The Long Battle and the Rising Wind

The moon hung high overhead.

The battle was still raging.

After nearly a quarter of Saiboy Island had been destroyed, the battlefield gradually moved away from the island. This finally made the few powerful individuals on the island—those who had remained conscious under the onslaught of Aleus's Spirit Pressure and BIG's Conqueror's Haki—breathe a sigh of relief.

The identities of these people were exceedingly complicated.

There were the pillars supporting the Kingdom of Himuyel, who had kept their heads thanks to their skill at reading the wind and changing course accordingly.

There were Great Pirates who had come to the island for pleasure, only to unfortunately stumble into Aleus's assault on the Kingdom of Himuyel.

There were reporters dispatched by major news agencies to dig up information on the Black Prince. For the past month, they had secretly followed Aleus's Fleet, and this time they had come to Saiboy Island aboard merchant ships, successfully uncovering this Big News.

And there were Revolutionary Army officers who had already been hiding on the island, tirelessly stirring up trouble...

Even Aleus had never fully grasped this motley situation. He had no idea that the Revolutionary Army was present; rather, the former royal family and ministers of the Kingdom of Himuyel had likewise been unaware that the Revolutionary Army had infiltrated their own territory.

After all, it was an organization regarded by the World Government as its number one enemy.

Even if all Four Emperors were added together, they might not be considered more dangerous than the Revolutionary Army in the World Government's eyes.

Well!

In any case, tonight was destined to be a night of frantic Den Den Mushi activity.

Messages rode the Den Den Mushi's bio-waves to different parts of the New World. Soon, after brewing for a moment, even larger-scale bio-waves spread outward from the New World toward Paradise and the Four Seas. With the right monitoring equipment, one would have discovered just how frequently Den Den Mushi bio-waves were traveling back and forth across the world tonight.

New World, Silver Iris Sea.

This was one of the territories controlled by the Whitebeard Pirates. The islands in this sea grew a particularly unusual kind of silver iris that could only survive in these waters. These silver irises were an important raw material for cosmetics, making this sea one of the Whitebeard Pirates' key sources of income.

Tonight, an enormous Fleet led by the Moby Dick was sailing through the Silver Iris Sea.

Unlike the two Pirate Emperors, BIG and Beast, the Whitebeard Pirates had no fixed headquarters like Totland or Onigashima. The Moby Dick was Whitebeard's imperial court, for this Pirate Emperor firmly believed that pirates ought to live upon the sea.

Thus, the Whitebeard Pirates constantly traveled through the waters under their command, patrolling their territory like lions.

"Gurararara~~~"

Whitebeard, who had yet to rest and was drinking with his sons, suddenly burst into exceptionally delighted laughter shortly after answering a Den Den Mushi call.

Yes.

It was an exceedingly joyful laugh.

How could Marco, who had followed Pops for decades, fail to hear the emotion contained in that laughter?

"Pops, did something good happen?"

asked the man with the golden punk hairstyle.

"It's quite an interesting piece of news!"

Whitebeard ended the call on the Den Den Mushi. His crescent-shaped white mustache quivered softly along with his smile as he looked down at the sons seated on the deck. "Sokachio Aleus—do you boys still remember that little fellow?"

Sokachio Aleus?

That Black Prince who had been making such waves lately?

Marco, Jozu, Vista, Thatch, Izou, and the other commanders immediately pictured a brat barely five feet tall, with green eyes and an exceedingly arrogant attitude.

Of course they remembered. How could they forget that cocky little brat who had once rejected Pops? When Pops had made the offer, the commanders present had thought the ship was about to gain another very young little brother. Who could have expected that the tiny brat would so cleanly turn Pops down?

"Pops, what trouble has that arrogant little brat stirred up this time?" Vista, the Fifth Division Commander known as Flower Sword, lightly stroked his mustache.

"He got into a fight with that crazy woman, BIG."

"...Huh?"

Vista's fingers froze where they rested against his mustache.

"Pops, you mean that brat got into a fight with... with BIG?"

"That's right. On Saiboy Island in the Frankincense Sea Area. They've been fighting from this morning until now, and it doesn't look like there'll be a clear result without several days and nights... Gurararara! This sea has given birth to another new king."

Whitebeard laughed merrily.

But not everyone could laugh as heartily as Whitebeard.

The commanders exchanged looks.

