A few days later, Marine Headquarters.
"Sengoku! Who gave the order for that military operation in the Chaos Zone?!
You Marines dared to move against even the World Nobles' private armies and the forces of affiliated nations? Have you grown a bear's heart and leopard's guts? Who gave you that authority?! And the Shichibukai's businesses, you've confiscated them all.
Now, the complaints from the World Nobles, the condemnation from the Germa Kingdom, and Doflamingo's rage have all reached us! Tell me, do you Marines even acknowledge us, the World Government, in your eyes?!
Huh?!"
Inside Marineford's Fleet Admiral's office, Sengoku sat at his desk, his head aching, listening to the roars coming from the Den Den Mushi.
On the sofa nearby, several tall figures sat with their legs crossed, gathered around, watching the image projected onto the wall from the visual Den Den Mushi on the coffee table.
In the image, a brightly lit Marine base was visible.
A hazy column of light illuminated the young Marine on the high platform, and passionate words were powerfully emanating from his mouth.
"I'm here to tell everyone what justice is!"
"Justice means that no matter how weak a person is, they can live a peaceful life, without worrying about pirates breaking into their homes to murder and steal their wealth.
Justice means that fishermen can safely go out to sea to fish, and ships can safely navigate, without worrying about encountering pirates or slave ships on the open sea."
"Justice isn't some lofty principle; it's about no one destroying our hopes and concerns when we strive and work hard outside, for our families, for ourselves!"
In the image, the young man's voice echoed resonantly across the plaza, and also reverberated throughout the vast Fleet Admiral's office, causing the faces of the old men watching the Den Den Mushi's image to flush with excitement, their fists clenched.
"Justice is when a wanderer returns home, there's a light on, and loved ones are eagerly waiting!
Justice is the most basic fairness, order, and conscience!
Justice is the protection of the ordinary!
This, is justice!
Now, there are countless jackals and tigers on this sea blocking us from achieving justice...
Tell me! What should we do?!"
In the fluctuating Den Den Mushi image, the thousands of Marine soldiers gathered in the plaza like a white ocean, and the Marine officer standing on the high platform, roared those four words almost in unison.
"Crush them!"
Just through the shaky image, one could feel the powerful conviction of unity, enough to shake heaven and earth.
It was an fearless courage that would draw their swords without hesitation, no matter what powerful enemies lay ahead!
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Crush them!"
Garp, holding a senbei, suddenly leaped up from the sofa, crushing the senbei bag in his hand. He slammed his head into the ceiling, creating a hole, and furiously roared, his face flushed, waving his fists.
His booming voice was like a clap of thunder, startling Sengoku, who was sitting behind the desk. His chair tilted, and he fell backward onto the floor.
The Five Elders on the other end of the Den Den Mushi, who were loudly reprimanding Sengoku, were also startled, their faces turning pale.
Kizaru and Aokiji, sitting next to Garp, instinctively plugged their ears with their fingers.
"Hahahaha! Rorschach has my spirit! Those words, they really make your blood boil! I can't take it anymore, I'm going to the New World to smash that fat hag Big Mom's head in!"
Garp laughed heartily, wishing he could tear open his shirt and howl at the sky.
"Ga... Garp!!"
Sengoku's face contorted in anger as he scrambled out from under the desk, taking three strides across more than ten meters. He delivered a powerful flying kick to Garp's rear, sending him flying. Garp crashed through the office wall, plummeting with a thud from the towering Justice Fortress, transforming into a long parabola as he flew towards Marineford's plaza.
"Pfft ha ha ha, good kick! That bastard Garp, looking at an image makes him yell like a ghost, it's so annoying."
Zephyr, dragging his heavy mechanical arm, a piece of kelp dangling from his mouth, grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth. He held a bottle of sake, laughing and chugging it down.
Sengoku turned and glared fiercely at him, roaring, "You too! Zephyr! Aren't you supposed to be training new recruits? What are you doing here, bothering me?! It's annoying! Didn't you see I'm communicating with the higher-ups? Still drinking here, what do you think this Fleet Admiral's office is? A bar?"
"He's getting scolded, isn't he..." Kizaru muttered with half-closed eyes.
"What did you say? Borsalino, you're not allowed to bring nail clippers into my office anymore!"
Sengoku reprimanded everyone sitting in the office one by one.
When he walked back to his desk, he saw that the Den Den Mushi had been hung up, and immediately kicked the desk away in anger.
"It's too terrible, Fleet Admiral Sengoku. I think you should blame Sakazuki for this..."
"That bastard Sakazuki is hiding in the New World and not coming back; I think he's just trying to avoid being reprimanded by the higher-ups! If he keeps giving such reckless orders next time, I wonder if he still wants to be a Marine Admiral!"
