Brook sat on Golden Island, leafing through the latest intelligence he had ordered gathered. Page after page, name after name, blood after blood.
Then one report made the corner of his eye twitch.
"Doflamingo killed Homing and has started building power in the North Blue," Brook read aloud, voice cold. "Find someone to bring him back. Train him. Put a collar on him. I want him as a Hell Pirates dog, and I want him biting the World Government in the throat."
The file in his hand was clear.
Donquixote Homing, the former Celestial Dragon, had left Mary Geoise three years ago.
Two years ago, he had been executed by his own son.
Doflamingo had lost his so called divine identity at eight years old because of his idiot father. Overnight, he went from a world noble above all law to prey for every grudge in the street.
For two years he tasted every kind of hatred this world could pour down a child's throat. Civilians beat him, spit on him, dragged him through mud and ash. After his mother died, he and his little brother were nearly burned alive, nearly shot dead, and it was inside that furnace of hatred that his Conqueror's Haki awakened.
He put a bullet through his father in front of Rocinante.
Then he carried Homing's head back to Mary Geoise, expecting the Holy Land to welcome him home.
They rejected him.
That rejection finished what the mob had started. From then on, Doflamingo turned fully rotten, and swore to burn the world built by the Celestial Dragons.
Not long after, the newly awakened Doflamingo met a handful of washed up pirates led by Trebol. They fed him the String String Fruit, bowed their heads, and called him king.
And so the path of a dark emperor began.
But in this life, Brook had no intention of letting him become Joker, the broker of the underworld.
Brook would make him something far more useful.
A mad dog that only bit Celestial Dragons and World Government throats.
Brook did not need Doflamingo's loyalty. He needed obedience. A leash. A direction.
Bite where I tell you to bite.
He flipped to the next stack of reports, and his expression went strange.
"Olivia still married Nico Herodotus," he muttered. "She took the name Nico Olivia."
And this year, she gave birth to Nico Robin.
Brook stared at the words like they were a personal insult.
"Feels like I missed something," he said softly, then his face darkened. "Damn Imu. Damn that teleporter."
He slapped the paper down.
"I had a chance to become Nico Robin's father."
Another report slid out under his fingers.
The Boa family of Amazon Lily had used that man's seed to give birth to Boa Hancock.
Brook's face froze.
Then cracked.
Then shattered.
"Fuck you!"
His shout rattled the room so hard Antonio burst in, thinking the island was under attack.
Brook waved him off like a fly and collapsed into his chair, suddenly looking like a man who had just lost a war he never got to fight.
And it got worse.
The warrior woman of the Boa family had also conceived Boa Sandersonia with another man's seed.
So Hancock and her sisters were half sisters?
Boa Marigold had not been born yet, but if the pattern held, her father would probably be different as well.
Brook pinched the bridge of his nose, breathing through his teeth.
He wanted to drag that teleporter back and whip his corpse.
That's enough. Enough.
If there was no father and daughter fate, then maybe there was some other fate.
A friend.
Or something far less polite.
Then he saw another report. A single line that made his pulse jump.
"You finally showed up."
Brook snatched the newest page, the one dated yesterday, and bolted.
In an instant, the Seven Star Demon Sword became Quetzalcoatl and blasted into the sky, carrying Brook straight toward Wano.
Antonio did not know what could make Brook sprint out alone like that.
He also was not worried about Brook's safety.
He simply smiled to himself and passed word to Linlin and Shakky that their captain had gone out again.
And since every piece of intelligence had to pass through Antonio's hands, and since a good portion of it involved women, Antonio felt it was his duty to help the ladies punish their captain properly.
For morale.
On another training ground, the second generation of Hell were drilling Sakazuki and Douglas Bullet like animals.
Under tyranny, under pressure, under the pure hunger to become stronger, Bullet had fully joined their pit.
He began learning all three types of Haki like a madman.
It turned out he had awakened Conqueror's Haki once on the battlefield, but he had never understood what it was. Now he finally found people who could beat the knowledge into his skull.
Bullet set a goal.
In two years, he would surpass most of the second generation.
As for the three siblings, Hades, Osiris, and Kanna, even Bullet admitted it might take him ten years to catch them.
Because while he grew, they grew faster.
Sakazuki swore he would never submit, but he had no special ability. Otherwise he would have been killed long ago to reclaim his Devil Fruit power.
In the end, the second generation could only keep training him and use him as their punching bag.
