At Marineford, along the coastline, a large group of Marine officers gathered to stare at the enormous City of Gold of Shandora in the distance. They were all in a state of shock, completely mesmerized by the sheer, imposing wealth of the golden island.
Meanwhile, Diarmuid sat on a rock by the shore, biting down on a cigar. He had a grumpy expression, muttering, "Hmph, what a bunch of country bumpkins."
Sengoku, with his shameless, relentless bargaining, had finally managed to "trick" the City of Gold out of Diarmuid. In the end, Diarmuid was left with four hundred billion Berries, which was more than enough—he didn't even know how to spend it all.
Sengoku then insisted that Diarmuid bring the City of Gold to Headquarters immediately. A treasure worth over a trillion Berries was simply too much to be left at G-7, even with Diarmuid there. It was much safer to have it near Marineford.
Sengoku had already decided to assign ten thousand Marines to be stationed there, guarding the hard-won fortune day and night.
As Diarmuid slowly exhaled a puff of smoke, Kuzan walked up and patted his shoulder with a laugh. "Did Admiral Sengoku shake you down?"
"No," Diarmuid said, waving his hand with a straight face.
"No?" Kuzan was confused. 'You don't look like you did it willingly.'
"That wasn't a shakedown," Diarmuid sighed. "It was a flat-out robbery. I'm telling you, even if Admiral Sengoku weren't a Marine, he'd be a pirate on the same level as Whitebeard! He's got a real talent for it!"
"Hahahahaha!" Kuzan burst out laughing.
Diarmuid got annoyed seeing Kuzan so gleeful. 'Just you wait. When you start riding your bike, I'll go up and shit on your head!'
"Show some respect to your superior officer, Vice Admiral Kuzan," Diarmuid said, glaring at him.
"You're still just a Vice Admiral, with an honorary Admiral candidate title. In terms of rank, we're equals, Vice Admiral Diarmuid," Kuzan said with a smirk, his tone still full of schadenfreude.
"Hmph. The City of Gold was my payment to buy a promotion. I finally got a real promise out of Admiral Sengoku," Diarmuid suddenly said with a smile.
"What promise?" Kuzan asked.
"He said I'm someone who's destined to be an Admiral one day, so I shouldn't be so stingy," Diarmuid replied with a chuckle.
"You're not worried he was just trying to pull a fast one?" Kuzan whispered.
"What else can I do? Could I really have kept the whole City of Gold for myself?" Diarmuid shot back.
"That's true. The higher you get, the more people pressure you," Kuzan said with a sigh. "But objectively, keeping it for yourself is useless. It's better for Headquarters to have it. We're short on money, and this will help us better deal with the Great Pirate Era. It benefits all of us in the Marines. You've earned a good reputation from this. All the Marines will remember what you did, and when it's time to pick a new Admiral, you'll be a shoo-in."
Diarmuid wasn't a pirate. He knew very well that he couldn't hoard the City of Gold for himself. Giving it to Headquarters was the inevitable outcome. Kuzan's words made perfect sense.
After a few more minutes of conversation, Diarmuid asked, "What about you? Are you not interested in becoming an Admiral?"
"Me? I don't know," Kuzan replied hesitantly.
He wasn't a particularly ambitious person, and his philosophy had been influenced by Garp. He wasn't very interested in the Admiral position.
After realizing Garp was leading Kuzan astray, Sengoku had taken Kuzan under his wing. In the original story, if all had gone well, Kuzan's worldview would have been reshaped, and he would have become one of the three Admirals.
But now, although Sengoku had taken Kuzan under his wing, he had a strong preference for raising Diarmuid as a new-generation Admiral.
Otherwise, Diarmuid wouldn't have been the first of their group to become an Admiral candidate.
With Diarmuid leading the way, Sengoku wasn't so insistent on forcing Kuzan to change his views and become an Admiral. In fact, Sengoku thought it would be a good thing for the Marines if Kuzan was willing to step back. It would prevent a major conflict among them for the Admiral positions.
From what he could tell, Sakazuki would definitely fight for a position, and Diarmuid had never hidden his ambition, so two spots were already claimed.
That left Borsalino and Kuzan. Borsalino would just go with the flow, and Kuzan was doing the same. It was a good situation. In the future, either of them could take the last spot, and there wouldn't be any lingering resentment, which was good for internal Marine stability.
Kuzan didn't continue the conversation about their careers. He sat cross-legged next to Diarmuid and asked, "I heard that Gion ate the Rumble-Rumble Fruit?"
"Yeah, we found it on a sky island," Diarmuid nodded.
Kuzan's expression suddenly became a little lecherous. He wiggled his eyebrows and nudged Diarmuid. "Impressive! You really are a man with the fortune of the City of Gold. You're a big spender."
"What are you talking about?" Diarmuid asked, confused.
"The Rumble-Rumble Fruit! It's widely considered the strongest Logia-type ability, the 'invincible' Devil Fruit. You just gave it to Gion? And you still say you're not interested in her? Did you two finally get together?" Kuzan asked with a knowing look.
