Marine Headquarters.
Inside the office, a plaque on the wall bore the inscription "Justice Ruling the World." The phrase hung majestically, as if overseeing every decision made behind that door.
Sengoku opened his office door, casually hanging his large Justice coat on the rack. His steps were calm, yet his mind was clearly wrestling with thoughts. He then walked directly to the chair behind his desk and sat down.
After Akainu entered and closed the door, they faced each other.
"Why did you start a fight with Sephiroth?" Sengoku asked, his tone calm yet full of authority.
Akainu, with his hands behind his back and his figure standing straight like a statue, answered the question in a relatively objective tone. "After the meeting, he walked towards me and provoked me. After a few words of conversation, we both argued. He took me to the beach and started fighting...."
Tap-tap-tap!
Sengoku's right index finger gently tapped the desk, revealing a thoughtful expression on his face. "Have you had any conflicts before?"
"We've had virtually no contact before, but..." Akainu paused briefly, his memory returning to that morning. "If there was any contradiction, it should only be this morning, when he had just arrived at the Military Port, I snorted coldly at him, and he also used this as an excuse to provoke me at the end of the meeting."
"So when he was at the Military Port, did he say anything and what was his mood?" Sengoku pressed, his eyes probing.
"He just uttered one 'for some reason' sentence and wasn't emotional," Akainu replied succinctly.
Hearing this, Sengoku fell silent, frowning slightly. From his desk drawer, he pulled out a document, rummaged through it, and found Sephiroth's file.
He directed his gaze to the evaluation column provided by Zefa when Sephiroth was still in Marineford Academy.
"The student has excellent grades in all aspects, has good relationships with his classmates, is good at communication, and has iron-blooded methods in dealing with pirates..."
"He has made rapid progress in strength and has extremely high potential. He has outstanding talent in swordsmanship and physical skills. In a year, he has developed Rokushiki and mastered Life Return. His unknown Mythical Zoan-type Devil Fruit is very powerful. He is expected to become a Marine Admiral in the future."
Sengoku looked at the evaluation given by Zefa, and his mind was full of contemplation, gradually connecting all the pieces of the puzzle.
After a while, he posed another question. "How much strength did you use when fighting Sephiroth?" Sengoku tentatively asked.
Akainu did not hesitate at all. He was expressionless and stated the truth, "Almost full strength."
"If it weren't for the fact that it's Marineford here and I unleashed my Devil Fruit ability with all my might, I should have been able to hold him down, but..." Akainu frowned slightly. "He has great flying ability, if he wants to leave, I can't hold him."
Hearing this, Sengoku directed his gaze to the age column in Sephiroth's file, and he was shocked.
Sephiroth possessed Admiral-level combat power at the age of 19, and could match the 40-year-old Sakazuki...
"This kid is truly terrifying!"
"Regarding the previous disposal plan for Sephiroth, it will be temporarily postponed." Sengoku made a decision. "Akainu, start the inventory operation with someone else!"
"Understood," Akainu replied, his tone emotionless.
Seeing Sengoku wave at him, indicating that he could exit first, Akainu did not prolong his stay and turned to leave the office.
He was indeed unhappy with Sephiroth, but it was a soldier's bounden duty to obey orders, and he would choose to obey the orders from the other party as long as Sengoku was still his superior.
Sengoku reached out and rummaged through the drawer again, pulling out a document bag, placing it on his desk, and consolidating it with Sephiroth's information.
What was inside the document bag was information about Sephiroth's illegal activities.
If the incident hadn't just happened, Sengoku, relying on the information in that document bag, would have had enough to send Sephiroth directly to the Impel Down prison, seat him at the bottom of the prison, and let him reside in it for the rest of his life!
However.
When Sephiroth displayed combat power comparable to an Admiral, everything was different!
Sengoku didn't want to force a powerful enemy to the opposite side of the Marine, especially since he had just clearly seen that on the other side of Sephiroth's Dimensional Door opening was the Sabaody Marine Base.
This meant that the other party could reach the Sabaody Archipelago directly from Marineford, crossing a distance of tens of kilometers in an instant!
This terrifying ability for spatial transfer simply made Sengoku feel somewhat unbelievable.
