Chapter 531: Pirates and Marines
To avoid causing a scene, Uranus never made it to Fish-Man Island proper. Brett had guided the ancient dragon deep into the Sea Forest instead, to a stretch of water close to Vegapunk's laboratory.
Even so, the sight of it was enough to leave more than a few people speechless.
"Oh, oh, oh, oh! So this is the King of the Heavens?"
Among them was a certain old man who, by all rights, should have been busy with the Seraphim project.
"This is what the Birkans created with their lineage factor technology?"
He was white-haired and missing a good chunk of his skull, but Vegapunk moved like a man half his age. He scrambled up Uranus's body with the enthusiasm of a child let loose in a theme park, prodding here, peering there, marveling at everything his hands could reach.
"Incredible. Truly incredible. Was this creature the original inspiration for Zoan-type Devil Fruits? Just looking at it, you can feel the power coiled inside. Extraordinary!"
Vegapunk was beside himself.
It wasn't hard to understand why. The three ancient weapons were not natural phenomena - they were all products of science. Even Poseidon, the most organic of the three, owed her power to command Sea Kings to Bircan technological enhancement. Pluton and Uranus were another matter entirely; both had been designed and built by Bircan scientists from the ground up.
The difference was in their nature. Pluton was the pinnacle of mechanical engineering. Uranus was the pinnacle of biological science.
Uranus had been engineered using lineage factors - the most powerful artificial lifeform the Bircan scientists ever created. Joy Boy himself had regarded it as the prototype from which all Zoan-type Devil Fruits were later conceived. The first of the mythical beasts.
"Full of energy, isn't it," Shanks said, watching Vegapunk clamber around with an amused grin. "I always imagined Dr. Vegapunk would be more... serious."
"You couldn't be more wrong," Brett said.
Serious was about the last word anyone who knew the old man would use.
"You've raised Uranus well, Shanks!"
Another voice joined them. Shanks turned, surprised and delighted.
"Rayleigh! It's been a while."
Rayleigh and Shakky came strolling around the bend in the coral thickets, both of them smiling warmly. Brett had arranged for them to stay here as well.
"Aoooh!"
Uranus noticed Rayleigh immediately. The dragon let out a happy cry and swung its enormous head toward him, apparently intent on rubbing up against the old man like an oversized cat.
"Whoa, whoa - Uranus, you're not a hatchling anymore."
Rayleigh threw both hands up and pressed firmly against the dragon's snout, holding it back. A several-hundred-meter creature nuzzling against you like a puppy was more than even he wanted to deal with.
"Aooo..."
The massive beast looked genuinely put out.
"Ha, Uranus." Shanks walked over, laughing, and gave one of the dragon's enormous claws a pat. "You can't play with Rayleigh the way you did when you were small. You'd flatten him."
"Uuu..."
Uranus let out a low, mournful sound, every bit as pitiful as a dog denied a treat.
"There, there. Good boy."
Shakky stepped forward and ran her hand along the dragon's scales with the easy fondness of a grandmother with a favorite grandchild. Uranus leaned into it contentedly.
Brett watched the scene with a tilted head. "You and Shakky seem to be on pretty good terms with Uranus."
"Of course," Shakky said pleasantly. "I watched this one hatch out of its egg. Calling him my child wouldn't exactly be an exaggeration."
As if on cue, Uranus extended his enormous tongue and gave Shakky a long, enthusiastic lick from chin to hairline.
"Oh, you - I told you not to do that." Shakky smiled and raised her right hand.
"UUU!"
The enormous dragon immediately dropped flat, covered its head with both forelimbs, and began to tremble.
Brett's mouth twitched. Whatever Shakky had done to Uranus in his early years, the dragon had clearly not forgotten a single lesson.
"That was the last time we saw each other, wasn't it?" Rayleigh said, looking over at Shanks. "When you came back from the East Blue."
That was when he had entrusted the young Uranus to Shanks's care. Nearly ten years had passed since then. The dragon had grown.
"Seeing you in good health is enough for me," Shanks said, and his smile carried the warmth of someone looking at a man who had watched him grow up.
"Though it is a shame..."
Rayleigh trailed off. Shanks understood at once.
"Yes," Shanks agreed quietly. "A shame. Too late now."
The One Piece had already been found. The final war was almost upon them.
Luffy - looks like you won't make it in time after all.
A real pity. The boy had set his sights on the Pirate King's throne before he'd even had a chance to set sail, and now the goal itself had already vanished.
"Room for a couple more in this reunion?"
Everyone looked over.
It was Ryokugyu. He had no personal history with Shanks or Rayleigh, but that didn't stop him from wandering over with his easy grin.
"The Dark King Rayleigh and Red Hair Shanks. Now there's a pair of legends."
"Ha - you must be Admiral Ryokugyu." Rayleigh took to him immediately, greeting him like an old acquaintance. "You really are a monster, aren't you. I can tell just standing near you."
Shakky pressed her lips together at that.
"Ha ha, I'd never say something like that in front of you two," Ryokugyu said, waving it off. He turned toward Uranus, who was still sprawled across the sea floor, and studied the dragon with open curiosity. "So this is..."
He didn't know Uranus by sight, but nothing about that stopped him from recognizing what kind of power was lying in front of him.
"Already grown this large?"
The calm voice belonged to Vice Admiral Garp, arriving alongside Vice Admiral Tsuru. Behind them came Kizaru, Fujitora, Momousagi, and Chaton.
The Chief of Staff of the Marines studied Uranus carefully, then shifted her gaze to Rayleigh. "You actually went through with it. You hatched it."
"Wasn't it the right call?" Brett said with a smile. "If not for Roger, Rayleigh, and Shanks, the situation we'd be facing today would look quite different. We wouldn't just be up against that ultimate weapon - we'd have Uranus working against us as well."
Tsuru said nothing for a moment.
She had spent decades on the other side of the line from Roger. Even so, she could not deny it - at God Valley, more than thirty years ago, Roger had done something that mattered.
"You old mad dog." Rayleigh raised a hand cheerfully toward Garp. "I never thought the day would come when we'd fight side by side again."
"Circumstances are what they are," Garp said, unbothered.
It wasn't as though they hadn't already cooperated before.
"Uranus..."
Fujitora couldn't see. He perceived the dragon's presence entirely through Observation Haki, and perhaps because of that, he understood its power more clearly than anyone else standing there. A smile crossed his face despite himself.
"With this much strength gathered in one place... victory might not be as distant as it once seemed."
"It's closer than that," Brett said. "As long as we stand together, this war..."
"We will win it."
For a moment, something flickered across every face present. Something that looked almost like certainty.
Pirates and Marines, standing at ease with one another.
Because from here on, they would be fighting as one.