"...We've confirmed it, Sensei. The Temporary Base we set up on Aji Island has been annihilated. Well, the Dyna Stone obliterated the island itself, so... rather than confirming the base's destruction, it's more that we confirmed nothing remains at all..."
"I see... They got us."
The Neo Marines, led by Zephyr, or rather, Z. Aboard their flagship, Z and several Executives were receiving a report from one of their subordinates.
The news was dire.
Exactly what the soldier had said: one of the Neo Marines' Temporary Bases, set up not far from here, had been annihilated along with the entire island. A considerable number of personnel had been stationed there, along with resupply provisions and a portion of the Dyna Stones seized from Faus Island.
The plan had been to head there, replenish supplies, personnel, and Dyna Stones, then swiftly move to Pirio Island, destroy it, and complete the Grand Reboot. Now those plans had been thrown severely off course.
Z offered a moment of silent prayer for the subordinates and former students who had surely sunk into the sea along with the island. Then, shifting gears, he turned back to the soldier.
"What about the other one? Is the base on Karegaaku Island safe?"
"Sir! We confirmed via secure communication just moments ago. It's operating without issues. They've heightened their alert level in preparation for any contingencies."
"Good. Then we change plans and head for Karegaaku Island. The Dyna Stones we stockpiled separately at that base should be enough to carry out the plan. We'll resupply at Karegaaku Island, and after that, the Neo Marines will deploy all forces to Pirio Island and execute the Grand Reboot."
"It was wise of you to split the supplies across separate locations given the risk of detection, Sensei... Do you think the raid was the Marines, or perhaps the Pirate Literary Master's Crew?"
"No way to know now. There's also a strong chance it was that mysterious Human Weapon we clashed with on Sekan Island. For whatever reason, the thing had it out for us. Either way, we can't let our guard down. From here on, it's a race against time too. Kuzan and his people will be coming at us in earnest. If push comes to shove... ngh... *cough cough*!"
"Sensei...!"
Ain and Binz rushed to his side, alarmed by the sudden coughing fit.
Z held them back with a raised hand, pulled a device from inside his coat, placed it to his mouth, and inhaled the medication. His breathing settled quickly.
"...Good grief. Getting old is no fun."
"Sensei... If it's too much for you, we could handle things ourselves..."
"Don't be stupid. I just choked a little. I'm fine. I swore that I, Z, would bring this Great Pirate Era to an end. Do you think your teacher is the kind of pathetic man who'd stop here?"
"..."
To that, Ain and the others had no reply.
They wanted to respect Z's resolve and conviction, to help him fulfill his wish. And yet, as his students, they worried. They didn't want their teacher pushing himself any further. That feeling was undeniably there.
But everyone could see it: behind those sunglasses, the light of determination in his eyes, unwavering no matter what might come.
That was precisely why no one spoke. They couldn't. They couldn't stop him.
Then at the very least, they would stand by his side until the end. They all remembered they had already steeled themselves for that.
Without a word, they answered with their eyes alone. Receiving that answer, Z gave a quiet nod.
"As I said. We head for Karegaaku Island. The decisive battle draws near. All hands, steel yourselves."
"""Sir!!!"""
***
Around the same time.
New Marineford, the city housing Marine Headquarters. After the original Headquarters was destroyed in the Summit War, the entire town had been relocated here to serve as the Marines' new base of operations.
Swapped with the former G-1 Base, the facility now sat in the New World. Deep within it, in the Fleet Admiral's Office, Fleet Admiral Kuzan listened to reports from his subordinates with a sigh.
"So you're saying the explosion on that island was undeniably caused by Dyna Stones. But the island itself was just an ordinary island with no connection whatsoever to the End Points."
"That appears to be the case. However, judging from the flow of goods between surrounding islands, it seems a Neo Marines base was likely located there. Though at this point, confirmation is impossible..."
"So did they screw up handling the Dyna Stones and blow themselves sky high, or... No, that can wait. What about the other investigation?"
Setting aside the unanswerable question, Kuzan turned to another subordinate and prompted the next report.
The designated Marine read from the documents clipped to the binder under one arm.
"Yes, sir. We contacted Egghead. However... they said, 'As this pertains to classified matters currently under research, we cannot provide an immediate answer.'"
"Ah, for cryin' out loud... I figured they'd say that, but still... Don't they get this isn't the time for that crap? We're smack in the middle of an operation with the fate of the world genuinely on the line here."
If the End Points were destroyed as Z intended, a Cataclysmic Eruption would engulf and incinerate the entire Grand Line. Marines, Pirates, innocent civilians, all dead in droves.
In truth, the devastation would far exceed even that: a catastrophic mega-disaster affecting the entire world, escalating to an event that could spell the planet's very destruction. But Kuzan had no way of knowing that.
