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Somewhere in the seas of the New World, three Marine warships sailed across the ocean.
At the centre of the small fleet was the leading vessel, a warship bearing the figurehead of a white bird.
The atmosphere aboard the ships was calm. The sailors were busy with their duties, each occupied with one task or another.
Except—
From one of the ships, an endless series of loud noises kept echoing across the sea.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound repeatedly shattered the silence.
Annoyed by the noise, a beautiful woman with silver-white hair, black eyes, pale skin, and full lips coated in white lipstick clicked her tongue, "Tch... how long is that idiot going to keep punching that metal wall? Isn't he tired?"
She is wearing a black shirt patterned with snowflakes, a short black skirt, black thigh-high boots, a white tie, and, over her shoulders, a white Marine Vice Admiral's coat of Justice.
She is Vice Admiral Yuki.
Although she looks no older than a woman in her mid-twenties, she is actually much older than that.
As for her exact age... That is uncertain. Vice Admiral Yuki considers it rude for anyone to ask a woman her age. And anyone foolish enough to ask usually ends up turned into a snowman on the deck of her warship. Because of that, even Author-san does not dare ask Vice Admiral Yuki how old she really is.
Anyway, age is just a number, right?
In any case, at this moment, Vice Admiral Yuki looked thoroughly annoyed by the constant banging coming from the deck of one of the other warships.
In truth, the banging was not actually that loud. But Yuki possessed unusually sensitive hearing, and her ears picked up far more sound than normal. Because of that, even a noise that most people would find tolerable sounded unbearably loud to her, making it impossible for her to focus on the book she was reading.
If Zechs had been there and noticed the book in her hands, he would have been surprised to discover that it was one of the volumes of the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, the book that listed the names, appearances, and descriptions of Devil Fruits.
Indeed, at that moment, Vice Admiral Yuki was quietly trying to read through the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, or rather, searching through it for specific information. But with so much noise constantly coming from the other warship, concentrating was becoming rather difficult.
In response to her question, a voice came from beside her. "It's probably not going to stop anytime soon."
Vice Admiral Yuki turned toward the speaker, or rather, she had to tilt her head up since the one speaking was a giant casually eating a massive piece of roasted whale meat.
"Saul... you sound like you know why that idiot Zephyr is punching a metal wall," she said.
Indeed, the giant was none other than Jaguar D. Saul, who at this point was only seventy-eight years old and currently held the rank of Rear Admiral.
"Dereshishishishi..." Saul laughed. After chewing and swallowing the whale meat, he answered, "I heard he lost an arm-wrestling match against Garp. It's probably because of that."
Vice Admiral Yuki blinked. "Oh, right... Garp and Zephyr have that ridiculous arm-wrestling rivalry, don't they?"
Saul nodded. "Yes. Every time the two of them meet, they have an arm-wrestling match. And I think the loser also has to pay for the winner's meal or something like that..." He laughed again. "Dereshishishishi... This time, Zephyr lost. And from what I heard, he lost badly. So he's probably upset and training so he can win next time."
"Hm... I see..." Yuki murmured. She let out a small laugh and shook her head. "Yukikiki..." Even so, she still looked annoyed. "With all this noise, I really can't concentrate..."
"What are you looking for anyway in that book, Vice Admiral?" Saul asked casually.
"Information on Asmodeus Zechs' Devil Fruit," Yuki replied as she flipped through the pages of the Mythical Zoan section.
This section contained the names of every Mythical Zoan that had ever been recorded.
"Since we've been assigned to assist Admiral Ghidorah in dealing with Asmodeus Zechs, I want to learn more about the Devil Fruit he seems to possess. But no matter how much I look, I can't find any fruit that matches the information we have on him."
"I see..." Saul nodded, his expression turning solemn as he understood her concern. Considering Asmodeus Zechs' recent resurgence and the threat he poses with his strength, wanting to know more about his abilities made perfect sense.
Saul was about to say something else, too, but just then—
Rattle...
Without warning, the warship suddenly lurched upward, as though something beneath the sea had lifted it.
Then, just as suddenly, it dropped.
BOOM!
The deck shook violently. Cannons rattled. Barrels rolled across the planks. Several sailors lost their footing and crashed onto the deck.
"Enemy attack?!" Saul immediately stood up.
Yuki rose as well, and the two of them rushed out onto the main deck, ready for battle.
But when they stepped outside and looked around, all they saw were their own three warships and the sailors desperately grabbing onto whatever they could to keep from being thrown overboard.
There was nothing else. No enemy ships. No one at all. Only the turbulent waves of the New World stretched endlessly around them. Though, to be fair, rough seas like this were hardly unusual in the New World.
This left Yuki confused. "What's going on? What was that shaking earlier? Did we hit some rocks or something?"
Before anyone could answer—
Rumble...
A deep tremor passed through the hull.
Then another swell rolled beneath the fleet.
BOOM!
The warships were lifted high into the air before slamming back down onto the sea. This time, the movement was so violent that several sailors were thrown over the railing.
