Galley-La Company's headquarters was not difficult to find.
In Water 7, there were many shipyards, many workshops, and countless craftsmen who lived by the sound of hammers striking wood and iron.
But Dock One was different.
It was a place that smelled of sweat, sawdust, iron, and sea wind.
For anyone who loved ships, this was the heart of Water 7.
Shiki walked through the entrance with his usual careless posture, his coat swaying behind him.
The shipwrights nearby noticed him almost immediately.
At first, only one or two people looked over.
Then the number increased.
The sound of work did not stop completely, but it clearly weakened.
"Golden Lion…"
"Why is he here?"
"Don't cause trouble. Just keep working."
"Idiot, how am I supposed to keep working when that kind of monster is walking past me?"
The whispers came and went.
Shiki ignored them.
To him, this level of attention was nothing.
Soon, someone hurried out to receive him.
It was a man with blue hair, a striped suit, and a calm smile that did not fully hide the tension behind his eyes.
Water 7's mayor.
Galley-La Company's president.
Iceburg.
Beside him stood a tall woman with golden hair, glasses, and a composed expression. She held a notebook in one hand and carried herself with the neat, capable air of a secretary.
Kalifa.
Shiki's eyes swept past her without the slightest pause.
He looked directly at Iceburg.
Iceburg stepped forward with a polite smile.
"Welcome to Galley-La Company, Shiki-san."
His tone was respectful, neither servile nor arrogant.
For a man who governed Water 7 and led the greatest shipbuilding company in the world, lowering his head too much would only make the city lose face.
But the man standing in front of him was Golden Lion Shiki.
Respect was necessary.
Carelessness was foolish.
Shiki looked Iceburg over once and gave a faint grin.
"So you're Iceburg."
"That's right."
Iceburg's smile remained steady.
"I heard you arrived in Water 7 not long ago. I did not expect you to come to Galley-La so quickly."
"Isn't this place famous for building ships?"
"It is."
"Then there's no need for me to waste time anywhere else."
Iceburg chuckled lightly.
"That is a very direct compliment."
"Take it however you want."
Kalifa pushed up her glasses slightly.
"Shiki-san, President Iceburg's schedule today is—"
Before she could finish, Shiki had already walked past her.
Kalifa's words stopped.
The movement was not rude in any obvious way.
He had simply ignored her existence as though she were part of the furniture.
Iceburg glanced at Kalifa from the corner of his eye.
Kalifa lowered her hand from her glasses and silently closed her notebook.
Her expression remained professional.
But behind that calm mask, her eyes sharpened for an instant.
Golden Lion Shiki.
He had not even looked at her properly.
That should have been a good thing.
For an undercover agent, being ignored by a monster of this level was far better than being noticed and yet, for some reason, Kalifa felt a faint pressure in her chest... her instinct telling her something was wrong.
'Maybe I'm just more on edge than usual?'
Iceburg led Shiki into a reception room overlooking the dock.
Through the wide window, the enormous shipyard could be seen clearly. Workers moved below like ants around half-built vessels, their voices blending with the crash of waves.
Iceburg personally poured a cup of tea.
Kalifa stood quietly at his side, notebook in hand.
Shiki sat down without ceremony, one leg crossed over the other.
For a few moments, the conversation remained polite.
Iceburg asked about the Golden Lion Pirates' ship.
Shiki answered lazily.
Iceburg mentioned Water 7's shipwrights.
Shiki praised them with a careless "not bad."
But Iceburg knew very well that this was not an ordinary business meeting.
A man with a bounty of nine hundred million Berries had entered his office.
Even sitting there casually, Shiki gave off a pressure that could not be ignored.
Finally, after a few pleasantries, Shiki raised one hand and waved it lightly.
"All right. Enough of that."
His golden eyes settled on Iceburg.
"Let's talk business."
Iceburg's expression grew slightly more serious.
"Of course. What kind of work does Shiki-san want Galley-La to handle?"
Shiki leaned back in his chair.
"I want a ship built."
Iceburg was not surprised.
Most people who came to Galley-La wanted either repairs or a new ship.
But the next sentence made his eyes narrow.
"Not an ordinary ship."
Shiki took out several rolled-up designs and placed them on the table.
Kalifa's gaze flickered.
Iceburg reached out and opened the first sheet.
The moment he saw the structure drawn on it, his expression changed.
"This is…"
The design was strange.
It was not a conventional ship.
The hull was shaped for more than sailing. Its structure carried design ideas that looked almost absurd at first glance. There were sections that seemed meant to channel energy, sections that clearly had nothing to do with normal propulsion, and an enormous central mechanism whose purpose was difficult to judge at once.
Iceburg's eyes sharpened.
He was a shipwright before he was a mayor.
