Zefa's warship turned, and their route was completely different from the route previously recorded in the headquarters, with huge differences.
However, Zefa did not report the change in route to the Naval Headquarters, and he had no intention of informing Sengoku.
While waiting for the ship to be coated in the Sabol Archipelago, Zephyr also asked the naval branch stationed on the island for several permanent record pointers to Fishman Island.
There is almost no connection between the Navy Headquarters and Fish-man Island, but as Fish-man Island is nominally a member of the World Government, the Navy actually possesses information on the route to Fish-man Island.
It only took two days and everything was ready.
One afternoon, Zefa's warship sank to the bottom of the sea after sailing hundreds of meters out of the port.
On the deck of the warship, Ace, Sabo and others who were full of yearning for the underwater world watched the warship sink into the sea and exclaimed in amazement.
"Wow!"
“It can really sink underwater!”
"Can warships sail in the sea? It's really amazing!"
“The seawater is blocked out!”
The warship's diving depth is not very deep, and the diving speed is also very slow. This is to allow the surface coating to gradually adapt to the pressure. If the diving speed is too fast, there is a certain probability that the coating will break due to the sudden change in water pressure.
At the same time, this is also to give the crew some time to adapt to the underwater environment.
Above the warship, the sea sparkled with golden light. Luffy tilted his head back to look at the shining sea, exclaiming in amazement.
Luffy had never seen such an underwater scene before.
Beside him, Ace and Sabo were also looking around curiously. Although the warship's diving depth gradually became deeper, colorful and strangely shaped sea fish would swim around the warship from time to time.
Fish, corals and other creatures in shallow sea areas can still sense the presence of sunlight, so their shapes and appearance are relatively "earthly".
However, as the surrounding environment became darker and darker, the size and appearance of the fish that occasionally swam past the side of the warship became more and more "deathly".
When the warship was launched, the sailors on board gradually became nervous after the initial excitement and anticipation.
The warship dived more than two hundred meters and reached the middle layer of the ocean. The light that could penetrate the sea water and reach here was already barely detectable.
The dark environment made the soldiers nervous.
The deep-sea lights on the warship have been turned on. In such sea water, the visibility of the people on board is only a few meters.
Zefa ordered to slow down the speed, and a tense atmosphere filled the entire ship.
Not to mention ordinary navy, even a strong man like Zephyr dare not be careless in the sea. His observation Haki has already been spread out.
In such an environment, there are very few things that can be seen by the naked eye. Compared with the naked eye visibility of five or six meters, Zefa obviously believes more in his powerful observation Haki.
Both Ace and Sabo could sense the oppressive atmosphere on the ship, and the two who had always been quite active became silent.
On the contrary, this kid Luffy's perception of "atmosphere" is obviously not very good. Although the ship has dived into the middle sea area, this kid is still having fun on the deck, wandering around happily, observing the surrounding environment curiously, as if he can see something interesting in this darkness.
"Hey, Ace, where's your fishing rod?"
"If you fish in the ocean, you'll never catch kelp again!"
After running around for a few laps, Luffy returned to Ace's side and suddenly spoke. Hearing Luffy's outlandish idea, even a kid like Ace who loved novelty couldn't help but twitch his eyes slightly and shook his head in rejection:
"Don't make trouble, stay quiet, and don't think about those things."
"There's no joking in the sea. If you're not careful, the whole ship will perish in the sea!"
When Ace was little, he was just like Luffy, a fearless and unconventional person. But now Ace is different, he is already a "little" adult, and has reached the age of understanding.
The deeper his understanding of the world, the more mature Ace becomes. He will sometimes show the same wisdom and caution as his father.
Just like now, Ace knew that fooling around might lead to unpredictable consequences, and he would not gamble the lives of everyone on the ship just because of his momentary impulse.
"Luffy, if you're bored, can you and I go play cards in the cabin?"
Sabo didn't like the dark atmosphere in the deep sea. Seeing that Luffy was ready to cause trouble, he changed the subject in time.
"No, this is my first time playing in the sea. I want to see what interesting creatures there are."
As he was speaking, a deep-sea "electric eel" more than ten meters long swam slowly past the warship. In the dark deep sea, the fish swimming past the electric eel suddenly turned their bellies upside down.
“Ohhhh!!”
"Look, what is that!"
"Eel? It's huge! It must be delicious!"
Luffy, who was talking to Sabo, was immediately attracted by the scene in the sea and burst into laughter. Ace and Sabo both turned their heads to look, and just then, the tail of the "electric eel" in the sea gently brought up a current, causing the warship to shake violently.
At this moment, Zefa at the bow suddenly shouted towards the cabin:
“Turn off the lights!”
"Turn off the lights quickly!"
Zefa's voice was very loud and penetrating, and there was a communication telephone bug between the deck and the cockpit. Zefa's orders were transmitted to the cockpit immediately. Although the sailors on the ship did not understand why, they still obeyed Zefa's orders and turned off the lights.
