Grand Line — Marineford, Main Training Grounds
For a moment, Tenjin genuinely thought he had misheard.
The sounds of the training ground seemed to grow distant, muffled beneath the pounding of his own thoughts. The drill calls from the far side of the field. The clatter of practice weapons. The heavy breathing of exhausted trainees. It all faded into the background as that single statement repeated itself in his head.
Fire Fist Ace has been captured.
He's set to be executed.
Tenjin stared at the trainee who had said it, his expression blank in the way it always became when his mind was moving too fast.
"…What?" he asked again.
It came out sharper this time.
The nearby trainees, all members of the elite group assigned under Vice Admiral Gion, exchanged uneasy looks. Koby's brows drew together. Hibari's face shifted into immediate concern. Helmeppo straightened. Kujaku's smile disappeared. Even Prince Grus, who usually watched everything with faint detachment, now looked more attentive than amused.
Tenjin took one step forward.
"What exactly are you talking about?"
The trainee who had spoken first swallowed, suddenly aware of just how seriously he had Tenjin's attention now.
"I heard it from one of the officers in the main briefing corridor," he said. "It's not fully public yet here at Marineford, but the information is moving around. Portgas D. Ace engaged Marshall D. Teach. Blackbeard and lost."
Tenjin's eyes narrowed.
Blackbeard.
That no-name pirate from the report.
The one he had dismissed.
The one he had looked at and decided was beneath his attention.
A bitter irritation rose inside him at once.
Another trainee spoke up, voice lower this time.
"And because he lost, he was turned over to the World Government. They've decided to make his execution public."
No one said anything for a few seconds after that.
Tenjin stood perfectly still.
Inside him, something twisted.
Not grief.
Not exactly.
Anger.
Sharp, immediate anger.
He saw Ace again in his mind. Leaning against that broken structure on Banaro Island, smiling like nothing in the world could make him rush, telling Tenjin to choose Luffy as a rival instead. Telling him no matter how strong he got, he would never be enough. Promising, with that easy confidence of his, that if anyone captured him, it wouldn't be someone else.
And then—
The very next day—
He had gone and lost.
To Blackbeard.
To a pirate Tenjin had called a nobody.
Tenjin clicked his tongue so hard it almost sounded like a crack.
"That idiot…"
Koby looked at him. "Tenjin-san?"
Tenjin's jaw tightened.
"He couldn't even keep his promise."
The words came out hot with frustration.
Hibari blinked. "Promise?"
But Tenjin barely heard her.
He turned sharply, already moving.
Koby stepped forward instinctively. "Wait. Tenjin-san!"
Tenjin did not stop.
Kujaku reached out as though she might catch his sleeve, but he was already past her.
"Tenjin," Hibari called after him, "where are you going?"
He didn't answer.
His boots hit the ground hard as he strode away from the training field, cutting through the dust and noise like a blade through cloth. The others stared after him, concern spreading across their faces as they watched his back disappear toward the headquarters side of the base.
Koby exhaled slowly.
"That looked bad."
Helmeppo folded his arms. "That looked very bad."
Kujaku's gaze followed Tenjin's path, unreadable now.
'He's furious,' she thought.
Prince Grus clicked his tongue.
"For someone who called Ace his rival after getting beaten, that reaction was… more personal than I expected."
Hibari clasped her hands together in worry.
"I hope he doesn't do anything reckless."
Kujaku let out a low breath.
"With Tenjin?"
Her lips curved, though there was very little humor in it now.
"That hope won't survive long."
---
Grand Line — Marineford, Fleet Admiral Sengoku's Office
Fleet Admiral Sengoku was already in a terrible mood.
That was obvious to anyone with functioning eyes.
Stacks of paperwork had been shoved aside in favor of maps, reports, and updated military movement notices spread across his desk. His expression was thunderous, his shoulders tight, and the bridge of his nose looked one breath away from collapsing in on itself from overuse.
"This whole situation is getting worse by the hour," Sengoku growled.
Present in the room with him were two men who could not have reacted more differently.
Bartholomew Kuma stood as he always did. Massive, silent, unreadable, a towering figure whose stillness somehow took up more space than ordinary movement ever could.
And then there was Garp.
Vice Admiral Monkey D. Garp sat in his chair with one leg over the other, digging at his ear with a pinky as though he had wandered into this war discussion by mistake and simply hadn't found a polite excuse to leave yet.
Sengoku slammed one palm on the desk.
"Sabaody Archipelago is filling with rookie pirates. Eleven of them, all over one hundred million in bounty, gathering in one place at the worst possible time."
