As soon as Fleet Admiral Kong's words fell, the many Marine officers all looked over at Diarmuid. They knew very well who would get the lion's share of the credit.
Roger was a victory Diarmuid had almost single-handedly secured. As for Shiki, he was captured by Diarmuid, Gion, and Admiral Sengoku. Gion and Diarmuid had both been support, but Gion clearly hadn't contributed as much as Diarmuid.
As for Admiral Sengoku, he was already at the top of his game. Unless they were going to make him Fleet Admiral, there was no room for him to be promoted. So, the biggest reward naturally had to go to Diarmuid.
Sure enough, Sengoku spoke. "Commodore Doberman of Marine Headquarters is hereby promoted to Rear Admiral. Rear Admiral Gion of Marine Headquarters will receive a major commendation and is eligible for the next Vice Admiral promotion. Rear Admiral of Marine Headquarters…"
Sengoku held a document in his hand and began to read out the accumulated merits of the various Marine officers. Some were promoted and received pay raises, and some received commendations. In short, everyone of note got some form of credit.
Just as Diarmuid had guessed, while the capture of Roger was his personal triumph, it was also considered a victory for the Marines as a whole. It was impossible for him to be the only one to receive a reward.
"Vice Admiral Diarmuid Rodriguez of Marine Headquarters will be given the honorary title of Admiral Candidate and appointed as the G-7 Base Commander." Sengoku read Diarmuid's name last.
Diarmuid grinned. The Admiral was a man of his word. He didn't miss a single thing he had promised!
"That is all," Sengoku concluded.
As soon as he finished, all the Marines in the conference room sat up straight and shouted in unison, "All for justice!"
Diarmuid was sitting next to Kuzan. After shouting the slogan, he bumped Kuzan with his shoulder, winking and looking quite smug.
Kuzan rolled his eyes at Diarmuid. "Alright, alright, you're impressive. Happy now?"
"Hahahahaha!" Diarmuid burst out laughing.
Sengoku and the others watched with amusement. "What are you laughing about, you brat?" he asked.
"I just remembered something funny," Diarmuid said, still smiling.
Kuzan took a sip of tea and said, "He's mocking me."
"Mocking you about what?" Gion asked, curious.
"The first time I met Diarmuid was at the sanitarium. We talked, and he said that he would definitely surpass me one day. And now he has," Kuzan said with a laugh. This was an amusing anecdote, and no one thought Kuzan would be angry about it. Many people started laughing, too.
When you thought about it, Diarmuid was truly an incredible person. Back when Admiral Zephyr brought him back from the North Blue, no one took him seriously except for Admiral Sengoku due to certain factors.
Sakazuki, for example, couldn't be bothered to even look at Diarmuid. But in just over four years, from the year 1496 to the current year 1500 of the Pirate Era, Diarmuid had climbed from a Captain in a branch base to a Vice Admiral and an honorary Admiral Candidate. In this day and age, that was simply unbelievable.
Luckily for Diarmuid, he had joined the Marines from a young age, which silenced some of his critics. After all, if you included his time at the branch, Diarmuid had already been a Marine for over a decade. Looking at it that way, his rise was more understandable.
Now, Diarmuid had stepped into the position of Admiral Candidate, a title that Sakazuki, Borsalino, and Kuzan didn't even have yet. As for Gion and Tokikake, they hadn't even become Vice Admirals yet.
In just four years, Diarmuid had worked his way to the top of his generation. And now that he had been appointed as an Admiral Candidate, Admiral Sengoku and Fleet Admiral Kong had decided to send him to G-7 for further training.
Everyone understood that if Diarmuid performed well at G-7 and showed off his other talents, Admiral Sengoku and Fleet Admiral Kong wouldn't hesitate to recommend him for the position when the next Admiral spot opened up.
This was more than just a Vice Admiral appointment; Diarmuid was now considered Admiral material.
After arranging a few other trivial matters, the meeting was adjourned. With Roger and Shiki taken care of, Roger's body was already cold. As for Shiki, he was thrown into Impel Down when Diarmuid went to the East Blue.
Diarmuid knew that Shiki would break out in about two years, shattering the myth of Impel Down's impregnable defenses and becoming the first person in history to forcibly escape.
Although he would reappear on the seas, he would disappear again for twenty years. To be honest, by the time he showed up again, he wouldn't be much of a threat. After twenty years, his strength would have dissipated, and he would only be able to rely on his reputation as a legendary pirate to fool people, ultimately being defeated by the Straw Hat Pirates.
Even though Shiki wouldn't be much of a threat after his escape, Diarmuid still didn't want him to break out. After all, he and Shiki had a blood feud, and who knew what a madman like him would do? It wasn't impossible for him to cause trouble for Diarmuid.
However, while Diarmuid knew Shiki would escape in about two years, he didn't know the exact month or day! He couldn't keep an eye on Shiki in Impel Down every day, so he just gave Admiral Sengoku a few words of caution and left it at that.
Diarmuid's direct subordinates were now Rear Admiral Momonga, Rear Admiral Yamakaji, Rear Admiral Doberman, and Gion. They were all members of his "Special Combat Unit." However, at the moment, this Special Combat Unit was useless. Diarmuid was a bit embarrassed.
