At dusk at Imu's private residence within Pangaea Castle.
A figure walked through the luxurious halls, a long sword slung across his back. He headed straight for the door to Imu's residential quarters.
[Knock, knock, knock.]
He rapped three times on the wooden door—then, without waiting for a response, simply pushed it open and stepped inside. As if he were walking into his own home.
Inside the lounge, Imu had already sensed his arrival. The files on the table had been cleared away long before. Returning to his usual cold demeanor, he sat silently, watching as the visitor took a seat on the opposite sofa.
"Speak."
"Now that you're back… what is it you want, Dracule Mihawk?"
According to the memories of his former self, Mihawk had been brought to this place by a bored Imu from the moment of his birth and raised here. This place was more his home than even the Domain of the Gods, which to him felt more like a foreign neighborhood.
As Mihawk grew older, he often watched Imu practicing swordsmanship. That was what first sparked his fascination with the blade.
But the former Imu had always refused to teach him. Around the age of ten, Mihawk unexpectedly tried to leave Mary Geoise alone, determined to find a sword master in the outside world.
Rather than being angry, Imu had found it amusing.
He secretly ordered all CP and Holy Land defense forces to cooperate from the shadows, allowing Mihawk to leave without incident.
All along the way, CP agents followed covertly to protect him.
After all, at just ten years old, there was no way Mihawk could have crossed the seas and grown strong on his own. Those CP agents eliminated countless threats that could have ended him.
Then, at around age seventeen, having reached the level of a swordsman, Mihawk discovered the presence of those CP operatives. He returned here to challenge Imu directly.
The result was unsurprising—a complete defeat.
But Imu, impressed, gifted him a sword to commemorate his advancement as a true swordsman.
That sword was none other than Yoru, one of the twelve Supreme Grade Meitō, and the very blade now strapped to Mihawk's back.
Naturally, such a conspicuous weapon had brought no shortage of would-be robbers his way. It was through slaying them that the name 'Hawk-Eye' had spread across the world.
Originally, Imu had planned to summon him back when he turned twenty. But it seemed Mihawk had returned of his own accord—just a few months earlier than expected. No matter.
"I've hit a bottleneck in my strength."
Mihawk stared into the same eyes as his own and said softly, "I want to learn from you next."
...
East Blue, Loguetown.
"Look! The News Coo is coming!"
A young boy looked up excitedly at the sound and pointed to the large bird swooping down from the sky.
Soon, the white-feathered bird descended. It wore a white cap, and a red satchel hung from its neck. Its eyes and expression looked surprisingly human-like.
As the News Coo delivered the newspapers, people were paralyzed in amazement when they read the headline on the front page.
[Shocking! Gol D. Roger's Great Treasure, ONE PIECE, Has Been Found!!!]
The article beneath the headline detailed how the World Government had discovered the legendary treasure on an island in the New World. A fleet of ten warships, led by Admiral Sengoku and the Navy Hero Garp, had already arrived at the site.
Furthermore, the World Government would be broadcasting a live public transmission the following day, documenting the transport of the treasure back to Mary Geoise. All the treasure would be displayed to the world before being stored in the vaults of the Holy Land.
...
"This can't be true!!"
Shabondy Archipelago, Area GR-13. Inside the Rip-Off Bar, a handsome blond man sat frozen at the counter, staring blankly at the newspaper in his hands.
"Ara? What's wrong?"
Shakky, polishing a glass with a cotton cloth, looked over curiously, a slim lady's cigarette hanging from her lips. It was rare to see Rayleigh react this strongly.
"It says here the World Government found Laugh Tale and Roger's treasure. Gold and jewels… they say it filled two whole cargo ships." Rayleigh placed the paper on the bar with a complicated look.
"Is that so?"
Surprised, Shakky put down the glass and cloth and picked up the paper. She read quickly, then chuckled. "I didn't expect you guys were that rich. Why didn't you bring some back? Then maybe we wouldn't be living so broke now."
"You're wrong. We never left behind any treasure on that island." Rayleigh shook his head and sighed, staring at the whiskey in his glass with helpless frustration.
"To think Roger's entire plan would be undone by the World Government... and so quickly, in such a public way. Impressive."
He couldn't help but wonder—if Roger knew about this from the afterlife, he'd probably be furious.