As the ship's lights were turned off, the surroundings became pitch black.
Only at the stern of the ship, the "electric eel" that had just swam by was emitting a dark blue light, making the atmosphere of the deep sea dark and terrifying.
"Keep heading, continue diving, I'll guide you!"
Without lights, the sailors had no way to observe the surrounding environment. Panic was brewing among the navy. These recruits at the Naval Academy were experiencing such a thing for the first time. Even after countless training, they felt deeply uneasy at this moment.
However, Zefa's words quickly calmed the hearts of these young sailors.
Observation Haki is much more useful than a lamp.
"Bang--"
Not long after Zefa gave the order, the direction of the surrounding sea currents suddenly changed.
At the place where the warship had just left, a giant sea beast of nearly 100 meters long suddenly rushed out from the dark deep sea, and directly bit the "electric eel" emitting a faint blue glow in its mouth. Then it turned in direction and quickly disappeared into the deep sea.
Blood spread in the sea.
The sailors on the warship only felt the fluctuations in the ocean currents and were completely unaware of what was happening behind them. Zefa stood at the bow, holding onto the railing with both hands, appearing unusually calm.
"Hold on to the railing. No one can save you if you are thrown out."
"Ace, Sabo, Luffy, the three of you go back inside the cabin."
"If you're curious about the deep sea, just look out the window of my room and see the scenery outside! Although there may not be much scenery to see!"
Luffy was disappointed by Zephyr's words. He didn't want to go back to the cabin. It was more interesting here. But Luffy remembered the promise he made to Zephyr.
The prerequisite for Zefa to take me out to sea is that I have to be obedient.
Although King Luffy loves to play and make trouble, he is a man of his word!
"Okay..." Luffy replied with a long tone of dissatisfaction. Just as he was about to return to the cabin, he suddenly heard an inexplicable whisper in his ear:
“￥#%￥”
Luffy paused, looked suspiciously at Ace and Sabo behind him, and tilted his head:
"What? Who's talking?"
Luffy suddenly stopped and said this nonsense, which made Ace and Sabo stunned. Then, understanding appeared on their faces:
"Luffy, you're playing some tricks, aren't you? None of us are talking."
"I know you don't want to go back to the cabin, but this is what we promised Mr. Zephyr before, right?"
Ace thought that Luffy was being naughty because he didn't want to go back to the cabin, so he smiled as if to say "I see through it all".
Sabo also walked to Luffy's side and gently put his arm around Luffy's shoulders: "Come on, Luffy, let's play cards."
Seeing that his two brothers seemed to be like this, Luffy thought he was hallucinating. He scratched his hair and let Sabo lead him to the cabin.
But the inexplicable whisper in his ear rang again.
This time, Luffy was able to confirm that someone was really talking. It wasn't Ace or Sabo, but someone was really talking!
This time, Ace suddenly stopped and looked up at the deep sea above.
"Someone's really talking!" Ace's face darkened as he looked around. On the deck, the soldiers were busy with their own affairs, some on guard, some recording the logbook. It was very quiet.
At the bow of the ship, Zefa was also looking intently ahead, carefully observing the situation in the sea.
It was obvious that it was not any of them who spoke.
"Is it the voice of all things?!"
In just a moment, Ace thought of this possibility. He was the son of Pirate King Roger, and Lu Jiu had never concealed his background.
Although Ace has no memory or good feelings towards the father who he has never met and gave him criminal blood, how could a child of his age not have any curiosity about his father?
What's more, his father is the Pirate King Roger!
Ace has a comprehensive understanding of Roger, including his various abilities.
These things are considered secret in the navy. Ace got the information about Roger's deeds indirectly from Zephyr's mouth.
Ace thought he had hidden it well, and used "curiosity" as an excuse when asking Zefa questions about Roger. But Ace probably couldn't have imagined that Zefa had already seen through Ace's identity.
Zephyr was also very tolerant of Ace's desire to know Roger and could understand Ace's motives.
Listen to the voices of all things. Legend has it that the Pirate King Roger relied on this ability to find One Piece.
Ace was a smart and attentive man, and he quickly guessed what the sound he heard was.
Ace glanced at Luffy with his eyes slightly lowered, then gently put his arm around Luffy's shoulders and said calmly: "Let's go, Luffy, let's go to the cabin first."
Luffy actually wanted to explore what the sound he just heard was, but before he could open his mouth, he was pushed into the cabin by Ace.
"Ace, I really heard a sound."
"Someone's talking!"
Luffy seemed to be upset because Ace and Sabo didn't trust him, and he shouted.
"Yeah, I know!"
This time, Ace changed his tone and nodded, but his words also made Sabo a little confused, and he glanced over.
"I heard it too!"
Ace had nothing to hide from Sabo, so he spoke directly.
Seeing Ace's serious look, Sabo was also stunned.