Sengoku was fuming with rage.
Aokiji leaned back on the sofa, arms crossed, looking at the enlarged image of the young man on the wall, his eyes filled with a complex expression.
"I thought this kid would be blinded by slaughter, but it seems his conviction to uphold his own justice is even firmer than I imagined."
He saw a reflection of his past self in Rorschach.
Once upon a time, that passionate young man who always followed behind Garp, equally confident and spirited.
The one who wished to freeze all pirates and criminals in the world.
Wasn't that Rorschach now?
"Justice is the protection of the ordinary, a very simple concept, but incredibly real. This kid, Rorschach, probably because of his ordinary background and experience with darkness, can better appreciate this rare and precious conviction for justice. I hope he won't be worn down by time, becoming as lazy as you two."
Vice Admiral Tsuru looked at Aokiji and Kizaru with a smile, and their expressions made both of them awkwardly lower their heads.
"I say, Tsuru, is this really the time to praise that brat? Can't you consider the negative impact of this matter? Didn't you hear the Five Elders' reprimand?"
A haggard Sengoku squeezed Kizaru, who had his legs crossed, into the corner of the sofa. He snatched the liquor bottle from Zephyr's hand and chugged it down.
"The impact is indeed quite significant.
Even we Marines received a letter of reprimand from Saint Charloss.
The letter strongly denounced Vice Admiral Gummy Bear, calling him a stone from a latrine pit, both smelly and stubborn, for failing to manage the Chaos Zone, leading to their dispatched slave ship being attacked by evil villains.
Oh, and he strongly demanded the removal of Gummy Bear from his position as G2 Branch Base Commander."
Vice Admiral Tsuru sat opposite him, smiling, and tossed a stack of papers onto the coffee table.
"Attacked by evil villains?" Kizaru looked up in surprise, scratching his cheek. "Vice Admiral Tsuru, how did the Marine Staff Headquarters respond to the World Government?"
Vice Admiral Tsuru's face immediately showed a strange smile, and she chuckled softly:
"First, we admitted to the higher-ups that the Marines were negligent in failing to manage the Chaos Zone into a peaceful and stable region.
Secondly, we blamed our ally, the Shichibukai Heavenly Yaksha, for wielding trivial authority and using the legitimate right to plunder the seas as a pretext to extensively plunder profits that rightfully belonged to the World Government, thus messing up the Chaos Zone. This forced us to deploy troops to rectify the situation.
Finally, through our deductions and full investigation, we discovered that Saint Charloss's slave ship fleet was attacked and cut into pieces by a powerful swordsman.
And six months ago, a powerful swordsman who harbored hatred for the great World Nobles escaped into the Paradise seas, and his whereabouts are still unknown."
"Pfft..."
Sengoku, who was drinking tea, spat out the water he had just drunk. The quick-witted Aokiji waved his hand, freezing it into ice shards that clattered onto the coffee table.
"Hahahaha, cough, cough, cough!" Zephyr, who was about to burst out laughing, suddenly clutched his chest and coughed, tears streaming down his face.
"Oh dear, is that really okay? Blaming the Dark King Rayleigh again." Aokiji's lips twitched.
"You tell them that, and they'll believe it?" Sengoku rolled his eyes.
"The deed is done; whether they believe it or not is no longer important. What's important is giving Saint Charloss a way to save face. As for the Dark King Rayleigh, a lion doesn't fear many lice on its body. He's already got a bounty of 3.9 billion Berries; does a small amount like this matter?"
Vice Admiral Tsuru was composed, smiling without a word.
Sengoku sighed, "What about the Germa Kingdom? How did you respond to them?"
Vice Admiral Tsuru moved a few papers aside and pointed at a photo on top. "Germa doesn't care about the casualties of their clone soldiers at all; Judge wants his precious son back home. So, we'll just send his son home."
Sengoku nodded.
That made sense.
King Judge of the Germa Kingdom indeed only cared about his children.
The kingdom's soldiers were merely consumables of war to him.
If one batch died, he could always clone another.
"So, was this Yonji sent back?" Sengoku asked casually.
"No, he was sent to Vegapunk."
"What? I told you to send him back to North Blue, and you sent him to Vegapunk?" Sengoku was stunned.
Vice Admiral Tsuru said nothing, just looking at Kizaru.
Seeing everyone looking at him, Kizaru pouted. "I just thought the battle suit on that young man was good. If it's easy to produce, the Science Unit could mass-produce a batch, so I had Sentomaru send him to Egghead Island."
Sengoku's lips moved, wanting to say something, but ultimately he slowly gave Kizaru a thumbs-up.
"That's good, Borsalino, you're showing responsibility as a Science Unit officer for the first time, even thinking about improving Marine armaments."
