The moment Garp looked at Aramaki lying unconscious on the ground, he began to panic.
He had been convinced the man was a pirate while beating him up.
Who could have guessed he was actually a Marine?!
This… this was bad.
Garp's mind raced as he desperately searched for an excuse, leaving him no time whatsoever to wonder why Marco had lied to him earlier.
He shook his head furiously at the Den Den Mushi.
"Nope! Haven't seen him! Absolutely not! This old man hasn't seen any Admiral candidate!"
"You…!"
Sengoku clearly did not believe him, drawing the word out suspiciously.
Still, that could wait.
Getting Garp back was more important.
"If you haven't seen him, forget it. He'll make his own way back eventually."
"More importantly—you haven't caused any trouble out there, have you?!"
"No, no! Of course not!"
Garp shook his head again, guilt written all over his face.
Beating up a fellow Marine was technically an internal Marine matter.
It had not happened outside the Marines.
Therefore, it could not possibly count as causing trouble.
"Sengoku, you're worrying too much. Don't you know how I operate by now?"
"I haven't caused trouble. I've done something good!"
The moment Sengoku heard that, he immediately snapped,
"That's exactly why I'm worried! I know perfectly well how ridiculous your idea of 'doing something good' can be!"
"If those words came out of your mouth, then whatever you did is definitely trouble!"
Garp scratched his head awkwardly.
After hesitating for a while, he finally told Sengoku about his plan to establish a Marine branch in Wano.
"What?! Garp, have you lost your damn mind?!"
"You want to establish a Marine branch in Wano?! Did Kaido sit on your head or something?!"
"Establishing a Marine branch requires a full discussion among Marine High Command, followed by approval from the World Government!"
"Every branch receives funding from the World Government! You can't just decide to build one wherever you feel like it!"
Garp blinked.
"Is that how it works?"
"Obviously!"
"We held a meeting about almost exactly this kind of thing not long ago!"
"Marine Headquarters has already been relocated from Marineford to the old G-1 base in the New World. I specifically informed you about that!"
"Don't tell me you didn't know!"
"I forgot."
"YOU BASTARD!!!"
…
In the end, however, Sengoku found himself completely unable to argue against Garp's reasoning.
Recruiting soldiers from Wano was something even Sengoku had never dared imagine.
According to Garp, Ashura Doji alone probably possessed the strength of a top-tier Vice Admiral.
Naturally, that did not mean a Vice Admiral like Garp himself.
Garp belonged to some absurd legendary, mythical category of his own.
On top of that, Ashura Doji commanded two hundred and eighty subordinates.
Having such a large group of experienced fighters join the Marines would undoubtedly provide a major boost to their current strength.
And that was only the beginning.
What did the Marines desperately lack right now?
Manpower.
Wano's battle-hardened samurai could practically be deployed the moment they joined.
They were an excellent source of recruits.
Furthermore, Garp had already promised Ashura Doji several conditions. Backing out now would damage the Marines' credibility.
Most importantly, Garp assured him that the World Government would not need to provide a single Beli.
After all, the Wano branch could not be publicly acknowledged yet.
For the time being, Marine Headquarters only needed to transport the recruits out of Wano.
Nothing more.
Eventually, Sengoku was convinced.
Unfortunately, that left the most troublesome problem of all.
Explaining this insanity to Sakazuki.
…
"What?!"
"That old bastard has lost his mind! How dare he do something like this?! Isn't he afraid of being disciplined?!"
Sakazuki slammed his fist onto the desk and glared at Sengoku, fury burning in his eyes.
Sengoku calmly held his cup of tea and gave Sakazuki the knowing look of a veteran watching a naïve young man make his first mistake.
His expression practically said:
You're still too inexperienced.
"Discipline?"
Sengoku lowered his teacup, the corners of his mouth twitching as he fought back laughter.
"If disciplining him worked, I would've done it years ago."
"You think I never tried?"
Sakazuki froze.
"Do you have any idea how many disciplinary reports I wrote for Garp during my years as Fleet Admiral?"
"That bastard doesn't care about punishment."
Sengoku shook his head, though a smile was already creeping onto his face.
"He cares more about the doughnuts in his hands."
