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Chapter 120is out!!!! +40 advanced chapters monthly
"You...!" Absalom gnashed his teeth in frustration. He was just about to turn invisible and slip away, but the stark realization hit him: his invisibility was completely useless against Baishui. Resigned, he froze in place.
"Alright, you can stop glaring at me," Baishui said, casually digging a pinky into his ear. "If I wasn't in a surprisingly good mood today, you'd already be a corpse. You think I'd waste this much breath on you otherwise?"
Despite the warning, a sharp, murderous glint still flickered in Absalom's eyes.
"Horo horo horo! You're completely useless, Absalom!"
"Step aside and let me handle this. I'll turn him into my personal slave!"
A chilling female voice suddenly echoed across the deck, sounding as though it had drifted straight out of the depths of the underworld. It was enough to make anyone's skin crawl.
"Wah! G-Ghosts!"
Before the Marines could react, a row of translucent specters materialized out of thin air, hurtling directly toward them.
"Damn that woman!" Absalom's expression twisted. Without missing a beat, he cloaked himself in invisibility and vanished from the ship with a sharp whoosh.
"Negative Hollow!"
The eerie voice rang out again. The terrified Marines could only watch in horror as the swarm of ghosts phased effortlessly right through their bodies.
Baishui, however, was the sole exception. The ghosts that attempted to pass through him were violently repelled, crashing into an invisible wall.
"How is that possible?!" A voice cried out in sheer disbelief.
Hovering in the air nearby was Perona, dressed in her signature gothic-lolita princess attire, her eyes wide with shock.
"I'm a sinner... I should be reborn as an ant in my next life..."
"Forgive me... I just want to be a dung beetle..."
Meanwhile, the Marines who had been passed through by the Negative Hollows collapsed as if possessed. All the color drained from their faces as they dropped to their hands and knees, heads bowed to the deck, spewing the most soul-crushing, depressing nonsense imaginable.
While Baishui prided himself on his mental fortitude, even he didn't dare test his luck by taking a hit head-on. The power of these ghosts was absurdly unreasonable. Unless someone was already terminally pessimistic—more negative than the hollows themselves—or possessed an unshakable will like Bartholomew Kuma, they would inevitably succumb to crippling despair, no matter how physically strong they were.
Fortunately, Armament Haki existed as the ultimate counter to Devil Fruit abilities. Coating himself in it was more than enough to block the hollows from entering his body.
"Mini Hollow... Ghost Rap!"
Seeing that Baishui was completely unfazed by her main ghosts, the floating phantom-master unleashed her next move.
A dense, chattering swarm of miniature ghosts suddenly manifested right in front of Baishui's face. With a synchronized pop, they all detonated at once.
Though tiny, the Mini Hollows packed a serious punch. Even a boulder the size of a millstone would be blown to absolute dust.
But to Baishui? It was barely a mild inconvenience.
He casually expanded a Light Particle Barrier, letting the explosion wash over the shield without moving a single inch.
"Alright, enough of that, Ghost Princess Perona. Your tricks aren't going to work on me," Baishui said, raising his hands in a mock surrender toward a dark corner of the mast. "I didn't come here to start a war today, so please don't force my hand. Besides, beating up a girl tends to spark public outrage!"
"Tch! You're no fun at all!"
With a pout, a petite girl materialized from the shadows, sitting perched atop a massive stuffed bear.
She sported pink twintails with blunt bangs, framing exceptionally large, round eyes with sharp, distinct eyelashes. A small crown rested on her head, and she twirled a burgundy parasol in one hand. She wore a red capelet with a bow over a white crop-top bearing Gekko Moria's emblem. Her slender legs, clad in black-and-white striped tights and a frilly red miniskirt, kicked back and forth cheerfully.
A textbook gothic lolita.
"Hey! You! Why aren't you affected by my Negative Hollows?!" Perona drifted down slowly, floating so close to Baishui that she was practically nose-to-nose with him.
