[January 2nd, 1523]
A day passed since the Grimheart pirates' departure from Zou.
Many rumours have spread throughout the world—that the gigantic dragon revealed its domineering form above the sky of Tottoland. Some speculated the unbelievable tale to be the work of 'Grimheart' Rowan, the Emperor of the New World.
Yet, their clear location couldn't be pinpointed. From an island to island, the Grimheart pirates vanished; Applenine, Broc Coli, Prodence—the residents from the countless number of islands claimed to have seen the huge dragon flying above them.
It was said that within one island, one particular shipwright, fell to his knees in a despair upon sighting the dragon—that he won't be able to create a ship as incredible.
Many bounty hunters attempted to follow the dragon out of greed, for Rowan's bounty, but to no avail. The greedy folks ended up having themselves engulfed by the disastrous sea without any salvation.
Some pirates desired to join the Grimheart pirates themselves and be basked within the fame. Some others believed that the Grimheart pirates were the closest to the acquisition of the One Piece, and attempted to chase after them. Of course, all was for naught.
However, such unbelievable occurrences weren't the main focus to the current world, due to...
The Marine's abrupt and shocking action to leave their own base, the New Marineford, and join the World Government.
With that news as a cue,
The world began to flow in an unpredictable way. The word 'war' has begun to be spoken by everyone from left and right. If the Summit War of the Marineford was something that everyone spectated with nervousness, the war ahead of them was something that everyone was involved.
With Morgans's blatant support of the Revolutionary Army, everyone in the world now became aware of the man named Imu.
As Morgans's newspapers spread far and wide, many began to hope for the future. Instead of the Marine that represented justice, the people cried out the names of the Revolutionary Army.
Within one wooden house of Cocoyasi village, an old-aged woman read such news with concern on her face.
"Mariejois sits at the center of the world."
She was none other than Sob.
"The world is divided vertical-wise by the Red Line." Sob muttered, "And due to the existence of Red Line, the strange phenomenon called 'Calm Belt' came into the existence, dividing the world horizontally and giving birth to the Grand Line."
Contrary to the news, Sob only had a dread within her mind,
"This isn't an act of 'surrounding.' We have no choice but to attack individually, due to the separations brought by the geological limitations. Additionally, climbing all the way up to the Mariejois itself is going to be a challenge. If this is the case..."
Weren't they just the preys for the enemies to hunt one by one?
"Everything is rushed. Monkey D. Dragon..." Sob sighed, "just what sort of pressure are you facing, to go all out in such a disadvantage?"
Sob placed the newspaper down and lowered her head thoughtfully.
"...Is it really the time? Aren't we rushing too fast?"
She then shifted her eyes to her left, where one man was smoking a cigarette casually,
"What do you think, Job?"
"Sebas... hah, whatever." Job clicked his tongue before voicing his opinion, "Don't you think it's already a little too late, granny?"
"Agreed." From Job's side, Mob nodded with a blank expression.
"Soso... I suppose so." Sob, in the end, chuckled before standing up, and gazed at the outside through the window.
"To think Bob's home, the Conomi island, was the remnant of Yggdrasil... it wasn't that the main family of Youchiha, or Vasilia per say, left the kingdom. No, in contrast, they firmly stood until the end while all others ran away."
"Talk about being surprised." Job puffed out the smoke from his cigarette, "If there is one thing I never expected, it's that the entire island was in reverse—flipped upside down. While the Cocoyasi village was established on the surface, on its bottom, there lied... the Breeze Tree Lilith."
A spectacular sight lied on the outside. Instead of the humble village of Cocoyasi, there lied a huge tree that sat in the middle of the ground.
Interestingly, on top of the branches lied the intense swirls of wind that served to propel the whole island forward somehow. No one understood how it worked.
This tree was the Breeze Tree Lilith, which was submersed within the sea for hundreds of years until now.
One villager—also a member of the Revolutionary Army—whispered as he gazed up at the Breeze Tree Lilith with inexplicable emotion.
"Perhaps... this is why Arlong and his crew believed that they can conquer the world. Perhaps this tree is the reason why they decided to take over the Cocoyasi village. Ha... to think something of this magnitude dwelled below..."
And now, beyond the hazy mist that impaired their vision, lied the tall sight of Red Line.
