Chapter 294: Returning To Fishman Island

Since we decided to rescue Freyja, we headed towards the only place I could imagine where the Marines would hold her: Impel Down. Of course, to get to Impel Down, we had to go the way we initially arrived, which meant visiting Fish Man Island again, causing me to faintly smirk since it's been two years since I've visited that place.

While Pandemonium traveled to the beginning of the New World, taking their sweet time since it's not like we were rushing to free Freyja, she was a grown-ass woman; she would be fine for a few weeks without any help. Besides, we still needed to heal from our fight against the Big Mom Pirates, which should've become public information by now thanks to Janet, who still has connections with W.E.N.P.

"Ahh, man, I feel stronger than ever." Sad Diddy softly with a grin as he clenched his fist while lying on the roof of the fortress, gazing at the cloudy sky.

It's been about three days since my fight with those two Admirals, and finally, this morning, I fully healed, and along with that came an increase in my overall strength; even my haki has somewhat improved, though it wasn't comparable to the increase my raw strength received. I really wanted to test my strength out right about now, but I'll save that for later; for now, we've got a mission to do.

'Though since I've got nothing to do, I might as well train; just because I've defeated a few mere emperors doesn't mean I'm done growing stronger. I'm still a ways away from reaching my peak.' Thought Diddy lightly with a feral grin as he stood up and began training his haki, pushing his capabilities to the limit while sailing through the New World.

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Viewing Fishman Island from within Pandemonium, I faintly smirked as I saw Linlin's jolly roger, which claimed this island as her territory, not that it meant anything to me; I didn't give a fuck whose territory belonged to who, if I wanted to raid it, I would, simply as that. Grabbing my bo-staff, I holstered it onto my back and stood up, doing some stretching while exiting the lounge, which was quite empty right now, with only Grand being present.

"Where are you going, Captain?" Asked Grand curiously as he ate his food while glancing at Diddy, who pointed towards Fishman Island with his tail, though he merely tilted his head in confusion before looking at Pandy's coiled body.

"Fishman Island, I'm feeling a little bored and hungry; sushi doesn't sound so bad." Remarked Diddy lightly as he looked at Grand, who nodded before quickly finishing the rest of his plate and standing up.

"I'm tagging along!" Stated Grand with a smile as he followed behind Diddy, who shrugged his shoulders, indifferent to whether he joined or not.

Leaping up onto Pandy, I tapped his coiled body, prompting him to lift himself up, creating a gap big enough for Grand and I to use, while I outstretched my hand, creating an invisible shield of haki, preventing any water from entering while we exited out into the sea.

Floating in the ocean, Grand and I approached Fishman Island by swimming and running, respectively; forcefully entering through the bubble, I fell through the air before gracefully landing on the ground while Grand landed beside me like a freaking boulder, kicking up dust and rocks everywhere.

"Ok, so what are we doing here, Captain?" Asked Grand curiously as he exited from the ground, dusting himself clean while following behind Diddy.

"Like I said, I'm bored, so I figured why not; besides, I saw that the Strawhat pirates were here getting into some fun, so I thought I would see what was going on." Replied Diddy lightly as he and Grand ran through the forest, quickly reaching Fishman City.

"Eh, Strawhat pirates? I haven't heard about them in years; I thought they disbanded or something." Remarked Grand in surprise as he glanced at Diddy, only to subtly furrow his brows when he felt someone haki.

"Conqueror's Haki." Muttered Grand with furrowed brows as he gazed toward the massive crowd in the distance from where the haki originated.

"No, apparently not. Though, it seems Strawhat has learned to control his conqueror's haki." Said Diddy with a feral smirk as he and Grand approached the crowd.

Walking through the crowd, forcefully pushing everyone out of the way, when I emerged on the other side, I spotted every member of the Strawhat pirates, along with Jinbe and a weird skeleton I'd never seen before; anyway, they were facing off against that on Fishman who was commanding an army of roughly one-hundred thousand, though, after Luffy's burst of haki, he had cut that in half.

"Tsl, Hody Jones." Muttered Grand angrily as he cracked his fingers while eyeing Hody, who looked vastly different from what he remembered.

