In Brook's eyes, the Gravity Fruit was a strategic weapon.
If he could not obtain it, then he had to destroy it.
It mattered even more than Kuma's Paw Paw Fruit. If the World Government ever got their hands on gravity, the Hell Pirates' flying fleet would be one bad day away from becoming falling debris.
"As for Issho, we have to find him, no matter what."
Brook's tone turned cold as he looked at Antonio.
Mihawk was a different matter. He was probably still training in some sword dojo somewhere, so unknown that no one even knew which sea he was in. Before he earned the name Hawkeye, he was called the Marine Hunter. He had cut down more than a few Navy men, yet the Seven Warlords would eventually welcome him with open arms anyway.
That system never cared what kind of thug you were, as long as you were strong enough.
When Mihawk watched Roger's execution, he still would not have the Supreme Grade blade, Yoru. Right now, that sword was in the hands of a great pirate in the New World. If that pirate had not been a neutral member of the Pirate Guild, Brook would have reclaimed the blade long ago, then hosted a famous sword tournament to lure every hidden genius out of the shadows.
"I'll find Issho," Antonio promised with a smile. "Also, Shiryu and Vergo have both joined the Navy. Shiryu is working as a prison officer, and Vergo is just a base soldier."
He chuckled.
"I'll raise Vergo properly."
With Dragon's example already in hand, raising another vice admiral was not exactly difficult.
Brook nodded once.
"We need to speed up the Devil Fruit search."
His gaze sharpened.
"Especially the New World islands closest to the West Sea. We have to find the Dark Dark Fruit as soon as possible."
If they found the fruit, Brook would immediately pick the heart candidate and become a dual fruit user without delay.
After giving that final order, Brook closed his eyes and began to rest, using the power of the Yomi Yomi no Mi to nourish both souls, compressing them until they felt heavy and solid within his body.
Then another thought surfaced, one that refused to disappear.
"Toki's power… it transferred to my sixth son, Nika."
Brook's fingers tapped lightly.
"Then does Poseidon get born early as well?"
In the old timeline, Otohime gave birth to three sons first, then Shirahoshi arrived at a very specific time. Between Madam Shyarly's prophecy and the words of the enormous Sea Kings, it sounded like Shirahoshi's birth was… fixed.
Destined.
So even if Brook pushed Otohime to marry early, there was a high chance she would still not give birth to Poseidon ahead of schedule.
"We can't rely on Poseidon," Brook murmured.
Then he smiled, almost amused.
"But we can test the Elephant Lord."
He stopped training and immediately went to find Toki, bringing baby Nika with him. He also called Roger and Oden along.
Brook could not hear the Elephant Lord, but Roger and Oden could, at least a little. Both of them had Observation Haki that could hear all things.
Above the massive Quetzalcoatl, wind howled around them as the great creature cut through the sky.
"My lord," Toki said helplessly, glancing at Nika in Brook's arms, then at Oden. "Nika isn't the one who commands the Elephant Lord. That should be a Kozuki descendant. Kozuki Inosuke should be the one brought here."
Her brows tightened as she looked at Oden again.
In this era, Wano's great general was not only serving under Brook, he had married three Mink wives. It was enough to smash Wano's old values into powder.
And as for Toki herself, being subdued by Brook's relentless persistence was the greatest failure of her time travel.
"We'll know after we try," Brook replied calmly.
If he was not mistaken, Nika, the son born from him and Toki, was the destined one. Brook could still sense something dense and powerful in the child, like a hidden sun sealed under flesh.
Oden's pig blooded son, Kozuki Inosuke, was strong, yes, but he still felt like a normal mixed blood child. He likely inherited Oden's physique, and might even awaken the ability to hear all things, but Brook did not believe that was enough.
Oden scratched his head and complained.
"I spoke to that giant elephant before. It said the time wasn't right, and I wasn't the one. What does that even mean?"
He still did not understand what a destined person was supposed to be.
Roger remained silent. He had heard legends of the walking elephant, but he had never set foot on Zou. For a long time, Zou was quietly treated as Brook's territory. Many Minks had already left to work for the Hell Pirates.
"Roger," Brook said, opening his eyes. "Your hearing is sharper than Oden's. When we get there, you two translate together."
He wrapped them in a layer of soul power to block the wind pressure, so their senses would not be disturbed by the speed.
