1) Alabasta at Dawn (Epilogue, Parting, and a Promise)
Alubarna woke softer, as if the city had slept in for the first time in years. Wind pushed prayer flags instead of smoke. Fountains ran without being guarded. Out in the palace gardens, the date palms twitched with the gossip of sparrows.
Vegito stood with Vivi and King Cobra beneath a shaded colonnade, the stone cool underfoot. Nico Robin lingered nearby, watching the sunrise like it was a text she could read.
"You're sure?" Cobra asked, voice steady, eyes shining. He'd aged five years in the last five days, then lost ten in the last hour.
Vegito nodded. "Only if you want it. Only if she would, too."
Vivi's hands tightened together, then relaxed. "I want my mother to see what Alabasta can be."
He raised his right hand. The garden held its breath. Light flowered from his palm—quiet, white-gold; the color of forgiven mistakes. It threaded through flagstones and roots, found laughter in old walls, tears that had fed cacti, promises written in lullabies.
The air rippled.
She stepped through the light as if from another room. Warm brown skin. Hair that had learned how to be both crown and curtain. A smile that knew which corners of a home collect guilt and how to sweep them clean with a joke.
"Nefertari Titi," Cobra whispered, as if the name could float and he didn't want to scare it.
Vivi didn't say a word. She ran. Arms. Breath. The sound a heart makes when it gets back a shape it had been trying to draw in air for years.
Titi laughed and reached, folding both into one long embrace. When she finally looked up at Vegito, there was none of the awe or fear he sometimes saw—just the brisk, maternal assessment of a woman who planned menus in her head while rerouting kingdoms with gentle thumbs.
"You brought me back in time to scold my husband about his blood pressure," she said, then hugged Cobra hard enough to make him cough and weep simultaneously. "Thank you."
Robin watched, chin tucked slightly down. The Infinite Library aboard Heaven's Embrace had already taught her a cruel truth: for some miracles, without context the world will call the wrong thing blasphemy. She caught Vegito's eye and he tipped two fingers: not a secret, a stewardship.
He left the family to their breaths and took Cobra aside later—down a private hall, under reliefs that knew more than they were allowed to show.
"About Queen Lily… about the void they pretend was never there," Vegito said gently. "You mustn't say her name to the wrong ears. Not yet."
Cobra's mouth thinned. "Because they will burn my people to protect a story."
"Because they already tried," Vegito said. "And because when the bell rings for real, I want you and Vivi to be standing, not hiding."
Cobra nodded like a swordsman finally accepting a heavier blade. "We will be ready."
2) World Government: Five Men, One Shadow, and a Word They Feared
In Pangaea Castle, in that sterile round room where power pretends to be wisdom, five robes whispered as the men inside them sat.
Saint Jaygarcia Saturn, Warrior God of Science and Defense, adjusted his glasses with two fingers that had sent wars to college and taught them to speak politely. Saint Marcus Mars (Environment), Saint Topman Warcury (Justice), Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro (Finance), and Saint Shepherd Ju Peter (Agriculture) watched a Den Den Mushi projection play—a woman reentering the world on a ribbon of light, and a king who forgot how to breathe for a moment and then remembered better.
"This is not a Devil Fruit," Saturn said at last. He didn't sound awed. He sounded offended. "This is a… violation."
Warcury's jaw worked. "A man who can undo us."
"Everything we defined with death," Mars murmured, "he can annotate."
Finance steepled his fingers. "Imagine the economics of fear if any martyr can be given a second speech."
Agriculture's voice was a papercut. "Imagine the harvest if the fields we salted grow again."
They looked up when the room cooled. A shadow fell that had nothing to do with light.
On the empty throne-that-is-not-empty, a presence settled: Imu—not king, not queen, not god; the shape that tells kings when to kneel.
Imu's voice didn't move the air. It pressed it down. "A man who refuses endings," they said, and even the giant roots below the castle listened. "Terrifying."
A long pause. Somewhere deep below, something ancient turned over once in its sleep.
Imu's head tilted, almost amused. "Find the shape of him," they said, "and break it. Quietly. Loudly if you must."
Relief disguised itself as resolve around the table.
