Silas indeed had no major designs on Wano Country. But hadn't he also said? Let nature take its course!
With opportunity right in front of him, if Silas didn't seize it, that would be too unworthy of his pirate identity.
"Little girl, let me teach you a lesson now—when you're out and about, you can't easily trust others, especially handsome men like me!"
"Pfft~"
Hearing Silas's words, Toki nearby couldn't help laughing. Though she didn't know Silas's plan, she was certain Silas was just teasing Shimotsuki Shinko.
If Silas truly acted, forget these people—even if all of Wano Country's samurai came together, they probably wouldn't be Silas's match.
But Shimotsuki Shinko obviously didn't know this. Seeing Silas's crew members charge toward their Shimotsuki family samurai, Shinko felt worried, but trust in her family still made her crane her neck, glaring at Silas defiantly.
"Big bad guy, despicable and shameless, bastard pirate, big liar... No matter what schemes you use, Father will definitely defeat you!"
At this moment, Ripley and others began engaging Shimotsuki Fuuya's group.
"Outsiders? Pirates?"
Seeing Shinko and Kouzaburou captured, Shimotsuki Fuuya's expression grew grave. He looked at Silas beside them, sensing an unfathomable aura.
But before facing Silas, he first had to deal with Ripley and others.
And Ripley's opening move was "Shrink!"
After Devil Fruit awakening, she possessed environmental assimilation ability. Ripley stepped forward. The ground beneath Shimotsuki Fuuya's group suddenly seemed to vanish. Everyone immediately fell through empty air.
"Ahhhhh!"
"What happened!?"
"Why are we suddenly falling!?"
Ripley shrank a hundred-meter area of land at once, making it appear to the Wano samurai like a bottomless abyss beneath their feet.
"Ninjutsu! This must be ninjutsu!"
Some samurai shouted, but this couldn't change their falling predicament. In just seconds, they would drop from a hundred meters high.
Though the samurai's strength wouldn't kill them from the fall, they would definitely be injured. Mid-air with nowhere to borrow force, not knowing Moonwalk flying techniques, even Shimotsuki Fuuya could only endure this falling impact.
However, Ripley's methods didn't stop there. The ground beneath the samurai had only shrunk, not disappeared. When they fell to a certain height, Ripley spoke again.
"Restore!"
Bang Bang Bang!
A series of collision sounds rang out. Some samurai who had already adjusted their landing posture were caught off-guard by the suddenly enlarged ground's impact. Stronger ones could still react. Weaker ones were simply knocked unconscious by the collision.
Shimotsuki Fuuya had brought dozens of samurai on this trip. Ripley's single move easily eliminated half of them.
Though Fuuya was actually stronger than Ripley, he was helpless against her awakened fruit ability. If she continued attacking, Ripley could easily eliminate the weaker samurai.
But this wouldn't meet Silas's expectations.
"Hehe, got to leave some training opportunities for the newcomers!"
Unconsciously, Ripley had developed veteran crew member bearing.
"Witch! I, Shimotsuki Fuuya, won't let you run wild!"
The weather-beaten Shimotsuki Fuuya called out lowly.
"Flash Strike!"
An extremely swift slash—fast enough to even surprise Silas—suddenly appeared before Ripley, as if to split her in two. Ripley's displayed strength no longer allowed Fuuya to hold back.
"So fast!"
Even using Observation Haki, Ripley barely reacted to Fuuya's slash. Though not the thousand-meter-range wide slashes, this lightning-swift blade wind could easily cut through iron and steel.
Provided it hit!
"Mini Re-shrink!"
Ripley's current form was already one-tenth her original size. After Fuuya's slash, Ripley used her ability again. Thousand-fold shrink!
This moment, Ripley became thumb-sized, and Fuuya's swift slash naturally missed its target.
"What!?"
Having stayed in isolationist Wano Country, Fuuya had never dealt with outsiders and knew nothing about Devil Fruits.
After landing, Ripley employed the Six Powers after a long time.
"Shave!"
Ripley instantly closed the distance with Fuuya.
"Mini Partial Restoration!"
