The New World, a certain sea area near the Red Line.
A seemingly ordinary ship was drifting on the sea.
Nicolas was sitting cross-legged at the bow of the ship.
Standing next to him was Dragon, draped in a dark green cloak. Behind them stood the commander of the Eastern Army of the Revolutionary Army and the newly arrived commander of the "G Army," the king of the Kamabakka Kingdom, Emporio Ivankov.
Dragon frowned as he read the newspaper in his hand.
"Roger, that guy..."
On the front page of the newspaper, besides the news of the Navy's public execution of the Pirate King Roger in Loguetown, there was another piece of explosive news.
Nicolas glanced sideways at the content in the newspaper, his lips curling up slightly.
"Quack... quack..."
A jet-black crow emerged from the clouds, carrying a letter stamped with the Navy's seal on its leg.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the crow landed directly on Karas' shoulder.
Karas took the letter and then handed a small bag filled with food from his pocket to the crow.
"Lonely quack~"
After delivering the letter, the crow grabbed the bag and flew to the mast, flapping its wings.
"What's this?"
Emporio Ivankov curiously looked at the letter in Karas' hand.
"..."
Karas didn't answer, instead handing the letter to Dragon. After all, only he and Dragon knew about their informants within the Navy.
Inazuma realized something, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the letter in Karas' hand. Clearly, he also recognized it as intelligence from their comrades within the Navy.
Dragon took the letter and opened it directly. After reading the information inside, he handed the letter to Nicolas.
Nicolas didn't take the letter, as he had already guessed who sent it.
"We have a 'guest' coming."
Nicolas suddenly looked up at the sky, and Dragon did the same.
"A guest?"
Everyone else was puzzled as they looked at the empty sky and sea, not knowing where this guest was coming from.
Three seconds later, a whistling sound suddenly came from above. In their view, a figure wrapped in a massive air bubble was flying toward them, aiming directly at their ship.
Boom!
With a loud crash, the air bubble that had been flying through the sky landed on the deck, causing a burst of air.
As the air dispersed, a tall figure appeared before them.
In the dissipating air, Urouge tensed up, fully activating his Armament Haki. His Devil Fruit ability was powerful, but it took time to activate. In such an unfamiliar environment, fully utilizing his Armament Haki was the right choice, whether for defense or offense, to buy himself some time.
"Long time no see, Urouge."
As Urouge warily observed his surroundings, he suddenly heard a familiar voice.
"Nicolas!"
When he saw the person who had called out to him, Urouge exclaimed in surprise.
He quickly realized why Bartholomew Kuma had chosen to send him flying instead of killing him after neutralizing his ability.
It seemed that the infamous Bartholomew Kuma knew Nicolas and the strangers around him.
Meanwhile...
A ship with a skull with a moustache figurehead was docked along the coast of an unknown island in the New World.
This ship was the Oro Jackson, the long-lost vessel of the Roger Pirates.
At that moment, a heated debate was taking place on the Oro Jackson.
On one side were the two youngest members of the Roger Pirates, Shanks and Buggy.
On the other side was a Den Den Mushi that bore a resemblance to Rayleigh.
The rest of the crew stood by, watching.
"Rayleigh-ossan, what are you thinking!? Why aren't you going to save the captain!? Buggy, help me talk some sense into Rayleigh-ossan!"
Shanks shouted into the Den Den Mushi, then turned to his companion, clearly knowing that Buggy was good at talking.
Buggy reluctantly pursed his lips, then his arm detached from his wrist, and his hand grabbed the Den Den Mushi.
His other hand, also detached, grabbed a nearby newspaper.
Slap!
His hand returned with the newspaper.
Buggy then shoved the newspaper in the face of the Den Den Mushi.
A single newspaper.
The huge front page only reported one major news.
The Navy announced the public execution of Pirate King Roger.
"Rayleigh, you bastard! The Navy is going to publicly execute the captain! Are you..."
Buggy shouted loudly, his voice so loud that Rayleigh on the other end had to move the Den Den Mushi away from his ear.
"Hey, Buggy, that's not going to work."
Shanks said, snatching the Den Den Mushi from Buggy and addressing it himself:
"Hey, hey, Rayleigh-ossan, Captain Roger is going to be executed publicly by the Navy, and you're just going to sit back and do nothing?
Don't you remember how the captain took care of us? Although he announced the disbandment of the Roger Pirates to protect us, we all know what it really meant."
"Seems like you know it was to protect you, Shanks. Surrendering to the Navy was Roger's own decision."
"Huh?"
Shanks froze when he heard that Roger had surrendered.
Buggy, seeing Shanks' reaction, looked puzzled and instinctively moved closer.
"Roger doesn't want to see you put yourselves in danger to save him. Live well; the Roger Pirates are no more."
Hearing Rayleigh's words, Shanks clenched the newspaper, lowering his head, and said, "Captain Roger..."
He couldn't accept doing nothing while watching Captain Roger get executed by the Navy.
In an instant, Shanks made a rash decision.
"Everyone."
Shanks looked up at his companions.
Nozdon, Sunbell, Mugren, Doringo, CB Gallan, Spencer, Yamon, Rangram... all looked at Shanks seriously.
Even though Shanks hadn't spoken yet, they had already guessed what he was going to say.
"Buggy and I are going to save Captain Roger. It might be dangerous, but I have to go!"
Shanks said with determination.
Going to save Roger meant facing the entire Navy, and the danger was obvious.
Originally, Buggy was nodding constantly, but when he heard Shanks' words, he froze and looked at Shanks in disbelief.
"So I hope you can help me build a ship that can sail!"
After saying this, Shanks took off his straw hat and placed it over his chest, bowing to everyone.
Shanks had no intention of dragging everyone along because he knew what kind of enemies he would face. They were the terrifying opponents who had cornered them multiple times. Moreover, this time they didn't have Captain Roger, which meant that if everyone went, they might all be lost in Loguetown.
On the deck, everyone smiled at Shanks.
"The Navy's top forces, huh..." Sunbell grinned, slightly raising the hilt of his sword with his thumb.
"Yeah, we can't let the juniors look down on us." The tall and thin Momora said with a smile, pressing down the brim of his tall hat with his hand.
"Saving the captain's glory can't be left to you alone. Besides, you can't even steer a ship. Even if you had a ship, you probably wouldn't know how to sail it."
Fishman Sunbell laughed.
"Hey, you guys, how can you set sail without your navigator? Loguetown, the captain's hometown, we might as well check it out."
Spencer, the handsome man with a ponytail, sighed deeply, already imagining the dangers ahead.
But he was the ship's navigator, so wherever they wanted to go, he would do his best to take them there.
"Everyone..."
Shanks looked at everyone, suddenly feeling a bit choked up.
"Don't forget, even though the Roger Pirates are disbanded, as remnants, we can go wherever we want."
Nozdon stepped forward and patted Shanks' shoulder with his large hand.
"Alright, since we've decided, let's plan how to give the captain a big surprise."