At the same time…
Just as every viewer in the world of the Shinigami was completely immersed in the reveal of this Pirate World—and in the excitement of the secrets about it that were about to be shown—
Over on the cross-dimensional side, the Pirate World was changing in sync.
A day that should have been peaceful was suddenly shattered!!!
At that moment—
In the Pirate World.
Not far from the Sabaody Archipelago, the Straw Hat Pirates' Thousand Sunny was cutting through the sea as it sailed onward.
Up in the sky, as the golden sunlight spread across the deck, the warmth unique to summer filled every corner.
"Luffy…"
"We're almost at our destination!"
"Up ahead is the Sabaody Archipelago—the bustling place from the rumors, and also the midpoint of the Grand Line!"
At the bow stood a young woman with short orange hair, a sweet face, and a striking figure—Nami.
As the Straw Hat Pirates' navigator, she was responsible for guiding the ship and keeping their course true.
Beside her—
After hearing Nami's words, Luffy, the captain, immediately lit up under his straw hat. The boyish face broke into a wide grin.
"Hah!!!"
"Nami… awesome!!!"
"Once we get there, we just have to find a professional coating workshop and get the Thousand Sunny coated!"
"Then we can dive under the sea, reach Fish-Man Island, and from there set out for the New World!!!"
Anticipation.
A spark of longing.
Luffy clenched his fist, looking like he could hardly wait.
After all—
He was the man who was going to become the Pirate King!
And for the long voyage ahead—one filled with the unknown—this Sabaody Archipelago was nothing more than a starting point.
Only by passing through here…
Only by reaching the New World…
Would their journey along the Grand Line truly enter hard mode!
That place was packed with monsters!
Powerful pirate crews were so numerous you couldn't even count them all!
And presiding over the New World were the veteran Yonko—Whitebeard, Kaido, Big Mom, Red-Hair, and the rest…
For all of that—
Luffy, with his abundant spirit of adventure and his bold, carefree personality, was naturally fired up for the challenge!
And behind him—
Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, and Chopper were also staring with wide, excited eyes toward the distant edge of the sea.
They were even hoping the ship would pick up speed—
That they could reach the Sabaody Archipelago as soon as possible, relax properly, and soak in an environment said to feel like a paradise!!!
But…
Just as the atmosphere was peaceful…
Just as everything seemed to be moving along in perfect order…
An unexpected upheaval suddenly arrived!!!
"BOOOOM—!!!"
The air roared.
The clouds trembled.
With no warning at all, the sky above this stretch of sea—clear just a moment ago—instantly turned into a mass of thick cloud cover.
And then—
Before Luffy and the others could even react to what was happening—
High in midair, those heavy clouds rapidly parted to both sides.
And then—
A gigantic, transparent screen, faintly glowing, appeared out of nowhere!!!
In the next second,
It descended vertically at great speed, then slowed—hovering there in midair, eerie and unnatural!
And the same thing—
Was not happening only here.
At that very moment, in every corner of the Pirate World, across the Grand Line, countless transparent screens were descending.
Panic spread in waves.
People in the Pirate World—Marines, pirates, Revolutionary Army members, even guards attached to the Celestial Dragons…
Almost every notable powerhouse with a name—
All lifted their heads at once.
Their gazes locked on the sky, full of shock and vigilance, staring at the transparent screen!
And the entire Pirate World—
Was instantly thrown into chaos, swept up in a massive storm of rumors and uproar!!!
"What is that?"
On the Thousand Sunny—
Luffy froze.
Zoro's eyes widened.
And Sanji's cigarette slipped from his mouth in sheer surprise, falling to the deck.
As for Usopp and Chopper—
Driven by instinctive fear of the unknown, they clung to each other, huddling together in a trembling ball.
A fearful atmosphere spread across the deck in an instant.
And the Straw Hat Pirates' voyage ground to a halt!!!
"This thing… I've never seen anything like it," Zoro said, his expression turning grave.
