Grand Line — Marineford
Marineford looked exactly the same as when Tenjin had left.
That irritated him.
The sea still crashed against the harbor walls with disciplined rhythm. Marines still moved through the great fortress in ordered lines. Seagulls still cried overhead as if the world were not constantly trying to embarrass him personally. The white stone of the base still gleamed beneath the sun, imposing and self-important.
Everything was normal.
Which only made Tenjin's mood worse.
He walked up the wide approach toward the main body of the base with his coat draped over his shoulders and a sour look on his face. His boots struck the stone with steady force, each step carrying the lingering frustration of Banaro Island.
The whole trip back, only one thought had followed him.
'I told Sengoku I'd capture Ace.'
Not just told him.
He'd said it with confidence.
With that relaxed, certain tone that made it sound inevitable.
If I capture Ace, then all of this will sort itself out.
Tenjin's eye twitched.
And instead of capturing Ace, he had gotten burned half to death, fed against his will by a pirate, declared Ace his rival, and then returned to Marineford with nothing but failure and soot to show for it.
It was deeply irritating.
He clicked his tongue.
'What a miserable sequence of events.'
He had almost made it through the front approach without incident.
Almost.
Then he saw her.
Vice Admiral Gion stood just beyond the next turn in the corridor leading toward the inner training grounds, one hand resting lightly on her hip, posture flawless, expression unreadable. The sunlight coming in from the side windows caught along the edges of her figure and made the scene feel far more dramatic than Tenjin would have preferred.
He stopped instantly.
Not because he wanted to.
Because his body did it on its own.
A reaction born purely from survival instinct.
Gion looked at him.
And smiled.
"Well," she said, her tone smooth and dangerous all at once. "Look who managed to come back."
Tenjin straightened without meaning to.
"Vice Admiral Gion."
Gion took a few calm steps toward him.
No rush.
No visible anger.
Which, somehow, made the air around her feel sharper.
"I heard," she said, "that you ignored rules, stole a warship, forced a crew into service, chased after a commander of the Whitebeard Pirates based on a hunch…" She tilted her head slightly. "And then got beaten."
Tenjin's face tightened.
Gion's smile deepened.
"All that trouble," she continued, "just to lose."
Tenjin said nothing.
Because there was, regrettably, nothing he could say.
Gion stopped right in front of him and looked him up and down once, her gaze clinical and mildly amused.
"How unfortunate."
Tenjin swallowed.
Very carefully.
Because Vice Admiral Gion was one of the rare people in Marineford who could make him feel genuine, immediate fear without lifting a hand.
"You missed two weeks of training," Gion said.
Tenjin's shoulders stiffened.
"And," she went on, "I will personally make sure you make up every second of it."
Tenjin swallowed again.
Harder this time.
'This is how it ends.'
Gion folded her arms.
"The others are already at the training ground," she said. "You should go join them."
Tenjin blinked once.
Then frowned.
"…Immediately?"
"Yes."
He gestured vaguely to himself. "I just got back."
"Yes."
"Maybe," Tenjin tried, in what he hoped sounded like reason rather than cowardice, "it would be better if I rested first."
Gion stared at him.
Then said, with a calmness that felt profoundly unfair, "I don't care."
Tenjin's mouth closed.
Gion glanced past him down the corridor.
"I'm going somewhere for a short while," she said. "And when I return, you had better be on that field."
A beat passed.
Then Tenjin nodded.
"…Yes."
"Good."
She stepped around him and continued on her way as if the conversation had been entirely ordinary.
Tenjin stood there for a second longer, staring ahead with the hollow expression of a man who had just watched his final excuse die.
Then he sighed and started walking.
Toward suffering.
Again.
---
Marineford — Main Training Grounds
The training grounds were busy as always.
The afternoon session had already begun, and the wide field was alive with motion. Recruits sparred in circles, ran drills, carried weighted equipment, and shouted through exercises under the eyes of instructors who seemed professionally committed to the destruction of comfort.
When Tenjin entered from the far side, a few heads turned immediately.
Then more.
And within moments, several of the trainees who had come to know him over the past two weeks started heading his way.
Koby reached him first.
"Tenjin-san!"
Helmeppo was close behind, though he tried to look much less eager about it.
Hibari approached with visible relief. "You're back."
Kujaku came too, smiling as if she had personally arranged the entire sequence of events for entertainment.
