"No wonder they're so powerful. They used to be a Yonko crew. Weren't they wiped out by the Navy?"
"They're one of the Navy's top targets for elimination. How are they bold enough to show up this close to headquarters, and openly flying the Grey Kingdom's Jolly Roger at that? Aren't they afraid of another purge?" Hearing Lambo and Gard's words, the pirate captains around them began putting the pieces together one by one.
The World Government had been working tirelessly to scrub all records of the Dragon King and the Grey Kingdom from history, but time simply hadn't been on their side.
The Grey Kingdom had ruled the four seas for a long stretch of years. When these captains were still young, the Grey Kingdom had been the unchallenged sovereign of the seas, and more than a few of them had idolized it deeply. The memory had simply faded with time, buried under the years, until now.
"Look at that. What are they doing?" someone suddenly cried out, pointing toward the direction of the Heavenly Palace.
Every eye followed the gesture. There, atop the Heavenly Palace, the grandest structure in Sabaody, the great palace that had once housed the Celestial Dragons, a flag was rising. A flag unlike any other. The Jolly Roger of the Grey Kingdom.
Everyone knew what it meant when a pirate flag was hoisted over a place. It meant that place now belonged to them.
The moment the Grey Kingdom's flag unfurled high above the Heavenly Palace, the civilians of both Sabaody and the surrounding archipelago stood in stunned silence for a single breath, and then erupted. The roar of cheering tore through the sky. Voices crying out in joy, people screaming with raw, breathless excitement. They had been waiting for this day for far too long.
...
"Are they out of their minds? Is this a declaration of war against the World Government and the Navy?" a few pirates muttered under their breath.
The Heavenly Palace and Sabaody had always been under the joint authority of the World Government and the Navy. By planting their flag here, the Grey Kingdom had done exactly that, declared open war.
"Is our ship coated yet? Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter at all. We need to leave. Right now. This place is about to become a battlefield. Admiral Momonga or the Navy's executioners could be here any minute." One pirate captain was already barking orders as he backed toward his ship.
"Run. We can't stay here. What a bunch of lunatics. Do they really think they can stand against a Navy Admiral?"
"Move! A war is coming, a war between the absolute top tiers. If we get swept up in that, we're finished, all of us!"
One by one, pirate crews throughout the archipelago grasped the gravity of what was unfolding. Panic spread fast. Some hadn't even finished coating their hulls, but no one was willing to wait. Ships peeled away from their moorings and fled the archipelago in droves.
...
At that same moment, in the office of the Fleet Admiral at Marine Headquarters, a rear admiral burst through the door.
"Fleet Admiral, sir. Urgent report. The Navy garrison stationed at Sabaody has called in. The Grey Kingdom Pirates' flag has been raised over the Heavenly Palace in Sabaody. The garrison reports seeing the former Vice Captain of the Grey Kingdom, Charlotte Katakuri, known as the man who can see the future, accompanied by a large contingent of elite Oathblood Guards. The garrison is requesting authorization to mobilize forces for an assault."
The rear admiral, a man named Dark, had served at Marine Headquarters for years. He had witnessed the Grey Kingdom's power firsthand a decade ago, and the weight of that memory had never left him. He understood exactly how serious this was. If the Grey Kingdom was rising again, it would be an enormous threat to the Navy.
Over the past decade, the remnants of the Grey Kingdom had been subjected to relentless Navy pressure, keeping them buried deep in the New World with no room to breathe. Even when they did act, they moved in shadows, never once daring to fly their flag openly.
For them to appear here, this close to Marine Headquarters, and flaunt their colors without a trace of caution... there was clearly an intent behind it. A purpose. Possibly something far larger and more dangerous in the making.
That was why Dark had come straight here, wasting not a second, to report it directly to Fleet Admiral Sengoku.
What he hadn't expected was Sengoku's reaction. The Fleet Admiral listened to everything, and looked as if he had been waiting to hear it. His expression didn't shift. He simply lifted his cup and took a slow, measured sip of tea.
"So they've finally made their move." He set the cup down. "Order the Sabaody garrison to stand down. They are not to interfere with anything happening in Sabaody. Under no circumstances are they to engage the Grey Kingdom."
Rear Admiral Dark could only stare.
He wondered if he had somehow heard wrong. He opened his mouth, then closed it. Sengoku's tone carried an unmistakable gravity, and Dark wasn't sure whether to voice the confusion churning inside him. He stood frozen, at a complete loss.
"The World Government has decided to return Sabaody to the Grey Kingdom. The withdrawal of all World Government and Navy personnel from the city was completed over a month ago." Sengoku answered the unspoken question as if he had already anticipated it.
"But... but that..."
"There are no buts. The Navy cannot afford to provoke a man capable of destroying the World Government. The Dragon King, Rosinante, has returned. He has returned with the power to unmake the world itself." Sengoku's voice was heavy with the full weight of those words.
Dark felt the breath leave him. His eyes fell shut for a moment.
The Dragon King Rosinante. A name the Navy had long feared to speak aloud. And yet, even so, was that truly enough to make the World Government and the Navy cower like this? The Navy was far stronger now than it had been ten years ago. Far stronger. Could even the Dragon King truly pose a threat to what the Navy had become?
"A month ago... could it be..."
The realization hit him all at once.
A month ago. Sengoku had just mentioned it. And a month ago, something had happened. Something enormous. The World Government's underwater maximum-security prison, Impel Down, had been breached. Warden Magellan had been defeated, left gravely wounded. Several of the Navy's top combatants had scrambled to reinforce Marineford and the Red Line, and when they returned, every one of them had come back battered and broken. Admiral Akainu had been beaten unconscious and had been bedridden ever since.
Could all of that trace back to the Dragon King?
The outcome of that battle at the Red Line had been too staggering to allow any public acknowledgment. The World Government could hardly admit that Rosinante had the power to overturn everything they stood for. So they had buried it. Kept it sealed. The 150,000 land troops deployed that day had been virtually annihilated by Gura-Gura no Mi, and those who had somehow survived the initial devastation had perished in the chaos that followed. The only witnesses who remained were Sengoku and a select circle of the World Government's highest-ranking figures. Burying the truth had been relatively straightforward under those conditions.
Of course, it couldn't be hidden from the inner circles of the Navy, the senior ranks of the World Government, or the Celestial Dragons themselves. Because after everything was over, the Celestial Dragons had needed to cooperate in evacuating from Sabaody. Without a compelling reason given to them directly, those people would never have agreed to leave willingly.
"That's enough. Dismissed. Relay this to the Sabaody garrison: no one is to touch Rosinante or any member of the Oathblood. If they are presented with any demands from Rosinante or his people, those demands are to be met without question." Sengoku's voice remained iron. "And tell them this. Rosinante has been restored to Celestial Dragon status. The highest rank of it."
"Y... yes, sir..."
Rear Admiral Dark backed out of the Fleet Admiral's office on unsteady feet, the order burning in his ears, his mind still struggling to accept what he had just been told.