Grand Line — Marineford, Fleet Admiral's Office
Fleet Admiral Sengoku's patience finally snapped.
Not in a grand, explosive way at first. It started with the tightening of his jaw. Then the twitch in his temple. Then the way his fingers drummed hard against the surface of his desk after Tenjin had just walked out as if the Fleet Admiral's office were some kind of public hallway and not the center of Marine authority.
Then it became a full problem.
"Get me the gates," Sengoku barked.
One of the communication Marines in the room jumped and rushed to obey, fumbling only slightly before handing over the correct Den Den Mushi. Sengoku snatched it up and pressed it to his ear.
"This is Fleet Admiral Sengoku," he said sharply. "Do not allow Captain Tenjin to leave Marineford. I repeat, do not let him—"
He stopped.
His expression darkened.
The voice on the other end had answered too quickly.
"…What do you mean, he already left?"
Across the office, Garp folded his arms and leaned back in his chair, grinning with open delight. Kuma remained still as stone, while Kizaru, still seated and unbothered, tilted his head just enough to show that he was listening.
Sengoku's voice sharpened further.
"How could he have taken a warship and left that fast?"
A pause.
Then—
"He didn't take a warship?"
Now Sengoku's brow furrowed deeply.
"What do you mean, he didn't take a warship?!"
Another pause.
And then the answer came.
Sengoku slowly lowered the Den Den Mushi from his ear by a fraction.
"…He flew?"
The room itself seemed to pause.
Garp's grin widened.
Kizaru's lips curved faintly.
Even Tsuru, who had entered partway through the previous exchange and now stood near the far side of the office, lifted a brow with quiet surprise.
Sengoku brought the Den Den Mushi back up to his ear, as if perhaps he had misunderstood the laws of reality.
"Explain."
The Marine on the other end did his best.
Apparently, Captain Tenjin had simply gone up.
Not with Geppo.
Not with some machine.
Not with an aircraft.
He had flown.
A large flower had bloomed from his back and spun him into the sky, carrying him away over the waters beyond Marineford before the gate troops had fully understood what they were seeing.
Sengoku ended the call.
Very slowly.
He set the snail down.
And stared at nothing for a full second.
'He can fly?'
That was the thought that struck him hardest.
The Devil Fruit Encyclopedia had no mention of flight capabilities for Tenjin's fruit. None. The boy had already shown enough variation and absurdity in his control over plant life to make cataloging him irritating, but this—
This was new.
This was entirely new.
"Interesting," Tsuru murmured, though her tone suggested that interesting was not quite the word she would have preferred to use.
Sengoku dragged one hand down his face.
"Does his Devil Fruit even have flight abilities?" he muttered. "None are listed in the encyclopedia. Not one."
Garp laughed.
"Hahahaha! Maybe the brat just made one."
Sengoku shot him a look that carried all the exhaustion of a man being professionally hunted by destiny.
Then he turned to Kizaru.
"Borsalino."
Kizaru raised his hand slightly.
"Yes, Fleet Admiral Sengoku~?"
"Hurry to Sabaody."
Kizaru stood at once, though even that somehow looked relaxed.
"Yes~."
He adjusted his coat, gave the room one last lazy glance, and moved for the door.
Sengoku did not watch him leave for long. He was already reaching for another Den Den Mushi.
"Sentomaru."
The line connected quickly enough.
The man on the other end answered with the gruff alertness of someone already expecting trouble.
"This is Sentomaru."
"Borsalino is on the way to Sabaody," Sengoku said. "Until he gets there, hold the Straw Hats in place."
Sentomaru answered immediately. "Understood."
Sengoku's expression remained severe.
"There's one more thing."
A beat.
"Marine Captain Tenjin is also heading to the island."
There was silence on the line.
Then visible irritation even through the voice.
"…Unauthorized?"
"Yes."
Sentomaru's mood worsened audibly.
'Why should I have to work with someone as unruly as that Captain Tenjin?' he thought, though what he actually said was much more restrained.
"So I'm supposed to coordinate with him?"
"Yes," Sengoku said. "Try."
The word itself carried doubt.
Sentomaru clearly heard it.
Still, after a moment, he answered, "Fine. I'll deal with him."
Sengoku ended the call and leaned back in his chair.
For the briefest second, he let his eyes close.
---
Grand Line — Sabaody Archipelago
Panic had already started to spread through the archipelago.
It moved in whispers first. Along docks, through bars, over rooftops, across lawless corners where men with too many weapons and not enough caution began hearing the same terrible phrase repeated again and again.
An Admiral was coming.
That alone was enough to make half the pirate population of Sabaody reconsider their life choices.
