Chapter 104: The Raijin Cave and the Siege of Grove 13

The surface of Raijin Island was a chaotic, unending nightmare of blinding light and deafening thunder. To avoid the perpetual lightning storms that rained down from the heavens, Victor had anchored the Titan’s Glory deep inside a massive, insulated cavern carved into the island’s coastal cliffs.

The air inside the dark cave suddenly hummed with displaced energy. A crackling, glowing spatial tear violently tore open on the rocky floor.

Gammamon bounded through first, his three small horns gleaming in the portal’s light. He immediately trotted over to Victor, pulling the sleek, metallic Portal Gun from his satchel and handing it back to his Warlord. “Mission accomplished, boss! Coast is clear!”

A second later, Jasmine and Koala stepped through the portal, instantly bypassing the Calm Belt and the Red Line to arrive safely in the New World. The spatial tear snapped shut behind them with a sharp pop.

“Jas!” Victor called out, stepping down from the helm.

Jasmine didn’t hesitate. She ran forward and pulled her brother into a tight, relieved embrace. But as she pulled away, her eyes drifted past Victor to the young man standing awkwardly near the mast. He was shirtless, wearing an orange hat, and looking entirely out of his element.

“Ace,” Jasmine breathed, her eyes welling with tears.

Ace stiffened. Growing up in the lawless forests of Mount Colubo alongside Luffy and Sabo, Ace knew how to hunt giant tigers, fight grown men, and steal treasure. But he had absolutely no idea what to do with a sister. He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, offering a stiff, clumsy wave. “Uh… hey. It’s… nice to meet you?”

Jasmine let out a watery laugh, crossed the deck, and threw her arms around him in a fierce hug. Ace froze like a statue for a second, his hands hovering awkwardly in the air, before slowly, tentatively wrapping his arms around her.

Standing a few paces away, Koala watched the reunion with a soft, bittersweet smile. Beside her, Law leaned against the railing, his spotted hat pulled low. For a brief, silent moment, the Revolutionary officer and the Surgeon of Death shared a profound look of mutual understanding. Both of them had spent years believing they were effectively orphans, devoid of any true family. Yet, looking at Victor, Jasmine, and Ace, they realized they had stumbled into an unconditional support system.

“Koala,” Victor said gently, breaking the moment. He gestured toward the lounge. “Come inside. We need to brief you.”

Sitting at the center table, Victor and Jasmine explained the horrifying news to Koala. She already knew the siblings had arrived from a different dimension, but the revelation of transmigration made the color drain from her face.

“So some of our cousins… they’re here?” Koala asked, her voice trembling. “But in the bodies of New World rookies?”

“Yes,” Jasmine said, her hands tightly clasped. “Which means they died back home. We don’t know how, and we don’t know why. But right now, they are trapped in Sabaody, and Aliester is hunting them.”

“Then we don’t waste another second,” Koala said, her eyes hardening with sudden, fierce Revolutionary resolve.

Victor nodded. He stepped out onto the deck and raised his hands, his eyes glowing with green energy. He took direct control of the colossal Sky-Roc Jade Clone waiting outside the cave.

The massive emerald thunderbird let out a piercing shriek. Its giant talons gripped the reinforced anchor points on the Titan’s Glory. With a single, hurricane-force beat of its wings, the Sky-Roc ripped the galleon out of the cave and hauled it into the storm.

They soared above the lightning, banking hard south. Within a few hours of relentless, magical flight, the towering, impassable crimson wall of the Red Line loomed before us. The Sky-Roc shrieked, pulling the Titan’s Glory into a steep, freezing vertical climb. We crested the apex of the world, leaving the New World behind, and plunged into a terrifyingly fast dive toward the Sabaody Archipelago to visit Shakky and find our family.

[Sabaody Archipelago – Lawless Zone, Grove 13]

The quiet, tense planning inside the tavern was abruptly stopped by the sound of marching boots, the clacking of rifles, and a booming, mechanically amplified voice echoing through the mangrove roots.

“Attention inside the tavern. This area is completely surrounded by the Marines. Resistance is futile.”

Ideo, Ulti, and Page One froze. They kicked their chairs back and cautiously pushed open the swinging tavern doors.

The entire lawless grove had been turned into a kill box. Hundreds of heavily armed Marines stood in tight formations, their rifles trained squarely on the tavern. Elite snipers were positioned in the high branches of the Yarukiman mangroves. To the left stood Rear Admiral Hototoguisu, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword. Surrounding the perimeter were a dozen elite Marine Captains.

But standing at the very front was Commodore Aliester.

He was wearing his silver, high-tech Peacemaker helmet. His BusoRenkin weapon hummed with energy. Thanks to his Battery-Battery Devil Fruit, his body was acting as an infinite capacitor. Raw, crackling bio-electricity coursed underneath his skin, feeding massive amounts of power into his muscles and his armor.

Aliester stepped forward, his voice amplified through the silver helmet. “To the crews of the Destruction Cannon and the sibling duo, I am offering a one-time deal. Drop your weapons and walk away from your captains right now. You will be given a clean chit, your bounties will be permanently revoked, and you will receive safe passage into the New World. Stay, and you will be executed.”

The cousins looked back at their crews. The pirates they had sailed with, fought with, and bled with were staring at the overwhelming Marine force in absolute terror.

“Captain…” Ideo’s first mate muttered, dropping his sword, his voice shaking. “I’m sorry. We signed up for pirate stuff. Not a war against the Marines and a Commodore. We can’t win this.”

“Didi, I’m so sorry,” one of Ulti’s navigators wept, backing away with his hands up. “Please don’t hate us.”