The moment he looked seriously, his entire temperament changed.
He turned to the next sheet.
Shiki did not rush him.
He simply sat there, waiting with faint amusement.
After a long while, Iceburg finally raised his head.
"Where did these designs come from?"
"Sky Island."
Iceburg paused.
"Sky Island…"
Shiki grinned without hiding anything and told him.
"A ship from the sky. Its original name was the Ark Maxim."
Iceburg's fingers rested on the edge of the blueprint.
"A flying ship?"
"That's right."
Iceburg looked down again.
His expression grew more complicated.
As a shipwright, a ridiculous idea did not make him laugh.
A ridiculous idea that might actually work was different.
That made his blood stir.
After a while, Iceburg exhaled slowly.
"Shiki-san, I understand the general idea."
He tapped the blueprint lightly.
"But if you want Galley-La to recreate and improve this ship, the cost will be extremely high."
Shiki smiled.
"Money isn't a problem."
Iceburg continued, "It is not only money. The materials need to be selected carefully. The structure must be adjusted for stability. The propulsion system is unlike normal ship technology. Even with these designs, there are places we would need to modify."
"Then modify them."
"If it is rushed too much, quality will suffer."
Shiki's smile faded slightly.
"I'm not asking for a cheap toy."
"I'm willing to pay double."
Iceburg fell silent.
Shiki's fingers tapped the armrest once.
"Use the best materials. Hire the best shipwrights. Whatever is needed, get it."
His tone was calm, but there was no room for bargaining.
"The faster you build it, the better. I don't want to wait too long."
Kalifa's pen stopped for an instant.
Double.
For a project of this scale, that was not a small number.
Iceburg looked at Shiki for a moment, then suddenly chuckled.
"Pirates really do make unreasonable requests."
Shiki's grin returned.
"Can you do it or not?"
Iceburg rolled up one of the blueprints slowly.
"If Galley-La says it cannot build a ship, then no shipyard in the world has the right to say it can."
There was quiet confidence in his voice.
"I will accept this commission."
Shiki laughed, lifting a finger as the teacup drifted lazily into his hand. He took a sip, his grin widening.
"That's what I wanted to hear."
After the main terms were settled, Iceburg called in several senior shipwrights.
When they first entered the room, their faces were tense from seeing Shiki.
But after Iceburg spread the blueprints across the table, their fear quickly became professional curiosity.
"This structure… what the hell is this?"
"Is this supposed to fly?"
"No, wait. Look here. If this part uses external energy as the driving force…"
"The balance would be a nightmare."
"But if we reinforce the lower frame and adjust the lift distribution…"
"Oi, oi, are we really building something like this?"
Their voices gradually grew louder.
The fear of the Golden Lion was still there.
But for true shipwrights, an impossible ship was temptation.
Especially an impossible ship that might truly take shape beneath their hands.
Shiki watched them argue over the blueprints, his smile widening.
This was why he had come to Water 7.
There were many people in the world who could repair a ship.
But there were very few who could look at madness and consider how to make it sail.
Or in this case...
How to make it fly.
The ship Shiki wanted was based on Enel's Ark Maxim but it would not be a simple copy.
The Ark Maxim had been built around Enel's power.
A vessel made to respond to the Goro Goro no Mi, using lightning as its heart and allowing its master to command the sky like a god.
That design suited Nami perfectly.
After eating the Goro Goro no Mi, Nami's value as a navigator had changed completely.
A pirate crew led by Golden Lion Shiki should not merely sail the sea.
It should descend from the sky.
It should appear above enemy territories without warning.
It should make islands look up in fear before its shadow even touched the ground.
That was the kind of ship worthy of his flag.
Of course, the design also needed changes.
The Ark Maxim's original shape carried too much of Enel's taste.
Shiki had no interest in copying another man's vanity.
If it was going to become the Golden Lion Pirates' ship, then every part of it had to carry his mark.
A massive lion-headed bell hanging proudly from the ship, its mane spread like flames and its jaws opened as though roaring toward the world.
When it rang, the sound would carry across sea and sky.
Shiki could already imagine it.
One day, when the Golden Lion Pirates arrived in another pirate's territory, their ship would descend from the clouds, its shadow falling over the island as the golden lion bell rang.
Dong!
That sound would mean only one thing.
Golden Lion Shiki had arrived.
Whether it was a kingdom, a Marine base, or an Emperor's territory, everyone who heard it would understand.
The bell would become the sign of his visit and perhaps, one day, a nightmare remembered by the entire sea.
...
At the same time, on another island far away from Water 7.
The weather here was completely different.
The sun was bright, the streets were noisy, and the sea breeze carried the smell of grilled meat and cheap alcohol from the nearby taverns.
