Chapter 234: Last-minute Order Change
Without a second’s extra delay, Garp’s words were passed layer by layer through several layers of World Government’s specific contact personnel at the fastest speed to the Gorosei.
Listening to the report from the senior agent standing straight outside the door, the five elders who held the greatest apparent power in the World Government now had varied expressions.
“I didn’t expect it to be Beasts Pirates people?”
“Why did they suddenly come to attack the Holy Land?”
Saint Máz, responsible for this matter, was somewhat surprised, then looked toward Saint Saturn leaning on his cane.
If someone was deliberately conducting dangerous activities around the Holy Land, that should fall within the purview of this Science Defense Martial God’s duties.
“Hmm… This matter is indeed a bit strange. Why is Kaido making these petty moves?”
“Hmph! Ultimately, Kaido was once influenced by Rocks, so it’s hard to guarantee he won’t do something outrageous.”
The Gorosei member holding a sword clearly had no fondness for Kaido and these remnants of Rocks.
“Moreover, I hear the Beasts Pirates have recently started getting involved in the arms business. According to intelligence, they seem to have formed their own science team.”
“Hmm…”
Saint Saturn pondered for a moment. If it was just traditional arms business, he wouldn’t care much.
But the Beasts Pirates now were clearly pursuing a path of a fully autonomous, systematized military industry from research and development to sales… this had to be guarded against.
Lightly tapping his cane, Saint Saturn, wearing a black hat, then made a decision.
“This is a very dangerous sign. We can’t let them continue like this. We must strike with a heavy fist.”
“Go notify Sengoku and have him include the Beasts Pirates in this operation’s strike targets.”
“But if that’s the case, Sengoku’s combat power alone might be insufficient.”
The Gorosei member with golden hair and slightly dark skin was somewhat worried that adding another target might leave the Navy forces dispatched this time lacking.
“It’s too late to send people now, and besides, there are CP people with Wald, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”
“Now we just need to seize the opportunity when they are both badly injured, and there’s a high probability of success.”
“Yes, with Sengoku’s mind, he will grasp the timing.”
Saint Saturn nodded, then ordered the senior agent who had been waiting outside the door to directly inform Sengoku, who was already preparing for action, of their new instructions.
……
“Yes, I understand.”
Hanging up the Den Den Mushi, Sengoku took a deep breath, then issued the order to slightly delay the action.
“Pass the order: All warships temporarily hold position and await my command!”
“Yes!”
The messenger immediately stood at attention and saluted, then without any delay passed Sengoku’s orders to the other warships in the fleet.
“Admiral Sengoku, why did the higher-ups suddenly add an action target?”
“And it’s an order personally from the Gorosei lords, even bypassing Fleet Admiral Kong directly.”
Sengoku’s deputy officer was somewhat puzzled. Changing operational targets on the eve of battle was a major taboo in military strategy, but since the order came directly from the Gorosei, he, a mere deputy officer, didn’t dare complain.
“The higher-ups might have gotten some intelligence we don’t know about… After all, there’s no such thing as intelligence sharing between the World Government and the Navy.”
“But since it’s a direct order from the Gorosei, we can only comply… It’s just a pity that the original live capture target probably can’t be completed now.”
For pirates, per regulations, the Navy must try to capture them alive first, then go through the process of judgment, and finally imprison those to be imprisoned, decapitate those to be decapitated…
Of course, regulations are regulations, reality is reality.
You can’t expect Navy personnel to force a live capture when their lives are threatened, risking their own lives for that extra bit of military merit—it’s not worth it no matter how you think about it.
And Navy Headquarters turns a blind eye to this…
Only when it involves ability users does Navy Headquarters strictly require maximum efforts to capture alive, and the military merit given is much higher than just bringing in the head.
This is actually easy to understand. Once an ability user dies, their ability reverts to a Devil Fruit and reappears somewhere on the sea.
If it’s ordinary fruits like cat-cat or dog-dog for common folk, it’s fine…
But if strategic-value fruits like the Fruity-Fruity Fruit, Quake-Quake Fruit, or Momo Fruit are reborn and obtained by someone with a bad head, it’s over—they could directly hit Mary Geoise with an Air Shock or drop a small island, and that would be a big problem…
So for these great pirates with powerful Devil Fruit abilities, the Navy’s first goal is always live capture, then throw them into the seabed prison and lock them up until they die of old age.
They even avoid any punishment to prevent these people from committing suicide, simply chaining them with Seastone like that.
Feeling the warship underfoot slowing down more and more until it completely stopped, Sengoku ordered his deputy officer again:
“You contact the CP organization from earlier and have them notify us only after confirming that either Wald or Kaido has completely lost combat capability or died directly.”
To prevent any further tricks from the other side, Sengoku added:
“Say it’s the latest instructions from the Gorosei.”
“…”
“Yes!”
……
“Hmm? Why did they suddenly stop?”
Watching the massive fleet of Navy and pirates in the telescope suddenly halt, Skipgate, who had been surveilling from afar, voiced his curious question.
The opponent had clearly been poised for action just moments ago, yet now stopped without warning.
Could they have discovered the ambush here?
But there’s only one ship on our side… The opponent’s fleet of dozens of large ships could easily send one or two over— no need for the whole fleet to stop, right?
Scratching his explosive hair, Skipgate, unable to figure it out, simply stopped thinking and directly pulled out the Den Den Mushi to call Burufaruto.
“Hey, it’s me. The other side suddenly stopped. Not sure if something went wrong…”
……
“Yes, got it.”
“You continue surveillance. Notify us immediately if you spot anything unusual.”
Click~
Putting away the Den Den Mushi, Burufaruto turned his gaze to the two figures who had resumed fighting.
At this point, the Beasts Pirates fleet had withdrawn from the battlefield. The island garrison squads and executives who had completed their tasks were hurriedly resting, inspecting ships, and keeping an eye on the sea surface battle.
That’s right—Kaido and Wald were now standing on the vast sea surface, their feet on the cubes of giant ship wreckage created by Gai Ram’s ability.
“Damn it!”
“Kaido, you sent people to sneak attack my crew, didn’t you!”
“Where’s my boss now? Hand him over quick!”
Recalling the identical eerie fatal wounds on his crew from before, Wald was almost certain someone had sneaked attacked them while he was away.
And his boss still hadn’t been found. With Bin Jack’s physique, if he wasn’t dead, he was probably captured.
And the prime suspect was Kaido in front of him.
“Ha? What nonsense are you spouting?”
“Sneak attack? Your subordinates were clearly defeated head-on by my fleet fair and square!”
“And what’s this about your boss? Why would I waste people capturing him?”
Completely unaware of what happened, Kaido looked at the other’s furious state and was somewhat baffled.
But whatever… These messy matters had nothing to do with him. He just wanted to have a good, straightforward fight with this strong enemy in front of him.
