The gazes of Sengoku, Garp, and Tsuru all fell upon the frozen coffin.
Garp picked his nose and chuckled, "This kid's got a sense of style, even made his own coffin."
Tsuru was silent.
Sengoku waved his hand, and a pitch-black rift appeared in the space beside him.
A man in a white suit and mask walked out.
"Seal!"
The man in the white suit pointed a finger.
The space around the coffin rippled like water.
A moment later, the man nodded. "You can open it now. I've reinforced the nearby space. Luo Chen's spatial teleportation ability will be restricted."
Sengoku nodded. "Unfreeze it. The reporters from several media outlets are waiting outside. Let Luo Chen face judgment in public."
Aokiji placed his palm on the ice of the coffin.
In an instant, the ice melted, turning into water that soaked the surrounding sand.
Sengoku personally stepped forward and, forming his fingers into a blade, cut across the top of the coffin.
The gazes of everyone present were focused on the dark seam of the coffin.
Their Observation Haki could confirm that there were two people inside.
Sengoku's left hand, hidden inside his "Justice" coat, clenched into a fist. He forcefully pushed the coffin lid open with his right hand.
His gaze, from behind his round-rimmed glasses, fell into the coffin.
Aokiji, Garp, Tsuru, and the man in the white suit also looked down.
"..."
No one spoke.
They stood as quietly as five statues on the sandy field.
The interior of the coffin was illuminated by the sunlight.
Two arm-length pieces of wood lay silently inside.
Next to one of them, two characters were carved, as if with a sharp object.
They were crooked and not very neat.
"Joker," Aokiji slowly read the two words.
His face instantly turned ashen.
His entire face instantly turned to ice. An endless cold aura emanated from his body, freezing the entire sandy training ground.
The cold was piercing.
It steamed in the sunlight, rising into the sky.
Even Aokiji's head, which had turned to ice, began to steam.
His entire icy face was like that of an enraged ice man, his features trembling and slowly twisting.
Garp looked at the coffin in astonishment, then at Aokiji, his former student.
How could he have caught the wrong person?
This kid Aokiji was an Admiral now. He'd been an Admiral for so many years, how could he make such a low-level mistake?
His expression turned serious. This was going to be a huge problem.
Sengoku had previously sent people to tell the reporters that Luo Chen had been captured and would be judged in public.
But now, what Aokiji had brought back were two pieces of wood.
How were they supposed to have a public trial?
Who were they going to try?
The Admiral who had reported false military intelligence, Aokiji?
Garp's face was grim. He said nothing.
At this moment, he didn't know how to get Aokiji out of this.
If this wasn't handled well, everyone from Fleet Admiral Sengoku and the Admirals down to the lowest-ranking soldiers would become the laughingstock of the seas.
After all that effort to catch a man, they had brought back two sticks of wood.
Even an Admiral could be played for a fool.
The prestige of the Marines would be utterly destroyed!
What Garp could think of, Tsuru and Sengoku could also think of.
It was just that, unlike Sengoku's enraged yet forcefully suppressed expression, Vice Admiral Tsuru's expression was complicated. There was not much anger, but rather some relief.
"Aokiji, what happened?!"
Sengoku asked hoarsely, as if a fire of rage were about to erupt from his throat but was being forcefully held back.
His black and white eyes, which usually shone with a wise light, were now bloodshot. One hand gripped the edge of the coffin so tightly that wood splinters fell off.
"Fleet Admiral, it was my dereliction of duty," Aokiji said, lowering his head and staring intently at the inside of the coffin.
His face, elementalized into ice, was still steaming, as if a furnace were burning inside him.
Sengoku suddenly smashed the entire coffin to pieces. Wood splinters flew in all directions.
"Dereliction of duty?! What the hell were you doing?! Where is he?!!!"
"Where is Luo Chen! I'm asking you, where is he!!!"
Sengoku roared like a mad lion with its mouth wide open.
He kicked out at Aokiji in a fit of rage.
At the critical moment, Garp was quick-witted and pulled him back.
Sengoku's leg slammed into the ground.
In an instant, the endless sand of the entire training ground was blasted into the sky, raining down like water.
The rock ground beneath the sand was covered in a spiderweb of cracks that spread out in all directions.
Even the nearby buildings trembled, tilting and sinking several centimeters.
The eyelids of the man in the white suit twitched.
One could imagine that if Garp hadn't intercepted that kick, Aokiji would probably have been kicked until he vomited blood.
Fleet Admiral Sengoku was truly enraged.
So enraged that he couldn't maintain his reason.
This had never happened in the past few decades.
Sengoku was known as "The Resourceful General."
An irascible person could never be called that.
'What grudge does this Luo Chen have with Sengoku, to make him so furious?' the man in the white suit wondered internally.
In the past, neither Rocks, Roger, nor the later Four Emperors like Whitebeard and Kaido could provoke Sengoku to such an extent.
What had this Luo Chen with a bounty of over two hundred million done?
He looked at Sengoku with a suspicious gaze.
Garp was also staring at Sengoku. He said in a low voice, "Alright, it's already happened. Getting angry is useless. Let's think about how to solve this."
He quickly gave Tsuru a look, hoping she could comfort Sengoku.
But this time, Tsuru ignored him, watching coldly from the side without saying a word.
This gave Garp a headache.
What was going on?
In decades, Sengoku had never been this angry.
And Tsuru had never thrown such a tantrum.
Why were both of them acting so abnormally today when it involved Luo Chen?
Could it be that there was something he didn't know?
Garp's eyes flickered. Full of doubt, he decided to ask about it later.
But for now, there was a more pressing matter.
"Sengoku, Tsuru, Aokiji, all of you calm down. The press conference should have already started. We still have to deal with the reporters," Garp advised.
He felt it was absurd.
In the past, it had always been Tsuru and Sengoku who told him to calm down. Today, it was the other way around.
He had become the most rational and calm one.
"Mr. Sengoku, I'll go and capture Luo Chen. I will definitely catch him," Aokiji said, leaving a single sentence before decisively departing.
This made Garp sigh silently.
They had all changed.
Sengoku had become irritable and quick to anger.
Tsuru had become cold and was ignoring Sengoku.
And Aokiji was no longer lazy. He had just returned and was already going out to capture someone again.
The three of them suddenly felt like strangers to him.
After Aokiji left, the training ground became quiet.
Sengoku's breathing was heavy, his chest heaving violently. His face, which had been flushed with anger, had not yet returned to normal.
His fists were clenched so tightly that the knuckles cracked. The anger in his tone was hard to dispel.
"Stop the press conference immediately."
"One word: delay."
"Just say that something unexpected happened and the trial of Luo Chen has been postponed."
"For now, we can only wait until Aokiji captures Luo Chen before making it public."
The water had already been spilled. They had announced to the outside world that Luo Chen had been captured.
To say now that they had caught the wrong person would utterly destroy the prestige of the Marines.
The only thing they could do was delay.
Delay until Aokiji really did bring back Luo Chen.
Tsuru snorted coldly but said nothing.
Garp sighed lightly. It seemed this was the only way.
The man in the white suit said lightly, "In that case, I'll return to Mary Geoise first. It is necessary to report this matter to the Five Elders."
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]