The shadow of the massive Gecko Pirates' flagship loomed over the crude, hand-carved mahogany sailboat like a predatory sea monster. On the deck of the enemy vessel, hundreds of rowdy, ambitious pirates cheered, their weapons glinting under the morning sun as they prepared to board the tiny craft.
Kozuki Toki's heart hammered violently against her ribs. She looked at the towering hull of the enemy ship, then down at young Hiyori, who was shivering and clutching her robes in absolute terror. Finally, her eyes landed on Giovanni.
"Norwell-san! Please, look at them!" Toki cried out in a sheer panic, her hands trembling as she grabbed his soot-stained shoulder. "There are hundreds of them, and their leader looks dangerous! You are in no position to fight a battle right now! Your arm is shattered, and your ribs are broken! We need to turn the boat around! We can use the wind to go around them and avoid this engagement entirely!"
Giovanni didn't move. He didn't turn to look at her, nor did he shift his weight to alter the rudder.
Slowly, the bleeding youth forced himself back onto his feet. The cold, analytical glare he usually possessed was entirely gone. His right hand wrapped around the golden hilt of Ace so tightly that his knuckles turned completely white, blood seeping freshly through his hand bandages. When Toki looked up at his face, she froze, the words dying in her throat.
It was not fear. It was pure, unadulterated, blinding rage.
Giovanni's eyes were fixed entirely on the high bow of the enemy ship, where Gecko Moria stood laughing hysterically.
'Gecko Moria...' Giovanni's mind screamed, his teeth grinding together with enough force to crack. 'The smiling, arrogant bastard. The incompetent freak who led the marine strike team that put my old man behind bars.'
"Norwell-san...?" Toki whispered, recoiling slightly from the terrifying temperature of the aura suddenly radiating from his body.
"Stay down, lady Toki," Giovanni said, his voice dropping into a low, demonic register that vibrated with absolute malice. "Wrap your arms around Hiyori and don't look up. I've been waiting a very long time to rip this specific gargoyle's head off."
Up on the flagship, Gecko Moria extended his arms wide, his shadow twisting wildly along the wooden deck beneath his boots. "Kishishishi! Look at him! He can barely even stand! Hey, rookie! Your head is going to look fantastic on my wall! Doppelgman!"
Moria's shadow detached itself from his feet, shifting into a massive, fluid-like duplicate that lunged over the railing, flying across the open water at supersonic speeds to impale the small sailboat.
BOOM!
Giovanni didn't even wait for the shadow to arrive. He launched himself off the mahogany deck with a single, explosive Sky Walk, completely fracturing the remaining wood beneath his heels. He materialized mid-air, directly in front of the flying shadow, and unleashed a savage, one-handed downward slash with Ace.
The dark-patterned steel tore through the shadow clone like paper, the sheer kinetic force of the swing throwing out a massive vacuum wave that sliced the front mast of Moria's flagship clean off.
"What?!" Moria's laughter instantly cut off, his eyes widening in shock as the heavy mast crashed onto his own crew members. "He can still move like that with those injuries?!"
"You talk too much, you fat bat!" Giovanni roared, appearing directly on the main deck of the Gecko Pirates' ship through a blink-and-miss-it burst of speed.
"Get him! Protect the Captain!" dozens of armored foot soldiers screamed, lunging forward with spears and sabers.
Giovanni didn't even look at them. He simply rotated his torso, utilizing a brutal, sweeping circular slash with his right arm. The compressed wind pressure alone sent fifty men flying violently over the sides of the ship, their armor shattering upon impact with the water.
Panicking at the monstrous display of power, Gecko Moria roared, his face contorting into an expression of raw hubris and desperation. He planted his feet, a sudden, heavy ripple of spiritual pressure exploding from his chest. It was a dark, swampy wave of basic Conqueror's Haki, meant to paralyze the heavily injured rookie and assert his dominance as a rising star of the New World.
"I am Gecko Moria! I am the man who will rule the seas!" Moria bellowed.
"Don't make me laugh," Giovanni interrupted, his voice cutting through Moria's willpower like a hot blade through butter.
Giovanni didn't just flare his Haki; he completely unleashed the absolute, unmitigated depth of his Sovereign spirit. A cataclysmic dome of dark purple and crimson lightning erupted from his body, expanding across the entire length of the flagship. The sky above them momentarily turned as black as night, the sheer weight of his Conqueror's Haki instantly crushing Moria's spiritual pressure into absolute nothingness.
CRACK!
The deck splinters danced in the air as hundreds of Moria's crew members instantly rolled their eyes back, vomiting foam as they collapsed unconscious across the wood. Even Moria staggered backward, his hands clamping against his ears as a violent, ringing vertigo threatened to tear his mind apart.
"Impossible..." Moria gasped, blood leaking from his nose as he stared at the bleeding blonde youth walking toward him through the lightning storms. "This level of Haki... you're already dying! How do you possess the spirit of a King?!"
Giovanni raised Ace, the blade sizzling with thick, looping coils of crimson lightning. "This is for my father, you absolute piece of trash."
