Alabasta, Rainbase.
By the time the Harrier airship landed silently at an abandoned Ancient Aqueduct Ruins outside Rainbase, concealed by the darkness and an invisibility dial, the desert night was already deep. Stars shone brilliantly in the cloudless sky, in stark contrast to Rainbase in the distance, a sleepless city ablaze with lights and alive with music all night long.
Zhou Yu and Ma Chao quickly left the airship, escorting the still-unconscious Miss Merry Christmas and several surviving Baroque Works agents, all securely bound in Seastone shackles. Under the pilot's control, the airship immediately rose again, slipped into the clouds, and vanished.
"This is the Wind-Listening Guard's Safe House No. 3 in Rainbase," Zhou Yu said quietly, pointing his feather fan toward a concealed door deep within the aqueduct that almost blended into the rock wall. There were no markings on the door, only a few grooves that looked like natural weathering, forming an inconspicuous pattern-one of the Cipher Marks used internally by the Wind-Listening Guard.
Ma Chao nodded. Carrying Miss Merry Christmas in one hand and dragging the agent leader with the other, he headed toward the concealed door first. Zhou Yu surveyed their surroundings warily, fully extending his Observation Haki and the keen life-sensing ability granted by the Ho-Oh Fruit. Only after confirming there were no ambushes or watchers did he slowly follow.
The concealed door slid open soundlessly, revealing a narrow flight of stone steps leading downward, barely wide enough for one person. Lamp Dials embedded in the walls on either side every few meters gave off soft white light, illuminating the way ahead. The air was cool and dry, carrying the scent of dust and ancient stone.
After descending about thirty meters, they emerged into an open space. It was a stone chamber of roughly two