Their voyage had been blocked by a Marine warship, but the blockade had not been strong enough.
Led by Moria, the pirate ship broke through the encirclement and sailed away, leaving behind his "Hehishishishi" laughter and the wild laughter of the other pirates.
Several other pirate ships broke through the blockade alongside them.
Meanwhile, in Loguetown, the cries of battle and the roar of gunfire never ceased.
This chaos seemed to herald the coming Great Pirate Era.
Marine Headquarters.
"Still nothing?"
Sengoku frowned in thought as he looked at the photographs transmitted by the Fax Transponder Snail in his hand.
Garp leaned over for a glance, then rubbed his chin.
"That's enough. It wasn't him!"
Garp shook his head as he spoke, his breath reeking of alcohol and making Sengoku frown deeply.
"What? You don't believe me? Tsuru, you take a look!"
Seeing Sengoku's expression, Garp immediately glared.
The dejected look he had worn after Roger's execution had already vanished.
At his words, Vice Admiral Tsuru took the pictures Sengoku handed her and flipped through them one by one.
There were corpses photographed from every angle, as well as sword marks left behind on the walls.
Vice Admiral Tsuru frowned slightly.
Her reaction piqued Sengoku's curiosity.
"Well?"
"It really doesn't look like him. King of the Pirates Roger was extremely powerful; both you and I know that. Every move he made was tremendously destructive, because he had trained his Haki to its limit."
After placing the pictures on the table, Vice Admiral Tsuru lightly tapped them with her fingers.
"See? Even Tsuru figured it out, but you, the great tactician, couldn't. I'd say you're a tactical idiot!"
As Garp spoke, he even picked his nose with his little finger.
Veins bulged on Sengoku's forehead.
This guy's earlier expression, like his entire family had died, had been speechless enough. His usual personality was even more maddening.
Vice Admiral Tsuru gave Garp a glance without speaking, then turned back to Sengoku.
"Roger's sword strike was a Flying Slash enhanced with Conqueror's Haki Coating. Anyone capable of unleashing such a strike naturally needs no explanation when it comes to their mastery of Conqueror's Haki."
"You mean that someone with such strength wouldn't use a slash like that against some minor pirate?"
Sengoku nodded faintly at her words.
"That is part of it. More importantly, its power was far too weak."
Upon hearing Sengoku's words, Garp grinned broadly.
After the battle at God Valley, he had begun pursuing Roger, and the two had clashed countless times.
If anyone in this world knew Roger's strength best, it was undoubtedly him.
That sword strike looked very similar, and according to the reporting subordinates, even its aura had been somewhat alike. But he did not think it was Roger.
"If someone could truly coat a sword with Conqueror's Haki and unleash that slash, then Loguetown would probably have been split apart by now."
Seeing Sengoku's unfriendly gaze, Garp added another sentence.
Sengoku's expression stiffened.
"If someone could truly cut with such a strike, then they could also control its power."
Tsuru shook her head, then changed the subject.
"However, that isn't what we need to focus on right now. You can both guess what will happen next because of Roger's words before his execution."
After Tsuru said that, Sengoku and Garp's expressions both turned grave.
Of course they knew. Their earlier discussion had merely been a way to ease their minds before confronting the real issue.
"He's already dead, yet he still had to cause such a huge mess."
After a long while, Sengoku finally spoke in a low voice and rose to his feet.
"Let's go, Garp. You cannot miss this meeting."
Garp's expression froze, but he did not refuse. The three of them left together.
The situation the Marines would face next would be even more severe.
A year was enough time for many things to happen.
The impact of King of the Pirates Roger's execution had not faded. Instead, it had only intensified.
The number of pirates taking to sea had increased explosively.
The entire ocean seemed filled with pirate ships everywhere.
Beneath low, heavy thunderclouds and amid violent waves, a colossal warship resembling a small island cleaved through the towering wave crashing toward it.
"Hehishishishi."
Gecko Moria's familiar, bizarre laughter rang out from the bow.
His body, not yet bloated, was lean and muscular. Wielding the blade in his hand, he sent out Flying Slashes one after another, cutting apart the incoming waves.
Lin Ye stood upright upon the deck, entirely unaffected by the violently swaying ship.
His gaze rested on Gecko Moria at the bow as he raised a hand to wipe the rainwater from his face.
Pirates were pirates, after all.
The current Gecko Moria was far stronger than he would be when he encountered Straw Hat in the future.
Moria was now at the peak of his strength. Even in the New World, he would have struggled to find opponents.
Many accounts claimed that before encountering Kaido, Moria had been a bold and powerful hero of the seas.
But after traveling with him all this way, pirates were pirates, after all.
He had done every single thing pirates were supposed to do.
Over the past year, they had fought dozens of battles, large and small. Some involved raiding islands, while others were clashes with rival pirate crews.
Lin Ye had also established a persona for himself: someone who never attacked the weak and possessed a somewhat rigid temperament.
Over the course of that year, Lin Ye had grown a great deal taller.
Though he could not compare to Moria, at eleven years old, he was already nearly 1.8 meters tall.
[Lin Ye] [Eleven years and one month old] [Abilities: Term Pickup, Term Shatter] [Conqueror's Haki: Level 6] [Armament Haki: Level 6] [Observation Haki: Level 6] [Divine Departure: Level 7] [Voice of All Things: Level 3] [Mighty Physique: Level 3] [Calm: Level 3] ... ... [Blank Entries: 3]
There had been enough battles and enough deaths, so Lin Ye's gains had naturally been immense.
Whenever an encounter battle broke out with other pirates, Lin Ye never showed mercy.
His swordsmanship had also been greatly tempered.
However, his focus had always been on the Three Types of Haki and Divine Departure.
Other than some truly worthless Entries, he had kept everything else. Some useful ones had even been raised by one or two levels.
They had also considerably strengthened him.
More importantly, however, these served as backup energy for Lin Ye. Entries whose levels had been raised could also be shattered, and after being shattered, the Blank Entries spent on them would be returned directly.
That was why Lin Ye had been willing to spend Blank Entries on those Entries.
Naturally, his gains did not end there.
What concerned Lin Ye even more was abilities.
Ever since boarding the ship, Lin Ye had constantly considered whether he should eat a Devil Fruit in the future.
However, after picking up an ability from a Devil Fruit User killed by Moria—or rather, a technique developed through that ability—he changed his mind.
That person had likely eaten a Paramecia Devil Fruit related to strength.
The manifested ability Lin Ye had picked up was [Mighty Arms].
It could increase the strength of his arms severalfold.
And that was only its Level 1 effect.
After raising it to Level 3, activating the ability could increase his strength by more than tenfold.
But it would place a greater burden on his body.
That was also why he had raised Mighty Physique to Level 3.
Of course, for Lin Ye, this did not merely mean an increase in strength. It meant that abilities could be manifested on their own and picked up.
If killing a Logia Devil Fruit User could make their ability drop, then after raising that ability, could he obtain the Devil Fruit's complete power?
Before you continue