According to Manaphy, there’s no need to pay a salary to Wadatsumi, this big, silly giant. Just feed him and that’s it. Although the food expenses for such a giant will be much higher than that of an average employee, the benefits brought by handling him properly were tangible.
Swampert was too small to deal with this big guy alone, so he decided to call backup. Why handle a problem yourself when you can have others do it for you?
Wadatsumi, the enormous Fish-Man, had not undergone any special training and relied solely on his size in battles. To deal with him, Manaphy just needed to find someone even bigger.
Wadatsumi was a rare giant among the Fish-Men, but his size was nothing compared to a Sea King. For Manaphy, finding a bodyguard is as simple as saying a word.
While the Sea King was on its way, Manaphy, feeling playful, started circling around Wadatsumi. Agilely, he rode the sea currents, moving freely, and Wadatsumi couldn’t even touch a single hair on his head.
“Here, catch me, big guy!”
“Damn it! Don’t run, if I don’t catch you, Captain Vander will scold me!”
“Alright, I won’t run. Come and catch me.”
Manaphy stopped in front of Wadatsumi, his size not even matching one of Wadatsumi’s finger joints. However, the size difference didn’t make Manaphy nervous at all. As he said, he stood before Wadatsumi without fleeing.
Wadatsumi reached out with both of his large hands to grab Manaphy, tightly cupping them into a ball shape to prevent Manaphy from escaping.
“Captain Vander! I caught him!”
Wadatsumi shouted excitedly, as happy as a big child—or rather, he really was just a big child. However, Vander Decken IX didn’t have the energy to respond to Wadatsumi at that moment.
Just now, two Swamperts had attacked him, even using their combo move. The two Swamperts hugged each other to form a tire shape, with their tail fins facing outward. After using Iron Tail, they charged toward Vander Decken IX.
Spinning at high speed, they turned into a cutting saw. With Vander Decken IX’s weak combat power, he couldn’t withstand the Swampert’s frontal assault. More importantly, the bubble coating on him shattered under the Iron Tail.
As someone with a bloodline very close to Fish-Men, he could still breathe even without the bubble coating. However, the side effects of the Devil Fruit also became apparent.
According to some legends, Devil Fruits are manifestations of human desires, representing the wishes of certain individuals. These fruits, born against the laws of nature, incurred the wrath of the Mother Sea, resulting in the creation of P-particles, a component that specifically targets Devil Fruits.
When a Devil Fruit User encounters these particles, they become weak and powerless. At this moment, Vander Decken IX was lying immobile on the deck.
“Captain!”
“Big guy, you’d better think about yourself.”
Manaphy’s voice came from Wadatsumi’s palm. Instead of running, his body had turned into water which flowed out through Wadatsumi’s fingers.
“Hmm?”
“Look behind you, I’ve got a special opponent for you.”
Wadatsumi, without doubting his enemy’s words, turned around to see a Sea King with claws bigger than his head floating behind him.
“Big Claw, knock this idiot out for me, thanks!”
Manaphy waved his small hand, speaking words that Wadatsumi couldn’t understand.
“Hey, who are you calling an idiot?”
Thud!
A dull sound echoed, and Wadatsumi instantly became dizzy.
“I’m not an idiot…”
He stubbornly uttered his last words, and the Sea King’s claw struck his head once more. Failing to knock him out in one blow made the Sea King feel embarrassed, so it increased the strength slightly.
This time, Wadatsumi was incapacitated, lying motionless on the seabed like Vander Decken IX.
“Thanks. Could you help me send this guy and that ship back to Fishman Island?”
The Sea King didn’t respond, just silently picked them up with its two claws.
If it weren’t for the Sea Kings’ inability to handle delicate tasks and that Manaphy would have to use favors to command them, he would have them mining for him already.
Having them mine would risk causing collapse of the underwater continental shelf and could easily crush minerals into debris, causing them to be washed away by sea currents. Plus, only Manaphy can communicate with them, which would take up a lot of time.
Considering the need to develop Fishman Island’s economy and settle the Fish-Man District’s idle population, the Sea Kings didn’t participate in such work.
…
Fishman Island
The guards of the Ryugu Kingdom stared in disbelief at the returning Manaphy. The people who had supposedly gone mining had returned with a group of unconscious Fish-Men.
Neptune soon arrived with people upon hearing the news.
“Is this… Vander Decken IX?”
“King Neptune, do you know him? This guy deceived me and even knows about Poseidon.”
Manaphy swam to Neptune’s ear and whispered.
“What?!”
Manaphy had scared Vander Decken IX using the Sea King. At first, Vander Decken IX wanted to be stubborn, but he hadn’t hidden any information from his subordinates. Under the Sea King’s threat, his subordinates quickly revealed his plan.
Including his intention to marry Shirahoshi.
“Lock them all up in prison, no visitors allowed!”
Neptune immediately ordered the Poseidon army, personally overseeing their imprisonment. On the way back, they were all knocked out by the Swampert, which turned out to be a good thing for Neptune.
As for imprisoning them, there was nothing wrong with it, because Vander Decken IX is a pirate.
Legally speaking, as an affiliated nation, Ryugu Kingdom has the obligation to arrest and detain pirates. However, this has rarely been enforced due to the unique and awkward situation of Fishman Island, which relies on the pirate flag for protection.
The Sun Pirates had never harmed Fishman Island and even protected it.
But the Vander Pirates were different. They were not under Tiger’s control, making them dangerous elements on Fishman Island; moreover they also knew the secret.
Though Fishman Island’s laws were lenient, these people couldn’t avoid imprisonment; at least until Shirahoshi was strong enough to protect herself, Neptune wouldn’t let them leave.
After this incident, Otohime’s favorable impression of Manaphy increased significantly, as he didn’t kill these people but instead captured them all, aligning with Otohime’s “gentle” approach.
Meanwhile, Manaphy started recruiting Wadatsumi. Despite being a big, silly guy, he was loyal to Vander Decken IX, insisting on following the captain when he wasn’t abandoned.
However, Vander Decken IX didn’t value Wadatsumi as much. Seeing that they were locked up in Ryugu Palace’s prison and that the other party was interested in his subordinate, he readily sold Wadatsumi for some privileges.
To prevent him from escaping, Neptune not only put Seastone handcuffs and shackles on him but also a Seastone collar.
The purity of Seastone and the strength of the Devil Fruit user both affect how a restrained Devil Fruit user is affected. Under quadruple restraints, Vander Decken IX was basically paralyzed, so he readily traded Wadatsumi for slightly better treatment.
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