First half of the Grand Line, Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
As the main base of the Marines, Marineford was divided into two areas. One was the military zone, and the other was the residential zone.
There was no need to say much about the military zone, as it was a restricted area of the Marines, and ordinary people were not allowed to enter.
As for the residential zone, many family members of Marine officers lived there, along with quite a few Marine officers who had been forced to retire because of serious injuries.
As for ordinary Marine soldiers?
Of course, they were not qualified to build a home here. Once they retired, they would probably receive some money and return to their hometowns.
Early that morning, Kuzan walked out of a breakfast diner in the residential zone, a steamed bun in hand as he ate it on the go.
According to his plan for the day, he would head to the military port to meet Vice Admiral Garp. After that, the two of them would set off together for the East Blue on a routine patrol.
Every time this happened, Kuzan couldn't help but feel a slight sense of envy toward Sakazuki and Borsalino—the two rising Marine stars who were also Logia users.
After completing officer training, and with Garp's backing, Kuzan had smoothly risen to the rank of Marine Headquarters Commodore. Once one stepped into the officer ranks, even in Marineford, they were already considered a true figure of authority.
On top of that, thanks to his Logia ability and natural talent, Kuzan, Sakazuki, and Borsalino had come to be known as the rising stars of the Marines.
Many veteran Marines believed that the three of them would surely become famous figures on the sea in the future.
There were even times when Admiral Zephyr praised them and said that the three of them might become admirals one day.
In short, Kuzan was now very popular at Marine Headquarters.
But as mentioned earlier, he was a little jealous of Sakazuki and Borsalino, because most of the time, those two followed Admiral Zephyr and Admiral Sengoku into the New World to fight pirates.
Kuzan, however, did not have such luck, because his superior, Garp, had become rather lazy.
Ever since the Roger Pirates disbanded, Garp seemed to have lost something inside him. He was no longer as fierce and forceful as before, and he no longer spent every day thinking about chasing down Roger's crew. Now, he had become much more relaxed. When he had nothing to do, he wandered around the first half of the Grand Line. Not long ago, he had even made himself a dog-head hat and wore it on his head every day, though no one knew what that was supposed to mean.
Since Roger came from the East Blue, and since the Roger Pirates had now disbanded, Garp always felt that Roger might have secretly hidden somewhere in the East Blue and started enjoying a quiet life.
Because of that, whenever there was nothing important going on, Garp would take the East Blue patrol mission himself, wandering around there to see whether he could run into Roger by chance.
The first half of the Grand Line no longer offered much challenge for Kuzan, let alone the East Blue. Because of that, he sometimes envied Sakazuki and Borsalino, who could train themselves in the New World.
Just as Kuzan was thinking that he would once again have to follow Mr. Garp and waste time on this mission, a violent explosion suddenly erupted on the distant street.
Immediately after, the residential zone of Marineford fell into chaos. Under Kuzan's shocked gaze, he saw a group of pirates charging out from the streets.
"Pirates!?" Kuzan froze for a moment, then his expression suddenly became panicked.
If he remembered correctly, Zephyr-sensei's home was in the direction those pirates had just come from.
Had this group of pirates come from there?
No, this was Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
How had pirates appeared here?
How had they landed on the island, safely passed through all the layers of checks, and reached the residential zone?
"Are you kidding me!" In that instant, Kuzan sensed the stench of a conspiracy. Dread rose in his chest as his hands moved on instinct. He hurled the steamed bun in his grasp.
The moment it hit the ground, a bone-chilling cold erupted outward, freezing several pirates who had been running through the area and slaughtering civilians at random.
Alarms soon rang out, and with Kuzan present, the chaos caused by the group of pirates was quickly brought under control.
In front of Zephyr's residence, Kuzan's expression was extremely ugly. As someone who had come out of the officer training camp, Kuzan naturally had the bond of teacher and student with Zephyr.
At the same time, Zephyr also thought very highly of Kuzan, so the two of them had a good relationship. Whenever Kuzan had nothing to do, he would often visit Zephyr's home.
But now, the residence that was usually filled with laughter had turned into a living hell.
The teacher's wife who always asked Kuzan what he liked to eat and promised to cook it for him the next time he visited had been beheaded. Zephyr's son, who always liked to chase after Kuzan while saying over and over that he would also become a Marine Admiral one day, had been cut open. His body had fallen miserably at the entrance, and blood had spread across the ground.
At that moment, Kuzan felt his whole body trembling.
In the main base of justice, inside Marine Headquarters, Marineford, the family of an Admiral, one of the strongest forces of the World Government, had been brutally killed by a group of pirates whose strength was nothing special.
