Chapter 103: Rerouting to Sabaody and the Secret of Grove 13

[Robin’s POV]

The ringing of the white-shelled Den Den Mushi completely shattered the heavy, suffocating silence of the Titan’s Glory lounge.

No one moved. The horrific realization of what transmigration truly meant, that our Captain’s cousins had died in his old world before their souls were dragged into the bodies of New World rookies, was still hanging thick in the air.

Victor broke the spell. He stepped forward, his face an unreadable mask of iron-clad determination, and picked up the receiver.

“Victor speaking,” he answered, his voice steady despite the storm raging behind his eyes.

The snail’s eyes shifted, taking on a warm, determined expression, and its shell slightly mimicked the shape of a newsboy cap.

“Bhai! It’s good to hear your voice,” Jasmine’s bright, relieved tone drifted from the speaker. The sound of her voice immediately brought a faint, desperately needed smile to Ace’s face. “Koala and I just finished securing the perimeter here on Toroa. The Revolutionary front in the West Blue is stabilizing. We were just waiting on Gammamon to…”

“Jasmine,” Victor interrupted, his tone gentle but firm.

The snail blinked, Jasmine’s bright demeanor instantly shifting to sharp, Revolutionary professionalism. “What’s wrong? Are you under attack?”

“No, the ship is safe. But we just received intel from Shakky on the Sabaody Archipelago,” Victor explained, his grip tightening on the receiver. He didn’t sugarcoat it. He didn’t pad the blow. “Two rookie pirate crews just arrived in Sabaody. They’ve clashed with Commodore Aliester twice.”

“Aliester?” Jasmine scoffed through the snail. “Let me guess, he tried to arrest them for breathing too loudly? Why does this concern us?”

“Because the captains of those crews are Ideo the Destruction Cannon, and a brother-sister duo named Page One and Ulti,” Victor said. “During their fights with Aliester, they specifically targeted him with insults. They kept calling him ‘Raan Dhukor’.”

Dead silence fell over the line. For five agonizing seconds, the only sound was the faint crackle of the Den Den Mushi’s encrypted frequency.

When Jasmine finally spoke, her voice was barely a whisper, completely stripped of its usual warmth. “Victor… no one here knows that word here. No one. That’s our family.”

“I know,” Victor confirmed heavily. “Ideo is a Longarm. Ulti and Page One are Ancient Zoan users over seven feet tall. The physical bodies belong to this world. But the minds driving them… Jasmine, they know the nickname. They are from back home.”

I watched as Ace ran a trembling hand through his black hair, the reality fully sinking in for him as well. He was listening to his cousins discuss the ghosts of a family he had only just learned he had.

“They transmigrated,” Jasmine breathed, her voice cracking with sudden, overwhelming emotion. “Victor… if they transmigrated… that means they died. Our cousins died back home.”

“I know,” Victor repeated, his tone softening, anchoring his sister across the ocean. “I know, Jas. But they are alive here. They are alive right now, in Sabaody, and they are actively searching for us.”

“We have to go to them. Right now,” Jasmine demanded, her voice hardening with absolute resolve. “Forget the West Blue front. Forget the original plan.”

“Agreed. The family reunion on Zunesha is officially canceled,” Victor stated, his Warlord authority taking the reins. He looked at Law and Bepo, who both gave immediate, understanding nods. Zou could wait. Blood came first.

Victor pulled a nautical map across the table, his eyes scanning the New World territories. “We need a fast rendezvous. I’m turning the Titan’s Glory around. We are heading straight to Raijin Island.”

“The lightning island?” Jasmine asked. “It’s dangerous to anchor there.”

“We already have a Portal Point established there,” Victor reminded her. “We set a permanent spatial anchor on Raijin when we first entered the New World. Listen to me closely, when Gammamon arrives at Toroa with the Portal Gun, do not set the coordinates for Zou. You anchor your end in Toroa, and have him dial the portal directly to the existing Raijin anchor. The second it opens, you and Koala step through, and we group up on my ship. From there, we fly straight to Sabaody.”

“Understood,” Jasmine said, her voice completely locked in. “Victor… we’re going to bring them home.”

“Damn right we are. Stay safe, Jas. I’ll see you in the storm.”

Victor hung up the white snail. Without wasting a single second, he tapped the golden Den Den Mushi on his wrist, dialing a private, hyper-encrypted frequency.

Buru buru buru… kacha.

“Victor,” Gammamon’s voice came through. It wasn’t the voice of a child, but a focused, capable teenager in the middle of an operation. “Just cleared the Calm Belt. No Sea Kings tracked my airspace. I’ve touched down on a forested island to refuel and check my gear.”

“Good work, Gamma,” Victor said, the heavy tension in his shoulders relaxing just a fraction at the sound of his partner’s competence. “Are you good on stamina?”

“I’m at ninety percent,” Gammamon confirmed smoothly. “What’s the play? You sound tense.”

“Mission parameters have changed,” Victor explained. “We have an emergency. Some of our family is in trouble in Sabaody, and we need to move fast. Finish your sweep and fly straight to Jasmine. When you get to Toroa, after getting the new coordinates for the Portal Gun. We’re linking to Raijin Island instead of Zou.”

“Understood. Raijin link-up,” Gammamon replied, his tone shifting into absolute champion mode. “I’ll push my speed. I’ll be at Toroa shortly. See you on the other side.”

“See you on the other side. Be safe.”

