Early in the morning, Diarmuid woke from his slumber. He rubbed his eyes groggily and realized he was the only one left in the room.
After dressing, washing up, and getting ready, he pushed open the door and stepped out. In the living room, he found Gion and Hina, both still in their pajamas, busily preparing breakfast.
Having grown accustomed to this domestic routine, Diarmuid showed no surprise. He let out a yawn and asked, "What's on the menu?"
Just then, Hina set the breakfast on the table. "Bread. Come and eat; breakfast should be light."
The three of them sat down and began to chat over their meal.
"Any plans for today, Admiral?" Hina asked.
Diarmuid swallowed a bite of bread and replied, "I'm meeting with the Fleet Admiral. We made an appointment last night."
Hina nodded and fell silent. After eating a bit more, Diarmuid turned to Gion. "And you?"
Gion took a sip of hot milk, her expression thoughtful. "As for me, I have to go to the Intelligence Division, and then likely head to Mariejois to maintain order at the port..."
"Mariejois, huh?" Diarmuid asked. "Does that mean the royalty from the affiliated nations have already started arriving?"
"Mhm. There are a hundred royal families from the affiliated nations attending this Reverie. Some are currently at the Gold City and can arrive at Mariejois at any moment, while others have already reached the Holy Land. Things are going to get increasingly crowded over there, so they need our help," Gion explained with a nod.
"So you won't be back for the next few days?" Diarmuid asked.
"Probably not," Gion replied with a small smile.
"Tsk, tsk..." Diarmuid clicked his tongue, looking slightly dissatisfied.
Gion asked with a hint of amusement, "What's wrong?"
"I was just thinking, lately it feels like we're always parting ways. Either I'm out on a mission, or you are," Diarmuid remarked with a touch of sentimentality.
"You're a Marine Admiral, and I'm an Admiral Candidate. This is just how it's supposed to be," Gion replied cheerfully.
She didn't dwell on the romantic melancholy, and soon, the three of them finished breakfast.
Diarmuid grabbed his Justice coat hanging by the door, draped it over his shoulders, and looked back at Hina and Gion. "I'm heading out then."
"Do I need to come along?" Hina asked while washing the dishes.
"No need. I'm giving you the day off," Diarmuid said with a wave as he stepped out of the house.
Diarmuid's residence in Marineford was located in the high-ranking officers' quarters. Only those with the rank of Vice Admiral or higher lived in this area; a Rear Admiral usually wouldn't even have the clearance to wander around here.
He hadn't been walking down the street for long when he spotted three figures ahead. Two of them seemed to be in the middle of a heated argument, looking as though they might come to blows at any second.
Diarmuid was momentarily surprised. Who? Who has the nerve to cause trouble here?
As he drew closer, he realized who they were: Borsalino, Sakazuki, and Kuzan.
And the ones arguing were, predictably, Kuzan and Sakazuki.
Oh, never mind then.
Although Sakazuki's temper and methods had mellowed significantly, he and Kuzan still clashed. While they didn't fight every single day, they would occasionally have a massive row. Sometimes they even "scheduled" duels. However, both were sensible enough to ensure things never reached a point of no return. They might shout all day, but if they ran into each other at the Marine Club in the evening, they could still share a drink.
Diarmuid had grown used to it.
Walking over casually, Diarmuid glanced at Borsalino, who was standing to the side watching the show, and said irritably, "Are you really just going to stand there and watch?"
Borsalino gave Diarmuid a dry look. "What else? This has been going on for decades. You want to try talking them down?"
"At least don't let them shout here. It's bad for morale. They should just go outside and have a proper fight," Diarmuid muttered.
After saying this, Diarmuid stepped forward and stood directly between Kuzan and Sakazuki, prying them apart. "It's early morning. Can't you two let a man have some peace? I say stop arguing. Just pick a time and go settle this with a fight."
"Hmph. If we fight, we fight. Do you think I'm afraid of him?" Sakazuki snorted. However, he didn't say anything further.
Kuzan added irritably, "Don't think just because you're an Admiral I'm afraid to hit you!"
Well... they had fought many times before.
Despite the intensity of the argument, the two seemed to have vented. Borsalino and Diarmuid were unfazed, and soon enough, the four of them actually ended up walking together.
Diarmuid whispered to Borsalino, asking what the fight had been about.
The answer was unsurprising: it was once again a conflict of beliefs and ideals. After all, the greatest rift between the two lay in their philosophies.
"It's truly enviable..." Borsalino remarked quietly as he and Diarmuid walked behind the other two, watching Kuzan and Sakazuki ignore each other.
Diarmuid was lighting a cigar. Hearing this, he exhaled a cloud of smoke and asked, "Enviable? What for?"
"Envious of them," Borsalino said softly. After a brief pause, he added, "Envious of people with ideals."
Diarmuid was stunned. Saying that about Sakazuki made sense, but Kuzan... Does that 'salted fish' really have ideals?
On second thought, he probably did. He might be lazy, but he was indeed a man of ideals. Diarmuid just didn't know how to describe Kuzan's ideals, nor could he define Sakazuki's.
