The arrival of the Rodin Pirates at the Sabaody Archipelago has sent the island into a panic. Shops, bars, and auction houses closed their doors as civilians fled to shelters or tried to escape by sea. Marines, too, were evacuating, creating an atmosphere of extreme tension.
"Is Marine going to fight again?" someone shouted.
"Go to the shelter!" another screamed.
At Shakky's Rip-off BAR, the aftermath of the battle between Baki and Rayleigh spread over a hundred meters. Rodin, sensing the incoming Marines, told Sakazuki, "The Marines are coming. After we're done here, we'll get the coating." He then jumped into the air, using his Haki to teleport to the location of Dover and Crocodile.
In an instant, he was above a shopping street, where a Celestial Dragon lay unconscious on the ground, surrounded by fallen bodyguards. In the distance, Marines were taking up battle positions.
"Captain Rodin," Dove said, bowing slightly.
"You won't blame us for bringing Marine here ahead of time, will you?" Crocodile asked with a grin.
"It would've happened sooner or later," Rodin said, frowning at Crocodile's flirtatious behavior. He quickly got to the point. "Have you gotten the Devil Fruit yet? This method is pretty rough."
Dove shook her head. "The Devil Fruits on the island have all been collected and moved to the Holy Land," she said, explaining that their plan to trade the Celestial Dragon for a Devil Fruit wouldn't work.
Rodin, however, had a new plan. He signed in to Sabaody Archipelago and received the Film-spitting Bubble Machine, a device that could coat ships and people for diving. "Then we don't need to wait," he said.
But just as he was about to leave, his Haki picked up on a new communication. A Marine Vice Admiral was on the phone, receiving orders.
"Marshal Sengoku, Admiral Kizaru, Garp, and Tsuru will all be here this time," the voice on the phone said. "Even Teacher Zephyr, will come."
The Vice Admiral was shocked. This was a massive deployment of top-tier fighters, a force capable of taking on an entire Yonko crew. "Are they finally going to capture the Rodin Pirates?" he wondered, but the orders were clear: "Do not fire unless absolutely necessary."
The transmission reached Rodin, and he smiled. "Is this the last big siege before we enter the New World?" he mused. This was a battle he couldn't run from, and he was tired of being a "mouse."
"It's time to turn the mouse into a cat!" he declared.
Dove and Crocodile were worried. The Marine forces were too powerful. "Captain, if you want to fight, we'll accompany you," Dover said.
"No, no, we don't need to make a move," Rodin replied, a relaxed smile on his face. He had a different plan. He pulled out a white card with a door and five stars etched on it.
"Could it be..." Dove's eyes widened.
"You'll find out soon enough," Rodin said. He extended his Haki to all the ports on Sabaody Island and waited. As soon as the warships approached, he would strike. "It's time to give Marine a hard blow," he said.
He then crushed the summoning card. Immediately, an extremely brilliant white light appeared in the sky above them.
The entire Sabaody Archipelago was in a state of chaos. A rapidly rotating pentagram array appeared in the sky, causing pirates, civilians, and Marines alike to look up in shock.
"Is that a new weapon from Marine?" a civilian wondered.
"No, it must be from an ability user!" someone else countered.
Just a kilometer away, three Marine warships, their sails emblazoned with the word "Justice", appeared. On the middle ship, Sengoku, Garp, Zephyr, Kizaru, and Tsuru all stared at the sky, their faces frozen in disbelief.
From the phone bug in Sengoku's hand, a voice from the Five Elders demanded they capture the Rodin Pirates for kidnapping a Celestial Dragon. "Sengoku, did you hear that?" the voice asked impatiently.
"I... saw a beam of light!" Sengoku finally responded, his voice filled with awe. He felt that the mystery of Rodin was about to be revealed. As if to confirm his thoughts, five beams of light—four black and one white—shot down from the array.
Kizaru, squinting, said, "Each light is more dazzling and terrifying than my own," and then flew to his designated warship. The three ships split up, heading toward Sabaody from different directions.
On the ground, as the light faded, five old figures appeared: a bald woman in a white robe with a samurai sword, a shaggy-bearded woman with a cane, a bald, mustached woman, a blonde woman, and an old woman with long hair and a long beard. They all had the stern faces of old men but the figures of women.
The Marines who were setting up their defenses were confused. The Vice Admiral, looking through his binoculars, shivered. "Five... Five Elders?" he stuttered.
Hiding in a giant tree, three CP9 agents dropped their binoculars in shock. "Did he ask the Five Elders for help?" one of them whispered.
The five women stepped forward and knelt before Rodin. "Have you decided to turn off a lamp in history this time?" the bald woman asked, looking up at him with a serious expression. "If you have a conclusion, please convey that person's name!"
"Marine," Rodin said. He had summoned the female counterparts of the Five Elders from a parallel world. The system informed him that each of them was roughly at the level of a Vice Admiral, but the bald woman declared that just one of them could "overwhelm a Admiral." The five of them together, she claimed, could make the entire Marine Headquarters "prostrate in front of you!"
Rodin, with a newfound confidence, decided to pit them against the approaching Marine forces. He gave the women their orders and, with the help of his transparency and silence abilities, prepared to infiltrate the docks.
At the coating area, Mihoko, standing by the flying boat, pulled out her sword and unleashed a flying slash. Kizaru, who had just arrived, quickly drew his own sword to block the attack.
"Yo, you are indeed the female version of Mihawk," Kizaru said. "Let's make up for the fight we didn't have last time."
Mihoko ignored him and charged forward. Kizaru turned into light particles and disappeared, and the craftsmen working on the ship fled in a panic.
Back at Shakky's bar, Baki and Sakazuki were still locked in a confrontation with Rayleigh. Baki, after a brief exchange with Rayleigh, turned to leave with Sakazuki. "I'll come for you next time, and I'll definitely defeat you!" she yelled.
Meanwhile, a warship carrying Zephyr, his two students, and Tsuru docked. Zephyr, seeing a woman in a Marine cloak and high-heeled shoes, stopped dead in his tracks.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Zephyr," the woman said.
"Dove, go help Mihoko with the ship," Rodin said, interrupting his crew's conversations. He then grabbed Crocodile and made her transparent and silent, and sent his summoned Five Elders to the nearest pier.
The Five Elders moved with incredible speed, arriving at the pier just as two warships carrying the highest combat power in the headquarters were approaching. On board, Sengoku's eyes widened, and Garp stopped eating his donut. They all stared at the five women standing on the dock.
"That, that is..." Sengoku stuttered, unable to believe his eyes.