4/11

As the Straw Hats started to outfit themselves in their newly provided attire, it was made blatantly obvious that Soundbite was in full control of what his visually inclined cousins did and didn't show. This fact was clarified by how the broadcast only showed brief flashes of the Straw Hats as they pulled on their new gear—

A trenchcoat's lapels yanked firmly into place.

A helmet slammed into place, polished metal gleaming in the torch light.

A tie cinched up to perfection.

A boot slamming into the ground, hard enough to crack the floorboards.

An ornate peaked cap adjusted by the tip of its brim, the golden skull emblazoned in its peak leering malevolently.

Gauntlets snapped into place, fingers stretching out to their fullest before snapping into a fist.

"I raise my toast to an ocean of people who will never back down and never surrender, no matter how much shit the world tries to pile on them!"

—And as they prepped their newly acquired weaponry—

The lever on a rifle ratcheted back, chambering a new round.

A pair of pistols spun into their holsters.

A break-action shotgun snapping shut on its freshly loaded shells.

A magnificent katana sliding into its snow-white sheath.

And finally, met with a roar of rabid approval, a massive rotary cannon hefted, and its barrel spun up with a mechanized roar.

—Until finally, finally, at long last… they were ready.

The world cheered as the Straw Hats marched out, ready for war.

-o-

"I raise my toast to an ocean whose spirit and legend can never be snuffed out, no matter what you or anyone ever does or says! I raise my toast to the Blue of Hopes and Dreams!"

The camera's eyes gave no clear view of the Straw Hats as they were led through the palace, immaculately chosen angles and distances blocking any clear view of them and giving nothing away save that they had swiftly changed into formal black outfits, and were all packing varying amounts of heat, from heavy rifles to outright bazookas, with Going Merry's form—clear from her size—carrying what looked to be twice her body mass in pure gun.

"Hooooly hell," Helmeppo wheezed in a numb voice, his eyes bugging out over his visor. "I don't think I've seen that much firepower in a warship's armory, much less on people!"

"I-I'm pretty sure carrying that many firearms without the proper permits guarantees five consecutive life sentences, doesn't it?" Coby questioned weakly, his brain trying and failing to make sense of what his eyes were showing him.

"Seven if it's determined they were held with intent to fire, minimum," Tsuru clarified, her eyelid twitching furiously. "And that's only if, by some miracle, the offenders can sell out enough names to miss the death penalty."

"What the hell, Luffy?!" Coby questioned incredulously under his breath. "I know you're mad, but—!"

"Ohohoh, my cute little grandson is more than pissed, brat," Garp chuckled through his rictus grin, idly scratching at the veins that bulged on his neck and betrayed his true feelings. "That bastard took one of Luffy's crew. If Shiki's still alive by the end of this… well, it won't be because Luffy intended it that way, I'll tell you that much."

"Get our fleet mobilized, I want us sailing according to that Pose within the hour!"

The two apprentices and the two veterans turned toward their superior, who was currently glaring at the receiver as if it'd just insulted his mother.

"We know where they are?!" Coby exclaimed. "But I thought—?!"

"Aegis 0 just delivered an eternal pose to Merveille, or at least the pillar it's currently anchored itself at," Garp answered, grunting in exertion as he hauled himself out of his seat and cracked his back. "Turns out they've been sitting on the damn thing for days now, and they only just decided to hand it over."

"What!?" Helmeppo squawked, boggling at his mentor. "Shiki's been a clear and present threat for a week, why didn't they give it to us before!?"

"Because," Tsuru sniffed dryly. "It was only today that a World Noble offhandedly ordered them to 'help those worthless insects'—that's us, mind you—'do the jobs we so generously pay them for'."

"And apparently they consider handing us that pose to be help enough," Sengoku grumbled under his breath. "Because we're sailing to that battlefield alone."

"U-Understood, sir," the rookies nodded respectfully, and prepared to depart as well.

The Marines proceeded in silence for a bit until the usual suspect inevitably broke it.

"…You do realize you're just gonna be—?" Garp began.

"I know we're Straw Hat's clean-up crew again and I don't give a damn!" Sengoku barked. "Even if we're just eating their scraps, even if we only manage to accomplish the least amount of good, I couldn't care less! This is a battle for the fate of the world, a battle that will never be forgotten, no matter what might come to pass! I will not let history show that when push came to shove, all we could do was sit on our asses and watch!"

The watchers processed this. Then Garp's face split into a malicious grin as he cracked his knuckles. "Well, when you put it that way, count me in. Let's get going."

"S-Sir!" Coby and Helmeppo saluted, following their superior out. Tsuru lingered behind, silently looking at Sengoku. Sengoku looked back.