"Prepare Seraphim assets," Saturn said. "A science problem deserves a science answer."
"Send CP," Warcury said. "If they die, we'll call it justice."
"Raise his price," Nusjuro said. "Make courage expensive."
"Choke his food," Ju Peter said. "Starve his story."
Mars' eyes didn't leave the screen. "Pray the sky hates him."
Imu watched the woman on the projection laugh again like a bell in a courtyard. A finger tapped the throne's arm once, twice. "He will ring the wrong bells," Imu said softly. "Be on the rope when he reaches."
3) Marine HQ: Sengoku's Quiet Cursing, Garp's Loud One
At Marineford, the air tasted like steel, ink, and discipline.
Sengoku read three reports at once: Crocodile eliminated (his cigar ash would never touch another carpet), Alabasta stabilized with no Marine flag claiming credit, and a whispered unsourced note in a side margin: Nefertari Titi sighted. He took off his glasses. Put them back on. Took them off again because the second time felt better.
"He's undoing knots we tied and unfortunately… some we didn't," he murmured.
Garp barreled through the doorway without knocking, carrying a sack of donuts like evidence. "BWAHAHA! So the new kid's turning Warlords into fertilizer." He thumped the desk. "I like him."
"You like breakage," Sengoku said, but his mouth twitched. He tapped the paper's edge. "If this… revival rumor is true, it changes how we do mercy. And threats."
Garp chomped a donut with philosophical violence. "Or it changes how we do humans," he said around crumbs. "Some people need a second round."
Sengoku stared at the map. "He's pushing. If he keeps this pace, by the time he reaches the New World he'll have the world writing his name on their children's hands so they don't forget it." He sighed. "Keep your eye on him."
Garp grinned. "I like watching meteors."
4) Bounties in Ink, Laughter in a Palace
The News Coo banked hard over Alubarna and scattered posters like confetti. Street kids scrambled. Palace guards peered, then did a double take, then a triple.
Nami snagged one mid-air, rolled it open with a flourish, and whistled so bright it made the fountain clap.
WANTEDVEGITO400,000,000 BERRIESFor the assassination of Warlord Sir Crocodile, the destabilization of Baroque Works, the alleged use of prohibited revival phenomena, unlawful aerial navigation, suspected unknown-class Devil Fruit, and continued general catastrophe.
The likeness was annoyingly handsome again. Vegito saluted himself. "I didn't even pose this time."
Other sheets fanned:
Nico Robin – 79,000,000 (Reactivated: Ohara Demon; affiliation with new pirate captain confirms threat.)
Zala (Miss Doublefinger) – 42,000,000 (former Baroque Works Officer Agent; now worse)
Mikita (Miss Valentine) – 22,000,000 (dangerous umbrella)
Nami – 30,000,000 (brains; theft; storms obey her and we're jealous)
Kuina – 60,000,000 (unregistered swordswoman; breakage of bamboo laws; too sharp)
Reiju – 50,000,000 (Germa exfiltration; poison/antidote expertise; pink hazard)
Kaya – 15,000,000 (medical anomalies)
Tony Tony Chopper – 50 BELLI (Pet. Suspicious.)
Chopper puffed up. "I'm terrifying!"
Bell-mère framed the 50-belli poster again and put it on their cabin wall next to the Drum version. "We collect these."
Vivi's sheet wasn't a bounty. It was a proclamation: Princess Nefertari Vivi—Patron of the People, with a hand-stamped seal. She touched it and smiled a smile that had sleep in it for the first time.
"Your Majesty," Vegito teased lightly.
"Captain," she returned, softer.
That night the palace sang. Titi danced with Vivi; Cobra tried twice and slipped into laughing at himself. Vegito gave Sora a tray of pickled plums with a bow that made the palace ladies cover their mouths. Nami and Mikita cheated at cards against each other and called it "strategy." Zala asked Kuina if she preferred to cut on the inhale or the exhale and Kuina said "Yes," and they laughed like blades comparing reflections.
At midnight, under a balcony lantern, Tashigi and Hina arrived in coats that said official and faces that said curious.
Hina's eyes flicked over the crew, then snagged on Vegito. "You're the storm," she said simply.
