Sand-Sand Fruit, for the Continuation of Life

Fujitora lightly tapped the sandy ground with his cane sword. The instant gravity rippled outward, Fang Yu’s figure suddenly appeared!

With his back to Fujitora, his scarlet Sharingan reflected the astonished expressions of the three crewmates.

"Let’s go. The Alabasta arc is over." Fang Yu brushed Carrot’s rabbit ears, still speckled with sand, with his fingertips. Perona’s ghostly dress had only just begun to ripple, and Brook’s skeletal hand still hung in midair when all three turned into green smoke and vanished.

Splash!

Waves slapped against the hull of the Ghost Radish. Carrot’s dripping claws trembled as she pointed toward the sky. "Th-th-th-that’s not a falling star, is it?!"

Everyone looked up. A meteor scraped through the atmosphere in a blaze of searing red light, its shadow covering half the capital of Alabasta.

Fujitora’s scabbard scattered the flying yellow sand as his bronze face turned toward Fang Yu, who had appeared again. "The net of heaven is vast, yet nothing slips through. If you are willing to bind your hands, this old man can petition the Fleet Admiral on your behalf."

"What crime have I committed?" Fang Yu retorted.

"Breaking out of Impel Down, attacking two Shichibukai, and causing chaos here in Alabasta. These are all your evidence of crimes."

"My evidence of crimes?" Fang Yu suddenly burst into wild laughter, crushing a fragment of Crocodile’s discarded golden hook beneath his heel. "Impel Down can lock up ambition, but it can’t lock up this unjust world!" He suddenly lowered his voice. "One who covers his eyes to observe his heart ought to see royalty dancing with hyenas. Sadly, your Mind’s Eye has long been clouded by dust. How did that saying go? A blade cuts flesh, but the heart cuts the soul. For you to say something like that proves you’re blind twice over!"

Fujitora’s cane sword hummed as it slid three inches from its sheath, while grains of sand floated around him like a ring of stars. "What a silver tongue! Even if you can use the Body Flicker Technique—" Before he could finish, Fang Yu was already sitting cross-legged atop a rock pillar twenty meters away, munching on an apple. He tossed the core precisely at Fujitora, who drew his sword and sliced it in half.

"What a pity. Looks like the odds of an Ability User’s power attaching itself to a nearby fruit upon death aren’t very high." Fang Yu wiped juice from the corner of his mouth. "Since you know I can use the Body Flicker Technique, where did that look of absolute confidence come from?"

Fujitora suddenly staggered half a step. The gravity field that had been locking onto Fang Yu froze in place.

Right!

He could fucking Teleportation!

What use was a meteor?

Under Fujitora’s powerful Observation Haki perception, Fang Yu vanished.

The Ghost Radish’s mast creaked beneath the Havok. When Fang Yu appeared leaning against the mainsail, the meteor was turning the entire desert into a dazzling sea of glass.

"Look! The sand is glowing!" Carrot’s rabbit ears curled from the scorching heat, yet she still pointed into the distance and cried out.

Tens of thousands of tons of molten quartz flowed between the dunes like liquid gold. The meteor Fujitora had summoned had actually forged Crocodile’s sandstorm into an amber galaxy stretching for miles.

The edges of Perona’s ghost umbrella had already curled up. "Idiot! Is this the time to admire the scenery?!" She grabbed Brook by the ribs and shook him. "That blind old man can summon meteors with a flick of his hand. From now on, we—"

"Yohoho, perhaps we should consider buying some enormous life insurance?" Brook’s finger bones slipped across the strings. "How about a rendition of the ‘Funeral March’?"

Fang Yu suddenly placed his hands on the three of their shoulders. His Sharingan reflected the gradually collapsing meteor crater. "The Marines even gave us a send-off. What style—" He turned and winked at Vivi, whom he had brought aboard with Flying Thunder God. "More spectacular than Alabasta’s farewell dance, right?"

When the Ghost Radish’s sails filled with salty, humid sea breeze, the first raindrop struck Vivi’s trembling eyelashes.

Her hand, which had been gripping the railing tightly, suddenly loosened as she stared blankly up at the sky.

"It’s raining." Perona’s ghost umbrella was struck by raindrops. She stared blankly at the spreading wet stains across its surface. "It’s really raining."

The entire desert trembled amid the thunder.

The curtain of rain washed over the royal capital Crocodile had so carefully arranged like a Sand Table. The trenches of conspiracy that Sand Crocodile had drawn with his golden hook were now filled and smoothed by rainwater into winding streams.

On Alubarna’s walls, crimson and clear water dripped from the spear tips of the Standing Army. One rebel soldier suddenly threw away his rusty scimitar, held up his helmet, and drank the rainwater greedily.

Vivi’s sobs mingled with the torrential rain as she covered her face and wept. It was impossible to tell whether her face was covered in tears or rainwater.

Perona watched Vivi, then looked toward Fang Yu’s back.

