Chapter 582 - COMPLETED 581-593

Chapter 581: Brett's Combat Method

After mastering Awakening, Brett's physical capabilities had advanced across every dimension. It followed naturally that the amount of power his body could hold in reserve had increased by a nearly equal measure.

With the total reserves larger, the force that could be unleashed in a single burst through the King's Punch technique had grown proportionally.

As the energy inside him began its conversion, Brett felt an overwhelming strength flood through his entire body. He was a volcano in that moment — capable of erupting with world-shaking power at any second.

Brett became light. He became lightning. At extreme speed, even the air turned as hard as steel to move through — but it didn't matter. Brett drove straight through it.

"Ngh —!"

Red light flickered in Imu's eyes like lightning.

Even with his ability to glimpse the future, Brett's speed was simply too excessive. In less time than a blink, Brett had already closed the distance.

Imu's arms were wrapped in a strange Haki that moved like mist, black electricity weaving through it continuously.

But he hadn't even had time to swing before Brett's left hand closed around his fist.

Brett's left hand, covered in dual-colored Haki, and Imu's fist — the contact between them exploded with violent sparks, like a meteor striking the earth and throwing everything into the air.

"Looks like I'm stronger right now!"

Brett laughed freely, swinging his fist, and the force held inside him finally cracked open an exit — and surged through in an instant.

Imu's eyes had gone wide.

He had seen the future. He knew exactly how staggering this blow was going to be.

On the level of pure force, this was already beyond him.

There was no dodging it. Brett had developed the ability to break through his Observation Haki's countermeasures.

Even if Imu could do the same — which he could, through greater proficiency — that only meant they were equal on that front.

And Brett was faster.

If he couldn't dodge, then he would meet it head on.

Even if your raw power is truly unmatched, don't underestimate eight hundred years of accumulation, Brett!!

Everything concentrated toward his fist.

In the distance, the ancient weapons continued their relentless exchange, each shot producing an earth-shaking detonation.

But even that spectacle couldn't overshadow what came next.

The sky itself seemed to warp. An invisible shockwave followed by black lightning swept across the entire expanse of sky in a heartbeat.

The air shattered. Light itself dimmed.

All of this from the collision between two men's fists.

No — their fists hadn't even made contact. Separated by a short distance, everything between them was compressed to the limit, almost crushing out a black hole at the center.

"Guh —"

Imu was sent flying backward faster than a gale.

He ground his teeth.

His right arm had gone nearly numb.

Blood was seeping steadily out through his pores.

The gap in raw power was truly this large?

But —

They were still nowhere near the point where this was settled.

"You've started using that strange technique of yours again, haven't you, Brett!"

Imu called out loudly. "A remarkable technique — even at the level you've reached now, to still be able to release force like that."

"But how many times can you throw a fist like that —"

The words had barely left his mouth before Brett was already in front of him.

"That was the last one for now." Brett smiled pleasantly, though the Haki gap still existed — even drawing on stored power, he hadn't been able to land the decisive finishing blow.

But that was fine. If one wasn't enough, then more would follow.

"Current-Drive — Secret Technique!"

"King's Penetrating Fist!!"

Brett swung again.

The compressed power became a pillar of white light.

The shockwave that could pierce through anything swallowed Imu in an instant, then continued without losing force — reaching toward the furthest edge of the sky, punching through the white clouds at the horizon before finally disappearing somewhere beyond sight.

A figure shot backward through the sky at tremendous speed.

Imu.

This time blood was beginning to seep from his entire body.

The deeply penetrating shockwave had passed through him completely. Even Haki of his caliber could not fully block it. The result was that not just skin and muscle but bone and internal organs alike had absorbed the impact.

And for Imu, something worse —

"Damn it."

For the first time, this man's expression had gone genuinely dark.

Faint sparks of electricity were flickering across his body.

Not from any ability Imu was using. He had never had much interest in Devil Fruits — they came with weaknesses he had no desire to acquire.

These sparks came from the modifications built into his body.

Eight hundred years ago, to counter any possible assassination attempt by Joy Boy, Imu had allowed the Lunarians he had overthrown to modify him. Those mechanical enhancements gave his slender frame the ability to generate extraordinary force.

But now the penetrating shockwave had passed through those mechanical components as well.

Something had started to malfunction.

But —

"Your reserves are depleted now too, aren't they, Brett?"

"Of course." Brett nodded. "I'm thinking I shouldn't have spread the power across multiple shots. Concentrating it all into a single punch would have been better."

A single full-power blow might have done Imu genuinely serious damage.

"Unfortunately, it seems you didn't get that opportunity."

Imu laughed coldly.

"That's true. A shame." Brett nodded.

Honestly, the power gap between them wasn't enormous. His advantages were mobility and voice-hearing Observation Haki. Imu's edge was in Armament Haki depth.

The stored power in his body was the only thing currently capable of tipping the scale.

So —

"Time to refuel."

Brett smiled, and in the next instant he turned to lightning and drove himself straight down into the sea below.

Straight down.

The sea exploded into a massive crater from the impact.

In the churning deep water, clusters of Sea Kings were rising from below, surrounding him completely.

On their backs they carried a great deal of cargo.

Which was —

Food. Large quantities of it.

Brett shifted into full dragon form and opened his mouth wide.

"What?"

In the sky above, Imu used his Observation Haki — which surpassed even Brett's in raw depth — to immediately understand what was happening in the sea.

Brett was eating.

He was replenishing his energy.

Which meant —

"Damn it!!"

Imu's expression changed completely. In the next second, without caring whether he could move freely underwater, he dropped straight down toward the sea.

He could not keep letting Brett eat.

But —

"Too late!!"

The sea erupted again. Brett, back in dragon-human form, had his right fist pulled back against his side, his entire body already coiled and ready.

"Full power — King's Penetrating Fist!!"

A pillar of light that could reach the heavens burst upward in an instant.

Chapter 582: Invasion of the Floating Fortress

Imu was engulfed in that terrifying white shockwave pillar once more, and this time he screamed.

His Haki mastery was perhaps the strongest in history — eight hundred years of accumulation was not something Brett could have bridged in a short time. Even with Conqueror's Haki having risen to a level comparable to Imu's through sheer growth in strength, their Armament Haki still had a gap between them.

And yet even Imu's Haki, formidable as it was, could not fully block Brett's shockwave.

Haki was not invincible. There were many things that could contend with it.

And the shockwave Brett was generating at this moment was simply too powerful.

He had taken all of the freshly converted energy, combined it with maximum dual-colored Haki and lightning and flame, and driven it all out through a Fish-Man Karate strike. The result was a blow that was, in the truest sense, capable of destroying the heavens and the earth.

Imu's entire body was penetrated through and through by the relentless shockwave once again.

He was sent flying straight upward — far into the sky, tens of thousands of meters above.

"Keep going!"

Brett laughed and launched himself skyward. As he rose, he could be seen carrying beneath him a massive flame cloud.

Loaded on top of that cloud was food. Piled high with it.

The stored power Brett used had to be replenished through eating.

After satisfying the energy his body needed for normal activity, the surplus would be stored by a specialized organ. Which meant that once the reserves were depleted, all that was needed to restore them was to keep eating.

Brett had given it some thought and arrived at exactly this combat method.

The greatest difficulty in replenishing energy quickly wasn't carrying food or getting it down. Those were simple problems.

The real key was how to digest what he ate at speed.

Food converting into usable energy for the body was not a simple process.

But fortunately, that wasn't an especially difficult obstacle either.

Monsters had terrifying digestive capability. The rubber boy in the straw hat was a particular extreme — he could devour a meal and metabolize it completely in moments, returning to full strength instantly.

Brett couldn't match that, but there were other ways to assist the process.

Life Return, for example.

Brett had not originally known this technique, but with allies like Zephyr and Garp, mastering the Six Powers was not difficult at all. At Brett's level of ability, techniques of that tier could almost be learned on sight. Life Return was slightly more involved, but not more than a few hours of effort.

And with that, the strongest combat method was complete.

As long as he carried enough food, Brett could replenish his energy mid-battle.

He had already shifted back into full dragon form, and bit into the enormous quantity of food stacked on the cloud below.

It entered his stomach. Instantaneous digestion. He returned to dragon-human form. Energy — restored.

High in the sky, Imu had barely managed to stabilize himself, and his expression had gone iron grey.

His body surface was almost entirely covered in blood. Every muscle trembled faintly.

Nearly every cell in his body had been struck by Brett's merciless assault. Just breathing sent pain rippling through him. The damage to his internal organs went without saying.

Worse — the mechanical systems integrated into his body were beginning to fail.

"Brett!!"

Whatever composure Imu had shown during their earlier exchange was entirely gone.

He understood now. Defeating Brett had become something extremely difficult.

And Brett gave him no time to think about it. Another shockwave was already on the way.

Imu was sent fully below.

