Reverse Mountain's ascending waterway shot into the clouds like a giant dragon. Seawater flowed uphill, crashing against the rock walls on either side with a deafening roar.
The Flame Emperor pitched violently in the rapids, but its hull remained remarkably steady-Lin Yan had formed a cushioning membrane of flame beneath it, absorbing most of the impact.
"Aaah-we're going to crash!" Chopper screamed, clinging to the mast.
Ahead lay an almost vertical bend. The ship had to turn here to enter the correct channel. In the original story, Luffy and his crew had nearly lost their ship and their lives here.
"Ace," Lin Yan said.
"Got it!" Ace jumped to the bow and pressed both hands against the figurehead. "Flame Propulsion: Full Power!"
Boom!!!
An enormous jet of flame erupted from the stern. The Flame Emperor surged forward, forcing an arc around the bend and entering the main ascending channel without a hitch.
"W-we did it!" Chopper breathed a sigh of relief.
Tashigi gripped the railing, her face pale, but still forced herself to remain composed. "This way of sailing... is truly insane."
"You'll get used to it," Lin Yan said with a smile. "The Grand Line's weather is even crazier."
Sure enough, the moment he finished speaking, thunder rumbled overhead.
A bank of rain clouds hung above the ascending waterway. Rain poured down, and lightning darted through the clouds.
A bolt of lightning struck toward the Flame Emperor.
Lin Yan raised a finger.
"Flame Emperor Body: Lightning Rod."
A thin ray of flame shot from his fingertip, striking the lightning precisely and guiding it into the nearby rock wall, where it exploded.
"Keep going."
Ten minutes later, the Flame Emperor burst out of the ascending waterway and reached the summit of Reverse Mountain.
This was where the currents of the four seas converged. Before them lay four waterways leading in different directions: West Blue to the left, South Blue to the right, the first half of the Grand Line-Paradise-ahead, and East Blue, where they had come from, behind them.
"At last..." Ace gazed at the broad channel ahead, flowing toward unknown waters. "The Grand Line!"
"We're not done yet." Lin Yan pointed below. "The current going down is even faster. Get ready."
The Flame Emperor plunged into the descending waterway.
This time, they were diving, moving more than three times faster than on the ascent! The hull was almost perpendicular to the water, and Chopper and several crew members shut their eyes in fright.
"Isuka! Hold the helm steady!"
"Yes, Captain!"
Like a crimson arrow, the Flame Emperor tore through the curtain of water and hurtled toward the Grand Line.
Five minutes later-
Boom!!!
The hull slammed into the sea, throwing up a hundred-meter-high splash. But Lin Yan had cushioned it with flames beforehand, leaving the ship completely undamaged.
"We're... here?" Chopper opened one eye.
An entirely different stretch of sea lay before them.
The water was emerald green, rainbow light shimmered across the sky, distant islands flickered in and out of view, and a strange floral fragrance filled the air.
They had arrived at Paradise, on the Grand Line.
[Ding-] [Entered the Grand Line] [Main quest updated: The Shichibukai Game] [Objective: Defeat or recruit at least one of the Shichibukai] [Time limit: One year] [Reward: Ability template draws ×2, Devil Fruit Encyclopedia (complete)]
"The Shichibukai, huh..." Lin Yan looked at the Eternal Pose in his hand. "First stop, Water 7."
Just then, thick fog suddenly rose from the distant sea. Faint singing drifted out of it.
"Yo ho ho ho... yo ho ho ho..."
Brook's "Binks' Sake"!
"That singing..." The Vivre Card Crocus had given him reacted. "Is that Brook?"
Lin Yan extended his Observation Haki, sensing deep into the fog.
A dilapidated three-masted sailing ship lay there. A skeleton in formal attire and a top hat stood aboard, playing a violin.
The Rumbar Pirates' ship, and the skeleton Brook.
But why were they here? The Florian Triangle was a long way from here.
"Ace, change course. Head toward the singing."
"Got it!"
The Flame Emperor sailed into the fog.
As they drew closer, the battered ship came fully into view. Seaweed and barnacles covered its hull, and its sails were in tatters, but the deck was spotless-clearly, someone cleaned it regularly.
