Chapter 23: New Stage
( 3rd POV )
Under the sun-drenched sky of a serene and secluded beach, a colossal black-golden ship lay anchored not too far away, surrounded by a small gathering of individuals engaged in heartfelt conversations. A tearful blonde-haired woman embraced a little girl while bidding them farewell.
"I'll miss you all dearly; promise to keep in touch, won't you? Stay safe," she entreated, enveloping a half-red, half-white-haired youngster in a tearful embrace.
"Don't fret, Sister Mira. I'll make it a point to call you every week," reassured a man with captivating purple eyes.
"You better, Vanze," she retorted, her mind replaying his mischievous history, casting a shadow of doubt on his pledge.
"Alright, everyone, it's time to set sail," Vanze signaled, prompting the others to prepare.
"Fufu, thank you for your hospitality, Sister Mira, and we'll make sure Uta-chan is fine."
"Um, thank you, sister-in-law."
"Bye-bye, Vanze big sister."
"The Pearl is ready to set sail, Vanze-san."
The others on the ship bid their goodbyes to the woman on the beach. Vanze approached her one last time before leaving.
"Be safe, Sister Mira; we'll meet again. Come on, Uta-chan," he hugged her and carried the little girl on his arm toward the ship.
"I'll miss you, Sister!" Uta shouted towards Sister Mira.
Sister Mira watched with a smile as the ship slowly departed from the island. Despite tears in her eyes, she felt relieved, witnessing them grow and chase their dreams.
"Vanze is becoming a great and reliable man, right, Grandma Niil?" she whispered the last word with a smile.
.....
In a crescent moon-shaped island, entirely composed of bricks and steel with cannons lining the edges, the Marine Headquarters building stood proudly. Within a specific room resembling an office, a man of substantial figure and afro hair sat, engrossed in reading an array of paperwork at his desk. Despite his tired expression reflecting the burden of the workload, annoyance crept in as he heard someone loudly munching on food in his office.
"Garp!!! Can you stop munching on the senbei so loudly!? And why the hell are you even here, you bastard?" he finally snapped, unable to control his patience, shouting at another big man indulging in senbei on his sofa.
"Bwahahaha, why are you so serious, Sengoku? I was just trying to taste your new senbei because mine is already inside my stomach," the man called Garp said, continuing to eat his friend's senbei without a care in the world.
"You bastard, sigh. I have a lot of work here while you, a vice admiral, enjoy your time eating my senbei, damn it. I wish Tsuru were here to help me with all of this paperwork," he sighed tiredly while doing his work.
The man named Sengoku is a new fleet admiral of the Marines, succeeding Kong, the previous fleet admiral. He was also one of the major figures along with Kong, Whitebeard, Shiki, Monkey D. Garp, Tsuru, and Silvers Rayleigh during the times when Gol D. Roger, the "Pirate King," was still alive.
Now he has retired from the frontline to his office as a new leader of the marines, paving the way for a new generation to grow and uphold justice in the world.
"Well, it sucks to be you. Thankfully, I always rejected the promotion from Kong-san back in the days. Bwahahaha," Garp laughed, watching his friend's miserable situation.
Monkey D. Garp, the man, the myth, the legend. He is an extremely famous and powerful Marine vice admiral, also known as the hero of the marines with a nickname of "Garp the Fist." His feats as a Marine soldier gained him immense notoriety and prestige, with his actions during the God Valley Incident, but it also deepened his hate toward the world noble after seeing what they are doing on that island. He is also the grandfather of the world-chosen one, Monkey D. Luffy, who will bring a new age and chaos to this future pirate world.
"Sigh, if it were not for our situation, I would also not let Tsuru go to the North Blue for that mission and hunting the Donquixote family. It is an order from the higher-ups, and it is supposed to be a secret mission; that's why we can't send those brats there. We need them in the New World and in the Grand Line," he said to Garp regarding Tsuru, the advisor of the marines and their friend, who has always been a great help to him.