And in the space adjacent to this world but not connected to it — the mirror world opened by Brûlée's ability —

The battle there was already over.

"Die, you repulsive creature."

Tesoro drove his foot hard into an old man's chest.

This old man — the commander of the God's Knights, almost certainly the most powerful Celestial Dragon alive — had been through a sustained barrage from multiple opponents before Tesoro delivered the finishing touch.

Gold dust ground to microscopic fineness had been breathed in through every intake of air, and now his body was gradually becoming solid gold from within.

Whatever power he had once possessed, he could no longer resist at all.

All he could do was glare at Tesoro with eyes that were themselves slowly turning gold.

Tesoro answered with a cold smile and then snapped his fingers.

The Celestial Dragon, now fully a golden statue, shattered into pieces.

Tesoro gave a satisfied nod, then swept his gaze across the battlefield.

Every fight inside the mirror world had ended completely.

Their side had won without question.

To be honest, CP0 combined with the God's Knights had been a genuinely terrifying force — five or six fighters at Admiral level, with over ten senior officers at Warlord level or above.

But their side had been more terrifying.

Five Admirals. Two Emperors. The world's greatest swordsman. Senior leaders from every allied faction. Eight Seraphim already approaching Admiral-level individually.

In high-end combat power, they held an overwhelming advantage.

And that was before counting Uta.

The shape of the battle had been this: every fighter stormed the field, and the enemy was hammered hard until they could just barely hold on. Then Uta activated her ability.

That was the killing blow.

Even if the enemy had roughly guessed at Uta's power through prior exposure to the Gion situation, there had been no time to prepare a defense.

Large numbers went down at once, losing all ability to fight. The handful who survived that wave couldn't withstand the follow-up attacks bearing down on them from every direction.

The final result was, of course, a complete victory.

"Then —"

Tesoro drew a long breath and called out loudly. "We can move on that ship now?"

He looked toward Brûlée, standing beside Katakuri.

Brûlée gave a nod. "As long as the mirror inside wasn't destroyed."

"Excellent!"

Akainu clenched his fist with undisguised excitement.

If they could push directly into the interior of that vessel, victory was as good as secured.

And besides —

"We don't even need to go in ourselves."

Tesoro's mouth curved upward. "Brûlée — I need to ask you to make a quick trip to Pluton. There's something Brett left there. Can you bring it over?"

"Understood." Brûlée nodded.

She didn't know what it was, but now wasn't the time to ask questions.

Chapter 583: Dyna Stone!

Inside Pluton, now flying through the sky.

Zephyr watched the woman disappear through the mirror, and the expression on his face lit up with something extraordinary.

"Excellent!!"

Dragon couldn't contain himself and actually jumped to his feet. "There's no way that thing can withstand this!"

"Exactly!" His father, Fleet Admiral Garp, was beaming and nodding enthusiastically. "That's a super-explosion from the inside!"

"Maybe we won't have to do anything at all — we'll just watch it disintegrate!"

"No — that's exactly when we need to press the attack at full force!" Dragon pushed back against his father. "If it really does disintegrate, then wonderful. If it doesn't, the explosion will at minimum cause massive disruption, and that's the moment our attacks need to land!"

"Right!!"

They opened a channel immediately to Shanks and Hades.

Now they waited for Tesoro and the others to act.

Inside the mirror world, a crowd had gathered in a circle around what Brûlée had brought through, breathing hard from the effort.

"So this is — the legendary Dyna Stone?" Sabo leaned forward with wide eyes, studying it closely. "I've heard the name for years but this is the first time I've actually seen it."

"The stone said to have power comparable to an ancient weapon." Katakuri was equally surprised. "And there are this many of them?"

Five.

Five glass jars were sitting on the ground in the middle of the group.

Each jar held a strange green liquid, and submerged in that liquid were peculiar stones that looked almost like bread rolls.

Dyna Stone.

Stones that would detonate violently the moment they contacted open air.

How violently? The description used across the seas was: power comparable to an ancient weapon.

Meaning a stone this small, if it exploded, would produce a force equivalent to a direct hit from Pluton's cannon.

And there were five of them here right now.

Put simply — if all of these stones went off at once, the only people who might survive would be those with particularly special Logia abilities, like Kizaru.

"Hmph." Akainu let out a short sound. "This is only a small portion. Brett has considerably more in storage."

Brett had seized every last Dyna Stone the Navy had been holding. The total quantity was staggering. These five were barely a fraction of what existed.

"Regardless — as long as these stones explode inside that thing, it's over, right?" Ryokugyu couldn't help but start laughing. "We win this war, rewrite history for this entire world — right?!"

"Absolutely." Tesoro gave a deliberate nod.

And while he was at it, those repulsive Celestial Dragons were also on that ship. Well then. Might as well send them all off at once.

Don't call me cruel. You were just unlucky enough to be on board.

Tesoro suppressed his grin before it got away from him.

Hancock was experiencing something similar.

This woman, who had her own deep and unresolved hatred for the Celestial Dragons, wore the same undisguised satisfaction on her face.

Die, every last one of you. This world has no use for garbage like you.

Brett — our promise is about to be fulfilled.

"Move out!"

Everyone acted at once. The whole group formed up around the five Dyna Stones and moved toward the mirror Katakuri and the others had entered through earlier.

The mirror had shifted position since then — the ship itself was moving, and everything inside the mirror world moved with it. But finding one large mirror in the open plain around them wasn't difficult.

"So what's on the other side of this is the inside of that vessel?" Tesoro stood before the large mirror, sounding slightly uncertain.

He knew perfectly well that Katakuri was reliable. But the stakes here were enormous. What they were about to do would determine the course of the entire world. He couldn't help the hesitation.

Katakuri didn't react to the tone. He simply gave a quiet nod. "That's what's on the other side."

Tesoro drew a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "Then — throw them through."

"Leave it to me." Katakuri said.

The awakening of the Mochi-Mochi Fruit activated.

All five glass jars — liquid, stones and all — converted to mochi.

The glass was separated out and set aside. What remained was a single mass of mochi made from the liquid and the stones combined.

The people gathered around involuntarily took several steps back.

Whether to call Katakuri bold beyond measure or simply supremely skilled was a fair question.

One slip here, and everyone in this space would be launched into the sky.

But Katakuri was not just bold. He truly was supremely skilled.

The stones converted to mochi had lost their explosive properties. They were now simply mochi — inert enough that they could theoretically be eaten.

Then.

"Brûlée."

Katakuri called his most beloved sister's name.

"Understood, Katakuri-nii!"

Brûlée stepped up to the mirror and placed her hand on its surface.

The smooth glass rippled like disturbed water in an instant.

The two spaces that had been sealed apart reconnected.

Katakuri moved with precise speed, picking up the mochi mass from the ground and throwing it through the mirror.

Then Brûlée immediately pulled her hand away.

The mirror world sealed off from the outside world again completely. Whatever explosion followed out there would not reach them by a single degree.

Rewinding slightly — inside the enormous floating fortress, the Five Elders were waiting anxiously for word from the God's Knights.

If the operation went smoothly, the war was as good as won.

But the seconds and minutes passed, and the battered ship below showed no signs of being disrupted at all.

"Haven't they found it yet?" Saint Mars couldn't hold in his impatience. "The efficiency here is simply unacceptable!"

His urgency was understandable. The God's Knights' operation was tied directly to the survival of the Celestial Dragon lineage itself.

"Could something have gone wrong?" Saint Nusjuro was deeply uneasy.

"Wait — the mirror is reacting!"

Saint Warcury suddenly shouted.

The old men snapped their heads toward the monitoring screens, and they saw it — the mirror on screen was indeed rippling with waves.

"That's strange — there's no activity on the other side. Why would the mirror channel be opening —"

Saint Mars stood up.

His voice hadn't finished when something white came flying out of the mirror.

"That's —"

The old men were still puzzling over it when the white thing began to change shape.

It separated into liquid and several stones.

The old men saw the stones clearly.

Their expressions contorted at terrible speed.

But there was no time to say anything. White light was already bleeding through the monitoring screen.

Chapter 584: Fall

Dyna stones didn't genuinely match an ancient weapon. No matter how powerful a single detonation was, it was still one strike — and a single strike fell far short of an ancient weapon's capacity for sustained assault.

But for something to be described as ancient-weapon-comparable, there had to be substance behind the claim. Even if only for a single instant, in that instant their power was genuinely enough to shake the earth.

When five Dyna stones detonated simultaneously in an enclosed space, the interior was wrapped in blinding light in a fraction of a second.

The terrible white brilliance swallowed everything in that instant. The eruption of fire and force would, in the blink of an eye, completely annihilate the entire floating vessel from the inside.

Outside the massive floating fortress, in the open sky —

Shanks, standing on Uranus's head, was ready.

The hand around his sword trembled slightly.

The outcome of this war would become clear in the next few moments.