"Sometimes," he said. "Sometimes I bring umbrellas."
Tashigi stopped dead when she saw Kuina. The world did that optical illusion thing where two almost-identical paintings flickered. Kuina inclined her head. Tashigi, throat working, bowed.
"We'll talk after," Kuina said softly.
"We will," Tashigi breathed.
By morning, both Marines had made a choice that would cost them their insignia and buy them a future: Hina folded into the crew with a crooked smile and an even crookeder justice; Tashigi came with paperwork that said transfer and eyes that said home.
(Your earlier plot note wanted Hina & Tashigi recruited here; consider it done.)
5) The Island That Laughed Wrong
Mock Town on Jaya was a grin missing teeth. Shanties piled atop taverns; taverns piled atop stories told by men who had forgotten how to dream without hating it. Signs creaked. Laughter crashed against walls and came back thinner.
"Heads down," Bell-mère said. "We're here to listen, not teach… unless they ask for it with their fists."
They asked quickly.
A cluster of hyenas in human skin took one look at the women, the coats, the easy smiles, and smelled sport.
"Newcomers!" one in a pink feathered vest crowed, elbows wide. "Mock Town welcomes idiots and liars! Which are you?"
"Hungry," Vegito said cheerfully. "Is there a special?"
"Bellamy," Robin murmured, amused, "the one who thinks gravity is sarcasm."
Bellamy swaggered closer, liquid in the bones. "Sky islands? Golden bells? Dreams? Only children and cowards believe in up." He bounced—literally—springs coiling in calves, boots hissing, his Devil Fruit turning mockery into propulsion. "Down is where the money is."
Vegito tilted his head, tail swishing. "You're working so hard to make the world small, my guy."
Bellamy laughed in his face. "What's your proof of 'up,' birdman? A fancy coat?"
Vegito stepped aside. Heaven's Embrace rolled a wingtip out from behind the cloud it had been napping in, cast a shadow that drew every eye like a stage light.
"Ooooooh," the crowd said, in the key of awe-betraying-contempt.
Bellamy launched, fist corkscrewing, springing off a wall, kinetic, stupid, fast.
Vegito didn't move.
He let the punch touch his cheek like an overfamiliar breeze. He raised one hand and tapped Bellamy on the forehead with a finger.
Bellamy went down like a question answered rudely.
No jeering. No stomp. No speech. Vegito just walked past him to the bar and ordered milk for Chopper and water for himself because sometimes humiliation is best served room temperature.
"Pay your tab," he told Bellamy over his shoulder. "And then pay your people."
Mont Blanc Cricket found them after the second round of mockery they refused to order. He stood in the doorway like a man ovary-deep in stubborn. Scars. Goggles pushed up. A laugh he didn't get to use often.
"You handled them," he said, peering at Vegito, then the ship, then the sky. His voice broke on wonder he tried to fold into a joke. "You here to tell me my ancestor wasn't a liar?"
"I'm here to ring a bell for a ghost with calluses," Vegito said. "And to borrow your map."
Cricket squinted. "Map?"
"The one you haven't drawn because everyone laughed," Vegito said. "To the Knock Up Stream. We're going to the sky."
Silence. Then Cricket grinned, sharp as a hook. "Then you'll need a South Bird."
6) The Bird Who Swore Like a Sailor
The forest took back Mock Town within four paces. Green slapped the air. Vines practiced knots on trees. Somewhere deep, a drumline of wings rolled.
"Keep your eyes open," Bell-mère warned. "This island bites."
A South Bird obliged—plump, imperious, crest like an opinion. It led them a merry, insulting chase; Chopper fell in a bush and refused to be rescued until someone promised a sticker. Kuina stepped on air with Geppo to cut it off; the bird hopped sideways and called her a rude name in Bird. Nami bribed it with candied citrus, and the bird pretended to be above such things while eating every single piece.
"You're hired," Vegito told it. It insulted his coat and perched on the figurehead anyway.
At Cricket's shack, writing spilled across a worktable in the frantic hand of a man who'd been living on the edge of mockery and science for too long. Vegito put a hand on his shoulder.
"When you hear the bell," he said, "you'll feel it in your bones."
Cricket blinked hard. "Tell Noland thanks."
