In the end, the Roger Pirates set their sights on a new, even bigger dream.
Sailing the Grand Line and crossing the New World had fulfilled their goal of circling the Grand Line. Now, their next grand adventure was to travel around the entire world, to roam all four seas under the World Government's control.
The Four Seas had no Yonko-level pirates, no overlord crews like in the New World. But the threat of the World Government and Marine Headquarters was no less terrifying because of that.
They just hadn't yet realized what kind of storm was waiting for them once they left. Traveling freely around the world was almost an impossible dream now.
They had crossed the bottom line.
They had deciphered Poneglyphs.
They had set foot on the Final Island.
These two sins alone were enough to make the World Government burn with murderous intent toward the Roger Pirates. If they dared to return to the Four Seas, they would be facing the full power of both the World Government and the Navy.
Without the special geography of the New World to hide in, without the balance of overlord pirate crews to divide the pressure, could the Roger Pirates really outrun the World Government's hunt?
"Roger, we should leave the New World," Rayleigh said suddenly, his tone dead serious.
They still had piles of Poneglyph rubbings that needed Brook's help to fully translate, but neither of them wanted to keep drifting inside this powder keg any longer.
If they slipped up even once, they would be dragged into the hegemony war between the two pirate overlords. Better to pull out now.
Once the war between Brook and Rocks ended, they could find another opportunity to sneak back into the New World and deal with the inscriptions then.
"You mean that once we leave Laugh Tale, we head straight across the Calm Belt into the Blues?"
Roger took a huge bite of meat, chewed, then grinned. "Not a bad idea."
With their strength, plus his and Rayleigh's Haki, and his Voice of All Things, crossing the Calm Belt was dangerous but far from impossible.
Besides, he had the nagging feeling Brook was planning something that involved them. Roger didn't want to get dragged into the New World's whirlpool the moment they stepped off this island.
"Yeah." Rayleigh nodded. "Brook won't force us directly into the war, but who knows what tricks he'll use to push us onto the board?"
"Alright then, do we head for the North Blue or the West Blue?" Roger asked, looking to him. Rayleigh usually laid out the options, and Roger made the final call.
"From Laugh Tale, steer for the North Blue," Rayleigh decided. "The most important thing is to get out of the New World as fast as we can."
"I like it!" Roger laughed and raised his cup high. "We'll head for the North Blue, then loop around to the other seas through Reverse Mountain!"
He clinked cups with his crew, their next course decided in a roar of laughter and cheers.
At the edge of the celebration, Captain Mullin quietly carved that plan into his heart. He just needed the right moment to pass it on to his handlers.
The Roger Pirates stayed on Laugh Tale for another week. They ate, drank, rested, and hauled away as much rare metal and scrap tech as the Oro Jackson could carry. Only once they'd recovered their strength did they finally raise anchor and leave the Final Island behind.
They braved the monstrous storm belt once again, slipped free of the extreme weather surrounding Laugh Tale, then turned their bow straight toward the windless zone leading to the North Blue.
And at that moment, Captain Mullin realized something else.
Outside Laugh Tale's chaotic magnetic field, his special Den Den Mushi could finally reconnect with the outside world.
But his tiny, furtive movements did not go unnoticed.
Rayleigh and Roger had been quietly watching him for days.
Roger, stubborn as ever, had refused to believe his own suspicions. He didn't expose Mullin. He chose to wait, hoping the man would change his mind on his own.
That hope shattered on the day they were about to enter the Calm Belt.
Captain Mullin couldn't hold it in any longer. He slipped away under the excuse of going to the toilet, closed the door, and hurriedly dialed the special Den Den Mushi.
At that exact moment, Roger's expression hardened.
Rayleigh's fingers slid to the hilt of his blade.
"Long live Celestial Dragon. Natural Enemy Number Nine, I have important intel," Mullin whispered into the receiver, reporting his code and identity, confirming his contact on the other end.
"The Roger Pirates have already landed on the Final Island. Roger named it Laugh Tale. I have obtained the Eternal Pose for Laugh Tale. Next, the Roger Pirates will head to—"
Boom!!
The bathroom door exploded off its hinges.
Before Mullin could finish his sentence, Roger was already standing there, filling the doorway, his face dark and heavy with disappointment.
Rayleigh moved in the same instant, his sword flashing once. The special Den Den Mushi in Mullin's hand was sliced cleanly in half, its signal severed before it could transmit their route.
"Why, Mullin… why?!"
Roger strode forward, seizing Captain Mullin by the collar and yanking him out of the shattered bathroom. He dragged him onto the deck like a storm walking on two feet.
As he searched him, his hand closed around something cold and familiar.
Laugh Tale's Eternal Pose.
"The Final Island doesn't need an Eternal Pose."
While the other crew members stared in shock, Roger lifted the Eternal Pose high, then flung it out over the railing.
The glass sphere spun through the air and plunged into the ocean with a splash.
No one expected what happened next.
A massive shadow surged up beneath the waves. A Sea King's jaws snapped shut around the sinking Eternal Pose in one gulp, then vanished into the deep.
