Chapter 107: The Sun Wood Box and the Path to the Heavens

The murderous, suffocating tension in the backroom had reached its absolute breaking point. The sheer, concentrated killing intent radiating from my crew was enough to curdle the air. If we stayed in that small room any longer, someone was going to tear the door off its hinges and march straight to the Marine barracks.

“Alright, that’s enough,” I said, clapping my hands together to break the spell. The sharp sound snapped everyone out of their bloodlust. “We’ve had enough death and trauma for one afternoon. Right now, everyone needs to eat, and we all need to breathe.”

I walked over to the door and unlocked it, throwing it open to the main floor of Shakky’s Rip-off Bar. “Everyone, out into the main room. Find a seat.”

As the crew filed out, taking over the booths and barstools, I tapped the Den Den Mushi on my wrist.

“Captain?” Bepo’s voice answered promptly from the hidden inlet where the Titan’s Glory was docked.

“Bepo, gather Perona, Gwen, and the rest of the Crew,” I ordered. “Bring them all to Shakky’s at Grove 13. And Bepo? Go down to the galley and bring the Food Synthesizer. We’re throwing a banquet.”

“Aye aye, Captain! On our way!”

Within twenty minutes, the heavy oak doors of the tavern swung open, and the rest of our extended, chaotic family poured inside. Gwen, Perona, and Law’s crew immediately swarmed the main floor, filling the tavern with noise, laughter, and a barrage of questions that were quickly shushed by Robin.

Bepo, Jean Bart, and Shachi hauled a large, heavy, metallic machine through the doors, setting it down heavily on a reinforced table in the center of the room. It was the Food Synthesizer, a piece of hyper-advanced technology we had acquired during our earlier exploits. It looked like a cross between a high-end microwave oven and a sci-fi 3D printer.

Jacob, Maria, and Peter stared at it with wide eyes. Now that the adrenaline of the battle had completely faded, Maria and Peter had finally dropped their hybrid Zoan transformations, reverting to their base human forms. Even as regular humans, they were imposing, Maria retaining her signature horns and Jacob his natural double-jointed Longarm shoulders, but they looked much more like the cousins I remembered.

“What the hell is that?” Peter asked, pointing at the glowing interface.

“A marvel of engineering,” I grinned, stepping up to the console. “You input the blueprint or the specific recipe of a dish, load it with raw organic matter, and it perfectly synthesizes the meal in seconds. Watch.”

I quickly typed a series of commands into the holographic keypad. I reached back into my memories of home. Within seconds, the machine hummed with a bright blue light, and the top opened to reveal a massive, steaming feast.

The aromas of the old world instantly flooded the tavern. There were massive bowls of Goan prawn curry, spicy chicken vindaloo, and rich, tangy sorpotel. To accommodate the bottomless pits in the room, I also synthesized towering stacks of roasted Sea King meat, mountains of fried rice, and massive kegs of ale.

“Dig in,” I announced.

The effect was instantaneous. The heavy, apocalyptic dread that had been sitting on my cousins’ shoulders vanished, replaced by the sheer, overwhelming comfort of home.

Jacob closed his eyes, inhaling the scent of the spices. “Bhai… I haven’t smelled food like this in fourteen months.”

“Then stop talking and eat,” I laughed, passing him a plate.

The tavern erupted into the loud, beautiful chaos of a family dinner. At the center table, Ace and Peter immediately locked eyes, recognized a fellow glutton, and engaged in a ruthless, unspoken eating contest. They were inhaling slabs of meat and bowls of curry at a terrifying pace, completely ignoring the fact that Peter, even in his human form, had an appetite that rivaled a member of the Monkey.D family.

On the couch, Maria had latched onto Koala. Having spent the last year carrying the massive burden of protecting her younger brother and Jacob while pretending to be a hardened, foul-mouthed pirate, Maria was absolutely thrilled to have an older, capable sister figure.

