The sudden appearance of Rayleigh, Gaban, and Sol left Jinbe utterly stunned.
He simply couldn't imagine how the Marines had managed to capture and imprison three of the legendary pirates from the Roger Pirates.
"…It's my fault."
Sol let out a heavy sigh, his eyes dark and sunken beneath the dim light.
He extended his right hand, gripping tightly at the frayed, striped pants leg over his severed limb. His teeth clenched with frustration.
"I used to be the fastest one of us… and now I'm just a worthless cripple holding everyone back. If it weren't for me—"
"Shut up, you damn dwarf."
Gaban cut in bluntly, his voice sharp. Instinctively, he reached for his pipe—but his hand came up empty.
Everything had been confiscated when they were thrown in prison. All they had left were the standard-issue prison uniforms.
Realizing the pipe wasn't there, Gaban quietly lowered his hand and turned to the self-recriminating Sol.
"Bullet's powers have awakened. In that situation, none of us could've escaped."
"Don't give me that bullshit," Sol snapped back, stubbornly taking all the blame upon himself.
Gaban shifted his arm slightly, and the movement pulled at the chains binding him, sending a sharp clattering echo through the cell.
Sol eyed the swaying chains warily and glared at Gaban. "You bastard… You're not seriously thinking about hitting me, are you?"
"Oh? So you noticed."
Gaban smirked, deliberately jostling the chains a few more times, making them rattle noisily.
"I'm just admitting fault! I didn't ask for a beating from your bald-headed ass!"
"Then shut up and stay that way, you damn shorty."
Gaban shot him a glare.
Sol knew he was in the wrong and finally held his tongue.
Jinbe stood there sweating nervously as he watched the back-and-forth bickering. His gaze then shifted to Rayleigh.
Rayleigh offered a helpless shrug. "That's just how they are. Sure, they argue, but it's not all the time. You'll get used to it."
"…"
Jinbe was speechless.
"Not that we'll have many more days to argue anyway," Sol muttered without expression. His eyes fell on Jinbe, who was sitting cross-legged in the corner of the cell.
"It won't be long before the Marines execute me."
"Don't say stupid things."
Gaban frowned and glared at him.
Rayleigh remained silent, his eyes fixed on Sol.
"Grudges and hatred… Once they're born, they don't just vanish. Not that easily."
Sol met the gaze of his two old crewmates. His face was calm, almost detached, as if discussing something mundane—rather than his own death.
"Sunny has found her own path. As for me… I've lived long enough. If I have any regrets, it's that I won't get to read the papers about that damn brat anymore. Lately, he's been hogging all the headlines."
"Now that I think about it… maybe the brat somehow knew I was about to get in trouble and pushed all those headlines early just for me. Hah…"
He suddenly recalled the moment at Marineford, when Garp had his arm sliced clean off by a single strike from Maude.
But what truly haunted him—was that shot back in Mad Hat Town. The one Maude had fired to save him. Naïve… and brilliant.
"Rayleigh, Gaban."
Sol's smile faded, and he looked at them with a fierce gleam in his eye.
"I don't care what happens to me—but you two had better not die in this damn place."
...
Somewhere in the skies over the New World.
The Thriller Bark drifted slowly on the wind.
Ever since the 500 zombie laborers created by Maude had been put to work, the reconstruction efforts aboard the ship had progressed at an impressive pace.
With the undead now handling the heavy lifting, Bepo and the rest of the crew who once worked as manual laborers were finally free.
Castle. Laboratory.
A room built from bluish stone bricks radiated a faint chill.
At the center stood a large platform.
Blackbeard's corpse lay motionless atop it.
Nearby, Law scribbled in a notebook, his eyes scanning and recording each detail with focus.
Maude was in the room as well, standing a short distance away so as not to disturb Law's work.
The only sound was the rapid scratching of pen on paper.
Eventually, Law exhaled, closing the notebook and placing it gently on the workbench.
Maude glanced at the notebook and asked, "Looks like the 'Chimera Project' isn't going as smoothly as we hoped."
"Yeah. Since it deals directly with the human body, we need thorough groundwork before we even attempt implementation."
