West Blue.
Orute Kingdom.
The sky was thick with dark clouds.
The long streets lay in deathly silence.
All the civilians had curled up inside their homes, doors and windows tightly shut.
Everyone was trembling from head to toe.
Endless fear gnawed at their hearts like venomous snakes.
A Celestial Dragon was dead!
He had died in the square of their country!
According to the World Government's iron laws,
an Admiral-level powerhouse would arrive at any moment!
This country was finished.
Everyone would be implicated and die without a burial place!
Inside the royal palace.
The King of Orute knelt on both knees, his forehead pressed against the cold marble floor tiles.
Just half an hour earlier,
this group of mysterious powerhouses calling themselves the "Empire" had swiftly taken control of the entire country.
These lunatics!
They had killed a Celestial Dragon, yet instead of fleeing, they had seized the royal palace!
"What year is it now?"
Chiba sat on the throne that had once belonged to the king.
He rested his chin on one hand, his gaze sweeping over the king trembling below him like a leaf.
"Sea... Sea Circle Calendar 1518..."
The king stammered out a few words.
At that number, realization flashed through Chiba's eyes.
Sea Circle Calendar 1518.
There were still two years until Luffy set sail.
Portgas D. Ace should have only just entered the Grand Line and had yet to meet Whitebeard.
This was a pretty good point in time.
Unfortunately,
West Blue was simply too barren.
Chiba had just used the Rinnegan's sensory abilities to cover the entire island.
Yet there was not a single Devil Fruit on the entire island, not even one Devil Fruit user!
But it did not matter.
This was merely the Empire's first stop in conquering this