Buggy stared at Shanks's hollow look. "What do you mean gone, Shanks?!"
"Gone—that is gone! It caved in!"
"What are you talking about?!"
"The thing everyone has—mine is gone!"
The two brats yelled past each other like mismatched drumbeats.
Dimon couldn't help it—he doubled over laughing. "Pahahaha… tell me that's not priceless."
Buggy glared daggers. "What did you do to Shanks?!"
"Please give it back, Sir Dimon!" Shanks—no, Shanksie—wailed, on the brink of tears.
"No can do. A punishment's a punishment," Dimon said, still wheezing.
Shanksie's eyes rolled up and "she" fainted.
"Shanks!! Don't die on me!" Buggy scooped "her" up, howling.
"Who said he's dead? Just a light shock to the ego," Dimon said, finally catching his breath and chasing it with a swig of wine. "Hah… almost laughed myself to death."
Bullying brats: unreasonably entertaining.
Dimon nodded to himself. Truly, a qualified king of children.
"So what did you do?!" Buggy's eyes bulged.
"Curious? I can help you too. You'll just need a new name… Bugina has a ring to it."
Dimon's smiling gaze slid below the belt.
A chill wind visited Buggy's lower half. Instinct screamed: danger.
"Y-You turned Shanks into a girl?!"
"That's right, Bugina. Wanna try?"
"No way! You fiend! Devil! Monster!" Buggy swore a blue streak, then switched to pleading. "Turn Shanks back, please!"
"It'll wear off in a while," Dimon said cheerfully. "You really don't want a test drive? Some adults would jump at the chance."
"No! Absolutely not! I'm a man among men!" Buggy shook his head like a drum rattle, hoisted Shanksie onto his back, and fled from the demon's orbit.
Turning a person into a girl in one poke?
Just kill me instead!
"Guest rooms are upstairs…" Dimon called after them, genuinely disappointed he hadn't minted a matching Bugina. A pity there wasn't a visual Den Den Mushi around—he would've recorded this, saved it for the day the red-haired brat grew up, and screened his childhood black history with popcorn.
Just imagining the scene made him grin again.
"Right—what about you three?"
Dimon turned; the cat, the dog, and the kappa—Nekomamushi, Inuarashi, and Kawamatsu—had witnessed everything from not-so-safe range. Meeting his eyes, all three shook their heads frantically.
"Forgive me, I do not want to experience that!"
"If I become a mother cat, just end me now!"
"Shogun-sama, please don't joke like that!"
Dimon waved a hand. "Relax. Nekomamushi, Inuarashi—you're from the Mink Tribe of Zou, right?"
"Yes, from the Mokomo Dukedom," they said, trading a glance. Inuarashi hesitated. "Is the Kozuki family… gone?"
"That's right. The Kozuki are history."
Dimon paused; a name surfaced—Gecko Moria.
In the original line, Moria would come to Wano, clash with Kaido, and lose. His crew slaughtered; he alone escaped. The people of Wano, grateful for a man who dared defy Kaido, even raised a grave for him—engraving the name Kozuki Moria.
Was Moria a Kozuki?
Dimon wasn't sure. It might just be a misunderstanding—someone heard "Moria of the Moonlight" and flipped it to "Kozuki." Then again… maybe not. Maybe he really was connected.
"Aah… then we came all this way for nothing?" Inuarashi's shoulders slumped. The voyage from the Mokomo Dukedom on Zou to Wano was no picnic, and their boat—
"…sank," Nekomamushi admitted, scratching his head. Roger's Oro Jackson had only run aground and could be fixed. The minks' craft? A glorified skiff, swept away while climbing the waterfall. They washed up on Kuri Beach and were found by Kawamatsu.
"As shogun, I'll allow you to stay," Dimon said kindly. "I'll give you work. Save up, build a new ship."
"Truly?" Inuarashi and Nekomamushi brightened. "Thank you, Shogun-sama!"
"And you as well," Dimon told Kawamatsu. "Serve under me, and your being a fish-man won't earn you scorn here."
Kawamatsu's eyes went wide. He'll take me in…? He prostrated himself, overwhelmed. "At once, Shogun-sama!"
Dimon waved that aside and turned back to the minks. "In your country—do you have a rabbit named Carrot?"
"Carrot?" Inuarashi searched his memory and shook his head. "Doesn't ring a bell. Have you been to our country, Shogun-sama?"
Dimon liked Carrot—a rabbit who could be adorable by day and majestic under a full moon. Loli bunny to Moon Lion onee-san, all in one. A perfect beast-eared heroine if there ever was one.
From Inuarashi's answer, she probably hadn't been born yet.
"I've seen your country—and the giant elephant." He let the words sit.
Inuarashi took "seen" as "been," which worked well enough. The Mokomo Dukedom stood on the back of Zunesha, the walking colossus forever striding through the sea. Without a guide or luck, you didn't find it.
If he remembered right, there was also a red Road Poneglyph there.
Counting the rubbing Dimon held now, that would make two.
As for the other two…
One lay on Fish-Man Island, in the Sea Forest, next to Joy Boy's apology. The last one… he didn't know.
Find that and the route to the final island is set.
So where was it?
Not in the World Government's hands—if the Five Elders had it, Roger would never have reached Laugh Tale to become Pirate King.
Elbaf…
Dimon's mind sifted through likely places, plotting the fourth stone's hideout.
—Kuri, Beasts' Citadel, study.
Dimon met Roger again and passed over the rubbing Abel had brought.
"This is the imprint of the first Road Poneglyph."
"How is it in your hands?" Roger blinked, then laughed loud enough to shake the beams. "So you're coming to sea with me after all, yeah? Hahaha!"
Dimon raised a palm to halt the tangent. "The second is on Zou. The third is on Fish-Man Island."
Roger's grin vanished. He stood straighter; his eyes sharpened.
"And the last one?"
"I don't know. That part is on you." Dimon spread his hands and smiled.
"So, you're actually one step away—just one step from the Final Island."
The study fell still. Roger's fingers tightened on the rubbing until the paper crackled—
—and then a Den Den Mushi on the desk shrilled like an alarm.
"Cap'n! Urgent from Kuri Beach!" a voice barked through the receiver. "We've got a giant at the shoreline—claims he's from Elbaf… and he's holding a red stone rubbing!"
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