Somewhere in the Grand Line...
"Been away from you for a hundred weeks… I came back here looking for us—pfft, wait, wrong script!"
A massive first-class Marine battleship sailed swiftly across the sea, slicing through waves with the aid of favorable winds. At the bow, Cross sat cross-legged on the deck, letting the sea breeze tousle his hair as he gazed north, toward the direction of the North Blue.
This was the tenth day since he had left the North Blue and Marine Branch 201. It was also the third day since entering the Grand Line.
And in those three days, Cross had experienced firsthand why the Grand Line was known as the "Sea of Madness."
Magnetic fields, weather patterns, ocean currents, and wind flows were all completely chaotic. Rain, snow, howling gales, and blazing sun alternated unpredictably, leaving no room for navigation by logic or instinct. Even the navigation techniques he had studied in the North Blue were practically useless here.
Beneath him was a warship from Marine Headquarters. It had been dispatched to the North Blue for a mission and, on the return journey, docked at Branch 201 on Miko Island, conveniently bringing Cross along as they headed back to HQ.
"So relaxed... I'm jealous~."
"If you could stand up and say that, I might almost believe you, Vice Admiral Borsalino."
A slow, lazy quip reached his ears, prompting Cross to shoot an annoyed glance at the man lounging in a deck chair nearby.
He had short, curly black hair, a black fedora perched atop his head, and a cigarette lazily dangling from his mouth. Slender and tall, he wore a gray pinstriped suit, a teal tie over a black shirt, and had a pair of black gloves resting on a small round table next to him.
Borsalino, Vice Admiral of Marine Headquarters. A candidate for Admiral.
"How scary~ Have kids these days forgotten how to respect their seniors?" Borsalino drawled, lips puckered as he spoke in his usual languid tone.
"Oh, you've got it all wrong, Borsalino-senpai. I'm just hoping you'll show a little more diligence, maybe stop spending every day napping in a sun chair," Cross replied, putting pointed emphasis on the word senpai.
"Give me a break, would you?" Borsalino replied, reaching for a glass of chilled juice from the table and taking a slow sip. "I worked myself to the bone in the North Blue chasing a terrifying pirate. This is just a little well-earned downtime."
"Ah yes~ very logical, very convincing," Cross muttered with a curl of his lip, offering a half-hearted reply.
Truth be told, Borsalino had indeed traveled to the North Blue to capture a notorious pirate. And the story all tied back to the legendary Golden Lion Shiki and his Flying Pirates.
Shiki, the Golden Lion, Captain of the Flying Pirates, Supreme Commander of the Golden Lion Fleet.
Known as the "Flying Pirate," he was a man of grand ambition and courage, whose roaring might once shook the seas. He stood shoulder to shoulder with legends like Pirate King Gol D. Roger and Whitebeard Edward Newgate.
Long before the Great Pirate Era began, Shiki had tried to ally with Roger, who at the time had yet to claim the title of Pirate King, in a bid to conquer the world. But Roger refused him.
Enraged by the rejection, Shiki led his entire fleet into battle against the Roger Pirates at the Edd War.
That clash would go down in history as the Battle of Edd War!
Initially, the Flying Pirates held the upper hand, nearly wiping out Roger's crew. But fate seemed to favor Roger. A once-in-a-century superstorm erupted mid-battle, halting the fight.
The storm was devastating. It sent most of Shiki's fleet to the ocean floor, and even Shiki himself suffered a bizarre injury, a ship's helm impaled his skull. To this day, there's no safe way to remove it.
After that disaster, the Flying Pirates were greatly weakened and forced to withdraw from world conquest, focusing instead on rebuilding while defending against Marines and rival pirate crews.
Before they could fully recover, Gol D. Roger completed his voyage across the Grand Line, claimed the title of Pirate King, and later turned himself in to the Marines, though the world was told he had been captured.
When Shiki heard that Roger had been caught, he refused to believe it. He stormed into Marineford solo, killed scores of Marines, and fought a titanic battle against Admiral Sengoku and Marine Hero Monkey D. Garp.
The battle raged for three days. Half of Marineford's buildings were destroyed before Shiki was finally defeated and imprisoned in the world's greatest prison, Impel Down.
With Shiki gone, and the Flying Pirates already in decline, their remnants were swiftly hunted down by Marines and rival crews alike. Their officers were either killed, captured, went missing, or defected. The crew crumbled.
A few years later, against all odds, Shiki broke out of Impel Down, becoming the first person ever to escape that fortress. But when he emerged, he found his Flying Pirates scattered and gone. After a brief meeting with Whitebeard in the New World, Shiki disappeared from the public eye.
Then, at the start of this year, Marine Intelligence operatives caught wind of something unexpected: one of Shiki's top officers had been spotted on an island in the first half of the Grand Line. That officer was the 'Mobile Turret' Celeste, a Paramecia-type Accelerate-Accelerate Fruit user with a bounty of 490 million Berries.
Marine HQ immediately dispatched Borsalino to capture him.
Celeste was fast, really fast. He managed to flee all the way from the Grand Line to the North Blue, with Borsalino in hot pursuit the entire way.
But in the end, he couldn't outrun justice. Borsalino cornered him on a remote island in the North Blue. After a fierce battle, the fugitive was captured and was now locked away in a sea-prism stone cell at the bottom of this very ship, awaiting transport to Impel Down.
That said, Cross had spent ten days aboard this warship and had long since gotten chummy with the enlisted men. From them, he learned the truth: the mission hadn't been quite the grueling, day-and-night manhunt Borsalino described.
After all, the first half of the Grand Line and the Four Blues were under World Government control. Borsalino's warship had ample opportunities to dock at allied nations and Marine branches along the way. Not to mention the logistical and intelligence support provided by Marine Intelligence and Cipher Pol.
Meanwhile, Celeste, the Flying Pirate officer, wasn't particularly good at staying hidden. Every time he landed on an island or entered a kingdom, he was quickly identified, prompting Borsalino's pursuit all over again. Constantly on the run, the fugitive lived in a state of nonstop anxiety and exhaustion.
So, for over three months, it was a game of cat and mouse, Borsalino casually chasing, Celeste desperately fleeing. Far from a grueling grind, Borsalino's mission was more like walking a dog. If anyone had been working "day and night," it was the guy now locked in chains.
Pere pere pere... pere pere...
Suddenly, a Den Den Mushi began to ring from Borsalino's person.
"Aaah~ Seriously? Don't tell me I've got another mission already…"
Borsalino puckered his lips in mock frustration, raising his wrist to speak into the black Den Den Mushi there.
"Moshi moshi~ This is Borsalino speaking."
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