A gigantic blade gleamed under the sunlight with a golden, murderous radiance, as if it were about to split the world apart, and it came crashing down toward Nekomamushi with overwhelming force.
"What… what is that?!"
At the sight of such an absurd scene, a flash of terror suddenly appeared in Nekomamushi's eyes.
He desperately condensed Armament Haki onto both arms, the muscles on his face twisted violently by the pressure of the wind, as though they were about to be torn apart.
Boom!!!
The giant sword fell, yet instead of slashing at Nekomamushi with its sharp edge, it used its thick, heavy flat side to smash directly into his head.
A deafening roar erupted instantly. A cloud of smoke rose up, no weaker in scale than the earlier explosion, blanketing the entire battlefield.
"Huff~"
At that moment, Nami lightly blew out a breath, instantly summoning a powerful gust that quickly dispersed the smoke screen before them.
Then they saw that the still-spirited Nekomamushi from moments ago had somehow already collapsed unconscious in a massive crater.
Standing beside him was Franky, who had already returned to his normal form.
"Nice and clean."
Seeing Franky so easily deal with the Guardians and Nekomamushi, Red curled his lips into a satisfied smile and praised him.
The Straw Hat crew then continued forward, following the hypnotized Sicilian as they headed toward the Whale Forest.
This time, no one dared stand in their way.
Even powerhouses like Duke Inuarashi and Boss Nekomamushi had been effortlessly defeated by the Straw Hat crew. If all of them charged together, what difference would it make?
"Wanda…"
Carrot, who had gone to call Nekomamushi for help, quietly returned to the Musketeers' camp. Looking at her companions' dim expressions, a trace of pain immediately appeared on her face.
"Are we really just going to watch them head into the forbidden land?!"
"Otherwise… what else can we do?"
Wanda gave a bitter smile, but her gaze turned toward the crater where Boss Nekomamushi had fallen.
Beside the crater, there was a neat row of strange medicine bottles.
From what Chopper had said earlier, they knew the medicine in those bottles seemed to have healing effects.
So what exactly was this supposed to mean?
They defeated the Guardians and Boss Nekomamushi, then left healing items behind?
Was this really a case of giving someone a slap and then handing them candy!?
What exactly was the Straw Hat Pirates' purpose in doing this?!
Wanda and the other members of the Musketeers clearly couldn't understand the Straw Hat Pirates' actions, but in the end, they still picked up the Super Potions on the ground and began feeding them to the Guardians and the two kings.
An hour later.
It was still the central plaza of Mokomo Dukedom.
Boss Nekomamushi and Duke Inuarashi, who had once been utterly incompatible, now stood side by side beside the Going Merry with rare tacit understanding, along with the Musketeers and the Guardians, as if waiting for something.
Finally, just as the horizon began to glow with a reddish hue and the sun had clearly started to descend…
The figures of the Straw Hat crew slowly emerged from the street at the edge of the plaza.
A moment later, the Straw Hat Pirates once again stood facing the full military strength of Mokomo Dukedom.
"Yo~ Looks like everyone recovered pretty well."
Arriving before Nekomamushi and Inuarashi, Red raised an eyebrow and teased them.
As soon as he finished speaking, he casually flicked a finger.
Franky, standing behind him, immediately tossed the unconscious Sicilian over. He landed right on top of Nekomamushi, who caught him steadily.
"..."
Looking at the carefree smiles on the Straw Hats' faces, Duke Inuarashi took a deep breath before slowly saying,
"It seems you've already obtained what you wanted."
"Of course." Red smiled faintly. "We've already obtained three of the four Road Poneglyphs."
"What comes next is searching the entire world for the fourth one…"
"And when that time comes, Luffy will become the next Pirate King!"
"Hehehe~ I really can't wait!"
Seeing Red turn to look at him, Luffy immediately broke into an excited grin, his eyes sparkling.
Although his goal had long since extended beyond just this planet, the thought of becoming Pirate King so smoothly and fulfilling the dream he'd held since childhood still made him tremble with excitement.
"What!? You've already obtained three Road Poneglyphs!?"
Hearing this, Duke Inuarashi and Boss Nekomamushi both widened their eyes in disbelief.
"What else? Did you think I was lying when I said we'd already taken Wano Country?" Red replied calmly.
