News traveled slowly across the seas, but the truth could not be hidden forever.
The news that Crocodile, one of the Shichibukai, had been killed was spread by people with ulterior motives.
A pirate stealing a country was an extremely serious matter!
Especially when that pirate held the special position of Shichibukai!
The Shichibukai had originally been pirates recruited by the World Government to fight other pirates. Yet Crocodile had used the authority of a Shichibukai to commit such an outrage that enraged both Heaven and man.
For a time, calls to condemn the Shichibukai rang out endlessly throughout the first half of the Grand Line.
The protests from World Government allied nations like the Alabasta Kingdom were particularly fierce. They did not want to suffer what Alabasta had suffered!
Since the Shichibukai were affiliated with the World Government and were nominally their allies, they could not easily make a move against them.
The matter caused an enormous uproar, so great that even the World Government could not suppress it.
The main reason was that the incident had erupted too suddenly. Before the World Government could react, Crocodile, the culprit, had already been killed.
His crimes had been exposed as well...
The World Government's allied nations across the seas had almost completely lost their trust in the Shichibukai!
Marie Geoise.
The Five Elders' conference room.
The five men were either seated or standing, but every one of them wore a grim expression.
One of them slapped the table and said, "This is ridiculous! Crocodile was secretly seeking Pluton and committed such vile acts. If he had not exposed himself and succeeded, the situation would have become troublesome! Every one of these pirates is incapable of behaving themselves!"
"What do we do now? The news has already spread. We can