"I understand," Roger answered.
His mind drifted to Rayleigh and the others. It would have been fun to bring them to see Zou someday.
These days, Rayleigh had completely forgotten his earlier pride, the words about never working for Brook. For the sake of a single clue about his daughter, he was running missions every day like a man chasing his own shadow.
One day later, guided by a Vivre Card, Quetzalcoatl found the Elephant Lord wandering the seas.
Brook ordered Quetzalcoatl to climb straight onto the Elephant Lord's head, without entering Zou itself for now.
"Hey, you giant elephant!"
Oden released a burst of Conqueror's Haki, a thunderous reminder that visitors had arrived.
A massive shadow passed over the island below. The Elephant Lord's colossal pupils slowly regained focus.
Brook raised Nika in his arms and shouted without hesitation.
"Elephant Lord! Is the child I'm holding the one you've been waiting for?"
Brook could not hear the answer, and he did not care. He turned his head immediately.
"Roger, Oden. Listen carefully. Tell me what it says."
The Elephant Lord paused.
For a being that had walked for eight hundred, even a thousand years, a single pause was enough to shake Zou. The island trembled under the shift of that unimaginable body.
Then a deep, magnetic voice thundered into the souls of those who could hear it.
Roger and Oden both flinched, instinctively raising their hands toward their ears. It was not sound, but it was loud enough to make their spirits shake.
Brook's eyes narrowed. Baby Nika suddenly began crying in his arms, wailing as if the world itself had pressed down on him.
Roger steadied himself faster than Oden. His shock was still visible, but he forced the words out.
"It said… he's back."
Roger swallowed.
"But… the sixth prince is too young to speak."
For a heartbeat, Roger's mind went blank.
Nika.
He had seen that name in the texts of the final island.
Could it be real?
Could this baby really be the one the world was waiting for?
Roger's fists tightened.
If the world was already moving this fast, then he needed his own child soon. Otherwise, he would not even have the right to witness what was coming.
-------------
Hearing Roger's translation, Brook smiled.
Toki, however, froze on the spot. For a moment, she could not process it. Why would the child she had with Brook be the one fate was waiting for?
Was it because Brook's bloodline was acknowledged by Joyboy's will?
Or was it simply because she still had not realized the real issue was her?
"Ahahaha! So you old elephant have been waiting for Master Brook's son!"
Oden threw his head back and laughed until his teeth showed.
"Does that mean you have to listen to Prince Nika from now on? Hah! I knew you'd be useful someday!"
Roger and Oden could still feel the Elephant Lord's voice resonating in their minds, heavy and ancient.
Roger's expression shifted.
"Wait… his name is Nika? Is that really just a coincidence?"
In his mind, he could almost see it. A big figure with white hair and white clothes, laughing like a lunatic, as if the whole world was his joke.
Roger's breathing tightened.
"Could that be… Joyboy?"
"Yohoho!" Brook laughed, completely unbothered. "Joyboy is just a nickname."
He lifted Nika in his arms like he was showing off a prize.
"Back in the Void Century, there was a boy who ate the Sun God Nika Fruit. That fruit's power is ridiculous. The louder you laugh, the stronger you get."
Brook's eyes gleamed, half amused, half sharp.
"They called him Joyboy, and he had another title too, the Drum of Liberation. Anyone who awakens the Sun God Nika Fruit can be called Joyboy."
He shrugged, as if it were obvious.
"Just like the Navy calls Monkey D. Luffy Straw Hat. Names like that are cheap. People love giving them away."
Roger laughed, but there was a new weight in it.
"The Sun God Nika Fruit… you really have high expectations for Prince Nika."
His gaze slid to Brook.
"Are you planning to take that fruit for yourself someday? You named your son Nika, after all."
He scratched his head, then grinned.
"So from now on, anyone who eats that fruit gets hunted down by you? That's a little unfair, isn't it?"
Roger also could not help thinking of another path.
If his own child ever obtained that fruit, could that child become the next Joyboy?
But then reality slapped him.
Right now, he could not beat Brook in a fair fight, much less argue about "unfair."
"Yohoho! Everyone wants the same thing," Brook said, ignoring the jab. "To overthrow the Celestial Dragons."
His tone turned colder as he looked out at the endless sky.
