The Vice Captain of the WhiteBeard Pirates

[ Third Person POV ]

Mariejois

The Five Elders were currently engaged in a debate on using Roger's execution to its fullest capacity. By executing the so-called King of The Pirates, the prestige of the World Government, which had been sullied for a long time, would finally be restored.

As a result, the World Government would be granted a lot of leverage when coercing more kingdoms to join them. Even if the pirates were to continue the pace at which they were emerging, it would only incentivize the kingdoms to join the World Government for protection.

Sure enough, that theory was already coming into practice. Numerous kingdoms were already contacting the World Government to request an audience with the Five Elders. Because of this, the Five Elder's schedule would be packed for the next couple of months. 

Negotiations and discussions were going to take a bit of time. 

Another goal that The Five Elders were going for was to discourage a particular narrative that had been blooming within The New World.

From a typical standpoint, it was nothing but mere banter that had emerged from certain kingdoms, but it was something that The Five Elders took rather seriously. 

No matter how deadly, a sickness always starts as nothing but a cough. A minor sickness that could be easily ignored under the belief that it will go away soon. However, the more time passes, the stronger that sickness gets, eventually overpowering the body's defenses and making the individual succumb to illness.

That was how The Five Elders saw this problem. The narrative that the Pirates in The New World had the potential to overwhelm the World Government was nothing short of blasphemy for the World Government.

Granted, that narrative had more than enough foundation to be built on. 

The way The Whitebeard Pirates had managed to defend their territories from the World Government was nothing short of a miracle at first. However, the idea that the Whitebeard Pirates were more than capable of handling them slowly began to sink in.

The end of fear leads to the beginning of rebellion.

Should the sentiment spread out of The New World and into Paradise, and heavens forbid, The four Blues, it wouldn't be surprising to discover that the World Government would ruin its reputation and lose its power over the World.

That was completely unacceptable, and they needed to find a way to nip that problem in the bud before it bloomed into a full-scale crisis. How else would they better handle that situation than to execute the so-called 'King Of The Pirates?'

This was practically the big break that they had been looking for, and as long as things went according to plan, they would be able to retain the power and influence that they had cultivated for the last 800 years.

"We still need to deal with that damned Whitebeard and his crew," Saint Nujuro commented.

"Things like this take time, and you forget sometimes that we have plenty of it," Saint Ju Peter replied.

"We should be handling the Pirate situation one pirate group at a time, and currently, the Roger Pirates should be held as a high priority," Saint Warcury added.

"It doesn't change the fact that the Whitebeard Pirates have been more of a thorn in our side than Roger had done. He even managed to raid Mariejois and attack our Lord," Saint Nusjuro argued with a huff.

"Well, what do you suppose? Should we start another war with the Whitebeard Pirates because of this?" Saint Jaygarcia Saturn asked.

"I believe that if we were adequately prepared, we could have easily obliterated them," Saint Nusjuro argued.

"Well, there's no use crying over spilled milk, Nusjuro," Saint Mars argued back; "we should ready ourselves for the significant impact that Roger's death will bring."

Saint Nusjuro huffed before reclining back into his seat.

"Speaking of Whitebeard, there have been reports that his subordinate, the Storm Dragon, has been making his way towards the execution location," Saint Warcury stated while placing a report on the table.

"The Marines already have a policy on how to go about things concerning the Whitebeard Pirates," Saint Marcus Mars pointed out, "this shouldn't be our concern for the moment. If anything, we should discuss the policies regarding the new nations joining the World Government ."

"I doubt that is a topic worthy of discussion," Saint Warcury argued.

"Let's just make it through the execution first, and then we can handle the rest," Saint Mars concluded.

"I believe we need to clean up some of these Kingdoms that have been actively opposing us recently, so let's handle that after the execution," Saint Ju Peter suggested.

"Indeed, but we need to keep these operations off the books; maybe we can cause political instability before we take them down?" Saint Nusjuro added.

"That doesn't sound too bad; we should send the Cipher Pol agents on that operation later," Saint Warcury agreed.

==================================================================

Marineford

Sengoku and Garp were escorting Roger towards Garp's ship.

A platoon of Marine soldiers stood at attention while saluting, standing in two lines opposing each other as they led towards that ship. 

The air was tense as they watched the Pirate King slowly approach the ship. Roger, on the other hand, was far from worried about what was to happen. He had already come to terms with his death. The only thing he had to worry about or regret, and that was in the smallest of thoughts, was probably the possibility that he wouldn't be able to see his child.

However, the child's well-being had already been entrusted to somebody he knew would raise the child well. 

"I never thought I'd be able to see the King of The Pirates with my own two eyes...." a soldier whispered unconsciously.

"Shut up!" Another soldier hissed as they kept looking forward, praying that the Admiral and Vice-Admiral would keep walking.

Garp and Sengoku ignored the random whispers as they kept walking forward.

It was natural for soldiers to be a little starstruck whenever they saw a notorious individual.

Eventually, they boarded the ship and safely secured Roger before they could depart. Fleet-Admiral Kong had already boarded his ship earlier in the morning so that he could have gotten to the island beforehand.

He also wanted to secure the route before Garp and Sengoku would leave with Roger, and it was thanks to this that they managed to smoothly sail through the seas and reach Lougetown a few days later safe and sound.

They had arrived the night before the execution was to take place. So they ended up having to hold their guards until the morning. Garp could be seen sitting right in front of Roger's jail cell, never letting his eyes leave Roger. 

It was almost as if he had been worried that Roger would fade before his very own eyes.

Sengoku slowly walked up to Garp before patting his shoulder. 

"Did you know the Storm Dragon has arrived in Louge Town?" Sengoku asked solemnly.

 "Is he planning on breaking him free?" Garp asked seriously.

It was then that one of the main topics of discussion laughed out loud before letting out a bloody cough.

"You guys don't need to worry too much about Boris," Roger remarked, "if he wanted to set me free, he would have already done it."

"He has a point; if the Storm Dragon had already known when and where we would be executing him, he would have already attacked us beforehand," Sengoku agreed with Roger's comments.

"Even if he wants to, it'll be next to impossible, not with all of us assembled on the same island," Garp added.

"Borusalino should be arriving soon; I'll ask him what happened to the Storm Dragon's ship and why he's here alone," Sengoku remarked as he began to leave the prison cell.

The sun soon rose over the horizon. Indicating the start of a new day: The Day of the Execution.