On their right, there lied a frighteningly still sea, Calm Belt.
They've officially arrived at the edge of the East Blue, right before the Mariejois which sat at the top.
"The four years have been quite wild to us." With a cup of water in his hand, Dr. Nako said as he sat on a boulder outside,
"First came the miracle—us pulling out the victory against the Arlong pirates. The replacement of the Marine Officer, Nezumi, was a good man as well, and we believed that nothing but prosperity now lied ahead of us.
However, after Rowan left the East Blue, the second Marine Officer has been replaced without a word one day. From the first glance, we could see that the new one was an individual as corrupted as Nezumi, and it turned out to be true."
Dr. Nako smiled weakly,
"Then came the Revolutionary Army under the lead of the commander Belo Betty. We drove out the Marine just as Rowan did in the past and joined the Revolutionary Army. Today, here we are, about to fight the World Government out of all possibilities."
He turned to a young man whose body trembled,
"Are you afraid, Han?"
The young man named Han shook his head, "This shake of mine isn't due to the fear, Dr. Nako. No, it is based on my anticipation, that all is finally coming to an end."
Behind them lied many civilians—no, the warrior of the Cocoyasi village. Many of them had scars. Few of them were missing a limb or so. Yet, their eyes burned in determination.
The Cocoyasi village no longer was weak that someone like Arlong could trample upon.
___________
[Whole Cake]
"...Already started, eh?"
In midst of the island built and styled through the use of sugars and other edible materials, there lied one tanning chair. On top of the chair, Rowan was seen to be relaxing with the sunglasses on him, while holding the newspaper in his hands.
"As for us,"
Placing the newspaper down on the table on his left, Rowan raised his eyes to the beautiful sky above,
"two more to go."
Upon their arrival to the Whole Cake island, the first thing Rowan did was to acquire the Road Poneglyph. There was no one on the island to oppose him after hearing how he defeated Big Mom and Kaidou at once—
"Linlin... my Linlin...!" The miserable voice of one man entered Rowan's ears.
—until now, it seemed.
*Clang*
Along with the sounds of two metals clanging against each other, one old-aged and short man—whom Rowan has perceived a long time ago—revealed himself.
"What of our dreams then?! What of the wish to build the dream country where all races of the world live altogether?!"
It wasn't sure if the man was conscious. His eyes were whitened, and a drool escaped from his mouth. He, in Rowan's eyes, was already half-dead, though there existed no physical wound on the man.
In contrast, the man's grips over his two cutlasses were tighter than ever, with the veins on his hands popping out.
"What of our poor, poor Perospero? How will his brutal death be compensated?!!"
*SWOOSH*
Without any warning, the man's cutlass was swung toward Rowan, who easily dodged by bending his body slightly.
"Who are you?" Rowan's eyes narrowed.
"H-head chef Streusen!!"
From the back, the other chefs of the Whole Cake island came to a stop with terrified expressions. They chased after Streusen in an attempt to stop him, however, they were too late.
One after the other, Streusen swung his cutlasses madly toward Rowan. Though none of them hit, the former didn't seem to care; the murderous intent dominated his whole mind.
"...Your rage is justified."
Unfazed, Rowan lifted his hand up and easily grabbed the blade of two cutlasses at once.
*BOOM*
What immediately followed was the complete destruction of Streusen's weapons due to Rowan's use of his fruit ability; nothing but the hilts held by Streusen were left.
Rowan then looked at the frozen Streusen impassively,
"But you lacked the strength to enact your vengeance—unlike me."
There exists nothing dumber than to leave the enemy alive, especially when he or she bares hatred toward you.
Within the eyes of the horrified chefs,
*BOOOOOM*
the air itself exploded at the next moment.
Some chefs fell on their butts in disbelief. After all, when the dust cleared, the man named Streusen was nothing but a burned corpse.
The head chef himself has become cooked.
On the other hand, Rowan didn't seem to hold any interest in the chefs. Letting go of the corpse named Streusen, Rowan took off the sunglasses from his face.
"About time I get going."
In truth, the rest of the Grimheart pirates were already on move to their next destination, Wano. Rowan was chilling in the vacant area of the Whole Cake island, because, well... he wanted to.
After all, he was faster than Prominence's maximum speed.
