Hachimangu Square had been blazing under a bright, cloudless sun only moments ago.
Now it was pitch black.
A darkness like the end of the world dropped over the entire area in an instant, and the crowd exploded into chaos. Screams and panicked shouts rose from every direction as people crashed into stalls, tripped over rubble, and clawed at one another just to find a way out.
Even the so called elites on the rooftops turned pale. The moment the light vanished, their expressions twisted as if they had remembered something they never wanted to remember.
"Yohoho. Sorry," Brook said lightly. "I just happened to cover the area your seeds reached. This level of control good enough?"
His Dark Dark Fruit had been developed beyond even Rocks. Covering a small or medium sized island was no longer difficult for him, so swallowing up the entire Hachimangu district was effortless.
Then a terrifying surge of Haki erupted.
Red lightning ripped through the air in every direction. The stones of the arena cracked at once, spiderwebs spreading across the ground, and the screaming crowd dropped like wheat before a scythe.
One by one.
Dozens, hundreds.
In only a few breaths, the square that had been roaring with noise became eerily quiet.
Only a handful of tougher figures remained standing, trembling so hard their knees knocked. Some stared at the masked man on the arena as if looking at a nightmare that had walked into the waking world.
Yet among the pirates, there were also eyes burning with fanatic worship.
Their idol was right there, in front of them.
Aramaki was drenched in sweat.
This Conqueror's Haki was suffocating, and the Dark Dark Fruit's oppression made even his Forest Fruit feel unstable, like it could collapse at any moment.
Dark matter churned across the sky and ground, bubbling like a living sea. Buildings vanished into it one after another, swallowed without a sound. Roots and vines that had been specially nurtured and scattered all over the district were erased as well.
Aramaki felt it clearly.
Seed clones were losing contact, one after another.
Even the roots beneath him began slipping out of his control.
Mihawk, already mostly healed, frowned as he watched the blackness creeping around his boots. A faint suction tugged at him, like the ground wanted to drag him into another space.
If I were a Devil Fruit user, it would be worse.
And Brook hasn't even attacked me.
Across from him, Aramaki's body had merged into forest and spread across the ground. He forced trees to shoot upward, trying to rise above the strange darkness.
But the dark matter kept devouring his roots.
Every time it swallowed another section, his height dropped, his control weakened, and his sense of doom grew sharper.
"Vice Admiral Aramaki! The Den Den Mushi has lost its signal too!"
A Marine shouted in fear. They had completely lost contact with Headquarters. No reinforcements. No orders. No help.
Den Den Mushi could be monitored and manipulated by Antonio, and for now the World Government and the Navy had no replacement. They could only keep using them and pray.
They had begun cultivating a stronger, anti interception variant, a single line Den Den Mushi like a walkie talkie that only recognized one frequency.
But that future was not going to save them today.
"Yohoho. Vice Admiral Aramaki," Brook said, "don't you see your situation clearly?"
He picked up Fushato, spun it in a casual sword flourish, then tossed it behind him to the Shipping King Umit. A famous blade at this level no longer meant anything to Brook.
Aramaki clenched his fists.
"Dark Dark Fruit… Pirate Overlord Brook… you came in person!"
His mind raced in frustration. He had only just completed several missions. And now he had collided with the biggest monster on the seas.
Was Brook here because of Mihawk?
Or had Aramaki's movements been exposed, forcing Brook to act personally?
But was he really important enough to make Brook enter the Grand Line himself?
Brook's right hand tightened.
The dark sky began to shrink.
Dust and debris surged upward as the black curtain drew inward, compressing faster than Doflamingo's birdcage ever could. Outside, anyone looking up would see a massive black semicircle closing rapidly, leaving behind a flattened wasteland.
Hachimangu Shrine, with its history of more than a decade, was being erased like a smudge.
Even Doflamingo's birdcage could block Den Den Mushi signals and was infamous for its hardness. Brook's dark sky was on another level entirely.
It did not only block sound.
It swallowed scent, sight, and even space itself.
Unless someone was stronger than Brook, nothing was breaking through it.
"Aramaki," Brook said calmly, "I don't want to attract that old man Imu's attention. So you're coming with me, one way or another. Do you want to be crippled and captured, or do you want to join us?"
"Hateful," Aramaki hissed.
