Relying on the strange "immortality" or rapid regeneration he had gained after joining the God's Knights, Aramaki managed to hold out for a short while under Luffy's ferocious assault in Gear Fifth.
He even went so far as to push the awakened power of his Forest-Forest Fruit to its limits, transforming the surrounding environment into a living hell of vegetation that devoured life force itself—layer upon layer of growth forming barriers, entangling and attacking Luffy from all directions.
At times, he could even avoid fatal blows by using plant-based substitutes or by splitting and reforming his body.
But in the end… it was only a temporary resistance.
He wasn't Kizaru.
He didn't possess near light-speed movement or the ability to disperse his body into pure elements to nullify impact. Nor did he have the effortless dominance to treat every opponent as trivial.
His so-called "immortality," combined with his Logia traits, manifested primarily as tenacious vitality and rapid recovery.
But against Luffy's Nika form—with its absurd rubber properties, impossible attack angles, and above all, those devastating blows infused with supreme Conqueror's Haki—
His regeneration began to fall behind the rate of destruction.
"Gum-Gum…"
Luffy's arm spun and stretched at blinding speed, the friction igniting roaring flames along his fist. Wrapped in crackling black-and-red lightning, it became a spiraling force of annihilation.
"Nika—Flame Gun!!"
The blazing strike tore through multiple massive wooden shields Aramaki had erected, smashing straight into his crossed, plant-hardened arms!
BOOM—CRACK!!
A shrill, splintering sound echoed out!
The hardened wooden layers coating Aramaki's arms shattered inch by inch. His entire body was blasted backward, crashing through over a dozen towering trees before finally stabilizing amid the devastation.
His sunglasses shattered, revealing eyes filled with shock and fury. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
"Damn it… since when did this brat's Haki become this strong…?!"
"He's only been at sea for three years… cough…!"
The searing pain coursing through his body—and the suppression of his own life force—finally stirred a hint of retreat within him.
He hadn't come here to die.
His mission was to "retrieve" Vegapunk and eliminate unstable elements—not to engage in a life-and-death battle against this increasingly monstrous "Nika."
So, seizing another moment after being blasted back—amid a cloud of smoke and shattered vegetation—
Aramaki made his move.
His body dissolved into the rapidly spreading network of vines beneath his feet. His presence scattered, fading into countless signatures.
"Forest Art—Thousand Timber Escape!"
Countless wooden clones, each carrying a trace of his aura, burst forth from the surrounding vegetation and fled in all directions, disrupting any attempt to track him.
Meanwhile, his true body slipped silently through the underground root network, retreating at high speed toward the island's edge—back toward his landing point.
As the dust began to settle, Luffy stood at the center of a devastated forest of broken plants, white steam slowly dissipating from his body.
His gaze swept over the fleeing wooden clones… then he sensed the faint, rapidly retreating aura of Aramaki's true body.
He frowned.
But he didn't give chase.
"No time to waste on someone that hard to kill…" Luffy muttered, the sharp tension in his expression easing slightly.
What weighed on his mind more was his scattered crew—and his promise to take Vegapunk with him.
Seeing Aramaki retreat, the white steam around his body fully faded. His hair and eyebrows returned to black as he exited the energy-draining Gear Fifth Nika form.
He took several deep breaths, easing the strain on his body and the lingering damage from the battle—
Then, without hesitation, he launched himself at high speed toward the direction his crew and Vegapunk had fled.
But due to York's deliberate misdirection and separation—
When Luffy retraced his steps based on memory, he found nothing.
No Vegapunk.
No Usopp, Nami, or Chopper.
He even burst into several laboratories—only to find empty, silent rooms.
A growing unease gripped him as he searched frantically.
Then—
In a relatively intact circular corridor, he finally encountered two other Vegapunk satellites, both moving in a hurry.
One had a distinctly mechanical design—an oval-shaped head resembling a lightbulb, dressed in green, with the character for "Thought" emblazoned on his outfit.
This was "Wisdom of Thought," Edison, frantically trying to restart a smoking relay device.
The other appeared as a young woman of about sixteen, with mismatched hair colors, a jetpack on her back, pressure gauntlets on her hands, and even a tail behind her—
The embodiment of "Violence," Atlas.
"Hey! You two!" Luffy appeared before them in an instant, startling them both.
Edison's bulb head flickered brightly, while Atlas visibly flinched.
Luffy, for his part, blinked in surprise at Atlas's towering height—nearly comparable to Kaido's.
"S-Straw Hat Luffy?" Edison recognized him first, his tone filled with surprise—but also a shared anxiety."What are you doing here? Aren't you with the main body of Vegapunk?"
"I'm looking for them!" Luffy asked urgently. "Do you know where Vegapunk and my crew are? Usopp, Nami, Chopper—and that apple-headed scientist!"
Edison and Atlas exchanged a glance.
Both saw the same confusion—and unease—in each other's eyes.
"We don't know!" Edison smacked his own bulb head in frustration. "Something's seriously wrong!"
"All internal communication between the satellites has been cut off!" he continued. "It's like someone shut it down from the core authority level! We can't receive any commands from the main body, and we can't contact the others!"
Atlas added, her voice trembling slightly, "Even Shaka—the one responsible for coordination—is completely offline. His last signal vanished in a really strange location…"
Her fists clenched.
"Right now, we're like headless flies! We don't even know how many enemies are on the island, or where they are!"
"All we can detect is fighting breaking out everywhere—energy readings are completely chaotic!"