The group kept moving through the forest, the sky above them rumbling with distant lightning.
Aisa suddenly stopped.
Her eyes widened.
Her breaths came fast.
Then—she screamed.
"Aisa?!" Raki shouted, grabbing her shoulders.
The little girl fell to her knees, clutching her head in pain.
Flashes burst through her mind—
Shandorian warriors falling,
light slicing the sky,
Eneru standing over bodies with a smile.
"No… no… stop…!" Aisa cried.
Noah rushed over. "What's wrong with her?"
Wyper knelt beside them, his face dark.
"Aisa was born with a special ability. We call it Mantra."
"Mantra?" Nami asked.
"It lets her feel voices… know where people are… sometimes even see flashes of things before they happen."
Wyper looked at Noah. "The priests use it too. But Aisa's Mantra is stronger than theirs."
Emma stepped closer. "I think that's how the priests always knew when and where we'd attack from."
"They do," Wyper said. "But Aisa's ability goes deeper."
Aisa gasped and stared into the distance with wide, shaking eyes.
"He's coming…" she whispered.
"Eneru… he's coming…"
The whole group tensed.
Even Luffy stopped smiling.
Wyper didn't hesitate—he grabbed Aisa in his arms.
"Move!" he shouted. "We have to run now!"
Everyone turned and sprinted.
"Noah, where are we going?" Emma asked.
Nami looked ahead—and froze for a second.
"Up there!" she pointed.
A giant shadow towered over the forest.
A tree so huge it reached the clouds.
"Let's head to that!"
Wyper blinked. "You want us to run all the way to Giant Jack?"
Emma stared up too. "That's the name of the tree?"
"Yes," Raki said. "It's been standing for hundreds of years."
"Then that's where we're heading," Nami said. "To Giant Jack."
They all kept running, the ground shaking under their feet.
Noah frowned. "This will take forever… and my legs are getting tired."
Emma rolled her eyes. "It's only been two minutes."
Noah stopped running.
Everyone skidded to a stop and turned to him.
"What are you doing?" Nami asked.
Noah took a slow breath.
"I can move us faster… maybe."
"You can do that?" Wyper asked, shocked.
Noah looked unsure.
"I think so. But I've never tried it before."
They stared at him like he'd said he could move the moon.
Noah raised his hand.
"If I change the vector of where my body is… I can move from one spot to another in an instant. It's not real teleporting."
He looked ahead at the giant tree.
"I'm just rewriting my position."
Noah picks up a stone and added his vector waves to it. With a flick of his hand, he hurled it toward Giant Jack.
The force of the stone smashed through everything in its path—trees snapped and crashed to the ground.
"Are you even human?" Raki asked, her jaw dropping.
Noah closed his eyes.
NOAH-[Okay… Minato could teleport by marking objects. I know this isn't Naruto, but maybe it'll work.]
"Everyone, hold onto me!" Noah shouted.
Luffy immediately grabbed his arm. "I don't want to fly solo! Wheee!"
Emma rolled her eyes. "If we die, I'm blaming you."
Nami groaned. "Great. My hair better survive this."
Even Raki wrapped her arms around Noah. "I'm not letting go, mister 'I know what I'm doing!'"
NOAH-[Alright… focus. Just rewrite the vector of my body and everyone will move with me. Don't mess this up…]
Noah took a deep breath.
"Vector Manipulation—Flying Thunder God!"
WHOOSH!
A flash of light and wind engulfed them. Trees, leaves, and dirt blurred past.
Everyone closed their eyes, hearts pounding, thinking they wouldn't make it.
NOAH-[Please… let us land safely…]
NOAH-[Don't overshoot… don't crash… okay, focus on Giant Jack.]
"Okay… you guys can open your eyes now," Noah said.
They peeked.
"Did we make it?" Emma asked, wiping sweat from her forehead.
NOAH-[Not exactly… but at least we're here. And thank goodness we didn't fly past…]
"Not exactly," Noah said aloud, shaking his head, "but I'm happy we didn't overshoot… otherwise we wouldn't have found these four."
They looked ahead: Zoro, Sanji, Robin, and Usopp, leaning against a torn-down wall, battered but alive.
NOAH-[Looks like Eneru hit them hard… we'll need to be careful now.]
"What happened?!" Luffy yelled, furious.
Robin held her side as she tried to stand. "Eneru happened."
Luffy's face went dark. "Where is he?"
"Gone," Zoro said, annoyed and angry. "He knocked us out like it was nothing."
Sanji lit a cigarette with shaking hands. "A real monster… you guys better be ready."