Bartholomew Kuma

Above the South Blue, the clouds parted without a sound.

A slender streak of brilliant lightning swept across the sky, leaving a fleeting afterimage high above.

Rock rode the lightning, spreading his Observation Haki without restraint as he flew. Like an invisible tide, it washed slowly over the countless islands below.

Cooking smoke and voices rose from villages. Shouts and work chants carried from the ports. Deep in the forests, faint yet stubborn pulses of life brushed against his senses.

"Where was it again...?"

Rock slowed slightly, his gaze moving between the islands below.

"The Sorbet Kingdom... Tch. Maybe I should've memorized a map..."

He paused for a moment, searching his memory.

Then the lightning curved and plunged swiftly in a new direction.

The Sorbet Kingdom.

In a secluded corner of town, an old church stood quietly in the wind.

Fine cracks covered its gray-white walls. Years of weathering had left its wooden roof worn and mottled, and several boards had begun to sag. Yet it stubbornly held the building together, as though preserving one last refuge on this impoverished land.

Inside, the church was dim but not oppressive.

A few rays of light slipped through cracks in the stained glass, casting soft patches of color across the floor.

A tall young man in plain clerical clothes stood beside a pew, bent slightly forward.

He moved with great care, resting his broad hands gently against a frail old man's back. His expression was focused, as though the slightest excess of force might hurt him.

The next moment, a small red paw print slowly emerged from the old man's body.

It seemed to carry an invisible weight as it was pushed out, little by little.

The instant it broke free, the old man visibly relaxed, as if a burden that