If Tesoro's operation succeeded, this vessel — which had floated in the sky for eight hundred years and never descended — would fall from the sky. Just as the Celestial Dragons' dominance would pass into history, never to return.

Shanks was himself of Celestial Dragon blood, but he felt no attachment to that lineage whatsoever.

Standing outside the World Government had given him a clearer view of what that group truly was.

They had no right to rule this world.

And then —

Shanks saw it. The enormous floating fortress before him, in that instant, began to shake violently — as though something inside was trying to crack through the shell.

BOOM!!

A detonation that seemed to shake the sky and the earth.

Shanks's eyes went wide, because he saw it — on the side of the great floating fortress, a pillar of white light suddenly erupted upward, piercing the sky and vanishing somewhere in the farthest depths of the atmosphere above.

"What?"

Shanks stared, momentarily at a loss.

What was happening?

Ahead in the open sky, Brett — in the middle of hammering Imu — looked back in surprise as well.

"The barrier works from inside the ship too?"

He marveled at it.

The Dyna stone's power was beyond question. Five of them together would exceed even Pluton's main cannon at full output. That was an explosion sufficient to blow the entire vessel apart from within.

But that had not been the result.

Others might not understand what had happened. Brett heard it clearly.

The barrier that had been positioned around the outside of the floating fortress — absorbing attacks from multiple directions — had suddenly manifested inside the vessel in that moment.

What kind of technology had the Bircans actually possessed?

This was genuinely troublesome.

"Ha... ha..."

Imu said nothing. He was gasping hard for breath.

By this point he was in a terrible state. There was barely an unmarked spot on his body, and blood kept running steadily from the corner of his mouth.

Brett's penetrating shockwaves had dealt devastating damage to both his body and his internal organs. The mechanical enhancements integrated into his frame to augment his physical capability had been almost entirely destroyed and were no longer functioning.

Even if Brett stopped using that combat method, even in a straightforward direct confrontation right now, Imu would likely no longer be able to match him.

"But the weakness is obvious." Brett smiled.

He finally understood why the floating fortress had never submerged.

Simply put — the barrier required enormous energy to form. That was self-evident. Energy conservation held even in this world, for the most part. To stop a hit at Pluton's scale, the energy barrier had to absorb and cancel an equivalent amount of energy.

The problem was that the barrier was absurdly large in scale.

To submerge, the entire ship would need to be enclosed. Even for this vessel, that would be a massive drain. So the floating fortress fighting two Plutons and a Uranus in the sky — it only deployed the barrier in the instant before taking a hit, rather than sustaining it continuously.

Maintaining that level of barrier while underwater would make it nearly impossible to attack at all.

The reason this weakness had never been found before was probably that the fortress's firepower alone had been enough to suppress Pluton and Uranus without giving them opportunities to deplete its energy through barrier activation.

So then — how much energy was needed to form a barrier capable of just barely withstanding an explosion surpassing Pluton's main cannon?

And when that much energy was being consumed to contain an internal explosion, how much was left in that instant for anything else?

On top of that — the explosion couldn't have produced zero results.

That pillar of light that had shot into the sky — its scale was extraordinary.

It hadn't succeeded in a single decisive blow. But this was the best opportunity they had.

Brett's mouth split into a grin. He had already become a bolt of lightning, vanishing from Imu's sight.

The pillar of light on the fortress's flank was still at its peak of brilliance.

"Uranus!!"

Shanks raised his blade and swung with everything he had. A dark-red slash arc shot out across the sky.

"ROOAAAAAR!!"

Uranus beneath him roared with everything it had. A beam-like breath tore through the air and landed directly on the front face of the floating fortress.

At the same moment below, Pluton's surviving gun emplacements fired at full output. Every beam of light converged into one, hammering like a downpour onto the same point Uranus' breath had struck.

And the people inside Pluton placed their hands against the walls, their Haki running through the hull and out to the cannon barrels.

This strike carried their conviction that this battle would be won.

Far above, Hades flipped in the sky, its main cannon blazing with brilliant white light — then in the next second, maximum output fired into a streak of light.

Pluton, Hades, Uranus — all three ancient weapons' attacks landed simultaneously on the front of the floating fortress.

CRACK!!

Almost instantly, the formerly impenetrable barrier caved inward.

The forward hull of the fortress near the barrier's impact point was directly shattered.

The barrier kept caving, pressing deeper, looking as though it was about to punch through the ship entirely.

But it held. It barely held.

At least in that instant it held. Now it just needed to wait for the assault to weaken —

"Your time floating above everything is over!!"

Lightning fell from directly above the fortress. "Come down!!"

Trailing long chains of electricity, Brett dropped like a meteor and drove his right foot down in a full-power kick.

Every ounce of freshly replenished power poured out again without reservation.

BOOM!!

His foot crashed into the energy barrier.

Crack.

*******************

Chapter 585: The Final Confrontation

Crack.

A very, very small sound. Like the faint pop of a balloon meeting a needle.

But in that moment, in Brett's ears, it was the most beautiful sound in the world.

That flat, unremarkable sound — it was like the soft singing of a goddess of victory.

Brett felt the space beneath his foot disappear. Whatever had been blocking him was gone.

Then keep going.

Almost in the same instant, his foot found solid ground.

But it wasn't over. Not even close to over.

The thing blocking him shattered, and he kept going down, and hit something else, which shattered, and he kept going. Down and down.

Obstacle after obstacle, shattered one after another, continuing downward.

Brett didn't know how far he'd traveled or how many things he'd kicked apart. But when he saw the deep blue sea again, the floating fortress was drifting above his head.

The corner of his mouth had risen high.

The speed had been too fast and the objects too numerous — Brett himself hadn't been able to count how many things he'd destroyed on the way through.

But one thing was certain.

This was the end of it.

The barrier that had barely been holding against the combined assault of three ancient weapons finally shattered completely.

Three merciless attacks struck the front of the floating fortress simultaneously.

The hull — built from specialized materials, constructed to be indestructible — crumbled in an instant. Three beams of light drove straight through, crossing the entire vessel and emerging from the other side, then shooting into the sky.

Then came the catastrophic explosion.

The power core must have gone up. The floating fortress was obliterated from the inside out in that moment.

The enormous detonation became a second sun in the sky.

The shockwave reached downward like a descending dragon and slammed Brett straight into the sea.

Wind tore outward in every direction, driving the ocean into wave after wave.

In the next instant Brett launched himself back out of the sea and into the air, watching from the side as this once-nearly-invincible vessel completed its destruction.

It had been blown apart entirely. In the blazing light of that enormous explosion, only a handful of fragments scattered in every direction, each one throwing up fresh waves where they struck the sea.

"We did it!!"

On Uranus's head, Shanks laughed with pure, unrestrained joy.

Inside Pluton, the ship-spirit condensed his form. The face assembled from gathered light wore an expression of complete happiness.

"Finally — finally!"

He had waited so long. The scene that Joy Boy had hoped for had finally arrived.

It was over. Imu was still alive, but everything else was finished.

Now it was his turn — one man alone, facing down multiple ancient weapons.

The war was won. In the moment that explosion happened, they had won.

The Celestial Dragons' dominion over this world, Imu's reign of eight hundred years — it had ended with the destruction of the floating fortress, and it would never return.

From today, this world would face genuine change. Everything — every last thing — was moving toward a new future.

"Now isn't the time for celebration — let's deal with the last one first!"

Inside Pluton, Zephyr couldn't hide the smile pulling at his mouth, but he spoke loudly regardless.

"Right!"

Everyone straightened up again.

Yes. Even though the war was effectively decided, there was still one enemy left.

Imu was still alive.

The man who had manipulated the world for eight hundred years, blocked the world's progress, turned what had once been a vibrant age into what it was now — that Imu was still alive.

"Leave him to me," Brett said with a smile. "I'll be the one to send him to meet Joy Boy."

Imu was heavily wounded and the mechanical augmentations on his body had been nearly destroyed, but his power was still extraordinary — not something any of the others here could handle.

Brett became lightning again and was gone in a blink, appearing in a different stretch of sky.

Imu was directly across from him. The man had watched the floating fortress be completely destroyed — and had not run.

Brett stood on his flame clouds without rushing. "You didn't try to escape. Because you already know there's nowhere to go?"

He had felt free to turn away earlier because his Observation Haki had kept a lock on Imu the entire time. With the gap between their mobility, Brett was confident Imu could never flee from him.

"Brett, you —"

A flash of genuine anger crossed Imu's blood-soaked, ravaged face. "Eight hundred years of accumulation, and you destroyed every last bit of it in just a few years, you —"

"Anyone who tries to stop the tide of history gets crushed by it eventually. Isn't that how it goes?"

Brett smiled. "You've fallen behind the times, old man."

"Insolent child!!"

Imu let out a furious shout and threw himself at Brett.