"Aaaahhh—!!!"
But just before they could fall into the sea, Saul reacted instantly. "Got you all!" He leaned over the side of the ship and caught the falling sailors in his enormous hands before they could hit the water.
Seeing that the giant Rear Admiral had saved them, the sailors let out relieved sighs. "Th-Thank you... Rear Admiral, Sir!!"
After setting them back down on the deck, Saul leaned over the side of the ship and looked down into the water. "I don't see any rocks..."
Just then, a low sound rolled across the sea.
Rooooom...
It was distant and faint, like thunder from beyond the horizon.
Yuki's expression shifted slightly. "What's that sound...?" she murmured in confusion.
If she had to guess, it sounded like cannon fire... but there were no other ships nearby that could have fired a cannon. And the sound seemed to be coming from very far away, perhaps from dozens of miles across the sea.
Yet what kind of cannon blast could possibly be loud enough for its sound to carry all the way here?
Meanwhile, a voice called out from the neighbouring warship. "Saul! Did your warship shake too?"
Saul looked up toward the speaker.
Standing on the deck of the neighbouring warship was a twenty-four-year-old man with purple hair. He wore only a shirt and trousers, and his fists were wrapped in bandages stained slightly red with blood from all the time he had spent punching the metal sheet earlier.
It was none other than Zephyr.
In the future, he would go on to become one of the three Admirals of the Marines. After that, he would become the Marine instructor responsible for training the next generation of Marines, including the future Admirals themselves. Later, he would command the Marines' guerrilla warfare forces.
And after all of that... He would lose faith in the Marines entirely. He would resign, form his own military organisation known as the Neo Marines, and become its supreme commander. With only one goal in mind, he would seek to destroy the New World itself to erase the Great Treasure to bring an end to the Great Age of Pirates, and wipe out piracy entirely.
But all of that still lay decades in the future. Right now, Zephyr is only a Rear Admiral with a good heart who dreams of becoming a hero.
"Your warship shook, too?" Saul called back.
And just like that, both of them understood. There were no rocks beneath the ships, and they could neither see nor sense any creature attacking them.
Which meant that the cause of the shaking, and of these increasingly violent waves, had to be something else entirely.
The navigator aboard the warship stumbled forward, barely managing to keep his footing before speaking.
The navigator stumbled forward, barely keeping his footing, "This... this is probably an undersea earthquake or something!" he said. "The shock must've travelled through the water!"
In his opinion, that was the most logical explanation.
"An earthquake...?" Yuki repeated quietly.
She looked out toward the distant horizon where the faint rumble had come from. For some reason, she felt that something about this was not quite right. While an earthquake explained the shaking, lurching, and so on… but what was up with that loud sound in the distance?
Others might not have noticed it so clearly, but with her sharp hearing, Yuki definitely had. To her, the sound resembled cannon fire... or perhaps even a gunshot?
'But what kind of gunshot could sound like that from so far away...?' she wondered.
Just as she was trying to make sense of it, one of the sailors suddenly pointed toward the sky. "W-what... what's that?"
Everyone looked up and saw something streak through the sky at an absurd speed, whizzing at a certain angle diagonally to the ships in an instant before disappearing into the distance.
"That's... some was a strange bird... and it flew way too fast," Sailor A said.
Sailor B immediately scoffed. "Don't be stupid. That wasn't a bird. Birds don't look like that... and it didn't even have wings!"
"How can you be so sure it had no wings?" Sailor A shot back.
"Because I know what I saw," Sailor B replied. "It wasn't a bird. It had no wings."
"Oh really? If it wasn't a bird, then what was it?" Sailor A challenged.
"W-well..." Sailor B hesitated, suddenly unsure whether he should say it.
"What's wrong? Why are you silent now? I thought you knew what you saw," Sailor A taunted.
"Fine! I'll say it!" Sailor B snapped. "Rather than a bird... it looked more like a bullet!"
"A bullet? A bullet that fast? And that big?" Sailor A scoffed. "What are you talking about? Was it fired from a giant's rifle or something?"
But everyone knew giants did not use weapons like that. Giants preferred spears, axes, swords, and other massive melee weapons. A bullet that enormous made no sense at all.
"I'm telling you, I know what I saw," Sailor B insisted.
"Both of you... stop shouting in my ears!!!" Yuki suddenly snapped.
"S-sorry, Vice Admiral!" both sailors apologized at once. Yet even as they lowered their heads, they continued glaring at each other, sparks almost flying between their eyes.
Ignoring them, Yuki frowned and looked once more in the direction from which the object had come.
'That's the same direction the gunshot came from... and also the same direction that thing flew in from...'
Just then, she heard the sound again.
Her head snapped upward, and moments later she saw another object hurtling through the sky at an absurd speed. This time, however, it was not flying diagonally across the horizon. Its trajectory was almost parallel to their ships.
"Is that really... a bullet?" she murmured, raising her hand toward the sky.
