Chapter 39: The Best Touchstone
Under the night, the lights of Navy Headquarters were brightly lit.
The busy sounds did not fade with the arrival of night; accompanied by the new shift personnel coming on duty, the headquarters, as the head of millions of Navy, still maintained the highest operational speed. Under the illumination of the lights, the boundary between day and night here was not so clear.
Conference room,
A slightly cool night breeze blew in from the window. Vice Admiral Tsuru’s face showed a hint of distress, and she let out a deep sigh.
Too direct!
Sakazuki… still the same as always, with a temperament straightforward to the extreme, completely unaware of how to write the words “tactful.” He rose from the lowest-ranking Marine all the way to the position of General purely through irrefutable achievements, step by step, constantly climbing to higher positions, making it impossible for anyone who wanted to suppress him to do so.
Otherwise,
even the Navy, which prides itself on justice, would not be free from power struggles.
If Sakazuki’s growth history were written into a book, it would also be a wonderfully brilliant story!
“New World… if possible, of course I want to go back.” Sengoku calmly answered Sakazuki’s question. He looked up at the huge map hanging on the opposite wall and said, “The chaos in the New World has been longstanding. Sakazuki, you know Rocks, right?”
Sakazuki maintained his steel-like cold and hard expression, saying nothing.
Sengoku didn’t mind Sakazuki’s lack of face; he continued, “The Navy’s control over the New World has always been unstable. Rocks, Whitebeard, Golden Lion, BIG·MOM, Beasts, Red-Haired… and even earlier monsters. In this meat grinder of the New World, guys that give headaches are always tempered out.
And whenever powerful Pirates rise, the Navy’s influence contracts, but when the Pirates’ power wanes, the Navy re-dominates the New World…”
“Fleet Admiral, are you saying that the Pirates’ power is now weakening? Sorry, I don’t see such a future. Whitebeard, BIG·MOM, Beasts, Red-Haired—these criminals are all alive and kicking.” Sakazuki unceremoniously retorted, directly interrupting Sengoku’s speech.
“As a Marine to say such things… is an utter disgrace, but angry feelings cannot change the established facts. As long as the balance of the Four Emperors continues for one more day, the Navy does not have the conditions to return to the New World. Marching into the New World at this time would only bring worthless casualties.”
Sakazuki was just straightforward in character, not reckless.
To complete the mission, he could mercilessly target and eliminate colleagues and ordinary civilians alike, but this was under another prerequisite—that is—
Being able to complete the mission.
As long as there was confidence in completing the mission, he would naturally do it at any cost, even sacrificing his own life, because in his view, as long as the mission could be completed, all such efforts were valuable. But if there was no confidence, all the efforts would just be for a gamble-like adventure with an uncertain outcome.
Sorry,
He wouldn’t do such a thing.
Sacrifice is allowed, but worthless sacrifice is intolerable.
His weighing of pros and cons was actually that simple.
“Sengoku, do you think this child will shake up the New World’s situation?”
Tsuru asked.
Her finger was pressing down on a photo.
In the photo, Elus spread his pitch-black wings, soaring in the sky. The beautiful shooting angle could only be said to be absolutely from a professional’s hand—in fact, it was. This photo was deliberately circulated by Morgans, along with the intelligence of Umit being killed.
The file just handed over contained this photo.
“He has already shaken up the New World’s situation,” Sengoku said.
“But Sengoku, you understand—as long as the Four Emperors don’t move, the New World’s situation won’t have more room for improvement.”
“But that doesn’t prevent us from preparing in advance.” Sengoku said calmly. He lowered his head, looking at the extra printed photos in his hand. “Tsuru, Sakazuki, this photo… have you noticed anything unusual?”
He waved the photo in his hand; Tsuru and Sakazuki both had the same one.
“Hey hey, Sengoku, you bastard, don’t treat me like I don’t exist! You called me here for the meeting, and now you treat me like I’m not here… damn it, watch me eat all your rice crackers.” With that, Garp pulled out a pack of rice crackers from under the table, opened it on the spot, and started munching “crunch crunch.”
Vice Admiral Tsuru had a helpless look on her face.
Even Sakazuki just frowned, not bothering with this maverick senior.
Only Sengoku was so angry his beard puffed out, slamming the table and cursing at Garp. Dialogues like “You bastard stole my rice crackers again!” “What do you mean stole? I walked right in and took them fair and square, okay?”—which had repeated countless times—played out once more.
“Is there anything special about this? No matter how you look, it’s just a Zoan Devil Fruit User.”
After looking for a while, Vice Admiral Tsuru, called the Great Advisor, frowned and interrupted the interaction between Sengoku and Garp.
“What what? Tsuru, let me see too!”
Garp curiously craned his neck over.
“Hmm, this kid killed that Umit guy. Looks really young! This… is a Mythical Zoan Ability User? Looks like another troublesome guy!” Garp muttered to himself, completely unaware of the shocked and puzzled looks from Vice Admiral Tsuru and Sakazuki.
“As expected, you bastard’s intuition is scarily accurate!”
Sengoku crossed his arms over his chest and sat back in his seat.
“Sengoku, Garp, you two… how did you see from this photo that this little guy is a Mythical Zoan Ability User?” Vice Admiral Tsuru questioned.
“Eh? You can tell at a glance, right?”
Garp continued eating his rice crackers.
Vice Admiral Tsuru gave Garp a helpless look and sighed softly. She had to admit that an idiot’s intuition seemed sharper than rational thinking at times. This was really… not very pleasant!
With no hope of Garp saying anything understandable, she could only pin her hopes on Sengoku.
Sure enough,
After pondering for a few seconds,
Sengoku said, “I don’t have concrete evidence to prove it, but as a fellow Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit User, even from just a photo, I can sense that distinctive quality. Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits… are very special.”
“…If it’s really Mythical Zoan, it’s indeed a troublesome guy.”
Sakazuki carefully reviewed the photo in his hand several more times and finally stopped opposing Sengoku.
At some point on the Sea, a saying circulated: there are no worthless Devil Fruits, only worthless Devil Fruit Users… This statement isn’t accurate. Indeed, the same Devil Fruit can shine differently in different hands, and the quality of the Ability User naturally affects the Devil Fruit’s power.
But—
Devil Fruits have grades.
The most intuitive are the superior and inferior Logia fruits: Lava Fruit and Flare-Flare Fruit, Ice Fruit and Snow-Snow Fruit. This clearly shows Devil Fruits have distinctions of high and low.
Three of the four people present were Ability Users; they knew well the magic of a top-tier Devil Fruit.
Sakazuki changing his attitude was not making a fuss but being dutiful.
In this world,
Devil Fruits themselves are synonymous with power.
Look at the strong persons active in this era—how many are Ability Users? How many are not? The former are as numerous as hairs on a cow, the latter countable on fingers. Never underestimate the impact a top-tier Devil Fruit brings to this world.
“Sengoku, what do you plan to do?”
Tsuru asked again.
“Well! For safety’s sake, I think we should observe this Black Prince up close.” As Sengoku spoke, he looked at the muscle-headed bastard eating his prized limited-edition rice crackers. There was no better touchstone than this.
“Beyond that, how to respond to the upcoming turmoil in the New World is also an important topic. Whether the Black Prince can shake the New World’s four-pole coexistence pattern or not, the lower levels have already been thrown into chaos by him. If not controlled properly, this chaos could even impact Paradise.”
The meeting proceeded in an orderly manner.
Meanwhile,
The world was also slowly changing.
Too tired today(▼皿▼#), a bit short, will try to make up more tomorrow
