Chapter 207: Sengoku, Clearly The Big Brother, Looks The Youngest
Elus and Monkey D. Dragon clashed with a deafening ‘clang and bang,’ the earth-shaking noises lasting half a day, scaring Loguetown’s residents into continuing to hunker down without venturing out, all praying for the battle outside to end soon.
It was probably the residents’ prayers that took effect.
Just as time was about to enter late night, the terrifying sounds of fighting finally stopped.
The arduous task of capturing the Revolutionary Army leader ultimately couldn’t be completed by Elus. After dragging it out long enough, Dragon rode the storm away. Elus had no intention of crossing Reverse Mountain overnight; he found the Navy’s station in the town and planned to make do here for the night, continuing his journey at dawn.
After eight days and seven nights of turmoil, without closing his eyes for more than a minute during that time.
Though his body wasn’t particularly fatigued, the mental exhaustion still required a good sleep to recover and replenish.
“······This is unavoidable! Dragon’s ability······ he’s too convenient at escaping. I want to chase him, but I can’t catch up······”
“Anyway, I did my best. It’s true the Straw Hat Pirates got away, but I did catch Buggy······ you know, the red-nosed one who crewed with Red-Haired on the Pirate King’s ship······ I’ve already handed him over to Colonel Smoker.”
“······Fleet Admiral Sengoku, what happens next has nothing to do with me. You can go after whoever you want; I’m planning to head back to the New World······”
After ending the troublesome call with Navy Headquarters and Marie Geoise, Elus lay on the bed in the guest room.
He was supposed to be sleeping, but sleepiness wouldn’t come.
“Float-Float Fruit!”
Elus took the Devil Fruit from the bedside table into his hand, admiring this fruit full of mysterious allure under the moonlight from the window.
The analysis of the Door-Door Fruit was complete, so he could now switch to a new Devil Fruit······ However, Elus toyed with the Float-Float Fruit in his hand, with no intention of eating this quite powerful Devil Fruit right now.
“No rush, there’s still time······ Be patient. Waiting is to make the fruit even more delicious.”
Elus muttered to himself.
He thought clearly in his mind: the Float-Float Fruit was indeed very powerful. Not to mention anything else, with Golden Lion as a demonstration, there was no way he’d waste this ability······ But for Elus, the Float-Float Fruit was at best a way to further enrich his combat methods; it wasn’t enough to bring him a qualitative leap.
To this day,
Elus had a general speculation in his heart about the true nature of Devil Fruits, but there wasn’t enough evidence to prove it—or rather, no need to prove it. Stating that boring truth held little meaning; it might surprise people at first, but soon the world would continue turning as usual, with sunrises and sunsets, spring passing and winter coming······ things would remain the same.
Rather than doing that, it was better to think of ways to continue enhancing his own power.
“Gaze-Gaze Fruit, don’t let me down!”
Elus put the Float-Float Fruit back on the bedside table and closed his eyes to start sleeping.
At the same time,
Navy Headquarters,
“······Golden Lion is dead. I hope it doesn’t cause too much trouble.” Unlike Elus, who quickly fell into a deep, sweet sleep, Fleet Admiral Sengoku had no sleepiness at all, with a head full of official matters waiting to be handled.
First, the operations in the New World had seen no results so far, failing to capture any weakness to use against Whitebeard. Now this incident had occurred, and news of Golden Lion’s death was inevitably going to spread. After all, he was a legendary great pirate.
All four current Pirate Emperors had connections with Golden Lion in different senses—former comrades? Enemies? Or perhaps confidants?
Heaven knows what kind of storm this would stir up······
“Golden Lion’s era ended twenty years ago, but with another of the three great legendary pirates gone, only Whitebeard remains······ Whitebeard can now be said to have fully embodied the legend of the old era, gathering all the prestige of the old era. Dealing with Whitebeard next······ will require even more caution!”
Vice Admiral Tsuru said slowly, holding her teacup.
“The flag of the old era? Roger, Shiki······ Newgate. Come to think of it······ we’re antiques from the old era too!” Sengoku laughed self-mockingly.
“That’s right, we’re all old antiques from the previous era.”
