Story Quote: "The sea forgets nothing. Even its dead remember who touched them last."
-The Ship Graveyard-
When dawn broke, the fog thinned to streaks of pearl mist.The Fumigator drifted through the still waters, its hull newly patched, its crew running silent.No one slept well.Even Mira, usually the loudest in the mornings, worked without a word, her eyes constantly flicking to the horizon.
Kairo stood at the prow, coat flapping in the soft wind, his gaze locked on the distance.There, barely visible through the mist, loomed a shape they all remembered from the night before — a massive derelict ship, motionless now.
"It's not moving," Kino said, checking the spyglass."Neither are the corpses," Aria added, scanning the wrecks."Maybe whatever was driving them… sleeps," Rumi suggested quietly.
Kairo nodded.
"Then we'll move while it does."
They launched the longboat with a skeleton crew — Kairo, Aria, Rumi, and Jett — leaving Kino and Mira aboard to guard the ship.The sea was strangely calm, the only sound the dip of oars cutting the surface.
As they drew closer, the wreck came into full view.It dwarfed every other ship in the graveyard — a black galleon with a hull carved from oak so dark it looked scorched. The sails hung in tatters, but its mast still stood proud, impaled through the ribs of another vessel beneath it.
"You think anyone's still aboard?" Jett muttered."If they are," Aria said, loading her rifle, "they've been waiting a long time."
Rumi ran a gloved hand along the side as they drew near.
"No barnacles. No moss. Not even rot.""That's impossible," Jett said."Not for the Grand Line," Kairo replied.
He could feel it — faint but unmistakable. A pulse.Not of life, but of will.
They climbed aboard through a breach in the hull. The wood was smooth and unnaturally warm beneath their hands.Inside, the air was still and heavy.Everything — ropes, barrels, even furniture — was preserved, as if time had stopped the moment the ship went under.
Rumi lit a small lamp. Its glow revealed murals painted along the corridor walls — men in naval coats surrounding a chest marked with the emblem of the World Government.Each man was smiling.In the final panel, the sea swallowed them whole.
"Looks like they were transporting something valuable," Aria said."Or cursed," Jett muttered.
They moved deeper. The floor creaked, not from rot but from something shifting beneath.Rumi knelt, pressing a hand to the planks.
"Captain… there's a hum in the wood. Faint, but steady. Like a heartbeat."
Kairo looked toward the shadows.
"Stay close."
They found the captain's quarters mostly intact. A large desk stood overturned, papers scattered but perfectly dry.Rumi picked one up — the ink had barely faded.
"It's a shipping manifest," she said. "West Blue origin… destination: Sabaody Archipelago.""So it was a delivery route," Aria said. "For what?""It doesn't say. The cargo box number's redacted."
Kairo scanned the room until his eyes landed on a sealed crate wedged beneath the collapsed ceiling. The lock had long been broken. Inside lay only splinters — and a black stain, shaped like a fruit that had rotted away centuries ago.
He crouched, brushing his fingers along the mark.It still radiated faint energy — a whisper of the unnatural.
The fruit didn't vanish, he realized. It was consumed.
He straightened slowly.
"Whatever this ship carried… it didn't lose it. It became it."
Rumi frowned.
"Captain?""This ship," he said quietly. "It's alive."
A sudden crack echoed through the hull. The floor beneath them trembled.Aria whirled around, rifle ready.
"Something's moving below deck."
They followed the sound into the hold.There, among piles of gold-trimmed crates and skeletons of sailors frozen mid-motion, glowed faint lights — small orbs embedded in skulls and ribs, pulsing faintly like dying embers.
Rumi crouched beside one, transfixed.
"Same energy signature as that Sea King's core.""They're connected," Kairo murmured. "The same force."
One of the lights flickered, then went dark.The corpse beside it slumped motionless.
"Daylight," Rumi realized. "They weaken when the sun rises.""Then we work fast," Kairo said. "Before the night wakes them again."
They searched the rest of the ship quickly but methodically. The crew's quarters held skeletons sitting upright at tables, as if waiting for orders.In the cargo hold, chains were fused into the wood — not rusted, but melted, like metal poured into flesh.
Aria shuddered.
"Whatever happened here, it wasn't natural.""It was desperation," Kairo said quietly. "They were carrying something they didn't understand. When the storm came, they must've tried to save it."
He looked toward the sealed walls that still glowed faintly with energy.
"And instead, they damned themselves."
By the time they returned to the Fumigator, the sun was dipping low. The fog was already returning.
Kino met them at the rail.
"Anything worth salvaging?""Plenty of materials," Jett said. "Nothing I'd call 'safe.'"
Mira frowned.
"Then why do I feel like you brought something back with you?"
Kairo glanced at the distant silhouette of the black ship, its sails barely visible in the growing twilight.For a moment, he could swear its mast leaned slightly — as if watching them leave.
"Because maybe we did," he said. "And when the sun goes down… we'll find out."