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Just a few days after Alex left Elbaf, big news began to spread from Dressrosa in the New World. Straw Hat Luffy had defeated Shichibukai Doflamingo, causing a sensation throughout the world.
The event gained even more attention because Doflamingo had used the Mera-Mera Fruit to attract numerous underground forces. These connections, combined with Luffy's victory, quickly made the Straw Hat captain famous.
Newspapers particularly emphasized Luffy's impressive feat of defeating Doflamingo and the formation of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, comprised of thousands of powerful fighters. Some publications even praised him as the most likely candidate to secure the vacant fourth throne among the Yonko.
This news naturally made some people happy and others worried.
In Mariejois, at the "Holy Land" of the World Government, the top floor office was brightly lit, but the atmosphere among the Five Elders was unprecedentedly tense.
What caused this situation was undoubtedly the intelligence report before them, detailing everything Doflamingo had done in Dressrosa, along with various information about the Straw Hat Grand Fleet.
Because of these events, they needed to consider what kind of satisfactory statement they should present at the upcoming Reverie. This marked the third time a Shichibukai had caused massive damage to allied nations, with Doflamingo's crimes being particularly severe—stealing an entire country.
The Five Elders could already predict the complaints that would be raised by attending nations during the Reverie, expressing their dissatisfaction with the World Government.
But compared to these troublesome issues that could be solved with rhetoric and policy adjustments, there was a greater concern creating the current oppressive atmosphere.
At this moment, the Five Elders were all contemplating one particular piece of information provided by Morgans: Straw Hat Luffy's Gomu Gomu no Mi (Rubber Fruit) was suspected to be close to awakening, and some had reportedly heard an inexplicable heartbeat emanating from it.
Though Morgans' description wasn't precise, it was enough for the Five Elders to make their judgment.
The incident they had feared for centuries was happening: the Nika Fruit would reappear in the world!
"I didn't expect this destabilizing factor to surface again," one Elder remarked.
"Regardless of the era, the World Government has been trying to reclaim this fruit—the real Rubber-Rubber Fruit or specifically the Human-Human Fruit Model: Nika—for 800 years, but has never succeeded in securing it..."
"In the end, it's the inherited will that causes the trouble. I never expected that bratty pirate to actually approach the level of awakening in such a short time..."
"It's particularly troublesome for this to emerge now..."
The Five Elders were developing headaches over this development. In truth, from the moment Straw Hat Luffy first appeared on the Grand Line, he had been on their radar.
However, the Gomu Gomu no Mi had existed for hundreds of years, and many users had possessed it during this period, but none had ever awakened its true ability. Thus, the Five Elders, the highest authority in the World Government, hadn't taken Luffy seriously, believing he could never awaken the fruit's true power.
After all, to the Five Elders, Luffy was just a kid who had only been at sea for a few years.
It wasn't until after the Enies Lobby incident and the Thriller Bark incident with Moria that the World Government officially began paying close attention to this newcomer. They had asked Kuma to eliminate the Straw Hat Pirates in the Florian Triangle.
They hadn't expected Kuma to deliberately save them, just as during the Marineford War. Now that Luffy had returned to the sea, he had caused another major incident.
Looking back, whether in Alabasta or now in Dressrosa, nations had received help from Straw Hat Luffy to overcome the destruction brought by Shichibukai. This pattern, combined with Nika's legendary "Drums of Liberation," truly corresponded to the prophecies about ability and destiny.
Among the troubled Five Elders, it was finally the decisive kimono-wearing Elder who spoke: "Straw Hat Luffy can no longer be allowed to act freely. With Nika's Drums of Liberation and the Revolutionary Army behind him, he represents a threat no less significant than the Sky Kingdom in challenging the World Government's existence!"
The other four had no objections to this statement.
If Luffy's connections to Red-Haired Shanks and Vice Admiral Garp might have once been mitigating factors, the emergence of Nika at this moment was enough to override any such considerations.
All of this was happening while Lord Im had also awakened...
As the Five Elders discussed their decision, in a secluded chamber among flowers, Im picked up Straw Hat Luffy's yet-to-be-updated bounty poster and walked step by step toward the supreme throne made of tree crowns.
Staring at the wanted poster, a terrifying energy flowed from Im's fingertips and covered the poster, resulting in a strange transformation.
It seemed the image had changed—Straw Hat Luffy's bright smile remained on the paper, but his black hair had somehow turned white as clouds.
Looking at the transformed image of Straw Hat Luffy, some memory flashed in Im's eyes. The next moment, the altered bounty poster was thrown into the air, and with another swipe of fingertips, twelve strange energy beams flashed suddenly, smashing the poster to the ground in an instant.
Meanwhile, Straw Hat Luffy, having just defeated Doflamingo and rescued Dressrosa, had no idea how much trouble Morgans had caused because of the additional reporting commissioned by Alex.
Soon, after two days of news circulation, the new bounty posters issued by the Marines were distributed throughout the world as quickly as possible. The one attracting the most attention was, of course, the recently headline-making Straw Hat Luffy.