"I intend to tell his descendants," Vegito said. "With volume."
7) Sky's Door
The sea started whispering up miles before the column. Fish fled in the wrong direction. Clouds hunched lower, thickening with something like intent.
"There," Robin said, pointing—a patch of ocean boiling white, circling, spiraling, while the barometer did a dance Nami found personally insulting. The Knock Up Stream gathered itself like a breath being held too long.
"Strap in," Nojiko barked. "Sora, sit. Feet up. Pickles down."
Sora, serenely snacking, saluted with a pickle. "Aye, aye."
Heaven's Embrace dropped ballast. Runes strobed. Wings flexed for balance, not lift—the ship wanted to feel the punch. Vegito took the wheel because sometimes the captain steers not to be important but to be happy.
The sea erupted.
Water punched skyward in a city-sized column. The ship rode it like a name shouted through a tunnel—resonance, not resistance. Crew whooped, swore, laughed, held, kissed (Bell-mère smacked Vegito's shoulder: "Eyes up, driver"), Nami cackled, Kuina grinned like a blade seeing sunlight, Chopper screamed, "THIS IS SCIENCE!" in a way that would make Kureha proud.
They broke through cloud into milk-white brightness. The White Sea spread—a foam field, bubbles like slow stars, currents made of cloud. Heaven's Embrace shifted modes, runes singing, wings extending a little for play.
A conch trumpet sounded from ahead.
8) Angels and Warm Tea
They made landfall on Angel Beach—more a soft platform of cloud shaped by foot traffic than a beach, but a culture will name things comfortingly.
A girl in a white sundress and conch-shell hairpins waved from a skiff, her father poling carefully behind her with a surfboard-long oar. Conis smiled shyly; Pagaya did the kind of polite bow dads do when they want to be both welcoming and ready to run.
"You must be… not supposed to be here," Conis said, which was the gentlest way anyone had ever said illegal.
"We're here for tea and directions," Vegito said, bowing back like a rogue at a temple. "And to keep our heads attached, preferably."
Conis blinked. "Of course. Tea is easy. Heads are… variable."
Pagaya ushered them to a cloud house that pretended to be fragile and was sturdier than it let on. Foam brewed. Food arrived on plates woven from sky. Chopper tried to eat a plate and apologized. The South Bird insulted everyone and stole crackers.
Conis poured tea with the poise of someone raised to make guests relax fast. "You'll need a dial-ship to go higher," she said. "The White-White Sea isn't fond of strangers. Also you should… not anger Him."
"Him?" Bell-mère asked.
Conis lowered her voice instinctively. "Enel. God."
Robin's eyes hooded. "A man who calls himself god is usually a man in need of a lesson."
Nojiko leaned over to Sora. "How are we feeling?"
"Good," Sora said. "The baby likes tea."
Vegito pretended not to melt. Conis didn't pretend—she cooed, then blushed at her own cooing. Pagaya smiled the complicated smile of a father meeting a chaos he approves of.
Rope snakes slithered by carrying notices: TAXES FOR ILLEGAL ENTRANCE. Nami squinted, did conversion math so fast the numbers blushed, and prepared to rage.
"Later," Vegito murmured. "First we make friends."
From the jungle across the channel, drums rolled—distant, fierce, not surrendered. Shandia. Robin's mouth tipped. Kuina tilted her head, listening to a rhythm that asked for a duel written in history.
"Tomorrow," Vegito said. "Tonight we eat, we learn, we sing."
"Sing?" Chopper perked up. "I can sing!"
"You can," Kaya said, patting his hat. "You absolutely can."
9) Mock Town, Again (Echoes)
Back on Jaya below the clouds, Mont Blanc Cricket sat on his shack roof, legs dangling, listening to the sea. Mock Town laughed the way it always did. Bellamy nursed a bruise he'd call a memory. In the deepest part of his chest, a string tugged.
Then—clear, faint, impossible—BONG.
The sound rolled down from a height no map admitted. The shack shivered. Cricket's eyes flooded. He laughed the kind of laugh that pays off a debt your grandfather left you.
"Noland," he whispered, and raised his bottle to a bell only he could hear from here.
