Holding the internal newsletter in his hand, Ortoren soon arrived at the office building, only to freeze in place the moment he saw it.
The old, run-down two-story structure was gone without a trace.
In its place stood a tall, majestic building. At a glance, it even resembled the Marine base headquarters once built by G-5.
"So it's already finished?" Ortoren asked in surprise.
From the time he left to deal with Doflamingo, then traveled to the North Blue, and finally made his way back in a wide loop, less than half a year had passed.
And in that time, a nine-story building had been completed?
Hina smiled cheerfully. "So that you could handle your duties more comfortably after returning, Admiral, the construction team worked day and night. Not only that, the residential area has already been fully completed as well."
"Impressive," Ortoren said with genuine admiration.
Under Hina's guidance, he entered the building, took the elevator, and went straight up to the ninth floor.
The entire ninth floor was a vast open space with only one function—it was Admiral Benn's office.
It felt novel, but Ortoren wasn't exactly inexperienced. After giving the place a brief look around, he quickly lost interest in further inspection.
Hina had already organized all the documents he needed to deal with on his desk, neatly sorted by priority and urgency.
Seeing the faintly resentful look in his secretary's eyes, Ortoren gave up on his original plan to rest for a day or two after returning. He sat down at his desk and immediately got to work.
In truth, Ortoren had a very clear grasp of the structure of the New World Marines. He knew exactly what each base commander under his command was responsible for and how much authority they possessed.
As a result, there weren't actually that many matters that truly required his personal attention. Most of them were already arranged administrative orders that only needed his signature to take effect.
So his busiest task at the moment was simply hunching over his desk and signing document after document.
"Did Tokikake get lazy or something?" Ortoren muttered as he signed. "I've already delegated authority for most of these. He could've signed them himself…"
"Before you returned, Mr. Tokikake signed quite a lot of documents," Hina explained with a smile. "These are all from the past week. Once he learned you were about to arrive, he stopped using the authority you granted him."
"Then what's he been doing lately?" Ortoren asked.
"Two days ago, he made his ninety-ninth confession to Senior Gion in the cafeteria," Hina replied after thinking for a moment.
Ortoren froze, then looked up at her.
"That bastard—is he provoking me!?"
Hina couldn't help but laugh. "But Gion-senpai already rejected Mr. Tokikake's confession and publicly announced her relationship with you. At Lady Rouge's invitation, she's moved into your newly built estate."
Ortoren???
He hadn't heard a single word about this.
Rouge and Gion were already living together? Had their relationship really been mended?
Though he was surprised, Ortoren felt genuinely happy inside. No matter the reason, this was undeniably good news for him.
While he was still processing this, Hina continued, "After learning about this, Mr. Tokikake also announced that he would stop pursuing Senior Gion from now on…"
She paused, her expression turning troubled.
"And then, just yesterday, we received protests and reports from twelve female Marines. They claimed Mr. Tokikake made confessions that amounted to workplace sexual harassment, leaving them extremely distressed."
"Huh?" Ortoren was completely dumbfounded.
Was Tokikake really that bold?
Confessing to twelve female Marines in a single day?
After a brief moment of stunned silence, Ortoren frowned in confusion.
"Tokikake might be… a bit outrageous, but from what I remember, he's actually pretty popular. Back when he was at headquarters, he used to go on dates with plenty of beautiful female Marines. How did this turn into complaints?"
That was the truth.
Tokikake might look like a clown in front of Gion, but as a person, he was actually quite decent. His looks were a bit rough, but his personality was gentle, attentive, and he even knew how to be romantic.
On top of that, he was a Vice Admiral with real authority and formidable strength. Even when Ortoren left, he entrusted him with overseeing New World affairs, which spoke volumes about how reliable and trustworthy he was.
So while he made a fool of himself over Gion, back at Marine Headquarters he was genuinely popular. Plenty of attractive female Marines had gone on dates with him, and his reputation had never been bad.
How did this end up being workplace sexual harassment?
Had he changed? Gone completely off the rails?
