One Piece : Marine of the Straw Hat Pirates

Jonathan was speechless. He had completely forgotten to ask how the Straw Hats had managed to bypass G-8’s heavy security.

At that moment, Luffy spotted Sakazuki. Luffy had met him before at Marine Headquarters and had a surprisingly good impression of him, so he ran right over. "Hey, serious-faced uncle! What are you doing here?"

Sakazuki’s eye twitched. No one had ever dared to give him a nickname like that, except for Garp. Sakazuki gritted his teeth and stepped forward, hitting Luffy on the head with his fist. "Brat! Why are you here?"

Luffy rubbed his head and pointed at the sky. "We came from the sky, of course!"

Ikki walked over to join them. "General Sakazuki, it’s been a while."

"How long is a while?" Sakazuki asked, glancing at him.

Jonathan stepped in. "This isn’t the place to talk. Let’s go to the Marine mess hall. My wife will make us a great meal."

Sakazuki nodded. "That’s true. It’s been a long time since Jessica cooked. Thank you, Jessica."

Jessica gave a gentle smile and led everyone toward the G-8 mess hall. As they walked, Sakazuki’s eyes lingered on Sabo and Nico Robin, who were standing behind the Straw Hats.

He wasn’t familiar with them personally, but he knew who they were: Sabo, an officer of the Revolutionary Army, and Nico Robin, the survivor from Ohara. In the past, Sakazuki would have attacked them without a second thought.

But this Sakazuki was different, and the change was all thanks to Ikki’s influence. Ikki’s repeated time travel had made Garp stronger, giving him the world’s strongest physique and Haki.

Sakazuki, a man who pursued absolute justice through absolute strength, had trained with Garp. These encounters slowly but surely began to change him. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

The Monkey family had a strange charisma; Garp had it, and so did Luffy. Luffy had already changed many people he met, so it wasn’t surprising that Garp could change Sakazuki.

Sakazuki still believed in absolute justice, but he was starting to question what that meant. Was justice simply following the World Government’s orders? The fact that he was even asking himself that question meant he had already changed.

At the G-8 mess hall, Luffy immediately began to devour everything in sight, with the other Straw Hats also digging in. Ikki, Jonathan, and Sakazuki sat together at a table. At first, they just ate in silence.

Finally, Jonathan broke the quiet. "Sakazuki, what happened to you? It looks like you got in a fight." Sakazuki’s uniform was tattered, and half of his justice cape was damaged.

Sakazuki put down his chopsticks, took a deep breath, and said, "I ran into Red-Haired Shanks’ cousin."

Ikki froze at his words. When he thought of someone who could be Shanks’ cousin, only one person came to mind: Gildarts, who looked ninety percent like Shanks.

Sakazuki then recounted the story.

He had rushed to G-8 on the fastest warship after Jessica’s call, worried about his good friend. On the way, he encountered a group of defeated pirates—or rather, a group of slave traders operating under the guise of pirates.

The one who defeated them was a man named Gildarts, who was a spitting image of Shanks. Gildarts showed no mercy, turning the slave traders and their ships to dust. Sakazuki would have done the same with his magma.

At first, Sakazuki thought it was Shanks himself. As a Marine Admiral, he had to show some respect to a Four Emperor, and with Jonathan’s fate still unknown, he decided not to engage.

However, Gildarts jumped onto Sakazuki’s ship. "Hey, you’re from the Marines, right? There are some slaves on that island. Can you go deal with them?"

Gildarts’ attitude was polite, but Sakazuki still felt like he was being ordered around. He replied gruffly, "If you aren’t Red-Haired, who are you?"

"Hehe, my name’s Gildarts. I’m Red-Haired’s cousin."

"Cousin?" Sakazuki’s eyes widened.

"Alright, I told you where the slaves are, so I’m heading out," Gildarts said, hopping onto a small boat.

Now that he knew the man wasn’t Shanks, Sakazuki couldn’t let him go. "Stop!" Sakazuki roared, turning his right arm into magma and throwing a punch at Gildarts.

Gildarts simply turned around and swatted away the lava. "Hey! I said I’m not Red-Haired, so why are you attacking me?" he asked with a serious expression.

Sakazuki paused, deep in thought. After a long moment, he gave his answer. "You’re strong. Join the Marines and become my subordinate!"

This was Sakazuki’s moment of clarity. He knew he couldn’t kill every pirate, but what if they joined his side? Though Gildarts wasn’t a pirate, his connection to Shanks made his identity complicated. At that moment, Sakazuki felt like his intelligence had suddenly peaked. Why hadn’t he ever thought of this before?

If Ikki had known what Sakazuki was thinking, he’d probably conclude that Garp had beaten him into enlightenment.

After all, besides Luffy, everyone who was regularly beaten by Garp seemed to become very smart. The Revolutionary Army leader, Dragon, was beaten since childhood.

Fleet Admiral Sengoku, Garp’s good friend, was also a frequent recipient of Garp’s fists. Even Aokiji, who used to be Garp’s subordinate, got his fair share of beatings.

Ace, on the other hand, was just a little too stubborn to smarten up. Sabo, the number two of the Revolutionary Army, had a brilliant intellect.

Based on that logic, it really was possible that Sakazuki had been beaten into enlightenment.