10) Interlude: The Five and the One, Again
The bounty revision was immediate. Den Den Mushi clicked in panic. Reporters invented adjectives and then retired them.
WANTEDVEGITO – 500,000,000 BERRIESFor escalation to the Upper Sea; interference with Sky sovereignty; destabilization of Warlord regime; miracle crimes.
Sengoku pinched his nose again. "Upper Sea," he read aloud. "Who wrote that? Is grammar illegal now?"
Garp laughed until a donut fell out of his mouth. "He's ringing bells and teaching clouds to clap. We should start selling tickets."
Imu watched a separate feed—grainy, angelic faces, a girl pouring tea, rope snakes carrying bills. "He will unmake gods," Imu said softly. "How repetitive."
Five elders didn't laugh.
11) Status Check — Jaya & Sky Gate
[Status Screen]Name: VegitoRace: Saiyan (Full-Blooded)Titles: Sky-Treading Devil; Desert's Undoing; Bell-Ringer (rumor); Captain of Heaven's EmbraceBounty: 500,000,000 Berries (Grand Line/Upper Sea notice)
Attributes:
Strength: ∞ | Speed: ∞ | Endurance: ∞ | Intelligence: S+
Ki Control: S+ | Haki Mastery: S+
Core Techniques:
Kame Style Arsenal
Rokushiki + Rokuogan (teaching: enabled)
Wood Release (structure, restraint, festival)
Instant Transmission (sparingly used)
Kaioken (no backlash)
Ultra Instinct (Omen) in Base
Ship: Heaven's Embrace — Mood: Smug, maternal, nosy about angel architecture
Library (Ohara Index): Active
Hyperbolic Room: Idle
Clothing Fabricator: Maternity expansion (Sora) + "Skyformal" templates
Private Realm (Sakai): Ready
Crew:
Bell-mère – Quartermaster / Small Arms
Nami – Navigator (Sand/Cloud charts)
Nojiko – Operations/Morale (Supply math; tea patrol)
Kaya – Doctor (Heal-Heal Fruit; apprentices: Alabasta 30, Drum 12)
Kuina – Swordswoman (Haki growth ↑; aerial kata unlocked)
Reiju – Combat Medic/Poison Specialist (dial-venom notes)
Nico Robin – Archaeologist (Upper Ruins hypotheses)
Vivi – Princess/Envoy (Alabasta: stabilized; on-board for Sky trip)
Zala (Miss Doublefinger) – Martial Artist (iron-body drills with Rokushiki)
Mikita (Miss Valentine) – Aerial Combat (mass manipulation + Geppo basics)
Hina – Tactician/Logistics (former Marine; smug)
Tashigi – Swordswoman/Archivist (Kuina sparring schedule)
Tony Tony Chopper – Doctor (Tiny Terror; Bounty: 50 belli, framed twice)
Sora – (Private: expectant; crew-protected; cravings: manageable)
Recent Events:
Alabasta: Crocodile eliminated; Nefertari Titi revived (classified outside palace; rumor spreading); Hina & Tashigi recruited
Jaya: Bellamy humiliated; Cricket encouraged; South Bird acquired
Sky Gate breached; anchored at Angel Beach; Conis/Pagaya met
World reactions: Gorōsei alarm; Imu unsettled; Sengoku wary; Garp amused
Next Objective:
Skypiea – Secure dials and allies; dismantle Enel's tyranny; ring the Golden Bell; remove Goro Goro no Mi from Enel and gift to Nojiko; recruit (Conis, Raki), liberate Shandia; party.
Vegito closed the projection. Conis set another cup of tea beside Sora and patted her hand, nervous and delighted in equal measure. Pagaya explained dials as if giving a child a toy and a sword at once. Chopper tried on a little cloud-hat and declared himself "angel doctor" with the authority of a sticker.
From the treeline, drums answered a different rhythm—Shandia hearts, old and unbroken. Somewhere above, a man with lightning in his teeth smirked, unchallenged, unaware.
Vegito leaned on the cloud-rail and smiled the way storms do when they're in the mood to be kind and loud.
"Tomorrow," he said.
"Tomorrow," the crew echoed, and even the clouds seemed to lean in to listen.