At the front edge of the Grand Line, they arrived at Asuka Island.
After returning from Skypiea, White Ghost led his people here.
To avoid terrifying the locals, he landed ahead of the group and approached on foot.
Kuro scanned the island. "So what's the attraction this time?"
Zan Gao and Senor Pink looked over immediately.
They knew the pattern now—if their captain came somewhere, there was something valuable here.
Urouge stepped forward eagerly.
"God—do you require me to locate it?"
White Ghost didn't even look at him.
"From now on, in the Blue Sea, don't call me god," he said as he walked uphill. "Call me Boss. Or Captain."
"That is disrespect—"
Urouge started to protest.
Kantena cut his eyes at him.
"If you call him a god down here, you'll bring unnecessary trouble to the captain."
Urouge clasped his hands again. "Thank you for enlightening me, benefactor."
Everyone else sighed.
Hopeless.
They reached the back mountain. Not long after, an old shrine appeared through the trees.
Barely guarded.
Zan Gao whispered to Senor Pink, "Based on experience, I'm betting Devil Fruit."
Senor Pink shook his head, smoking. "Not necessarily. If there was a Devil Fruit here, boss would've emptied this place ages ago."
Before they could enter, someone stepped out.
A woman—more precisely, a shrine maiden.
Blue hair. Clear eyes. Beautiful in a clean, sharp way, with a calm pride that didn't bend easily.
White Ghost looked her up and down without the slightest shame.
Her brows twitched.
"Outsiders are forbidden. Leave."
Zan Gao whispered, delighted, "New sister-in-law?"
White Ghost turned his head and glared at him.
Focus.
Then he looked back at her.
"The sword inside," White Ghost said. "I'm taking it. Once I get it, I'm leaving."
The shrine maiden's expression changed instantly.
"No!" she said sharply. "That sword is cursed. You don't understand what it does—you cannot control it!"
"That just means the people before me were incompetent," White Ghost said, and stepped forward.
She retreated half a step but still blocked him.
"That sword has been sealed and guarded by shrine maidens for generations. It cannot be allowed to leave and bring disaster again!"
White Ghost leaned down near her ear and spoke softly.
"Too bad. You can't stop me."
"Shameless—!" She flushed with anger and moved to intercept—
But in the next instant, the space in front of her was empty.
"What…?"
A voice spoke from behind.
"I told you."
Her face went pale as she spun around.
White Ghost's hand was already on the sealed coffin.
"NO!" she cried, panic overtaking her.
She lunged—
Crack.
White Ghost opened it anyway.
"I really don't understand this world," he muttered. "Why does everyone keep putting things in coffins?"
The moment the lid lifted, a wave of killing intent surged out—thick, ancient, hungry.
"Close it!" the shrine maiden screamed, trying to slam it shut.
"No need," White Ghost said calmly—and grabbed the sword inside.
The instant his fingers wrapped around it, the air thickened.
Outside, Kuro and the others felt it too.
"What the hell is that?" Zan Gao frowned. "Even cursed blades aren't usually this loud."
Enel, Urouge, and Wyper's eyes reddened.
Their breathing changed.
Their bodies leaned forward—instinctively reaching toward the sword.
The shrine maiden went rigid.
"It's too late…"
"Quiet."
White Ghost's voice dropped like a blade.
A violent burst of Conqueror's Haki exploded outward.
Black lightning ripped into the sky.
The shrine collapsed under the pressure.
The clouds above tore open, leaving a vast wound of blue overhead.
Enel, Urouge, and Wyper snapped back to themselves, shaking.
Urouge clasped his hands and sank to his knees, trembling with devotion.
"…This is the power of a god…"
White Ghost ignored him.
Inside the ruins, he stood still—hair lifted, clothes fluttering, aura roaring.
The shrine maiden watched, dread coiling in her stomach.
The sword is trying to swallow him.
Then—
The demonic pressure snapped down.
The blade still looked wicked, but the "voice" inside it was forced into silence.
The shrine maiden stared.
"…He subdued it?"
White Ghost smiled faintly.
"I told you. The problem wasn't the sword."
Then he added, casually:
"But I didn't come here for your broken sword."
With the shrine maiden still staring, White Ghost tossed the Seven-Star Sword into the air.
His own blade appeared in his hand—lightning crawling along its edge.
"I came for the evil inside it."
"Gale—One-Line Heaven Split."
A flash.
A screaming shockwave.
CRACK—!
The Seven-Star Sword shattered midair.
The sword intent continued upward and split the sky like a wound.
Zan Gao blinked. "He… broke it?"
Senor Pink frowned. "Why break a perfectly good sword?"
The shrine maiden fell to her knees, staring at the fragments like she'd just watched someone die.
"It's… broken…"
"You shrine maidens were never guarding the sword itself," White Ghost said, eyes calm, voice heavy.
"You were guarding the demonic energy inside it."
He tapped his chest.
"Now that energy is in me."
Everyone looked—and saw it.
At the center of White Ghost's chest was a green mark shaped like a blade, resembling the Seven-Star Sword.
White Ghost stepped closer to the shrine maiden.
"And since the curse is now mine," he said evenly, "the shrine maiden bound to it is mine too."
Her face flushed with humiliation and shock. She opened her mouth—
White Ghost simply pointed at the mark.
"This is the fate your shrine maidens have carried for generations."
He looked down at her steadily.
"Now you understand, don't you?"
Silence.
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