Tsugikuni Yoriichi wore a gentle smile as he slowly removed the hood from his head.
When his handsome, refined face appeared before Rayleigh and Shakky, both of them revealed the same look of intense disbelief and shock.
"Y-you are..."
Staring at Yoriichi's somewhat familiar face, Rayleigh's voice became dry.
Yoriichi's face was nearly identical to how he had looked back then. Only, in Rayleigh's eyes, the Yoriichi before him was younger, more immature, and more boyish.
Moreover, Rayleigh did not see that familiar Demon Slayer Mark on Yoriichi's face. Yet the instant he saw the young man, Rayleigh knew that he was no imitator—he was Tsugikuni Yoriichi himself.
Rayleigh's Observation Haki spread over Yoriichi. The black-robed Yoriichi stood plainly before them, yet Rayleigh's Observation Haki could not sense the slightest trace of his presence.
That feeling was far too familiar to Rayleigh. Their meeting all those years ago had left an indelible impression on him.
And it was precisely because Rayleigh recognized the red-haired young man before him as the real Tsugikuni Yoriichi that such an expression appeared on his face.
Although the events in the Alabasta Kingdom had been sealed off by the World Government, news of Tsugikuni Yoriichi's death had long since been jointly announced by the World Government and the Marines.
After news of his death was spread throughout the world, the New Marines in the New World did not come forward to refute it.
That led everyone to believe that Tsugikuni Yoriichi was dead.
Coupled with the fact that no one had seen Tsugikuni Yoriichi appear for so many years—not even during the New Marines' darkest days, when Yoriichi had never emerged to take charge—everyone in the world had accepted the fact that Tsugikuni Yoriichi had died.
The news of Tsugikuni Yoriichi's death had an enormous