"You could give him a ten-thousand-word disciplinary report, and it still wouldn't be half as effective as confiscating his doughnuts."
"Remember the time I cleared all the doughnuts out of his office? He chased me through three entire buildings."
"And then there was the time before that…"
"And the time before that…"
As Sengoku continued listing incidents, Sakazuki gradually gained a much deeper appreciation for just how difficult Sengoku's tenure as Fleet Admiral had truly been.
"Besides, Sakazuki, you're forgetting something."
Sengoku's expression became more serious.
"After the Summit War, Garp and I both resigned from active Marine service."
"The only reason we remained was because Commander-in-Chief Kong asked us to stay, retain our ranks, and step back into advisory positions."
"In other words, as long as Garp isn't violating Marine justice, he can still act under the Marine name—but you can't enforce normal Marine regulations on him the way you would with active-duty personnel."
"And establishing a branch in Wano is ultimately intended to benefit the Marines."
"There are certainly procedural problems, but there's not much you can formally punish him for."
"More importantly, he's currently away from Headquarters carrying out duties connected to the Warlord arrangement."
"You have even less control over him right now."
"Damn it!"
Sakazuki's temper erupted.
"Cain! Luffy! Ace! Sabo! And then Dragon!"
"Why is every single person in that family like this?!"
His anger became so intense that magma nearly erupted from his body.
Sengoku immediately splashed his tea across Sakazuki's face, then hurried forward and patted his shoulder.
"Calm down, calm down!"
"That entire family has always been like this. Just endure it. You'll get used to it."
"How the hell am I supposed to get used to this?!"
Sakazuki stared at him.
"You were Fleet Admiral for all those years. Don't tell me you never found a way to control Garp!"
"If I knew how to control Garp, why would being Fleet Admiral have been so miserable?"
Sengoku crossed his arms and sighed.
"The only reason I could restrain him at all was because I outranked him by two levels and had decades of personal history with him."
"And when I say restrain him, I mean only a little."
"Very little."
Hearing that, Sakazuki suddenly understood everything.
His face darkened.
"So that's what that expression on your face meant when you handed the Fleet Admiral position over to me!"
"You were waiting for this, weren't you?!"
"All of you are unbelievable!"
"All right, stop shouting."
Sengoku waved dismissively.
"What's the point of getting angry?"
"You could literally die from rage in this office, and Garp would still be somewhere outside happily eating doughnuts while I sit here drinking tea."
"Forget that for now. We have more important matters to handle."
Sengoku had not forgotten the real issue.
"We need to decide how we're going to transport those Wano samurai under Garp's command."
"As for officially establishing a Marine branch in Wano, there's no hurry."
"Kaido still controls the country, and we obviously can't make something like this public yet."
"So there's no reason to inform the World Government for the time being."
"Especially when we aren't asking them to fund it."
Sengoku then laid out every advantage of recruiting Wano's warriors.
They had genuine combat experience.
Their strength was already proven.
They could be deployed almost immediately.
"Those are exactly the kind of soldiers the Marines need."
Then Sengoku added almost casually,
"And don't worry so much about the World Government."
"We've already hidden Cain's situation from them for this long."
"One more secret isn't going to change much."
"This…"
Sakazuki hesitated.
The matter involving Cain had been part of a Marine operation created by Sengoku, Garp, and the others.
He could neither report it to the World Government nor expose Cain's true identity.
But this time…
Keeping something else from the World Government did not seem quite as unacceptable anymore.
Thanks to Sengoku's schemes, Sakazuki had already crossed that line once.
The second time carried considerably less psychological pressure.
Whether there would eventually be a third or fourth time was another matter entirely.
After hesitating for a while, Sakazuki finally nodded.
"Fine. We'll handle it that way for now."
"As for who we send to retrieve them…"
He began searching through Marine personnel files.
"I remember there's a Commodore currently stationed on the New World front lines. He should be able to make a trip to Wano."
Before long, Smoker's file appeared on the desk.
Meanwhile, somewhere on the front lines, Smoker suddenly shivered for no apparent reason.
For some reason, he had the distinct feeling that some terrible demon had just set its sights on him.