After the battle, Kirito departed, taking with him the survivors and the fallen members of the Dragon Hunter Pirates.
Meanwhile, Ryuunosuke and his crew had arrived at a particularly strange part of the sea.
"Captain, we're getting close to the waters around the Valley of the Gods," Najenda reported, her gaze fixed ahead. "Should we head straight in?"
She hesitated. "But… look at that."
A dense, pale fog loomed on the horizon, blanketing the ocean like a wall. Najenda expression turned uneasy.
Fog wasn't unheard of at sea, but it was rare—and usually brief. This, however, had been visible from miles away, and even now, as their ship sailed closer, the fog showed no signs of thinning.
Everyone knew that navigating the sea without clear visibility was dangerous. Even with an Eternal Compass, unpredictable sea conditions could easily throw them off course—or worse.
Ryuunosuke turned to Nojiko, who was silently studying a sea chart.
"Nojiko. Any idea what we're looking at?"
"I noticed the fog early on," she said, finally breaking her silence. "I've been cross-referencing old records, but…"
She closed the chart and shook her head. "There's no documentation of fog behaving . But I can tell you one thing for certain—this isn't natural. It's alive."
"Alive?" Ryuunosuke raised an eyebrow.
Nojiko nodded and stepped to the bow, pointing toward the mist. "It's rhythmic. Breathing, almost. You wouldn't notice unless you were sensitive to the flow of the sea."
Ryuunosuke squinted ahead. Now that she mentioned it, the fog did have a subtle pulse, like it was inhaling and exhaling.
"That's not just your average sea haze…" he muttered.
"No. It's likely the work of a deep-sea mirage whale," Nojiko explained, pulling out a worn notebook. She flipped through its pages until she landed on a hand-drawn sketch of an enormous whale engulfed in mist.
"They're a type of Sea King. Rare, elusive. When they linger in one spot, they release a dense fog that covers both the surface and the seabed. Anything that wanders into it… usually doesn't come back out."
Ryuunosuke studied the image. "So, if we just charge in, we risk being eaten?"
A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Well, if it's just a Sea King…"
His eyes flicked to Akame, who was already unsheathing her blade with a hungry gleam in her eye. She clearly saw the whale as potential dinner.
Suddenly, Kobayashi—the ship's mascot and a small, strange creature who rarely spoke—tugged at Ryuunosuke's coat.
"Captain… they're in pain."
Ryuunosuke blinked. "What do you mean? You can hear them?"
"I can't hear them," Kobayashi said, clutching his chest. "But I can feel it. They're crying…"
Another voice joined in—Rem, the second mascot, her demonic heritage giving her strong extrasensory perception.
"I can hear them. They're being held captive. Chained."
Ryuunosuke's expression turned serious. If both mascots were reacting, Nojiko's theory had to be true.
"All right. I'll check it out myself."
Without hesitation, Ryuunosuke leapt into the water.
The moment he entered the sea, a strange energy wrapped around his body—and to his surprise, he could breathe underwater.
He quickly opened his system interface.
Behind his name, the words "Joy Boy" glowed brightly.
So that's it… Being acknowledged by Shirahoshi as Joy Boy had granted him special privileges in the sea. Breathing underwater was just one of them.
He pushed forward through the currents, diving deeper into the dense mist below. Visibility was horrible—barely three meters ahead. Even with his Observation Haki, he could only detect a faint area around him. The fog wasn't just visual—it actively suppressed Haki perception.
Navigating through the clouded depths, he eventually reached a pocket of clear space.
There, suspended in silence, was a colossus.
"A deep-sea mirage whale…"
The enormous creature floated in the hollow, fog-free space. It was unlike anything he'd seen—a true leviathan, its body rivaling the size of an island. Ryuunosuke's Observation Haki now clearly revealed the creature's full form.
And he saw what bound it.
Massive chains of seastone.
"Seastone… and in this quantity?" Ryuunosuke frowned.
Only one organization would waste such a valuable resource on something —the World Government.
To bury the secrets of the Valley of the Gods, they were willing to imprison a mirage whale? That alone proved whatever they were hiding was worth more than any cost.
Drawing his blade, Ryuunosuke coated it with Armament Haki. With a single slash, he cut through the seastone chain like it was paper.
The fog around him trembled.
Suddenly, a violent underwater current surged outward. Ryuunosuke braced himself. If he'd been weaker, he'd have been swept away to who-knows-where.
Before him, the massive whale turned.
A low, strange cry echoed through the water, directed at him.
It wasn't a normal sound. It carried emotion—gratitude, maybe, or a warning. But Ryuunosuke couldn't understand it. His Observation Haki hadn't reached the level where he could hear the "voice of all things."
Observation Haki could evolve in many directions: predicting the future, sensing emotions, hearing the thoughts of living beings…
But Ryuunosuke had yet to unlock which path his would take.
Still, something about the whale's gaze felt meaningful.
And then, in the distance—more fog.
He narrowed his eyes.
This wasn't the only mirage whale here.
There were others… also imprisoned.
Ryuunosuke didn't hesitate.
He swam toward the next pocket of fog, blade in hand, ready to cut through the chains of silence—one mirage whale at a time.
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