He lunged forward, executing a flawless, blinding horizontal strike. Moria frantically manipulated his devil fruit, screaming as he pulled a massive wall of shadows to guard his chest. "Shadow Shield!"
BOOOOOOM!!!
The internal destruction property of the Advanced Conqueror's Haki bypassed the shadow barrier entirely. The concussive force detonated directly against Moria's ribs, shattering his chest plate and sending a massive spray of dark blood into the air. Moria was launched backward, crashing violently through his own captain's quarters, the entire structural center of the flagship collapsing into a pile of ruined timber.
Giovanni stood amidst the ruins, his breathing coming in ragged, agonizing wheezes. His vision was spinning wildly, a thick curtain of blackness threatening to claim his consciousness. He raised Ace to deliver the final, executioner's blow to the buried captain.
"Ahhh!"
A sharp, high-pitched scream of pure agony echoed from the water below, cutting through the roaring wind.
Giovanni's eyes snapped toward his handmade sailboat. During the chaotic clashing of their Haki and the flying debris of the collapsing mast, a massive, jagged splinter of reinforced iron-wood had launched off the flagship, slicing cleanly through the air and grazing young Hiyori's left shoulder.
The small girl was collapsed on the sand-stained deck of the sailboat, fresh blood soaking her tiny green kimono as Toki frantically tried to shield her with her own body from the falling embers.
The sight of the child's blood acted like a bucket of freezing water over Giovanni's burning rage. His focus shattered completely. He realized that if he spent another two minutes finishing off Moria, the residual shockwaves of their battle would entirely pulverize the fragile boat, leaving the defenseless mother and child to drown in the deep trenches of the New World.
'Damn it!' Giovanni thought, his teeth gritted as he suppressed his hatred. 'Not now... I can't let them die here.'
Abandoning the unconscious Moria, Giovanni turned on his heel and plummeted out of the sky, landing heavily back onto the trembling deck of his sailboat. Without saying a single word, he grabbed the thick hemp rope of the sail with his right hand, channeling the absolute final drop of his remaining strength into a massive, concentrated blast of regular Armament Haki directed toward the ocean behind them.
BOOM!
The kinetic propulsion generated a massive tidal wave, launching the small mahogany boat forward across the waters at a breathtaking velocity, completely disappearing into the thick morning mist within seconds.
Deep within the ruined captain's quarters of the flagship, Gecko Moria pushed the heavy timber off his bleeding torso. He coughed up a massive glob of blood, his face twisted into an expression of absolute, humiliated fury as he stared at the empty horizon where the rookie had just been.
"Norwell D. Giovanni..." Moria hissed, his voice shaking with an unyielding, venomous hatred. "I will follow you to the ends of the earth for this... I will never take this humiliation lying down! We are going after them!"
---
Three Days Later.
The crude mahogany sailboat drifted aimlessly through the thick, perpetual fog banks that guarded the most dangerous territory of the New World. The mast was entirely splintered, the sail shredded into rags, and the hull sat dangerously low in the freezing northern waters.
Inside the boat, the silence was absolute. All three occupants were completely out cold. Toki lay slumped against the side of the hull, her arms still protectively wrapped around a deeply feverish, bandaged Hiyori. Beside them, Giovanni was face-down in a pool of dried crimson, his breathing so faint that it didn't even stir the dust on the wood. His body had completely shut down from the combined toll of Kaido, the All-Stars, Moria, and three straight days of navigating a sinking boat without food or water.
The bow of the boat ground heavily against the dark, colossal pebbles of a massive, gargantuan shoreline.
Heavy, earth-shaking footsteps echoed through the mist.
A towering figure stepped down toward the water's edge. Ida, the legendary, massive giant foster mother of Prince Loki, stood with her hands resting on her massive apron, her face illuminated by the dim northern sun. She adjusted her traditional Elbaf headwear, her colossal eyes widening in profound surprise as she looked down at the tiny, broken toy-like structure resting against the stones.
"Oh? What do we have here?" Ida murmured, her voice sounding like a rolling wave of thunder. "Humans? In this isolated sector of the sacred shores?"
She knelt down, her massive shadow completely engulfing the boat. With delicate, surprisingly gentle movements of her massive fingers, she lifted the unconscious forms of Toki and Hiyori, placing them securely into her apron pocket. When she reached down to pick up Giovanni, her eyes narrowed as she noticed the horrific, catastrophic state of his body. The smell of burnt flesh, shattered bones, and overused Haki was immediately apparent to an experienced giant elder.
"By the gods... this little boy is right on the verge of meeting the ancestors," Ida muttered, her expression hardening. "To survive the outer seas in this condition... what a ferocious little creature."
She gathered him up gently, turning around to sprint back up the colossal mountain paths toward the central village.
Within a massive, high-ceilinged stone longhouse filled with the scent of wild herbs and boiling water, a younger giantess was busy organizing rolls of thick, heavy linen fabric. Gerd, the young doctor and seamstress of the village, adjusted her blonde hair, her beautiful features peaceful as she worked.