Pirates, merchants, and bounty hunters moved through the harbor town in a restless crowd, each one talking loudly enough to pretend they were not afraid of the world.
In a quiet corner beside an old stone wall, a man wearing an orange hat was crouching on the ground.
His black hair fell messily over his forehead, and the red beads around his neck shifted slightly as he lowered his head.
In his hand were several newspapers and a wanted poster.
The wanted poster was slightly wrinkled from being opened and folded too many times.
GOLDEN LION SHIKI.
Bounty: 900,000,000 Berries.
Portgas D. Ace stared at the poster for a long while.
Then he scratched his cheek.
"Nine hundred million, huh…"
Ace had originally set out to hunt Marshall D. Teach.
That was his duty as the commander of the Whitebeard Pirates' Second Division.
Teach had broken the iron rule of their ship.
He had killed a crewmate and fled.
Ace had chased him from island to island, following every trace he could find, but by the time he finally caught a solid lead, the trail had already gone cold in Alabasta.
Blackbeard was dead.
Most likely killed by Shiki.
At first, Ace had not known what expression to make.
Anger?
Relief?
Disappointment?
He had chased Teach for so long, only for someone else to erase the man before he could even reach him.
After that, Ace had wanted to meet the Golden Lion to see what kind of person he was but Shiki's movements were simply too strange.
One moment, he was in Alabasta.
The next, rumors said he had vanished toward the sky.
Then reports from the South Blue mentioned the Taya Kingdom and before Ace could even confirm that news, the Golden Lion Pirates had already appeared somewhere else again.
Ace looked down at the newspaper in his hand.
"Is this guy flying around the world or something?"
After saying that, he paused.
Then his expression became a little subtle.
"Wait. He really does fly, doesn't he?"
Ace fell silent for a moment.
Then he sighed.
"That's cheating."
He scratched his cheek again, looking almost helpless.
For a man who could turn into fire, complaining that someone else's movement was unreasonable sounded a little ridiculous.
The next instant, a small flame lit at the tip of his finger.
Without turning his head, Ace raised that finger lazily and pointed it toward the empty street behind him.
A thin line of fire shot out.
Bang!
The flame struck the ground several meters away, leaving a scorched mark across the stone.
The crowd nearby cried out and scattered at once.
Ace remained crouched in place, the wanted poster still in his other hand.
Then he tilted his head slightly and spoke in a tone that sounded almost casual.
"Hey."
The flame on his fingertip danced quietly.
"How long do you plan on watching?"
"It's somewhat creepy, you know."
For a few seconds, no one answered.
Only the wind moved across the now silent place.
Then, from the shadow of an alley, a tall figure slowly stepped out.
The man wore a white suit vest, a dark blue shirt, and an eye mask pushed up over his forehead. His expression was lazy, as if even walking out from hiding was troublesome.
The air around him seemed to cool the moment he appeared.
The sunlight was still bright but the street felt colder.
Ace stood up slowly.
The newspapers slipped from his hand and scattered across the ground.
His eyes narrowed.
"Kuzan…"
Marine Headquarters Admiral.
Aokiji.
The two stood facing each other across the empty street.
A commander of the Whitebeard Pirates.
An admiral of the Marines.
Two people who should not have met here at this time.
Aokiji looked at Ace and sighed helplessly.
"Ahhh… you noticed me after all."
Ace rested one hand on the brim of his hat and gave a faint grin.
"A man of your stature hiding in an alley? That's not exactly normal."
Aokiji scratched the back of his head.
"I wasn't exactly hiding. I was only observing you."
"That sounds even worse."
"Does it?"
Ace's grin widened slightly, but his eyes remained sharp.
"So, what's an admiral doing on an island like this? Sightseeing?"
Aokiji looked around the street as if seriously considering the question.
"Well… the weather is nice."
"That so?"
"But unfortunately, that's not the reason."
His voice remained slow and lazy, but the air between them changed.
A thin layer of frost began to spread beneath Aokiji's feet.
The nearby barrels creaked softly as cold touched their surfaces.
Aokiji lowered his hand from the back of his head and sighed again.
"To be honest, I don't really want to do this either."
He shook his head with a helpless expression.
"But I was sent by the World Government. Overtime work, you could say."
Ace stared at him for a moment, silent and unreadable, before the corner of his mouth lifted as if he had heard something genuinely amusing, and he suddenly laughed.
"So that's it, huh?"
The flames rose around him, bright and fierce, licking against the wind like a burning banner.
The newspapers at his feet curled from the heat.
The wanted poster of Golden Lion Shiki fluttered once before landing against the scorched ground.
Ace looked at Aokiji through the rising flames.
"Well, you showed up at the perfect time. I was getting pretty tired of chasing shadows anyway...If an admiral came all the way here, then I guess this might actually be fun."
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