Inside the house, after confirming no one was around, the fish-man Tom pulled out a stack of blueprints from behind a battered iron cabinet.
He handed them to Iceburg and Franky, and the three of them sat around the table.
Iceburg and Franky stared at the designs and parameters on the blueprints.
Shock was written all over their faces. Even their hands trembled as they held the papers:
"This... this is impossible!"
"Humans can actually build something like this?!"
Tom said seriously:
"This is the most fearsome monster in shipbuilding history..."
"The government has already sensed the existence of these blueprints."
"It's too dangerous in my hands."
"If the government gets them..."
Iceburg snapped out of his shock:
"I see..."
"I understand..."
"I'll take care of them."
Franky said excitedly from the side:
"Iceburg! Let's build it!"
Smack—
A firm slap landed on Franky's head. Iceburg said:
"Do you ever think before you talk?"
"Idiot."
"I'll be the one to keep this safe. It must never see the light of day."
"If it leaks out..."
Tom continued:
"The world will perish..."
But then, his serious expression suddenly shifted:
"Hahahahaha, but it has nothing to do with me anymore."
"Whatever you choose to do is up to you."
"If it becomes too dangerous, just throw it away."
The two were stunned. Something this important...
"Tom-san..."
Tom took a deep breath:
"By the way, there's another thing that's been troubling me."
He placed a wanted poster of Robin on the table, giving them a solemn warning...
Far away, atop a high tower, Enel sat up:
"Ancient script, huh..."
...
Late at night.
In the small house on Scrap Island.
Tom and his crew were already fast asleep.
At some point, a faint white mist filled the entire room.
It completely anesthetized everyone inside.
Moments later.
The iron door handle twisted open on its own.
Enel, who had taken the antidote beforehand, swaggered inside.
He headed straight for the place where Iceburg had temporarily hidden the blueprints.
Under Enel's powerful Observation Haki, all of their previous actions and conversations had been like a live broadcast...
Snap—
He casually snapped his fingers.
A ball of lightning floated in front of him, lighting up the room.
He pulled out the hidden blueprints and gave them a quick scan, nearly getting lost in them...
"Hiss..."
"This technology..."
His reaction was just as shocked as theirs had been earlier.
He hadn't thought much of it before seeing them, but after looking at the detailed blueprints, he realized... their shock wasn't fake.
This thing was completely absurd...
Without delaying the real job, he pulled out a special Den Den Mushi and dialed.
On the other end, Vegapunk answered instantly:
"How is it, Enel?"
Enel set the Den Den Mushi down, facing the blueprints:
"I've got them."
He let the Den Den Mushi scan each page one by one.
Over at Vegapunk's underground base.
On a massive display screen, one blueprint after another appeared in order.
Before long, the entire screen was filled, with more still coming in.
Vegapunk gave each page a quick glance, inspiration sparking in his mind as he went.
At that moment, Sakazuki also joined the call. Seeing the two so busy, he didn't interrupt, simply waiting patiently...
...
Half an hour later...
Enel stretched after scanning the last page:
"All pages scanned."
As he spoke, Vegapunk on the other end closed his eyes.
The blueprints he had just seen pieced themselves together in his mind, becoming real components assembling themselves.
After a moment, he opened his eyes, sighing:
"An almost perfect design."
"What a pity... what a pity..."
Sakazuki said:
"Pity what?"
"Are the blueprints fake?"
Vegapunk looked at the designs on the screen:
"They're real."
"The pity is that many of the materials no longer exist in the world."
"And even if we found them, building this would probably still be impossible."
"The cost of constructing it would be terrifyingly high..."
"Even if we invested all the Heavenly Tribute collected worldwide each year..."
"It would take several years..."
"Far too difficult."
Sakazuki nodded. He wasn't surprised. So it was true, after all...
Enel shook the blueprints in his hand:
"What about these blueprints and those guys?"
Sakazuki said:
"Put the blueprints back. As for those people, leave them alone."
Knowing the contents was enough. Even if these things ended up in anyone else's hands, they couldn't build it anyway.
Even pouring years of Heavenly Tribute into it wouldn't be enough. Who besides the World Government could build it? And even they couldn't actually make it.
If they cut off the Heavenly Tribute to build a warship, the Celestial Dragons would be the first to revolt...
Enel nodded:
"Understood."
He hung up, put the blueprints back, walked to the door, and pulled out a small black mechanical sphere, pressing a button.
Hiss—
A faint purple mist filled the room, lifting the anesthesia...
He pushed the door open.
Click-click—
Two crisp sounds as the iron handle locked itself again...
...
On the Den Den Mushi video call.
Only Sakazuki and Vegapunk remained.
Sakazuki looked at the absorbed Vegapunk and asked:
"Can the missing materials be substituted?"
Vegapunk paused, frowned slightly, then nodded:
"Of course. That's not a problem."
"Given enough time, replacements can always be found."
"But you're not actually thinking of building one, are you?"
"That's impossible."
It wasn't paranoia—no power in this world could build it. The costs were simply too massive...
Sakazuki's eyes narrowed:
"I have an idea..."
"If we scaled it down by a factor of a hundred, what are the chances of building it?"
Vegapunk said:
"Scaling it down would reduce the cost greatly."
"Especially the critical components—the smaller the scale, the greater the savings."
"But once it's scaled down, it loses much of its meaning."
At full size, it could destroy an island with a single shot. At a hundredth the size, its power would shrink as well...
At one-hundredth scale... it would just be a super warship.
Sakazuki smiled faintly:
"The most unreasonable thing in this world is the Devil Fruits."
He held up a Devil Fruit he had kept for years, showing it to the camera:
"Paramecia—More-More Fruit."
"One of its abilities is to enlarge anything the user touches by a factor."
"Up to..."
"One hundred times..."
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The fanfic is Finished on p@treon/tambeerg. 414 chapters in total