Blackbeard grinned under the darkness. Sitting up, he looked around the vast sea and sky that surrounded him.
The distant sea was clearly different from the point at which Blackbeard's cloud, one which he gave a soul to, floated by.
The sea was boiling. The steam covered up the entire space, and nothing could be seen.
The steam, forming a cloud in the sky, spread throughout the sky, covering up the moon from glowing above Blackbeard.
PAZZZZ!
The lightning struck down the sea from the cloud. The electricity sparkled upon the strike, but Blackbeard heeded no mind to such a frightening scene.
After all,
Ba-Bump.
One Piece was near.
"...Xebec."
Putting his hand atop his hand, Blackbeard laughed,
"You must..."
"Zehahaha!"
His hand dropped loose. Looking up at the moon, he whispered.
"The dream... the freedom which we all desired for... it is here."
From his pocket, he took out a notebook. His eyes, being familiar with the darkness, had no problem in reading without a light.
"Lodestar... it is an island that we, the Rocks family, are the most familiar with."
The desires of the Rocks family, as if Zachs's will was passed down, have never changed.
Attain the Dark Dark fruit. Seize the One Piece.
Everything could be summarized to those two goals.
Those of the Rocks family studied the history extensively. They dug into the records that their ancestors left off. They set sail for the purpose of reaching Lodestar so that they can unveil more about ways to reach the One Piece.
And then, Rocks D. Xebec was born.
From the birth, he possessed a Conqueror's Haki.
By the time he reached the age of 7, he was strong enough to win against those of the Rocks family who successfully completed their voyages to Lodestar.
"You must be the reincarnation of Rocks D. Zachs himself. If there is someone who can finally achieve the dream that we so yearned for... it is you, Xebec!!!"
Flipping the pages, Blackbeard reached the final page of the notebook. The final step of the plan, which he wrote down before his departure to Sphinx to combat the Whitebeard Pirates, was present.
*There will be no one but myself to trust. After all, this crew was formed based on a mutual interest. The only reason why Ochoku bows to me at the current moment is because I am the only one strong enough to defeat competitors such as Newgate, Linlin, and Kaidou.*
And therefore, they betrayed. In return, he massacred them all.
*If a third party is to interrupt my arrival at Laugh Tale, Lodestar is the best island to do so.*
"However..."
Blackbeard chuckled,
"Must it be me who reaches the island?"
He lifted his right hand.
"Rise."
The wind blew. Then, two different wind currents swirled into two small vortexes. Then, the winds "opened" their eyes, and "bowed" to Blackbeard.
What Blackbeard gave to the vortexes were portions of his soul. Even without them, it was sufficient enough for Blackbeard to maintain control over the body against Teach's soul. After all, his soul has stockpiled the souls of many others whom he defeated, through the power of Soul Soul fruit.
Blackbeard's eyes flashed red as he gazed at the conscious wind,
"You know what to do."
Two vortexes disappeared without a trace.
They will now head onto Lodestar island and reach the location that the Road Poneglyphs pinpointed. One would return, and upon returning, Blackbeard will take back the soul and all the information will be relayed to him.
Now, Blackbeard estimated that the pinpointed location in Lodestar is simply the starting point of the path that leads to Laugh Tale. Therefore, the second vortex was made to serve as an indicator, indicating the location that leads to the Laugh Tale.
Lying on the floating cloud, yet another one to which he gave a portion of his soul, Blackbeard stared at the night sky, waiting for the winds to return.
Not once did he close his eyes—for he doesn't sleep.
__________
The Lodestar island was the island shrouded in darkness due to the thick layer of cloud above.
As such, there was no vegetation present. Void of life, nothing but rocky mountains and unmoving, rotten pool of water could be found on this star-shaped island.
Within such a gloomy scene, the gigantic humans—the giants—were found standing by, full of tension.
"...Hm?"
And then, Saul perked up.
"Saul?"
One of the giants raised an eyebrow,
"Is somethin' wrong?"
Saul held his hand up, putting those giants into silence.
"...Wind, ma friend."
Saul muttered,
"It's da wind."
"What wind? I dhink yer just being paranoic—"
Saul's eyes gleamed in red as he operated his Observation Haki. Upon doing so, his eyes widened.
"...Someone else is here...! Someone other dhan us!!! And,"
He shouted,
"De intent... how can idt be so dark? Dhis..."
He immediately stormed off, to which the giants watched in confusion.
"Dhis has to be Blackbeard!!"
"Oi, Saul!!!"
The giants, shouting at Saul, quickly began running, following after Saul whose face was pale.
And so they ran. Saul's eyes roamed over his surroundings, maximizing the usage of his Observation Haki to track down the sliver of intent that he felt.