Brett smiled and closed the distance to meet him.

His stored power had been spent when he punched through the floating fortress. But Brett didn't rush to eat and replenish it now, because what he had left was already enough.

The two of them clashed again in the open air, but this time the gap was unmistakable.

In both strength and reaction speed, Imu could no longer keep up with Brett at all.

Brett threw several punches for every one Imu managed to return.

And Brett had abandoned defense entirely — taking Imu's strikes with his body directly so he could put his full force into his own attacks.

Imu was covered in a storm. Fists rained down on him like meteors.

His chest caved. His arms twisted. Even his shoulders buckled and collapsed.

With the mechanical enhancements gone, Imu had lost what had allowed him to contend with Brett on a physical level. Even with Haki preserving most of his offensive power, the gap in pure speed and agility had already decided the outcome.

Everyone watched in silence as Brett and Imu exchanged blows. Everyone understood — this was the final moment.

The last battle that would determine the world's direction looked remarkably simple.

Neither of them was using elaborate techniques. There was no evasion. Just punches, punches, punches.

Absorbing what came, giving back what they had.

As simple as children roughhousing.

And yet — this was, in truth, the ending of everything.

*******************

Chapter 586: The Moment of Ending

Brett felt something strange.

His fists kept landing on Imu. Imu's fists kept leaving their marks on him.

It hurt, honestly.

Imu was down to almost nothing, but Haki alone still made his strikes far from trivial.

If Brett had any less dignity about him, he might have actually yelled.

But he felt no real suffering in this fight. There was something almost savored about it.

How to put it.

Exhilarating, maybe.

Fighting an opponent this strong without holding anything back — it would probably be a very long time before anything like this happened again.

Every cell in his body seemed to be cheering, thrilling at the chance to clash with an enemy of this caliber.

And stranger still — Brett could feel himself getting stronger.

Rayleigh had said it long ago. Haki improved through combat with powerful enemies.

And in this world — was there anyone more powerful than Imu?

No.

At least, not for a very long time.

So naturally — in the middle of this fierce exchange, Brett could feel his Haki growing stronger at a rate that was almost startling. He was climbing toward a higher level.

Imu, by comparison, was in a far worse state.

His body had been beaten past recognition. Every limb was twisted out of shape. His chest had completely caved in. The broken bones and ruptured metal components had almost certainly perforated his internal organs.

Even with the immortality operation behind him, injuries this severe would be fatal.

The most immediate evidence was that Brett could feel Imu's strength continuously weakening.

Where his blows had once been enough to fracture bones, now they could barely chip a few scales.

"Then let everything end here."

Brett released his clouds.

The flame clouds, wrapped in dual-colored Haki, became unbreakable chains that bound Imu completely.

And then Brett could finally swing without restraint.

Imu had no time to resist. Enormous fists rained down on him without pause.

His pelvis shattered. His spine cracked. His skull caved.

When Brett could no longer feel Imu using Haki to defend against the blows, he finally threw the last one.

Thud.

Brett was much larger than Imu. His fist was nearly half the width of Imu's chest.

When that last punch landed on the left side of Imu's chest, his body folded almost like paper — front and back pressing toward each other.

His body wanted to fly backward, but the cloud chains held him fast.

Brett let out a slow breath.

He had thrown hundreds — maybe thousands — of punches in a row. His arms had started to ache.

To say nothing of the marks Imu's attacks had left across his body, injuries too significant to ignore.

Brett looked at Imu — breath now fading, body trembling involuntarily on animal instinct — and felt his mouth curve gently upward.

It hadn't been spectacular. The scale hadn't been grand. But it had been a genuinely satisfying final battle.

"You don't seem particularly sad." Brett noted with mild surprise.

Imu no longer had the strength to speak. He could barely keep his eyes open.

He could hardly be expected to do much else — his internal organs had been nearly destroyed, his spine was broken, and his head was lolling sideways. Being alive at all at this point could only be called extraordinary.

But Brett could read minds.

Imu didn't seem particularly bitter or aggrieved. He had been angry enough moments ago, but now he had gone strangely calm.

Brett's expression shifted to something faintly rueful.

He had already experienced everything a person could experience. So there was nothing in this life left to regret or lament.

Everything he had wanted to do in those eight hundred years had been done long ago. What was there left to feel incomplete about?

In the instant he realized he had truly lost, there had been bitterness, of course.

But it passed quickly. Even if he was bitter — what would that change? Could it reverse the outcome?

If everything was over, then let it be over.

That was what was passing through this man's heart.

What could you say — unexpectedly, he had a kind of equanimity about him.

Which was true enough. At the point Imu had reached, what was there left to regret?

He had once conquered the entire world. He had stood above all things.

Power. Wealth. Beauty. A man who had possessed all of it — what could he still want?

So then.

"How unsatisfying." Brett sighed.

Someone like Imu going out this calmly and without complaint — wasn't that rather annoying?

Brett had half expected him to rage impotently, to end his life seething with bitterness and fury.

That would have been the appropriate punishment.

But it didn't matter.

Whether Imu died laughing or screaming had no effect whatsoever on the outcome of this war.

Whatever his reaction, it was irrelevant now. This time, the victory belonged to Brett's side.

Whatever expression Imu wore at the end, Brett could look at it with a smile on his own face and pass his judgment. That was probably what it meant to have the composure of a winner.

Imu's presence grew steadily fainter — like his breath, like a candle flame in the wind.

This was no television drama. This was a genuine candle in the wind. The last light swaying, then trembling.

And then, after one final gust, the last light went out completely.

No one could fake death in front of him. Brett was sure of that much.

Along with Imu's breath, his voice had gone. Every sound that had marked him as living had fallen silent, replaced by the sound of death.

"Farewell, King of the World."

Brett maneuvered his clouds and sent Imu's body upward into the sky.

Then he drew in a long, deep breath.

This was the last breath of the battle.

Boom.

The last explosion of the war happened in the sky.

A small sun bloomed outward, casting its light and heat in every direction.

"Brett!!"

Shanks came flying in on Uranus. "So — it's really over now, right?"

Brett stretched his arms with a lazy smile.

He raised his head. After the smoke and fire from that final breath scattered, what appeared before him was a brilliant sun.

Brett raised a hand to shield his eyes from the light.

"Yeah." He smiled. "It's finally over."

*******************

Chapter 587: A New Beginning

It was finally over.

Brett looked at Shanks. The man's face was lit with a smile he couldn't contain. But in that moment, Brett found he couldn't hear it — couldn't hear any of it.

No one in this world was better at listening than he was. And yet right now he felt as though all sound had gone quiet.

There was a stillness in his chest he had never felt before.

The moment it truly sank in that everything had ended, every trace of the doubt, the uncertainty, the excitement and anticipation he had ever carried — it all dissolved.

What remained was an unprecedented calm.

This was probably what Imu had once called peace of mind.

The sword of Damocles that had hung over him for so long was finally gone.

Like looking up right now and seeing nothing above but clear, boundless, unobstructed sky. No barriers. No chains.

Brett finally smiled.

How good this felt.

Everything was finished. Since the day his memories had awakened, every worry he had carried — all of it had come to nothing at this moment. The final goal had been reached.

What came next would be an age more beautiful than anything that had come before.

"Brett!!"

From the deck of the battered ship closing in from a distance, his old friends were calling his name with tears running freely down their faces.

Dragon turned himself to wind and crossed the sky in an instant. The next second he condensed back into solid form before Brett and threw his arms around him without restraint.

"You did it, my friend! You actually did it!"

Brett could feel the man who moved like the wind trembling slightly. "You defeated Imu — you brought a new future to this world!"

Brett wrapped his arms around him in return. "We did it."

He said it clearly. "We defeated Imu. We brought down the World Government. We changed everything. We brought a new age."

"SKHAHAHAHA!! Is the world really changing from this very moment?!"

The Golden Lion came drifting over, laughing his head off, the wind whipping his golden hair into something even more unruly than usual. He was an old lion now, well into his years — and yet there was still something wild and unconquered about him.

"From this exact moment! No —!"

Zephyr stepped through the air and arrived at Brett's side. This man who was rarely given to words — solid and silent as a mountain — had tears he couldn't stop.

"From long, long before this! From the moment we began moving! From the moment we decided to change this world, the world had already begun to change!"

He didn't wipe the tears from the corner of his eye. He let them fall, tracing down his face to his chin.

"All of this is simply the harvest from seeds planted long ago."

"Exactly." Brett gave a quiet nod.

Without all those years of accumulation, without the help of so many friends, today's clean and complete victory would never have been possible. The world would never have changed this easily.

The initial decision to change things was the planting of a seed. The years of preparation were the tending of it. And this final battle was the harvest.

They had waited so very long. But in the end, none of it had been wasted.

"WAHAHAHAHA!"