"…Does it still seem hollow?"

"It's hard for me to say at this stage."

A pause.

"…Justice will still be served. But what will the world think?"

"They'll side with the Straw Hats for saving that ocean, I'm sure."

Another pause.

"And what do you say about all of this?"

"…I have had to think more about what I call Justice over the past few months."

"Then we feel the same way."

"Do we? I'm not so sure… but I regret that."

Silence fell once more. Then Vice Admiral Tsuru left for her own ship and Sengoku followed, leaving the room empty.

Much later, when the pair of them thought back on that conversation, neither one was quite able to recall who said what.

-o-

"I RAISE MY TOAST!" 'Black Bart' Bartolomeo roared, raising his saucer high above his head.

SMASH!

Before utterly horrifying the other captains present, who could do naught more than gape in equal parts awe and horror at the mohawk-toting maniac who'd just spiked his saucer between his feet.

"TO THE EAST BLUE!" he howled loud enough to shake the rafters of heaven.

Despite the ample warning given by the entire speech, Shiki's eyes flew wide open, every vein on his brow bulging in complete outrage. Angry beyond words or even noises, he drew a pistol and aimed right at the pirate's shark-toothed smile. The gun fired, the bullet flew… and then the lead ball deformed against thin air, falling to floor with a ping that everyone heard.

"HEHAHAHAHAHAHA! You really are a moron, wheel-boy," Bartolomeo taunted, his head thrown back and the air flashing a mere inch in front of his face. "Not only do you try to shoot a guy who ate the Barrier-Barrier Fruit…"

And then Barto snapped his head back into place with a roaring cackle, his tongue lolling from his fang-toothed mouth and both his middle fingers sticking straight up. "But you're stupid enough to recruit one of the only two primo badass captains of this generation to come from the East-fucking-Blue!"

"You…" Shiki rumbled, the veins down his arm bulging murderously, the wooden panelling of his pistol splintering within his grasp. "Do you even realize what the hell you're doing, you suicidal bastard? Do you really think that a pathetic little mongrel like yourself can even last two seconds AGAINST SOMEONE LIKE ME!?" The last few words were roared, the palace creaking ominously around the pirates' heads as though it were liable to rip itself apart any moment.

"Who, me? Alone?" Barto cocked his eyebrow inquisitively, not even looking at Shiki in favor of buffing his nails on his coat. "Psh, nah, I know when to pick my fights. You'd squash me, easy." He then shot a spike-toothed leer at the Golden Lion. "So it's a damn good thing I didn't come alone, ain't it?"

Precisely on cue, the unmistakable sounds of a beatdown filtered into the throne room, from right outside the chamber. And from the familiar screams of panic and pain, Shiki knew that it wasn't his men handing out the beatdown.

"Reinforcements, I take it?" the veteran growled, though calm slowly returned to him. He had armies waiting on all sides of the room, just waiting for a cue to break down the walls. No force would allow this scum and anyone fool enough to follow him to make it out of this alive.

"Hehahaha… you've got it backwards, Shiki," that damnable rookie sneered, slowly walking out of his place in line and positioning himself so that he was directly opposite Shiki, leering up at him without shame or fear. "My crew and I? We're the back-up dancers for this shindig. But them? Hehaha… they're the real main event. I mean seriously!"

Barto flung his arms wide as he stepped aside, the mad grin that had been on his face since the toast spreading even wider. "Just check out their grand entrance!"

Suddenly, the sounds of the beatdown stopped dead, and all the lights outside the throne room seemed to come on at once, harshly illuminating the exterior of the sliding doors.

A whisper of flying steel sang out, drawing everyone's attention to one of the screen walls. In an instant, slashes crisscrossed the entire left half of the wall, the screens holding for only a second before the sheer wind pressure blasted them out of their frames.

A number of the assembled captains shifted where they were sitting, glancing towards the display of force with vague interest.

Seconds later, with the sound of a bomb going off, the other half neatly disintegrated, the paper and wood shattering like glass struck by a hammer. Barely had the shreds from the devastated wall started to fall when a pillar of hellfire erupted and reduced the fragments to ash and cinders.

The captains gazed towards the carnage with restrained curiosity, scrutinizing the smokescreen for the perpetrators.

And then, all at once, they showed themselves.

-o-

"You know, in the earlier days of our training, I often questioned how practical it was to be dressed professionally when we were out on the job," Blueno drawled.

"I remember that, and they always gave us plenty of plausible answers," Kalifa said. "Covering more of your form leaves less opportunity to drop a trace of yourself."

