Marineford Residential District, Ortoren's home.
At the moment, Ortoren was changing little Ace's diaper. Inside the room, Rouge was busy packing his things—clothes and a few daily necessities he'd need to take with him.
Truth be told, Ortoren was careless by nature, and there really wasn't much for him to bring along.
When Rouge finished packing and stepped out of his room, she found Ortoren in the courtyard. He had already changed the diaper and was now sitting in the sun, holding Ace in his arms and teasing him. The atmosphere was warm and peaceful.
The sight stirred Rouge a little. As a mother, she could clearly feel how much Ortoren loved Ace. Every time he came home from work, he would patiently spend time with the child—he really did have the air of Ace's doting father.
But Rouge quickly steadied her emotions and said, "I've packed everything for you."
"Ah..." Ortoren chuckled. "Thanks for the trouble."
"Are you leaving soon?" Rouge asked.
"Yeah, I'll be heading out shortly. This is my first time being transferred from Marineford to the New World. Honestly, I'm a little reluctant to part with this place." As he spoke, Ortoren gently pinched Ace's tiny nose.
Ace, napping in the sunshine, stirred with annoyance, waving his small hands in protest. Once Ortoren let go, he smacked his lips and drifted back into sleep.
Watching the little one's adorable face, Ortoren couldn't help but smile.
"By the time I get back, he'll probably be running around already," Ortoren said wistfully.
Seeing the interaction between the two, Rouge felt genuinely happy. Just as she was about to say something, the sound of footsteps came from outside the courtyard. Soon, Gion, Kuzan, and Momonga walked in, chatting and laughing.
At the sight of Gion, Rouge instinctively felt a pang of guilt. Ortoren might not have noticed, but as a woman, she could sense Gion's feelings for him. Gion clearly liked Ortoren, though she was clumsy about expressing it.
Rouge, on the other hand, had taken the role of Ortoren's wife for complicated reasons. Especially after Ace was born, she realized she had developed feelings she shouldn't have, which made facing Gion even harder.
"You all talk, I'll take the baby inside," Rouge said as she stepped forward and gently took Ace from Ortoren's arms.
"Is he sleeping already? Seems I came at the wrong time—I was hoping to hold him..." Momonga said with a hint of regret.
But he quickly shifted the topic. "I heard you're heading to G-5?"
"Yeah. G-5 was heavily damaged not long ago. Admiral Sengoku assigned me to rebuild their vanguard unit," Ortoren nodded.
"That's no easy job," Kuzan commented. "G-5... how should I put it? They act more like pirates than Marines."
"Then isn't it the perfect fit for me?" Ortoren joked.
"I'll be leaving Headquarters soon too..." Gion sighed as she sat on the stone bench beside Ortoren.
"Where are you going?" Ortoren asked curiously.
"The CP agency recently set up a new peripheral intelligence network in the underworld called the Pleasure District. Tsuru-san thinks it's a good model, so she wants me to try it out," Gion said, a little helplessly.
"To the New World?" Ortoren asked again.
"Not confirmed yet, but most likely," Gion replied after thinking it over.
"After all, you're already a Vice Admiral. For someone in the Intelligence Division, this kind of assignment is a chance for grassroots training. Looks like the Chief of Staff believes you have the potential to become an Admiral one day," Kuzan said with a smile.
In truth, within the Marines, most Vice Admirals were assigned to field duty at some point. It wasn't quite as Kuzan implied—that being sent out automatically meant the higher-ups saw you as Admiral material.
Rather, after a period of training outside, those who proved themselves strong and capable would be recalled to Headquarters sooner than others to continue serving there.
"You've been sent out as a Base Commander this time. With G-5's entire structure practically wiped out, did Admiral Sengoku give you any slots?" Momonga suddenly asked.
"Two Rear Admiral positions. The rest I can arrange according to standard procedure," Ortoren answered right away.
G-5 had been devastated by Douglas Bullet. The Base Commander was left crippled and forced to withdraw from the front lines. Almost all senior officers stationed there had been annihilated, leaving only a handful scattered like stray cats.
In other words, everything had to be rebuilt from the ground up. Sengoku understood that in this situation, Ortoren would need enough authority to form his own core team. That way, G-5 could be reconstructed faster while also giving Ortoren firm control over the unit.
So Sengoku granted him two Rear Admiral slots for direct subordinates at G-5. Positions below that would follow the regular base structure. Typically, a base might have three to five Commodores, while the number of Captains and below depended on the size of the force.
The truth was, Marine bases didn't have fixed troop numbers. They fluctuated depending on the state of the seas. In chaotic times with rampant pirates, the numbers rose. In more peaceful periods—the so-called "Great Navy Eras"—they would be scaled back.
Would Headquarters worry about some base growing too large and becoming hard to control? Not really. Except for G-5, nearly every other base relied entirely on funds supplied by Headquarters and had no real independent logistics. The fear of a base growing uncontrollably strong simply didn't apply.
And the Marines couldn't just draft special laws targeting G-5 alone, capping troop numbers there. Doing so would be tying their own hands. Passing new laws might be easy, but repealing them later, once they proved inconvenient, was a nightmare.
Which meant Ortoren had found a loophole. A normal base usually fielded ten to twenty thousand personnel, with ten or so warships. Each warship was rated to carry around a thousand Marines, and Headquarters ships could even hold two thousand.
But under Ortoren, G-5 was different. So long as he could support them, there was no rule stopping him from raising not just twenty thousand, but even five hundred thousand Marines—at least on paper, it wouldn't break any regulation.
Of course, that was only theory. In practice, unless Sengoku and Fleet Admiral Kong had lost their minds, they'd never let Ortoren build a five-hundred-thousand-strong army unchecked.
After all, if Ortoren really commanded that many of the Marines' strongest frontline troops, the day he declared himself a candidate for Admiral, even the Fleet Admiral would have to consider stepping aside.
At the mention of the two Rear Admiral slots, Momonga's eyes lit up. "Have you chosen candidates yet?"
"Not yet." Ortoren shook his head. "I've risen through the ranks too quickly to form a proper team. For now, I've only thought about bringing Issho. But looking at his current record and seniority, at most I could promote him to Commodore. Rear Admiral would be pushing it. So I figured I'd wait until I get to G-5 and start cultivating talent there..."
"What's there to wait for?" Momonga smacked his chest. "You've already got a candidate right here!"
Hearing that, Ortoren blinked in surprise. "You want to come with me to G-5?"
It wasn't that Ortoren had dismissed Momonga and the other current Rear Admirals as unfit. On the contrary, after spending time with them, he felt they could be steered in the right direction. If one day he and Zephyr-sensei truly built a Neo Marines, they'd be prime recruits.
But G-5's reputation was a swamp, and with the unit shattered, inviting them now felt like asking someone you knew to join you in mucking out manure before breakfast—it was awkward either way. If they refused, it strained the friendship. If they accepted, the reality would still be uncomfortable.
"Exactly. That's why I came to see you today. If you agree, I'll file the transfer request immediately," Momonga said without hesitation.
Ortoren was about to reply when a sudden thought struck him. He turned a startled gaze toward Kuzan. If he remembered right, wasn't Kuzan also a Rear Admiral? Could it be he came with Momonga today because he wanted to join him at G-5 too?
Kuzan noticed the look, froze for a second, then quickly waved his hands. "Don't get the wrong idea. I just happened to be free and came to see you off before you left."
...
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