In the dimly lit room, the Den Den Mushi crackled with a low, gravelly voice:
"Is it done?"
"Karol."
Karol replied in a ghostly tone,
"All taken care of, sir~"
A soft chuckle came from the other end.
"Well done. Your reward is ready. I'll hand it to you myself, next time we meet."
A sly smile tugged at Karol's lips.
"Thank you, sir~"
He paused, then added,
"But… Vice Admiral Sakazuki… with this gloomy vibe and our cryptic conversation… doesn't it feel like we're the bad guys here?"
The raspy voice on the other end vanished. Suddenly, Sakazuki's normal tone came through:
"It's called setting the mood."
He went on,
"You're an undercover informant leaking Marine intel, remember? This kind of voice and dialogue fits the role. Geez, where's your sense of humor, Karol?"
In the room, Karol scratched his nose, looking exasperated.
Sell out? Come on. Wasn't this your idea in the first place?
And you, talking to me about humor? Seriously…
"Hai hai~ Anyway," Karol teased,
"You're in a pretty good mood today, Vice Admiral. Didn't know you had a sense of humor."
The Den Den Mushi mimicked Sakazuki's faint smirk.
Sakazuki's voice came through again:
"Of course. This haul… was way beyond what I expected. Hurry back—I've got a gift for you."
Karol grinned.
"Roger that~"
They hung up.
Karol swept out the door, tossing off his cloak.
Whoosh!
A gust of wind—and he was gone.
—
Marine Headquarters, Sakazuki's residence.
Sakazuki sat on the sofa, just having ended the call. He tried to keep his expression neutral, but the corners of his mouth kept twitching upward.
The rewards this time… were off the charts.
It was a critical hit.
The original plan? Leak a little info, lure out Golden Lion, snatch the Float-Float Fruit if possible. That's it.
Simple.
Just a Devil Fruit.
But plans never keep up with real life.
People are unpredictable.
Who could've guessed that just a whiff of a leak would make Golden Lion risk everything he had?
That's what made him a legend of the seas. That kind of guts—most people couldn't even dream of it.
And then there was Sengoku and Garp's sudden return.
Sakazuki had calculated that, aside from Fleet Admiral Kong, he'd be the only one available to fight. With his strength, even against Golden Lion's overwhelming aerial advantage, he could grind him down. As a tank, he could outlast a high-damage assassin.
But Sengoku and Garp coming back? That threw everything out the window.
So he rolled with it.
And then—another twist.
Seriously, only Golden Lion could pull something like this.
The guy was the real deal.
When Sakazuki spotted Golden Lion's armada at sea, he'd been stunned for a second. The fleet was massive—clearly out for total destruction.
Golden Lion's ambition, Sengoku and Garp's unexpected return—the plan was in shambles.
So, fine. Let it all burn.
That's how Sakazuki sent the two up front to play the information game.
After all, when you see an attack coming, your first instinct is to fight or dodge—not to use Observation Haki and analyze before reacting. If you spent every attack checking with Observation Haki, you'd be dead before you finished thinking.
So he managed to ambush Golden Lion.
Once he was out of the picture, the rest of the pirates—even high-bounty types like Blizzard Frank—were no match for the pair.
Absolute firepower. No contest.
Then, the next wild card: the Supreme Commander's old wounds flaring up. That changed everything.
A reversal of fate.
By sheer coincidence, the spoils turned out several times richer than planned. The impact? Impossible to measure.
It just goes to show—
All those elaborate, A-to-Z schemes that supposedly work by reading human nature? Total nonsense.
Even a simple A-to-B plan is full of wild variables.
Golden Lion's audacity, Sengoku and Garp's surprise return, the power games among the government brass—all of it twisted a straight line into chaos.
He sighed.
I'm really not cut out for all this scheming…
Sakazuki walked to the window, gazing up at the sky.
But since Golden Lion was still alive, there was always another chance.
"Float-Float Fruit…"
—
Grand Line, New World.
A secret realm rising to the clouds—Merveille, its summit lost in mist.
There, on a lonely cliff, the one-armed Golden Lion lay sprawled.
After a day and night of unconsciousness, Golden Lion finally stirred awake.
He blinked, dazed. Blinding sunlight stabbed at his eyes.
Pain wracked his body, dragging him back to reality.
He remembered the last thing he saw before blacking out.
Clawing at the ground, his right hand found his last prized blade—Deadwood.
Huff—huff—
Every breath was agony.
"I…"
Huff—
"I am…"
"Golden Lion!!!"
A surge of Conqueror's Haki erupted from him, as if to prove he still existed.
No Devil Fruit tricks—just raw strength and stubborn will. Gritting his teeth through the pain, he used his sword to push himself upright.
The burst of Conqueror's Haki sent shockwaves through the island, startling massive beasts—each hundreds, even thousands of meters tall—from their grazing.
Golden Lion eyed the colossal creatures. A new plan began to take root in his mind.
A feral, crazed grin split his face.
"Gehahahahaha!"
"I won't be beaten that easily!"
"You're nothing but stepping stones on my path to conquering the world!"
"One day, you'll pay the price!"
"Gehahahahaha!"
His wild laughter sent another wave of Conqueror's Haki surging out. In the sky above, a phantom lion seemed to roar among the clouds.
Nothing could bring him down.
Staring at the "treasures" before him, the one-armed Golden Lion growled,
"Just you wait… Marines!"
~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~
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