After the Marineford War, the sea fell into a strange silence.
No one had truly won.
Xiao left untouched.
The Whitebeard Pirates withdrew.
And both the Navy and the Emperors were left to deal with the aftermath.
Inside Marine Headquarters, the damage was deeper than the ruined battlefield.
Monkey D. Garp's actions during the war caused a shockwave through the ranks. A hero who had once symbolized justice had openly opposed execution.
Resignations piled up.
Morale plummeted.
To stabilize the situation, Sengoku made a painful decision.
Garp was imprisoned.
Court-martial awaited.
Sengoku himself stepped down as Fleet Admiral and formally recommended Kuzan as his successor.
The removal of two towering figures barely stopped the bleeding.
But the controversy did not end.
Many Marines questioned Kuzan's performance at Marineford.
He had hesitated.
He had failed to kill Straw Hat.
Some even whispered that he was merely a puppet of Sengoku and Garp.
In contrast, Sakazuki had fought Edward Newgate head-on.
He had stood alone against the world's strongest man.
He had nearly turned the tide.
Even in defeat, he had been relentless.
Petitions circulated among the troops, urging Sakazuki to take the Fleet Admiral position.
But Sakazuki himself was no longer the same.
The revelation about Shanks shook him deeply.
A Celestial Dragon.
One of the Four Emperors.
A pirate ruling the seas.
For a man who believed justice stood against piracy, the contradiction was suffocating.
If nobles could become Emperors—
If pirates could be protected by bloodline—
Then what exactly was justice defending?
His conviction wavered.
And in a world where power is born from will, hesitation is fatal.
When Sakazuki and Kuzan clashed for the Fleet Admiral seat, the result came swiftly.
Kuzan won.
Not because Sakazuki was weaker.
But because his heart was unsettled.
After the duel, Sakazuki stood silently, as if already resigned.
Death would have been easier.
But Kuzan did not kill him.
He had sensed the confusion behind Sakazuki's fury.
"This isn't the end," Kuzan said quietly.
"The Admiral's seat will remain open for you."
Whether that promise would ever be fulfilled remained uncertain.
The Red-Haired Emperor's Crisis
Meanwhile, the New World was in chaos.
The moment Shanks' Celestial Dragon identity was exposed, rebellion ignited across his territory.
"Damn Celestial Dragon!"
"You're no different from the tyrants!"
"We would rather die than kneel!"
Former allies raised their flags.
Subordinate fleets defected.
Rival pirates attacked his borders.
In mere days, Shanks lost most of his territory.
War spread like wildfire.
The irony was cruel.
Shanks had lived as a pirate.
He had bled as a pirate.
He had built trust over decades.
But bloodline outweighed everything.
To those who had suffered under the Celestial Dragons, the distinction did not matter.
A noble was a noble.
And nobles were hated.
It was a story eerily similar to Donquixote Homing, who once abandoned Mary Geoise believing he could live as a normal man—only to be destroyed by the resentment of the masses.
Shanks now faced the same truth.
Hatred did not differentiate.
It only needed a target.
Inside his ship's cabin, Shanks sat quietly.
For once, the carefree smile was gone.
He had not chosen his birth.
He had chosen his life.
But the world refused to separate the two.
Outside, flames rose across his territories.
Inside, silence weighed heavy.
At least one thing remained unchanged.
The Red Hair Pirates did not waver.
No one left.
No one questioned him.
Even if the world turned its back—
His crew did not.
And for Shanks, that was enough to keep standing.
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