Sea Circle Calendar, March 3, 1503.
West Blue, Tewaroyili Island.
In one of the Capone Family's strongholds, inside a castle's reception hall.
At the round table sat four heads of the five great mafia families of the West Blue, led by Capone Bege.
They were meeting to discuss the only family that hadn't been invited.
"The Cross Family has been expanding too fast lately. That brat Kahn will come for me sooner or later."
"After the Valli couple died, that monster of a boy seized power and smoothly took control of the entire Cross Family. In just five years he occupied two hundred and seventy-five towns. Among the five families, the Cross Family is now the largest. If I don't form an alliance, he'll swallow my territory sooner or later."
"Will an alliance even help? Which of us can beat that monster?"
"Cross Kahn. Rumor has it he could stand at birth, lift an adult with one hand before he was a year old, and at five could destroy a house with a single punch, his skin impervious to blades and bullets. At six he began handling family business, and at ten he ate a Devil Fruit rarer than even a Logia, a Zoan—Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Mythical Model, Heavenly Dragon form. How am I supposed to deal with a monster that strong?"
"Rumors are rumors. Who knows what's true?"
"The early bits are exaggerations, but the part about a Mythical Zoan is absolutely true. Otherwise why would the Marines give an underage rookie who hasn't even entered the Grand Line a first bounty of eighty million at age six, and raise it to three hundred million Beli last year?"
"Afraid? I recently got my hands on a batch of Seastone. If we trap him in a Seastone cage, that brat they call the Walking Calamity will turn into a lamb to the slaughter."
"…"
Watching the three patriarchs bicker, Capone Bege, the one who had convened the meeting, clenched a cigar between his teeth and secretly sneered.
As for why he was sneering, only Capone Bege knew.
After the three finished hurling words, the more aggressive patriarch, the one proposing to strike at Cross Kahn, turned his gaze to Capone Bege and asked, "Bege, you called this meeting. Do you have a plan or a suggestion?"
Capone Bege took out a pocket watch, checked the time, and smiled. "My suggestion is the same as Clan Chief Ken's. Unite, find a chance to throw a Seastone net over Kahn, then lock him in a Seastone cage and sink it into the sea."
"In that case, even if he's truly as the rumors say, a monster impervious to blades and bullets, he'll still drown."
"Hahaha, exactly. No matter how strong Kahn is, he's still just a Devil Fruit user," Ken laughed.
Seeing that the strongest of the four families present—Capone Bege—and Ken both favored taking the initiative, the other two, the weakest in the room and unwilling to offend Cross Kahn, took a drag on their cigars and fell into thought.
As they'd said, Cross Kahn was strong, a monster by birth.
He hadn't even entered the Grand Line, yet the Marines had set his bounty at three hundred million Beli, a record high for the Four Seas.
But a monster is not without weaknesses.
Cross Kahn is a Devil Fruit user. All Devil Fruit users are cursed by the sea and fear seawater and Seastone.
If they set a trap and restrain him with Seastone, they just might eliminate the Walking Calamity, the Overlord of the West Blue.
Thus, the two patriarchs no longer objected and were about to cast their votes in favor.
Bang.
At that moment the conference room doors were shoved open.
A young man in a suit ran in, panic-stricken, and shouted, "Father, bad news. I spotted a giant dragon in the sky outside the island!"
"?!"
At his words, the four patriarchs' faces changed drastically.
Then three of them turned furious glares on Bege.
The one who moments ago had scoffed at Cross Kahn—Clan Chief Ken—snapped in shock and anger, "Bege, what is going on? How does Cross Kahn know we're here?!"
"I want to know that too." Capone Bege put on an angry face, casting a suspicious look at the other three. His voice sank. "This meeting was held in secret. No one knew except my godson. Which of you has a mole at your side?"
A thunderous dragon's roar, like an exploding cannon shell, blasted past their ears before they could probe each other further.
The sonic shock made their ears throb. All four clutched at their heads.
Even the windowpanes couldn't withstand the wave and shattered all at once.
Boom.
A heavy impact shook the ground, the sound slamming into the four men again.
"What are you standing around for? Run!"
Capone Bege shouted at the three pale patriarchs, then was the first to bolt from the conference room.
By the time the other three reacted and scrambled out, Capone Bege had already vanished down the corridor.
Boom.
The entire castle trembled violently.
The ceiling collapsed amid the shaking, and half the castle was torn away by a tremendous force.
With the roof gone, the three patriarchs looked up and saw a colossal dragon's head staring down at them with huge pupils.
Its head was blue, its pupils narrow crimson slits.
"C… Cross Kahn!"
Seeing the dragon's face twist into a humanlike, mocking smile, the previously swaggering, self-assured Ken collapsed to the floor in terror and shouted the name of the dragon whose head was as big as the castle.
"Finally fished out the three old foxes. Not easy," the dragon said with a sigh.
"Three?"
The three blinked, then forgot their fear, rage flaring. "So Bege lured us here?"
"You guessed right. Now you can die with clarity."
The dragon nodded, then raised a massive claw. Under the three patriarchs' horrified gazes—before they could even beg for mercy—the claw slammed down toward them and the half-ruined castle.
Boom.
Another deafening crash.
The remaining half of the castle was smashed to rubble by that claw.
The claw itself wasn't especially large, at most the size of a small sailing ship.
Yet with a single swipe, half the castle was flung away, and the rest reduced to ruins.
Its cutting force and raw destructive power were terrifying.
After burying the three patriarchs and everyone alive within the castle with a single blow, the blue dragon—its height more than half that of the castle—began to shrink before the naked eye.
Before long, the gigantic blue dragon became a youth.
He looked fifteen or sixteen, yet stood a full one meter eighty-five tall.
Like the dragon's head, he had short blue hair and red eyes, and wore a white suit.
A faint blue radiance shimmered over his body, his hair stirred without wind, and he hovered in the air.
This youth, who had never entered the Grand Line, first earned a bounty of eighty million Beli and last year was marked at three hundred million, known as the Walking Calamity and widely acknowledged as the Overlord of the West Blue, was the head of the Cross Family—Cross Kahn.