Within thirty seconds, both crews completely abandoned them. They walked past the Marine lines, taking the Government’s deal, leaving Ideo, Ulti, and Page One standing completely alone on the muddy grass of Grove 13.

Ulti spat on the ground. “Cowards.”

Page One stepped forward, shifting slightly into his hybrid Spinosaurus form. His eyes locked on Aliester with absolute, venomous hatred. He didn’t speak in the common tongue; he spat the words in their native Hindi, his voice dripping with malice.

“You think a fancy silver helmet makes you a god, you arrogant prick?” Page One roared. “We died back there because of you, Ali! And now we’re going to rip your head off and mount it on this bar!”

Aliester’s posture went completely rigid, but not out of recognition. Pure, unadulterated hatred radiated from him.

“Do you think a few Konkani slurs and Hindi phrases are going to break me?” Aliester snarled, his voice vibrating with rage. “I know Costa is a manipulative bastard, but brainwashing rookies to play ghosts? Teaching you my native language just to mess with my head? That is a pathetic new low.”

“He didn’t brainwash us, you idiot!” Ideo yelled, his Longarm joints popping. “We’re telling you the truth! And we’re going to put you in the ground!”

“The truth is that you are Victor Costa’s minions!” Aliester roared. “And I am going to erase you. All units, execute them!”

The grove erupted into absolute chaos.

Ideo didn’t wait. He lunged forward with blinding speed, throwing a devastating, explosive punch square at the Commodore’s chest. Aliester brought his arms up, activating his forcefield, but the sheer force behind Ideo’s Longarm martial arts caused the silver barrier to violently flare and crack, sending Aliester skidding backward into a mangrove root.

“You’re dead!” Ideo yelled, pressing the advantage with a flurry of concussive blows that forced Aliester to use Soru just to evade.

To the left, Ulti fully transformed into her Pachycephalosaurus hybrid form. She charged like a freight train, launching her signature Ulti-Mortar headbutt directly at Rear Admiral Hototoguisu. The Rear Admiral tried to sidestep, but Ulti was terrifyingly fast. Her horned head smashed directly into Hototoguisu’s shoulder, shattering the Marine’s epaulet, drawing blood, and sending the Rear Admiral stumbling into the dirt.

Page One was in his full Spinosaurus form, roaring as he thrashed wildly. He snapped his massive jaws onto a Marine Captain’s shield, shattering the dense steel into shrapnel and hurling the man into his own squad, breaking ribs and scattering the frontline.

The cousins were fighting like cornered beasts, matching the Marines blow for blow. But for every Marine they staggered, two more took their place.

Despite the ferocious power of the rookies, the Marines were deeply disciplined. Hototoguisu wiped the blood from her shoulder and barked orders. The remaining Captains coordinated their strikes, using heavily armed riot formations and Rankyaku air-blades to slowly corral the three cousins. They utilized sheer numbers to force Ideo, Ulti, and Page One back-to-back into the center of the muddy square.

“I’ve had enough of Costa’s parlor tricks!” Aliester declared, having recovered his footing.

Seeing the three rookies perfectly grouped together, Aliester hovered into the air using the Anti-Gravity function of his helmet. The silver faceplate glowed blindingly bright as he routed his massive bio-electric reserves directly into the helmet’s core, intending to incinerate all three of them in a single, catastrophic strike.

“Unibeam!”

A massive, concentrated pillar of energy erupted from Aliester’s helmet, aimed directly at the center of the cousins.

But just before the Unibeam struck, the sunlight over Grove 13 was violently blotted out.

With an earth-shaking roar, a colossal, three-headed Jade Dragon, a construct of pure, shimmering arcane energy resembling King Ghidorah, standing slightly taller than a multi-story building, slammed into the mud directly in front of the cousins.

Aliester’s devastating Unibeam struck the beast’s center chest. But the Jade Dragon didn’t shatter. It roared, its emerald scales glowing blindingly white as it completely absorbed the bio-electric beam into its own massive body, nullifying the attack entirely.

Before the Marines could even process the mythical beast, a deafening shriek pierced the sky. The colossal Sky-Roc descended, releasing its massive payload.

The Titan’s Glory dropped out of the sky, slamming into the center of the Marine blockade with the force of a meteor. The massive shockwave blasted outward, uprooting trees, shattering the Marine formations, and sending Captains flying into the air.

The heavy adam-wood boarding ramp slammed down into the mud, separating the battered cousins from Aliester and the Rear Admiral.

Standing at the absolute peak of the bow, looking down at the chaos, was Victor D. Costa.

His Warlord coat billowed wildly in the wind. His eyes were glowing with a terrifying, unhinged arcane fury. Beside him stood Jasmine, her massive alchemical hammer gripped tightly in both hands, crackling with volatile energy. On his other side was Koala, perfectly poised, a sphere of highly pressurized water swirling violently around her palms. Behind them stood Ace, wreathed in roaring flames, and Law, his hand resting on his unsheathed Nodachi.

Victor looked at the bleeding, betrayed forms of his cousins. Then, he locked eyes with Commodore Aliester. The Warlord’s aura flared, projecting a wave of Conqueror’s Haki so dense it cracked the very ground beneath the Marines’ feet.

“Aliester,” Victor’s voice boomed across the grove, cold and absolute. “Lower your weapons and step away from my family right now.”

Victor’s eyes narrowed, raw Warlord fury bleeding into the Hindi insult. “Apni aukat mein reh. If you fire one more shot… I won’t just take your rank. I will sink this entire archipelago to the bottom of the sea.”