Titans

Above the White Sea-

A strange, spindle-shaped hot-air balloon... 120 meters long and painted with a bizarre shark design, passed through the clouds.

For anyone who had never seen an "airship," that description was perfectly reasonable. Anyone who recognized its paint scheme, however, would start hearing things and instinctively want to build anti-air defenses...

-Kirov reporting!

Without question, this was another of Sephiroth's extravagant projects.

After all, the available technology was severely limited. Whether it was the Wide-Area Silent Ship, a 380-meter-class low-orbit assault landing ship, or the Splendid Ash, a 410-meter-class atmospheric floating cruiser, these two enormous toys were little different from scrap metal without the Rumble-Rumble Fruit user controlling them.

To supplement their aerial forces, a vehicle called the "Babylon Airship" had been developed, using Heat Dials and Wind Dials as its primary propulsion sources.

It worked well enough as a conventional transport. But without complete air superiority, any enemy capable of aerial combat would find it a thin-skinned, heavily laden sitting duck. During the operation to descend on Jaya Island, the Babylon Airships had served only as transports.

"Setting new course."

A new command sounded over the onboard speakers. The Skyship pierced the clouds of the White Sea and reached the area around Heaven's Gate. The Servo Angels began correcting its course. Besides transporting the first shipment of metal resources acquired from the Blue Sea, this mission also carried three special guests.

A burly man with a diamond-shaped face and a chestnut-shaped hat stood by a cabin window, holding an introductory handbook on Babylon as he stared outside in shock-

The enormous Heaven's Gate looked as though it had been assembled from white Greek-style columns out of a fairy tale. Before it, a white cloud road stretching into the heavens descended like an elevator from the White-White Sea, connecting it to the White Sea.

"H-Heaven's Gate?"

Mont Blanc Kulikate stared dumbfounded at the words on the gate. That was right: this chestnut-headed middle-aged man was a descendant of the legendary liar, Mont Blanc Noland.

"Pops! Are we going to die?!"

"Pops! I don't want to die!!"

His two ape-like followers instantly burst into tears, snot running down their faces.

"...Calm down, you two."

Kulikate did not think this was the heaven of myth, but it should be the legendary Sky Island... He had never expected to get a chance to see another legendary land before finding the Golden Country.

He recalled the terrifying events on the ground not long ago... All of Jaya Island had fallen in less than two hours. In just one week, the name Jaya Island had ceased to exist...

In its place stood the Mechanical Kingdom-Titans.

Mock Town, now its capital, had been renamed the Mechanical City-Anaheim.

When the mechanical soldiers discovered Kulikate and escorted him before that Mechanical King, he had thought he was doomed. Instead, they merely tossed him a Babylon handbook, then put him aboard this flying vehicle called a Skyship... They had even generously allowed him to bring two companions.

Only as they ascended, after he had skimmed through the handbook, did he finally understand. The Golden Country his ancestor had spoken of had not sunk after all. The Knock Up Stream had hurled it up to Sky Island...

Outside the window-

As the gateway to Sky Island, Heaven's Gate was not like it had been under Enel in the original story, with only an old woman guarding it in what amounted to an entrapment scheme. Instead, it had been developed into a fortified airport.

Six identical Skyships were currently parked there, while winged Skypiean soldiers and other staff bustled about everywhere.

Kulikate had heard that, after arriving here, they would transfer to something called the Express Shrimp Train... He could not begin to imagine what that was.

The prospect of meeting the descendants of his ancestor's dear friend left him both anxious and excited. The main reason for his conflicted feelings was a question the Mechanical King had asked before his departure: what did he think his ancestor's purpose had been in serving his king and leading an army to the Golden Country?

At the time, cold sweat had instantly drenched Kulikate's body.

Was he really going to reveal the Golden Country's existence... just to supposedly restore his ancestor's reputation?!

Or... now that he knew the truth, would he even have the opportunity to reveal it...?

-Jaya Island should, from this point onward, be called Titans.

In just one week, a mechanical fortress had risen in central Anaheim, its entire aesthetic thoroughly embracing steampunk design.

Hiss-"We cannot waste human resources."

Seated on a mechanical throne and wearing his Babbage guise, Sephiroth issued orders in a buzzing mechanical voice.

The steel throne was steeped in the aesthetic of rivets, steam, and steel. Its seat consisted of assorted gray iron mechanical constructs, with gears and rivets fitted between them. The main body of its backrest was a solid piece of battleship armor, decorated with twisting pipes that spread upward, along with gauges and valves-all operating in some fashion.

"...As you command, master. But enslavement... isn't that somewhat...?"

The Servo Angels would never betray the Rumble-Rumble Fruit user, but they actually possessed emotions resembling a sense of justice.

Just what principles had that ancient lunar technology operated on?

Sephiroth could only use the ancient production lines still on the moon to manufacture ready-made thinking modules. Any attempt to modify or analyze them remained a complete mystery to him... He did not even dare disassemble them...

