---
The White Sea stretched beneath him endlessly, like hills of dense clouds.
Luca stood at the bow of the ship, inhaling the cold air, while his fingers relaxed as if everything was completely under his control.
He moved his hand lightly… the air around the ship trembled, and it began to descend gradually over the white clouds.
There was no sail, no oar—his mental power alone was directing the massive wood as if it were a small toy.
He approached closer to the edge of Skypiea, where the clouds begin to scatter… and there appeared the giant hole in the sky.
A massive swirl of clouds, a natural opening leading directly to the Blue Sea.
All the residents of Skypiea knew it… but only a few dared to approach it.
Luca smiled briefly.
He had seen the entrance before when he watched the anime, but seeing it from behind a ship he controlled with his mind was something entirely different.
He raised his hand slightly… the ship responded immediately, and began gliding toward the sky opening at a slow, calculated pace.
The sound of the wind increased, the light changed, and the horizon opened beneath his feet as if the whole world were being revealed to him anew.
He didn't feel fear.
But something like a quiet excitement—his real journey would start now.
Alone… with his flying ship that would accompany him across the Blue Sea.
He left Skypiea behind.
---
The night had swallowed the entire Blue Sea, leaving only the moonlight flowing on the water's surface like a long silver thread.
His flying ship glided quietly over the waves, its only sound the whispers of the wind passing through its wooden planks.
Luca, standing at the bow, hands relaxed, eyes watching the distant darkness.
The sea at night was completely different from Skypiea… deeper, calmer, and more mysterious.
And while he was flying low over the water, something small caught his attention.
A light… a very faint light.
He leaned slightly forward, trying to focus.
Then the shape appeared more clearly.
A ship.
A pirate ship moving slowly, as if lost in this vast night.
It was neither large nor powerful… but its presence alone in this darkness made it striking.
Luca wasn't surprised—he smiled briefly.
As if he had been waiting for this kind of encounter.
"First encounter at sea… not bad."
He lowered the height of his ship slightly, so it hovered close to the surface, gliding gracefully over the calm waves.
He didn't intend to approach quickly; he advanced steadily, lightly, as if walking on a road, not over a flying ship.
The night helped him—no one could see a ship coming from the sky in this darkness.
With every meter he approached, he saw more details:
People sleeping on deck… a half-awake guard struggling to stay awake… a lantern swinging with the ship's movement.
No one noticed him.
Luca breathed deeply, enjoying the calm.
He liked the scene… a nighttime sea, an unsuspecting ship, and him approaching it like a shadow without a sound.
He raised his hand slightly, not to guide the ship… but to make it descend further, until it was just meters above the water.
Now, the distance between him and the pirate ship was less than a hundred meters.
The cold air hit his face… the night seemed to widen just for him.
"Let's see what awaits me there…"
He continued advancing toward them with calm confidence.
Luca approached the ship slowly, flying over the water, keeping a low altitude so no one could see him. The night was dark enough to conceal any trace of his movement, and the ship below seemed almost submerged in darkness, except for a weak lantern at the front.
He left his flying ship suspended in the sky, then moved himself toward the small sea vessel.
He landed lightly on the water's surface, as if walking on it, and approached the side of the ship until he touched the wood with his hand.
No sound came out.
He lifted himself steadily, reaching the edge of the wooden railing.
There… the guard was sitting, his head swaying in sleep, legs stretched out in front of him.
Luca didn't use his fruit or his mental power.
He reached out quietly… covered the man's mouth with one hand, and his throat with the other, pressing lightly but enough to cut off the air completely.
The guard couldn't scream, couldn't even move.
His eyes widened for a second… then went out.
Luca lowered the body slowly and dropped it into the sea, leaving it floating there.
Other than that?
The ship was still asleep.
No one felt what had happened.
Luca climbed inside the ship as if a shadow were walking over the wood, not a person. He passed first by the storage boxes, then through the narrow corridor leading to the crew quarters. The ship was small enough to reach the quarters within seconds.
But when he rounded the corner… he heard a low sound.
A muffled laugh.
Then a whisper.
Two people… awake.
Luca didn't retreat. He moved only one step, appearing before two men sitting near a large box, playing cards under a small lantern. One raised a card boastfully… the other cursed quietly so as not to wake the rest.
For a moment, they noticed him.
Their faces froze, cards falling from their hands.
One opened his mouth to shout.
But Luca gave him no chance.
With a thought in his head.
Two sparks of lightning shot through their brains and killed them.
A single thud.
Then silence.
Two more… ended without a scream, without chaos, without anyone on the ship hearing what happened.
Luca breathed slowly, then turned toward the interior door of the quarters.
He advanced through the narrow corridor, his steps so light the wood barely creaked. Ahead, a half-open door leaked faint light… the candlelight nearly extinguished.
He reached out and pushed the door gently… so gently that the hinge barely made a sound.
