-Real World-
The Celestial Dragons' elaborate plan to encircle and eliminate Kaido did not unfold nearly as quickly as the Five Elders had anticipated. It required almost fifteen full days just to successfully gather all seven members of the Shichibukai in one location.
Some members of the Seven Warlords were natural troublemakers—unruly individuals who absolutely would not come obediently simply because the World Government issued a summons. The relationship between the two parties was cooperative at best, nothing remotely resembling the superior-subordinate dynamic that existed between the World Government and the Marines. The Shichibukai were independent powers who had negotiated their positions from strength, not subordinates who could be ordered around casually.
However, with the notable exception of Gecko Moriah—who remained deliberately stationed at his Devil's Triangle base—the other Shichibukai members eventually boarded Marine ships and traveled to the Holy Land of Mariejois. There they would meet with the highest-ranking Celestial Dragons and discuss the detailed battle plan for encircling Kaido alongside the Marines' top brass.
It was remarkably rare for this new generation of Seven Warlords to have any opportunity to meet each other in person. Each typically operated within their own sphere of influence, and years might pass between encounters. In order to facilitate effective combat cooperation, they needed to become familiar with each member's unique Devil Fruit abilities and fighting styles—this was also the primary purpose behind the Five Elders summoning them all to one location.
The task of presiding over this potentially volatile Seven Warlords meeting had been assigned to Vice Admiral Tsuru, Chief of the Marine General Staff. This excellent female officer who had served for many decades possessed the diplomatic skills and personal authority necessary to control such a difficult situation. If this responsibility had been given to someone with a notoriously bad temper—someone like Sakazuki, for instance—the Admiral might have violently overturned the conference table without saying a single word.
For dealing with certain powerful pirate forces, the World Government had adopted a strategy of pulling one group close while fighting another—divide and conquer through selective alliance. Thus, the deliberately deformed system of the Seven Warlords had come into existence. This represented a fundamental compromise by the World Government, a tacit admission that they lacked sufficient strength to directly control the entire ocean through force alone. The root cause was brutally simple: the Marines were not violent or numerous enough to enforce absolute order everywhere simultaneously.
Before the official meeting commenced, Shichibukai members who were familiar with each other naturally gravitated together. Jinbe and Boa Hancock sat near one another, for instance. After all, the Pirate Empress remained indebted to the Sun Pirates for their role in her liberation from slavery years ago. Additionally, Jinbe as a fish-man represented a relatively benign presence among the Seven Warlords—someone whose moral compass hadn't been completely destroyed by ambition or cruelty. He might not get along particularly well with the various human pirates and criminals in the room, but a woman could still hold civil conversation with a fish-man warrior.
The Empress went straight to the heart of matters without wasting time on pleasantries. "Jinbe, your Fish-Man Island has been featured so prominently on the Sky Screen. Things must have been quite unsettled there recently."
The woman's characteristically frank words struck directly at the fish-man's current source of stress. Jinbe was genuinely exhausted by the constant problems plaguing Fish-Man Island these past weeks. There were far too many urgent matters keeping him perpetually busy, and the overall situation seemed to worsen with each passing day.
The Sea God's Treasury. The legendary sword Tenseiga that could resurrect the dead. Bikini Bottom and the Sea Eye. All of these miraculous locations and artifacts had been exposed one by one through the Sky Screen's broadcasts, which naturally attracted tremendous attention from outsiders across the world. Pirates who dreamed of striking it rich and achieving instant wealth were especially eager to reach Fish-Man Island by any means necessary. The number of small and medium-sized pirate crews departing from the Sabaody Archipelago and descending into the ocean depths was exponentially greater than during any previous year in recorded history.
The coating process for pirate ships traveling from the surface down to Fish-Man Island and then onward to the second half of the Grand Line was deliberately facilitated—almost encouraged—by both the World Government and the Marines. This was because the dangerous ten-thousand-meter journey through crushing ocean depths carried nearly a fifty percent probability of catastrophic ship destruction and crew death. The pirate groups that successfully broke through to the second half of the Grand Line were either exceptionally strong or extraordinarily lucky—a natural selection process that weeded out the weakest crews. Unfortunately, the only party that truly suffered from this constant influx was Fish-Man Island itself, forced to accommodate and police countless desperate pirates.
With the dramatic increase in pirate numbers visiting Fish-Man Island, the guard forces of the undersea kingdom were stretched dangerously thin. The voices calling for the complete expulsion of all humans from Fish-Man District grew louder and more aggressive with each passing day. However, the situation was complicated—many visitors came specifically seeking the legendary treasures and would hire fish-men to search for the location of the Sea God's Treasury deep in the ocean. This brought currency and trade, even as it brought danger.
The Sea Forest had transformed from a sacred memorial site into a dangerous tourist attraction. It had become an essential check-in location for pirates who all wanted to see what the mysterious Bikini Bottom looked like with their own eyes. More troublingly, they wanted to locate and capture special fish-men like SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward—the artificial fish-men created by Caesar Clown that the Sky Screen had featured. These pirates harbored ulterior motives, intending to capture such unique specimens and sell them as exotic slaves to the highest bidder.
The Mermaid Kingdom had first dispatched search parties into the sea area near the Revolutionary Army's headquarters location, desperately looking for any trace of the young merman Marlin. Without this particular heir of The Sea God, the Sea God's Treasury could not be opened—the enchantments required someone carrying the bloodline.
