Grand Line — Marineford, Information Center
The moment the name left the information specialist's mouth, something in Tenjin came alive.
It was visible.
It showed itself in the simple way his posture changed. The way his eyes sharpened. The way the smile at the corner of his lips became the kind that only appeared when he had found something worth chasing.
"Fire Fist Ace," Tenjin repeated.
The information specialist swallowed nervously.
The room around them remained stiff and silent, every other officer present pretending to work while very obviously listening.
Tenjin folded his arms and leaned slightly over the desk.
"Where is he?"
The specialist looked back down at the report in his hands, fingers trembling as he flipped through the page again, just to be absolutely sure.
"He was last spotted in the Kingdom of Lulusia," he said.
Tenjin's eyes narrowed just slightly.
"Lulusia…"
He straightened slowly, his thoughts already moving ahead of the room around him.
The information specialist blinked up at him. "That is the last confirmed sighting, yes."
But Tenjin was no longer really listening to the way the man said it. His mind had already taken the information and begun rearranging it, moving the pieces around in silence.
Lulusia.
A pirate like Ace would not stay still for long.
Tenjin's smile deepened.
"Banaro Island," he said.
The information specialist froze. "What?"
Tenjin looked at him. "He might end up at Banaro Island."
The specialist stared at him blankly for a moment.
"…How do you know that?"
Tenjin shrugged.
"It's just a hunch."
That did not help.
In fact, it made things much worse.
The information specialist's face twisted into the expression of a man who had spent years around numbers, confirmed sightings, movement reports, and structured intelligence, only to find all of that being casually bulldozed by one 17 year old Marine captain with a dangerous smile and no respect for procedure.
"A hunch?" he repeated.
Tenjin nodded once, completely serious. "Yeah."
The specialist looked down at the papers. Then back up at Tenjin. Then back down again, perhaps hoping the report itself would offer some explanation as to why this conversation had become so absurd.
It did not.
He cleared his throat awkwardly.
"And… what exactly do you plan to do with this information?"
Tenjin looked almost offended by the question.
"Of course," he said, "I'm going to go capture Ace."
The specialist's eyes widened.
For a second, he genuinely wondered if he had misheard.
Then he realized he had not.
The room felt colder somehow.
"…Captain Tenjin," the specialist said carefully, in the tone one might use to explain to a child why they should not attempt to fight a Sea King with a spoon, "you are not allowed to engage a member of an Emperor's crew without authorization from the highest level."
Tenjin turned toward the door.
That, more than anything else, terrified the specialist.
Because it meant he had heard the warning and had already chosen not to care.
"Captain Tenjin," the man said again, voice rising slightly, "that is not a normal pirate. That is Fire Fist Ace. Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. If you move against him without permission, that would be a serious—"
Tenjin started walking.
The specialist hurried around the desk, panic overtaking his professionalism.
"Captain!"
Tenjin kept going.
The specialist made one final attempt.
"Even if you aren't the sort to follow rules," he said desperately, "breaking them on the basis of a hunch is insane!"
Tenjin did not stop.
Did not turn.
Did not even slow down.
The door opened.
Then closed behind him.
And the information specialist stood there panting, staring after the path he had taken as if his soul had just watched disaster put on boots and leave with purpose.
---
Marineford — Harbor District
Tenjin walked fast.
Not because he was in a hurry.
Because the excitement in him had become too loud to contain at an ordinary pace.
The harbor spread out ahead of him in all its usual Marineford chaos. Ships being loaded, maintenance crews moving supplies, ropes being checked, weapons being cleaned, dock officers shouting orders across the piers. The sea beyond glittered beneath the afternoon light, indifferent as always to the plans being made upon it.
Tenjin moved through the noise with singular focus.
'Fire Fist Ace.'
A commander of the Whitebeard Pirates.
Five hundred million berries.
A real pirate.
A real challenge.
This.
This was what mattered.
He reached one of the warships presently undergoing maintenance and stopped beside it. Men were moving across the deck and gangplank, checking fittings, securing barrels, and hauling fresh stock into the hold.
Tenjin looked up at the ship, then toward one of the men nearest the gangplank.
"This one," he said. "Is it good to go?"
The maintenance officer looked down, surprised but not alarmed. Tenjin was still a Marine officer, after all, and the question sounded routine enough.
