"...Monkey D. Luffy."
Staring at the projection screen, Selene’s gaze was drawn to the straw-hatted youth amidst the real-ti combat data uploaded by the Blood Angels of the Ninth Legion.
The iconic straw hat, the red vest, blue knee-length denim shorts, and thong sandals—it all felt so familiar. "mories long buried."
Lying reclined, Selene’s golden-patterned blanket draped lazily over her, while the glass teacup on a nearby side table let tendrils of steam silently rise.
Not far from her, an arched floor-to-ceiling window was left slightly ajar, allowing the breeze to waft in. The red curtains framing the window swayed gently in the wind.
"There’s no way he’d surrender... right? I just can’t imagine soone like him giving up. Asking him to abandon his dream of becoming the Pirate King... huh, he’d rather die."
In Selene’s impression, no one could sway Luffy’s ambitions. This wasn’t even about him being the protagonist; the world of One Piece seed to breed a certain kind of obstinate individual.
The kind who, once set on a goal, would rather die than give it up—unyielding and indomitable.
As for Selene herself? She could never match that. Her pursuits were shallow, narrow, tangible, and within reach. Grand, lofty ideals ant nothing to her; they were at best tools to deceive her subordinates.
Luffy’s dream of becoming the Pirate King likely carried anings even he didn’t fully grasp.
Was the "Pirate King" the leader of all pirates? The ruler of the New World? The adventurer who conquered the Grand Line? Or rely soone who achieved their dreams?
It ant different things to different people.
Even if Gol D. Roger himself were resurrected to retrace the Grand Line, he probably wouldn’t have a definitive answer. Everything about the journey was unknown, filled with surprises waiting to be uncovered.
Selene, however, was not the type to explore such unknowns. She overthought everything, weighed all risks, and calculated her actions for maximum benefit.
Her moral boundaries were flexible; so were her thods. She was driven by clear objectives and rarely pursued anything without purpose.
Her ultimate, unwavering goal was always the sa: to grow stronger.
Everything she did revolved around this singular principle.
As for the rest of the pirates?
A group of nonproductive, murderous thieves and marauders. Selene had no interest in conscripting them into her forces.
They weren’t even fit to be auxiliary troops.
Selene was confident that Sanguinius shared her sentints. Recruiting defeated navy and CP agents from the World Governnt was acceptable—but pirates? Absolutely not. Not even if they were as strong as Whitebeard himself.
From petty criminals to the Four Emperors, pirates were all characterized by their unruly behavior, lack of discipline, and rebellious nature—traits that the Empire’s military systematically crushed.
Pirates, in Selene’s view, were irredeemable garbage.
Even "good" pirates like Gol D. Roger’s crew, who sailed for the sheer thrill of completing the Grand Line without claiming territory, were exceedingly rare exceptions.
Most pirates, whether small-ti thieves in the Four Seas or major players like the Four Emperors, thrived on theft and plunder. Even Red-Haired Shanks—rumored to be the most honorable among them—was no exception.
So argued that Shanks’ crew was small and elite. Sure, that might be true compared to the other Emperors. But how could a single ship’s crew maintain control over a quarter of the New World?
Where did the money co from? The supplies? The manpower?
And then there was Luffy’s crew, the Straw Hats. Calling them adventurers wasn’t entirely wrong—they often acted more like wandering heroes.
Rescuing villages like Cocoyashi, liberating kingdoms like Alabasta, or battling oppressive forces like the CP9 at Enies Lobby—all of these were noble, if rough-edged, endeavors.
But everything changed after the Summit War at Marineford.
The Impel Down Incident saw so of the world’s worst criminals escaping. At that mont, Luffy’s actions—no matter how well-intentioned or heartfelt—marked him as a dangerous outlaw by global standards.
And then ca the formation of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet. At that point, Luffy stopped being an adventurer; he was unequivocally a pirate.
"Still... the Navy, the CP, and the World Governnt’s science division, especially Dr. Vegapunk... now, he’s a talent worth recruiting."