"While at the same time testing you to ensure that you can execute without staining yourself," Kumadori brought up. "There is also the fact that the World Government would never have any employees of significance dressed otherwise while on the job."

"And the fact that limiting our mobility is supposed to give us constant training, in life and on the job," Kaku continued. "All valid reasons… and none of them the real one."

"The real reason," stated Rob Lucci with a bloodthirsty smirk. "Is that it's just so much more satisfying to hand someone their head if you look good doing it."

"Ain't that the truth," Jabra snickered. "Pity that this is probably the last time we'll see the Straw Hats like this, though."

"Either way, there is a fact we cannot deny…" Hattori cooed as he scribbled on a pad of paper, eyeing the Straw Hats as they strode from the smoke.

From 'Sniper King' Usopp's extravagant suit of samurai armor to 'Devil Child' Nico Robin's functional cowboy-trenchcoat combo, and all the spic-and-span suits worn by everyone else in between…

"Those bastards clean up damn good."

-o-

"Hey, what the heck!?" 'Winch Green' Yonji, youngest son of the Vinsmoke line, barked indignantly, strangling one of the vis-snail's eyestalks. "The hell's wrong with the image, you spineless lump of slime?!"

The reason for the ultimate human's ire was that while most of the Straw Hats were depicted in picture-perfect clarity, there were two whose faces were hidden from the world.

One was for a normal enough reason: one of the central figures in the crowd, standing next to Roronoa Zoro, was a chain smoker. So much so that any shots of his face were obscured by the haze of smoke he kept exhaling like a chimney. Unfortunate, but such was life.

The other obscurity, however, was far less forgivable: for whatever reason, the face of the tallest of the crew was rendered entirely inscrutable by a blur of static and warped color that prevented any details whatsoever from being made out.

"You! Stupid! Piece! Of—!" Yonji snarled, yanking harder and harder on the eyestalk, and undoubtedly preparing to yank even harder than that.

"Give it a rest, Yonji," his elder blue-hued brother, Niji, drawled from nearby. "This snail isn't the one in control of the broadcast. The camera must be crossing its vision in regards to that one. It's an old trick that usually takes years to train a snail to do, but the loud mouth one must be capable of it instead."

"I'm more interested in the smoker…" the blazing red elder, Ichiji, smirked as he eyed the fume-shrouded pirate. "Looks like he's a blond… probably that 'Sanji' they have on their crew. Heh, remind you guys of anyone?"

"No, and it doesn't remind you of anyone, either."

"Yes, father," the boys all immediately said, their heads bowed respectfully.

Even the unswerving loyalty of his perfect soldiers didn't prevent a derisive snort from Judge Vinsmoke. Not even their actions could soothe the inferno that had been pricked in the back of his skull. "That is not him," he growled, speaking as much to himself as to the soldiers present in his throne room. "It is a different Sanji, and not that worthless waste of time and flesh. As it is, I've already made it clear to the World Government that I want that embarrassment to our name wiped from the maps. We will speak no more of this."

"Yes, father," the heirs of the Germa repeated.

"As you say, my lord," the lone heiress demurred politely, even as, in the back of her mind, she harbored far less charitable sentiments.

'Wrong again, father,' Reiju thought with her dryest venom, her bile hidden behind a long-perfected mask of obedience. 'You were wrong about him before and you're wrong now.'

But when she looked back at the smoked-out face of her brother—her baby brother, alive and well and thriving—her mask softened into genuine compassion.

'That's right, Sanji,' she silently praised him. 'Tell the world your name… and don't ever let them forget you again!'

-o-

Furthest to the right from the viewers' perspective, Princess Nefertari Vivi rode sidesaddle on her loyal friend, whose helmet, chest plate, greaves, and wing armor made him the very picture of a war mount. And Vivi herself was clad in a purple and black V-neck blouse, black jacket, and black pants, a look of tranquil determination on her face.

Rebecca the gladiator stared at the unflinching form on the screen as she confronted one of the most infamous men in history, a man that even the tyrant Doflamingo feared to clash with, if the way Dressrosa's defenses were being raised was anything to go by.

She'd craved the sight of Vivi's face for several months, with how much her words and actions had affected her, and while she had seen the wanted poster, it wasn't quite what she was looking for.

Now, as she stared at the desert princess as she was at that very moment on the other side of the world, she found herself searching for an answer to a question she had harbored for so long.

Then, all at once, she stiffened and her eyes widened. The look in the princess's eyes crystallized something that had been stirring in Rebecca's mind from the very first SBS, from the very first words Vivi had uttered in defiance to the judgment of the entire world.

And now that Rebecca knew what it was she was feeling, she grabbed it with both hands and vowed she would never let it slip from her grasp again.