You had to admit, the girl had guts.
"Heh, that's a trade secret," Baishui chuckled, taking a casual half-step back.
He turned to his crew. "Watch the warship. Wait here until I get back. Commander, you're with me."
Although Baishui's official rank was merely Captain, his men followed his orders without a second thought. On the Grand Line, strength commanded respect, and Baishui had plenty of it.
"Alright, playtime's over. I have some business to discuss with your boss," Baishui said to Perona, stretching his arms lazily.
With the grace of a hunting leopard, he leaped off the deck and landed smoothly on the shoreline. The Marine Commander followed close behind, bounding through the air using Geppo.
The moment they set foot on Thriller Bark, they were greeted by the grim sight of a sprawling, fog-choked cemetery. Tombstones and burial mounds littered the uneven earth.
The Commander was visibly on edge. He stuck close to Baishui's back, his head swiveling left and right as if expecting an ambush from the dirt.
"Relax, it's just a bunch of corpses," Baishui smiled, amused by the older man's nerves. "Even if something does pop out, it's just Moria's Devil Fruit power at work. Nothing to be terrified of."
"R-Right. Got it," the Commander nodded stiffly, though the sheer terror never quite left his eyes.
Meanwhile, deep within the island's central mast-mansion, Absalom was already delivering the news of Baishui's arrival to Gekko Moria.
"Kishishishi... So, a young Marine has shown up, eh? It seems he has finally arrived. The very thing I've been waiting for is finally knocking on my door!" Moria's face split into a wide, menacing grin at the report.
"Tell Hogback he's authorized to use those General Zombies," Moria commanded Absalom. "Have him test this Marine's true strength. And if possible... leave him alive!"
"Understood!" Absalom bowed sharply and retreated from the shadows.
Hmph. Young Marine... you must be Ronel Baishui, Moria thought, his grin widening. Let's see if you actually have what it takes to stand before me.
Moria knew exactly why Baishui was here, and he was well aware of his identity. But he was morbidly curious to see if the rumors were true—was this really the man capable of capturing a pirate with a 300-million Berry bounty?
Back with Baishui, the invasion had begun.
Stage One: The duo ran into the three-headed zombie hound, Cerberus. Baishui didn't even have to lift a finger; the Commander knocked it out cold.
Stage Two: A monstrously large centipede blocked their path. Again, Baishui stood by as the Commander sliced it in half.
Stage Three: A giant, grotesque spider. Baishui spectated as the Commander fought a hard-won battle, eventually emerging victorious.
Stage Five: They finally breached the castle interior. This section was supposed to be guarded by Perona, but since she was occupied elsewhere, they strolled right through without issue.
Stage Six: Finally, a challenger worthy of the name.
The genius surgeon, Dr. Hogback, alongside his loyal zombie maid, Victoria Cindry.
"Fosfosfosfos! Welcome to my world!" Hogback threw his arms wide, his screeching, high-pitched laughter piercing the air.
"Look, just step aside. I'm not here to pick a fight," Baishui sighed, not even bothering to look at the doctor. "I'm just going to deliver a little something to Moria and then leave. I won't get in your way. Sound good?"
Baishui genuinely couldn't stand looking at Hogback. The man was a walking eyesore. He was grotesquely round, yet wore a sheer, chest-high net-stocking outfit that assaulted the senses. On top of that, every time he flashed his razor-sharp teeth to laugh, a foul, rotting stench wafted across the room.
The fact that Baishui hadn't actively cursed him out yet was a testament to his self-restraint.
"No, no, no! I can't just let you waltz right through!" Hogback cackled, strictly following Moria's orders. He snapped his fingers and quickly backed away into the shadows. "But getting past is simple! You just have to defeat me and my invincible zombie army!"
On cue, a bizarre, motley crew of stitched-together corpses shambled out from the darkness.
Among them were fallen knights, heavy-armored generals, ancient samurai, heavily bandaged mummies, and... inexplicably... a very aggressive-looking penguin.
