Marine Headquarters, Fleet Admiral's office.
The elderly man, still imposing and vigorous at over seventy, wore a pair of slightly worn toad-shaped glasses. A seagull perched on his head, occasionally using its beak to groom its feathers, indicating that it wasn't a mere ornament.
"Oh? Are they going to fight so soon? He's only had a few days of rest?" Sengoku picked up the application form and suddenly chuckled a bit self-deprecatingly. "Well, after all, it's Rowen…"
Rowen proposing a fight at this point showed remarkable restraint. He then laid out the application form and paused for a second before asking, "What do you think?"
In front of him stood Momousagi, one of the candidates for Admiral at Marine Headquarters.
As she had mentioned earlier, for Rowen to challenge both her and Chaton, it needed Sengoku's approval. Setting aside the fact that at their level, their destructive power was so immense that they needed to find another location, the important thing was the implication of such actions!
Challenging them was tantamount to challenging the position of Admiral candidate!
Just like Admirals, there were three positions for Admiral candidates. The three of them would compete for the first, second, and third positions respectively, always ready to take over the position of Admiral.
To put it bluntly, Admiral candidates were like coffins prepared in advance while the Admirals were still alive.
Once any Admiral had an accident or retired due to injury, the first candidate would directly assume the position of Admiral and take over all their duties.
They were the true ace reserves of the Marines!
In critical times of war, if even this procedure was not needed, the Admiral candidates would have the same authority as the Admirals, leading the entire Marine in a last-ditch battle!
Naturally, for hundreds of years, the Marine had never been pushed to such an extreme.
The matter of the candidates was of great significance. Sengoku asked himself, did he trust Rowen?
He believed that he did.
As a Marine, Rowen was more than qualified. But Rowen…
"Fleet Admiral, are you worried… that Rowen might become the next Dragon?" Momousagi's voice was cold, and instead of answering the question, she unprecedentedly discussed the name that the Marine considered the greatest disgrace.
Dragon, who had defected after becoming an Admiral Candidate, was once as brilliant within the Marine as Rowen was now.
Sengoku was stunned, and after a long time, he sighed.
"Yes, after all, they are so similar…"
Same outstanding talent, same confidence and pride, same fearlessness.
The two of them had too many similarities… to the point that sometimes, when Sengoku looked at Rowen's information, he would mistakenly see Dragon in the person in the photo.
"Twelve years ago, Dragon defected as an Admiral Candidate, and for the next ten years, new blood in the Marine almost stagnated. It's a nightmare that we can never get rid of."
Originally, he was a promising seedling groomed as an Admiral, a man whom Momousagi regarded as a lifelong challenge. Then, on that afternoon, he suddenly defected.
His departure seemed to have opened some kind of switch or brought down a curse. For ten years, the Marines had not found a second newcomer who could take over the position of Admiral.
And it has been a full ten years!
In that era when the Marines were struggling to make ends meet, Sengoku had to do everything he could to maintain the balance of the seas. Even though it was clear that the Marines were suffering and bleeding, he had to repeatedly make concessions to maintain stability.
This was also the reason why, in the original story, Sengoku supported Aokiji's rise to power instead of Akainu's. Because at that time, the Marines couldn't afford to lose!
They couldn't bear any more losses!
Under Akainu's leadership, one can imagine what would happen to the Marine. Sengoku didn't doubt that he was a loyal and reliable soldier, but the Marines no longer had the resources to gamble with.
Later, when Akainu surpassed Aokiji, Aokiji's departure made the situation even worse for the Marine.
If it weren't for the appearance of "Great Conscription" and the appearance of Fujitora and Ryokugyu, the overall strength of the Marines would drop from the current 10 to 8 or even lower!
The strongest force in the Grand Line would become an empty phrase, and the era of pirates would only escalate.
Momousagi had grown rapidly during that struggling period. Now, she was also one of the candidates for Admiral, but that man would never come back.
Clenching her fist in secret, Momousagi took a deep breath and said solemnly, "I believe that Rowen is different from Dragon."
"Oh? Tell me your thoughts…"
Sengoku looked at her in surprise, suddenly becoming interested, and gestured for Momousagi to continue.
After experiencing the incident with Dragon, this powerful woman who had forced Chaton to concede and become an Admiral candidate five years ago rarely gave evaluations to outsiders.
