The coarse newsprint rustled softly between Rayleigh's fingers.
Eyes half-lidded, he watched sunlight filter through the paper as the bold, black headlines—every letter a heavy shell—slammed into his sight one after another.
[New World in Turmoil Again! "Beasts" Kaido and "BIG MOM" Charlotte Linlin Erupt into All-Out War; Aftershocks Obliterate "Thundercloud Island"!]
Beside it, a grainy yet arresting photo: a dragon and a demonic shadow twisting in the sky, the island below charred and cracking, the sea rising in unnatural tidal fury.
Rayleigh's thumb unconsciously brushed the paper's edge.
His gaze dropped.
[Whitebeard Pirates Survivors Reassemble! New Captain Stuns the World—Confirmed as the Pirate King's orphan raised by "Whitebeard," "Flame Emperor" Portgas D. Ace (birth name: Gol D. Ace)!]
Next to the headline, a sketch: Ace in his orange cowboy hat stands on Moby Dick's prow, back to the flames, profile resolute.
The resolve and weight he carried nearly bled through the page.
Rayleigh's fingers turning the paper paused, imperceptibly.
Page three, an even grimmer headline:
["Blackbeard's" Hunting Ground! Marshall D. Teach's Power Balloons, Devil Fruit Users the Target! Multiple Sources Allege: the Blackbeard Pirates Possess a Secret Method to "Steal" Devil Fruit Abilities?!]
The wording dripped fear and uncertainty, painting a sea where ability-users now dread every shadow.
"..."
Time itself seemed to slow as Rayleigh read.
He said nothing.
Only the eyes that had weathered sixty years of grand line storms—and stood beside legends—narrowed, slowly, behind their lenses or perhaps under the sun.
Each headline felt like a heavy puzzle piece flying together in his mind, assembling a picture far vaster and more violent than any printed page: a New World quaking at the seams.
Four Emperors clashing, an orphan hoisting a flag, schemers circling, the echo of an old era colliding with the roar of the new.
The gull had delivered more than news; it had brought a smoke-scented, blood-tinged declaration of war from the wildest stretch of ocean.
"Woo-hah—stretch!"
Luffy's rubbery neck shot out with a swoosh, his head cannon-balling over the paper, eyes bulging as if to swallow the headlines whole.
"Ooooh, they're fighting! Kaido and that chubby food-guzzling granny!"
He devoured the story, hooting in delight.
When his gaze hit the piece on Blackbeard, his rubbery grin faltered; brows lifted.
"Huh? Blackbeard?! Still kicking around…?"
The fact that Teach hadn't died surprised him for a second, then slipped from his mind.
If the Gorosei could have so-called "deathless" bodies, a former arc-boss keeping secrets was nothing.
Luffy quietly vowed that next time he'd be careful and finish Teach for good!!
Rayleigh had already skimmed the key points.
Hearing Luffy's yells, he shook his head, spread the paper, and tapped the report on Kaido and BIG MOM.
"Kaido and Linlin's clash…"
Rayleigh's voice was calm, weathered by decades of storms.
"Sounds apocalyptic—an island erased—but for those two monsters it's only… daily amusement, or a rather enthusiastic 'hello'."
He raised his eyes as though seeing past the page to the two titanic forces.
"For the [Four Emperors] atop the seas, overlapping turf and clashing interests mean periodic 'talks' with fists, wiping out any inconvenient island or power. It's simply their ecology."
"It's deterrence, and the savage balance they use to keep it."
He paused, fingertip unconsciously tracing the paper's faint dragon silhouette, voice dropping to a sharper assessment.
"If this were truly a no-holds-barred death match… knowing those two, Linlin's chances of survival would be very, very slim."
Rayleigh's gaze turned blade-sharp, as if replaying the world-breaking scene in his mind.
"Kaido's Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu, once awakened…"
He exhaled slowly, every word carrying the weight of lead.
"Its destructive power, regenerative ability, and absolute control over the battlefield have reached a level that borders on the absurd."
"In a straight-up, no-tricks duel, that guy… is practically the definition of 'invincible.'"
"Linlin's 'Iron Balloon' and Soru Soru no Mi are terrifying, but against a dragon that can summon natural disasters and is virtually immortal after awakening…"
He didn't finish the sentence; the implication was obvious.
Rayleigh's gaze moved away from the news about Kaido and Linlin, fingers sliding down until they stopped on those grim headlines concerning Teach, Blackbeard.
The leisure and analysis in his eyes faded, replaced by a deeper gravity.
"By comparison, the vortex that's more worth fearing—and far more dangerous—right now…"
Rayleigh's voice dropped, like an old sailor scenting an approaching storm,
"is this—Marshall D. Teach, 'Blackbeard.'"
He lifted his eyes, seeming to pierce through time and space at the shadowy figure who once hid beneath Whitebeard's vast wings.
"That man used to be a 'son' aboard Whitebeard's ship."
"He understands better than anyone the arteries, the weak points, and the true worth of the colossal legacy that is the Whitebeard Pirates."
Rayleigh spoke with methodical clarity, exposing the logic behind the ambition,
"Whitebeard's fall has left behind not just a name and mourning, but a vast vacuum of power and territory."
"—Teach could not fail to be tempted by it."
He paused, his tone carrying icy certainty:
"Devouring Whitebeard's legacy and absorbing part of his forces and prestige is the most direct—and most lucrative—stairway to the throne of 'Emperor' for the Blackbeard Pirates, with their eerie hunting abilities."
Following that logic, the conclusion loomed like a lighthouse in the night—clear, yet foreshadowing a savage clash:
"That will inevitably bring him into the most direct, fundamental conflict with the one who now carries Whitebeard's banner and vows to guard his father's legacy—Ace—and the remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates led by Ace."
Rayleigh deliberately let the words hang, as though leaving space for the heavy deduction to echo.
He exhaled a faintly liquor-scented breath, voice low, yet every word struck like a thousand pounds:
"The age of Whitebeard has ended. But the chain reaction triggered by his 'death' and his 'life' is far from over."
"The clash of old and new banners, of legitimacy versus betrayal… before long, the seas of the New World will witness a battle destined to shake the entire era—"
Rayleigh's gaze snapped toward Luffy; in those worldly eyes there was no question, only the gravity of stated fact and an unspoken implication.
He enunciated the words "war of reckoning" slowly and clearly, as though he could already hear the prelude to a conflict that would decide countless fates.
Under that almost prophetic stare, Luffy's reaction was surprisingly… calm.
He didn't leap up in excitement, nor did he look worried; he merely gave his habitual shrug, as casually as if discussing tomorrow's weather.
Then he grinned, flashing his trademark bright smile of absolute trust and pure self-confidence.
"Don't worry, Rayleigh!"
Luffy's voice rang out bright and cloudless, rubbery elasticity seeming to bounce every heavy premonition away,
"I believe in Ace!"
He gazed into the distance, as though he could pierce through the Calm Belt and the Red Line to see his brother sailing the New World.
"That guy's super strong! Way, way stronger than before!"
Luffy clenched his fists with a soft crack of knuckles,
"And he's got tons of awesome crewmates with him—just like I've got you guys!"
Turning his head, smile still dazzling, he crammed all of Rayleigh's grave analysis and worry into his simple creed of trusting his friends:
"So Ace can definitely handle that black fatty!!"
Rayleigh stared at that cloudless grin for a moment,
then, despite himself, the corners of his solemn mouth curved upward in a faint, almost imperceptible arc of resignation and quiet emotion.