If he had not discovered that the thinking module was itself an "assembly," allowing him to install only its basic logic and command modules to produce emotionless mechanical servants, he truly would not have known what to do.

"Do not worry. Follow the bounties. Enslave those wanted 'dead or alive.' For the rest, reform through labor..."

The mechanical servants were mechanical idiots capable of only a single task; he still had to rely on the Servo Angels for more comprehensive work. A simple explanation could improve their mood, which was hardly much trouble.

These fellows did not even ask for wages...

Sephiroth felt that was simply inappropriate, so he had provisionally given them compensation matching Babylon's minimum standard for civil servants.

Since occupying the island, the Mechanical Kingdom's initial policies had been as follows: ordinary people continued their previous lives, illegal businesses were eradicated, gray-area businesses were restructured, pirates guilty of minor crimes underwent reform through labor, and those guilty of serious crimes were packed off to Sky Island as slaves.

In truth, only a small minority of pirates had never committed serious crimes such as murder or rape. Most had, differing only in degree. To put it plainly, these so-called "slaves" primarily existed to "add a lower class," providing a "psychological advantage" to the Skypieans who would eventually be permanently stationed on the moon.

Naturally, in practice, most retained their basic human rights-for instance, they could not be subjected to actual harm without cause. Only those whose crimes warranted dozens of executions had no rights. Those who met the ordinary threshold for a death sentence received treatment similar to labor reform. Those with specialized skills, depending on their circumstances, lived under restricted movement on either a nine-to-nine, six-day workweek or a round-the-clock, seven-day schedule.

Sephiroth knew this was not very humane. On one hand, these serious criminal pirates had been even crueler to ordinary people, so from the simple standpoint of retribution in kind, he could also say his conscience was clear. (Before discussing pirates' human rights, anyone wishing to do so should first consider what most pirates in this world actually were.)

On the other hand, it was also for the moon's stability. During the initial construction phase, people stationed there long-term would run into psychological difficulties without a "lower class" to serve as a "comparison for happiness."

Perhaps it was hypocrisy, but there was one rule concerning slaves: regardless of "the circumstances" under which a slave had a child, that child would be sent to an orphanage in Anaheim upon turning one and receive the treatment of an ordinary civilian.

He did not want slaves' descendants to remain slaves. After all, their parents' crimes had no direct connection to newborn children... If those children later supposedly inherited criminal genes and caused trouble, they could simply be dealt with normally.

"As you command, master."

Having learned their master's intentions in detail through radio waves, the Servo Angels departed in satisfaction, spreading their joy to others of their kind.

With that matter settled, Sephiroth began connecting to the entirety of Anaheim from inside the Babbage mech. If this signal base station project succeeded, it would influence their future strategic direction.

-Invisible radio waves reverberated outward from the Mechanical City, spreading to the other signal nodes across the island.

"...?"

-Ring, ring.

Inside a compartment in the mechanical wall beside the throne, Sephiroth detected the signal two seconds before the Den Den Mushi rang.

-Ring, ring.

The mechanical wall resembled a storage wall. Besides books, paper, pens, and other items, its compartments held several Den Den Mushi. Some were new, while others had been confiscated from illegal businesses.

The one ringing now... should have been Bellamy's.

-Click.

"-Speak."

"-You bastard, who are you?! Put Bellamy on!"

The Den Den Mushi took on the appearance of someone wearing a top hat and a mask with round lenses. This trait was quite interesting. Sephiroth had tested it before: when he used Babbage's electronic voice, the Den Den Mushi on the other end actually donned a helmet resembling Babbage's head armor.

"Hiss... He will never be able to answer again."

As a precaution, all Devil Fruit users were currently fitted with Seastone collars to seal their powers, then confined in a lunar dungeon under round-the-clock robot guard.

"-He may have been trash, but he was our trash! Do you know who you've crossed?!"

The Den Den Mushi suddenly sprouted hair as though it had exploded. Its top hat vanished, revealing a hairstyle like a Super Saiyan's... except silver.

"Doflamingo."

"..."

As Babbage's mechanical voice spoke the Heavenly Yaksha's name against the hiss of steam, the other end fell silent for several seconds.

-Gladius, the Bomb-Bomb Fruit user, was an officer of the Donquixote Family, serving in the special assault unit of Pica's Spade Army.

Had this arrogant man said "Joker," that would still have been acceptable. Instead, he had named the young master directly.

The fact that the young master was Joker was no secret among the highest-level powers, but knowing it would only make sense for someone at least on the level of the Shichibukai. Even among the Shichibukai, several did not know.

Who was this person who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere?

"You know what this means, don't you?"

"-Come, then."

"...You'll regret this."

-Click.

The call ended.

Inside the mechanical palace, the various mechanical structures crackled with sparks of static electricity...

(Edited, then edited again. The slavery issue, the amusement issue. I had already put them in "quotation marks" in the first place. Later, I added explanations. Yet some people still interpreted it as "Celestial Dragon-style slavery." Add explanations, and it feels wordy; leave them out, and there are always problems. I really don't know what else to do.)