They all felt a headache coming on.

Especially Marco, Vista, Thatch, Izou, and the other commanders who handled the main affairs. Aleus had trampled on BIG's pride to announce the birth of another king of the seas to the New World, which was certainly welcome news—the relationship between the Whitebeard Pirates and the BIG Pirates was exceptionally poor, even though Whitebeard and BIG had once been crewmates on the same ship.

Naturally, it was satisfying to see the BIG Pirates become the backdrop highlighting a new king. But once the excitement passed, they had to consider how to handle the relationship between the Whitebeard Pirates and the Ekmondo Kingdom.

The best outcome, naturally, was an amicable parting, with neither side disturbing the other.

The Whitebeard Pirates did not control their territories through enslavement, but through a two-way choice.

The Whitebeard Pirates needed funds and supplies to sustain their own operations. In exchange, they lent out their pirate flag to protect the forces under them from encroachment by the other Pirate Emperors. If any force no longer wished to maintain this agreement, it only needed to return the Whitebeard Pirates' flag, after which each side would go its own way.

That was the Whitebeard Pirates' way of doing things.

Even though the Ekmondo Kingdom was one of the Whitebeard Pirates' important sources of income, the Whitebeard Pirates would not forcibly control it—especially now that the Ekmondo Kingdom had produced a prince capable of facing a Four Emperor head-on.

What Marco worried about now was that after challenging Big Mom, that [Black Prince] would come challenge Pops next.

Of course, he did not doubt in the slightest that Pops would ultimately win. If it were an enemy Pops could casually knock down, he would not care how Pops dealt with them. What he did not want to see was Pops engaged in a prolonged fierce battle. Given Pops's current condition, every high-intensity fight dragged him one step closer to the underworld.

If possible, it was best to avoid unnecessary conflict.

"When I saw that brat back then, I thought he was pretty interesting. But... I never expected him to climb to the pinnacle of this world so quickly! Gurararara! Sure enough, this world belongs to the young people of the future. Maybe an old relic from a bygone era like me should be leaving the stage soon!" Whitebeard said thoughtfully.

"Pops!!!"

Marco immediately panicked upon hearing that.

How could he say something so inauspicious?

It was not just Marco. Jozu, Thatch, Vista, Izou, Namul, and the other commanders all abruptly stood up.

"Pops, that little brat is still far too green! This sea isn't their place to throw their weight around yet."

"Exactly! Pops!"

"Pops, your drinking capacity hasn't diminished one bit from before. It's not time to say things like that yet!"

The commanders' words were clumsy and disorderly, yet so sincere.

Their admiration and love for Whitebeard, their father, were vividly expressed through those awkward words.

"You lot!"

Whitebeard laughed again. "All right, Marco, stop glaring at me. I just said it casually. I have no intention of making way for some little punk. All right, enough of that. Come on, boys, a toast to this sea becoming even livelier!!!"

The enormous sake cup was raised, and the sound of clinking cups echoed across the deck.

The Moby Dick once again returned to its lively, jubilant atmosphere.

As for Aleus... well, they could talk about that later! There was still plenty of time. Aleus's battle with Big Mom had not even concluded yet, so there was enough time to deal with these matters.

Navy Headquarters, Marineford.

It was another day of overtime, as usual. To be honest, with an organization as massive as the Navy, there was never any end to the work. Every day, tons of documents were printed by Den Den Mushi equipped with printers. They came from bases across the Grand Line and the Four Seas.

There were applications for funding, requests for medical discharge, accusations against fellow officers, pleas for reinforcements... The wide variety of content kept the staff corps led by Vice Admiral Tsuru busy beyond all measure. Working overtime from morning to night, year-round without rest, had long since become the norm.

Come to think of it, aside from the incident when Golden Lion attacked Navy Headquarters, the retirement rate among the staff at the enormous headquarters was even higher than that of ordinary Navy soldiers.

That alone showed just how harsh the working environment was for the staff corps under Vice Admiral Tsuru.

However, the staff corps was not the only group at Navy Headquarters that worked overtime without rest all year round. Marshal Sengoku was the number one workaholic at Navy Headquarters. Though he was the Fleet Admiral and could have handed his work over to the officers and staff beneath him, needing only to review and approve it in the end, he simply could not help being born for hard work. As long as his stamina and energy allowed it, he would never stop working overtime. It just so happened that he was a Zoan Devil Fruit user, and his endurance in this regard was truly exceptional. More than a decade of overtime had failed to wear him down.

