The Marines and pirates gawked at him, half in disbelief.
"Riding a Sea King… just to ask for a ride? That's a first…"
"Is this kid serious? Hitch a ride? Does he think this is a ferry service?!"
"Captain, he's mocking us!"
"Don't let him distract you! Karl, keep firing at the Marines!"
"But Captain… what if we hit him instead?"
"Damn it! Quit fussing—are you pirates or not? If that brat dies in the crossfire, that's his bad luck!"
"Yes, Captain!"
"Teacher Zephyr, your orders?"
"Keep firing. Capture the pirates first!"
"Sir!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Cannons thundered again. The Lion Pirates pounded the Marine warship; the Marines returned fire with equal fury. Flames and smoke rolled across the Calm Belt as the battle reignited.
"Unbelievable… they just ignored me."
Standing atop the Sea King, Gil's face twitched. To them, he and the Sea King might as well have been scenery.
He'd honestly thought he could just ask to board. The moment they realized he only wanted a ride, both sides promptly pretended he didn't exist and went back to trying to blow each other up.
"They're in the middle of a fight, Gil," he muttered to himself. "Who cares if you need a lift?"
He cupped his hands around his mouth. "Hey! Can I hitch a ride?"
Silence—then more cannon fire. He was still invisible.
"Looks like I'll have to solve this myself."
Gil weighed the options, frowning.
"Sink the Marines?"The Marines wore justice like a badge, but sometimes they did ugly things.
"The pirates?"Most were scum—but not all.
"…Fine. That ship."
Decision made, Gil lifted his right hand and closed his fingers on empty air, voice calm:
"Universal Pull."
This time he dialed the strength up to five hundred.
WHUMP.
The Lion Pirates—already frantic under Marine fire—lurched as an invisible force seized their ship. Deck planks split. Pirates flew head over heels; several tumbled screaming into the sea. The vessel shot forward toward Gil as if yanked by a giant hook—
—and before it even reached him, the hull tore apart with a deafening crack. The ship disintegrated mid-charge, shattered timbers skittering across the water.
"Aaaaah!"
"Captain! Captain!"
"Is… is it over?"
On the Marine warship, officers who'd been barking orders froze. Their pupils shrank as they stared at the wreckage drifting where a pirate ship had been seconds earlier.
"What—what just happened?"
The Marines stood stunned.
One moment the pirate ship had been fine; the next, it looked as if a giant hand had grabbed it and crushed it to splinters.
The Lion Pirates were even more bewildered. They hadn't been hit by a cannon—so why had their ship simply come apart?
"Over there!" a steady voice cut through the shock.
Heads turned toward Zephyr. He didn't take his eyes off the young man standing on the Sea King.
"Teacher Zephyr—are you saying that man did it?"
"Yes. I saw him clearly," Zephyr said. "He made a grasping motion—and their ship accelerated… then burst."
"Just a grab—and the whole ship shattered…?" a Marine whispered. He'd known the stranger was powerful, but not like that.
"To crush a pirate ship with one hand… how terrifying is he, exactly?"
"He has to be a Devil Fruit user," another said, face pale. "No one else could do that. That kind of power… that's Admiral-class."
"Thank goodness he crushed their ship. If he'd done that to ours…"
A cold hush fell over the deck. More than one Marine silently wondered whether their stray cannon shots might have annoyed the stranger.
If they had, they were in trouble.