"I've heard the tribute, the Celestial Gold, increased again. Life is getting worse for civilians. Rebellions are popping up everywhere."
He spoke like a savior for a second, wearing righteousness as casually as a cloak.
Then his eyes narrowed, and the mask cracked.
"Roger, you're a good fighter, but you don't have the mind to run the world. Apart from swinging a sword, what else can you do?"
Brook did not say the rest out loud, but the contempt was there.
If the Roger Pirates or the Straw Hat Pirates were left to "change the world," would they really succeed?
With their size, their talent, their hearts?
Brook did not believe it.
Even if the World Government fell, would kingdoms suddenly become fair?
Or would everyone just throw a grand banquet and keep playing the same rotten game under a new banner?
Roger stared for a while, then laughed quietly.
"Haha… then it looks like the one who changes the world is you, Brook."
His voice turned serious.
"You're the man Joyboy never expected."
Roger was starting to waver. Joyboy's prophecy was not absolute. Uranus and Pluton had already been destroyed by Brook.
That was something even Joyboy had never accomplished.
Brook laughed again, eyes bright with a dangerous confidence.
"Do you know why that war lasted a hundred years?"
He shook his head.
"What kind of war drags on that long? A century is not fighting, it's suffering."
He gestured vaguely, as if pointing at the distant past.
"I bet the Twenty Kings were losing at first. Joyboy, the Mermaid Princess, the Elephant Lord and his master, they were all saints in their own way."
Brook's smile thinned.
"And yet even with every advantage, they still fell one by one and vanished into history."
He sounded almost amused by it, but there was a hard edge beneath.
Joyboy punished the Elephant Lord. He apologized to Poseidon. The super giant Sea Kings hid again in the deep sea and the Calm Belt, waiting for something.
Waiting for who knew what.
Brook's gaze sharpened.
"If I had their power, that war would've ended in a few years. No endless legends. No slow bleeding. Just victory or death."
Roger went quiet.
He was a pirate who hated civilian casualties too, as long as no one touched his crew.
If they did?
Then even a country could burn.
Brook exhaled, then waved it away.
"Enough. We're going back."
Now that he knew the Elephant Lord was waiting for Nika, he simply had to raise his son properly.
The "one who can command the Elephant Lord" was not necessarily Joyboy. They were not automatically the same person.
But if Brook merged the two identities, if Nika grew up, ate the Sun God Nika Fruit, awakened it, and became Joyboy…
Then the Elephant Lord would charge wherever ordered.
Even if it meant dying.
Quetzalcoatl came and left in a hurry.
On Zou, the Minks had still been hoping Brook would choose a few of them to go out to the holy land beyond the sea.
When they saw Quetzalcoatl vanish into the clouds, disappointment spread across the island like cold rain.
Especially for two kids.
Nekomamushi and Inuarashi had trained like madmen, all for the chance to qualify as Brook's disciples.
"Nekomamushi, don't mope," Inuarashi said seriously, a sword hanging at his waist. "We're only twelve. We still have time. Before we're adults, we'll make it into Master Brook's training class."
If the Hell Pirates did not hold talent recruitment every year, they would have snuck off Zou themselves and sailed to Doragonzo Island long ago.
Nekomamushi snorted.
"Hmph. I'll succeed for sure. You might not, Inuarashi."
Inuarashi's eye twitched.
"You big cat! That's bad luck talk!"
In the next second, the dog and the cat were rolling on the ground.
Other Mink children gathered around, shouting and laughing, and the scuffle quickly became a chaotic brawl.
Back on Ballon Island, Brook checked on the progress of the Pluton battleship and Vegapunk's artificial Paramecia research.
Ryugai, who had eaten the artificial Azure Dragon Fruit, was also assisting. One question still sat at the center of Vegapunk's obsession.
Could an artificial Devil Fruit ability awaken?
Vegapunk stood before the newest test subjects, eyes shining like a madman's.
"The Seraphs, the ones that cost the most resources, have finally been unveiled!"
He was trembling with excitement.
"Seraph Z possesses Newgate sama's Tremor Tremor power. Seraph P possesses Shiki sama's Float Float power…"
He stared at the figures like they were miracles.
"The progress is only ninety percent, but they'll be ready soon."
Brook's smile returned, slow and sharp.
Soon.
Everything was becoming ready.
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