Tonight, the Fleet Admiral's office was still brightly lit.

"Tsuru, what did you say?"

Suddenly, Marshal Sengoku's shout carried out through the open window.

"Sengoku, calm down."

Vice Admiral Tsuru sat on the sofa reserved for guests. Her perfectly straight posture was like a blade tempered through countless trials, while the way she slowly savored her hot tea gave off an unshakable calm, as though even if the end of the world were about to arrive in the next moment, it would not disturb the motion of her drinking tea.

In fact, among that generation of Navy recruits—Sengoku, Garp, Zephyr, Tsuru, and the rest—the present-day Wise General Sengoku had been just as impulsive a hot-blooded brat as Garp and Zephyr back then. Whenever his blood ran hot, he charged forward recklessly without regard for anything else. Even their superiors could not restrain those troublesome thorns.

Only Tsuru, as the sole woman in their little group, had been the only one capable of reining in Sengoku, Garp, and Zephyr, those three mad horses.

"...After all these years, I still can't stay as calm as you, Tsuru!"

Sengoku leaned back in his chair and looked at Vice Admiral Tsuru drinking tea with unhurried composure. A self-mocking bitter smile appeared on his face. Still, it was not that his self-control was lacking. It was simply impossible not to be shocked upon hearing such news.

"Tsuru, is the information... reliable?"

After calming his suddenly overheated mind slightly, Sengoku put away the tired, helpless expression he only revealed before a very few people. He resumed his imposing, composed demeanor and gravely asked about the information Vice Admiral Tsuru had brought.

"Eighty percent certainty."

Vice Admiral Tsuru nodded gently.

"The information was first provided by Vice Admiral Vergo of the New World G5 Branch. Then Momonga, stationed at G1 Branch, sent back the same intelligence. Before coming here, the pieces we placed in the New World also delivered similar reports. With such a commotion, it should not be false."

Sokachio Aleus, Crown Prince of the Ekmondo Kingdom, codenamed [Black Prince]. According to the latest intelligence, His Highness the Black Prince had engaged in a great battle with Big Mom, one of the Four Emperors, above Saiboy Island in the Frankincense Sea Area of the New World. The battle had lasted an entire day and had yet to conclude.

That was the information Vice Admiral Tsuru had brought.

Another powerhouse comparable to a Pirate Emperor had appeared in the New World, much like the World's Greatest Swordsman, who had once crossed blades with Red-Haired, one of the Four Emperors, many times without a definite victor ever being determined.

But clearly, His Highness the Black Prince was not a lone wanderer like [Hawk Eyes].

As the Crown Prince of a kingdom, born to rule a power of his own, Aleus's rise was bound to bring an unimaginable shock to the New World.

"I thought he had merely shifted the balance of the New World. I never expected... that he would so quickly destroy the four-polar stalemate outright—and in this manner..." Sengoku was half pleased, half worried.

Naturally, he was pleased because Aleus's emergence had disrupted the balance of power in the New World. It was foreseeable that the New World would soon face another massive storm. As long as that storm remained confined to the New World, Sengoku was more than happy to watch the pirates tear each other apart.

His worry, however, came from Aleus's strength exceeding his expectations. It made him concerned about what path Aleus would choose in the future. Logically speaking, the Ekmondo Kingdom was a member nation of the World Government, so Aleus should naturally belong to the World Government and Marine camp.

Yet matters in the New World could not be so simply divided into black and white.

The Ekmondo Kingdom was still flying the flag of the Whitebeard Pirates! Coupled with Aleus's brutal act of slaughtering twenty thousand people on Whale Tail Island, it made people worry that this prince might choose a path that ran contrary to the World Government and the Marines.

"Sengoku, what should we do about... Garp's side?"

Vice Admiral Tsuru asked.

With Big Mom voluntarily presenting herself as a touchstone, there was no longer any need for Garp to test whether Aleus was qualified to become the Marines' ally in the New World. The question now was whether Aleus was willing to accept the Marines' control and allow the Ekmondo Kingdom to become the bridgehead for the Marines' Large-scale return to the New World.

"Garp... continue the mission."

After pondering for a moment, Sengoku made his decision.