Chapter 176: Express Lane – Gate Of Justice
The second day.
Nine o’clock in the morning.
Just as Fleet Admiral Sengoku said, the fleet ready to set sail welcomed five guests with special identities and promptly sailed out of the port, speeding toward the direction of the Gate of Justice.
This time the Navy not only summoned five Seven Warlords, but also made a huge effort itself, deploying a large number of elite troops: Navy Admiral Borsalino, codenamed Kizaru; Former Marine General Zephyr, who retained General Rank and was reassigned as Navy Chief Instructor; and in addition, Vice Admiral Gion, Vice Admiral Strawberry, Vice Admiral Dalmatian, Vice Admiral Stiles, Vice Admiral Lakiwal.
Two Admirals, five Vice Admirals, plus nine Rear Admirals.
This massive lineup was absolutely luxurious.
However, the Revolutionary Army was qualified to be taken seriously by the World Government and the Navy. The result of underestimating them last time was that the Revolutionary Army snatched away the Devil Child right in front of Sakazuki, so the Navy, having learned a lesson once, naturally wasn’t foolish enough not to take it to heart, hence this massive lineup.
On the deck, His Highness Elus stood by the railing looking at the sea. He hated the oppressive atmosphere in the bridge. The relationship between Borsalino and Zephyr was not harmonious—to say it was hostile would not be an overstatement. This former master-apprentice pair now stood together but were too lazy to even say a word to each other.
“Fufufufufu, Your Highness Elus, what do you think of this operation?” Doflamingo walked over with arrogant strides.
“What do you mean what do I think?”
“Will it succeed? Or fail?”
“I don’t know.”
His Highness Elus shook his head.
In the end, feeling that this answer was too perfunctory, he added, “I don’t care either. There’s only half a month left. Once the time is up, I’ll leave. Whether this operation succeeds or fails has nothing to do with me.”
Nothing to do with him.
Of course, it couldn’t really be nothing to do with him.
He and the Revolutionary Army were still partners.
The reason he said that was simply because he had enough confidence in the Revolutionary Army. Monkey D. Dragon was no pushover, and he hadn’t forgotten that this operation’s team also included Bear, the spy the Revolutionary Army had planted. And that was just the ones out in the open—there might be even more spies in the shadows that even His Highness Elus didn’t know about.
Stepping back, even if this operation really managed to recapture the Devil Child, it definitely couldn’t inflict heavy damage on the Revolutionary Army.
So,
He really didn’t care.
“Fufufu, Your Highness Elus, you don’t think this operation will succeed?” Doflamingo arbitrarily misinterpreted His Highness Elus’s answer.
“That’s your view.”
His Highness Elus denied it but had no interest in arguing with Doflamingo.
“Fufufufufu, I don’t think this operation has any chance of success either. The Revolutionary Army… fufufu, that’s no easy bone to chew. This lineup… can only be said to be unlikely to capsize easily.” Doflamingo openly badmouthed the Navy’s operation.
At this moment,
Thud thud thud… heavy footsteps approached.
“Your Highness Elus, Mister Doflamingo, we’re about to enter the Gate of Justice. For safety’s sake, you two had better go into the bridge or return to your cabins.” The man in the Navy uniform said politely. His Highness Elus remembered this man was one of the nine Rear Admirals.
What was his name again… ah!
“Rear Admiral Sprugen, we meet again. It was too crowded before to greet you properly, sorry about that.”
If he remembered correctly, this Rear Admiral had gone to Eckmond with Garp before, and His Highness Elus had met him… Of course, at the time his attention was all on Garp; a minor character like a Navy Rear Admiral was just a casual glance.
“Not at all, not at all. I didn’t expect Your Highness to remember me. This is my honor.”
Sprugen was very respectful toward His Highness Elus.
This formed a stark contrast to his perfunctory attitude toward Doflamingo. The previous form of address was also interesting: Your Highness Elus and Mister Doflamingo… Doflamingo was the king of a World Government Member Nation!
Whether this was conscious exclusion or unconscious choice… it all showed the Navy’s disgust toward pirates.
Even these legal pirates among the Seven Warlords.