"Because their ideals are different!"
Momousagi's gaze was unwavering, and it seemed as if the phantom of Dragon appeared before her. Indeed, Rowen and Dragon had similarities, and both had played significant roles in a war against Yonko.
However, there existed a vast difference between them.
"Dragon pursued Justice, while Rowen pursues strength!"
"Dragon's sense of Justice couldn't be reconciled within the Marine, which led to his defection. On the other hand, Rowen's desire for power can be fully satisfied by the Marine…"
At this moment, a voice suddenly interrupted.
"That's right!"
"Rowen doesn't seek power from the perspective of those below him, nor does he see Marine as a stepping stone. He yearns for true, unadulterated strength, regardless of its source!"
"He is the incarnation of power!"
"Dragon executed his own sense of Justice, while Rowen simply seeks greater strength!"
The speaker was Zephyr. Upon learning that Rowen intended to challenge Momousagi and Chaton tomorrow, he hurriedly arrived at the Fleet Admiral's office. At the entrance, he overheard Momousagi's evaluation.
Several guards looked anxiously at Sengoku, feeling sorry for not stopping Zephyr. Sengoku waved his hand to signal them to leave.
Thud!
The door closed.
Zephyr fixed his profound gaze on Sengoku, with a hint of seriousness and sorrow, heaved a long sigh.
"It's time to let go, Sengoku!"
"We old fogies have only a few years left. I've let go, Garp has let go, but you're the one who can't let go."
"Hmph! That's because your good disciple avenged you! Garp and his family are a bunch of reckless fools! What do I have?!" Hearing this, Sengoku's mouth twitched, and he snorted disdainfully, rolling his eyes in contempt.
Indeed, there was no evidence to suggest that Rowen had ordered Fujitora to kill Edward Weevil, but that didn't mean Sengoku believed that Rowen hadn't ordered Fujitora to eliminate those two fools.
"Hey, you old fart! Can't you ever stop?!" Zephyr's face instantly darkened, and he slapped the table with a loud "thud."
"Do you have any evidence? Without evidence, your accusations are baseless! Orchestrating your own soldiers from behind the scenes, and you still have the audacity to be Fleet Admiral? I spit on you!"
"You Asshole! You want to fight, Zephyr?!"
"Bring it on, are you afraid you can't handle it?!!"
Two old men, totaling almost one hundred and fifty years of age, quickly began a heated argument with punches and kicks. The sudden change left Momousagi bewildered, and she blinked her eyes in confusion.
Suddenly, she noticed the application form had fallen to the ground.
Picking it up and taking a look, she chuckled.
On the last page, Sengoku's handwritten signature was still wet, with powerful and vigorous strokes.
…
"Calm Belt, near Sabaody Archipelago… Is that the barren place where nothing grows?"
Inside Zephyr's office, Rowen curiously held a sea map, looking somewhat puzzled.
Although Marineford and the Triangle formed by Marineford, Impel Down, and Enies Lobby provided a rapid route to the Calm Belt, they seemed to be using it too frequently, right?
When he last visited Hell Island, he passed by many islands along the way, but they were only a three-hour sail from Marineford. That desolate archipelago left a deep impression on Rowen.
A group of more than a dozen turtle-like Sea Kings lay on the archipelago, each with a head the size of a War Behemoth. It was hard not to be impressed.
Rowen strongly suspected that the reason the Sabaody Archipelago had no vegetation was probably because it had been compacted by this group of sunbathing behemoths!
"That's right, it's that… Well, the place where not even a ghost lives. You guys can go all out there… Ah, be gentle, Ain, it hurts!"
Zephyr reclined on a large chair, leaning back, while Ain held a first aid kit and was applying ointment to him.
Rowen glanced at Zephyr's bruised and swollen face and chuckled. "You're complaining about a little injury? Old man, you're getting… um… younger!"
He sensed killing intent!
Rowen quickly changed his words.
"Hmph! You little brat!"
Zephyr snorted coldly, paused for a moment, and said, "If you want to do something, go ahead and do it, Rowen! If that asshole Sengoku keeps yakking away, I'll beat him next time!"
"Are you sure it won't be you getting beaten up?"
Ain gave him a disdainful look and wrapped the bandages tightly.
During this process, Zephyr winced in pain but refrained from speaking.
Chapter end.
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