Chapter 65: Crossing the Threshold

The six-day, non-stop round trip to Totto Land and back had drained practically every ounce of adrenaline from my body.

By the time the massive shadow of the Sky-Rift Roc passed over the moonlit clouds of Water 7, both Law and I were running purely on fumes.

The Roc descended silently into the hidden dismantling yards, dropping us onto the heavily camouflaged deck of the Titan’s Glory.

My boots had barely touched the Adam Wood planks before Jasmine practically tackled me, wrapping me in a crushing hug.

The rest of the crew swarmed the deck, the Heart Pirates crowding around a visibly exhausted Law, sweating out the anxiety they had apparently been holding in for the better part of a week.

“You’re alive!” Jasmine laughed, pulling back and checking me over for missing limbs.

“No missing arms?

No Yonko bounties on your head?”

“Flawless execution,” I smirked tiredly.

“Though I never want to look at another piece of chocolate as long as I live.”

I didn’t waste any time.

I stepped back, drawing The Jade Wings from my back.

I focused my Haki, mentally clicking the lock on my newest acquisition.

Thick, heavy billows of brilliant green smoke erupted from the dark metal, instantly obscuring the center of the deck.

When the smoke cleared, the perfect, life-sized Jade Clone of Charlotte Pudding stood motionless on the ship, her three green eyes glowing with an eerie, subservient light.

Bepo whimpered, hiding behind Penguin.

“It’s so creepy,” the bear muttered.

“It’s a marvel of supernatural engineering!” Franky boomed, stepping up and examining the clone with his cyborg eye whirring in sheer fascination.

“Bro, you have your own magic fabricator!

Speaking of which, we did it!

The Portal Gun works flawlessly!

No overheating, perfectly stable!”

Jasmine’s eyes lit up.

“It’s perfect!

I’ll go down to the maximum-security vault right now and grab it.

We can open the gate tonight!”

She turned to sprint toward the lower decks, but I reached out, catching her by the shoulder and pulling her back.

“Absolutely not,” I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose.

“Law and I have been flying through the stratosphere and dodging homicidal candy for six days straight.

My Haki reserves are tapped, and Law looks like he’s going to sleep standing up.

Nobody is opening a gateway to another dimension tonight.”

Jasmine pouted but relented.

“Fine.

Tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow,” I agreed.

“We figure out who is on the escort team, and then we send the kid home.”

The next morning, it became abundantly clear that a peaceful selection process was entirely off the table.

Practically everyone on the ship wanted to see the alternate universe.

Brook wanted to know what their music sounded like, Franky wanted to see their cyborg technology, and Gammamon just wanted to fight a superhero.

“There is absolutely no way we are taking a singing skeleton, a ghost, a talking triceratops, and a giant cyborg through a dimensional portal into a civilian neighborhood,” I stated firmly, standing at the head of the galley table.

“We are trying to be stealthy.”

“To settle this fairly and without bloodshed,” Jasmine announced, jumping onto the table and crossing her arms.

“We will hold a high-stakes, single-elimination Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament.

No Devil Fruits.

No Observation Haki.

Pure luck.”

Law let out a long, tortured groan, pulling his spotted hat over his eyes.

“I am a pirate captain and a doctor.

I am not playing a child’s hand game.”

“If you don’t play, you stay on the ship to babysit the ferret,” Jasmine grinned maliciously.

Law glared at her, but silently raised his fist to play.

The tournament was absurdly intense.

Shachi and Penguin were eliminated in the first round.

Perona tried to cheat by using a Negative Hollow to depress Bepo into forfeiting, which earned her a red card from Jasmine.

Through sheer, calculating observation of micro-expressions, Law effortlessly dismantled his opponents.

Jasmine played with aggressive, terrifying speed, and Robin simply smiled pleasantly as she consistently guessed everyone’s moves perfectly.

After thirty minutes of absolute chaos, the final escort team was officially locked in: Myself, Law, Jasmine, and Robin.

We moved out to the main deck.

The morning sun was hidden behind the city’s thick fog, casting a grey, solemn light over the scrapyard.

Mayday stood in the center of the deck, clutching a small backpack.

Robin knelt in front of the six-year-old, her expression incredibly gentle.

“Alright, May,” Robin said softly.

“This is the final step.

I need you to close your eyes and think about your home in Queens.

Picture the streets, your building, the sky.

Hold that picture as clearly as you can.”

Mayday nodded, squeezing her eyes shut.