"Ah, yes, that's what his name was Hody. Anyways, since we're here, you might as well finish your battle; who knows, he might hurt Janet if you don't." Remarked Diddy with a snap of his fingers as he eyed Hody, only to faintly smirk as he looked at Grand, who grunted before leaping over the edge and landing into the shallow canyon.

With Grand entering the fray, he momentarily took the spotlight away from the Strawhats as he charged right for Hody, completely ignoring the tens of Fishman he trampled over as if they never even existed in the first place. Seeing how aggressively Hody reacted to Grand's presence, it seemed he vividly remembered him as he lunged toward Grand, but unlike last time, the battle was far from fair. While Hody has been stuck in Fishman, Grand has been experiencing the deadly waters of the New World and fighting against powerful pirates nearly every week for two years straight, having even acquired haki, granted only armament haki, but still, even without it, it was more than enough to completely manhandle Hody.

Hody was like a child before Grand, both in size and strength; it was entirely one-sided, at least until he suddenly consumed a whole bunch of pills, causing him to change even further as he rapidly grew stronger, yet even so, he was only able to put up a fight at most, one that he was clearly losing as well.

"Eh, this is embarrassing. Is this the idiot who said Fishman was superior to every other race? Even I'm getting secondhand embarrassment." Muttered Diddy with a slight frown as he watched as Grand destroyed Hody, beating him until he was utterly unrecognizable, only to end it with him punching his head clean off.

''Tsk, puny Fishman." Said Grand as he dropped Hody's headless corpse before spitting on him, causing the tens of thousands of Fishman, Usopp, Nami, and Chopper to fearfully gulp.

"Wait, is that Atlas of the Frenzy Pirates?" Muttered Jinbe with an unsightly look as he eyed Grand, who suddenly turned around while raising his hands into the air.

"Haha, Captain, that bastard Hody won't be touching Janet!" Said Grand with a large smile as he glanced at Diddy, his words causing everyone, whether it be the Strawhats, the army of Fishman, spectating Fishman, or royalty, to look at him.

"W-Wait, i-is that, E-Emperor of the Sea, C-Chaos Kong!?" Exclaimed a Fishman fearfully, his words echoing throughout the silent area as everyone quickly erupted into a frenzy from pure fear, causing Diddy to chuckle.

Chuckling at the chaos my mere presence was capable of causing, I flicked my hand towards one of the nearby Fishman, hitting him with lightning as it arced through the numerous Fishman, causing them to all fall unconscious one by one like dominoes.

"There, that's better; their screaming was quite annoying." Muttered Diddy lightly as he yawned while leaping over the edge, landing on the ground, causing Chopper, Nami, and Usopp to rapidly retreat in fear.

"How's it going, Shirahoshi? Is your brother doing well? You know, the one who lost his arm?" Asked Diddy curiously with a wicked smirk as he glanced at Shirahoshi, his words causing her to tremble in fear while Jinbe clenched his fist, hardening his gaze.

Chuckling at Shirahoshi, I glanced at Jinbe, only to see a fist heading right for my face; by all accounts, I could've easily dodged it, but I didn't bother.

"So you're the one who hurt him!?" Exclaimed Luffy angrily as he punched Diddy with his haki-clad fist before retracting his arm, his sudden action of attacking an emperor shocking everyone.

"Oi, Luffy, you do know that's an Emperor?" Asked Zoro with a twitching expression as he eyed Luffy, who stomped his foot.

"Don't care!" Replied Luffy as he raised his haki-clad leg into the air before violently slamming it atop Diddy.

"If luffy angers an Emperor, we will all die, but I'm already dead! Hohoho!" Stated Brook with laughter as he stood beside Robin, the two preparing for the inevitable battle.

"Alright, can you stop attacking now? Your attacks are too weak to harm me; you're just wasting your time." Asked Diddy blandly as he approached Luffy, who continued attacking him; his haki-clad punches merely bounced off his insanely tough body.

Even without using haki, Luffy's punches were too weak to harm me; hell, even Freyja has a tough time trying to harm me, and that's without using haki; whenever I do, I'm practically invincible to them.

'Of course, that's if she doesn't use her black flames; that stuff will burn right through my flesh. Only my haki can stop that.' Mused Diddy lightly as he glanced at Luffy, completely ignoring his attacks.