Chapter 65: The Seven Warlords System
A furious roar exploded from the top floor of Marine Headquarters' towering fortress.
"Garp, you bastard! You deserted your post again!"
Sengoku's voice shook the room. Veins bulged at his temples, and even his spit flew with the force of his anger. Anyone seeing him like this would have a hard time believing this red faced man was the Fleet Admiral of the Marines.
Garp, meanwhile, looked utterly unconcerned.
He waved a hand lazily and said, "Relax. Isn't everything basically settled already?"
That casual answer nearly made Sengoku's blood pressure rise again.
In the end, he took a deep breath, forced himself to look away, and lowered his head to the documents on his desk, as if telling himself that what he could not see could not infuriate him.
Standing off to the side, Axel watched the scene in silence, completely bewildered.
He had thought Garp was dragging him off for some brutal training session. Instead, the old man had hauled him straight here. Axel still had no idea what Garp was planning.
Then Garp spoke again.
"Sengoku, I came to ask for leave."
Crack.
The pen in Sengoku's hand snapped in two.
"You idiot!" Sengoku bellowed. "Running around without a thought for work is one thing, but now you even want leave?"
Garp grinned, as shameless as ever.
"The sea is pretty calm these days, isn't it? Besides, I want to head back and look after the kids for a while. I came here to get your approval so I can take Axel back to the East Blue."
For the first time since Garp arrived, Sengoku fell quiet.
After a moment, he said in a lower voice, "So you want to leave this place too… because of that system?"
Before Garp could answer, the door burst inward with a thunderous crash.
Bang!
The poor thing was destroyed for the second time that day.
Sengoku did not even bother to curse this time, because the man who strode in was Zephyr.
The Zephyr who usually carried himself with composure and iron discipline now looked terrifying. His face was dark, the veins on his forehead were swollen, and the fury in his eyes was enough to make even seasoned officers step back.
He walked straight to the desk and slammed both hands onto it.
"Sengoku!" he roared. "Explain it to me clearly. What exactly is this Seven Warlords system?!"
Sengoku stood up slowly from behind his desk and met Zephyr's gaze head on.
"Calm down first."
"How am I supposed to calm down?" Zephyr's voice was like thunder. "So that was your reason. That's why you pushed the training ahead of schedule and got me out of the way. I trusted you."
His words were heavy, not just with anger, but with betrayal.
Sengoku's expression hardened, but there was helplessness in it too.
"This was the only way. I knew you would never accept the system. If you had stayed, you would have made a huge scene. With your influence in the Marines right now, I had no choice. The system has to be implemented."
He paused, then continued in a deep voice.
"Whether you like it or not, the Marines no longer have the strength to keep the seas stable on our own. We need outside forces to maintain balance. Using pirates to restrain pirates is the only option left."
Zephyr stared at him for two breaths, then laughed in disbelief.
"What a load of garbage."
His hands pressed harder against the desk. The wood trembled under his strength, groaning as if it might split apart.
"You want us to cooperate with pirates? To take plunderers and murderers and give them legitimacy?" His voice rose with every word. "That's your answer? That's your justice?"
Sengoku did not retreat.
"And what is your answer?" he shot back. "Do you know how many Marines have died trying to maintain this so called justice? Do you know how many subordinates I've had to send into the sea knowing they might never come back? They had families. Wives. Children. Parents waiting for them. They were human too. Or does that count for nothing?"
Zephyr's expression froze for a second.
Sengoku pressed on.
"You, of all people, should understand what that loss feels like."
That single sentence struck Zephyr harder than any fist.
His jaw tightened. Pain flashed through his eyes.
It was because he understood that pain that he hated pirates so deeply. It was because he had lost his family that he could never forgive them. Yet now Sengoku was using that very pain to justify working with the people Zephyr despised most.
For a moment, Zephyr said nothing.
Then he spoke, his voice lower, but no less fierce.
"But when we became Marines, didn't we make that decision from the start? Didn't we choose to risk our lives for justice?"
Sengoku's eyes did not waver.
"I understand how you feel. I do. But I will not back down on this. The Seven Warlords system will be implemented. I'll use pirates to balance pirates if that's what it takes to keep the seas from falling apart."
Zephyr repeated the words slowly, as if tasting poison.
"The Seven Warlords system… using pirates to balance pirates…"
His hands trembled against the desk. The fury in him was no longer just anger. It was grief, disbelief, disgust, and something close to despair.
Then he exploded.
"I would rather die than accept help from pirates!"
His roar shook the room.
"When did the Marines sink so low that we needed pirates to protect justice for us? When did we become this pathetic?"
Sengoku's voice rose as well, but his expression remained grim.
"This is not about pride! Every Marine who dies for the sea leaves behind people who wait for them to return. If I can reduce those deaths, I will do it, even if it means swallowing something filthy."
Zephyr's breathing grew heavy.
His hatred of pirates was real. His sense of justice was just as real. Now the two were being dragged in opposite directions until it felt like they might tear him apart.
At last, he straightened.
His voice was lower now, but the firmness in it had not weakened at all.
"I will never acknowledge this. Not now, not ever. This ridiculous system has nothing to do with justice."
He turned toward the door, then stopped long enough to add one last sentence.
"And I will not involve myself in any battlefield where those so called Seven Warlords stand."
With that, he left.
Not another word.
The room fell silent.
Sengoku remained standing behind his desk for a long moment, then slowly sat down again. The weariness on his face seemed to age him several years in an instant.
Garp was the only one shameless enough to break the silence.
"Hahaha! Sengoku, you really got torn apart by old man Zephyr this time!"
Axel glanced at him, a little speechless.
It was hard to imagine Zephyr, who was usually so composed, losing control like that. Earlier, he had not even noticed Axel standing there. That alone showed how deeply this matter had shaken him.
And Axel understood why.
Zephyr had lost his family to pirates, but even then he had clung to his principles. He hated pirates, yet refused to give in to pure revenge. He had upheld justice through sheer will. But now the very institution he had devoted his life to was telling him to accept pirates as part of its structure.
That was not just a political compromise.
It was a blade driven straight into his beliefs.
No wonder he had reacted like that.
If a man already carrying such cracks later watched his students slaughtered by pirates, then saw their murderer protected under the Seven Warlords system, it was only natural that everything inside him would finally shatter.
Maybe Doflamingo had not been entirely wrong.
The true rulers of the sea were not the pirates alone.
They were the Marines and the World Government.
At that moment, Sengoku rubbed his forehead and spoke without looking up.
"Your leave is approved, Garp."
Garp blinked.
Then, unexpectedly, he scratched his nose and changed his tone.
"Actually, I've thought about it. Going back later is fine too."
Sengoku raised his eyes and stared at him.
"What, are you trying to stay and comfort me?"
Garp picked his nose and answered with a perfectly straight face.
"No. Looking after kids is just too troublesome."
Sengoku's expression turned dark again.
"I knew it."
Then he lowered his head back to the mountain of paperwork and muttered, "Fine. Since you're staying, then you can work. I'm not wasting free labor."
Garp's face finally twitched.
.....
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