In the Shinobi World...
The colossal Demonic Statue of the Outer Path (Gedo Mazo) was still expanding at a manic pace, its massive roots boring deep into the earth and leeching away the planetary vitality.
Yet, the world—once frozen entirely in time—seemed to subtly tick forward, second by second.
"The ambient energy of the gems Shiraishi secured in that other realm is stabilizing this dimension... causing the halted progression of time to creep forward once more."
Although time had resumed its flow, it ticked at an agonizingly sluggish pace compared to the ocean-faring world...
As the frozen world unfrozen, the Gedo Mazo stood as the sole sentient entity awake. Sensing something obscure, it grew frantically, its height nearly breaching the outer boundaries of the planetary atmosphere.
The Pure Land had been thoroughly sealed off by the Sage of Six Paths, dissolving all active Impure World Reincarnation Edo Tensei summons alongside it. As for the rest of humanity and the landscape, they remained suspended in deep stasis, unawakened.
High upon the Gedo Mazo, however, environmental tectonic energy coalesced toward a single nexus. There, the final seal left behind by Shiraishi flared to life—the culmination of the Heavenly Curse of the Five Phantoms Technique!
The vessel of Senju Runa, previously abandoned by Indra, was claimed anew as Deidara's consciousness surged directly into it.
When Shiraishi had initially cast the Heavenly Curse Five-Elements Technique, Deidara's physical form was flawed. Even though he had mastered Dust Release to bridge his innate deficiencies, he remained half a step behind the likes of Hagoromo Makoto, Hozuki Kaigettsu, and Uchiha Kaede.
Until this exact moment—the emergence of Senju Runa's pristine, flawless physical vessel.
The newly awakened Deidara—or rather, the completely reborn Senju Runa—flashed into a streak of radiance, materializing directly before Uchiha Kaede and the others.
To stabilize the Shinobi World, Shiraishi's four elemental clones transformed into Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind, coupling with the Frost and Venom powers extracted from the One Piece world to mend the structural fractures in the Pure Land.
"The growth pattern of the Demonic Statue is incredibly bizarre..."
"We'll observe it for a while longer."
In the One Piece World...
While only an instant had elapsed in the Shinobi World, Shiraishi and his crew had spent several months conducting repairs on Jaya Island.
Reinforcing the hull, upgrading the artillery battery, and stocking up on heavy hardware—Shiraishi accomplished all of this by tapping into his contacts among the underworld's shadow powerbrokers.
Before Donquixote Doflamingo made his meteoric rise, the underworld was already populated by several towering tycoons. The party Shiraishi contacted this time was none other than the Vinsmoke Family.
Vinsmoke Judge was a legendary figure. As the monarch of the Germa Kingdom, he had once been part of an illegal research team alongside Vegapunk, developing advanced weaponry before jointly discovering the Lineage Factor.
When the World Government deemed the breakthrough far too dangerous, they arrested Vegapunk and bought out the rest of the team. Judge, however, successfully evaded capture.
Continuing his research independently upon returning to the Germa Kingdom, Judge applied the Lineage Factor theory to clone and modify human life.
By extracting genetic material from elite Germa soldiers, he created a standardized clone army capable of reaching full combat maturity in just five years—producing model designations such as MB, MH, and MST.
Genetically modified and cloned, these soldiers possessed absolute fearlessness and unquestioning obedience, forming the terrifying army known as Germa 66.
Beyond their military forces, the Germa Kingdom operated an extensive international arms trade. Shiraishi's primary interest lay in their specialized expertise regarding warship modifications and custom artillery integration.
As for the Lineage Factor itself...
Compared to Orochimaru's near-immortal cellular cloning mastery, Germa's technical depth fell somewhat short. Nevertheless, it possessed its own distinct advantages, as Orochimaru and Judge had pursued entirely different branches of research.
"Fufufu, Germa's technical engineering team will reach Jaya Island in three days."
On the other end of the Den Den Mushi, Judge sounded in high spirits. The Sunagakure Pirates were a lucrative client. In exchange for upgrading the ship, Shiraishi shared a portion of his own research data and technical blueprints—a highly profitable trade for both sides.
Crucially, the data provided by Shiraishi offered genuine breakthroughs for Judge's ongoing efforts to enhance his Lineage Factor soldiers.
"Pleasure doing business with you..."
Hanging up the Den Den Mushi, Shiraishi set aside his documents. With the ground preparation on Jaya Island nearing completion, the next step was venturing to Sky Island to claim his primary objective:
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit (Goro Goro no Mi) in Birka...
Upon arriving at Jaya Island, the Germa technical crew immediately initiated a ground-up retrofit of the Shukaku. The main artillery complement was expanded to over 60 cannons, alongside the installation of a specialized emergency maneuver system.
At the bow, a chibi-styled figurehead of a young One-Tail Shukaku was installed; pinching the figurehead's ears triggered a rapid reverse-propulsion mechanism.
The lowest deck was reconfigured to accommodate an auxiliary dock system for deploying tender craft.
The circular dock was partitioned into twelve numbered bays and operated via a channel-selector lever on the helm—a design principle that would later mirror the Straw Hat Pirates' Thousand Sunny. Crew members could wait in a central staging room before boarding.
This setup was standard fare for Germa's naval engineers. Judge even generously gifted Shiraishi twelve multi-purpose auxiliary vessels. In addition to troop deployment, these craft were equipped for deep-sea exploration and high-speed reconnaissance.
Several vacant compartments were repurposed across the ship's upper decks:
Fifth Deck: Shiraishi's personal research lab, testing floor, and weapons development workshop.
Fourth Deck: An expanded archive room containing nautical charts, historical texts, and ancient records collected by Shiraishi, who was actively learning to decipher ancient scripts.
Third Deck: A massive surveying deck assisting the navigator in plotting courses. It also doubled as the primary energy reservoir deck, funneling Shiraishi's cryogenic energy into the main beam cannon housed inside the Shukaku figurehead's mouth.
While Shiraishi lacked Franky's radical engineering brilliance, he successfully integrated a custom refrigeration matrix into the figurehead.
By storing his frost energy through specialized condensers, he could unleash a focused Cryo-Beam Cannon far more devastating than a standard ice blast. Auxiliary ordnance—such as incendiary explosive shells and toxic smoke canisters—was also integrated.
Second Deck: Living quarters. Unohana Retsu and Kikyo were assigned the most luxurious quarters, featuring a vanity setup, wine racks, tea sets, plush sofas, and custom wardrobes. The men's quarters were far simpler, sharing the deck with the galley, training room, and dry-food storage.
Weaponry: Every deck above the hold was outfitted with 12 heavy cannons per side, bringing the grand total to a staggering 60-cannon broadside firepower...
As the final modifications concluded, even the Germa technicians gazed at the medium-sized warship with reluctant admiration.
Shiraishi, naturally, reaped additional rewards—subtly deciphering and digesting a substantial portion of Germa's proprietary tech during the build.
The Germa engineers never suspected that the "rough pirates" in their eyes were quietly analyzing and absorbing their engineering secrets right under their noses...
With its metamorphosis complete, the newly upgraded Shukaku weighed anchor and set sail once more!