"Big Mom Pirates — Annihilated!"
"Era Shift? Pirate Rookies Topple the Big Mom Pirates!"
"A New Legend Is Born — Buggy Pirates, Red Hair Pirates, Donquixote Family Pirate Alliance!"
"Big Mom Captured — Marine New Stars Rise!"
"..."
Ren sat in Inazuma, flipping through the latest newspapers. The World Economy News Paper had been running at a fever pitch these past two days, printing every conceivable angle of the story.
One article proclaimed that Buggy and the others had ended an old legend and become a new one.
Another praised the meteoric rise of the Marines' three new Vice Admirals and their capture of Big Mom.
And the most outrageous one fabricated an entire soap opera between Doflamingo and Big Mom — the original bride and groom — boldly speculating that Buggy and the others had crashed the Tea Party to steal the bride.
It was beyond ridiculous. And yet, the readership could not get enough. Ren had just watched Saori, Saya, and Keiko huddled together, devouring every word with great relish.
Ren had no interest in such tabloid fare, and besides, he already knew the full story. The World Economy News Paper, for all its sensationalism, was at least broadly accurate in its serious reporting.
That bird-headed reporter — Morgans — had been present at the Tea Party himself. Buggy and the others had indeed defeated Big Mom, but their alliance ended there.
Those three captains had almost certainly parted ways by now, each striking out on their own.
The article that hyped the pirate alliance as a terrifying new force was thoroughly overblown — and the author had even dared to allude to the Rocks Pirates.
Morgans was as bold as ever. References to Rocks were essentially banned, given the Rocks Pirates' destructive legacy and the Marines' own dishonorable history at God Valley.
Though Morgans had not named them outright, he was probably already on the run.
The subsequent article praising the Marines' victory was likely a calculated compromise.
That piece focused on the three new Marine Vice Admirals — Kuzan, Sakazuki, and Borsalino — and their remarkable achievement in locking Big Mom away in Impel Down.
Before them, the only officers who had accomplished anything comparable were Fleet Admiral Kong, the current Admiral Sengoku, and the legendary hero Garp.
In truth, the three of them had simply picked up the pieces. Buggy and the others had already defeated Big Mom, but were completely spent. When Katakuri and Cracker arrived on the scene, Furaese and her team decided to withdraw.
The main fight was over, and they could not have faced both Katakuri and the Marines simultaneously.
Seeing the pirates retreat, Yukiko and the others broke off their engagement with Sakazuki as well — and so the three Marine Vice Admirals swept in to capture the unconscious Big Mom and a number of her subordinates.
Most of the Big Mom Pirates' senior officers escaped under Katakuri's cover, but the pursuit that followed would be relentless. Kicking a foe when they were down was a game many were eager to play.
With this achievement under their belts, the promotion of Kuzan, Sakazuki, and Borsalino to Admiral was all but guaranteed. Anyone who disagreed was welcome to try — if they could send the Shogun of Thunder or Whitebeard to Impel Down, they could have the rank too.
And so, the matter came to a close. The seas beyond Wano churned with turmoil and upheaval.
Yukiko and her staff had been working overtime, run ragged, with even Shutendouji returning to lend a hand. A-Tsuru's belly had begun to show this year — in a few months, Shutendouji would be a father.
The pirate tide, already surging across the Grand Line, now became a full-blown storm.
The rookie pirates who had only recently arrived in the New World were remarkably fortunate.
Two of the original Four Emperors had fallen before the new order even took shape, and of those who remained, Shanks had not yet consolidated his power. The Whitebeard Pirates, whatever their reputation, were far more tolerable than Big Mom and Kaido.
As long as nobody came looking for trouble, Ren had no interest in meddling with small fry. The vast stretch of ocean left vacant by Big Mom's collapse was perfect for the rookie pirates to fight over among themselves.
Casualties would be heavy, but it beat the old days, when upward mobility was virtually nonexistent.
Moria had been foolishly early — had he waited a few months, he might have arrived in time for this golden age. But he had brought it on himself, with that arrogant posturing of his.
By contrast, the very people who had unleashed this hurricane — Buggy, Shanks, and the rest — had slipped into an odd calm. They seemed to have vanished from the Grand Line entirely.
Many speculated that they were planning their next bold stroke, perhaps targeting Inazuma or the Whitebeard Pirates. In reality, they were recovering from their wounds — mostly Enel's.
The damage Enel had sustained was worse than anyone imagined. In the worst stroke of misfortune, when Mihawk's final slash knocked Big Mom unconscious, she had fallen directly on top of him.
That enormous mass — conservatively four or five tons — crushed down on a man already on the verge of death. It nearly flattened him.
Blood burst from his body like juice from a squeezed orange. Buggy had been so panicked that he turned the ship around, ready to head to Inazuma and ask Ren to turn Enel into an Oni.
It was only after Furaese spent hours transfusing blood from the ship's reserves that Enel was stabilized.
Buggy reluctantly dropped the idea, though becoming an Oni was not inherently a bad thing — a free Zoan-type Devil Fruit power with no side effects. But both Buggy and Enel were too proud to settle for an ordinary ability.
People often claimed that Devil Fruits had no inherent ranking in terms of strength, but the evidence said otherwise.
If all Awakenings were equal, could Rob Lucci have slammed Luffy — a man who could use advanced Conqueror's Coating — into a wall so hard he could not be pried free?
By now, Buggy and his group had separated from Shanks and the others. Doflamingo had departed first — the most ambitious of the bunch, he was surely already plotting to stake his claim in the territorial war.
Before leaving, Buggy's crew had stripped Whole Cake Island of its treasures, but the Totto Land region encompassed thirty-four islands, all under Big Mom's direct control and governed by her sons.
Beyond those lay other islands flying the Big Mom Pirates' flag — all of it wealth waiting to be claimed.
Wealth and power: these were things Doflamingo could never relinquish — especially the latter. Buggy and Shanks, by comparison, were far less concerned.
[
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