After hanging up the Den Den Mushi, Ortoren turned to Katakuri with a grin. "See? With an Admiral's authorization, what's there to fear? G-5 will flourish."
Katakuri had listened to the entire exchange between Ortoren and Sengoku. To be honest, the conversation rattled him. Wasn't Admiral Sengoku supposed to be the embodiment of unbending justice? And yet behind the scenes, things looked very different.
"Seems Admiral Sengoku really trusts you, Toren," Katakuri said thoughtfully.
"That's because I've never actually crossed the line or let him down. Plenty of things I do might look like violations, but they're still within the circle of tacit approval. As long as you don't step outside that circle, people understand." Ortoren smiled.
He paused before adding, "And honestly, these warships don't only need to be turned into cash. I need armaments too."
"You've got your eyes on Totto Land's weapons?" Katakuri asked, intrigued.
"Exactly. Back at headquarters, I saw the Marines' evaluations of Totto Land's armaments. The technology was advanced, and the quality was excellent," Ortoren replied.
Katakuri frowned, puzzled. "Why would the Marines be evaluating Totto Land's weapons?"
But he quickly caught himself, then chuckled. "Ah—I get it. You were assessing our weapons to gauge our conventional combat strength, right?"
"That's part of it," Ortoren admitted with a nod. Then he lowered his voice. "But I've also sensed some other changes. Nothing official, but… something's shifting."
"What kind of changes?" Katakuri leaned closer, matching his hushed tone.
"You know how it works—our munitions and military budgets are all controlled by the World Government. Supplies are allocated quarterly and annually based on demand reports. In short, the Marines don't control their own production lines. When Sengoku and the others formed the Science Division, their original goal was to secure production rights. But in the end, the World Government only granted R&D privileges—not manufacturing."
It wasn't a secret. Everyone at sea knew. It was one of the reins the World Government kept tightly around the Marines' necks.
Katakuri nodded. "So something's changed?"
"There has. Ever since the incident in Loguetown, the global economy's been tanking—trade, finance, everything collapsing. Mary Geoise's treasury is bound to be in crisis. On top of that, the corruption is staggering, eaten alive by parasites. I'm close with Borsalino from the Science Division. During a call, he mentioned Mary Geoise's arms division might cut funding for conventional weapons development to ease their growing financial strain."
"What?!" Katakuri was stunned. "Cut funding for your own weapons? That's crippling yourselves! Everyone knows one reason the Marines are so strong is because you've always had the most advanced weapons and warships. If the World Government goes through with this, it'll bring endless consequences!"
Truth be told, Ortoren had expected it. In the original timeline, the World Government survived for more than twenty years by relying on arms deals with Kaidou, with Doflamingo as the middleman.
The moment Doflamingo fell in Dressrosa, the World Government immediately sent CP to Wano to negotiate new arms contracts with Kaidou. They couldn't afford any interruption—without weapons, the Marines and other agencies would collapse logistically.
Still, no matter how you looked at it, the move was insane. Just as Katakuri said, it was self-sabotage—handing control of weapons and ammunition over to outsiders. If Kaidou stopped supplying them, the Marines' ammo reserves would run dry in two years at most.
Could the World Government restart production lines in that time? And produce enough to meet all the agencies' needs? If not, the Marines' fighting power would nosedive, and the World Government would weaken with it. It made no sense and was full of dangers—yet it was happening anyway.
That was how far the World Government had rotted.
The signs were already showing. First they slashed R&D. Next, once they realized how cheap it was to buy from pirates—no need for massive yearly investments in upgrades—they'd never stop. Not with their current state.
There were probably plenty of other factors Ortoren couldn't see. Maybe their financial crisis really was so severe they had to choose between cutting the Celestial Dragons' luxuries or outsourcing arms production. Faced with that extreme choice, of course they chose outsourcing. That was their nature.
But these weren't things Ortoren needed to worry about anymore.
After thinking it over, Katakuri suddenly looked at him and asked, "So the reason your Marines are evaluating advanced black-market weapons is because you suspect that soon, not just R&D but even production might shut down? That your future weapons will have to come from outsourcing?"
"Ridiculous as it sounds, it's a real possibility. That's why I wanted to give you a heads-up. If conditions allow, start expanding your production lines over the next few years. Who knows—maybe you'll end up as the World Government's weapons contractor," Ortoren said with a grin.
In the original timeline, Kaidou secured the World Government's orders because he had Queen backing him.
But now, Caesar was in the Big Mom Pirates' hands. While not as formidable as Queen in combat, he was still a top-class scientist when it came to weapon and ammunition development. With him, the Big Mom Pirates had more than enough strength to compete with the Beasts Pirates for the World Government's arms contracts.
If Kaidou got the money, he'd probably waste it opening a zoo. But if the Big Mom Pirates got it, they could use it to make Totto Land even more prosperous.
And while Totto Land might be a pirate nation, it was still home to countless New World citizens. From that perspective, Ortoren even felt like he was doing something "beneficial to the people."
"This is important information. I'll definitely report it to Mama when I get back," Katakuri said with a serious nod.
Truth be told, even without this, the Big Mom Pirates had already begun preparing to expand their arms production. The reason was obvious: the chaos of the Great Pirate Era was there for all to see. The number of pirates was exploding, and they couldn't keep raiding with harpoons forever.
Anyone wanting to rise to power couldn't avoid the arms trade. In this era, the market's potential was enormous. Even if they didn't sell to the World Government, there would be no shortage of customers. The risk of weapons going unsold was practically nonexistent.
"Exactly. That's why I'm saying this—to cut out the middlemen. Think about it: in the future, you could be producing weapons, selling them to the World Government, then the Government passes them to Marine Headquarters, and Headquarters sends them down to me. But I've got plenty of rivals—every base is desperate for supplies. They won't send me much, and other commanders won't want to share. On top of that, the whole process takes forever. If we work together, it's simple. I raise the funds in G-5, then buy directly from you. No World Government middlemen—cheaper, faster, cleaner," Ortoren said, smiling broadly.
Katakuri almost pointed out that this was blatantly against Marine regulations. But after recalling Ortoren's earlier Den Den Mushi call with Sengoku, he realized there was no point. The Marines really were pragmatic.
"Then let's count this as an arms deal. Considering the value of the information you just gave me, fifty million a ship is a fair price," Katakuri said, patting Ortoren on the shoulder.
And so, within just a month and a half of taking command of G-5, Vice Admiral Benn had already sealed an arms and warship resale deal with pirates.
It went a long way toward covering G-5's shortages and boosting the Marines' frontline combat strength—a deed that could only be described as a "great act of justice."