That suffocating feeling almost made Kuzan unable to breathe.
"Kuzan!" Garp's voice came from not far away.
By the time his voice fell, his figure had already appeared at the entrance of the residence. A flash of grief passed through his eyes, and then his expression instantly darkened. Waves of terrifying Conqueror's Haki burst out from behind him, shaking the nearby walls until cracks spread across them.
"Who did this?" Garp asked in a low voice.
Only then did Kuzan seem to come back to himself. He opened his mouth and said, "It was a group of pirates. I have already confirmed their identities. Their leader was Old Sea Dog Nihada, with a bounty of twenty-six million Berries…"
If it had been someone like Shiki or Whitebeard who had attacked Marineford and done this, Garp could at least understand it, even though he did not think either of them would be this vile.
But now Kuzan was telling him that a useless pirate with a bounty of just over twenty million had somehow appeared in the residential area of Marineford, found the home of an Admiral with perfect accuracy, and brutally killed Zephyr's wife and child. To Garp, this was simply an insult.
How could this be something an ordinary weak pirate could do?
The hidden hand behind this did not even seem to care about covering things up or filling in such an absurd gap in logic. It was as if they were openly telling the Marines that even if they knew something was wrong, what could they do about it?
Go ahead and investigate.
Let's see whether you can find anything.
Garp did not enter the residence. He felt he had no face to step inside.
After taking a deep breath, he steadied the Conqueror's Haki that had almost gone out of control. Then he turned and left while saying, "You take care of the bodies. I am going to find Tsuru…"
Such an incident had occurred within the residential area of Marineford, so there was no way to conceal it. Before long, many Marines at Headquarters had learned of the situation.
They also learned that Admiral Zephyr's family had been killed.
Everyone found it impossible to believe. It felt as if someone had stepped directly on the Marines' head and humiliated them in public.
...
Inside the fortress of justice, in Vice Admiral Tsuru's office, Garp listened to the crying that came from the Den Den Mushi in Tsuru's hand, and his expression was extremely complicated.
No one spoke.
A moment later, the call was ended from the other side.
Vice Admiral Tsuru stared blankly at the Den Den Mushi in her hand for a while, not knowing what to say. No one knew how much courage she had needed to tell Zephyr, who was still fighting in the New World, what had happened.
"He teaches and trains people. He raises the strength of Marine officers, improves the Marines' overall fighting ability, and prepares for the future. Is that also a mistake?" Garp looked at Tsuru and asked.
"His reputation is too high…" Vice Admiral Tsuru murmured.
"Having a high reputation is also a mistake?" Garp said, his eyes filled with a fierce light.
Zephyr's reputation was too high. Signs of it had already begun to appear. In a few more years, perhaps the entire new generation of Marine officers would come from under his teaching.
And he was far too capable.
Zephyr could be called a rare talent in Marine history.
There were many Marines who excelled in both leadership and combat, but none who could match his ability as an instructor. Likewise, there were Marines who were excellent instructors, but none who could rival his combat strength.
His record was also exceptionally impressive. Zephyr had joined the Marines in the same era as Garp, Sengoku, Tsuru, and the others. At eighteen, he entered his first major battle.
In the years that followed, the brilliance of Garp, Sengoku, Tsuru, and the others only grew brighter, gradually overshadowing Zephyr and establishing them as the most promising young Marines of their generation.
When Zephyr was twenty-eight, he had only just become a Marine Petty Officer and had only begun learning the Six Powers, Haki, and other techniques.
By that time, Garp, Sengoku, and the others had already made their names across the seas and become the central pillars of the Marines.
Even so, over the next decade, Marine Headquarters came to regard those years as Zephyr's true peak.
From twenty-eight to thirty-eight, he rose from a Petty Officer to a Marine Admiral.
Anyone who heard this would immediately understand how unbelievable his rise was.
In his first ten years after joining the Marines, he was only a Petty Officer. In the next ten years, he became an Admiral.
Reputation, achievements, strength, and experience. Inside the Marines, almost no one could stand above him.
If things continued naturally, Zephyr would surely become the most likely choice for Fleet Admiral in the future. Even Sengoku would not be able to beat him, and might not even be qualified to compete with him.
And clearly, someone had seen this.
They also did not want Zephyr to become the leader of the Marines, because a person like him could truly unite the power of the entire Marine force.
Perhaps if he became Fleet Admiral, the Marines would become impossible to control.
So they wanted to break Zephyr's heroic spirit, wear him down, and turn him into someone ordinary.
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