Shakky was a clever woman. As soon as she heard that, she immediately grasped the implication. Her brows arched as she pulled the cigarette from her lips and let the smoke curl slowly upward.
"So this is a show by the World Government, huh? Not a bad tactic. It pretty much kills half the impact of the treasure legend... and cuts off the spread before it can ignite again."
"Yeah—"
Rayleigh sighed again, drained the whiskey in one gulp, and slammed the glass down. The bitterness in his heart was hard to hide.
...
Meanwhile, on Whole Cake Island in the center of Totto Land, deep in the New World—
Big Mom had just finished listening to her eldest son, Perospero, recount the contents of the newspaper.
"MaMa, what a bold move by the World Government."
Charlotte Linlin lounged on her enormous throne, one leg crossed over the other.
"So the Marines are somewhere in these waters now, aren't they?"
"Yes, Mama."
Perospero nodded with a grin.
"I've found them for you, mom!"
A cold smile spread across Charlotte Linlin's face.
"Whether that treasure is real or fake no longer matters. But even so, I won't let the Navy walk away from these seas unscathed. I want to join in the fun~~"
'Looks like the World Government has really pissed Mama off this time.'
Perospero, gripping his striped pink-and-white candy cane staff, saw her expression and knew instantly what it meant—he knew her better than anyone.
The reason was easy to understand: the existence of ONE PIECE and Laugh Tale had given the Yonko a peaceful route to becoming Pirate King—one that didn't demand all-out war.
But now, things had reverted to how they were decades ago. To become the next Pirate King, one would have to rise through a brutal elimination game—like Rocks once did.
...
East Blue.
On a beach just outside a small town, Shanks sat alone, a newspaper in hand. His expression darkened by the second—then turned to fury.
"Nonsense! We never had that much treasure!!"
"Figarland Shanks, isn't it?"
Suddenly, a cold voice called out from behind him. Shanks immediately turned, tense and alert, to see a man in white robes wearing a plain white mask—flanked by two men in black suits.
"World Government agents!"
"Come with us. The Five Elders have summoned you back to Mary Geoise."
Shanks froze, straw hat perched on his head. A moment later, his expression darkened further.
...
"Garp! Time to move out!"
Sengoku shouted irritably at his damn old friend, who was sitting at the bow of another battleship, both hands gripping a fishing rod.
Luckily, the government's PR officials hadn't started filming this side with their Den-Den Mushi yet—otherwise, the whole world would've seen him losing his temper like this.
"Oh, already? I was just about to doze off..."
The bubble on Garp's nose popped as he opened his drowsy eyes and casually tossed the fishing rod to Bogard beside him.
"All right, all right, let's go. This place is boring as hell!"
He didn't spare even a glance at the island behind him—the legendary 'Laugh Tale' that so many had sought for generations. He'd spent the entire day fishing while watching the Marines load treasure onto the transport ships.
Originally, Garp had been quite interested in this island. But after arriving, that interest vanished. It was just a tropical island thick with vegetation, with an underground chamber deep inside.
CIPHER POL claimed that the ONE PIECE had been found in that underground vault. Garp had gone in to take a look, and he had to admit—it looked pretty convincing. The walls were plastered with bounty posters of the entire Roger Pirates, almost like they'd turned it into some kind of memorial.
There was even a stone monument with what was supposedly a personal account from Roger himself.
Honestly, most people would take one look at that and believe it.
Like the millions of viewers around the world right now, standing before live broadcast screens, watching the stone's clearly inscribed words, the massive underground vault, and those old, yellowing bounty posters on the walls.
They believed it instinctively.
Earlier, they had seen with their own eyes dozens of golden treasure chests being escorted onto the ships by government agents and Navy soldiers—one after another, loaded onto the decks and then into the holds.
But for Garp, there had been no trace of Roger's Haki on that stone monument. That was all he needed to know—it was fake.
He wasn't as shrewd as Sengoku, but he always trusted his gut.
And now, at last, everything was ready.
A fleet made up of ten Navy Headquarters-class battleships and two large cargo vessels was setting sail back to Mary Geoise.
The ten massive warships, like sea monsters, formed a circular escort formation around the transport ships in a 5-5-2 configuration—a classic defensive strategy well-known to any naval tactician.