Karl's world-shaking aftermath kept spreading.
A few days later, Mary Geoise's handling of Crocodile hit the front page of the World Economy News Paper.
Just as a certain brains of the Red-Haired Pirates had analyzed, with Crocodile's defeat echoed across the world, Mary Geoise couldn't cover for him. After receiving the incriminating evidence faxed from the Nefertari royal family, they decisively chose to abandon Crocodile.
Because a Warlord's attempted usurpation would further devalue the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and because the one who defeated Crocodile was neither a Marine nor a World Government man, Mary Geoise didn't disclose the plot to seize the throne.
Using vague, baffling reasons that even left Karl scratching his head, they stripped Crocodile of his Warlord title and dispatched Admiral Aokiji to Alabasta to escort him to the underwater prison Impel Down.
Once Morgans sold that official story worldwide, public mockery and doubt rained again on Mary Geoise and the Warlords.
To minimize losses, Mary Geoise released nothing further.
They meant to let the incident pass with time.
After leaving Alabasta, Karl's crew didn't head straight back to Jaya.
There was still some time before this year's Knock Up Stream.
So they decided to tour the first half of the Grand Line.
After all, among his crew, Nami's dream was to draw a map of the world.
In the months that followed, Karl's crew landed on islands the original story never showed, fought off pirates and bounty hunters who recognized them, and—before Robin's identity was exposed—were forced to rake in a tidy fortune.
Good thing their vessel had become a large three-masted ship.
Otherwise the treasures constantly being thrust upon them would've overflowed the holds again.
Although they had room enough now, to make space for the possible gold of the Golden City, Karina liquidated the treasure and deposited the cash in banks.
Time flew; in the blink of an eye it was late June, Sea Circle Calendar 1517.
During that time, Perona celebrated her birthday on June 7 and became a twenty-year-old beauty.
A few days later, when Nami's birthday on July 3 passed, she, too, was fifteen.
As for Karl and Karina—
as orphans, neither actually knew their real birthdays.
Both took the day they'd been adopted as their birthday, so both were January 1st; they'd celebrated them long ago, shortly after their month apart on the Boin Archipelago.
Over these months, Karl's crew toured more than a dozen islands on the Grand Line.
At each stop, they bought Eternal Poses from the local nautical shops.
So even when they hit islands whose magnetic charge took a long time to set, they didn't linger more than a week.
Those many islands broadened the horizons of Karina, Nami, and Perona immensely.
Before, they'd always rushed toward some destination.
Finally free for once, they could savor each island's unique charms.
Along the way, because Karl's name had spread, almost every port brought some number of idiots picking fights.
But in the last month, the number of troublemakers dropped by more than half.
Not because they were scared of Karl's strength.
There were… more options.
The year 1517, for the Grand Line and the East Blue, was a momentous one.
Since the Great Pirate Era began and stabilized, it had been a long while since a world-shocking super rookie appeared.
But this year—
the first half of the Grand Line produced two world-shocking super rookies who hadn't even entered the New World yet.
One was the bounty hunter who, months ago, became the first to defeat a Warlord: the Dragon Knight Karl from the East Blue.
Because top-tier bounty hunters are rare, once Karl planted his boot on Crocodile's head and strode onto the world stage, rumor rags and ranking-obsessed papers hyped him as the world's number one bounty hunter.
That title found acceptance in the underworld and across the seas.
So beyond "Dragon Knight," Karl gained a second mantle: the world's number one bounty hunter.
The other world-shocking super rookie burst onto the scene while Karl's crew toured the first half of the Grand Line: a pirate supernova.
Supernovas in the first half aren't rare; every year sees a few.
By Sea Circle Calendar 1520, their number would even reach double digits.
But no supernova had, before clearing the first half and entering the New World's "Paradise," shocked the world and drawn universal attention.
That's why Karl was crowned the world's number one bounty hunter.
This year, besides Karl, there was one supernova who matched that feat.
—"Fire Fist" Portgas D. Ace.
While Karl's crew entered the Grand Line and spent a month on the Boin Archipelago—
Portgas D. Ace left Foosha Village in the Goa Kingdom of the East Blue, accidentally drifted to the notorious Sixis Island, ate the Flame-Flame Fruit, recruited his first crewmate Masked Deuce, and founded the Spade Pirates.
In the months that followed, Ace and the Spade Pirates went full cheat-mode.
With the virtually unbeatable Flame-Flame power in the first half of the Grand Line, Ace, like Karl, steamrolled from the East Blue onward, never meeting an opponent who made him truly serious.
Quite the opposite—many defeated foes bent to his innate charisma and strength, and became his comrades.
As Ace's battle record grew and the Spade Pirates swelled, the titles of Supernova and Strongest Rookie of the Year piled onto him in the small papers and the World Economy News Paper.
What cemented Ace's status and shocked the world was the Seven Warlords invitation issued to him by the Marines.
That invitation spread the name "Fire Fist Ace" across both halves of the Grand Line and all four seas.
In that year, every newcomer—pirate, bounty hunter, or Marine rising star—looked dim beside Portgas D. Ace, Karl aside.
More crucial still, Ace and Karl alike hailed from the East Blue, long branded the weakest sea.
In just over half a year, the East Blue produced two super rookies who rocked the world.
To the people of the four seas and the Grand Line, it seemed unbelievable.
