Pangaea Castle
The silence after Imu's pronouncement was electric, charged with disbelief and ambition. Gunko's eyes gleamed with predatory excitement. Sommers bowed his head in reverent acceptance. Killingham merely grunted, processing the order. Shamrock's jaw tightened, a flicker of resentment in his eyes at being sidelined from the Emperor roles, but masked quickly with calculated obedience.
"Killingham," Imu commanded, his voice regaining a sliver of the resonant authority he desperately needed to project. "You sail to the South Blue immediately. Begin your… Pirate journey." He chose the word carefully, knowing the brute preferred simplicity. "Make your presence known. Crush the pirate crews that defy the World Government's influence. Leave no doubt who holds power there. Your reputation will precede you. Let them fear the new order rising."
Killingham scratched his chin, his brow furrowed in concentration. "South Blue… smash pirates? Make them fear?" He nodded slowly, the simplicity finally clicking. "Yes, Imu-sama, It will be done." He turned and lumbered out, the very stones seeming to vibrate under his weight.
"Sommers," Imu continued, turning to the serene yet terrifying God Knight. "your taks is the same you go to West Blue and start your pirate journey and make sure to kill as many as pirate possible. also kill Don Chinjao and his Happo Navy"
Sommers placed a hand over his heart, his eyes alight with fervent zeal. "The West Blue shall feal the terror, Imu-sama. I will make sure people will terrified by hearing my name in west Blue.
Imu finally looked at Gunko and Shamrock, who remained standing before the throne. "Gunko, Shamrock. You will come with me. We have a more… delicate work to make. we are going to attack germa kingdom"
Saint Jaygarcia Saturn stepped forward, his analytical gaze sharp. "Imu sama, forgive my interruption, but if this involves technology, we already have Vegapunk. His work on the Seraphim alon....."
"Vegapunk is a tool, Saturn," Imu cut him off, his voice turning icy, laced with the paranoia that never truly left him. "A brilliant, useful tool. But tools can break. Tools can develop…independent thoughts. His loyalty is to knowledge, not to us. The moment the Seraphim are complete, his usefulness ends. We cannot rely solely on him. We need redundancy. We need control."
He leaned forward, the circlet biting into his forehead. "Germa Kingdom. Judge Vinsmoke's lineage manipulation, his cloning technology… the Bloodline Factor. It is not good compared to Vegapunk's genius, but it's ours to take. To control. To replicate. Imagine soldiers, loyal beyond question, engineered not in a lab hidden from us, but under our direct oversight. Imagine applying that control to territories, to populations. It's the ultimate enforcement mechanism for the new order."
Gunko's smile returned, colder and sharper than ever. "Germa. Their scientific arrogance makes them vulnerable. They believe their technology makes them untouchable. We will show them of that they are just a from in the well. The Vinsmokes will kneel, or their kingdom burns. And their secrets… their blood… will be ours."
Shamrock's eyes narrowed, seeing the strategic value. He stepped closer, his posture radiating readiness. "When do we depart, Imu sama?"
"Few hours later, make preparations," Imu confirmed, the single word sharp as a blade, cutting through the heavy air. "Every second we delay the stronger our enemy will become." He swept his gaze over Gunko and Shamrock, his expression hardening. "And we will not go as representatives of the World Government. We go as…pirates and Shamrock you make sure to wear a mask we will go and we will change our clothes as normal person this God knight uniform is too eye catchy. The meeting is over"
The words hung in the sudden, heavy silence of the chamber. "The meeting is over." Imu didn't raise his voice, but the finality was absolute, a door slamming shut on further debate. He turned, his robes whispering against the cold stone floor, and strode towards the hidden passage leading to the armory and docks without a backward glance. There was no room for hesitation.
Shamrock and Gunko exchanged a single, loaded glance. The disgust at shedding their God Knight insignia for the rags of commoners was a bitter taste in their mouths, a profound insult to their station and power. Yet, Imu sama's will was the absolute upon which their world turned. To question it was unthinkable. With movements that were swift, efficient, and utterly devoid of their usual predatory grace, they followed him into the shadows. Shamrock paused only to snatch a simple, featureless black mask from a rack within the passage, pulling it over his distinctive features with a sharp, resentful tug.
The coarse, nondescript clothing they donned in the armory felt like a second skin of humiliation, rough and alien against their accustomed finery. They ceased to be God Knights in that moment, becoming anonymous figures in drab blues and greys, their formidable presence deliberately muted, radiating only a cold, watchful stillness. For Imu-sama, they would wear the skins of sheep, even as wolves lurked beneath. The path to Germa was open, and they walked it in disguise, the first step in Imu's perilous gambit to seize control of the world's very building blocks.