Several days later, with Kuina and the green-haired brat leading the way, Louis and the others followed a road straight to the forge Kosaburo Shimotsuki had left behind.
Just when everyone thought nothing unexpected would happen along the way, something that left them speechless did.
"Kuina, it looks like that Zoro got lost again..." Uta said with an odd expression, tugging at Kuina's plain practice clothes.
When Kuina turned around, Uta raised a hand and pointed at the green-haired boy, who had turned around and was heading into the forest. Her eyes were filled with lingering shock.
She hadn't expected the green-haired brat to be this hopeless at finding his way. He'd just been walking along when, without warning, he turned around and headed in another direction.
Kuina glanced at Zoro, then wore an expression that said she was used to it. "Just ignore him. He can get lost right outside his own house. There's no saving him."
"Ahaha..." Uta's fair little face twitched. She was clearly stunned.
"He can get lost right outside his own house?"
"Yeah. It sounds scary, but once you get used to it, it doesn't seem like a big deal." Kuina figured that as long as you gave up on expecting him to find his way, you'd soon get used to his downright bizarre behavior.
Watching Zoro disappear in the distance, Louis sighed inwardly. He really is the undisputed king of getting lost...
Before long, the group reached their destination.
At the edge of the mountain forest, two rickety wooden houses stood at the end of the road.
Thick white smoke curled from the chimney of one of them.
As if sensing their arrival, the door to the house slowly opened. Koshiro, wearing a simple kimono with a towel tied around his head, came into view.
He raised an arm to wipe the sweat from his brow and smiled. "You've come at just the right time."
"I've finished forging the weapon!"
Then he stepped aside and let them into the house.
The fire in the forge had only just gone out. Its surface still glowed red, and its scorching heat spread through the house, making the air stifling.
But even Uta, the least sturdy among them, didn't seem too concerned about the heat. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the enormous object resting on the stone table.
"Ordinary swords, even Wano Country's naginata and Flower Country's signature great spears, wouldn't suit her. They're too light."
"Miss Yelena's strength is monstrous, too. The type of weapon doesn't really matter to her. What matters is its weight."
"So, while forging it, I used every method I could think of to increase its mass."
As he spoke, Koshiro pushed up his glasses, his smile unwavering. "I found suitable material among the scraps my father left behind."
"Scraps?" Kuina's eyes widened.
"Why use scraps?"
Looking at the cracks in the stone table beneath the black warhammer, Louis mused, "Because the metal's density is too high for making swords?"
"Exactly!" Koshiro looked around the house, a trace of nostalgia in his eyes. "Although the material is excellent, it's too heavy to make a good sword, so it became scrap."
"The only weapons that could match this one in weight would probably be weapons made for giants!"
Yelena slowly stepped forward and stopped in front of the stone table. She reached out, gripped the warhammer's handle, and lifted it.
The weapon's full form was revealed to everyone.
"She lifted it with one hand?" Kuina gaped, and the First Generation in her hand nearly fell to the ground.
It was entirely black and about two and a half meters long. Unlike Yelena's old octagonal hammer, this one had the shape of a flanged mace.
Four rows of metallic diamond-shaped spikes jutted from the metal shaft, except where one would grip it with both hands. Diamond-shaped spikes protruded from the sides of the hammerhead as well.
Louis stared at the warhammer before him and, for once, lost himself in thought for a moment. Why does it look so much like...
Nearby, Uta tilted her head and examined the cold steel Yelena had lifted with one hand.
At last, she couldn't help commenting, "Are you sure this isn't a kanabo?"
Beside her, the shock in Kuina's eyes at seeing Yelena lift a warhammer nearly as heavy as a giant's weapon gradually gave way to a strange expression.
Uta's comment had made all the difference. The more Kuina looked at it, the more it seemed like an oversized kanabo.
"I don't mind that it looks a bit like a kanabo," Yelena said. For some reason, she wasn't put off by the flanged mace's resemblance to one. If anything, she thought its spikes would make it considerably more lethal.
Koshiro pushed up his glasses and said unhurriedly, "Give it a name."
At that, Yelena turned to look at Louis.
"Worldbreaker," Louis blurted out.
"How does that sound?"
As he spoke, Louis met Yelena's eyes.
When Yelena transformed into a Wendigo, she sometimes used her scythe-like claws to reap lives. Considering the warhammer's appearance as well, the name Worldbreaker Warhammer seemed fitting.
"Worldbreaker..." Yelena looked down at the weapon in her hands, considering it. "A warhammer to break the World Government?"
"Good." Yelena's eyes lit up, and the corners of her mouth curled into a smile.
Along the shore, villagers followed Koshiro's instructions, carrying all kinds of supplies aboard a warship flying a pirate flag.
That's right—a warship flying a pirate flag.
When Koshiro had come with Kuina to see their benefactors off and spotted their vessel, even he, usually so composed, couldn't keep a straight face.
He hadn't expected Louis and the others to be so bold as to use a warship as their ship.
Aside from the sails and pirate flag, they hadn't even bothered to disguise it.
After calming down, Koshiro couldn't help asking, "Mr. Louis, are you sure you don't want to change the ship's paint?"
"I can help if you need me to!"
Louis waved a hand and answered casually, "There's no need. If we change the paint, will they not recognize it?"
"..." Koshiro fell silent.
That was true. The warship's structure and style were so distinctive that anyone with a sharp eye would recognize it even if they changed the paint.
Before long, all the supplies Koshiro had gifted them were aboard.
"We're off. I hope we meet again someday."
Louis and the others stood on the warship's deck and waved goodbye to Koshiro.
When they were too far apart to make out each other's faces, Louis's voice carried across the sea breeze to the shore.
"If one day you go out to sea and have nowhere else to go, come find us!"
"Kuina."
Kuina froze in the breeze, but a moment later, she smiled and answered, "Okay."
"I thought you'd invite her aboard right now," Yelena said from behind him.
Louis turned around and gave her a rather exasperated look. "The average age on our ship is already pretty low. Add another one and it'll be a kindergarten."
"That makes sense..."
Just then, Uta poked her head out from behind Yelena, her face full of excitement. "Louis, where are we going next?"
"Elegia..."
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