A year and a half later, in the year 1502 of the Sea Circle Calendar.
The first half of the Grand Line, ever since the start of the Great Pirate Era, has been referred to as "Paradise."
And on an unnamed island, a standard Marine warship arrived.
On the shore, an unruly old man stood his ground shamelessly as a plain-looking middle-aged man scolded him fiercely.
"Vice Admiral Garp! You haven't returned to G-3 Base or Marine Headquarters in a year and a half! Admiral Sengoku has passed on orders to me time and time again! Leaving me to manage an entire base on my own! Do you have any idea how much pressure I've been under?"
"Hahaha! Bogard, this was all part of your training!"
"You still think I need training? I've always been the one assisting you with administrative work, haven't I!? The one who really needs to improve their management skills is you, Vice Admiral!"
The middle-aged man was none other than Bogard, the adjutant of Marine Hero Garp, and a Marine Headquarters Captain.
And the man he had cornered on the beach was undoubtedly the "Marine Hero" who had sailed away without a word with Michael and Stella a year and a half ago—Vice Admiral Garp!
"Vice Admiral Garp, I finally found you today! While you've been gone, I've brought with me every order from Admiral Sengoku and all the important information that's been piling up from various forces!"
As he spoke, Bogard hauled a desk straight off the warship and set it down on the beach.
All the documents had already been sorted neatly by category on the desk.
"Eh? I'm not reading any of that!"
Garp crossed his arms and turned his oversized head away like a pouting child.
"Vice Admiral! Have some dignity!" Bogard took several deep breaths. "If you want to keep making me your administrative lackey, I'm seriously going to apply for a transfer from Admiral Sengoku!"
After being scolded so thoroughly, Garp finally sat down at the desk.
But you thought that was the end of it?
Garp is Garp!
He sat down just to eat rice crackers.
He had already made up his mind—he absolutely wasn't touching any of that paperwork!
Meanwhile, Stella, watching the scene with amusement, gently poked Michael in the side and motioned for him to say something.
Michael rolled his eyes but still leaned forward and said:
"Garp, you really need to grow up. You've been a grandpa for over a year now—don't act like a spoiled brat!"
Without waiting to see if Garp was listening, he enthusiastically began flipping through the documents on the desk.
Eighty percent of them were confidential or top-secret intel, but Bogard didn't stop this young man from reading them.
What a joke—Michael used to keep a low profile, but ever since a year and a half ago, when he burned a slave ship, offended the Celestial Dragons, and went head-to-head with Shiki's ultimate move to defend Marine Headquarters—
Now, who in the Marines didn't know about the most well-connected man in the entire Navy?
Michael flipped through the reports. For the past year and a half, his life had basically been one nonstop battle from the moment he opened his eyes each day.
Garp's training methods might be nonsense, but the results were clear.
Michael had practically engraved the word "combat" into the deepest part of his DNA—it had become the underlying logic of his survival.
His combat instincts were now several times sharper than they had been a year and a half ago.
The downside, though...
He hadn't used his brain properly in over a year and a half!
He needed this chance to get some mental rehab!
After flipping past a few less important files, Michael finally found something that piqued his interest...
It had been a year and a half since the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, died.
The increasingly chaotic seas proved that this planet would keep spinning no matter who was gone—
Roger included.
And that notorious battle maniac from Roger's crew, Douglas Bullet, once a child soldier, had certainly made his presence known over the past year and a half.
After the Roger Pirates disbanded and their members—led by Rayleigh—vanished without a trace, it was as if the crew had never existed.
But Douglas Bullet gave the world one hell of a refresher.
As the only "former" Roger Pirate still making waves publicly, there was no way the World Government would ever let him go.
So...
They did something utterly insane—they launched a Buster Call against a single man.
And what happened?
Bullet was defeated and captured by Sengoku, then locked up in Level 6 of Impel Down to hang out with Golden Lion.
Time and history flowed onward—irreversible and unstoppable.
Michael now wondered whether the plan he'd set in motion a year and a half ago could nudge some tributaries of this world...
Toward a different ending.
That was his method. If enough of those smaller currents could be altered, they'd merge into an entirely new river of history.
He tossed aside the file titled "Thirteen Strategic Directives Issued by Admiral Sengoku Following the Capture of Douglas Bullet" and kept searching.
Garp, watching Michael's serious expression, got curious.
He reached out with hands as big as fans and grabbed a random report.
Just one glance, and his face froze.
He read every word carefully.
Then burst out laughing:
"Michael! You've gotta see this one! This is a special intel report straight from Morgans!"
Garp handed the file over to Michael.
Michael skipped past Morgans' dramatic prose and wild speculation, flipping straight to the report details.
"Three months ago, in Wano Country, Kozuki Oden seized the moment while the Beasts Pirates and Moria Pirates were locked in battle. He led his retainers in a successful uprising!"
"Traitors were executed! The shogun's palace was taken! The current shogun, Kurozumi Orochi, was beheaded and displayed for all to see!"
Michael started taking deep breaths.
That alone was enough—it proved that his plan was working, that small changes could reshape the broader global situation!
But as he kept reading, even this transmigrator was caught completely off guard.
"After executing Kurozumi Orochi, Oden revealed the crimes committed by Orochi and Kaido. The public was outraged. A large number of local samurai pledged their loyalty to Kozuki Oden!"
"Once his forces were reorganized, Oden immediately led his samurai in a flanking assault against both the Beasts Pirates and the Gekko Pirates."
"Not only did he drive both pirate crews out of Wano, but he also left Kaido with three permanent scars—one on his back, one on his neck, and one on his face!"
Michael stared at the pages, dumbfounded, utterly in disbelief.
"Uh, old man... Oden actually pulled all that off?"
"This report isn't something you made up, is it?"
Even Garp was thrown by the question.
"Weren't you the one stirring all this up in the first place!?"
"You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask then?"
"Like either of us is some kind of genius!"
"I'll report you!"
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