Grand Line.
G-8 Marine Fortress.
The white cannon atop the fortress slowly lowered its barrel.
Several trembling marines hauled down the seagull flag of justice that had flown there for decades.
The entire G-8 fortress was so quiet a falling pin could have been heard.
The thousands of marines stationed there stood in neat ranks. Their flintlocks and regulation sabers had been stacked on the open ground by the harbor.
Waves slapped against the steel gates.
Vice Admiral Jonathan stood with his hands behind his back, an extinguished cigar between his lips and the muscle beside his eye twitching nonstop.
The fortress gates stood wide open. Beyond them, several steel warships flying the Empire's black-and-gold flags belched dark smoke as they thundered into the inner harbor.
"Vice Admiral..."
"Will they really follow the Prisoner Regulations?"
The Adjutant's teeth chattered. Cold sweat had soaked through the Justice Coat on his back.
Jonathan said nothing.
He had seen too many islands massacred by pirates. But facing this rising Empire, rumored to have defeated an Admiral and swept through the Four Seas, he had no confidence at all.
At the front of a warship's deck.
Sarutobi Hiruzen wore a custom dark-red Hokage Cloak and a conical hat, with a pipe in his hand.
Behind him stood elite Jonin from the Sarutobi Clan, Utatane Clan, and Mitokado Clan.
Asuma Sarutobi had a cigarette between his lips and was leafing through a thick, yellowed Merit Exchange Handbook.
"Old man."
"Taking a fortress branch counts as an A-Rank Battle Merit under the rules."
"And if we capture the enemy Vice Admiral alive, the whole team gets another three thousand Merit Points!"
Asuma's eyes shone as he rubbed the page of the handbook hard with his fingers.
Sarutobi Hiruzen exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, the wrinkles