Sea Calendar 1495
A small New Year auction should have been nothing more than a warm up for greedy hands and drunk mouths.
Instead, an unknown Devil Fruit turned the first days of the year into a bloodbath.
A CP1 team had arrived quietly, confident this backwater deal would be easy. The moment they confirmed the fruit on display matched a top priority mission, they made their move without hesitation.
Their plan was clean and ruthless, seize the fruit, slaughter everyone present, then return to Mary Geoise with no witnesses left behind.
They would have succeeded too.
If not for a blind man sitting among the crowd.
He wore old fashioned robes and carried himself like a wandering monk with a sword. When the killing started, he rose, drew once, and stopped the massacre with a single strike.
That one move saved most of the guests.
It also ruined everything for CP1.
With the blind swordsman in the way, the agents could no longer silence the room fast enough. Worse, their secret slipped out.
They had only whispered the name once.
Word Spirit Fruit.
They never expected the blind man's Observation Haki to be sharp enough to catch it. The moment he spoke it aloud, the entire auction hall heard. The underground brokers heard it. The spies heard it. The survivors heard it.
And then the world heard it.
The underworld spread information the way fire spreads in dry grass. Within hours, everyone with even a shred of intelligence network knew the truth.
This Devil Fruit was not in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, or if it once was, it had been erased.
CP1 still managed to snatch the Word Spirit Fruit in the chaos, but they paid for every step. Unable to wipe out the witnesses, they could only retreat.
The auction's organizer gritted his teeth, then did what underworld men always did when knives came out.
He threw money at the problem.
On the spot, he offered a fortune to hire the blind swordsman as a bodyguard.
Fifty million Berries, paid immediately.
The blind man accepted without hesitation. There was money to be made, and there was also a simple wrong to correct. CP spies had barged in and robbed an auction item in broad daylight. For a man like him, that was reason enough to raise his sword.
He pursued the three man CP1 unit.
His blade was strong. His footwork was clean.
And the power backing his strikes was even more frightening.
Gravity.
With swordsmanship and that irresistible force working together, the blind swordsman quickly suppressed CP1. Afterward, the auctioneer kept his promise, handed over the fifty million, and offered even more.
Escort the fruit to the auction headquarters. Keep it safe. Name your price.
The blind man agreed.
But they had barely left the auction site when the New World exploded.
Any major force with a past, any organization that understood history, any predator who smelled power, all of them turned their eyes toward the sea.
The World Government moved first.
They poured elites into the New World in waves, fast enough to alarm even Imu.
And this time, Imu did not hide.
If the world was slipping out of control, then it needed to be reminded who still held the biggest club.
Imu brought out Uranus.
No more secrecy. No more patience.
Imu's target was clear.
Seize the Word Spirit Fruit, and crush Brook's arrogance in one blow.
Uranus proved its value the instant it arrived. Its speed was terrifying. Before the Pluton fleet of the Hell Pirates could even reach the area, the battle had already begun.
The Edd War Sea became a cauldron.
Underground forces rushed in, including the Lu family and the Draco family. The current underground emperor, the Dark Gold King, Lu Feld, had only been in power for a few years, but he was already greedy enough to gamble with anyone.
Then he saw the shadow in the sky.
And his greed turned into a curse.
"Damn it, they actually fixed it."
Lu Feld's face twisted.
Eleven years ago, Uranus had been destroyed, and the entire underworld had bled for its fragments. Lu Feld and his father had fought in that war. They had even seized a piece of Uranus themselves, poured insane amounts of money into forming the MAD research team, and hired outlaw scientists to study the fragment.
Then the World Government took it back.
That single loss had crushed their power. Their capital dropped by a third. Lu Feld had only recovered in recent years by clinging to the Hell Pirates and growing alongside their shadow.
So to him, Uranus was both a nightmare and a temptation.
"I wonder if Brook can still handle that thing," Lu Feld muttered, voice heavy.
He was an ally now, half affiliated, half independent, but either way, he did not want to watch the World Government erase the Hell Pirates from the map.
The news of Uranus spread like a shockwave. The name alone made some big pirates flee the Sea immediately.
Others stayed.
Some people were willing to bet their lives for a fruit that might rewrite the world.
Imu would have already fired an island erasing energy wave if not for one concern.
If Uranus destroyed the Word Spirit Fruit again, all this would be pointless.
Even so, the moment Uranus arrived, the entire balance tilted.
With the Uranus looming overhead and the Knights of God moving through the battlefield, the fight reversed in an instant. Even the blind swordsman guarding the fruit could not withstand an admiral level Knight of God like Sargon.
And yet, the blind man's Gravity Fruit caught Imu's eye.
The Word Spirit Fruit was important, but this was another strategic level prize.
