At Sengoku's home, the three veteran Marine officers had barely sat down when the alarm suddenly began blaring. They didn't even have time to take a sip of tea before getting up and rushing into the courtyard.
"That's—"
Garp looked up at the roof of the Headquarters Building. When he saw the strangely dressed figures standing there, his pupils contracted. "The Knights of God!"
Sengoku looked bewildered and snapped, "How could the Knights of God's teleportation array appear on the roof of the Headquarters Building? Is a spy summoning them, or did they plant a marker there when the building was first built?"
Zephyr reacted more calmly. He silently studied the figures on the roof before asking, "Garp, do you know them?"
"Several of them were members of the Knights of God who took part in the Valley of Gods Hunting Game thirty-two years ago!"
Garp nodded, then continued, "More precisely, all but one of the young women appeared at the God Valley Incident back then!"
The roof of the Marine Headquarters Building.
The first person to emerge from the teleportation array was a remarkably young-looking woman with mismatched eyes and long legs.
She wore a newsboy cap with goggles and a cloak over a double-breasted top. Its sleeves were unusually long, while her lower half was covered by nothing but shorts resembling a bikini, leaving her long legs completely exposed. She wore a pair of tall, cylindrical boots, giving her a strikingly dashing look with a hint of exhibitionism.
Gunko—
A member of the Knights of God and an Arrow-Arrow Fruit user.
Gunko, her mouth wrapped in bandages, had only just stepped out of the teleportation array when fiery clouds rose again behind her. An invisible pressure rippled outward, as though the very air were distorting. The scene was especially eerie.
Then several figures appeared inside the array.
The first to follow Gunko out was a Masked Man wearing a mask marked with the number 46 and carrying a rapier. His mask concealed his face.
Next came an elegant, long-haired woman with a curvaceous figure, dressed in a crop top, along with a quiet-looking short-haired woman.
As the three emerged from the teleportation array, the fiery clouds surrounding it vanished at once. Two oddly dressed men remained behind, warily surveying their surroundings.
One of them stood where the array had disappeared, a long-handled scythe resting on his shoulder and a skull mask covering his face. Though he hadn't moved a muscle, he exuded a suffocating aura of death, as if the Grim Reaper himself had descended.
Standing beside the masked man was a hooded figure with a long spear on his shoulder. He looked like the boy next door.
As the six of them, led by Gunko, appeared on the roof of the Headquarters Building, Marine soldiers drawn by the alarms quickly surrounded the building.
A flash of light shot up from the ground and appeared in front of Gunko and the others in an instant. It was Borsalino, an Admiral of Marine Headquarters.
Before Gunko and the others could react, Sakazuki and Kuzan emerged side by side from the rooftop exit.
"The Three Admirals of Marine Headquarters!"
Watching the three men appear one after another, Gunko spoke without hesitation. "It seems the mutiny hasn't affected you at all. In that case, can I assume that all of you took part in the unprecedented mutiny in Marine history last night?"
Borsalino, who had arrived on the roof first, looked around at the unexpected guests and drawled lazily, "The Knights of God? How frightening. You actually came straight to Marine Headquarters through a teleportation array."
"Borsalino, don't get the wrong idea~"
Before Gunko could speak, the long-haired woman beside her stepped forward. "We haven't come to hold any of you accountable. We're here on behalf of the Holy Land to negotiate with Vice Admiral Akira."
Borsalino and Sakazuki exchanged a knowing glance.
Though they had expected this outcome, they hadn't thought that members of the Knights of God would come to negotiate.
As Admirals of Marine Headquarters, they knew not only of the Knights of God, but also that their primary duty was to protect the Celestial Dragons living in the Holy Land and maintain order among them.
Even when the Knights of God occasionally left the Holy Land on special assignments, those missions were always matters directly concerning the Celestial Dragons. If they were to get involved in a mutiny at Marine Headquarters, it should only have been after the Five Elders in the Chamber of Power found the situation too difficult to handle.
Yet the Five Elders in the Chamber of Power hadn't made any statement, and the Knights of God had already come straight to Marine Headquarters through a teleportation array—with six members at once. For a moment, the Admirals couldn't tell what was happening in the Holy Land or what its stance might be.
"Bring Akira here to see us!"
Just then, Gunko stepped forward to stand beside the long-haired woman. Her expression was cold as she said, "If he wants to hold on to the Marshal position at Marine Headquarters, he'd better not keep us waiting!"
"What a bold claim!"
As soon as Gunko finished speaking, a cold voice rang out.
The rooftop exit opened, and two figures stepped through: Akira and Gion.
Akira strode straight to the front of the Three Admirals. Then he lifted his gaze to meet Gunko's and said sternly, "Miss Gunko, you aren't qualified to negotiate with me. What I want is beyond your reach!"
"Y-you know who I am?"
Gunko hadn't expected Akira to address her by name. Her pupils contracted as she stared at him without blinking.
The Knights of God rarely appeared before the public, and even many people in the Holy Land didn't know how many members there were. That was because some members were Celestial Dragons living in the Holy Land, while many others were powerful figures from across the seas who had been recruited into the order. After joining, nearly all of them concealed their identities.
Most importantly, Gunko hadn't been a member for long. Apart from certain members of the Knights of God, even the Five Elders didn't know that she was now one of them.
And the man before her, Akira, had started the mutiny and seized control of the Marines. He had been in the Navy for only six short years and looked even younger than her. Under the circumstances, there was almost no chance he could know her name!
Akira didn't answer Gunko. His sharp gaze swept across the other five members of the Knights of God as he calmly said, "If I'm not mistaken, all five of you took part in the Valley of Gods Hunting Game thirty-two years ago."
"You don't seem to have done very well for yourselves. You've been members of the Knights of God for over thirty years, yet you're still following some young woman around. What a pity!"
"You've spent all these years in the Knights of God without ever getting ahead. Why not change sides and pledge yourselves to me? I'll give you a bright future.
Before you continue