Marine Headquarters

From sea to sea, common folk argue over the coming clash pitting the Marines and Warlords against Whitebeard. South Blue shoppers brush the old Emperor off as faded news, East Blue farmers expect him to fall and hope he simply stays home, a North Blue barkeep doubts the world survives the day, and a West Blue drinker scolds the room never to belittle Whitebeard, recalling how the man once broke a crowd's spirit without so much as moving. On the Grand Line, a mother frowns to hear her children skipping rope to a chant about the dreaded pirate.

At Marineford, the Marines' families have been shipped off to Sabaody Archipelago, where they and packs of reporters follow the scene on towering screens. Flanked by two executioners, Ace kneels with three hours remaining, ringed by fifty warships, cannon-lined walls, a hundred thousand elite troops, five of the Warlords, and the three admirals seated below the platform.

Telling Garp he means to lay everything bare, Sengoku waves the executioners aside and addresses the ranks about the genuine cause of Ace's sentence. He recounts how the government spent years chasing Roger's heir, combing through every newborn and expectant mother, yet Ace's mother slipped the net: Portgas D. Rouge carried the child for twenty months and died bringing him into the world.

Sengoku then drops the staggering truth: the man who sired Ace was none other than Gol D. Roger, the Pirate King himself, while a brief memory shows Roger asking Garp to look after his unborn son.

This installment opens the Marineford storyline, and Usopp begins his separation cover tale on the gluttonous Boin Archipelago. Akainu surfaces in the present narrative for the first time, though Oda keeps the admiral's eyes shadowed under his cap. The chapter also debuts a female giant and confirms that the South Blue island of Baterilla was Ace's birthplace.