Kingdom officials hoped that Marlin would take out the legendary Golden Trident and open the Sea God's Treasury for the sake of racial solidarity. Then they could retrieve Tenseiga and use its resurrection powers to bring back their most beloved Queen Otohime. The kingdom had lost too much when that visionary mermaid died. Perhaps only the resurrection of Shirahoshi's mother could establish contact with the entities dwelling in Bikini Bottom deep within the Sea Forest and provide meaningful help and protection to the vulnerable mermaid kingdom.
"Hancock, if the Five Elders hadn't directly forced me to come here, I wouldn't dare leave Fish-Man Island for even a moment." Jinbe's face showed obvious distress as he spoke. "There have been far too many pirates landing on the island recently. The situation is deteriorating rapidly."
The fish-man warrior had managed to catch some quality sleep aboard the Marine ship during his journey to Mariejois—the first proper rest he'd gotten since the Sky Screen's broadcasts ended. He hadn't slept a full night in weeks, constantly dealing with the endless troubles besieging the Mermaid Kingdom. King Neptune was proving frustratingly unreliable in this crisis. Jinbe could only hope that Queen Otohime would be successfully resurrected soon, which might lighten his overwhelming burden considerably.
Crocodile had rushed here directly from the Kingdom of Arabasta, though he had not encountered the Straw Hat Pirates during his brief return to his territory. If Monkey D. Luffy had been caught by Crocodile during this window, the Shichibukai would never have given the boy any opportunity to grow stronger. The rubber pirate's outstanding performance five years in the future—his shocking strength and accomplishments—left Crocodile feeling genuine lingering fear about what that child might become.
The Logia user's eyes drifted toward Doflamingo's position across the conference room. The two of them maintained a cooperative business relationship within the underground dark economy. Baroque Works had completed considerable dirty work on Doflamingo's behalf over the years, serving as occasional subcontractors for tasks too risky or distasteful even for the Heavenly Demon's own organization.
However, Crocodile felt distinctly strange about the other man's behavior today. The usually gregarious Doflamingo remained completely silent—no characteristic laugh, no sarcastic commentary, no manipulation attempts. This was utterly inconsistent with the flamboyant character of this notorious big villain.
Could it be related to the ancestor of the Celestial Dragons? Crocodile immediately identified the most likely explanation. This former Celestial Dragon had arrived at Mariejois considerably earlier than the other Shichibukai. Perhaps the Five Elders had privately told him something deeply disturbing—information that had actually managed to intimidate even the usually fearless Doflamingo.
Moreover, this particular man had not been optimistic about the proposed encirclement and suppression of Kaido from the very beginning of discussions. Crocodile privately believed that anyone with half a brain would simply go through the motions on the battlefield without putting in genuine effort—prioritizing personal survival above all else. The salary and considerations offered by the World Government were definitely not worth risking one's life against an Emperor.
However, the assembled Seven Warlords had not expected that this supposedly crucial combat planning meeting would prove far less smooth than anyone had imagined. Even with the diplomatic presence of Vice Admiral Tsuru—a woman who perfectly balanced strength with gentle persuasion—the group remained completely unable to reach any meaningful consensus. Personal interests and mutual suspicions poisoned every discussion.
Apart from quarreling endlessly every single day, the Seven Warlords and their Marine liaisons had accomplished essentially nothing of substantive value. Even the basic combat plans had been proposed, debated, rejected, and revised again and again in an endless cycle. The fundamental reason for this complete dysfunction was directly related to Buggy the Clown and what the Sky Screen had revealed about the future.
After all, the broadcasts had clearly shown that the New Marines would abolish the entire Seven Warlords system five years from now. The organization would dispatch Admirals to systematically hunt down and conquer the former Shichibukai one by one. In the end, the World Government and Marines wouldn't gain any significant advantage from these confrontations—instead, they would force these highly capable individuals to join the Buggy Pirates out of sheer self-preservation. The seeds of profound mutual distrust had been deliberately planted by the Sky Screen's revelations, resulting in each Shichibukai harboring private thoughts and personal agendas. Not a single one genuinely wanted to risk their life fighting Kaido on behalf of an organization that would eventually betray them.
The plan conceived by the Five Elders had been elegant and comprehensive on paper. But unexpectedly, everything had gone catastrophically wrong at the very first step. The Seven Warlords meeting dragged on interminably, wasting time bit by bit. In what felt like merely a blink, the thirty-day countdown was nearly expired.
The third character evaluation was about to commence. At this critical juncture, discussion about this mysterious individual's identity had been brought to the conference table by various Shichibukai members. Everyone present generally agreed that this person was highly likely to be directly related to Kaido—or perhaps the person being reviewed was Kaido himself?
Several elements from the preview trailer could plausibly match the Emperor. For instance, the subject was confirmed to be a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit user—exactly like Kaido's Azure Dragon form. The background image had depicted scenery that resembled Wano Country, the isolated nation under Kaido's brutal rule. These coincidences were too significant to ignore, making it extraordinarily difficult not to associate the upcoming review with the Beast King.
After extended debate and eventual unanimous agreement among all Seven Warlords present, they collectively chose to postpone their operation. They would watch the Sky Screen's new broadcast first, then adjust their battle plan against Kaido based on whatever new intelligence was revealed. With any luck, the Sky Screen might expose additional inside information about their target—weaknesses, personality flaws, or strategic vulnerabilities that could be exploited.
Vice Admiral Tsuru reluctantly accepted this decision. As frustrating as the delay might be, she couldn't force the Shichibukai to commit suicide by attacking blindly. They would wait for the Sky Screen to speak once more.