Just like that, the only Eternal Pose to Laugh Tale on that ship was gone.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, Captain Roger! Please kill me!! I'm so sorry!!!"
Captain Mullin broke down, sobbing on the deck. Yet under the tears, there was a faint trace of relief in his voice.
He had lived too long in the warmth of this crew.
Every single time he betrayed them, it had torn him apart.
"Mullin! Weren't we good to you?! How could you betray us?!"
Spencer stormed up and smashed his fist into Mullin's face, sending him crashing to the boards. His voice shook with rage. He couldn't accept that the man who had fought and eaten beside them all this time had been stabbing them in the back.
"I'm sorry, everyone… I betrayed your trust," Mullin choked out, blood dripping from his lips. "But I was a spy planted by the Navy from the very beginning. I never had a choice."
He struggled up onto his knees, tears blurring his vision.
"I cherished every day I spent with all of you. I'll use my death to apologize… but please, Captain, hear me out to the end!"
Several crew members surged forward and beat him again, unable to hold back their anger. Mullin didn't resist. He took every blow, letting their fists write judgment across his body.
"Enough."
Roger finally raised a hand. His face was expressionless now, voice flat and heavy. No matter how much it hurt, there was an iron rule on every pirate ship.
Traitors must die.
"Captain Roger…" Mullin took a ragged breath. "I'm sorry. My family is under CP's control. I really had no choice. My home is in the North Blue. If you can… I beg you, please save them."
He swallowed, then forced the rest out.
"And there's one more thing. Captain Roger, you should find a doctor and have your body checked. I… I poisoned you. I don't know what kind of poison it is, I was just following orders."
He stated his real surname and the location of his hometown, giving them everything he had kept hidden. His shoulders finally relaxed.
Then, under the eyes of the entire crew, Captain Mullin slowly walked to the ship's railing.
"Thank you… for your company on this journey. I'm sorry. If there's a next life, I'll definitely repay Captain Roger properly."
He raised a pistol to his own head.
Bang.
With a guilty smile still frozen on his face, Captain Mullin toppled backward off the rail and fell into the sea below.
Roger's hand trembled in midair. He had reached out on instinct, wanting to stop him, to say something, anything—but in the end, he let his arm fall.
He watched Mullin disappear beneath the waves.
The other crew members stood in stunned silence, expressions twisted with grief and conflict.
None of them moved to stop Mullin's final act.
They had lost a comrade.
They had executed a traitor.
And at the very end, they left him with the one thing he had left to claim for himself—his last shred of dignity.
------------
The incident with Captain Mullin cast a long shadow over the Roger Pirates.
The joy of conquering the Final Island evaporated in an instant. In its place came a heavy silence and a deep, simmering hatred for the Navy and the World Government, who had forced a good comrade into the role of spy and driven him to his death.
Rayleigh had stopped Mullin from leaking their next destination, but one thing still slipped out.
Roger had been poisoned.
They did not know what kind of poison it was. They only knew it came from the World Government, and that their captain had been carrying it inside him all this time. That knowledge made every crew member clench their fists.
What lingered in Roger's mind, however, was not the poison.
It was Mullin's last request.
A family in the North Blue, held hostage by CP.
"I've decided. We're going to Mullin's hometown," Roger declared, standing on the deck with his arms folded. "We're going to rescue his family."
He did not spare a word for his own health. All his resolve was fixed on fulfilling Mullin's final wish.
Seeing the determination in his eyes, the crew understood.
Mullin had been a spy and a traitor, yes—but he had also been a man backed into a corner, forced to follow orders while living among them as a friend. He had poisoned their captain, and that was a wound they could not ignore. But in the end, Roger had chosen to forgive him.
If their captain refused to turn his anger on Mullin's family, then they had no right to either.
From this moment on, they would go to the North Blue not as Mullin's victims, but as the crew of Captain Mullin, sailing to save his kin.
Driven by anger and purpose, the Roger Pirates plunged straight into the Calm Belt. They hauled in the useless sails, took up the oars, and rowed the Oro Jackson forward by sheer manpower, ignoring the looming shapes of Sea Kings beneath the still water.
Their overwhelming Haki and presence pushed the monsters back. The ship cut a silent line toward the North Blue.
Elsewhere, the news that the Roger Pirates had set foot on the Final Island had already reached the World Government through CP intelligence. Mullin's death was also confirmed when his life paper burned to ash.
But after that, the Roger Pirates vanished completely from their sight.
The last operation had deployed a Knight of God and a CP kill squad to target Roger's crew, yet they had failed to use Mullin's infiltration to the fullest. After so many years deep undercover, he had only managed to send out one incomplete report before dying. It was a painful loss.
Even so, the World Government understood clearly now.
The Roger Pirates were an extraordinary threat.
They had learned the truth of the void century. That alone meant they had to be erased as soon as possible.
Soon after, the World Peace Dove News Agency pushed out a blazing headline across the world.
[Roger Pirates Conquer Final Island! The True Pirate King Appears!]
The papers loudly crowned Gol D. Roger as King of the Pirates, declaring that Rocks and Brook were nothing more than noisy jokers compared to him.
