With Rocks' final word, the gibecks sword set a direct course for Amazon Lily.
"Heroes swarm the world like carp in a river; it's no surprise when a few powerhouses suddenly appear!"
"Rocks, didn't you burst onto the scene out of nowhere yourself?"
Fang Huo answered Rocks' latest jab at his so-called prophecy without the faintest blush—thick-skinned to the core.
"Rocks, you ought to be secretly delighted! Only with Fang Huo's help did your Rocks Pirates grow so fast in such a short time!"
"Without Fang Huo, you'd still be hunting for Executives ten or even twenty years from now!"
Charlotte Linlin was first to leap to Fang Huo's defense; a king-tier officer with Conqueror's Haki is just that fearless.
Stussy, whose strength ranked near the bottom, could only mutter and whisper in Fang Huo's ear that Rocks was a reckless brute—she dared not say it to his face.
But she had to let Fang Huo know whose side she was on.
"Fine—every woman loves you, every officer respects you. As first mate, you've won every heart aboard!"
Frankly, Rocks felt a twinge of envy; aside from raw power, he couldn't match Fang Huo in anything.
Fang Huo's looks, intellect, nine talent attributes, and mastery of the Three Types of Haki made him seem more Captain than the Captain himself.
"I still respect you, Captain—what more do you want?"
Fang Huo spread his hands, basking in Linlin's and Stussy's backing as he smirked at Captain Rocks.
"Hmph!"
Rocks had no reply; he could hardly throw Fang Huo overboard or kill him.
His grand ambition still needed the man's aid.
Fang Huo had promised that if Rocks could recruit Harald, he would hand over everything he knew about the ancient weapon Pluton.
That alone kept Rocks' drive burning.
——While the gibecks sword sped toward Amazon Lily——
Golden Lion Shiki's Flying Battleship had just plundered another World Government trade isle, seizing riches and supplies.
They captured a dozen merchant and pirate vessels, swelling their flying fleet even further.
Only after Silver Axe's incessant nagging did the laden armada finally leave the West Blue and head for the Calm Belt and the New World.
News of their raids reached the World Government and Marineford almost at once.
The Rocks Pirates were operating separately?
If not for the Rocks Pirates flag flying atop Golden Lion Shiki's Flying Battleship,
the World Government would have thought the four Executives had split off to form their own crew.
It gave both the Government and the Marines a chance to defeat them piecemeal.
The World Government quickly drafted plans to cut off this wing of the Rocks Pirates.
Yet Shiki's flying fleet still gave them splitting headaches.
Even divided, the Rocks Pirates remained a nightmare.
All they could try was ambush or baiting them with treasure, hoping to bring down these Executives.
——West Blue, Amazon Lily——
The Mad Swordsman Fūgetsu Kisaburō was dressed in rags, his long messy hair tied into a haphazard topknot.
A staff-sword stuck casually through his sash, he wandered aimlessly across the chaotic island.
His eyes were weary, like a drifting tempest swordsman—lonely and desolate.
The out-sea Yakuza knew neither rules nor honor; compared with the lawful gangs of Wano, they were worlds apart.
The lawless outer seas shattered his illusions and yearning.
If his clansmen were still alive, perhaps he could have kept exploring with a spirit of adventure.
But his kin and comrades were all dead.
Now he lacked even the courage to return to Wano.
He feared that if he brought back such grim news, Lord Fūgetsu would be bitterly disappointed and General Kozuki would jail or even execute him for treason—only if he returned with his people and their honor could he hope for pardon.
Yet all of that was now impossible.
He had lost everything… "Brothers and sisters of Ugetsu and Shimotsuki, are you still alive?"
"Did any of you survive…?"
That was Fūgetsu Kisaburō's sole reason to keep living: to find his scattered brothers and friends.
Especially the like-minded Shimotsuki Kōzaburō!
They were sworn brothers of the same age from two allied families, and fellow swordsmiths as well.
"Kōzaburō, you must keep Lady Furiko safe!"
Fūgetsu Kisaburō murmured; as the daimyō's daughter, Shimotsuki Furiko's status was exalted—should anything happen to her,
Kōzaburō's plight would be even worse than his own; he would never be able to return and would live forever in guilt.
He had asked around this Yakuza isle several times, yet found no word of his Ugetsu or Shimotsuki siblings.
Where on earth had they scattered?
The loneliness made Fūgetsu Kisaburō ever more despairing.
Among all the overseas expeditions, his group had been the strongest.
If even he could not save his Fūgetsu clansmen from those titanic sea beasts, could the Ugetsu and Shimotsuki teams really have survived?
The more he thought, the more frantic he became… Soon he devoured a huge meal in a Yakuza bar to refuel.
He also managed to obtain a rough map of the West Blue and a world map.
"So the world is this vast…"
"Those monster waters are called the Calm Belt…"
"Kōzaburō, whatever you do, don't stray into the Calm Belt!"
A sliver of hope rekindled: not every sea was as lethal as the Calm Belt.
He and his kin had simply been cursed to blunder into the deadliest waters of all.
That he had escaped alive was already a miracle.
"If the Ugetsu and Shimotsuki groups are still alive, they should be in… the New World…"
He studied the two maps for a long while; his homeland Wano lay in the latter half of the New World.
To return there, one either braved the monster-infested Calm Belt or sailed up Reverse Mountain into the Grand Line and then into the New World.
The thought of the Calm Belt—those giant Sea Kings and his massacred clansmen—left a shadow in his heart.
He no longer dared to cross those waters.
But if he carved out a name and kept living, one day he would reunite with his Ugetsu and Shimotsuki brothers and sisters.
"I'll go to Reverse Mountain, I'll enter the Grand Line…"
Clenching the famous blade he had forged himself, Fūgetsu Kisaburō reignited with hope; he would carve a bloody name across these lawless Yakuza seas.
He would make the names Fūgetsu Kisaburō and gokudō kaisen echo across the outer oceans!
On Amazon Lily, a Mafia member finally snapped a photo of the mad swordsman and sent it to Boss Maron.
When Fang Huo aboard the gibecks sword saw the picture, the man meant nothing to him.
Yet the staff-sword in the madman's hand looked faintly familiar…——