Chapter 64: The Water 7 Vacation

With Victor’s grueling training regimen temporarily suspended and the two captains currently flying into the jaws of a Yonko’s territory, the mood in the Franky Family’s dismantling yards shifted into a bizarre, tense sort of holiday.

The Titan’s Glory was masterfully camouflaged beneath mountains of rusted scrap metal and heavy industrial tarps, completely invisible to the bustling city above.

For the first few days, Jasmine officially declared a mandatory vacation, splitting the combined crews into smaller groups to explore the city of water while keeping their profiles low.

Jasmine, Robin, and Perona took on chaperone duties for Mayday, Gammamon, and Palmon.

The trio of women fully leaned into their roles as the “cool aunts,” guiding the kids through the vibrant, sun-drenched upper markets of Water 7.

“Look!

Look at the boats!” Mayday cheered, leaning eagerly over the stone railing of a canal bridge.

“Those are Yagara Bulls, sweetie,” Jasmine smiled, keeping a protective hand hovering near the back of the six-year-old’s shirt.

“They help people get around the city.”

“Can we ride one?

Please?!” Gammamon begged, his tail wagging excitedly.

Palmon nodded enthusiastically beside him, her leafy vines clapping together.

“I don’t see why not,” Robin chuckled softly.

“It is a vacation, after all.”

They rented a large, double-seater Yagara Bull.

Mayday was absolutely thrilled, trailing her hand through the cool water as the friendly creature swam them through the beautiful commercial districts.

Perona, sitting in the back, had completely bankrupted a local bakery, floating a half-dozen boxes of ghost-shaped pastries around her head with her Hollows.

As they walked through a crowded plaza later that afternoon, a sudden, terrified scream echoed over the rushing water.

A local toddler, stretching to reach a dropped toy, had leaned far too far over the edge of a high pedestrian bridge.

He lost his footing, tumbling over the stone railing and plummeting toward the deep, fast-moving canal below.

Before Jasmine or Robin could even move, Mayday’s spider-sense kicked in.

Moving with a terrifying, innate agility that completely defied gravity, the six-year-old leaped off the bridge.

She shot a thin, incredibly strong strand of webbing from her wrist, sticking it to the underside of the stone archway.

She swung like a pendulum over the rushing canal, caught the screaming toddler flawlessly out of mid-air, utilized her forward momentum to back-flip off the opposite canal wall, and landed perfectly on her feet back on the street, safely setting the crying child down.

The locals in the plaza completely stopped in their tracks, staring at the little girl in absolute awe.

Jasmine quickly grabbed Mayday’s hand, offering an awkward, apologetic wave to the crowd.

“Uh…

she eats a lot of vegetables!

Very healthy!

Come on, May, let’s go get ice cream!”

They hastily ducked into a side street, Robin hiding a soft laugh behind her hand while Gammamon and Palmon cheered for Mayday’s heroics.

Elsewhere in the city, the Heart Pirates were having significantly less success blending in.

Bepo, Shachi, and Penguin had dressed in civilian clothes, trying to act like normal tourists.

However, their imposing pirate physiques and Bepo’s status as a walking, talking polar bear made them prime targets for the local shipwrights.

Within an hour, they had been roped into helping a group of foremen carry massive, thousand-pound Adam Wood timber logs across the shipyard docks.

“I’m sorry!” Bepo cried out, sweating profusely as he hauled a massive log on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry I look so reliable!”

“Stop apologizing and lift, Bepo!” Penguin groaned under the weight.

Things escalated when Brook decided to set up on a street corner near the Blue Station to play a little background music.

The skeleton, disguised under a heavy cloak and a fake mustache (which did absolutely nothing to hide the fact that he had no skin), pulled out his violin.

His music was so incredibly soulful, so moving and technically flawless, that within ten minutes, he accidentally drew a massive, cheering crowd of hundreds of citizens.

Even a small herd of stray Yagara Bulls had pulled themselves onto the cobblestone just to listen to the melody.

“He’s drawing too much attention!” Shachi panicked, spotting a pair of Marine patrols pushing through the crowd.

“Grab the skeleton and run!” Penguin yelled.

The Heart Pirates sprinted into the crowd, tackled Brook, and hastily dragged the protesting musician down a dark alleyway, completely abandoning their timber-hauling duties.

By the fifth day, the relaxing vacation came to an abrupt end.

The crew was gathered around a campfire in the scrap yard when Iceburg’s pet mouse, Tyrannosaurus, suddenly dropped from the rafters, landing gracefully on Bepo’s head.

The mouse dropped a small rolled-up note into Jasmine’s hands.

The prototype is ready.

The entire crew immediately mobilized, sneaking through the hidden tunnels beneath the city until they reached Mayor Iceburg’s heavily reinforced, underground testing bay.

Franky was standing in the center of the room, completely covered in grease and soot, grinning like a madman.

Resting on a steel workbench in front of him was the prototype.

It was a bulky, two-handed hand-cannon, roughly the size and weight of a sawed-off shotgun.

It looked like a chaotic, beautiful blend of ancient magic and crude sci-fi engineering.

“Behold!” Franky declared, striking a SUPER pose.

“The Dimensional Portal Gun Mark One!”

“It’s incredible,” Jasmine breathed, stepping up to the bench.

“Does it work?”

“Only one way to find out,” Iceburg said, adjusting his suit jacket.

“We need a test fire.

Just aim at the far wall of the testing bay and try to open a portal right there.

We’ll keep it localized for safety.”

“I’ll do it,” Jasmine volunteered, picking up the heavy weapon with both hands.

It hummed aggressively in her grip, the Sun Wood buzzing with stored energy.

The crew backed away, hiding behind the reinforced blast shields.

