Ezekiel had been waiting for months for Luffy to appear. Was it possible he wouldn't make it to Alabasta at all?
After all, there were several different routes on the Grand Line. Vivi wouldn't meet the Straw Hats as she did in the original story, which meant they might choose a different route instead of heading to Alabasta.
Perhaps, because of Ezekiel's influence, the Straw Hats' journey would be a little different.
...
Zoro stared seriously at both of them, especially the blind samurai… There was an indescribable and powerful aura about him.
Along the way from East Blue, he had faced countless foes and rivals. The only person who had ever put this much pressure on him was the world's greatest swordsman, the Shichibukai known as Hawk Eye Mihawk, whom he fought back in East Blue.
His swordsman's instincts told him that the man standing before him was definitely terrifying.
"Your Majesty, it was the only way to put out the fire," the blind samurai said respectfully, carefully lifting Ryuma's body and addressing Ezekiel.
Is their goal the corpse of this swordsman, Ryuma?
"It's fine," Ezekiel glanced at the dragon-slaying swordsman's ruined body, broken into countless bones, and merely twitched the corner of his mouth. That was enough.
"Are you with that idiot?" When Zoro saw the crown and heard "Your Majesty," he thought of Princess Perona.
"Young man, you stand before the King of Alabasta, the most powerful kingdom in the world—not some companion of the woman you're thinking of," said Fujitora, clearly wanting to skewer this rude man with his blade.
He… is the King of Alabasta? That country… I think I've heard of it somewhere before, but why are they here? Is it because of this corpse?" Zoro glanced at Ezekiel, lost in thought.
At that moment, Fujitora suddenly froze in terror. It was a natural reaction that meant a far more powerful being had just appeared nearby. Fujitora sensed a mighty and terrifying presence.
A massive giant—was it really Oars?!
Fujitora immediately stepped in front of Ezekiel, raising his sword defensively. In an instant, the castle on the opposite side exploded into countless stones.
"Reverse Gravity!"
The stones went flying in the opposite direction.
A thunderous roar echoed from afar. Zoro looked up and saw a huge body looming behind the castle. The stones didn't even tickle the giant. Just as the dust settled, the giant slowly turned and locked his gaze on Ezekiel.
Oars, the Continent Pusher!
After 500 years, he had returned to the world once more!
Zoro was stunned by the sight of this terrifying giant.
"This guy must have been incredibly strong when he was alive," Fujitora observed, looking at the almost untouched body.
His body was shielded by ice and snow, yet even on its own it could maintain this terrifying state after 500 years. No wonder he was the devil who shook the world five centuries ago.
"Grab them for me!" Gekko Moria shouted, giving the order to Oars.
Oars slowly turned his head when he heard those words and gazed in a certain direction. A rubbery fist stretched out and punched him in the face.
"That hurts. That hurts…"
His movements were extremely sluggish—a weakness of a zombie's body.
Luffy was breathing heavily, and after just a few minutes of fighting such a giant, he felt tremendous pressure. Even though his opponent's moves were clumsy, Oars still possessed the abilities of the Rubber Fruit, and his strength was terrifying.
"Gomu-Gomu…"
Oars' massive fist turned rubbery and struck Luffy's body, smashing through several of the castle's walls. If not for Armament Haki, Luffy might have died on the spot.
"Luffy!" Usopp was so scared that snot began trickling down from his nose.
"Luffy!" That was Brook shouting.
A worried expression appeared on Sanji's face.
The woman with long blue hair pulled back the hood of her cloak, revealing a face Ezekiel would always recognize. Even though her hair was blue, she was his sister—Vivi.
"Trust our captain!" she declared.
Ezekiel was taken aback at the sight of Vivi. It was surprising enough that the Straw Hats' route had changed. Strange... Together with Vivi, they were supposed to end up in Alabasta. How had they found themselves at Thriller Bark instead?
Vivi and Katakuri watched the battle between the giant and Luffy.
Because of Katakuri's sister, Lola, the three of them had come to this island. After drifting at sea for a long time, Katakuri suddenly remembered that his sister Lola had ended up at Thriller Bark a while ago. If Big Mom reached Lola first, she would no doubt kill her; it was better they found Lola before that happened.
"Katakuri! Traitor!" At that moment, a terrifying voice suddenly thundered from the sky.
Hearing that sound, Luffy, who was fighting, felt his whole body go numb.
"What is that? What a disgusting voice!" he stuck out his tongue in disgust.
Ezekiel raised an eyebrow; of course he recognized the voice—it belonged to one of the Four Emperors, Big Mom, Charlotte Linlin!
Why had she shown up here at this moment?
"The situation's looking rather grim. Will Ezekiel really have to stop that madwoman?" Fujitora was as tense as could be.
"No matter how you run, sooner or later you'll have to face me!"
This time, Katakuri had no way out.
Ezekiel knew very well that one of Katakuri's younger sisters, Lola, was on this island. If he ran away now, Lola would be trapped. On top of that, they couldn't take her without first recovering her shadow—that would also be a dead end.
In other words, there were only two ways to resolve this crisis: first, defeat Big Mom; second, defeat the Warlord Gecko Moria, free Lola's shadow, and then take her with them.
Obviously, neither of these was truly possible, because for Katakuri, defeating his own mother was out of the question—let alone dealing with the issue of Gecko Moria in such a short amount of time!