His emotions churned. The shrinking darkness was forcing his hand, and still, he had not truly resisted.
What mattered more?
Life, or his so called absolute justice?
He stared at Brook, and the answer finally snapped into place.
"Ah, Brook! I hate your hypocrisy!" Aramaki roared. "The law of the jungle is the law of nature! I'll fight for human supremacy! Those inferior races should be enslaved!"
Trees erupted from the dark soaked ground, surging upward in desperate defiance.
But they were swallowed almost as soon as they appeared.
Growth against devouring.
Creation against annihilation.
And Aramaki, still young, was never going to outlast Brook.
This was the final struggle of a trapped beast.
"What a shame," Brook said, his voice turning colder. "So you're a racist after all. Then I'll take your Forest Fruit."
He stopped wasting words.
Darkness poured out like an ocean.
Brook's body expanded and reshaped, becoming a towering dark god dozens of meters tall. Black flames coiled around him, and his presence dwarfed the ruins.
Even Sengoku's golden Buddha felt small compared to this.
"Remember this," the giant dark god said, his voice echoing with an ethereal, crushing majesty. "The Dark Dark Fruit's true name is the Dark God Ers."
A black hole formed in his palm.
The forest Aramaki created was ripped apart and dragged into the void, trees and vines folding into darkness like paper thrown into a furnace.
Even Aramaki himself was caught.
The giant hand seized the massive tree he had become.
The instant Brook made contact, the Forest Fruit's power was sealed.
Aramaki's ability vanished.
The tree shrank, bark dissolving into flesh, and Aramaki fell back into human form in Brook's grip.
His fear doubled.
Without his Devil Fruit, he was naked before that overwhelming power.
"I gave you a chance," Brook declared. "Now I take your soul, and I take your Devil Fruit."
"No…!"
Aramaki screamed.
A transparent body was torn free from his chest, his soul ripped out alive as he howled. Darkness coiled around the Forest Fruit's power, compressing it, forcing it, shaping it.
Until that stolen power was driven into a fruit.
And the screams inside the dark sky were the last sound Hachimangu Square would ever hear.
--------------
Aramaki's corpse slipped from the dark god's grasp and hit the ruined ground with a dull thud. The towering Dark God Ers collapsed inward, the black flames extinguishing as Brook returned to his usual size.
He lowered his hand and looked at the green Devil Fruit he'd just forced into existence.
"The deep sea current route you used," Brook said calmly, "send this body back to the Shadow Demon Abefor."
Behind him, the Shipping King Umit straightened like a soldier taking orders.
"Understood, My Lord!"
His respect only grew heavier.
Aramaki had been a Marine Headquarters vice admiral, a monster with admiral candidate potential, and Brook had erased him in a handful of moves. Worse than that, the ability to rip a Devil Fruit power out of a living person and force it into a new fruit was enough to make even veterans tremble.
Following Brook had always been the right choice.
Even Mihawk's sharp, golden eyes flickered slightly under his mask.
That power was… wrong. Unnatural. Beyond common sense.
"Let's go," Brook said.
A door opened in midair, slicing a seam into the void. Brook stepped through first.
Umit slung Aramaki's body over his shoulder, made a quick Den Den Mushi call, then hurried after him. Under Brook's gaze, Mihawk also followed into the door without hesitation.
The darkness vanished from the place they'd been standing.
What remained was a flattened stretch of bare mud and shattered stone.
Hachimangu Shrine, the surrounding buildings, the duel arena, and the spectators had all disappeared as if they had never existed.
No one could explain why a bustling square and a life and death swordsman duel had been erased without leaving even a trace.
The late arrivals only remembered one thing, a terrifying black sky, and a pressure that crushed their lungs.
When they woke up hours later, the familiar square was gone.
Only an empty wasteland remained, familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
And then Marine Headquarters lost another Den Den Mushi line, blown apart by silence.
When the report reached Fleet Admiral Kong, his face changed instantly. He knew about the pirate hunter Mihawk. He also knew about the Kingdom of Sizkael's greatest swordsman, Ito Ittosai. He had personally arranged for Vice Admiral Aramaki to go and claim merit.
"No! Damn you, Brook!"
Kong slammed his fist down and roared, fury shaking his office.
"A promising young man finally appears in the Navy, and you wipe him out!"
