Ritter rubbed his chin as he stared out the window at the layers upon layers of guards surrounding Ryugu Palace so tightly that not even water could slip through. Through his Observation Haki, he could also sense the barriers High Priest Lakis had hastily set up. None of them could truly stop him, but every single one would trigger an alarm the moment they were touched.
Originally, Ritter had planned to use his blood mist to create a temporary illusion space, completely hiding Poseidon's presence and appearance before forcing their way out. But that was still a dead, lifeless space with no living things inside, and he worried it might frighten the little mermaid princess.
Then his eyes drifted toward Joy Boy, who had finally returned to normal size and was currently trying to press his overinflated rubber belly back into shape. The moment Ritter poked him, Joy Boy started wheezing air out dramatically until he flattened into what looked like a giant Joy Boy pancake.
And suddenly, a much bolder, far more ridiculous idea appeared in Ritter's mind.
If this rubber-brain could compress himself into a chibi version…
Then could he do the same thing to someone else?
Like those troublesome abilities that turned people into toys, maybe Joy Boy's absurd rubber body could pull off something similar too.
"Hey, rubber-head, quit messing around already," Ritter said. "Don't make me smack you in front of guests."
"Alright, alright, I'm done playing!" Joy Boy bounced upright instantly. "Did you think of something, Ritter?"
"That trick from earlier. Can you use it on other people too? Like… turning our princess here into 'rubber' for a bit and shrinking her down?"
Joy Boy's eyes lit up like lanterns.
"Ohhh! You can do that too!" He turned excitedly toward Poseidon. "Wanna try it? Being rubber is super fun! You can stretch reeeeally far!"
As he spoke, he yanked his cheeks halfway across his face.
Poseidon stared at his absurdly elastic skin.
"Amazing!!"
Then she looked at Ritter, whose expression still hadn't quite shifted away from threatening violence.
"Scary…"
Then her gaze moved to the quiet vice-captain in Ritter's arms.
"Cute…"
Even though she was nervous, she knew the three of them meant no harm. Someone who could communicate with Sea Kings would naturally understand the feelings of Sea Kings too.
Ritter, meanwhile, was silently offended.
What, reading emotions is just some standard trait of strong people now? What about my chosen-one Observation Haki? Though honestly… in the One Piece world, only Shanks seemed to possess Observation Killing. Maybe the evolution path for that ability was just so bizarre nobody bothered learning it.
Poseidon gathered her courage and nodded firmly.
"I… I'm willing to try!"
"Alright! Leave it to me!" Joy Boy grinned and pressed a hand gently onto Poseidon's shoulder.
A strange energy flowed into her body, filled with elasticity and vibrant life.
Her pink fish tail immediately gained a glossy, rubber-like sheen.
Within moments, she hadn't completely transformed into a pure rubber human like Joy Boy, but her entire body had clearly acquired temporary rubber properties.
Then Joy Boy placed his other hand on top of her head.
Just like before, when he compressed himself.
Poseidon felt a slight dizziness, and then her body rapidly shrank smaller and smaller until she became a palm-sized chibi mermaid princess with a soft rubbery texture.
Mini Poseidon sat on the carpet in shock, staring at her tiny hands and shimmering tail.
"It worked!" Joy Boy proudly picked her up and placed her on his shoulder. "Now we can sneak her out easily!"
Watching the utterly unreasonable scene unfold before him, Ritter once again marveled at how absurd the Nika Fruit truly was. Joy Boy was still nowhere near fully developed.
Meanwhile, Ritter casually lifted his vice-captain into his arms. The little girl had been tugging on his sleeve this whole time. Though expressionless as always, the faint excitement in her icy blue eyes suggested she was enjoying this little "infiltration game."
"Alright, so how do we sneak out now?" Joy Boy cracked his knuckles, clearly preparing to use his "Rubber Worm Crawl" technique again.
"No chance," Ritter said, shaking his head as he walked toward the window. "That old man already knows we're in the princess's room."
He glanced at the guards and the glowing barriers outside, then smirked wildly.
"He knows we won't hurt the princess, which is why he's still respecting palace etiquette. That's his way of showing respect toward her. But the second she steps outside this room…"
Ritter grinned wider.
"…I guarantee he'll send people charging in immediately."
"So we can't sneak out?" Mini Poseidon asked nervously.
Ritter's grin sharpened.
"Who said anything about sneaking?"
He pointed outside.
"We fight our way out."
"Fight our way out?!"
Mini Poseidon and Joy Boy shouted at the same time, though one sounded horrified while the other sounded thrilled.
"Relax. No killing." Ritter rolled his wrist as blood mist swirled around him. "We'll just put them to sleep for a while. The bigger the commotion here, the more that old man focuses his attention on us. Which makes our real destination easier to reach."
Joy Boy immediately shrank himself down too. His original size was simply too huge and made too easy a target.
And just like that, they moved.
The next second, Ritter burst out of the princess's chamber.
Any soldier touched by the blood mist immediately felt an overwhelming wave of exhaustion crash over them. Their eyelids drooped heavily, and before they could even cry out, they collapsed into deep sleep.
Joy Boy followed closely behind.
His rubber arms whipped through the corridors like giant elastic tendrils, but he controlled his strength with incredible precision. Instead of hurting anyone, he simply bounced guards aside, bundled them up, and gently stacked them in corners like misplaced luggage.
"Intruders! The outsiders are escaping!"
The alarms finally rang out.
More soldiers flooded in from every direction, but against Ritter's nearly broken blood mist control and Joy Boy's bizarrely efficient rubber crowd-clearing, they couldn't form any meaningful resistance at all.
High Priest Lakis appeared at the end of the corridor almost the instant the alarms sounded.
Seeing the two intruders weaving through the guards unhindered while deliberately avoiding lethal force, his face turned dark with fury. The jewel atop his staff erupted with blinding light as a massive blast of energy shot directly toward Ritter.
Ritter didn't even bother turning around.
Blood mist condensed behind him into a gigantic shield that blocked the attack effortlessly, even using the impact to propel him forward faster.
"Stop them!" Lakis roared.
But Ritter and Joy Boy had no intention of fighting.
They bulldozed through every guard who tried to stop them and smashed through Ryugu Palace's defenses, racing straight toward the edge of the bubble coating surrounding Fish-Man Island.
Ritter condensed a blood-red bubble around the group.
Careful now. Wouldn't want to pop someone else's bubble.
And just as they were about to crash through the fragile membrane—
"ROOOOAR!"
A gigantic Sea King waiting outside, the same one that had guided them earlier, Coral Horn, opened its cave-like jaws wide.
Without hesitation, Ritter leapt straight inside with the miniature princess perched on his shoulder, his vice-captain in his arms, and Joy Boy close behind.
The Sea King's jaws snapped shut.
With one powerful swing of its massive tail, it shot away like an arrow released from a bow, instantly leaving Fish-Man Island behind and diving deeper into the endless black trench below.
"Hurry, Xiao Dong! Take us to the place you already finished building!" Mini Poseidon shouted telepathically to the Sea King named Xiao Dong.
The Sea King let out a deep confirming cry and accelerated once more.
After traveling through the dark abyss for some time, a colossal silhouette finally began to emerge ahead of them.
The outline grew larger and larger until its true form became visible.
It was the skeletal framework of an unimaginably gigantic wooden ship.
Even unfinished, its scale alone was enough to leave them speechless.
The legendary Noah's Ark of the future.
But the moment Ritter and the others drew closer, they immediately sensed something was wrong.
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