Naval Headquarters — Southeast Corner of the Battlefield
Moments ago, the Big Mom Pirates had been crushed beneath a surge of hypergravity. One by one, the ministers and officers of the Yonko's crew hit the ground, groaning and cursing in pain.
But then—
The swearing abruptly stopped.
Every single member of Big Mom's crew froze, their eyes wide with shock and disbelief. Even the most battle-hardened among them could only stare, trembling, at the man who had suddenly appeared in the heart of the battlefield.
"Wh-what… what kind of sick joke is this?!"
Charlotte Perospero, the eldest son, gasped, his face draining of color.
"Hai hai hai… The One Piece…!"
"It's really that damned Roger!"
The third son Daifuku and the fourth son Oven both shouted in horror.
"That's the Pirate King, Roger!"
"What's going on?!"
"He's alive again?!"
"When I heard those Marine ghosts shouting, I thought I misheard!"
"But it's real! The Pirate King—Roger—actually came back!"
"No, no, no! This can't be happening!"
"He died twenty-two years ago!"
"This has to be some kind of illusion!"
Baron Tamago, Pekoms, and the other senior members of Big Mom's crew all shouted at once, voices rising into chaos.
"Ma… ma… ma…"
Big Mom herself, Charlotte Linlin, brushed dust off her enormous frame, her shadow looming over her subordinates. Her booming laughter shook the air.
"Roger," she growled coldly, "resurrected or not, the fact that you stand before me again means one thing—this time, I'll crush you completely!"
"Ahahahaha! Linlin, you're still holding a grudge over that? Don't tell me you're still sore just because I borrowed a rubbing of your Poneglyph. It's not like I took the whole Road Poneglyph with me!"
Roger laughed heartily, his voice carefree as ever.
Twenty-five years ago, when the Roger Pirates learned that four Road Poneglyphs were needed to reach the final island, their first target had been Totto Land—the territory of Big Mom. At that time, her power had not yet peaked, and the Roger Pirates, at the height of their strength, had cut through her forces like a storm.
Not only did they steal a copy of her Road Poneglyph, but they turned Totto Land upside down, leaving behind chaos—and humiliation that would never fade.
"Humph! It's not just about that!"
Big Mom snapped, her furious voice echoing like thunder.
"Roger, do you have any idea how much chaos your so-called 'Great Pirate Era' caused us? You died and left the mess to us to clean up! Do you think that's funny?! All these upstart pirates challenging us every year—it's a nightmare!"
Roger threw his head back, laughing. "Ahahaha! I'm truly sorry about that!"
"Sorry?!" Big Mom's glare could have frozen fire. "Don't think an apology will fix this! Unless…" Her expression turned calculating. "You tell me where the One Piece—the great treasure of the world—is hidden. Right here, right now!"
The moment those words fell, silence swept the battlefield.
Even the clamor of the war seemed to fade.
At Sabaody's live broadcast plaza, tens of thousands of spectators—inside and outside the battlefield—held their breath, straining to hear Roger's reply.
No one truly believed he would answer… but what if he did?
What if, just once, the Pirate King slipped up?
If Roger revealed the location of the One Piece—the greatest mystery of the last twenty-two years—the world itself would erupt.
Under the collective gaze of the world, Gol D. Roger simply smiled.
"Ahahaha! Linlin, taking shortcuts won't do you any good. If you want to know, you'll have to find it yourself. I've left everything that matters in that place!"
His words echoed the same defiant laughter from his execution all those years ago.
"Roger, you bastard…" Big Mom's face darkened, her fury simmering. She had been toyed with again.
"Oi, Linlin, enough chatter with that man!" a gruff voice interrupted. "You think Roger would just tell us the secret of the One Piece so easily? Come on—let's find it ourselves!"
The speaker's presence was overwhelming—the former Yonko, Kaido of the Beasts.
The next second—
"Wororororo!"
A booming laugh rolled across the sky.
"I haven't seen you for decades… and yet, that thorny brat from back then dares to talk like that now!"
Kaido froze. A cold shiver ran down his spine as an all-too-familiar aura pressed down on him like a mountain.
Slowly, he turned around.
When he finally laid eyes on the towering, spectral figure standing behind him, his pupils shrank to pinpoints.
"R-Rocks… Captain Rocks!!!"