Grand Line.
Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
The red-haired female Admiral kicked open the door to the Fleet Admiral's Office and slapped a hand down on the desk. "Old Man Sengoku, why won't you let me go? I just fought that bastard Mongge. Nobody knows his tricks better than I do!"
"Ahem, Rona, calm down first."
Sengoku, the Fleet Admiral at the time, cleared his throat and motioned for the female Admiral to settle down.
"I've already sent Sengoku and Kong. Besides, this came from above. You just fought White Wolf Moger, and your injuries haven't fully healed..."
"Those little scratches healed ages ago!"
"Yes, yes."
Sengoku looked at Rona, who was fuming and looked ready to draw her sword at any moment, and felt a headache coming on. He couldn't exactly tell her that the higher-ups thought she'd been outmatched by White Wolf Moger and doubted her abilities, so they'd decided to send an Admiral with more seniority instead.
Sengoku tried to reason with her gently. "Rona, you know the higher-ups are furious that the Navy lost the Celestial Gold. They've ordered us to recover it within a month."
The Celestial Gold was tax money paid to the Celestial Dragons and transported under the Navy's protection. For nearly a century, not a single pirate had dared to provoke them.
For a pirate to actually steal the Celestial Gold was an undeniable challenge to their authority.
So the Five Elders, the World Government's highest authority, were deeply displeased. They demanded that the Navy recover the Celestial Gold within a month and capture the one who'd dared to challenge them.
Otherwise, next year's Navy budget would be used to compensate the Celestial Dragons for their losses.
As Fleet Admiral, Sengoku found himself in an impossible position.
Because there was simply no way to do it!
Who knew where White Wolf Moger would go after the theft?
If White Wolf Moger had taken the transport ship too, they might have been able to track it and find him.
But now...
White Wolf Moger had left the ship behind and taken only its cargo.
Finding him and the White Wolf Pirates in this vast ocean would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Besides,
the Navy couldn't send every Admiral after the White Wolf Pirates. Though no pirate had risen to become a true overlord of the seas, Great Pirates who ruled their own territories were a dime a dozen.
"Rona, the Giant Shark Pirates have been active near Dressrosa lately. If you can take them down quickly, I'll let you join the operation against the White Wolf Pirates."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
Rona turned on her heel, her red hair swishing as she strode out of the office without looking back. Sengoku scratched at what little hair he had left and sighed.
"You're over seventy and still coming out to cause trouble for me. Mongge, you bastard. Couldn't you have just retired quietly?"
He'd reached their level without making a fuss, then stolen the Celestial Dragons' Celestial Gold. Sengoku rubbed his temples as he read the report submitted by Vice Admiral Robby of Branch 9 of GL.
"Kong's got a tough job on his hands this time."
New World.
Seven dark green warships sailed across the sea. Each one was over seventy meters long, and every deck was packed with Navy soldiers.
A few more ships, and they'd have enough to assemble the World Government's Buster Call.
A Buster Call consisted of ten warships and five Marine Headquarters Vice Admirals. These seven ships already carried three Marine Vice Admirals, one candidate for Marine Admiral, and one Marine Admiral.
"Never a moment's peace."
A thin, lanky old man with a lecherous face lounged on a deck chair, enjoying an enthusiastic massage from two beautiful slave girls beside him. He grumbled, "He's never beaten her before. But this time he caught little Rona off guard and drove her back, and now he's gotten all cocky."
"Can't I just retire in peace?"
A middle-aged man with hair like a hedgehog said gravely, "Admiral Kizaru, White Wolf Moger has been a legend, sailing these seas for decades. We should be more cautious."
"Hmph. He's just an old man like me."
As he spoke, the old man lecherously patted one of the slave girls on the backside.
"And he's not as handsome as me! Isn't that right, Kong?"
Kong looked at the old man's leering donkey face. Then he thought of Moger, whom he'd met a few years ago, and found he couldn't bring himself to agree.
"Anyway, I'll leave command of the fleet to you, Kong."
The old man laughed and headed for the cabins with his arms around the two slave girls, collars fastened around their necks. Kong and the nearby Navy soldiers acted as if they'd long since gotten used to it, paying no attention.
Kong gazed out at the vast sea and murmured to himself,
"Where are you now?"
"White Wolf Moger."
Sphinx.
This was an island nation in the middle of the New World. It wasn't a single island but a country with a population of hundreds of thousands.
However, its remote location and barren land meant it couldn't pay enough Celestial Gold each year, unlike the Government Affiliated Nations.
So it had no choice but to become a Non-Government Affiliated Nation, without the Navy's protection.
Moger had visited the island once, more than ten years ago. At the time, the country was on the brink of collapse under the pirates' attacks.
Using his reputation, Moger wiped out some of the pirates and turned the island into a way station for them.
Before long, it had become a place where pirates fenced their loot.
More than ten years had passed.
The island's people were still poor, but their lives were immeasurably better than when the pirates had plundered them without restraint.
Moger, however, wasn't satisfied.
More than ten years ago, he'd still been too weak. His reputation as a Great Pirate could frighten ordinary pirates, but it couldn't cow those as unruly as he was, who also bore the title of Great Pirate.
After he stopped visiting the island for a long time, its territory was split into several parts, each seized by a different Great Pirate.
Now, there wasn't a single one of his flags on the island.
But the truth was, Moger hadn't taken control of the island all those years ago to help its people.
He'd actually come looking for someone.
A man named Edward Newgate.
But he hadn't found him back then.
After all, according to the usual course of events, Edward Newgate might only just have been born at the time, still a child.
Even now, Moger didn't hold out much hope.
He only remembered that Charlotte Linlin had been abandoned by her parents a couple of years ago. He had no idea when Edward Newgate would set out to sea.
The man who would one day be called the World's Strongest Man!
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