The climate of the New World is capricious and treacherous.
When the first raindrop, as big as a bean, fell from the sky, it brought not coolness, but an oppressive, unbreathable humidity.
The thick curtain of rain was as dense as a downpour, instantly covering everything.
It was as if the entire world had been submerged by a flood. Just being in it gave one a terrifying feeling of being swallowed by the deep sea.
As the wind gradually picked up, the raindrops became like knives, the sea swayed, and the tumult continued unabated.
Amidst such harsh climate, a large, black shark-headed speedboat tore through the rain curtain.
It sailed steadily against this furious storm and raging waves, as if defying nature's wrath.
"Hey, what's been going on with you these past few days? Why does it feel like the atmosphere between you and Mother is weird?"
Sato Sakura leaned against the outside of Leviathan's cabin, her head hanging toward Ace's round cabin window. The boy inside was sitting cross-legged, practicing sword meditation.
"Sato Sakura, do you think I've been too reckless?"
Ace put away his Supreme Grade blade and slowly exhaled a breath.
Hearing his words, Sato Sakura tilted her head in confusion.
Excuse me, do you even hear what you're saying?
If pirates aren't reckless and lawless, are they even pirates anymore? If you want to follow the rules so much, why don't you just join the Marine?
"Um... um... oh!"
After a long while, not knowing what to say, Sato Sakura finally squeezed out a few sounds from her nose.
"Wano... Yamato and I were too naive. I really can't be so rash in the future!"
The innocent boy raised his sword, staring at it intently as if taking an oath.
'No, you were just toyed with by Mother.'
At that moment, Sato Sakura saw through the subtle sense of incongruity as if observing a blazing fire, but she didn't speak up. And because of her expressionless face, which always seemed to be daydreaming, even Ace's Observation Haki didn't detect her strangeness.
The inside of Wano was a complete mess. Was being a pirate any different?
Having one pile of shit save another pile of shit… what kind of shit-carving artistry was that?
So in her view, the most pirate-like way to handle it was to fight their way in, bury everything they didn't like in the ground, and be done with it!
But Ace was different!
He was a pirate in name only, but having been influenced by the Marine man Garp's will since childhood, he lacked a pirate's purity!
To put it more bluntly, the ideals he risked his will to burn for were hollow and could easily slide into nothingness.
This state was very dangerous. If left unchecked and thrown into the pirate world, he would surely die quickly!
'No wonder Mother wanted to bring him back to the crew and take him to Wano. Mother was so kind!'
'Oh right, I needed to quickly write this down in the breeding manual!'
"Hey! Hey! Sato Sakura!"
Ace watched her stare blankly for a long time, then pull out a pen and notebook to furiously write.
After trying to call out to the giant girl a few times with no response, he could only helplessly close the window.
Inside the cabin, he threw himself onto his bed, letting his body rise and fall with the waves.
The black-haired, freckled boy stared blankly at the ceiling and let out a long sigh.
"Sigh... Sakura-nee, what exactly do you want to do?"
…
"Mmm~, I really want to go to the dock and get some fries!"
In the captain's quarters, Sakura hung her arms over the map table, her cheek resting on it.
"Bear with it a little~"
Leviathan, holding a cup of coffee, emerged from the shadows and sat on the table as well.
Due to the special hydrological and climatic conditions in the latter half, Leviathan was worried that the thunderclouds generated by activating the ship's power system might cause some peculiar interaction with the chaotic magnetic fields outside the island's sea area.
So for the past few days, they had relied entirely on the ship's surface sailing capability, which naturally slowed their sailing speed considerably.
The large speedboat sailed for another two days in the oppressive environment before finally breaking out of the storm-affected area and entering a relatively calm sea surface.
Correspondingly, the chaotic currents dozens of nautical miles away and the collapsed, destroyed islands and reefs gradually appeared before the eyes of the Higanbana Pirates' crew.
"Finally here, Wano!"
Sakura walked out of the captain's quarters to the bow, stepping one foot onto Leviathan's shark-shaped ram, her elbow resting on her knee.
The small ship spirit slowly emerged from below the deck, using her bird-like magnetic field sensing ability to probe the magnetic field conditions of the surrounding sea area.
"It's still a complete mess. Should we call Shiki to come fly us in?" Leviathan walked up to Sakura and nudged her thigh with her elbow.
"Are you kidding? Of course we're flying in ourselves!"
Sakura flashed Leviathan a wild grin. "I've endured for so long on the way just so I could make a perfect entrance at the end!"
"Fine, have it your way." Leviathan shrugged simply.
When the sky fell, there would be tall Sakura to hold it up. What did that have to do with her, a delicate ship spirit who was afraid of the dark, afraid of fire, and afraid of water?
Under the ship spirit's control, the ship's power system, which had always been hidden inside the hull, was activated.
At this moment, without a Goro Goro no Mi's user like Enel to finely control the lightning, Sakura served as the ship's functional core, specializing in quantity over quality.
This resulted in the thunderclouds emitted by the power system being unable to be controlled as they were when Enel used it.
The Leviathan, enhanced by the power system, rose into the air, flew directly over the surrounding islands and reefs, and headed toward the sheer waterfall.
In less than an hour, they had passed through Wano's outermost sheer wall and entered the inner island surrounded by an inland sea.
The ship sailed above the clouds. The thunderclouds and lightning spewed from the stern's chimney grew increasingly violent and dangerous.
Just then, in the previously empty sky, the outline of a gigantic island actually appeared, silhouetted against the thunderclouds and lightning.
Straight ahead was a huge golden lion's head carved at the bow, its sides wrapped in thick iron plates with long, slender oars extending outward. Six sails hung from the center, and the main sail bore a skull with a golden-haired ship's wheel.
"That's...!"
There was no need to use Observation Haki to identify it. Just by looking at its flashy, ostentatious shape, one could tell whose ship it was.
After all, blond hair, a leader, powerful, loves gold, arrogant and narcissistic… there were few people in the entire world who combined all these special traits.
Right, Donfla... oh no, Shiki!
Seeing Shiki show off his ship like that, Sakura couldn't help but feel a competitive urge.
She patted Leviathan and waved her hand grandly. "Let's go. Move closer!"
On the island-level pirate ship opposite them, the man sitting on the captain's throne holding fine wine had a flash of rainbow light in his pupils.
After confirming the figure of the spirited girl standing on the distant flying ship, a smile appeared on his face.
His floral haori flapped loudly in the wind, and the hatch of the island ship opened.
He floated up from his seat and flew toward the direction of the Leviathan.
"Shihahaha! Haruno Sakura, you've finally..."
Shiki's words were not yet finished when the violent energy of the surrounding thunderclouds reached its extreme.
The next instant, the pitch-black sky was illuminated by extreme fierce light. Countless lightning bolts converged on Shiki.
Boom—!
"???"
"!!!"