They've arrived.
In the New World, near the seas of Moroni Island, three Marine warships were sailing.
Diarmuid sat on the deck of the flagship, a fishing rod in his hand, quietly fishing. Not far behind him, his secretary, Hina, was busy handling some less important documents.
Meanwhile, Marine Headquarters Commodore Vergo leaned against the railing, eating a skewer by himself.
Vergo had been a member of G-7, but after Diarmuid was promoted to Admiral, he brought him along to Headquarters. There was a simple reason for this: Vergo was a spy. It wouldn't be appropriate to leave him at G-7 after he himself had left.
So, he transferred him to Headquarters to keep an eye on him. Vergo himself wanted to stick with Diarmuid, as it would make his life at Headquarters much easier, so he came without hesitation and was promoted to the rank of Commodore.
Diarmuid's fishing rod twitched, and his eyes lit up. He yanked up, and a large fish was pulled from the depths of the sea. The slender fishing line swung the fish onto the deck, where it landed right in front of Vergo.
Vergo set down his skewer, pulled a dagger from his waist, and knelt down to stab the fish to death. Then, he expertly took off the hook and line. It was clear that he had done a lot of this kind of odd job for Diarmuid in the past.
"Admiral, what are we doing on Moroni Island?" Vergo suddenly asked.
Diarmuid didn't even turn his head. "We're here to catch someone."
"Catch who?" Vergo's heart skipped a beat, and he grew a bit anxious. As far as he knew, his young master, Donquixote Doflamingo, was on Moroni Island.
'They're not here to catch the young master, are they?'
If they were, he would have to find a way to get a message out to warn him.
Diarmuid still didn't turn around, but a slight smile appeared on his face.
Based on the Marine's intelligence, he knew that Donquixote Doflamingo was indeed on Moroni Island. But they weren't here to capture him this time.
As long as Doflamingo didn't make too much of a fuss, the Marines wouldn't bother him. Doflamingo himself seemed to be a lot more careful now, or perhaps Diarmuid had taught him a lesson a while ago, because he rarely provoked the Marines anymore.
This time, they were here to capture his business partner.
"Blood Plague Craster," Diarmuid said softly.
"You mean the extremely dangerous rookie with a bounty of 560,000,000 Beri?" Vergo said, stunned.
"He's not a rookie anymore," Diarmuid replied.
"Why are we suddenly going after him? And why are you, an Admiral, personally involved?" Vergo asked, confused.
Even if that Blood Plague Craster was very strong, having effortlessly defeated a Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral and slaughtered a Marine base on St. Poplar, it wasn't enough to warrant an Admiral like Diarmuid getting involved personally.
Listening to Vergo's question, Diarmuid's mind went back to a few days ago, after he had gone to the Fleet Admiral's office. He had discussed two things with Admiral Sengoku and Fleet Admiral Kong.
The first was about his Admiral title.
To be honest, Diarmuid was a little confused when Kong brought it up.
In the original story, Sakazuki, Kuzan, and Borsalino had a nice, uniform naming scheme for their Admiral titles: Akainu (Red Dog), Aokiji (Blue Pheasant), and Kizaru (Yellow Monkey). They were all a color followed by an animal.
But at this time, the Marines didn't have such a flashy requirement for Admirals. For example, Buddha Sengoku and Black Arm Zephyr didn't have a uniform title; they were more casual.
At the same time, since his promotion, no one had brought up the naming issue. Diarmuid was still the "Ferocious Tiger," and unlike the original story, where Marines would call Kuzan and the others "Aokiji," they called him "Admiral Diarmuid" or just "Admiral."
So Diarmuid was puzzled. Why would he need a code name? But seeing Sengoku and Kong's excited faces, Diarmuid didn't want to ruin their fun. He just told them to come up with some ideas, and he would choose a name after he returned from this trip.
The second thing was about Blood Plague Craster.
Diarmuid had never heard of him in the original story, which was normal. There were millions of pirates on the seas, and countless talented ones. It was impossible for him to know and understand them all.
According to Marine intelligence, Blood Plague Craster was a very powerful pirate, one of the first to ride the wave of the Great Pirate Era. He was only twenty-four this year and was born in the South Blue.
In the year 1500, the year Roger was executed, he set sail as a pirate. At first, he was nothing special, but after entering the first half of the Grand Line, he accidentally ate the Paramecia-type Blood-Blood Fruit and became a Devil Fruit user. From then on, he was unstoppable.
The power of the Blood-Blood Fruit was extremely strong. How strong? If you fought him and had any wounds or open cuts, he could instantly kill you. He could forcefully extract the blood from your body!
The Marine Vice Admiral who died on St. Poplar died that way; his body looked horribly dried out.
After the St. Poplar incident, Craster entered the New World with an unstoppable force.
