Away from Hachinosu...
away from Egghead...
and even away from Elbaph...
The world was still burning.
Elsewhere in the New World, a new power had risen and thrown the balance of the seas into absolute chaos.
Cross Guild.
A name that had gone from a joke... to a global threat.
For the first time in history, bounties were being placed not on pirates—but on Marines.
The higher the rank, the higher the bounty.
But rank alone wasn't everything. Reputation, fear, and legend mattered just as much.
Vice Admiral Garp.
Despite not holding the title of admiral, his bounty had been set at three billion berries—the same as the active Admirals themselves.
A clear message.
Cross Guild wasn't playing games.
And at the center of it all...
Buggy the Clown.
A man who, for over twenty years, had been a failure. A coward. A background character in the age of monsters.
And yet.
Through coincidence, chaos, and absurd luck, he had climbed higher and higher until the world itself finally broke and named him what he had no right to be.
An Emperor of the Sea.
Now, having heard that Shanks had finally begun moving toward the One Piece...
Buggy had done what Buggy always did.
He panicked.
He lied.
He postured.
And somehow... the world listened.
He rallied his followers—idiots, fanatics, criminals who truly believed he was a hidden demon among men—and declared that Cross Guild would race for the One Piece as well.
Because Buggy wanted to be King of the Pirates.
The true leaders of Cross Guild, however, were not the clown on the throne.
They were the ones standing behind it.
Dracule Mihawk.
Sir Crocodile.
Two former Warlords. Two monsters of the old era.
Mihawk—the world's greatest swordsman, whose very presence made even emperors cautious.
Crocodile—the man who once tried to seize a nation, now quietly building an empire from the shadows.
There was also Fulguro.
A white-haired pirate who had once served under Doflamingo.
A man who had nearly died on Dressrosa at Ryo's hands.
The user of the Zap-Zap Fruit.
He was nowhere near the level of the former Warlords.
Whether he would rise...
or be crushed and replaced by someone stronger...
Only time would decide.
And while Buggy ranted about destiny and treasure...
Mihawk and Crocodile watched.
Their true intentions still hidden.
⸻
Elsewhere in the New World...
Another clash had already ended.
And it had ended in blood and wreckage.
Trafalgar Law had not sought an Emperor.