Imu had not expected to find two top tier abilities in one clash.
An order went out immediately.
Sargon was to recruit the blind swordsman. Bring him into the Knights of God. Make him their newest blade.
But the blind man, Fujitora, still had a spine.
He had accepted a job. He had taken payment. He would not abandon his employer lightly.
And after hearing the World Government had established the Seven Warlords of the Sea, his impression of them had sunk even further.
The battle only grew uglier.
Because this was the front section of the New World, closer to the World Government's routes than Doragonzo Island deep in the back seas, reinforcements arrived quickly.
Warships. Agents. More Knights.
One after another.
Then the nearby guardian force arrived.
Kaido's squad.
The moment they entered the Edd War Sea, the conflict stopped being a chaotic scramble and became a true war.
Not everyone on the Hell Pirates' side were obedient soldiers. The underworld factions and the pirates from the Pirate Guild still had autonomy.
They were not going to let go of a fruit like this just because the Hell Pirates existed.
The arrival of the Beast Squad, the Hell Pirates' Fourth Division, shifted the battlefield again.
Imu stopped watching from above.
He started moving.
Uranus began firing weaker destructive energy waves, weaker only compared to the island destroying blasts of legend.
To any pirate still greedy enough to reach for the Word Spirit Fruit, even a weakened wave was pure slaughter, an unstoppable tide of death.
Demon warriors with twin horns charged into the chaos, roaring as they tried to drive the World Government back out of the New World.
A ghostlike captain crashed into the CP ranks, his body swelling and twisting as he transformed into a carnivorous dinosaur, tearing through agents like paper.
"It's the Beast Squad's third captain, Carnotaurus Vanti, bounty four hundred and ten million!"
A CP0 member rushed forward at once, intercepting the dinosaur before it could butcher CP1 through CP9 in a straight line.
"Ahahaha!"
Vanti roared, thrilled, fearless, charging deeper into enemy territory like he wanted the whole sea to know his name. He leapt onto a CP warship and began ripping it apart from the deck down.
Meanwhile, Sargon's expression darkened.
He was still trying to persuade Fujitora to surrender, but he understood the truth.
This fight could not drag on.
If the Hell Pirates fully joined the battlefield, even Lord Imu might not be able to shut it down cleanly.
Even the Five Elders could not suppress the Hell Pirates.
Without Imu and Uranus fighting together, they had no chance of crushing them outright.
-------------
The newly surfaced Knight of God, Sargon, did not bother with courtesy or pretense.
Under the cover of Fujitora's protection, he cut straight through the chaos, lunged for the auction entourage, and brutally killed the auction manager who was clutching the chest containing the Word Spirit Fruit.
Blood sprayed. The chest flew.
And the blind swordsman's temper finally snapped.
The man had hired him. Paid him. Trusted him.
Sargon had murdered that employer right in front of his face.
Fujitora's smile vanished. The air around him sank, heavy as a sea trench.
A moment later, he reached upward.
The sky answered.
A meteorite screamed down from the heavens, tearing the clouds apart as it crashed toward Sargon like divine punishment.
"Hmph. Too slow."
Sargon stepped aside as if he were dodging a lazy punch. The meteor roared past and shattered the sea into a boiling crater.
He did not even need to block it.
"That kind of trick is meaningless against me," Sargon said coldly. "Hand over the Word Spirit Fruit. Do that, and I can make you a Knight of God, noble beyond compare, just like me."
Fujitora's jaw tightened.
His fingers closed around the Devil Fruit box the auction manager had thrown away in his final moments.
"Hmph. Noble?" Fujitora said, voice low with fury. "Then why did you kill him? That fruit belonged to him. It was his auction."
He would not hand the box over.
Not to the man who had just spat on a contract and butchered an innocent employer like a pig.
He still had an obligation.
The manager's last instructions.
Get the fruit to the auction headquarters.
Sargon's gaze sharpened, impatient now.
"Huh? This fruit was ours to begin with," he said. "Brook killed its original owner and made it reincarnate here in the New World. I'm simply taking it back."
He raised his chin, tone turning arrogant.
"Join us. Become a Knight of God. You will stand higher than any Navy admiral. This is your chance. Take it."
Even as he spoke, the contempt leaked out of him like poison.
Fujitora heard it.
Not with eyes, but with Haki.
"I can feel your disdain," Fujitora said. His eyelids trembled, his ears twitching subtly as he listened to the enemy's emotions shift. "People like you don't understand the value of life. I hate the stench you carry."
Sargon's expression twisted.
"Hmph. Then you refuse a toast, and you'll drink punishment," he hissed. "A peasant is still a peasant. Even if I offer you the chance to soar, you can't grasp it."
His killing intent rose like a blade.
"Die here, then."
He attacked in an instant.
