Under Tenma's meticulous "nurturing," coupled with the subtle influence of certain memory-based methods, Stussy's heart had long since tilted completely off balance.
Compared to that cold, rigid CP0 identity—and the so-called protection of the Celestial Dragons—her mind was now filled entirely with how to safeguard the interests of those around Tenma.
Especially that one time when she accidentally let something slip. She had thought she was as good as dead—yet Tenma actually magnanimously "forgave" her.
That emotional gambit struck home. Stussy, who had been brainwashed by the World Government since childhood, completely fell—body and soul alike—into Tenma's hands.
So now, when faced with the investigative missions assigned by the Five Elders, her guiding principle was simple: the more complicated the fabrication, the better.
As long as she could confuse those old men, send them running in circles, and give them headaches to ponder over, that was good enough.
And so the days passed, spring giving way to autumn. In the blink of an eye, three years went by.
Time slipped quietly to Sea Circle Calendar Year 1517. Counting it out, this was already the nineteenth year since the dawn of the Great Pirate Era.
Looking back on those three years, the seas remained as lively as ever—one major event after another.
[Sea Circle Calendar Year 1514]
As usual, the Holy Land of Mariejois convened the once-every-four-years World Conference.
At that enormous round table, the words "revolutionary army" were, for the first time, truly taken to heart by every king of the allied nations.
As more and more regimes were overthrown, the thrones beneath their backsides began to feel uncomfortably hot. Fear of the Revolutionary Army's growing power took root deep in their hearts.
From this moment on, the leader of the revolutionaries—Dragon—was officially branded by the World Government as the "World's Most Dangerous Criminal."
...
[Sea Circle Calendar Year 1515]
After years of near-total silence in the New World, the Red-Hair Pirates suddenly made a high-profile return.
Every single one of them possessed outrageous strength, and coupled with Red-Hair Shanks' damnable personal charisma, they were like a gigantic magnet.
Countless pirates who had been forced into the New World flocked to them as if they had finally found a pillar to lean on.
Before long, the Red-Hair Pirates' scale snowballed, forming the beginnings of a grand fleet.
The moment this news broke, the entire New World shook like an earthquake. All factions were thrown into unrest.
Countless eyes locked onto Red Hair, hearts pounding, unable to guess what he was planning.
Forming a grand fleet, absorbing ragtag crews, and on top of that, having recently crushed several large pirate ships—
It was hard not to suspect that Red Hair's ambitions were swelling, that he intended to carve out territory and crown himself king in the New World.
As time went on, under the once-stable rule of the Three Emperors, the Red-Hair Pirates forcibly carved out a path of their own. Soon, voices calling him a "new Emperor" began to rise.
With the New World seemingly on the verge of returning to a four-emperor balance, it wasn't just the pirates who grew anxious—the Marines couldn't sit still either.
...
[Sea Circle Calendar Year 1516]
After spending an entire year barely stabilizing the first half of the Grand Line, the Marines felt confident again.
They decided to bring the strength accumulated from the great draft into the New World—both to temper their forces and to pinch a "soft persimmon" while they were at it.
Aside from leaving two Admirals behind to guard Marine Headquarters and Mariejois—
The Marines went all in this time, directly dispatching Admirals Kizaru and Green Bull, leading a massive punitive fleet straight toward Red Hair's base.
This large-scale Marine advance into the New World made an enormous commotion.
Along the way, pirates who normally strutted about arrogantly scattered like mice before a cat the moment they saw Marine flags, wishing they could grow a few extra legs to flee faster.
After all, a full-scale Marine invasion into the so-called "Pirate Paradise" of the New World was unprecedented—its significance extraordinary.
In an instant, the eyes of the entire world focused on this sea.
Finally, under the gaze of countless onlookers, the Marine steel tide collided head-on with Red Hair's grand fleet.
Most spectators had assumed this would be a one-sided massacre by the Marines.
But when the outcome emerged, jaws dropped and glasses shattered across the globe.
The battle raged on for seven days and seven nights.
Artillery thundered, the sea ran red with blood—yet in the end, it was the Marines who broke first.
With their battle lines stretched too thin, supply lines unable to keep up, and severe acclimation issues fighting in the hellish environment of the New World, the Marines were forced to retreat in disgrace.
They had deployed two of their highest combat powers, yet still failed to chew through what appeared to be the weakest of the New World's great forces—the Red-Hair grand fleet.
Just like that, the little prestige the Marines had painstakingly rebuilt through pirate hunts was doused with icy water. The scars from the Zephyr incident hadn't even healed yet, and now their faces were swollen again from another slap.
In the end, that ever-amiable faction within the World Government stepped in to smooth things over—claiming that the New World's terrain was too complex for Marine operations, and reheating old achievements from the Four Seas over the past two years to barely suppress the wave of public opinion.
The Marines lost face—but the Red-Hair grand fleet hadn't escaped unscathed either. They had nearly been beaten to pieces.
Yet through this battle, the Red-Hair Pirates' ironclad performance on the battlefield instantly won over countless hearts.
Major newspapers worked through the night, hoisting the Red-Hair Pirates straight onto a pedestal and unanimously recognizing them as the fourth top-tier power of the New World.
As for Red-Hair Shanks himself—once his Conqueror's Haki erupted, who could contend with him? The media directly crowned him the Fourth Emperor of the Sea.
Those hotheads who had once planned to challenge his "new Emperor" status all quieted down.
Shaken by Shanks' terrifying strength and overwhelming charisma, more than half of those defeated actually knelt in submission, joining the Red-Hair grand fleet with unwavering loyalty.
Thus, in less than half a year, the Red-Hair Pirates firmly secured the fourth throne.
Though their territory and numbers couldn't compare to the veteran Three Emperors, their elite troops and explosive combat power more than made up for it.
And so, the New World returned once more to an era ruled by Four Emperors.
But anyone with discerning eyes could tell—this situation was nothing like it had been a few years ago.
This wasn't a balance of four equals.
It was clearly one supreme power and three strong ones.
That rapidly rising Sky Kingdom, backed by undeniable and terrifying battle records, now stood high above all others, gazing down upon the world—so formidable that no one dared provoke its wrath.
...
And just then, as Tenma had foreseen, the gears of fate began to turn with a sharp click.
In the Sky Kingdom, upon the vast royal training grounds—
"Come on, Kuina! I absolutely won't lose to you today!"
Zoro gripped his swords tightly, blazing fighting spirit burning in his eyes as he roared at the valiant figure standing across from him.
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