Above the clouds in the country of Wa, far above the cloud layer.
A small, ten-meter-long ark was flying at high speed.
Enel reclined, holding an apple, tossing it up and down as he watched the scenery below.
Law sat beside him, his brow furrowed:
"So this mission is for Admiral Sakazuki to cooperate with one of the Four Emperors, Kaido?"
"Are they serious? The Marines can cooperate with pirates?"
Enel chuckled and took a bite of his apple, saying:
"Young man, you need to know how to adapt."
"There's no conflict in this cooperation between the two sides, is there?"
"We need them to disrupt the New World, and they need the benefits for us to stand in front for them."
"It's very fair."
"The only ones who will suffer losses are those unlucky souls."
"But... what does that have to do with us? They're just pirates."
Law's mouth twitched... It made sense, but it still felt strange...
Buru Buru~ Buru Buru~
The Den Den Mushi's voice rang out, and Enel pulled it out to look:
"Hm?"
"Rosinante."
Law's attention was drawn.
Enel smiled and answered the Den Den Mushi:
"What is it, Rosinante?"
Rosinante's slightly hesitant voice came through:
"Uh... how to put it..."
"Admiral Sakazuki and my father..."
Enel interrupted:
"Don't worry, it'll be fine."
"The conflicts of the older generation have nothing to do with us."
"Don't overthink it."
Rosinante's voice came through:
"Sou ka..."
"That's good, I was worried we'd grow distant."
Enel laughed:
"What are you thinking about all day?"
"By the way, that kid Law is here with me too."
Saying that, he tossed the Den Den Mushi to Law.
Law quickly caught it:
"Hello!"
------------
Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
Inside the Headquarters Hospital.
In a private room, Garp sat propped up on the bed, covered in bandages.
He was eating some fruit and snacks.
Vice Admiral Tsuru sat in a chair beside him, arms crossed, eyes closed, resting.
Sengoku stood by the window, watching the busy soldiers and people outside.
After a long gaze, Sengoku sighed softly.
He turned to Garp:
"How's the injury?"
Tsuru also opened her eyes and looked over.
Garp burst into laughter:
"Hahahaha, it's nothing serious."
"That kid Barritt is still too soft."
With timely sutures from the Marine doctors and Garp's own monstrous physique,
Even the shattered bones in his left cheek had preliminarily fused. It was just that eating caused some sharp pain.
But this sharp pain wasn't a big problem for Garp.
Sengoku walked to the bed and sat down:
"Ultimately, we made a mistake in this matter."
Garp's smile faded, and he sighed:
"Mmm..."
"Sengoku, are you resigning?"
Sengoku said with a wry smile:
"That's right, do I still have the face to be Fleet Admiral?"
"But how did you know?"
A look of guilt flashed across Garp's face:
"I don't have the face to stay either... I resigned to Fleet Admiral Kong this morning."
"Fleet Admiral Kong told me."
Sengoku sighed softly:
"What did Fleet Admiral Kong say?"
Garp tilted his head back, looking at the ceiling:
"What else could he say..."
"Just like you, I can resign, but I must retain my rank."
"I've been transferred to be the New Recruit Drill Instructor."
Sengoku looked somewhat thoughtful:
"New Recruit Instructor... that's good too."
Tsuru shook her head:
"You two..."
Garp stared at the ceiling:
"You're disappointed in us, aren't you, little Tsuru..."
"To have done something like this..."
Tsuru said:
"Everyone in the entire Headquarters is disappointed in you right now."
"Nothing is more chilling than the betrayal of your superior."
"It's just that no one dares to say it."
"Let Dragon fend for himself. If you cross paths again..."
"It will be a fight to the death."
------------
Marine Headquarters, Marine Academy.
Morris sighed as he tidied up the candidate lists for the elite classes reported from branches around the world.
"It's like this again."
Zeff, looking out the window, came back to himself:
"What, another batch of unremarkable individuals?"
Morris rubbed his temples:
"Since Drake's batch, there haven't been any good prospects for several consecutive years."
It's not that there are none. The batch after Drake's was decent, with a Logia-type smoke-fruit ability user... but how to put it... they couldn't hold their own.
"By the way, Drake graduated two years ago, right?"
"Where is he now?"
Zeff chuckled:
"He's with that kid Sote."
"We don't need to worry about him."
Morris shook his head and chuckled:
"That's good..."
He got up and stretched:
"Alright, don't think too much about it."
"We're no longer on the same path as Sengoku and Garp."
"Focus on preparing for battle."
"After the New Year, Sakazuki will take office."
"The so-called Great Pirate Era will also usher in the prelude to its demise."
"Take this time to train more core members of the Marines."
Zeff took a deep breath:
"Yeah..."
"We're no longer on the same path..."
----------
Grand Line, Calm Belt.
A massive fleet was traversing the Calm Belt.
According to intelligence from one of the Seven Warlords, the Kuja Pirates.
A batch of weapons bound for the Revolutionary Army will be escorted by the fleet of the Steam Pirates across the Grand Line to the Four Seas.
Because the high-end combat power of the Kuja Island was lost to Sakazuki's hands...
The current Kuja Pirates lack particularly strong combatants, only having the Kuja warriors with average overall strength. Although they can use Armament Haki.
Facing the fleet of the Steam Pirates, one of the Four Emperors, they could only avoid their edge and report the intelligence to the Marines.
Above the Calm Belt.
Above the clouds, another massive fleet appeared here, faintly visible...
The difference is that these are Marine warships...
Sote floated in the air, calculating something as he looked at the barely visible specks of black dots.
"Prepare."
"Deploy!"
A fleet composed of dozens of warships began to drop bombs below.
They fell like dense raindrops, all special bombs that would explode with high-voltage electricity even if they fell into the sea.
Simultaneously.
A group of soldiers wearing specialized equipment and cloaks, led by Drake, prepared to deploy at any time.
A moment later, after all the bombs had been dropped.
The fleet of warships began to dive downwards, and Drake put on his goggles:
"SWORD, deploy!"
He jumped down first, his specialized shoes erupting with power, accelerating his dive.
The group behind him also jumped down.
This equipment was made years ago after Enel plundered the Vinsmoke family's research data...
It had even been optimized by Vegapunk, making it more powerful than the original Vinsmoke family equipment.
Sote chuckled and activated his ability.
A dense swarm of missiles floated behind him, also diving down. They reached the battlefield ahead of Drake's special forces and began the annihilation.
----------
South Blue, Kingdom of Sohbet.
In the previously crowded conference room, only Dragon, Bartholomew Kuma, and Lindbergh, the Mink general commander of the South Blue, remained.
Everyone, including Sabo, had secretly departed for the other three seas.
With the Revolutionary Army retreating to the Four Seas and the situation just stabilizing.
The Marines had revealed a scandal of division, and Dragon took the opportunity to order all base commanders to prepare for a large meeting.
Led by the overall commanders of each sea, all base commanders were required to attend, so no one suspected anything and everyone went to the assembly points for the large sea meetings.
Only the high-level officials at headquarters knew that this was a bloody purge meeting...
More than half a day had passed since Dragon issued the order, and they had been constantly watching the reports of the battle at Marine Headquarters.
Both Kuma and Lindbergh were somewhat perplexed.
After a while, Lindbergh couldn't hold back and asked:
"What's wrong, Commander-in-Chief?"
"The division of the Marines is a good thing, is there anything detrimental to us in this?"