In his eyes, Fujitora was only a future threat, a man with admiral potential, not yet fully grown. Perhaps in a few years he could reach the strength of a junior admiral.
So the decision was simple.
If he could not be used, he would be erased before he matured.
Sargon's charge was brutal and precise. He slashed into Fujitora's gravity field, forcing his way forward, and reached for the chest at the same time.
His true desire burned behind his eyes.
The Word Spirit Fruit.
Back then, Michael had relied on that very power to become the leader of the Knights of God, their strongest blade, stronger than Gabriel with the Weather Fruit, stronger than Arabo with the Paw Fruit.
If Imu gave Sargon the Word Spirit Fruit, his strength would explode. Double, triple, perhaps more. He might even surpass the Buddha himself, Sengoku.
Fujitora's gravity domain groaned under the pressure. He could barely hold.
If this continued, he would not last an hour.
Boom!
Far above the battlefield, Uranus began firing.
The Uranus no longer cared whether CP warships were caught in the blast radius. Power roared through the Edd War Sea, sweeping away pirates and allies alike.
A cannon struck Carnotaurus Vanti head on. Half of the dinosaur's tail was vaporized. The huge beast collapsed out of full transformation, shrieking as a chunk of scorched flesh was missing from his backside.
The war was turning into slaughter.
With Uranus involved, the Beast Squad, the underground forces, and the great pirates all suffered horrific casualties. Many fled. Corpses carpeted the sea.
And Fujitora, isolated, was pushed back step by step.
Then it happened.
In a brief opening, the chest slipped.
The Word Spirit Fruit was stolen.
Fujitora staggered, battered and bleeding, and could only retreat with grievous injuries. Even as he fled by flying, Uranus pursued him from above like a hunting hawk.
Imu would not let the Gravity Fruit go.
That ability was too valuable.
Too dangerous.
Fujitora had never imagined he would one day be chased by a legendary ancient weapon, forced to flee into the back reaches of the New World with death screaming at his heels.
Brook received the news of the War's disaster.
But even with the Pluton fleet moving at full speed, they were still too late.
However, the moment Brook saw Fujitora being hunted by Uranus, his eyes narrowed.
At least this trip could pay for itself.
Uranus would not dare to dive too deep into enemy waters alone. The Barrier Fruit was gone, which meant Brook's soul based attacks could still threaten the Uranus and tear it apart.
As soon as Uranus spotted the Pluton fleet, it acted wisely. It fired several terrifying energy waves from afar, then retreated immediately.
Brook's improved Pluton replicas answered.
Their main guns roared back. They could trade blows with the damaged, repaired Uranus, only slightly weaker.
Uranus sped away without spending much sacrificial energy, but it had already achieved its goal.
It had shown its face.
It had reminded the world of its speed and destruction.
And it had escaped.
"Damn it!" Shiki snarled, watching Uranus retreat after showing off. Rage twisted his face. "Big Brother Brook! Let's go to the Red Line today and kill Imu and the Five Elders. I'll tear their so called immortality apart!"
Brook only smiled.
"Relax. Imu is the one who should be nervous," Brook said calmly. "We're the morning sun, getting stronger by the day. The World Government is the sunset, fading a little more every year."
He was not afraid of a long game.
The Revolutionary Army was growing. The second generation of Hell was maturing. In the end, the one who could stand the longest would win.
At that moment, the Seven Star Demon Sword, Quetzalcoatl, shot forward and scooped Fujitora out of the chase.
Fujitora coughed, blood on his lips, and still managed a faint smile.
He had taken a job for money.
And somehow, he had stumbled into the storm of the century.
Brook's expression darkened with disappointment when he realized the Word Spirit Fruit was gone. Stussy had wanted that fruit for Katifa, and now that dream had slipped away.
There was nothing to be done.
Imu had used Uranus. No one could chase that speed down, no matter how furious they were.
Maybe it really was fate.
Even so, Brook's mood rose again the next second.
Because he had picked something else up.
A fighter with admiral level potential.
And a Devil Fruit whose strategic value was no less than the Word Spirit Fruit.
The Gravity Fruit.
If Brook had to choose between the two, he would choose gravity without hesitation.
It could pin down the Hell Pirates' flying fleet.
It could restrain the Uranus itself.
"Crocus!" Brook snapped, eyes sharp as he looked at Fujitora's half dead condition on Quetzalcoatl's back. "Heal him, now!"
Brook's voice carried a rare urgency.
He could not let this man die.
This was Admieal level combat power.
And even if Fujitora were fated to die, it would not be out here in the open sea.
It would be inside the Hell Pirates' Devil Fruit recovery device.
No matter what happened next, one thing was non negotiable.
The Gravity Fruit had to belong to the Hell Pirates.
.....
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