Holy Land – Mariejois.
"Souta Kiryuu, that damn bastard, has finally exposed a weakness!"
"Heh, for the sake of that Pirate Empress, he's actually trying to protect all of Amazon Lily. As cunning as Kiryuu is, even he's fallen because of a woman."
"Since ancient times, heroes have always stumbled over beauty. I never expected Kiryuu to be the one to fall here. The world's most beautiful woman truly lives up to the title of a fatal temptation."
"Now that we have the coordinates to Amazon Lily, we must destroy the Kiryuu Pirates completely this time! We cannot allow another disaster like the Sorbet Kingdom or the Divine Demon Island incident!"
"And we must act quickly! We can't give Souta Kiryuu time to recruit those powerful pirates from Impel Down. Otherwise, he'll become an even bigger threat."
The Five Elders gathered around, reading through the intelligence reports from Akainu and Aokiji. Their expressions darkened as plans to eliminate Souta Kiryuu took shape.
This time, they intended to use the entire Amazon Lily as bait — to lure the Kiryuu Pirates into their trap.
Their goal was simple: eradicate the Kiryuu Pirates in one decisive strike, reclaim Vegapunk, and seize all of his creations — the Seraphim and the Pacifista technologies based on Bartholomew Kuma.
On top of that, Imu-sama required Vegapunk's expertise for the continued development of the "Mother Flame", a divine energy source that served as the Holy Land's national treasure.
And of course, the hatred the Celestial Dragons bore toward the Kiryuu Pirates burned hotter than ever.
Saint Saturn's direct descendant, Saint Sabi…
Saint Nasujuro's descendant and Divine Knight, Saint Conef…
Saint Warcury's descendant and Divine Knight, Saint Gust…
All of these promising heirs had perished at the hands of the Kiryuu Pirates.
Old grudges and new hatred had now fused into one.
Their recent investigation into Mariejois and Marineford had flushed out spies from other factions — but not a single infiltrator from the Kiryuu Pirates. That made the Five Elders realize this operation needed to be carried out in absolute secrecy.
Even the Marine top brass couldn't all be trusted.
They decided to bring along only two Admirals — Akainu and Kizaru — while keeping Sengoku and Aokiji completely in the dark.
The Five Elders were well aware of the connections between the so-called "dove faction": Sengoku, Tsuru, Garp, and Aokiji — all of whom might have secret ties to Monkey D. Dragon, the Revolutionary Army's leader.
And Dragon, of course, was known to have close dealings with Souta Kiryuu.
Since the intelligence sweeps yielded nothing, suspicion naturally turned toward those old veterans.
Garp was Dragon's father.
Aokiji was Garp's disciple.
Sengoku and Tsuru had fought beside Garp for decades.
During the earlier "Indigenous Purge Plan," only the Fleet Admiral and the three Admirals had been briefed. Yet Sengoku had told Tsuru, a Vice Admiral and strategist, about it anyway.
The Five Elders couldn't rule out that Sengoku or Tsuru might have whispered it to Garp as well.
That was unacceptable.
So this time, the Five Elders and two Admirals alone would be enough to annihilate the Kiryuu Pirates.
No Kaido, no Whitebeard, no Big Mom, no Golden Lion, no Revolutionary Army — none of those could come to Kiryuu's aid.
If the Five Elders and two Admirals couldn't handle one pirate crew, then perhaps the World Government deserved to collapse altogether.
Once the plan was set, they moved immediately.
Time was crucial — the longer Kiryuu had, the more powerful allies he would gather.
The Red Earl, the Demon's Heir — men of terrifying strength. If Kiryuu got to them first, things would spiral out of control.
Since the distance between the Red Line and Amazon Lily's sky island was vast, Saint Marcus Mars couldn't simply fly there indefinitely.