The bluish-green tea reflected Vice Admiral Tsuru’s no-longer-young face. Recalling those high-spirited days chasing bastards like Roger, Shiki, and Newgate across the sea felt like yesterday. But in the blink of an eye, here she was with wrinkled, gray hair······ No matter how you looked at it, she was an old antique marked by the years.
“Time······ passes so quickly! It feels like so many years have gone by in the blink of an eye······ You’re the oldest among us, Sengoku, yet you’re the first to stay young.” Vice Admiral Tsuru glanced at Sengoku’s jet-black sideburns; time truly wasn’t fair at all!
She, Sengoku, Garp, and Zephyr had joined the Navy around the same time, with Sengoku being the oldest, their big brother, and Zephyr the youngest······ Yet in the past couple of years, Zephyr’s health had deteriorated sharply. They thought this youngest comrade would go first, but Sengoku remained sturdy without signs of aging, even more spirited than Garp.
“This······”
Fleet Admiral Sengoku shook his head, offering no opinion.
As a wise general, he wouldn’t rashly speak up on such a sensitive topic. Back in their youth, anyone who dared mention age in front of Tsuru would regret it; that fool Garp, who never learned, had been hung up like clothes to dry by Tsuru more than once.
“Speaking of which, I’ve been thinking about successors lately!”
Sengoku subtly changed the topic.
“Successor?”
Vice Admiral Tsuru was stunned for a moment. She looked over in confusion. “What’s wrong? Planning to retire? Fleet Admiral Kong is still working hard at a hundred years old; isn’t it a bit early for you to talk about retiring?”
“Fleet Admiral Kong is ninety-seven this year, not yet a hundred!” Sengoku corrected Vice Admiral Tsuru’s mistake. “The issue isn’t there. If it’s just about energy, I believe I could keep going for another ten or eight years······ But Holy Land has some opinions.”
“Five Elders, what are they dissatisfied with?”
Mentioning those old things of unknown age, Vice Admiral Tsuru’s tone turned harsher.
“The Five Elders think my strategy is too conservative.”
Sengoku said helplessly.
Conservative was strictly speaking correct. Compared to focusing on striking down pirates, Sengoku cared more about protecting peace on the sea. The existence of the Four Emperors was indeed a humiliation to the Navy, but the Four Emperors themselves formed an order. Plus, introducing the Seven Warlords created a three-way balance that maintained limited order on the sea.
Such order was naturally imperfect—or rather, had major issues.
But any order, no matter how bad, was better than unordered chaos. This was Sengoku’s heartfelt belief after experiencing the great chaos following the collapse of the Rocks Pirates. Perhaps to many, this Pirate Era was so terrible, with pirates emerging endlessly making the world so awful.
But in Sengoku’s view, it was already quite good. At least the truly powerful pirates often had their own rules and order; none were completely reckless.
Anyone who had experienced that insane chaos understood how vital order was. After the battle at God Valley, the sole overlord of the pirate world, the Rocks Pirates, collapsed, leading to the breakdown of order in the pirate world. Pirates fought frenziedly to seize the throne and legacy.
How crazy were the pirates back then?
Due to the extremely bloody struggles, they went mad enough to abandon territory, with no long-term plans, embracing a ‘drink today while we have wine’ mindset to rampage across the sea, leaving scorched earth wherever they went. Even the Navy often couldn’t track or catch those lunatics.
Chaos spread from the New World to Paradise,
The Grand Line······ nearly got completely ruined.
Not to mention anything else, that guy Golden Lion alone destroyed countless islands, forcing the Navy to revise maps repeatedly.
Fortunately, Whitebeard was the first to stake out a vast territory, establishing a series of bans and using the heads of thousands of pirates to cement unshakeable prestige. Afterward, the Pirate Emperors emerged one after another, finally ending that maddening era of chaos.
“······Conservative?”
Vice Admiral Tsuru frowned, her eyes filled with deeper confusion. “Since when did the Five Elders become so aggressive? They weren’t this keen on cracking down on pirates before?”
The Five Elders had previously acquiesced to Sengoku’s strategy; otherwise, they wouldn’t have let Sengoku succeed Fleet Admiral Kong as the new Fleet Admiral. So now that the Five Elders had changed their stance······ had something happened? Enough to make them even consider replacing the Fleet Admiral.