Brook stopped playing and "looked" toward the Flame Emperor with his hollow eye sockets.
"Yo ho ho ho... what rare visitors. I haven't seen a living person in fifty years... though I'm already dead, yo ho ho ho!"
He set down his violin and walked to the side of the ship. "Are you pirates? That flag... I've never seen it before."
Using Geppo, Lin Yan flew onto Brook's ship.
Brook jumped in fright. "Y-you can fly?!"
"Brook, musician of the Rumbar Pirates. You ate the Revive-Revive Fruit and came back as a skeleton after dying." Lin Yan said it all in one breath. "Am I right?"
Brook froze. A long while passed before he spoke. "How... how do you know?"
"Crocus told me."
"Mr. Crocus?! He's still alive?!"
"Alive and well, working as the lighthouse keeper at Twin Cape," Lin Yan said. "And Laboon is still alive too. I just healed his injuries."
The violin fell from Brook's hand.
"Laboon... is still alive..." He covered his face-though his skeleton had no flesh, the gesture was the same. "Thank goodness... thank goodness..."
It had been fifty years. He had thought Laboon had long since died or given up. He had never imagined that foolish child was still waiting for them.
"I want to see Laboon," Brook said. "Right now."
"All right." Lin Yan nodded. "But your ship is too battered to make it to Twin Cape. Come aboard mine."
"C-can I really?"
"Yes. But before that..." Lin Yan looked toward the cabin. "I'd like to meet your captain."
Brook stiffened. "Th-the captain..."
"I know he's dead," Lin Yan said. "But the Revive-Revive Fruit's power should be able to let the dead manifest briefly, shouldn't it? Especially a soul with such a strong lingering attachment."
Brook remained silent for a long time, then sighed. "You really do know everything."
He walked to the cabin door and pushed it open.
There was no corpse inside, only a rusty sword and a music box.
Brook opened the music box. It played "Binks' Sake."
As the music played, a translucent ghost emerged from the sword. He was a middle-aged man with a captain's hat and a thick beard, wearing a gentle smile.
York D. Rumba.
"Brook, do we have another visitor?" Rumba's ghost asked, his voice ethereal.
"Captain, this is... Lady Solar's son."
"What?!" Rumba's ghost rippled violently. "Lady Solar... had a child?"
He floated over to Lin Yan and studied him carefully. "The resemblance... it's uncanny... those eyes are exactly like Lady Solar's."
"Captain Rumba." Lin Yan inclined his head slightly. "Thank you for looking after my mother back then."
"No, she was the one who looked after us," Rumba's ghost said. "During the God Valley Incident, our entire crew would have died there if Lady Solar hadn't saved us."
He paused, then asked, "Is Lady Solar... still alive?"
"I don't know." Lin Yan shook his head. "Crocus said she left to fulfill her final mission, then disappeared."
"Her final mission..." Rumba's ghost looked thoughtful. "Could she have gone to 'that place'?"
"What place?"
"The sacred land of the Sun God Clan, the Nika Temple," Rumba said. "Lady Solar once mentioned that all of Sun God Nika's power was sealed there. But entering it requires gathering four Sun Tablets."
Four again...
"Where are the Sun Tablets?"
"One is in Alabasta's royal tomb, one is in Wano Country's Ryugu Palace, and one is in Fish-Man Island's Sea Forest. The last one..." Rumba looked at Lin Yan. "Is on you."
Lin Yan froze. "On me?"
"Your pendant is the fourth tablet," Rumba said. "Lady Solar split it in two back then. She made one half into a pendant and left it to you. The other half... should be with the other child."
The other child? Ace?
Lin Yan looked at Ace on the deck. Did Ace have a pendant too?
"What do I need to do?" Lin Yan asked.
"Gather the four tablets, go to Sun Island in the New World, and open the Nika Temple," Rumba's ghost said. "It holds the complete legacy of the Sun God Fruit, as well as... Lady Solar's final message for you."
"I understand." Lin Yan nodded. "Thank you, Captain Rumba."