Instead, he disguised himself in civilian clothes, boarded a warship toward the Calm Belt, and from there, transformed into the divine bird Yatagarasu, soaring straight for Amazon Lily. Once there, he'd summon the other Elders to follow.
As for the Admirals, Saint Peter would transform into the colossal Death Sandworm and carry both Akainu and Kizaru inside his body.
But until the final moment, the two Admirals wouldn't even know what their true mission was.
At Mariejois, Akainu and Kizaru were already standing by, awaiting orders from the Five Elders — ready to move at any time.
Meanwhile, Souta Kiryuu remained completely unaware of the Five Elders' secret mobilization.
On his sky island, he had ordered Vegapunk to accelerate the creation of magnetic interference devices, designed to disrupt Log and Eternal Poses. At the same time, he was gathering intel on Eustass Kid, the magnetic-magnet fruit user — determined to bring down the year's strongest Supernova and solve the permanent compass issue once and for all.
Kiryuu's Six Paths — his six combat avatars — were undergoing rigorous training and synchronization drills, perfecting their group coordination to unleash the most devastating team assaults possible.
One-on-one fights were pointless, Kiryuu believed.
In the real world, survival wasn't about duels — it was about numbers, strategy, and sheer dominance.
No matter how strong you were, even legends like Redfield and Douglas Bullet had ended up in prison.
Even monsters fear being ganged up on.
The Emperors of the Sea — Whitebeard, Kaido, Big Mom — were all powerful beyond imagination, yet every one of them fell to overwhelming numbers.
Yes, being strong in solo combat mattered. But having a powerful force, a crew, and strategic intelligence mattered just as much.
Souta Kiryuu wanted it all — strength, influence, intelligence, charisma.
He aimed to crush his enemies in every category: power, manpower, and even words.
No mercy. No equal. A total domination.
Inside Vegapunk's laboratory, Kiryuu inspected the second generation of Seraphim.
Among them were clones based on Crocodile, Gecko Moria, Rob Lucci, and even one modeled after the Pirate Empress herself.
The rest carried Kiryuu's own bloodline — ensuring full compatibility with the superhuman "Green Blood" system.
As for the third generation, those based on Whitebeard, Big Mom, and Redfield were still in their early development phases — far from ready to activate or harness the power of the Mature-Mature Fruit that accelerated their evolution.
Kiryuu stood silently for a moment, before turning to Vegapunk.
"Doctor," he asked, his eyes gleaming, "is it still possible for me to undergo further modification? I want to integrate Charlotte Linlin's Iron Balloon physiology into my body."
Though his Starcore Blade could pierce Big Mom's defenses, Kiryuu knew the Iron Balloon trait was still an unrivaled shield — especially against the likes of the Five Elders or other Emperors.
"...In theory, your body could handle it," Vegapunk said after a pause. "But the sample of Linlin's blood you collected has already been nearly exhausted. Most of it was used in extracting the Green Blood's essence. Luckily, I saved a small portion of the original sample. I'll need time to cultivate it."
Kiryuu nodded, understanding the weight of his request.
The scientist was already overworked — his clones stretched thin — especially since Kiryuu kept pressing him to complete the island magnetic disruptors as soon as possible.
Vegapunk sighed, then glanced toward a containment chamber.
"By the way," he added, "the two Devil Fruits you recovered from Divine Demon Island are both quite unique. Their powers are too valuable for simple research. I suggest you find two promising young warriors to inherit them."
He handed both fruits back to Kiryuu.
These weren't recorded in the standard global Devil Fruit encyclopedia — only the World Government's private archives or the ancient records of the Great Kingdom might list them.
Fortunately, Vegapunk's vast brain had stored fragments of those forgotten tomes.
"Oh?" Kiryuu's lips curved upward slightly. "What kind of powers are we talking about?"
Judging from Vegapunk's expression, they had to be something rare — perhaps even Mythical Zoans.
Logia fruits were unlikely… so these were either extraordinary Zoans or extremely rare Paramecia types.