“Gate of Justice… this thing…”
His Highness Elus stood in place without moving, instead raising his eyes to gaze far at that massive gate.
The Gate of Justice was right before their eyes.
This thing was really big.
Just the part exposed above the sea surface was probably over five hundred meters high, its top obscured by a low sea of clouds, making it impossible to accurately estimate its height. But this visible portion alone was shocking enough. All the Seven Warlords’ members had come to the deck.
Including the proud Empress and the taciturn Tyrant.
Everyone was looking at the massive gate before them.
“This is not something current humans can build.” His Highness Elus murmured to himself.
Such a towering gate already surpassed the current limits of human technology. Even Doctor Vegapunk… well, if Doctor Vegapunk took action, he might not be unable to build something like this, but the problem was that the Gate of Justice had already stood on the sea long before Doctor Vegapunk was born.
The massive gate… related to the Great Kingdom and the Blank Century?
His Highness Elus let his thoughts wander aimlessly.
He didn’t know the truth, but just being able to witness the Gate of Justice was enough to make the trip worthwhile.
Under everyone’s gaze, the Gate of Justice opened a narrow slit. It was called a slit, but it was already wide enough for warships to pass through. Over a dozen warships entered the gate one after another, and during the process into the gate, they also furled their sails, an action that at first made Cavendish glare.
However, once inside the gate, being propelled by the surging currents at astonishing speed, he understood the reason for furling the sails.
The three Gates of Justice connected to a deformed super-massive whirlpool, linking Navy Headquarters, Enies Lobby, and Impel Down through the whirlpool. The Navy could use this incredibly fast-rotating whirlpool to travel back and forth between the three locations.
The only drawback was that they could only move in the rigid order of Navy Headquarters → Enies Lobby → Impel Down → Navy Headquarters… and couldn’t freely travel back and forth between any two places.
The fleet had set out from Navy Headquarters, so the next destination was inevitably Enies Lobby.
As for Impel Down located in the Calm Belt, that was impossible. There were no islands like Amazon Lily around Impel Down. No matter how capable the Revolutionary Army was, they couldn’t conjure a base out of thin air in the Calm Belt.
Based on the half-month time limit, Nico Robin’s location was probably somewhere in the sea area near Enies Lobby.
————
Gourmet City, Gip.
This was a neighboring city to Water 7, not far from Enies Lobby. Now, the Revolutionary Army group was staying on this island that gathered gourmet food lovers from all over the world. The reason for the prolonged stay was the intelligence provided by Nico Robin.
This Devil Child was undoubtedly a very smart woman. Having roamed the seas alone for years, anyone with even a little less cunning would have been skinned, swallowed whole, and wiped clean long ago.
She definitely wouldn’t notice if she had two fewer hairs.
But noticing that her fingernail was shorter was something she spotted early on. After all, she knew about Life Cards.
After observing the Revolutionary Army for a few days and finding that they were indeed different from pirates and gangs, mortal enemies of the World Government, single-mindedly seeking to overthrow the World Government’s rule and pull the Celestial Dragons down from their divine thrones, she hadn’t fully trusted them yet but was no longer as repelled as at first.
Along the way, she told the Revolutionary Army her suspicion that the Navy might have her Life Card.
Just then, Dragon had been busy these days running around for Sabo’s severed arm. It wasn’t suitable to take Nico Robin everywhere with him, so he simply left her in Paradise and didn’t take her directly back to the Revolutionary Army’s home base, Baldigo of the Isle of White.
Upon learning that the World Government and Navy might have pinpointed Nico Robin’s location, plus Navy Headquarters summoning the Seven Warlords… he guessed that Nico Robin had likely been targeted. When Bear suddenly cut off scheduled contact, it only made him more convinced of his guess.
Thus,
Dragon didn’t rush to flee with Nico Robin.
He activated the spies he had planted in the World Government and Navy, quickly grasping the so-called “Fifteen-Day Agreement” between Navy Headquarters and the Seven Warlords. This put his mind at ease, and he decided to stay and fight the Navy to blunt their edge before fleeing.
Even without this intelligence, he wouldn’t have rushed to retreat.
