Around nine in the morning...
There were now only a little over three hours left before the public execution of Portgas D. Ace, the Whitebeard Pirates' Second Division Commander, wielder of the Flame-Flame Fruit, known as "Fire Fist," a powerful man with a bounty of 550 million berries.
In Area 60 of the Sabaody Archipelago, outside the Government entrance and the Marine Headquarters base, a large crowd of residents who had been brought there to take shelter watched the execution grounds at the Marineford fortress through the images projected onto several giant screens by Visual Den Den Mushi.
By now, people could see through the Den Den Mushi projections that
countless elite Marines stood ready for battle. Marine officers filled both sides of the execution platform and the surrounding stands. They stood motionless at their posts, imposing as statues.
Compared with the public execution of the Pirate King Roger in the previous era, when the public had been allowed to gather and watch, the scene was entirely different.
"Oh, my!"
"With this kind of setup, and the time almost here, Whitebeard must have reached Marineford already, right?"
"Who knows..."
"But will he really show up?"
"You can see how many Marines there are, and they're all elite troops. Even Whitebeard probably wouldn't dare show up, would he?"
Beneath the giant screens, the residents who had gathered to watch and await developments began discussing things in hushed voices.
"Yeah..."
"Even Whitebeard's getting on in years. Does he really dare go?"
"Hard to say..."
"Ahem!"
"He's from before the Great Pirate Era, after all. He must be really old by now. We haven't heard anything about him lately, either. It's the new generation of pirates who've been making waves."
"That's right. I haven't seen him in the news for years."
"..."
"Hey!"