He had created an "non-existent organization," which was now half-cooked, just waiting for Stussy to create the Pleasure District to forcibly extend its life.
Later, when he became a Vice Admiral, he created the Special Combat Unit, but before he could even properly organize it, he was caught up in a series of events: capturing Roger in the South Blue, then defeating Shiki. He was immediately promoted and was now being sent to a new location. He wouldn't have much time to build this "Special Combat Unit," which made him lose face a bit.
Fortunately, Sengoku and the others didn't pay attention to Diarmuid's failures. From the beginning, Sengoku hadn't had high expectations for this. He simply figured that since Diarmuid had just become a Vice Admiral, he was a young man who had suddenly risen to power and wanted to prove himself by accomplishing something big. He understood this and didn't stop Diarmuid.
Now it seemed the plan had gone halfway off the rails. Sengoku and the others weren't surprised; it was normal. If Diarmuid succeeded in everything he did, that would be unnatural. It would be too monstrous. Seeing him fail once in a while made them feel a lot better.
Diarmuid also knew his priorities and didn't stubbornly cling to this issue. His goal was always clear: to become an Admiral.
So, the Special Combat Unit could fail; it wouldn't hurt his foundation. But if he failed to manage G-7, that would be embarrassing. Therefore, his focus was now on G-7. As for the Special Combat Unit, he'd just let things run their course for now. The organization and structure wouldn't be canceled yet, and maybe it would naturally succeed once Momonga and the others grew into their roles.
Momonga and Yamakaji were not assigned to go to G-7 with Diarmuid; they would remain at Headquarters. This was normal. You couldn't have a Vice Admiral taking all of his subordinates with him.
Soon enough, Headquarters would be emptied out by the various bases. When Diarmuid left Marineford, he only took Gion and Doberman. He also only took one ship of his best Marine soldiers, while the rest were reassigned to other Marine officers.
This was also normal, since Diarmuid would have tens of thousands of Marines under his command at G-7 anyway. As for their strength? That was up to him as their new commander!
On the sailing battleship, Doberman stood on the deck, enjoying the sea breeze, feeling very happy. He had graduated fifth in his class from the eighth class of the Marine Officer Training Camp, which wasn't a very impressive rank. But because Vice Admiral Diarmuid had taken a liking to him and brought him in as an aide, it hadn't even been a year, and he had already become a Rear Admiral of Headquarters.
The top student from his class was still a struggling Commodore.
He knew he hadn't chosen the wrong person to follow!
After Diarmuid captured Roger and then worked with Admiral Sengoku at Headquarters to take down Shiki, Doberman became completely loyal to Diarmuid.
Now that they were heading to G-7, Doberman was full of confidence. He was determined to help the Vice Admiral achieve something great at G-7. He could see that if nothing went wrong, the Vice Admiral would eventually become an Admiral, and it wasn't impossible for him to rise even higher to become the leader of the Marines.
Doberman was self-aware enough to know that becoming an Admiral was not an option for him, so to make a name for himself in the Marines, he needed a powerful backer. And Vice Admiral Diarmuid was his backer. If Diarmuid succeeded at Headquarters, he would too! That's why he was determined to do a great job at G-7.
While Doberman was enjoying the sea breeze and imagining his future, Gion and Diarmuid were sitting on two small stools at the edge of the deck, fishing.
"...Diarmuid, do you have any ideas for G-7? Where should we start when we get there?" Gion asked.
Diarmuid held his fishing rod with one hand and a cigar in the other, exhaling a puff of smoke. "The island where G-7 is located is very large. The base itself only takes up less than a fifth of the space, which is clearly not enough. I plan to expand the base to take up at least a third of the island, turning it into a fortress that can hold 50,000 people. Then, we will move some people there and create a military town on the rest of the island. That's my first-phase plan."
"50,000 people?" Gion was stunned. "Are you planning to enlist 50,000 people for the G-7 garrison? That won't be easy…"
"Vice Admiral Jonathan also got the G-8 base commander position, and he told me that he plans to have a garrison of 80,000 people. My 50,000 isn't much, is it?" Diarmuid said with a laugh.
Some Marine bases were stronger than others. It was normal for a strong base to have tens of thousands of troops, just as it was normal for a weaker base to only have a few hundred or a thousand.
In the original story, during the Summit War at Marineford, the Marine Headquarters would summon 100,000 elite officers from all over the world. That was 100,000 officers, not just 100,000 soldiers!
A regular officer at the rank of Commander or above would have at least a hundred or so soldiers under him. You can imagine how many total soldiers the Marines had across the entire world based on the number of elite officers they brought to Marineford alone.
Those were just the elites; there were even more ordinary officers who weren't even qualified to participate in the Summit War. So, as the top military power in the world, the Marines had an incredibly strong force, but it was spread all over the world and couldn't all be gathered together.
Roughly estimating, as the strongest military organization in the world, the Marines should have a force of several tens of millions of people, and it wouldn't be impossible for them to even have over a hundred million.
This wasn't too exaggerated. Just think about the military nation of Alabasta. Their capital, Alubarna, had a standing army of 600,000. Given that, Diarmuid would bet that the whole country had at least two million troops. The rebel army alone had a million people, which was insane.
So, Diarmuid's plan to have 50,000 people at G-7 wasn't an exaggeration at all.
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