Chapter 357: The Crew Assembles: Claiming the Merry

“One Sword Style—Great Shockwave!”

A whirlwind of sword aura rushed down the mountain, sweeping toward the pirates below. Before the attack even landed, it knocked them all back onto the beach.

“When did Zoro come up with a move like that? I thought he hadn’t learned how to cut through steel yet.”

Ye Fan remembered clearly: Zoro only mastered the technique to cut steel when searching for the Millennium Dragon. Guess getting stronger physically changed the timing.

Reaching the steel-cutting level this early was unexpected, but definitely a good thing.

If the main crew could power up quickly, they wouldn’t have to waste two years grinding away.

“It’s almost over—finally.”

“Hey, Ye Fan, aren’t you going to help? Why are you just standing there talking?”

Hearing Nami’s complaint, Ye Fan suddenly noticed that Luffy, Zoro and Usopp were already charging ahead. He scratched his head, embarrassed. “Alright, alright, I’m coming!”

Nami grinned as she watched Ye Fan trot down the hill. “See, you’re not such a scary guy after all.”

After spending some time together, she realized Ye Fan wasn’t nearly as frightening as she first thought.

Sure, sometimes he gave off a creepy vibe, but honestly, he cared more about everyone than anyone else in the group.

“I really wonder if you guys can get past Arlong.”

Nami had wanted to run more than once, but Ye Fan watched her so closely there was never a chance. Besides, he seemed to know about her past.

With him looking so sure of himself, Nami didn’t dare mention her secret.

All things considered, even though Nami hadn’t been with this pirate crew long, she was starting to get attached. The atmosphere here was a thousand times better than Arlong’s crew.

“Watch me—Poison Dragon Drill!”

Ye Fan, who somehow got his hands on a spear, suddenly jabbed it right at a pirate’s rear end.

“Ow-ow-ow!”

The pirate Ye Fan hit jumped three meters straight up, grabbed his butt and collapsed in agony.

The others winced at the sight, instinctively clenching their own cheeks.

Everyone quietly put some distance between themselves and Ye Fan. No one wanted to experience that kind of pain. Just looking at the poor guy made people feel sore.

“Uh?”

“Was it really that bad?”

Confused, Ye Fan scratched his head as he saw the oncoming pirates suddenly veer away from him. He hadn’t even shown what he could really do yet—come on!

“Not a bad tactic. You can really freak people out with that one.”

Zoro appeared at his side, eyeing the little smear of color at the tip of Ye Fan’s spear and commenting with deadly seriousness.

“Wait, hang on, that’s not—wait…”

Before Ye Fan could finish, Zoro charged off toward the pirates, shouting, “Two Sword Style—Thirty-Six Pound Phoenix!”

“Honestly, that move is pretty dirty.”

Even Usopp, who’d been sticking to the back and sniping, sidled up to Ye Fan with a haunted look.

He couldn’t take his eyes off the tip of the spear and broke out in a cold sweat.

Like he’d been struck with chills, Usopp quickly edged away from Ye Fan.

“That was so cool!”

Luffy suddenly appeared beside Ye Fan, his eyes sparkling brightly.

“Captain, maybe skip this one. Not exactly kid-friendly!”

“What? But you just used it yourself! That’s not fair—are you keeping it a secret?”

“Luffy, watch out!”

Luffy was chatting with Ye Fan when a bullet suddenly hit him in the back.

But just as the bullet pushed into Luffy’s rubbery body and popped back out in front of Ye Fan, everyone remembered—bullets like that did nothing to a rubber man.

“Whoops, gotta get back to it!”

Luffy glanced down at the bullet as it bounced right out of his chest, clenched his fists and dashed back into the fight.

Just like that, a breeze seemed to blow through Ye Fan’s surroundings—every fighter within several dozen meters was pointedly avoiding him.

“You’re really something, you know. Who would’ve guessed such a sneaky trick would be this effective?”

“Still, you should probably go easy with those kinds of moves. Tsk, tsk!”

“You…”

Ye Fan pointed accusingly at Nami as she sauntered past him, openly snickering.

Who would’ve thought even Nami would start teasing him now?

“Whatever—a good cat is one that catches mice, black or white!”

Ye Fan puffed himself up, closed his eyes and gave his nose a proud little twist with his thumb.

But when he opened his eyes, he realized everything was quiet—turns out the fight was over and the pirates had already hopped on their ship and fled.

Luffy, Zoro and the others were already heading into the island interior.

“Wait for me! And hey, why didn’t we stop them? We could’ve had our own pirate ship!”

Ye Fan jogged to catch up, blurting his question as he joined the group.

At this, Nami sighed. “You’re hopelessly naive—there’s no way a handful of us could steer a ship that size.”

“Ah, hahaha, you’re right! Sorry, my bad!”

And so the group headed back to the manor, where Merry was waiting for them at the gate.

From his spot up high earlier, Merry had seen the pirates running for it. He was sure now that Luffy and the others had won, so he made sure to wait for them here—instead of already sneaking Kaya off the islet.

Everyone gathered at the gate and Luffy stepped forward. “Hey, old man, the pirates are gone! So where’s that pirate ship?”

Getting their own ship was all Luffy wanted now. Only then would they be able to roam freely on the sea.

At first Luffy hadn’t cared about ships, but with more and more crew joining, he realized their little boat wouldn’t cut it.

They needed something big enough to hold him and his ten companions—a real ship for the whole crew.

“I’ve been expecting you all. Please, follow me.” Merry bowed and led the way to the other side of the island.

Soon, they saw a ship moored at the shore, its form covered by a giant canvas.

Merry stepped forward, pulled off the canvas with a flourish, pointed at the vessel and burst with pride. “Ta-da! This is the ship I built with my own hands—the Going Merry!”

Honestly, Merry was pretty amazing. He’d built a pirate ship big enough to carry Luffy and the others through countless perils, all on his own over several years. Sometimes the skills of anime characters are just on another level.

“She’s a little old, sure, but more than seaworthy for voyaging across the East Blue.”

“Her navigation and storage are—” He hadn’t finished when Nami cut in. “You can tell me. The boys won’t care about stuff like that.”

“Oh? Is that so? Hahaha!”

“Definitely looks that way.”

At first, Merry didn’t really get what Nami meant. But then he saw Luffy already perched up on the bow, scanning the horizon, and Zoro sitting cross-legged on the deck holding his longsword, deep in meditation.

Ye Fan wasn’t about to be left behind. He was the first to rush into the cabin, found the cold storage and storeroom, and started moving some things from his own storage space into the ship, making room for more supplies.

After all, his own storage was only ten cubic meters—no way could it hold everything they needed. Keeping non-essentials on the ship would lighten the load and free up the space for necessities.