A Vast Island

Stone fragments and the viscous waves of the Black Sea gradually settled. The Ashen moved steadily and slowly through the fog along the "Black Rock Stele Forest" channel opened by Rain's power.

The Heavy Water Mist still shrouded them like a festering wound, but everyone carried out their duties, watching vigilantly for any disturbance that might emerge from the mist.

"Boss, a large reef zone has been spotted at two o'clock ahead!"

Keen, who was on lookout duty, suddenly shouted.

Rain looked up and saw an enormous obsidian reef jutting abruptly from the viscous Black Sea ahead. The reef was black as ink throughout, gleaming with a cold metallic luster amid the gray mist, like a broken sword thrust from the seabed toward the heavens.

"Bring the ship over," Rain ordered calmly.

As the Ashen slowly drew alongside the massive obsidian reef, Rain leaped down and landed steadily on its slick rock surface. Carina, Keen, Aira, and the others promptly followed.

"Rain, did you find something?" Carina asked doubtfully, tapping the hard obsidian beneath her feet.

Rain said nothing. He merely strode toward the very center of the reef, to a recessed, sheltered spot deliberately spared from the waves. He reached out and lightly traced a complex mark carved so deeply into the rock wall that it seemed to cut to the bone.

Though weathered by the years, the mark still carried a strange sense of order.

"This is... a code of the Kozuki Family?!"

Keen exclaimed in surprise. During the final battle in Wano Country, they had seen the family marks left behind by the Nine Red Scabbards and Kozuki Oden many times. Whether in the blade work or the design of the pattern, this ancient carving was clearly identical to those of the Kozuki Family!

"It isn't just