A futile effort

8 months later

Galan was sitting in a cabin when the door was kicked open, he let out a breath and leaned back, resting his cheek on his leather glove as the looked at the person who barged in.

Who else would possibly do this in the entire Marine force other than a strange girl called Bell-mere.

Bell-mere shouted "Admiral Bastard, we're here!" as smoke wafted from the cigarette at the corner of her lips. Galan looked at her silently, she grinned and ran off quickly. For some reason, Bell-mere was assigned to his ship along with a bunch of other marines as they were joined by Cipher Pol to check out a 'tip' from an anonymous source.

Of course, it was the Revolutionaries base that Galan had Dragon abandon for this whole spectacle.

As for Bell-mere… Galan didn't know what to do with her. She was like this. She was just a rude person by nature, not that she meant to be rude, it was just the way she was.

Very carefree.

Sometimes when Galan looked at her, an emotion resembling envy would bubble up inside of him. He wondered what it was like to be so carefree. Thus resulting in this sort of connection they had where Galan wouldn't beat her for barging in and she would tell Galan stories about why she joined the Marines.

Apparently, she saw Roger's execution and decided to stop crime by becoming a Marine herself!

Galan actually didn't mind her outbursts, though he didn't feel much of anything nowadays, he quite liked how outrageous she was.

At any rate, Galan got up and walked out of the cabin, making a smile for the agents as he entered the sunlight once again to continue his life's mission.

The CP agents stormed the island and found the base as the Marines followed behind them as reinforcements.

The island was abandoned as planned with only a couple dozen brainwashed pirates. Galan didn't know how Dragon managed to brainwash them, but it didn't matter in the end, as long as they spilled the beans about Tequila Wolf before revealing that they were in fact brainwashed, then everything would go according to plan.

Unsurprisingly, it was a success. Without even a ripple of complication.

The CP agents found the base, took the pirates hostage and confiscated everything in the base before returning to the ship.

Galan watched silently as Bell-mere stood next to him, smoking and muttering "Damn suits… Actin' so cocky!" before turning to Galan and looking up, asking "Am I getting paid for this?" Galan didn't even look at her, replying "15 pounds of pure gold just for you." Bell-mere's eyes lit up before freezing "Ah! Wait a minute! Did you just tease me?!"

She grabbed his suit and Galan had a helpless expression on his face as Bell-mere exploded "Don't go teasin' me, bub! I don't care who you are! I better be gettin' paid! Damn!" The CP agents looked over and saw Galan's helpless look before shaking their heads and taking the prisoners to the brig.

Galan said "Alright, 100 beli." Bell-mere nearly fainted and Galan sighed, adding "I don't get paid either…" The Agents walking by sighed at this, neither do they… Bell-mere let him go and held her heart, "I-I think I'm havin' a heart attack…"

The Marines chuckled and returned to the ship, not caring at all. After all these years, they were no longer the Delta team, Galan got a new crew as the Delta team was delegated to other tasks, becoming a Legend in the Marines.

Some of them even retired and never spoke of what they did.

As a result, most marines forgot how Galan even got his epithet in the first place. This was a man that didn't even blink after scalping a drug lord, didn't lose sleep over torturing rapists until they were subhuman meat, and barely lost his appetite after being covered in human flesh.

Now he was just Admiral Galan, or Admiral Bastard, or Admiral Asshole, or the Lazy Admiral, or Mysterious Admiral.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Only the old guys remembered what Galan did and those guys wouldn't tell the recruits. Times were changing and Galan wasn't sure if it was for the better. He felt that the Marines were slowly becoming less of a feared organization and more of a nuisance for Pirates.

He sighed to himself at this as they returned to drop off the Cipher Pol members at Mariejois.

However, Galan couldn't even rest in his cabin as he was called down to the brig by Bell-mere, something about 'those damn suits' and 'eyein' her sweet ass' Galan didn't pay attention to her nonsense and walked down to the brig.

The Leader of this group of CP agents was waiting for him, when he finally arrived, the CP leader said with a strange tone of respect, "Admiral Black Raven, there are legends of your… 'information gathering skills'. We were wondering if you could help?" Galan raised a brow and Bell-mere frowned "Huh? You damn suits can't even get prisoners to talk?! All you guys do is stare at my hot body all day, huh?!"

The CP leader ignored her and stared at Galan with a glimmer of hope and excitement. Galan looked at him and smiled gently, "Sure." the CP agents all around got excited and whispered amongst themselves as Galan muttered inwardly 'Bunch of freaks…' before saying softly "Bellie, in my cabin there's a black bag in the cabinet. Go and get it for me."

Bell-mere grumbled and walked off, swaying her hips without realizing it.

Galan took off his coat and suit jacket, letting out a breath as he rolled up his sleeves, blotches of tattoos breathing air for the first time in years.

Bell-mere came back within 2 minutes, dragging a heavy bag, complaining "Whadda got in here?! Rocks?! Eh? Admiral Rock head?!" Galan took the bag from her with one hand, making her freeze and touch her own arms with a pout.

He paused and looked at her, palming her head as he said "Go back to the deck." Bell-mere frowned, "But I wanna come!" Galan pointed to the deck silently and she snorted, stomping away and grumbling again.

Galan loosened his tie and walked into the room as the agents all ran inside, slamming the door behind them.

The Marines were chatting on the deck happily while Bell-mere was sitting on the steps to the upper deck when they all heard a faint inhuman screeching. They froze and the blood curdling screams continued for a while before stopping abruptly at the sound of a gunshot.

They panicked and the screams started again, over and over, plaguing the Marines until nightfall.

They were all still up, sitting on the deck and shaking with bloodshot eyes.

They heard footsteps and turned to see Galan coming out from the brig, blood covering his arms and face. He stopped and looked at them all, they would never forget the look. The blood in their bodies froze over in fear and their brains couldn't react in time to even comprehend what sort of creature was looking at them.

Galan never showed Conqueror's Haki to anyone other than the dead but it was as though he used it… The Marines fell to the ground, staring at the deck in a cold sweat, fainting with their eyes widened in horror.

Galan tilted his head and was confused, but his eyes were blank, empty… Nothing inside of them, his face blank and flat. Forgetting to revert back to his acting.

He turned to Bell-mere to see she was holding up quite well, just pale and shivering, staring at him in horror. He frowned and suddenly remembered, cracking his neck and sighing, returning to his act, sighing as he said gently "Sorry for scaring you, kid." as he carried his suit jacket, coat, and bag of tools to his cabin, closing the door.

The CP agents were sitting in the room, leaning against the wall, unable to comprehend how the things they were looking at were once people. They got all the information they could ever want. From Revolutionary secrets to brainwashing to piracy to birth dates, girlfriends, island they were born on, and everything in between!

The rest of the ride was silent. Nobody said a word at all. They CP agents left the ship at Mariejois and a few weeks later, the Marines got off at Marineford in a daze.

Galan stood on his ship and looked at them as they turned back, seeing him looking down at them. They turned pale and ran away, Bell-mere stared at Galan in a daze before waking away as well.

Galan watched them go and a slight smile graced his lips, full of sadness.