Gammamon covered his eyes with his claws, peeking through the gaps.

Jasmine took a deep breath.

She aimed the heavy barrel at the far corner of the massive underground bay, perfectly visualizing that exact spot in her mind.

She pulled the trigger.

WHIRRRRR.

The internal motorized chamber roared to life.

The Sling Ring began to spin at a terrifying speed.

The Sun Wood along the barrel flared with brilliant, blinding light as it fed its supernatural energy into the magical artifact.

Suddenly, a massive, sparking ring of golden fire burst from the barrel!

The sparks expanded rapidly in the air, tearing a hole in the fabric of space.

Looking through the golden gateway, the crew could see the other side of the testing bay—in fact, Jasmine could see her own back through the portal.

“It works!” Perona cheered.

But a second later, the gun let out a violent, mechanical shriek.

The rotational friction of spinning the brass ring physically was simply too intense.

The metal chamber began to glow red-hot.

Thick, acrid black smoke poured out of the gun’s vents, and the golden portal across the room began to violently flicker and destabilize, spitting dangerous sparks across the concrete floor.

“Shut it off!

It’s overheating!” Iceburg yelled over the noise.

Jasmine immediately released the trigger.

The ring stopped spinning, and the portal snapped shut, vanishing into thin air.

Jasmine coughed, waving the black smoke away from her face, the heavy gun hissing violently in her hands.

Franky didn’t look discouraged in the slightest.

In fact, his cyborg eye was whirring with pure, unadulterated engineering joy.

He snatched the smoking gun from Jasmine’s hands, already pulling out a wrench.

“The friction threshold of the brass is lower than I calculated,” Franky muttered rapidly to himself.

“I need localized cooling jackets.

A frictionless magnetic bearing system to spin the ring without physical contact.

Yes!

Give me twenty-four hours!”

True to his word, the eccentric cyborg arrived at the scrap yard on the evening of the sixth day.

“Mark Two,” Franky announced, setting the finalized gun on the table in the galley of the Titan’s Glory.

The gun was vastly more streamlined.

It was now a sleek, elegant heavy blaster.

It featured metallic exhaust vents and a complex, internal cryogenic cooling loop that ran directly alongside the Sun Wood casing to instantly absorb and nullify any excess heat generated by the magic.

“Let’s try this again,” Jasmine said, picking up the perfectly balanced weapon.

The entire crew held their breath as Jasmine aimed the gun at the opposite wall of the ship’s galley.

She closed her eyes, visualizing the space right next to the refrigerator, and pulled the trigger.

This time, the Sling Ring spun silently on a cushion of magnetic levitation.

The Sun Wood glowed a warm, steady yellow.

The internal cryogenic tubes hissed softly, keeping the metal ice-cold.

A massive, perfectly stable, golden-sparking gateway bloomed silently in the middle of the room.

There was no smoke, no metallic shrieking, and no overheating.

Through the gateway, they could see the other side of the galley.

Bepo cautiously stepped forward.

He reached his furry hand straight through the golden sparks…

and tapped Penguin on the shoulder from across the room.

Penguin jumped, letting out a startled yelp.

“It’s entirely stable,” Iceburg noted, deeply impressed.

The galley erupted.

“SUPER!” Franky roared, weeping massive, cartoonish tears of pure joy over his engineering masterpiece.

Brook immediately pulled out his violin, launching into a fast-paced, celebratory victory shanty.

Gammamon, Palmon, and Mayday grabbed hands, dancing in a joyful circle around the stable, golden portal.

Robin clapped her hands, and even the usually stoic Heart Pirates let out loud cheers.

They had done it.

They had successfully built a functional dimensional gateway machine.

But by the evening of the seventh day, the celebratory adrenaline had completely faded, replaced by a heavy, suffocating anxiety.

The Portal Gun was safely locked inside the Titan’s Glory maximum-security vault.

The mechanical hurdle was cleared.

Now, the only thing they were missing was the memory.

The crew gathered on the open deck of the camouflaged ship, sitting in the quiet dark of the scrap yard.

The festive mood was entirely gone.

Mayday had exhausted herself from playing and was currently fast asleep, curled up securely against Robin’s side under a thick blanket.

Gammamon and Palmon were sleeping nearby, using Bepo’s incredibly soft fur as a giant mattress.

Jasmine sat on the wooden railing, her legs dangling over the edge, staring intensely up at the cloudy night sky.

Brook stood next to her, leaning on his cane, while Perona hovered silently above the mast.

“They should have been back by now,” Shachi whispered nervously, breaking the heavy silence.

“Totto Land isn’t exactly around the corner,” Penguin replied, though his voice lacked its usual confidence.

“And they’re dealing with Big Mom.

If…

if they get caught…”

He didn’t finish the sentence.

Everyone knew what happened to people who crossed Charlotte Linlin.

“They won’t get caught,” Jasmine said firmly, though her hands were gripping the wooden railing tight enough to splinter the Adam Wood.

“Victor has Haki reserves like a monster, and your Captain can teleport.

They are the ultimate stealth team.”

“Even the best stealth teams can be undone by a single mistake,” Robin noted softly, gently brushing a stray lock of hair from Mayday’s sleeping face.

“And Big Mom’s territory is specifically designed to catch mistakes.”

Jasmine looked back up at the sky.

The clouds shifted slightly, obscuring the moon.

They had the machine.

They had the power source.

But if Law and Victor didn’t make it out of Totto Land alive with Charlotte Pudding’s genetic blueprint, Mayday would be trapped in this war-torn universe forever, and the multiversal predators would eventually come knocking.

The crew shared a tense, agonizing moment of collective anxiety, settling in for a long, quiet vigil in the dark, praying to see the silhouette of the Sky-Rift Roc break through the clouds.

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