Nearby, Captain Dorde and his men stood completely frozen, utterly at a loss.
The sudden, boisterous laughter erupting from the four legendary brothers was impossible to read, yet right in the midst of it, their ears caught a specific phrase.
Became the Pirate King!
Who?
Who in the world had just become the Pirate King?!
"Ace, tell me everything! How did this happen? What went down with Luffy while we were apart?!" Drake pressed urgently.
Swept up in the sheer thrill of the revelation, Drake didn't bother reining in his voice.
The words rang out with crystalline clarity, striking the ears of Dorde and his soldiers like a bolt from the blue. Every single one of them stared in bug-eyed disbelief.
The one who had ascended the throne as the Pirate King was... one of the legendary four brothers, "Wisdom King" Luffy!
The new Pirate King had already been crowned?!
Paying no mind to the soldiers' shock, Ace recounted the monumental events that had recently turned the New World on its head.
It turned out that not long ago, the balance of power among the pirates of the New World had devolved into absolute chaos. The former Four Emperors, Big Mom and Kaido, had forged an alliance.
Between them, they had gathered all the Road Poneglyphs.
Countless rival crews had swarmed their territory like locusts, desperate to snatch the stone rubbings from their grasp and decipher the coordinates to Laugh Tale.
After all, reaching Laugh Tale was the ultimate prerequisite to claiming the mantle of Pirate King.
Yet even though nearly every pirate crew of note across the seas had converged on the fray, none could withstand the combined might of two veteran Emperors fighting side by side.
The representatives of the new era—the Worst Generation's Supernovas—surged across the waters in droves, plunging the entire New World into an unmitigated bloodbath.
Total war among pirates detonated in an instant.
Countless lives were extinguished in the blink of an eye.
Then came the arrival of the Whitebeard Pirates and the Red Hair Pirates, an intervention that tore the entire New World wide open.
Pinnacle masters took the field one after another. Elite commanders from the Emperor fleets stepped into the fray, cutting down ordinary crews with effortless, single-strike executions.
Their opening move was sweeping the board clean of countless second-rate pirates lurking around the perimeter.
Those left standing were the absolute cream of the pirate world.
The scale of the clash was nothing short of a world war, far outstripping the carnage of the Summit War two years prior.
It was fierce enough to rival the holy war that had shaken the world only recently.
Eventually, the four supreme pirate factions reached a tense stalemate. With no one willing to recklessly ignite an all-out war of mutual destruction, they entered a period of tense negotiations.
Both the Whitebeard Pirates and the Red Hair Pirates were currently at the apex of their power.
In contrast, Big Mom and Kaido had weathered multiple devastating upheavals in recent memory, their foundational strength drained considerably.
Had an all-out battle truly erupted, they stood little chance against the combined might of Whitebeard's fleet and the Red Hair Pirates.
For from the moment they arrived, the two Emperor crews had stood shoulder to shoulder on a united front.
The standoff dragged on.
The ones who ultimately shattered the deadlock were Big Mom and Kaido themselves. The longer things stalled, the worse their position became.
Using Brûlée's Mirror-Mirror Fruit, they launched an audacious ambush and miraculously carved out an escape route.
Yet barring their path on the other side were the Four Emperors—the Straw Hat Pirates!
The entire crew engaged, unleashing an all-out assault against Big Mom and Kaido. Bolstered by the timely intervention of Ace and his fleet, the two veteran Emperor crews were thoroughly suppressed in remarkably short order.
With the dust settled, the factions stood their ground and resolved the matter the true pirate way.
One-on-one duels!
Each crew would put forth a solitary champion to battle in an elimination tournament.
The last one standing would claim the right to set sail for Laugh Tale!
At that crossroads, neither the Red Hair Pirates nor the Whitebeard Pirates raised a single objection.
Ace and Shanks stood as the captains representing their respective fleets. Even if personal desire for the crown didn't drive them, they still had to test the waters with everything they had.
