The Kingdom of God, Apa Yado Island. A white, wolf-headed two-masted sailboat was quietly docked at the port pier.
"Remember, if you encounter anything you can't handle, be sure to contact me... Understood?" Sephiroth repeatedly instructed Yamato.
"Got it! Got it!" Yamato grinned, resting the wolf-fang club in her right hand on her shoulder, and raised her left hand to wave, urging Perona, Iska, Kuina, and Kozuki Hiyori to quickly board the ship.
Beside her, the over six-meter tall Shirahoshi, with her hands clasped tightly, said in a somewhat shy tone, "Sister Yamato, after you return from your adventure, could you tell me about your adventure story...?"
Because Queen Otohime would occasionally come to the mountain-top villa to discuss work matters with Black Maria, Shirahoshi would basically follow her mother's side. Through these interactions, Shirahoshi became familiar with Sephiroth's sisters.
Thus, after hearing that Yamato was preparing to set sail on an adventure, Shirahoshi took the initiative to come to Apa Yado Island to see her off.
Yamato looked at the gentle and meek Shirahoshi before her, immediately patted her chest, and vowed, "No problem! When you grow up a bit more in the future, I can even take you out to sea with me."
After waiting for her crew to board the ship, Yamato also jumped onto the two-masted sailboat. She smiled and waved, saying, "I'll leave it to you! Sephiroth..."
"Have a smooth journey!"
As Sephiroth spoke, he drew the butcher knife from his waist and opened a massive spatial gate leading to the Blue Sea. As the sails of the two-masted sailboat were lowered, amidst the whistling wind, the sailboat passed through the spatial gate, sailing from the white sea of clouds into the azure Blue Sea, heading towards the distance.
Immediately after, he turned to look at Shirahoshi beside him, and said with a smile, "Alright, I should send you back now!"
"Then thank you, Mr. Sephiroth..." Shirahoshi nodded slightly and walked beside him, neither fast nor slow.
"Are you getting used to life on Sky Island?"
"Yes! I've completely integrated here, and I've also seen many things I only heard about before, which has broadened my horizons and made me very happy..."
"Is that so! I actually have a lot of interesting stories here too... If you have time and are interested. At that time, I can tell you slowly, which should increase your knowledge quite a bit..."
Shirahoshi said somewhat shyly, "Really? That's wonderful..." The two walked and talked, and after a while, they finally arrived at the edge of the Fishman residential area on Sky Island. Bururu~!
Bururu! Bururu! The den den mushi in the pocket of his suit jacket suddenly rang. Sephiroth picked up the receiver casually. Tesoro's voice immediately came from the den den mushi's mouth. "Boss, my subordinates have found Golden Lion Shiki's base camp. It's in the first half of the Grand Line, between the Devil's Triangle and the Sabaody Archipelago..."
Upon hearing this, Sephiroth couldn't help but narrow his eyes slightly. A smile curled up at the corners of his mouth, revealing a hint of an evil grin.
"Okay, I understand!"
The first half of the Grand Line, the Devil's Triangle Sea, near the Calm Belt area. Thousands of meters up in the sky, more than a dozen islands floated, centered around a large island. They hung suspended in the air. Because these islands were located in the mist-shrouded Devil's Triangle Sea and were very close to the Calm Belt, ordinary sailboats rarely sailed into this area. Even if someone on a sailboat looked up and accidentally saw the floating islands, they couldn't reach them.
On the largest floating island, a majestic red-roofed palace stood, its architectural style strongly reminiscent of Wano Country. In the attic on the top floor of the palace, Golden Lion Shiki sat in a wide chair. He wore a Wano Country samurai outfit, a yellow coat, and had knee-length golden hair. His lower legs were amputated and replaced by two swords, and a ship's rudder was inserted into his head. He gazed at the inland sea of the distant island, a thoughtful expression on his face.
Whenever he thought of something unpleasant, he would pick up a large bottle of strong liquor in his right hand and take a couple of gulps.
Fifty years ago, Golden Lion Shiki left his hometown of Wano Country and roamed the seas. Later, after gaining some fame, he even joined the Rocks Pirates and spent a few years there. After the Rocks Pirates were defeated in the God Valley battle, he re-established his own crew. Relying on the ability of the Float-Float Fruit to defy gravity and control non-living objects to fly, he led his fleet, the Flying Pirates, to establish a great name.
All of this reached a turning point in one battle... The Battle of Edd War! In that battle, dozens of warships of the Flying Pirates surrounded Roger's Oro Jackson on the sea. At that time, Golden Lion Shiki even extended an olive branch to Roger again, hoping the other party would join his ranks. With his massive forces and the whereabouts of the ancient weapons known to Roger, he felt he could definitely rule the entire world! However... Roger refused Golden Lion Shiki's invitation without hesitation, and a great battle broke out between the two sides on the spot.
