Old Friend, the Approaching Storm

Mist.

It shrouded this strange sea region known as the "Crying Sea Current" and the "Foggy Triangle."

A massive standard-issue Marine warship cut through the dense fog.

Yet the flag flying from the top of its mast was utterly out of place with the ship itself.

It was a black pirate flag, bearing a string of English letters.

The O had been replaced by a flaming skull.

"ROCKS."

At the bow of the warship, a tall figure sat cross-legged in silence.

He had wild blue-and-white hair and wore a captain's coat stained with the dust of travel.

Even seated with his eyes closed, he radiated an oppressive presence.

Heavy footsteps came from behind him. A far more burly man, with two horns on his head and his upper body bare, approached.

His brows were tightly furrowed as he swept his gaze over the surrounding fog.

"Did you sense it, Rocks?" Kaido's voice was as low as thunder.

Rocks slowly opened his eyes.

"Yeah, of course I sensed it." He rose to his feet.

"Such a familiar, nostalgic presence... I never expected to meet my old friend here, in this way."

The moment his words fell—

A thunderous roar of some enormous object breaking through the water came from deep within the fog ahead.

The sound drew nearer and nearer, carrying the force of earth and mountains shaking.

The warship beneath Rocks's feet was already a large battleship.

But before the colossal shadow slowly emerging from the mist, it looked like a child's toy.

A gigantic ship, like a moving castle, appeared before them.

The two ships slowly approached one another across the sea, eventually stopping less than fifty meters apart.

At the prow of the giant ship stood a bald giant.

He was even taller and more powerfully built than