Victor cut the connection. He turned to face us, his eyes sweeping over me, Law, Ace, Laura, Gwen, and the rest of the Verdant Abyss.

“You heard the plan,” Victor commanded, his voice ringing with unbreakable authority. “Bepo, chart a course for Raijin Island. Laura, prep the ship for a hard pivot. We are going to rip through the New World, gather our forces, and then we drop directly onto the Sabaody Archipelago.”

Victor’s coat flared out behind him as he turned toward the bow of the ship, his eyes locked on the horizon.

“Hold on,” Victor whispered to the wind. “We’re coming.”

[Ulti’s POV]

The air in Grove 13 always smelled like cheap rum, wet moss, and impending violence.

Far removed from the glitz, glamour, and tourist traps of the lower-numbered groves, the lawless zone was a haven for bounties, cutthroats, and those who preferred to exist entirely off the World Government’s radar. The massive, soapy bubbles characteristic of the archipelago continuously rose from the mangrove roots, popping harmlessly against the worn wooden shingles of a particularly dingy pirate tavern.

Inside the tavern, the atmosphere was thick with cigar smoke and hushed, dangerous conversations.

In the darkest back booth, tucked entirely out of sight from the main bar, our private gathering was taking place. Six of us sat around a heavy oak table littered with empty mugs and half-eaten plates of roasted meat. Three were trusted crewmates keeping a vigilant watch on the tavern’s entrance.

The other three were us. The captains. The ghosts.

Ideo leaned back against the worn leather booth, adjusting the bandages wrapped tightly around his uniquely jointed, double-elbowed Longarm limbs. He took a slow sip of his ale, his dark eyes scanning the shadows.

“I’m just saying,” Ideo spoke up, his voice hushed. He made absolutely sure to speak in the common tongue of this world, deliberately avoiding our native language to prevent drawing any unwanted attention to our linguistics. “The look on his face was absolutely priceless. I thought the bastard was going to pop a blood vessel right then and there.”

I swallowed the piece of meat I was chewing and barked out a harsh, satisfied laugh, resting my spiked club against the table. “Serves him right! That stuck-up, arrogant prick. The second I called him that name, he completely lost his footing. His Haki wavered! Did you see it, Pay-Pay? He was so mad!”

Beside me, Page One sighed, burying his face in his hands. He kept his hat pulled low over his eyes. “Yeah, I saw it, didi. We all saw it. And then he nearly leveled the entire auction house trying to crush us. We barely got out of there before the Admiral was called in.”

“He wouldn’t have killed us,” Ideo dismissed with a wave of his hand, though the tension in his shoulders betrayed his casual tone. “He’s too obsessed with procedure now. But you’re right. We pushed our luck today. We can’t keep engaging a Marine Commodore, especially not Aliester. Not until we actually know what we’re doing.”

The smug satisfaction drained from my face, replaced by a deep, frustrating scowl. I gripped my mug tightly.

“We are too weak,” I growled, the raw honesty of the statement stinging everyone at the table. “I hate admitting it, but it’s the truth. This body is a physical monster, yeah. The Ancient Zoan recovery rate is insane. But my Haki? It’s unrefined. We don’t have the decades of combat experience these New World freaks have. If we run into a Vice Admiral right now, we are dead.”

“Which is exactly why we need to find Victor bhai,” Page One muttered, tracing the grain of the wooden table with a sharp claw. “We’ve been searching for months. The papers say he’s a Warlord now. He completely destroyed the Joker. He has a whole island, a fleet, resources… he has a safe place for us.”

“Victor bhai always was the protective one,” Ideo noted, a small, genuine smile cutting through his serious demeanor. “If we find him, he’ll know what to do. He’ll hide us. He’ll train us. We can finally stop running and figure out our next move.”

“We checked Shakky’s bar,” I said, crossing my arms in annoyance. “The old hag wouldn’t give us a straight answer. Just smiled and overcharged us for terrible beer. But she knows him. I can feel it. We just have to wait.”

A heavy, oppressive silence fell over the booth. The excitement of messing with Aliester faded, leaving behind the stark, terrifying reality of our situation. We were entirely out of our depth, hunted by a Government we didn’t fully understand.

I stared down into the murky brown liquid of my ale. The aggressive bravado I constantly wore as armor seemed to fracture just a little bit.

“Pay-Pay… Ideo…” I said, my voice dropping so low that they both had to lean in across the table to hear me.

“What’s wrong, didi?” Page One asked, looking at me with genuine concern.

I didn’t look up. My knuckles were white against the heavy glass mug. “Do you think… do you think they’ll even recognize us?”

Ideo frowned, looking down at his double-jointed arms, then up at my massive, horned frame. “He’s smart. Jasmine is smart. Once we drop the right words, they’ll figure it out.”

“That’s not what I’m afraid of,” I whispered, my voice trembling slightly under the weight of a horrific, buried memory.

I finally looked up. I knew my eyes, usually burning with fiery arrogance, were completely hollow.

“We understand the transmigration,” I said quietly. “We know exactly how our souls were pulled into these specific bodies after… after the end. But what about Victor bhai? Does he know?”

Page One and Ideo completely froze. The air in the booth seemed to turn to ice.

Neither of them had an answer. Because we all knew the terrible truth. If Victor bhai and Jasmine didn’t already know the bloody, terrifying reality of how our lives in the old world had violently ended… breaking the news to them wasn’t just going to be a tearful family reunion.