Though still nearly ten meters away, with Fuuya still tracking the shrunken Ripley, preparing another slash, he discovered Ripley's fist suddenly enlarged, covered in Armament Haki.
"Giant's Spear!"
Bang!
Fuuya, barely managing to raise his sword in defense, was immediately blasted hundreds of meters away.
"Father!"
Shinko cried out sadly, seeing this scene with reddened eyes.
"Your father is actually stronger than Ripley."
Silas stood beside Shinko, saying calmly. "But because he doesn't understand the outside world and hasn't seen Ripley's ability, he fell into disadvantage so easily."
A giant's punch wasn't easy to take. Unless, like Silas—simultaneously a Zoan fruit user and physical arts expert—even Admiral-level fighters would be injured taking Ripley's full punch.
Hearing Silas's words, Shinko immediately glared at him angrily. She had originally thought Silas was a good person. Now he seemed completely like a bastard, a big bad guy!
"Don't worry, your father won't fall so easily."
Silas comforted Shinko, but this comfort seemed like mockery to her.
While Ripley faced Fuuya, other White Wolf Pirates members also engaged the samurai in battle.
The Shimotsuki family truly deserved to be one of Wano's four great families. The Kozuki family had few members; the Kurozumi family was already exiled by the Kozuki.
Now Wano's strongest power was these four families serving the Kozuki. Even after the Kurozumi-caused turmoil, they still had several capable fighters.
Moreover, Fuuya hadn't brought everyone. After all, he had only come to catch "runaway bride" Shinko, not for war—why deploy all the family samurai?
But now, Fuuya regretted it. Not only did he feel powerless against Ripley, but the surrounding samurai also struggled against White Wolf Pirates members.
After Ripley's preemptive strike, Newgate was second to engage Wano samurai. Facing these sword-wielding enemies, Newgate immediately fired a shock wave.
Milky white light gathered in Newgate's hand. Watching the charging samurai, Newgate struck through the air.
Instantly, the air before Newgate cracked like broken mirror. Air's fracturing affected surroundings.
Later hailed as the Paramecia fruit pinnacle, even though Newgate only initially mastered the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, this punch still caused terrifying consequences.
The frozen river shattered under vibrations. Long-blocked lake water immediately became a fierce beast, surging toward both White Wolf Pirates and samurai.
Only then did the samurai react.
"Why is there an ice river here?"
"Isn't it summer now?"
"Lake water—lake water is rushing toward us!"
However, though surging lake water posed some threat to samurai, at most they feared being washed out of Wano Country. But Ripley and Newgate were both fruit users.
Not just seawater—even fresh water, touching sufficient amounts, would weaken them similarly.
"Newgate, you idiot!"
Ripley cursed, using Moonwalk to leap skyward. Newgate did likewise.
But others weren't so lucky. Especially Linlin.
Though her strength ranked high in White Wolf Pirates, having joined so long, she hadn't fully mastered the Six Powers. Especially Moonwalk.
Linlin's special physique seemed to hinder her flight. Each mid-air hop ended in crashes. Eventually Linlin gave up angrily, saying she would never practice again.
The result naturally ended with Silas baking her a cake for comfort.
However, not knowing Moonwalk wasn't too harmful. After all, unlike the original timeline, Linlin who joined White Wolf Pirates, hadn't become an ability user, naturally not fearing river water.
Plus her six-meter height meant surging river water hitting Linlin couldn't shake her at all. And Linlin's return punch shattered a samurai barely maintaining balance in water, splitting his palm.
Monster! This was the samurai's thought after facing Linlin.
Originally seeing Linlin as a child, the samurai had intended mercy. But later discovered Linlin was not only incredibly strong but her body was like steel—no, much harder than steel.
The samurai could at least cut iron. But against Linlin, he couldn't even break her defense.
Three White Wolf Pirates veterans displayed their prowess. Comparatively, new members seemed somewhat embarrassed.
Though samurai weren't extremely strong, after Ripley's screening, those still standing were at least iron-cutting level.
Stussy found even one-on-one challenging. Seeing river water rushing toward her, she paled.
