Time passed without notice. A year had already gone by since the Revolutionary Army defeated the Marines.
At the time, no one believed the Revolutionary Army could defeat the Marines. Yet after it did, everyone believed the Revolutionary Army would swiftly bring peace to the world.
But both predictions were wrong.
Not only had the Revolutionary Army failed to swiftly pacify the world, it had also set it ablaze. The flames had only grown fiercer, and by now they had burned for over a full year.
The world seemed to be burning. War had seemingly swept through every corner. This past year had been one of upheaval.
There were no Marines and no pirates, only wars within each nation—unprecedented wars of staggering intensity.
Wars no one had ever witnessed before: the people against the nobility. With spiritual support and material encouragement from the Revolutionary Army, the people acted with their own hands, reclaiming their own countries.
Some nations ended their wars quickly. Others ended them slowly, with some dragging on until the very end of the year.
Yet individual kingdoms could not ultimately withstand the support and aid of a transnational revolutionary organization. Military force that could tyrannize within its own country was a joke on the international stage. When Luffy was in the East Blue, Devil Fruit users represented the ceiling of combat power; no one else could contend with them at all.
Whether it was Luffy, Buggy the Clown, or Alvida, although the small East Blue had produced three Devil Fruit users, it was clear that aside from Alvida, the others had all come from the Grand Line.
Back then, Alvida only needed to master the Smooth-Smooth Fruit to reign supreme in the East Blue.
Likewise, more advanced Haki training techniques and Devil Fruit users were considered mid-to-high-tier