Arriving at Marineford and Punishment

_________ POV Narration_________

Sengoku didn't quite know what to make of things.

Akainu and Enel were both reportedly hunting down scores of pirates.

They were recorded to be going 'a bit above' what Sengoku had initially requested.

Sengoku somewhat expected that type of thing from Enel, the Rear Admiral wasn't exactly one to listen to anything besides training. He wasn't exactly accustomed to their ways yet.

But he hadn't expected that type of thing from Akainu...

Sakazuki had always been an extremely serious and 'by the books' marine. Also extremely ruthless and unforgiving to anyone who even showed slight disrespect to the traditional ways of the marines.

His extreme and oftentimes cruel way of handing justice to criminals was what made him a prime candidate for the future position of Fleet Admiral in the eyes of the World Government.

To Sengoku, Sakazuki going out on his own to clean up the beginning of the New World was nothing short of a miracle.

It didn't take long for Sengoku to understand that some type of competition was going on in between the two of them.

Sakazuki used one of the fastest marine vessels to rack up as many bounties as he could. And Enel used his flying golden ship, which Sengoku already knew about from the Jaya island reports.

The Fleet Admiral had tried asking more about how the ship worked, hoping to be able to use the design of the ship to create a new type of marine vessel.

But Enel was rather secretive about it, only saying that it had worked with his devil fruit. But Enel was secretive about a few other things as well.

Like his backstory. He never went into too much detail, only giving them a basic and rather hard-to-believe story.

How were Garp and Sengoku supposed to believe that he was from an island in the middle of the Grand Line?

Enel claimed he came from Little Garden. No one could verify it, but the two old men knew from reports that there weren't any inhabitants on the island besides two old giants.

How exactly did his devil fruit even work? The gold he always manipulated seemed to become hot whenever he changed its shape.

He never bothered to explain it, only saying that he didn't really know what the fruit was named since he just found it randomly on Little Garden and ate it on the spot.

Even now, Sakazuki reported that he was returning to base, while Enel was only giving them radio silence.

Sengoku had tried to call the Rear Admiral, he had personally given him a marine-issued transponder snail. It was rather disheartening that Enel didn't respond even once.

At least until someone finally responded when Sengoku was calling, only for the old Fleet Admiral to find out that Enel had left his transponder snail at Marineford.

The one that had answered was none other than Hina, who just happened to be inside Enel's room... For some reason...

Sengoku was a bit too weirded out to ask, he also chose to refrain from getting involved in his subordinates' private lives.

Garp also didn't really seem to care, the old man cared more about seeing the results of the 'competition'.

He had high hopes for his newest recruit.

He hoped to be able to laugh at Akainu's face for losing to a rookie for at least the following month.

Garp thought that it was possible enough, Enel was just that talented to him, nothing that Enel did could surprise him in any way at this point.

Hell, Enel had managed to gain Armament Haki in an extremely short time, and he had basically trained without rest to master two of the 6 powers at the same time.

Armament Haki was something that took years to master in the first place, so Enel most likely had some type of inborn talent for it.

His near-perfect mastery over Observation Haki also certainly played a part in it.

Enel's progress was staggering, even if his Armament was considered weak, some marines would spend a decade training and still not gain the same results as he did.

Garp genuinely hoped that Enel would not become an Admiral though, he didn't want to see someone like Enel at the beck and call of the Celestial Dragons.

The Admiral position certainly came with a lot of boons, it brought about a lot of respect.

But it also meant that you were to become one of the official bodyguards of the Celestial Dragons, and the Government would have even more control over your actions.

Garp was not all about that, so he simply stayed a Vice Admiral.

He had hoped that his grandsons would also follow this path... They were all brats that he saw promise in, and he had hoped that he wouldn't be the only one in the family to become a Marine...

Fate was a cruel mistress though.

It wasn't like Garp saw Enel as a grandson or anything. Enel did manage to become friends with Garp in that short time.

It was the same for Sengoku.

The time the two of them had spent with Enel was rather short, but with him, they could speak freely. He didn't care about putting up a facade, he also didn't seem to care about ranks or formalities.

He was extremely open and easy to talk to. Garp had spent a lot more time with him than Sengoku, and Garp told Sengoku about everything.

They both considered Enel to be an interesting person. They were still unsure of how he viewed the world government and what his definition of Justice entailed, but they knew he wasn't a bad person.

He also seemed to have a talent with people, both Garp and Sengoku were rather weirded out about how quickly they had taken a liking to him. But they couldn't really hold it against the new marine...

He simply seemed to know his way around befriending others, acting just friendly enough to warrant a similar response, but not 'friendly' enough to appear like he had some ulterior motive or that he was in some way disingenuous.

Still, friends or no friends, subordinates were supposed to listen to the higher-ups. Sengoku had received news that the Gorilla pirates, Enel's initial target, were dealt with not long after Enel had departed from Akainu.

So Enel was technically just doing whatever he wanted while purposefully not finishing his mission and handing in a report.

This annoyed Sengoku quite a bit.