"Bah, let those bastards go there themselves. Why would we need to send someone like Tsuru just for picking up a fruit? Useless," Garp showed his disdain toward the World Government, using marine resources just for a simple thing when they have their organization capable of doing it themselves.
"Garp! You can't say such a thing out loud, you idiot. What will happen if someone hears you? And this transaction is worth billions of belly. We need to check and secure the fruit ourselves," Sengoku shouted, stopping Garp from divulging more about it; he didn't want others to overhear.
Garp listened to Sengoku's explanation, rolled his eyes, and continued eating his friend's senbei. Until suddenly, someone knocked on the door asking for permission to enter, and Sengoku gave the signal to enter.
"Report, Fleet admiral. We found traces about Fisher Tiger's whereabouts, but we are still a little late, and he escaped once again. Should we focus more on the fishman or the situation in the New World?" The marine guy reported the information he had just received from the intelligence department.
"Hmm, just keep searching for them as usual. We need to stabilize the New World first after Kaido's rampage there for so long. Thankfully, Kuzan and Sakazuki are there. Let Borsalino know if you find those fishmen, but for now, inform him to be stationed in Sabaody first, block those pirates before they get into the New World," Sengoku instructed, emphasizing the priorities.
"Yes, I'll spread the news to Vice Admiral Borsalino," the marine replied and left Sengoku's office.
"Sigh, this damn Fisher Tiger gives me a lot of work because of what he has done in Marigoa. The higher-ups want him dead no matter what, and there is still an aftermath of Kaido's rampage in the New World. A lot of countries allied with the World Government are being attacked by them, and they even dare to unleash such a deadly virus that affects the island," he rubbed his temples, contemplating the messed-up situation in the New World.
About four years ago, Kaido and his pirate crew suddenly went on a rampage in the New World, causing a lot of marine bases and countries to suffer. He demanded that the World Government return his only son, who was kidnapped by the CP-0, but the World Government itself denied such a thing ever happened.
So, the intense war broke out, and it lasted until last year when he and Garp finally decided to step out and confront Kaido. They fought for three days until Kaido retreated with all of his crew remaining. When Kaido unleashed the virus, it made some of the island environments become uninhabitable, and he needed to ask Vegapunk himself to make an antidote for it.
Now the marines need to stabilize their territory in the New World by putting Kuzan and Sakazuki there as a deterrent. Sengoku himself thinks Kaido must be crazy because, as far as the evidence they gathered from their investigation, they never saw and confirmed the so-called son of Kaido, only heard a rumor about it.
"Bwahahaha, that fishman is really amazing to have the guts to do something like that. But Kaido indeed gives us a lot of trouble even after the fight is already over. Well, work hard, Sengoku," Garp commented about the event while munching the senbei; he appreciated someone like Tiger, but he knew that he couldn't do anything about it.
"You...! Whatever, just do what you need to do, Garp. Damn Roger, he is setting an era of chaos even after he is dead." Sengoku kept doing his paperwork while complaining and ignoring his friend because he was too tired to argue with Garp.
But what they all don't know about is that the so-called Kaido son is indeed being kidnapped or rather running away with his abductor, and the one who caused all of the damage towards both parties is not even aware of the consequences of his action. He keeps laying in the dark, accumulating their strength until they are ready to give the world a heart attack because of how dangerous they are.
.....
Times passed slowly while the black pearl sailed in one of the Four Seas. It's the year 1511 of the sea calendar, and Vanze and the others have been sailing and teaching Uta a lot of things. They started with training her physique, taught her about common knowledge, and even let her develop the Devil Fruit in the correct way. Vanze already told her about the system and lifted the curse for her, which made her stare at him with eyes full of adoration.
Now Uta is a more cheerful tall girl who likes to sing all day long without getting her Devil Fruit power out of her control. After eating a lot of healthy food and a Sea King's meat, she is more developed compared to the other eight-year-old kids.
"Onii-chan! Robin nee-chan and the others are calling you to go to the main cabin." A girl wearing headphones as her accessories suddenly came out from inside the cabin. She was looking at the handsome white-haired man.
