Since the Day of Disaster, the seas had enjoyed a long-lost peace. Pirates had all but vanished, not only from the Four Blues, but even from the Grand Line.
Was the Great Pirate Era really going to end like this?
Many thought so, marveling at the changes Loa had brought.
Then two pieces of breaking news shattered the calm.
The first concerned a young pirate who had only just set sail. In the town where all things began and ended, on the very execution platform where Roger, the Pirate King, had once stood, he shouted a declaration that shook the world!
"I'm the man who's going to become the Pirate King!!!"
The world was stunned!
Even now, there was someone reckless enough to say that!
Fate had a way of staying its course. Though Loa had changed the original story beyond recognition, the Straw Hat Pirates had still come together. And foolish Luffy had still ended up pinned to the execution platform by Buggy the Red Nose, who raised a curved blade to kill him.
The news reported that a thunderstorm had stopped Marine Colonel "Smoker" from pursuing Straw Hat Luffy. Those who knew the truth understood that Dragon had gone to see his son off.
That was the power of a Logia Devil Fruit. Even if Luffy could defeat an East Blue heavyweight like Arlong, who had a bounty of twenty million Beli, after suffering serious injuries, he stood no chance against Smoker without Haki.
After that, everyone suddenly realized the once-quiet seas were growing noisy again.
It was nothing like the heyday of piracy, but compared with the suffocating calm before, the seas were far livelier. Young pirates set sail from island after island, bound for the Grand Line. The Marines had no choice but to intensify their