Paradise, first half of the Grand Line. Sabaody Archipelago, Grove 13.
The wooden door of Shakky's Rip-Off Bar was still shut, but the silence inside was anything but peaceful.
A dozen copies of the morning paper lay scattered across the counter. Shakky wasn't smoking her usual cigarette. She had her chin propped on both hands, her eyes sweeping across wanted poster after wanted poster.
"Three billion... one point three billion... and two officers in the billion range."
Shakky sighed. She pushed aside the last sheet, the one with Chopper's hundred-berry bounty, and lifted her glass for a sip.
"These kids went to the New World and their bounties shot up like rockets." She shook her head, smoke curling up from the cigarette between her fingers. "This lineup is a full-fledged Four Emperors crew now."
Rayleigh picked up the close-up photo of Ace from the paper. The shot was blurry, probably snapped mid-battle by some hidden lookout or Marine surveillance. In the image, Ace was swinging a long blade wreathed in crimson-gold divine flame, thick black-and-red lightning coiling around the edge.
"Conqueror's Haki infusion... and that sword."
Rayleigh's gaze deepened. His fingers traced the hilt in the photograph. "Roger. Your blade, after twenty years, has finally bared its edge on this sea again."
"How far do you think he'll go?" Shakky asked, turning her head.
"Who knows."
Rayleigh tipped his head back and downed a swig of liquor, laughing. "That kid's even more reckless than Roger was at his age."
His mind drifted back to the words Ace had spoken in this very bar.
"He set sail from day one aiming to smash the World Government's table to splinters. Now he's got the Yami Yami no Mi, and he's got this sword." Rayleigh shook his head. "This sea won't be getting a single peaceful night's sleep from here on out."
---
At the same moment.
The New World. A desolate island buried under snow and ice year-round.
The climate was brutal, but a massive bonfire blazed on the shore. A rowdy crew of pirates sat around the flames, drinking and tearing into meat, their laughter drowning out the howling wind.
"Boss! Big news!"
A chubby pirate came trudging through the deep snow, clutching a bundle of newspapers. "That rookie Ace, the one who took down the Golden Lion, Marine Headquarters just named him the Fifth Emperor! Three billion berry bounty!"
By the fire, a man with short red hair and three scars over his left eye stopped mid-drink.
Shanks turned, his one arm taking the paper.
"Fifth Emperor? Ace?"
His first mate, Benn Beckman, leaned over with a cigar between his teeth and glanced at the page. "This growth rate is outright insane. And the bounties on his officers are absurd too. Looks like the World Government is genuinely panicking. They're hoping the Four Emperors will take him out for them."
Shanks said nothing.
His gaze didn't linger on the three-billion figure, the number that signaled status and danger. It locked onto the photograph. The sword in Ace's hand, wreathed in Conqueror's lightning.
"Is that... the captain's blade?"
As a former cabin boy on the Oro Jackson, he knew that sword intimately. Ace. One of the Supreme Grade blades.
The man who wore the straw hat and laughed with his whole chest had carried that very sword when he took them around the world and set the Great Pirate Era in motion.
"Shanks, you recognize that sword?" Yasopp, the sniper, took a swig of liquor and asked.
"Yeah."
Shanks closed his eyes. In his mind, Captain Roger's roaring laughter and the determined face of Ace in that photograph flickered into a single, overlapping image.
"That was Captain Roger's sword."
The words hit the air, and the rowdy pirates around the fire went dead silent.
"Roger's sword?" Beckman blew out a ring of smoke. "Then this kid is Roger's son. No question about it."
"Ha. Yeah. Captain Roger's son has finally walked this path."
Shanks opened his eyes. He stared out past the snow-choked sea, toward the East Blue.
"Is Luffy still wrestling monkeys in the forests back there?" Shanks asked, out of nowhere.
"Should be. By my count, the kid's got a little over two years before he sets sail." Beckman smiled. "What, worried about that straw hat brat?"
"Worried isn't the word." Shanks took a drink. "That kid's got a stubborn grip on life."
His eyes fell back to the newspaper, to Ace's young face.