"You don't have any?" Diarmuid asked.
"Me?" Borsalino paused, looked at Diarmuid, and then said, "No. The thing the three of you have, I don't."
"The three of us?" Diarmuid was surprised again, then laughed heartily. "Those two maybe, but not me..."
Ideals...
Beliefs...
Diarmuid had always felt that such ethereal concepts were beyond his grasp. It was just like the question Zephyr and Sengoku had asked him when he first entered Marineford: "What is your Justice?"
To this day, Diarmuid might not be able to answer that question. Even though he had acted with justice for all these years...
Because of Borsalino's remark, Diarmuid suddenly began to understand what he meant. Looking at Sakazuki and Kuzan, even Diarmuid felt a slight pang of envy.
People with ideals, or rather, people with convictions.
There was no doubt that Sakazuki and Kuzan were the type of men who would lay down their lives for the beliefs they pursued. In the original story, the battle at Punk Hazard proved this. Kuzan nearly died at Sakazuki's hands, though Sakazuki ultimately couldn't bring himself to deal the final blow. But before that, the two were truly staking their lives, fighting for their respective paths.
They were people who could die for their convictions.
It sounded foolish, yet at this moment, it made Diarmuid feel envious. And he more or less understood Borsalino's envy as well.
The two of them were actually the same. They were envious because they didn't know what they themselves would be willing to die for.
Seeing Diarmuid's suddenly pensive expression, Borsalino smiled and murmured softly, "No, it is definitely the three of you..."
Perhaps Diarmuid couldn't feel it himself, but Borsalino understood. Diarmuid's conviction and pursuit might have nothing to do with justice, but they existed nonetheless. In Borsalino's eyes, what Diarmuid pursued was power.
If Kuzan and Sakazuki were the type to die for their concept of justice, then Diarmuid was the type to disregard life and death in the pursuit of strength.
The scale of the conviction didn't matter; Borsalino was envious regardless. Because he still couldn't think of anything that would make him face death so willingly.
A bystander sees clearly; Borsalino saw it plainly, even if Diarmuid couldn't figure it out himself. In fact, Borsalino was right. One could see it when Diarmuid forcibly consumed the Dark-Dark Fruit in Alabasta. At critical moments, he truly was a man who would risk his life for power.
"My head hurts!" Diarmuid rubbed his temples and then glared at Borsalino.
Borsalino blinked. "What?"
"Don't start leading me into these philosophical questions first thing in the morning, alright? It's making me uncomfortable," Diarmuid grumbled.
"You're just overthinking things," Borsalino replied with a roll of his eyes.
Dropping the subject, Diarmuid shifted gears. "By the way, how are things over at the Special Science Group? Any issues?"
"There are," Borsalino said calmly.
"What issues? Don't let it affect our Calm Belt territory..." Diarmuid asked, slightly concerned.
"It's unrelated to that. We're preparing to arrest Bartholomew Kuma, but that guy is going to be difficult to handle," Borsalino said after a slight pause.
Diarmuid was even more surprised. "Arrest Bartholomew Kuma? Why?"
"Because he's a member of the Revolutionary Army," Borsalino replied.
"Wasn't that known long ago? Didn't you have a cooperation? Why now..." Diarmuid asked, still confused.
"Before was before, and now things are different. Anyway, the Fleet Admiral has no intention of continuing to work with the Revolutionary Army. There's no need for any cooperation. You can call it... burning bridges," Borsalino explained nonchalantly.
Diarmuid was silent for a while before nodding. "I suppose so. There really isn't a need to have any further involvement with them."
The reason was simple: the Marines now had enough independent power and didn't need to trade with the Revolutionary Army. Secondly, since Fleet Admiral Sengoku had decided to make a move, while they were exposing Mariejois's filth, they had to be careful not to let Mariejois find any dirt on the Marines.
Even though Diarmuid and his peers knew the Revolutionary Army weren't truly evil, from a mainstream perspective, their reputation was notorious. At a time like this, it was better not to be associated with them.
"He's a tough one, Bartholomew Kuma... Need help?" Diarmuid asked.
"No need. He is indeed difficult, he's basically immune to the effects of Seastone now, but it's not a huge problem. We'll use our heads. If we invite him for an experiment or something, we can easily and reasonably tranquilize him," Borsalino said, sounding slightly devious.
Diarmuid asked in shock, "Immune to Seastone? What do you mean?"
Borsalino explained, "Bartholomew Kuma is essentially a cyborg now. Dr. Vegapunk used some method to allow his modified body to still use his fruit abilities. However, because of the modifications... well, I can't explain it very well, but basically, for the parts of him that are no longer flesh and blood, Kuma has achieved immunity to the influence of Seastone."
"This..." Diarmuid was truly astonished.
In that case, if I were to grab Kuma, could my dark power strip his abilities through his steel body?
After thinking it over, Diarmuid felt it should still be possible. His power was quite different from Seastone; it was a direct application of his ability...
Discussing these matters, the group of four walked into the Marine Headquarters building. Soon, they each headed to their respective offices to begin their work.