Jerry saw the ships too.
The moment he looked up, two more massive vessels appeared on the horizon.
Before either Jerry or Green Rabbit could react, even more warships came into view one after another, forming a vast fleet as they charged straight toward the coast of Syrup Village.
As the enormous armada gradually became clearer, Jerry's eyes bulged.
He jumped once, then bolted for the travel ship at top speed.
Green Rabbit didn't dare delay either and immediately followed.
"Ships! So many ships!"
The instant he reached the deck, Jerry rushed straight to the Elegant Fox.
The fox, full and satisfied after the feast, couldn't have cared less. He lay lazily on a deck chair, the very picture of refined indifference.
Seeing that, Jerry gave up on him at once. He leapt over to Droopy instead and pointed frantically at the sea.
"There are so many ships!"
Droopy, meanwhile, was in that classic post-meal state—fed, content, and slightly indecent. He held a magazine in both paws and was studying the blonde beauty on the cover with complete concentration.
"You two! You two!"
Seeing that Droopy was ignoring him too, Jerry instantly got angry. He planted both paws on his hips and started jabbing a finger at him.
"I'm telling Mr. Kairo you didn't protect the ship!"
"Ah…"
Droopy let out a lazy yawn, flipped to a more comfortable angle, and continued admiring the cover model as if Jerry didn't exist.
Jerry stopped wasting words.
He dashed into the cabin, grabbed a paintbrush in one paw and a telescope in the other, then sprinted back onto the deck.
Raising the telescope, he took a look.
In the short time since he'd first noticed them, the fleet bearing down on them had already grown to forty or fifty ships.
At the very front of the armada sailed a giant three-deck warship. Its figurehead was shaped like a black war spear, and the pirate flag showed a skull flanked by two hourglasses.
Standing on the deck of that flagship was a burly man in golden armor with a great cloak billowing behind him.
Don Krieg.
Captain of the Krieg Pirates, the strongest pirate fleet in East Blue.
With fifty warships under his command and more than five thousand men, he had dominated East Blue for years and never regarded other pirate crews as worth mentioning.
That said, even Krieg had nearly been wiped out a few days ago when Marine Headquarters warships suddenly descended on East Blue.
At the time, he and his officers had been in the middle of crushing a particularly unlucky pirate crew that had just set sail and run into them. Victory had already been in hand when one of his ships sent urgent word that a Headquarters fleet had appeared—led by two Marine Headquarters vice admirals.
At first, Krieg hadn't been worried at all. He had even considered using the opportunity to sink the Marines instead.
But then he learned why the Headquarters fleet had come to East Blue.
It wasn't for him.
It was because a red rabbit had wiped out the Goa Kingdom royal family and publicly killed a Celestial Dragon.
Because of that, not only had four Headquarters vice admirals been deployed, one of the Admirals—one of the Marines' highest combat powers—had entered East Blue as well.
The moment Krieg understood that, he backed down without hesitation.
He might have been arrogant, but he wasn't stupid. If he fought the Marines head-on under those circumstances, the only outcome would be total annihilation at the hands of the vice admirals and that legendary Admiral.
So he had hidden himself away for several days.
Only after receiving news that the red rabbit had been captured and publicly executed in Loguetown did he emerge again.
Although the execution ended in humiliating failure for the Marines, Krieg soon learned that the rabbit—who apparently couldn't be killed no matter what they tried—had already been transferred out of Loguetown. The escort included not only an Admiral, but also Vice Admiral Garp, Vice Admiral Gion, and the rest of the main Marine force.
Once he confirmed the Marines had truly left Loguetown, Krieg immediately led his fleet back out.
After all, the entire world's attention was still fixed on that rabbit.
Which meant East Blue was wide open.
This was the perfect time to go wild.
"Admiral Krieg!"
One of his pirates hurried up to him excitedly.
"There's a village ahead called Syrup Village!"
"From what we've learned, it's never been raided by pirates all these years. The villagers are all rich. And there's one wealthy household there that's practically as rich as a nation!"
Krieg's eyes lit up at once.
So his patience these past few days had paid off.
