Amid the billowing smoke over the Cang Kingdom's capital.
The Heavenly Tribute warship sailed away in style, and Rocks even took the opportunity to raid the Cang royal treasury, making off with countless treasures.
On the ruined island that had once been Kozuki Village, Rocks ordered all the prisoner soldiers off the ship.
Even the dozen or so young soldiers who had originally become sailors and deckhands wanted to disembark and return to their hometowns.
In the end, only six orphaned soldiers with no families or anyone to rely on stayed aboard as sailors and deckhands.
Rocks took down and destroyed the World Government flag on the Heavenly Tribute warship, replacing it with a black flag bearing the name Rocks D. Zebek.
He also named the warship the Sword of Xebec.
But with too few officers and not enough strong fighters, Rocks didn't want to raise the Rocks Pirates' Jolly Roger just yet.
He wanted to witness the founding of the Rocks Pirates together with those powerful future subordinates!
However, the World Government had already branded Rocks a pirate—and the worst kind of pirate at that!
His wanted poster had already been issued.
A few days later.
"Wahahahaha! Houka, your wanted poster is out too!"
"Look at that. You personally executed the general and king of the Affiliated Nation, the Cang Kingdom. What a vicious character."
"Even when I kidnapped those five kings in Mary Geoise, I didn't kill a single one of them."
Rocks grinned and laughed, teasing Houka, but he didn't mention the terrible business of killing a Marine Admiral himself.
"What a garbage epithet!"
Houka was busy pushing himself to develop his two Devil Fruit Abilities and figuring out how to train and strengthen his Soul Insects.
He only spared a moment to glance at his wanted poster during a break.
["Murder and Arson" Kozuki Houka, bounty: 80,000,000 Beli! Only Alive!]
Damn it, Rocks had clearly been the one to start the fire in the Cang Kingdom's capital. Why was Houka getting blamed for it?
"Wahahahaha! Murder and Arson Houka. That's not a bad reputation!"
"But that strength and bounty still aren't enough to make you one of my officers. You'd better work hard!"
Rocks gave Houka a long look. He knew that this unusual mutant really did have the potential to become an unparalleled powerhouse.
A future user of nine Devil Fruits. Just imagining it was terrifying!
Meanwhile, Rocks's wanted poster bore a whole string of zeroes.
["World's Most Heinous Pirate" Rocks D. Zebek, bounty: 3,811,540,000 Beli]
For this era, that bounty was already far higher than those of the great pirates in the New World!
It showed just how seriously the World Government took Rocks.
The famous New World pirates of the time generally had bounties around one billion.
Charlotte Linlin had set sail a few years earlier. Her first bounty, at the age of six, had been 50 million Beli. In five years, it had risen to 500 million.
Now twelve years old, Charlotte Linlin was already famous throughout the New World.
By the time of the God Valley battle, Gil Basta, an officer of the Rocks Pirates, had a bounty of 970 million Beli.
Captain John, Silver Axe Xiong, and Ganzi, who were about as strong as him, likely had bounties of around one billion as well.
Stronger figures like Whitebeard, Shiki, and Big Mom were probably in a higher bracket, somewhere between one and two billion Beli.
After all, inflation hadn't gotten that bad yet!
It wasn't until these great pirates went their separate ways, founded their own crews, and became overlords in their own right—ushering in the era of the Three Legends and the Four Emperors of the Great Pirate Era—that their bounties soared to four or five billion.
"Houka, didn't you say you wanted to go straight after the strong ones? Why are we still hanging around in Paradise on the Grand Line?"
Rocks was already itching to gather all his powerful future subordinates under his banner and then launch an assault on Mary Geoise!!
"Because some of them haven't grown up yet!"
"Take Charlotte Linlin, for example. She has the Steel Balloon physique and the Paramecia Soul-Soul Fruit Ability. She's a future Four Emperor powerhouse and one of your top officers."
"But she's only twelve this year!"
"Malone, the West Blue Mafia boss, has already come into his own. We can go recruit him."
"Shiki the Golden Lion, a Paramecia user with the Float-Float Fruit Ability, has already made a name for himself in the New World. We can get him aboard, though he's extremely arrogant and conceited..."
"Edward Newgate, a pirate and user of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, is currently fighting as a combatant on someone else's ship. We have to win him over. He's incredibly strong!"
"Ganzi, a notorious smuggling pirate and Paramecia user with the Bomb-Bomb Fruit Ability, is already famous. We can force him to join us!"
"Ochoku, the Pirate Patriarch—he'll betray you in the future. Do you still want to recruit him?"
"Captain John, a Paramecia user with the Magnet-Magnet Fruit. He'll betray you too, and I'm interested in his Magnet-Magnet Fruit Ability..."