After all, the Navy looked menacing: an Admiral plus a Former Admiral, five Seven Warlords, five Headquarters Vice Admirals, nine Headquarters Rear Admirals—a scary lineup…
However, among them was Bear, their planted spy, plus the Black Prince, an ambitious person with rebellious intentions. The other Seven Warlords weren’t pushovers either—don’t expect them to fight with much effort.
And,
As the true main forces, the master-apprentice pair Borsalino and Zephyr had a quite hostile relationship, as far as Dragon knew!
Dragon was once a super rookie in the Navy too. He was acquainted with two-thirds of Navy Headquarters’ high command. Many secrets were clear to him at a glance. All three current Navy Admirals, long or short, had studied under Zephyr, and the one Zephyr liked the least was Borsalino.
Zephyr had always thought Sakazuki’s “absolute justice” was too extreme but never denied Sakazuki’s serious attitude; for Kuzan, he was initially troubled by that equally overly fervent “burning justice,” and later sighed over the so-called “lazy justice” after Kuzan was struck by the Ohara incident.
These two more or less had flaws, but to Zephyr, that was normal—nobody’s perfect. Sengoku and Garp had often said his justice was too kind.
However,
Only Borsalino, that “ambiguous justice” had always grated on him.
Slippery to the point where no one could like him, that laid-back demeanor was especially displeasing. Even after Borsalino became a Navy Admiral, Zephyr’s view didn’t change at all.
So,
This team seemed invincible but was riddled with contradictions. Expecting them to collapse on their own wasn’t realistic, but Dragon was convinced this team absolutely couldn’t achieve a 1+1>2 effect—probably not even =2, and most likely <2 in the end.
Fighting a battle was completely feasible.
Dragon personally talked with his companions, immediately steadying the shaken morale. After all, Dragon didn’t aim to annihilate the invaders—just to blunt their edge a bit. Once that was done, the next step was guerrilla warfare with the Navy while carrying Nico Robin until this team was worn down.
Perhaps they could even destroy Nico Robin’s Life Card in the process.
If this trouble wasn’t resolved, Nico Robin was like a hot potato—the Revolutionary Army holding her would eventually get burned.
“Dragon, intelligence from Enies Lobby: the Gate of Justice opened half an hour ago. The Navy fleet has appeared.”
The Revolutionary Army’s intelligence capabilities were that powerful.
Years of deep cultivation had given the Revolutionary Army an incredibly strong intelligence network. Even in a place like Enies Lobby, they had planted spies—not high-ranking, but enough to grasp the island’s every movement and relay the intelligence.
“They came really fast. Gate of Justice… good stuff!”
Dragon praised the convenience of the Gate of Justice.
The distance from Navy Headquarters to Enies Lobby, following the Log Pose route, would take at least half a month at best. For pirates adventuring, one or two months was normal. Yet the Navy did it in less than a day.
If not for the Revolutionary Army having planted enough eyes in Navy Headquarters long ago, they might really have been caught off guard.
The Navy was coming fast.
But getting from Enies Lobby to Gourmet City Gip would take no less than a day or two.
Even though this distance was less than one-fifth from Navy Headquarters to Enies Lobby.
“Contact Mayor Iceberg of Water 7 and Bimini Mayor of Gip. Have them help evacuate merchant ships and fishing boats on the sea. Best to rest at home these two days and not go out, or getting swept by the storm’s tail would be no joke.”
“That’s not easy!”
The Revolutionary Army cadre standing beside him looked troubled.
The Revolutionary Army’s influence wasn’t yet strong enough to casually command figures like Water 7’s mayor to run errands. If they had that kind of authority, Dragon would have long ago raised his arms, leading the world’s ambitious people in a massive revolution to storm the Holy Land.
“Appeal to reason and emotion. You can reveal our identity—tell them if they don’t, many people will die. Mayor Iceberg and Bimini Mayor are good officials; they won’t take this warning lightly.”
Dragon said calmly.
The cadre thoughtfully accepted the order and withdrew.
On the cliff by the coastline, only Dragon stood alone. He gazed at the fireball sinking below the sea horizon, raised his head, his pupils reflecting the fiery blood-red clouds in the sky, and slowly raised his hands. Bursts of gale suddenly let out a long howl.
The weather was about to change.
