Back at the top floor of the hotel—
Ryuen told everyone what had happened at Mary Geoise.
"So you think... something might be holding Imu back, stopping him from leaving Mary Geoise?" Nojiko frowned, looking puzzled.
Ryuen nodded.
"That's right."
"I mean, I taunted them like that, and Imu still didn't show up. All he did was say a few threatening words with no real action. That's way too strange."
"You know how much face the Celestial Dragons care about."
After hearing this, everyone in the Dream Team fell into deep thought. They'd truly gone head-to-head with the World Government now, and there were things they had to prepare for ahead of time.
As for Hancock, who was hearing all this for the first time—it felt like a storm was raging inside her.
Everyone knew the Five Elders were the top authority of the World Government. But to find out they were monsters who had lived for 800 years—how was that even possible?
All of them had Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits. All of them had strange healing powers.
But what shocked her even more... was that above the Five Elders, there was still someone else—a king of the Celestial Dragons, or more like, a king of the whole world.
When did the world become this strange and hard to understand?
"Hancock, you absolutely can't let this information leak. Your Amazon Lily is still too weak to handle an attack from the World Government," Ryuen said seriously, looking straight at her.
"I understand," Hancock answered right away, quietly and obediently.
"In that case, Ryuen, should we move the orphanage up to Skypiea? We're all busy now and can't take care of things in East Blue. I'm worried the World Government might do something desperate," Nojiko said, looking seriously at Ryuen.
"I agree," Nami added quickly. "Bellemere and the others are still too weak. There's no way they could stop a CP0 attack."
Daisy and the others agreed too.
None of them were in East Blue anymore, and Garp couldn't always be there to protect it either. They were really worried about Bellemere and the rest.
"I was thinking the same thing," Ryuen nodded. "The new Skypiea has all the needed facilities now. Moving the orphanage up there makes sense."
Then Ryuen looked at Kuina, as if remembering something: "By the way, Kuina, do you think Mr. Koushiro should come to Skypiea too?"
Kuina shook her head.
"No need."
"And besides, my dad would never leave. That's just not the kind of person he is."
Robin spoke up with a worried look, "Ryuen, if one of the three ancient weapons—Uranus—is really in Imu's hands, how are we supposed to deal with that?"
When Robin brought up the ancient weapons, Ryuen looked out the window.
"Looks like we'll need to head to Egghead Island soon. We *have* to get our hands on the Mother Flame Vegapunk developed!"
"That flame... is the power source used to activate Uranus."
Ryuen dropped another bombshell.
~~~~~~
The next morning.
Everyone across the seas was waiting for today's newspaper.
By the time the sun had risen high, the news birds finally showed up late, delivering the papers to the people below.
Yesterday, the Marines had pulled back their Buster Call on the Magiatsuka Kingdom.
To many of the powerful forces around the world, this felt like a bolt from the blue.
Even though they'd already gotten intel about it, they still had no idea why the Marines had suddenly retreated. It just didn't make sense.
Then everyone saw the newspaper.
And in that instant, it felt like the whole world had been hit by lightning—shocked speechless by what the Dream Team had done.
Impel Down, Level 6.
"Hey!"
"Magellan!"
"Where's today's paper? What's taking so long!"
In one of the cells, Doflamingo struggled against his chains like a caged beast, shouting impatiently.
"Magellan, hurry up and bring today's paper!"
"I wanna see what happened to the Dream Expedition Team! I bet Ryuen got crushed by the World Government!"
"Zehahahaha~" Even though Blackbeard had turned into a woman, he still looked just as cocky, but there was clear hatred in his eyes.
"Bastard!"
"Blackbeard, shut up already! You look way too weird right now—it's making people imagine all kinds of messed-up stuff!" Pirate Pizarro shouted and even made a gagging motion at him, like he'd just seen something disgusting.
"Wuhehehe~"
"Blackbeard, I think that new skin of yours looks pretty good. I really want to see what it feels like to peel it off with my own hands." Catarina Devon licked her lips like a hungry wolf, staring at him with bloodthirsty eyes.
"Zehahahaha~"
"If you've got the guts, then come at me! A bunch of losers and trash like you?" Blackbeard fired back without hesitation.
He had already gotten used to being mocked every day. Like a lone wolf surrounded by a pack, he still held his head high, refusing to back down.
Just then—
The elevator to Level Six slowly opened, and Warden Magellan walked in like a dutiful mailman, holding a stack of newspapers.
He felt like he'd practically become their personal paperboy.
If he didn't bring the news, these guys would raise hell like a nest of angry hornets. Poisoning them didn't help either. Once they detoxed, they just went back to their usual ways—sometimes even worse. And Magellan couldn't exactly kill them off for real.
So—
To make life a bit easier, he just accepted the role of newspaper delivery guy.
"Zehahahaha~"
"Magellan, finally! Where's the paper? Hand it over—was the Dream Expedition Team wiped out or not?!" Blackbeard was the first to shout, his sharp voice echoing through the cell block.
The others quickly joined in, yelling too.
"Shut the hell up!"
"If you keep screaming, I'll let you taste my Poison Dragon today—and forget about the paper!" Magellan's head throbbed from the noise, and even his stomach started to hurt.
In an instant, everyone fell silent.
Normally, they would've started arguing with him, but today was different—everyone was dying to know how things ended yesterday.
Seeing everyone on Level Six suddenly so obedient made Magellan feel a little better.
He tossed newspapers into each cell one by one, and then walked over to Doflamingo's cell with the last copy, opening it up and showing it to him.
"Hey, hey, hey!"
"Are you kidding me?!"
"Mary Geoise got hit with a real 'Buster Call'?!"
"Magellan, this better not be some fake newspaper!"
"You bastard!"
"Magellan, you think we're that stupid?!"
...
Everyone stared at the paper in disbelief. It all sounded way too crazy, and some of them even thought Magellan was trying to trick them.
"Fufufufu~"
"Mary Geoise hit by a Buster Call?" Doflamingo stared at the headlines and felt like his intelligence had just been insulted.
"It's real," Magellan said flatly.
In that moment—
The entire Level Six went completely silent again.
---
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