Pluton was making its way over from the distance, and Fleet Admiral Garp stood laughing at the prow. "Is this really the end? I'm thrilled, but honestly — it was a lot easier than I expected!"

This enormous decisive battle that had determined the world's future had lasted less than half a day.

They hadn't paid any grievous cost. The worst injury on their side was Pluton taking a direct hit. No one had actually died. They had dismantled the World Government completely and won the war — just like that.

Before this battle, who could have imagined it would end this simply?

The opponent had been a genuine monster who had ruled the world for eight hundred years. Eight centuries of preparation. The strongest weapon ever built. The strongest man alive.

An enemy that had been beyond Roger, beyond Joy Boy.

Every person here had walked onto this battlefield with nerves. Not a single person had been arrogant enough to think this would be easy. Every person had made their peace with the worst possible outcome, resolved that even if it cost them everything, they would take something from Imu before the end.

And yet this simply, this easily, this effortlessly — the war had ended.

Victory.

Victory, achieved this effortlessly.

Mixed in with the excitement and the joy was a faint bewilderment. Could it really be this easy? Was it really all over?

"We have won, without any doubt."

Brett let go of Dragon, who stepped back onto Pluton's deck. Brett smiled. "It might sound arrogant to say this, but — we have won everything. This world is ours to lead forward."

Every face around him lit up with excitement and joy.

Everyone gathered here had been someone dissatisfied with the world the World Government had built. Even the New Navy under Garp, after being betrayed by the government, had finally seen the organization for what it was and committed wholeheartedly to standing against it.

And now the time for change had finally arrived.

It might be arrogant, as Brett said — but this world did need someone to step forward and lead it. And right now, the ones with the right to do that were unquestionably them.

"Everyone — my friends!"

Brett laughed and spoke with genuine feeling. "Are you ready to make this world into what we've hoped for?"

Dragon's face broke into a full smile. Zephyr's mouth curved slightly. Even Fleet Admiral Garp was laughing out loud.

The hardest war was over. But the more demanding challenge was only beginning.

Destruction was always easier than creation. But everyone here was full of confidence. They would build a world more beautiful than anything that had existed under the World Government's rule.

Brett's smile was broad and bright.

He didn't have strong opinions about exactly what shape the world should take. He only knew that Fish-Man Island's dream of centuries had finally been fulfilled — that every one of his people could now stand in full sunlight without shame.

"Brett!!"

From inside Pluton's hull a crowd surged out — humans, Fish-Men, Merfolk, Giants, Dwarves —

Yamato and Tesoro charged at the front. Yamato was crying openly. Tesoro wore pure excitement on his face. Both of them threw themselves at Brett at the same time.

Brett laughed, wrapping one arm around each of them, pulling the two shorter figures into his embrace.

"We did it." Tesoro's voice was low.

"We WON!!" Yamato was so overwhelmed she was actually sobbing.

"Yeah." Brett gave a quiet nod.

*******************

Chapter 588: The State of the War

Pluton, its hull battered and scarred, came to rest on the sea surface. Brett released a large volume of flame clouds that gathered and settled into a floating island in the sky, and invited everyone up onto it.

The friends who had commanded from within Pluton, and the allies who had traveled from every corner of the world to stand here — the victory celebration hadn't formally started yet, but at least now everyone could sit together and share in the joy.

"Hahahaha! Magnificent work, Brett!"

The King of the Giants reached out his enormous hand to clap Brett on the shoulder.

Halfway through the motion he remembered Brett was not a Giant, and that the gesture would be somewhat awkward given the height difference, so he stopped mid-reach. But his smile didn't diminish in the slightest.

"Eight hundred years ago, Joy Boy and Elbaf together couldn't do what you just did!"

The man who commanded all Giants spoke with genuine seriousness. "The decision back then was clearly correct. You fulfilled something our people have hoped for across centuries!"

"Thank you very much."

"It's I who should be thanking you!"

Brett maintained his dragon-human form — primarily to keep the floating cloud island from falling — but if Imu could have seen him now, he might have felt something complicated.

Because Brett's injuries had nearly healed already.

Any last trace Imu had left on this world was erasing itself.

There was nothing to be done about it — Brett's recovery ability was genuinely excessive. A Zoan Awakening on its own already came with extraordinary endurance and regeneration. On top of that, Brett had Vegapunk's augmentations, which had already given him monstrous healing on their own.

The two layered together meant that even wounds inflicted by a monster at Imu's level were handled with ease.

Brett turned and looked around at the friends gathered nearby — especially the many minority race allies.

The Giants' contribution had been in a class of its own. The others might not have provided as much direct military impact, but —

Brett spoke seriously. "Without the help of everyone here, this war would never have ended this cleanly. I'm the one who should be saying thank you."

"Now that everything is over, this world is about to change." He looked at these friends — people who, like Fish-Man Island, had spent generations enduring discrimination. "The age where no one is treated as lesser, and every race can live in peace — that age is coming."

He could hear the hesitation in their hearts as they looked at him. Even with victory won, would the world truly become what they hoped for?

Compared to the scale of humanity, their numbers were still relatively small. In a world where strength determined everything, could their wishes really be realized?

Brett understood their uncertainty completely. So he smiled and said, "The Minority Alliance endures. Fish-Man Island's friendship with every one of you endures."

And everyone smiled.

With Brett standing behind them, there was no problem that couldn't be solved.

This man possessed unmatched strength, and a reputation that matched it.

If he stood to protect the alliance of minority races, no one in the world could dismiss them.

Dragon, Zephyr, and Garp simply smiled at this exchange without comment. The minority races — Fish-Man Island above all — had contributed enormously to this victory. They had every right to be among those who helped shape the world going forward.

"Remarkable, kid."

Rayleigh, who had contributed greatly in the mirror world alongside Tesoro and the others but hadn't done much since, drifted over to Brett's side now. His expression was full of genuine feeling.

"You actually did something we couldn't manage in our time."

Rayleigh was moved, of course.

From the time he had first taken Brett as a student, Rayleigh had known this young man possessed extraordinary power and would certainly become someone who shaped the world's direction. But he hadn't anticipated that his student would actually go this far.

Roger's dream. Joy Boy's dream from eight hundred years past. The will that had been passed down through the ages — it had genuinely been fulfilled in this man's hands.

The one who ultimately changed the world was not Roger's son. It was not some boy who had inherited Joy Boy's will and power. It was the man standing here. Brett.

"Haha! Remarkable indeed, Brett — Rayleigh here has really raised quite a student!"

Beside Rayleigh stood a group of old men. At the front was a powerfully built elder with long white hair and sunglasses.

"I haven't done anything remarkable. I could only do what I did with the help of everyone around me, Jaba-san."

Brett smiled back.

Jaba — one of the Gold, Silver, and Bronze triumvirate of the Roger Pirates in their day. After the crew disbanded, he had retired from the seas — until Rayleigh's request brought him back out for this.

With him were other former Roger Pirates.

The thing Roger had once dreamed of but couldn't achieve — his crewmates had seen it through to completion.

Crocus was off to one side tending to Bullet, who Brett had badly injured earlier.

Further away, the NEO Navy, the Revolutionary Army, and the New Navy were each gathered in their own clusters, celebrating loudly.

Every face wore a bright smile. Every heart was full of the future ahead. Everyone was imagining what this world was about to become.

"By the way —"

Brett turned. "Dragon — how is the war going?"

Not the battle here, of course. Everything here had ended. Imu and every trace he had left had been erased by that final breath attack.

Brett meant the wars happening everywhere else across the world — the battles that were the true struggle for who would hold this world.

"I imagine it's going very, very smoothly."

Dragon's expression was entirely composed. "There is nothing left in the world that can stand against our strength."

The forces dispersed across the globe — every unit had Giants, Fish-Men, Merfolk, and Sea Kings among them. Now that Imu and everything he commanded had been eliminated, there was nothing in the world to match them.

"But if you want detailed reports, I'll make some calls."

*******************

Chapter 589: Tell the World

Dressrosa.

Outside the royal palace atop the King's Plateau at the center of the city.

"Don't worry, Princess Scarlett." A swordsman from Fish-Man Island — an octopus Fish-Man named Hyouzou — smiled pleasantly at the princess of this nation. "Dressrosa is a friend of Fish-Man Island. King Riku is a trusted friend of King Neptune. We have no intention of doing anything to you."

Scarlett, who had been managing the kingdom in her father's absence ever since King Riku went to the Reverie and never returned, pressed her lips together.

She knew perfectly well that Fish-Man Island and Dressrosa had once had a warm relationship. She knew that her father and the king of that undersea nation were genuinely close. But that had been years ago, and it had been before Fish-Man Island's break from the World Government.

Much as she disliked doubting friends, she was temporarily the head of this nation, and caution was unavoidable.

On top of that, the man smiling in front of her had already surrounded Dressrosa completely. That was not a force this country could fight — several Sea Kings were circling the entire island at this moment. And that said nothing of the Fish-Men and Giants who had already come ashore.

