The argument over transportation did not become any easier once everyone reached the beach.
Dorry and Brogy stood in the shallows with their temporary weapons resting against their shoulders, while the Polar Tang floated beyond the damaged reef.
Even at a distance, the submarine looked absurdly small beside them.
Bepo had already measured the main hatch twice and confirmed what everyone could see: neither giant could fit through it, even if they somehow folded themselves in half.
Law stood on the upper deck with his arms crossed.
"No," he said for the third time. "You are not strapping two giants to the outside of my submarine."
Zaraki looked toward the broad yellow hull, then back at Dorry and Brogy.
"They could hold on."
"They would change the balance of the entire vessel, increase drag beyond anything the engines were designed to handle, and probably tear off the diving planes the first time one of them adjusted his grip."
Brogy scratched his beard.
"What are diving planes?"
"The parts you would tear off," Law replied.
Dorry nodded as though the explanation had been perfectly adequate.
"Then we will avoid touching those."
Law stared at him for a long moment before lowering the brim of his hat.
"That does not solve anything."
A short distance inland, Shachi and Penguin had begun inspecting the ancient shipwreck half buried between the enormous roots of the jungle.
The vessel had once been a longship built for giants, its ribs broad enough to dwarf ordinary houses.
A century of rain, heat, insects, and neglect had rotted much of the exposed timber, yet the keel remained buried in firm ground and several lower sections were still sound.
Dorry rested one hand against the weathered hull.
"This ship carried us to Little Garden," he said. "After we began our duel, we stopped caring whether it could sail again."
Brogy gave a booming laugh.
"Gababababa! We expected the duel to end before the ship finished rotting."
"You expected to win quickly," Dorry corrected. "I knew better."
"You lying bastard!"
Their voices rolled through the jungle, startling a flock of prehistoric birds from the trees.
Law ignored the argument and expanded ROOM across the wreck.
Blue light covered the exposed hull as he separated several rotten planks from the stronger frame without causing the remaining structure to collapse.
"I can cut out what is useless and reposition whatever can still bear weight," he said. "I cannot turn rotten wood into new timber. We will need replacements, pitch, rope, sails, and enough reinforcement to keep the hull from splitting the first time these two start fighting aboard it."
Bepo leaned over the rail.
"How long would repairs take?"
"With a normal crew? Weeks." Law glanced toward the giants, who could uproot full-grown ironwood trees with their bare hands. "With them doing the heavy work and my crew handling the fittings, perhaps several days."
Zaraki's golden eyes moved toward the western horizon.
Nothing had appeared since Nozarashi warned him, but the faint unease behind the sealed blade had not vanished.
Whatever was coming remained distant, yet it was moving with enough purpose for Nozarashi to notice across the sea.
Several days might be safe.
It might not.
"We start now," Zaraki said. "Use anything on the island that won't break after the first wave."
Law gave him a dry look.
"You say that as though you are the one who has to make it float."
"I'll test it when you're done."
"That is exactly what worries me."
Dorry and Brogy exchanged delighted grins.
The prospect of restoring the ship that had carried them across the Grand Line seemed to excite them almost as much as another duel.
They set their temporary weapons aside and marched into the jungle to collect timber, each step making the ground tremble.
Before they moved out of earshot, Dorry looked back.
"You said there were other candidates. Did the enemy at Hells Island accept the Government's offer?"
Zaraki rested one hand on Nozarashi's hilt.
"He attacked the Marine ship before anyone could offer him anything. He had enough raw strength to give Zephyr trouble, but no discipline and no judgment. He let an old woman choose every target for him until there was nothing left in his head except her orders."
Brogy frowned.
"And you killed him?"
"He gave me no reason to leave him alive."
The giants did not recoil or beg to withdraw from the evaluation.
They had seen Zaraki spare opponents who fought with honor, restore their arms, and return as promised.
Weevil's death did not make them fear that Zaraki intended to slaughter every candidate. It told them what happened to a warrior who used strength without any will of his own.
Dorry's expression became thoughtful.
"So strength alone was not enough."
"Strength is never the problem," Zaraki replied. "What matters is whether you know where to put it. I learned that from a bastard with a black sword who enjoyed repeating the lesson with the edge."
Law looked at him.
"You mean Mihawk."
"Who else?"
Brogy lifted his temporary axe again.
"If control matters so much, then test us. Our bodies are stronger than any human's, and we have fought longer than most kingdoms have existed."
"You have also spent a century repeating the same duel," Zaraki said. "That made you good at fighting each other and lazy against everyone else."
Both giants bristled, but neither could deny what he had told them after their defeat.
Zaraki continued before the argument restarted.
"I'll work on your Haki and physical conditioning once the ship is ready. There is another method I am considering, but neither of you is touching it until I know exactly what it does to my own body."
Law's attention sharpened immediately.
"What method?"
"A way to force more power out of the body than it normally allows."
"That description is missing every detail a doctor would consider important."
"It hurts."
"That is not a medical detail. That is what patients say when they want me to discover the damage for them."
Zaraki's grin widened.
"The higher levels can tear muscles, damage organs, or kill the user."
Law became completely still.
Dorry and Brogy, on the other hand, leaned closer with growing interest.
Brogy's eyes shone.
"How much stronger does it make you?"
"I don't know yet."
That answer cooled their excitement more effectively than a warning.
Dorry lowered his head until his single visible eye was nearly level with Zaraki.
"You have not used it?"
"I understand how it works. That is not the same thing as mastering it."
Law studied him with open suspicion.
"Where did you learn something like that?"
Zaraki met his gaze without answering.
Law waited several seconds, then sighed.
"Of course. Another mystery you expect everyone else to tolerate."
"You're learning."
"I am adapting to a recurring problem."
The conversation ended when the jungle erupted with cracking timber.
Dorry and Brogy returned carrying several enormous ironwood trunks between them, each tree thick enough to serve as a mast for an ordinary battleship.
Law looked at the wreck, the giants, and the rapidly growing pile of materials.
"Fine. We repair the ship first. After that, I examine you before you test this unknown technique."
Zaraki raised an eyebrow.
"You're giving orders now?"
"I am the doctor whose work you keep tearing apart. That gives me jurisdiction over your stupidity."
Bepo nodded seriously from the deck.
"Captain has a point."
Zaraki looked at him.
Bepo lowered his ears.
"Sorry."
Despite the urgency, the work began with more laughter than tension.
Dorry and Brogy stripped the fresh timber, the Heart Pirates removed damaged fittings from the old hull, and Law used ROOM to separate and position pieces too large for ordinary tools.
No one noticed the Polar Tang's sonar operator stiffen inside the control room until a warning bell began ringing through the submarine.
Bong—! Bong—! Bong—!
Penguin's voice came through the speaking tube.
"Captain! Something enormous is moving beneath the western shelf!"
Law turned toward the sea.
"How enormous?"
A pause followed.
"Bigger than the submarine."
"That does not narrow it down enough."
"Bigger than the island's visible reef."
The joking stopped.
Beyond the western edge of Little Garden, the sea began to rise.