Gion was one of the top beauties of the Marines, and she had many admirers. Although Diarmuid always insisted that their relationship was a "pure battle friendship," Kuzan never believed it. Diarmuid showed no obvious signs, but Kuzan could tell that Gion had a special affection for him.
Although Gion and Kuzan had a good relationship, she had never been as close to anyone else at Headquarters as she was with Diarmuid. Kuzan had noticed for a long time that Diarmuid was special to Gion.
They might not be together now, but as the saying went, it was easy for a woman to win over a man. With Gion's charm, there was no way she would fail if she put her mind to it. If she did, Kuzan would start questioning Diarmuid's orientation. He wouldn't want to be too close to him after that; what if he ended up getting assaulted?
"What are you even saying? I'm Gion's superior. I'm grooming her to be my right-hand man. I can't just keep the Rumble-Rumble Fruit for myself just because it's a powerful fruit. A Devil Fruit that's used is a fighting force, but if it's not, it's just a collector's item.
"By giving it to Gion, I'm strengthening her and the entire Marine force. Besides, do you think I'm the type of superior who gets jealous and suppresses his subordinates? Or do you think I'm not confident in my own strength? Do you think I don't believe I can become stronger than Gion, even with her Rumble-Rumble Fruit?
"If I don't have that ambition, how can I fight for the title of Admiral and Fleet Admiral? How can I challenge Whitebeard, the strongest man in the world?" Diarmuid said without hesitation.
"You want to challenge Whitebeard?" Kuzan asked, surprised.
"Don't you?" Diarmuid shot back.
Kuzan thought about it for a moment and nodded. "Yeah. We all want to challenge Whitebeard and take the title of the strongest."
"There you have it. What's so strange about that? Everyone who reaches our level wants to enter the ranks of the top-tier fighters. And once we get there, who doesn't want to be the absolute strongest?" Diarmuid said with a smile.
"So you gave the Rumble-Rumble Fruit to Gion for a purely professional reason? Nothing else?" Kuzan asked, staring intently into Diarmuid's eyes.
Diarmuid nodded. "Gion and I have a purely platonic battle friendship…" He stopped midsentence, his mind suddenly flashing back to that day on the sky island when Gion had hugged and kissed him.
Kuzan saw his pause and burst out laughing. He stood up and patted Diarmuid's shoulder. "Hahahahaha! Yeah, right. You guys have a pure battle friendship. I believe you. Hahahaha…"
"What are you laughing at?" Diarmuid asked, embarrassed and annoyed.
"I just thought of something funny. Can't I laugh?" Kuzan said smugly.
"Do you want to fight?" Diarmuid said, feeling irritated. 'I feel like this jerk is mocking me! But what's there to mock? Even if Gion and I were together, shouldn't we be the ones mocking him for being single? Why is it the other way around?'
"Can't fight now. Maybe next time. I just came to say hi. I have a mission to go on," Kuzan said, shaking his head.
"Something big?" Diarmuid asked curiously.
"Yeah. The Great Pirate Era, you know? There are always a few up-and-comers," Kuzan replied, not elaborating further.
Diarmuid didn't ask any more questions. He nodded and chatted for a few more minutes before Kuzan turned and left.
Soon after Kuzan was gone, Sengoku came over from the crowd, laughing. He slapped Diarmuid on the shoulder. "Well done, Diarmuid! I'll make sure you get a commendation for this."
"I've already spent so much money. Am I not getting a promotion to Admiral?" Diarmuid said, rolling his eyes.
Sengoku's face turned serious. He lowered his voice. "To be honest, something strange has been going on recently."
"What is it?" Diarmuid asked, standing up.
"In the past, the higher-ups were pressuring us to fill the three Admiral positions. As you know, the Fleet Admiral and that idiot Garp would always argue about it. But recently, they've been… well, they haven't mentioned it. There was even a time the Fleet Admiral tried to test the waters, and it seemed like they wanted us to hold off. I wonder if they're trying to cook up another scheme to cause problems for the Marines," Sengoku whispered. But it was just a guess, so he wasn't taking it too seriously.
Diarmuid nodded, remaining silent. He remembered that Sengoku was promoted to Fleet Admiral after the incident with Fisher Tiger the arsonist at Mariejois. Borsalino and the others had all become Admirals around that time.
That was still over a decade away. He didn't know what was happening behind the scenes, or why they were holding off on promotions. But he suspected it had something to do with the CP organization.
After all, the current Commander-in-Chief of the entire military is from the CP. If they promoted the Admirals now, with all the glory of catching Roger and defeating Shiki, it would likely trigger a reshuffling of the entire Marine force. The current Fleet Admiral, Steel Bone Kong, would probably be promoted to Commander-in-Chief. This would affect CP's power.
These were things Diarmuid didn't need to worry about yet, so he didn't give it much thought.
Sengoku had no intention of a long conversation on the matter. He changed the subject. "I didn't just call you back for the City of Gold. I have a mission for you and Borsalino."
"Yes, all for justice," Diarmuid responded instantly. He couldn't exactly refuse a mission from Headquarters. He wondered what it was. It had been a while since he worked with Borsalino.
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