[Whole Cake Island; July 7th, 1522]
"An Emperor? A newbie like him, who never set a foot into the New World before?!" A round-shaped woman with frightening visage and gigantic body frame, Charlotte Linlin the 'Big Mom,' exclaimed as her huge hand held onto the newspaper.
"Mamamama!! The World Government has become nothing but a joke!"
Without any further care, Linlin threw away the newspaper.
"Alliance composed of rookies? Mamama, as if I will be scared by something as trivial as that!!"
Laughing boisterously, Linlin shifted her eyes to the man nearby, who had a lengthy tongue. He was Charlotte Perospero, the eldest son of Linlin who holds the title of the Minister of Candy.
"Perospero! When is the tea party?!" Having completely discarded the thought regarding Rowan and his alliance, Linlin shouted with the drools coming out of her mouth.
"Mama, it's going to be tomorrow, perorin! Please wait for a little more!" Perospero, with a mix of nervousness and anxiousness, stated with a forced smile.
"Mamamama, I can't wait!!"
____________
[Wano]
"Alliance?" Kaidou stated with a frown as he gazed at the newspaper, before taking a gulp out of the bottle of sake in his hand.
"Is Grimheart intending to become the Pirate King?"
In Kaidou's eyes, the alliance didn't seem that everyone stood on an equal ground. He perceived it as 'Grimheart and his lackeys.'
Chugging down the whole bottle, Kaidou, with his cheeks in a slight blush, ripped off the newspaper in a sudden rush of an anger,
"No one, no one but I get to become the Pirate King!!! NO ONE ELSE!!!"
Then,
*BOOOOM*
Kaidou began to hack his spiky metal club, Hassaikai, without any care for the surroundings.
*BOOOOOOOM*
"Screw it!!! *Hic*... screw it all!!!!!"
*BOOOOOOOM*
"K-Kaidou-sama..."
One member of the Beast pirates said timidly, completely frightened by the destruction that Kaidou was bringing upon the surrounding without any care.
"That damn Red Hair!!! A kid like Grimheart got to enjoy the war in Marineford, yet I was stuck outside!!!" Kaidou roared as he wildly smashed Hassaikai, not bothered by the fact that few of his subordinates were turned into bloody mushes as the result.
*BOOOOOOOM*
"*Hic*..." Then, his enraged frown abruptly turned into a joyful grin, "*Hic*... That's right, *Hic*..."
Grabbing the nearby barrel full of sake, Kaidou chugged the whole amount in one go.
"Fuhihihi... but the newly established SMILE business with Joker..."
Kaidou threw his Hassaikai to an already-crumbled wall.
*BOOOOOOOM*
"In no time, *Hic*, I will be able to produce an infinite number of elite soldiers!!! With that power in my hand, Linlin, Red Hair...! None of them, *Hic*, can be my match!!!"
Kaidou couldn't wait for it.
"Wororororo!!!! Then, I will have a chaotic war greater than any other, one that I deserve!!!"
____________
[Yukiryu]
"Uh, boss, here's the newspaper that you asked."
A new member of the Red Hair pirates, Rockstar, scratched the back of his head as he approached Shanks, who was leaning back on the wall of a cave with his abdomen covered by the bandages.
"Ah yes, Rockstar." Shanks, raising his hand up, greeted Rockstar with a grin.
"What's with the sudden interest, Shanks?" Beckman, while sitting near Shanks with a cigarette on his mouth, asked with curiosity, "The Grimheart pirates were they? That so-called Emperor of the Paradise?"
Shanks, while reading through the newspaper with impassively, replied, "The alliance including five pirate crews. Beck, you too know what's about to happen."
"Ha..." Inhaling a deep amount of smoke from the cigarette, Beckman clicked his tongue, "Those reckless fools. The balance of the world is going to be crushed beyond repair."
"H-huh?" Rockstar, oblivious of what was going on, expressed his confusion.
"Aren't you curious as well?" Shanks, patting his pants as he stood up, said with an enigmatic gleam, "Is Grimheart really a tide that big? Will he succeed? If he indeed defeats a conqueror of the New World and destroys this fragile balance... the one high above will begin to move, whether to re-establish the order or to simply destroy what seems unpleasant in his eyes. Once the fire is set, it will spread with no way to turn back."