However, even such was getting dimmer, and he, huffing, eventually came to a stop, having found himself a dead end.
"Where... huff... huff... where is he?!!"
Turning back, Saul hurriedly shouted at the giants at the back,
"Hurry!! Yer gotta spread out and look for Blackbeard!! He's getting away!!! We gotta—"
Then, Saul froze in realization.
"...The Soul Soul fruit?"
The wind grazed his cheek, and he found himself in a cold sweat. His eyes shook as he quickly turned back,
"Don't dtell me..."
He made a mistake. Never did he expect such a creative use of a Devil Fruit power.
Saul, losing the strength in his body, fell to his butt.
"Saul! Everything fine?! What's goin' on?!"
Saul, with his eyes shadowed, grimaced. Eventually, he spoke,
"...Can someone bring me da snail?"
__________
"Reports from G-5, G-9, and G-14 indicate that Blackbeard likely took the path that a Log Pose gives. This also explains the reason why he bothered to visit those island in the first place—to take the Log Poses of pirates that were already recorded and pointing to the next island."
Flipping through the hand-written reports that Robin personally compiled, Hina spoke to Smoker who was sitting by as he listened.
"Another thing to note is his speed of travel. Even the long distance of traveling from one island to another took no more than two days. Judging by how he was last seen in Broc Coli island, but wasn't found in Yukiryu or Zen, he must, at the very least, be in Fullalead right now."
"And the island that lies ahead of Fullalead is..."
Smoker frowned.
"...Lodestar."
"...The fact that we don't know how far we've come, is feeding some fear into us."
Hina sighed.
Tapping his fingers on the table, Smoker brainstormed.
"Is there any way to speed up the ship?"
After having reached the state of full recovery, Smoker already started to boost the ship with a consistent burst of smoke that provided additional momentum. Furthermore, Aramaki also produced propeller-like plant machinery.
To attain an additional speed atop that, they threw away cannons and cannonballs. To raise the efficiency, they didn't visit a single island since the start of the journey. Even after the food supplies ran out, they sustained by catching fish. Though some complained about how they're fed with fish, this was the best way to reduce the time of travel.
"We did all that we can do. However, if even this isn't enough to catch up to Blackbeard..."
Smoker closed his eyes for a moment, before opening them back up and drawing a conclusion,
"We must separate."
"By separate, you mean..."
"If I can travel alone, the expected time of arrival at Lodestar gets decreased by numerous folds."
"..."
Hina contemplated, crossing her arms as her eyes saw through many possibilities.
"...The reason why we travel as a whole is to ensure that we have sufficient force to deal with the entirety of the Pirate Alliance."
Hina seemed concerned as she spoke.
"There indeed is increasing evidence that Blackbeard is alone, but we cannot be sure of that. It's the 'Strategist' Ochoku, 'Id' the ruler of the underworld, whom we are talking about when it comes to information warfare. Furthermore, we don't know the full extent of Blackbeard's ability—his Dark Dark fruit may be capable of pulling out some sort of a way to hide other pirates."
"It isn't a hard question to answer, Hina. After all, it isn't about taking risks."
And to Hina's words, Smoker replied with certitude,
"It's whether we do something or sit here and let Blackbeard reach Laugh Tale. Even if some are present in Lodestar to slow down his travel, it won't be for long."
Smoker stood up.
"We will separate. I will take the New World version of the Log Pose, one with the three needles, as well as Crocus with me—"
Purururu, Purururu,
The Den Den Mushi rang, interrupting Smoker's words.
Hina immediately picked it up.
<
Tsuru's voice sounded urgent.
<
That was all Smoker needed to hear. Storming out of the room, he ran up to the deck of the ship.
"Smoker!"
Surprised by Smoker's sudden exit, Bastille spoke.
Not having enough time in his heart to respond, Smoker quickly manifested two arms made out of smoke from his back.
They, stretching out, grabbed onto Crocus who was conversing with navigators, as well as one New World variation Log Pose, one that had three needles pointing in different directions.
"Gahhh!!"
Crocus yelped, and Smoker flew off without any words.
Watching the sudden turn of an event, Robin mumbled,
"...Crocus was abducted."
"That pirate old man has been abducted by the Fleet Admiral!!"
"...Wait, that doesn't sound right."
"But it's the truth!!"
Then, Hina hurriedly ran out and grimaced at the sight of Smoker and Crocus's figure getting further away.
"Damn it...!!"
Cursing, Hina quickly reached Shakuyaku who seemed confused.
"A change has been made in the plan."
Holding her forehead in a headache, Hina informed.
"We'll head to Lodestar and form a line of defense."