If Sephiroth was pushed too far, making him stand opposite the Marine and the World Government, that strong power and difficult ability would be a very terrifying enemy!
Therefore, the best option in this matter was to win and warn, downplay the other party's mistakes, and remain on the Marine's side.
For example, recently, Garp's son, Dragon, who organized a revolutionary event in West Blue to overthrow the West Blue kingdom, shocked the world and was recognized as the "World's Most Heinous Criminal."
As usual, if Garp was just an ordinary Vice Admiral, he would have long been overthrown from his position and investigated, or even put into prison.
No, "Marine Hero" Garp had a good name, and he was extremely powerful!
If the Marine truly planned to arrest him, it was possible that the old man would join his son's Revolutionary Army and fight against the World Government as soon as he went crazy!
Therefore, from various considerations, the Marine only conducted a few interviews and warnings with Garp, and gave up directly. Even the Marine commander in the G-3 branch was not removed.
In fact, if the Marine truly wanted to deal with Garp, it didn't have to be this complicated at all, it was just settling old scores. There wasn't much about this Garp guy acting without authorization that went against military orders!
"Rather than an ordinary Admiral, those mistakes were enough to drag the opponent out and shoot him dozens of times."
Sengoku was not a man with moral mysophobia; instead, he was a man who would do anything to achieve his goals.
In his view, both good and evil could tolerate the other, or even make some kind of compromise and concession, as long as the other had exploitable value and did not hinder his path forward.
Sengoku knew very well that the World Government was full of decay and darkness, and it was not a very wise choice to go to great lengths to maintain its power and majesty.
However.
No matter how bad the World Government's rule was, it still brought a relatively stable system of order to the world, so that the world would not completely fall into turmoil.
Dragon's Revolutionary Army's ideas, Sengoku also had a slight understanding.
Freedom, equality, justice, rule of law, democracy, civilization, harmony.
The ideological content was so ideal and beautiful that Sengoku unconsciously felt that... Dragon drank too much fake wine!
In short, Sengoku thought that rather than completely subverting the entire world, it would be better to be content with it and try to save the current World Government, reform internally, and gradually improve it.
Whether it was him or Kong, they held that thought.
Perhaps the road would be very difficult and bumpy, but it was always better than placing hope on those immature illusory ideas and theories.
After Sengoku finished his "solution" for Sephiroth, he picked up his document bag and materials, left his office, and stood in front of the Fleet Admiral's office door.
Knock-knock-knock!
"Come in!" Kong's voice echoed from within.
Behind the desk, Kong held his shoulders, leaned back in his chair, and looked directly at the person who entered. "Sengoku, what do you want from me?"
"Fleet Admiral Kong, I want to talk to you about a certain Marine." As he spoke, Sengoku placed the information and document bag in his hand on Kong's desk.
"Sephiroth...?"
Kong unpacked the document bag and looked at the information inside, his brows furrowing instantly.
"I haven't been able to figure out whether this Sephiroth fellow is truly just..." Sengoku rubbed his eyebrows slightly distressed.
If not for seeing Sephiroth's evidence, judging from the other party's past behavioral style alone, he should be an excellent Marine.
"It doesn't matter whether he is right or wrong.... What matters is whether there is value in keeping him," Kong said, his eyes sharpening. "What will you do with him?"
Kong put down the document in his hand and looked directly at Sengoku with his calm eyes.
"Through the battle between Akainu and Sephiroth, I judged his strength should have reached the level of an Admiral." Sengoku explained straightforwardly.
"If we don't handle him well, the Marine will have one more powerful enemy."
"Therefore, I intend to give him a private warning to see the consequences. If he stops there, there's no need to investigate further."
"Also, no matter how strong he becomes in the future, I don't plan to promote him to the rank of Admiral."
"Yes, follow your solution!" Kong nodded slightly.
After putting away the information on the desktop, Sengoku tentatively said, "If there's nothing wrong with Fleet Admiral Kong, I'll take my leave first. I have other military matters to handle."
"Hmm! Go! You'll control all factions of the Marine as much as you can," Kong commanded.
"Understood!"
After Sengoku closed the door and left the office, Kong shook his head and sighed:
"This Sephiroth guy... Damn, such a headache!"
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