They really had come…
From afar, a massive fleet sailed over, fully armed with strong ships and heavy cannons. At a glance, it was clear the people aboard were either rich or powerful. Sometimes, when someone's status is that high, others naturally suppress their own greed.
This was meant to intimidate small pirates. Big-name pirates usually wouldn't dare touch the Celestial Dragons, because attacking them meant Marine's full pursuit. As pirates, they had no reason to provoke Marine on purpose—their goal was treasure, not being hunted.
Especially since Marines were like weeds—cut them down, and more would spring up. You could never wipe them all out. In this era before pirates had reached their peak, people generally avoided provoking Marine, the ruler of the seas.
After all, pirates already had plenty of enemies. Adding Marines, who had no choice but to kill you, was really not worth it.
Even the most common rules always have exceptions. Just like this time—although the fleet was huge and well-armed, it was being hunted down. And the ones chasing them were none other than the strongest pirate crew of this age, the Rocks Pirates!
Toguro used his Observation Haki to sense their movements, then slipped straight into the dark world of the Subspace Miasma. In that space completely separate from the real world, he quietly moved until he reached where the fleet's treasures were stored.
He slowly appeared and placed a sparkling gem into a chest already filled with countless jewels. As expected of a Celestial Dragon— even one considered a "clean stream" among them— the Figarand family still possessed enormous wealth.
But to him now, money wasn't that important anymore. After all, money couldn't be turned into emotional energy for him to absorb.
Unless…
If he gave money to ordinary people, would they in return feed him positive emotions?
That thought made Genichi's eyes light up. He realized that whenever he carried out huge world-shaking events, the positive emotional energy he got from ordinary people was always low. Thinking about it carefully, it was obvious: those events that decided the fate of the world were just too far away from the lives of common folks. Since they didn't really feel them, of course they wouldn't react much.
Maybe… this had potential?
Still, now wasn't the time to be thinking about that. Judging by the sounds outside, a fight had already broken out.
Of course, it wasn't some all-out war—just the roar of extremely heavy cannon fire.
In this, the Figarand family actually owed him thanks. It was because he had lured the Marine ships over earlier that when the Rocks fleet came chasing, the Marines could arrive so quickly to support.
Out on the wide sea, the sheer momentum of countless ships gathered together might even surpass that of top fighters. After all, most strong people were Devil Fruit users. If cannon fire sank their ships, all that awaited them in the sea was death.
Even if they didn't fall into the water, in the middle of the endless sea, flying techniques like Moonwalk wouldn't help much. Finding the next island would take too long, and they'd just collapse from exhaustion or thirst. This was one reason why a Buster Call was so terrifying—especially when the Marines got serious and even dispatched an admiral.
With the firepower to level an island, plus the overwhelming strength of an admiral, the Marines could wipe out many troublesome enemies out at sea.
And now, here in the second half of the Grand Line, the New World, it had been ages since a battle of this scale was seen…
Across the vast ocean, dozens of Marine warships kept spewing firepower at pirate ships in the distance. The pirates fought back, but compared to the Marines' power, their side was clearly weaker.
And the enemy was the Rocks Pirates…
A crew made up of the most dangerous people in the world. Even while at a disadvantage under the barrage, none of them showed the slightest fear or panic. Because the officers on their ships were the strongest and most ruthless figures alive— and their captain was said to be the strongest man in the world!
"So it's Sengoku and Garp, huh? The moment they heard Celestial Dragons were attacked, they came running right away?"
On the Rocks crew's main ship, Captain Rocks seemed to have already noticed the presence of Sengoku and Garp. He sneered coldly, "The Marines really are the Celestial Dragons' dogs!"
Sengoku and Garp were names that rang out loud even in the pirates' paradise, the New World. Especially after the recent earth-shaking incident: facing the giant Nine-Tailed Fox, an evil so overwhelming it made anyone retreat, the Marines' three top forces had shattered the darkness.
For these great pirates, fighting the Marines wasn't anything new.
"So do we retreat now?" Whitebeard glanced at Rocks, but the latter just laughed loudly. "After all those times we clashed without a clear result, it's about time we settled this!"
"We are the Rocks Pirates! All of you here are the elite of this world! If even the Celestial Dragons were chased off by us in disgrace, there's no way we're losing to the dogs they raised!"
"You're not scared, are you, Newgate?" On the ship, another great pirate, Golden Lion, laughed wildly. "I can fly over right now and finish them off!"
"Gurararara, I'd like to see how you plan to do that, Shiki." Whitebeard replied without backing down.
On this ship, this kind of thing was nothing new. Everyone here was strong, and strong men never bowed to other strong men. Many of them even had Conqueror's Haki, so they were the type least likely to follow anyone else.
The only reason a crew like this could even exist, where monsters like these gathered without tearing each other apart, came down to one thing.
Their captain, Rocks, was strong enough!
Rocks suppressed his crew with overwhelming strength, ruling the Rocks Pirates through sheer power.
Even so, conflict among the crew was always there.
"It's about time…" Before Whitebeard and Golden Lion could argue further, Rocks spoke up.
"The reason I let Figarland's fleet escape earlier was only so the whole world could see how pathetic the Celestial Dragons looked when they ran from us. Let everyone see that the so-called Celestial Dragons are nothing special! In front of us, they could only flee in shame. That goal is basically done now, and it even gave us a better story to spread."
Rocks slowly rose from the captain's chair and looked at the Marine ships in the distance. An invisible force spread from him, and in the blink of an eye it became an overwhelming pressure!
"Celestial Dragons, called gods, fleeing in disgrace. Marines, their protectors, completely wiped out! The world ruled by Rocks! Wouldn't that be the perfect headline to appear in tomorrow's news all over the world?!"