Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, half a year had passed.
It was now June of Marineford Calendar 1513, and the weather was incredibly hot, with the sun scorching and blinding.
On a merchant ship, Nami leaned against the railing, staring at the sea below. In her left hand, she held a stopwatch, and in her right, a notebook with a pen tucked inside.
Beside her stood a tall figure, nearly two meters in height, with six tentacles. He stood there, holding a knotted rope, continuously throwing it into the ocean.
Nami, in turn, calculated the length based on the knots on the rope, then divided the rope length by the time to determine the speed.
"This should be about right."
Nami quickly opened her notebook, writing and drawing as she calculated the speed and direction of the ocean currents.
"Are you finished?" Hachi asked, standing beside her and watching Nami.
Nami nodded. "I've calculated the currents and direction for this part of the sea, but next I need to observe the weather changes and will need to check on it periodically."
"Then I'm not needed?" Hachi quickly asked.
Nami glanced at him. "Yeah, for now, I can manage alone."
Hachi said irritably, "I really don't know why Boss Arlong wanted me to come out with you!"
Nami shrugged. "Maybe because you're the strongest and most trusted Fish-Man under Boss Arlong."
"Hahaha, you're right."
Hachi burst into laughter, then wiped the sweat from his forehead. "It's too hot. I'm going down to cool off. Call me if you need anything."
With that, Hachi plunged into the ocean with a splash. Once in the water, he attached himself to the bottom of the ship with his tentacles and followed the sea ship underwater.
After Hachi left, the atmosphere on the merchant ship noticeably relaxed, and many people let out sighs of relief.
Many people discriminated against Fish-Men, viewing them as monsters. However, for ordinary people, their fear of Fish-Men often outweighed their hostility.
Meanwhile, the year before, Jinbe had become a Shichibukai, and the World Government began promoting racial equality. Newspapers and broadcasts frequently mentioned Fish-Men, and under this propaganda, relations in areas with fewer Fish-Men had actually eased somewhat.
So, they merely kept their distance from the Fish-Man but didn't stop him from boarding.
"What are you doing?"
After Hachi left, a figure approached Nami and asked curiously.
"Who are you?"
Nami looked at the person and saw a tall, well-built young man smiling at her.
"My name is Marcel."
Marcel smiled, revealing his white teeth. "I saw you by the ship's edge."
"I'm Nami."
Nami nodded and pointed to the sea. "I'm measuring the speed of the water flow."
"Are you a surveyor?"
Marcel looked at Nami with curiosity. "That's amazing. I've been sailing for two years, and I can only navigate fixed currents. You're so young, and you're already..."
Nami replied nonchalantly, "It's nothing special."
Marcel then looked down. "Was that a Fish-Man just now?"
"Yes, an Octopus Fish-Man," Nami replied, writing in her notebook.
Marcel smiled. "Is he your bodyguard?"
"Something like that."
Nami replied, her pen still rapidly scribbling in her notebook.
Marcel smiled. "I saw he had six swords. Hahaha, this is my first time seeing an Octopus Fish-Man."
"Really?"
Nami answered without looking up, her pen not stopping.
It was then that Marcel realized she was busy and said, "I'm the vice-captain of this ship. Come find me if you need anything."
"Vice-captain?"
Nami raised an eyebrow upon hearing this, surprised that he was already a vice-captain at such a young age.
Marcel finished speaking and walked to the bow of the ship, holding a large dumbbell in each hand, and began to train.
Front raises, overhead presses, front raises, bicep curls.
Each of these dumbbells weighed over a hundred pounds, yet he performed the movements with ease, appearing quite strong. His strength was greater than that of some Fish-Men.
Of course, most Fish-Man soldiers were stronger than him.
And compared to a Fish-Man like Hachi, who wielded six 300-kilogram long swords and could perform incredible techniques, Marcel was far behind.
Nami withdrew her gaze and continued to look into the distance, observing the weather changes.
...
In the deep sea, Xia Qiu was battling a group of sharks.
It bit down on the largest shark, killing it in one bite, then withdrew its tail and flung a shark away.
A shark lunged at its back, but Xia Qiu charged forward, his thick dorsal fin slamming into a shark and sending it flying.
Two sharks aimed for Xia Qiu's sides, but their teeth couldn't break through Xia Qiu's restraints.
And on Xia Qiu's belly, two more sharks were each tightly wrapped by three tentacles. The tentacles tightened, preventing the sharks from swimming and absorbing dissolved oxygen from the water, causing them to slowly suffocate.
Soon, seven or eight sharks were dead, and the remaining sharks, no longer daring to attack, turned and fled.
Xia Qiu, meanwhile, slowly fed on the sharks.
Very useful.
Xia Qiu was very satisfied with the function of his tentacles.
After half a year of predation, Xia Qiu's tentacles had grown, totaling ten, arranged on both sides of his abdomen in two columns, forming five pairs, ten tentacles in total.
Among these, the first, second, third, and fifth were short arms.
The fourth pair were grasping tentacles.
The short arms had two rows of suckers, each sucker about six centimeters in diameter. The short arms themselves were about fifteen centimeters in diameter, extending from the base.
The first short arm was only five meters long, while the second, third, and fifth were seven meters long. The grasping tentacles reached twelve meters.
His current length was around thirty-five meters, height about six meters, and width four meters.
The tentacles were located beneath his abdomen, now able to protect a twenty-meter long area of his underside, as well as protect all sides of the area where the tentacles were located.
The protected area was sufficient.
In terms of hunting ability, the tentacles were incredibly strong with immense gripping power, easily able to entangle sharks seven to eight meters long.
Among the Octopoda, octopuses killed more sharks, but these were mostly small octopuses and small sharks.
They would ambush sharks to entangle them.
However, the larger the size of both combatants, the more difficult the hunt. One reason was that squids were large and mostly lived in the deep sea, while sharks rarely ventured into the deep sea, making ambush conditions impossible.
If not ambushing, the squid's strength was insufficient to restrain larger sharks. Sharks could sense vibrations and usually attacked first, often resulting in the squid's death.
This was due to the power difference between them. Giant squids between ten and thirteen meters long weighed only around three hundred kilograms.
A twenty-meter giant squid weighed just over a ton.
But sharks, seven to eight meter sharks, weighed over four tons.
Large squids were unable to effectively counter large sharks and would be dragged around by them.
Xia Qiu, however, was different. His weight was immense, and as long as his tentacles' grip was strong enough, his targets could not escape his restraint.
Therefore, these tentacles were even more effective on Xia Qiu than they would be on an octopus.
With these tentacles, Xia Qiu was confident he could take on a single executive.
After finishing the sharks, Xia Qiu retracted his tentacles. Parts of the grasping tentacles could be withdrawn into the basal sac, while the tentacles themselves coiled up.
This made the tentacles difficult to spot from Xia Qiu's front.
Xia Qiu propelled himself, swimming back in the direction he came from, arriving at the western port side of the island. This was not far from Arlong Park to the south.
But just then, Xia Qiu suddenly sensed a massive vibration from the surface of the sea.
He opened his mouth and released a sonar wave. The feedback indicated a huge ship was approaching.
Xia Qiu quickly surfaced and looked at the ship.
The emblem drawn on the white sail made Xia Qiu's eyes narrow.
A Marine warship.
The Marines had arrived.
The Arlong Pirates had been here for over half a year, and this was the first time the Marines had come.
Were they here to attack Arlong, or to cooperate?
Regardless, his own actions were needed.
Xia Qiu swam towards the Marine warship.
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Translation by: randomtranslator.com
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