Alabasta's upheaval was like a boulder cast into the deep waters of the Grand Line, its ripples spreading at astonishing speed. The World Government's silence, the Marines' ambiguous stance, the confirmed death of Crocodile of the Shichibukai, the mysterious power Hua Country producing another Admiral-level fighter and intervening deeply in Alabasta's internal affairs... through News Coos, merchant ships, pirates, and underground intelligence networks, reports mingling truth with falsehood and vague details swiftly spread across the sea, drawing attention, suspicion, and calculation from various powers, openly and in secret.
Yet Alubarna, the center of the maelstrom, entered a peculiar, energetic calm after the initial shock and confusion. Under Ma Chao's thunderous deterrence and Zhou Yu's strategic direction, the Royal Capital swiftly eliminated its internal threats. King Cobra issued a series of decrees to reassure the people, grant pardons, and rebuild. Together with the supplies and technical support arriving continuously from Hua Country, these restored life to the battered city at astonishing speed.
Reconstruction sites bustled with activity. Polluted water sources and land gradually recovered under the cleansing of the Sacred Fire Zhou Yu summoned, and a new order sprouted amid the ruins. In streets and alleys, people no longer discussed drought, rebellion, and despair, but new decrees, work-relief wages, novel tools brought by Hua Country's craftsmen, and General Ma Chao, who presided over the Royal Capital like a thunder god descended, yet had personally helped an old woman rescue a kitten from beneath a collapsed house yesterday. Awe and affection, two seemingly contradictory feelings, intertwined strangely in the hearts of Alabasta's people.
Amid this atmosphere of rebuilding and hope, several inconspicuous little ships arrived at different ports in Alabasta, one after another.
The first was the Going Merry, with its adorable sheep figurehead. The young captain in a straw hat leaped