“So you just punch the water, and it creates shockwaves?” Maria asked, her eyes sparkling behind her mask as she stuffed a piece of flatbread into her mouth.

“Exactly,” Koala smiled warmly, happy to explain Fish-Man Karate to her eager new cousin. “It manipulates the water molecules inside the target. With your physical baseline as an Ancient Zoan, even in your human form, if you learned the basics, your strikes would be absolutely devastating.”

“Jas, did you hear that?!” Maria yelled across the room. “I’m going to learn magic water punching!”

Jasmine just laughed, sitting with Gwen and Laura, looking more relaxed than she had in months.

In the darkest corner of the bar, Law sat alone, nursing a glass of red wine. He had his hat pulled low, watching Ace set a napkin on fire by accident while Peter tried to eat a chicken bone whole. The Surgeon of Death let out a long, heavy, utterly exhausted sigh. The D. family had just expanded, and he was already tired of us.

I took a sip of my coffee, feeling the Warlord tension finally bleed out of my muscles. For a moment, everything was perfect.

Then, the air in the center of the tavern began to vibrate.

The lively chatter instantly died. Weapons were drawn. Ace’s fist ignited, and Law’s hand went to his sword. But I held up a hand, recognizing the distinct, golden hue of the arcane energy forming above the Food Synthesizer.

BZZZT.

A small, crackling spatial tear ripped open in the air. From the golden rift, a beautifully crafted chest dropped onto the table with a heavy thud. The chest was made entirely of Sun Wood, a radiant, incredibly rare timber that practically glowed with its own internal warmth.

The spatial tear snapped shut, leaving behind a glowing, ethereal note hovering above the chest.

I stepped forward and plucked the note from the air. The golden letters burned themselves into my mind:

Condition Met. Family Reunited. Apologies for the delay. – D.

“Damine,” Jasmine breathed, stepping up beside me.

“The newbie packages,” Jacob realized, abandoning his plate of curry and rushing over, followed quickly by Maria and Peter.

I unlocked the heavy brass latch of the Sun Wood box and threw the lid open. Inside, resting on a bed of crimson velvet, was an absurd, reality-breaking collection of items alongside a folded parchment letter.

“Jas, read the letter,” I said, handing her the parchment as I pulled the items out: three silver, hexagonal plates, a small blue box with a single button, a hand-held mirror, and four distinct, heavy-stock trading cards.

Jasmine unrolled the parchment and cleared her throat, her eyes widening as she scanned Damine’s handwriting, reading the details once over before telling us what is written in it.

“Alright, listen up,” Jasmine announced to the quiet tavern. “The three silver plates are BusoRenkin cores, identical to the ones Victor and I received. They are dormant alchemical weapons that adapt to your combat instincts once you offer a drop of blood.”

She pointed to the blue box next. “This cube is a Meeseeks Box from a universe called Rick and Morty, a reality defined by absurd, multiverse-hopping sci-fi madness. Pressing the button summons a ‘Mr. Meeseeks,’ a blue construct whose sole purpose in life is to complete a single task you give it, after which it instantly ceases to exist.”

“A disposable mercenary?” Robin mused, stepping closer, her eyes gleaming with the possibilities.

“It gets better,” Jasmine grinned, pointing at the mirror. “That is the Duplicating Mirror from a world called Doraemon, a universe filled with impossibly advanced, pocket-sized futuristic gadgets. Anything you place in front of it is perfectly copied. You literally reach into the reflection and pull out the cloned object. It just can’t duplicate itself.”

Law actually choked on his wine. “Are you saying… we can perfectly replicate complex medical supplies? Or raw Sea Prism Stone?”

“Limitless resources,” I nodded, looking at the hand-held glass in awe.

“And finally, the spell cards,” Jasmine read on. “These come from two different realities. The first is the Burst Stream of Destruction from Yu-Gi-Oh, a world where holographic monster battles can carry literal world-ending power. It summons a dragon construct that fires a twenty-second disintegration beam, atomizing anything in its path. The strength of the beam depends on how much haki the user used to activate the card.”

