"..."
Spandam's eyes lit up again.
The few CP9 Agents present kept their mouths shut; they just felt that the Navy Vice Admiral in front of them seemed more like a spymaster than Spandam himself. Why was a Navy Vice Admiral's mind this convoluted?
"Now..."
Akihara Kagura's fingers tapped the tabletop again as he spoke softly, "Spandam, how about we wipe the slate clean between us?"
"Of course..."
Spandam immediately burst into loud laughter. "Hahahaha... As long as we can wipe out enough of the Revolutionary Army and capture the Revolutionary Army Leader's son, none of that matters!"
However, Spandam's hand was still gripping his Commander Sword tightly. As he looked at Akihara Kagura, who was also laughing, a flash of viciousness passed through his eyes again!
Cooperation was cooperation, credit was credit...
This Vice Admiral still had to be taken out someday!
"Then let's go..."
Akihara Kagura stood up and shook out the Cloak of Justice on his shoulders. "Bring your people. Come with me to Water Seven first. We'll capture Nico Robin before anything else!"
The next morning.
The Sea Train from Enies Lobby arrived at Water Seven.
Water Seven's mayor, Iceberg, led a group of people to welcome Akihara Kagura, because he had already learned the visitor's identity from the Sea Train's conductor. Rob Lucci and his group were also mixed into the welcoming crowd of Water Seven.
However, the young man wearing a Navy cloak who stepped onto the platform didn't care in the slightest about the welcoming crowd. He looked just like a rigidly upright Navy officer, clearly adopting a strictly-by-the-book attitude as he waved his hand and ordered the Navy to tighten security in Water Seven.
"What a righteous Navy officer..."
Kalifa stood in the crowd, pushed up her glasses, and sighed softly. "You'd never guess this is the same Vice Admiral who ordered us not to steal his credit last night..."
"Keep it down. Do you have a death wish?"
Bruno stopped the overly bold Kalifa, then added, "I got news from Owl. He said that Vice Admiral Kagura directly executed the disobedient Nero on Enies Lobby..."
"..."
Cold sweat broke out on Kaku's forehead in fright.
After the welcoming crowd of Water Seven dispersed, the four CP9 Agents who had been lying low in Water Seven finally came over to pay their respects to Akihara Kagura and Spandam.
Akihara Kagura casually waved them off, telling them to get to work immediately, while he himself stayed on the Sea Train to rest, looking every inch like someone intent on taking the credit without doing the work.
"..."
The group of agents could only withdraw helplessly to carry out their tasks.
Once everyone had left the Sea Train and only Akihara Kagura was left, he picked up a Radio Snail and dialed the Fleet Admiral's office in Marineford.
"Vice Admiral Akihara Kagura?"
After Sengoku connected to the Radio Snail, he assumed Akihara Kagura must have run into some trouble. "Did something go wrong with the mission to arrest Nico Robin?"
"More than a little trouble..."
Akihara Kagura glanced at the departing CP Agents and spoke softly, "The Enies Lobby chief, Spandam, doesn't just want to arrest Nico Robin. He wants to stage a massive, high-profile operation..."
At this point, Akihara Kagura simply laid everything out on the table, including luring Straw Hat Luffy into attacking Enies Lobby, making him bear a huge crime as the Revolutionary Army Leader's son being captured rather than as a Pirate, thus greatly easing negative social opinion, and then using him to lure out Revolutionary Army officers, and so on...
"This is the CP Department's business."
Sengoku hoped Akihara Kagura wouldn't get involved in this. As he thought about it, though, he felt this plan sounded a bit familiar, like a repeat of some other incident. "Wait... this plan... don't tell me you helped draft it?"
"I just polished it a little."
Akihara Kagura couldn't help sighing at how well this new Supervisor knew him. "Quite a few people are paying attention to Straw Hat Luffy's identity. Once word gets out that he fell at Enies Lobby, there'll be even more troublesome people coming to rescue him..."
"Spandam's not exactly thinking straight..."
"He really thinks the only force behind Straw Hat Luffy is the Revolutionary Army..."