Captain Duke.

Couple Days later Duke woke up from his sleep in a room in the ship, sailing back to the HQ.

"Finally awake brat." Duke look at his side and saw Garp sitting on a chair with Bogart standing straight behind him.

"Where are we?"

"Couple hours away from HQ." Garp answered. "Now, tell me when did you get a devil fruit?" his voice strangely serious. Then Duke remembered that in Marine, if you find a devil fruit you have to bring it to your superior without eating it.

Only people with great potential or achievements gets devil fruit as a reward.

"W-well I got cornered by pirates during fight and luckily found this black fruit and ate it to survive." Duke quickly told a lie.

Silence occupied the small room, while trio looked at each other then Garp laughed out loud cheerfully. "Then I can't do anything! Bwahhahaha! You are sure one lucky brat! Looks like I need to train you so you don't become like those arrogant Devil Fruit users!"

Garp's voice was cheerful but none the less sent shivers down Duke's spine. What kind of training is he talking about?

Few hours later they arrived at HQ. Garp gave very simple report to Sengoku and got Duke as his underling with a single paper signing.

Then began the hellish training for Duke. Garp didn't allowed him to use his Devil Fruit at first no matter what and focused on psychical training. Which Duke welcomed it as the stronger body he got, the more powers he can use.

He also learned that he got in One Piece world three years before the plot start. Just recently Ace got sailed out and Garp received its news. Which made the old man angry and train Duke harder and harder.

He would leave the young man in an isolated island in clam belt and have Duke survive for a month without using Devil Fruit or anything but bare hands.

During one of these survival trainings that Duke found out he got Conquerors Haki in a life and death situation. It didn't surprise him as he got Monarch powers, albeit being a Devil Fruit but still.

This too increased his training level by large margin and Garp started on other types of Haki. This also got Garp a bit serious and have him drop the survival training and train Duke normally.

Over the course of close to three years, Duke mastered hand to hand combat, became good at swordsmanship trained by Bogart, mastered Rokushiki, became proficient in all three Haki. All this while still doing his Marine duty, rising through ranks.

He also matured out nicely. Became tall, around 190 cm, which is not tall for One Piece world but he doesn't want to get giant like others. He became Marine Captain a month ago and changed his outfit to what he prefers.

A black slim suit with violet shirt and black tie. Over it he wears captain cloak, hanging down his shoulders. He also carries a katana at his left hip. Almost identical to the Nidai Kitetsu but instead of being pink, it is pitch black with violet cross guard and pommel. He doesn't know which grade meito it is as Bogart bought him as a birthday gift but it is at least one of the 50 skillful grade swords.

He became famous in the HQ, considered to be next Vice-Admiral, or maybe even Admiral with his devil fruit powers. Earned himself Alias of 'Shadow Duke', a word-play on his name.

This of course rubbed certain group of people wrong. Especially Akainu. Duke doesn't share his Absolute justice motto and even few times helped slaves escape, which enraged Akainu greatly but he couldn't do anything as Duke is under Garp's protection.

For the other two Admirals, Duke can say they are on friendly terms actually, especially with Kizaru. Aokiji is good too, but he often switches between being serious or very lazy while Kizaru stays constantly laid-back.

Today is the day that he got his own ship. He ordered something smaller than standard issue ship as he is an army of his own and doesn't need other Marines. It is same size with Smoker's first Marine ship but instead it got dark blue under and violet hull.

Normally heavy modifications are look down on but having good reputation in Marine has its own perks.

Now we see Duke walking to the Fleet Admiral Sengoku's Office. His face doesn't show much emotion but his eyes still lit up with fire.

Inside the Office, there is Sengoku, three Admirals, Garp, Tsuru and few other important Vice-admirals that Duke already forgot about.

"Ah, Captain Duke, we were waiting for you." Sengoku said from his chair and gestured Duke to sit down at the end of the table.

"We are gathered here today to congratulate you on your recent promotion and assign you an important mission." Sengoku gestured Tsuru to continue.

Old lady nodded and talked. "Last few months we are receiving high number of complaints from East Blue, about corrupt Marine and power abusing officers. We already have few officers looking for it but complaints didn't cease, instead increased."

"So, you want me to head there and inspect?" Duke asked. He remembers that after time skip, Sengoku became Inspector General, dealing with corruption and such. It shouldn't be different than that.

"Precisely. Your records are almost perfect and high ranked enough to order East Blue Marines. We will give you list of complaints and have you visit each place. You will also have to patrol the East Blue for a bit, dealing with corruption. You will get Inspector insignia to prove your superiority." Sengoku answered.

At that Akainu snorted, dissatisfied. "Do we really trust this boy? He let criminal's escape! He should be punished!"