She slowly rose, discarding the wagers that she had picked up, and walked off toward the armory.

That day would later be noted as the last time that any of the gladiators saw fear on Rebecca's face. The last time she would let Diamante see fear in her eyes.

-o-

"Dear father, what kind of glasses are those?" Shirahoshi questioned as she took in the image in the town square. "The one that Boss Dugong is wearing?"

"Hmm?" King Neptune hummed, leaning in to see more closely. All five Dugongs in front of the Straw Hats' party were still naked from the 'waist' down, but wore suit coats, bandanas in their usual colors, and neckerchiefs or bowties around their necks. The TDWS all wore round sunglasses as well, evoking the image of yakuza soldiers, but Boss was different. In addition to the bandolier around his torso and the cigar in his jowls, he was wearing…

"Ah, those are triangle shades, dear, jamon. Designed more for appearance than for practicality, jamon. I hope you're not asking because you want a pair?"

"Oh!" Shirahoshi gasped, bringing her hands to her mouth. "No, no, I was just curious about them. I hadn't seen them before."

"They're not common, your highness," the Minister of the Left said, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "Though I do recall one child from a decade or so ago who was quite taken with them. He was a loud and boisterous kid with a good heart, but he kept trying to form something of a gang and he kept going on about the surface as well."

"I heard rumors that he tamed an orangutan sea king and rode off for the surface; he hasn't been heard from since," the Minister of the Right added.

Shirahoshi nodded in understanding, though her brow furrowed in thought. "Ah… Minister, what is an orangutan?"

"This may take a while, jamon," Neptune chuckled lightly as his left and right hands scrambled for answers.

-o-

"…Laki?"

"Yes, Wiper?"

"I'd like to take you up on that offer you made a few weeks ago to design a set of formal clothes."

"I told you so!" Aisa sang.

"You, however, are still not going anywhere near a ship flying a Jolly Roger."

"Sea King balls!"

"AISA!"

"Phhhbt!"

"Heheheh…"

"YOU TOO! I KNOW WHERE SHE PICKS IT UP!"

Apart from the banter, the source of this change in mindset for the Shandian was the image of the Straw Hats' gunner on the screen. White dress shirt and red tie, a white scarf that reached down to her thighs on both sides, and the rest of her in black: black shoes, black pants, black coat, and even the white beret they'd last seen her in swapped out for a black model.

And with Su completing the image by curling around her neck and toting a black fedora all her own…

"You go, gangsta girl…" Aisa breathed reverently, stars twinkling in her eyes.

-o-

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh, that's just awesome," Paulie laughed, gesturing at the figure beside Conis. Even with all that they knew of the Straw Hat Pirates, the most famous of them on the island of Water 7 was Going Merry, the autonomous ship whom the crew had given a new life even when Galley-La's best couldn't fix her.

And currently, said ship was standing in the form that new life had given her: a young girl with white hair, clad in a black overcoat over a red shirt and a decorated peaked cap. Her face bore a quiet smile that held a clear tone of malice, and perhaps most notably, she was the one hauling the rotary cannon, a weapon both twice as tall and thick around her as she was, not counting the ammo drum, with absolutely no effort.

"How can something be so adorable and so badass at the same time?" Oimo snickered in agreement. "Those idiots are in for it now."

"Just like Enies Lobby all over again," Kashi laughed in agreement, fist-bumping his partner.

That good cheer only lasted until their captains' fists cracked down on their skulls.

"BACK TO WORK!"/ "WE'LL TELL YOU WHAT HAPPENS LATER!"

"BASTARDS!"

-o-

Not far from the end of Paradise, the two Marines whose actions had ultimately led to the founding of the New World Masons observed the lineup of the Straw Hat Pirates, their eyes falling on one figure in particular. Directly beside Nefertari Vivi and Carue stood the Voices of Anarchy and their partners.

Jeremiah Cross wore his gauntlets, greaves, and cap, along with a brown shirt with a wide collar and a loose tie colored a darker brown, framed by an open jacket and pants that were a shade darker still. He carried the sword Funkfreed in his right hand, the snarling Lassoo on his back, and Soundbite on his shoulder, a pair of sunglasses doing nothing to hide the glare he was burning over the shades or the fangs he was baring.

And as for Cross himself?

"Commodore Smoker… meaning no disrespect, I've found myself wishing often over the past few months that Cross could be a little more like… well…"

"Like me?" Smoker asked quietly.

"Y-Yes, sir."

"So have I," the Commodore admitted. "I've hated his smartassery since the first time we talked in Loguetown, and I kept thinking to myself that it would be so much easier to tolerate that someone like him helped us form the New World Masons if he were more serious."

