In a dimly lit secret room, silence lingered like dust in the air.
CP-0 agent Ao Oni sat with a stern expression, flipping slowly through a book in his hand.
Title: The Complete Collection of Cold Jokes.
Across from him, Robin quietly read a newspaper sourced from the underground market a few days earlier.
On the front page, bold letters screamed:
The Emergence of a "Fifth Emperor"!
A lone man tramples the BIG MOM Pirates and ruptures the Beasts Pirates!
Below the headline rested Shirogai Yamikuro's exhausted-looking wanted poster, his bounty set at two hundred million Berries.
Where it originally stated The Plunderer Shirogai, someone had messily overwritten:
FIFTH EMPEROR SHIROGAI
A question mark trailed the title, as if even the newspaper doubted its own claim.
The article exaggerated every detail, describing catastrophic scenes erupting through the territories of both Kaido's Beasts Pirates and BIG MOM Charlotte Linlin's crew.
Based on the report, these clashes were supposedly triggered when the so-called Fifth Emperor Shirogai challenged both Kaido and Big Mom separately.
Although the writer admitted to only glimpsing fragments from afar, the descriptions were deliberately vague, hiding behind the excuse of "respecting the Four Emperors' influence."
Still, the message was clear:
Shirogai Yamikuro was portrayed as overwhelmingly powerful—someone who walked away unscathed after clashing with two Yonko.
The newspaper then shifted into an absurd "profile" of Shirogai:
He was claimed to originate from some mysterious country in the East Blue.
There were rumors—completely fabricated—that he was related to the Celestial Dragons, supposedly their live-in son-in-law.
Then the article swerved again—suggesting Shirogai might actually be Big Mom's son-in-law, stating that she frequently recruited powerful individuals by marrying off her daughters.
According to the article, multiple daughters of Big Mom were supposedly linked to Shirogai, and many were "rumored to be pregnant with his children."
If true, the BIG MOM Pirates would instantly become a dual-Emperor faction, completely overshadowing the other Yonko crews.
The next paragraph contradicted the last one immediately, proposing that Shirogai might instead be related to Kaido, due to their monstrous physical strength and ability to transform into dragons.
Perhaps, the writer suggested, Shirogai was secretly Kaido's younger brother.
Then came the grand conspiracy theory:
Big Mom and Kaido were allegedly creating a secret alliance—marrying Big Mom's daughter to Kaido's "brother," Shirogai—
and launching a "Fifth Emperor" to lure out a future Yonko crew.
They would one day unite to defeat Shanks and Whitebeard, becoming a dominant force of three Yonko crews against two.
Robin sighed softly and rubbed her forehead.
The ridiculousness almost made her laugh.
This underground tabloid certainly lived up to its reputation…
The fabrications were so outrageous that if Robin didn't know Shirogai personally, she might have believed some of it.
No wonder this was the only newspaper that rivaled Morgans' World Economic News.
Its circulation was smaller, but it remained popular in the darker corners of the world because occasional truths hid among the lies.
Separating truth from noise, however, was left entirely to the reader.
Robin's eyes narrowed.
"Some of the information about the Four Emperors… does seem accurate."
She recalled Shirogai's casual comment earlier aboard the ship:
"Some people had ideas they shouldn't have had, so I went to correct their attitude."
Her fingers tightened around the paper.
Could it be… Shirogai really did challenge the Yonko?
And judging from this… he must have won.
She lifted her gaze toward Ao Oni.
His behavior earlier…
His fear when facing Shirogai's clone…
His overly cautious attitude toward her today…
It all pointed to one undeniable conclusion:
To the World Government, Shirogai Yamikuro was as dangerous as a Yonko.
Across the room, Ao Oni closed the cold joke book and looked up with an expression of growing fatigue.
"Anything wrong? Are you hungry? Thirsty? Do you need rest?"
His tone carried the weary patience of a caretaker.
He felt like a babysitter.
He had been one, undercover, but this was worse.
The World Government had dispatched three CP-0 operatives to Water 7 to evaluate the rising influence of Shirogai Yamikuro, whose actions were beginning to shift the balance of the world.
Their mission: identify his weaknesses, study his combat habits, and determine whether assassination was possible.
During this assignment, Ao Oni discovered Robin among Shirogai's crew—and felt ecstatic.
They understood Robin well. They knew her fears. Her past. Her trauma.
So while Shirogai wasn't at her side, he tried to intimidate her into revealing information about him.
Instead…
He exposed himself.
He still remembered the moment Shirogai's clone silently appeared.
That cold whisper that echoed directly in his mind:
"Don't try anything foolish. I can see through your mind."
The crushing, suffocating pressure of impending death nearly made him commit suicide on the spot—he couldn't tell whether that would have been better.
Somehow, he survived.
Somehow, he walked away with Robin.
But the threat remained etched into his soul:
"CP-0 rat… if anything happens to Robin, I'll make your death worse than anything you can imagine."
Shirogai wasn't even angry when he said it.
He sounded amused.
That made it worse.
Ao Oni's psychological resilience, honed through years of torture and espionage, cracked under that voice.
Among all the threats he'd ever received, only Shirogai's carried the weight of absolute certainty.
He shuddered at the memory.
Ten million Berries a month isn't worth dying for.
Why am I here…
Now, to survive, he had to obey the World Government's mission and protect Robin at all costs.
Both for his career—and his life.
Robin glanced at him and shook her head gently.
"Nothing."
She returned to the newspaper.
Yes…
Ao Oni was terrified of Shirogai.
Meaning Shirogai truly had fought the Four Emperors.
And considering how Ao Oni acted…
Shirogai definitely wasn't the one who lost.
---