*Tap*
In front of the chefs' eyes, Rowan took one step from his spot. Then,
he was gone.
___________
[Impel Down, Level 6: Eternal Hell]
In contrast to the situation that the world was lied within, the silence dominated the isolated floor of the Impel Down.
It was gloomy. After Teach's act of freeing the prisoners of this floor and initiating the battle royale, most of the cells were empty… except a couple.
Boa Hancock was one of them. Sitting with her wrists cuffed by the chains attached to the nearby wall, Hancock stared down at the floor with hollow eyes.
At the same time, she was shivering. If looked closely, one would see that her face was pale. This was due to her traumatic event from the past—the experience as the slave of the despicable Celestial Dragons.
In the still scenery of the Eternal Hell, one huge man entered: Magellan, the Chief Warden of the Impel Down.
He momentarily looked at Hancock with a stoic expression before turning his head away and walking to an empty cell nearby.
Behind him was an old-aged woman whose wrists were cuffed. She was Tsuru, previously the veteran Vice Admiral of the Marine.
'Just what is it that you saw, Sakazuki? What made you fear so much that you ended up forsaking your own justice?'
Sakazuki, from what Tsuru remembered, used to be a faithful believer in justice. Yes, Sakazuki held the ideal of 'Absolute Justice' to an extent where he worshipped it—which Tsuru speculated to have stemmed from his traumatic event in his childhood.
And that's why Tsuru was caught off guard.
Upon hearing Sakazuki's abnormal decision to abandon the New Marineford and translocate to Mariejois, Tsuru, along with many other Marine Officers, rebelled against it.
They couldn't help it. The Marine was meant to exist for the weak who suffered from this turmoil, and not for the safety of the already-protected Celestial Dragons who relaxed in the safest place of the world. To see that Sakazuki has succumbed to becoming the World Government's dog... it was the last thing Tsuru expected out of all.
"This... is your cell, Vice Ad—"
Magellan, who stopped in front of the dark cell, stated solemnly, to which Tsuru interrupted,
"Just Tsuru now."
Without any hesitation, Tsuru walked into the cell by her feet—or was about to, until,
"Tsuru-san."
Magellan, with sweaty hands, closed the entrance to the cell, preventing Tsuru from entering it.
"What am I supposed to do?"
His eyes shifted to another cell adjacent to Tsuru's supposed cell, where Sengoku was sitting by silently.
"I always believed myself to be in the right. The duty of punishing the wrong and preventing any evil from escaping this prison and harming the innocents... I'd like to believe that I've been doing the world a favour. But,"
Magellan hands shook as he tightened them into fists,
"even I can see that this is wrong!! How can you, the heroes of the Marine, be imprisoned like this?! How can the Marine leave the civilians in front of the harm and enter the Mariejois?! Especially when ones like the Grimheart pirates freely sail in the New World?!"
Tsuru sighed as she closed her eyes.
"The Marine that you know is long gone, Magellan." Tsuru said dryly, "What remains now... are the loyal dogs of the World Government."
"If anything," From within the cell, Sengoku spoke up in a hoarse voice, "the Revolutionary Army is in the right here. No matter by what means, the actions of the World Government and Marine can't be justified."
"...Is it?" Magellan muttered as his posture slouched powerlessly. Then,
"If that's the case, if what's going on in the world is indeed, wrong,"
just as how his now-deceased Vice Warden, Hannyabal would act,
"I will follow my heart's guide."
Magellan, with determined eyes, took out a key from his pocket, before freeing Tsuru from her cuff.
"Magellan. You..." Tsuru's eyes widened as she stared at Magellan, who was now unlocking Sengoku's cell.
Sengoku's eyes held disbelief. The Chief Warden, out of all staff members of the Impel Down, freed the 'criminals' of Level 6.
"I have to protect the Impel Down and prevent any further catastrophe like the mass jailbreak by Blackbeard—this is all I can do." Magellan, in front of Sengoku and Tsuru, knelt,
"Therefore, please. If you truly are the marines... save them."
Sengoku's lips parted in shock. He believed that his time was over, that there was nothing that he could do but watch as the world fall into ruins.
But now, another chance was granted. If every awake ones can join their hands altogether and fight back, perhaps they stand a chance.