Now East Blue had no troublesome pirate rivals in his way, and no powerful Marine force sitting on top of him. He could rob whoever he wanted. If necessary, with the fleet at his back, he could even force an entire kingdom to pay up or suffer the same fate as the Goa Kingdom's royals.
He lifted a telescope and peered toward shore.
"Pass the order down. Once we land, all hands move out."
"Leave no one alive."
Before the words had fully settled, his eyes narrowed.
Through the telescope, he saw a ship anchored by the coast with no flag flying. On its deck were several small animals—one reading a magazine, one drinking coffee…
And one absurdly tiny little mouse was actually staring back at him through a telescope.
"So the villagers of Syrup Village really do live well."
A cruel smile flickered in Krieg's eyes.
"They even keep this many pets. Pass the order—blow that damned ship to pieces first."
The command went out immediately.
One of the warships peeled out from the fleet.
"Target: the ship by the shore!"
"Prepare!"
"Three-shot volley! Fire!"
Three thunderous blasts rang out almost together.
Three cannonballs screamed across the air, plunging toward the travel ship at high speed.
On the deck, Jerry's scalp instantly went numb.
Without hesitation, he whipped up his brush and painted a giant black hole into existence in midair.
The hole had barely formed when the three cannonballs arrived and vanished cleanly into it.
Standing nearby, Green Rabbit's eyes widened in amazement.
So Jerry could do that?
Out on the sea, Krieg stared through his telescope in disbelief.
"What the hell?"
Had that little mouse just painted a hole in the air and swallowed the cannonballs?
He had seen it with his own eyes, but he still refused to believe a tiny mouse could do something like that.
After a stunned pause, he immediately barked out another order.
"All ships, listen up!"
"Aim at that damned vessel!"
"Full barrage!"
As soon as the order was given, the surrounding warships surged forward, spreading out in a fan shape. Dozens of cannons swung toward the travel ship.
Then the roar of cannon fire became one continuous storm.
Cannonballs filled the sky, tracing arcs overhead before descending on the ship in a dense rain of destruction.
"So many! Too many!"
Jerry frantically painted black hole after black hole while shouting at the top of his lungs:
"Droopy! Mr. Fox! Help me! There are too many—I can't st—"
Before he could finish, a deafening explosion erupted.
A violent shockwave slammed into the ship, making the entire vessel lurch wildly.
Then the next wave of cannonballs came screaming in. Some slipped through the gaps between Jerry's black holes and exploded directly across the deck.
In an instant, the terrifying blasts hurled Jerry, Droopy, and the fox high into the air.
The travel ship itself was blown to pieces, reduced to wreckage that flew in all directions.
Even as he was tossed skyward by the shockwave, Jerry still cried out desperately:
"Droopy! Mr. Fox—!"
Then he froze.
His eyes went wide as he stared at Green Rabbit streaking past him like a blur.
In the next second, the shattered remains of the ship abruptly stopped in midair.
Green Rabbit flashed through the debris at impossible speed, reassembling piece after piece with such absurd velocity that time itself seemed to slow around him.
By the time normal perception returned, the ship had been fully restored and was once again sitting intact on the sea.
Jerry dropped back onto the deck and stared in awe.
"So cool!"
"Green Rabbit, you're amazing!"
Droopy and the fox landed a moment later. One calmly resumed drinking coffee. The other returned to admiring his blonde pin-up magazine.
It was as if the barrage that had just blown the ship to pieces had never happened.
Far away, still holding his telescope, Krieg stood frozen in horror as he stared at the ship he had personally watched get blasted apart—only to see it restored in the blink of an eye.
And this time it wasn't just Krieg.
The entire Krieg fleet saw it.
All of them had witnessed the bizarre sight:
The instant the ship exploded into pieces, a Green Rabbit had appeared in the middle of the flying wreckage.
Then, amid a blur of afterimages, that rabbit had zipped through the debris and reassembled the vessel almost instantly.
The whole process had taken less than a blink.
By the time they blinked—
the ship was whole again, floating calmly on the sea.
The scene was so surreal that everyone aboard the fleet started wondering if they'd just imagined it.
For a moment, no one even remembered to speak.
◇ I'll drop one bonus chapter for every 10 reviews (leave a review/comment!)
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 60 chapters ahead on P@treon: patreon.com/KageNaruto