The both of them looked back at Cross. His hat was tilted to shadow the upper part of his face, but they could see his eyes. And they were cold. Utterly devoid of humor, of enjoyment, of eagerness… of mercy. The last time Cross had faced down a man that he actually hated enough to murder, he hadn't once lost his witty, if sadistic, sense of humor.

He had long since lost that now. When the two Marines looked at their ally… their friend, who had opened their eyes to the truth, all they saw was a cold-blooded pirate who wouldn't hesitate to reduce any enemy in his path to a ravaged corpse.

"And what do you think now, Tashigi?"

The Lieutenant looked between Cross and Roronoa Zoro, whose eyes gleamed with even more promised murder.

"I really want him to start cracking jokes again…" she swallowed fearfully.

Smoker nodded tersely in agreement. "We'll just have to wait and see once this is all done, then. Right now, I'm more concerned with someone else: where the hell is Straw—?"

Before the Commodore could complete the question, the Straw Hats all parted and formed two rows before the gaping hole in the wall. And in the middle of them all…

Smoker's cigars dropped to the ground, forgotten as the two Marines gaped at just what they were seeing.

"Oh. My. God," Tashigi breathed, voicing at the same time her own thoughts, Smoker's, and the world's.

-o-

On the other side of the world, for the second time that month, the Totland Archipelago was completely paralyzed.

Only five individuals in the whole stretch of sea were left conscious. Four were the Big Mom Pirates' Sweet Commanders, who, at the epicenter of the event, had all fallen to their knees, with Katakuri only just managing to land in a three-point position and keep himself mostly upright via liberal application of Mochi supports as their mother and captain's rage billowed throughout the palace.

The fifth was the source of the event herself: the Emperor of the Seas known as Charlotte 'Big Mom' Linlin, whose mood had just pulled a complete 180.

Just moments earlier, she had been perfectly jovial as she enjoyed a casual tea party with her beloved family, enjoying many a treat while watching the old coot Shiki flail about in Paradise, and totally ignorant of her children and underlings subtly constructing bunkers and shelters all along the archipelago behind her back.

And then, out of the blue, her mood had flipped. Now Linlin was furious, the air itself rippling around her as she flooded her domain with her presence, and crushed everyone within her grasp. Crushed their very beings with the image of a giant, a colossus, a titan, large enough to blot out the very sun, arms outreached from horizon to horizon and threatening to smother the world.

And the source of this outrage was the picture being projected on a screen by a Transponder Snail that only barely remained half-conscious by Katakuri's sparse efforts.

While twenty-one of the Straw Hat Pirates stood on either side of a self-formed corridor, their captain was the last to enter the room, the light from behind him showing him only as a silhouette for a moment. A straw hat, a billowing coat…

And seeing that silhouette, only one thought came across Charlotte Linlin's mind.

One thought crossed the mind of every member of the old generation in the world.

One thought.

One face.

One smile.

One name.

"ROOOOGEEEER…" Big Mom breathed murderously.

-o-

Shiki ruthlessly quashed the vision that his mind's eye forced upon him at seeing the form of that straw hat-wearing pirate. He refused to see the resemblance to his former rival. Roger was dead, gone, no more. And no matter how much the world insisted that this man was his successor, he refused to believe that he would lose with his superior forces to a man from the East Blue. Not now, and never again. Never again.

'And yet, here they are,' a traitorous part of his mind supplied.

He schooled his angered expression into one of dull interest, lighting a new cigar. "So, you want another round. Color me surprised."

The Straw Hat Pirates calmly entered the room, marching between the commanders of the Golden Lion Pirates, who continued to observe them with vague interest. Behind them, Barto strolled up to his own subordinates, who nodded at him, before descending into hushed conversation.

"You're planning on attacking the East Blue," Straw Hat Luffy stated quietly, his hat shadowing his eyes.

"Finally caught on to that, did you?" Shiki scoffed.

The crew paused as they reached the middle of the room, and Luffy raised his head to show one furious eye. "And Nami, she's OK?"

The Golden Lion's grin took on a special kind of evil. "Sure, she's doing peachy!"

The assembled attendants snickered at the apparent joke. Shiki was quick to join them.

The Straw Hats, meanwhile, were just as quick to bristle. In particular, Cross and Zoro tensed up as though they'd been delivered electric shocks, their eyes gleaming with untold emotion in the shadows of their headwear.

"Jihahahahaha!" Shiki, however, was blind to the shift, be it through casual ignorance or his own will. "You sure put up a dangerous front. But you don't think this motley crew of yours is going to walk out of here alive, do you?" So saying, he raised his hand and snapped his fingers.