Mantra

"It's a Giant ship!"

Rocks' Fury was already a large sailing vessel, but compared to the mountain-like ship blocking its path, it seemed almost petite.

On these seas, only Giant ships usually reached such a scale.

The Rocks Pirates had dealt with the Giants plenty of times, so they recognized the ship's owner almost instantly.

"Looks like that guy Harald's ship!"

"Who cares?! They're here to stop us, aren't they? Sink it!"

By the Rocks Pirates' usual rules, any enemy ship blocking their way would be dealt with by sinking and plundering it.

Even a Giant ship was nothing to fear, especially with all the officers aboard the Fury.

If a conflict broke out, they could destroy any kind of ship.

"Wait!"

However, Rocks stopped the restless officers.

"What are you doing, Rocks?! Don't try to stop me!"

An enraged Shiki roared at Rocks.

As far as he was concerned, he had only just set the ship back down on the sea when this Giant kingdom ship came to block their path. It was clearly here to crash their party.

"Let me negotiate! It's been a long time since I last caught up with that guy!"

Rocks glanced back at Shiki. "Relax! As long as we head for West Blue along the Calm Belt, we'll definitely be the first to arrive!"

At that moment, a towering, mountain-like figure appeared aboard the Giant kingdom's ship. Surrounded by guards, Harald walked to the cloud-patterned bulwark and swept his gaze across the deck of Rocks' Fury.

After a moment, the Giant King slowly spoke. "I was told to stop a pirate crew obsessed with women, Rocks."

"Another World Government idea? Do you think you can pull it off?" Rocks grinned.

"As long as we step forward, sinking such a 'tiny' ship would be effortless." Harald gestured for Rocks to look toward the distant horizon. "See that ship? The Government is watching from there."

Rocks was slightly taken aback. Looking in the direction Harald indicated, he indeed spotted a tiny black dot at the edge of the distant sea.

At such a distance, it was difficult to make out what kind of vessel it was with the naked eye, but Rocks figured it was probably a World Government ship, just as Harald had said.

It had stopped so far away because it feared getting caught up in a battle between the Rocks Pirates and Harald.

After all, the Marines would never act so timidly or cling so desperately to their lives.

But precisely because of that, even with telescopes, the World Government could not monitor the specific details.

"I see. Building up merit to join the World Government again? You really underestimate us, King Bigshot!"

Rocks stood at the prow of the Fervor with his arms folded. Behind him, every officer except Annus wore hostile expressions, clearly prepared for battle.

"You can tolerate a Government that stands by and watches us kill each other, can't you? No matter what you do, you're still a madman trying to change 'Elbaf'!"

"Can the two of us talk for a moment?"

Rocks' words left the officers behind him stunned.

"Hey, hey, hey! Rocks, what are you plotting?"

It had only been a few days since Rocks, furious over failing to invite Annus to join him against Harald, had fought Annus, hadn't it?

Why was he now willing to sit down and talk with Harald?

The other officers were baffled, but Annus knew the reason. Rocks had changed completely because he mistakenly believed he had glimpsed fate.

Once a person believed he had reached a higher spiritual realm, he naturally became more broad-minded.

Just like Rocks, who had wagered everything on his journey home and already cast life and death aside, past grievances no longer mattered.

Harald hesitated slightly and secretly exchanged a glance with Annus. After seeing Annus give a faint nod, he agreed to Rocks' request.

Annus' earlier conversation with Harald in Aurust Castle had slightly changed the Giant King's way of thinking.

After Rocks boarded Harald's ship, Annus quietly unleashed his Observation Haki.

"Mantra."

The basic ability of Observation Haki was to heighten one's senses, allowing one to keenly perceive the presence and emotions of nearby living creatures.

It could also be used to predict an opponent's next move and even sense enemies' locations and numbers beyond one's line of sight.

And "Mantra" was an advanced technique Annus had developed based on the fundamental abilities of Observation Haki.

In the original timeline, the reason Enel's Mantra was so powerful that it could even cover the entire Sky Island and monitor every resident's conversations was that he was also the user of the Logia-type Rumble-Rumble Fruit.

When the human body thought, it produced faint brainwaves. The Rumble-Rumble Fruit turned its user into "electricity," granting them the power to release their ability and transmit and receive every electrical wave within the range of their Observation Haki.

After these electrical waves came into contact with a human body, they reflected back the faint bioelectric signals generated by the brain's activity.

The user was like a powerful biological radar or signal receiver, analyzing those electrical waves to directly hear people's conversations and even peer into their thoughts.

That was the foundation of Enel's confidence in calling himself a god in the original timeline.

Mantra's abilities not only allowed Enel to foresee attacks in battle, but also enabled him to uncover everyone's secrets and movements on the island like an absolute monarch.

And as the current timeline's user of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, a man who had trained his Observation Haki to the utmost limit, Annus had developed Mantra far beyond Enel!

With only the slightest exertion, Mantra carried every word between Rocks and Harald to Annus' ears like spirits riding the wind.

Amid the sound of wine being poured, Rocks spoke.

"You should already know where we're going and what we intend to do..."

"Listen, Harald. What I'm about to say, I've never told anyone before. Not even those guys of ours. You're the first."

"I have a hidden name!"

"Davy D. Jibeck!"

"Isn't it Rocks? Why did you even change your surname?"

"Because that is the name of a clan the World Government has always wanted to erase! A clan descended from the legendary pirate Davy D. Jones, which once ran rampant through the underworld and still barely survives in this world..."

"Whether by coincidence or not... two years ago... my child was born."

The sound of gulping wine.

"To be safe, so danger wouldn't reach either of them, I sent my wife and child back to my homeland... and told them to seek refuge with the Davy Clan!"

"I see. Your homeland holds both your wife and child, as well as your bloodline... What do you intend to do by exposing such a weakness to me?"

"My homeland is—God Valley!"

"...Then the Government is trying to lure you there?"

"No, that's an island where the Celestial Dragons gather! They would never want me to go there! Even for them, this is an 'unexpected miscalculation'!"

The sound of an empty bowl being smashed.

"It feels like I'm being pulled there by some enormous force called fate... Taking Shakuyaku was their greatest failure! As long as I can get my wife and son to escape, that will be enough!"

"But now, I don't feel that luck is on my side! Help me, Harald!"