The Paramount War was about to begin.
Summons from Mary Geoise flew to every corner of the Grand Line like snowflakes. In the meeting room at Marine Headquarters, Sengoku had already run through his sand-table simulations countless times.
The whole world held its breath-waiting to see whether Whitebeard would declare war on the World Government for one son, whether the Four Emperors Alliance's snake-and-sword flag would rise amid the flames of war for the first and last time, and what the order of these seas would become after the coming collision.
And in that silence before the storm, the Shichibukai arrived.
Not at Marineford to report for duty, but at Mary Geoise first.
The idea had come from Doflamingo.
On the very day he received the summons, he called each of the others on his Den Den Mushi, sounding as friendly as if he were organizing a school reunion.
"Fuffuffu-I say, everyone, before we go stand at attention in Marineford, shouldn't we pay our World Hero a visit? After all-"
He paused there, letting the Den Den Mushi's lips curl into the same meaningful smile. "Whether we get to keep being the freest people on these seas depends on whether we know how to behave."
No one believed Doflamingo's enthusiasm.
But every one of them came.
Because he was telling the truth.
Doflamingo himself had received an additional set of instructions.
The Five Elders had contacted him directly through CID's encrypted channel-not Sengoku, not Tsuru, but the Five Elders themselves.
"Find out indirectly where Lord Boer stands on this war." The wording was "indirectly." The tone was "you must."
They did not dare ask Boer directly. But the Paramount War mattered too much. They needed an answer.
So they chose Doflamingo, the intermediary everyone regarded as "Boer's old acquaintance."
Doflamingo