"This…"
Inuarashi and Nekomamushi immediately exchanged a glance, both seeing the same stunned disbelief in each other's eyes.
But the next moment, Red suddenly pulled out a letter from his pocket and used Psychic Power to teleport it directly in front of the two of them.
"This is a letter from Wano Country's new shogun, Princess Kozuki Hiyori."
"When she learned we were coming here, she specifically asked us to bring it to you."
"What!?"
Inuarashi and Nekomamushi were shocked. They hurriedly opened the letter before them and began reading it carefully.
The letter detailed everything that had happened in Wano Country and to the Kozuki clan over the years, including a full account of how the Kozuki family had recently reclaimed rule over Wano Country with the help of the Straw Hat crew.
And at the bottom was a seal unique to the Kozuki clan.
The pattern on that seal was something the two of them knew all too well.
They still remembered that once, after Kozuki Oden had gotten drunk, he'd even taken that seal and randomly stamped it all over them, leaving their faces covered in Kozuki clan crests.
A long while later, after confirming from the contents that the letter truly came from Kozuki Hiyori, Inuarashi and Nekomamushi looked up in astonishment and confusion at the Straw Hat Pirates.
"Th-Then why?!"
"If you had a letter from Wano Country, why didn't you show it from the very beginning?!"
If they had shown it from the start, why would they have needed to suffer through that beating just now!?
Of course, as battle-hardened warriors, a bit of physical pain was nothing serious.
The real issue was that, in front of the entire Mink Tribe, they had been casually defeated with ease. That was a massive blow to the authority the two of them held in Mokomo Dukedom.
Yet in the face of their questioning, Red merely let out a calm chuckle.
"Sorry. I forgot just now."
For… forgot!?
Hearing such a completely unreliable excuse, expressions more disgusted than if they had swallowed a cockroach instantly appeared on the faces of Inuarashi and Nekomamushi.
It was obvious the other side had done it on purpose.
And their purpose… was just to beat them up!?
What kind of twisted hobby was that?!
"Heh."
Seeing the expressions on their faces, Red remained unmoved.
After all, out on the open sea, it was hard to find such suitable opponents who were also willing to go all out as combat test units.
Inuarashi and Nekomamushi were absolutely not weak. One could say they were at least at the level of Marine admiral candidates.
And since Chopper and Franky could instantly defeat the two of them, even if they weren't quite at admiral level yet, they definitely had the strength of top-tier Emperor commanders.
It could be said that Red's goal of making every member of his crew admiral-class had taken another great step forward!
"Alright, since we've already gotten the Road Poneglyph, we won't stay here any longer."
"Oh, right. Does your Mink Tribe happen to have anyone interested in going out to sea on an adventure?"
"The Straw Hat Pirates are currently preparing a huge plan, and it may require some participation from the Mink Tribe. If you're interested, your people can head to the Pokémon Sea to report in at any time."
"As for the details, once you arrive in Wano Country and speak with Kozuki Hiyori, you'll understand."
Whoosh!
Without giving the Minks any time to respond, Red directly used Teleport, transferring the Straw Hats straight onto the deck of the Going Merry.
The next second, the Going Merry, docked in the central plaza, suddenly rose into the air. Once it reached a certain height, it instantly accelerated and departed from the region where Mokomo Dukedom was located.
But after arriving directly in front of Zunesha, the Going Merry abruptly hovered there for a moment.
On the deck—
Looking at Zunesha's vacant eyes and its aimless, endless march, Luffy immediately asked Red curiously,
"Red, is there really no way to help this big guy!?"
"It's just been walking like this for hundreds of years. That's way too pitiful, isn't it?!"
"There's no way around it~"
Though he also wanted to communicate with Zunesha and find out what exactly had happened during the Void Century…
Luffy, having lost the soul of Nika, clearly no longer fit the description tied to Joy Boy. As a result, though he had originally been able to communicate with Zunesha, now he was no different from anyone else—just a passerby.
It was just like the ancient giant robot Vegapunk had brought to the Pokémon Sea.
In the anime, it had clearly reawakened after being stirred by the aura of Gear Fifth Luffy.
But Luffy and the others had tested it long ago, and it had shown no reaction whatsoever.
As a result, that robot's only function now was to serve as research material for the Straw Hats' Scientific Research Corps as they investigated the secrets of the ancient past.