She held up the remaining three. “These are from Hunter x Hunter, a reality where people use their own life energy to fight. Reflect bypasses blocking entirely, it takes the damage you would have suffered and forces it onto the body of the original attacker. Accompany instantly teleports the user and anyone within a twenty-meter radius to a specified person they have previously met.”

“That gives us a few sure fire ways to escape from a situation ” Law analyzed, his tactical mind racing at lightspeed.

“And the last one is the Breath of Archangel,” Jasmine read, her voice turning serious. “It summons an angelic entity whose breath heals one person of absolutely any physical wound, missing limb, or incurable disease. However, Damine left a specific warning here. It only cures physical and biological ailments. It cannot heal psychological damage, and it will not clarify the blurred inherited memories you three have been dealing with since your souls took over these bodies.”

Jasmine flipped the parchment over to read the final paragraph. “Activation for all the cards is simple: you inject a burst of your Haki into the card to trigger the spell. But there is a catch. They are strictly one-time use items. The moment their effect ends, the card instantly turns to dust.”

“Yohohoho! Excuse me, but if I may interject,” Brook spoke up, leaning against his cane with a rattling chuckle. “If the cards turn to dust upon use… but that lovely mirror perfectly duplicates anything placed in front of it…”

Baby 5’s eyes lit up, immediately catching on. “We can just duplicate the cards! We use the copies and keep the originals safely stored away. We literally never have to run out of them!”

Law said, stepping up to the table, his exhaustion entirely replaced by intense professional focus. He looked at me, then at the mirror. “Captain. We need to verify this immediately.”

I nodded. I slid the Breath of Archangel card in front of the Duplicating Mirror. The reflection stared back, crisp and perfect. Law reached his tattooed hand straight into the solid glass. It rippled like water. He closed his fingers around the reflection and pulled his hand back out, holding a second, identical Breath of Archangel card.

The tavern erupted into cheers.

“This changes everything,” Robin smiled, her mind clearly weaving a hundred new strategies. “We use the mirror to replicate the cards. We can equip every single member of the crew with a Reflect card and a Breath of Archangel card. A completely self-sustaining, immortal crew.”

“Let’s check the box,” Jacob said, leaning over and pressing the button on the blue Meeseeks Box.

Poof.

A lanky, bright blue creature materialized in the center of the tavern in a puff of smoke. “I’m Mr. Meeseeks, look at me!” it shouted in a shrill, aggressively cheerful voice.

Ace jumped back, knocking his chair over, while Laura popped her claws.

“Uh,” Jacob blinked, staring at the bizarre creature. “Clean up the empty plates from the table.”

“Ooh, can do!” Mr. Meeseeks chirped. The creature moved with terrifying, blurry speed, stacking every single empty plate and bowl in the tavern into a neat pile by the sink in under five seconds. “All done!” it yelled, and then vanished into thin air.

The crew stared at the sink in stunned silence.

“That is deeply unsettling,” Peter muttered.

“But incredibly efficient,” Robin noted. “Imagine an entire platoon of those deployed during a naval battle to disarm enemy cannons.”

I handed the three silver hexagonal plates to Jacob, Maria, and Peter. They took them carefully, staring at the cold, intricately carved metal.

“Your weapons,” I told them. “We’ll handle the awakenings later, in a safer place.”

I closed the Sun Wood box. The sheer excitement of the gifts was immense, but Robin quickly brought the room’s temperature back down.

“We need a strategy,” Robin said, crossing her arms. “While these tools are remarkable, the reality of Sabaody has not changed. Commodore Aliester is currently recovering in a heavily fortified Marine base.”

“Robin is right,” Law agreed, slipping his duplicated card into his coat. “If you march on that base tomorrow, Victor, you will trigger a Buster Call. The World Government will not tolerate a Warlord executing a Commodore on their front doorstep. They will deploy Admiral Kizaru. The Verdant Abyss can handle a war, but our three cousins just survived a death match. They are not ready for an Admiral.”