Instantly, her fist turned snow-white as a massive amount of snow erupted from her arm, surging upward at incredible speed and taking the shape of a gigantic hand.
Fortunately, the object was not flying especially high above them, so she did not need to extend the snow too far. The giant hand quickly reached the proper height, and she immediately coated it entirely in Armament Haki.
Boom!
The instant the object collided with her Haki-covered snow hand, a deafening explosion rang out.
The kinetic force behind it was overwhelming. The object carried so much speed and power that the moment it struck, it generated tremendous heat. Parts of the giant snow hand began to melt at once despite the Armament Haki coating it, turning into streams of water that rained back down onto the deck.
And even then, it was not enough. The object continued trying to drill through the hand.
Yuki's expression tightened. "You are not going anywhere..." she muttered through gritted teeth.
The next moment, she transformed her entire body into snow and released even more of it.
As the user of the Yuki-Yuki no Mi… a Logia Devil Fruit, snow was something she would never lack. Vast amounts of it poured upward into the sky. Much of it melted into water or instantly evaporated into steam the moment it touched the object, but Yuki simply created more and more.
Finally, she managed to slow it down, seize it completely, and drag it down toward the ship.
At that time, Rear Admiral Zephyr also came over to their warship using a combination of Shave and Moonwalk, and all saw what was it that was flying.
"It's indeed a bullet…"
"Haaa… I said so…!" Sailor B immediately snorted.
"Tch…" Sailor A clicked his tongue.
Ignoring the arguing sailors, Yuki, Zephyr, and Saul focused their attention on the object.
It was indeed a bullet... and its size was even larger than Yuki herself.
"A bullet this large..." Zephyr murmured. "Then the gun that fired it must have been enormous as well. Only a giant could even use something like that."
But Saul shook his head. "Giants... we don't use guns."
"That may be true for the giants from your homeland in the South Blue," Zephyr replied. "But what about giants from other seas? Or the giants of Elbaf?"
Saul fell silent for a moment before answering, "I can't speak for every giant tribe in the world... but the giants of Elbaf probably do not. They're warriors, savages, really. Using something like a gun... they probably would not even think of it."
Zephyr chuckled faintly. "Maybe. But there are also Yeti Giants. I once met one before... and that guy used guns."
Saul opened his mouth, then closed it again. For once, he had no answer.
Zephyr spoke again. "Regardless of whether this bullet was fired by a giant from Elbaf, some other giant tribe, a Yeti Giant, or someone else entirely... one thing is certain. Someone is fighting in the distance."
"Yes," Yuki agreed. "And these tremors... they are probably the result of that battle as well. It's very possible that bullets like these are being fired directly into the sea, causing the shaking."
"So... what do we do?" Saul asked.
They were already on a mission: to locate the whereabouts of the Asmodeus Zechs Pirates. They had not been ordered to engage them, only to track their location.
"It could be Asmodeus Zechs," Zephyr suggested.
After all, they were not that far from the island where he had last been sighted. It was entirely possible that the battle in the distance involved him.
Now the decision rested with Vice Admiral Yuki. She was the senior-most officer present and the one in command.
Just as they were considering their next move, the massive bullet lying on the deck suddenly went poof and became engulfed in smoke.
Everyone immediately stepped back, fearing that it might be releasing poison gas or something equally dangerous.
But Vice Admiral Yuki did not retreat. Instead, her expression changed because she recognized that effect. It was not something dangerous, rather—
"This bullet..." Yuki murmured. "It's shrinking."
And sure enough, when the smoke cleared a moment later, the bullet, which had been larger than her entire body only moments ago, had shrunk down to the size of an ordinary bullet.
"Huh? What happened? How did it become small?" both Zephyr and Saul asked in confusion.
"I know who fired this bullet," Yuki said, her expression turning solemn. "It was a pirate named Byrnndi World."
"Byrnndi World?" Zephyr and Saul repeated, trying to remember the name.
It could not really be helped. There were simply too many pirates in the world for them to keep track of every single one. And this was still before the age that would later become known as the Great Pirate Era. Once that age arrived, the number of pirates sailing the Grand Line would increase several hundredfold.
Putting that aside, Yuki quickly explained who Byrnndi World was and described his abilities.
"This man is insane... and extremely dangerous," she said grimly. "The last time I encountered him, I barely managed to escape."
Even now, she still carries some lingering fear and trauma from that encounter.
"If he's that dangerous..." Zephyr said seriously, "Then we need to investigate. If he's attacking civilians… we can't ignore it."
At this point in his life, Zephyr had not yet become the hardened extremist he would one day turn into. The current Zephyr still dreamed of becoming a hero and possessed a strong sense of justice. He could not tolerate innocent people suffering.
Saul was much the same. His own sense of justice had been the reason he joined the Marines in the first place. If a pirate was harming innocent people, then it was their duty as Marines to stop him.
The suffering of people right in front of them came first. The mission came second.
Yuki trembled slightly, still feeling a trace of fear. But after taking a deep breath to steady herself, she gave the order. "Take the ships in the direction the bullets came from."
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