Location: Open Sea — A Day After the Battle
The waves had calmed, but the ship was silent.
Even the ever-lively Shanks was quiet as he sat beside Toni on the deck railing, legs dangling over the open ocean. A bandage wrapped around his arm from a shallow cut. Buggy napped nearby, still groaning about bruises.
Toni held his wooden sword in his lap, eyes cast low.
"You were amazing yesterday," Shanks said, breaking the silence. "I thought I was getting strong, but you…"
Toni didn't reply. His grip on the sword tightened.
"I could feel the wind moving around you," Shanks went on. "Like it was… listening."
Still no answer.
Finally, Toni whispered, "I didn't want to hurt anyone. But when I fight… it's like something inside takes over."
Shanks blinked. "You mean the haki?"
Toni shook his head. "No. It's not just that. My hands move before I think. My body remembers pain I never lived. My sword… sings when blood touches it."
He looked up, meeting Shanks's gaze. "What am I?"
Shanks stared at him for a moment, then smiled gently. "You're Toni. That's all that matters."
Captain's Quarters – That Night
Roger, Rayleigh, and Gaban studied a weathered log pose and a torn piece of parchment taken from Baron Dreadmoore's ship.
"What do you think?" Rayleigh asked.
Roger ran a hand through his hair. "The glyphs match the old tongue… the kind that only appears on poneglyphs."
"Look here," Gaban pointed. "This symbol… same as the one carved on Toni's blade hilt."
Roger grinned. "Then we've got a destination."
Rayleigh raised a brow. "Eltheris?"
Roger nodded. "Island of Ruins. They say it was wiped off the charts during the Void Century. No government, no records. But the winds remember it."
"And you think Toni's connected to it?"
Roger looked toward the upper deck, where Toni stood alone beneath the stars.
"I don't think. I know."
Location: Eltheris – A Week Later
The island rose like a graveyard of giants. Towering broken stone arches jutted from the jungle like ribs of a fallen god. No birds. No beasts. Just the wind.
The Oro Jackson anchored just off the coast.
Roger, Rayleigh, Shanks, Buggy, and Toni came ashore, weapons drawn.
They found the first ruin half-buried in vines, ancient carvings covering the stone like tattoos. Poneglyph fragments littered the earth, broken and scorched.
"Something happened here," Shanks whispered. "A battle?"
"No," Rayleigh said grimly. "A massacre."
Toni stepped toward a broken monolith.
His breath caught.
He didn't read the words carved into the stone. He remembered them.
"We sang to the stars. We carved the truth in stone. But the heavens fell, and only blades remained."
The words were from his dream.
Suddenly—
A gust of wind. Heavy. Unnatural.
Toni's eyes snapped shut.
The ruins shifted in his mind, becoming whole again—towers restored, fires burning, voices crying. He saw warriors in white armor, swords like his, dying one by one before a black-cloaked figure.
Then—he saw himself.
Or rather, a boy like him, older… with eyes like fire.
"Awaken, Mythblade. The war isn't over."
He snapped back to reality, falling to his knees. Shanks rushed to his side.
"Toni!"
But something had changed.
The wooden sword at Toni's side… cracked.
A faint glow escaped the fracture.
Roger knelt beside him. "That wasn't just a vision, was it?"
Toni looked up slowly, voice trembling. "I think… I've been here before."
Rayleigh's brows furrowed. "That's impossible."
"No," Roger said. "He's not reliving memories. He's reliving echoes—of a time before even the Void."
That Night — By the Campfire
As the crew set up a temporary camp, Toni sat away from the fire, cradling the fractured blade. Shanks joined him.
"You know," Shanks said, "maybe your sword cracked because it's not the right one."
Toni looked at him. "What do you mean?"
Shanks grinned. "Maybe your real sword's waiting to be found. Or maybe it's waiting for you to become strong enough to draw it."
A soft wind passed through the ruins.
And deep within the island…
Something answered.
A long, faint hum echoed from the jungle heart.
The sword was calling.
And Toni would answer.