Gazing at the newspaper once again, Shanks grimaced, "However... where is the one who inherits Joy Boy's will? If the balance is broken right now, can the world handle it on its own?"
Although Rockstar couldn't understand to full extent, he could see to some extent, that Shanks was concerned.
"Then what should we do?" Beckman, looking toward the exit of the cave, asked.
Letting go of the newspaper, Shanks grinned, "Move out.
I would like to see what kind of man Youchiha B. Rowan is."
_____________
[Underneath the Sea]
"Well, damn." Carmen scratched her head with slight annoyance, "We can't use the engine?"
"It's not a short race just like the last time. In an extended travel like this one, we need to preserve as much air as possible." Carina shook her head with a huff.
"Why are you annoyed? Just look as these creatures out there! Aren't they mesmerizing?" Dan exclaimed as he pointed at the huge shark-like creature outside, only to have the view covered by the ship, Stay Tune.
"Oi!!! Get out of the sight!!! I can't see anything!!"
Dan shouted with a frown, but was ignored by the On Air pirates. Instead,
"Apapapa!!" Apoo laughed before blowing his arm-saxophone skillfully, much to Dan's annoyance.
"""Ahhhhh!!!"""
On the other hand, Nami and the Twin Cats pirates, with Nojiko as an exception, were screaming in terror upon sighting many horrific-looking sea creatures.
"Ehhhhh?!!"
"Kyaaa!!!"
"Waaaaa!!!!"
"You guys..." Nojiko covered her face in embarrassment.
While the four ships were travelling along the current that carried them downward, Polar Tang of the Heart pirates, was seen to be moving with much greater degree of freedom, for it was a submarine at its essence.
Cavendish seemed to angered by the fact that Polar Tang was in lead,
"Grr, why can't we just go faster?!!"
Rowan, who was lying down on the outdoor lounge chair with sunglasses, replied to Cavendish coolly while ignoring Urouge's words,
"Relax, Cave."
Cavendish froze upon hearing Rowan calling him 'Cave.'
""Pff...""
Turning around, Cavendish saw Carmen and Dan snickering in mockery.
"What's the point of hurrying? Take your time in looking at this once-in-a-lifetime scenery."
Rowan chuckled before taking a sip from the beverage that sat on the table on his right.
"Uh," Urouge, while doing push-ups on the ground vigorously, momentarily paused the exercise and gazed at Rowan, "why are you wearing sunglasses in the underwater, captain?"
"Ah, I was wearing one?"
Rowan exclaimed in a genuine surprise before taking it off,
"I didn't even realize. I can see just fine either way."
Urouge sweatdropped with a deadpan, before simply shaking it off and returning to his exercise.
"Hey Rowan, what is that thing that you are drinking?" On the other hand, Carina approached Rowan and quickly grabbed the beverage in interest.
"That's the mikan cider Carmen made—hey, don't drink all by yourself!!" Rowan complained as he reached his hand out, only to see that Carina managed to finish the whole thing in seconds.
"Hehe, this is good. Yum."
Carina licked her lips as she smiled contently.
"Captain?"
Then, from the side, Robin called out all of a sudden as she was staring at the outside,
"I think we ran into a problem."
Following Robin's eyes, Rowan saw a huge octopus who was moving its limbs in a coordinated fashion to move against the current, blocking their path.
Simultaneously,
*Swoosh*
Law made an appearance in Prominence, having replaced himself with the empty cup on the table.
"I don't think we can bypass this one, Grimheart-ya. It's directly in our way."
Yawning, Rowan stood up from the lounge chair,
"No problem."
And just as he said so, the huge octopus lost its consciousness all of a sudden.
"Conqueror's Haki?" Alfred commented, "It seems that your control has been refined, captain Rowan. I didn't even feel your use."
Law simply stared at the unconscious octopus who was blasted out of the current in a stoic manner, trying to register what just happened, before teleporting back to his crew's submarine ship without a word.
"NOOOOO!!!!!"
From a distant Jewelry Margharita, Bonney's anguish scream was heard in a muffled manner,
"A potential delicacy... gone just like that...!"
