Sengoku's Worries

Shipping was the lifeblood of commerce in a world where every island was its own country or town.

On these seas, teeming with pirates, chaos, and plunder, very few people—or forces—could maintain shipping routes that spanned the entire world.

The World Government could manage it with the help of the Navy, but it still had to remain constantly on guard against pirate and Revolutionary Army attacks.

The Four Emperors could use their fearsome reputations to protect some of their fleets under their flags, but that still couldn't prevent their merchant ships from running into hostile forces or being harassed by the Navy.

As one of the six rulers of the Underworld, Shipping King Umit had an advantage: he kept a low profile and dealt with both sides of the law—or, rather, both sides paid him protection money. This allowed him to ensure the safety of his shipping operations to the greatest extent possible.

Though the Land of Light had recently won a series of dazzling and astonishing battles at sea, it had become a powerful force in the eyes of many, one that could rival the Four Emperors, and it had done so in an incredibly short time.

That reputation might protect some of the Land of Light's merchant ships, but it was still far from enough to ensure their safety. And that was without even considering the time it would take to build an ocean-going fleet from scratch and chart its routes.

Kizaru and his Land of Light had no intention of wasting too much time and energy on that, so he chose the simplest, most heavy-handed approach.

The Underworld was governed by the law of the jungle. If the Land of Light acted quickly and ruthlessly enough, no other force would speak up for a fallen Umit. They