"I'm the one who should be thanking you." Rumba's ghost smiled. "I'm leaving Brook in your care. Please take him back to Twin Cape, back to Laboon."
"I will."
"One more thing..." Rumba's ghost began to fade. "Be careful of the World Government. They've been searching for the Sun Tablets, hoping to destroy Nika's power. Within CP0, there's a unit dedicated to this task, called the Sun Destroyers."
The Sun Destroyers... specifically targeting the Sun God Clan?
"I'll be careful."
"Then farewell, young man." Rumba's ghost vanished completely. "May your voyage... be safe."
The music box stopped playing.
Brook picked up the music box and carefully put it away. "The captain... can finally rest in peace."
"Let's go." Lin Yan patted his shoulder bone. "I'll take you to see Laboon."
Back aboard the Flame Emperor, Lin Yan introduced Brook to the crew.
"A skeleton?! A living skeleton?!" Chopper hid behind Ace in fright.
"Yo ho ho ho, don't be afraid. Though I'm a skeleton, my heart... ah, I don't have a heart, yo ho ho ho!" Brook cracked a corny joke.
Ace, on the other hand, was very interested. "Can you eat? Can you drink water?"
"No, but I can drink milk to replenish my calcium."
"Then are you good at fighting?"
"Well... I only know some basic swordsmanship..."
Lin Yan interrupted them. "Brook will join us temporarily. When we return to Twin Cape, he'll stay there with Laboon. Until then, he'll be our musician and swordsmanship sparring partner."
"A musician? Great!" Ace cheered. "Let's have a banquet tonight!"
"Agreed!"
And so the Flame Emperor's first banquet on the Grand Line began to the sound of Brook's violin.
The banquet lasted late into the night.
Lin Yan stood alone at the bow, gazing at the starry sky and holding the pendant his mother had left him.
The Sun Tablets... the Nika Temple... Mother's final message...
"Brother." Ace walked over and handed him a glass of juice-Lin Yan didn't drink alcohol. "What are you thinking about?"
"Mother," Lin Yan said. "Ace, do you... have a pendant like this?"
Ace paused, then pulled a necklace out from around his neck. Its pendant was a metal piece engraved with a moon and frost.
"Mama Rouge gave me this. She said my birth mother left it behind, but it was only half. The other half... is with you?"
Lin Yan took off his pendant and fitted it against Ace's metal piece.
They matched perfectly.
The pendant became a complete circle, with the sun and flames on the front and the moon and frost on the back.
"The sun and the moon..." Lin Yan murmured. "Could our mother have wielded two opposing powers?"
"It's possible," Ace said. "The flames from my Flame-Flame Fruit are hot. But sometimes, I feel like they can turn cold too... I just can't control it well yet."
Ice and fire from the same source? That was an interesting setup.
[Ding-] [Hidden bloodline discovered: Sun-Moon Twins] [Ace unlocked a new trait: Extreme Ice Flame (flames can switch between high and low temperatures)] [Lin Yan unlocked a new trait: Solar Moonlight (Flame of Life can switch to Healing Moon; effect: instant recovery)]
The system notifications confirmed the guess.
"Looks like our powers are more complicated than we thought." Lin Yan put away his pendant. "Let's leave that aside for now. Our priority is to reach Water 7, get the Pluton Blueprints, and deal with CP9 while we're at it."
"Is CP9 strong?"
"Their individual strength is average, but they work well together and have Devil Fruit powers," Lin Yan said. "Still, they pose no threat to us."
What truly warranted concern was CP0's Sun Destroyers, and the World Government's subsequent response.
But they would deal with whatever came their way.
The Flame Emperor continued sailing toward Water 7.
Behind them, a black warship followed silently through the fog.
The World Government's flag hung from its mast.
On deck, five figures in white suits and masks watched the Flame Emperor's course.
"Target confirmed: Monkey D. Yan."
"Possession of a Sun Tablet confirmed (1/4)."
"Contact with remnants of the Rumbar Pirates confirmed."
"Destination confirmed: Water 7."
"Execute plan: Set an ambush at Water 7, seize the tablet, and eliminate the target."
CP0's Sun-Slayer Unit had mobilized.
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