Sanji looked at Vivi, who was clearly trying to smile, but he could see the tears hiding behind her eyes.
"Princess, you don't need to blame yourself so much. You'll definitely be a good ruler someday," Igaram said softly, walking over to place a hand on her head.
But Vivi just shook her head. "I can't change anything... If it weren't for Luffy and everyone else, I..."
Luffy dusted himself off as he climbed out of the crater where he'd been sitting. His expression was suddenly serious.
"I've decided! Vivi, just tell me who this bastard leader is behind everything, I'll beat the crap out of him!"
Vivi's expression grew complicated. She smiled sadly and started to shake her head. "Luffy, actually..."
But before she could finish explaining of what they were up against, Luffy had already flopped down on the ground like a deflated balloon.
"I'm gonna sleep first. Wake me up when it's time to go!"
Within seconds, loud snores filled the air.
"Wait... Luffy?" Vivi stared at him.
Nami just laughed and shook her head. "It's no use. That's just how he is. When he's made up his mind about something, the details don't really matter to him."
Vivi opened her mouth but couldn't find the words. How could someone make such a decision and then immediately fall asleep?
Igaram looked at the scene and chuckled. "Are you people really pirates? You know, pirates don't normally do things like this."
Both Nami and Sanji laughed.
"We get that a lot," Nami said with a grin.
---
Meanwhile, back on the ship, Zoro stood on the deck staring into the distance. High above, a vulture and an otter were circling but hadn't landed yet.
"Must be Mr. 13 and Miss Friday. But from this distance, can I even reach them?"
Zoro's hand slowly moved to rest on Sandai Kitetsu's hilt. His breathing grew deeper and more focused.
A sharp wave of compressed air tore through the sky, but it fell short of its target by a considerable margin.
Mr. 13 and Miss Friday noticed the attack and immediately flew higher, well out of range.
"Damn... If it were Mihawk, how would he handle this?"
The pair continued to circle overhead, with the otter sketching rapidly, clearly recording the faces of the supposed traitors for their report back to Baroque Works.
"Come to think of it..." Zoro muttered. "He could block my attacks with just that tiny knife, and his blade didn't even get scratched. That had to be Armament Haki."
His gaze locked firmly on the two figures circling a thousand meters above.
As he controlled his breathing, a milky-white aura began to seep out around his body. The energy slowly flowed into Sandai Kitetsu's blade, and the cursed sword eagerly absorbed it, turning the aura a dark purple-black color.
"So this is the nature of a cursed blade..."
He sheathed his sword completely, gathering all his power.
SHING!
A flash of purple-black energy shot skyward like a bolt of dark lightning. Where the slash passed through the air, ghostly wails seemed to echo, as if the cursed blade was screaming with hunger.
The strike pierced straight through both members of Baroque Works.
But even with his improved technique, the distance was too great for a killing blow. The attack didn't finish them off immediately, though it left deep wounds that cut to the bone. Perhaps tainted by the cursed blade's malevolent aura, purple-black blood rained down from the sky.
"In the end... am I still too inexperienced?" Zoro sheathed his sword again, feeling the drain from the technique.
Sweat dripped from his forehead as the exhaustion hit him. "It's more tiring than I imagined. If that's the case, then real Haki must be even more demanding."
He headed to the ship's storage area where they kept supplies. Pulling out several pieces of grilled fish, he ate them while washing the food down with some of the experimental alcohol that Marcus and Sanji had been brewing together using fruits.
It was still in the testing phase. After all, MC fruits didn't spoil naturally, so the normal fermentation process had to be completely reimagined.
"It's just sugar water," Zoro muttered, smacking his lips. But he kept drinking anyway. Even if it wasn't real alcohol, it still tasted better than plain water.
---
Meanwhile, back on the island, Usopp, Kira, Alvida, and the others had already started celebrating with a banquet. Marcus' healing food hadn't just restored their wounds, it had brought them back from near-death. With their energy completely restored, of course a feast was inevitable.
The sounds of celebration drifted all the way to Cactus Rock. Luffy, who had been napping, immediately woke up when he caught the smell of food and appeared at the party like magic.
The festive atmosphere helped wash away much of the gloom from the earlier battle.
While everyone else was celebrating, Marcus quietly pulled out a diamond pickaxe, then immediately felt a bit of regret looking at it.
Even though it was only made from three diamonds, that still represented over six thousand EMC points, savings he'd worked hard to build up through endless fishing sessions.
"I should stick with an iron pickaxe. I can't afford to waste diamond tools," he muttered, switching back to iron. He had plenty of iron stockpiled, enough to last quite a while.
Why not just convert all the iron into EMC? He wasn't stupid. If he converted it in and then tried to convert it back out, he'd lose half the value in the process. Unless it was urgent, that would be wasteful. As for selling everything to buy a Devil Fruit...
He could do that, but there wasn't really a need. Even if he managed to buy one, none of his current crewmates seemed interested in eating a Devil Fruit at the moment.
Nami definitely wouldn't eat one. Between Sanji and Zoro, Sanji might consider it but Zoro absolutely wouldn't. Sanji had even mentioned his preference once, if he could choose, it would be the Clear-Clear Fruit for obvious reasons.
The Bomb-Bomb Fruit they'd looted was completely out of the question for anyone.
That left only Usopp, and honestly, the explosive powers would suit him perfectly. A sniper with explosive powers? That combination would be absolutely devastating in combat.
That had been exactly why Marcus chose to take down Mr. 5 in the first place.
He began his mining operation, quickly digging down through the rocky layers. But soon, he stopped and stared.
The iron ore distribution beneath the island was completely abnormal.
"What the hell is going on here?"
He was confused. He'd just activated Vein Mining, and with a single strike of his pickaxe, over three hundred blocks of iron ore had appeared in his inventory.
Sticking a few torches into the walls for better visibility, he examined the mineral deposits more carefully.
Gradually, he began to understand what was happening. The Grand Line's islands were magnetically linked to each other through their Log Poses. This had to be because each island contained massive amounts of iron and other magnetic ores buried deep underground.
But under his powerful Minecraft abilities, everything seemed to be getting forcibly converted into iron ore blocks.
That explained why, when he'd first met Alvida, he hadn't mined any other types of ore. Before acquiring Vein Mining, he simply hadn't been able to "render" ores using his MC powers at all.
But now... He ran his hand along the blocky surface of the iron ore wall.
The square, pixelated pattern of the iron ore disappeared under his touch, reverting to ordinary gray-brown stone.
"So it really works... I can manually disable the mod effect. But it seems like the range is limited, and only applies to blocks I touch."
Looking back down the tunnel, he could see that the ore further away still maintained its iron appearance. Items that had already been influenced by his ability seemed to stay that way permanently, whether he was sleeping, unconscious, or otherwise occupied.
He thought about this for a moment, then reactivated the mod. For now, he had no choice but to treat all these other ores as iron. After all, the only advanced equipment he had was his Transmutation Tablet, no additional tech mods. Even if different types of ore appeared, he wouldn't be able to make use of them anyway.
He continued digging deeper into the island's core.
Before long, he struck something different, a vein of bright blue blocks that definitely wasn't iron.
"Lapis lazuli! Looks like I can finally try enchanting now. But doesn't enchanting consume experience points? What if using it breaks the mod somehow?" he wondered anxiously, examining the blue ore.