Bali Island's beach.
Everyone stood by the beach, watching Zephyr and his fleet disappear beyond the horizon.
Almost everyone had just been chewed out by Zephyr.
For a while, the atmosphere was rather awkward.
Sengoku gazed in the direction Zephyr had left and let out a long sigh.
"That fellow Zephyr is as stubborn as ever."
"But his pain isn't impossible to understand."
He then turned to look at the Whitebeard Pirates and the Kuja Pirates who had come to support them nearby.
"Pirates, huh?"
Sengoku knew perfectly well that the Whitebeard Pirates might not make a living by murdering and plundering civilians, but didn't the pirate crews they robbed get their loot from civilians too?
The scales of justice had never been a matter of black and white.
In fact, Sengoku himself knew that the World Government had defined what the name "pirate" meant.
Whoever they called a pirate was a pirate.
Just then, Hancock broke the silence.
She walked up to Billy and looked straight at him haughtily.
"Well then, does anyone still object to me and the Kuja Pirates joining?"
Billy glanced at Whitebeard beside him, then looked up at Elbaf, which had just become Bali Island's neighbor, and the Giants standing above.
He took a deep breath and extended his large, calloused hand to Hancock.
"On behalf of the Neo Marines, I welcome you."
Hancock shook Billy's hand, marking their agreement.
Afterward, she flicked her hand in distaste, as though something dirty had gotten on it.
In Muji's tavern nearby, Loki, the prince of Elbaf, also signed his name on a document.
He walked out of the tavern laughing and gently rested his enormous palm on Billy's shoulder.
At that moment, the Neo Marines, made up of former Marines, Shichibukai, and Giants, were officially born.
Whitebeard