Chapter 539: Momousagi's Kiss of Acknowledgment

If Ian were here, he would probably be extremely surprised because the speed at which the Marine reinforcements appeared exceeded his expectations!

From Ian and the others invading Impel Down to the present moment, only a short period had passed. However, the time from receiving the distress call from Impel Down to the arrival of reinforcements was almost the same. This was completely impossible!

The World Government’s dedicated sea route, known as the Tarai Current, connected the Judicial Island, Impel Down, and Marine Headquarters. The principle of this Tarai Current was that it had a huge vortex at its center, and the flow of water was driven by this vortex. Since it was a vortex, the direction of flow was fixed, always moving in one direction.

Therefore, departing from Marine Headquarters to reach Impel Down directly was impossible. One had to travel along the sea current to Judicial Island first and then follow the flow of the Judicial Path to reach Impel Down. Similarly, when leaving Impel Down and using the specialized sea current, there would be only one destination—Marine Headquarters!

Since they needed to go to Judicial Island first, the arrival time of the Marine reinforcements would definitely be relatively slow. This was also the reason why Ian was confident enough to proceed with his plan after telling Enel to destroy the prison’s patrol ships. He knew that even if the Marines immediately sent reinforcements, it would be too late by the time they reached Impel Down.

However, unexpected things always happen. The reason why Sengoku, the Fleet Admiral, reached Tsuru and brought Vice-Admiral Momousagi to Impel Down… Because the Marine ship led by Vice-Admiral Momousagi was able to go against common sense, and directly reach Impel Down from Marine Headquarters!

In Enel’s observation, the reinforcements from those several Marine ships, which had just appeared not long ago, were rapidly enlarging in his field of view. This meant that the other side was approaching Impel Down at an astonishing speed!

“What’s going on!?” Even Enel couldn’t help but be extremely astonished. He had previously arrived with Ian using a military ship and was well aware of the ship’s speed. However, seeing the speed of the opponent’s ship now made even him doubt his eyes.

There were a total of five Marine ships that rushed over. On the leading ship, a tall and beautiful woman was holding a telescope, looking in the direction of Impel Down.

This woman had fair skin, dark long hair tied into a large braid, hanging over her right shoulder. She wore a pink top with lace patterns at the collar and a neat short skirt, revealing a pair of well-proportioned and slender thighs in high heels. On her left thigh, there was a black spider tattoo.

She draped a white Marine coat over her shoulders, the empty sleeves swaying with the sea breeze. A longsword hung from her waist, named ” Konpira ” (Golden Pheasant), which was her weapon.

Vice-Admiral Momousagi held a telescope in one hand and a rope in the other. The rope hung down along the ship’s side into the sea, swaying continuously with the impact of the waves. A faint pink glow covered the rope along Momousagi’s hand and acted on the seawater.

“Is there a ship over there? The guy with the long ears on top, he’s one of our targets, right?” Vice-Admiral Momousagi put down the telescope and asked a Marine Rear-Admiral beside her.

Only after she put down the telescope could her true appearance be clearly seen. Momousagi’s beauty wasn’t breathtaking, but she exuded a kind of sexy and mature elegance. Every move and gesture gave off an air of nobility.

The Marine Vice-Admiral, when facing Momousagi, felt intimidated by her aura and appeared quite awkward. He stammered in response, “Y-yes, that person should be one of the pirates under the Shichibukai Ian, the helmsman of the Dragon Hunter Pirates, Enel. The Marine Intelligence Department still doesn’t know about his origins…” 

“It doesn’t matter! Just catch him!”

Vice-Admiral Momousagi gently brushed the strands of hair hanging over her bangs and threw away the cable in her hand. Then, something strange happened—the speed of the five Marine ships instantly decreased.

But at this moment, the Marine ships were already close to Impel Down. Pointing her finger, Momousagi said, “Fire! Destroy that ship!”

Her command was quickly executed. The cannons at the bows of the five ships erupted in flames, and over ten cannonballs instantly headed towards Enel’s ship.

Hearing the cannonfire, the guards in Impel Down’s task force erupted in excitement, shouting, “Reinforcements! Reinforcements from Marine Headquarters have finally arrived!”

“Continue firing! Don’t stop until that ship is sunk!” Vice-Admiral Momousagi ordered.

As a result, Enel was in trouble. The five Marine ships didn’t approach but kept firing continuously. With only Enel defending, he couldn’t withstand such an onslaught. Soon, the ship was hit by cannonballs.

Boom! A cannonball landed on the deck at the stern, creating a large hole. Amidst the soaring flames and black smoke, countless fragments scattered.

Not only the stern but also the sides of the ship were hit. Smoke and flames billowed from the entire ship.

Under such attacks, Enel looked somewhat embarrassed, but he quickly retaliated against the Marine ships.

“El Thor! God’s Judgment!” Enel’s right arm disappeared, and a ball of lightning instantly appeared above the Marine ship where Vice-Admiral Momousagi was. Then, Enel swung his hand down, and the lightning struck towards the Marine ship.

Following Enel’s experience, even if this bolt of lightning couldn’t sink the Marine ship, it could at least create a large hole in the deck. However, to his complete surprise, after this lightning struck down and a flash of light, nothing happened!

No expected cries of distress from the Marines, no explosive sounds of the deck being blasted into pieces—nothing!

“Weird!?” Enel couldn’t believe it. He gathered another ball of lightning and smashed it down onto the Marine ship.

This time, Enel finally saw it clearly. After the lightning struck, it was actually caught by a woman on the ship, gently lifted by the back of her right hand!

Really caught! The ball of lightning condensed into a blue-white sphere, cradled by the woman’s hand, and then flickered, getting smaller and smaller until it extinguished.

“What kind of ability is this!?” Enel’s eyes were almost popping out. This was the third time he witnessed someone casually catching his thunderbolt. The first time was Ian, the second time was the guy with red hair known as Shanks, acknowledged by Ian, and now the third person appeared—the black-haired woman on the opposing ship!

Enel knew that the other person likely had a Devil Fruit ability, but he had no idea what kind of ability was used to make his lightning disappear.

“Hehe!” After catching Enel’s lightning, Vice-Admiral Momousagi chuckled, covering her mouth. “A natural-type Devil Fruit user. Now I understand why Admiral Sengoku was so wary of the Hunting Dragon Pirates!”

“Yes!” The Rear Admiral next to her nodded. “Now, the Hunting Dragon Pirates not only have Fujitora as a Gravity Fruit user but also Eeel with his Thunderclap Fruit ability. Plus, with Ian’s Cryptocurrency Fruit ability, many people at Marine Headquarters privately refer to these three as the ‘Three Giants’! For the Marines, the strength of the Hunting Dragon Pirates is expanding quite dangerously. If they manage to take the prisoners from Impel Down, it will undoubtedly become a major headache for the Marines!” 

“Speaking of which, I haven’t met that young man named Ian yet!” Momousagi laughed amidst the booming cannonfire. “This time, I must take the opportunity to get to “know” him well…”

Just as Vice-Admiral Momousagi finished speaking, a flippant voice sounded from the side, saying, “Actually, I wanted to say that if you could defeat Ian, I might be quite pleased… But now, it seems you don’t have that chance!”

Turning around, Momousagi saw Enel sitting on the ship’s rail.

Since the warship was on the verge of being blasted apart, Enel couldn’t possibly stay on it, waiting to fall into the sea. In an instant, he teleported onto Vice-Admiral Momousagi’s ship…

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read