Chapter 10: Even Without Merit, There

Red Soil Continent, Holy Land Mary Geoise.

In the spacious, well-lit room of Pango City, the center of power for the World Government, the Five Elders arranged themselves in order.

Nasuhiro, the Financial Divine Warrior, sat on the sofa and slammed the newspaper onto the table, a flash of cold light darting through his sharp eyes.

"CP9 is a bunch of useless trash; they can't even catch a fugitive with abilities."

The prisoner's escape is indeed despicable.

What truly enraged the Five Elders was that the World Government only learned of the entire incident through the newspaper.

Unforgivable.

Though unwilling to admit it, everything clearly shows the World Government's control over the seas is weakening.

Satan narrowed his eyes.

"It's not entirely their fault if they encountered a member of Luo Jie's crew who awakened Conqueror's Haki and ate the Gura Gura no Mi."

"The Surgical Fruit user is still in Barzab Saint Saint Saiwen's hands. Notify the Marines—send Borsalino to capture Barzab Saint Saint Saiwen and the fugitive alive."

"This arrangement will also confuse the enemy."

"I concur."

"I concur."

Logically, such a vital strategic weapon as the Surgical Fruit should have warranted deployment of the Divine Knights.

Only then could the operation be guaranteed to succeed without fail.

But both the Surgical Fruit and the Gura Gura no Mi possess extreme speed and instantaneous movement; among the World Government and the Marines, only Borsalino can counter such abilities.

Purely in terms of speed, the Pika Pika no Mi is second to none on this sea—no one, not even the Gura Gura no Mi, dares claim first.

Considering all factors, Borsalino is the most suitable choice.

"Regarding the remaining members of Luo Jie's crew..."

Satan paused: "Send CP1 to warn Lei Li—if anything like this happens again, the agreement between the Marines and Luo Jie is null and void."

"I concur!"

"I concur!"

Marine Headquarters, Marineford.

In the admiral's office, Admiral Sengoku ended his Den Den Mushi call and looked at the slacker repairing his nails.

"Borsalino."

"You're going to Paradise immediately—the World Government demands you capture Barzab Saint Saint Saiwen and the fugitive alive."

Borsalino put away his nail clipper, his face slack and sly: "Admiral Sengoku, my vacation."

The man who loved slacking off the most had eaten the most exhausting fruit; Borsalino found it truly frustrating—whenever an emergency arose, he was always the one forced to go out.

Sengoku gritted his teeth: "After this mission, I'll promote you to Admiral."

Hearing this, Borsalino's eyes lit up.

Everything else was secondary; the main point was that after promotion to Admiral, his salary would rise to 10.8 million Berries per year.

The money gave Borsalino motivation.

"I'm leaving now."

Watching Borsalino vanish as a streak of light, Sengoku wearily rubbed his brow—he had thought that with Luo Jie's public execution, the pirates on the seas would at least quiet down for a while.

【Being a pirate has no future—just look, we Marines captured and publicly executed the Pirate King himself.】

He never imagined Luo Jie's final words about the Great Treasure would send the entire sea into chaos.

Not only were more people taking to the seas as pirates, but even nobles from some nations were doing the same; as a result, Marine manpower grew increasingly stretched thin.

"Luo Jie, you've fooled us all."

A week before Luo Jie's execution, Golden Lion rampaged through Marine Headquarters, destroying half of Marineford and causing countless Marine casualties before being imprisoned in Impel Down.

After Luo Jie's death, the rest of Luo Jie's crew behaved relatively quietly.

Only the devil's descendant Baret and recently, Barzab Saint Saint Saiwen—who raided the World Government's prisoners—had stirred up storms on the seas.

Fleet Admiral Kong is about to depart for Holy Land Mary Geoise to assume the position of Supreme Commander; from now on, the burden of the Marines falls on Sengoku.

Thinking of Karp's carefree vacation in the East Blue, Sengoku immediately dialed the Den Den Mushi and roared.

"Damn Karp!"

"Come back right now!"

Sengoku thought: Why should I be stuck working overtime while that bastard Karp enjoys his vacation? Brothers must share hardship.

The Den Den Mushi mimicked Karp's expression.

"Nani?"

"We agreed on a three-month vacation—only half has passed. If there's nothing urgent, I'm going back to sleep."

Watching the disconnected Den Den Mushi, Sengoku removed his seagull hat and grabbed his spiky hair, beginning to psychologically pressure himself.

"Forget it—over the years, Karp has put in effort trying to capture Luo Jie; even if he has no merit, he has at least made an effort."

…

Paradise, near the island of Gaya.

"Captain."

The doctor bowed slightly: "Considering all the cleaning and night shifts I've done these past days, please, have mercy—unlock my Seastone handcuffs."

At the bow, Saint Saint Saiwen deactivated his plasma sword, his mood far from pleasant: "You're wasting your time asking me—I'm a Devil Fruit user; I can't open Seastone handcuffs."

He was only one thin layer away from unleashing his Flying Slash—but that layer refused to break.

The doctor ventured:

"Then could you ask Mr. Mihawk?"

If I can't open the Seastone handcuffs, how can I escape? It's not that following Saint Saint Saiwen is bad, but after the World Government's failure, they'll surely send even stronger henchmen.

The doctor neither wants to die nor be captured.

When he first ate the Surgical Fruit, the doctor practiced medicine with full devotion in his hometown, healing the sick.

But then…

Because the World Government wanted this Devil Fruit, his hometown was destroyed and he was captured alive; he barely escaped in the chaos to Sainting Island, only to fall into CP's hands again.

He had thought Saint Saint Saiwen would be his savior, but instead he became a prisoner once more.

Most unsettling of all: after the ship reached the vicinity of Gaya Island's waters, Saint Saint Saiwen suddenly stopped advancing and began circling the nearby seas.

"Captain, are you looking for something?"

Saint Saint Saiwen pulled out a telescope: "Yes, keep mopping the deck. Don't block my view."

To reach the Sky Island, you must ride the updraft current; aside from its danger, merely encountering an updraft is already extremely rare.

You could say it's pure luck.

Saint Saint Saiwen planned to wait a little longer; if he still couldn't find the updraft, he'd go up alone and use that golden pillar to buy Dream Yixin.

The main reason he wanted to travel by ship was to cultivate feelings with Misan.

Some pirate crews rely solely on the captain's martial dominance to control their crew; some bind their members through emotional ties; others tie themselves together through mutual interests.

Captain Saint Saint Saiwen? He wants all of them.

With current martial strength insufficient to intimidate, cultivating emotional bonds and securing mutual interests are critically important.

With the Rocks Pirate Crew as a cautionary example, lessons must be fully absorbed.

In just half a day, the nearby seas experienced calm sunshine, violent storms, and thunder and lightning in succession.

Night fell, and Saint Saint Saiwen still hadn't found the updraft. "Misan, wait here on the ship. I'll go ahead and scout the way."

Lei Ting split the darkness; Saint Saint Saiwen became a brilliant blue Lei Guang and shot straight upward.