Marine Headquarters Marineford.
"Report, Fleet Admiral. The same reports have been received from all over the world. The tenmu above us is not an independent entity; it can be seen across all Four Seas and the Grand Line."
Fleet Admiral Sengoku, the current Fleet Admiral, felt a headache coming on as he listened to his Marine subordinate's report. He had initially thought it was a prank by some Devil Fruit Ability User, but the situation was more complex than he imagined.
"Haha, Sengoku, you're having a day, aren't you? It's really more comfortable to be a Vice Admiral; not so many worries."
The only person who dared to openly mock the Fleet Admiral was Sengoku's good friend, Navy Hero, father of the Revolutionary Army leader, grandfather of the future Pirate King, and an old man who loved to pick his nose and steal senbei: Garp.
"Garp, you're stealing my food again! Where do you spend the salary the Marine gives you?"
Sengoku walked up to his good friend, snatched the senbei from Garp's hand, and shoved it directly into his mouth. He had bought it with his own salary; he'd rather eat it himself than let someone else have it.
"A Vice Admiral's salary isn't enough for me to spend. Why don't you send a report to the higher-ups and get me some more allowance?"
"Don't even think about it," Sengoku had to negotiate with the Celestial Dragons and Gorosei for a long time to maintain Vice Admiral Garp's current treatment. With his Revolutionary Army son, who was bent on overthrowing the world, it was already polite that this Navy Hero hadn't been removed from his position.
The two good friends exchanged a few more barbs, then shifted the topic back to the tenmu. "This tenmu is an unknown variable. Everyone in the world can chat on it, and the chat content is quite lively. Even the Four Emperors Pirate Crew Benn is getting involved."
Garp, the Navy Hero, tested the tenmu's hardness with his iron fist. The result was that his fist, enveloped in top-tier Armament Haki, couldn't even touch the tenmu in the slightest. His attack merely passed through the tenmu without being able to harm it.
Afterward, Admiral Akainu also tried it, launching several Magma attacks at the tenmu. The result was the same as Vice Admiral Garp's: this thing was immune to any damage, perhaps even more advanced than a Devil Fruit.
A white-haired woman burst in. It was none other than Marine Staff Officer Tsuru. She threw a stack of documents heavily onto Sengoku's desk. "Most of the tenmu is filled with a bunch of bored pirates saying useless nonsense. Recording these conversations is completely meaningless. Sengoku, hand this troublesome task over to someone else."
The tenmu had appeared across the world in an instant, and ten days had passed since then. Tsuru had followed Sengoku's orders to record the characteristics of this new phenomenon and, incidentally, to capture the movements of pirates from the chat content. The Fleet Admiral hoped to gain more intelligence this way.
Tsuru led her staff team in a detailed analysis of the tenmu's various characteristics. First, to speak on the tenmu, the speaker's real name would be left. Second, the content of the speech had to be truthful; the Marine had tested this, and if a lie was told, the message could not be recorded by the tenmu. Third, it ignored any spatial limitations; no matter where one was, they could leave a message on the tenmu.
Because of the third characteristic, the messages on the tenmu were incredibly diverse: some were looking for lost relatives, some were searching for pirates who had gone to sea, and there were even those who were trash-talking each other, with scold battles reaching thousands of floors, only for some idiotic pirates to accidentally expose their locations and be wiped out by the Marine.
With this channel for free speech, accusations of the Celestial Dragons' evil deeds, complaints about their own country's tyrannical rule, and revelations of a certain Pirate Crew's secrets were rampant in the tenmu's chat content. The world's perception of the Celestial Dragons worsened, which was why the Gorosei strictly ordered the Marine to thoroughly investigate this matter, hoping to shut down the tenmu so they wouldn't have to see it and be bothered. Being publicly doxxed and cyberbullied was not a pleasant experience.
In short, there were no major issues, but a pile of minor ones. The Marine was already short-staffed, and now they had to allocate personnel specifically to monitor the tenmu. As a Marine Staff Officer, Ms. He could only helplessly protest to her old friend, asking Fleet Admiral Sengoku to retract his order.
"Tsuru, I know it's difficult for you. Please bear with me for a few more days. If nothing changes after that, we won't need to assign so many people to monitor it."
Sengoku always spoke politely to his other old friend, unlike his harsh attitude towards Garp. Tsuru's contributions to the Marine were no less than that Navy Hero's, and she had never caused any messes, unlike a certain Vice Admiral.
At lunchtime, Sengoku and his two friends agreed to go to the cafeteria together. After all, eating government-provided food cost no money, so every meal was a gain, as it was all funded by the World Government.
"The tenmu has changed! Look quickly!" Tsuru pointed to the sky, drawing Sengoku's and Garp's attention.
The tenmu, originally densely packed with chat content, had been completely cleared. No one could speak on it, and the tenmu's background had turned pitch black. Against this background, a line of blood-red text stood out:
In one day, we will review the Devil Fruit Ability Users who have had a profound impact on the future direction of the world. Each of them is a top-tier existence in the great sea. The tenmu penetrates the future and the past, and the review content includes their life stories, highlights their hidden strengths, comments on their life's ambitions, tells of their significant influence on the future, and will release footage of crucial battles. All the people of the world, please look forward to it!
"Can such a thing really be done? To know even what will happen in the future? It's a pity I'm not a Devil Fruit Ability User."
Even Vice Admiral Garp, who was usually thick-skinned, had to take this seriously. No one knew what the future held. For the Marine, their generation was struggling to hold on, and the system of the Seven Warlords of the Sea was a slap in the face, an insult to his justice.
"Sengoku, do you know of such a Devil Fruit?"
Tsuru was old and had few expectations for herself, but her heart was filled with worry for the future of the Marine and for her granddaughter, Peacock. Some things were slipping out of the Marine's control. If cruel future scenes appeared on the tenmu, how would the current Marine face them?
"What a bothersome fellow. I can't even eat in peace. Tsuru, please go notify the Vice Admirals of headquarters to come for a meeting later."
Sengoku rubbed his head. Even though he had eaten a Devil Fruit and inherited the wisdom of a Buddha, what was about to happen now surpassed everything he had encountered before. He didn't know what kind of future awaited the Marine.
Not only was the Marine concerned about their future destiny, but the World Government's Gorosei were even more vigilant. The Celestial Dragons were always wary of Joy Boy's prophecy. Even after eight hundred years, they dared not relax. Could this tenmu be related to Joy Boy, that persistent fellow?
Large and small Pirate Crews, upon receiving the news immediately, laid down their current killings and began grand celebratory feasts for the upcoming carnival. If one could be recognized and ranked on the tenmu, it would be an immense honor, a chance to become famous before all the people of the world. The attraction for pirates was simply too great.
The Revolutionary Army members hidden in various kingdoms temporarily halted their overthrow missions. Under the command of their supreme leader, Dragon, they too were waiting for the future spoken of by the tenmu….