Naval Concerns and a Familiar Pursuit
Compared to Roger, the three great pirates—Golden Lion Shiki, Whitebeard Edward, and Red-Haired Redfield—are the ones Marine Headquarters should constantly monitor.
Whitebeard is somewhat better; he spends his days with his adopted sons, reigning over his own territory.
Red-Haired Redfield doesn't take subordinates; he's a lone wolf, one man, one ship, making him unpredictable. You never know when he might suddenly strike!
Golden Lion Shiki, however, is far more ambitious, constantly expanding and aiming to become the next Rocks. He's currently their greatest enemy in the Navy.
"Vice Admiral Tsuru has a point. We absolutely must keep an eye on Golden Lion. The Five Elders have also issued a direct order: the Navy must crush the Flying Pirates!"
Fleet Admiral Kong's expression immediately grew serious as he said this. Ever since Golden Lion stole the Celestial Tribute a few times, those five old geezers have been using his Transponder Snail like a doorbell... If those five treasures hadn't guaranteed his future promotion to fleet admiral of the entire armed forces, he would have long since returned home to look after his grandchildren. Did they really think Golden Lion was that easy to catch? He flies around freely in the sky with his Float-Float Fruit all day—what's the Navy supposed to do about that?
Meanwhile, in a small mountain village in the South Blue.
"Everyone, come quickly! That guy Chrono is famous, and he even has a bounty!"
In the village chief's bar, a group of simple villagers drank the cheapest barley wine, all discussing Marshall D. Chronos. This small village was too remote, and no pirates were willing to visit, so despite their poverty, the villagers were optimistic.
Decades ago, a child from the village went to sea and joined the Navy. A year before Chronos joined Roger's ship, another child went to sea and became a pirate. But there had been no news from either of them.
Now, a news bird brought Chronos's bounty poster. Their Marshall Village finally had a pirate with a bounty!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Several cannonballs shot from Roger's ship targeted a nearby reef. But they all sailed perfectly past it, barely grazing the target. The person firing the cannons could truly be called a master of human-body-tracing shots.
"Buggy, your cannon fire is terrible! My grandma could do better than you! Haven't I taught you already? Cannonballs need to be fast, the angle straight, with the speed of a pile driver, and the hardness of steel rebar! You're just wasting cannonballs!"
On the Oro Jackson, Chronos, as Roger's ship's only gunner (in reality, Roger was too poor to buy more cannons, so he only had one for show), was teaching his junior, Buggy, how to fire cannons. As for why he was teaching Buggy, it was purely because in the last great battle, Chronos and Shanks fought bravely, while Buggy, the coward, hid and played dead. Rayleigh thought it was better to have Buggy practice cannon fire with Chronos than let him idle; at least he might be of some use in future battles.
"Boom!"
"What was that?"
"Captain... C-Crazy Dog Garp is chasing us again!"
Just as Chronos finished demonstrating to Buggy how to aim at a target, a cannonball came flying from a distance. Chronos swore on his two years of cannon-firing experience that no cannon in the pirate world could fire a shot that fast! So, the result was obvious:
On a distant Marine battleship, soldiers had already brought out two crates of cannonballs, and their respected Vice Admiral Garp, with sleeves rolled up, was grabbing cannonballs and rapidly throwing them, one in each hand.
"Ice Age!!!"
Just as Roger was about to order a strategic retreat, the sea began to rapidly freeze, quickly surging around the Oro Jackson.
"Holy cow! Is Kuzan already that powerful?!"
Seeing the sea rapidly freezing, Chronos knew who was responsible without even looking. But he didn't expect that the future Marine Admiral, Aokiji, already possessed this level of strength! It seemed he had underestimated the world.
However, what Chronos didn't know was that the Kuzan he underestimated was currently sprawled on the deck like a dead dog, recovering. After all, he wasn't the admiral from a decade later. One big attack had completely exhausted him. If his boss hadn't given him a "fist of love" to the head, he would have at most made a bird or just slacked off; he wouldn't have gone all out right at the start.