Carmen too sighed in disappointment.
Meanwhile, Rowan was seen to have shifted his attention to Farul.
"...Since when did you start eating meat?"
He swear that until the party a week ago, Farul has never eaten a meat.
"Aren't you a horse, Farul?"
'Horses weren't capable of digesting a meat... weren't they?'
Rowan didn't even know anymore.
"Neigh!"
Farul simply huffed in pride before gulping down the whole chunk of meat.
"Really, captain?" Dan, from the side, grinned knowingly, "Did you think that Farul was a normal horse up until now? His ability to adapt in a foreign environment far surpasses any other of his kind. Hell, I still wonder how he managed to learn geppo in the first place."
Cavendish cleared his throat before speaking up with a bright aura emanating from him,
"Farul is the best of all horses! The moment I set my eyes on him since my younger days, I knew that..."
Unfortunately for Cavendish, however, no one seemed to be paying attention. Or to be more precise, no one but one person,
"Turn off that light behind you already!!!"
Carmen, who barked at Cavendish while shielding her eyes.
With a lively and jovial atmosphere, the 5 ships were nearing the Fish-Man island.
_____________
"Ha… how long has it been."
Carina sighed in relief upon sighting the large island that was encased with the large bubble-like dome.
Their travel up to this point was quite gruesome. It wasn't that they were given many hardships, but…
"Another batch of fish-men corpses." Dan muttered with an evident displeasure within his tone, "Just what is going on in that island?"
The whole sea was filled with quite high number of the dead bodies of the fish-men floating lifelessly.
'…There was a huge fight here.' Rowan thought with narrowed eyes, 'Someone, whether alone or by group, was trying to get into the island, and these men intervened the former's entry. They fought, and the former won, I presume.'
Fish-Man Island was a must-go-through for the pirates who were striving to enter the New World.
With the notion that the number of pirates in the current era is greater than any other, Rowan initially believed that the inhabitants of this island must have found a way to handle the surge of pirates and preserve their safety… it now seemed that he was wrong.
'A blatant attempt to fight the enemies of unknown strengths… I have to say, these fish-men were quite thoughtless here.'
Nonetheless, it lessened the burden of him and his allies. After all, there no longer was anyone guarding the entrance.
"Head straight in." Rowan commanded in serious tone, to which all the other members of the Grimheart pirates nodded.
Upon sighting that Prominence moved forward without any sign of stopping, the other 4 ships followed suit.
"Tch… what a let down." Carmen clicked her tongue in irritation.
After all, all these blood and floating corpses around destroyed the pleasant atmosphere that they had.
"Don't let your guard down." Carina said coldly as she raised her body up from the chair.
"I suppose that my time to shine has come earlier than expected." Cavendish remarked as he gripped on the hilt of his sheathed sword, Durandal.
"Annnnd," Dan, who took the hold of the steering wheel, exclaimed as the coating around Prominence came in contact with the bubble-like layer of the Fish-Man Island, "here we go!"
*Pop*
Just as Prominence passed through the layer, the coating around the ship has become undone.
Subsequently,
*Pop* *Pop* *Pop* *Pop*
All other 4 ships entered the island as well.
Then,
*SPLASH*
Due to having entered through the ideal spot for entry, all ships landed on the surface of the blue sea within the bubble dome without any trouble.
"Apapapa!! We made it!!!" From Stay Tune, Apoo shouted loudly while lifting his long arms up victoriously.
The Twin Cats pirates, Heart pirates, and Bonney pirates all sighed in relief while inspecting the surrounding.
"Don't let your guard down yet."
From the deck of Prominence, Rowan stated as he gazed at the far distance away from the site, where he managed to see many soldiers swimming toward them ferociously.
Hearing Rowan, everyone immediately tensed, ready for the fight. Eventually, those soldiers did come within their sight as well. However, right at the moment where the soldiers too identified who they were,
"A-ahhhhh, it's Grimheart!!!!!"
Upon sighting Rowan, they began to swim back to where they came from.
"…Huh?" Rowan sweatdropped.
It seemed that Rowan's name managed to reach all the way down to the Fish-Man Island.