Baishui couldn't care less about the grunts. However, his eyes locked onto one specific figure. A zombie dressed in traditional, formal samurai robes, his face mostly obscured by bandages.
Sword God, Ryuma.
And gripped in his undead hand was the legendary blade, Black Blade Shusui—one of the 21 Great Grade Swords.
This was the masterpiece Hogback had created by shoving Brook's shadow into the corpse of the legendary Wano samurai, birthing a zombie with the fearsome power of a true master swordsman.
If the timeline held true, defeating him meant claiming that legendary blade.
Sure, Baishui wasn't a swordsman himself, but a blade of that caliber made for one hell of a gift. There were plenty of Vice Admirals back at Marine Headquarters who used swords. Handing one of them a Meito wouldn't hurt his career prospects, right?
"Fine, fine. If you want to do this the hard way, bring it on!" Baishui sighed, dropping into a combat stance.
Whoosh!
Right out of the gate, the weird penguin zombie vanished from its spot, instantly reappearing in front of Baishui with a ferocious, martial-arts-style kick aimed at his head.
Clang!
Baishui coated his forearm in Armament Haki, blocking the heavy strike effortlessly.
Without missing a beat, he reached out and grabbed the zombie. A blinding light began to gather in his palm. Before the penguin could even process what was happening, a piercing laser shot point-blank straight through its torso.
Whoosh!
Baishui vanished using Soru, dodging a heavy double-strike from behind, and reappeared directly above Ryuma, bringing a devastating axe-kick crashing down.
Clang!
Ryuma's blade moved like a shooting star—so fast that the Marine Commander couldn't even track the draw. With a harsh spark of steel against Haki, Ryuma blocked the blow.
Pew!
Light gathered at Baishui's heel, firing off a point-blank laser blast faster than the eye could see.
Swish!
But Ryuma wasn't some grunt penguin. With a flash of dark steel, he flawlessly deflected the laser beam and immediately countered with a sweeping slash toward Baishui. The sheer killing intent radiating off the blade made Baishui's skin prickle.
Clang!
Coating his right leg in Armament Haki, Baishui forcefully stomped down onto the flat of the incoming blade. Using the momentum, he twisted mid-air and delivered a brutal kick that sent the samurai flying across the room.
"Aubade Coup Droit!"
Even while airborne, Ryuma counterattacked. He thrust his blade forward, unleashing a devastating, high-pressure shockwave of compressed air straight at Baishui.
Whoosh!
Baishui blurred out of existence, cleanly evading the flying slash, and materialized in the air directly above Ryuma. He brought his fist down like a meteor, slamming the legendary samurai violently into the stone floor.
"Light Particle Energy Cannon!" Baishui coldly declared.
He pointed his right hand down like a gun barrel. A blinding, hyper-condensed beam of pure energy erupted from his palm.
BOOM!
Ryuma had absolutely no time to react before he was entirely engulfed in the explosive blast of light. The sheer radius of the cannon caught all the surrounding zombies in the immediate vicinity, wiping them out instantly.
Using his extreme speed, Baishui flashed over to the stunned Marine Commander, grabbed him by the scruff of his collar, and launched them both out the nearest window.
CRASH!
Baishui hadn't held back on that blast.
By the time the two Marines hit the ground outside, the entire wing of the castle had collapsed into a smoking pile of rubble. The General Zombies were either buried under the debris or lying motionless, completely incapacitated.
Dr. Hogback lay bleeding and broken among the ruins; a squishy doctor like him stood no chance of outrunning an explosion of that magnitude.
As for Ryuma—Baishui's main target—the zombie had vanished entirely. The only thing remaining was the pristine, utterly unscathed form of Black Blade Shusui, stabbed proudly into a slab of broken stone amidst the wreckage.
Baishui smirked. As expected of a legendary Meito. Not even a point-blank light cannon could leave a scratch on it.