"For God's sake, Midway!"
I stood on the bridge and looked at my officer as if he were a gutted octopus.
"Can I give you an order knowing that you will actually execute it, you useless bastard?"
My new crew belonged to the kind of people who only understood violence and sobriety. As long as they had obeyed me without hesitation before leaving the Locker (even though I personally followed none of those rules), the moment we sailed away everyone suddenly lost their minds.
And I absolutely did not approve of that.
On the contrary, I was certain that someone's head would roll for this insubordination, even if it did not cost anyone their life.
A pirate with the fine-sounding name of Midway—my miserable first officer—looked at me with watery blue eyes and showed several rotten teeth in a servile smile.
"What order, Captain?" he asked, pretending not to hear the screams coming from the ship beside us, where my crew was currently robbing and murdering everyone aboard.
"The order to stay away from ships of the New World, you bastard!" I roared.
I jumped over the railing of the Banshee and landed heavily on the deck.
Grabbing the slightly taller petty officer by the tail of his coat, I pulled him down toward me.
"You think you can do whatever you want, Midway, because you've already sold your soul and I still have mine? You're scalping people when you were only supposed to escort them!"
I shoved him away and spat in anger.
"Jones may be Jones, but he is not here. I give the orders on this ship, and if any of you demons try to replace me, then let them lock me in Impel Down first!"
I pointed toward the burning vessel beside us.
"Gather these hellions back on board. Tell them to set that ship on fire and make the proper sacrifices so the robbed vessel doesn't end up belonging to any pirate I know."
I walked toward the bow, ignoring the screams behind me, and fixed my gaze on the horizon, hoping to see the outline of an island somewhere in the distance.
The crew of the Banshee were little more than hungry ghosts.
They enjoyed watching death. The crueler it was, the better.
As long as they attacked Navy ships, I usually turned my head away with a smile and spilled the blood of those hated soldiers myself.
But the murders had gone too far.
And I feared that soon this pack would grow completely uncontrollable.
They needed a lesson. Because although they stood somewhere between the living and the dead, they still had bodies that could be hurt.
Eventually Midway gathered nearly a hundred of them together, all waving their arms and laughing happily after their evening's entertainment.
I ordered them to bring forward the instigators—the helmsman and a sailor without rank—and arranged a public flogging for the amusement of the spectators.
Then we raised the sails.
Our destination was the Red Line.
From there we would cross into the other sea and sail toward Alabasta.
I had someone to find there.
Old Yangtze.
Meanwhile, at Navy Headquarters, an argument was taking place between Tsuru and Garp, and it was far from a trivial dispute.
Tsuru argued that the latest reports about Navy losses were troubling, but not serious enough to trouble the Admirals.
Garp, however, trusted his instincts.
And his instincts told him that something bad was happening in the New World.
Knowing more details than Tsuru did, he concluded that a group of extremely brutal pirates had appeared there, and that worried him, because skinning people alive and dismantling them piece by piece did not look like the work of amateurs.
Permission had to be granted to send at least two Vice Admirals to that region.
The problem was that no one even knew what ship to look for.
All witnesses were dead.
After a long moment of silence, Garp sighed heavily and leaned his head back against the couch.
"Do whatever you want, you stubborn woman," he muttered, "but I'm telling you this isn't the work of some kids. We'll have problems if we don't stop it now."
"I will take your opinion into account," Tsuru replied irritably, "even if it's just a couple of pirates who think far too highly of themselves. You still have to catch them and hang them."
"How?" Garp snapped. "Nobody even knows who they are. It's a wild-goose chase."
He glared at her in frustration.
He could not understand how someone as intelligent as Tsuru could ignore such obvious evidence.
She had built her entire career by trusting her instincts.
And now she was sitting there, deaf and blind to every argument.
"Sending Admirals there is a waste of time. What are they supposed to do if they don't even know who they're looking for?"
"Because if they do find them, they'll be able to stop them! Can't you see that there are monsters roaming the sea?"
"Half the Grand Line is filled with monsters, you old hag!"
"Tsuru. Garp."
A calm voice interrupted them from near the large window overlooking Marineford.
Vice Admiral Sengoku stepped forward and sat down on the third couch in the office.
"Think about the evidence we have," he said seriously. "The sailors were murdered in a truly monstrous way. I don't remember seeing anything like it before. They must be pirates," he continued, "but I don't know where they came from. With the Pirate Era raging, they appear like mushrooms after rain."
He placed a stack of reports on the table, the first one dated a week earlier.
"So what should we do?" Tsuru asked, clearly irritated by the fact that Sengoku seemed to support Garp.
"Let's look at the facts."
Sengoku leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
"Last week a patrol ship near the Red Line spotted a vessel with grey sails and no flag. It was drifting toward the Grand Line and appeared abandoned, so six sailors were sent to investigate."
He paused.
"An hour later their boat returned."
"And?"
"Only their hats were left."
Tsuru frowned deeply and crossed her arms.
"This could be our target," Sengoku continued. "I ordered the ship to be followed—very discreetly—and now we know it is heading for Alabasta."
"Garp was right."
"We need to send someone capable of dealing with such a crew."
Sengoku's gaze settled firmly on his old friend.
"I'm counting on you."