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With the plan for the next few years set, the Thunder God Palace emptied.
The seven division commanders departed, each returning to their own territory to lock it down and repel any opportunistic challengers.
Redfield, however, remained on Raijin Island. He settled into a quiet, aristocratic life, much to the surprise of the crew.
It turned out that, for all his monstrous reputation, he was a recluse at his core. A day spent with classical music, a bottle of fine wine, and the morning paper was, to him, a day well spent.
As for Arthur, after a private conference with Vegapunk, he took the scientist and Jessica and set a course for Punk Hazard—the industrial island where the Thor was being reborn.
A few days later, news arrived that shocked even him.
Doflamingo had actually pulled it off. He had walked into Big Mom's territory and successfully traded the Gummy-Gummy Fruit for the Mirror-Mirror Fruit.
It was an impressive, almost unbelievable feat. To get a Yonko to return something she'd already been given—and to walk away unharmed—was a testament to Doflamingo's cunning.
By the beginning of 1504, the Mirror-Mirror Fruit was in Arthur's hands.
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Punk Hazard had once been a lush, spring island strategically located near the Red Line. But its magnetic field was a chaotic, unpredictable mess, impossible to log.
This made it useless for navigation and, therefore, the perfect, hidden research base for the Marines. Vegapunk had set up his primary lab here, stocked with an endless supply of death-row prisoners to serve as human guinea pigs.
Eventually, Vegapunk had abandoned whatever catastrophic experiment he was running, and the island had been left to rot—until Arthur claimed it.
In the past three years, Vegapunk had transformed the island.
The original, vibrant ecosystem was gone, paved over and buried under a sprawling, nightmarish metropolis of steel and smog.
Giant, impossibly large mechanical arms dominated the skyline. They moved with a life of their own, operated by unseen engineers, lifting massive, refined-gold plates and slotting them into the skeletal framework of the vessel that would one day be the Thor War Fortress.
The new design was a world apart from the old Thor. That had been a ship.
This was a statement. A colossal, island-sized sphere.
Its internal schematics detailed dozens of levels, each with its own self-contained, artificial ecosystem. It was designed to be completely self-sufficient, capable of sustaining its crew even in the black, airless void of space.
But it was a long, long way from finished. After three years of relentless work, only the massive "U"-shaped foundation was complete. At this rate, finishing the damn thing would take another ten, maybe twenty years.
Even as a skeleton, its scale was breathtaking.
The foundation alone was so vast that it completely blotted out the sky above Punk Hazard. It was a project so vast it had abandoned human labor entirely, relying instead on Vegapunk's futuristic technology.
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"It's magnificent," Jessica breathed, her voice filled with awe.
She stood with Arthur and Vegapunk, touring the unfinished superstructure. The sight of something so far beyond the scope of human imagination shook even her Marine-forged composure.
"When it's finished..." Vegapunk said, his hands clasped behind his back, his voice betraying a rare flicker of pride, "—it will hang in the sky like a second sun. That will be magnificent."
Even after four years of daily supervision, the sight still impressed him. He turned to Arthur.
"Captain. Have you considered my proposal? Join my lab. Let me show you how to properly develop the Rumble-Rumble Fruit. I've already mapped out the next phases of your development—"
Years ago, the news that Arthur had eaten that fruit was what had driven Vegapunk to visit Impel Down in the first place.
Back then, he was still leashed by the World Government, powerless to act. Cooperation was his only option.
Electronics...
Electromagnetism...
The very building blocks of scientific progress. The Rumble-Rumble Fruit was, quite simply, the most perfect research tool in existence. Bar none.
Even Vegapunk, a man who dismissed most Devil Fruits as crude, primitive toys, couldn't resist this one. Since he couldn't have it, Vegapunk settled for the next best thing: using Arthur as a conduit to prove his theories.
For a true scientist, it didn't matter who conducted the experiment. All that mattered was the result. The world had its limits; science did not.
"The crew is stable," Arthur clapped him on the shoulder, a grin on his face. "We need a few years to consolidate our territory. So, I'm all yours. I hope you don't disappoint me."
"My science is sound," Vegapunk said with absolute confidence. "—As long as your ability to comprehend isn't lacking, success is guaranteed. My reputation for being five hundred years ahead of my time is not an exaggeration."
Arthur trusted him. He raised his left hand, and from the storage dimension within his Pure Gold bracelet, he withdrew the Pluton blueprints.
"Speaking of which," he said, handing the ancient documents to the stunned scientist. "Redfield and I made a stop at Water 7. Figured you could use these. See if there's anything you can salvage for the War Fortress."
"Oh? You actually got them?" Vegapunk's eyes lit up. He snatched the blueprints, his stoic demeanor vanishing, and immediately sat down on the grimy steel floor, completely absorbed.
Arthur and Jessica exchanged a look.
'Talented people are always eccentric.' Arthur understood. This fervor for science was the same as his own thirst for a good fight.
Vegapunk sat there for a full day and night. Jessica, despite her superhuman stamina, eventually gave up and went to find quarters.
Only Arthur and the scientist remained.
Finally, Vegapunk looked up, his eyes shining, looking more refreshed than if he'd slept for a week.
"This is a perfect weapon," he breathed. "I suspect this technology... it wasn't developed by the ancients. I think it might be from the moon."
To see technology so far beyond the current era had invigorated him. He stood, stretched, and then his brow furrowed in thought.
"The blueprints are genuine. It would work. But it's not designed for sustained combat... I'm almost certain there's a missing component. A separate power system."
He tapped the schematics. "Pluton is extraordinary. A conventional power source could move it, yes. But to power it in a real war... it would need a super-reactor."
"Electricity could work, theoretically. But with its energy demands, you'd have to recharge it every other day. And that's just for Pluton. The War Fortress... which is exponentially larger and more powerful... will need something more."
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