Looking at the Manaphy in front of him, Vander Decken IX suddenly felt a bit flustered; the "surprise" came too unexpectedly.
Vander Decken IX's thought process was quite peculiar; upon realizing Shirahoshi was the Sea King, the thought of marrying her actually came to his mind, despite the insurmountable differences in size, age, status, and appearance between the two.
Yet that was the first idea that popped into his head.
The Vander Decken Family had always adopted the approach of marriage to smoothly approach the Sea King, changing their bloodline through this method, so this behavior was ingrained in Vander Decken IX's bones.
In his view, marrying her was the best way to control the Sea King, and he had quite strange ideas about Manaphy as well; since both were male, it was impossible, as he genuinely had no interest in men.
But he could wait to have a daughter with Shirahoshi and then have Manaphy as his son-in-law; this was his long-term development plan.
Shirahoshi was royalty, wouldn't leave Dragon Palace Kingdom, and had a very stable position. To prevent Manaphy from disappearing, he planned to directly capture him.
The plan couldn't keep up with the changes; he didn't know when Manaphy showed up here, but judging by the looks, he'd already heard what he just said.
Despite hearing those words, Manaphy still maintained an innocent tone, prompting Vander Decken IX to consider trying to abduct him.
"Ahem, Lord Manaphy, here's the thing, I have a grand ideal, would you be willing to hear it?"
Saying this, Vander Decken IX extended a hand to Manaphy; as long as Manaphy made contact with him once, he could find Manaphy no matter where he went.
This was the ability of his Mark-Mark Fruit; by touching the opponent's body with his palm, he could lock them as a target.
Once the opponent was targeted, anything that Vander Decken IX threw would automatically track the target to the ends of the earth.
Moreover, this throwing wasn't in the physical sense; as long as he touched an object and performed a throwing action, even things he couldn't lift would be influenced by the ability to fly out.
Small items like flying knives and axes to larger ones like Noah were all affected, unless knocked down or blocked by obstacles midway to stop tracking.
Each hand could lock onto one target, and washing hands would remove the target locked by that hand; he had to touch the opponent again to re-lock them.
To avoid targeting the wrong aim, Vander Decken IX usually wore gloves, and he had even made plans for left hand Manaphy, right hand Shirahoshi for life, at the cost of never being able to wash his hands again.
At this moment, Vander Decken IX took off his gloves, ostensibly as a gesture of respect, but actually, he intended to mark Manaphy.
But Manaphy showed no interest.
"So were you lying about discovering a mine here?"
This was the issue that caught his attention; it was his job, and if someone deceived him in this regard, he'd be quite angry.
Still with that cute face, yet Manaphy's tone took on a much colder edge.
"Capture him!!"
Vander Decken IX's expression suddenly turned ecstatic; this didn't quite align with his plan, but the target was right before his eyes, how could he possibly give up?
There really were no mines here; he was just fooling the other party, and their changed tone indicated they weren't as easy to fool as a child; sooner or later he'd be exposed. It was better to act directly.
At this moment, he ignored the danger ahead, for dueling with Manaphy in the depths of the sea was undoubtedly unwise.
Manaphy himself wasn't powerless, and what he excelled at most was calling people.
The reason Vander Decken IX gave him for coming over was the discovery of a mine, so Manaphy had brought along a bunch of strong, muscular "miners."
Swampert acted as a substitute for impact drills and power hammers Pokémon on the seabed, and their arm strength able to easily lift a ton was even more terrifying.
Seeing Vander Decken IX intending to act against their group pet, there was no need for Manaphy to say anything; they had already initiated their actions.
Several Swampert opened their mouths wide, Mud Bombs pierced through the water towards those fishmen pirates, achieving a peculiar form of fire suppression even underwater.
And when the Mud Bombs hit their targets, they dispersed; when a large amount of mud was released, the seawater here turned murky and turbid, even fishmen couldn't clearly see the targets before them, only able to swing their weapons wildly.
Swampert were different; able to live in swamps, they've evolved to see in murky water, and taking advantage of this, the second wave of Swampert charged into the crowd.
Their arm muscles bursting with Machamp strength, every punch was accompanied by cries of agony, and the already dilapidated Flying Dutchman had several large holes added to it, nearing the brink of disintegration.
Vander Decken IX's Mark-Mark Fruit could automatically lock onto enemies, but since he hadn't touched anyone, naturally he lost this ability.
Vander Decken IX's body techniques were quite poor, with combat power not even matching the average fishman, and he was still a capability user, relying on the Bubble Film on his surface for free movement. If the Bubble Film was broken, he'd immediately become weak and powerless.
"Wadatsumi! What are you waiting for? Get him quickly!"
"Alright, Captain Vander Decken, watch me!.. Captain, I can't see where he is? Could you tell me where he is first?"
Wadatsumi was quite eager to take action, but soon realized he couldn't find Manaphy, his childish mind instinctively asking the parental figure in his mind.
"Idiot! Can't you get rid of this muddy water first!!"
"Oh, as expected of the Captain, great idea."
Wadatsumi inhaled deeply, sucking in a large amount of clean seawater beside him; as a Pufferfish Man, once inflated, his body resembled a giant balloon, then he spat it out towards the Flying Dutchman.
A large amount of seawater cleared away the nearby muddy waters, also sweeping away quite a few fishmen, those being fishmen pirates knocked out by the Swampert.
"Captain, wait a bit, I'll catch him right away!"
"Interesting, you two go deal with that ugly four-legged beast, I'll catch this big guy."
Manaphy found Wadatsumi foolish; such a silly big guy not being put to work in mining was simply a waste of talent, so Manaphy decided to add another "champion" to the mining company.
A strange sound wave emitted from Manaphy's body, seeming to summon a bizarre fish with lobster claws from the nearby sand swimming towards him.
Although Vander Decken IX was talking nonsense, finding a Sea King type in the ocean was quite easy for Manaphy.