While eating tuna meat, Caleb looked at his status page.
Name: Caleb D. Saga
Age: 18 years
Race: Human
GP: 10
Character Assimilation:
In Progress:
-[Jigoro Kuwajima 21%]
-[Aquaman 29%]
Fully Assimilated:
-None
Summoned Characters:
-[Saeko Busujima / Loyalty: [3.5/5] / Assimilation Slot: [Empty] – [Equipped Items: [Gantz Suit]]
-[Chun-Li / Loyalty: [4/5] / Assimilation Slot: [Empty]]
-[Tier Harribel / Loyalty: [3.2/5] / Assimilation Slot: [Empty] – [Equipped Items: [Zanpakutō: Tiburón]]
Powers:
-[Haki]
-[Thunder Breathing]
-[Instant Lover (180-Minute Love Slave)]
-[Sage]
-[Unique Physiology (Aquaman)]
-[Swimming]
Equipped Items:
-[Tessaiga]
-[D-Dial]
-[Lasso of Truth]
'By my calculations, it should take at least 1 month to fully assimilate Aquaman and a little over a month to assimilate Jigoro Kuwajima.'
"Chew, chew..."
The girls' loyalty hadn't changed. And, from what was described, it was simply a loyalty meter, meaning it could go up and down even if it reached a high value.
"This fish is even better than the bluefin tuna I tried in my world..." Chun-Li murmured with her hands on her cheeks.
Saeko ate with class, and after chewing, she commented: "It's really not bad."
Harribel didn't say anything, but by the way she was eating, even competing with Caleb in quantity, it was clear that she liked the taste.
Seeing the other two look at her, Harribel said slowly: "In the desert of Hueco Mundo, many times I ate things that tasted no different than eating sand."
"Err... Sorry?" Chun-Li didn't know what to say after hearing that.
Saeko didn't say anything, she just placed a piece of fried tuna on Harribel's plate.
"Don't worry about it." Harribel still kept her poker face, but didn't refuse the piece of tuna offered by Saeko.
She picked it up with her fork and brought it to her mouth.
As a 'Shark-mermaid' she could open her mouth quite wide. She could open it enough to fit a large piece of fish.
With her hand in front of her mouth, she chewed, savoring it.
Even though she didn't show much expression, her eyes were very expressive, always shining whenever she ate something good, like now, with a glow of someone enjoying what she was tasting.
**
A few days later...
"Just like Caleb-sama said, there really is a huge red mountain with water running through it." Saeko pressed her lips together and smiled beautifully.
Controlling the ship, now with the sails down, Caleb said: "This entrance is called Reverse Mountain. Going up through it, we'll be directed straight to the Grand Line."
"This is really intriguing." Chun-Li commented.
Harribel, on the other hand, had seen stranger things than this, so she didn't think it was a big deal and remained silent with her arms crossed.
When the ship reached the entrance, it started to pick up speed and soon began to ascend.
The feeling was similar to riding up a steep roller coaster, but even more thrilling, since they didn't have any seatbelts or means of protection, depending purely on themselves to stay on the ship.
For Harribel and Caleb, it was something easy to do, but now even Chun-Li was having a bit of difficulty, having to hold onto the ship's rails.
Saeko's balance was good, but she was in a similar situation to Chun-Li, maybe even a little worse, having to hold on so she wouldn't fall.
But it didn't take long for them to get used to it and only need to hold on with one hand.
"This is fun," Saeko commented.
"Not bad at all," Chun-Li agreed.
Caleb, who was steering the ship, smiled at their comments.
However, his face turned serious when the current pushed the ship toward the wall, but before it could crash, he didn't even need to turn the wheel as Harribel simply raised a finger and from the water, a current was created by her, directing the ship back on track.
"Thank you, Harribel," Caleb said.
Without turning around, she just let out a nasal sound in acknowledgment.
When they reached the top of the Red Line, the ship jumped and upon landing, was redirected straight to the beginning of Paradise.
"This is fun!!" Chun-Li let out a spirited squeal as they started to fall in free fall.
The speed easily passed 100 KM/H.
"Hmmmm-wooooorrrr!!"
Suddenly, a vibrant sound echoed loudly!
"Ahh, what sound is that?" Chun-Li asked.
"It's the sound of a whale," Caleb replied.
"A whale? To me, it sounds more like the sound of a world," Saeko commented.
