East Blue.
One of the Four Seas, and the homeland of the Pirate King, Roger.
Yet unlike Roger's illustrious reputation, the East Blue was widely known as the weakest of the Four Seas, with very few warlords carving out territory there.
The pirates who roamed its waters were mostly nobodies, and only a handful had bounties on their heads.
The Music Country, Elegia.
Two hundred nautical miles beyond its territorial waters lay a tiny uninhabited island.
At that moment, a pirate ship approached from the distance and slowly pulled ashore.
A dozen or so pirates disembarked one after another and headed to their temporary camp, where they took a brief rest.
"Ah-yah-yah-yah-yah!"
The pirate captain let out a string of strange laughs and boasted,
"Once we're done with this big job, I'll be getting a huge bounty on my head too!"
"That's right, Captain!"
"The captain really is the greatest!"
"Long live the captain!"
"..."
The underlings chimed in one after another.
Seeing this, the captain grew even more pleased with himself. "Ah-yah-yah-yah! Once I get the Sea Chart to the Grand Line from those people, I'll take you all there to make a fortune!"
"Oh!"
The pirate underlings cheered even louder at that.
The captain was filled with heroic spirit. Turning to gaze out at the sea, he added,
"But this job involves Elegia, and they told us to keep it absolutely secret. Understood?"
"..."
"Do you understand?"
"..."
Still, no one answered.
The pirate captain frowned deeply, turned around, and scolded them. "Hey, I'm talking to you lot..."
He stopped mid-sentence, stunned.
A man in a fur coat had appeared before him.
A cigar dangled from his mouth. His left hand was a golden hook, and his right hand gripped one of the underlings by the throat.