One Piece: The Archangel's Guide

Chapter 26: Nika

Extreme cold descended. The ultimate low temperature spread along the soaking wet warship, dyeing the entire vessel white. The biting chill expanded, freezing the sea in a radius of several hundred meters, making the ship bob in the wind and rain like a floating island.

A staircase forged from ice connected the two ships. In the terrified eyes of the CP agents, dark figures, though looking like common thugs, exuded terrifying auras as they charged rapidly along the steps.

Shanks led the charge, his saber in hand. He leaped from the middle of the staircase and crashed onto the snow-dusted deck, kicking up a large cloud of mist.

The man in the suit with pink hair and bone-white oni horns gritted his teeth. Shaking the rain and snow from his hair, he braced himself and charged forward.

"Soru!" The CP9 agent used the Rokushiki technique and instantly vanished, then, under the admiring gazes of the Red Hair Pirates, rushed straight at Shanks. In an instant, the CP9 agent's fingers were reflected in Shanks's eyes, an attack powerful enough to shatter gold and stone aimed straight for his throat.

Shanks was momentarily stunned, then laughed without a shred of dignity. He raised his sword and easily blocked the agent's strike. Then, he lifted his drenched head and gave his enemy a malicious grin.

"This is a robbery! Hand over the treasure on board!"

"!!" Who's-Who's face changed drastically, and he became enraged. "Pirate, this is a World Government ship! You have no business here!"

Shanks looked at the agent before him, who had gone from attacker to defender, struggling to parry his blows. The smile on his face became dangerous. "You're making this very difficult for me, agent!"

With that, Shanks put force into his single arm and with a powerful push, sent his opponent flying back. As the latter stumbled to regain his footing, Shanks swung his sword again. The sharp blade tore through the wind and rain, cutting through the air with unstoppable momentum and sinking directly into flesh.

SPLAT...

The flash of the blade was fleeting, but it sent a spray of red blood from Who's-Who's body. Critically injured, Who's-Who's face contorted, the whites of his eyes showing. The massive impact sent him flying backward, snapping the huge main mast before he crashed onto the deck.

After doing this, Shanks sheathed his sword and began to search the ship for any suspicious wooden chests on his own.

On the other side, the behemoth covered in white fur walked amidst the ice and snow. With every step, a large patch of ice formed. A flash of lightning briefly illuminated its horrifying form, allowing many soldiers and agents to see its full appearance. An exposed, bone-white skull, and massive, sharp, twisted antlers that looked like a pair of withered, gnarled demonic hands.

But with just one glance, their faces filled with terror, their pupils trembled violently, and their hearts began to pound.

"What... what is that thing?!"

"Don't eat me!!"

"Mommy!!" The scarlet eyes swept over them, and under the fear specifically targeting humans, the elite agents and soldiers instantly broke down, their words devolving into nonsense.

In her Wendigo form, Yelena had lost every last trace of her gentleness, appearing utterly terrifying and grotesque. She showed no mercy to the agents who had lost their minds to fear. Her sickle-like claws swept out, instantly dicing them into several pieces.

Blood gushed, and flesh splattered. One by one, the black-suited agents holding swords and guns were torn apart by the sickle-like claws, falling to the deck without a sound. These agents from various CP departments had no way to fight back against Yelena in her Wendigo form and could only die enveloped in endless fear.

Soon, Yelena had finished clearing out the enemies the Red Hair Pirates had left behind before entering the ship's cabin. Her eyes swept over the deck, now littered with the corpses of CP agents, the blood staining large patches of the snow-covered deck red. A trace of surprise flickered in her red eyes. These agents were not weak in the East Blue, but when facing her, they lost their will to fight due to the human-specific fear. This surprised her a little.

Then, Yelena transformed back into her human form. She walked over the mutilated corpses on the ice and snow, carrying her war hammer, and began to return to the Red Force. Along the way, she slowly lifted her long-handled war hammer and brought it down directly on the head of the man with pink hair and oni horns.

SQUELCH...

Flesh and bone splattered. A crimson rose bloomed in the ice and snow. The agent who was just about to regain consciousness was plunged into an eternal sleep.

After doing this, she flicked the blood from her war hammer and walked back across the steps to Louis's side.

Louis looked at Yelena's face with a slightly strange expression. He recalled the abnormality he had sensed in Yelena's fighting through his Observation Haki. "Did your lungs act up again?" he asked.

Yelena shook her head, her expression calm. "No," she replied softly. "It just felt very strange tearing those agents apart. I never thought killing them would be so easy." She felt that the human-specific fear-inducing ability that the Wendigo form emanated could perhaps be developed further.

Louis didn't dwell on it. The improvement from a Zoan-type Devil Fruit was indeed significant.

Soon, Shanks and the others returned from the warship, carrying large and small bags. While sailing the seas, no one could guarantee they would reach a place to resupply before their materials ran out, so they had also collected many useful items from the warship. They even found several pairs of valuable Seastone shackles in the cabin—not the kind the future Luffy would wear while still being able to run around carrying giant rocks, but the standard-issue equipment that could render an ability user helpless.

At the very front of the group, Shanks was holding a small treasure chest. Louis guessed that it contained the Zoan-type Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Model: Nika, which the World Government had disguised as the Rubber-Rubber Fruit.

FWOOSH...

Louis glanced at it once before looking away, igniting the flames on his back. Beside him, Yelena saw this and, with a thoughtful look, controlled her ability to melt the ice layer and staircase connecting the two ships.

On the other side, the helmsman, smiling, turned the ship's wheel, steering them away from the soon-to-be-destroyed warship.

After a long moment, the flames on Louis's back flared up. Golden flames coiled around his arm, finally spiraling together in his palm. The next moment, the twisting, dancing flames took shape, elongating into an irregular golden spear. Then, Louis raised his arm and threw the Spear of Blazing Flame.

The searing spear flew past, piercing the air and vaporizing the rain in its path, embedding itself in the warship like a bolt of lightning. The next moment, cracks appeared all over the warship, and golden light shot out from the fissures. Then, the entire warship swelled and exploded, the dazzling light instantly illuminating the dim sky and sea.

Accompanied by a deafening roar, the shockwave from the explosion expanded rapidly, scattering the rain and turning it into a mist of flying water droplets.

Under a clear sky, the three-masted ship with the skull-and-crossed-swords insignia cut through the waves.

Next to a pile of large treasure chests, Shanks squatted down and opened the lid of a small one. Just then, Uta came up from behind him and stretched her head forward, curiously looking at the contents of the chest.

"Shanks, what are you doing?"

"Is this for me too?"

Half of Shanks's face was obscured by his straw hat, so no one could see his eyes, but they could faintly make out the slight upward curve of his lips.

Facing his daughter's question, he looked at Uta with a smile. "Even though you're my daughter, this is the one thing I can't give you."