If Luffy couldn't defeat them with his own two hands, it meant his mettle was not yet tempered enough to bear the mantle of Pirate King.
"Wait, hold on a second..." Drake interrupted, eyeing Ace with intense curiosity. "Then... did the two of you fight as well?"
"Yeah!" Luffy nodded with a wide, toothy grin.
"So with Luffy becoming the Pirate King, that means... Ace, you..."
"That's right. I lost," Ace admitted with breezy nonchalance.
For an older brother to confess defeat to his little brother was never an easy pill to swallow, yet when the words left Ace's mouth, his face was radiant with a warm, genuine smile.
Perhaps by the calendar, not all that many years had passed—they were still in the prime of their youth.
Yet waiting for this day felt like the culmination of a lifetime.
"It also fulfilled the promise I made to Pops back then. Luffy's strength has truly surpassed mine," Ace said.
Two years ago, in the aftermath of the Summit War aboard the Moby Dick, Whitebeard had laid it bare to Luffy:
If he wanted to become the Pirate King, he would have to knock Ace down first.
Otherwise, the crown belonged to the Whitebeard Pirates!
It was for that very reason that Ace had accepted the tournament format without hesitation.
"Drake!"
A shout drifted across the water. Kenshin and the others had arrived.
"Right! Now that everyone is here, let's head back to Foosha Village and celebrate properly," Ace said, rising to his feet.
"Once Makino and the others hear that Luffy's become the Pirate King, they're going to be overjoyed."
After briefing Kenshin and the rest on the situation, the group set off on the inland road toward Foosha Village.
Behind them, the embers of their campfire were extinguished in the dirt.
Having filled their bellies, the local soldiers marched with renewed vigor. Coupled with the earth-shattering news they had just overheard, the men were buzzing with excitement, chattering ceaselessly among themselves.
"So Ace and Luffy used Big Mom's daughter's mirror ability to travel across the sea," Drake mused, the pieces falling into place.
That explained how they had managed to bridge the impossible distance from the New World so quickly.
"And Sabo used Kuma's ability to fly here and suppress the unrest in the East Blue. I see..."
Drake knew deep down that they were simply worried sick about him. The moment their own business was settled, they had dropped everything to rush to his side.
Talking and laughing along the path, they soon entered a dense mountain forest. Once they cleared this woodland ridge, Foosha Village would come into view.
"Man, it really has been ages since we came back," Drake couldn't help but sigh wistfully.
The moment he set foot in these hills, an unmistakable, deeply ingrained aura washed over his senses. The scenery might have shifted slightly with the passage of time, but the profound familiarity etched into the marrow of his bones could never be mistaken.
"Hurry up! I can't wait any longer—I miss it so much!"
Shouting out, Drake broke into a dead sprint ahead of the group.
Ace, Sabo, and Luffy exchanged amused glances, grinning as they dashed after him.
In a heartbeat, it turned into an impromptu footrace between the four brothers, just like old times.
As boys, they had raced up the mountain to hunt beasts, pushing themselves through grueling training to grow stronger by the day.
Competing with each other, sparring without reserve, watching each other's backs...
All four were blindingly fast. Within breaths, their silhouettes vanished into the foliage, leaving behind only flickering afterimages cutting through the trees.
Before long, the edge of the woods drew near. In the very next second, they burst through the treeline into the open air.
"AHAHAHA! I'm first!"
Having flared into his Nika form, Luffy threw both hands high into the sky, crowing in triumph.
Drake, Ace, and Sabo were left utterly dumbfounded. None of them had imagined that Luffy would casually whip out Gear 5 at the final stretch.
To think the ever-pure Luffy had learned how to pull cheap tricks!
Just as Drake opened his mouth to scold him, Luffy beat him to the punch, his eyes widening in shock. "What is that?!"
Frowning in confusion, Ace, Sabo, and Drake followed his gaze.
Down in the valley, dense formations of heavily armed soldiers stood in tight ranks, encircling the quiet village below in suffocating, layered cordons.
That village... was Foosha Village!