Seeing the confusion on Ortoren's face, Hina explained with a hint of helplessness.
"Admiral, Mr. Tokikake may be quite capable, but after being rejected, he immediately went around confessing to other people. That kind of behavior is pretty low, don't you think? Everyone respects Senior Gion, but under those circumstances, even agreeing to something like that would feel… embarrassing. And Mr. Tokikake didn't care about that at all, so of course the girls would feel disgusted and put off."
Thinking it over, Ortoren had to admit she had a point.
It really did feel like Tokikake, after being rejected, had turned desperate and indiscriminate. Being confessed to in that situation would obviously make the other female Marines uncomfortable.
Especially when he'd done it to twelve people in one go. A joint report accusing him of sexual harassment was completely reasonable.
While Ortoren and Hina were chatting about this odd situation, a knock sounded at the office door. Ortoren responded, and Tokikake and Isshō walked in together.
The moment Tokikake spotted Hina, he seemed to snap. He suddenly pulled a bouquet out from behind his back.
"Beautiful—"
"Mr. Tokikake, I refuse," Hina said coldly, cutting him off before he could finish.
Her expression turned frosty, with a faint trace of disgust.
"Oof, that hurts! That really hurts!" Tokikake clutched his chest dramatically, looking as if he'd suffered a grievous wound, completely unbothered by the rejection.
At the same time, Ortoren picked up his teacup, took a sip, and scolded him with a laugh.
"That's enough, you idiot. Keep this up and I'll have you confined."
"Damn it! You're a total winner in life. You can't possibly understand our pain!" Tokikake snapped as he flopped down onto the sofa. "Just looking at you pisses me off!"
Isshō watched him with some amusement and asked, "Then why did you come to see him in the first place?"
"To return the authority that should be handed back to him, and then I want to apply…" Tokikake spoke as he stood up again, walked over to the desk, and placed a document in front of Ortoren. "I'm applying for field duty. Any mission is fine. I don't want to be a clown here anymore. Even if you send me to fight Whitebeard, I don't care. I don't want to stay in this place. It just makes me miserable…"
"Rejected," Ortoren said flatly, not even glancing at it as he tossed the document straight into the nearby trash bin.
Tokikake froze, then slammed his hand on the desk.
"Why? Why are you rejecting me? I've been turned down so many times these past few days. Why do you have to reject me too?"
"Stop throwing a tantrum," Ortoren said, rolling his eyes. "I need you here because I'll be leaving again soon."
"Huh?" Tokikake stared at him in disbelief. "Who's the Admiral here, you or me? And what are you running off to do this time?"
"Precisely because I'm the Admiral, I have more things to take care of," Ortoren replied, glancing at him. "This time back, I need to meet Ms. Stussy from Pleasure District to discuss follow-up cooperation regarding Golden City. The World Government has already handed all the authorization over to her. After that, I'll be leaving the New World together with Isshō. So, as usual, while I'm gone, you'll handle day-to-day affairs here."
Tokikake knew how to weigh priorities. Hearing Ortoren's explanation, he sighed in resignation.
"I'm starting to regret leaving Garp-san to work under you. I haven't gotten a single benefit out of it, and I still have to put up with your crap…"
"How can you say you've gotten nothing?" Ortoren grinned. "When I returned to headquarters this time, I already submitted your promotion application to the Fleet Admiral."
"Huh?" Tokikake froze, then his eyes lit up. "Admiral candidate?"
"That's right," Ortoren nodded. "So work hard. Once the Fleet Admiral finishes discussing it with the other commanders at headquarters, there's a very good chance you'll become the new Admiral candidate. When that happens, just start praying. Pray that one day someone takes me out, and you can sit in my seat fair and square."
"Don't worry," Tokikake said without hesitation. "I'll set up an altar at home and curse you every night before I go to sleep!"
The moment he said that, Ortoren, Isshō, and Hina all burst out laughing.
As always, although Ortoren and Tokikake were 'mortal enemies' when it came to Gion, their relationship was actually very good. To them, this kind of banter was nothing serious.
No one took it to heart.
...