Selene’s thoughts shifted to Leiva. "He should have arrived by now. Hopefully, he doesn’t try to recruit anyone mid-battle again."
Suddenly, she sat bolt upright as a thought struck her.
"Wait a minute!"
A certain yellow-suited, leering figure popped into her mind.
"Borsalino! Leiva wouldn’t try to recruit him, would he?!"
anwhile, in the 50GR District of the Sabaody Archipelago.
The stretch from the 50GR to 69GR areas housed vital facilities: shipyards, coaters, Navy outposts, and governnt hubs.
This was also the fiercest battleground on the archipelago.
As Sanji and Zoro moved closer to the 50GR port, the number of corpses increased dramatically. Most were dressed as Navy soldiers or CP agents of the World Governnt.
The bodies were mangled—so blown apart by high-caliber ammunition, others severed cleanly by sharp blades.
Whatever their cause of death, the corpses were strewn about like discarded trash, their remains scattered amidst pools of blood and shattered bone. The scene resembled a slaughterhouse.
The air was thick with the stench of blood and the sickly-sweet aroma of charred human flesh.
"Oi, mosshead! Hurry up!" Sanji shouted.
"Shut up, pervy cook! It’s not so easy with all these soldiers chasing us! Their weapons are far more advanced than flintlocks!" Zoro retorted.
Behind them, the Imperial auxiliary forces were in an uproar. Thousands of soldiers in steel-gray uniforms ford a massive fan-shaped formation, their laser rifles raised as they pursued the two pirates.
"Halt! Who goes there?!"
"Intruders! Don’t let them disrupt Lady Alyssa!"
A torrent of orange laser beams streaked through the air, scarring the ground with smoldering craters in their wake.
Sanji spotted an intact section of a fortress wall ahead. He leapt gracefully into the air, tracing an arc before landing atop the battlents.
"There’s the Sunny! Just as expected—it’s docked at the port!" he exclaid, relief and excitent evident in his voice.
But his mont of celebration was short-lived.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A volley of explosive rounds—unlike anything from the Navy’s flintlocks—ca hurtling toward him. Sanji’s Observation Haki flared, warning him just in ti to roll off the wall.
Crash!
The section of the battlents where Sanji had stood was obliterated. Rubble flew in every direction as flas erupted, leaving the fortress wall riddled with smoldering craters.
"Sanji!" Zoro yelled.
Despite their usual clashes, Zoro and Sanji were crewmates aboard the sa ship. Witnessing Sanji injured, Zoro shouted furiously.
Boom!
A high-powered explosive round grazed Sanji’s shoulder. Even though he used Armant Haki in ti, the pinpoint explosion stripped away a large chunk of his shoulder flesh along with the black suit.
Blood and singed fabric flew through the air.
"Argh!" Sanji groaned, clutching his arm, before leaping backward with his toes barely touching the ground, tumbling to safety.
The next mont—
"Die!"
Thud—!
Several towering Astartes in heavy red power armor crashed down from the sky, landing directly on the crumbling wall.
Boom!
An earth-shattering crash resounded. Bricks shattered, dust billowed, and a shockwave rippled out in all directions.
"Sky Walk!"
Using the force of the shockwave, Sanji vaulted backward mid-air, stepping lightly across the sky as he hastily widened the gap between himself and the Astartes.
"Oh? More people are here. Pirates or Marines? Stand down, all of you," said a crisp, commanding voice.
In that instant, the murderous intent locking onto Sanji vanished.
Turning to the source of the voice, Sanji saw a young girl with silvery-gray hair and sky-blue eyes. She exuded elegance and bore herself like royalty, walking amidst a retinue of red-armored warriors.
"Huh?! Wait, a second—what a beautiful lady!"
In a flash, Sanji’s reflexes kicked in. His eyes turned heart-shaped, and he seed to forget the pain in his shoulder entirely.
Letting out a perverted chuckle, he wriggled over like pliant dough, spinning once before dropping to one knee in front of her with an air of utmost reverence.