Of course—
Rather than letting Luffy's soul fuse with all sorts of bizarre things, Red felt the current situation was far better.
Whether it was Zunesha or the ancient robot, aside from bringing them closer to history, neither of them would provide much help to the Straw Hat Pirates' combat power.
And compared to a failed history, the mysterious future was far more important.
"Alright, don't dwell on it anymore."
"The reason it ended up like this today is because it must have done something unforgivable hundreds of years ago."
"The crimes of history cannot simply vanish with the passage of time."
Red gently patted Luffy's shoulder.
He knew that Luffy's love of strange and curious things was acting up again. He was definitely thinking about making Zunesha into a companion or something like that.
But how could something they couldn't even communicate with possibly become a companion?
After hovering there briefly, the Going Merry no longer hesitated and headed straight for the Pokémon Sea.
At present, they had already obtained three of the four Poneglyphs.
As for the last one, Red was fifty percent certain it was in the land of giants—Elbaf, and thirty percent certain it was in the hands of the Red Hair Pirates.
The remaining twenty percent lay somewhere else in the world of pirates.
But no matter where it was, it was no longer all that important.
At that moment, joyous laughter unique to the Straw Hat Pirates rang out once more across the deck of the Going Merry.
To celebrate getting one step closer to the title of Pirate King, Luffy proposed a grand banquet, and it was immediately held.
During the feast, Luffy danced and sang wildly with Chopper and the others, so excited that he was practically on the verge of tearing off his clothes and returning to nature.
But there were also a few people gathered in a corner of the banquet, holding a world nautical chart and discussing something.
Wearing blue-rimmed glasses that gave her an extra touch of refined elegance, Nami held a pencil in hand and drew three small circles on the chart.
"These are the locations recorded on the three Road Poneglyphs we currently possess…"
"And just like before, the coordinates recorded on the Road Poneglyph from Zou are also in the middle of the ocean."
"But based on these three coordinates, we can already determine that the Final Island, Laugh Tale, should lie somewhere along these three routes."
Nami used her pencil to connect the three points on the chart, forming an irregular triangle.
And the three long sides of that triangle were precisely the regions where the legendary Final Island might appear.
"In other words, we don't actually need the fourth coordinate at all. As long as we thoroughly investigate these three routes, there's a chance we might find the legendary Final Island!?"
Behind Nami, Redfield—who also possessed extraordinary navigational experience—had his eyes light up as he spoke thoughtfully.
Ever since joining the Straw Hat Pirates, this legendary pirate had practically been living a retirement life.
And since his combat power really didn't rank among the front lines of the Straw Hat crew, his presence had grown increasingly faint.
But one thing could not be denied: when it came to understanding this sea, no one aboard the Straw Hats' ship had more experience than him.
He frowned as he stared fixedly at the three routes on the chart.
The three coordinates they currently had were located respectively in the New World, the West Blue, and the South Blue.
And the West Blue and South Blue were separated by the Red Line.
In other words, one of those routes even stretched across the Red Line itself.
But that was almost impossible.
Whether in the West Blue or the South Blue, while there certainly remained places few humans had visited, it was hard to believe there could still be an island that no one had ever set foot on.
And with the Red Line spanning between them, that route was practically meaningless as a reference.
As for the other two routes, Redfield focused his attention on the regions in the New World and the Calm Belt.
Nearby, Robin also wore a contemplative expression as she carefully studied the three routes.
But just as the three of them were thinking seriously, Red, sipping a drink through a straw, walked over.
Seeing Nami and the others gesturing over the chart, he couldn't help but say,
"I think you'd better stop guessing the location of the Final Island."
"Have you ever considered why it takes four coordinate points to determine the location of the Final Island?"
Red's words immediately drew the full attention of Nami and the other two.
The three of them raised their heads and looked at Red in confusion, waiting for his explanation.
And Red said calmly:
"Have you considered this possibility…"
"What if the Road Poneglyphs aren't meant to be used on a flat sea chart at all, but on a model of the planet?"
"And what if the so-called Final Island isn't located on the normal surface at all, but—like Fish-Man Island or a Sky Island—lies beneath the sea or high in the sky through some special method?!"
"That would explain why no one has managed to find that island for so long."
"Because it… simply doesn't exist within the normal range of human activity at all!!!"
(End of Chapter)