04 Arrival

"They had arrived!" Dante mumbled as he looked at the marines warship.

"Grandpa, tell everyone to open our doors and give full cooperation to the marines. Give them everything they need." Dante gave an order.

"Hmm? Do we really need to be that cooperative?"

"Tsk. Just tell them to do it. I got a bad feeling about this." Dante said as he left the confused Bunta.

"This Baterilla Island. They are surely looking for her. How troublesome." Thought Dante as he scratched his head.

After the death of Roger, pirates around the world were going frenzy. These events affect many people around the world.

Slowly, the sea became more and more dangerous.

Mustang family was also affected by the rise of pirates. The raging pirate on the sea had caused many trading channels to be closed. Not only that, they were also attacking the island.

After a few months the pirates were rampaging, the marines finally arrived on the island. The civilians were relieved thinking that they were saved. Unknown to them, a certain event was just about to begun. Not long after the first ship arrived, tens of warships also appeared on the nearby island.

On the same day they arrived, all the ports was closed down and curfew was announced by Marines. After that, they started to arrest newborn babies and pregnant women. When that happened, the islanders were shocked.

However, the Marine actions still were considered mild. They just arrested anyone who was suspicious and refused to cooperate.

It was until the government officers and agents arrived, then the real tragedy happened. They didn't give any regards to anything and started to kill the babies. Not only that, the government agent went as far to kill the family themselves.

The action causes terror to the civilians. Some started to run in order to escape the islands. However, that was futile efforts. Any boats or ships that tried to sail from the island were stopped by the marines. Most of them were sunk after they retaliated and stubbornly tried to escape.

Living with no choice, the civilians can only go into hiding in hope they were never found. Most pregnant women tried to hide their pregnancy. Any newborn children and mothers were taken into the woods to avoid being found by the government agent.

On the other hand, the marines were having conflicts with the government agents. The government agents actions of randomly killing babies and families were unacceptable. Their order was just to investigate the babies. Not to kill them.

However the agents kept on ignoring them which ultimately caused some of the marines to lose their patients.

When fights started happening, they weren't easy to be stopped. Both sides kept on fighting until the day that a vice admiral arrived on the island.

Knowing the situation, Vice Admiral Kuzan immediately announced that the Baterilla island was under Marine jurisdiction and forcefully chased out all the world government agents.

For some reason, Kuzan acted out of his character as if he was very pissed by something. He went on freezing and killing any agents who tried to retaliate his decision.

Weirdly enough, the Government high officer also sent orders for their agent to leave the Baterilla island as if they know why Kuzan was behaving like that.

The agents left Baterilla island and moved towards surrounding islands. As for the islands' fate... no one knows.

The Batterilla's nightmare finally stopped after three months. However the operation wasn't stopped as the marines were still searching for a certain baby. It was after that, the civilians knew that they were looking for Pirate King remnants.

The marines started to release any mother who had confirmed father to her unborn child. And the people started to cooperate to end this operation.

After all events on the sea and the world Government carnage on the island, traders started to avoid the Baterilla island. Even after the situation on the island was settled down, they still avoid the island to avoid any complicated situation.

As a Merchant family, Mustang family was facing crisis as their lifelines were cut off. It only took them a year as they started taking heavy tolls. Dante on the other hand, ignoring all the crisis that happened to the family.

The conflicts on the island also didn't affect him much. Mustangs were very cooperative with the marines since the beginning. They immediately opened their door when the marines requested a check up and searching.

Not only that, the temporary bases the Marines used also belonged to the Mustang Family which was immediately offered by the family when the marines were searching for building as their temporary base.

Looking outside his window, Dante was thinking, 'I wonder how she is doing. Can she really hold the baby in her body for two years with only her sheer will? Or was someone helping her?'

Late at night, Dante went into the woods as to do his usual training. Compared to his villa, Dante found out his training was more effective on the mountain. So every night he sneaked out for his training.

Coming back from his training, Dante walked down from the mountain. When he passed a river, he saw a silhouette drinking on the river shore.

A very beautiful lady was gracefully drinking at the river. Not long after that, Dante finally realized who she was. All her features perfectly connect to the person. The one who Marines had been looking for. She was Portugas D Rouge.

A curiosity rose inside Dante as he started to follow her.

Rouge went on walking slowly into the woods. Along the way, she plucked all the berries and edible mushrooms that she found. Then she walked again leaving the woods.

Dante followed her until she entered a small house. Seeing the house, Dante was wondering how she survived the search. Ironically the house she stayed at was right behind the Marines temporary base.

Curiosity got ahead of him. Dante knocked on the door and he received a silence as an answer. The second knock went on and I received the same answer.

Finally, Dante decided to leave. "Perhaps, it's better this way."

****

However, a few days later, Dante kept on thinking about the Rouge situation. How she needed to sneak out every night for food and drinks.

Feeling not wanting to be bothered by the thoughts, Dante finally decided to help her a little bit. Every night, he went to mountain for his practice, he stopped at Rouge house and put on some bread and a bottle of water.

Putting the items in front of the door, Dante knocked on the door before he left without any words. Before long, that had been his routine before going for his night training.