The intent behind that flattery was obvious.
They wanted to make Roger the public enemy of all pirates, to paint him as the one standing above everyone else. If enough crews envied and hated him, they would fight to drag him down… and in that chaos, the pirates would tear each other apart.
When Brook received the latest newspapers, his brows furrowed.
"The World Government got the news faster than I did?"
Even he had lost track of Roger's movements. That was rare.
Thinking of Captain Mullin, Brook quickly pieced the reason together.
He had no idea where the Roger Pirates were now, but he was very willing to let Roger's name spread even further. So he immediately sent word to Moore Thomas.
Boost the story.
Push it even harder.
Soon a new, even more explosive headline swept across the seas, courtesy of the Hell Pirates' own news network:
[The Final Island holds the secret of how the Celestial Dragons rose to power, and records the truth of the hundred years of void history. Whoever reaches the Final Island can gain the power to rule the world, drive out the Celestial Dragons, and become the next ruler of the age!]
The effect was instant.
Countless ambitious people went wild. Kings, pirates, underground brokers, even some Marines secretly reading the paper, all burned with the same thought.
Find the Roger Pirates.
Seize the road to the Final Island.
Snatch the right to rule the world.
In Mariejois, the Five Elders were livid.
They immediately ordered their subordinates to pressure Moore Thomas, demanding that all such articles be withdrawn. Anything related to the void century absolutely could not be allowed to spread.
Moore Thomas ignored them completely.
Under Brook's instructions, he kept on printing every word.
Brook publicly acknowledged that Roger had conquered the Final Island and accepted the title of Pirate King—but he also coined loftier terms like Pirate Emperor and even Pirate God in his own papers, shifting the focus and refusing to dance to the World Government's tune.
By inflating the hierarchy of pirate titles, he diluted the hostility aimed at Roger alone and complicated how other pirate crews viewed him.
While the World Government and Brook were locked in a war of words across front pages and headlines, the Oro Jackson finally slipped out of the Calm Belt and into the North Blue.
Their next goal was clear.
Find Mullin's hometown as fast as possible, and save his family before CP decided to silence them.
…
North Blue, Figarland Island.
A vast landmass rose from the sea, larger than Alabasta's Sandy Island, and many times the size of Dressrosa's Passion Island.
It bore a grand name: the Island of Knights, Figarland Island.
This was the ancient homeland of the Figarland family, one of the original twenty royal houses that founded the World Government.
Unlike the Donquixote family, who had abandoned their land to move to the Holy Land, the Figarlands had kept their ancestral territory firmly under their own control.
This year, the Figarland family was celebrating.
A new child had been born.
After the hundred days celebration concluded, and with the God Valley incident finally settled, the Figarland patriarch decided on a whim to return with his household to the North Blue and pay respects to their ancestors.
The grand convoy that escorted them cut a glittering path across the sea. Wherever it passed, the North Blue held its breath. Even Germa 66 steered well clear, unwilling to provoke the wrath of a Celestial Dragon.
The Vinsmoke line might have once ruled the North Blue in ages past, but they had never dared to touch a land belonging to the Celestial Dragons.
Saint Figarland Panza never imagined that anyone would be bold enough to lay a hand on a Celestial Dragon fleet.
But the world was never short on lunatics who did not fear death.
Camacho, captain of the Destruction Pirates, North Blue commander under the Rocks Pirates. Paramecia, Bomb-Bomb Fruit. Bounty: 290 million berries.
A notorious pirate who had already sailed through the New World, now assigned to oversee Rocks' interests in the North Blue.
Camacho worshiped Rocks, the man he saw as the strongest in the world. The North Blue, the so-called strongest sea among the four, bored him to tears.
He wanted to go back.
He wanted to return to the New World and fight by Rocks' side.
And he knew exactly what Captain Rocks hated most in this world.
The Celestial Dragons.
"So I'll take a Celestial Dragon's head back as a gift, Captain Rocks," Camacho muttered, eyes blazing. "I'm done rotting out here on babysitting duty."
This time, he intended to return to the New World carrying the blood of a Celestial Dragon, and use it to earn himself an official position among the Rocks Pirates' core cadres.
Under his hand, the power of the Bomb-Bomb Fruit had grown terrifying.
Anything he touched could be turned into a bomb. No more tossing boogers or hairs. Every plank, every cannonball, every weapon he laid fingers on became a potential explosion.
Under his lead, the Destruction Pirates charged straight at the Celestial Dragon convoy.
The crew under him were just as deranged as their captain. Their eyes shone with manic glee rather than fear as they closed in on the gilded ships of the World Nobles.
They did not care that their target was a Celestial Dragon.
They were eager for the blast.
A deafening explosion tore open the sky above the luxurious fleet. Fire and smoke erupted from the lead ship, rising like a black banner.
Screams, gunshots, and the clash of steel followed in a chaotic roar.
On one side of the North Blue, a Celestial Dragon convoy burned.
On the other, cutting toward the same sea under a different banner, the Roger Pirates drove the Oro Jackson forward at full speed.
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