In front of the Heavenly Palace in Sabaody's Undying City, a column of Oathblood Guards stood in perfect formation, waiting. Not just the Guards either. Rosinante, Enel, and Dark Thorn were all there, watching the same empty air.
A moment later, a spatial wormhole split open, and a beautiful young woman stepped through, pulling a girl of about ten years old along with her.
"We salute the Little Princess!" The Guards on both sides snapped to attention simultaneously, fists striking their chests in a single thunderous crash.
Elsa, who had just stepped out of the wormhole, flinched so hard she nearly stumbled. She stood wide-eyed, staring at the rows of black-uniformed Guards stretching out on either side of her. Then she caught sight of Rosinante and the others watching with warm expressions, and let out a slow breath.
"Scared you, didn't we, little one?" Enel said, clearly pleased with himself.
Enel's ability to move freely using lightning meant he had visited Rosinante more often than anyone else over the years, and he and Elsa had grown comfortable with each other because of it.
"Papa, Uncle Enel, Aunt Dark Thorn, stop frightening me!" Elsa laughed despite herself.
Then she actually looked at where she was, and forgot all about being startled.
"Where are we? It's so beautiful!"
Soap bubbles drifted lazily through the air in every direction, catching the light and scattering it into soft colors across the sky. The Undying City itself rose around her like something out of a dream, its towers and streets glowing in the warmth of the afternoon. She turned in a slow circle, unable to take it all in fast enough.
"This is the Undying City of the Sabaody Archipelago," Rosinante said, smiling at her expression. "This is going to be our home from now on. Do you like it?"
"It's the most beautiful place I've ever seen!" Elsa spun away from them and ran a wide circle around Rosinante and Shaxia, laughing. It felt like stepping into a fairy tale. How could she not love it.
"Are we really going to live here?" She reached out and touched one of the soap bubbles rising from the ground, watching it wobble before floating upward. "Really?"
"Of course. As long as you want to."
"Yes!" She took off running across the grass in front of the Heavenly Palace, arms out.
Behind her, another wormhole opened, and Binks stepped through at the head of the Oathblood Guards who had been concealed on the unnamed island.
"Your Majesty. All Oathblood Guards have assembled."
Rosinante looked out at the gathered formation for a moment before speaking.
"You've all worked hard. From today, this city is our home. Protect it. Take care of it. Guard it well."
The roar that came back from the assembled Guards shook the air.
"Don't run too far!" Shaxia called after Elsa, who was already halfway across the lawn.
Elsa wanted nothing more than to go and explore every corner of this impossible city, but her parents were here, and the uncles and aunts who used to come and visit were here, and for now that was enough. She kept running through the grass, laughing to herself.
Then something crossed the sun.
Elsa stopped and looked up. A shadow was falling across the city, growing wider and darker by the second. Something enormous was moving through the sky above the Undying City.
"What is that?"
What was floating up there was not a ship. It was not a cloud. It was an island, a full island, drifting through the air and sliding between the city and the sun, casting a shadow so large it swallowed entire districts whole.
"A flying island?" The civilians and pirates throughout Sabaody were all looking up now, voices breaking with disbelief. "How is that possible?"
"That thing is the size of an actual island. If it fell, it would take out the entire city. The whole archipelago."
"Is that a Devil Fruit ability? Who could possibly lift something that large? This is insane."
"There was a story about the previous ruler of the New World," said Kenny, Vice Captain of the Raging Lion Pirates, his voice uncertain. "The captain of the Flying Pirates, Gold Lion Shiki. They said he could raise entire islands into the sky. I didn't think it was real. Could that be Shiki?"
"It can't be," someone else said. "Shiki was defeated by the Dragon King Rosinante. Killed on a sky island. That story made the rounds a few years back."
"Then who has that kind of power?"
Oubaron had no answer. He just stared upward with the rest of them, waiting.
"This... could it be..." Rosinante's brow had drawn together.
"Well, well," Enel said, eyes brightening. "There's only one Devil Fruit that could pull off something like this."
"Papa, what is that?" Elsa had come running back, her head craned back toward the sky. "An island is flying! How does it do that? It's so strange!"
"It's a Devil Fruit ability. The Fuwa Fuwa no Mi. It lets the user make anything they touch float freely through the air, everything except living things. A useful power, but not exactly strange once you understand it." Rosinante smiled down at her.
As he was speaking, a figure emerged from the floating island above. Not a person, exactly. A red ape, dressed in human clothes, standing upright at the edge of the island and looking down at them.
"An ape?" The entire crowd fell silent for a beat, every voice gone quiet at once. Nobody had imagined that the thing making such an entrance was a primate.
Scarlett stood at the edge of his floating island and beat his chest, staring straight down at Rosinante, the challenge unmistakable.
"When we defeated Gold Lion and dealt with him, we searched the entire sky island for the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi and never found it." Rosinante wasn't looking at Scarlett anymore. He turned to Enel and the others with a calm, almost amused expression. "Apparently this creature found it first. Lucky beast."
One did not dignify a beast's posturing with a response.
"Lucky is right," Enel said, grinning. "Just stupid, though. You eat a fruit that can lift islands and the smart play is to find somewhere comfortable and rule it. Instead he comes here and waves his arms at us. I've been wanting another shot at a Fuwa Fuwa no Mi user. Let's see if I can get the fruit this time."
"Kichi kichi kichi!" Scarlett roared, beating his chest harder when he saw them ignoring him, his shrieking carrying down from the sky.
"It's coming." The warning came from above, quiet and certain.
Everyone looked up toward the Heavenly Palace roof, where a single figure sat with his legs crossed, watching the sky with calm, unreadable eyes.
Katakuri. The man who could see the future.
The next moment, answering Scarlett's roar, a tide of creatures came pouring off the edges of the floating island. Dozens of them. Hundreds. Rare beasts of every shape and size, dropping out of the sky and crashing down into the streets of the Undying City, and immediately beginning to tear it apart.