"Holy crap! I thought Baroque Works only had a couple thousand people, but judging by the number of ships, there are several times more of us than that!"
A young man stood at the bow of a large three-masted barque, shading his eyes with one hand as he stared toward the island directly ahead. And he was far from the only one looking. The crew of the 'Blonde Lady'—the ship had earned its name because it was built entirely from white wood—numbered more than two hundred people, and over half of them had occupied every possible and impossible spot from which they could watch the island's slowly approaching bay, packed to the brim with all kinds of ships.
"Sure, it's impressive, but why are they gathering all of us in one place?" the young man's friend asked. "Hasn't the Boss's plan already entered its final stage? Is it really smart to reduce the number of our people in Alabasta this much at such a crucial moment? What if something happens?"
"Who knows? First we need to find out why they're gathering us here in the first place. Maybe this is part of the plan too?"
"I seriously doubt it. According to the others, Little Garden is one of those prehistoric islands, and there's nothing on it except dinosaurs, a couple of volcanoes, and two giants fighting each other."
"Cool! I've never seen dinosaurs or giants before!"
"Neither have I, but what could an island like this possibly have to do with Alabasta?"
Conversations just like this could currently be heard among every part of Baroque Works, not merely aboard the 'Blonde Lady'. The organization's forces had been converging on the island for days, yet the officers still remained silent, offering no explanation for such a massive operation. In fact, it was the largest operation in Baroque Works history. People had put forward countless theories, ranging from idiotic to highly plausible. Some of them had even come surprisingly close to the truth.
"Attention! The captain is here!"
The instant the shout rang out, everyone on deck sprang into motion. It took the crew less than ten seconds to form several perfectly straight ranks along the ship's sides. Hands clasped behind their backs, they all straightened as rigidly as they could. Had an outsider been aboard at that moment, they would inevitably have assumed the Baroque Works members were actually a highly drilled Marine crew, so closely did their behavior resemble Marines greeting their commanding officers.
In reality, the man who stepped out of his cabin and onto the deck—known within the organization by the nickname Mr. Blue-Haired Devil—had absolutely nothing to do with any government organization such as the Marines. He had nothing to do with the government itself either. He simply did not tolerate insubordination, sloppiness, or weaklings. Especially weaklings.
Among all the so-called 'lower officers' of Baroque Works—the Billions—the Blue-Haired Devil had a reputation as the most vicious of them all. Aside from carrying out the orders of the Officer Agents, meaning the pairs from Mr. One through Mr. Five, the Blue-Haired Devil's subordinates spent the rest of their time in endless training, just as he himself did. Such behavior was completely uncharacteristic of Baroque Works members, so far from everyone had been happy to end up serving under a man like him. At first.
With time, even the most stubborn began to feel respect, admiration, and fear toward their captain. Every single member of the 'Blonde Lady's' crew had long since reached the conclusion that their captain could easily become not merely a Frontier Agent—one of the pairs from Mr. Six through Mr. Twelve—but even an Officer Agent. The Blue-Haired Devil's subordinates had seen more than enough proof of his extraordinary strength. Yet for a long time now they had also been haunted by the impression that the man possessed absolutely no ambition whatsoever. It seemed the only things that interested him in life were unquestioning obedience to orders and training. Naturally, this led people to certain conclusions.
The thing was, the Blue-Haired Devil owed the second half of his nickname not to his behavior, personality, or actions, but to his eyes. Every time someone made the mistake of looking the man directly in the eyes, he or she felt as though those two black abysses were sucking the very soul out of them. The especially impressionable fainted on the spot, while everyone else instantly broke out in a cold sweat. Such a gaze could belong only to a man who had passed through every circle of Hell and somehow returned to Earth.
And that, in the minds of the 'Blonde Lady's' crew, was the main reason their captain seemed to possess no ambition whatsoever. They were utterly convinced that the man had endured something truly horrifying in his life. Something so terrible that his entire existence had become devoted to gaining more strength, ensuring that the horror he had once suffered could never happen to him again. That theory had long since become the most popular among the Blue-Haired Devil's subordinates.
It also explained those terrifying eyes perfectly.
Even now, as the grim man—most immediately recognizable by the short brush of dark-blue hair on his head—walked past the ranks of his people, every member of the crew stared habitually somewhere above their captain's head, doing everything possible to avoid meeting his gaze.
Reaching the bow, the Blue-Haired Devil silently studied the slowly approaching island for some time before speaking off to the side without addressing anyone in particular.
"While I find out what's going on here, all of you start replenishing our supplies immediately."
"Captain, what do you think they're gathering all of us here for?" asked one of the braver sailors.
Until now, the Blue-Haired Devil had carefully avoided saying anything about what was happening, but what point was there in remaining silent any longer?
