Sho Kai lingered for a whole moment as another wave of water washed over him. He gulped, but immediately got back to reloading the next cannon.
'I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE.' He panicked.
His mind still couldn't help but overthink what was happening, 'How did the entire ship vanish like nothing? Is this just an illusion? Or did the ship actually teleport away?'
He looked closer at the space where the pirate ship burned just a few moments ago. Upon better inspection, he realised some things.
'What is wrong with that place?'
The whole area of space that the pirate ship once occupied, looked abnormal. It was like looking at a subtle optical illusion. Some things didn't seem real.
It looked like in that specific area, the sea level had abnormally risen. Like the sea was trying to climb up. Like a whole section of the ocean had been elevated and stretched. The water still flowed but the movement appeared to follow no logic.
It was all enshrouded in darkness so it was hard to tell what was happening. The only sources of light were the pieces of burning debris left behind by the initial explosion. But even burning driftwood pieces appeared abnormal, they had risen and stretched in the elevated section of the sea and their numbers were greater as well.
'What the hell is this?' No matter how much he tried to think of it, nothing made sense.
But that was not going to break Sho Kai. He slowly calmed down, and focused on his task.
He finally decided to test the abnormality, 'Maybe the ship is still there, I'm just unable to see it. Is it an illusion, or was I somehow hypnotized?' He thought of a few possibilities, and finally decided to not waste time and experiment with the abnormality in the ocean.
He fired another cannonball in the direction of the abnormally rising ocean, the same place where the Pirate ship was not too long ago. The cannon ball erupted out of the barrel, hurling the ship in the opposite direction due to the recoil.
The cannon ball careened forward, and hit the elevated and stretched section of water.
But when it did… there wasn't even a ripple.
Instead the cannon ball simply bounced back, propelling backwards to the same direction it came from.
Just as fast as it left, it returned and landed where Sho Kai's dark ship was moments ago.
The cannon ball crashed into the surface of the ocean, and a ripple like wave of water rushed out towards all directions, again falling on Sho Kai.
If the ship wasn't hurled back due to the recoil, it would be directly hit by its own cannon ball.
'This… So my cannonballs are getting thrown back at me every time I fire them. But because my ship is also getting recoiled back from the cannons firing, I move out of the way from the returning cannon ball… this recoil is quite literally a life saver. Without it, I would be getting shot by my own cannons instead of simply getting doused in water.'
Suddenly many things connected in his mind.
'Wait, didn't Scarn say that the whole fleet of Marines that was facing Terror's ship lost because his pirate ship has unnaturally high cannon power? Could it be the reason behind this unnatural firepower isn't because the Crimson Pirate Ship has more cannons, but simply because they were able to reflect all the cannon balls sent their way?'
Sho Kai nodded in understanding, 'This makes complete sense. The whole Marine fleet lost because their own fire power was used against them. In this case, the stronger you are, the deadlier the enemy becomes. Which is why my small ship with two small cannons is faring better against Terror than the whole Marine fleet with hundreds of giant cannons!'
He pondered further while reloading the other cannon. 'But how is this possible? How does Terror have two Devil Fruit abilities? Like this green light wasn't enough he also has another insanely powerful defensive ability? Maybe he doesn't. Could it be that someone else on his crew is also a devil fruit user?'
Before Sho Kai could think of an answer to his own question, the emerald beam of light came upon him.
The beam of light encroached on the pitch black ship. He was too focused on the task at hand. The abnormal splashes and the entire enemy ship vanishing were great distractions. He had almost forgotten about the lethal light. 'I let it slip out of my mind because it didn't do anything to me last time… foolish.'
Sho Kai crouched down, and continued loading the cannon. It may have been too late by now, but he was still going to try to get out of the green spotlight's range. Just because he didn't suffer any damage the last time he had contact with the light, doesn't mean it was harmless.
As soon as the cannon was loaded, he showed no delays and immediately turned on ignition with his stick.
But before the sparks could touch the gunpowder, the viridescent light enveloped everything.
In the next moment, the cannon fired up while being under the green light. Just as expected, a cannon ball erupted out of the barrel. The metal sphere careened through the air and escaped the emerald beam's embrace. As usual, it continued its voyage through the dark night and towards the pirate ship.
It all happened as one would expect it to happen. But that's where normality stopped.
Igniting the cannon had two benefits. One was to attack the enemy ship, but the primary goal was to use the cannons's explosive recoil to sail in reverse.
This plan was successful in all previous attempts, but now, when the pitch black ship was under the emerald illumination of this lethal beam of light. That plan had reversed, quite literally.
Instead of getting knocked back because of the recoil, the pitch black ship, and everything that stood on it got knocked forward.
'What the…'
Sho Kai couldn't even think straight. Unlike last time, this cross over with the green light wasn't benign. His body suffered the same way it did when the ship had been enveloped by the light for the first time.
No, that was inverted too.
The ship moved forward instead of backwards. And along with it, Sho Kai's skin moved forward too. But it felt like his insides didn't as much.
His skeleton outlined on his back, his spine appearing far more defined. His face meanwhile lost some of its shape and form. The skin appeared loose.
It lasted for just a moment. But as the ship continued moving forward, Sho Kai fell down. He groaned in agony as his internals slammed into each other and his skin stretched unnaturally.
But the forward momentum propelled the ship out of the spotlight. Once out of the light's grasp, the movement of things returned to normal, but the agony stayed.
After a moment's rest he got up. He was still in pain and his head was ringing from the inside. But the pain wasn't as great as it was the first time he came across the green light.
And his recovery was faster.
Also Scarn, who was at the front of the ship under the cover of a black cloth slid to the back and collided with the left cannon's base.
But unlike Sho Kai, he seemed to be fairing relatively fine, even regaining most of his composure.
But Sho Kai couldn't see this as he was holding his head with his hand. Despite everything he immediately started to analyze the situation.
There were countless mysteries in his mind that were on the crux of being solved.
Yet only one question came to his mind, 'Why wasn't there a splash?'
When he fired the last cannon at the direction of the abnormality, he wasn't trying to attack it, but rather it was a test. Sho Kai expected there to be a returning cannon ball.
He was dazed after getting hit by the Green light, he couldn't defend or even properly dodge.
Now would be a perfect time for the cannon ball to bounce back. It may not hit Sho Kai, but as the ship was hurled forward and got closer to the abnormal patch of ocean, the chance of his ship getting hit with the cannon ball was much higher.
Yet the cannon ball wasn't returned to him, there wasn't even a splash.
'What does this mean?'
His question was answered as soon as he looked at the direction where the abnormal patch of the ocean was.
The only problem was that the abnormality was no more…
Instead, the pirate ship had returned, as if it never vanished in the first place.
…