Finn didn't say anything more to Jinbe. After giving him a few simple instructions, he waved his hand to signal the Fish-Man's dismissal.
Jinbe saluted Finn one more time, gratitude clear in his eyes, then turned and left the office.
After Jinbe departed, Hina looked at Finn, who sat on the sofa without speaking, and asked, "Admiral, is this appropriate?"
"What do you mean by appropriate or inappropriate?" Finn asked with a slight smile.
"Letting Jinbe become one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Is he a suitable candidate?" Hina said.
Finn grinned and nodded. "Suitable. Absolutely suitable."
After a slight pause, Finn continued, "Go retrieve Jinbe's file and put it together with Smoker's. Then promote him to Rear Admiral of Marine Headquarters and classify it as top secret."
"Yes, Admiral," Hina responded, then turned toward the door.
But just as she was opening it, Hina suddenly stopped. She turned back to look at Finn. "Admiral, did you really say that to Smoker when he left?"
"Say what?" Finn asked.
"'My heart and my actions are as clear as a mirror, and everything I do is justice,'" Hina repeated.
Finn smiled and waved his hand. "No."
Hina was surprised. "Why? Hina thought that line was excellent."
"Because Smoker doesn't need it. I've never doubted his sense of justice and perseverance," Finn said without hesitation.
Hina nodded, then said with some surprise, "So... you doubt Jinbe's justice?"
"Isn't that normal? How long has he even been in the Marines?" Finn said calmly. After a slight pause, he continued, "He's different from Smoker."
"Then you're still letting him join this plan? This..." Hina said hesitantly.
"This has nothing to do with justice," Finn said first, then added, "The kindness and loyalty in Jinbe's heart will make him a good Warlord. I just gave him another reason to persevere."
It was obvious Finn didn't want to discuss this matter further. He waved his hand. "Go do your work. Stop dawdling."
Hina snorted unhappily, then opened the door and walked out.
Just as Finn had arranged, Captain Jinbe of Marine Headquarters left a letter the next day, angrily denouncing the Marines' unfair treatment of Fish-Men. Then, along with the newly formed Fish-Man Special Forces unit, he defected from Marine Headquarters.
This left many Marine officers utterly confused, because the treatment of Jinbe and the other Fish-Men in the Marines had been excellent. How could there be any unfairness?
Gradually, this discussion evolved into contempt for Jinbe. People said he was an ungrateful wretch. Admiral Finn had poured so much effort into him, wanted to train him into an exceptional officer, and this was how he repaid that trust?
Then, not long after, the Intelligence Department received news that Jinbe had brought a group of Fish-Men to join Fisher Tiger's Sun Pirates.
This time, the criticism of Jinbe within the Marines grew even louder.
This guy has been wanting to betray the Marines all along, hasn't he?
And he found such a shameless excuse to do it!
Admiral Finn was furious about this development and publicly denounced Jinbe's character on multiple occasions. Marine Headquarters also issued a bounty on Jinbe, making him a pirate worth 50 million Berries.
As a defector from Marine Headquarters, he certainly didn't deserve 60 million Berries. This bounty reflected Finn's "personal anger," Marine Headquarters' contempt for Jinbe, and their fury that he'd joined the Sun Pirates.
However, in the context of Jinbe—a Captain with a relatively low rank but very special and prominent identity—fleeing, another defection occurred at Marine Headquarters.
Marine Diez Barrels led a group of corrupt Marines, stole a warship during a mission, fled to the North Blue, and became a pirate.
This sort of thing happened every year. Many Marine officers defected for various reasons. It wasn't particularly noteworthy.
Moreover, his identity wasn't especially significant. His military rank was only slightly higher than Captain Jinbe's—just an ordinary Commodore. He had no factional backing. When he'd been at Headquarters, he'd been essentially invisible.
Therefore, the defection of Diez Barrels didn't cause any ripples at Marineford. It didn't even attract the attention of Vice Admirals, let alone Admiral Sengoku and the others.
Only Finn noticed this man.
This guy... isn't he Red Flag X Drake's father?
Later, in the North Blue, somehow, he'd obtain the Op-Op Fruit from somewhere.
However, the man didn't understand how powerful and tempting the ability of the Op-Op Fruit truly was. After discovering that in the underworld, the World Government had posted a reward of 5 billion Berries for this fruit, he'd want to sell it to the World Government through Donquixote Doflamingo, the dark world's middleman, make his 5 billion Berries, and retire comfortably.
Unfortunately, after Doflamingo learned about the Op-Op Fruit, he'd immediately decide to abandon his ethics and bottom line as a middleman and prepare to engage in outright theft.
But the World Government would soon discover this problem and immediately order the Marines to retrieve the Op-Op Fruit. This matter would be handed over to Admiral Sengoku.
Admiral Sengoku would arrange the Minion Island operation, with Chief of Staff Tsuru personally overseeing it.
Judging from the Marines' plan, there should be no problems. Since it involved the Op-Op Fruit, the World Government had rarely approved the Marines capturing Doflamingo. According to the original plan, at Minion Island, the Marines should be able to harvest the Op-Op Fruit and capture Doflamingo simultaneously.
As a result, Rosinante's talent for being a catastrophically bad teammate would immediately take effect. First, he'd almost kill Doflamingo on Minion Island, then he'd completely sabotage Admiral Sengoku's entire plan.
