The Great Pirate Ochoku left Hachinosu.
"Demon King" Nash headed to the front lines.
Everyone knew this war had entered its final stage.
Two former core officers of the Rocks Pirates.
One was a veteran Great Pirate who had joined the Rocks Pirates shortly after their founding.
The other was a young king who had joined during the middle-to-late years of the Rocks Pirates.
Their feud went back a long way.
Before this, two wars had already erupted between their forces.
Both had ended with the Demon King Pirates being suppressed and losing vast stretches of territory.
And from the more distant era of Rocks, during the days of the Rocks Pirates.
All sorts of "little-known" gossip surfaced across the seas.
Supposedly, the two had already been enemies in the Rocks Pirates, unable to stand the sight of each other.
All kinds of little stories were woven into the account.
They made it sound so convincing.
"Pops, is what this newspaper says true?"
Aboard the Whitebeard Pirates' Moby Dick, Marco and the other crew members gathered around Newgate and asked curiously.
"Gurararara! It's a pretty entertaining read, but it's all made up. Back in the Rocks Pirates, those two were only nodding acquaintances."
Whitebeard read it carefully, then tossed it aside with a laugh.
"Pops, who do you think will win in the end?"
Jozu spoke up.
Both the Great Pirate Ochoku and "Demon King" Nash were major figures whose strength approached, or even rivaled, their Pops'.
They knew little about this long-running war and could only learn about it through the newspapers.
They knew even less about what was really happening behind the scenes.
At that question, Whitebeard hesitated to make a firm prediction.
"Hmm." He propped his chin on one hand and pondered for a moment.
He knew