At this time, Whitebeard was the strongest, followed by Charlotte Linlin. Kaido had not made a name for himself yet and was nowhere to be found. It wasn't the stable Yonko era yet.
The New World was a mess, with countless small and large pirates fighting and slaughtering each other. But with his raw strength and the overpowering nature of the Blood-Blood Fruit, Craster carved a path for himself and established a foothold in the New World.
It was then that the Warlord of the Sea system was announced. Craster wanted to be a Warlord of the Sea, though no one knew why. Perhaps he realized his limitations in the New World and needed a few years to grow before challenging Whitebeard or Charlotte Linlin. So he wanted to use the Warlord of the Sea position to rest and recuperate for a few years.
In any case, he sent a self-recommendation to the World Government, and coincidentally, his needs were pretty much the same as theirs.
The World Government wanted to use pirates to eliminate other pirates, which was a necessary step for Craster to dominate. In addition, Craster's strength and reputation were very good, so the World Government agreed to his recommendation.
If nothing went wrong, Craster would soon become the first Warlord of the Sea.
But Fleet Admiral Kong found out.
The Marines and the World Government had different needs and different opinions on who should be a Warlord of the Sea.
Craster was clearly a very dangerous person, and if he were allowed to grow for a few years, he could become a major player in the future. Furthermore, the Marines had a deep hatred for him. How could they let him just become a Warlord of the Sea? That would be too frustrating.
So Kong decided to send Diarmuid to eliminate him before he could become a Warlord of the Sea and cause trouble for the Marines.
This "bad idea" was a plan that Diarmuid himself had proposed in a meeting to counter the Warlord of the Sea system. So, he had to take on the job without question.
'Are you kidding me? The only person I recognize as the first Warlord of the Sea is the White Hunter Smoker, who is currently wandering the seas!' Diarmuid thought. Before Smoker could become a Warlord of the Sea, Diarmuid wasn't going to let anyone else have that title.
Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Diarmuid smiled and said, "Because that guy wants to be a Warlord of the Sea."
Vergo, as a Commodore, could attend some meetings but not others. It was obvious that he wasn't qualified for the meeting about the Warlord of the Sea system. Listening to Diarmuid's response, he was still a little confused. "Admiral, I don't quite understand what you mean."
"You know that we, the Marines, strongly oppose the Warlord of the Sea system, right?" Diarmuid asked.
"Of course. As Marines of justice, how can we allow pirates to be legalized?" Vergo said righteously.
'If I didn't know you were a double agent, I'd really be fooled by your acting!' Diarmuid thought to himself. Then he continued, "But in the end, we couldn't stop the Warlord of the Sea system from being implemented. It's okay. As the saying goes, 'for every policy from above, there's a counter-policy from below.' We have many ways to deal with the Warlord of the Sea organization. If a pirate isn't approved by the Marines, even if the World Government agrees to let you join the Warlord of the Seas, we'll find a way to mess it up."
"Like this time?" Vergo seemed to understand.
"Exactly. Like this time. The World Government agreed to let Craster be a Warlord of the Sea, but we Marines don't think he's suitable, so I'm here to eliminate him. No matter how powerful or overbearing the World Government is, if they can manage to make a dead man or a prisoner from Impel Down a Warlord of the Sea, then we Marines will concede. They can have their win!" Diarmuid said with a laugh.
Vergo was a little surprised.
Not long ago, he had been in contact with his young master and learned that he also intended to become a Warlord of the Sea. He was currently using the complex network of connections within the World Government to get his way.
But now, he heard Diarmuid, an Admiral, saying that even if you used the World Government's connections and got the door open, it would be useless; you still wouldn't get in. Because as long as you didn't have the Marines' approval, they would just kill you at the doorstep of the Warlord of the Sea system.
From this perspective, the Warlord of the Sea title was a death sentence. Anyone who wanted to be one would be going against the Marines, and the Marines would find a way to kill them.
'I have to find a way to explain this to the young master!"
"Won't we anger the World Government by doing this?" Vergo couldn't help but ask.
"The World Government?" Diarmuid smiled and said, "The moment I became a Marine Admiral, the relationship between the Marines and the World Government was already greatly fractured."
It was rumored that Kong and Sengoku had a major disagreement with the Gorosei in Mariejois about Diarmuid's promotion to Admiral, and they forced the Gorosei to compromise by threatening to quit.
Therefore, even though Diarmuid became an Admiral, a huge crack appeared in the relationship between the Marines and the World Government from that moment on.
After a slight pause, Diarmuid continued, "Besides, we're doing this within the rules. Isn't it a matter of course for the Marines to hunt and capture pirates? As long as we're quick about it, the World Government won't be able to say much…"
———————
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to my patreon ——— patreon(.)com/JuanFiction [remove the parentheses ( )]
There are over 100 advance chapters available for you!