Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
Inside the conference room, the atmosphere was so heavy it felt like it could drip off the walls.
Fleet Admiral Sengoku the Buddha was rubbing his temples, a headache blooming behind his eyes.
On the desk in front of him lay an emergency report that had just arrived from the New World.
Ace and the Spade Unit under his command had clashed with the Beasts Pirates, and the entire unit had been captured.
The news detonated through the upper ranks like a bomb.
Who was Ace?
A Marine rising star with limitless potential, hailed as "the future of the Marines."
What gave Sengoku an even worse headache was this: Ace was Garp's… grandson.
Not by blood, but everyone in the Marines knew how much Garp doted on Ace. Otherwise, Garp would never have fought so hard to get Ace the autonomy to lead an independent unit in the first place.
"Fleet Admiral, we must mobilize immediately! We have to rescue Ace!" A hawkish vice admiral slammed the table and roared.
He was a junior to Vice Admiral Tsuru, a hardliner who had always advocated ruthless action against pirates.
"Exactly!" another vice admiral echoed. "Ace is one of the finest graduates the academy has produced in years. His talent speaks for itself! If we let Kaido take him, dead or alive, it will cripple Marine authority. It'll freeze every young Marine's heart!"
The room erupted into argument after argument.
"Hmph. Idiots."
A cold voice cut through the noise and the conference room fell silent.
Sakazuki sat upright, expressionless.
"For one man, you want the Marines to gather the bulk of our forces and go to war with Kaido of the Beasts? Is magma what you people have in your heads?"
His words were merciless, dripping with contempt.
"Have you considered that Wano is Kaido's territory? If we fight there, we hold no advantage at all."
"And Kaido and Big Mom are allies. Once a war starts, it could easily become the Marines fighting outnumbered. Who among you will take responsibility for that?"
Sakazuki's questions left the previously impassioned vice admirals speechless.
It was true.
To face two Emperors at once, the consequences of failure were too severe, severe enough to shake the Marines to their foundations.
"Then… then what, we just watch?" someone asked through clenched teeth.
Sakazuki snorted. "A necessary sacrifice for justice."
"You…" The hardliner's face flushed red with fury.
"Enough! All of you, shut it!" Sengoku finally barked, slamming the debate to a halt.
He glanced at Sakazuki and sighed inwardly.
Sakazuki's "Absolute Justice" was extreme, but his logic wasn't wrong.
From a strategic standpoint, launching a full scale war against Kaido for a single unit was an insanely unwise choice.
Sengoku could feel his stomach starting to ache again.
Just as he was about to make a painful decision, the conference room doors were thrown open.
A Marine intelligence officer stumbled in, practically tumbling over himself, panic written across his face.
"Fleet Admiral! Bad news!"
Sengoku's heart lurched. "What now?!"
"V Vice Admiral Garp! He… he already set sail alone, commanding a single warship! His course… his course is Wano!"
"What?!"
Everyone in the room shot to their feet.
Sengoku's vision went black for a second. He nearly fainted on the spot.
"That bastard!!!"
The one thing he feared most had happened.
With Garp's personality, how could he possibly sit still and do nothing while Ace was in danger?
"Immediately! Send people to bring him back!" Sengoku roared.
"I'm afraid… it's too late, Fleet Admiral." The intelligence officer trembled.
Sengoku sank back into his chair, drained.
Once Garp decided on something, ten Sea Kings couldn't drag him back.
Now even if the Marines didn't want to fight, Garp was about to force them into it.
But the disaster didn't stop there.
Before Sengoku could even recover from the shock of Garp's departure, another intelligence officer burst in even faster, face even more terrified.
"E Emergency report!!!"
He'd run so hard he slipped and crashed to the floor. He didn't even bother with the pain, scrambling on hands and knees to Sengoku and holding a document overhead.
"Fleet Admiral! Over the Sabaody Archipelago, a… a gigantic flying object has appeared!"
"A flying object?" Sengoku frowned, dread coiling in his gut.
"Yes! Multiple eyewitnesses and our embedded agents confirm it. It's… it's an enormous black flying warship!"
His voice shook. "Analysis suggests it belongs to the Wave King, Aaron Kael!"
"Aaron Kael?!"
The name hit like a forbidden curse.
Everyone's expression changed instantly.
Sakazuki's pupils contracted sharply, his fist clenching without him realizing it.
"That ship…" Sengoku asked, voice hoarse. "Where is it now?"
"Fleet Admiral… it's heading at an unimaginable speed toward… toward Wano!"
A heavy silence slammed down.
A coincidence?
No one believed in coincidences at a time like this.
"Could it be…" a vice admiral whispered, voice trembling, "that Kael and Kaido have joined forces?"
The room sucked in a collective breath.
"No." Sengoku forced himself to stay calm. "If Kael is going to Wano, he has his own reason."
A thought surfaced in Sengoku's mind, so absurd even he wanted to deny it.
"Find out!" he bellowed at the intelligence officer. "Find out what relationship Aaron Kael has with Portgas D. Ace!"
With those two reports arriving back to back, Marineford was swallowed by the shadow of war.
Multiple forces were converging on Onigashima.
A storm big enough to reshape the world was about to break.