One day later.
Marineford, Marine Headquarters.
The largest conference room in the Marine Headquarters building was packed wall to wall with people.
After receiving the relevant intelligence yesterday, all headquarters officers of rear admiral rank and above were ordered to attend this meeting.
It was also the first time since the Pirate King, Roger, ushered in the Great Age of Pirates that headquarters had been this fully staffed.
Clearly visible at the very center were the three big shots: Admiral Sengoku the Buddha, Black Arm Zephyr, and the Hero of the Marines, Garp the Fist.
To their left sat the three monsters of the Navy's new era: Akainu, wielder of the Magu Magu no Mi, Kizaru, wielder of the Pika Pika no Mi, and Aokiji, wielder of the Hie Hie no Mi.
To their right were Vice Admiral Tsuru and Vice Admiral Tokikake, with Yamakaji seated in the middle.
Behind them stood all Marine Headquarters officers of rear admiral rank and above.
The last row was occupied by a line of giants.
It could be said that, at this moment, what was gathered in this conference room represented the highest level of combat power in the entire Navy.
However, no one looked particularly well. Even Garp, who was usually all laughs and smiles, was barely speaking at a time like this.
Just half a month ago, Marine Headquarters had received an order from the World Government.
The Navy was to withdraw its forces from the New World, leaving only branch units such as G1 and G5 behind, while all others were to return to the first half of the Grand Line and the Four Seas to maintain order there.
Although this was indeed a wise move from many perspectives, to a certain extent, it also represented a defeat for the Navy.
The Navy, which stood as the embodiment of justice, had actually been beaten back by the evil pirates of the New World.
No matter how one looked at it, this was a tremendous blow to naval morale.
That was also the reason why so many personnel could be assembled at Marine Headquarters today. Under normal circumstances, they would have been out in the New World fighting pirates.
Just as everyone sat there wearing gloomy expressions, the doors to the conference room were pushed open.
Fleet Admiral Kong walked in step by heavy step.
Seeing that everyone seemed ready to salute him, Kong immediately waved his hand and said,
"Don't waste time. Let's begin at once!"
Then he took his seat off to one side, in the place in the conference room reserved solely for him.
At the sight of this, many people were confused, because the overwhelming majority still had no idea what the purpose of this meeting was.
However, judging from Fleet Admiral Kong's expression, it was obviously not good news.
At that moment, a Marine rear admiral wearing a striped shirt and a mohawk stepped onto the stage. As the visual Den Den Mushi was activated, a photograph appeared on the huge screen. It showed a single pirate ship facing off against more than fifty pirate ships on the sea, instantly drawing everyone's attention.
That rear admiral then took out a document and began to read it word for word.
"As you can see, this footage was obtained yesterday by our intelligence personnel in the waters near Totto Land, where Big Mom is based. The two sides fighting in this footage are the Sky Pirates, whom our Marines have been pursuing, and two criminals from the Dark World: Umit and Feld."
"The Sky Pirates have a total bounty of 2,724,000,000 Belly.
Among them, Sky Pirates Captain Yemu, a user of the Mera Mera no Mi, has a bounty of 940,000,000 Belly.
Vice Captain Enel, a user of the Goro Goro no Mi, has a bounty of 800,000,000 Belly.
..."
As the numbers were revealed one after another, the Marine officers present all frowned deeply. The Marine in the striped shirt continued his explanation.
"The reason Headquarters has placed such enormous bounties on them is because everything they have done has been utterly heinous. They have repeatedly provoked both the Marines and the World Government.
Seven months ago, shortly after the Sky Pirates first appeared, they killed the Celestial Dragon Saint Mjosgard-sama.
During the public execution of the Pirate King Roger, the Sky Pirates caused massive chaos and ruined Headquarters' plan to round up pirates.
A month later, they destroyed the Drum Kingdom, one of the World Government's member nations.
At Water 7, they stirred up large scale unrest, looted the seven major shipyards, and damaged the city itself.
At the Sabaody Archipelago, they kidnapped World Nobles and created a major incident that shook the world.
On Fish-Man Island, they went so far as to carry out private executions and slaughter nearly a hundred people."
As those words fell, most of the Marines present sucked in a sharp breath.
Many of them had long heard of the Sky Pirates, but because the World Government had suppressed news about them, very few knew exactly what they had done. Now that they were hearing it all at once, any one of those incidents alone could be called unforgivable. Yet the Sky Pirates had done all of them.
Still, some people frowned.
Kuzan was one of them.
Ever since meeting them in Loguetown, he had kept close watch on the Sky Pirates because of a special agreement, so he knew some of the truth.
As a Vice Admiral at Marine Headquarters, how could Kuzan not know what sort of scum the Celestial Dragons were?
In the destruction of the Drum Kingdom, the Sky Pirates had only killed a prince who had committed every kind of atrocity.
As for kidnapping World Nobles, the crimes committed by that group of nobles were no less than those of the Sky Pirates, and in many ways even worse.
Even so, aside from that host, the Sky Pirates had not killed a single person.
There was also the chaos in Loguetown and the battle at the Sabaody Archipelago. The Marines had suffered some losses, yes, but in terms of scale, the Sky Pirates had shown remarkable restraint.
And at Water 7, how could the Marines possibly be ignorant of the filthy background behind those seven shipyards?
As for Fish-Man Island, the people who died were all slave traders and pirates who had gotten exactly what they deserved. Even Kuzan could not criticize the fairness and strictness of the trial and execution process.
But now...
Looking at this account that was practically turning right into wrong, Kuzan felt lost for a moment.
Meanwhile, the briefing on stage continued.
"As for their enemies, Umit and Feld, they are known as the Emperors of the Dark World. It appears they had a conflict with the Sky Pirates, so they issued bounties in the New World for the lives of every member of the crew. Of the fifty pirate ships that answered the call, every pirate aboard had a bounty of more than 100,000,000 Belly. In total, eighteen pirate crews were involved."
"Among them..."
"In short, this was a battle between pirates worth 2.7 billion Belly and a pirate fleet worth nearly 5 billion Belly..."
That left the Marines in the room visibly shaken.
A bounty on that scale was already enough to rival the monster class pirate fleets of the New World.
In fact, many of them immediately thought of one name: Shiki.
Back then, the size of the great fleet under his command had been around this level as well.
"And now, I'm about to explain why Fleet Admiral Kong was so eager to convene this meeting."
The Marine Rear Admiral pressed the Den Den Mushi, and a photograph appeared. The moment it did, everyone was struck dumb.
In the darkened sky hung a gigantic black sphere of thundercloud, with lightning flashing wildly inside it.
The photograph did not convey its full scale directly, but the ships on the sea below looked as tiny as ants, and that alone was enough to show just how terrifying the thunderball was.
Then the Rear Admiral spoke again, and what he said filled everyone with even greater fear.
"Five minutes. According to our intelligence officers' estimates, from the moment this attack was launched to the instant the pirate fleet of fifty ships was completely destroyed, only five minutes passed..."
In an instant, every face in the room turned grim.
"And according to our analysis afterward, if this attack were to fall on Marineford, it could easily erase Marineford from the map..."