New Harry Potter Fic
A transmigrator reborn as Damien McGonagall—the nephew of Minerva McGonagall.
Growing up beside the Marauders, Lily and Snape.
Watch as Damien becomes the de-facto leader of the group and has adventures with his friends.
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Kuzan looked just as puzzled and said lazily, "Borsalino can handle it. That guy might be a bit lazy, but his strength and experience are more than enough."
Sengoku cursed under his breath. "This wasn't reported in the newspapers. Borsalino was defeated by Marco and is currently in the hands of the Phoenix Pirates."
"What!?" This time, it was Kuzan's turn to be stunned. He had never imagined Borsalino would be captured by Marco.
He might no longer be a Marine, but he understood now just how bad the Marines' current situation really was.
Kuzan pressed on, "How could Borsalino be defeated?"
Sengoku's tone grew solemn. "Unbelievable as it sounds, it's the truth. Marco's strength now can't be compared to what it was during the Marineford War. The papers claimed Kaido, Big Mom, and Marco teamed up to defeat Sakazuki, but that's wrong. The one who actually defeated Sakazuki was Marco."
Kuzan's expression changed sharply, disbelief written all over his face. "How is that possible? No matter how strong Marco's become, there's no way he could take down Sakazuki in such a short time!"
"It's hard to believe, but it's the truth," Sengoku repeated firmly. "Of course, part of it was Sakazuki underestimating his opponent. Marco deliberately provoked him and exploited that carelessness to bring him down."
Kuzan fell silent, listening. At that moment, the transponder snail's features suddenly shifted into Garp's. Garp's voice boomed out, "Hey, Kuzan! Get back here already! If you still have a heart of justice, then you should return, instead of always hiding away."
"Garp-san…" Kuzan was a little surprised to hear his voice, then said with a teasing lilt, "I've always admired you, Garp-san. Your wild and uninhibited justice… Now I also want to live wildly and uninhibitedly like you, for the sake of the justice in my heart."
He went on, "Since leaving the Marines, I haven't exactly been idle. Sometimes you have to step away from the Marines, away from the world government, to clearly see things you couldn't see before."
"All this time, Marine justice has been twisted by the World Government's interference. Justice shouldn't be defined by the World Government's standards. If we follow their standards, then everything the World Government does becomes justice, and anything that opposes them becomes evil. I don't believe that kind of justice is right."
"During this period, I've seen a lot… and Dragon came to find me. From him, I learned more about the World Government and more about the truth of this world…"
Sengoku was shaken and shouted, "Kuzan, did you join the Revolutionary Army?"
"No." Kuzan shook his head, answering calmly, "Dragon did invite me, but I turned him down."
"However…" Kuzan murmured, his gaze turning solemn as he recalled the Revolutionary Army documents he'd read. That had only been a small portion, yet even those pages were already hard for him to accept. He straightened slightly and said in a low, heavy voice, "The World Government has ruled this world for eight hundred years. They've always called themselves 'gods.' Before, I didn't know, and I could pretend to muddle through… but now, I don't want to play ignorant anymore."
Sengoku couldn't see Kuzan's expression, but the weight behind his words was enough. It was clear Kuzan had learned a great deal of damning information about the World Government from the Revolutionary Army.
It wasn't as if the World Government had never looked bad from the Marine side. Kuzan had climbed all the way to Admiral; he'd naturally seen his share of their darkness. But the Marines were the World Government's public face, forced to shine with righteous glory. Even when they brushed against its darker side, what they saw was limited, glossed over, made just palatable enough that the Marines could still believe this world needed that kind of "dark justice."
What he'd learned from the Revolutionary Army, however, was likely the true face of the World Government—something enough to shatter a man's entire view of the world.
Even without knowing exactly how deep that darkness ran, Sengoku had never believed the World Government was spotless. He had simply chosen to overlook those stains and focus on the duties in front of him.
He seized on that conviction now, raising the banner of justice and declaring, "I don't know what you saw or learned from the Revolutionary Army in the time you've been away from the Marines.
"But no matter what you know, as long as we're Marines, protecting the people—that is justice! If you truly believe the World Government is wrong, then you should come back, become Fleet Admiral, and use that authority to change this world!"
Garp bellowed over him, voice rough with impatience, "Quit spouting nonsense, Kuzan! Get back here now!"
"You really haven't changed at all, Garp-san," Kuzan replied, sounding a little helpless at Garp's outburst. Then his tone hardened. "I do want to protect the people—but I'll do it in my own way. I don't know if I'll succeed… but I can't serve the World Government anymore."
Sengoku's irritation flared. "We Marines exist to protect the people, uphold justice, and strike down evil. Even if the World Government has a thousand faults, it still—"
"That's all just for show, Sengoku-san." Kuzan cut him off, his voice turning cold. "I saw a lot with the Revolutionary Army. For the people of many countries, we Marines aren't justice at all—we're accomplices of devils. No… we're the lapdogs of devils."
Sengoku fell silent for a moment, then asked, "What exactly did you see in the Revolutionary Army? I don't know what you witnessed, but the Revolutionary Army wants to overthrow the World Government. That's something we absolutely cannot accept. The World Government has ruled the world for eight hundred years and still stands firm; it exists for a reason."
"So that means the Marines have been walking the wrong path for eight hundred years," Kuzan replied bluntly.
"Of course, I'm not saying Marine justice itself is wrong. But as long as the Marines remain an organization under the World Government, we can't escape its control. Even if I became Fleet Admiral, I still couldn't change that. The world shouldn't be like this."
"The Celestial Dragons… they're not gods either."
Sengoku's eyes widened. The idea that the Celestial Dragons are gods was a doctrine the World Government had drilled into the world for eight centuries. No one had ever dared to refute it. That was why, despite the Celestial Dragons being weak in reality, no one ever raised a hand against them—the entire world had been conditioned for eight hundred years to believe in their untouchable divinity.
And now, this deeply rooted concept was being denied by Kuzan, a former Admiral.
Everyone knew that rejecting the belief that "Celestial Dragons are gods" was forbidden in this world. The moment such doubt took shape, it meant you stood against the World Government, against the so‑called gods, placing yourself on the opposite side of the entire system.
"…That's enough, Sengoku-san. I have my own journey to follow. Goodbye."
With that, Kuzan hung up the Den Den Mushi. Resolve hardened in his eyes as he turned and walked away.
"Ku–Kuzan‑san…" The nearby Marines instinctively reached out, wanting to stop him, but Kuzan didn't slow down or look back. He simply kept moving forward.
When Sengoku had asked him to return and take up the position of Fleet Admiral, Kuzan had truly been tempted. But the moment he remembered the darkness of the world government he'd seen through the Revolutionary Army, his body rejected the idea of serving it. His conscience couldn't cross that line.
In his younger days, he had once accepted the notion of "dark justice." But over time, he realized that once you raised that banner, anything could be justified beneath it. That realization slowly eroded his trust in both the Marines and the World Government.
He had believed he already understood enough of the government's corruption. Yet after joining the Revolutionary Army, he discovered that the filthy, hidden side he'd known before was only the tip of the iceberg—if even that.
From beginning to end, this world had been nothing more than a toy in the hands of the World Government. Marines, pirates, ordinary people—no matter who they were, when compared to the crimes of the pirates, the World Government stood above them all as the greatest, most fundamental evil.
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