Grand Line, Little Garden.
The island known as Little Garden was actually anything but little. Quite the opposite, it was a massive island that had somehow preserved its prehistoric landscape and ecosystem to this day.
Almost every species on the island was ridiculously huge. Enormous dinosaurs roamed the land, the gigantic corpses of two Sea King-class creatures lay at the center of the island, and...
"Gahahahaha!"
"Gyahahahaha!"
Two booming laughs echoed like thunder. The owners of those voices were two Giants as massive as mountains.
"So that's how it is! You're saying there's a living skeleton guiding you around?" One of the Giants wore a protective helmet and had a long beard, with a giant sword resting beside him. "Tell us more, Usopp. Before Dorry and I have our next duel, tell us more about what's happening out there."
The other Giant was somewhat chubby, with a large mustache and a horned helmet. A huge axe lay beside him.
The area around them was covered in astonishing evidence of battle. Mountains had been flattened, enormous forests uprooted, and deep craters alongside massive sword and axe scars marred the terrain. These were the marks left by their countless clashes.
They were Dorry the Blue Ogre and Brogy the Red Ogre, the former captains of the legendary Giant Warrior Pirates. And right now, they were chatting with some rare visitors to the island.
Compared to the two Giants, the visitors were tiny. They were the Straw Hat Pirates.
"Yes, Master Brogy!" Usopp happily nodded. "After all, you two have been fighting here for 102 years."
As a man who dreamed of becoming a brave warrior of the sea, Usopp had already begun looking up to these two Giants after witnessing their strength and warrior spirit. They had remained on this island for over a century, bound by a promise and their pride as warriors. That courage and determination were exactly what Usopp aspired to possess. Since his heroes wanted to hear about the outside world, he was more than happy to oblige.
"It's about the skeleton we met in Whiskey Peak the day before yesterday. His name is Brook. He said he's going to join us and will catch up later. He also gave us some recent newspapers. We haven't finished reading them yet, so why don't I tell you guys what's in them?"
As he spoke, Usopp began rummaging through their belongings.
"Yeah, Brook was such a fun guy, but he couldn't get on the ship right away. What a shame! Nom!" Beside Usopp, Luffy stuffed another piece of grilled dinosaur meat into his mouth, looking disappointed.
Nami covered her forehead and sighed. "If you're going to talk about how unfortunate it is, could you at least eat a little slower?"
Luffy just tilted his head in confusion with a mouthful of food.
"It'll be fine. If that guy really intends to join us, he'll probably catch up soon," Zoro said, leaning against a tree and casually joining the conversation. "Speaking of which, are we really completely out of booze on the ship? Not even a drop left?"
"Can't be helped. We didn't manage to restock at Whiskey Peak," Nami replied with a dry smile.
At that point, Usopp finally pulled out the newspaper Brook had given them two days earlier. The trip from Whiskey Peak to Little Garden had taken less than a day, and since they had arrived almost immediately after waking up, they hadn't had time to read it yet.
"Let's see... Hmm. 'The position of Warlord of the Sea remains vacant, followed by an analysis of possible candidates'... I don't really know much about this one. Let's pick another. Hmm... 'Germa Kingdom Confirmed Destroyed. The Corpse of the Long-Missing Great Pirate Buckingham Stussy Discovered Near the Ruins of the Kingdom. Exclusive Footage Released by World Economy News Paper. The Kingdom Was Destroyed by a New Member of the Twelve Zodiac.'"
"The Twelve Zodiac's new member?!" Usopp's eyes widened, and his voice immediately shot up an octave.
"The Twelve Zodiac?!" both Dorry and Brogy boomed, exchanging puzzled looks.
Having started their duel over a century ago and spent all that time isolated on this island, they were among the very few on the sea who had never even heard the name "Twelve Zodiac."
"They're an organization made up of monsters! The officers are even more monstrous than the Warlords! You guys don't know what Warlords are either, do you?" Usopp spoke with a dead serious expression. "Anyway, the guys from the Twelve Zodiac are terrifyingly strong."
"Usopp!" A voice from behind interrupted him before he could continue.
"Huh?!" Usopp turned around.
Sanji, who had been smoking and humming while grilling meat, had dropped the huge brush he was using to coat the meat with sauce. His face was filled with shock, and his usually calm eyes had turned grim.
"You said... Germa?"
"Y-yeah. The Germa Kingdom, that Allied Kingdom of the World Government, was destroyed by the Twelve Zodiac. Apparently, it was some guy named Tiger... Wh-what's wrong?"
Usopp was bewildered. As far as he knew, among all the major things the Twelve Zodiac had done, this incident wasn't even particularly noteworthy.
But Sanji had already snatched the newspaper from his hands. With trembling fingers, he took another drag from his cigarette and read the article carefully.
The country that had been the nightmare of his childhood was now nothing but ruins. Several familiar figures whom he knew and hated lay collapsed among the wreckage.
And according to the report, only two figures were left standing on the battlefield. One was a figure wearing a tiger-head mask. And the other...
"Reiju..." Sanji whispered, recognizing the older sister who had once saved him.
What worried him was that, despite scanning the entire article, he couldn't find any mention of what had ultimately happened to her. Sanji clenched his teeth.
"Sanji, what's wrong?" Nami looked over at him with concern.
"Nothing. It's nothing," Sanji muttered, tightly gripping the paper.
"You definitely don't look like it's nothing." Nami remained worried, but just then...
"Eh?" Luffy, who had been stuffing dinosaur meat into his mouth while staring at Sanji, suddenly sensed something and abruptly turned his head toward the horizon.
He wasn't the only one. Dorry, Brogy, and Zoro all seemed to sense it at the exact same moment, their eyes shifting toward the distant ocean.
"Eh? What happened?" Usopp was completely lost, but he looked in the same direction anyway. Instinctively, he grabbed his slingshot and put his binoculars to his eyes.
Then...
Clatter!
The slingshot slipped from Usopp's hands and hit the ground.
"Th-that..." His voice began to tremble. "N-no way... How could it possibly be this much of a coincidence...?"
Through his binoculars, he could clearly see something tearing across the distant sky.
A golden cloud.
Streaming clouds trailed behind it like rocket exhaust, making it look like something straight out of myth. Propelled by that blazing trail, the golden cloud shot toward Little Garden at astonishing speed, kicking up massive waves across the sea below.
But that wasn't the most shocking part. The most shocking part was the two figures standing atop it.
"Yohohohoho! Captain Luffy, I've caught up with you!"
The distinctive laugh immediately gave away one of the riders.
"Brook!" The moment Luffy heard that voice, he raised his arm and waved excitedly. "Oh? Who's that beside you? Is he your friend?"
"Yohohohoho! More or less! He's a colleague of my benefactor, and he brought me here directly!"
"I see!"
Clearly, Luffy wasn't the only one who noticed them, but the others couldn't watch the scene with the same casual excitement.
There really was another person standing beside Brook, a lean man sitting casually on the cloud, lazily tossing away the pit of a peach he had just finished eating.
And he was wearing a Sea Beast mask.
A monkey mask.
(End of Chapter)
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