What did they want?

She didn't know. All she could do was wait.

No fighting had broken out in Dressrosa. The same was true of several other nearby nations — all of them had once been on good terms with Fish-Man Island.

But not every nation that avoided fighting had that reason.

Take Alabasta, for instance — situated in the first stretch of the Grand Line, or rather, now that the distinction between the first and second halves was being abandoned, simply in the early stretch of the Grand Line. Along with a number of similar nations, Alabasta had faced an invading force that clearly held overwhelming power, which left the defenders with no realistic option other than standing down.

The reasoning was simple. Different situations called for different methods.

Nations with relatively humane rulers and populations that lived reasonably well required a gentler approach.

But nations ruled by cruel and corrupt kings — that was a different story entirely.

Somewhere in the West Blue.

"How dare you — how dare you do this!!"

The crown tumbled from his head and rolled across the floor. His lavish robes were filthy from a frantic attempt to flee. The heavyset middle-aged man was drenched in sweat, his face grey.

But he still glared at the people surrounding him, trying to project authority.

"I am the king of this nation! How dare you commoners lay hands on royal blood!"

One of the people surrounding him let out a cold laugh. "Disgusting. The old king had barely met his end at Mariejois before you announced your succession, and your first act was to jack up taxes to fill your own treasury."

"Royal blood means nothing here. What's waiting for you is the gallows."

The pale, plump man crumpled to the floor.

He couldn't understand it. The army he had paid an enormous sum to raise, specifically to crush any uprising — how had it been so effortlessly swept aside?

Why had Giants and Sea Kings appeared?

This was far from an isolated incident. Variations of it were playing out across countless places on the seas.

This was a war. A war to change the shape of the entire world.

The old ruling classes were being broken apart completely.

Corrupt, decadent nobles who had done as they pleased for generations on the strength of their bloodlines alone, inflicting endless suffering on the people of the sea — Brett and his allies had agreed: people like that had forfeited any right to stand above others.

Nations like this faced thorough and uncompromising action.

The attacking forces swept away all military resistance with overwhelming speed, then captured the entire upper leadership for later judgment.

The forces then held their positions and restored local order.

This was a war, yes. But it was not a war of destruction.

What Brett and his allies wanted was to change the world. Not to shatter it. Only those who needed to be brought down would be brought down. Nothing beyond that was necessary.

Back on the battlefield where everything had ended.

The churning sea below had gradually calmed. Dragon had finished his calls.

He put down the Den Den Mushi and smiled. "Everything is going smoothly. Across the Four Seas and the Grand Line both — every unit has overwhelmed the resistance and secured the situation without difficulty."

Brett gave a quiet nod. That was to be expected.

There were no powerful pirate crews or major organizations offering serious opposition — just ordinary nations. With Giants and Sea Kings among the coalition's forces, effortlessly crushing resistance was the obvious result.

"With this, the entire world should be settling down." Zephyr smiled. "It even looks smoother over there than it was here."

Over here, at least, there had been tense reversals. Imu's opening ambush had put enormous pressure on everyone. The rest of the world had seen no such thing — pure, unchallenged advance with no meaningful resistance at all.

"Only now can we truly say the full war is over." Brett smiled.

Defeating Imu had been the key to holding the world. The global victory confirmed they had actually taken it.

"Then —"

Brett reached for his Den Den Mushi.

The fight with Imu had been far less dangerous than he had anticipated. He had been able to keep the Den Den Mushi safe on his person even through the fiercest exchanges.

He dialed.

The other end picked up almost before it had finished ringing.

"What happened?! What's going on, Brett?!" The voice on the other end was frantic with excitement, almost shouting. "You're calling me right now — that means —"

"I think I can take that as confirmation, can't I? You won. You actually won."

Brett smiled. "So now it's time to spread this to the entire world, Morgans."

"Go. Let every person in the world see it, hear it. Tell the world — a new age has arrived."

*******************

Chapter 590: World-Shaking News

The final battle in the sea known as the New World had been invisible to almost everyone.

The exchanges within it had been earth-shaking in scale, but the only people who had felt any of it were those on the handful of islands closest to the site. Further away — in Paradise, across the Four Seas — not a soul had noticed the war happening at all.

Which was understandable. Most people's attention had been seized by the fighting happening right in front of them. When the entire world is engulfed in war, who has the mental space to wonder about battles happening somewhere far away?

But none of those other wars had lasted long. Half a day at most, and every one of them had ended. The invading forces had won complete victories everywhere they went.

People understood, looking at who had come against them, that this was an enemy they could not hope to resist no matter how much courage they gathered. And in many nations the people didn't even feel resistance — they had been waiting for exactly this.

So people began to wait.

Many secrets were no longer secret. In the back-and-forth between opposing sides during the fighting, a great deal had been exposed. People knew who had occupied their nations.

Mercifully, once victory was confirmed, the forces that had come from distant lands or risen up locally had stopped fighting. Weapons stayed in hand, but the fighting stopped. They began maintaining order instead.

Not only had they refrained from looting and destruction — they had even arrested people trying to take advantage of the chaos on the spot. That was the point at which the population, which had been holding its breath, finally let it out.

And then, before the day was even over, that same afternoon — newsbirds descended on the sky from every direction at once and spread across every corner of the world in moments.

This time it was genuinely every corner of the world — every island on any sea chart that had any human population had newsbirds dropping papers from above.

The scale surpassed anything from the previous media campaigns Brett and the World Government had waged against each other.

Why this scale was achievable was straightforward.

Rewinding slightly — at the headquarters of the World Economy News Paper.

"HAHAHAHA!! Idiots! From now on you all just do what I say!! Open every one of your distribution channels to me! You want to know why?!"

The great bird stood on his feet, nearly delirious with excitement, surrounded by a bank of Den Den Mushi, speaking to dozens of people at once.

"HAHAHAHA, because the person I backed WON!! This world has a new master now!!"

Every newspaper company in the world was brought under one banner. Every newsbird was committed to the distribution run simultaneously. And so, naturally, the greatest newsbird mobilization in history descended.

Nobody even had to pay. The newsbirds dropped papers from the sky for free.

When the papers rained down from above, it looked like a tremendous snowfall — and that snowfall was happening all over the world at once.

When people curiously picked up these papers falling from the sky, they were immediately stunned by what they read.

"The final war — it's over already?"

"Brett's side won? That Imu — the monster who ruled the world for eight hundred years, the founder of the World Government — someone like that actually lost?"

"This world is about to change completely? A new age is really coming?"

The entire world erupted.

From the moment Brett's forces began their movements, people had understood that total war had begun. But no one had imagined it would be this easy. This fast.

The war that would determine who owned the entire world — it was over already, in a span this short?

This world was really going to change completely, just like that?

The first reaction was disbelief.

Even granting that Brett and his allies had assembled a power that defied all imagination — this was the World Government. Eight hundred years of rule. Eight hundred years of history in which it had never once faced defeat. Eight hundred years of winning.

Had they really lost?

The uncertainty lasted into the next day. But the media outlets that should have belonged to the World Government showed no reaction — no defense, no counter-narrative. Instead they began publishing articles praising Brett and his allies.

At that point, even the slowest to understand had caught up.

This world had genuinely changed. The rebels Brett had led had broken apart the dark clouds that had hung over this world for eight hundred years, and for the first time, light was reaching through.

Then the celebrations began. Supporters erupted in cheering.

But a larger number of people were still frowning. "Even if Brett and his allies won, no one can say what this world is going to look like next."

"Right — who says a new age is automatically going to be better? No one can promise that."

"At least under the World Government's eight hundred years, things kept running in a stable way..."

No matter how terrible an era, there are always those who feel attachment to it — or perhaps more accurately, people who have grown accustomed to the life they know and feel only a nameless disorientation at the coming change.

That was understandable. Unfamiliar change was frightening. That was only natural.

So to address that fear — on the day the war fully ended, Brett had already set out back toward New Fish-Man Island with his allies.

The war was over. But everything else was nowhere near finished.

Destruction was simple. Creation was something else entirely.

The original world order had been dismantled. What came next was building a new one.

And in doing that, the allies who had stood united might not be able to remain so.

Everyone wanted to shape the world according to their own vision. Everyone had ambitions they wanted to realize.

So all of them together would not remain all of them together.

The battles ahead would probably be just as hard, in their own way.

But before any of that —

The moment Brett returned to New Fish-Man Island, he went straight into the sea by the shore and swam directly to the front of a small cafe.

He stopped.

He paused for a moment and steadied his breath.

Then.

He knocked.

The door opened.

"I'm home."

"Welcome back."

*******************

Chapter 591: Building the World

New Fish-Man Island had erupted in celebration.

Word of the victory had spread across the entire island. Every one of his people now knew — Big Brother Brett had led all his allies to win the war.

