Two years later

That year had been relatively peaceful. If anything qualified as a major incident, it was the fierce fighting between Whitebeard II, the man who claimed to be Whitebeard's son, the Whitebeard Pirates led by Marco, and the Blackbeard Pirates. The other Supernovas had all but vanished, lying low as though waiting for an opportunity to usher in a new era. On the Marines' side, Akainu had taken complete control, and the worldwide recruitment drive had brought him a wealth of talent. Most notable among them were Fujitora and Ryokugyu, both called monsters. The influx of new fighting strength had made the Marines the center of attention for a time. Yet news of an explosion in one of their experimental divisions, which had killed everyone there, had barely caused a ripple.

"Phew..." A man wearing brown-tinted sunglasses and a leather jacket had his entire right arm covered by a black leather glove. A cat crouched on his left shoulder, though its coat was spotted like a leopard's, while a tiny, doll-like girl sat on his right.

"Hiss..." The cat-like animal crouched on the man's shoulder, hissing incessantly.

"All right, Gua, settle down. Here's some dried fish..." The man took a piece of dried fish out of his pocket and held it to the cat-like animal's mouth. The creature called Gua immediately began eating happily.

"Gua still loves dried fish just as much as ever~" The female creature sitting on the man's right shoulder spoke in a very distinctive voice.

"Yeah, well, Gua is a cat, after all." The man shrugged. "Come on. Watching Gua enjoy that so much is making me hungry. Let's get something to eat too, Si."

"Mm~" Si nodded. The group was, of course, Li Ziming and Si, along with the cat, an animal cultivated from the Nekomata