The mangrove groves, already strange under normal circumstances, now felt even more surreal. Light filtered through the giant trees in wavering beams, bubbles drifted on the wind, and all throughout the lawless zones pirates, bounty hunters, traffickers, drifters, and desperate men alike were either arming themselves, hiding themselves, or loudly pretending they were too dangerous to care.
Up high above the island, another figure was descending.
Tenjin floated through the sky with a large flower grown from his back, its broad petals spread wide and turning with a steady rotational force that kept him aloft. The structure was not delicate. It was vast, sturdy, and strange, like a great plant born for war rather than beauty. The spinning bloom hummed faintly as it slowed his descent, guiding him down toward the upper portions of Sabaody's clustered mangrove roots.
His coat snapped in the wind behind him.
His eyes scanned the island below.
'So this is Sabaody.'
Not exactly subtle.
Not exactly peaceful.
A group of pirates moving through one of the open market approaches spotted him first.
They looked up.
Then higher.
One of them froze.
"Oi…"
Another squinted.
"What is that?"
Tenjin descended through a drifting cloud of bubbles, flower turning behind him, coat flaring.
The first pirate's face drained of color.
"Is that… an Admiral?!"
Several of them stiffened.
Hands moved toward weapons. Bodies shifted backward rather than forward.
Then Tenjin dropped lower.
Close enough.
And the mistaken panic changed shape.
"It's not an Admiral," one of them muttered.
Another leaned forward, eyes widening.
"…That's him."
The name spread quickly among them.
"Captain Tenjin."
"The one from the paper."
"The guy who punched a Celestial Dragon."
Tenjin landed lightly, the giant flower on his back shedding petals that dissolved into drifting motes of green before disappearing entirely. He straightened, looked over the group once, and asked in the calm tone of a man already deciding how irritating they were going to be—
"Where's Straw Hat Luffy?"
The pirates hesitated.
Then, almost visibly, their confidence returned.
Because this was not an Admiral.
This was just one Marine Captain.
A dangerous one, yes.
A famous one, yes.
But still.
A Captain.
One of them stepped forward with a sneer.
"You've got some nerve asking questions in a place like this."
Another laughed and rested a rifle on his shoulder.
"Killing a Marine captain ought to get us a little notoriety."
That got a few more grins.
A few guns came up.
Tenjin stared at them for half a second.
Then sighed.
The first shot rang out.
Then another.
Then several more.
Bullets tore through the air—
And passed straight through him.
Through leaves. Bark. Shifting plant matter. His body opened around the bullets like wood breaking apart into living strands, then closed again as though nothing had happened at all.
The pirates went still.
Tenjin's expression flattened.
"…I'm in a hurry."
Roots burst from the ground beneath them.
Before the pirates could scatter, the roots speared through torsos, shoulders, legs, and sides.
The men screamed.
Not from pain alone.
From what came next.
Their bodies began to dry.
Skin pulling taut. Faces hollowing. Strength draining out of them in visible waves as the roots fed. The process was fast and brutal, the kind of thing that stripped arrogance away in seconds. One by one, their struggles weakened until they hung there like shriveled remains of their earlier bravado.
Tenjin let out a small breath through his nose.
Then withdrew the roots.
The pirates fell in broken heaps.
"Now," he muttered, looking over the island again, "I need to find Straw Hat before Kizaru gets here."
He clicked his tongue.
"Otherwise he'll just make things annoying."
As if summoned by the thought—
Purururururu.
Tenjin reached into his coat and pulled out a Den Den Mushi.
He answered without ceremony.
"Yeah."
The voice that came through was rough, irritated, and already sounding like it had better things to do.
"This is Sentomaru."
Tenjin blinked.
Then frowned.
"How did you get this number?"
"From Sengoku."
Sentomaru continued before Tenjin could say anything else.
"We should coordinate until Admiral Kizaru gets here. You deal with the other rookies. I'll handle Straw Hat until then."
Tenjin's expression darkened instantly.
"…Don't boss me around."
Sentomaru bristled on the other end. "What?"
"I said don't tell me what to do." Tenjin started walking again, eyes roaming across the island's winding paths and elevated roots. "I'll deal with Straw Hat."
Sentomaru's irritation sharpened. "Oi! You can't just—"
Tenjin dropped the call.
Just like that.
The Den Den Mushi clicked shut.
Somewhere else on Sabaody, Sentomaru was undoubtedly becoming louder.
Tenjin returned the snail to his coat and moved again, body slipping into motion with the same easy confidence he wore when facing things much bigger than himself.
He crossed a raised root path, dropped to a lower grove, and glanced across the maze of mangroves and lawless zones.
Then he smiled.
"Now then, Straw Hat…"
His eyes sharpened.
"Where are you?"
---
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