'I don't need another Garp!' Was the thought that was most prominent in his mind as he gazed at his old friend, eating his rice crackers while sitting on his couch.

"Fleet Admiral Sengoku! Admiral Akainu has returned to base!" A Rear Admiral shouted as he entered Sengoku's office.

Sengoku was about to complain about how the marine had failed to salute him, but then he noticed that the marine appeared to be rather frantic.

"What happened?!" He asked as he also stood up.

"S-sir! He came back with a lot of bounties... But he also collected a bounty from the Big Mom pirates by mistake!" The Rear Admiral spoke as he trembled a bit.

Sengoku snorted a bit as he realised how big the issue could get.

"Please tell me it was at least someone unimportant..." Sengoku said as he rubbed the bride of his nose in frustration.

"Umm..." The Rear Admiral was looking more and more anxious.

That was when Sakazuki himself entered.

"It's Charlotte Oven, a member of the Big Mom Pirates was travelling to some kingdom in the first half of the grand line, probably collecting some sweets for Big Mom herself... That fat slob." Akainu said as he looked a bit pissed off about the whole situation.

"..." Sengoku took a deep breath. He decided to calmly think about everything before making a decision.

"Did you kill him?" The fleet admiral asked while looking out of the window of his office, his pigeon perched on his hat as he glared at the marine base he was ruling.

"No, I captured him. He is missing a limb or two, but still alive." Akainu said as he crossed his arms.

"... I see... You did well. I don't think the Big Mom Pirates will act right away, but they will definitely call for us to visit them and bring Oven to them. Especially since he is one of Big Mom's children." Sengoku said as he stroked his beard.

"Hmph, disgusting pirates thinking they own the seas. I will go if necessary, but if I do so, I will kill that pirate scum right at their front door." Akainu said as he huffed a bit of smoke.

As an admiral, he was not afraid of either Big Mom or her crew.

He strongly believed that he had done the right thing, as it was his job as a marine to hunting down pirates in the end.

"I know you would. I wouldn't expect anything less from you... But we don't want a war Sakazuki. A war will leave us weakened, and the other Yonko will take advantage of that. The World Government would also not agree to the war..." Sengoku seemed to be more and more annoyed as he thought about the situation.

They were the marines, yet they couldn't apply their justice freely in the New World exactly because of the influence of the Yonko.

Winning a war against Big Mom was not impossible for the Marines, but there were plenty of other pirates that would take advantage of the Marines' weakened forces right after the battle.

There would also be plenty of people taking advantage of the territories that were previously under Big Mom's protection, which would only make for more scandals.

"..." Akainu didn't say anything, he knew that a war wasn't a good idea in the current climate, at least not without a concrete clause.

"Wow, what a conundrum we find ourselves in!" That was when Enel walked into the room, dispersing the heavy mood with a few words as he strolled inside without any worries.

"You brat! You came back already?" Garp said as he looked at Enel with a smile on his face.

The whole talk about the war didn't interest Garp much. If there was to be a war, he'd fight in it, if not then whatever, he didn't care either way.

"Of course I did! Ran out of bounties to collect." Enel said as he twirled one of his earlobes around his finger.

"I'm afraid the situation isn't a joking matter Enel... Many lives could be lost if war truly begins." Sengoku said as he looked at Enel with an appreciative smile.

"... This is all your fault!" Akainu said as he looked at Enel with a bit of anger.

"I only proposed a hunt, you were the one that decided to kidnap a baby wolf cub and bring it back to us... The rest of the pack are obviously not going to be happy about it." Enel sat down right beside Garp.

The old man handed him a packet of rice crackers and the two of them just started eating mid-conversation.

"..." Sengoku looked at the scene, a tear threatening to fall from his right eye.

'I should never have let Garp train him...'

"This is very disrespectful! We've had this talk before already! And if you hadn't proposed that stupid competition I wouldn't have felt the need to go after such weaklings!"

Enel just smiled as he mounched on a rice cracker.

"... STOP!" Sengoku said as his anger also finally rose.

"Pointing fingers won't help anyone!" The Fleet Admiral said as he rubbed his temples in annoyance.

"Enel... While Akainu was the one to bring in Oven you are the one that convinced him to disrespect orders! I was pondering on how to punish you for a few weeks... I think I finally have the right idea!"

Sengoku seemed like he had cracked the code when he was speaking, and Akainu seemed happy about what he was hearing.

But Garp and Enel were still just eating and looking at Sengoku as if the situation had nothing to do with them.

"You will be the one to take Oven back to the Big Mom pirates, fighting them won't benefit us right now, we must preserve our strength, we can't simply start a war without the World Government's approval.

The world's balance is already shifting constantly, we can't afford to mess with it for no good reason.

It's a long journey, but I expect you to be done within 3 months!"

"Ok, sure." Enel just looked at him, his face didn't show much emotion, and his mouth kept devouring Rice Crackers.

'The marines are doomed after my retirement...' Was the only thing on Sengoku's mind when watching that scene.

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