Chapter 536: Pluton
The interior of Pluton was spotless.
No trace of eight hundred years of burial. The corridors were full metal construction with a precision that felt ahead of its time, and the lighting that had come on when Brett entered cast everything in clean, bright clarity - the kind that made the whole ship feel less like an ancient relic and more like something that hadn't finished being built yet.
But what genuinely surprised him was the voice.
"Someone's talking?" Yamato had followed Brett inside and was spinning in place, eyes wide, searching every corner. "Is there actually someone who's been living in here for eight hundred years?"
"No. Please don't misunderstand." The voice was patient, untroubled. "Strictly speaking, I am the ship."
Yamato's jaw dropped.
That was somehow more shocking than finding a living person would have been. At least a person made sense. What did it even mean to be the ship?
"Pluton is alive?" She turned to Brett. "It looks like a machine, but it's actually a living creature?"
"He already said he's not a living creature." Brett's mouth twitched. "Did you hear none of that?"
"Then what is this? Who is talking?"
Yamato grabbed her own hair with both hands.
"Pluton isn't an ordinary warship." Brett's expression settled into something that was almost appreciative. He addressed the air directly. "Pluton - I can call you that?"
"Of course, sir." The voice returned without hesitation. "My radar has already detected Zunesha's presence. His arrival to open this country means the appointed time has come."
"You must be the successor Joy Boy was waiting for. I will assist you in winning the final war."
"Oh!" Yamato's eyes lit up. She didn't fully understand what was happening, but the feeling coming off of it was unmistakably impressive.
"Please proceed down the corridor. I'll be waiting for you in the central control room."
An arrow appeared on the wall beside them, pointing the way forward.
Brett wasn't surprised. He followed it.
Two turns and a heavy metal door - already standing open - and they walked into a large, circular room. The walls were covered floor to ceiling in screens of varying sizes, all dark. In the center of the room stood a glass column with the faint outlines of mechanical components visible inside.
The moment the two of them entered, the glass column began to glow softly. A figure took shape in the middle of the room.
It was a tall man in a fitted suit with a distinctly technical look to it, and his face was animated and expressive in a way that made it difficult to immediately register him as something other than real. The only thing that gave it away was the translucency - the faint shimmer that told you the figure wasn't solid.
Even having read Joy Boy's message and understood that Pluton was something unusual, the level of sophistication was still difficult to fully accept. Apart from the lack of a physical body, it was, for all practical purposes, a person.
The Bircan scientists had built something extraordinary.
"Welcome, both of you." The figure came forward, wearing a calm and genuine smile. "You may call me Pluton. As you can see, I am this ship's embodiment - the product of Bircan artificial intelligence combined with the spirit that formed within this vessel over its years at sea."
"A ship's spirit?" Brett stopped at that. Joy Boy hadn't mentioned it. He let out a quiet sound of recognition. "You had a remarkable captain, then."
Pluton's expression shifted into something quieter. He gave a slow nod.
"Joy Boy was the finest captain I ever knew. If I could have stayed at sea with him forever, I would have."
A ship's spirit only formed aboard vessels that were truly cared for by their crew.
"So I waited. For whoever Joy Boy was waiting for."
The projection looked at Brett steadily. At least, the figure looked at Brett steadily.
"At last, you're here."
"I'm glad to have you," Brett said. "You know as well as anyone what we're up against. Eight hundred years have passed, and Imu and the forces behind him have only grown stronger."
"That was always foreseeable." Pluton nodded. "But I think you've been preparing as well, haven't you?"
Brett's mouth curved. "The second Pluton is nearly finished. And we've recovered Uranus."
For something that was, technically, a ship, the smile Pluton produced was startling in its warmth.
"Then our odds are already very good."
"Lend us your strength," Brett said simply.
"Of course." The ancient weapon's voice carried complete certainty. "This moment is exactly what I have been waiting for."
Brett let the smile settle on his face.
With this eight-hundred-year-old warship added to what they had, the balance had shifted considerably in their favor.
"And me." Yamato stepped forward, looking directly at Brett. "Me and all of Wano. We'll be there too, Brett."
"You came to help us once. Now it's our turn."
Brett gave a firm nod. "Agreed."
He hadn't been counting carefully, but the strength he'd managed to gather had grown into something genuinely formidable.
"That said." He looked at Yamato. "We should head back."
"Already?" Yamato's disappointment was visible. "The country just opened. I was going to hold a proper feast for you."
"You said it yourself - the country just opened. You have things to handle. A feast can wait."
Brett smiled. "And I need to get Pluton back with me. Also - if Wano is going to join this fight, it's time to start mobilizing. We're not as far from the end as we were."
The war was close now. Genuinely close.