Ancient Lunar City – Birka.
Inside the ruins, countless mechanical soldiers with a spark of intelligence moved tirelessly. Dr. Vegapunk's eyes gleamed with excitement. For the first time, he felt as though he had found the perfect research assistants.
Capone Bege had already taken a group of these machines for himself, shaping them into his own mafia-style gunner squad. They neither feared death nor required food, water, or rest—only electricity. Even when their limbs or heads were destroyed, they could repair themselves. To him, these were the definition of perfect soldiers.
"Souta Kiryuu! Look at those murals!" Bonney's voice carried her excitement as she pointed toward the walls. "It's true! The people of Skypiea really are connected to the people of the moon!"
Her eyes sparkled as she eagerly examined the murals within Birka, discovering long-lost knowledge. Some even depicted complete production lines for mechanical soldiers.
"Kiryuu!" Trafalgar Law's eyes widened as he inspected the stone walls. "These stones used to carve the murals… they're exactly like the ones used for the Poneglyphs! Completely indestructible!"
"Fufufu~ So, the lunar races really were tied to the Mink Tribe after all?" Lafitte chuckled as he traced one of the ancient drawings. The murals depicted animal-like beings, much like the Minks, channeling their own electricity to power the city and recharge its mechanical soldiers.
"It looks like, in ancient times, there were three main races on the moon," Bonney explained enthusiastically. "See here? The rabbit-eared, ram-horned tribe—they're just like Enel's fifty divine soldiers! These are the ones who built the mechanical army. And here—the winged race! That's clearly the ancestors of the Skypieans. And then there are these—animal-like beings, just like the Minks."
Her voice trembled with excitement as if she had uncovered an eternal mystery.
"The Minks transform into their Sulong form under the full moon… it makes sense they'd have some ancient link to the moon itself," Law muttered, stroking the short beard on his chin as he remembered Bepo's terrifying transformation into a Moon Lion.
Souta Kiryuu ran his hand along the impossibly hard stone. The Kozuki Clan, the Minks, the Great Kingdom, and these lunar beings… their histories were tangled in ways no one had fully unraveled.
Could it be that the technique of carving indestructible Poneglyphs was passed down to the Kozuki Clan by the people of the moon? And those so-called "space pirates" resembling the Minks—were they in fact descendants of the ancient lunar Mink Tribe?
"Speculation won't help us now. Focus on assisting Dr. Vegapunk. Gather anything useful and prepare to move out. We won't be staying here long," Souta ordered, snapping himself out of the maze of thoughts.
"Yes, Captain!" his crew responded in unison. They quickly followed Vegapunk, collecting valuable relics and loading them into Bege's internal fortress.
"If only we could forge weapons from this stone…" Bonney muttered under her breath. "Neither Haki nor Devil Fruit powers could destroy it. Who managed to cut these stones into blocks, let alone carve words into them?"
Souta's sharp ears caught her words, and his eyes narrowed with intrigue. If they discovered how to cut and shape such stone, wouldn't that mean they could forge countless Supreme Grade Blades, rivaling even the legendary Black Blade: Yoru?
These stones had withstood even Enel's full lightning strikes without a scratch. Not even Imu, the Five Elders, Pirate King Roger, or the Four Emperors had been able to destroy the Poneglyphs. If the technology to cut them truly existed, it was no mere craft—it was a divine art.
"Everyone, search for records, tools, anything that explains the technique for cutting this stone. That knowledge may well be our greatest treasure here," Souta commanded. His ambition flared. If he could master this craft, he could design and forge weapons of unmatched power.
Originally, he had planned that once his Six Paths of the Dragon were complete, he would seize the cursed blade Shichiseiken from Asuka Island to serve as one of his seraphic weapons. But now, if he could harness this lunar stone, he could forge his own supreme weapons instead.
The crew spread out, investigating every corner of the lunar city. What they discovered stunned even Souta himself. The lunar people had dug deep into the moon's core. The stones were not just any material—they were fragments of the moon's very heart.
"Unbelievable…" Souta whispered. "These stones… they're pieces of the lunar core itself."
It all made sense now. No wonder they were impervious even to Conqueror's Haki-infused strikes. They weren't ordinary minerals—they were the essence of the moon.
And no wonder the moon had become barren and desolate, stripped of its resources and energy. The lunar people had dug too deep, hollowing out their own home until it was on the brink of collapse. In the end, they were forced to migrate—to the Blue Sea, to the Sky Islands, to other worlds.
Perhaps even the so-called space pirates were simply remnants of those who had fled to other satellites, returning in search of lost technology.
"So the Poneglyph stones… this is their origin," Vegapunk breathed in awe as they reached the deepest chamber of Birka. "The lunar people mined them directly from the moon's core."
"They sure loved to dig," Souta smirked. "No wonder the Kozuki Clan seems connected. They hid the red Poneglyphs deep beneath Wano for generations. Like ancestors, like descendants."
But then Vegapunk's eyes caught something else—an enormous machine, incomplete but unmistakable in purpose. "This cutting device… it's missing its blade," he said gravely. "That blade was forged from something harder than even the lunar core itself. Perhaps a fragment of a planetary nucleus… or a divine metal beyond anything we know."
"And where is it now?" Souta asked, eyes narrowing.
"If my theory is right… the lunar people carried it to the Blue Sea. Whoever carved the Poneglyphs still holds it," Vegapunk replied, excitement surging in his voice. "That blade isn't just a tool—it's a god-forged weapon, more powerful than even the Supreme Grade Blades."
Souta's lips curled into a smile. "So, to shape these stones, I'll need to find that cutting blade." His mind immediately leapt to Wano, and one name burned into his thoughts: Kozuki Sukiyaki. If that man truly possessed such a weapon, Souta would claim it for himself.
"Let's not waste time. The plan to forge weapons from lunar stone is on hold until I find that blade," Souta declared. "Once it's mine, this world will see weapons beyond imagination."
In his mind, the blade was already no longer a tool for history—it would become the foundation of his dominion.