The golden hall of power was resplendent, yet stark. A luxurious sofa in the center could accommodate three people, but there were only two chairs and a small round table. Everyone who entered, regardless of their status, stood before the Five Elders.
"I heard you came for a Shichibukai position?" The long-haired Elder was the first to speak. "But it's a pity that the position that Crocodile vacated was taken by Blackbeard a few days ago!" The other four looked at Adrian sharply.
Adrian didn't speak. With a smirk, he from within his sand produced a bloody cloth bag and threw it in front of the Five Elders. A round head rolled out. It was Gecko Moria, one of the Shichibukai defeated by Luffy not long ago. The terror in Moria's pale, dead face was palpable.
"There's an opening now!" Adrian said with a smile. As he spoke, a throne made of sand condensed beneath him, and he sat down. Moria had died a somewhat pathetic death. Adrian had gone to Thriller Bark to capture Luffy but miscalculated his travel time. When he arrived, Luffy had already left. Adrian, frustrated, had decapitated Moria.
The Five Elders showed their displeasure at the bloodstain on the floor. The boy before them was too arrogant, even in front of the world's highest authorities. Yet, they recognized his strength. His record at Sabaody—drawing with Admiral Kizaru, severely injuring Rayleigh, and killing Bartholomew Kuma—was a resume that demanded their attention. They had agreed to meet him because, in their view, he was qualified to be a Shichibukai. They had originally planned to give him Jinbe's position, as Jinbe's refusal to answer the mandatory summons and his defiance in the name of Whitebeard had angered them, leading to his imprisonment in Impel Down.
"I believe I don't need to say more; you all know Luffy's identity and background... the son of the world's most ferocious criminal, the grandson of the Marine hero, the culprit who caused the World Government to lose face at Enies Lobby, and a supernova with a 300 million Berry bounty..." Adrian described Luffy's identity in detail, then paused, his eyes twinkling mischievously. "Such a guy's value should be no less than the son of the Pirate King, right? After all, doesn't the Revolutionary Army and that old coot Garp cause you all a lot of headache?"
A few minutes later, Adrian left the hall of power, a smile on his face. He had gotten the Shichibukai position, just as he had planned. All he had to do now was wait for the Summit War. This epic-level battle, influenced by him, was now out of the World Government's control and was developing in an unpredictable direction—exactly what he had wanted. The greater the risk, the greater the opportunity.
Neither the Five Elders nor Sengoku could guess his true intentions.
"Mr. Sengoku, it seems we're colleagues now. Please take care of me in the future!" Adrian glanced at Sengoku as he walked out.
"The public execution is a matter of Marine's face and prestige. Anyone who dares to disrupt it will be crushed without mercy..." Sengoku walked into the hall with a gloomy face. He wanted to persuade the Five Elders to abandon the idea of executing Luffy at the same time as Ace. The pressure from the Whitebeard Pirates was already enough. Adding the Revolutionary Army would make the situation spiral out of control.
However, Adrian just smiled. He knew Sengoku's efforts would be in vain. The Five Elders wouldn't agree. At most, they would agree not to announce Luffy's execution in the newspaper beforehand. But even that, Adrian had prepared for. He took out a special Den Den Mushi from his pocket and muttered, "I wonder if Nico Robin had met the Revolutionary Army yet?"
Long after Adrian left, Sengoku walked out of the hall, his face filled with unprecedented solemnity. As Adrian had predicted, the Five Elders had rejected his plea to change the execution day for Luffy. He was powerless to change their decision. Still, for his years of loyal service, the Five Elders reluctantly agreed not to publish about Luffy's execution in advance, a small concession.
"Hey... Garp, I tried my best!" Walking out of Pangaea City, Sengoku looked at the blue sky and sighed weakly. Even as the dignified Marine Marshal, the final decision was never his to make.
When Sengoku returned to Naval Headquarters, he saw Garp sitting quietly in the office.
"I heard that kid Luffy was also sent to the World Government? Sengoku... tell me what happened!!" Garp suppressed the urge to run to him and asked in a trembling voice. Half an hour ago, he heard from the Marine soldiers returning from Sabaody that Straw Hat Luffy had been captured and taken to Mariejois. He knew what would happen next. First Ace, and now his own grandson Luffy. Thinking about losing two grandsons at the same time, Garp felt a burning sensation in his heart that made him want to go berserk.
Sengoku's expression changed again and again. He knew his old friend's temperament too well. If he didn't immediately suppress the thoughts in Garp's mind, the Marines would face their biggest scandal ever. With a stern face, Sengoku said coldly, "You still have the face to ask me what happened. From the moment your two grandsons became pirates, you should have expected that such a day would come sooner or later!"