Jacob gripped his silver plate, looking down in shame. Maria bit her lip, and Peter looked away. They knew it was true. They were strong for rookies, but they were vastly out-leveled in the true New World arena.

“I know,” I said quietly. “Revenge is a dish best served when you have the power to enforce it. Aliester is dead. He just doesn’t know it yet. But I am not going to risk my family to kill a coward in his own fortress.”

I looked at Bepo. “Bepo, what’s our supply situation?”

“Fully stocked, Captain! We topped off everything when we anchored with the Whitebeard pirates.”

“Good,” I nodded. I turned to the rest of the room. “We are leaving Sabaody tonight. We’re going dark.”

“Going dark?” Ace asked. “Where are we heading?”

“Up,” I pointed a finger toward the ceiling. “We need a place where the Marines cannot follow us. A place where Admirals and Vice Admirals don’t patrol, and where the World Government has zero jurisdiction. We need an isolated, hyper-hostile environment to train these three up to New World standards.”

Robin smiled, immediately catching on. “The Sky Islands.”

“Exactly,” I grinned. “We’re taking the Titan’s Glory and we’re heading toward the sky island near Jaya. We have a mother-daughter duo to pick up anyway. Up there, we control the board. And up there, we are going to forge Jacob, Maria, and Peter into absolute monsters.”

[POV: Peter]

The bar was loud again.

Bepo and the Heart Pirates were packing up the Food Synthesizer. Jasmine was laughing with Gwen and Laura near the door, and Ace was aggressively demanding a rematch from my sister in an arm-wrestling contest.

I sat alone in the corner booth of the tavern, the heavy wooden table cool beneath my arms. I looked down at my hands. I was fully back in my human form, looking exactly like Page One did on the bounty posters, minus the dinosaur snout. But if I focused, I could feel the dense, terrifying power of the Spinosaurus lurking just beneath my skin, waiting to be unleashed.

I opened my hand. Resting in my palm was the silver hexagonal plate. My BusoRenkin. My weapon.

I looked across the room at Victor. He was talking in hushed tones with the guy in the spotted hat, Law. Victor was different now. He was taller, broader, and carried an aura that literally made the air heavy. He was now a Warlord of the Sea. And with that title and his strength, he commanded respect from monsters.

The sheer, dizzying whiplash of the last twenty-four hours was almost too much to process.

Just this morning, I had been standing in the mud of Grove 13. I had been bleeding, exhausted, and fully prepared to die a violent, hopeless death at the hands of the cousin who had murdered us back home. I thought it was over. I thought Damine’s second chance had been a sick joke.

And then the sky tore open.

Now, I was sitting in a warm tavern, surrounded by an untouchable family. I had a brother who could level islands, a sister with a magical hammer, and a crew of absolute freaks who were ready to go to war for us without a second thought.

I closed my fist, gripping the edges of the silver plate so tightly the engraved metal pressed hard into my palm.

I remembered the fire. I remembered the agonizing heat of the hospital bed, and the sound of the heart monitor flatlining. I remembered Aliester’s smug, hateful voice in the grove today.

The blurred, fractured inherited memories of the original Page One were still lingering in the back of my mind, a chaotic side effect of our souls being compatible enough to take over these bodies. The Archangel card couldn’t fix that, but right now, I didn’t care. I knew who I was.

We are going to forge you into absolute monsters, Victor had said.

I took a deep breath, letting the fear, the trauma, and the helplessness of the past fourteen months completely wash away. In its place, a dark, burning resolve settled into my chest like iron.

I would survive whatever “Hell Training” Victor had planned for us in the sky. I would master this dinosaur body, I would offer my blood to this silver plate, and I would learn how to use Haki until my bones broke.

Because when we finally came back down from the clouds… I was going to help my brother tear Aliester apart.