The World Government and the Marines tried negotiation.
Prisoner exchanges. Devil Fruits offered in trade.
Brook shut it down the moment he learned who Sakazuki was.
A death order.
Sakazuki would never return to the Navy.
Not even if it meant killing him.
…
High above the sea, Brook rode Quetzalcoatl like a black omen. He reread the report one last time, then crushed it into powder in his palm.
"Toki," he murmured. "Let me see if you're like Otohime."
Brook's eyes narrowed.
Otohime carried Poseidon's bloodline. Brook had sensed it long ago. And that day, in Toki's body, he had felt another bloodline as well, one tied to the one who made the promise with Zunesha, or the one who ruled the Elephant Lord.
Otherwise, how could Kozuki Momonosuke command Zunesha?
And how could Zunesha respond with that kind of respect?
Brook's expression twisted.
"And speaking of Otohime," he snapped, "you're really going to marry her to Neptune? Damn it, no. Absolutely not."
He spat the words like poison.
He did not care how Poseidon was born, but the thought of Otohime becoming frail after laying Poseidon's egg, bones breaking if she exerted herself, made his stomach turn.
Damn Joy Boy.
Brook's face went cold.
He wanted to overthrow the World Government before Straw Hat Luffy and Poseidon Shirahoshi were even born. Whether those so called chosen figures existed or not did not matter.
He would seize fate by the throat and choke it.
…
Not far from Wano, on a small island, a woman with emerald green hair had been searching for ships bound toward the country.
She carried a mission from the past.
She had come to Wano, eight hundred years later.
Yet the islanders kept saying someone would come pick her up soon.
It made no sense.
How could anyone recognize her after eight hundred years?
She also noticed the way they looked at her, the strange excitement, the careful distance. It made her grip her sword tighter. She had already wasted two days.
Today she would find a boat.
Today she would escape.
Because these people were lying.
She did not know anyone in this era. Did they think she was stupid?
Toki stood on the beach, eyes fixed on the sea, waiting for a passing ship.
Behind her, villagers watched the green haired swordswoman with a high bounty like hungry gamblers watching a prize fight.
If they waited until the leader of the Hell Pirates arrived to collect her, their village would receive a reward big enough to change their lives.
Then the sky darkened.
A huge flying beast tore through the clouds, rushing toward the island like a storm given claws.
Toki stumbled back into the forest in fear.
The villagers, on the other hand, lit up with excitement, as if they had just seen a god descend.
--------------
Quetzalcoatl plunged from the clouds, then snapped back into the Seven Star Demon Sword in midair. Brook landed cleanly on the shore, and his Observation Haki spread out like an invisible tide.
The villagers swarmed toward him and dropped to their knees, faces flushed with worship. This was Brook, the New World's ruler, the man who had unified the sea.
"Lord Brook!"
They shouted it like a prayer, babbling about joining the Hell Pirates, about sending their children to become his disciples, about fortunes that would fall from the sky the moment his shadow touched their village.
Brook did not even glance at them.
"Where's the woman?" he asked.
His Haki had already found her. A heartbeat hiding in the trees.
"Lord Brook, she's in the forest!" the village chief blurted, practically trembling with excitement. "We waited just like you said!"
To him, Brook appearing in person meant only one thing.
The bounty was guaranteed.
"Good," Brook said, amused. "Collect your reward from the nearest Hell Pirates branch."
He froze a small sword in his palm and handed it to the chief. The blade was pale, cold, and filled with Underworld ghost energy, an unmistakable mark no one could fake.
It was also temporary.
Ten days at most, then it would dissolve into nothing.
The chief received it like a holy relic. "Thank you, my lord!"
Brook stepped past the kneeling crowd and walked straight into the forest.
Deep inside, Toki stiffened. She had not expected to meet a monster like this only two days after arriving in this era.
That transforming beast, that pressure, that presence… she had only ever felt something similar from the highest figures of the Great Kingdom.
This man was no weaker than Lord Joy Boy.
No weaker than the detestable leader of the Twenty Kings.
Her fingers tightened on her sword as she backed away, mind racing. Enemy? Ally? How did he know the time and place she arrived?
Then his voice reached her, cheerful and sharp.
"Toki. Come out already," Brook called. "I'm the one you're looking for. And Wano is my territory now."
Toki's eyes narrowed. She stepped out slowly, blade angled, posture wary. He was not wearing Wano clothing. He was not from there.
