White rain fell from the sky—it was the newspapers dropped by the News Coo.
Countless News Coo flew over the sea. They didn't even have time to ask for belly, only crazily scattering stacks of paper that still smelled of fresh ink down to the ground.
At the headquarters of the World Economy News Paper, the rumbling of the printing presses drowned out the roar of the waves.
Morgans stood in the middle of mountains of newspapers.
That big bird flapped his wings, feathers trembling wildly with his movements.
"Faster! Even faster! Print more! The West Blue branch ran out of paper? Then go steal it! Go log trees! No matter what, get this paper into the hands of every living person!"
Staff sprinted around hugging paper stacks taller than themselves.
Morgans snatched up a freshly printed issue. The ink on it wasn't even dry yet, but he didn't care if it smeared him black from head to toe.
He stared at the front page.
A single photo took up the entire spread.
No words could steal the spotlight from that image—Marineford's execution platform.
Ruin. Rubble. Smoke and ash.
Shinju stood at the very highest point.
Behind him stood monsters that only existed in legends.
Morgans lifted the newspaper high, his voice echoing through the room.
"The Fifth Emperor! No—he's a god above everything! The old era's coffin lid has been nailed shut! On the throne of the new era sits a monster!"
He slammed the paper onto the table.
The headline was printed in the thickest, blackest font—like it wanted to leap off the page and devour people.
God of the New Era! The Fifth Emperor Above the Four Emperors: God-Emperor Shinju
Sabaody Archipelago.
In the lawless zone's bars, the sound of shattering glasses rose and fell without end.
Pirates had been bragging about what they'd seen on the outskirts of the Summit War—until that newspaper landed on the table.
A rookie pirate with a bounty over a hundred million belly happened to glance at the front-page headline and instantly went pale in shock.
"You've gotta be kidding…"
He swallowed hard.
"The Fifth Emperor? How many years has the Four Emperors' balance lasted? Even if he caused a huge scene at the Summit War, that's still the title of an Emperor!"
But the ones who understood things knew the moment they saw "Fifth Emperor" that it wasn't baseless.
A veteran pirate beside him knocked his pipe against the table edge.
"Rookie? Are you blind?"
His finger tapped the photo.
"Marineford got smashed to pieces. Whitebeard is dead. Blackbeard ran. And only him—he climbed up by stepping on the Navy's face. He even made Sengoku-san back down and officially declare the war over. That mad bird Morgans didn't write it wrong. This sea… has changed."
In the bar's corner, several captains of pirate crews who'd originally planned to enter the New World exchanged looks.
They saw the same retreat in each other's eyes.
How were they supposed to walk the road ahead now?
It felt way too dangerous.
Go to the New World?
The New World now was this God-Emperor's backyard.
Who would dare touch that bad luck right now?
Navy Headquarters—at a temporary base, as the cleanup of the ruins continued.
A young marine picked up a newspaper that had fallen among the broken stones.
He glanced at it—
and dropped to his knees.
"Hey! Rookie, what are you doing? What happened?!"
An officer strode over and yanked the paper away.
The next second, the officer's face turned deathly pale too.
The paper didn't only have that man's photo.
It also had a brand-new wanted poster.
No concrete number—yet it was even more despairing than having a number. He'd never seen a wanted poster like this in his life.
At the bottom— was a massive black question mark.
[Shinju]
[Bounty: ???]
The officer's hands shook violently.
"Impossible to measure…? The World Government thinks his threat can't be priced in money? Or… nobody even dares try to hunt him?"
Akainu walked over from the distance.
Bandages wrapped his body. The traces the war left on him were still there. His mood was suffocatingly grim—though fortunately, at the very last moment, he had still managed to catch up and successfully finish the pursuit of Whitebeard.
The soldiers panicked and tried to hide the newspaper.
"Hand it over."
Akainu's voice carried a thick stench of blood.
The soldier trembled as he offered it up.
Akainu swept his eyes over it once.
Magma dripped from his arm and instantly ignited the paper.
Flames swallowed Shinju's face, turning it to black ash that scattered into the air.
"God-Emperor? A bunch of pirates playing at empty bluffing."
He still remembered the humiliation of being one-shot by Shinju's punch.
Akainu ground the ash on the ground beneath his boot.
"Justice will never bow to that kind of evil. Whether he's a god or a devil—if he dares show up in front of me, I'll burn him to ashes."
Every soldier saw it.
Veins bulged on the Admiral's clenched fist.
The New World—Onigashima.
Inside the massive skull-shaped fortress, the air reeked of booze.
The Beasts Pirates' banquet was in full swing.
The SMILE users were reveling wildly.
When that newspaper was delivered to the highest level
Kaido gripped a gigantic gourd and tipped his head back, chugging harsh liquor.
The booze streamed down his chest, soaking scales as hard as iron.
King held the newspaper and walked up to Kaido.
"Kaido, something big happened."
Kaido belched, eyes hazy with drunkenness as he took it.
"Wororororo… Whitebeard that old geezer died—what big thing could top that? Don't tell me Linlin that old hag kicked the bucket too?"
His gaze locked onto the headline.
He also saw the enormous question-mark bounty.
Kaido froze, baffled.
Was the Navy joking?
What kind of stunt was this?
Rage surged
A few seconds later
Boom!
A colossal kanabo slammed into the floor.
Onigashima's ground cracked apart, rubble blasting into the air.
Dozens of unlucky pirates were flung away by the shockwave, smashing into the walls and coughing blood.
"God-Emperor?! The Fifth Emperor?! Wororororororo!"
Kaido burst into laughter, and to everyone present, that laughter felt even more terrifying than anger.
He rose to his feet.
His massive body cast a huge shadow.
"This brat! This brat did damn well! He destroyed Marineford? He beat those legendary old monsters into submission? Interesting! Too interesting!"
Kaido tore the newspaper to shreds with one hand, fragments turning into snowflakes in his grip.
"This sea's been boring for way too long! Whitebeard that old bastard was always playing house-family games! Shanks that little punk talks about 'reason' all day! Linlin only knows how to eat!"
"Whitebeard, Whitebeard… you old man really did die. A new Emperor has appeared. That paper will probably stop calling him the Fifth Emperor soon and just rename it to the new Four Emperors—Whitebeard's vacant seat will be filled by this youngster."
He swung his kanabo and pointed out toward the distant sea.
"Brats! Get ready for war! I'm going to meet this God-Emperor! I want to see whether his bones are harder—or my kanabo is harder! Fifth Emperor? Only the one who survives is fit to be an Emperor!"
The All-Stars watched Kaido fall into a feverish, ecstatic state.
No one dared speak.
They knew Kaido wasn't angry.
It was excitement—like a predator spotting top-tier prey.
(End of Chapter)
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