Chapter 567: Tribute
Near the entrance to the New World — the former Navy Headquarters G-3 base.
After the Navy's senior command defected from the World Government, the entire G-series base structure had been dissolved along with it. The Vice Admiral stationed here had taken his subordinates and slipped away the moment everything fell apart, leaving behind an empty base and a small handful of soldiers who had chosen not to follow.
The place had been nearly abandoned ever since.
That said, the World Government hadn't entirely forgotten it existed. Someone remembered it was here, and it turned out to be a convenient gathering point.
Over recent days, groups had been arriving one after another under CP0 escort — every last one of them a name that carried real weight on the seas.
"Oh! Hawk-Eyes Dracule Mihawk, the Pirate Empress Boa Hancock, and Gecko Moria — every last surviving Warlord, all in one place!"
In the hollow main hall of the abandoned base, a thin, plain-faced woman with a branch-like frame peered carefully from behind her older brother, looking out at the others gathered in the room, her voice full of undisguised wonder.
"Hehehehehehe — I didn't expect someone like you to actually show up."
The man called Gecko Moria grinned at the man standing in front of the woman.
Cropped dark red hair, a black jacket left open to show a powerfully built chest and arms, a cold gaze, and two prominent stitching scars at the corners of his mouth.
His name was Charlotte Katakuri. He had once been most widely known as the greatest masterpiece of the Charlotte family — the son Empress Charlotte Linlin was most proud of, the strongest of the Three Sweet Commanders. But that was the past. After launching a coup against his mother and seizing the Emperor title for himself, he was now an Emperor in his own right.
Without question, one of the heaviest presences in the room.
"Gecko Moria." Katakuri looked across at the large man seated diagonally opposite him — broad-shouldered, built in a way no jacket could hide, entirely fitting his old reputation as a hero of the West Blue. "You went quiet for a long time after entering the New World. It's hard to imagine you'd answer the government's summons."
The Charlotte family's intelligence network was exceptional. Katakuri knew this man had gone a long time without dealing with the government after entering the New World — announcing he was leaving the Warlords wouldn't have surprised anyone. And yet here he was today.
"Hehehehehehe! The greatest battle the world has ever seen — why would I have any reason to miss it?" Moria let out his peculiar laugh. "Even if both my legs were broken, I'd crawl here on my hands!"
"Though —" His tone shifted and he looked across the wide table at the man sitting there, then at the beautiful woman seated alone at a separate table with her eyes closed.
"I also didn't expect Hawk-Eyes Mihawk, who always works alone, or the Pirate Empress, who rarely deals with the outside world, to actually turn up here."
The Pirate Empress — the most beautiful woman in the world — didn't even glance in his direction. She simply sat quietly with her eyes closed.
Mihawk, still running a cloth along his blade, let the corner of his mouth rise slightly. "The strongest — I simply want to cross blades with whoever holds that title."
"That's MY opponent!!"
The hall doors burst open. A towering figure strode in with heavy, deliberate steps, his eyes locked on Mihawk. "The one who gets to fight the man called the strongest and grind him into the ground — that's ME!!"
Mihawk's mouth twitched slightly, but he said nothing.
Perhaps we aren't talking about the same person.
"Douglas Bullet!" Moria's eyes went wide. "You're still alive?!"
Bullet glanced at him sideways, let out a short contemptuous sound, and didn't bother with a reply. He found himself a corner and sat down cross-legged without another word.
Moria's expression darkened.
"Oh oh oh, if it isn't Moria! Haha, long time no see!"
A cheerful voice cut through the tension. Moria turned, and when he saw who it was his brow furrowed immediately. "You disgusting creature — you're still alive too, Avalo Pizarro!"
The two had crossed paths before. They weren't complete strangers.
Moria's gaze drifted to the people standing behind the Evil King. His mouth curved slowly upward. "Hehehehehehe — now that's interesting. People whose very names were supposed to be erased — and here they are walking free."
"Can't be helped." Pizarro shrugged. "The Navy defected. The government is short on fighters."
"Though it'll probably be a seriously rough opponent — after seeing who's gathered here, I feel a lot better about our chances."
The people assembled in this room were genuine monsters. Add the World Government's resources behind them, and even against an enemy described the way CP0 had described him, the odds had to be in their favor.
Katakuri's mouth twitched.
An idiot who'd been locked away so long he'd lost touch with the world entirely.
"I never imagined I'd end up part of a unit like this." Moria's grin spread across his face. "The more I think about it, the more I want to see what this war actually turns out to be."
The greatest war in the world — one that would decide who this world belonged to. How could anyone with ambition not feel their pulse quicken at the thought?
Monsters had gathered on this island.
And at almost exactly that moment, something enormous was closing in through the sky above.
A steel bird with vast wings.
Brett stood on Hades's deck. His eyes weren't directed downward, but his Observation Haki had already mapped out everything happening below.
"Well then, Mister Brett?"
The blurred humanoid form flickered into being beside him. Hades spoke in a tentative tone.
"Stay on call, Hades."
Brett smiled, then stepped off the edge of the deck and dropped, falling like a meteor toward the base below.
"Yes, sir."
Hades's voice drifted upward through the open sky as Brett fell away. "I'll come the moment you call."
Brett plummeted downward, his large frame pulled by gravity, the wind screaming past his ears. He made no attempt to slow his descent. A few thousand meters was hardly anything to him.
As he fell, a thought surfaced in his mind.
Wasn't this a near-perfect recreation of Kaido's iconic entrance?
Dropping from the sky. A traitor leaking the location.
All he could call it was a tribute.