At that time, Golden Lion Shiki felt that with his force of tens of thousands, he could slowly wear down Roger, like a dragon riding on a face, completely unable to lose!
But... Heaven played a huge joke on him. A sudden, overwhelming sea storm instantly swallowed up more than half of his warships!
Golden Lion Shiki himself was hit by a huge tsunami and almost sank to the bottom of the sea.
Due to the restraint of seawater on ability users, Golden Lion Shiki, in a state of powerlessness, was actually directly hit by a sudden ship's rudder that was inserted into his head...!?
Finally, after a battle that resulted in heavy losses for both sides, Roger's Oro Jackson managed to defeat the Flying Pirates and break through the encirclement. Since that incident, Golden Lion Shiki has developed a great psychological shadow regarding sea storms. For this, he even specially formed a professional navigator team to help him analyze the weather changes in the Grand Line, so as to be ready to deal with the capricious weather in this sea area at any time.
Some time ago, his own navigator team said that if they could get the assistance of the high-precision meteorological analysis instrument developed by the Umbrella Corporation, they would be able to accurately predict the real-time weather changes in the Grand Line. So, Golden Lion Shiki specifically inquired about how much a set of such high-precision meteorological analysis instruments would cost.
Hmm! The price wasn't very expensive, only about one hundred million Berries.
Upon hearing this price, Golden Lion Shiki immediately gave up the idea of buying the instrument with money.
What a joke! He, Lord Golden Lion, is a Pirate! Why should he spend so much wasted money to buy such a thing...!? Wouldn't it be better to just go and steal it?
So, after hearing that a certain country had purchased this high-precision instrument from the Umbrella Corporation, he directly controlled his warships and robbed the merchant ship carrying the goods.
Facing the gentle breeze blowing from high in the sky, Golden Lion Shiki, sitting in the attic, while drinking in silence, muttered to himself:
"The seas are now full of reckless youngsters who run rampant in pursuit of treasure..."
It's utterly boring! I really want this era to quickly experience the terror of a true Pirate!" After Roger surrendered to the Marine, Golden Lion Shiki once single-handedly charged into Marine Headquarters Marineford, wanting to rescue him. Pirate King Roger was a man he recognized, even if that guy wanted to die, he had to die at his hands! However, his impulsive rescue attempt at that time did not succeed; instead, he was defeated by the combined efforts of Garp and Sengoku and imprisoned in Impel Down, the deep-sea prison.
Later, after being imprisoned for a year, Golden Lion Shiki had to escape Impel Down. To do so, he forcibly tore off his legs, which were bound by seastone shackles. Breaking free of the restraints that had suppressed him, he regained the ability to use his Float-Float Fruit power. Only then could he break through the multiple levels of Impel Down and leave that hellhole. After escaping Impel Down, Golden Lion Shiki used the two famous swords he wore, ''Dead Wood'' (Kareki) and ''Sakura Ten'' (Sakura Juro), to replace his amputated legs.
As a great swordsman of the two-sword style, Golden Lion Shiki naturally knew that legs were never as flexible and versatile as hands. But… for him at that time, whether he had the two swords or not was no longer that important! Ever since a ship's rudder was inserted into his head, his three colors of Haki had been in a state of continuous decline. According to his subordinate ship doctor, it seemed that the rudder was affecting some nerve in his brain, which caused this result. If he wanted to pull the rudder out of his head, it would endanger his life.
The continuous decline of his strength had become an unavoidable matter. Therefore, Golden Lion Shiki, knowing that his strength was far inferior to before, didn't presumptuously reassemble his subordinates and re-conquer territory in the New World. That place was full of strong people, after all. Instead, he set his sights on an island called Merveille. On this island were various extremely powerful and dangerous fierce beasts, their combat power far stronger than those pirate small fry with bounties of tens of millions.
According to his scientist subordinate, Dr. Indigo, the reason why such powerful fierce beasts were produced on Merveille Island was entirely due to the influence of certain special plants. After experiencing the ups and downs of life, compared to complex and difficult-to-control humans, Golden Lion Shiki trusted simple-minded and ferocious beasts more. So, he had Dr. Indigo research a special drug called IQ, attempting to cultivate more fierce beasts and thus use this power to rule the entire world!
Golden Lion Shiki had already planned in his mind that once the IQ drug was completely developed, he would release the fierce beasts from these more than a dozen floating islands into the East Blue, completely destroying that sea area... Thinking of this, Golden Lion Shiki couldn't help but feel great. He laughed loudly, raised the bottle of wine in his hand, and took two large gulps in a row. "Gyahahaha-! Wait and see! When I reappear before the world, I will bring endless despair and fear to this world."
Just at this moment, a black shadow in the distance, at lightning speed, dragged a straight cloud path across the sky and rushed towards the floating island where Golden Lion Shiki was located...