"You are saying that because they became slaves, they are criminal?" Duke asked, his voice not giving any emotion.

If he could handle the consequences, he would impale the rabid dog right now but World Government is still very large threat to him and they are supporting Akainu.

"Yes! Absolute Justice must be held!" Magma man yelled, striking his fist to the table. He increased the room temperature slightly, tensing others. Aokiji turned his hands to ice while Garp looked calm but Duke can see him being ready to jump at any given second.

Over the years they became some sort of Grandfather and Grandson. Mostly has to do with Garp's talent at getting Grandsons through the past years like cabbages.

"Then why are we protecting Celestial dragons?" Duke asked, surprising people in the room while Garp smiled slightly. "From what I know, slavery is forbidden in all over the world, punishable with imprisonment. But those people can turn anyone they want to slaves. If absolute justice must be held, then I'm in my right to arrest them."

Duke finished with a smirk. He greatly enjoys seeing Akainu's angry face without getting any punishment. "Or Admiral Akainu supports slavery? That makes you criminal for being an advocacy to slavery."

Right now, Akainu is trembling with anger, barely restraining himself.

"Enough, Captain Duke." Sengoku spoked with stern face. Duke didn't say anything further, satisfied with an angry dog. For now, at least.

"You will set sail in few hours, get ready."

Duke nodded but also asked one last question. "Do I have permission to recruit promising people to my crew? Corrupt Marines could reject new recruits."

Sengoku thought for a while and gave him the permission. Lately East Blue didn't produce good Marines other than Smoker and Tashigi, there must be reason to it.

After ordering supplies for his journey and getting a new Marine cloak with an Inspector writing at the back rather than Justice. Duke and Garp were walking togather to his ship.

Duke looked at the list he got from Sengoku and immediately saw Morgan's and Nezumi's names. Looks like civilians reported already but no one gave a damn about it. There were other names that he doesn't know but still gonna pay a visit.

"Oi brat, I have a favor to ask." Garp asked, which made Duke flinch as Garp normally doesn't ask any favor but simply tell you to do it. This means something serious for him.

"You see I have a granddaughter in East Blue, Dawn Island. Years ago, one red-haired bastard put the idea of being pirate king in her head and she is talking about being a pirate ever since. That bastard also gave her devil fruit too. I received news about her preparing to set sail in following months so I want you to go there before that and recruit her. Even if you use force, I don't mind." Garp said, his face wrinkled in anger at Shanks mentioning.

"Sure, I can do tha- wait, granddaughter?" Duke's brain short-circuited for a brief moment.

'What does he mean by granddaughter? Does he have one more grandchild? But he never mentioned it… actually he only referred them as Grandchild, not individually. I can understand though, his grandchild means to be child of Monkey D. Dragon and he can't talk about them that much in the Marineford.'

Slowly his eyes widened, cold sweat run at his back. 'Am I in parallel universe of One Piece? But everything looked exactly the same I remember. Shit…'

Garp laughed. "Bwahhahaha! Of course, her name is Lucy! She should be your age now." He said but then stopped abruptly. "Oi brat! If you ever look at her with indecent look!" he cracked his knuckles menacingly, making Duke nod rapidly.

"No worries! I will protect her and make her choose the right way, the Marine way!" Duke saluted comically.

"Bwahhahaha! You are right about that brat! Now get going! But if you ever fail to recruit her then I will hunt you even in death!"

Duke boarded his ship. The moment he stepped on the deck, his shadow expanded along the ship and dozens of knights appeared, handling the ship quickly. Thankfully his summons keeps their knowledge from their old life, so sailing became easier to Duke.

Right now, he has over 50 shadows in his army. He could get more with his current strength but he prefers quality over quantity. He also has few special trump-cards like shadows too.

He got an eternal pose to one of the East Blue islands and followed it. He thought eternal pose only worked in grand line but eternal pose is basically recording the magnetic field of the island forever, there is no reason it wouldn't work on other islands too. It is just people don't need it that much outside grand line with a good navigator.

Duke has few navigator knights in his army but no special one like Nami or Lafitte. That's why he got permission to recruit people.

At first, he didn't want to get any original crew, leave them to Luffy but there is no Luffy in this world. Garp also have him recruit Lucy so why not get the whole set? And he remembers that actually no straw-hat wanted to be pirate at first but Luffy convinced them later on.

He sailed for three weeks and arrived at Dawn Island at last. Along the way he visited two different islands with corruption on Marines and handled them easily with execution. Sengoku wouldn't settle for less.

He passed other islands without stopping on them as he didn't want to miss Lucy and got beating from Garp.

"Now where is this girl…"