For some reason, Vivi at this moment looked a little like the people of Thriller Bark who had regained their shadows after Moria was defeated by Fang Yu.

"Enough, stop crying." Fang Yu walked over to Vivi. "Until your Father has paid enough ransom, you’ll stay aboard and help Carrot with the cooking."

"Oh, right. That duck is my property now too."

The day after Sand Crocodile "fell."

Sengoku slammed the gilded Wanted Poster onto the conference table. Vice Admiral Tsuru’s fingers traced the dense notes beside "Duke-Duke Fruit." "Fujitora’s report mentioned that he used five elemental attacks simultaneously. He is suspected to possess Spatial Jump abilities."

The Fleet Admiral’s cape fluttered without wind. "The Five Elders demand that the Devil Fruit encyclopedia be redefined."

"This is truly troublesome!" Sengoku smashed a fist onto his desk. "That guy created the miracle of a small forest in Alabasta. He resembles a Logia Type, yet he also has abilities similar to Kizaru’s. If he continues to remain active on the seas, it will only be a matter of time before he becomes a pirate like the Four Emperors!"

Tsuru nodded from the side. "Give the order."

"Mm!"

In a boiling sea somewhere in the New World, the deck of the Moby Dick suddenly erupted with the scent of liquor.

Marco leaped down from the mast, holding a newspaper. "Old Man! That rookie who took down Crocodile—"

"Gurararara!" Whitebeard downed three barrels of rum as the Tremor-Tremor Fruit’s glow flowed along his naginata. "Six hundred and thirty million? His bounty rose even more crazily than Red-Hair’s did back then!"

Diamond Jozu took a drink. "I heard this kid covered an entire desert with a forest?" His booming voice startled the News Coo into flight. "Could he be trying to steal the Green-haired Swordsman’s business?"

The Queen Mama Chanter was currently shrouded in pink thunderclouds. Big Mom tore at the edge of Fang Yu’s Wanted Poster, cream syrup dripping from the corners of her mouth. "Mamamama! Perospero!"

She suddenly slapped the photo against her son’s chest. "Capture this brat and have him marry Pudding! Their children will definitely be able to command the Sweet Commanders!"

"B-but, Mama…" Charlotte Perospero hesitated. "Pudding is still so young."

"Why care about that?! If I say breed, then breed!"

Deafening Wolf Fang Club impacts rang out from Onigashima’s dome as Kaido, clutching a gourd of liquor, smashed through a ten-meter-thick rock wall. "Jack! King! Find out everything!" Azure dragon scales flickered in and out of view through his drunken haze. "If that brat has the inclination, I can give him a seat!"

The Red Hair Pirates’ banquet had fallen into a rare silence.

The smoke ring Beckman exhaled curled around the word "Teleportation" on the Wanted Poster. "A Spatial Ability even more troublesome than Kizaru’s?"

Shanks suddenly smiled and nailed the Wanted Poster to the bow of the Red Force. "A storm is about to rise in the new era!"

In the shadows, a fat man’s teeth ground together. "Zehahahaha! A fruit like that should belong to me!"

His bloodshot eye nearly pressed against the newspaper photo. "Just wait. Once I get it, get that—"

Meanwhile, Fire Fist Ace, who had just finished drinking with Jinbe, lay on a burning little boat and gazed up at the stars. "I never expected it, Yu. You’ve already taken down two Shichibukai. I need to work harder too!"

Moonlight coated the Ghost Radish’s kitchen in silver frost, making Carrot’s puffed-up rabbit ears look especially adorable.

She held a moldy, blackened pineapple in her claws, its fur covered in sticky green fungal strands. "Which bastard stuffed rotten fruit into my carrot basket?!"

Vivi ran over with her duck mount. "N-no, I didn’t do it!"

The duck shook its head repeatedly as well.

Perona floated over in ghost pajamas, her eyes still half-closed with sleepiness. Then she suddenly widened them. "Stupid rabbit! That’s a Devil Fruit!"

Perona’s trembling finger pointed at the pineapple’s surface. Beneath the mold spots, faint spiral patterns could be seen. It was clearly a genuine Devil Fruit.

Brook hurried over after hearing the commotion. "Yohoho~ Although I’m a skeleton and have no nose—" A sharp light suddenly burst from his empty eye sockets. "There’s no mistaking the scent of this curse of the sea!"

Fang Yu squeezed through the doorway and took the pineapple. "Sand Crocodile’s inheritance? I didn’t expect this…" He sniffed it, detecting an intensely foul stench. "I thought we hadn’t gotten our hands on this thing, but it turns out it came aboard our ship."

"Captain," Brook asked, "what should we do with this fruit? Sell it?"

In everyone’s eyes, Fang Yu was a Devil Fruit User, so the possibility of eating it was naturally ruled out.

"Not selling it. Keep it as a collectible."

With that, his figure vanished.

When he reappeared, there were grains of sand on his body, while the Sand-Sand Fruit had already been placed in the fruit storage room beneath the desert.