"I'm just afraid Ace is charging too hard. He's pulling every ounce of fire from the Celestial Dragons and the Five Elders onto himself. If he can't hold out until Luffy grows into his own..."
Beckman exhaled a plume of smoke. "You're afraid he'll die before Luffy even sets sail?"
Shanks didn't answer. He touched his empty left sleeve. He had wagered that arm, and that straw hat, on Luffy. On the new era he believed was coming. The era Captain Roger had spoken of. The era Joy Boy would finally return to.
"Portgas D. Ace."
Shanks rose and walked to the water's edge. The cold snowflakes hit his face, and he let them.
"Don't die too soon." His voice was low, meant for no one but himself. "Captain Roger's son... let me see how far you can go."
---
The New World. Totto Land. Whole Cake Island.
The entire island, a massive confection of living sweets, lay under a suffocating blanket of low pressure. Even the Homies, who normally sang and chattered all day, were cowering in corners, too terrified to make a sound.
"Mamamamama! Fifth Emperor of the Sea? What a joke!"
In the highest hall of the Cake Castle, Charlotte Linlin, one of the Four Emperors, sat like a mountain of flesh on her enormous throne. She clutched the special edition the News Coo had delivered.
She tore it in half with one violent rip. The newspaper bearing Ace's three-billion-berry bounty fluttered to the floor in pieces.
"Some snot-nosed brat kills the Golden Lion, that washed-up relic who hid for twenty years, beats a few second-rate Marines, and that dead bird Morgans thinks he can put him on the same level as me?!"
Below her, the core children of the Charlotte Family stood in two rows, not daring to breathe.
"Mama, this kid's strength is not to be underestimated."
Perospero, the eldest son, licked his candy cane and steeled himself to step forward. "According to our latest intelligence, they didn't just repel the Marines at Punk Hazard. They walked away clean, right in front of the Five Elders. And..."
Perospero picked up one of the torn scraps of newspaper from the floor and pointed at a photograph.
"The paper says the engineer, Jeno, has developed armor technology that can fuse with Poneglyphs. And that weapon the first mate carries... it seems to have eaten an artificial Mythical Zoan fruit."
"Artificial Mythical Zoan? And it breathes fire?"
Big Mom's greedy eyes lit up.
"My Totto Land has everything except these high-tech little toys! That Jeno, and that fire-breathing staff... they sound like fascinating new playthings. I want them all!"
"But Mama, Snack tried to recruit them at Sabaody. They not only refused the marriage alliance, they took Snack down." Cracker, one of the Sweet Commanders, frowned.
"Useless waste of flesh. Couldn't even handle a rookie. An embarrassment to my name!"
Big Mom snorted. Her fat fingers drummed against the armrest of her throne.
"If he's too proud to become my son-in-law..."
A bone-chilling, cruel smile spread across her face.
"Then I'll just take every useful officer under his command. And as for that brat Ace... I'll rip his soul out with my own hands. I'll stuff it into one of my Homies and make him bake cakes for me every day!"
"Katakuri!" Big Mom roared.
"Here, Mama."
The man leaning against a pillar, his face wrapped in a thick scarf, straightened up. The Charlotte Family's greatest masterpiece. The second-in-command with a bounty of one billion fifty-seven million. Katakuri's eyes were calm, unrippled.
"You lead this personally."
Big Mom jabbed a finger toward the New World sea beyond the doors. "Take extra ships and patrol. The moment that black ship dares set a single plank inside my waters, no warning. Open fire. I want them to understand who rules this ocean!"
"Understood." Katakuri nodded. He turned and strode out of the castle hall.
Perospero watched Katakuri's retreating figure, then leaned in close to Big Mom, lowering his voice.
"Mama, that kid's got the Yami Yami no Mi. That thing is a hard counter to Devil Fruit users. Sending Katakuri alone... isn't that too risky?"
"Mamamamama! Enough chatter!"
Big Mom snatched a massive cake from the table and crammed it into her mouth. "If Katakuri can't handle one rookie fresh to the sea, then he's not fit to call himself my son! Keep your eyes glued to that ship's movements. Report everything!"
"Yes, Mama!"
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