Law took a deep breath and extended his fingers, activating his ROOM and casting it over Blackbeard's corpse.
Watching Law immediately dive back into his work, Maude smiled faintly. "I'll leave you to it."
With that, he turned and quietly left the lab.
"If the Chimera Surgery works… then counting weapon augmentations, I could wield the powers of at least five Devil Fruits at once."
Maude walked leisurely through the stone corridor, mulling over the uncertain timeline of the Chimera operation.
Even if his Hunter's Notebook started to yield diminishing returns, successfully executing the Chimera plan would still allow his four nine-star stats to climb even higher.
Before long, he reached his room at the top of the castle.
He shut the door behind him, crossed the hall, and stepped out onto the balcony.
From there, he looked down at the training plaza below.
At the center of the plaza, Jim and Ulti—both in their full dinosaur forms—were locked in brutal combat. Every move they exchanged bristled with murderous intent.
Around the edge of the plaza, Maude's crew watched the duel with keen interest.
Leaning on the balcony railing, Maude muttered to himself, "Jim's ability is only seven-star. By all rights, he should be getting steamrolled by Ulti's nine-star power."
He watched Jim closely.
Despite being clearly outmatched, Jim showed no signs of backing down or losing ground.
"Ancient Zoans really are built different."
His gaze settled on Jim's transformed body—now a hulking Triceratops.
Thanks to the natural defense of the Triceratops and the exceptional endurance unique to Ancient Zoans, Jim had managed to drag out what should've been a one-sided fight into a grueling stalemate.
No wonder Kaido had put so much faith in his Beast Army.
"Show me what you're really worth, Ulti."
Maude cast one final glance at her.
Having Ulti as Jim's sparring partner was a perfect match.
So much so that temporarily returning her shadow didn't seem like a bad trade-off.
Unfortunately, Ulti—stubborn as ever—was hell-bent on taking Jim down for real.
But Jim, having grown through countless brutal battles, wasn't going to fall to a headbutt anytime soon.
Maude stepped away from the balcony, returned to the room, and sat down on the couch—still thinking about the Chimera procedure.
Creak—
At that moment, Lafitte pushed open the door.
"Maude."
When they were alone, Lafitte always addressed him by name.
Maude looked over and gestured to the couch across from him. "Sit."
"Heh heh."
Lafitte chuckled softly and sat down, placing a few items on the table between them.
Two Eternal Poses, and a weathered map with several torn edges.
Maude glanced at the items Lafitte had laid out.
As the navigator of the crew, Lafitte managed all the tools that determined their course. Taking them out now could only mean one thing—it was time for the captain to decide their next destination.
Maude reached over and picked up the worn, yellowed map.
It was a rough sketch of an island's terrain.
But at the center of the island, a bright red "X" stood out clearly, and in the top-right corner of the parchment was a symbol pirates loved to see on maps—a skull and crossbones.
Clearly, this was a classic treasure map.
Maude gently ran his fingers across it.
This treasure map, along with the Eternal Pose attached to it, had been a gift from the skies—blown onto their ship by a raging storm when they first entered the Grand Line.
And a treasure map, more often than not, meant the promise of unknown riches.
Of course, it could also mean nothing more than a pile of empty chests—or a series of perilous, unpredictable dangers.
When he'd first acquired the map, Maude had planned to check out the location marked on it after they upgraded their ship. If luck was on their side, they might discover a hoard of treasure at the destination.
But although the ship was eventually replaced, Maude's focus had shifted toward strengthening himself. And since they weren't exactly short on money, the idea of hunting treasure was quietly shelved.
As time went on, it simply faded from memory.
That is, until today—when Lafitte brought out the map and Eternal Pose again, stirring old thoughts.
"Lafitte, if you hadn't pulled that out, I'd have completely forgotten about it."
"Hoho, at the current pace of modifications to the Thriller Bark, we may soon need a large supply of gold. And the older a treasure map is, the more likely it points to a stash of ancient gold."
Lafitte offered a calm explanation as he picked up another Eternal Pose.
"I remember you mentioned that the sky island ten thousand meters above Jaya is said to be filled with ready-to-take gold. Unfortunately, we don't have an Eternal Pose to that sky island... but we do have one for Urouge's homeland."
