Chapter 18 — The Labyrinth Beneath the Storm
The cave was wide enough, but the deeper they walked, the darker and more damp it became.
After moving through the tunnel for a while, Shinji Ikari and his group discovered another underground passage branching ahead.
They stopped instinctively.
Without a word—
Eleven figures, dressed in the same clothes as Shinji's squad, stepped forward and entered the tunnel first.
The real Shinji, Koby, Helmeppo, and the others followed behind them at a careful distance.
Not too close.
Not too far.
Along the way, the passage was filled with traps.
But before Koby or Helmeppo even noticed them, Shinji had already neutralized them quietly.
All the while, he navigated using a compass in his hand.
"If this path truly leads to the eye of the storm," Shinji murmured,
"then we only need to follow the direction indicated by the compass."
He paused thoughtfully.
"There's nothing here interfering with magnetic fields. That's probably why there are four different entrances leading to the same place."
He thought briefly of Laugh Tale, the legendary final island of the Grand Line, which required four coordinates to determine its exact position.
But whoever built this underground maze clearly hadn't designed something that complicated.
Still—
The logic of the layout was similar.
After a while, torches began appearing on the cave walls.
But the air also grew thinner.
To avoid casting shadows that might reveal their position, Shinji and the others pressed themselves close to the walls as they moved forward.
Meanwhile—
The eleven figures in front continued walking stiffly through the tunnel.
Suddenly—
BANG!
A gunshot echoed through the cave.
The wooden figures instantly froze.
"Got them!"
A pirate's voice shouted.
"Boss, these Marines actually dared to come here!"
"They're asking to die!"
"But how did they find this place?"
"Our pirate ship must have been discovered!"
Another pirate laughed.
"Doesn't matter! Once we get the Storm Shell, a single storm will smash their warships and drown them all!"
Then someone shouted in confusion.
"Boss! These… these are wooden figures!"
"What?!"
The pirates rushed forward.
Soon the sounds of swords clashing filled the tunnel.
Around the corner—
Shinji and his team quietly stepped back.
More screams followed.
"Boss! The passage behind us disappeared!"
"Did we just see a ghost?!"
"What?! The road really vanished!"
"No… the wall turned into a stone man!"
"Help! Something evil is here!"
The pirates began attacking wildly.
Stone figures emerged endlessly from the cave walls.
The terrified pirates slashed and shot at them in panic.
Ten minutes passed.
The wooden figures suddenly began moving again.
"Freeze!"
A sharp voice echoed through the tunnel.
It was Lola the Fixer.
He repeatedly used his Devil Fruit ability to immobilize the wooden and stone figures.
Behind the wall, Shinji's group waited silently.
Shinji stretched out his hands.
Through the faint connection of his life force, he could sense everything happening on the other side of the cave.
"They can freeze people or objects for about ten minutes," he whispered.
"The wooden figures are destroyed, and the stone figures keep appearing."
"So they're still fighting."
Everyone nodded.
They trusted Shinji's judgment completely.
The truth was simple.
Earlier in the forest, Shinji had cut down a tree into eleven wooden mannequins.
After dressing them in Marine uniforms, he sent them ahead as decoys.
The vitality he gave them was minimal.
They could only move slowly and stiffly.
When the pirates encountered them—
They believed they had discovered Shinji's squad.
Meanwhile, Shinji had also infused vitality into the cave walls.
This allowed him to reshape the stone and seal passages behind the pirates.
Then he created crude stone figures to attack them.
The stone men were weak.
Their only purpose was to drain the pirates' stamina.
Shinji smiled faintly.
"You look panicked," he whispered.
"Aren't you a Devil Fruit user?"
"Well… so am I."
The Marines around him laughed quietly.
They had worried Shinji might face danger.
But now they realized how terrifying his ability truly was.
His Devil Fruit could animate wood, stone, and even the cave itself.
Until now, they had only seen its healing properties.
None of them had imagined it could do this.
However, Shinji's expression grew serious again.
"Using my Devil Fruit like this drains energy too quickly."
"So we need to move fast."
"The pirates have already begun retreating through the other three passages."
He paused.
"I suspect they've already obtained the Storm Shell."
"So if you see Lola…"
"Don't fight him directly."
Everyone nodded immediately.
Shinji stepped forward.
The cave wall in front of him flowed like water.
The vitality he had given the stone returned to his body.
Broken stone figures littered the ground.
Most had been smashed by bullets.
Farther ahead—
Fragments of wooden mannequins were scattered everywhere.
As Shinji advanced, the life force returned to him piece by piece.
Suddenly—
BANG!
Gunshots rang out again.
More than twenty pirates charged forward at once.
It seemed Lola had decided to abandon the fight and escape.
But three tunnels lay ahead.
No one knew which path he had taken.
If they guessed wrong—
He could easily slip into the crowds outside and disappear.
In the center of the chamber stood a stone platform about waist-high.
At its center was a hollow opening.
From it, wind carrying the scent of the sea blew continuously.
Is this connected to the surface? Shinji wondered.
He looked up.
The ceiling contained large openings shaped like enormous shells.
They were about the size of a human head.
It almost looked like a gigantic shellfish.
Could such a shell absorb sea wind continuously for years—
And release it once every three years?
Shinji searched the chamber for answers.
But nothing explained why the Storm Shell had been placed here.
Perhaps the real clue—
Was still with Lola.
And that man was escaping right now.
"Move!" Shinji shouted.
He cut down several pirates and stepped over their bodies.
"Koby! Helmeppo!"
"You each take four men."
"I'll go alone."
From this moment on—
No one was allowed to turn off their Den Den Mushi.
They would remain in constant contact.
"If you encounter Lola, don't fight him."
"Retreat immediately."
"I'll get there as fast as possible."
Shinji grabbed an extra Den Den Mushi from a pirate.
Now he could communicate with both squads at once.
Then—
He infused life force into several pirate corpses.
The bodies staggered upright.
Under his command, they began moving toward two of the tunnels.
"Captain Shinji… be careful!" Jack shouted.
Shinji nodded.
"You all stay safe too."
Then he dashed into the final passage.
Ten minutes later—
Both Den Den Mushi suddenly rang at the same time.
"Koby reporting!" came the first voice.
"We've encountered Joel the Death Leg, the vice-captain of the Lola Pirates!"
"Battle about to begin! Awaiting orders!"
Another voice followed.
"This is Helmeppo!"
"Damn it—it hurts!"
"My opponent is Sharp Knife Jack, their main fighter!"
"We're engaging!"
"Begin the battle," Shinji ordered immediately.
He pressed his palm against the cave wall.
Slowly—
The stone at the end of the tunnel began to change under his influence.
Shinji poured life force into the path ahead.
Either he would walk out alive—
Or he would bury the enemy here with him.
Ahead in the darkness—
A man carrying a strange shell slowly turned around.
A pirate worth hundreds of millions of Berries.
A Devil Fruit user feared across the seas.
And the one holding the secret of the storm.
Lola the Fixer.
(End of Chapter)
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