Fortunately, for the ship's only doctor, Silas was relatively tolerant. With one slash, he created high ice walls around Stussy and her fighting samurai, blocking the surging water.
Stussy immediately rejoiced. 'I knew the old guy wouldn't abandon me!'
But this distraction nearly got her cut by the opposing samurai.
"Hey, facing such a beauty, don't you know how to show mercy?"
Stussy complained loudly.
"No mercy needed against evil sorcery!"
The samurai facing Stussy said in a low voice.
"Besides, I'm also female!"
"Eh?"
Now Stussy was speechless. Though this samurai looked androgynous, those solid chest muscles seemed to confirm the point.
As a doctor, Stussy had Silas's support. But others weren't so fortunate.
Seeing seawater surging toward him, ability user Shiki dared not stay grounded, using Moonwalk to take flight. Tsuru likewise.
Though not an ability user with good swimming skills, she wasn't a fishman either. Besides fishmen, ordinary people's combat power would be discounted in water no matter their swimming ability.
She just wondered—hadn't Silas said he had no interest in Wano Country? Then why order them to attack samurai now?
But facing samurai with fierce swordplay, Tsuru could only barely defend. She dared not hold back, knowing with Silas's eyesight, any mercy would arouse suspicion.
Moreover, her strength didn't allow mercy against samurai.
Most unlucky was Zephyr. Though not an ability user, he also hadn't learned Moonwalk. Plus without Silas's help, when river water surged, Zephyr was first washed dozens of meters away, barely steadying himself.
A samurai immediately swung his sword down at his head. No mercy at all.
However, this was exactly the effect Silas wanted. What fun were ordinary sparring matches? What was needed was life-and-death tempering.
With Silas's current Observation Haki strength, if truly lethal danger arose, he could stop it immediately.
This wasn't drill, but actual combat!
Even after female crew members Stussy and Tsuru were cut by samurai, Silas didn't help. How could they grow without seeing blood?
His crew must be companions who could fight alongside him, not vases kept at home. If afraid of battle, why board this ship?
"Silas, I also—"
"Go ahead!"
Though Toki was indeed somewhat inconvenienced, since she actively requested it, Silas naturally wouldn't refuse. He would watch from the side anyway.
The overall battle situation was relatively evenly matched. With Rocks absent, Newgate consciously assumed the "family head" role. Whenever others faced danger, he was first to support, even if it meant endangering himself.
Though overall situation seemed even, every White Wolf Pirates member actually had no worries. Because Silas was behind them.
However strong the samurai, wasn't there still Silas as backup?
So though actual combat, the battle effect differed from true life-and-death struggles. To some degree, Rocks was actually right. A captain too powerful would actually suppress crew growth motivation.
Provided they hit bottlenecks.
Among his crew, at least half were top-tier talent monsters. Even lesser talents weren't too bad. At least before reaching the 200 million Berry level of combat power, they wouldn't encounter too many bottlenecks.
Compared to the ease of the White Wolf Pirates members, the samurai side grew increasingly urgent, especially family head Shimotsuki Fuuya.
How could he not see Silas was the strongest among these pirates? Yet he couldn't even beat Ripley.
Though after adapting to Ripley's fighting style, Fuuya gradually shifted from disadvantage to stalemate, now even holding a slight advantage; this minor advantage was meaningless.
Were all outside pirates this strong?
Looking at unfathomable Silas, then at his captured daughter, Fuuya gritted his teeth. Released a distress signal.
Even losing face didn't matter. Continuing like this, their Shimotsuki family would be annihilated.
Seeing brilliant fireworks in the sky, Silas's mouth curved slightly. Right, exactly like this.
Going to find Wano samurai daimyo one by one for battle—how troublesome. Come together if you're coming!
Didn't Wano Country refuse to open its borders? Then he would use absolute strength to tell these stubborn samurai that times have changed!
When this thought emerged in Silas's mind, he saw cornered Tsuru draw the gun from her back, aiming at a samurai.
Bang!
Caught off-guard, a bloody rose bloomed on the samurai's shoulder.