Rob Lucci, the strongest assassin of CP9, remained perfectly, predatorily silent.
His gaze was as cold and sharp as a scalpel, his mind, hidden behind a mask of indifference, already calculating the variables.
He wasn't sure why Shiki had suddenly appeared here, but in the end, it didn't matter.
They had a critical plan in motion here in Water 7.
An unexpected factor of this magnitude, a living legend, was a severe complication.
He hoped, for Shiki's sake, that this sudden, arrogant parade wouldn't interfere with their objective.
Otherwise, even if the other party was the renowned Golden Lion, CP9 would not hesitate to eliminate the threat.
"We don't interfere with this for now," Lucci finally broke the silence, his voice a low, emotionless rumble.
"As long as it doesn't hinder our objective, we all proceed as usual."
The other members of CP9, hidden in the shadows with him, all nodded in silent agreement.
....
High above, at an altitude of thirty thousand meters…
The air was thin and bitingly cold.
Clouds, which from the ground looked like a solid sea, were now just lazy, drifting wisps far below them.
On the golden deck of his flagship, Shiki's wine glass, held by an invisible force, automatically refilled itself from a floating barrel before returning to his hand.
"Jihahaha! This wine is good! Tastes like altitude!"
Dr. Indigo, his chief scientist, nervously wiped the glass cover of a massive, complex navigational instrument.
"Commander," he said, his voice a high-pitched whine. "Look at the dials. I'm picking up signals from below. There are at least thirty observation Den Den Mushi aimed directly at us. They're watching us."
Hearing this, Shiki's lips curled into a faint, utterly disdainful smirk.
His gaze, as sharp and piercing as that of a hawk, swept over the town far, far below.
Water 7, the City of Water, looked as insignificant as an ant's nest.
In his eyes, those trivial cities were nothing. He and his new, restored fleet were the most powerful force in this vast world.
"Let them watch!" Shiki's voice boomed with an authority that defied the thin air.
"When the newspapers put my fleet on every front page, when they let the entire world know of our might, the seas will finally remember what true pirates look like!"
Indigo nodded silently, a trace of agreement in his eyes.
He sighed softly and said, "Of course. But… being watched by all those little government bugs all the time is... unsettling. It feels like countless eyes are spying on us from the shadows. Gives me the creeps."
"Jihahaha, it is indeed uncomfortable," Shiki laughed heartily. "But for now, Ron's mission is more important. We don't have time to waste on them."
Upon hearing Ron's name, everyone on the deck immediately nodded in agreement, their focus snapping back to the mission.
"That's right! Ron's mission is what matters!" one of the crew members exclaimed, his eyes filled with a new, fanatic loyalty.
"Once Ron's mission is accomplished, we'll be one step closer to our goal!"
"Captain," another subordinate, one of the affiliate captains, voiced his concern, looking anxiously at the scattered, mismatched islands around them.
"Our current islands… they aren't enough. We're still short by at least twenty. Should we… take the shipyard from the city below?"
"Take nothing!" Shiki's old first mate, Scarlet, retorted without hesitation.
"Water 7's waters are treacherous! The Aqua Laguna makes that whole area unstable. We need solid foundations."
"Then what about Enies Lobby?" another crew member suggested, his eyes gleaming with a manic hatred.
"I've wanted to take those self-righteous bastards down for ages! If we get the chance, we should destroy them!"
"That worthless island?" Shiki shook his head, dismissing the proposal with a wave of his hand.
"It's got that giant, useless hole in the middle of it. It's unstable. Useless for Ron's project. We need quality."
.....
Enies Lobby, Spandam's Office…
In the dimly lit room, thick with tension, Spandam's hands trembled violently.
Beads of sweat the size of peas continuously rolled down his forehead, stinging his eyes.
His gaze held three parts panic and seven parts raw, unadulterated urgency, as if countless pairs of unseen eyes were watching him from the shadows, making him feel an immense, crushing pressure.
After several difficult, fumbling attempts, Spandam finally managed to connect the Den Den Mushi to an Admiral.
In that instant, he felt as though he had grasped his last lifeline, his voice involuntarily turning sharp—so sharp it became a distorted, terrified squeak.
"ADMIRAL AOKIJI! IT'S HIM! SHIKI! That madman who became the first to ever escape Impel Down! He's here, and he's heading west, right over Enies Lobby! What should we do?! What are your orders?!"
From the other end of the Den Den Mushi, there was a prolonged, crackling silence.
It was followed by the sound of frost slowly crystallizing, miraculously mimicking Aokiji's signature, somewhat lazy yawn.
"Ara…ra… Spandam. Calm down. I'm watching it right now."
The voice seemed to traverse layers of space, carrying a careless nonchalance that felt particularly, horrifyingly jarring.
...
Meanwhile, far away on a turbulent sea…
The wind howled as massive, icy waves crashed against a shore of volcanic rock.
A man stood quietly on the reef, his silhouette appearing somewhat lonely against the gray, churning sea.
He was, impossibly, standing on a bicycle that was frozen solid to the ocean's surface.
Admiral Aokiji slowly tilted his head back, raising a bottle of sake to his lips before downing the contents in one go.
The cold liquor flowed down his throat.
He slightly closed his eyes, quietly listening to Spandam's panicked, squealing report on the Den Den Mushi.
His gaze, however, grew increasingly heavy, as if bearing the weight of a thousand pounds.
As time passed, in the distant sky, the clusters of floating islands, having passed over Water 7, continued on their journey.
They slowly began to disappear from his view, veiled by the clouds of the distant Knock-Up Stream.
The once-clear outlines grew blurry.
Aokiji's eyes remained fixed on the vanishing archipelago, a trace of deep, profound doubt flickering in his gaze.
He knew where that stream led.
'Sky Island… Jaya…'
Just then, the ice-glass he had unconsciously formed in his hand succumbed to the pressure of his grip, shattering with a crisp "crack" into countless fragments.
The broken ice shards glittered in the weak sunlight.
The Admiral paused, his brows tightening into a deep frown as he murmured to the wind.
"Shiki… what in the world is that old monster planning now?"
....
At New Marineford…
Rows of neatly arranged surveillance screens in the new central command center simultaneously, and without warning, began to flash with irritating, snowy interference.
The images of the ocean, which had been tracking Shiki's fleet, dissolved into chaos, as if invisible hands were attempting to conceal the fleet's final destination.
Standing before the command platform, the burly Fleet Admiral Sengoku frowned deeply, his eyes revealing a barely restrained fury.
He tightly clutched the intelligence report that had just been delivered—a document that should have been critically important, but now half of it had been accidentally slobbered on and eaten by his pet goat.
"Who else could make entire islands fly in the sky besides that damned fool!" Sengoku slammed the half-read report heavily onto the table with a dull, resounding thud, conveying his inner, frustrated fury.
"Why couldn't he just remain a peaceful, forgotten legend!"