Watching this commotion from the back, Brook sighed as he held his heart,
"You made me surprised! I felt my heart dropping—"
Brook paused, before exclaiming in realization,
"—but wait. Since I'm a skeleton, I don't have a heart!! Yohohoho!!"
Most of the people on the ship, forgetting the urgency of the situation, deadpanned at Brook,
"RAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
except one forest man, that is.
__________
"BLEUGGHHHHHH—"
Crocus's cheeks rippled as they faced a tremendous force of air, as Smoker, who held onto him, traveled at a speed so fast that the surroundings appeared blurry.
"Oi, cut some slack for this old man, will ya?!!"
Eventually, Crocus overcame the resistance and managed to speak,
"And what happened to the idea of preserving your strength?! If you are to drag me out like this, how will the rest reach the Laugh Tale?!!"
"This isn't a matter of preservation anymore!!"
Smoker said grimly as he breathed out the smoke. Currently, his body was in its enhanced state due to his operation of Seimei Kikan: Ghost Body—one that lightened his weight and improved their traveling speed.
"Blackbeard has already gone past the Lodestar!!"
"W-What?! Already?!!"
Crocus's expression darkened, having understood the situation full well.
Raising his hand, Smoker stared at the Log Pose which had its needles spinning wildly due to his phenomenal speed of travel.
Then, the needles stopped their uncontrolled spins and ended up pointing in the exact same direction,
Lodestar.
"You remember what I said, right?!!"
Crocus, holding tightly on Smoker's shoulder, shouted within the gust of wind,
"Road Poneglyphs point at one location within the Lodestar island!! That point allows one to view through the steam ahead and view the reflection of the Reverse Mountain!!"
Gritting his teeth, Crocus continued,
"There is no need for us to reach that point!! I've memorized in my head, the location indicated by the reflection of the Reverse Mountain!!"
Smoker then shifted their flight to the right, avoiding a flock of birds that were flying by and causing Crocus to yelp.
But nonetheless, Crocus regained his focus and took out a device from his pocket.
It was a simple machine, one that measured the speed of their travel.
*926 km/h*
"In other words,"
Calming his startled heart, Crocus muttered to himself,
"Approximately 0.257 km/sec."
And as Crocus calculated, Smoker, who was focused on the path that lied ahead of them, narrowed his eyes.
'This isn't enough.'
He knew that they were still far behind Blackbeard.
'Even if I were to expend a good deal of energy...'
It was time to make a decision.
Smoker held his hand out.
Crocus, noticing Smoker's action, asked as he struggled to keep himself attached to Smoker,
"What are you about to—"
At the next moment, the space surrounding them began to crack into pieces.
Then, the light flashed in all directions centering Smoker's outstretched hand, and Crocus saw the number on his machine spiking for a split second,
*99999999 km/h*
...
Crocus's head spun, and by the time he realized,
"Huff... huff..."
In the middle of a painful nausea, he found himself vomiting on a landmass as Smoker, who was down on one knee, huffed heavily.
"What... just..."
Crocus felt the exhaustion wash over him as his vision cleared.
"Lodestar?!!"
Crocus cried in disbelief,
"Did we, huff, huff, just teleport?!!"
'...Conversion of the space itself into that of aether.'
Smoker replayed what he just did,
'It's akin to sending the entire space into a parallel dimension. In other words, it's the temporary "deletion" of the space, allowing me to technically teleport from one end to the other.'
For an impromptu technique, it was incredibly taxing.
His arms tremored uncontrollably, and he found a trail of blood exiting his lips.
Noticing this, Crocus frowned in concern.
"Oi, you..."
Crocus knew full well, that it was the sign of an internal damage. What Smoker did just now, from a glance, seemed to have taken quite a toll on him.
"...Not bad, I suppose."
However, Smoker grinned.
"..."
Crocus, grimacing, took in a deep breath. Acknowledging Smoker's effort, he also did what he needed to do.
Bringing his thumb to his teeth, he bit on it, causing the blood to drip from it.
Plop.
The blood began dripping his thumb at a regular interval, one that was approximately a second long.
"Remember, Smoker."
Smoker, as he huffed and sweated profusely, stared at Crocus.
"(458,598). Km/sec is the unit."
His eyes gazed at Crocus's bleeding thumb, and he nodded.
In this state, Smoker grabbed Crocus once more and resumed the flight by propelling themselves off the ground.
As Smoker clenched his hand, the thick steam ahead shifted and formed a hole that was large enough for them to pass through.
And thus, they disappeared into said hole, and said hole then closed with no way of entry.
Right after, the giants, including Saul, came into the scene running.
"Huff, huff,"
Saul, coming to a stop at the edge of the island, mumbled,
"Dhat just now..."
The only thing that was left in the scene were drips of blood that soaked a speck of dirt.