Just as Natsu locked onto Uranus in space, at the end of Reverse Mountain.
Meanwhile, at the end of Reverse Mountain.
Reverse Mountain was the starting point of the Grand Line, the only entrance into it from the Four Blues.
Ships from the Four Blues sailed upstream through its canals, passing between the cliffs of the Red Line and pouring into the first half of the Grand Line.
The Marines had held this vital chokepoint firmly for years. Before Marineford was destroyed, two squadrons of elite troops had been stationed here year-round, and every ship entering the Grand Line had undergone strict inspection and registration.
But now Marineford was gone, Marine Headquarters had relocated to the New World, and the forces in the first half of the Grand Line had been stripped to the bone.
Fewer than three hundred defenders remained at Reverse Mountain, most of them aging, weak, or wounded troops hastily transferred from branches in the Four Blues.
At that moment, all those defenders were crowded onto the pier at Reverse Mountain's exit, gripping their weapons tightly and staring ahead in terror.
Over a hundred gray-white figures were coming across the waves.
The Nightingale Guard.
They had not come by ship.
Their gray-white uniforms snapped in the sea breeze. With invisible footholds formed from chakra beneath their feet, they swept across the water like a line of arrows-orderly, silent, and cold.
Three Mangekyo Sharingan wielders led them, unique patterns swirling in their scarlet eyes. Behind them followed nearly a hundred Kage Level core members and dozens of Elite Jonin.
This was the Nightingale Guard's elite main force, the armed force responsible for administrative inspections throughout the West Blue. They had originally been deployed on Origin Island's three subordinate islands and along the West Blue's shipping routes.
Now they