The room was small, the ceiling low, the air stifling slightly with the smell of sweat and rum. On the floor… and on the wooden beds lined up beside it… were at least five pirates, each lying differently, deep in heavy, exhausted sleep.
Low snoring… slow breathing… near-perfect silence.
One clutched his sword while asleep, another was in a deep sleep with his mouth open, the third tossing slightly as if dreaming. No one noticed the intruder standing just a step away.
Luca didn't move immediately.
He raised his hand slightly… his fingers trembling with a small blue gleam.
A spark.
Then another.
The slight electricity spread through the air, thin… quiet… like a night exhale.
The pirates felt nothing.
No one woke up.
Not a single scream.
Their bodies slackened further… and life extinguished in them like the last flicker of a candle. Complete silence… as if they had never been there at all.
Luca lowered his hand slowly, then exhaled lightly.
He advanced further into the room, examining it with his eyes… searching for anything interesting: an open box, an abandoned bag, weapons on the walls.
His eyes stopped at another door at the end of the room.
A bigger door… with a metal lock.
The captain's room.
Luca smiled very briefly.
Then moved toward it quietly.
He opened the door very quietly, so much so that the air barely moved with him.
The room was larger than the other quarters, the ceiling slightly higher, the smell of varnished wood mixed with rum and gunpowder. The light was dim, coming from a lantern hanging on the wall, swaying with the ship's movement.
At his first step inside the room… Luca stopped.
The captain was there.
A huge man, broad shoulders, face covered with a thick beard and mouth half-open as he snored deeply. His hand lay on the bedspread, fingers adorned with dull metal rings. A large sword leaned against the wall beside him, never leaving his side even in sleep.
But that wasn't the only striking thing.
What caught his attention was something else entirely.
On the wall, above a small table, a wanted poster was pinned with nails.
A fairly large poster, its paper frayed at the edges, but the image was clear:
The captain himself.
His harsh face, cold gaze… the same man now sleeping in front of him, unconscious.
And at the bottom of the poster, in clear handwriting:
Wanted – 127,000,000 Berries
Luca raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Not bad."
He blinked twice, reviewing the number. A bounty of this size meant the man was not a beginner… but a dangerous pirate.
Luca took another step into the room.
The captain's breathing didn't change—deep sleep, heavy, unaware of anything.
Luca smiled lightly, then stepped toward the table.
From above the table, he knocked a small lantern to the ground; it hit the wood with a soft sound, enough to shake the captain awake. He blinked twice, opened his eyes in shock… his lantern broken, glass fragments scattered across the floor.
"What…?!" shouted the captain, raising his large sword to strike Luca. He moved quickly, but Luca used the Thunder Fruit – Logia. The strike passed through his body leaving no trace, his body split in two.
The blow that passed through him released a force hitting the wooden floor, creating a sound loud enough to wake the other crew members sleeping in the other quarters.
The men began to rise one by one, some checking the corridors with confused looks, others rushing up the stairs, gathering around the captain's door, wondering about the commotion.
Luca stood still, eyes watching everyone, a short smile forming on his lips.
The pirates gathered around him, swords trembling in their hands, faces full of anger, fear, and confusion. They charged at him at once, their shouts rising:
"Stop him!"
"Grab him!"
"Don't let this intruder escape!"
But every strike, every stab, every arrow or axe aimed at Luca… didn't touch him. His body vanished suddenly from sight, separating from matter as if he were pure living lightning, passing through attacks without a trace.
Luca smiled a short, calm smile, then raised his hand. His fingers trembled with pulsating blue lightning, and the thunder energy exploded from his palm directly at the attacking crew.
The people in the path of this attack were incinerated beyond recognition.
"Devil Fruit user!!!!!" the captain's and crew's eyes filled with terror, and they began to try to escape.
But to no avail; within moments, everyone fell dead.
Luca smiled briefly as he walked among the broken planks and burning wood, his blue eyes gleaming amid the smoke and ash. The ship became silent, as if the crew's souls had left forever, leaving everything completely under his control.
He began inspecting the destroyed quarters, examining overturned boxes and cracked floors. Some scattered tools were merely remnants of an old life, but he paid them no mind.
In a small corner of the ship, he found a locked wooden chest, containing some silver and gold coins. Luca picked up a coin, turned it in his fingers for a moment, then chuckled lightly. This money no longer interested him, mere ashes compared to what he already possessed, a vast fortune he didn't even know what to do with.
He had come to this ship for amusement, and he hadn't expected anything, so returning empty-handed did not bother him at all.
While inspecting what remained of the room that seemed to belong to the former navigator, he noticed a small indicator blinking steadily in place, with the name "Tedora Island" on it.
He looked at the map and saw that this island was on his way to the Sabaody Archipelago, so he decided to visit it.
He no longer cared about the ship, took off toward his own, and headed in the direction the indicator in his hand pointed.