The Eclipse's lower deck. Jeno's laboratory.
Searing sparks and the shriek of metal cutting echoed through the spacious room for nearly ten hours. Aside from running up to the deck for meals, Jeno poured every ounce of his focus into the three-meter deep-sea mollusk.
"Last memory-metal armor plate. Neural link confirmed. High-pressure water pump valves locked. Done!"
Jeno wiped the sweat from his forehead and admired the transformed masterpiece on the operating table.
The sea beast's shredded back was gone. In its place, a sleek, dark silver alloy carapace, impossibly thin yet brutally hard, covered in dense barbs. The armor hugged the creature's soft, octopus-like back perfectly. A mechanical tail extended from the rear, built from segmented memory metal and tipped with a razor-sharp inverted triangle blade.
Even more lethal, two concealed high-pressure metal water valves sat flush along the sides of the shell, ready to open and close on command.
"Chopper, inject the nutrient solution. Time to wake it up." Jeno snapped his fingers.
"On it!"
Chopper, standing by the whole time, expertly pushed a tube of pale blue nutrient fluid into the beast's body with his small hoof.
A few seconds later.
"Grrr... gurgle?"
The sea beast, fresh from a brush with death and a full-body rebuild, slowly opened its massive dark yellow eyes.
Disoriented, it tried to twist its body. The strange new sensation on its back made it panic. It let out a rapid, distressed cry.
"Easy, partner. It's me."
Shark, who had never left the operating table, stepped forward. His inverted-triangle eyes, usually so cold, now held a rare warmth.
He reached out a broad, rough, dark gray-blue hand and gently stroked the creature's cool mechanical shell.
"GRRR!!!"
The moment it recognized Shark's face, the bizarre sea beast forgot its fear of the metal armor entirely. It let out a joyful cry. The giant suckers on its belly writhed frantically as it launched itself off the table. Like a massive octopus, it latched onto Shark's arm, rubbing its soft underbelly against him with desperate affection.
The sheer intensity of the clingy display left even Shark momentarily at a loss.
"That's beautiful."
Chopper watched, eyes brimming with tears. He could understand animal speech. The moment this sea beast woke up, its mind had been screaming Shark's name.
"Shark, you never told us. How did you even meet this weird sea beast?"
Jeno asked while packing up his tools. Sabo and Carina, who had just walked into the lab to check on the progress, perked up their ears.
Shark felt the familiar soft pressure on his arm and was silent for a moment.
"Half a year ago."
His voice was low, pulling him back to the dark waters he'd roamed before meeting Ace.
"I was drifting through this stretch of sea. One day, I attacked a slaver ship heading for the Sabaody Archipelago. They were transporting slaves and exotic animals. I killed every slaver on board and smashed every cage."
Shark's gaze settled on the sea beast clinging to his arm.
"It was locked in one of the water tanks. They'd captured it as a novelty pet because it looked strange and could shoot water. After I freed it, it just followed me. Like a tail I couldn't shake."
"Wherever I went, it swam after me. When bigger sea beasts attacked, it even tried to cover me with those pitiful water jets of its."
Shark exhaled. "But later, I decided to go after Celestial Dragon slaver ships. That kind of fight was too dangerous for it. It was just a wild sea beast. I didn't want it to die for nothing, so I forced it away. Released it. I thought it would go back to the deep sea and live in peace."
"Grrr! Grrr grrr grrr!"
Hearing this, the sea beast on Shark's arm erupted in furious protest, even tapping Shark's shoulder with its mechanical tail.
"What's it saying?" Sabo looked at Chopper, curious.
Chopper immediately switched to translator mode.
"It says it never wanted to go back to the deep sea! It says it's your underling, and it'll follow you anywhere! It says after you chased it off, it kept swimming around this area looking for you. Then some big fish ambushed it. If you hadn't shown up so fast, it would never have seen you again!"
Shark's heart jolted at Chopper's translation.
On this brutal sea, a bond where you could trust someone with your back without reservation was priceless. The sense of belonging he'd never found in the Sun Pirates, he'd found here on the Eclipse. And now this sea beast he'd released had crossed half an ocean to find him again.
"I won't chase you off anymore."
Shark reached out with his other hand and patted the beast's ultra-hard alloy shell. "With this armor Jeno built you, you really will be my strongest back."
"GRRR!!!" The sea beast let out a long, triumphant cry, answering Shark's promise.
"Hey, Shark. What's its name?" Jeno asked with a grin.
Shark looked at the creature. A fitting name surfaced in his mind.
"I'll call it... Sharkskin."
Shark said it with absolute seriousness.
"Sharkskin? Sounds like it suits you."
Shark released his grip and gave Sharkskin its first command.
"Sharkskin. Attach."
"Grrr!"
With perfect synchronicity, the sea beast flipped its body. Its three-meter frame instantly molded itself against Shark's impossibly broad back.
The giant suckers on its belly clamped onto the fish-man's muscles like they were part of him, holding fast. The dark silver barbed armor, forged from memory alloy, covered Shark's entire back, his shoulder blades, and even extended down to his lower back.
The mechanical tail with its inverted triangle blade hung down along Shark's legs, swaying with fluid precision in time with his breathing, like a true metal appendage.
Shark walked to the deck with Sharkskin attached and threw a punch at the sea.
"Five Thousand Tile True Punch!"
Shark's fist blasted forward.
At the same instant, the high-pressure metal pumps on Sharkskin's shell activated.
A ferocious, ultra-compressed water jet erupted alongside Shark's punch.
It slammed into the ocean surface, punching a deep crater into the water.
"Perfect!"
Jeno jumped up, thrilled by the terrifying boost in destructive power.
Shark felt the seamless, impenetrable hardness guarding his back and the exhilarating freedom of commanding that massive torrent of water at will. A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.
With Sharkskin's support, even on dry land far from the sea, he could now unleash the full advantage of Fish-Man Karate.
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