As he said this, Lafitte handed the Eternal Pose for Urouge's homeland to Maude.
Maude set the treasure map aside and accepted the Eternal Pose.
Inside the transparent glass sphere, the needle was perfectly still, pointing unwaveringly in one direction.
Lafitte looked at Maude and continued, "Urouge's homeland is located on one of the sky islands. If we can reach it, we're guaranteed to find a way to the actual 'destination.'"
"True enough."
Maude nodded thoughtfully.
It was because the Thriller Bark's renovation project required a massive amount of gold that Lafitte had brought out the two Eternal Poses.
Staring at the one in his hand, Maude asked, "Which destination is farther?"
"The sky island," Lafitte answered instantly.
Judging by the vibrations of the needle, the location marked on the treasure map was likely somewhere in the New World. In contrast, Urouge's sky island homeland lay in the first half of the Grand Line, on the other side of the Red Line.
"I see…"
Maude fell silent, weighing his options.
The treasure map's destination was closer, but there was no guarantee it would yield anything.
The sky island was much farther—but if they could make it there, the gold was as good as guaranteed.
Should they test their luck with the nearby site or make the long journey straight to the sky island?
While Maude pondered, Lafitte pulled out a photograph from his coat and gently laid it on the table.
Maude noticed the gesture and glanced down at the photo.
It showed a tall man with pale green hair, dressed in a flamboyant pink suit. Every part of him that could wear jewelry—ears, neck, wrists—was decked out in gold.
"Who's this?"
Maude raised an eyebrow and looked up at Lafitte.
Lafitte promptly introduced the man in the photo.
"This is Gild Tesoro, known as the 'Golden Emperor' and king of the world's largest entertainment city, Gran Tesoro. He's also the user of the Gol-Gol Fruit."
Ever since Maude had brought up the Thriller Bark renovation plan, Lafitte—as their navigator—had taken it to heart.
And once he'd learned that the latter stages of the renovation would require an immense amount of gold, he had started preparing.
Gran Tesoro, a massive ship made entirely of gold, and Gild Tesoro himself, the Golden Emperor—these were two of the most promising leads he'd uncovered for securing large quantities of gold.
"The Golden Emperor, huh…"
Maude rubbed his chin. From what he remembered of the original timeline, this guy hadn't shown up at all.
But judging by Lafitte's brief description, that title alone—along with the Gol-Gol Fruit—was more than enough to pique Maude's interest.
In other words, if they could somehow get their hands on the Gol-Gol Fruit, it would drastically reduce the difficulty of modifying the Thriller Bark.
Seeing that Maude was unfamiliar with Gild Tesoro, Lafitte continued his explanation:
"Gran Tesoro was originally named the Gild Tesoro. Though it's referred to as the world's largest entertainment city, it's actually a giant ship made entirely out of gold."
"Oh?"
Maude looked genuinely intrigued.
A massive ship made of gold… it reminded him of Enel's ark.
That one had been built with gold too, though it hardly qualified as massive.
"If we want a quick way to get a large amount of gold, raiding the Gild Tesoro isn't the worst idea. That is, of course, assuming we can find where that elusive ship is hiding."
Lafitte laid out the three paths in front of Maude.
The most difficult: locating the ever-drifting Gild Tesoro.
The most reliable: traveling to Urouge's homeland and then navigating to the golden sky island.
The most luck-based: heading straight for the treasure map's location.
Maude lowered his eyes, deep in thought. But it didn't take long for him to make a decision.
"Let's try our luck at the treasure site first."
He was never the type to ignore what was close in favor of what was far off. So naturally, he chose the nearest destination.
Even if the journey turned out to be a bust, they could always return to the first half of the Grand Line and head for the sky island afterward.
It wouldn't exactly be a shortcut, but it wouldn't be too far out of the way either.
"Understood."
Seeing that Maude had decided, Lafitte immediately picked up the Eternal Pose pointing to the treasure site.
After considerable practice, Lafitte had more or less mastered the art of piloting an airship.
Though his ability to read and respond to weather conditions still needed improvement, he was confident he could take the crew anywhere they needed to go.
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