"...A submarine?"
Sengoku's voice on the other end of the Den Den Mushi was filled with disbelief.
That word submarine stirred an old memory buried deep in his mind.
Many years ago, the Navy's chief scientist, Dr. Vegapunk, had proudly presented a peculiar invention to the top brass: a prototype submarine.
Sengoku still remembered that day vividly. It had been nothing more than a strange iron capsule, half-machine, half-barrel, that had slowly sunk beneath Marineford's harbor waters only to surface again minutes later.
The project was immediately scrapped.
The reason had been simple: for an organization as vast as the Navy, the thing was practically useless.
And yet, now, Renn Hawk was bringing it up again.
"Hawk," Sengoku said cautiously, "Vegapunk already tried that idea. The problem is obvious it's too small to mount artillery. And with Sea Kings lurking below, the vessel's underwater speed is slower than a warship on the surface. It's not worth the resources."
His tone grew firm, like a teacher restating a long-settled fact. "It adds nothing to the Navy's combat strength."
Then Hawk's quiet voice came through, calm and cutting.
"Who said a submarine needs to be used for combat?"
Sengoku froze.
If not for war, then what? Sightseeing tours?
"Marshal," Hawk continued, his tone steady but laced with a deeper intent, "what the Navy needs isn't a weapon. We need a vessel that can dive to ten thousand meters below sea level a deep-sea recovery craft. Something built for stealth, transport, and salvage."
Sengoku's confusion deepened. "Salvage? Salvage what?"
"Salvage..." Hawk's voice lowered, almost like the whisper of the abyss itself. "Salvage the true wealth of this world."
He paused, letting the silence stretch like a taut wire before continuing.
"Marshal Sengoku, think about it. Since the Void Century eight hundred years have passed. How many magnificent civilizations have fallen beneath the sea? How many great pirates, who once ruled these waters, died in battle with their ships sinking to the ocean floor taking their life's fortune with them?"
"Those treasures are still there, Marshal. All of them."
"Waiting quietly in the deep."
As Hawk spoke, Sengoku could almost see it mountains of gold glimmering in the darkness, hidden beneath centuries of silt and salt.
A silent kingdom of wealth, untouched and forgotten.
Hawk's plan was no spontaneous dream. It was part of a vast design he had been weaving all along a grand chessboard that reached across the world.
The Navy's road to true independence, as he envisioned it, had always been twofold.
The first path: to "convince" Gild Tesoro, the Golden Emperor, to submit. Turn his vast empire of greed into a fountain that nourished justice instead of corruption a treasury under the Navy's command.
The second path: the one he was now unveiling.
A plan that only the Navy had the power to execute the Deep-Sea Salvage Project.
And only the Navy could pull it off.
Why?
Because they had Vegapunk.
They needed the genius scientist to design and perfect the ultimate salvage vessel one capable of descending to the ocean's deepest trenches and evading even the Sea Kings themselves.
Vegapunk may have worked under the World Government, but Hawk knew the man's heart.
The scientist wasn't driven by politics or power he dreamed of a world without war, a world where energy and peace were shared freely.
Hawk had held back this plan before because the Navy's finances were stretched thin. Funding another of Vegapunk's projects had seemed impossible.
But now... things were different.
Sengoku had just returned from the Holy Land with a staggering one hundred billion Berries pried from the hands of the Celestial Dragons themselves.
That money could become the key the very spark to win Vegapunk's cooperation.
And once the first prototype succeeded, the profits would multiply a hundredfold, even a thousandfold.
Besides, Admiral Kizaru was an old acquaintance of Vegapunk's. If he were sent as the Navy's envoy, would the scientist really refuse?
Then there was the Navy's other unmatched advantage its reach.
No other power in the world had bases scattered across every sea and every island.
When the time came, a single command from Marineford could mobilize every branch, launching a global deep-sea treasure hunt that no force could rival.
With each discovery, wealth would pour in like the tides themselves.
And finally, when Tesoro joined the plan, his financial empire could legally process the recovered riches turning treasure into funds, building industry, feeding economies, improving lives.
That would be the foundation for the Navy's financial independence justice that no longer begged for the World Government's approval.
Silence filled the line.
Then, gulp.
A clear, almost comical sound came through the Den Den Mushi Sengoku swallowing hard.
As a man who had spent decades crushed beneath the weight of endless budget shortages, the word Berries hit him harder than any cannonball.
And this plan... this audacious, brilliant plan... could actually work.
When he spoke again, his voice trembled slightly, caught between disbelief and excitement.
"Tell me... your detailed proposal."
"The first step," Hawk said, "is to send Admiral Kizaru to Vegapunk with funding and sincerity. Tell him the Navy needs a submarine one not built for war, but for deep-sea exploration. It must dive deep, recover vast quantities, and evade Sea Kings."
"With Vegapunk's genius and proper resources, that goal is well within reach."
"The second step: once the submarine is built and mass-produced, equip them across every major naval branch. From there, the world becomes our sea of opportunity."
Sengoku said nothing. He listened.
"Marshal," Hawk went on, his tone rising with quiet conviction, "imagine it. The East Blue. The West Blue. The North and South. The Grand Line. Everywhere our fleets sweeping through the deep, unearthing treasures lost for centuries."
"The Golden City will be the beginning the spark of a new era. But the Deep-Sea Project... that will be our true declaration of independence."
"When the first trove rises from the abyss..."
Hawk's voice sharpened, cutting through the silence like a blade drawn from its sheath.
"...then every man and woman on this sea pirate, noble, or king will bow to the Navy's will."
And on the other end of the line, Sengoku said nothing.
But the grin on his face was wide, wolfish, and full of fire.
Because Renn Hawk had just given the Navy its future.
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