On a sea-current route somewhere in the New World.
The famous smuggler-pirate Ganzi, clad in golden armor, was reading news about the Rocks Pirates.
"Ahahaha, looks like the New World has another pack of lawless monsters!"
"As long as they don't mess with my business, I'm good!"
Ganzi picked his nose and flicked the booger into the sea; in an instant, a huge geyser of water exploded upward.
The smuggler-pirate Ganzi is the user of the Paramecia Bomb-Bomb Fruit.
In a certain laboratory in the New World.
Twenty-year-old blond researcher Baccarat Stussy, plagued by insufficient R&D ability, had caused repeated experiment failures and was berated by the project leader and sponsor.
The sponsor, lusting after Stussy's beauty, harassed her time and again.
In a fit of rage, Stussy slew both the project head and the sponsor, seized all equipment and funds, and set sail as a scientific bandit.
At the West Blue Mafia HQ, the boss Maron had just completed the initial unification of the West Blue underworld—his golden age in full swing.
But one glance at Rocks's staggering bounty told him how far this West Blue Mafia boss still was from the "World's Worst Pirate."
Once he fully unified and consolidated the West Blue underworld, he would head for the New World, where greater prospects awaited.
A mere Mafia boss could no longer satisfy Maron's ambition!
On an island wreathed in gun-smoke somewhere in the New World.
"Iron Balloon" Charlotte Linlin and "Gourmet Knight" Streusen plundered yet another town, each hauling a sack of treasure.
"World's worst pirate? His bounty dwarfs mine—I don't even match the spare change!"
Charlotte Linlin stared at Rocks's wanted poster and suddenly felt like crushing the bastard.
"Linlin! Big shots like him aren't people we can provoke; let's earn money and keep searching for Mother."
Streusen dared not take Linlin to challenge a monster the World Government itself couldn't handle.
He only wanted to use Charlotte Linlin's power to line his own pockets.
Right now, the girl obeyed his every word.
"Right, finding Mother Carmel is what matters most!"
Linlin's whims came and went; locating Mother Carmel remained her top priority.
Hearing how easily the monster girl was fooled, Streusen flashed an eerie grin.
Still looking for Carmel?
She was devoured by you, monster, long ago!
But had that cunning old nun and trafficker Carmel really been eaten just like that?
Even now, Streusen couldn't fathom how Linlin had inherited Mother Carmel's Soul-Soul Fruit powers.
Elsewhere in the New World.
Captains Kiel Bastard, Bolo Gram, and "Captain" John studied news and intel on the Rocks Pirates.
The monster Rocks indeed placed enormous pressure on every pirate crew.
After all, most of them wouldn't dare fight an Admiral.
Yet Rocks had killed an Admiral inside heavily guarded Mary Geoise.
Who wouldn't fear and dread that?
All they could hope was never to meet that monstrous crew at sea.
Several weeks later.
Under sudden foul weather, the Rocks Pirates rarely flew; they sailed the surface and learned every trick to weather storms.
During the voyage, the Executives sparred, roughly fixing their pecking order aboard.
Except for Sunbell, the rest were fairly even; only Fang Huo stood out.
"Jejeje, I envy you, Newgate! Soon you'll snatch a Supreme Grade blade!"
"Golden Lion" Shiki's tone brimmed with jealousy, yet the famed swords Fang Huo foresaw still hadn't been hinted at for him.
"Gurarara, then you'd better butter up the Prophet Fang Huo!"
As the Kingdom of Ying's island loomed closer, Newgate's grin grew ever wider.
Rocks had the Saber of Xebec, Fang Huo the Seven Star Demon Sword, Fierce his Silver Axe, and even Babel named his meteor anchor "Abyssal Anchor."
Babel even wanted to follow Fang Huo's off-hand "advice," forging the "Abyssal Anchor" bit by bit into a Supreme Grade anchor!
He believed if Fang Huo spoke it, he would achieve it in the future.
Even Sunbell now wielded a red trident he called the "Sea-Knight Trident."
Soon Edward Newgate would own his own Supreme Grade blade: Murakumogiri.
That would leave only Shiki still swinging two ordinary double-edged blades.
"Fang Huo's too cunning; he's waiting for me to owe him favors and pay intel fees!"
"Golden Lion" Shiki complained loudly, even shouting toward Fang Huo.
Inside his Gravity field, Fang Huo kept swinging massive barbells.
Sunbell, desperate to grow stronger, borrowed Fang Huo's Gravity field; he had to earn Rocks's approval and stay aboard.
"Stingy bastard—scram!"
Annoyed by Shiki's grumbling, Newgate blasted him away with a quake shockwave.
"Worororo! We've reached the Kingdom of Ying, Newgate—will you loot alone or want help?"
Rocks licked his lips; after raiding the Kingdom of Cang's capital, he now coveted the Kingdom of Ying's.
After all, no one ever has too much treasure or Berries!
Next time he returned to his West Blue hometown, God Valley, he'd bring extra loot.
"Don't need help—I'll pillage myself!"
Newgate spoke flatly; it was the perfect chance to showcase his destructive power and raise his bounty.
Maybe Fang Huo was right—how could a grown man's bounty trail behind a little girl's?
Most of all, he was sick of Shiki's noisy yammering in his face.
"Hmph! You grab the blade—we'll grab the riches!"
"Silver Axe" Fierce hoisted his giant axe, itching for his first large-scale raid.
Back when he was the "Gangster Killer," he took assignments for bounties or robbed pirates and thugs.
Invading an entire country was a first for him.
"The Kingdom of Ying—another Wano-style nation?"
Fang Huo thought of West Blue's Kano Country and the New World's Wano; he'd feel zero qualms striking here.
Of course, Shiki's own clothes were Wano-style as well.
He even knew the two Kurozumi Family fugitives: Kurozumi Orochi and Kurozumi Semimaru.
Before Kozuki Sukiyaki's birth, the Kurozumi Family had nearly usurped the shogunate.
After their failed coup, the Kurozumi scattered—some died, some fled.
The two siblings had survived overseas and were now in their forties.
Fang Huo had been pumping Shiki for information on them.
He had his eye on Kurozumi Semimaru's Paramecia Barrier-Barrier Fruit.
An extra defensive ability could only help him stay alive.