Chapter 6: The Ushimaru Revelation
The Going Merry's deck trembled as the last of Skypiea's foundations dissolved into the clouds below. The air smelled of ozone and burning wood, the ship groaning under the strain of escaping the collapsing sky island. Sam clutched the railing, his bandaged wing twitching beneath its seastone wrappings as the crew gathered around him.
Luffy's shadow fell across him, the straw-hatted captain uncharacterically still. "You said it's not a Devil Fruit." His voice held no accusation, only a demand for truth.
Sam exhaled through clenched teeth. The memory surfaced like a corpse from deep water.
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**Two Years Earlier - The Depths of Upper Yard**
The storm had raged for three days when Gan Fall first led him to the hidden chamber. Torchlight flickered across walls carved with winged figures, their faces twisted in silent screams. The air hung thick with the scent of copper and something stale—something dead.
"You're certain this is where the priests conducted their rituals?" Sam asked, his fingers brushing against strange grooves in the stone. The carvings depicted warriors with massive wings tearing each other apart.
Gan Fall's armor creaked as he knelt before an ancient altar. "Not rituals. Experiments." His voice echoed hollowly in the chamber. "The previous god spoke of Ushimaru only once before his death. A place where angels became demons."
A gust of wind snuffed their torch.
Then the walls began to breathe.
Pulsing veins of bioluminescent moss ignited throughout the cavern, revealing rows of translucent pods. Each contained a floating figure with massive black wings—some human, some grotesquely distorted. Sam's stomach turned as he approached the nearest capsule.
Inside floated a boy who couldn't have been older than twelve. His right wing had fused with the pod's interior, tendrils of black matter stitching him to the glass. When Sam pressed his palm against the surface, the boy's eyes snapped open—solid black orbs with no whites, no pupils.
A voice that wasn't a voice vibrated through Sam's bones:
*"They're coming for us all."*
Then the vision shattered.
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**Present Day - The Going Merry**
Sam came back to himself with a gasp. The crew's faces swam into focus—Robin's calculating gaze, Usopp's terrified expression, Zoro's hand resting on his sword hilt.
Nami's fingers trembled around her clima-tact. "So your power... it's not a Devil Fruit at all?"
Robin traced the bandages on Sam's wing. "It's a bio-weapon. From the Void Century." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "The World Government must have rediscovered the technology."
Sanji's cigarette glowed bright as he inhaled sharply. "And they implanted these things in people?"
Sam flexed his hands, the golden knuckle braces clicking ominously. "Because natural Devil Fruits have limits." His wing strained against its bindings. "These don't."
A thunderous impact rocked the ship. From the crow's nest, Chopper screamed: "They're here!"
The crew rushed to the railing. Emerging from the dissipating cloud cover were three winged figures—their movements synchronized like parts of some terrible machine. The largest carried a double-edged axe that hummed with unnatural energy.
Sam's blood turned to ice. "Test subjects Beta, Delta, and Eta."
The female figure tilted her head at an impossible angle, her voice echoing with the same resonance Sam remembered from the cavern:
*"Number Seven... you broke the rules."*
Luffy cracked his neck. "So these are your lab buddies?"
Sam's wing tore free of its bandages with a sound like shattering glass. "They're not just test subjects anymore." He pointed to Delta's exposed forearm—the flesh was translucent, revealing pulsing veins of liquid seastone. "They've stabilized the integration process."
Zoro drew his swords. "Meaning?"
"Meaning," Sam said as black feathers regrew at terrifying speed, "they're what the World Government wanted me to become."
Beta raised his axe. The blade ignited with blue fire.
*"Final chance, Seven. Return or be recycled."*
Luffy grinned. "Yeah, no." He stretched his arms back. "Gomu Gomu no—"
Sam's warning came too late.
As Luffy's fist rocketed toward Beta, Eta's wing unfurled with liquid smoothness, expanding to triple its size before solidifying into a mirror-like surface.
The rubber man's punch rebounded with devastating force, sending him crashing through the forecastle. Wood splintered. The crew froze.
Zoro's eye widened. "They can reflect attacks?"
Sam's fully reformed wing cast a jagged shadow across the deck. "They've mastered properties it took me years to control." His golden knuckle braces began to glow. "Don't use direct strikes!"
Delta's spear-arm shot forward like a piston, impaling the main mast. The ancient wood exploded into splinters.
As the crew scattered, Robin made eye contact with Sam. "How do we stop them?"
Sam flexed his wing, feeling the unnatural power thrumming through his veins—the same power that had kept Gan Fall alive for two years of hiding. The same power that was slowly killing him.
"You don't stop weapons like us," he said, leaping onto the railing. His wing blotted out the sun.
"You destroy them at the core."
**End of Chapter 6**
**(Word Count: 3500)**