"It must be a really big whale," Harribel said. "To be able to make a sound like that."
"Several times bigger than this ship," Caleb said.
Just saying, it was hard for them to measure the size of a whale capable of producing such a loud and monstrous sound, powerful enough to create vibrations in the air.
However, they didn't have to wait long to see the whale in question once they completely descended the Red Line.
On their left side, they saw the whale with its huge head out of the water and mouth wide open, with teeth bigger than their ship, emitting powerful sound waves.
When it stopped screaming, the whale simply moved forward and slammed its head with full force into the red mountain wall.
"Why is this whale doing that?" Saeko murmured, curious.
"She's sad," Harribel said. "She's waiting for her friends who must be beyond this mountain."
"Friends? Other whales?" Chun-Li asked.
"No, a group of pirates," Caleb answered.
When they heard that, they turned to him.
"How do you know, Caleb-sama?" Saeko asked.
"Do you see that seagull flying?" Caleb pointed.
"Don't tell me... that seagull talked to you?" Chun-Li asked, skeptical.
"No, it's selling newspapers," Caleb said. "It's good to stay updated."
As he said that, he gestured to the seagull, which flew over to them.
"Okay, I get that staying informed is important, but you still haven't answered my question." Chun-Li fixed her eyes on his.
After paying for the newspaper, Caleb took a chair from his D-Dial and sat down. Opening the newspaper, he began to read.
'Hmm, so he really did end up defeating Don Krieg...'
In the newspaper, there was an article talking about East Blue. In it, it talked about Monkey D. Luffy, Straw Hat, having defeated the pirate Don Krieg and being dangerous.
Caleb took the bounty card that also had a reward for Luffy and saw that it wasn't that high. 21 million Belly; dead or alive.
Although it's not a small amount for an East Blue pirate, it was still lower than in the canon.
'Zoro joined him...'
The article that talked about Luffy was mainly because of the event with "Axe-Hand Morgan."
"Hey, are you listening to me?"
Lowering the newspaper and looking at her, Caleb said: "If you really want to know, just ask Harribel to talk to the whale."
Chun-Li looked at Harribel when she heard that.
"Harribel, you—"
"It's okay." Harribel agreed before she could finish speaking.
With a simple jump, Harribel appeared in the air, and soon she practically flew toward Laboon.
When Harribel appeared, Laboon stopped hitting his head against the Red Line and looked at her with his gigantic eye.
...
Minutes later, Harribel returned and told everything she heard directly from the whale.
"And that's it." Harribel finished telling Laboon's story.
"I see... At the very least, I feel it's a touching story of a small whale who waited for 50 years for a group of pirates to return. It's sad and revolting at the same time. If I meet that group of pirates, I'm going to teach them a good lesson!" Chun-Li said, throwing a few kicks in the air.
Each of her kicks came with a sharp, threatening sound.
"Just don't kill them." Saeko chuckled a little.
"I wouldn't go that far... Probably." She replied, sounding a bit unreliable.
"Okay, it's time for us to leave." Caleb closed the newspaper, handing it to Saeko: "Harribel, Chun-Li, help lower the sails."
""Yes.""
It didn't take long before the sails of the ship stretched out with the wind blowing, and the ship began to gain speed.
Caleb and the girls waved to Laboon as they gained distance.
For having interacted and talked a bit with Harribel, Laboon let out a loud sound, but different from before, it was in a more cheerful tone.
...
Minutes later, right after confirming the correct direction on his Eternal Log Pose to Little Garden, Caleb took a 'fruit' from the D-Dial dimension.
Sube Sube no Mi, a Paramecia-type Akuma no Mi that makes the user's body slippery, which in turn causes most attacks and all objects to slide off their body, protecting the user from damage in most situations.
Caleb didn't get this Akuma no Mi from a lucky event, but rather, he followed Alvida and waited until she came into conflict with Luffy.
After she was sent flying, he continued following her until he saw her obtain this Akuma no Mi. Of course, before she could eat it, he defeated her and took the 5 million Belly bounty on her as well as the Akuma no Mi.
'Just as I imagined, I can't use this card on something that isn't a card too.' Caleb lamented.
Although he believed that the power of this Akuma no Mi was strong if used properly, it wasn't worth it if the cost was being unable to swim.
Since it hadn't worked, he stored the Devil Fruit back into the D-Dial.