About ten more days passed. Everything remained calm. No incidents.
"Captain, Reverse Mountain is up ahead." As the only person aboard who had ever sailed through Reverse Mountain, Riddle knew it better than anyone.
"Let's hope this last leg stays peaceful too," Shirakawa prayed silently.
But according to Murphy's Law, the one thing you don't want to happen is often the very thing that does.
Not long after Riddle's excitement, three Marine warships appeared in front of them. It looked like they'd been lying in wait for quite some time.
"Seems we'll have one last big battle before we leave." Shirakawa was a little surprised that the Marines knew his plans, but it might just be a coincidence.
The three warships were waiting not far from the foot of Reverse Mountain. Shirakawa's crew showed no intention of slowing down.
"Captain, what do we do?" Yuristin wiped down his gun, aimed it at the distant warships, and squinted.
"Relax, leave it to me. Perfect timing—you two new crew members haven't seen what I can do yet, have you?"
Shirakawa had just scanned the area with his Observation Haki and sensed no threatening presence. In other words, running into those warships was pure coincidence.
If the Marines had been targeting them, they would have sent at least one Vice Admiral from Headquarters. Instead, the highest-ranking officer on the three ships was a mere Branch Rear Admiral.
"Rear Admiral, pirate ship spotted ahead—but it's not our target." As Shirakawa's crew spotted the warships, so too did the lookouts aboard the Marine vessels.
"Which crew is it? Couldn't hack it on the Grand Line, so they're slinking back to the Four Seas?"
When it came to pirate crews retreating from the Grand Line back to the Four Seas, the Rear Admiral had only one thought. Every year, countless crews did exactly that, most of them people who had run into a wall too big to break through.
"If they don't interfere with our operation, we'll arrest them in passing. Saves them from going back to the Four Seas and causing more trouble."
"Rear Admiral, it's the Silver Pirates." The lookout's voice carried clear notes of tension and fear as he spoke the name.
"What?! The Silver Pirates?" The Marines had not forgotten that crew, who had stirred up so much trouble a month ago. The memory was still fresh.
"Damn it. Why them? Headquarters' plan has completely fallen apart."
That was right. Marine Headquarters had long since drawn up a plan to capture the Silver Pirates. They had assumed the crew would head to the New World to lie low, so they had set up an ambush at the Sabaody Archipelago.
What they never expected was that the Silver Pirates, instead of going to the New World, would come to the Four Seas. It caught every Marine off guard.
"Rear Admiral, what do we do now?"
"Clear the way. Let them pass." The Rear Admiral spoke the words through gritted teeth. A full Marine Rear Admiral, forced to make way for pirates. The irony was bitter.
But he knew he was no match for them. He couldn't let his men throw their lives away for nothing.
He had trained at Marine Headquarters, in the same class as Kuzan. He knew exactly how strong Kuzan was. Annihilating their entire force would be child's play for someone like that.
Besides, he'd heard not long ago that Kuzan had taken on the mission to capture the Silver Pirates—and failed. Rumor was, Kuzan had been badly injured in that battle.
So their captain, Adolf K. Shirakawa, almost certainly had the power to wipe them out. He wasn't about to risk his soldiers' lives.
"Rear Admiral?" The Marine relaying orders was stunned. He had never imagined his commanding officer would issue an order to let pirates pass.
"He's not an opponent we can handle. Leave him to Headquarters. Our job is to make sure our real target doesn't slip away." The Rear Admiral explained to his subordinate.
"Yes, Rear Admiral."
The Marines' actual target was another vicious pirate crew—the kind that had slaughtered an entire village and sunk a Marine warship, inflicting heavy casualties.
So the Marines had issued orders to strike hard against this crew and capture them. Forced into a corner, the pirates decided to flee back to the Four Seas, unaware that the Marines had already set up an ambush and were just waiting for them to walk into the trap.
"Captain! The Marines are making way for us!"
Just as Shirakawa was about to show off his power, Riddle's shout rang out.
"What?" Startled, Shirakawa looked and saw the Marines clearing the route to Reverse Mountain.
The whole maneuver left Shirakawa with a strange sense of powerlessness—all this strength and nowhere to swing it.
"Captain, could this be a trick?"
Yuristin was cautious by nature, probably shaped by his childhood. When he'd lived as a beggar, stealing food had always meant scouting a place several times before making a move.
His failed assassination attempt on Shirakawa had been a complete fluke. He'd never imagined Shirakawa could block bullets. He'd underestimated the strength of a pirate with a bounty in the hundreds of millions.
"Relax. Even if it's a trick, even if there's some scheme, it's all worthless in the face of absolute power."
"So... do we go through?" Riddle asked Shirakawa.
"Of course we go through. The Marines opened the way for us. No reason not to take it."
Following Shirakawa's order, Riddle steered the ship between the Marine warships. As they passed, Shirakawa and the crew could clearly see the pain and frustration etched on the Marines' faces.
"These Marines are pretty pathetic."
Seeing the Marines' furious glares but held-back fists, Riddle leaned close to Shirakawa's ear and whispered.
"Their commanding officer knows his limits. He doesn't want to make pointless sacrifices."
Shirakawa held a certain appreciation for a man like that. The Marine Rear Admiral who had fought them to the death last time had been impressive too, but he'd felt more like a brave fool than a wise leader.
This Rear Admiral knew how to swallow his pride and bide his time. That made him the most dangerous type.
"Rear Admiral! Are we really just going to watch them swagger past like this?" One Marine soldier couldn't take it any longer and spoke up.
"Then what do you suggest? If you're not afraid to die, be my guest."
"So there's really nothing we can do?"
"Who said that?" The Marine soldier's face lit up. From the Rear Admiral's tone, it sounded like there was still a chance.
"We can report this to Headquarters. They'll deal with it."
Hearing the Rear Admiral's words, the soldier froze. He'd never imagined that the one thing they could do was... just file a report about the Silver Pirates.
/-\
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