Invisible Man

Although that zombie had cowered back in fright, he was hardly the only one to crawl out of the graveyard. Before long, a whole horde of disgusting-looking zombies had clawed their way out of the graves.

Yota’s expression darkened. These zombies reminded him of the things he had seen in Biohazard. Fortunately, while the zombies of the One Piece World looked grim and terrifying, they were at least not as revolting as the zombies from Biohazard.

This time, he simply raised his hands and pressed his palms together.

"If you like staying underground, then stay there for the rest of your lives. Earth Release—Yellow Springs Swamp!"

With Yota’s current strength, even an ordinary Great Fireball Technique would probably surpass an A-rank Fire Release ninjutsu in his hands. Now that he was not sparing any Chakra, the entire graveyard swiftly turned into a swamp. The zombies only had time to cry out a couple of times before they were completely swallowed by the earth.

A moment later, Yota stopped channeling Chakra. The swamp steadily contracted and became firm ground again. As for those zombies, they had sunk dozens of meters beneath the earth. With those old arms and legs of theirs, they probably would not be able to crawl out even in their next lives.

Just then, hollow, giggling laughter drifted down from the sky. Strange creatures resembling those simple Japanese Teru Teru Bozu floated over their heads.

"Waaah! Ghosts, they’re ghosts… Ah, though I guess I’m a type of ghost too. But am I a ghost or a skeleton?" Brook screamed for a moment before calming down and launching into his usual deadpan humor.

"What the hell are these things? I’ll flatten them with one punch!" Ulti shouted, leaping up to punch one of the ghosts.

Yet just as her fist touched the ghost, the ghost passed straight through her body.

With a thud, Ulti dropped to her knees. "I’m not a qualified big sister at all! I bully little Page every day. Someone like me should just hurry up and die."

"Big sis, pull yourself together!" Page One had never expected Ulti to stumble so badly. He hurried over to comfort her.

Yota, however, watched the ghosts in the sky closely. In particular, the ghost Ulti had struck with her Haki-coated fist was missing a chunk of its body. Green smoke continuously seeped from the wound, which grew larger and larger until the entire ghost dissolved into smoke and vanished.

"As expected, Haki works against them. If Ulti had used Haki to defend herself at the time, she probably wouldn’t have fallen for it so easily."

Seeing this, Yota finally relaxed. Thinking about it, if Perona’s Hollow-Hollow Fruit were really that overpowered, she would not have had to serve under a Shichibukai.

Besides, Perona’s Negative Hollows had never been used on Hawkeye back then. Clearly, Hawkeye had taught her a lesson before, and she knew she was no match for him.

Now that he knew the Hollow-Hollow Fruit was countered by Armament Haki, Yota was completely at ease. The ghosts in the sky seemed to have been frightened by Ulti killing one of their companions. They only floated overhead and did not dare descend again.

After a while, Ulti seemed to recover from her negative emotions. Remembering her embarrassing behavior just now, she was nearly furious enough to explode.

"Damn it! Damned ghosts! I’m going to kill them all!"

Yota reached out and held Ulti down. "They’re just Devil Fruit creations. You don’t even know where your opponent is. Where exactly are you planning to charge?"

Ulti gritted her teeth and looked at Violet. "Sister Violet, hurry and take a look. Who exactly is controlling these ghosts?"

"They should be over by that castle. Ah! Who’s touching me?"

The moment Violet spoke, black mist from Yota’s hand swept out, directly enveloping a large area around her and sucking everything within into it.

A moment later, Yota reached in and pulled out a strange Devil Fruit. At the same time, Dark Space spat out Violet, along with someone who looked somewhat like a member of the Mink Tribe.

"You’re one of Gecko Moria’s subordinates, that invisible man, right?" Yota asked with a smile, tossing the Devil Fruit in his hand.

The legendary Clear-Clear Fruit—the thing those filthy old perverts loved most.

What truly surprised Yota, however, was that the Clear-Clear Fruit’s ability could not only evade visual detection, but even Yota’s own sensory abilities and Observation Haki had detected nothing unusual.

After all, Yota had long known about this Clear-Clear Fruit user. Therefore, when he boarded this Giant Ghost Ship, he had already been fully on guard. Even so, he had sensed nothing out of the ordinary.

No wonder Shiryu of the Rain had wanted this seemingly useless Clear-Clear Fruit. Once developed to a certain extent, it could apparently fool even Haki.

When this nameless fellow saw the Devil Fruit in Yota’s hand, his pupils shrank. He lunged forward, trying to snatch the Devil Fruit back.

But with his speed, he looked no different from slow motion in Yota’s eyes. Yota casually slapped him away, likely breaking seven or eight of his ribs. He vomited blood without stopping.

Then Violet, her face livid, grabbed the man by the back of his collar.

"Bastard, to do something like that to a woman… It’s truly envy-inducing—no, truly infuriating!" Brook yelled. Violet shot him a cold glance, frightening the skeleton into silence.

"Sister Violet, hand him over to me. Watch me smash his skull apart with my head!"

"Hah, Ironhead Girl, all you know is violence. Sister Violet, you should give him to me instead. Captain told me about the concept of the eighteen levels of hell last time. I’ve been wanting to try it with genjutsu!"

"You damned three-eyes, are you looking for trouble?"

"Hah, what if I am?"

Before Ulti and Pudding could continue arguing, Violet lightly brushed back the hair by her ear and smiled.

"Don’t worry, little sisters. I already have plenty of experience dealing with men like this."

Although Violet’s smile was dazzling, Ulti and Pudding both shuddered.

Then Violet pulled a small dagger from within her dress. A dark smile appeared on her face as the blade flashed faintly.

"Waaahhh!" The modified human, who had not made a sound even after Yota broke seven or eight of his ribs, let out an incomparably miserable scream. Clutching his wound with both hands, he rolled about on the ground.