"Pops!"
"Up ahead—it's the Flower Country of the West Blue! Are we stopping to restock?"
The voice belonged to a seven-year-old Marco, one of the earliest to join Whitebeard's crew.
At this time, he was only an apprentice.
After the God Valley War, Whitebeard had left part of his young crew behind on an island in the West Blue.
Most of them were in their early teens—Marco among the youngest.
Over the years, Edward Newgate had gathered children and strays from across the seas, raising them under his protection.
Back on Hachinosu (Beehive Island), there were whispers mocking him.
They said, "Big Mom keeps having children; Whitebeard keeps adopting them."
"Neither of them have any grand ambition—just power wasted on sentiment."
Yet, ironically, those two—Big Mom and Whitebeard—were the first to rebuild full crews after Rocks fell.
Other survivors of the Rocks Pirates had gone separate ways.
Wang Zhi and Shiki the Golden Lion took in the majority of Rocks' battle-ready veterans.
Captain John led a splinter faction in search of treasure.
Silver Axe became a roaming warlord.
Fireblossom Gloriosa and Shakky reformed the Kuja Pirates.
Buckin, ever the schemer, vanished to pursue her own "research foundation."
The Kurozumi clan conspirators quietly returned to Wano, plotting revenge.
The sea had entered a new age—
The Age of the Rocks' Descendants.
Not even Roger's elite crew could contain the chaos.
Nor would they interfere in others' destinies.
Meanwhile, across the world, figures like Don Chinjao of the Happo Navy, Red the Aloof, and Bundy World (the More-More Fruit (Mo-Mo no Mi) user) dominated their corners of the ocean.
Without Rocks, there was no longer a single ruler of the seas.
Chinjao, master of all three Haki and the legendary Hasshoken, stood proud—
a man of immense strength, wealth, and armies.
He believed this new age had room for him at its summit.
And Whitebeard?
Before Rocks lured him into his ranks, Whitebeard had held no great territory or army.
But his name had always carried weight.
And Chinjao—he'd heard it many times.
Still, men with the souls of kings bowed to no one.
"Chief Chinjao! Reports say the Whitebeard Pirates only intend to dock briefly—to rest and refuel!"
"Shut your mouth!"
Chinjao's eyes flashed.
"I'll show them what it means to face the strongest headbutt in the world!"
He kicked his crewman clear out the door, threw on his favorite cloak, and stormed out.
The ground trembled as he sprinted toward the port.
"Whitebeard!!"
His roar echoed through the town as his body blurred and vanished into motion.
"Trouble?"
Whitebeard leaned back in his deck chair, smiling faintly.
He'd been about to answer Marco's question, but he could already feel the approaching presence.
He looked up at the harbor—
there it was, the Happo Navy flag.
"Of course…" he sighed.
Chinjao.
Another veteran of the New World who'd returned home after the Rocks War.
"Looks like everyone's running into each other these days," Whitebeard chuckled.
"Pops, is he dangerous?"
Marco's blue wings flared with faint golden light—the early flicker of the Mythical Zoan: Phoenix Fruit.
It was a gift Whitebeard had given him after God Valley—a treasure from the Rocks vaults.
From then on, Marco served as both apprentice and lookout.
"It's fine. I'll handle it myself," Whitebeard said, rising to his full, towering height.
"Gurararara! Chinjao! You point-headed bastard—it's been too long!"
He leapt from the deck, landing at the port with a thunderous boom.
On deck, Marco quickly caught the hand of another boy wandering nearby—a sturdy, dark-skinned child from the West Blue, only four years old.
The youngest member of the crew—Jozu.
"Marco! Pops is going! Let's go too!"
"That's Pops' fight, Jozu, we should—"
Marco froze mid-sentence, eyes widening.
Out at sea, something massive was drifting toward them.
Not a ship—
A floating mountain.
And atop it flew a bizarre pirate flag—
a skull marked with black dragon ripples.
"Marco, what crew is that? I've never seen that flag before!"
One of the pirates loaded his flintlock nervously while gripping his cutlass.
Not far from Flower Country waters, a colossal vessel approached—
more raft than ship, yet somehow afloat.
On its "mast," Sanjuan Wolf snored, his nose bubbles rising and falling like sails.
Kaido and Moria were asleep, using Moly's enormous body as a pillow.
And high above them, perched on Wolf's head, Sharn let the sea wind brush through his hair.
They'd been drifting for days.
Most of the crew had passed out from exhaustion.
Sharn sighed, watching the horizon.
"Why doesn't Wolf sink? He's a Devil Fruit user—must be that ridiculous body of his."
The truth was, Sanjuan Wolf had eaten the Pump-Pump Fruit, a Paramecia that allowed him to expand his size at will—
which explained his bizarre, buoyant physique.
The man was a walking contradiction—
He couldn't swim, yet he never truly sank.
He was too big to drown properly.
"Giant tribes really are cursed," Sharn muttered.
"They've eaten both the 'Shrink Fruits' and the 'Growth Fruits.'"
He focused on the wind, trying to sense direction through seagulls and air pressure—training his Observation Haki.
Then his eyes widened.
Ahead loomed a massive island—
its ports crowded with ships flying two flags:
the Happo Navy and the Whitebeard Pirates.
"That's Conqueror's Haki…" Kaido's eyes snapped open, turning blood-red.
He sat up instantly.
"Land," he growled, stretching his neck.
"I told you flying in dragon form would've been faster."
Then he sensed it clearly.
A familiar aura.
Whitebeard.
His mentor.
The man who'd once brought him into the Rocks Pirates.
"You're hungry, remember?" Sharn teased, hopping off Wolf's head.
Their movements woke Moria, who blinked sleepily.
"Land?! Hehehehehe! Finally! I'll be the new boss of the town!"
Thwack!
Kaido smacked him on the head.
A lump rose immediately.
"Ow! Dammit!" Moria screamed, rolling across the deck.
Ever since joining Sharn, he'd become the punching bag for both Kaido and fate.
Sharn and Kaido still argued endlessly over who was captain,
but the giants had already accepted Sharn.
Moly even said Kaido "wasn't cute enough" to lead—
which stung all the more since she herself had a full beard.
Moria, meanwhile, was still considered the "apprentice"—or rather, the crew's sandbag.
"When I get my own ship," Moria grumbled, "I'm taking revenge on all of you!"
But as he peered toward the port, his bravado vanished.
The buildings, the flags—he recognized them instantly.
"The Flower Country?! Oh no… we're doomed!"
As a West Blue native, he knew exactly what that meant.
If they got caught here, they'd either be executed or forced to join the Happo Navy.
Rumble…
The earth itself quaked.
A wave roared from the shore, slamming into their vessel.
Even Moly and Wolf stirred from sleep.
"Whitebeard's fighting! Another powerhouse is here!"
Kaido laughed, transforming into his Azure Dragon form and launching into the air.
Their makeshift ship was lifted by the wave.
Sharn steadied himself on the splintered deck, looking ahead—
At the port, Whitebeard swung his great fist, splitting the ground in two.
The shockwaves reached even the sea.
His eyes met Sharn's.
Recognition flashed.
"…Kaido. And that brat…"
Then his brow twitched.
"…and giants?!"
"What in the hell—"
In just a few days, that reckless boy had somehow gathered two giants and a motley band of lunatics—
and now even Kaido was fighting at his side.
Gurararara!
"Damn it," Whitebeard muttered. "Big Mom's going to blow her top when she hears this."
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