Sensing another hot-selling topic, Morgans ran a cover piece detailing both men and dubbed them—the Twin Stars of the East Blue.
The first half of Sea Circle Calendar 1517, perhaps the whole year, belonged to the Twin Stars of the East Blue.
Reading Morgans' fluff on Karl and Ace, Nami pouted. "Does a Logia user deserve to stand beside Karl? Crocodile was a Logia too. If they fought, Karl would one-shot him!"
"Agreed. He probably couldn't even beat me," Karina nodded.
"Best not let me run into him. I'll make sure that guy who stole Karl's spotlight learns a very deep lesson," Perona huffed, popping a Negative Ghost.
"Just a reputation. Don't sweat it."
Fishing with Little White, Karl shrugged and shifted the topic. "How long until we reach Jaya?"
"I recalculated from Alabasta to Water 7's route. At this big sailer's speed, we'll hit it in about two days," Nami said, duly distracted.
"Do the Sky Islands really exist?"
Knowing their next stop, Robin couldn't help but marvel.
"Yeah."
Karina nodded and pointed upward. "Karl and Little White went up to verify it."
"Islands floating in the sky… how fascinating," Robin said, rare longing in her eyes.
Two days later.
For the first time in months, Karl's crew returned to Jaya.
Back in lawless Mock Town, their arrival quickly stirred a commotion.
Because of the many races in this world and humans who can grow several meters tall, nearly everyone suffers face-blindness and often fails to recognize even famed powerhouses.
But that face-blindness rarely strikes in the presence of a true big shot.
Today, Karl was no longer a modestly known bounty hunter but a world-shocking super rookie—the Dragon Knight crowned the world's number one bounty hunter.
Seeing the little white dragon at Karl's side, Mock Town's thugs and pirates instantly recognized him.
In a heartbeat, bounty-bearing or not, they scattered like rats before a cat.
The timid fled Jaya outright.
The bigger the fame, the more idiots come sniffing.
But some idiots do know their limits.
Mock Town's riffraff, having some self-awareness, let Karl's crew wait for the Knock Up Stream in peace.
Days later.
After reconfirming the Knock Up Stream's timing with locals, Karl's crew took their large three-masted ship out to sea some distance from Jaya.
The weather was bad.
The sky was pitch black and shrouded in cloud.
But no rain fell, no wind howled, and the sea lay eerily flat.
"What a strange climate. First time I've seen this…"
Sensing the weather with her body, Nami looked tense.
"Relax. I'm here."
Knowing Nami's nerves, Karl came up behind her, arms encircling the crew's weakest fighter, and chuckled.
"Mm."
After so long sharing a bed, Nami had no trace of her old shyness.
Leaning back into Karl, she looked up at him—now one meter eighty-nine and over twenty centimeters taller than the freshly fifteen-year-old she'd just become—and steadied herself. "Have we struck the sails?"
"Struck."
Karl nodded. "Say the word and Robin will unfurl every one."
"Good."
Nami drew a deep breath and watched the placid sea. "I can feel it—some terrible force is brewing beneath us. If I'm right, the Knock Up Stream will blow in half an hour."
Perhaps fate meant to smack the future world's best navigator.
In just fifteen minutes.
The sea, flat for so long, seemed done charging its ultimate.
Water began to heave violently.
As if a monster woke below and thrashed, a giant whirlpool opened from nothing.
The current took their big ship and spun it toward the eye.
As the girls watched the eye swell, faces tight with nerves—
the massive whirlpool abruptly vanished.
What they'd seen felt like a mirage.
Boom—
Before they could catch a breath, a thunderous roar came with a violent jolt underfoot.
At once their view tilted.
Their perspective shot skyward at a frantic rate.
As the deck pitched and balance fled, Nami, staring straight up into the sky, shouted, "Grab on—"
Before she could finish, something cinched tight around her waist.
In the next instant, the view flipped again.
Karl, one arm around Nami, flashed to Karina and Little White.
Setting Nami down, he flashed again and brought Perona and Robin over.
"Barrier Sphere."
The moment Karl delivered them, Karina threw up a transparent barrier.
Riding the outer edge of an immense water column, the ship rocketed skyward; all the screaming wind and spraying water were held at bay by the barrier.
Even their bodies found balance again, leaned against the invisible wall.
"Ufufufu… little cat burglar, not scared out of your wits, are you?"
Behind the barrier, Karina teased the navigator at her side.
"Shut up, I'm just a normal human."
Clutching Little White, Nami rolled her eyes, then called to Robin. "Robin, open the sails!"
"Alright."
Robin nodded, closed her eyes, and a forest of arms bloomed under the three masts to loose the lines and unfurl every main and topsail.
In a heartbeat, even within the barrier, they felt the ship quicken.
The Knock Up Stream's force and speed far surpassed Reverse Mountain's current.
Plastered to the column's flank, the ship pierced into a cloudbank called the cumulonimbus belt in just over five minutes.
Above that sea of cloud lay the White Sea.
The White Sea sits beneath the White-White Sea, seven thousand meters above the Blue.
Their ship reached the White Sea from the Blue in barely over five minutes—over a kilometer a minute—proof of the Knock Up Stream's terrifying pressure.
No wonder those who use it to reach the Sky Islands so often die.
<><><><><><>
Read Advanced Chapters on : patreon.com/Kaizo247
~ Every 150 PS = Bonus Chapter!
~ Push the Story forward with your [Power Stones]