When Luffy, with Helmeppo's "help," managed to retrieve Zoro's three swords from the base and deliver them, Morgan had already been sent flying by Eden's punch.
By now, even Zoro had been rescued from the crucifix by the combined efforts of Nami and Koby.
"Did I get here too late?"
Luffy stood in the doorway, looking a little lost.
"You break out of your cage without permission and then cause THIS kind of mess—just how are you planning to pay back the debt you owe us?!"
While Luffy spaced out, Nami had already closed in on him and unleashed a flurry of combo punches straight to his head.
"Ow! That hurts!"
Luffy clutched his head, bewildered. He still couldn't understand why, as a rubber man, he could be hurt by someone's punches. Was Nami's fist, like his grandpa "Hero" Garp's "fist of love," just something he couldn't defend against?
"Zoro…"
"I got three swords here—I honestly couldn't tell which ones were yours, so I just brought them all."
With Nami's iron fist still thumping him, Luffy handed over the three katanas he'd found at the Marine base.
"Thanks. Actually, they're all mine."
"I'm a swordsman who uses three swords."
Zoro took all three swords and slid them into his belt, offering Luffy a genuinely grateful nod.
"So, wanna come along with us?"
Luffy grinned and immediately extended his invitation for Zoro to join the adventure.
"…"
Zoro, hearing this, looked long and hard at Luffy—then glanced over at Eden, thoughtful. "Hey, you're Luffy, right? I think I told you before—my dream is to become the world's greatest swordsman."
"Yeah. And I'm going to become the Pirate King!"
"If you're going to be my crewmate, Zoro, of course you have to be that strong."
Luffy nodded, full of confidence.
"In that case, I'll be counting on you, Captain."
Zoro smirked. Inside, he thought, "If this guy can recruit a pirate with a 30 million bounty as his crew, he's gotta be no slouch himself."
…Of course, Zoro was misunderstanding completely. He thought he'd found a super reliable captain.
Meanwhile, Eden was lost in thought about his new title: "Sea Emperor (Atlantean)."
(A quick nerdy aside: Eden's "Sea Emperor" title—"Atlantean"—comes from the Yugioh card archetype, referencing Atlantis and the Titan Atlas, which can be translated as "Sea Emperor," though it doesn't really mean "Emperor of the Sea." It's like how the ancient weapon "Pluton" and Rayleigh's title both get translated as "Dark King" in different contexts. Same words, different meanings!)
It was just a wild coincidence—Eden's Fairy Tail title was "AtlanteanDragon"—the Sea Emperor Dragon. All these parallels felt a bit too much like fate.
"…Unless…"
Eden glanced at Happy, both of them having the same thought:
"…Unless someone from our Fairy Tail guild has already infiltrated Marine HQ and gotten high enough to assign bounties to pirates in the tens of millions…"
Eden and Happy came to the conclusion almost at the same time.
"This is starting to get complicated," Eden muttered, brow furrowed.
Eden knew his Fairy Tail guildmates inside and out. In a real crisis, they were always the most reliable friends—you could count on them to sacrifice everything. But before danger showed up, the real danger was always your own friends.
In other words, Eden didn't know which guildmate had gotten into Marine HQ, but he was almost sure they were out to catch him and toss him in jail.
Of course, if Eden actually did get tossed in jail, that same guildmate would one hundred percent break him out right after—just so they could laugh at him about it for the rest of his life.
No, knowing the brain circuits of Fairy Tail guild members, their logic was probably: "Let's use the World Government's power to arrest ALL our scattered guildmates and put us all in the same prison—then at least we'll all be together again!"
So… who could it be?
"I'm starving!"
Luffy, rubbing his grumbling stomach, looked at Eden. "Eden, let's go eat!"
"Sigh…"
Eden let out a long, helpless sigh. "Alright. There's no use overthinking it. Let's just eat first."
And so, Eden and his friends headed for a restaurant in town.
Meanwhile, after Morgan was defeated, the Marines at the base started cheering: "The tyrant Morgan is gone! Justice prevails! Long live the Marines!"
Yeah… not a single person cared about Morgan's fate.
Everyone had been numb under Morgan's iron rule for so long.
Now that he was gone—even if a pirate took him down—the Marines were ecstatic.
In the restaurant…
"Wait, what?! So Eden isn't even part of your crew?"
"Right now, your whole pirate crew is just you and me?"
"And you don't even have a pirate ship—you're using someone else's boat?!"
After some chit-chat, Zoro finally realized Eden and Luffy weren't in the same pirate crew, and that included Nami and Happy. Luffy was completely alone. He didn't even have a proper ship.
"Yep! But I'll get my own ship soon enough… and I'm gonna recruit at least ten crewmates!"
Luffy crossed his arms and declared grandly.
"I can't believe I fell for it…"
Zoro nearly faceplanted, inwardly regretting his decision. "If only I'd checked before saying yes to this kid's invitation!"
"So you're the famous Pirate Hunter Zoro from the East Blue?"
"By the way, how'd someone like you get caught by the Marines?"
Nami was shocked once she confirmed the green-haired nobody in front of her was actually the legendary Zoro, and couldn't help but ask, curious.
"Actually, I've been chasing after a woman lately…"
Zoro's eyes got a rare serious glint.
"…Huh?!"
Eden, who'd been quietly sipping his drink, suddenly pricked up his ears at the mention of a woman.
"She has long crimson hair! Supposedly, she's a really strong swordswoman with a powerful sense of justice. My goal is to challenge her…"
Zoro continued seriously, "I heard she recently joined the Marines, so I followed her here, but ran into a bunch of problems that slowed me down."
"Do you know where she is now?"
Nami pressed.
"According to my info, she's been promoted to Base Commander at East Blue's 7th Branch! But I've also heard she's so strong she'll soon be transferred to the Grand Line."
"Guess I was too late… She must have been transferred already. What a shame."
Zoro sighed.
"The 7th branch… Is it possible you just went the wrong way?"
Nami paused and asked.
"Huh?"
Zoro looked at her, stunned.
"Wait… are you some kind of super mega-ultra directionless idiot?"
Nami thought for a moment, then announced her diagnosis.
"Case closed. It's Erza."
Meanwhile, Eden and Happy exchanged a glance, having picked up on the clues: 'long crimson hair,' 'incredible strength,' 'sense of justice,' and 'swordswoman'—it could only be Erza.