"Dragon King Rosinante? Who's that?"
"Wait... could it be that person?"
"You know who he is?"
"Ten years ago, the captain of the Gray Kingdom—the Dragon King, Rosinante. He was an existence who stood on equal footing with Whitebeard and the others."
"I remember now! But didn't the Marines announce that he was dead?"
"The only person who could make the Piercing Knight Bins call him 'Your Majesty'... would be him."
"Well, now this is a truly big figure."
"That's an emperor-level existence... someone not weaker than the current Four Emperors of the sea."
"No wonder he has that kind of Haki."
"Hmph. Too bad the Gray Kingdom was beaten into pieces. His title as 'king' is just empty now."
"Dragon King, let us out! We can help you rebuild the Gray Kingdom and rise back to the throne of the seas!"
"Exactly! You've been missing for ten years. Now that you've reappeared, you'll need to build your forces again, right? Take me with you—I'll definitely be useful!"
"An emperor of the seas?" Rosinante said indifferently. "I lost interest in that a long time ago."
Then his eyes turned cold.
"And besides... if I wanted to become an emperor of the seas again... would I really need trash like you?"
"What?! Even if you're the Dragon King, you can't talk like that!"
"That's right! We may have failed, but that doesn't mean we're trash!"
The ones who had managed to endure Rosinante's earlier Dragon King's Might were all famous pirates in their own right.
How could people like them possibly tolerate being called trash?
One after another, they began shouting in anger.
"I said... shut up."
Rosinante's voice turned icy.
The next moment, a vast and overwhelming dragon-like aura surged out from his body.
An enormous aura-dragon coiled behind him, radiating endless dragon, its gaze sweeping over the prisoners with naked contempt.
The domineering pressure it gave off was even heavier than before.
Cold sweat instantly poured down the pirates' faces.
Not one of them dared say another word.
Only then did they remember—
The person standing before them was the Dragon King.
A man who could kill them all with a flick of his hand.
"Hey, old man," Rosinante said, turning his head toward the one person who had truly resisted his Dragon King's Might. "Want to come out and get some fresh air?"
In this entire Eternal Hell...
There was only one person Rosinante actually thought highly of.
Patrick Redfield.
"Do you have something you want me to do for you?" Redfield asked calmly from inside his cell.
After being imprisoned for so long, if anyone said he didn't want to get out...
That would be a lie.
But Redfield had never begged anyone in his life.
For him to ask someone to free him?
That was something Baloric Redfield would never do.
"Nothing like that," Rosinante said lightly. "I just find you pleasing to the eye."
Then he smiled faintly.
"If you feel bad about it... just consider it a favor you owe me."
"Then I'll treat it as a favor I owe you," Redfield replied.
Rosinante nodded.
Then he walked to Redfield's cell and released him.
The surrounding pirates all looked on with desperate hope in their eyes.
But Rosinante ignored them completely.
Just as he had said—
These people were all trash.
If he let them out, they would only go around burning, looting, and slaughtering.
Even if they claimed they wanted to follow him, it would only be for profit.
If it had been before he went to the world of Naruto, Rosinante might have forcibly subdued them and taken them in.
But now?
There was no need.
After rescuing Redfield, Rosinante led the two of them upward through Impel Down.
Along the way, no one dared stop them.
And even if they wanted to...
They couldn't.
The three of them walked out of the Marine Great Prison as if entering and leaving an empty courtyard.
At Marine Headquarters, in the conference room, all the senior Marine officers stationed at headquarters had been urgently summoned for a meeting.
The three Admirals were all present.
Before being called in, none of the Marine officers had known what had happened.
Each of them sat around the conference table in their own distinctive ways.
Only when they saw that nearly all of Marine Headquarters' top brass had been gathered did they begin to suspect—
Something huge had happened.
"Ara ara... what kind of major event happened this time?" Kuzan asked lazily. "For Mr. Sengoku to summon everyone like this..."
"Haven't heard anything," Borsalino said casually. "Could it be that one of the Four Emperors is getting restless again?"
"If one of the Four Emperors dares provoke us," Sakazuki said coldly, "then the Marines should gather all forces and completely wipe one of them out. That's the only way to suppress the scum of the seas."
"Well now..." Borsalino drawled, "if we go to war with a Yonko, the Marines would suffer heavy losses too."
"If we can eliminate one of the Four Emperors," Sakazuki replied icily, "then necessary losses are worth it."
Just as they were speaking, Sengoku walked in with Garp and Tsuru.
Everyone immediately fell silent.
Because the moment they saw Sengoku's face...
Their hearts sank.
His expression was dark enough to make the entire room feel heavy.
Sengoku walked to the head seat.
Garp and Tsuru each sat down in their respective places.
"Just now," Sengoku said, his voice grave, "Impel Down suffered an unprecedented invasion unlike anything in its history."
"Magellan was defeated and seriously injured."
"Two top-level criminals from Eternal Hell were released."
"And the person who invaded Impel Down..."
Sengoku slammed several photographs down onto the table.
"...was him."
The moment everyone saw those photos—
Even among the three Admirals, many of the high-ranking Marine officers immediately revealed expressions of utter disbelief.
"How can it be him?!"
"No way... how could he possibly still be alive?!"
"This is bad... this is really bad... the whole world could be turned upside down now!"
Many of the top Vice Admirals stared at the photos in shock and horror.
"A man who already died once clawing his way back out?" Sakazuki stared at the photos, his eyes blazing with fury. "What's there to be afraid of?"
"You can't say that," Borsalino replied slowly. "That's no ordinary person. Personally... I'd rather not face him again."
"Ara... this really is troublesome now," Kuzan muttered.
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku," one officer suddenly said, frowning as he looked at the photos, "there seems to be something wrong with these pictures."
At those words, everyone turned their eyes back toward the photographs.