Even as he spoke,
His hand had already moved to his waist, gripping a sword hilt.
He set himself into a stance to draw—
Ready to respond to any danger at any moment!
"Could this be a Marine and World Government scheme?" Sanji guessed. "In this whole world, they're the only ones with the ability to pull something like this off!"
Everyone knew—
On the Marine side, there was a scientific research division led by Dr. Vegapunk.
In recent years, plenty of terrifying black-tech inventions had been born from his hands.
So the moment that thought surfaced,
Sanji instinctively decided that this enormous transparent screen in the sky had to be the World Government's doing.
But…
What was the purpose?
And was the same thing happening elsewhere on the Grand Line?
Questions piled up one after another.
An uneasy mood quietly blanketed the entire pirate ship.
However,
As the very people Luffy's crew suspected—
At that moment, at Marine Headquarters in Marineford, inside the Marine administrative building located at the center of the island—
Today was the monthly routine meeting.
By regulation, the Marine high command would gather under Sengoku's leadership for an internal conference.
But no one expected—
The meeting had only reached its midpoint—
When, inside the room, a transparent screen suddenly appeared out of thin air!
With absolutely no warning,
It stood upright on the conference table as if shoved right into their faces.
The entire Marine high command jumped in alarm!
"???"
"What… is going on?"
"What is this transparent screen?"
"Is it some new research project from Vegapunk's side? Or did something go wrong?!"
"That shouldn't be possible… nothing like this has ever happened before!"
"What in the world is going on?!!!"
Sengoku furrowed his brow.
Garp looked curious.
Vice Admiral Tsuru seemed lost in thought.
As for the two sides of the conference table—
The three Admirals—Akainu, Kizaru, and Aokiji—along with Onigumo, Strawberry, Momonga, and many other elite Vice Admirals from HQ…
Every one of them—
Their faces tense beneath their caps, their features drawn tight—
Exchanged looks with each other, then, as if by unspoken agreement, activated Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki).
One after another, in perfect synch—
They probed the transparent screen!
"Oooh…" Kizaru drawled, deliberately stretching his words with his odd, lazy cadence, even tossing out his usual catchphrase. "A mysterious technological object of unknown origin… how scary…"
He couldn't see through it at all.
All he felt was that it was unfathomable.
And even with powerful Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki), he couldn't sense anything inside it!
Beside him—
Akainu didn't have the temperament to play it off.
After probing for a full minute, Akainu frowned and proposed, "Whatever the cause! Whether it's a new invention, or even a mistake by Vegapunk—"
"To let a thing like this appear in our meeting room without permission, interrupting all of us…"
"Is disrespect and provocation, plain and simple!!!"
After speaking,
Akainu snorted coldly.
Before anyone else could respond—
In the next instant, with a thought, his Magu Magu no Mi (Magma-Magma Fruit) power activated.
"BOOOOM—!!!"
His arm became wreathed in scorching, crimson magma, molten rock flowing along the thick curve of his limb.
The terrifying heat it radiated—
Instantly drove the room's atmosphere past its boiling point into something stifling and unbearable.
"Wait…"
"Sakazuki, what are you planning?!" Vice Admiral Tsuru's expression changed as she saw it, a bad premonition rising at once.
But before she could order him to stop—
Akainu's magma fist, right before everyone's eyes, slammed upward in a violent punch!
It struck the transparent screen head-on—
With a heavy, brutal impact!!!
And yet—
Something even stranger happened.
"?!"
"What the hell? It went through?!"
"T-That can't be! Akainu's magma fist—New World monsters don't even dare take that head-on!"
"And it can't even damage a screen like this?!"
"This is way too weird!!!"
The gigantic transparent screen remained perfectly intact.
It was immune to the magma attack entirely.
The Marine high command's faces changed again.
This time, everyone finally realized—
This was not something simple.
This transparent screen…
Was not some ordinary new-tech product they were used to thinking about.
Instead—
It was something that had never appeared before.
