The next day.
The Ark Oratoria of the Kiryuu Pirates still soared across the skies, while the Marine fleet advanced steadily through the open sea toward the battlefield of the God-Demon Island. Even legendary figures like the Golden Lion, Big Mom, and Kaido were retreating to their respective territories.
Yet the Big News Morgans had already done his job — his newspapers were printed and dispatched, fluttering across the world in the wings of news birds.
After all, not every island was equipped with a broadcast transponder snail capable of streaming live battles. Only wealthy nations, key territories, and the more powerful kingdoms or underworld organizations had seen yesterday's cataclysmic war unfold in real time.
For everyone else — the ordinary islands, the common folk — newspapers were still the only way to learn about the world's greatest events.
Take, for example, the quiet Windmill Village in the East Blue.
A small, peaceful place with no transponder snails, no signal — just the sound of the sea and the rustle of paper.
Inside a modest tavern, a shout broke the morning calm.
"Ace… is the son of the Pirate King, Roger?!"
The village chief and Makino, the tavern's gentle owner, were both wide-eyed in shock. They had never known the truth of Ace's lineage.
But Luffy and the mountain bandit Dadan did. They'd carried that secret for years.
"Four Emperors… Five Elders… what are all these things? Ah! That's Ace! And Shanks too! Whoa, amazing — they made the front page again!"
Luffy flipped the paper in his hands like a monkey inspecting a strange fruit, turning it upside down and sideways until he found what he wanted.
"Luffy," the village chief said gravely, "the Red-Haired Shanks is one of the Four Emperors — the most powerful sea rulers under the Pirate King himself. They're terrifying men. I'm telling you, forget this nonsense about becoming Pirate King!"
But Luffy ignored him completely. Not even Garp's fists could talk sense into him — the old chief certainly didn't stand a chance.
"Huh? Then do I have to beat Shanks to become Pirate King?"
Luffy frowned for half a second before grinning again. He'd simply have to compete fairly, like he did with Ace.
Makino smiled softly, holding up Shanks' bounty poster.
"Shanks' bounty exceeds forty billion berries, Luffy. You'll have to work hard if you want to catch up."
"Forty billion?! That's awesome!" Luffy's eyes sparkled. "Ace's bounty was five hundred and fifty million, right? That means Shanks could beat seven or eight Aces!"
He was already daydreaming about his first bounty — wondering how high it would be once he finally set sail.
Meanwhile, far across the East Blue, Nami and Nojiko stared at the same newspaper, while Carina, already within the Grand Line, had purchased her copy from a news bird as well.
All of them were shaken by the actions of Souta Kiryuu — a man bold enough to wage war against the World Government itself and slaughter countless Celestial Dragons.
They still remembered his warning:
"Do not reveal any connection to me. If you do… you'll bring death upon yourselves."
Even so, they couldn't help but admire him — a man who had declared war on the world's supreme rulers.
Across every island, civilians trembled at the reports of war.
Even those who'd witnessed the battle live were glued to Morgans' paper for further details.
Three Days Later — The World's Most Wanted Man
Morgans' Big News continued to spread, accompanied this time by a fresh batch of newly issued bounty posters.
"This man… he's a monster!"
In Windmill Village, the chief shivered as he unrolled the latest bounty sheet.
A terrifyingly fierce grin stared back at him — the face of Souta Kiryuu, caught mid-laugh as he beheaded Saint Figarland Garin.
"The God-Slayer — Souta Kiryuu."
Bounty: 8.8 billion berries.
Status: The World's Most Dangerous Criminal.
After the God-Demon Island war, Souta Kiryuu's bounty had skyrocketed from three billion to an earth-shattering 8.8 billion.
The increase was so absurd that his bounty now surpassed even that of the Pirate King and the Four Emperors — higher than Gol D. Roger's own 5.5648 billion.
This was the price for slaying Figarland Garin and massacring the Celestial Dragons.
The World Government had confirmed that Souta Kiryuu had been the mastermind behind the entire God-Demon Island incident — the true orchestrator of the war.
The Celestial Dragons' hatred for this rogue experiment knew no limits.
Had the Five Elders not intervened, the Dragons would have pushed his bounty past ten billion berries themselves.
To think — in just two years since setting sail, Souta Kiryuu had become the most wanted man in the entire world.
The public was left speechless.
Even the Four Emperors themselves were stunned by his rise.
Meanwhile, the Navy issued their own version of the bounty.
The photo remained that of Souta as an inmate on Punk Hazard — his experiment tag visible on his neck.
"Subject No. 88 — Souta Kiryuu."
Bounty: 8.8 billion berries.
Capture or kill: No restrictions.
The Demon Dragon's Crew
The rest of Kiryuu's crew had also seen terrifying increases.
[Tyrant] Bartholomew Kuma — 3.096 billion berries.
His previous bounty had been 1.296 billion, meaning it had jumped by 1.8 billion in one blow — straight into Emperor-tier range.
Kuma had slain more Celestial Dragons than anyone except Kiryuu himself, his methods brutally efficient.
While Kiryuu had crushed over a hundred Dragons by detonating them within the jaws of the Sandworm of Death, Kuma had gone berserk aboard a luxury battleship, massacring dozens until there wasn't a single intact corpse left.
The Five Elders had deliberately capped his bounty below the Four Emperors' level. Otherwise, the Celestial Dragon families would have pooled their wealth to drive the entire Kiryuu crew's bounties into astronomical numbers.
[Pirate Empress] Boa Hancock — 1.659 billion berries.
Still nominally a Warlord of the Sea, even the World Government hadn't realized when she'd joined Kiryuu's crew. But when she struck, she had executed more than ten Celestial Dragons in an instant.
It was a devastating blow to the credibility of the Warlord system itself.
Now, even the remaining Warlords — Mihawk, Doflamingo, Jinbe — felt a chilling weight pressing down on them.
Whether it was the World Government or Kiryuu's crew coming after them, the outcome would be the same: they couldn't escape death.
[Surgeon of Death] Trafalgar Law — 500 million berries.
[Demon Sheriff] Lafitte — 442.2 million berries.
[Sword Dragon] (real name unknown) — 300 million berries.
During the God-Demon Island war, Law, Lafitte, and Vaypa each slew a Celestial Dragon, which earned them significant bounty raises.
But in the eyes of the Five Elders, these three were mere small fry compared to Kiryuu — opportunists who had killed Dragons only because the real monsters, Kuma and Hancock, had already broken the enemy lines.
As for Enel and Gecko Moria, their bounties remained unchanged. They hadn't defeated any major opponents nor slain a single Celestial Dragon.
However, Crocodile had regained his bounty status. The World Government had reinstated his price at 665 million berries, surpassing even Moria's current 620 million.
To the Government, it was a clear message: Moria was worthless.