"Sengoku, you..." Garp wanted to defend himself but didn't know what to say. Although he had wholeheartedly wanted to train Luffy and Ace to be the strongest Marines, things had backfired, and both of them had become pirates. He hadn't educated them well, nor had he stopped them when they first went to sea. He had even released Luffy many times. So Sengoku was right; he was the culprit.
However, this didn't mean Garp could watch his two grandsons be executed at the same time. "That kid Luffy is innocent, and he didn't do anything bad. He just thinks being a pirate is fun!"
"Sengoku, give me a chance! Let me persuade him; I believe he will definitely change his ways!!"
"Public execution is already a certainty. Even I can't control it. You'd better abide by the obligations of a Vice Admiral..." Sengoku shook his head helplessly and said ruthlessly, "Garp, don't force me to do anything to you!"
"What kind of shitty Vice Admiral would I be if I can't even save my own grandson? I don't care about being a Vice Admiral!" Garp glared, his expression contorted with rage. If the person standing opposite to him didn't happen to be Sengoku, he probably would have already smashed the opponent's head with his iron fist.
"Bastard, what nonsense are you talking about? Do you want to betray the Justice and the Marines you have devoted your life to?!" Sengoku's questioning was like a huge hammer blow, stunning Garp into a daze. After a long silence, Sengoku spoke again: "But I can tell you that the person who took Luffy to the World Government this time is the corpse collector Adrian!"
"He exchanged Luffy with the Five Elders for a Shichibukai position, and he knows Luffy's background very well. He must have been eyeing Luffy for a long time..."
"I won't let him go!" Garp gasped, his eyes blazing with anger. Seeing he had transferred the anger in his heart towards Adrian, this was exactly what Sengoku wanted to see.
Just as Sengoku was using Garp's anger to plot against Adrian, the latter appeared in the Calm Belt. Although the World Government had issued a mandatory summoning order for the Shichibukai to assemble in Mariejois, no specific time had been given for their arrival. They just had to arrive before the battle started. So Adrian didn't linger there. The Berries he had were only enough for one [VIP Looting], which wasn't enough to harvest the many tempting Devil Fruits from the Summit War. So before the war, he needed to get more money, and his first target was Boa Hancock.
"Are you Adrian, the corpse collector who traded the Straw Hat boy for a Shichibukai identity and killed Gecko Moria and Bartholomew Kuma one after another?" Vice Admiral Onigumo stared solemnly at Adrian, who had suddenly fallen from the sky.
"The Marines' intelligence is very well-informed. I didn't expect everyone to know it so soon!" Adrian laughed, then pulled a chair and sat down.
"Tell me, why are you following me?" Onigumo frowned and immediately drew his sword, pointing it at Adrian. As a member of the Buster Call, his swordsmanship and Six Styles were excellent, making him a key figure among the Naval Headquarters Vice Admirals. In the original Summit War, he had suppressed Luffy for a while.
"Following you?" Adrian shook his head and smiled. "Don't be so sentimental. I just want to take a boat to Amazon Lily along the way!"
"I advise you not to think about the Pirate Empress!" Onigumo slowly put away his long sword and looked at Adrian with deep disdain, obviously treating him as a pervert who coveted the beauty of the Empress. "Although she has the most beautiful face in the world, she is extremely repulsive to men. Those who try to get close to her are all turned to stone in the end!"
"Then I won't bother you..." Adrian paused slightly, as if he had sensed something. He pulled Oto from the quicksand, jumped onto the bow, and said to the bewildered Onigumo behind him, "I won't take your boat for free. This Sea King meat, treat it as what I paid for the travel fee!"
With that, the Oto in his hand cut off ten volleys.
Boom!
A huge, crescent-shaped sword slash shot out across the sky, and the calm sea was instantly divided, forming a deep canyon visible to the naked eye. At almost the same time, a huge, snake-shaped Sea King with a body length of more than a thousand meters jumped out of the sea, its huge mouth like a black hole, and fiercely rushed toward the warship where Onigumo and the others were.
Swish!
The snake-shaped Sea King was instantly cut in half. While the canyon on the sea was closing, the body fell heavily on the surface of the sea, causing a shower of blood to erupt. The expressions of Onigumo and the others changed several times in just two seconds—from disdain to the terror of seeing the slash, the shock when the Sea King appeared, and the amazement when it was cut in half. The huge warship fell into a strange silence for a while. After a long time, Onigumo said in a trembling voice, "You turned out to be... a Great Swordsman?!"