"By the time Dimon and Toki stepped out of the cabin, Roger and the others were already cutting down a storm of incoming shells. Far off, on the Marine warship, Garp was hurling cannonballs by hand, turning the sky into iron rain.
"Hahahaha! Surrender, Roger!" Garp's voice rolled across the sea.
A shell arrowed toward Dimon. He drew, sent a clean crescent of sword aura, and split it midair.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"After we entered the New World, we 'happened' to meet Garp," Jabba grunted, two axes flashing as he batted shells aside. "He's been chasing us ever since. A full month."
Roger swept Divine Departure across the heavens—inky-black sword aura scythed the barrage from the sky and kept going, hurtling straight for the warship.
Garp met it head-on.
"Fist Bone: Impact!"
His crimson fist detonated like a second sun, colliding with the slash and birthing an explosion that scooped a crater hundreds of meters wide out of the ocean. Water geysered skyward, then fell back as a roaring rain.
"I'll handle this," Dimon said, stepping forward. He raised his left hand, palm to the heavens.
Age-Age Fruit—engage.
Twisted Future: The Gravitational Man.
A trick from the future Admiral Fujitora.
Concentric violet rings bloomed from his palm, streaked upward—and tugged a meteor out of the sky.
On the Marine deck, one sailor after another realized something was very, very wrong.
A flaming boulder punched through the steam cloud and came screaming down.
"V-Vice Admiral Garp!"
"Above us! Above—METEOR!"
"Why is there a meteor!?"
Panic spiked. That killing weight blotted out the sun; despair followed in its shadow.
"What in the—?" Garp's eyes narrowed. Not natural. A Devil Fruit. They'd clashed plenty over the past month, but this hadn't shown up.
He didn't have time to think it through. He vaulted high, driving his Conqueror's coating around his fist and smashed it into the meteor's face.
The rock burst apart: a blizzard of fire-trails fanned outward—straight over the warship.
"Returning the favor," Dimon smiled. "You rain cannonballs, I rain meteorites. Let's call it even."
He lifted a hand in a cheery little wave at Garp still suspended midair.
"You," Garp barked, recognizing him. "Dimon!"
Second meeting. The last time had been a decade ago in the Sabaody Archipelago.
"None of you are getting away!"
Garp stepped off the air itself and blasted toward the Oro Jackson.
Dimon, unbothered, yanked another rock from the exosphere. "Still got time to chase us? How about one more?"
Another star fell.
"Again—?! Is that thing bottomless?!" Garp swore, forcing a right-angle turn midair and tearing skyward to intercept the second meteor.
The helmsman seized the opening, threw the wheel, and gunned for speed.
"Hahaha! Nice work, Dimon—you should've seen Garp's face!" Roger howled, delighted. Old rivals, old rhythm—half enemy, half friend.
Rayleigh watched the Marines scramble under a meteor shower and chuckled. "Dimon, what is that ability?"
"Just a party trick." Useful technique; damage, not so much against monsters like Garp—one punch per pebble. Low damage, high humiliation.
They had a final island to find. No time to play "pirates and policemen" with Garp.
"So strong…" Toki breathed. This entire crew was ridiculous.
They shook the tail and sailed on. Toki chose not to trouble them by diverting course; she'd ride with them and return to Wano on the way back with Dimon.
The search itself was… fun. Different from the original line, there was no ticking clock—Roger wasn't dying, so urgency gave way to adventure.
Two weeks later, they reached the coordinates—only to find no island.
Jabba held up the three Log Pose needles. All three spun, jittering without a fixed pull.
"It's either under the sea or in the sky. The coordinates are right," Jabba said.
Everyone agreed. Roger chose to check below first.
They returned to Mercury's Fairy Isle, and Rayleigh pulled out the coating gear.
A week later the bubbles gleamed. They dove.
Darkness swallowed them past a few hundred meters. Spencer, their intel officer, cracked open sky-island Dial lamps, and their pale glow pushed the black back just enough to creep forward.
They found nothing.
"Then it's in the sky," Roger said, abandoning the deep.
Days later, they found a Knock-Up Stream. The Oro Jackson rode the pillar like an arrow.
7,000 meters—the White Sea.
10,000 meters—the White-White Sea.
Over a month from start to finish, and then—
a world of white cloud, and there, at last, the final island.
They set foot on it. Faces went still. The captain walked ahead, studied Laugh Tale, and after a long silence… began to laugh.
One by one, they joined him—laughing until tears came.
Only Dimon and Toki stayed quiet.
Dimon because—Haki尾, you rascal… So that's the treasure? Of course no one guessed.
Toki because she simply didn't understand.
"Looks like we came too early," Roger said. "Joy Boy never imagined someone would get here ahead of schedule."
"Hahahahaha!"
He threw his head back. "It's a joke—so let's name it 'Laugh Tale'!"
And so the name was born.
Fine, Dimon thought. Punching a timestamp into legend isn't bad.
"Since we're early, why don't we store an Eternal Pose?" Dimon suggested.
No one objected. Even Roger nodded.
"Thirty years, huh?" Roger rubbed his chin, grin crooked. "I'll be seventy-seven by then. Guess this age isn't mine."
Rayleigh smiled. "If Shakky hadn't stolen your Devil Fruits, you'd be immortal already."
"We'll find more when we're back. But…" Roger stroked the beard starting to grow, lips quirking. "Maybe I'll have a child—and let him eat that legendary Fruit. The timing might be perfect."
…Wait. Something's off.
The thought hit Dimon like a slap.
Roger had reached Laugh Tale early. He was not sick. Sooner or later, he'd bring Fruits to Dimon, trade for Wine, and become an immortal himself.
If his life never reached its end, he wouldn't turn himself in.
If he didn't surrender, there'd be no public execution…
Then who would ignite the Great Pirate Era?
This time, history wouldn't just be nudged—
—it would be broken.
And somewhere below the cloud sea, a Den Den Mushi began to ring—its tone the same one that echoed on scaffolds in another world, another year…
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