"Yes, sir," the man answered. "She's seaworthy."
Tenjin nodded once.
"Can it cross the Calm Belt?"
That question gave the officer pause.
Still, he answered.
"Yes, sir. This model is fitted for it."
That was all Tenjin needed.
"Good."
He stepped past the man and onto the gangplank.
The officer blinked.
"Captain…?"
Tenjin turned his head slightly.
"You," he said, pointing at the man, "and everyone else working on this ship. You're taking me to Jaya."
Silence.
A crate slipped from someone's hands in the background.
The maintenance officer laughed awkwardly, clearly waiting for the joke to reveal itself.
"…Sir?"
Tenjin looked at him.
It became very clear very quickly that there was no joke.
One of the other workers spoke up from the deck above. "Captain, with respect, we can't just—"
Tenjin looked up.
A thin line of bark crept over his forearm.
That was enough to silence him.
Another man tried a different angle. "We would need authorization for a route change like that, and—"
Tenjin stepped fully onto the deck.
"I am your authorization."
That was not true.
But it was true enough in the moment.
The men exchanged nervous looks.
Because this was the problem with someone like Tenjin.
It was not only that he was stronger than them.
Though he was.
Overwhelmingly.
It was that, politically speaking, he was also a nightmare to resist. A Marine captain from the North Blue. The boy from the newspapers. The one Garp had personally brought back. The one people whispered about.
Trying to physically stop him would be stupid.
Trying to argue procedure at him would be worse.
Tenjin gave them one last look.
"Move."
And they moved.
Not happily.
But they moved.
Because all of them knew, with the bone-deep certainty that only experience could create, that there were some men in the world who made arguing feel like a waste of life.
Within minutes, the warship had shifted from maintenance mode to emergency departure.
Lines were cleared. Supplies were re-secured. Crew positions were filled with the bitter obedience of people who already knew they would hate this story when forced to retell it later.
Tenjin stood at the front of the ship, facing out toward the sea.
His expression had gone calm again.
Focused.
'Banaro Island,' he thought.
'Let's see if I'm right.'
---
Marineford — Fleet Admiral Sengoku's Office
Fleet Admiral Sengoku was already tired.
That was the natural state of his soul whenever Garp entered a room and sat down like he had every right to be there.
At present, Garp sat across from him with the relaxed posture of a man attending a casual tea visit rather than a disciplinary conversation. One arm rested over the back of the chair. The other hand lazily dug at his ear. His expression carried the exact sort of interest one might have while being told the weather.
Sengoku, meanwhile, looked ready to burst a vein.
"I'm telling you now," Sengoku said, voice hard and clipped, "you are not to let Straw Hat Luffy go just because he's your grandson."
Garp scratched his cheek.
"I hear you."
"That does not reassure me."
Tsuru sat nearby, composed as ever, quietly reviewing documents while listening with only half-concealed amusement.
Sengoku leaned forward over his desk.
"He attacked Enies Lobby," he said. "He declared war on the World Government. This is not some childish mischief you can laugh off."
Garp nodded.
"Right."
Sengoku's eye twitched.
"He cannot be allowed to simply walk away."
"Mm."
"Are you listening to me?"
Garp looked at him.
"Yes."
And yet—
There was something in the old man's face that made it painfully obvious he had no intention whatsoever of obeying in the exact spirit Sengoku desired.
Tsuru saw it too.
Of course she did.
Sengoku saw it as well.
That only made him angrier.
He drew in breath, clearly preparing to launch into yet another round of increasingly futile shouting—
When a hurried knock interrupted him.
Sengoku stopped.
His face darkened.
"Come in."
The door burst open almost immediately.
The lead information specialist stumbled in, panting hard enough to suggest he had run all the way from his department.
Sengoku looked at him once—
And felt a very specific, very terrible sense of foreboding settle into his stomach.
The man straightened as best he could, though his breathing still had not recovered.
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku," he said, "I have urgent information to report regarding Captain Tenjin."
Sengoku closed his eyes.
Just for a moment.
Tsuru slowly lowered her papers.
Garp, who had been picking at his ear again, started smiling before the report had even begun.
And Sengoku thought, with perfect clarity—
'Something awful has happened.'
---
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