Jaya's western harbor was not built to hold a fleet. It was a crescent-shaped bay, wide at the docks but narrowing significantly at the mouth where two rocky peninsulas pinched the exit.
As the Marine ship approached through the morning fog, the sheer scale of Light's herding strategy became visible. The bay was choked. Ships of every shape, size, and flag were crammed together so tightly that a man could walk a mile across their decks without ever touching the water. It was a sprawling, wooden city of criminals.
"By the heavens," T-Bone breathed, his grip tightening on his sword hilt. "There must be over a hundred ships. Thousands of men. Major... if we engage, the ones near the back will simply set sail and break for the open ocean."
Light stood at the bow, his hands clasped neatly behind his back. Above the bay, the sky was a blinding, overlapping canopy of glowing red numbers.
"They won't," Light said mildly.
"Sir?"
"Look at the harbor's mouth, T-Bone. It's a natural chokepoint. Only three standard galleons can pass through side-by-side." Light stepped up onto the railing, the wind catching his pristine coat. "Anchor our ship right here, outside the bay. Tell the men to ready the cannons. Do not let anything pass."
Before T-Bone could process the order, Light vanished.
Level 3 Soru.
He reappeared high in the air, directly above the narrowest point of the harbor entrance, looking down at four massive pirate galleons anchored side-by-side. Light drew his saber, channeling his Haki into the blade, and activated Force Authority.
He didn't just swing. He pointed his blade downward and used his gift to exponentially multiply the gravitational attraction on the sword's swing, while simultaneously executing a Level 3 Rankyaku.
"Rankyaku: Guillotine."
A compressed crescent of air, dyed faintly black with his beginner Armament Haki and widened by Force Authority, plummeted from the sky. It hit the water and the ships simultaneously.
The sound was like a thunderclap inside a cavern.
The four galleons were cleaved perfectly in half, right down the keel. But it wasn't just the cut. The immense, concentrated downward force Light had applied shattered the hulls outward, instantly swamping the ships. Within ten seconds, all four massive vessels groaned and sank to the shallow bottom, their jagged masts and splintered hulls creating an impassable, underwater barricade of wreckage stretching across the entire mouth of the bay.
Light landed lightly on the highest surviving mast of the wreckage.
The escape route was gone. The door was locked.
Now, Light thought, a terrifying thrill running down his spine as he looked out over the trapped fleet. The harvest begins.
"Bonney!" Light called out, not looking back.
A blur of pink hair and a half-eaten turkey leg shot past him from the Marine ship, landing on the wreckage beside him. "What?!" Bonney snapped, chewing loudly.
"Try not to die. I'm going to be busy," Light said, his eyes scanning the docks for the highest concentration of red.
"Whatever. I smell roasted pork in that town. Don't get in my way," she muttered, turned into her adult form and immediately using a sloppy but effective combination of jumps to bridge the gap across the anchored pirate ships toward the town.
Light smiled pleasantly and began to walk across the decks of the trapped ships, heading for the docks.
⬛ ⬛ ⬛
Mock Town was loud, dirty, and reeked of cheap rum and unwashed bodies.
Inside the largest tavern, the 'Tropical Tavern', the noise was deafening. Pirates from the South Blue were arguing with veterans from the North. Bounties ranging from ten million to fifty million bumped shoulders, united only by their mutual fear of the 'Reaper' patrolling the outer waters, and their arrogance now that they thought they were safe.
At the center table, Bellamy the Hyena was laughing.
"A Marine ghost ship? Don't make me laugh!" Bellamy sneered, slamming his tankard down. His 55 million Berry bounty made him one of the biggest fish in the room. "You cowards are running from shadows! The age of dreams is over! Let this 'Reaper' come. I'll bounce his head off the pavement!"
His crew, the Bellamy Pirates, roared with laughter.
"Hey."
The voice was muffled by a mouthful of food. Bellamy blinked, looking down.
A young woman with pink hair had somehow slid onto the bench next to him. She was holding Bellamy's entire platter of roasted sea-boar, tearing into it with the ferocity of a starving beast.
"This is pretty good," Bonney mumbled, grease dripping down her chin. She looked up at Bellamy's stunned face. "You gonna eat that bread?"
The tavern went dead silent.
Bellamy's face turned purple. The veins in his forehead throbbed. "You little tramp... do you have any idea whose food you're stealing?!"
He pulled his arm back, his forearm turning into a tightly coiled spring. "I'll take your head off!"
Bellamy threw the punch. The spring released with a violent SNIKT, driving his fist forward with enough kinetic force to shatter a brick wall.
It never hit her.
A hand, pale and impeccably clean, caught Bellamy's fist mid-air.
The shockwave rattled the tavern windows, blowing the dust off the rafters, but the hand didn't budge a single millimeter.
Bellamy's eyes widened. He looked past his trapped fist.
Standing behind Bonney was a young man in a spotless Marine coat. His arm was fully extended, holding Bellamy's compressed punch as effortlessly as one might hold a door open. He had a pleasant, almost apologetic smile on his face.
Above Bellamy's head, Light saw it.
[ Bellamy — Pirate Captain ] [ Green: 50 / Red: 85,000 ]
85,000, Light thought, the smile widening just a fraction. Perfect.
"Pardon the intrusion," Light said, his voice carrying clearly through the silent tavern. "My ward has a terrible habit of wandering off."
Sarquiss, Bellamy's first mate, drew his massive kukri, his hands shaking as he recognized the coat. "A... a Marine? Here?! Are you insane?!"
Light didn't look at Sarquiss. He kept his dark eyes locked on Bellamy, who was currently sweating, trying and failing to pull his fist back.
"I'm looking for criminals," Light announced to the room, his tone conversational. He let his gaze sweep over the tavern. Every single person in the room had a red number hovering above them. Tens of thousands of KP, packed into a single wooden room.
"It seems," Light smiled, squeezing Bellamy's fist until the bones began to loudly, sickeningly crack, "I've come to the right place."