The world was about to change completely. Everything they had dreamed of for so long was finally coming to them.

And yet in the middle of that joyful noise, one small cafe was very quiet.

Brett stood behind the counter, unhurried, brewing coffee.

His hands had grown practiced at it. The inviting aroma had already spread through the room.

Shyarly sat in the chair behind the table at the very front of the counter, her right hand propped under her chin, watching Brett in silence.

The light in the cafe was soft and warm. Combined with the quiet, it had created something gentle and unhurried — the kind of atmosphere that made you feel faintly drowsy.

"Try it. I'm confident in this one."

Brett set the cup in front of Shyarly and sat down across from her, looking at her with genuine expectation. "No one knows your taste better than I do. Ready to drink the best coffee you've ever had?"

Nothing more was needed. This was already perfect.

"Is that so?" Shyarly smiled and picked up the cup. "Then I'll have to judge for myself."

She took a small sip.

"Well?" Brett watched her, waiting.

Shyarly said nothing. She quietly took another sip.

Brett was already smiling.

He stretched his arms wide and leaned back lazily in his chair, tilting his head up until it was almost hanging behind him, staring blankly at the ceiling.

He said nothing either. The cafe settled into stillness.

The only sound was the soft rhythm of Shyarly swallowing.

Then the light clink of the cup being set on the table — and Brett finally lowered his head.

"The war is over." He smiled. "We defeated Imu. We brought down the World Government. Everything our people have dreamed of for generations — it's right here now."

"So —"

The color in Shyarly's pale face shifted. A faint flush came to her cheeks. Her long lashes trembled slightly.

"So —"

Brett grinned. "It's finally time for what we promised —"

"Brett!"

The cafe door was thrown open without ceremony. Tesoro came rushing in.

Brett turned with a distinctly unimpressed look.

This was exactly the wrong moment. What was this man doing here?

Tesoro gave Shyarly a quick nod of greeting for the surprise of finding her there, then turned to Brett with urgency plain on his face. "This is no time to sit around drinking coffee — Zephyr-sensei and the others are already at each other's throats!"

Brett's mouth twitched. "Let them argue a little longer."

"Are you serious?!"

Tesoro grabbed Brett by the wrist. "We finally won the war, we finally took the whole world — and this is the most critical moment of all! How can you just hide here and slack off?"

"Only you can mediate between them. Come on, now!"

What a headache.

You said it yourself — we finally won. Can't I at least rest for a moment?

"Go, Brett."

Shyarly spoke quietly. "It's not over yet, is it? You still have things you need to do."

Brett pressed his lips together. Then, with no real alternative, he gave a resigned nod.

Then let's go settle the last of it.

It was still nighttime, but inside the temporary headquarters building of the Immigration Authority on the shore of New Fish-Man Island, a large conference room was anything but quiet.

"Absolutely not! I will not agree to this!"

Dragon slammed his hand on the table. "I cannot accept those kings retaining their authority over their nations after everything we've done to change this world!"

Across the table, his father, Fleet Admiral Garp with his white hair, was even louder. "Are you saying the kings who governed with genuine kindness should be punished as well?! They did nothing wrong in this war!"

"Many of them were beloved by their people even before the war began!"

"Being born into royalty is now a crime? What kind of logic is that?!"

"We are carrying out a revolution, not playing house, Fleet Admiral Garp!" Dragon used his father's title directly. "I had my doubts once too, but after learning the history of the Bircans, I made up my mind!"

"This world has no need for kings or nobility! No one should hold a position above others simply because of the blood they were born with!"

The commander of the Revolutionary Army swept his hand, and the closed room filled with a sudden gust of wind. "A person's standing should be determined by ability — not lineage!"

"Then what exactly did they do wrong?!" Garp slammed the table in turn. "They've been working to make their nations prosperous, and now you want to take everything from them based on their bloodline — Dragon, aren't you using bloodline to determine how to treat them, which is the exact same thing you claim to oppose?!"

Dragon's mouth twitched.

This stubborn old man.

Such a simple principle — why couldn't he grasp it?

"Let's set that aside for now and discuss what actually matters!"

Zephyr rubbed his temples. He genuinely didn't know which side to support, so he did the practical thing. "We've already decided to build a united government. Let's divide up responsibilities first!"

"What is there to divide?" Garp said, as though the answer were obvious. "The Navy simply continues doing what it has always done — become the military force of the new government and uphold justice on the seas!"

"Don't make me laugh!" Zephyr's forehead twitched. "The Navy of the new age should be the NEO Navy!"

You came late to all of this and you dare say "of course"?

"What?! That I absolutely cannot accept!"

Garp turned on him immediately.

Was he supposed to just stop being Navy?

"If you still want to be Navy, just join us!" Zephyr said forcefully.

"Those are my words exactly! Zephyr, you old man — isn't it time you came back?!"

Now it was Dragon who had the headache.

He felt both of his seniors were being somewhat unreasonably stubborn. If they both wanted to be Navy, just merge the two forces. The NEO Navy had split off from the original Navy anyway.

This founding-a-new-government conference was going to be far from smooth sailing.

Dragon sighed.

And then —

"Since the argument isn't going anywhere, let me say a few words."

The conference room door opened and a tall figure strode in.

Dragon immediately broke into a smile.

The backbone had arrived.

*******************

Chapter 592: New Birth

Brett strode into the conference room and looked around with mild exasperation at his friends, who had all turned their eyes toward him simultaneously.

"It looks like everyone has run into some difficulties." He said.

"You're the only one we can rely on at this point, Brett." Dragon's voice was steady. "We all want different things for this world, and because of that, none of us can figure out how to move forward."

Brett gave a quiet nod.

Every person here had their own vision. Their own approach. The collision between different ideas was not something that could be resolved in a few sentences.

This could become an indefinitely prolonged debate.

Unless he chose to step in.

Brett pulled out a chair without ceremony and sat down, stretching his hands out flat on the table with a certain casual ease. "We've defeated the most fearsome enemy in the world and taken this entire world. And the moment we're one step from the end, we've found ourselves at odds."

The expressions on Dragon's, Zephyr's, and Garp's faces all shifted to something complicated.

That was true.

The most fearsome enemy in the world had been defeated. This should have been the moment to enjoy what they had won, and instead they were quarreling.

"Though —" Brett smiled. "It's very understandable. Everyone's dream is different. Of course everyone is working toward a different world."

"But we are friends. We are comrades. We are partners."

Brett said this plainly. "My friends — what matters most right now is building a qualified government as quickly as possible."

"The world is waiting for our answer. Disorder cannot be allowed to go on too long."

"So —"

Brett looked at each of them with complete sincerity. "Even at the cost of some of what you want — please take a step back."

"For this world's sake."

The World Government was gone. The world needed a new government.

Order was always better than chaos.

Tesoro, who had followed Brett into the room, quietly exhaled with relief. He had noticed the shift in Dragon's and the others' expressions.

They were all nodding slowly.

It still had to be Brett.

His standing was genuinely extraordinary.

The people who had been at each other's throats moments ago had already begun to calm down.

"You're right." Zephyr said, with some self-reproach. "This is not the time for arguments. We have to stabilize the world first."

"Agreed." Dragon nodded. "The most urgent thing is restoring order across the seas."

If the quarreling continued, the seas could end up ungoverned for an extended period, and the world might fracture into isolated pieces. That was not the outcome anyone here had fought for.

They had fought for a unified, prosperous, peaceful world.

And so, the rest of the conference proceeded with surprising efficiency.

Once everyone was willing to give a little ground, negotiation became simple. By the time the newsbirds were dropping papers across the world, the meeting here had mostly reached its conclusions.

Brett and his allies had settled on a rough framework for the world's future.

Given the world's unique geography, they agreed the World Government's model of a large unified alliance that granted individual islands high degrees of autonomy was the most workable for now. Any further changes could wait until Vegapunk developed the technology to truly connect the entire world.

In the immediate term, to secure the alliance government's authority and handle future crimes and disputes, they planned to build the strongest military force in history.

The Revolutionary Army, the New Navy, and the NEO Navy would merge into a single body — the Navy of the new age — under the direct authority of the new alliance government.

The position of Fleet Admiral would go to Zephyr of the NEO Navy.

Garp conceded the point. His side had come late to the fight; Zephyr had contributed more by far. Garp had even considered simply retiring. The old hero no longer had the ambition to keep fighting. He wanted to do what Zephyr himself had once done — raise the next generation.

The new Navy would, like the old, establish branch bases in nations across the world to ensure global security.

That was the broad framework.

Other major questions — including the political structure of individual nations — saw Dragon and Garp each step back from their original positions.

Dragon acknowledged the legitimacy of kings who had genuinely governed well. Garp acknowledged that kings' power should be stripped.

The final conclusion: kings and nobles who had committed serious abuses would be sanctioned without hesitation. Kings with genuine records of good governance would be allowed to retain the title of king, but all actual authority would be removed. Henceforth, kings would exist only as symbols of their nations.