Her little brow furrowed in deep concentration.

“Pudding,” I commanded the Jade Clone.

“Extract and copy.”

The emotionless jade statue stepped forward.

It reached its cold, green hand gently into the side of Mayday’s head.

The Memo Memo no Mi powers activated perfectly.

The clone pulled out a glowing, translucent strip of cinematic film.

It flawlessly duplicated a specific sequence of frames—the memory of May’s neighborhood, and pushed the original film back into the child’s head, leaving her completely unharmed.

The clone turned.

Instead of coming to me, it stepped toward Jasmine.

“Hit me,” Jasmine said, bracing herself.

The clone shoved the copied strip of film directly into Jasmine’s skull.

Jasmine gasped, staggering backward as the memory forcefully integrated into her brain.

Her eyes went wide.

For a few seconds, she didn’t see the wooden deck of the Titan’s Glory.

She experienced a vivid, dizzying flash of a completely alien reality: towering skyscrapers made entirely of sheer glass and steel, a river of roaring yellow taxi cabs, a massive tower with a giant, glowing “A” stamped on the side, and a man in red and blue spandex swinging effortlessly between the buildings on thin strands of webbing.

Jasmine blinked hard, shaking her head as her vision returned to the Grand Line.

She looked at me, a massive grin spreading across her face.

“I’ve got the coordinates,” she breathed.

“It’s incredible.”

Franky stepped forward, presenting the finalized Portal Gun Mark Two with the utmost reverence.

Jasmine took the heavy, sleek blaster in both hands.

She took a deep breath, anchoring the mental image of Queens into the forefront of her mind, and aimed the barrel at the open space on the deck.

She pulled the trigger.

The ancient brass Sling Ring spun silently, floating on its frictionless magnetic bearings.

The exposed Sun Wood flared a brilliant yellow.

A massive, roaring circle of golden sparks tore through the fabric of reality, expanding into a stable, ten-foot-tall gateway.

The air pressure equalized instantly.

Looking through the sparking golden ring, we weren’t looking at Water 7 anymore.

We were looking into a quiet, moonlit brick alleyway.

The cobblestone of the Grand Line was replaced by dark, cracked asphalt.

“The gate is perfectly stable,” Iceburg noted, checking a pressure gauge.

The moment of triumph quickly shifted into a bittersweet reality.

It was time to say goodbye.

Mayday looked around at the crew.

She realized she was finally going home, but her lower lip trembled as she looked at her new friends.

Gammamon rushed forward, dramatic, cartoonish tears streaming down his face.

He shoved a massive bag of his favorite New World snacks into her backpack.

“You better eat these, Mayday!

And don’t forget how to punch!”

Palmon sniffled, her vines extending to gently wrap around the girl’s wrist.

She bloomed a beautiful, glowing pink flower, placing it in Mayday’s hair.

“This one will never wilt.

To remember us.”

Brook tipped his top hat, offering a low, sweeping bow.

Perona floated down, giving the kid a surprisingly tight hug, while Bepo gave her a soft, furry salute.

Robin embraced the girl warmly, making her promise to stay out of trouble and listen to her parents.

I stepped forward, kneeling down to look Mayday in the eyes.

“You did good, kid.

You survived the Grand Line.

Tell your dad you held your own.”

“You’re just like the superheroes back home, Victor,” Mayday smiled, throwing her arms around my neck in a tight hug.

“Thank you.”

I patted her back, standing up.

I looked at Law, Robin, and Jasmine.

“Just to be perfectly clear,” I announced to the crew staying behind.

“We aren’t just shoving a six-year-old through a multidimensional doorway onto a dark street alone.

We’re going in.

We physically escort her to her parents’ doorstep, make sure she’s safe, and we come right back.”

“Keep the engine running, Franky,” Jasmine smirked, keeping the Portal Gun aimed steady.

I drew my heavy cloak tight around my shoulders.

Law adjusted his nodachi.

Robin took Mayday’s left hand, and I took her right.

With one last wave to the crew standing on the deck of the Titan’s Glory, the five of us stepped forward, crossing entirely through the sparking golden ring.

The moment our boots hit the cracked asphalt, the universe shifted.

The salty ocean breeze and the rushing canals of Water 7 vanished instantly.

They were violently replaced by the sharp chill of an autumn night, the distant, wailing shriek of police sirens, and the low, endless hum of New York City traffic.

I looked up at the towering brick walls of the alleyway, then up at the smog-filtered sky.

We had officially left the One Piece world.

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