"Ahhh! This is destiny! After escaping that devilish hell, fate has finally graced with such a divine beauty! My lady, I would gladly—"
"...."
Alyssa froze. It was the first ti she’d encountered such a seasoned Lothario. Staring at Sanji kneeling before her, she found herself stunned, struggling to process what was happening.
Recalling the etiquette lessons from Sebas, Alyssa hesitated. "U-um... er... uh... rise, please?"
"Luffy!"
Just as Sanji was pouring his heart and soul into his antics and Alyssa wondered if she had a surrendering subject before her, Zoro’s panicked voice rang out.
"Luffy?!"
As if sensing sothing, Sanji snapped out of his daze at the ntion of his captain’s na and turned to look.
One glance and his expression changed dramatically.
"Luffy!"
Forget the allure of beauty—Sanji scrambled to his feet and sprinted toward the port, where lightning and destruction had reduced everything to ruins.
The area reeked of death. The remains of pirates subjected to the Five Punishnts still lay scattered, their grotesque skeletal remains stinking of blood and decay.
Amidst the destruction, in a waterlogged pit, Luffy lay motionless.
His signature straw hat, ever present, had been knocked off, now lying quietly on the cracked stones nearby.
"Luffy! Hey, wake up! Luffy!"
Kneeling beside the pit, Zoro reached out hesitantly, his face tense and voice panicked. Gone was the poise of the "Pirate Hunter" and future swordmaster.
"This can’t be happening! Luffy, hang in there! Chopper’s on his way—he’ll treat you! Everything’s going to be fine!"
Joining Zoro, Sanji inspected Luffy’s injuries with trembling hands.
Hearing the familiar voices of his crewmates, Luffy’s eyes fluttered open weakly.
"Zoro... Sanji... cough... leave ... don’t worry about ..."
Luffy’s black hair was matted with dirt and blood, his body charred and battered. Internally, his organs were devastated, blood and fragnts of shredded tissue dripping from his nose and mouth.
Trying to move, Luffy’s muddied eyes looked toward his friends, but his strength failed him.
"Eh? So you know each other?" Alyssa said, her violet-heeled boots clicking as she approached. Resting her index finger on her cheek, she quirked a brow at the scene.
"And you, rubber kid—you’re not dead yet? What remarkable vitality."
According to Selene’s instructions, Alyssa had deliberately thrown Luffy into the sea. As expected, the mont he touched the water, his vitality had sharply diminished.
Although he could still elongate his body and use that eerie black-coated attack and defense, his power had been significantly weakened.
Depending on the user’s physical constitution, contact with seawater or Seastone could debilitate Devil Fruit users to varying degrees.
So lost all strength the mont they touched water, while others could still move like ordinary people even while shackled by Seastone.
Regardless, their abilities would always be weakened.
After contact with seawater, Luffy’s rubberized body had been damaged by the sa voltage that previously couldn’t harm him. From there, facing Alyssa’s relentless assault, he had lost all capacity to resist.
"Was it you? Are you the one who injured Luffy?!"
Both Sanji and Zoro spoke simultaneously, rising to face Alyssa and the encroaching Astartes army, their voices brimming with rage.
Sching! Sching! Sching!
Zoro unsheathed all three of his swords.
"I don’t fight won, but this ti, I’ll make an exception," Sanji said coldly, his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white.
"Hmph, I thought you were surrendering. Well, no matter... I’ll make sure you all reunite," Alyssa said casually.
Crackle—!
anwhile, on the New World’s far end, at the Navy Headquarters (forrly the G1 branch), tension filled the grand conference room.
Smoke coiled in the air, turning the atmosphere dense and oppressive, like a soaked sponge weighing down on everyone’s nerves.
No admiral or vice admiral could remain indifferent in the face of a conflict spreading across half the world.
"Speak. How do we respond to this?"
"From its scope, this is shaping up to be a conflict surpassing the Summit War—a global war."
"The Holy Land, Mary Geoise, has already co under large-scale rebel attack. The Five Elders are pressing us to withdraw the Navy’s main forces from the New World."
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