"Say that again. Who did you just ask for?!"
"Douglas Bullet."
Gern Reginald Sigmar's voice was utterly calm, as though he were merely requesting an ordinary soldier—
not the 'Demon Heir' who had once stood toe-to-toe with the Pirate King Roger and triggered a cataclysmic rampage across the seas.
But to Sengoku, that name carried a completely different weight.
The faint trace of composure on his face vanished instantly, replaced by raw shock and disbelief.
After a moment that looked almost like a theatrical face-change, Sengoku suddenly shot up from his Fleet Admiral's chair. Both hands slammed onto the desk as he leaned forward, his voice erupting in a furious roar—
"Gern! Do you have any idea what you're saying?!"
"Bullet?! That devil's offspring—an uncontrollable, extremely dangerous lunatic who's more unhinged than the vast majority of pirates out there!"
"And you dare ask me for him?! Do you even understand what that means?!"
"What's next—should I gift-wrap the Red Count and hand him over to you too?!"
"Is that an option?"
"LIKE HELL IT IS!!!"
Sengoku's bellow echoed through the Fleet Admiral's office. He'd shouted so hard that he reflexively grabbed his cup and took a quick drink of water to soothe his throat.
"In any case—Douglas Bullet is currently imprisoned in the deepest level of Impel Down, Level Six: Eternal Hell!"
"The World Government will never allow him to see the light of day again!"
"Don't even think about it! This condition is absolutely impossible!"
Faced with Sengoku's explosive fury, Gern's reaction could not have been more different.
He didn't even raise an eyebrow.
In the brief pause after Sengoku finished speaking, Gern leisurely lifted his hand and used his little finger to pick at his ear.
Then he lightly blew on his fingertip, looking as though he found the shouting irritating—loud, pointless, and blown wildly out of proportion.
"Honestly, Fleet Admiral Sengoku, lower your voice," Gern said lazily, lifting his eyes to the man whose face had gone livid with anger. "You're about to deafen me."
"And besides, I'm the one who caught him. Of course I know where he's locked up."
He shifted into an even more comfortable position, slumping deeper into the sofa as he continued casually,
"Otherwise, why would I even bring this up with you?"
"You—!" Sengoku was momentarily left speechless by Gern's blatant indifference, pointing at him in fury."You're utterly lawless! What do you even want Bullet for?! Do you have any idea how much chaos releasing him would cause?!"
"What do I want him for?" Gern let out a soft chuckle, but his eyes sharpened instantly, cutting like a blade.
"To let him do what he's best at—fight."
"Locking him away to rot in the darkest pit of the ocean prison is the real waste."
"His strength. His lust for destruction. His obsessive fixation on being the 'strongest'…"
"These things may be uncontrollable dangers in your eyes," Gern said, tapping his own chest,"but to me, they're the sharpest blade available."
"And besides—what kind of place do you think the New World is? You know better than I do."
"Kaido's holed up in Wano. That so-called 'invincible' Kozuki Oden's already been turned into a joke of a dog—I doubt he'll last more than a few years before he's played to death."
"As for the Big Mom Pirates? Don't get me started. She's occupied the entire Totto Land sea, playing at her little 'nation of all races,' while popping out children like popcorn."
"And then there's the 'World's Strongest Man'—Whitebeard…"
At that point, Gern's expression suddenly turned solemn. He lifted his gaze, his voice dropping into a cold, unvarnished truth.
"You know how many times I've fought him last year."
"So let me be straight with you."
"I can't beat him."
"Or rather—if we were to truly fight to the death, it would end with both of us going down together."
Whitebeard wasn't like Roger.
Roger had sought death.
But Whitebeard—still not yet old—fought with the dream and determination of protecting his family.
If it ever became a true, all-out deathmatch, the result would be mutual destruction—or the fall of both men.
"So that's why you've set your sights on Bullet?!" Sengoku couldn't comprehend Gern's line of thinking at all."That's a double-edged sword that will turn on its wielder! It might cut you first!"
"That's not something the Fleet Admiral needs to worry about."
Gern's tone was dismissive, absolute.
"If I dare to ask for him, then I naturally have a way to control him."
"And if worst comes to worst," he shrugged,"I'll just beat him down one more time."
"And besides…"
His voice shifted. The temperature in the room seemed to drop as his gaze hardened once more.
"I'm trading away almost all of my frontline autonomy for a prisoner you've already labeled a 'discarded piece.'"
"No matter how you look at it, this deal benefits the World Government and Marine Headquarters far more than it does me."
"You get rid of a ticking time bomb, placate me, completely eliminate the risk of me 'commanding my own army'—"
"and I still go right back to the front lines, fighting Whitebeard for you."
"One move, multiple gains."
"Isn't that right?"
Gern's words were like a scalpel, slicing cleanly through the polite surface of political maneuvering and laying bare the cold calculations beneath.
Sengoku's expression shifted again and again.
"Are you threatening me, Gern?"
"Careful now," Gern replied lightly, smiling. "That's a dangerous accusation, my dear Fleet Admiral Sengoku."
The office fell into a brief, heavy silence.
Sengoku stared at Gern, his mind racing at full speed.
As much as he hated to admit it, Gern's words—abrasive as they were—hit disturbingly close to the truth.
'White Rabbit' Lipo Hope.'Golden' Gild Tesoro.'Snake Princess' Toritoma.'God' Enel.And above them all—'Heavenquake' Gern.
At present, the only force Marine Headquarters could rely on to restrain the Whitebeard Pirates with just a handful of people was Gern's Natural Disaster faction.
The Great Pirate Era ignited by Roger was growing ever more uncontrollable, and the Revolutionary Army was stirring chaos across allied nations.
If Gern were to disengage from containing the Whitebeard Pirates—
Marine Headquarters' carefully balanced deployment would collapse into disorder.
And if trading away a prisoner as dangerous as Bullet could buy back Gern's unsettling independent military authority…
Then to the Five Elders in Mary Geoise—and to Sengoku himself—
it might truly be a deal worth considering.
After all, in their eyes, Douglas Bullet was a relic of the past, his value already exhausted.
But Gern Reginald Sigmar was a threat of the present.
As for the risk of Bullet actually obeying Gern once released…
That was simply a matter of weighing gains against losses.
(As an aside: Sengoku is a strategist. Strategists' hearts are dark—if a deal benefits them, they'll make it with anyone. That's why Sengoku, both early and late in the original One Piece, so perfectly embodies the World Government.)
Watching Sengoku struggle through this fierce internal conflict, Gern didn't rush him.
He waited calmly, utterly at ease—
as if he already knew the final answer.
At last, Sengoku slowly sank back into his chair, as though much of his strength had been drained away. He rubbed his brow, his voice heavy with a fatigue and gravity rarely heard.
"This matter… is not something I can decide alone."
"I need to report it to Mary Geoise."
"Mary Geoise?" Gern let out a cold laugh, his tone dripping with mockery."Fleet Admiral Kong never liked consulting them."
"Gern."
"Oh, come on." Gern waved his hand, cutting off Sengoku's rebuke, smiling with exaggerated politeness.
"Please—do make sure to fully convey my sincerity… and the superiority of this proposal to those five elderly gentlemen."
He knew it.
The moment Sengoku said those words, the matter was already halfway decided.
What remained was nothing more than the World Government's ritualistic haggling process.
And that—
was something Gern Reginald Sigmar had absolutely no interest in.