Red Line, Holy Land Mary Geoise.
Inside a spacious and bright room in Pangu City, the center of power for the World Government, the Gorosei took their respective positions.
Saint নাস寿郎, the Warrior God of Finance, sat on the sofa and slammed a newspaper onto the table, a cold glint flashing in his sharp eyes.
"CP9 is a bunch of trash; they can't even catch a single runaway ability user."
The fact that a prisoner was hijacked was certainly detestable.
But the real reason the Gorosei were furious was that the World Government actually had to find out about the whole incident through the newspaper.
It was simply unforgivable.
Though they were reluctant to admit it, everything indicated that the World Government's control over the seas was weakening.
Satan Saint squinted his eyes.
"Encountering a member of the Roger Pirates who has awakened Haoshoku Haki and eaten the Rumble-Rumble Fruit... we can't entirely blame them."
"The Ope-Ope no Mi user is still in Beelzebul's hands. Notify the Marines and have Borsalino go there. He must capture Beelzebul and the fugitive alive."
"This arrangement will also help to confuse the public."
"Seconded."
"Seconded."
Logically speaking, for a strategic weapon as important as the Ope-Ope no Mi, God's Knights should have been mobilized.
Only then could the success of the operation be guaranteed.
However, both the Ope-Ope no Mi and the Rumble-Rumble Fruit possess the ability for high-speed instantaneous movement. Within the World Government and the Marines, only Borsalino could counter such abilities.
In terms of pure speed, if the Glint-Glint Fruit claimed second place, no one on this sea would dare claim first—not even the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
Considering all factors, Borsalino was the most suitable person.
"Regarding the remaining members of the Roger Pirates..."
Satan Saint paused: "Send CP1 to warn Rayleigh. If anything similar happens in the future, the agreement between the Marines and Roger will be null and void."
"Seconded!"
"Seconded!"
...Marineford.
Inside the Admiral's office, the then-Marine Admiral Sengoku ended a den den mushi call and looked at the slacker who was currently trimming his nails.
"Borsalino."
"Go to Paradise immediately. The World Government demands the live capture of Barzeb Seven and that fugitive."
Kizaru put away his nail clippers, his wretched face drooping: "Sengoku-san, what about my vacation?"
The man who loved slacking off the most had eaten the fruit that required the most hard work. Kizaru felt truly helpless; whenever an emergency occurred, he was required to handle it personally.
Sengoku gritted his teeth: "Once this mission is over, I'll promote you to Admiral."
Hearing this, Kizaru's eyes lit up.
Everything else was secondary; the main thing was that after being promoted to Admiral, his salary would rise to 10.8 million Berries per year.
The money filled Kizaru with motivation.
"I'm leaving now."
Watching Kizaru turn into a beam of light and depart, Sengoku rubbed his brow tiredly. He had thought that the public execution of Pirate King Roger would at least make the pirates on the sea settle down for a while.
[Being a pirate has no future. If you don't believe it, look—even the Pirate King was captured and publicly executed by us Marines.]
He never expected that Roger's dying words about the great treasure would cause the entire sea to riot.
Not only were more and more people going out to sea to become pirates, but even the nobles of some countries were doing the same. As one side grew and the other waned, the Marine manpower became increasingly stretched thin.
"Roger, we were all played by you."
A week before Roger's execution, Golden Lion caused a massive scene at Marineford, destroying more than half of the base. The Marines suffered countless casualties before finally locking Golden Lion in Impel Down.
After Roger's death, the other members of the Roger Pirates had behaved quite peacefully.
Only the demon heir, Bullet, and Beelzebul, who had recently hijacked the World Government's prisoner, were stirring up trouble on the sea.
Fleet Admiral Kong was about to go to Holy Land Mary Geoise to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the World Government's forces. From now on, the burden of the Marines would fall on Sengoku's shoulders.
Thinking about how that fellow Garp was still living it up in the East Blue, Sengoku quickly dialed the den den mushi and roared.
"You bastard Garp!"
"Get back here right now!"
Sengoku felt: Why should I have to work overtime so miserably while that bastard Garp gets to enjoy a vacation? As brothers, they must share the hardships.
The den den mushi mimicked Garp's expression.
"Nani?"
"The agreed three-month vacation has only just passed halfway. If there's nothing important, I'm going back to sleep."
Looking at the hung-up den den mushi, Sengoku took off his seagull hat and started self-PUA while grabbing his afro with both hands.
"Forget it. Garp has worked hard these years to arrest Roger; even if there's no merit, there's at least the effort."
...Paradise, the sea area near Jaya Island.
"Captain."
The doctor bowed slightly: "For the sake of my cleaning and night shifts these past few days, please have a heart and help me unlock these Sea Stone handcuffs."
At the bow, Seven deactivated his Plasma Sword, his mood not very bright: "It's useless to ask me. I'm an ability user; I can't open Sea Stone handcuffs."
He was just a paper-thin distance away from unleashing a Flying Slash, but he just couldn't break through that final barrier.
The doctor tested the waters.
"Then could you say something to Mr. Mihawk?"
If he couldn't open the Sea Stone handcuffs, how could he find a way to escape? It wasn't that following Seven was bad, but the key was that after the World Government experienced a failure, they would definitely send even stronger lackeys.
The doctor neither wanted to die nor be captured.
When he first ate the Ope-Ope no Mi, the doctor was full of heart and soul to practice medicine and help the world in his hometown.
As a result... because the World Government wanted this Devil Fruit, his hometown was destroyed and he was captured alive. He finally managed to escape to Sandy Island in the chaos, only to fall into the hands of CP.
He had thought Seven would be his savior, but he never expected to become a prisoner once again.
What was most, most, most unsettling was that after the ship arrived near the Jaya Island sea area, Seven actually stopped moving forward and instead lingered in the surrounding waters.
"Captain, are you looking for something?"
Seven pulled out his binoculars: "Yeah, go back to mopping the floor. Don't block my line of sight."
To go to Sky Island, one must ride the knock up stream. Setting aside the danger, just encountering the knock up stream was already extremely rare.
It could be said that it was entirely a matter of luck.
Seven planned to wait a bit longer. If he still couldn't find the knock up stream, he would go up by himself and use that golden pillar to buy the 'musou isshin'.
The reason he wanted to travel by ship was mainly to build a rapport with Mihawk.
Some pirate crews rely entirely on the Captain's force to intimidate the crew, some rely on emotions to maintain the relationship, and some rely on interests to bind each other.
Captain Seven, on the other hand... wanted it all.
Under the premise that his current force was not enough to intimidate, building rapport and binding interests became extremely critical.
With a negative example like the Rocks Pirates before him, he had to fully learn the lesson.
In just half a day, the nearby sea area had successively experienced harsh weather such as sunny days, violent storms, and lightning and thunder.
As night fell, Seven still hadn't found the knock up stream. "Mihawk, you guys wait on the ship for a bit. I'll go up first to check the way."
Thunder pierced the darkness, and Seven turned into a bolt of azure lightning, soaring straight into the sky.