"Um, thank you for your notice, Uta-chan. Let's go together." The man turned back his body and faced the girl called Uta. He offered his hand toward her, and the girl took it while they were heading inside the cabin holding hands.
They walked together and opened the door toward the main cabin to see everyone already there waiting for them.
"Finally, you're here. We need to talk about the information we just gathered from the last island we visited." The black-haired girl wearing orange sunglasses on her hair said.
"Haha, sorry for the delay, Robin. I was about to go here after checking out our course. We can proceed now." Vanze replied while taking his seat.
"Alright, from what I can gather, the North Blue is in chaos right now. There is a lot of war going on between countries, and the one causing it is Germa Kingdom. They are a highly advanced country from what I hear, and there is also a Donquixote pirate that terrorizes this whole sea.
The Donquixote pirates are led by their so-called young master, Donquixote Doflamingo, who has a bounty of more than 200,000,000 berries. Their style of operation is almost similar to the mafia families in the West Blue, but they are too aggressive in their approach and have a lot of connections in the underworld, so they are being hunted down by Vice Admiral Tsuru." Robin explained the current situation in the North Blue. The others listened to it seriously while processing the information in their heads.
"Oh, what a big pirate with two hundred million bounties doing in this sea? It looks like we might have found a good punching bag, right, Vanze?" The woman with alluring charms said.
"That Germa is also a bastard. How can they even attack other islands that do not even have a direct conflict with them!? Let's crush them, Vanze." A white-haired lady said while holding her kanabo ready to storm away from this room. The big wings guy just listened to it in silence.
"Okay, okay, calm down Hancock Yamato. Our target this time is in another place, but if we somehow come across them, then I will let you do what you want. That Mingo guy is a good start," he said while smirking; Vanze noticed that after they set sail to the sea, all of the pirates they encountered were so weak. Vanze and the others became frustrated because they wanted a challenging fight to show their growth after all these years.
"Fufufu, Doflamingo and his crew maybe can satisfy us with their strength. I also heard that there will be a secret meeting at Minion Island, but the news is already four days old; I don't know if we can catch up." Robin said the last piece of information that Vanze requested.
"Hmm, let's just follow my compass for now. It will always help us find what I need, after all. If we can't catch up, then we just need to continue our journey." Vanze said after pondering for a moment. He believed following the compass would give him a nice surprise.
"Alright, for now, let's follow the leader's order and continue sailing in this course." The black wings man said after hearing Vanze's decision.
The others looked at each other and nodded, agreeing about the plan. Uta watched all of this in an awe expression; she thinks all of them look cool now after talking seriously about their next plan.
.....
Meanwhile,
In a certain room that looks very luxurious, there is a man with blonde hair wearing red sunglasses sitting unscrupulously in a chair that looks like a throne. The man wears a fancy red suit while wearing his light pink feather coat, which is most distinctly of all. He was drinking wine in his glass until someone barged into the room with a panic face.
"Doffy, we are ready to set sail to Minion Island, but we also found those two whereabouts. It seems both of them are also heading toward our destination; we need to go as soon as possible before that marine old woman comes." Said the man who just entered.
The man's appearance is disheveled and unkempt. His attire consists of a long, ragged blue coat made from his Devil Fruit mucus with a navy blue ring pattern. He looks disgusting with the mucus all over him.
"Fufufu, finally. Let's sail right now, Trebol, and let those people wait for us, especially my dear otouto." He smirked after hearing the news and started walking outside with the man named Trebol.
"Big brother will come for you, Rosinante fufufu." He chuckled like a madman while pushing his red sunglasses to his face with his middle finger.
.....
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(Note: Hey, everyone, thank you for reading the story up to this point. I feel the pacing might be too slow, making the story a bit boring. Please share your opinions. Should I adjust the pacing of the story or tone down the main character's monologue? Feel free to comment.
Oh, I also plan to take a break for a week. It's holiday time, so I'm going to enjoy my vacation, and I hope you all enjoy yours. Happy New Year!!!🎇🎆🎉)
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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