

"Let's go!" Ignoring Aokiji's attempt to speak, he used his rubber feet to leap away at high speed.

The group, all dressed, followed suit.

"Oh dear! You guys are really something, already going up against Zephyr-senpai." Looking at the distant figure, Aokiji patted his head helplessly. He had wanted to ask the Straw Hat Pirates for help, but he was a moment too late and watched them run away. Now he still had to find the Straw Hat crew's gathering place again.

Seeing Aokiji's troubled expression, Mabi stood beside him and smiled.

"Aren't you going to take a look, Aokiji-senpai?"

"Interesting kid, haven't you caught up yet?"