In the end, he'd be killed by Doflamingo himself on Minion Island, and the Op-Op Fruit would fall into Trafalgar Law's hands. Admiral Sengoku's plan would be completely thwarted, and the Marines' entire mission would end in failure.
However, failing to obtain the Op-Op Fruit would lead to Admiral Sengoku being severely criticized by the World Government.
Judging from the outcome of that incident, Doflamingo would destroy his own reputation and have to kill his last blood relative. In the end, he'd fail to obtain the Op-Op Fruit and lose everything.
Rosinante would die at the scene.
Admiral Sengoku would lose his adopted son and fail in his mission, left with a complete mess.
Only Trafalgar Law would be the sole beneficiary. He'd not only consume the Op-Op Fruit and become a Devil Fruit user, opening the door to strength, but also cure his Amber Lead disease.
In short, in the entire Minion Island incident, Diez Barrels would be the instigator, Doflamingo would be the fuse, and ultimately, Rosinante would detonate the entire situation, resulting in heavy casualties for everyone.
This also showed just how catastrophic Rosinante's actions were.
As a Marine officer, he'd actually betray Admiral Sengoku's trust and sabotage the Marines' plan for a single child and for his own redemption.
I wonder if this guy will be different this time?
Diez Barrels' defection didn't cause any ripples in Marineford, but Finn knew that, barring unforeseen circumstances, everything that was about to happen on Minion Island was already on track.
However, he didn't interfere. He just instructed people in the Intelligence Department to keep close watch on Barrels.
Then, at the beginning of 1510 on the Sea Circle Calendar, Stussy, the Queen of Pleasure Street, returned to the Holy Land of Mary Geoise and took over the position of Grand Commander of CP-0.
Judging from the administrative hierarchy of both organizations, Stussy could be considered to have claimed a position equivalent to "Marine Admiral."
Once again, she'd caught up with Finn's rank.
At the same time, because Queen Stussy had received accurate intelligence from Finn before Mary Geoise's incident, she'd subtly withdrawn all her faction members from the vortex.
Therefore, after the Mary Geoise disaster, while the entire CP organization was purged, Queen Stussy had suffered the least losses. She'd been given even more attention by the Five Elders and the World Government.
After taking over the position of CP-0 Grand Commander, the Queen had completely established her foothold in the CP agencies. From now on, no one could easily threaten her status and safety.
Her power had once again reached its peak.
However, this didn't satisfy Queen Stussy's ambition and desire for power. She quickly contacted Finn and informed him that her next goal was to become Chief of the entire CP organization!
If the position of CP-0 Grand Commander was considered equivalent to Marine Admiral, then the position of Chief of the entire CP organization was equivalent to Marine Fleet Admiral.
In other words, Queen Stussy still had two more tiers of advancement available. The first was to become Chief of Staff. The second was to emulate Pask, the man beheaded by the Five Elders—after becoming Chief of Staff, she could compete for the position of Commander-in-Chief of the entire military.
However, it was obvious that although the Chief of Staff of the CP agencies had been reprimanded by the Five Elders this time, he hadn't lost their trust or his position.
Queen Stussy couldn't become Commander-in-Chief of the army in the short term, let alone Chief. However, having ambition was always a good thing.
She'd told Finn this immediately to reassure him.
Because both of them understood very well that the cooperation and alliance between them was based on mutual ambition. If Stussy had been satisfied sitting in the position of Grand Commander, then there would be no basis for continued cooperation between Finn and Stussy. If Stussy was satisfied, then what was there left to cooperate on?
By then, Finn would definitely choose to part ways with Stussy, or even do something darker. It wasn't impossible he might have her silenced.
Stussy obviously didn't want that to happen, so she'd contacted Finn immediately.
Of course, Finn understood what Stussy meant, and he found it somewhat amusing. Who did this woman think he was?
As long as Stussy didn't do anything problematic and didn't harm Finn's interests, Finn didn't have the inclination to do anything to her. It wouldn't matter even if she retired now.
But since she'd said as much, Finn quickly reassured Queen Stussy and told her he'd visit Mary Geoise to see her soon.
After all... Finn also wanted to meet the Five Elders.
As the reconstruction of Mary Geoise gradually got on track, the Five Elders, who'd been busy for several months, finally had some leisure time.
They'd finally remembered Finn, the Marine Admiral.
At the summons of the Five Elders, Finn quickly departed from Marine Headquarters at Marineford and headed for the Holy Land of Mary Geoise.
When Finn took the bubble elevator up to Mary Geoise, he felt quite emotional. The last time he'd come to Mary Geoise, the Holy Land had been extremely lively and prosperous, with an atmosphere of decadent luxury.
This time, it looked like a massive construction site.
He'd heard that the Celestial Dragons in Mary Geoise couldn't tolerate the environment and had chosen to travel elsewhere.
Judging from the current reconstruction progress, such large-scale rebuilding wouldn't be completed for three to four years.
Suddenly, Finn finally understood why the Celestial Dragons who'd attacked Sabo and the one from the Donquixote Family who'd gone to Fish-Man Island to cause trouble were all wandering around outside at this point in the timeline.
After all this chaos, it was all Tiger's fault!
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