Stern words, laced with a heavy scent of gunpowder.
The successive defeats had caused Akainu's prestige within Marine Headquarters to decline.
Conversely, Aokiji's indifference veiled his strength in a shroud of mystery.
With this rise and fall, within Marine Headquarters, especially among the new recruits.
The call for Aokiji, with his amiable personality, to be the next Fleet Admiral grew louder.
Akainu had been observing all of this.
To salvage this situation, he had challenged Laxus.
He had spent considerable effort training Drake and the other two, intending to use their victory over Laxus to restore his lost prestige in the Marines.
"Akainu, your words are a bit excessive!" Aokiji's expression turned grim.
As cold air emanated from his body, the temperature in the large Marine office plummeted.
"Hmph, it's been many years since we graduated from the new recruit camp. This time, it's a good opportunity to show you the gap between the strong!" Akainu snorted coldly.
Scorching magma churned on his body, and a hot wind surged outwards like a tide.
In an instant, the large office felt like a realm of ice and fire.
"Enough! What do you take me, the Fleet Admiral of the Marines, for!" Sengoku's face darkened, and he roared angrily.
"If you want to fight, you'll have to wait until I step down from this position. Otherwise, don't blame me for sending you to the new recruit camp as instructors."
"Don't forget that as Admirals, you must set an example. If outsiders find out you're fighting here, you'll bring shame upon Marine Headquarters!"
Akainu and Aokiji froze.
Looking at the exasperated Sengoku, the aura emanating from their bodies quickly dissipated.
"Alright, Sengoku, you're not young anymore. Don't bother with these brats," Garp said, glancing at Aokiji, and spoke first to ease the tension.
"Now, let's see if we can get Zephyr's Den Den Mushi to connect."
"If we can get through, it means he's safe."
"I agree with Garp's suggestion!" Tsuru said in agreement.
However, as soon as she finished speaking, an urgent Den Den Mushi voice rang out.
"Gulp, gulp, this is Hina. Requesting immediate communication with Vice Admiral Tsuru... Requesting immediate communication...!"
"Hina?" Tsuru raised an eyebrow.
However, she didn't hesitate and quickly connected the Den Den Mushi.
"Colonel Hina, have you found any trace of the new recruit training ship led by Chief Instructor Zephyr?"
As these words fell, everyone's nerves tensed, and their gazes were fixed on the Den Den Mushi.
"Vice Admiral Tsuru, Hina and Lord Saitama, the Seven Warlord, have successfully rendezvoused with Teacher Zephyr." Hina's voice came from the Den Den Mushi.
"They've arrived!" Sengoku's face lit up with joy and he said urgently, "Then what about Zephyr and the new recruits he led?"
"And that lunatic Weevil, how dare he attack our Navy new recruits! After this, I will definitely have the Five Elders revoke his Seven Warlord candidacy and hunt him to his death across the seas!"
Stern words echoed in the office, filled with killing intent.
Garp and Tsuru hadn't seen Sengoku act like this in a long time.
However, Weevil's choice to attack Navy new recruits had undoubtedly touched a raw nerve in Marine Headquarters.
If Sengoku didn't take action, who would respect them on this sea in the future?
It would likely become a trend to hunt down new recruits.
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku, before we arrived, Teacher Zephyr clashed with Weevil and unfortunately lost an arm." Hina explained urgently.
"The Navy new recruits were also attacked by five pirates with bounties over 100 million, resulting in over half casualties."
"The only fortunate thing is that Lord Saitama intervened in time and killed the pirate captains."
"As for the mastermind behind this sneak attack, Weevil, who claims to be Whitebeard's second generation, also lost an arm in his clash with Lord Saitama and disappeared into the sea, his fate unknown."
With that, Hina paused, and soon, urgent transmission sounds were heard again.
"This is Hina, using a pre-prepared Den Den Mushi to record the battle footage, hoping it can help Fleet Admiral Sengoku understand the situation."
"However, Hina would like to take the liberty of adding that Lord Saitama's strength has been severely underestimated at 50 Beli. His bounty should start at least at 1.5 billion!"
With that said, the Den Den Mushi's signal was instantly cut off.
Faced with Hina's final words, everyone present was stunned at first, and then they saw the Den Den Mushi's eyes glow.
The recorded battle footage was quickly projected and played.
As time passed, a strange oppressive atmosphere quickly permeated the large office.
The moment Kai got serious and unleashed his strongest punch.
That sharp and unparalleled attack made even Akainu's pupils contract.
At this moment, he finally understood why Garp, the Hero of the Marines, had given such high praise to this strangely-looking bald man.
Facing the world-destroying punch in the projection, even through the screen, Akainu felt a chilling sensation.
"Garp, you shouldn't have concealed the details of Saitama's boarding of the Moby Dick. What if Marine Headquarters misjudged his strength because of it?"
"If we're not careful, it could bring unnecessary crisis to our Marines!" Sengoku said, exhaling deeply, and rebuked sternly.
"If we had known Saitama possessed such immense strength and hadn't committed any crimes."
"We shouldn't have recommended him as a Seven Warlord. Instead, we should have recruited him into Marine Headquarters directly!"
Initially, Sengoku's proposal for Saitama to become a new Seven Warlord was a gamble.
At first, it was simply to quickly re-establish Marine Headquarters' strength on the seas.
Now, after witnessing the terrifying battle footage with his own eyes, Sengoku realized they had struck gold.
With the Seven Warlord position now set, Sengoku could only regret it.
"Haha, Sengoku, I didn't expect you to regret it. I knew that kid was extraordinary from the start!" Garp laughed heartily. "But don't blame me. It's already good that we managed to make him a Seven Warlord."
"If we had tried to bind him with the identity of a Marine, it might have had the opposite effect."
Regarding Saitama's performance, especially his powerful stance in defeating Weevil with one punch.
It had actually exceeded Garp's expectations.
It could be said that Garp had also misunderstood the situation.
However, with the matter settled, Garp couldn't afford to lose face.
The only thing he could do was pretend he had known all along.
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