“Roar!”
In response to Sanji’s request, a torrent of flames erupted from Gyarados’s mouth, shooting towards Krieg. At the same time, a powerful electric current erupted from its body, electrocuting the pirates who had fallen into the sea like electrofishing.
“Hey! He is my opponent! I still need him to pay off my debt! What about my meal money if you do this?!”
Seeing Gyarados attack Krieg, Luffy couldn’t help but feel a bit displeased.
However, Gyarados paid no attention to the noisy straw hat kid. Its eyes were only on the pirates who had destroyed Baratie. It had plenty of experience dealing with enemies on the sea—destroying their foothold first was always the right move.
Krieg’s weapons and equipment were useless against Gyarados. His armor and specially made mantle could block bullets and fists but were powerless against fire and lightning. His gauntlets and spear couldn’t reach Gyarados, and bullets could be dodged by diving underwater.
Not to mention, Luffy was also attacking him from the side. Just as Krieg was about to use his MH5 to take them down, the poisonous gas he released was ignited by Gyarados’ flames, rendering it completely ineffective.
Aside from Gin, Krieg Pirates were completely wiped out. In the end, the mercy he had shown before ended up saving his own life.
“The legend of the sea monster… was it real after all?”
Krieg was cruel and ruthless, but Gin had an inexplicable loyalty toward him. Seeing Krieg get defeated and perish, he collapsed to the ground as if he had lost his soul.
It was only then that he recalled a legend from the East Blue—never dine and dash at Baratie, or the sea monster will teach you a lesson.
“It’s not a sea monster; she’s actually a very beautiful lady. Want to stay and work here? You’re different from those other pirates.”
“No, if it’s not too much trouble… could you give me a boat? Maybe we’ll meet again someday,” Gin left Baratie in a daze.
Sanji eventually joined Luffy’s crew, but Gyarados didn’t leave with him—it stayed behind at Baratie to continue protecting the nearby Magikarp.
However, on his second day aboard the ship, Sanji started to regret his decision.
“Your navigator is this beetle??? And this green-haired moss-head is your compass? How did you even arrive here?!”
He had seen navigators wielding two swords before, but he had never seen a beetle giving directions. It seemed completely unreal to him.
But Sanji had no idea that the next day would bring even more trouble—because Hercules had gone missing.
……
“Hercules! Hercules! Where are you?!”
Luffy searched every corner of the ship but couldn’t find any sign of Heracross. He slumped down on the deck, completely disheartened, and even Sanji’s food couldn’t get him back on his feet.
“Hey, Luffy, don’t be so down. It’s a beetle, after all. Going out is normal, isn’t it?”
“No way! Hercules has never missed breakfast before. Something must have happened to it! Usopp! Zoro! Have you seen Hercules?!”
At Luffy’s shout, Zoro woke up. Everyone on the ship had different rest schedules—Luffy, for example, slept for about five hours at random times.
Zoro, on the other hand, would rest from 4 AM to 7 AM and take naps during the day as needed. Last night, before he had gone to sleep, he had actually seen Hercules.
“A beetle that looked a lot like it passed by last night. Then it started talking to me—said a whole bunch of stuff. I think it wanted me to give you this, but I don’t know what it was actually saying.”
On a piece of paper was a messy drawing, along with several Heracross claw prints. Looking at the crude drawing, Sanji and Usopp were baffled.
“These are just random claw marks, right?”
“Yeah, expecting a beetle to draw is ridiculous. Might as well say dancing makes you stronger.”
“Don’t joke around, Usopp. No one gets stronger just by dancing.”
“Ah, I was just saying… but I heard—”
“Hercules said it went to help a friend fight!”
Just as Sanji and Usopp were talking, Luffy suddenly had an epiphany and shouted.
“Damn it! It didn’t even invite me?! Does it look down on me?!”
“Wait, how did you even understand that?!”
“Yeah, what the hell is this drawing supposed to be?!”
Aside from Luffy, the other three couldn’t make any sense of the extremely abstract drawing. Luffy had no choice but to step in as the professional interpreter.
“Ah, are you guys idiots? Hercules drew it very clearly! There’s a bad rat bullying its friend, and it’s going to help it get revenge. It told us to wait here for a few days. No way, I’m going to help it.”
“But it has already left. How are you going to find it?”
Just then, several Heracross happened to fly past over the sea nearby. Luffy immediately rushed over, grabbed one, and started using body language to express his intentions.
He also held up the drawing Hercules had left behind to explain his purpose. Fortunately, since Luffy had spent so much time with Hercules, he had developed a certain understanding of the Heracross language, allowing him to successfully communicate.
The Going Merry then changed course, following them.
They didn’t really have another choice—after losing the beetle, the four men on the ship made a surprising discovery: not a single one of them could navigate properly.
……
Hercules’s departure wasn’t accidental; it was a matter concerning the Heracross species. Back then, Heracross had spread across various islands, forming independent groups.
Some Heracross remained solitary, like Hercules, while others had already reproduced, giving birth to second and third generation Heracross.
These differences led to significant individual variations. The first-generation Heracross, created by Arceus, were undoubtedly the strongest. These Heracross were powerful enough to establish themselves in the Grand Line, and they were also the ones responsible for returning to Onigashima for pilgrimage.
Ordinary Heracrosses, on the other hand, simply searched for information near their habitats and reported back periodically.
However, even among the first-generation Heracross, differences existed due to their original beetle traits—some were stronger, while others were weaker, not to mention their descendants.
Compared to the original Heracross, their descendants were somewhat weaker and often faced difficulties.
Whenever they encountered problems they couldn’t solve, they would seek help from nearby Heracross.
For Bug-type Pokémon, numbers were their greatest advantage. Hercules had come across a Heracross that was out searching for helpers.
At this moment, the nearby Heracross were all heading toward Cocoyasi Village—the root of all this trouble was the discovery of a gold mine in Cocoyasi.
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