That made her more cautious, not less.
"Who are you?" she demanded. "Are you from Wano?"
A faint light flickered across her body, as if she could vanish at any moment.
Brook's eyes suddenly shifted.
"Hey," he said brightly, staring past her shoulder, "Joy Boy, you're here too?"
Toki whipped her head around in shock.
Nothing.
The instant she realized she had been tricked, the light on her body flared again. She tried to force her power awake, desperate to leap forward in time and escape.
A voice slid into her ear, close enough to freeze her blood.
"Now that you're here, you're not leaving."
She spun, but Brook was already there.
Click.
Seastone cuffs locked around her wrists, and the light inside her vanished as if someone had snuffed out a candle. Her strength collapsed. Her knees buckled, and she fell into Brook's arms like a doll.
Her eyes widened in disbelief.
"Who are you?" she rasped. "Why are you arresting me? Is this Wano seastone?"
Brook held her easily, as if she weighed nothing.
"My name is Brook. I rule the New World, and I rule Wano." His smile was calm, almost polite. "And yes, these are Wano seastone cuffs. Don't even think about fleeing through time."
He looked down at the cuffs, thoughtful.
"But you're too weak," he added. "This is sixty percent purity. It's crushing you. I'll have Wano make a lower grade set. Strong enough to suppress your ability, weak enough to let you move."
Toki's face twisted, furious and helpless at once.
"That's impossible," she spat. "Wano has always been ruled by the Kozuki. How could you be its ruler!"
Brook lifted an eyebrow, like she had said something cute.
"Every Kozuki left in Wano works under me now," he said. "I told you, the New World is mine. What do you think Wano can do to me?"
The Seven Star Demon Sword became Quetzalcoatl again and surged forward, tearing through the sky toward Wano at full speed.
Brook adjusted Toki in his arms without effort.
She was soft.
Almost absurdly so.
His fingers pressed into her side once, twice, as if testing whether she was real. Toki's cheeks instantly flushed red, her anger snapping into embarrassment.
Brook chuckled. "Still alive, huh."
Toki's blush drained as another thought struck her like a blade.
"Are you… a descendant of the Twenty Kings?" she whispered. "Have they taken Wano too?"
Fear flooded her eyes. Eight hundred years. Had everything already fallen?
Brook snorted.
"I'm not one of the Twenty Kings. I'm a pirate." His tone turned casual, like he was talking about the weather. "But yes, I took Wano."
He continued as if he were describing a meal.
"I also dug up Pluton. Unfortunately, I used Pluton to ram Uranus." He shrugged. "Now Pluton is debris."
For Toki, it was a catastrophe.
Her mind detonated.
Pluton, gone.
Wano, occupied by pirates.
Then what of Joy Boy's mission?
What of the promised savior?
What of the future that was supposed to break the Twenty Kings?
Her lips trembled. "What… what is the world like now, under the rule of the Twenty Kings?"
Her voice was hollow.
She did not even know what she was supposed to do anymore. She had become a prisoner. Her mission had failed. Her purpose had been ripped out of her hands with one pair of cuffs.
Brook smiled, watching her carefully, scanning her body with soul power, life detection, and Observation Haki again and again.
The energy inside her was staggering.
No wonder she could leap across eight hundred years like it was a puddle. No wonder she could still chat cheerfully with human traffickers afterward.
And yet later, after giving birth to Momonosuke and Hiyori, she only managed to send people twenty years forward before dying beside Oden.
Was it because she could not teleport herself anymore?
Or because once her mission was fulfilled, she had no reason to keep living?
Brook's smile sharpened.
"It's… tolerable," he said. "People survive. But slavery is everywhere, and wars never stop."
Then his eyes narrowed, predatory.
"Tell me something useful," he continued. "How do you make Zunesha obey? Or do you know the one who made that promise?"
Toki glared up at him, rage breaking through her despair.
"You want to control Zunesha?" she hissed. "You really are a bad person!"
Brook's laugh echoed through the sky as Quetzalcoatl raced toward Wano, carrying a captive from eight hundred years ago, and a storm of questions that would not let the world rest.
<><><><><>
[Check Out My Patreon For +50 Advance Chapters On All My Fanfics!]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]
[Every 100 Power Stones = +1 Bonus Chapter]
[Join Our Discord Community For Updates & Events]
[https://discord.gg/MntqcdpRZ9]