On Zou 1

After weathering several difficulties on the way back that was in the form of different strange weather patterns, the ship had finally made it towards its destination.

A large shadowed figure could be seen getting larger and clearer with each passing moment.

A giant elephant was walking slowly across the sea as its was unknown what its original size was due to its long legs being sunk deep into the sea until its feet touched the ground.

Despite being sunk deeply into the sea, its figure still towered over everything as its upper body seemed to reach high up into the sky with the clouds surrounding some of its back and head.

The ship was moving in from the side but the giant elephant kept moving as if the ship did not exist and was of no concern to it.

The elephant was Zunesha that the Minks lived upon and where all of Zou was located.

Each part of Zou was located on some parts of Zunesha's body very high up on its back.

The difficulty to get up to Zou was very high and anyone careless enough to stray into the path of Zunesha would be crushed or swept away by the moving body of the giant elephant.

If Zunesha paid more attention to its surroundings and wished to attack those nearby then a single swing of its trunk was enough to send fleets of ships flying and sinking to the bottom of the sea.

The destructive power of its body was very high so the ship carefully navigated towards the side trying not to crash into the giant animal.

On Zou, there were several places that had descended into chaos all of a sudden and it had been further going out of hand as time passed.

It began all of a sudden once there was a a problem in some families way of detecting those of their bloodline.

The most important ones of their family were entitled to certain privileges and one of them was the use of Vivre Cards.

They were not too difficult to get within the New World but it still required someone to go get them and restock those that had been used.

Most were handled by the three dukes while there were other families that needed them more just in case of emergencies.

Those that left Zou like those from the Meridian and Glutt families were among them since their livelihoods depended on them visiting other islands and bringing back items and supplies that Zou was in need of.

There were two separate events that happened on Zou related to the two families that suddenly caused them to be greatly shocked and disturbed by the fact that their families would face a great disturbance in the future.

The stability of their families was really at stake and it gradually became worse as more Vivre Cards started to show changes.

What happened first was the change brought on by the weak life signs of several Minks in the Meridian family after Rufus and others had been captured during the bombing incident.

It caused many to worry about the family heads condition along with the heirs which showed signs of being in a poor state.

It resulted in many in the family to worry about how the family would be able to survive in the future and if they should take some action to look into what had happened.

The main issue was that when the chaos started, there were several opportunities who had been quiet for a long time which had finally saw their chance to make a move of their own.

Their voices rose up as they started to voice their concerns and opinions towards different matters in the family.

One such matter was related to the mother of Milo and the possibility of her being let out from her seclusion.

Those that escaped the previous purge due to them being given a smaller punishment or those that laid low during that time had come out since they had been aware of what had happened.

They were not fully aware of the details but they knew that something was going to happen and had prepared themselves for the time they could rise up.

Without Rufus to rein them in, they became fearless and banded together with those allied with them towards a common goal.

With the Vivre Card showing Rufus in a poor state, they were made aware that the plan had went forward so they did not need to fear there being any major obstructions.

They had the backing of the Glutt family and the families affiliated with them, one such family pushing them to do something was the maternal family of Milo's mother which was why they were petitioning for her freedom.

With her out, their ability to seize power would be much smoother since the other families would meddle in the affairs of the Meridian family to make the transition smoother.

There was one very strange part that the elders noticed upon inspecting the Vivre Cards and that was that some among them seemed to still be in a decent condition.

The Vivre Card belonging to Pixel was not among them too so they found it strange that one of the main family bloodline had not had a Vivre Card stored.

They were certain that she had one done but they could not locate it so it was very strange to them.

They did not know that the Vivre Card had been handed over to the master of Pixel by Rufus so that in times of need, Catviper could step forward to locate her before anything bad happened to her.

Rufus wanted to ask the same for his other grandchildren but it seemed that Catviper did not take that much of an interest to them.

Only Pixel had caught his eye as a prized talent that should be protected and nurtured so he accepted the Vivre Card from Rufus while rejecting the others.

Just as the ship had got close enough to Zunesha, a large cat descended down with the help of his allies before he had landed on the ship. "Pixel-nya!"