"Let’s go, raise the sails!"

"Accelerate toward Cocoyasi Village!"

There was one thing Fang Yu did not say aloud, only muttering it silently in his heart.

Hurry, hurry, hurry! I want to eat the Rumble-Rumble Fruit!

The city’s ruins gasped beneath a blood-red setting sun. At the city center was a black hole covering half the district, while at its edges lay the last faint traces of Human Civilization.

Manhattan’s shattered Glass Curtain Walls reflected the hunched figures of the last few zombies, making the scene look especially tragic.

A Golden Light suddenly tore open the heavens, and the dharma form of the Thousand-Armed Kannon appeared in midair. Gilded Buddhist light scorched the earth like the scorching sun!

Every swing of the Kannon’s massive arms carried thunder. When its fists crashed down, zombie rotten flesh and bones burst like tomatoes, their pus and blood evaporating into a crimson mist before they could even splash.

"After witnessing that battle, I’ve come to believe that gods are actually people too." On the overpass, a Ghoul tore at a zombie’s spine, his eyes trembling in shock.

Several Ghouls behind him stopped feeding. Watching the streets swept by the Kannon’s Fist Wind, they even felt that with fewer and fewer zombies remaining, they would gradually have to go to other cities or starve to death.

On the street, Fang Yu maintained the stance of Welcoming Approach: Thousand-Hand Kill. Sweat reflected golden light across his back muscles, while faint black marks had appeared around his brows and eyes. They looked somewhat like dark circles, yet seemed remarkably healthy.

"Natural Energy is far too scarce."

Just as Fang Yu complained, Ashley’s Harley Motorcycle crushed a zombie’s hands in the distance before braking sharply and whipping around, sending up a wave of blood.

"Double bacon cheeseburger." The burger she tossed traced an arc through the air. "Ada Wong is looking for you."

Fang Yu caught the burger and took a bite. "Alright, head back."

"Huh?! Wait!"

Before Ashley could finish speaking, Fang Yu had already disappeared with Flying Thunder God.

Inside the Empire State Building’s glass dome, Ada Wong led Fang Yu into a quiet room. The furnishings were simple, with only a wooden table and several chairs. Dim yellow light swayed gently, illuminating her slightly weary yet expectant face.

She took a deep breath, raised her eyes to Fang Yu, and spoke with a trace of pleading in her gaze. "I have a request. It concerns the survival of Human Civilization, and I hope you can agree."

Fang Yu raised an eyebrow slightly, his expression full of confusion as he quietly waited for her to continue.

Ada Wong paused before speaking slowly. "In this apocalyptic world, I need the Ghouls’ strength to protect Ashley with everything they have. She is humanity’s last hope. But this cannot go on forever. Humanity needs new life."

At this point, her eyes brightened, and a hint of urgency entered her tone. "So, I want to ask you to play a one-on-one basketball game with Ashley. Here, it would… it would be for the continuation of human life."

Fang Yu froze and asked instinctively, "A basketball game? What does that have to do with the spark of Human Civilization?"

Ada Wong lowered her head slightly, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks. Her voice was shy, yet incomparably firm. "As long as Ashley becomes pregnant, humanity will have a new flame. The seed will be planted, and life can continue."

After hearing that, Fang Yu’s brows instantly furrowed into a deep crease. Anger flashed through his eyes as he raised his voice. "What do you take me for? A stud? How can something like this be handled so carelessly?!"

Ada Wong’s eyes reddened slightly. She stepped forward, clasped her hands together, and nearly begged, "I’m begging you. In this apocalyptic dead end, Human Civilization is on the brink of destruction. For humanity’s future, to leave even a sliver of hope in this world, consider it me shamelessly begging you. Please agree. Do you really want to watch this world disappear?"

What had happened last time had also made Ada Wong and the other natives understand what this world would face if all humans vanished.

Therefore, even the Ghouls would not do anything to Ashley, the only human.

But with only one human remaining, an accident was bound to happen eventually.

And once Ashley grew old, what would the world rely on to continue?

Ada Wong’s voice trembled slightly, her eyes filled with earnestness and despair. At this moment, the fate of all life rested on Fang Yu’s single thought.

"It’s not completely out of the question."

Hearing that answer, Ada Wong immediately stepped closer. "What conditions?"

Fang Yu thought for a moment. "Didn’t you say it was a one-on-one basketball game? That sounds boring."

Ada Wong blushed. "W-what do you mean?"

"I want one-on-two. When Ashley gets tired, you take over on defense."

Ada Wong pressed her lips together. Although she was an ace agent, something like this…

"Relax, I’m kidding." Fang Yu shrugged, and Ada Wong sighed in relief.

Shadow Clone Jutsu!

As soon as he spoke, several identical figures of Fang Yu appeared in the room.

They spoke to Ada Wong in perfectly synchronized voices. "We want twelve-on-two."

Easter egg: "Squelch, squelch, squelch, smack smack."

"For humanity’s future!"

"Fire!"