Shock!!!

Buddha Sengoku's "Zen" had already made it perfectly clear.

What did he mean, firmly standing by Fleet Admiral Sengoku's side? More than expressing his outlook on life, Yaen wanted to subtly reveal his identity.

Fleet Admiral Sengoku is my Old Man, get it?

However, Yaen no longer had any desire to complain about Second Lieutenant Hope—or rather, the generally bizarre thought processes of men across these seas. He had gradually begun accepting this strange setup.

Or perhaps Yaen understood that even if he explained, it would not mean much. On the contrary, it would likely be misunderstood as having some deeper meaning.

This was probably what happened when Second Lieutenant Hope thought he was on the fifth floor and guessed that Yaen was up in the stratosphere, while Yaen merely intended to wander around the first floor.

"Second Lieutenant Hope, there shouldn't be any problem reporting it like this, right?" Yaen only cared about that.

"Of course there's no problem. As Marines, we're fully permitted to express our stance on justice," Second Lieutenant Hope said as if it were only natural.

Just then, a News Coo flew overhead and flung a newspaper down toward the Warship.

"Huh? Doesn't this thing charge money?" Yaen asked in confusion.

"How could it? We Marines are partners with the News Agency, so naturally we don't have to pay."

Second Lieutenant Hope said this matter-of-factly. Then he caught the newspaper from the air and was about to hand it to Yaen when he happened to glance at it and let out a strange cry.

"Eh?! Hissss—"

"What is it?" Yaen asked, puzzled.

"B-Big news, Lord Yaen! Unbelievably huge news!"

Second Lieutenant Hope exclaimed exaggeratedly, his mouth hanging wide open in shock.

"That dramatic? Did Holy Land Mary Geoise blow up?"

Yaen casually took the newspaper. But when the first headline on the front page entered his sight, even he was stunned.

Only, what shocked Yaen was completely different from what shocked Second Lieutenant Hope.

"Ten years, dead or alive, boundless between us; I do not think of you, yet cannot forget"—who would have thought two legendary Great Pirates shared such an unknown relationship?

"This..."

By this point, Yaen already felt a headache coming on. He had vaguely guessed what the news article was about.

"Shocking news! Our reporters recently obtained astounding information from a Marine insider: the reason Golden Lion Shiki stormed Marine Headquarters Marineford alone all those years ago.

"It was not a moment of recklessness, nor was it rage clouding his judgment. Everything had been planned.

"However, Golden Lion Shiki's plan was not to conquer the seas, but to rescue the man who was exceptionally important to him—the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger...

"In the end, Golden Lion Shiki learned that the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, had already died. Grief-stricken, he left behind the words, 'Ten years, dead or alive, boundless between us; I do not think of you, yet cannot forget,' and vanished without a trace in utter despair."

After roughly skimming the newspaper's contents, Yaen was certain that this so-called Marine insider was either Fleet Admiral Sengoku or Vice Admiral Tsuru.

The contents of the newspaper were practically a word-for-word transcription of yesterday's Den Den Mushi conversation, with the logical connections polished and refined.

On the surface, it was an exposé revealing the secret between Pirate King Gol D. Roger and Golden Lion Shiki. Yet between the lines, it lightly glossed over the unprecedented prison break from Impel Down.

Even if someone brought up in the future how Impel Down, known as an impregnable fortress, had been breached, they would not think the Marines incompetent. They would only believe that Golden Lion Shiki had planned it all along.

The Marines had even, invisibly, seen through Golden Lion Shiki's scheme and completely thwarted his plot to rescue Pirate King Gol D. Roger.

And while they were at it, they brought up once more the glorious past of the Marines executing Pirate King Gol D. Roger, intimidating the increasingly rampant pirates across the seas.

"What wisdom."

Yaen's mouth twitched slightly as he spoke, and he could not help feeling a little sorry for Golden Lion Shiki's reputation.

That lion was so proud...

If he found out the Marines were toying with his reputation like this, would he be so furious that he climbed back up from the bottom of the sea?

Meanwhile, Yaen was not the only one. This carefully crafted article from the News Agency spread across the entire world at astonishing speed, leaving countless people dumbfounded.

"Those Marines are really getting worse with age. They're actually using such despicable means to ruin Roger's reputation?"

In a region of the New World, aboard the Moby Dick—which was even larger than the Marine Warships known as Steel Beasts—Whitebeard, Edward Newgate, still in his prime, spoke with disdain.

Then he clenched his five fingers. The Tremor-Tremor Fruit activated, instantly reducing the newspaper to dust.

"What's wrong with Pops?" Some crew members drinking on deck quietly asked Marco, known as the Phoenix.

"Nothing. Pops is probably just a little indignant," Marco said with a smile.

"I am not, you stupid son."

Whitebeard, Edward Newgate, loudly retorted before lifting the wine cask beside him and taking huge gulps.

For a moment, the crew aboard the ship watched Whitebeard, Edward Newgate's somewhat childish behavior and burst into laughter.

"Hahahaha..."

Aside from that, the strangest reactions came from those who had once served as crew members aboard the Pirate King's ship.

Shanks firmly refused to believe it, Buggy looked utterly disdainful, while Crocus sank into deep thought...

Meanwhile, Silvers Rayleigh, the "Dark King" who had once served as the first mate of the "Pirate King" Gol D. Roger, stared at the newspaper in front of him and kept smoking, as if recalling something.

In short, the major prison break incident involving "Golden Lion" Shiki escaping from Impel Down—an event that could have severely damaged the Navy's prestige—was simply overlooked.

What worried the Navy, however, was that Shiki's whereabouts remained impossible to confirm, as though he had suddenly vanished completely into the Great Sea.

Fleet Admiral Sengoku questioned Yaen several times about the details, hoping to use them to determine where Shiki might have gone.

Unfortunately, the place where Yaen had sunk was an unmarked stretch of sea, so Yaen could only regretfully and truthfully state that he had no idea where Shiki was now.