"Of course, we're still sailing through Paradise because I want to claim the demon sword I've got my eye on. Is that a problem?"
Houka rattled off a long list of powerful names for Rocks.
He'd already looked into their situations and confirmed what they were up to.
Every one of them had already gained a Devil Fruit Ability.
So Houka wasn't worried about interfering with their future acquisition of those abilities.
As for Stussy, the Science Bandit, there was no news of her at all. It seemed she had gone into hiding.
"Wahahahaha! Just hearing about all those Devil Fruit Abilities tells me they're powerful."
"As for betrayal, we'll see when the time comes!"
"But Houka, are you really only interested in the Magnet-Magnet Ability?"
"The Soul-Soul Fruit Ability, the Float-Float Fruit Ability, the Tremor-Tremor Fruit Ability, the Bomb-Bomb Fruit Ability... Those are all powerful abilities. Aren't you tempted?"
Hearing so many accurate names, Rocks broke into a wide grin.
Then he suddenly licked his lips and spoke to Houka with a sinister smile.
He didn't believe Houka could resist giving up so many powerful Devil Fruit Abilities.
"Whoever betrays us, I'll kill! No problem with that, right, Captain?"
Houka met Rocks's gaze without fear. He knew his special talent couldn't stay hidden from Rocks.
So he might as well be frank with him.
Rocks, a member of the D Clan, seemed to possess a kind of Observation Haki similar to the Voice of All Things. His inner thoughts could appear directly in Roger and Garp's minds.
"Wahahahaha! No problem!"
"As long as you're strong enough to help me defeat the King of the World, you can kill whoever you want! None of them have joined the crew yet, anyway!"
Rocks unleashed a powerful burst of Conqueror's Haki. He was confident he could keep the little monster Houka in check.
"I have no interest in becoming the King of the World. My goal is the sea of stars beyond this world!"
"You can leave this world to Imu and that Sun God Nika!"
Houka shrugged and replied calmly.
Whether Rocks believed him or not, Houka did.
Rocks stared at Houka for a long time, seeming to try to see through his true intentions.
But he chose to laugh heartily, and in the end, he didn't object to Houka's request to sail through Paradise on the Grand Line and search for the demon sword.
As it happened, he could stick to his original plan and have some fun with the pirate crews in Paradise on the Grand Line first.
Maybe he could find powerful people beyond the ones Houka had mentioned.
After all, the future Houka had seen wasn't complete.
Several weeks later.
The Sword of Xebec sailed on, beating every pirate crew it encountered along the way.
Houka also joined in several battles, putting his Moonlight Ability and Gravity Ability to the test and developing them further.
At last, they reached Houka's destination: Asuka Island.
Houka and Rocks charged straight through and soon found the ancient village that guarded the Seven-Star Sword.
Houka didn't waste time haggling with the shrine maiden guarding it. He simply opened the stone altar and seized the Seven-Star Sword.
"Wahahahaha! Looks like this demon sword isn't much worse than my own blade!"
Seeing Houka unleash his powerful soul and forcibly subdue the strange twin-bladed demon sword, Rocks burst into laughter.
His little brother seemed to be getting stronger by the day!
But only the strong deserved to be his subordinates.
"He really did subdue the Seven-Star Sword!"
The shrine maiden watched in disbelief as Houka took the Seven-Star Sword without appearing to be controlled by it.
That meant their shrine maiden clan's duty to guard the Seven-Star Sword had come to an end.
They no longer had to fear the Seven-Star Sword breaking free from its seal.
After obtaining the Seven-Star Sword, Houka swung it across the sea, unleashing a terrifying slash. He looked very pleased.
Having a monster like Rocks watching his back was great.
From now on, Houka would do his best to help Rocks change his fate, repaying him for protecting and guiding him.
He made a scabbard for the Seven-Star Sword, then suddenly turned his gaze toward the East Blue.
He wondered whether to tell Rocks about Roger. Could Rocks's charisma win Roger and Rayleigh over?
But Roger and Rayleigh were apparently still in Loguetown and hadn't set sail yet. They probably weren't strong enough.
While collecting wanted posters and information, Houka hadn't found a wanted poster for Roger.
Fifty-two years before the original timeline, when Brook was sailing through Paradise on the Grand Line and nearing the Florian Triangle, Roger really had been a rookie just entering the Grand Line.
It shouldn't take four years to travel from Loguetown to the Grand Line. Roger was probably still in Loguetown and hadn't set sail yet.
Houka had, however, found information about the Rumbar Pirates, who were sailing through the West Blue. Brook had already left the royal guard and joined them as a pirate, for music or some other reason.
Brook and Gunko had spent some time together during Gunko's childhood.
Now Gunko had grown into a young woman and served at Imu's side.
When Rocks invaded the Flower Room to meet Imu, Gunko had been there too.