Neo Marines

Built by the onetime admiral Z out of officers he had personally trained, this splinter faction turned bitter over how the regular navy dealt with piracy. Their creed ran to extremes: every pirate deserved death on sight, and merely jailing one struck them as absurd, a stance that placed them squarely against the Marines and the World Government both. Their banner shows a crowned skull set over inverted, Marine-style wings, a deliberate insult aimed at the pirates and the navy alike. Common troopers wore helmeted gray in an army-styled cut and carried firearms among other weapons. Across One Piece Film: Z, this movement stands as the primary threat.

Grand Reboot was the name of their ultimate design: finish off the Great Pirate Era for good by planting stolen Dyna Stones into the three Endpoints, an act meant to release enough underground magma to wipe out the entire New World. To that end they had lifted those Dyna Stones from the Marines, doomsday tools whose might rivals the Ancient Weapons, and ran their secret campaign from the New World. Their raw power was considerable. Back in Roger's day Z had counted as one of the mightiest warriors the World Government could field, and the faction's resources were formidable: several hundred warships, a trio of Devil Fruit wielders, and a whole battalion of Pacifista, enough to trade blows evenly against the Straw Hat Pirates.

Trouble began when Shuzo, demoted after losing a duel to Ain, tried to reclaim his honor by killing the captured giant Panz Fry before the prisoner reached Impel Down. He sank Vice Admiral Momonga's warship but was ultimately beaten by Luffy and Lily and taken prisoner. Z afterward raided Firs Island for the Dyna Stones, detonated one, and was cut off from his own forces. Homing in with a Vivre Card, his followers tracked him aboard the Thousand Sunny, routed the Straw Hats, and nearly demolished their ship before the crew slipped away. Following clashes on Secon Island and a final battle at Piriodo, the Straw Hats prevailed, and Z gave his life so that his men and the pirates could both escape an ambush by Kizaru.

Everyone in the faction reported to Z, its founder and head, who directed matters from his flagship the White Tiger. Ain and Binz stood as his closest lieutenants and fought beside him, with Ain drawing on the Modo Modo no Mi to turn her targets young again. Shuzo, formerly a Marine Commodore, commanded his own submarine along with a fleet of torpedo-shaped submersibles; he surrendered his rank as Z's right hand to Ain and was later brought down by Luffy. After Z died, Ain and Binz were shown mourning at their leader's makeshift grave.