Even without that knowledge, the information already in his head was more than enough to call the situation unacceptable.
In the report Kuzan had received from the Pirate Literary Master, she had asked: 'I fought this Human Weapon that looked kinda like a Pacifista but wasn't Kuma. Know anything about it?'
On top of that, its appearance had resembled Kuzan himself... meaning, it resembled Sue, and it had been in the form of a child.
Having drawn a complete blank, Kuzan had contacted Egghead, the base of the Marine Science Unit, also known as SSG. The result was what he'd just heard.
'I've heard SSG is currently researching a new type of Pacifista. Did they do some kind of test run? But if so, sending it outside into an active combat zone exposed to public view and then trying to keep it secret from us makes no sense.'
"If I send an official inquiry under my name, they might talk, but even then there's the time issue... Hey, Kizaru, think you could ask Vegapunk directly? You two know each other, right?"
"I'll do it if you tell me tooo, but I wouldn't get your hopes uuup. Sure, we go way back, but that doesn't mean he'll just hand over anything and everything. And even though he works for the Government, it's not like he's particularly fond of the Government or Marines."
"That so... Sheesh, it brings me to tears and it's my own people I'm talking about. Sengoku-san steered this organization for years... No, seriously, I have nothing but respect for the man."
"Pretty sure you were one of the people giving Sengoku-san headaches, though."
"Don't say it. I know, alright?"
Another sigh, one of who-knew-how-many today.
Still, sitting at his desk wallowing in frustration wouldn't fix anything, and time was short.
Start with what could be done. Just as Kuzan was thinking he might as well try again, sending another inquiry to Egghead under the Fleet Admiral's name as a long shot, Kizaru spoke up as if suddenly remembering something.
"Oh, buuut... I did talk to Vegapunk and Sentomaru-kun not too long ago."
"Hm?"
"About the new Pacifista that's been the talk latelyy. I think he said something like 'it's almost finished.' Of course, I didn't ask for specifics about what it actually was at the time, but... if he said it that way, doesn't that mean it wasn't finished yet?"
"...How long ago was this?"
"Very recently. Right after that, the whole Zephyr-sensei situation blew uuup."
"If that's true, then they went from completion to field deployment in this short a timeframe? I'm no expert on anything science-related, but even for an ordinary weapon, that's a ridiculously rushed schedule. And if they'd gotten to that stage, they would've at least given me a heads-up, no matter what. That place is the 'Marine' Science Unit, after all."
"Riight... But if that's the case, then... it would mean some organization with technology rivaling SSG's is operating in the shadows, wouldn't it?"
"That's not something I wanna think about either... If I had to guess, maybe one of the Four Emperors' Factions, or... Agh, damn it, what the hell is even going on out there...?"
***
And then there was the very place that had just come up in conversation: Egghead.
In the Lab Phase situated in its upper levels, an atmosphere of unusual agitation and confusion filled the air as a heated debate raged back and forth.
The ones arguing were seven distinct individuals who were, at the same time, all the very same person.
"Oi, what the hell was that about just now!? The Seraphim haven't even rolled out yet!"
"Calm down, Evil (Lilith). Raising your voice won't make anything clearer. As you say, the Seraphim haven't even undergone test runs yet. There's no way those units were deployed."
"All the Seraphim are right here on Egghead, after all. I just went and checked: all seven are present and accounted for in their cultivation pods."
"But Justice (Shaka), the details in the Marine's inquiry match the Seraphim's characteristics almost perfectly. The armament differs in some respects, apparently, but the Lunarian Tribe traits and the 'large-bodied child' description... I don't think that can all be chalked up to coincidence."
"So what, somebody stole our data and built their own version?"
"Could anyone really do that, though? We, all seven 'Vegapunks,' have been researching this together and still haven't finished it. Even if someone somewhere got their hands on the data, do you really think they could bring it to field-deployment level this quickly?"
Six Satellites.
Six Vegapunks.
Each with a different personality, each bearing a different role.
At their center, an elderly man remained silent, not joining the conversation, instead spinning the gears of his mind. Specifically, spinning his very peculiar "head," which had an antenna shaped like an apple attached to it.
Dr. Vegapunk, the main body (Stella). The man who possessed the greatest intellect in the world.
'As Greed (York) says, the idea that someone completed a Seraphim imitation before us, and in a similar form no less, is impossible, even if the technology had leaked.'
Given the matching characteristics, it clearly wasn't unrelated, but it was definitely not the Seraphim they had built.
That raised the question of whether another faction had created an imitation. But that too seemed implausible. Not just in terms of technological capability. Even if technology and information had leaked from Egghead, if the design was that similar, the "leak" itself must have been very recent.
From that point, in just a short period, someone had completed something that even they were still painstakingly developing right now. Granted, they were nearly at the finishing stage, but still.
