After being away for some time, Roy felt an unusual sense of familiarity the moment he saw Enies Lobby.
As the ship slowly approached Enies Lobby's harbor.
"Finally back!"
Standing at the bow, he stretched lazily and looked at the harbor so close at hand.
"Huh, why are there so many pirates at the harbor? Did the Marines have another huge haul recently?"
He looked at the naval warships transporting pirates docked at Enies Lobby's harbor.
Clearly, there were far more pirates aboard those warships than usual.
He scratched his head as he watched the soldiers escorting the pirates.
"Whatever! What does the Marines' business have to do with me? We're not even in the same department."
After a month and a half, Roy once again set foot on Enies Lobby.
After stretching, Roy and Bruno headed toward CP9 headquarters.
The bright sunlight in the sky always put people in a good mood.
But clearly, those pirate criminals who had just disembarked from the warships were exceptions.
Because they knew very well what awaited them.
Though Enies Lobby was bathed in bright sunlight, it was the gateway to hell.
"Move aside! I'm not going to Impel Down! My life has only just begun! How could I possibly go to a place like that?"
From the pirate line that had originally been neatly arranged, two burly men suddenly sprinted toward the sea.
Mental breakdowns were a very common occurrence on Enies Lobby.
After all, these pirates knew that what awaited them was Impel Down, the world's greatest prison, which only one person had escaped from in centuries.
"Ah!"
After two screams.
The pirates attempting to escape were killed on the spot by the Marines.
With an example made of them, the pirate line soon returned to order.
At that moment, the members of the Turkey Pirates behind Roy seemed to grow much paler.
"Hey, Jabra, look! Lord Roy is back."
At the CP9 headquarters tower.
A round, fat man shouted to the pencil-mustached man beside him.
A breeze swept the leaves from the street into the air.
Then, a yellow wanted poster suddenly blew against Roy's face.
"Huh, who's this guy?"
He caught the wanted poster carried over by the wind.
"Lord Roy, what is it? Do you know this pirate?"
Seeing Roy's surprised expression, Bruno tilted his head and looked at the wanted poster.
A bounty of fifty million Beli?
What had this freckled brat done to earn such a high bounty?
"Ha, do I know him? Well, I suppose you could say that."
He crumpled the wanted poster into a ball and tossed it into a nearby trash bin.
Clapping his hands and looking away, he said, "That brat is a man born to stir up this sea!"
The Summit War.
That was the scene that had made Roy's blood boil the first time he read the manga.
The sea's most powerful violent organization had clashed with the man acknowledged as the strongest in the Pirate World.
"To be honest, I really am looking forward to those famous scenes!"
After silently muttering a few words, the group soon reached the other side of Enies Lobby.
"Oh, looks like you've returned from a mission. Owl, Jabra, long time no see."
Two streets away from the CP9 headquarters building.
When Roy spotted Owl and Jabra, he raised a hand in greeting.
Unlike Lucci and Kaku, who had infiltrated the shipyard in Water Seven.
Owl and Jabra had always been helping the World Government eliminate things it did not wish to see.
"Lord Roy, long time no see. You're finally back. If you hadn't returned soon, Spandam would probably have gone insane with anxiety."
Owl, who called himself the tightest-lipped man in the world, immediately blurted out Spandam's current predicament upon seeing Roy.
"Oh? What does Spandam have to be anxious about?
With his father's status, the missions in CP9 shouldn't be difficult for him!"
Just as Roy was feeling puzzled.
"Hey, Roy, you're finally back! Something terrible has happened. Come on, get to my office, now! We're really in trouble this time!"
Speak of the devil.
Just as Roy was preparing to keep asking Owl and the others what had happened.
Spandam charged straight at him with an anxious expression.
Roy stepped aside.
Thud!
Spandam threw himself into an intimate embrace with the ground.
"Th-That hurts."
He rubbed the face reddened by the scrape against the ground.
Spandam did not fly into the rage Roy had expected.
Instead, he got up at once, grabbed Roy's arm, and rushed toward his office at headquarters.
The sudden scene left everyone in the Turkey Pirates utterly bewildered.
Watching Spandam run off in such a hurry.
Bruno watched the two departing figures and asked the colleague beside him, "Hey, Owl, what exactly happened? Why is Spandam in such a rush?"
Though Spandam was usually a useless fool with no real ability, just as Roy had said, he relied on his father's high-ranking position, so ordinary matters would never make him lose his composure like this.
Spandam's uncharacteristic behavior today naturally made Bruno very curious.
"We don't know exactly what happened to make him this way. We only heard that it was related to the major incident in the Machino Sea Area.
Apparently, a newcomer named Ace defeated a Shichibukai, throwing that whole sea area into chaos.
You must have seen it on your way back. Most of the pirates at the harbor were captured in the Machino Sea Area."
At the CP9 headquarters tower.
Inside Spandam's office.
"What did you say? The Krol Kingdom was occupied by pirates?
That's a World Government member nation!
Are you kidding me? Spandam, are you sure you aren't drunk?"
The usual laziness on Roy's face had vanished completely, replaced by a grim, solemn expression.
In truth, neither Roy nor Spandam cared in the slightest about what had happened to the Krol Kingdom.
What truly made them anxious and troubled was that Roy and Spandam had jointly invested in a weapons factory within the Krol Kingdom.
Most of the weapons produced by that factory had been sold by the cash-strapped Roy and Spandam to anyone willing to pay a high price.
Using their identities under the World Government's banner.
Roy and Spandam's weapons factory had sold plenty of expensive weapons to rebels such as the Revolutionary Army and pirates.
If any of that was exposed, the consequences would be nearly unimaginable.
He exhaled sharply.
"Whatever bad news there is, just tell me all at once! I can take it, Spandam."
He rubbed his face.
Roy knew there had to be even worse news.
Because if the Krol Kingdom had merely been taken by pirates, then the CP9 forces under Spandam's control would have been more than enough to reclaim the kingdom.
Yet Spandam was this anxious. Based on Roy's understanding of Spandam's temperament, something far worse must have happened.
"Well, uh, Roy, your guess was right. Something even worse has indeed happened."
"Because of the Shichibukai's defeat, the pirates in the Machino Sea Area have been getting a little too rampant lately.
According to information from my father's channels, the Marines are preparing to send Vice Admiral Doberman to the Machino Sea Area to suppress the pirates."
Bang!
Upon hearing Doberman's name, Roy smashed the solid wooden desk in front of Spandam with a single palm strike.
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