"Vuu—"
A Navy warship sailed toward the Sabaody Archipelago at a steady pace.
On the deck, Kizaru lounged in a deck chair; his golden sunglasses reflected a dazzling light, and a lazy curve sat at the corner of his mouth.
"Yo~"
He spoke slowly, "I wonder—if little Bonney sees her dear Kizaru again, will she be moved to tears?"
Bonney's escort mission carried no reward money.
Still, he had volunteered to come.
After all, Kuma was one of the few friends he had.
He wanted to bring that taciturn man's greatest concern back safely.
...
"Come to think of it..."
Kizaru leisurely pulled a brand-new mission sheet from his pocket.
"There sure are quite a few jobs to handle~"
He flipped open to the first page.
"According to Hawke's intelligence, go to Slumber Town, find a Devil Fruit, and help Zephyr recover his health. Bounty... 2 billion Belly!"
"What an incredible tip~"
"Still... I wonder whether Zephyr — who once told me not to rely too much on Devil Fruit powers — would actually eat this fruit?"
He muttered to himself, a playful tone in his voice.
"He probably would... after all, the situation now is completely different~"
If Zephyr could regain his peak fighting strength, it would be an enormous boon to the Navy.
He continued flipping through.
The pages rustled "whish-whish."
"Find 'Big News' Morgans and have him assist the Navy in controlling world public opinion. Bounty... 1 billion Belly."
"That albatross won't be easy to find~"
"Hm..."
Suddenly Kizaru's sunglasses-shaded face tilted slightly; as if he had perceived something, he looked up at the cloudless sky.
"Yo~"
"When luck arrives, there's no stopping it~"
Before he finished speaking, a brilliant yellow light flashed, and the deck chair lay empty, leaving only a faint human-shaped indentation.
Kizaru's figure had vanished.
...
High above.
A huge, peculiar airship made of gears and hot-air balloons sailed smoothly through the sky.
Dozens of well-trained albatrosses strained to pull the airborne vessel.
World Economic News Agency Headquarters
The hull of the airship bore the large letters "WE NEWS."
This was the mobile headquarters of the World Economic News Agency.
Inside the president's office.
"Big news! This is big news!!!"
A man with a massive beak and white feathers all over his body waved his wing-shaped arms excitedly as he paced back and forth around the spacious office.
He wore a black top hat with red and white feathers, a light blue shirt with a yellow bow tie, red-and-white checkered trousers, and a dramatic black cape draped over his shoulders.
Morgans—
President of the World Economic News Agency, "Big News" Morgans.
At this moment, his desk was piled with newspapers and intelligence reports from around the world.
Each one pointed to the same vortex center— the Navy!
Months earlier, he had keenly sensed the wind on the sea changing.
An unprecedented iron discipline and aura of severity were spreading from within the Navy.
So he personally led a team to the East Blue, once called "the weakest sea," to investigate.
What he saw in the East Blue shocked even this seasoned news king.
A sea once infested with pirates was now as calm as a dead pool.
Any pirate who dared show their head, regardless of bounty, had been wiped off the sea by a Navy officer named Hawke.
Then even more explosive stories followed.
The G-3 Branch of the Navy was destroyed in Mock Town—no survivors left.
Shichibukai — Sir Crocodile — was publicly executed by the Navy in Alabasta.
Shichibukai — Gekko Moria's fog in the Devil's Triangle strangely dissipated.
Most importantly, according to his secret channels...
Two groups of CP0 agents mysteriously disappeared near the Navy G-3 Branch.
The entire G-3 Branch had become a sealed fortress; not even his proud intelligence network could penetrate the slightest detail.
These incidents all hinted at a terrifying fact.
The Navy, the ocean's hegemon, was undergoing a transformation.
And all the secrets were in the G-3 Branch!
"A Navy transformation — this is an unprecedented tide of the times!"
Morgans quivered with excitement; his feathers practically shook. He felt as if he stood at a crossroads of history.
"We have to rush this into print and let the whole world know this huge story!"
At that moment, a lazy voice sounded behind him without warning.
"Yo~, President Morgans, what's the big news?"
"Mind telling an old man?"
"!!!"
Morgans' feathers puffed up instantly. He spun around and stared in horror at the tall figure that had appeared out of nowhere.
A golden-pinstriped suit, a languid stance, and that lecherous smile.
The Marine Headquarters Admiral, "Kizaru" — Borsalino!
...
Marineford.
"Brrring brrring~"
The shrill ring of a den den mushi echoed through the prison.
Hawke picked up the receiver and connected.
"Hawke, get ready—war is about to start!"
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku, what happened?"
"Kuzan caught a big guy! Whitebeard's Second Division Captain, 'Fire Fist' Ace, and another mysterious Logia user!"
"The Navy's plan is to publicly execute Ace at Marineford headquarters in two weeks' time!"
Sengoku rapidly laid the entire plan out.
Within one week, the Navy would complete the largest troop concentration in history, set an inescapable trap at headquarters, and wait.
Then the news would spread across the world, giving Whitebeard one week to gather all the pirate crews under him and come to headquarters!
There was only one objective!
In front of the whole world, capture the Whitebeard Pirates—from captain to crew—every single one, leave none!
"!!!"
Hawke gripped the den den mushi, his gaze deep.
The Summit War!
It had come!
Although things had gone off script—Ace had been caught by Kuzan—this did not change the ultimate result.
War had become inevitable!
Hawke's consciousness sank into his mind and he looked at the system panel.
[584598.]
Five hundred eighty-four thousand plus—still short of the one million needed to raise Conqueror's Haki to Top-Tier by nearly half.
Time was tight.
He had to speed up his harvest, then...
Before the battle, find Bullet and have a proper fight to fully fuse all powers!
However...
Hawke suddenly recalled a detail in Sengoku's words just now.
Kuzan had captured two people?
The other one—could it be...
He suppressed the turbulence in his heart and asked,
"Admiral... what Devil Fruit is the other Logia user?"
"Kuzan said it's Darkness."
Sengoku's voice came through.
"It can devour everything. A very strange ability."
"...!"
Hawke understood. Of course it was him.
It made sense that headquarters' upper echelons didn't know Teach. Before obtaining the Dark-Dark Fruit, Marshall D. Teach was just an anonymous nobody hiding aboard Whitebeard's ship.
In the original story, when Lafitte, the Fifth Captain of Blackbeard's crew, appeared at the government's Shichibukai meeting and asked Fleet Admiral Sengoku to take Teach as a Shichibukai, the headquarters had never heard the name Teach.
But Hawke knew this threat!
With the blood of Rocks and the ambition in his bones, letting someone like him run rampant on the seas would only bring endless disaster.
If Kuzan had captured him early—so much the better!
Captain and crew should be processed together!
Hawke's voice over the den den mushi was calm and cold: "Admiral..."
"I suggest executing him and Ace together!"
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