"Mr. Kin!"
"There's something going on over there!"
A guard came from a distance with a bit of anxiety in his eyes.
Kin was the pseudonym used by Gin, who had used it once before in Raven Harbor. This time, he was too lazy to think of other names and just used them again.
The guard continued: "We found a marine who was seriously injured but still alive!"
"Marine?!"
Gin frowned slightly.
He followed the guard's footsteps and soon saw the marine mentioned by the guard in a stranded pirate ship.
The latter was tied up with chains, and he was seriously injured. A sword wound on his chest almost ripped him open on the spot.
Despite this, this man still survived. His vitality alone was extraordinary.
He wore a knight's helmet, and his face was like a devil. No matter how you look at it, he looked more like a pirate than a Marine.
But the obvious Marines logo on his chest could not deceive people.
This man is really a marine.
If Gawain was here, he would definitely recognize this man's identity at a glance.
T Bone, who was also known as the Ship Cutter.
The captain of the Marine branch near the Water 7. He was someone who treated his subordinates very well and was willing to gamble his life for civilians.
But his ending was extremely ironic, and he died at the hands of the group he protected.
Gin's face was a little solemn for a while.
Now, their marine identity was just a disguise. Once exposed, it would lead to trust issues.
But with so many guards around, he couldn't simply dispose of this marine.
After a moment of contemplation,
Gin spoke coldly: "This person's identity is unclear, and there's a possibility he's a pirate in disguise, planning to use a feigned injury to infiltrate Water 7."
"Treat his wounds first. Notify me when he wakes up."
"Understood!"
Everyone quickly removed the shackles on T Bone, and after a simple bandage, they sent him to the camp behind.
Gin looked around, confirmed that the surrounding pirates had retreated, and also turned around and left.
… … ...
"Have you heard?!"
"Last night, a war broke out in the Water 7 over the Pluton blueprint. Big shots like Vinsmoke Judge and Ochoku took action but were still repelled by the marines at the Water 7!"
"Marine? Is it an admiral!"
"Really?!"
"Only the admirals can do this, right?!"
"Sure enough, the Marines can't sit still in the face of Pluton. I just don't know how long this war will last…"
On the island near Water 7, in a bar, there was a lot of noise.
Everyone was half drunk and half awake, and what they were discussing were all things that happened in the Water 7 recently.
The most hotly discussed topic was the mysterious marine that appeared last night and repelled the two major forces, Ochoku and Vinsmoke.
For a while, everyone began to speculate which admiral took action.
After all, in order to steadily suppress a legendary pirate like Ochoku, only big figures like the admiral or Garp in the Marines could do it.
Aokiji changed into casual clothes, sat in a corner, and listened quietly to everyone's discussion.
He smiled unconsciously, but it pulled the wound on his body, and he grimaced in pain for a while: "That bastard, Sakazuki, really has no mercy at all."
"That's right, a guy like him had a heart harder than iron; how could he care about the so-called comradeship?!"
"But."
"I was right; that guy really went to save people."
Aokiji raised the wine glass and shook it gently in the air, as if clinking glasses with someone in the air, and then drank the wine in the glass in one gulp.
Then he was about to get up and leave, but the Den Den Mushi in his arms rang at this moment.
"Kuzan!"
"Did you do what happened in the Water 7?!"
"How many times have I told you to put the overall situation first? Why can't you listen?!"
"How many times have I cleaned your ass for you in the past few years!"
"I think you don't want to sit in the position of admiral anymore!"
Sengoku's voice exploded directly from the end of the receiver.
The people in the bar stopped talking instantly and turned to look at Aokiji in the corner with extremely surprised expressions.
"What did he just say?!"
"Kuzan... Wait, this guy is Aokiji!"
Someone recognized Aokiji's face; he stumbled to his feet, was directly scared out of his wits, and sobered up on the spot: "I saw him in the newspaper!"
"One of the three current admirals of the Marines, a monster with the alias of Aokiji!"
The people in the bar, as if they had received some orders, stood up with a bang, rushed out of the bar like fleeing, and quickly scattered around.
The only one left was the bar owner, curled up in the corner.
Seeing this, Aokiji couldn't help but sigh.
With such a reaction, what's the difference between the Marines and the pirates?
He ignored Sengoku's scolding, held down the receiver of the Den Den Mushi with one hand, apologized to the anxious bar owner, left a stack of banknotes, and walked away under the latter's surprised expression.
"Mr. Sengoku, it's not that I acted; I just had a long-overdue fight with that guy, Sakazuki..."
"You just fought with who?!"
"Uh..."
"Ah..."
Sengoku sighed, with an indescribable tiredness and a bit of regret in his tone: "This time, the orders from the people above were personally issued, and you can't stop it."
Aokiji gritted his teeth, a deep sense of unwillingness surging within him. He couldn't maintain his usual laid-back demeanor and muttered: "Mr. Sengoku, if I'm not wrong, the one who pretended to be a Marine and fought with Ochoku should be White Knight Gawain."
"A pirate stands up for the civilians in that city. Are you really determined to be an executioner? Are we really worse than pirates?!"
Sengoku was silent for a while, with thousands of thoughts in his mind, but reason prevailed after all.
He also felt reluctant in his heart and would feel regret for the lives of hundreds of thousands of people lost.
But he knew better that once a conflict broke out between the Marines and the World Government, the number of people who died would be far more than that number.
That's a difference of ten or a hundred times!
"Return to headquarters."
"This is an order."
Aokiji didn't answer but asked him: "Mr. Sengoku, do you know why White Knight Gawain chose to disguise himself as the Marines instead of intervening directly under his own name?"
Sengoku said without thinking: "To intervene in the Water 7 under the guise of the Marines's power, either to seize the Pluton blueprint or to fight for those civilians."
"Yes, to borrow the Marines' power!"
Aokiji's eyes were rarely red.
He stood in the street; his body was shaking constantly, and a layer of obvious frost condensed under his feet and spread to the surroundings.
His heart was burning at this moment!
"Why does he want to borrow the power of the Marines?!"
"Because the civilians in the Water 7s who are in misery are waiting for the rescue of the Marines."
"And your help, the so-called help of the World Government, is to let them be completely buried in the sea!"
"Fuck that kind of justice!"
Beep!
The Den Den Mushi was hung up rudely.
Sengoku, who was sitting in his office, looked at the Den Den Mushi in his hand, his fist tightening until…
Bang!
Sengoku lost control and slammed his fist into the desk, the sound reverberating in the room as his breath grew heavy.
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku?!"
A worried voice came from outside the door.
Sengoku forced himself to suppress the anger in his heart and replied lightly: "Get out!"