Something that contained a different kind of power within it, or operated under special rules!
That was terrifying.
With no reason at all, where had this screen come from?
And… would it really—
Like a curtain—
Begin playing images and scenes across its surface?
"How about…"
"Let me try too?" Kizaru's expression tightened. The sleaze vanished, replaced by a seriousness he rarely showed.
"I'll go as well," Aokiji said, no longer lazy.
As he spoke, the power of the Hie Hie no Mi (Ice-Ice Fruit) was already activating.
"Do it!!!"
Then—
With Sengoku's tacit approval—
Kizaru and Aokiji attacked together, striking from different directions and angles, unleashing their full force at the transparent screen!
But—
The result was the same.
Laser beams and spears of ice—
Still couldn't leave even the slightest damage on the transparent screen.
When that outcome became clear,
The atmosphere instantly plunged beneath freezing.
A sense of dread settled over the hearts of the Marine high command as well!!!
"No way…"
"All three Admirals attacking together—Whitebeard couldn't withstand that!"
"And this transparent screen takes it without even a ripple?"
An uproar broke out.
The Vice Admirals around them were shaken to the core.
When they looked at the transparent screen again, it felt like their eyes were about to pop out of their sockets!!
And at the head seat—
Sengoku, the famed strategist, knitted his brow so hard it looked like it might drip water.
Clearly—
After witnessing all of that with his own eyes—
Sengoku finally understood just how serious this was.
This transparent screen in front of them…
Was definitely not the Marine Science Unit's latest masterpiece.
Even Vegapunk—whose intellect and thinking surpassed everyone else by a century—
With his methods—
Would still be utterly incapable of creating such a miraculous screen out of nothing!!!
"Damn it…"
"What exactly is going on…"
"Could it be… the Celestial Dragons' side? Or even…"
At that point—
Sengoku's face fell.
Without meaning to, a name surfaced in his mind—
Imu.
Yes.
As Fleet Admiral of the Marines—
Back around forty years ago, when the God Valley incident happened, Sengoku had been one of the insiders on the Marine side who knew parts of the truth.
After the incident,
Sengoku had heard from his longtime partner Garp what had occurred on that island.
And because of that, he learned—
The Five Elders were only tools.
They were merely the leaders the World Government showed on the surface!!
The one truly pulling the strings from the shadows—
The one said to possess immortality, black-transformation dominion, avatars that could descend, and other strange, eerie powers—
Imu…
Was the true master of the Celestial Dragons and the World Government!!!
"Did Imu really do this?"
"Is she the only one who could create something this special?"
Sengoku muttered under his breath, thinking darkly.
But what he didn't know was—
At that very moment, it wasn't only Marine Headquarters.
Even the Holy Land, Mariejois—
Was seeing large numbers of transparent screens descend as well!
In fact…
Even Imu—whom Sengoku had just named—
Inside Pangaea Castle, within the Chamber of Flowers—
A transparent screen had appeared out of nowhere too.
One hovered in midair.
And it alarmed Imu, making her react with almost exactly the same shock and wariness as Sengoku and the others—
Along with a fierce surge of killing intent!!!
"A screen…"
"It can't be attacked, can't be made to disappear, and appeared from nothing…"
"Even with my Haki, I can't sense it or probe it in any way…"
Inside the Flower Chamber.
A massive black shadow lifted its head toward the air.
A face that remained concealed—
But eyes that shone with a cold, icy gleam.
Clearly…
After that year, when Rocks had once forced his way in alone—
After many years had passed—
The Chamber of Flowers was being intruded upon by an outside force again!
And this time, it was this bizarre transparent screen.
It made Imu feel—
A long-forgotten sense of danger.
And her instincts told her the transparent screen would not be decoration.
What would soon be played upon it—
Would plunge the entire Pirate World into an unprecedented upheaval!
Even…
The existing order—
And what people believed they understood—
Would soon be completely rewritten!!!
(End of Chapter)
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