137 Chapter 137

137

Marine Headquarters,

Vice Admiral Stainless yet again sighed due to the commotion that was happening in the headquarters.

New pirates arriving making trouble, old pirates scheming, these were the common things of this world. And all of this brought paperwork to him.

As a Vice Admiral you usually don't get duty off if your last name starts with Monkey, but other than him, everyone had their duties.

And his happened to fall under giving pirates new bounties that were on the grandline. Which was a very stressful job, increasing or giving new pirates appropriate bounties.

Too much, and they might gain too much fame too soon, give them too little and nearby marines might underestimate them and get themselves killed.

Still giving out bounties was the easy part, doing all the paperwork to get that bounty to paper was just a hassle. In his office he was alone doing late-night duties, most of his subordinates retired for the night.

So he was doing a bit of extra for his part. But then again, as a marine he took his job seriously, his passion for justice won't be beaten by his laziness.

"Trafalgar Law… the first thing he does after entering the grandline is kill a king. Pirate these days, getting wilder and wilder." Cancer, who was by his side, read out the reports whistling at the deeds.

Stainless tried to ignore him, and continue his duties. He wasn't in the mood for this.

"Well, the supposed king was a tyrant, the only reason we weren't able to do anything was because of the Heavenly Tribute… so in a way, he did our job for him." Bogard said, putting a cup of tea on Vice Admiral Stainless's desk.

Making the middle-aged man look up in appreciation. After that Bogard took a seat near Cancer —after giving him his own cup of tea— who was looking over the reports.

"Straight as ever, Bogard-san." Cancer smiled, taking a drag from his cigar, before taking a sip from his cut. "Anyway, I think we should give him a bounty of 50 million, especially with that fruit of his… Ope Ope no mi… it's quite versatile, even more so when we add in the fact that the boy has medical knowledge."

"Fifty would be an understatement, but giving too much would be foolish," Bogard nodded.

"Cancer, you do know it's my job to write out bounties? And if you are here to help, help me with this damn paperwork, not the bounties." Vice Admiral Stainless said.

"Nah, I'm sure you got that handled." Cancer said, casually picking up another report. "This one is a bit concerning… 'Mad Monk', Urouge the captain of the Fallen Monk Pirates. Destroying a complete marine base alone without any help, killing one of the marine captains in the process. He was also able to free a few of the prisoners that were on their way to Impel Down."

"This is quite bad," Bogard said. "But didn't the man suddenly go off the radar a few years back…? A pirate of sky island descent, we thought he died. It seems that he was hiding in the grandline. These kinds of pirates are the reason we need the marines."

"But then again, Bogard-san. Captain Striker wasn't the most honorable of the marines… if so he wouldn't have helped with hiding the 'Mad Monk' Urouge's location in the first place." Cancer said. "Our intelligence says that Urouge had a deal with him, he was paid a hefty sum while Urouge hid near his territory, and the pirate didn't have any use for him anymore. That's why this incident happened. Honestly, why do we get news of bad apples only after they die or switch sides?"

"I wonder that myself," Bogard answered, the Marines, as a big organization, had a lot of corruption in them. And oftentimes it was found out too late.

Of course, X Drake was an exception to that rule. But few knew of his original goals of being undercover.

"Well, what worries me isn't them… it's this." Stainless said as he gave a report to Bogard, Cancer picking in from the side.

The report was about a former pirate of Whitebeard that had attacked Drum Island. And he was even able to take over the kingdom in one day.

Due to the pirate having a relationship with a Yonko and the island being at the start of Grandline the Marines were scratching their heads on what to do.

"The bastard calls himself Blackbeard… we knew of him since he was a child. Marshall D. Teach… he joined the Whitebeards since he was a boy… but now, he suddenly gets the idea to kill one of his crewmembers and flee from the old legend's crew. It's quite worrying what the guy has plans for." Stainless said. "After taking over Drum Island the man didn't stay long and opted to change location again, it makes his moves unpredictable…"

"Hm… what's his bounty?" Cancer asked.

"He doesn't have one."

Both Cancer and Bogard looked at Stainless. "In all his years on Whitebeard's crew he made little effort on gaining fame and opted to hide behind the old man's shadow… that kind of man. Who knows what he's up to. The headquarters have decided to wait for a while before giving him a bounty."

"Why?" Cancer asked.

"Some of the elders deem him a good candidate for the warlord system…" Stainless said, while the others nodded. There was much to be said on that part, but there could only be seven warlords at one time.

Meaning one of the current warlords might get replaced. And almost all of them knew it was most likely Gekko Moria. He wasn't that useful like the rest of the warlords.

Also if a former Whitebeard pirate were to join the ranks of Warloard then the marines would be able to get a lot of info out of him. There were roumers that Fleet Admiral might be retiring soon and taking down a Yonko would be a very good way to do things.

"There are still other things… oh… it seems that the new pirate Eustass Kid has some brass balls." Cancer said as he read the report. "The boy really killed the old dog Helmet Jack… and he even didn't let one of his crewmates live. Sick bastard, but we need more pirates killing each other, it makes the job easier."

"There's also Scratchmen Apoo, his crew is also causing a lot of trouble in the south-islands… even escaped from a Marine Commodore. Quite skilled with his abilities… he seems to be getting a bounty to raise as well." Bogard said.

"Anyway, we still have to discuss our star boy. 'Fallen Hero, Straw Hat' Luffy." Cancer said, whipping out the latest report. "That's a long ass epithet. But other than that, the kid's pretty strong. Not only did he fight off both Smoker and Hina at once, without getting a single injury, he also made it out even while being surrounded by six marine ships. And it seems that his crew also knows the Rokushiki techniques as far as our intelligence knows. I can already see them being a headache in the future."

Stainless grunted. "Yes, White Lady Kuina and the cook that joined them, Sanji was seen being able to use geppo. And our previous judgment of Luffy having a wind-based fruit is in question now."

Bogard coughed and said nothing. He wouldn't be revealing Luffy's devil fruit anytime soon. He was one of his students. But then again having the ability of rubber wasn't that dangerous in the first place.