He turned one of the reports toward himself and glared at it as if the words had personally offended him.
"This execution," he said, voice hard, "and the preparations for war have already cut down my available options. I don't have the men to spare. I don't have the time to spare. And every idiot of significance on the sea has decided now is the perfect time to create more work for me."
His eyes slid toward Kuma.
"And that includes Straw Hat Luffy."
The room went slightly quieter.
Sengoku folded his arms.
"You should have finished him at Thriller Bark."
Kuma said nothing.
Garp snorted once.
Sengoku's glare moved briefly toward him too, but before he could continue, the office door flew open so hard it bounced against the wall.
All three men looked.
Tenjin stood at the entrance.
His breathing was controlled, but the look in his eyes made it obvious he had not come here calmly.
Sengoku reacted first.
Instant irritation.
"Captain Tenjin!" he snapped. "What is the meaning of barging into this office whenever you please? Do doors and rank mean nothing to you? Do you think this headquarters exists for your personal convenience? Have you learned absolutely nothing since arriving at Marineford?"
The lecture came hard and fast, one accusation crashing into the next.
Tenjin didn't flinch.
Didn't back down.
Didn't even really listen.
Because he only had one thing to ask.
He stepped forward once.
"Is it true," he said, "that Portgas D. Ace has been captured and sentenced to public execution?"
That cut through the room cleanly.
Sengoku stopped talking.
His eyes narrowed immediately.
"That," he said after a beat, "is confidential government business."
Tenjin held his gaze.
"And I don't know where you heard it."
Garp spoke before Sengoku could say anything else.
"Yes," he said plainly. "It's true."
Tenjin's eyes widened just slightly.
Then his face hardened.
"That bastard."
Sengoku rounded on Garp so fast it was almost impressive.
"GARP!"
"What?" Garp said.
"What do you mean what?!" Sengoku roared. "Why would you just tell him that?!"
Garp shrugged. "He asked."
Sengoku looked one second away from throwing something heavy.
Tenjin, meanwhile, had already stepped deeper into the room, his frustration twisting into something sharper now that the confirmation was real.
He muttered again under his breath, "That bastard…"
He had said it about Ace, yes, but now there was more in it.
Blackbeard.
The World Government.
Himself.
All of it tangled together.
Before the room could settle, another knock sounded.
This one slower.
Measured.
Borsalino.
Or as most knew him—
Kizaru.
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku~," Kizaru drawled, voice slow and unhurried as he stepped into the office. "You called for me?"
His eyes swept the room once.
Sengoku furious.
Garp sitting too comfortably.
Kuma silent.
Tenjin present for some reason.
Kizaru tilted his head slightly.
"Ooooh~. This atmosphere is terrible."
Without waiting to be invited, he moved to one side and sat down as though he had merely arrived early to a meeting no one had warned him would be exhausting.
Sengoku inhaled slowly, clearly trying to gather the fragments of his authority back into one shape.
"Yes, Borsalino," he began, "I called you because—"
Purururururu.
The Den Den Mushi on his desk rang.
Sengoku's eye twitched.
Then again.
He snatched it up.
"This is Fleet Admiral Sengoku."
The voice on the other end came fast and strained with urgency.
By the second sentence, Sengoku's expression had gone from exhausted anger to something much darker.
The room watched him.
Kizaru leaned slightly forward.
Garp scratched at his jaw.
Kuma remained still.
Tenjin narrowed his eyes.
Then Sengoku hung up and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Hard.
"Why," he said slowly, "do the youngsters of today not fear Celestial Dragons?"
No one answered.
Because everyone in the room already knew the answer he was thinking of.
Straw Hat Luffy.
Tenjin.
The same stupidity. Different hats.
Sengoku lowered his hand and looked directly at Kizaru.
"Straw Hat Luffy punched Saint Charlos in Sabaody Archipelago."
Kizaru gave a faint, long-suffering sigh.
"Ooooh~. That's really bad."
"He is to be executed immediately."
Tenjin spoke before Sengoku could continue.
"I'll go."
The room turned.
Sengoku stared at him.
Then said, with immediate force, "Absolutely not."
Tenjin didn't even argue.
He just turned and started for the door.
Sengoku's voice rose at once.
"Tenjin!"
No response.
"I mean it!"
Still Tenjin kept walking.
His hand hit the door.
Sengoku stood. "You are not authorized to move on this matter!"
Tenjin opened it.
And left.
The door shut behind him.
Silence.
Then Kizaru slowly raised one hand.
"If no one minds~," he said, voice still lazy, "I'll go."
---
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