BANG!
The massive wooden doors were thrown wide open. Ida marched into the room, carefully placing the three unconscious humans onto a massive, wooden dining table that served as a makeshift medical cot.
"Gerd! Drop what you are doing right now!" Ida commanded, her voice urgent. "I found these three washed up on the southern baseline. The two females are just suffering from exhaustion and a minor flesh wound, but this blonde boy... his spirit is actively unraveling."
Gerd rushed over to the table, leaning her massive face down until she was inches away from Giovanni's tiny, broken frame. The moment her medical eyes scanned the sheer extent of his injuries. The displaced shoulder, the completely pulverized rib cage, and the black, localized bruising indicative of severe internal backlash. She completely went into a state of absolute panic.
"Ida-sama! This is entirely insane!" Gerd cried out, her hands shaking as she reached for her medical tools, which looked like colossal weapons compared to the human boy. "Look at how small he is! Human anatomy is so incredibly delicate! If I apply even a fraction of my regular pressure to reset his shoulder, I might accidentally crush his entire chest cavity into dust! Treating someone this tiny with giant-sized medical equipment is going to be nearly impossible!"
Ida placed a heavy, reassuring hand on the young doctor's shoulder. "Calm down, child. You are the finest healer Elbaph has ever seen. If anyone can navigate the fragile threads of a human's life, it is you. Do not let him die under our roof."
Gerd took a deep, steadying breath, her beautiful face shifting into an expression of fierce, professional determination as she picked up a tiny needle that was the size of a human broadsword.
"I... I understand," Gerd whispered, her eyes focusing entirely on Giovanni's faint heartbeat. "I will do my absolute best. Hold his torso steady, Ida-sama!"
---
Meanwhile, on the completely opposite side of Elbaf's massive territorial map, a dark, desolate forest lay shrouded in a strange, unnatural silence.
Standing in the center of a massive clearing was Road, the massive, highly eccentric, and intensely arrogant future navigator of the giant crew. He was currently wearing a bizarre, ornate set of robes, a wide, delusional grin spreading across his face as he looked down at a massive, intricate diorama he had been constructing out of stones and stolen human artifacts.
"Yes... yes! It is coming together perfectly!" Road shouted to the empty forest, his voice echoing with manic hubris. "The Land of Gods! A perfect, pristine nation where those pathetic, tiny humans will look up to me and worship my name as the absolute Sun God! But I still need more subjects... more unique pieces for my collection!"
SCREECH!
A sharp, piercing cry broke the air above. A colossal, prehistoric giant crow plummeted through the tree canopy, its massive talons securely wrapped around a small, sleek, coffin-shaped black boat adorned with cross-shaped structures and flickering green candles.
The bird cleanly dropped the small boat into the center of the clearing, right at Road's feet.
"Oho?" Road's eyes lit up with intense, childlike excitement as he rushed over to the vessel. "What did you bring me, my beautiful pet? A human vessel? Let's see what kind of trash washed up today!"
He leaned his massive face over the edge of the Hitsugibune. Resting peacefully in the center of the small deck, completely unmoved by the violent aerial transit, was a tall man wearing a wide-brimmed hat with a decorative plume. His black patterned coat was neatly closed, and his hands were folded over the golden crossguard of a colossal blade, Yoru, resting beside him. He was sound asleep, his sharp, hawk-like eyes closed as he enjoyed a rare, undisturbed rest after days of navigating the rough outer seas.
"Oh, marvelous! He has a sword and everything!" Road laughed, clapping his massive hands together. "He will look fantastic standing as a guard captain in my miniature castle town!"
WOOSH!
A sudden, sharp gust of northern wind blew through the clearing, carrying a stray, crumpled piece of the morning's World Economic Journal through the air. The paper fluttered violently before slapping directly against Road's massive leather boot.
Curious, the giant reached down with two fingers, peeling the paper off his shoe and flattening it out against his palm. It was an official, high-priority World Government bounty poster.
Printed across the center was a stark, terrifying photograph of the exact same man currently sleeping inside the coffin boat. Below the piercing, hawk-like eyes on the paper, the bold text read:
WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE
DRACULE MIHAWK
BOUNTY: 1,500,000,000 BERRIES MARINE HUNTER
Road stared at the paper, then down at the sleeping human, then back at the paper. A massive, completely unhinged grin spread from ear to ear across his giant face, his eyes shining with the pure, unadulterated joy of a collector who had just struck absolute gold.
"... unbelievable!" Road whispered in a manic, ecstatic tone, completely misinterpreting the apocalyptic danger resting right in front of him. "A 1.5 billion berry bounty?! A legendary Marine Killer?! I've done it! I've collected an Ultra Rare one! An Ultra Rare Mihawk for my kingdom!"
Yes, completely unbeknownst to the delusional giant scribe... he had not captured a helpless toy for his diorama. He had just dragged the most dangerous, lethal swordsman on the face of the planet directly into his personal domain. And Dracule Mihawk was currently just having a very, very comfortable nap.
---
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