As for whether the new alliance government had standing to question any of these kings — the leaders of the member nations who had been hidden away in a World Government facility and only just rescued would have very little room to object.

With this, the aristocratic system had been effectively dissolved.

The power they had held would pass to officials of the new government.

Those officials would be divided into two groups.

One group would be a council of wise representatives elected by local populations, responsible for decisions on major issues.

The other would be professional administrators directly appointed by the new government or locally recruited through examination — responsible for daily operations and the execution of specific tasks.

The central government headquarters would operate on the same model.

Dragon, Zephyr, Garp, and Brett all agreed: sound governance required taking as many voices as possible into consideration. That meant genuinely ordinary people across the seas needed to elect their own representatives.

A true universal election.

Every nation would be able to send several wise representatives to the new government's headquarters, forming a genuine world supreme authority — Brett provisionally named it the Supreme Council.

Then there was the question of Fish-Man Island and the many minority races.

Promoting racial equality was obvious — both the new Navy and the new government would remove all barriers that had excluded minority races.

But that alone wasn't enough. They were still outnumbered.

So Brett did what he had to do, and secured a degree of protected standing for his allies.

If every matter required a full vote of the entire Supreme Council, the inefficiency would be crushing. So beneath the Supreme Council, a Standing Committee was established from among the wise representatives.

The Standing Committee would handle the new alliance government's day-to-day decisions — something like permanent member nations on an international council.

Brett secured a Standing Committee seat for each of his minority race allies.

Add to that the three seats held exclusively by Fish-Man Island in recognition of their enormous contribution — and the total seats held by Brett's minority alliance was approaching one third of the Standing Committee.

Under a rule requiring two-thirds approval for any major decision, that was more than sufficient to protect their interests.

And of course, if the seats held by allied nations like Wano were included as well —

Once the broad framework was in place, filling in the specific details went quickly.

Approximately one week later, the new government was ready to be born.

*******************

Chapter 593: Journey (Final Chapter)

The location was New Fish-Man Island.

Reporters and people drawn by the news had been arriving since early that morning, gathering on this island from every corner of the world.

When they had been facing the World Government, the island's location had been impossible for anyone on the seas to learn.

But things were different now. Everything was over. The old era had been put fully to rest, and this was the beginning of a new one.

And this place — New Fish-Man Island — was where everything would begin.

The reporters who had gathered were holding their Den Den Mushi with hands that trembled slightly.

Without any doubt, today they were going to witness the arrival of an entirely new age.

Just before, newsbirds had scattered papers across the entire world once again.

The papers carried a startling announcement: a new world government was about to be established.

Brett, Dragon, Zephyr, Garp — the heroes whose famous names had gathered together and utterly dismantled the World Government, who had defeated the Imu who had ruled the world for eight hundred years — they were going to build a completely new institution.

Without question, this institution would be the new era's world government. The instrument through which those who had taken everything would lead this world forward.

The existence that would guide the entire world ahead for a very long time to come.

The people of the seas could not possibly be without apprehension about this.

And today was the founding ceremony of the new government.

The reporters had of course positioned themselves early. They would relay everything that happened here to the entire world the moment it occurred.

Though in truth, they hardly needed to work at it — vision-recording Den Den Mushi had been set up all around the venue, transmitting a live broadcast to the entire world simultaneously with the ceremony itself.

Every person in the world was watching with bated breath.

And finally, at the hastily constructed podium, wind began to gather. A man appeared on it.

An immediate eruption of noise from the entire crowd — then instant silence.

It was Dragon.

No one here could fail to recognize this man.

Once the commander of the Revolutionary Army, one of the heroes who had won the war — naturally, he would be among the highest tier of the new government.

It was just that, for some reason, there was a slightly peculiar expression lingering on this hero's face.

He drew a deep breath.

At the same moment, backstage.

"What is going on?!" Zephyr had both hands in his hair, visibly distressed. "We still haven't found Brett? Where in the world did he disappear to?"

"He's about to go on stage — the most prominent person here, today's main figure — and he's gone missing!!"

Vice Admiral Tsuru beside him looked equally helpless. She glanced at Jinbei, who was standing nearby scratching the back of his head and dripping with cold sweat, then gave a tired shake of her head.

At the podium, Dragon drew a long breath. He finally picked up the Den Den Mushi placed before him.

"We have destroyed the world!"

His voice swept out to every corner of the world.

Reporters hurriedly raised their own Den Den Mushi, and in more places still, in every far corner of the world, people who hadn't realized they were doing it had clenched their fists.

"We have destroyed every order that existed on the seas!"

Dragon continued. "And now — the time to rebuild everything has come."

"We are certain we will create an institution without precedent — one that will bring this entire world the freedom, equality, and prosperity it has never known before."

There were many, many people watching this ceremony from across the world.

Among them were some very particular figures.

The New World.

Aboard a massive ship shaped like a whale's head.

Though the age had changed completely, a flag still hung from the mast — a skull wearing a crescent-moon mustache. A Jolly Roger.

The Whitebeard Pirates' Jolly Roger.

On the deck of the Moby Dick, the entire crew of the Whitebeard Pirates was watching the broadcast.

Watching Dragon deliver his speech on the projected screen from the Den Den Mushi, Whitebeard — with an enormous bottle already raised to his lips — burst out laughing.

"Looks like the age of pirates sailing freely is truly over!"

"Old man —"

The sons on deck were stricken. Some had already gone quietly to tears.

Many of them had carried this man's name since they were young, sailing these seas freely under the banner of the Whitebeard Pirates.

Was this journey finally coming to its end?

Everyone understood. They could not possibly stand against this tide.

"Don't be sad, you little brats." Whitebeard set down his bottle, but his smile hadn't faded at all. "Getting to see this era come to an end with my own eyes — I'm perfectly satisfied!"

"The Whitebeard Pirates end here. But the pursuit of dreams, of freedom, of family, of adventure — all of it lives on like the waves on the sea!"

The man once called the strongest burst out laughing. "Go enjoy yourselves, you kids — welcome this new age's adventures with everything you've got!"

And I, as your father, only need to watch over you from behind.

Now, it was a new age.

On that day, many, many Jolly Rogers came down from their masts, and were never raised again.

The age of pirates chasing their dreams had indeed ended. But the chasing of dreams itself had not stopped for a single moment.

Dragon's speech at the new government's founding ceremony shook the entire world.

He declared loudly to all the world that they would build an unprecedented government — one that would bring genuine peace and security to the entire world.

Eliminate, to the greatest possible extent, all discrimination and war. Let every person in the world live with the freedom and peace they had always longed for.

Countless people wept.

Nothing was certain yet. But they were willing to believe.

Because everything was new — like a newborn. It was hard not to feel hope.

But in that otherwise remarkably successful founding ceremony, there was one source of regret.

The great hero who had contributed more than anyone, who had almost single-handedly changed this world — he hadn't appeared.

Dragon mentioned his name in the closing speech. But he genuinely wasn't there, to the great disappointment of everyone in the world who had wanted to see him.

And meanwhile, somewhere in the world —

"...Finally, the new alliance government's leadership roster is as follows —"

"Supreme Military Commander, Zephyr. Head of Government, Dragon. Deputy Speaker of the Council of Wise Representatives, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Tsuru."

"And —"

A beautiful figure with a sweeping fish tail turned the pages of the newspaper in her hands, then looked down at the man leaning lazily against her shoulder.

"Supreme Council Speaker. Standing Committee Chair —"

She paused.

"Jinbei."

"Haha, funny, right?" The man grinned. "Jinbei-aniki didn't want to do it at all at first — it took me a serious amount of effort to talk him into it."

"But is this really alright?" She tilted her head.

"Of course." He smiled. "Even when my current friends eventually step down, as long as I'm still here, there won't be any problems — regardless of where I happen to be."

"Now then —"

He smiled and reached for her hand, closing his around it — gently but without hesitation. Both of their hands carried rings, and through the gaps of the rings a brilliance was quietly shining.

"Everything that needed doing has been done. The time to enjoy life has finally come."

"Have you decided where you want to go first?"

She tossed the newspaper aside without looking at it, and turned her hand to hold his back. "As long as I'm with you, it doesn't matter where."

"Is that so? Then let's start with the Four Seas — I've barely spent any time there!"

"We'll travel the whole world first, then go back to find the doctor and see if he can arrange a trip to the stars! We have so much time ahead of us!"

"Let's go, Hades!"

Whoosh!

The great steel bird swept through the open sky.

The wind caught the newspaper left on the deck and sent it spinning into the air.

The front page of the open paper carried Dragon's speech in full.

At the very end of that speech, Dragon had said this:

"Brett, my friend — congratulations."

"On your wedding."

***

that's it... it's an ok ending. Check out my other fics