The three little ones returned to the cabin and began to whisper to each other. As the ship went deeper and deeper into the sea, the whispers echoing in Luffy and Ace's ears became stronger and stronger.
On the deck, Zefa was oblivious to all this.
It is unknown how long the ship has been sailing in this deep sea. Gradually, a faint light appeared in the darkness in front of the bow, and the permanent record pointer in Zefa's hand no longer pointed downwards.
"Stop diving and head horizontally toward one o'clock."
Zefa's order was transmitted to the cockpit, and the deck became level. With the appearance of light, the tense hearts of the sailors on the ship relaxed a little.
After sailing for a long time, the light became brighter and brighter, and the scene in the sea gradually became clearer.
Below the ship is an endless black continent with lush seaweed on the ground and schools of fish swimming freely through it.
It’s hard to imagine that this is a world ten thousand meters below the sea.
The ecological environment here is no different from that of the shallow sea, and all of this should be due to the unknown light source.
The atmosphere on the ship became cheerful. A little further away, a huge island covered by bubbles appeared in the sight of the navy.
“Gurgle—”
Before the sailors on the ship could cheer for arriving at their destination, dozens of black shadows suddenly emerged from behind the reefs and dense seaweed on the seabed.
The warship was forced to stop.
Zefa looked around and found that there were more than a dozen murlocs in military uniforms surrounding his warship in the sea. On the murlocs' uniforms, Zefa saw a familiar golden emblem.
"It's the new navy's fish-man navy!"
Someone on the ship recognized the identities of the fishmen who were blocking the ship and immediately let out a low cry. At the same time, the cabin door was opened, and Ace, Sabo, Luffy and others came onto the deck.
"Bo~"
The bubble wrapping the warship suddenly made a slight sound.
A navy looked up and found that a fishman navy had passed through the bubble and landed on the deck.
“Bang!!!”
Immediately afterwards, a muffled sound was heard, and a blue-skinned fishman wearing wooden clogs and a military uniform fell directly from the "sky" and landed steadily on the deck.
Zefa turned around and looked at the fish-man navy boarding the warship, gently stroking his chin:
"Are you, Rear Admiral Jinbe of the New Navy?!"
"Hehehe, what's wrong with stopping us?"
Zefa recognized the person and didn't even mention his identity as a "wanted criminal". He addressed him as "Major General" as soon as he opened his mouth, as if he treated Jinbei as his own.
“It’s you!”
Jinbei, who landed on the deck, did not expect to see Zephyr on this warship that was obviously heading for Fishman Island.
The title of former navy admiral is really too famous.
Of course, what makes Jinbei address him as "you" is Zephyr's other identity - Tsugakuni Yoriichi's teacher.
"Are you here on business on Fishman Island? How can I help you?"
The relationship between the Marine Headquarters and the New Navy is delicate. Jinbe knows how complicated the situation is and will not rashly clash with Zephyr. When he sees the other party calling him "Major General", Jinbe's attitude is also very good.
"I really have a business trip!"
"Although your new navy is stationed on Fishman Island, Fishman Island is still a member of the World Government."
"As long as it is a member state, its citizens should be protected by our Navy Headquarters."
"This time I came to Fishman Island to investigate a case!"
As he spoke, Zefa waved to the crew members. Everyone understood and quickly brought up a large bag and placed it in front of Jinbei. Before he even opened it, Jinbei could already smell a strong fishy odor.
That smell
Jinbei's breathing stagnated and he stared intently at the bag. Zephyr walked in front of Jinbei, only opened a corner of the bag, and then quickly closed it without revealing the whole thing.
"Major General Jinbei, we need to go to the island. This is related to this body."
"I hope you'll let me go."
Zephyr stood in front of Jinbei and spoke in a serious tone.
Looking at Zefa's appearance, Jinbei also lowered his brows.
Refuse?
There seems to be no reason, Fishman Island is a member of the World Government, and this has never changed.
Are they going to fall out? Jinbe is a native of Fishman Island. He knows that if he attacks the Zeff tribe here, it will most likely implicate Fishman Island, and the consequence of being deprived of its status as an allied nation will be beyond his imagination.
Moreover, the delicate connection between the New Navy and the Naval Headquarters also makes Jinbe worried.
"You guys go into the harbor first. I'll need to ask for instructions on whether we can go to the island."
"I also hope that Mr. Zefa, after you enter the port, you will not wander around for the time being and not cause unnecessary conflicts."
Jinbei acted cautiously, and Zefa nodded in approval, and jokingly said:
"If your superiors don't approve, give me the phone number and I'll tell you!"
Zefa said this with a faint smile on his face.
Upon hearing this, Jinbei's eyes gleamed, "You're joking. The reason is legitimate, and we won't stop you."
"The new navy is not those pirates who sit back and act like kings."
"Furthermore, Fishman Island has always been open to the outside world and a free country that maintains exchanges with the outside world!"
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com