And if the reports were accurate, this thing had barged into the battle between Black Arm and the Pirate Literary Master and put on quite a flashy show. Could that level of completion really be achieved in such a short time? Even the Vegapunks themselves could only say it would be difficult.
And more than any of that, the reason Vegapunk declared the possibility flatly "impossible" was this: the Human Weapon was modeled after the Pirate Literary Master. In other words, it appeared to be a clone of Sue.
To begin with, creating a Seraphim required starting from scratch by producing the base body through cloning. Various Lineage Factors, beginning with those of the Lunarian Tribe, needed to be incorporated into the creation.
And for that base body to grow to a physique capable of actual combat, a considerable amount of time was needed. Even with accelerated growth compared to a normal human. That had been true for the seven units currently in production.
The Seraphim they were developing had taken a fair amount of time. Their appearances resembled younger versions of the Shichibukai members as they had been one year ago. The Lineage Factors obtained at that time had been used, and research had already begun back then.
Even under the earlier hypothesis, where leaked information had enabled someone to replicate the Seraphim, and even if that engineer possessed a mind capable of producing Seraphim faster than they could, the time required for a clone to mature still made it "impossible" to replicate and complete a Seraphim in such a short timeframe.
'It's... not a Seraphim? In that case, was it modified after the fact to have Pacifista Powers, the same way Kuma was? But then, the Lunarian Tribe traits can't be explained. And what about the reason it bears the Pirate Literary Master's physical features...?'
"Gahhh, I don't get it! What a pain! Why don't we just have the Marines capture the weird thing and ship it here so we can examine it ourselves!? Then we'd know everything for sure!"
"Something that can hold its own against Black Arm and the Pirate Literary Master? Yeah, that'd be pretty tough, probably. And even if they managed it, the cost would be huge. I doubt they'd go that far just for us."
"Still, it really is intriguing... What could it possibly be, this 'Pseudo-Seraphim'...?"
"Beats me..."
"...! Oi, everyone, another transmission from the Marines. This code... Whoa, it's a direct call from Fleet Admiral Kuzan himself. What do we do?"
"Pushing for info, maybe? We've got nothing to tell them about the Pseudo-Seraphim, and as for the Seraphim we're developing... how much should we share? What do you think, main body (Stella)?"
"...I'll take it. There are things I'd like to ask directly as well."
Several minutes later.
While Vegapunk himself was still speaking with the Fleet Admiral, as well as Kizaru who was in the same room and had joined the conversation...
"...Hm?"
"What's wrong, Pythagoras? Something weird come up?"
"Oh, no, it's just... I was checking the lower-level storage, and something caught my attention."
"What is it?"
"Well... has the disposal of Throne already been completed?"
"Throne? That's the scrapped prototype that came out of the Seraphim development process, right? The failed unit that looked like it had combat potential but had too many defects for practical use, so production was halted partway through?"
"I thought the plan was to keep it in storage until we'd extracted all the data we could, then dispose of it after that. You were the one managing it, weren't you, Pythagoras?"
"Yeah. The data extraction is done, so there's no problem on that front, but... I could've sworn the disposal hadn't been carried out yet. According to the data, though, it's already been marked as disposed of."
"Hmm... But I mean, we're done with it anyway, so, you know... there's no sign of the data being tampered with or anything, right? Then it's fine, isn't it? You probably just forgot, Pythagoras."
"Oi, oi, get it together, man. We're supposed to be 'Vegapunk,' remember? Can't be going senile on us."
"Yeah... S-sorry... That's strange, though. This kind of thing never usually happens to me..."
"..."
***
---Retrieval of the Seraphim slated for disposal from Egghead complete. Correction: prototype Throne, retrieval complete. Data has been falsified. Risk of discovery is negligible for the time being.
---Six units recovered in total. Two of the six already exhibit severe deficiencies in life functions at the current stage. Deemed unfit for combat use. Proceeding with disposal.
---The remaining four units will be modified and deployed as combat assets.
---Beginning component swap. Purging Seastone-based armaments and all sections housing them.
---Transitioning from anti-Ability User armament to general-purpose high-firepower armament.
---Thawing GB (Green Blood) that had been isolated and stored within this body. Initiating circulation.
---From this point forward, Seastone-based equipment is unusable except for non-contact types. Effectiveness was minimal to begin with; no further use deemed necessary. Abandoning here.
---Approximately 600 seconds until GB acclimates to this body and the Clank-Clank Fruit Powers become usable. Once stabilized, modification and enhancement of Throne units will commence.
---Estimated 17 hours for processing of all four units. Two hours for checks.
---Judged fully completable before recovering the reserve Dyna Stones the Neo Marines have hidden somewhere and heading for Pirio Island.
---Upon completion of all preparations, operational activities will resume without delay.
To be continued...