The evening air hit them like a baptism.
After days of heavy mist and the oppressive weight of the Florian Triangle, the open sea stretched before them in shades of deepening purple and gold. The sun had surrendered to the horizon, leaving only a memory of light along the water's edge, and above them, the moon hung full and brilliant—a silver coin dropped into a velvet sky.
Jannali stepped onto the deck and stopped.
She tilted her head back, closed her eyes, and breathed.
"Ahhhh." The sound came from somewhere deep in her chest, relief and release all at once. "That is so much better. No more murky soup pounding against my head."
Atlas leaned on the railing, his rust-red fur catching the moonlight, his blue eyes scanning the horizon with the easy vigilance of a predator at rest. "Where to next, boss?"
Beside him, Vesta struck a dramatic pose, Mikati's strings humming under her fingers. "Some place with a CONCERT VENUE!" She jabbed the guitar toward the sky. "I need to keep the momentum! The people need music! The world needs music!"
Atlas shook his head, chuckling. "You're something else."
"I'm everything else, thank you very much."
Bō-Zak found a spot against the railing near Aurélie, his posture carefully casual, his smirk carefully charming. He leaned in, close enough to be noticed, not close enough to be dismissed.
"I'll go wherever with you. Anywhere."
Aurélie raised one elegant eyebrow. "You may want to reconsider that statement."
Bō-Zak's smirk widened. "Why? You worried about me?"
She turned to face him fully, her steel-gray eyes flat and unimpressed. "I'm worried you'll be a distraction when I'm trying to focus."
Before he could respond—probably with something insufferably clever—she turned her attention to Marya and Galit, who stood before the Celestial Tideglass.
The hexagonal prism floated above its activation cradle, Moonsteel facets catching the moonlight and throwing it back in constellations. The Tear of the Abyss at its core had fractured into shifting star patterns, projecting a spectral map of the world in ghostly blue light.
Across that map, pulsing sigils marked the locations of Devil Fruits.
Marya's golden eyes traced them, her lips pressed together in a thin line.
Galit leaned in, his long neck extending for a better view. "What is it?"
Marya sighed—a rare sound from her, heavy with frustration. "They're moving in different directions."
Galit's brow furrowed as he studied the map. His focus narrowed on Wano, where several sigils clustered. "You said three. I thought we were only focused on two."
Marya nodded, pointing without touching. "The Nika fruit is moving southeast." Her finger shifted. "The Hebi Hebi no Mi, Model: Bhūta Kāla is moving east."
Aurélie moved closer, her eyes narrowing. "What is it?"
Marya glanced at her, then back at the map. "The Op Op fruit is moving northeast."
Galit leaned in further, his sharp eyes catching something else. A cluster of familiar sigils on an intercept course—familiar because they has just experienced an encounter with them faces of enemies they'd rather avoid.
"This is important to you?" he asked quietly.
Marya's lips pressed together. "They can take care of themselves. It's just that..."
The memory hit her like a wave.
Corazon's voice, warning her about Law. Ace's voice, warning her about his brother. Dreams she'd tried to forget, messages she couldn't ignore.
If she deviated from her course, she had to decide now.
But which direction?
The world spun away.
---
Marya stood in darkness.
Not the darkness of night or shadow—something deeper, older, more hungry. Before her, Igutoshi pulsed within the dimensional sphere Law had created, the Void Curse writhing entity absent of light, essence of a void, trapped in glass.
Her eyes narrowed.
A crack spiderwebbed across the barrier. Tiny. Almost invisible.
But there.
Do not deviate.
The voice boomed and echoed, shaking the void around her. Igutoshi's form pulsed with barely contained fury.
Stay the course. What will be is meant to be. Return me to what once was!
Marya's jaw flexed. She met the void's gaze without flinching.
"And if I choose otherwise?"
Igutoshi flared.
The void pressed against its prison, the interdimensional barrier groaning under the strain. The crack began to spread—faster now, reaching, branching.
DO NOT TEST ME! DO NOT WAVER! I AM IGUTOSHI! I WILL NOT SUFFER THIS CONFINEMENT MUCH LONGER!
The void's form swelled, pressing, pushing.
FIND THE GATE. RESET WHAT ONCE WAS!
---
Marya stumbled backward on the deck.
Her feet caught, pinwheeled, and she would have fallen if Galit hadn't reached out and grabbed her arm, steadying her against the railing.
Her chest heaved. Breath came in ragged gasps.
Atlas straightened, his ears flattening. "Boss? You alright?"
The deck went silent.
Every eye fixed on her. Every breath held.
Marya steadied herself, forcing her lungs to slow, her heart to calm. She looked at them—her crew, her people, her strange and wonderful family—and nodded.
Galit's eyes flicked to her face, then down. He gestured to his own nose in a silent signal.
Marya's hand came up. Her fingers touched her upper lip, came away red.
She wiped the blood on her jacket, muttering, "Thanks."
Aurélie stepped forward, concern flickering behind her stoic mask. "Maybe we should—"
Marya shook her head. "No. We go east from Wano." She turned to Galit. "Start working—"
Her head snapped around.
Everyone followed her gaze.
A silhouette had begun to take shape at the edge of the horizon—the prow of a ship, cutting through the moonlight with purpose.
Marya cursed.
Atlas leaned forward, squinting. "What is it?"
Bō-Zak's eyes narrowed, his playful demeanor vanishing. "Looks like another ship. And it has a cross on the main sail."
Jannali's hand went to her spear. "Celestial Dragons. What the bloody hell are they—"
Marya cut her off, her golden eyes fixed on the figure standing on the ship's deck. Red hair. Familiar smirk. Waiting.
"God's Knights."
Aurélie's hand found Anathema's hilt. "That could be a problem."
Jannali's accent thickened with frustration. "What the bloody hell are they doing here? What do they want?"
Marya cocked her head, a humorless smile tugging at her lips. "Really? Have you forgotten who the next Supreme Commander is going to be?"
Aurélie's lips twitched—almost a smirk. Jannali rolled her eyes so hard it probably hurt.
Vesta looked between them, confused. "Supreme Commander?" She turned to Atlas. "Who is that?"
Atlas shook his head, his eyes never leaving the approaching ship. "What's the play, boss?"
Marya's head swiveled between the Florian Triangle behind them and Shamrock's vessel ahead. The mist still churned at the Triangle's edge, thick and concealing.
"The Florian Triangle may be a deterrent," she said slowly.
Jannali cursed. "Really? We're going back in?"
Marya nodded. "Yeah. Until we can figure out a plan. It's big enough that we can lose them in the soup and navigate to the other side."
Galit's neck coiled. "We could just dive."
Marya shook her head firmly. "No. That's Shanks's twin. If he's his equal, diving will do nothing but make it easier for him."
Aurélie nodded in agreement, her assessment matching Marya's.
Galit scooped up the Celestial Tideglass, its light dimming as it left the moonlight.
Marya gestured toward the hatch. "Come on. We don't have a lot of time, and the gap is closing fast."
Jannali cursed again—a string of expletives that made even Atlas raise an eyebrow—as they filed back toward the hatch.
One by one, they disappeared into the submarine's interior.
Marya paused at the threshold, taking one last look at the ship on the horizon, at the red-haired figure still watching, still smirking, still waiting.
Then she stepped through and closed the hatch behind her.
The Dreadnought Thalassa slipped beneath the waves.
And somewhere behind them, the mist of the Florian Triangle waited to swallow them whole.
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