Loguetown, it was Loguetown again.
Beelzebul, whom he had been longing for, appeared in Loguetown once more. However, in Rukia Ichijou's heart, not a single thought of arresting him could arise; he didn't even have the courage to walk up to the man.
In two years, the roles of hunter and prey had long since reversed.
The current Beelzebul was a great pirate with a bounty of three billion, an Emperor of the Sea who had charged through a Marine Buster Call fleet, and the Captain of the Morning Star Pirates.
He was no longer that former little chef of the Roger Pirates whom Rukia Ichijou thought he held the advantage over.
Just the vice-captain under his command, Mihawk—not to mention Rukia Ichijou himself—even if all the agents of CP9 were added together, they wouldn't be enough for Mihawk to cut down.
Yet the grudge of the CP9 team, including the ten members and their leader, could not go unavenged.
Loguetown, Roger Bar.
The bar owner, Raul, had specifically changed into new clothes and shouted to Rukia Ichijou, who was drinking his sorrows away at the bar.
"Lu Bian, come on, hurry to the pier to see the excitement. I heard the east blue emperor is back. This is the pride of our East Blue."
"Stop thinking about revenge."
"When Roger was seventeen, he wasn't even as fierce as Beelzebul is now."
In Raul's view, Beelzebul's future achievements would definitely far surpass those of Pirate King Roger. He was even prepared to rename the bar, provided he could live until the day Beelzebul claimed the throne.
Beelzebul Bar?
Seven Bar?
king of the world Bar?
These three all seem quite good.
Rukia Ichijou did not refuse; like a walking corpse, he was dragged to the Loguetown pier by Raul.
When the two arrived at the port, a dense crowd was gathered at the pier, pointing and whispering at the east blue emperor with its blazing red sails.
"My God, such a huge ship."
"This is our East Blue's east blue emperor."
"Whoever says our East Blue is the Weakest Sea again, I'll definitely spit in his face."
Normally, the public is filled with fear and loathing toward pirates, and they would subconsciously stay far away upon encountering a pirate crew.
But if there was a pirate crew that, since setting sail, only fought the World Government and never laid a hand on civilians, and even named their pirate ship after the East Blue...
Most importantly, they had made a name for themselves on the sea, becoming the second Emperor of the Sea to reign over the ocean.
Combining all of the above...
Barzeb Seven and the east blue emperor were clearly the pride of the East Blue.
As the outpost for entering the Grand Line from the East Blue and the place where Pirate King Roger was executed, Loguetown already had an enormous flow of people.
At this moment, the pier was packed with onlookers wanting to catch a glimpse of their young fellow countryman's style.
The crowd even contained many rookie pirates wanting to join the Morning Star Pirates, as well as Marine and Government agents monitoring the Morning Star Pirates' movements.
On the east blue emperor.
Fujitora Issho said with a chuckle, "Captain, the people of your hometown are waiting to witness your grace."
"Yeah, Captain." Ginny joined in the fun, never one to shy away from excitement. "I didn't expect you to be so popular in the East Blue."
Seven was full of helplessness; this wasn't being popular at all, it was clearly just the onlookers joining the fray.
"Mihawk, you stay behind. The rest of us will go down together to purchase supplies."
Seven knew that Mihawk didn't like trouble, which was why he decided to let Mihawk stay on the ship. Fujitora was different.
Fujitora liked to blend in with the people.
Little Robin and Ginny liked shopping even more.
"Alright." Mihawk nodded slightly.
To clear the way quickly, Seven had to summon thunder above Loguetown. Dense purple lightning resounded through the sky, scaring the onlookers into turning and fleeing.
"Run!"
"There's a killing!"
"The pirates are here!!!"
The once-dense crowd was left with only a few scattered individuals after a moment, shouting toward Seven and his group as they disembarked.
"Captain Beelzebul, please take us in."
Hearing the request, Seven very seriously sized up the group of riffraff before him, trying to find even one familiar face among them.
However, he had no impression of any of them.
In other words, they were all just small fries.
Seven didn't even bother to use Conqueror's Haki; just the purple lightning swirling around him was enough to scare this group of rookie pirates into collapsing onto the ground.
Not everyone was like Kuma and Ginny, qualified to have Seven show his gentle side.
He was a pirate, after all.
A great pirate who killed without blinking!
Seeing this, Rukia Ichijou silently lowered his head, fearing he would be noticed by Beelzebul. Instead, Raul, the owner of Roger Bar, plucked up the courage to run forward, holding out a business card.
"Pirate King Roger... drank at my bar. Roger Bar... everyone who has drunk there... says it's good."
Seven took the business card and put it in his pocket.
"Thank you."
Watching Beelzebul and his group disappear from sight, Raul grinned and chuckled.
"This person is surprisingly polite; he truly is a crew member from Roger's ship."
When you look at someone through a filter, no matter what that person was originally like, you always end up adding your own emotions into it.
Raul was the perfect example.
The news of Barzeb Seven's arrival in Loguetown spread quickly by word of mouth and was soon reported to Marineford via the Loguetown Marine Branch.
Marineford, Fleet Admiral's Office.
"Fine, I understand. Try not to have any conflicts with the Morning Star Pirates."
Sengoku suddenly realized that being the Fleet Admiral was truly frustrating. Even though he received news of the Morning Star Pirates' movements, he had to order the branch not to clash with them.
It wasn't that the Marines were compromising with pirates.
It was that for the Marines of the four seas' branches, going up against them was purely a suicidal act and served no purpose.
Beelzebul wouldn't even need to lift a finger; that blind swordsman, Fujitora, could easily wipe out a Marine branch by casually summoning two meteors.
How annoying. Why isn't such a powerful Great Swordsman a Marine?
Marine Hunter Mihawk aside, for someone as powerful as Fujitora Issho—who is said to be quite righteous—to be overlooked by the Marines...
It was truly a blunder.
Sengoku looked at another den den mushi on his desk.
"Garp, is that Beelzebul fellow really as strong as you say?"
Garp, who was clearing out pirates in the South Blue, pulled open his shirt to reveal his bandaged upper body and took a photo with the den den mushi to fax over.
"There, that brat left this."
Staring at the bandages in the photo, which were still stained with blood, Sengoku's eyes flickered as he made a decision.
"You're right. The Marines currently have a serious gap in talent. It's been several years since we've had any junior Marines like Sakazuki and the others were in their youth."
"We must increase recruitment efforts. The Marineford Training Camp managed by Zephyr also needs continued investment."
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Garp seemed not to have heard a word Sengoku said, preoccupied with throwing cannonballs at a pirate ship.
Years ago, at God Valley, Garp had witnessed the sins of the Celestial Dragons' hunting competition and learned that above the Gorosei, there was a true king of the world.
From that day on...
Garp stayed in the Marines for only two purposes: one was to protect the Marines, and the other was to personally arrest Roger.
Now that the grass on Roger's grave was two feet high, Garp had set his sights on arresting Beelzebul. However, with that kid's speed, unless he brought Borsalino along, he wouldn't be able to catch him at all.
But then another problem arose.
Given the Morning Star Pirates' current lineup, they would need to bring Kuzan as well to ensure a steady victory.
And the World Government and Sengoku would certainly not agree to the Marines deploying so many high-end combat forces just to target a pirate crew that didn't even have a base.
"There's no way to get a handle on this kid."
"Fortunately, I've made preparations in advance. I hope you'll like the surprise I've prepared for you, brat."