After speaking, he looked at Vice Admiral Tsuru, feeling a bit exhausted, and weakly said, "What about Doflamingo? Is what this Violet said credible?"
"The cooperation between Kaido and Doflamingo is real intelligence we've already acquired.
However, we didn't expect the Donquixote Family to set up such a laboratory on Punk Hazard Island.
Caesar Clown, who came from MADS with Vegapunk years ago, has actually been working for Doflamingo all this time."
Vice Admiral Tsuru tossed Yonji's photo aside and spread out the last few papers, her face becoming serious, her eyes holding a hint of anger.
"Human gigantification experiments using children, such inhumane and evil experiments, must be stopped as soon as possible. Caesar Clown must be apprehended and arrested quickly."
Silence fell over the office, and clear anger appeared on everyone's faces.
But Aokiji slowly shook his head, "I don't think we can openly interfere with the New World's problems in the short term.
Whitebeard just fought Kaido recently. Although the situation in the New World has stabilized, all factions are still very sensitive.
Once the Marines intervene on an island like Punk Hazard, which is close to Totto Land, it will inevitably provoke an attack from New World pirates on the Marines. Currently, our Marine foothold in the New World is not yet stable.
Therefore, if we want to take action against Punk Hazard, I suggest letting the SWORD unit do it."
"SWORD? With Drake's strength, intervening in the Shichibukai and Yonko territories is still a bit short. Besides, he has another mission now; he's about to defect from the Marines." Sengoku looked at the Donquixote Family's secrets recorded on the papers, which Violet had exposed.
"Drake won't do it, but Rorschach can." Aokiji smiled, looking at the image on the wall behind Sengoku.
"Rorschach? No, that kid isn't suitable for the New World yet; his strength isn't enough. And his graduation assessment mission isn't even finished."
Sengoku waved his hand.
"Then after his graduation assessment mission is over, let him go to the New World; let him be my subordinate. It'll be perfect, with Drake leaving SWORD for a mission, Rorschach can come and take over as SWORD captain." Aokiji chuckled.
"No, no, that kid is a troublemaker and a hothead, causing trouble wherever he goes. If I let him go to the New World, I'm afraid he'll directly provoke Big Mom and Kaido." Sengoku decisively shook his head and refused.
"Where is that kid now?"
"In Skypiea, I think. Gummy Bear said he took a ship up the Knock Up Stream and went to Skypiea. Oh, by the way, Gummy Bear also sent a very interesting photo; take a look."
"Huh? This photo is well taken, very artistic. Have Brannew find someone to frame it; I want to hang it in the Fleet Admiral's office!"
Marijoa, Hall of Authority.
The Five Elders sat or stood in various poses, forming a circle, looking at several large profile pictures placed on the coffee table.
Among them were Akainu, Rayleigh, Shanks, Dragon, and Rorschach.
"The Marines are getting bolder and bolder. They're carrying out military operations to clear an area of the sea without even getting authorization from us. How is Sengoku, the Fleet Admiral, managing the Marine branches under him?"
Nusjuro, holding a katana, snorted coldly, his eyes behind his round glasses looking somewhat icy.
Saturn, leaning on his cane, said gravely, "It has nothing to do with Sengoku. The order was given by Akainu. To be honest, I'm not at all surprised that Akainu could issue this extermination order without prior authorization."
"Ever since the coating industry in Sabaody was brought under Marine control, the main combatants within the Marines, led by Akainu, have repeatedly applied to completely clear out the pirates in all four seas and Paradise. It was only after we repeatedly refused that this surprise operation took place, wasn't it?"
Pit Saint reached out and picked up Rorschach's photo, looking at it. "Compared to Akainu, I'm more interested in this rising Marine star. You all saw his speech just now. Tell me, could this Rorschach possibly become a beacon?"
Saturn scoffed, "A beacon, my foot! I think this Marine kid is just a hothead. Brainless passion—isn't that exactly like Garp, Zephyr, and Kuzan when they were young? There are easily thousands of young people with such naive ideas in the Marines, if not tens of thousands."
"So, how should we treat this Rorschach? His recent momentum is a bit too strong, and his rank is rising too fast. Should we suppress him?"
"Suppress what? Not only should we not suppress such a hothead, we should promote him heavily!
Currently, in the Marines, Garp, Zephyr, and Sengoku are all old. Kizaru and Aokiji are slacking off and doing nothing. Only Akainu is properly doing his job.
Now that we have this Rorschach, it's perfect to bring him to the forefront of the Marines, preferably to replace Garp as the Marine hero.
Passion? Justice that protects the ordinary? Heh, he's just another Garp, another Zephyr."
(End of Chapter)
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