Chapter 539: The Marines Move
While the World Government was setting itself in motion, Brett was not sitting idle.
He was working through his own contact list, reaching out to allies across the world. The minority alliance nations in particular. Nearly all of them sat outside the World Government's membership, and nearly all of them had been waiting for exactly this kind of change.
When Brett reached out, most of them didn't hesitate.
The World Government's own propaganda had done a remarkable job of helping him. In trying to warn its member nations about Brett's threat, it had painted a very vivid picture: dangerous, well-connected, powerful, in possession of ancient weapons. That framing terrified the governments who were already loyal to the World Government and pushed them closer to compliance.
But for everyone who had already wanted to push back, it was an invitation.
The message was clear whether the World Government intended it or not: Brett and his allies had the strength to change everything. Which meant anyone standing behind him had a genuine shot at helping topple a system that had been grinding them down for centuries.
Peoples who had endured discrimination for hundreds of years and now saw a coalition with real odds of winning. The answer was easy.
Brett's side kept growing.
Among all of them, though, one ally stood out as especially significant.
"Ha, finally! This is the moment we've been waiting for!"
The voice that came through the Den Den Mushi was broad and unrestrained with laughter.
"Eight hundred years, Brett. Elbaf has been waiting eight hundred years for this moment! Come on and start the attack! The world's strongest warrior people stand at your back!"
Brett couldn't keep the smile off his face.
The giants were exactly as reliable as he'd hoped.
Elbaf had stood with Joy Boy eight hundred years ago. When that war was lost, they'd simply kept waiting for the next time the fires would be lit. As for why the giants had survived at all after being on the losing side - Imu had been too confident, too comfortable. He hadn't bothered finishing off every remnant. Not the surviving Bircans, not the Lunarians still enduring in the world's forgotten corners, not the giants of Elbaf. He had dealt with Joy Boy's closest companions and left the rest alone.
Probably because he'd decided nothing was left that could threaten him.
And honestly, without Joy Boy's gifts and the pieces he'd left behind, nothing would have been. The stragglers of a failed war couldn't have challenged Imu's eight centuries of rule on their own. It had taken everything Joy Boy had arranged - and someone capable of using it.
Still. Elbaf was a formidable force in anyone's accounting.
Between his outreach work, Brett kept his training going. Shanks had walked him through the concept of Observation Killing and then wandered off to enjoy himself, which was fine - there wasn't much more to demonstrate. Observation Killing was, at its core, a specialized application of Observation Haki. Technically speaking, the ceiling wasn't even as high as Conqueror's Haki infusion; it sat somewhere around the level of advanced Armament's internal destruction technique.
Given the depth of Brett's Observation Haki, progress was quick. It wouldn't take long.
While Brett steadily built both his strength and his coalition, the Marines who had been sheltering at Fish-Man Island had been busy with their own work, and they had results to show for it.
"This is farewell for now."
Tsuru came to find Brett, speaking plainly. "We've spent this time making contact, and a substantial number of Marine fighters have indicated they're willing to trust us and continue operating under our command."
"We're going to bring them together and rebuild. Several Vice Admirals commanding G-series branch bases across the New World agreed to a rendezvous point with us. They've been in hiding since the initial collapse. With their help, we can have a functioning Marine force assembled quickly."
"Good." Brett nodded.
It was genuinely good news. In terms of raw combat capability, the fighters standing in front of him were the only ones in the surviving Marines who truly counted among the strong - the rest, including those who had stayed with the World Government, were a different category entirely.
But capability wasn't the only thing that mattered.
The Marines had protected this world for eight hundred years. That history meant something. Their reputation extended to every corner of every sea. A rebuilt Marine force - even a smaller one operating under new principles - would carry enormous weight in the reconstruction work that would follow victory.
"Let me take you there," Brett said. "The Fish-Man Island logistics network can also arrange supply runs for you going forward."
The new Marines were nothing like the institution they had been. Without the World Government and half the world's nations behind them, the people standing in front of him probably didn't have much in the way of funds, let alone the resources to raise an army.
The NEO Navy at least had its non-member nation supporters. As an ally, Brett was happy to pick up the supply burden. Call it an investment in people who had shown themselves to be genuinely principled.
Garp and Tsuru went without saying. But even the three who had always seemed to drift through duty on their own terms - Kizaru, Ryokugyu, Chaton - each of them had a clear sense of where they actually stood when the moment required it.
"We're grateful, Brett. Truly."
Garp didn't decline. His tone was direct and serious.
It was strange, he thought. A few years ago he would never have imagined standing here, genuinely thanking this particular man.
Right up until before the Reverie, Brett had still been the enemy as far as the Marines were concerned.
Brett paused his training and escorted the Marine leadership away from Fish-Man Island, heading into the New World.
The Marine G-series bases were scattered across the seas - the most important ones outside Marineford, each defended by Vice Admirals hand-picked by the senior leadership. Several of them were deep in the New World's back reaches, operating almost entirely outside the seas the World Government could easily monitor.
The Vice Admirals stationed there had always been people Garp and his circle trusted most. When the break with the World Government came, they had moved fast - pulled their forces out of their assigned waters and gone dark, waiting for the call to regroup.
That call had arrived.
The new Marines were about to take shape.