The ocean was silent in the way only the deep sea could be. The Phantom Hunter's vessel, the Byakko, glided silently beyond the coral arches and bio-luminescent gardens of Fishman Island's outer sanctuary. Behind them, only the ghosts of battle remained — silent ruins of the CP agents that dared to tread too close to the truth.
Victor stood at the helm, his coat fluttering slightly under the controlled gusts of wind he generated around them. Robin sat on the edge of the deck, her legs dangling over the translucent dome of the island far below, the swirling hues of the deep sea casting pale light on her thoughtful face.
Her hands were clenched tightly in her lap.
"Are you alright?" Victor asked, his voice low as he joined her, sitting beside her on the edge.
Robin nodded once, but didn't look at him. "It's getting harder to believe… that we'll find answers without paying a price."
Victor stared out at the abyss.
"You didn't freeze back there," he said. "Even when the CP agents moved to kill you. You sensed them. You moved. You reacted."
Robin gave a hollow laugh. "Because I remembered what they did to my mother. To my friends. To the scholars. And I thought—if they lay a hand on what little I have left, I'll tear them apart."
She looked down at her own hands. "And I did. One of them died screaming with my arms crushing his ribs from twenty feet away. That power… it's terrifying, Victor."
Victor was silent for a long while before he spoke. "Power is terrifying, Robin. Especially when used with anger. But you used it to protect yourself. To live. There's no shame in surviving."
She finally looked at him.
"I hated how easy it was."
Victor's eyes met hers — firm, steady. "Then learn to control it. You've spent two years mastering it with your mind. Now guide it with your heart."
They sat in silence for several minutes, the ship humming softly as it pierced through the ocean's quiet belly.
Finally, Robin asked, "Where do we go now?"
Victor reached into his coat and pulled out the artifact they had barely managed to retrieve before the CP agents arrived: a shard of a fractured tablet. Not a Poneglyph, but something etched with ancient, weatherworn script.
Victor flipped it over, brushing dust from its ridges. "This shard came from the Sanctuary Ruins. The writing matches what you translated two weeks ago in Deadcurrent Atoll."
Robin leaned in, brow furrowed. "That's… Old Kingdom dialect. From the Void Century. But the symbols don't match any complete record."
Victor pulled out a second piece — one from months ago, recovered on a drifting ruin. "It matches this one."
Robin blinked. "They connect?"
He nodded. "And if I'm reading your notes correctly, when pieced together… they reference a site even deeper than Fishman Island."
Robin's eyes widened. "Deeper?"
"Yes. A tomb. A resting place. Buried under the sea floor, in what they call the 'Sunless Trench.'"
Robin drew in a sharp breath. She had read legends of it — a place so deep not even Sea Kings dared to tread. A place the World Government deemed impassable.
But if the Poneglyphs were buried there…
"It'll be crawling with World Government hounds," Robin said. "They'll know what we're after."
Victor smirked faintly. "Then we'll stop telling them where we're going."
Robin turned to him. "You mean—go dark?"
Victor stood, brushing off his coat. "The Byakko has what it needs. No Den Den Mushi signals. No wind trails. No presence. If we disappear from the ocean… we move where no one can follow."
Robin stood with him, heart pounding with a blend of anticipation and dread. "And if it's a trap?"
Victor's hand rested on the hilt of his blade. "Then we spring it."
Elsewhere – Mariejois
The Five Elders sat in their chamber of clouds and shadow, eyes scanning the report from Fishman Island.
"The Phantom Hunter resurfaced."
"And with the demon child in tow."
"Five Cipher Pol agents dead. Cleanly. Efficiently."
"None of the agents managed to transmit their findings before death."
The fifth elder, draped in plum silks, leaned back. "This man… he evades every file. Every trace. Not even Sengoku admitted to knowing him."
"And yet his techniques…" the elder with the long white beard murmured, "they reek of training far beyond a mere mercenary."
"The boy has teeth."
The bald elder set down the scroll. "Then perhaps it's time we remove them."
Silence followed.
Then the elder with the sword said, "Send CP-0. But not to engage. To shadow. Learn. Follow. And report."
"And what of the Emperors?" another asked.
"They too are watching. Let them. If this Phantom becomes a problem to them, they'll act."
"But if he's a harbinger of truth…"
"Then he is a greater danger than we feared."
Aboard the Byakko – Days Later
The Byakko hovered in a stretch of the Grand Line's deep sea channels, masked behind coral reefs and thermal currents. Beneath its hull, strange creatures swam — blind things with phosphorescent bones and jaws wider than their bodies.
Robin stood in the training chamber below deck, arms folded across her chest as her clone practiced a complex attack routine across the chamber. Hardened arms sprouted from walls, floors, even from the air, twisting in seamless unison.
Victor watched silently from the catwalk above.
Her control had become surgical. Every move deliberate. Every action fueled by resolve.
"She's becoming a hunter in her own right," Victor said quietly.
He stepped down as Robin dismissed her clones and looked up at him, chest heaving lightly.
"I want to learn something new," she said.
Victor tilted his head. "You already have."
Robin stepped closer. "No. I mean... how to be something else when I'm not fighting. I've spent so long surviving, fighting, training — but I don't know what it means to live."
Victor's expression softened. "What do you want to do?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe… learn to cook? Paint? Read something that isn't covered in blood?"
Victor chuckled. "You want a life."
Robin smiled faintly. "Yeah."
He glanced toward the port window. "Then we'll find it. After this. After the trench. After we know the truth."
She stepped closer. "And after that?"
He looked at her.
They didn't say anything.
Elsewhere – In the Skies Over Grand Line
A small crew of scouts flew through turbulent clouds on a glider-class vessel made for stealth. At their head, a woman with alabaster skin and eyes like ice stared through the spyglass toward the distant shimmer of distortion — the shimmer left behind when the Byakko moved at full wind.
She narrowed her eyes.
"There you are…"
She lowered the glass.
"To think you'd hide beneath the ocean now."
A second scout approached. "Orders from the Big Mom Pirates: observe only. Do not engage."
The woman didn't respond immediately. Then, with a smile too sharp to be kind, she whispered, "Let them dig. If they find what they're looking for, we'll just take it."
Beneath the Waves – Approaching the Sunless Trench
The Byakko descended slowly now, shielded with hardened pressure seals, temperature wards, and Victor's constant stream of wind barriers to divert the crushing weight of the ocean above them.
Robin stood beside him in the command chamber, watching as the light faded into nothingness.
"No maps. No charts," she said softly. "This place wasn't meant to be found."
Victor's fingers glided across the ship's interface. "That's why we'll find it."
The ship creaked.
Something ancient stirred far below.
Robin pressed her hand to the window.
"Whatever is down there… it's old. Older than anything we've faced."
Victor looked ahead, his voice steady.
"Then we'll make it remember us."