Prince Grus followed at a more measured pace, arms folded, expression carrying the exact sort of interest one man reserved for another after hearing he had gone off to challenge a commander of an Emperor's crew on pure impulse.
Even before Tenjin could properly stop, they were around him.
"What happened?"
"Did you really fight Fire Fist Ace?"
"How strong was he?"
"Did you burn down an island?"
Koby, earnest as ever, looked especially focused. "Are you alright?"
Tenjin glanced around at all of them, then answered the most important question first.
"I'm alive."
Helmeppo snorted lightly. "That's not exactly a complete report."
Tenjin gave him a look. "It's the part I value most."
Hibari smiled despite herself.
Koby, however, still looked intensely curious. "So… what happened with Ace?"
Tenjin exhaled slowly.
As he started changing into training clothes near the edge of the field, he answered in the plainest possible way.
"I found him."
That got everyone's full attention.
"And?" Kujaku asked, already knowing from the state of his expression that the story did not end with triumph.
Tenjin pulled his shirt over his head and added flatly, "He beat me."
There was a pause.
Just a brief moment of everyone absorbing the honesty of it.
Prince Grus, of all people, was the one who spoke first.
"Well," he said, "at least you failed ambitiously."
Tenjin looked at him sideways.
"…I'm choosing not to hear that as an insult."
"It wasn't."
That surprised Tenjin enough to stop him for half a beat.
Koby, meanwhile, looked more impressed than anything else. "You actually went after him alone…"
Helmeppo folded his arms. "That's insane."
Kujaku smiled. "Yes. But interesting."
Tenjin tugged his sleeve into place and ignored that.
It was around then, while he was still getting properly settled back into the field, that he heard the phrase from a nearby cluster of trainees a little farther off.
"The Supernova."
The words caught his ear immediately.
He turned.
A group of Marines and trainees had paused between drills, gathered near one of the training rings, talking with the heated interest reserved for fresh news from the outside world.
Tenjin walked closer.
"What's that?" he asked.
Prince Grus looked up. "You haven't heard?"
Tenjin's face made it clear he had not, and that asking that question was a waste of time.
Hibari cleared her throat.
"The Supernova. Eleven rookie pirates who've all reached Sabaody Archipelago with bounties over one hundred million."
Tenjin's interest sharpened instantly.
That was not ordinary.
That was exactly the sort of thing worth listening to.
"Name them," he said.
Hibari glanced around, making sure she remembered them right, and started listing them off one by one.
"Eustass Kid — three hundred and fifteen million."
Tenjin nodded once.
"Monkey D. Luffy — three hundred million."
That made him glance up slightly.
"So Straw Hat's up that high now."
Hibari continued.
"Basil Hawkins — two hundred and forty-nine million. X Drake — two hundred and twenty-two million. Trafalgar Law — two hundred million. Scratchmen Apoo — one hundred and ninety-eight million."
Helmeppo let out a low whistle under his breath.
Koby listened too, though his expression shifted subtly at Luffy's name.
The list went on.
"Killer — one hundred and sixty-two million. Jewelry Bonney — one hundred and forty million. Capone Bege — one hundred and thirty-eight million. Roronoa Zoro — one hundred and twenty million. Urouge — one hundred and eight million."
Silence followed.
Then Tenjin smiled.
Not the lazy grin he used when joking.
Not the smug one he wore when provoking someone.
This one came from somewhere much more honest.
Excitement.
Real excitement.
Eleven rookies.
Eleven dangerous names.
Eleven pirates who had forced the sea to acknowledge them all at once.
Now that—
That sounded worth his time.
"So many interesting targets…" he murmured.
Kujaku, standing nearby, noticed the shift in him immediately and laughed softly.
"There it is," she said. "That face."
Tenjin ignored her.
His eyes remained fixed somewhere beyond the training ground now, already imagining paths, encounters, clashes.
He folded his arms.
"Straw Hat Luffy," he said. "He might actually be worth looking into now."
Koby gave him a small, unreadable glance at that but said nothing.
Another trainee spoke up from the side.
"Speaking of big names…"
He hesitated just enough to gather everyone's attention.
"Have you heard about Fire Fist Ace?"
Tenjin looked at him immediately.
His expression still held that earlier excitement.
Then the words came.
"He's been captured by the World Government," the trainee said. "And he's set to be executed."
Everything in Tenjin stopped.
The field.
The noise.
The motion.
It all seemed to drop away for one single second.
Tenjin stared.
"…HUH!?"
---
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