Chapter 513: Dark Days for the Marines
"Big News, huh?" Harpin Angela snorted.
The World Economy Newspaper/always had "big news", so it really wasn't something that quite drew her attention, even if a lot of exciting stuff had been coming out recently.
Seeing her own granddaughter slugging Big Mom in the face was quite the sight. Although, the photo was a bit /too good, like Cherry had posed for it, so she'd have to give that girl a lecture about playing around when death is on the line.
Still, she couldn't be prouder of how much Cherry has grown in such a short time.
When Angela actually got around to seeing what old Morgans thought passed for "Big News" this week, she actually spat her coffee all over the paper in shock.
"Damn it!" Angela stood up.
She quickly found one of her older students, who was reading the newspaper with a pale complexion, and snatched it from his hands. He barely seemed to register that it was taken from him.
The headline story was not about the Reverie, as one might expect from the first issue to come out since the meeting of the world's kings ended. Rather, it was about what happened /during the Reverie, in the heart of Mary Geoise.
"King Nefertari Cobra kidnapped by Harpin D. Cherry. Nefertari Vivi and King Wapol are missing. Mary Geoise set ablaze. Celestial Dragons assaulted..." Angela read it out like a list of crimes. "Is your bounty not high enough, you stupid girl?!"
"Apparently not," came the voice of the last person Angela wanted to see at this moment.
Commander Frowe had let himself into her dojo uninvited, tailed by a dozen more marines carrying swords on their hips and rifles on their backs.
"What is this? Are you planning to arrest me, Frowe?" Angela's expression darkened at the man. She'd never been that fond of him, but he'd been buddies with her late husband, so she had kept the peace for his sake.
"No," Commander Frowe spoke firmly. Then he sagged a little. "I talked them down from that, on the condition that marines will be stationed within the Dojo and accompany you whenever you leave the compound."
"This is the thanks I get for teaching your whelps?" Angela glared at him, even catching the eyes of a few of the marines who followed him here. The latter at least had the good sense to look ashamed.
"My hands are tied, Angela. Headquarters doesn't want.../her to come back here to hide," Commander Frowe explained, not even daring to speak Cherry's name when Angela's eyes narrowed dangerously at him.
"Cherry won't come back here, you fools. She knows better," Angela spat. "But if you insist on keeping your brats here, then..."
Angela smiled, and everyone here suddenly knew where her granddaughter got her own smile from. "I'll have to whip them into shape. Make proper marines of them, eh?"
Commander Frowe's marines all took a big step back on shaky legs.
"Acceptable," Commander Frowe answered, though inwardly he apologized to his poor subordinate for the hell he had just damned them to.
...
Fleet Admiral Aokiji had his forehead firmly planted on his desk when former Fleet Admiral Sengoku entered his office.
"Sick of it yet?" Sengoku asked, popping a cracker into his mouth, then feeding one to his goat.
Aokiji lifted his head so that his chin rested on the desk instead to offer his former boss a glare.
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"I'll take that as a /no," Sengoku chuckled.
"What is it with all these fucking-!" "Language." "-pirates! Big Mom and Kaido are teaming up in Wano for some fucking-!" "Language." "reason! The one who /beat Big Mom couldn't just do us all a huge favor and kill the fucking-!" "Language." "-bitch-!" "Language." "-and instead went and kidnapped fucking-!" "Language." "-King Nefertari!" Aokiji ranted, paying no mind to Sengoku's interruptions.
"Counting on pirates to make things more convenient for you is a recipe for early onset baldness. Best not to stress too much over it." *crunch* Sengoku ate another cracker.
Aokiji reached up and touched his hairline gingerly. He let out a long-suffering sigh and said, "I should have just let Akainu have at it and run off to Sword or something."
Akainu's disappearance, while it made some things easier, had also forced Aokiji to scrap a lot of his plans. No one ever considered that the volcanic man would just up and vanish. Zed and his Neo Marines had gone terribly quiet after the fact as well, though they at least knew they were still around.
"Is it too much to drink on the job?" Aokiji asked.
"I'm afraid so. Kong wouldn't be too pleased with you," Sengoku warned.
"What do you reckon the chances are for Straw Hat taking out Big Mom /and Kaido?" Aokiji asked.
"Without Cheapshot there to back him up? Not very high, but I've seen stranger things happen. Whitebeard, at least, has been staying far away from Wano," Sengoku answered.
"Small mercies," Aokiji agreed. "The last thing I need is fucking-" "Language." "-tsunamis threatening half the New World."
"Ryokugyu ran off on his own," Aokiji muttered.
"I heard," Sengoku said. "He didn't like that he got fried before being able to do anything."
"He should just suck it up and stop acting so much like his namesake," Aokiji growled. "Reigning in the admirals, and Garp, is the job you signed up for," Sengoku said.
Aokiji sighed again. "Is it so much to ask for /somebody to make my job /easier?"
"Don't forget that the Reverie decided to dismantle the Shichibukai," Sengoku tacked on in good humor.
"Ugh..." Aokiji hammered his head against his desk. "I get it, I do, but it's like they're doing this at the worst possible time on purpose!"
Did those idiots really think the marines had the resources to chase after several more powerful pirates right /now? Apparently they did, because they also signed an order insisting that the now former Shichibukai were dealt with immediately.
Aokiji basically gave up on that particularly stupid idea and only sent a token force to basically inform said pirates of their loss of status before making a /strategic retreat.
"Have you spoken with the statisticians yet?" Sengoku asked. "About Cheapshot's bounty,
that is."
"Hell no," Aokiji admitted. "I don't even want to know what kind of price they're putting on her head. They'll drop their report on my desk at some point regardless, I'm sure." "Morgans will probably pester you before then, if you let those number-crunchers take their sweet time with it," Sengoku advised.
"I don't care if that bird complains. He can squawk all he wants," Aokiji said.
They both sat quietly for a while; Sengoku enjoying the remains of his crackers and Aokiji
clearly thinking.
"Why kidnap Nefertari?" Aokiji finally broke the silence. "The Straw Hats saved his country, even if the World government denies it. Why would she go to Mary Geoise of all places to kidnap one of the few Kings that sees them in a positive light."
"In my experience, it's best not to ask those sorts of questions, Aokiji. If you're unlucky enough to get an answer, you're bound not to like it. Not one bit," Sengoku spoke from
experience.