Sabaody Archipelago — Live Broadcast Square
"Ha… ha… the Pirate King! The Pirate King!!!"
"How is this possible?! How can something like this even happen!?"
"The undead… that's the undead! The Pirate King's undead!"
"No… no, no! Impossible! Absolutely impossible! Roger, the Pirate King—he's dead!"
"This has to be a dream! If it's a nightmare, someone wake me up!"
"Roger died twenty-two years ago—I saw it with my own eyes!"
"That's right! I was there too! I witnessed the execution in Loguetown! Roger was clearly dead!"
"Then—then someone tell me—what the hell is going on right now!?"
The screams and shouts of tens of thousands of reporters and spectators filled the square, overlapping like waves crashing against one another.
The resurrection of the Pirate King had shaken the entire world.
Panic, disbelief, and awe spread like wildfire through the crowd—consuming every inch of their minds.
High above the plaza, the Supernovas—the worst generation of rookie pirates—shot to their feet, their eyes wide, mouths agape. None of them could hide their shock.
"Roger! That's really Gol D. Roger, the Pirate King! What kind of twisted day is this!?"
Capone "Gang" Bege bellowed, his voice cracking under the strain.
"Are you kidding me!? How can the Pirate King, dead for twenty-two years, suddenly appear on that battlefield!? That's pure fantasy!"
Former Marine-turned-pirate X Drake clenched his fists tight, veins bulging on his arms.
"Is this real… or an illusion? Is that truly the Pirate King Roger, or just some terrifying mirage?"
The Sky Island monk Urouge murmured, bewildered, his expression lost in the fog of confusion.
"Fake! It has to be fake! This must be some kind of Fairy Tail trick—an illusion created by one of their mages! The dead can't just come back!"
The loudmouthed supernova Scratchmen Apoo shouted, voice trembling despite his defiance.
"Normally, yeah, the dead can't return…" Killer, the masked warrior, muttered lowly. "But Fairy Tail isn't bound by 'normal.'"
"This must be the doing of Sugisawa Yuuto, the new Emperor of the Seas and president of Fairy Tail."
Trafalgar Law, the Surgeon of Death, spoke with grim certainty.
"Tch… what the hell. If Roger's really back from the dead, then the throne of Pirate King isn't empty anymore… so why are we even fighting?"
Eustass Kid spat, his voice bitter, face twisting in self-doubt.
The sea itself seemed to roar in response.
At Marineford, the air was thick—so heavy it felt suffocating.
Not a sound.
Not a breath.
Tens of thousands of eyes, Marine and Pirate alike, locked on one single spot…
…on one single man.
That face—impossible to mistake.
The iconic mustache that curled like the ocean's waves.
That bold, unrestrained grin that defied the heavens themselves.
The wild posture, the fearless aura—
Roger.
Gol D. Roger.
The Pirate King.
The man who had conquered the Grand Line.
The man who had stood alone at the very summit of the sea.
The man whose execution had set the Great Pirate Era into motion.
And now—he stood once more, alive before their eyes.
Shock didn't even begin to describe it.
Every face on the battlefield was pale, eyes bulging as if they might burst from their sockets.
Jaws hung open.
Limbs trembled.
Minds blanked.
No one spoke.
No one could move.
Even the strongest among them—the Emperors, the Admirals, the Five Elders—felt their blood run cold.
Then—
A single voice shattered the silence like thunder splitting the sky.
"ROGER!!!"
It was a roar filled with grief, disbelief, fury, and memory.
The voice of a legend—the hero of the Marines—Vice Admiral Garp.
The man who had once hunted the Pirate King to the ends of the earth…
now stood staring at his old rival's resurrected figure, his voice shaking the heavens.