"Anyone possessing even the beginnings of a brain should be capable of reaching the correct conclusion," the man answered indifferently, his gaze sliding across the sailor who had asked. "I can't tell you exactly whom we're going to fight, but it certainly won't be easy. That's precisely why your first priority is supplies. Judging by the number of ships here, we're among the last to arrive. That means there isn't much time left."
That answer instantly threw everyone into an excited state, and the crew immediately began talking over one another.
"So it really is a battle!" one exclaimed.
"That was obvious from the start!" another replied. "Like the captain said, if you've got even the beginnings of a brain, the right conclusion isn't hard to reach."
"I was thinking the same thing, by the way!"
"I told you! I told you!" a third shouted, practically bouncing in place.
"Bet it's the Marines!" declared a fourth.
"You think Marines? Not pirates?" a fifth asked doubtfully.
"Yeah, I'm telling you, it's gotta be the Marines! They probably found out about the Boss's plans and started scrambling. I mean, what else? Pirates? Hell no! This many people for some pirates? No way! Nobody except the Marines could justify a force this big!"
"Yeah, probably."
Most people agreed with their captain's reasoning, but there were still those who refused to jump to a definite conclusion.
"Yeah, but what if it's something else after all? I know the chances are tiny, but what if?" the sixth stubbornly droned on.
"Right, maybe there's some special secret behind why we're all being gathered here?" the seventh supported him.
A little while later, the same brave sailor from before was the only one willing to ask the Blue-Haired Devil another question.
"Captain, who do you think we're going to fight? Do you really think it's the Marines?" he asked loudly enough for his voice not to disappear beneath the general noise.
The question silenced everyone instantly, and they all strained their ears again as they waited for their captain's answer.
"How should I know?" the man replied with the same indifference into the sudden silence. "At first glance, fighting the Marines seems like the most reasonable explanation, but it isn't. No matter how many times we beat them, we'll never be able to defeat an organization that large, so the Boss has no reason to start a war with them. That doesn't mean such a battle is completely impossible, only that the chances are very, very low. Pirates? Even less likely. What pirate crew in this part of the sea could possibly justify fighting forces like these? For whose sake would the Boss even consider gathering so many people? As far as I know, there isn't a single pirate crew in this part of the Grand Line..."
The Blue-Haired Devil abruptly fell silent. Then he actually turned pale, instantly scaring the absolute shit out of every one of his subordinates.
"Captain?!!"
The man did not answer. It took him several more minutes before he managed to pull himself together. He succeeded, but the unnatural pallor never left his face. Then the Blue-Haired Devil repeated his earlier order, only this time his voice sounded completely different.
"The moment we reach the island, begin replenishing our supplies immediately!"
Earlier, as everyone present had clearly understood, the same order had been nothing more than sensible caution. Now it sounded as though failure to obey it might result in the death of the entire crew.
"Sir, yes, sir!"
After seeing their captain react like that, nobody felt like joking anymore. They had only known their captain for a few months—some for even less—but they had at least learned to read him a little. It was obvious to everyone that the man had suddenly come up with a theory about who the organization might be throwing such enormous forces against, and whatever that theory was, it had clearly frightened him.
Which, in turn, frightened everyone else. Nobody aboard the 'Blonde Lady' wanted to encounter something capable of scaring their captain that badly. Or rather, someone. Pirates.
And yet, even several hours later, nobody in the crew could remember any truly outstanding pirates operating in these waters. At least, none outstanding enough. A few rookies stood far above the rest, but... rookies? Sending Mr. One alone would be enough to wipe the floor with any of them. No matter how impressive they seemed, rookies were still rookies. The Grand Line was simply too different from the world's other seas. In this current, the crew of some minor merchant could easily turn out to be several times stronger than a famous pirate crew from North Blue, West Blue, East Blue, or South Blue.
Eventually, out of every possible name, the crew of the 'Blonde Lady' narrowed the list down to exactly two: Trafalgar Law, the 'Surgeon of Death' from North Blue, and Eustass 'Captain' Kid from South Blue. The bounties on those two pirates—especially the 'Captain', with ninety-three million berries on his head—were already approaching one hundred million, making them the only people who even vaguely seemed suitable as possible opponents for the full might of Baroque Works. Very vaguely.
Even so, the Blue-Haired Devil's subordinates were certain that neither pirate could make their captain afraid. Perhaps they were stronger than him, but neither possessed a reputation or strength terrible enough for that. Hence the doubts. They simply did not make convincing bogeymen for a man like their captain.
But if not the 'Surgeon of Death' or the 'Captain', then who else?
On this side of the Red Line, almost nobody could rival those two. The only person whose bounty exceeded theirs was the infamous Roronoa Zoro—a pirate whose name had recently become practically proverbial.