After taking in the four scientists, York gave them a research topic.
"Why is it that each person can only eat one Devil Fruit and not two?"
"Have you ever thought about that question?"
"My guess is that it may be related to genes."
"Using a way that's easier for you to understand, humans may have an underlying code, and that underlying code can only accommodate one Devil Fruit."
"If you can fully decipher this underlying code, maybe you can create a two-Devil-Fruit user, or even a three-Devil-Fruit user!"
After hearing York, the four scientists all said they had a flash of inspiration and ran back to the MADS research ship to begin theoretical work.
After arranging things for the four scientists, York and Stussy began getting busy with transporting the shipbuilding timber.
Moving the Treasure Tree Adam lumber bought from Elbaf into the Mirror World was easy, because Elbaf had mirrors large enough.
But moving it out was troublesome.
After all, Water Seven did not have mirrors that large.
With no other choice, York and Stussy had to make one first.
The method was simple.
They used technology to condense water into ice, producing an ice block large enough.
Then they polished the ice surface until it had a mirror-like finish.
After that, they coated the back with a special layer, the same way you would when making a mirror.
In any case, the goal was just to turn the ice block into a mirror and connect it to the Mirror World to form a doorway, and whether the mirror was actually practical did not matter at all.
In the end, after a lot of work, York and the others finally managed to move the lumber purchased from Elbaf into the shipyard.
Looking at the massive and precious timber in front of him, Tom's eyes widened in shock.
"This is Treasure Tree Adam?!"
"How could there be this much?!"
"And it's all been processed in advance, it's the most perfect shipbuilding material…"
York just smiled and said nothing in response to Tom's shock.
Tom was also tactful and did not ask too much.
As a shipwright, he had always known what his duty was.
So after making a rough estimate of the dimensions of this lumber and the ship size it could produce, he began discussing the new ship's design blueprint with York.
York first set a draft.
It was a rough sketch he designed by referencing the Ming treasure ships he remembered.
After Tom looked it over, he generally understood York's idea and produced a more refined design.
Using an Eastern-style treasure ship as the base, the original flat bottom was changed into a pointed keel, the bow was designed as a dragon head, the stern as a phoenix tail, and the main cabin style was also primarily Eastern.
Of course, the most important thing was the hull's size.
The lumber bought from Elbaf was reserve shipbuilding material meant for the giants' own use.
Even if Harald did not give York the largest-size stock, it could still fully support building a super-ship around 300 to 400 meters long.
With Tom's design, the new ship would be about 360 meters long, about 140 to 150 meters wide, and the height from deck to keel would also be about 100 meters.
Not to mention there were two additional cabin levels above the deck.
With a ship like that, it would not only hold the Red Flag Pirates' current scattered handful of people, even if York went to Elbaf and recruited a whole crew of giants, it could still easily fit them all.
After the design was finalized, Tom began construction.
York figured that idle time was still idle time, so together with Dragon and Ivankov, the three of them helped Tom as assistants and carried lumber, treating it as physical training.
In this way, only a few days of peaceful shipbuilding life passed.
Tom truly lived up to being the future world's number-one shipwright, and in just a few days the ship was already one-third complete, with an estimate that in less than a month it could officially launch.
However, just as York and Dragon and the others were full of anticipation, a Marine warship with a dog-head figurehead suddenly appeared in the near seas not far from Water Seven.
York's keen Observation Haki immediately sensed the arrival of the uninvited guest.
"It's Garp!"
He turned his head toward Dragon, who was carrying a beam of lumber.
"Your old man is here. Have you figured out how to face him?"
Dragon's expression stiffened, his eyes darting away.
"Um… why would he come?"
York shrugged.
"How would I know!"
"But we've been in Water Seven for so long, it's not strange that someone recognized our wanted posters and reported it to Marine Headquarters."
"That's probably what happened."
Dragon clenched his teeth, put down the beam on his shoulder, and stared at the dog-head warship approaching in the distance.
"I'll go talk to him. This isn't a place to fight."
As soon as he said it, Dragon's body twisted like wind, drifting and dispersing.
Not long after, an intense sonic boom sounded over the sea, and Dragon came flying back even faster than a cannonball.
In the split-second he flashed past, York saw a shoeprint added to Dragon's face.
Boom!
Dragon slammed into the abandoned ship graveyard not far from the shipbuilding site, and the force nearly sent him through the entire graveyard and into the sea.
But in the end, perhaps because Garp held back, or because Dragon stabilized himself, he stopped just barely, about ten meters from the far edge of the graveyard of wrecks.
York's face sank when he saw this.
It was not that he was angry about Dragon's miserable situation.
A father beating his son was not something an outsider could interfere with.
But the direction Garp had sent Dragon flying was clearly aimed at the new ship still under construction.
If Dragon had not shifted his trajectory midair, the ship that was already one-third built might have been destroyed.
That was the real source of York's anger.
"Garp!"
A low, suppressed roar tore from York's throat as he leapt over a hundred meters from the shipbuilding site, his entire body bursting with brilliant, holy white light.
Tom, who was building the ship, let out the first muffled groan, followed by the local people of Water Seven nearby, and only then the Marine soldiers aboard the dog-head warship out at sea.
Garp was unaffected thanks to Haki.
But when he looked at his own ship and saw that before the fight even started, more than half his crew had already dropped, his old face darkened.
"This York, his ability really is bizarre."
With that, he took a few running steps on the ship, then jumped, directly crossing several kilometers in one leap.
"Adolph D. York!"
"Become this old man's catch, obediently!"
Rumbling, thunder-like Haki lightning exploded from Garp's body, and under the extreme coating of Haki, his fist began to shine with a dazzling crimson light.
"Hmph. What you can do, I can do too!"
York snorted coldly, and after landing he also sprang into a huge jump, charging straight at Garp.
At the same time, the power of Conqueror's coating began gathering around his fist.
Though the brilliance was not as bright as Garp's, it carried the same kind of origin.
Garp said, "Fist Bone—"
York said, "Fist Bone—"
Garp said, "Galaxy Impact!"
York said, "Shatter Fist!"
From a thousand meters apart, the two threw their punches at the same time.
The ultimate Haki energy erupted in a violent explosion at the instant their fists reached their limit.
Two enormous, semi-transparent fists collided over the sea.
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