Rumble… rumble…
Under storm-darkened skies, the sea roared with howling winds and towering waves.
From the depths, a colossal steel giant — hundreds of ters tall — rose from the ocean. As its bulk erged, it unleashed its first attack: a blazing golden laser.
It struck its target head-on.
ROOOOAR!!
The titanic creature that took the hit let out a cry that seed to shake the entire world. From its ancient, weathered sockets, its azure eyes burned with fury.
Its trunk — vast as a pillar holding up the heavens — swung down with earth-shattering force, smashing the "tiny" steel colossus before it like an insect.
BOOM!
The supposedly terrifying tal monstrosity was torn apart instantly, fragnts scattering across the raging sea. Even the waves themselves were split, leaving behind a trench stretching hundreds of miles.
Zunesha — the great elephant that had carried the island of Zou across the seas for a thousand years — had been forced into battle once again.
As it stared at these strange, unnatural machines, mories surged… it was as if Zunesha had been dragged back to the wars of a thousand years ago.
"Shiiishiii… sooo coool!!"
Perched atop Zunesha's head, a straw-hatted boy's eyes glead with starlight as he watched the sea below, where steel monstrosities rose one after another to challenge the giant elephant.
Luffy, reckless as ever, knew full well: those tal beasts were not enemies he could face — not yet.
And more importantly, he knew this was Zunesha's fight.
Out of respect for his towering companion — whose voice he had co to know through that mysterious exchange of consciousness — Luffy had no intention of interfering.
At first, when the machines appeared, he had worried for Zunesha's safety. But now, watching the battle unfold, he realized his fears were needless.
No matter how destructive the machines' weapons were, they could do little more than make the giant elephant flinch. One strike of its trunk, one stomp of its feet — and no machine lasted a mont longer.
The sea beca a graveyard of twisted wreckage.
And among the drifting debris, a small craft bobbed between the waves. It sailed close, scavenging pieces of wreckage, prying free strange tal parts.
Onboard, Franky's hands trembled with excitent. He never dread he would live to see such legendary tal — not scraps, not fragnts… but heaps of it. Enough to bring his lifelong dream to life.
"Hah-ha-ha-ha! This is insane!"
Robin, aboard the sa boat, smiled faintly as she watched Franky's frenzy.
"You look awfully pleased, Cyborg-san."
"Of course I am, Robin! Do you know what this is?"
Franky's grin stretched ear to ear, eyes burning with fervor.
"This… this is no ordinary junk. If I'm not mistaken, this is material from Pluton itself."
"At Alabasta, inside the royal mausoleum, I once read records describing it," Robin said softly, picking up a smaller fragnt and studying it. "And… Pluton doesn't exist in just one form."
"I don't care whether it's Pluton or not!" Franky barked, tearing another piece free from the wreckage. "All I know is — this is the very sa stuff my teacher left blueprints for. I never thought I'd actually see it… but here it is!"
His hands shook as he held up the part, eyes blazing.
"To … this stuff is… priceless!!"
BOOM!!
"Waaahhh!"
"Damn it, Franky — another one of those monsters just surfaced!" Usopp's scream carried across from a nearby boat, where he and the others had nearly fallen overboard at the sight of yet another steel beast rising from the depths.
But before the terror could even settle in—
CRASH!!
Zunesha's trunk lashed out, swatting the giant machine to pieces before it could even fire a shot. The remains splashed into the sea, scattering more fragnts of that mysterious grey alloy.
The mont Franky spotted them floating, his eyes nearly popped from his skull. Like a pirate who had stumbled on treasure, he shrieked and scrambled to steer his boat toward the debris.
The seas were wild and rciless, and scavenging was dangerous work. At first, only Franky and Usopp dared the task. But Robin, drawn by her archaeologist's curiosity, could not resist joining them — the machines bore too much resemblance to the legendary Pluton for her to ignore.
On and on, the battle raged. Wherever Zunesha strode, more tal beasts surfaced from the deep. And with each thunderous strike, the ocean was littered with their shattered remains.
By Robin's count, Zunesha had already destroyed over twenty of the steel colossi.
Twenty.
It didn't seem like much… until you rembered what these monsters represented.
For legend held that Pluton was a weapon capable of annihilating an entire island with a single shot.
Twenty Plutons…?
The thought alone was enough to freeze her blood.
But had Ghidorah been there to hear her musings, he would have laughed until his sides split.
For it was true — Pluton could destroy islands. Enies Lobby itself was proof, reduced to ruins in a single blast.
But these machines were no true Plutons.
They were rely components of Pluton — fragnts of the ancient weapon.
Individually, they carried terrifying destructive power, enough to level nations with ease. But none of them alone could unleash the island-erasing might of the completed battleship.
These were relics of a forgotten age, dredged from the seabed and reawakened by the World Governnt through unnatural ans.
Half-alive, half-asleep… shadows of what they were ant to be.
The battle raged on below — but high above the waves, sothing even more astonishing appeared.
From the gloom of the stormclouds, a ship erged.
No — not a ship on the sea, but a silver vessel descending from the sky.
A flying ship.
Luffy's head snapped up instantly.
"Eh? … That looks kinda familiar…"
His brow furrowed as he squinted at the strange craft. Its silver hull was inscribed with ancient markings. Unlike the usual wide-eyed wonder he showed at such things, here his expression darkened.
The sight stirred sothing in him — a mory, a feeling he couldn't quite place.
Behind him, Nami's eyes widened in shock.
"That… that ship… I've seen it before…"
Though its color was different now, she rembered the shape. The ability to soar through the skies. She knew that ship.
And then Robin, climbing back from the sea with scavenged fragnts in hand, caught sight of the ancient lettering etched along the vessel's hull.
Her eyes went wide.
"...Bika?"
The na fell from her lips like a forgotten prayer.
"What… what place is that?"
She stared in disbelief at the two massive ancient glyphs marking the ship's prow.
The word was one she had never seen before — not in any records, not in any ruins.
"Bika…?"
Her archaeologist's heart pounded.
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