"Lieutenant Commander, right after enlistment? That's quite the gesture." Novoa's eyes flickered with surprise, and behind it, a clear understanding began to take shape.
The Marines were desperate for fresh blood.
Their combat strength had taken a severe hit, and with the World Government's rigid stance dragging them down in public opinion, the situation at sea had only worsened. They could no longer suppress the chaos spreading across the oceans. Pirates surged in waves, looting without restraint, leaving broken families and ruined livelihoods in their wake.
Meanwhile, the Marines were stretched thin to the point of breaking.
Requests for aid flooded in endlessly. Nearby regions could still be reinforced in time, but distant islands were left to fend for themselves. By the time Marine forces arrived, the damage had already been done and the pirates had long since vanished.
Even Vice Admirals no longer enjoyed the relative stability of the past. They were forced into constant patrols, chasing fires that never stopped spreading, exhausting themselves just to keep the situation from collapsing entirely. And even then, it was only mitigation.
A vicious cycle had formed. More victims of piracy turned to piracy themselves, dragging the seas back toward the early chaos of the Great Pirate Era.
In that context, Novoa's promotion was not generosity. It was necessity.
Becoming a Lieutenant Commander straight away meant he was only one step away from commanding his own warship.
"So what's next?" Novoa asked, smiling as he looked at Tokikake.
"Stick with me for now," Tokikake replied lazily, reclining in his deck chair as if the matter barely concerned him. "After this patrol, we head back to G-7. You'll meet Vice Admiral Prody. You'll be stationed there for the time being."
He flipped open his magazine again, clearly uninterested in anything that resembled paperwork or responsibility.
"You're free to move around the ship."
That simple approval carried weight. Tokikake had acknowledged both Novoa's strength and his potential.
"Then I'll be in your care," Novoa said with a polite nod.
With his short golden hair, refined features, and composed demeanor, he gave off the unmistakable air of nobility. It was the kind of presence that naturally put others at ease.
That was, of course, assuming one didn't look too closely beneath the surface.
On another Marine warship, far from Tokikake's patrol route, an older man slammed down a Den Den Mushi receiver with a scowl.
"That Sengoku… always dumping trouble on me."
Vice Admiral Prody scratched his head in irritation, though the complaint lacked any real heat. His graying hair and lined face spoke of age, but his body remained solid and powerful. In one hand, he casually carried a massive cannon barrel that served as both weapon and signature.
"I was planning to enjoy my retirement years."
Despite the grumbling, a grin slowly spread across his face.
"A rising brat, huh? Let's head back to G-7. I want to see him for myself."
The information Sengoku had sent over had already piqued his interest. Assigning Novoa to him carried an obvious implication. He was expected to train the boy.
Prody had never taken on a disciple before, but with his experience and strength, guiding someone who lacked formal combat training would not be difficult.
In fact, it sounded entertaining.
Far away, in the territory of the Nightfall Pirates, news of Novoa's enlistment reached its true originator.
"He joined already?" Marshall D. Teach let out a low chuckle.
"Then the rest is up to you."
There would be no further assistance.
Even someone like Vergo had climbed step by step within the Marines through his own efforts. Offering Novoa small, artificial merits would only weaken his foundation.
From here on, everything depended on Novoa himself.
High above the Golden Sea, at an altitude where even the clouds seemed distant, Teach stood alone.
Below him, the war raged on.
The Golden Sea War had stretched on for over two years, and the most recent phase, the clash centered around Jaya's waters, had already lasted more than a month. What began as an advantage for the allied forces had shifted once Teach arrived. With no need to hold back, Redyat redeployed high-level combatants from the rear.
Reinforcements tipped the balance, raising pirate morale and inflicting sudden losses on the allied side.
Yet overall, the battlefield remained locked in a tense stalemate.
To the World Government, that stalemate was unacceptable.
To the countless spectators watching through Den Den Mushi broadcasts, it was unbearable tension stretched thin. They knew a turning point had to come.
And finally, it did.
A figure long absent from the battlefield returned.
Kuzan.
Having once frozen himself to preserve his life, he had now awakened and reentered the war.
His arrival sent a ripple through the battlefield. Morale surged among the allied forces, and the delicate balance of power shifted.
An Admiral-level combatant was never something that could be ignored.
Redyat had expected Kuzan's return, but not this soon.
By his calculations, recovery should have taken at least another month. But looking closer, it was clear Kuzan had not fully recovered. His stamina was still lacking, his condition incomplete.
Even so, the World Government could not afford to wait.
"Ice Age Capsule!"
A wave of freezing air tore across the battlefield.
"Get lost!"
Gar moved instantly, abandoning his opponents as lightning burst around him. He intercepted the attack head-on, cutting it off before it could reach the pirate ranks.
In the next moment, his body froze solid in mid-strike.
Three breaths passed.
Cracks spread.
Then flames erupted.
Gar shattered the ice and stepped free, no longer concealing his power. Fire coiled around him as he fully unleashed his Devil Fruit ability.
There was no room left for restraint.
Redyat had already made his decision. Gar existed to counter Kuzan.
As Gar moved, two Vice Admirals attempted to break away and support other fronts.
They were stopped.
Two figures appeared in their path.
Clemons and Enel.
The battlefield had already begun to tilt before Kuzan's return. Mid- and high-level combatants on the allied side had suffered heavy losses, many falling to Nelson's ability-assisted assassinations.
If that trend had continued, the pirates' advantage would have snowballed.
But Kuzan's arrival halted that momentum.
From Redyat's perspective, the situation was turning dangerous.
Even if Gar held Kuzan back, the combined pressure from other top-tier fighters remained overwhelming. The Vulture and Kuzan both possessed greater raw power than their counterparts.
If Gar or Marco faltered, the enemy would gain freedom to strike elsewhere.
Redyat himself was locked in place, fully restraining White Ghost. The cost of that restraint drained his stamina far faster than his opponent's.
Everything now hinged on the middle layers of the battlefield.
On Kronos.
On Nelson.
Kronos held a slight advantage over Freda, but not enough to secure victory. His fighting style consumed too much stamina, while Freda conserved hers with careful defense and evasion.
Nelson, who could have tipped the scales entirely, was being countered.
His opponent wielded the Door-Door Fruit, a spatial ability that mirrored his own in lethality and unpredictability. It allowed entry into hidden spaces and disrupted Nelson's assassination attempts at every turn.
The man was likely a World Government agent, possibly even linked to CP0.
Their clash had become a stalemate within the larger war.
Nelson still found moments to act, striking through others, using borrowed blades and indirect kills to influence the battlefield. He understood his role and carried it out with precision.
This was no longer a battle of tactics.
It was a battle of endurance.
Two months was not enough.
Three months might not be enough either.
The World Government could still hold.
The pirates needed time. More time.
They needed the war to drag on until the final moment, until the breaking point where everything collapsed at once.
Only then would victory be possible.
Across the world, discussions erupted.
Through transponder networks and underground forums, people debated the outcome relentlessly.
Would the World Government win?
Or would the pirates overturn the balance of the seas?
What had once been a struggle between Marines and pirates had evolved into something far larger. The World Government now stood directly against a coalition of forces, many of which remained hidden.
They did not act openly.
They could not afford to.
But their influence was undeniable.
Weapons, supplies, intelligence. These flowed continuously into the pirate side, sustaining a war that should have collapsed long ago.
Without that support, the pirates alone could never have maintained such a massive conflict across oceans divided by the Red Line and Marine control.
The war had become something else entirely.
Not just a battle of strength.
But a global struggle, where every hidden hand pushed the tide just a little further toward the inevitable breaking point.