After venting, he forced himself to breathe, then immediately reported the news to the Five Elders, and to Imu.
There was no need to guess.
A black sky that swallowed everything, Hachimangu Shrine erased, Aramaki gone without a trace, only one bastard in the world did that.
Imu's killing intent rose the moment the message arrived.
In a flash, he left the Holy Land of Maryjoa and shot toward the Kingdom of Sizkael at terrifying speed.
On the Grand Line and the Four Seas, Imu was the true god.
And his soul injury had nearly recovered, even faster than Brook's.
Brook wasn't stupid.
He didn't return through Fishman Island or the Red Line, places where he might collide head on with the immortal Imu.
Instead, he used the Shipping King's deep sea current route to reach an island near the Calm Belt, then transformed the Seven Star Demon Sword into Quetzalcoatl and crossed the Calm Belt directly, entering the East Blue.
Umit split off from Brook and returned to the New World with Aramaki's corpse.
Imu's target wasn't Umit, so he wouldn't waste his gaze on an ant.
…
East Blue, Loguetown.
A masked man in a black robe walked down the streets, speaking into a Den Den Mushi. Behind him followed a masked swordsman, silent and watchful.
"I didn't expect my cheap disciple, Dragon, to be in the East Blue," Brook said, sounding almost amused. "Let's meet him first. I wonder if he found himself a wife during this time?"
Brook was genuinely curious.
The mother of Straw Hat Luffy, the woman who never appeared, what kind of person could conquer a man like Dragon?
"Hey!"
A sharp voice cut through the street.
A white haired boy bit down on a cigar and stared at the two masked men with open hostility.
"You two look suspicious. Pirates, right? Who wears masks in broad daylight!"
His name was Smoker.
Fourteen years old.
He had eaten an unbelievably awful white fruit and gained a strange power. He planned to enlist at sixteen and become a righteous Marine.
Right now, he honestly believed he could beat pirates already, because swords, guns, and spears couldn't touch him.
Brook paused and looked at the boy, then smiled.
Smoker.
So he got the Smoke Smoke Fruit this early.
In a place like the East Blue, a Logia was practically cheating. No wonder this kid would grow into a bad tempered Marine who constantly disobeyed orders. The personality had been forged young.
But to Brook, a rookie Logia user was still just a child with a dangerous toy.
In Brook's memory, Smoker spent a long time losing.
He lost to Luffy again and again. On Punk Hazard, Law took his heart. Caesar deprived him of air. Vergo beat him down. Doflamingo nearly killed him, and only Aokiji saved his life.
Brook's smile widened.
"Kid," Brook said pleasantly, "if you really like shouting about justice, I suggest you join the new navy of the Universal Government."
He took one step.
Smoker's cigar froze solid in his mouth.
Before the boy could even react, Brook grabbed him by the head and rubbed it hard, ruffling his hair like he was scrubbing a stubborn stain. In the process, he pinched Smoker's cheeks so roughly the boy's face immediately bruised.
"Get off me, you bastard!" Smoker thrashed wildly. "Why can you touch me! Why can't I get away!"
He tried to turn into smoke, the power he was so proud of.
Nothing happened.
Pain shot through his cheeks.
This masked freak was pinching like he wanted to knead him into dough.
Under his mask, Mihawk's mouth twitched.
He quietly stepped to the side, pretending he didn't know this man.
So this is Brook too…
"Iron fist of love," Brook said cheerfully.
Then he flicked Smoker's forehead and followed it with a quick punch to the top of his head.
A huge bump rose instantly.
Smoker's eyes filled with tears on the spot.
"Yohohoho! I don't have time to waste with a brat like you!"
Brook laughed loudly, then continued down the street with Mihawk, heading deeper into Loguetown to meet Dragon. For Dragon to appear here so quickly, he had probably been active around nearby islands recently.
"I won't let you go, damn masked man!"
Smoker glared at Brook's back through watery eyes, shaking with anger while his face and head throbbed.
He clenched his fist and tried again.
His hand turned into white smoke.
It works.
So why couldn't I use it just now?
That masked bastard did something.
Smoker wiped at his eyes, sniffed, then forced his breathing steady. If the enemy was weird, then he'd plan carefully. He'd get revenge properly.
He started tailing them at a distance.
Loguetown was his territory.
Those two masked men would pay.
.....
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