“This matter is probably related to that one; the Five Elders are likely just passing on the message to me.”
Sengoku said softly.
Im’s existence was a World Government secret, but as Fleet Admiral, some things he had to know. Otherwise, if the Fleet Admiral harbored disloyal thoughts, it could cause even more terrifying destructive power than the Four Emperors. Overthrowing World Government rule might be impossible, but without the Navy’s strong arm, governing this vast world would be difficult.
“That one······ Sigh!”
Tsuru was only the Navy Headquarters Great Advisor; strictly speaking, she wasn’t qualified to know of Im’s existence. Even the Generals knew little; Tsuru had simply inferred certain things from Kong and Sengoku’s reactions using her own wisdom. Helplessly, Sengoku had to reveal some secrets that only the Fleet Admiral should access.
“In that case, there’s no room for discussion on this matter.”
“Pretty much. Once this operation against Whitebeard concludes······ it’ll probably be time for me to step down.”
“······Who are you planning to have succeed you?”
Vice Admiral Tsuru asked.
“Kuzan, I think highly of him.” Sengoku gave the answer instantly, clearly having considered it long ago. But after saying it, a bitter smile appeared on his face: “If possible, I’d like Kuzan to succeed me in this position, but······ the Five Elders may not like this choice.”
It wasn’t ‘may not’; they almost certainly wouldn’t.
The reason they were pressuring Sengoku to step down was dissatisfaction with his conservative strategy toward pirates. Replacing him with Kuzan, whose style wouldn’t change much······ would definitely not satisfy the Holy Land.
“Sakazuki is probably the Holy Land’s best choice.”
Vice Admiral Tsuru stated bluntly.
“Sakazuki······ perhaps.” Sengoku nodded. “But I’ll still recommend Kuzan as successor. As for the final outcome······ that’s beyond my control.”
“It’s most likely Sakazuki.”
Vice Admiral Tsuru was very certain of this.
“······No confidence in Kuzan at all?” Sengoku stroked his braided beard.
“Without Holy Land support, Sakazuki naturally has no chance against Kuzan. But if the Holy Land backs Sakazuki······ it will probably turn into a duel between Kuzan and Sakazuki. In terms of strength, they’re evenly matched, but······ Kuzan’s will to fight isn’t as strong as Sakazuki’s. The one who persists to the end will definitely be Sakazuki.”
“······You might be right, but······ I won’t change my mind.”
Sengoku didn’t refute.
His eyes weren’t blind; what Tsuru could see, he had no reason not to······ But compared to Sakazuki’s radicalism, he still preferred Kuzan’s moderation······ Personal preferences were like that; they couldn’t be easily reversed.
“······”
Vice Admiral Tsuru shook her head, not quite approving of Sengoku’s choice.
But she knew that since Sengoku had decided, he wouldn’t easily change. She truly had no energy to argue with Sengoku over this. Anyway, Sakazuki and Kuzan were destined to be at odds; no matter who became Fleet Admiral, the other would almost certainly not stay at Headquarters.
With Sengoku currently mediating their conflicts, once that buffer was gone, the two with fundamentally clashing ideologies couldn’t coexist.
“Enough of this. Future matters can be handled by the future. The current problem is still Whitebeard······ The Holy Land is urging us to produce results soon.” At this point, Sengoku’s head began to ache again.
“Since the Blackbeard betrayal incident, the Whitebeard Pirates’ vigilance has become several times stricter than before. It’s really hard to find a good opportunity to strike; not a single one of the over ten captains has been caught.”
Capturing a Whitebeard Pirates captain to use as bait to lure Whitebeard into a trap,
A simple and straightforward plan, an outright overt scheme. Given Whitebeard’s style of cherishing his sons, he’d step in even knowing it was a trap······ The issue was that without sufficient bait, they couldn’t hook this big fish Whitebeard.
With over ten captains in the Whitebeard Pirates, capturing any one would work, but none had been caught yet. Navy and World Government agents still hadn’t found chances to strike when these captains were alone.
The only active one, Fire Fist, was chasing Blackbeard all over Paradise; even the Navy couldn’t pinpoint Fire Fist’s exact location for the time being.
