The long shadow of the Marine Headquarters building was left behind as Kane walked away.
Kane did not head straight back to his office.
Instead, he made a detour to the high-ranking officer special supply store located within the heart of Marineford.
Feeling the heavy check resting in his pocket, Kane let out a cold, sharp laugh. He had no intention of spending that "selling price" money from the higher-ups. Instead, he planned to use the Berries he had secretly plundered and stashed away from the Germa treasury during his previous mission.
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained. If I am not willing to part with a few Berries now, I will never be able to secure these high-level thugs for free later," Kane muttered to himself.
A few minutes later, Kane walked toward the special grade officer dormitory. He carried three beautifully wrapped gift boxes and hummed a low, casual tune.
Living inside that dormitory were the three "monsters" from his same graduation year in Zephyr's Elite Training Camp.
They were the men he had already designated as the Marine F4 Dream Team, the group he intended to use to dominate the New World in the near future.
Click.
Kane pushed open the heavy oak door without knocking.
A complex scent immediately hit him, a thick mixture of expensive cigars, cooling tea, and a faint, unnatural chill that wafted through the air.
Inside the spacious four-person luxury suite, the atmosphere was just as fragmented and uncoordinated as it usually was.
Over by the window, Borsalino was lounging in his flashy yellow and white striped shirt, his trademark sunglasses resting on his nose.
He sat with his legs crossed, meticulously trimming his nails with a small pair of clippers.
He hummed a random, wandering tune while checking his reflection in a hand mirror, tilting his head to inspect the many wrinkles on his face from different angles.
In the far corner of the room, Kuzan was fast asleep. He wore an eye mask featuring a silly, cute seagull pattern.
He was sprawled out across his bed, his heavy snoring causing the very frame to vibrate.
A large snot bubble hung from his nostril, growing and shrinking in perfect rhythm with his deep breaths, constantly teetering on the edge of bursting against the sheets.
On the floor in the center of the room, Sakazuki was hard at work. He was shirtless, revealing the rock-hard, scarred muscle lines of his torso.
He was currently performing high-difficulty, one-handed handstand pushups. Sweat dripped steadily down his resolute, unshaven chin.
A small puddle of salt water had already accumulated on the wooden floor beneath his single supporting hand.
"Yo, Lord Majors, are you all present and accounted for?"
Kane stepped inside, closed the door behind him, and pointedly turned the lock.
Hearing the sudden noise, Borsalino lazily lifted his eyelids just a fraction. Sakazuki did not break his rhythm or stop his movement. Kuzan... well, Kuzan continued to blow bubbles in his sleep.
"I brought you some local specialties from my travels," Kane said.
With a harmless, friendly smile on his face, Kane flicked his wrist. Three gift boxes flew through the air with perfect accuracy toward the three men.
Snap.
Borsalino reached out a long arm and caught the dark red wooden box, raising a curious eyebrow.
He opened the lid slowly, moving with his usual deliberate lack of haste.
An extremely mellow, rich tea fragrance instantly filled the corner of the room.
"Oh~?"
Borsalino's eyes seemed to light up behind his tinted yellow sunglasses. The usual sleazy, mocking aura he carried around diminished just a little bit.
"Is this first-class black tea from the East Blue? Kowaine~ Kane, this is the kind of stuff only nobles get to drink. Did you finally strike it rich on your last mission?"
"As long as it is for my brothers, it is worth any price I have to pay," Kane replied, his voice dripping with deep, faked emotion.
On the other side of the room, Sakazuki supported his entire body weight with one hand while steadily catching the flying iron box with the other.
Upon opening the metal lid, he saw two neat rows of top-tier, hand-rolled cigars.
These were sourced from the private estate of a West Blue Godfather and were impossible to purchase on the open market through legitimate channels.
Sakazuki stopped his workout and flipped himself back onto his feet in one fluid motion.
He picked up a cigar and gave it a long sniff. The pungent, strong scent of high-quality tobacco caused his perpetually furrowed brow to relax slightly.
"Thoughtful of you," Sakazuki said in a deep, gravelly voice. His tone remained stiff and formal, but he was clearly pleased with the tribute.
As for Kuzan... Smack! A hard plastic card flew through the air, accurately hitting and popping his snot bubble before landing flat on his forehead.
Kuzan woke up with a start, his limbs flailing as he groppily grabbed at the object on his face. "Huh? What? Who's attacking me..."
When he realized the item in his hand was a voucher for a "Polar Walker: Limited Edition Off-road Bicycle," all traces of sleepiness vanished from his eyes.
"Whoa! Is this the limited edition model that I couldn't find anywhere?!"
Kuzan scrambled up from his bed, clutching the voucher to his chest like it was his long-lost dream lover.
"Kane! You really are my big brother!"
Seeing the satisfied expressions on all three faces, the grin on Kane's face grew even wider and more predatory.
Kane pulled over a wooden chair and sat down with a commanding, relaxed air in the dead center of the room. He lit a cigarette, took a deep breath, and let the smoke curl around his head. His originally cheerful expression slowly shifted into something serious, almost carrying a hint of heavy loneliness.
"The gifts are good, I know. But brothers, don't you think... this kind of life at HQ is getting a bit too boring?"
The relaxed atmosphere in the luxury suite froze instantly.
"Boring?" Borsalino asked as he went back to blowing on his nails. "Yeah~ drinking tea and reading the morning newspaper every single day, clocking out exactly on time, and occasionally catching a few minor pirates worth over a hundred million... this kind of life is exactly what this old man dreams of~"
"Stop pretending, Borsalino."
Kane flicked his cigarette ash onto the floor, his gaze becoming as sharp as a torch, piercing straight through Kizaru's lazy disguise.
"In a place like Marine Headquarters, you have Fleet Admiral Sengoku watching you from above and Teacher Zephyr keeping an eye on your every move. Having to deal with all this endless red tape and bureaucracy... can you really spread your wings and show what you're capable of?"
Borsalino's hand stopped moving. The clippers stayed silent. Although he did not speak, the reflection of the light in his sunglasses flickered with a sudden, sharp intensity.
Kane did not give him a chance to recover or breathe. He suddenly turned his head to look directly at Sakazuki, who was busy wiping away his sweat with a towel.
"And what about you, Sakazuki? You spend your days punching a dead target in a training room. How much have your actual combat abilities improved lately?"
Sakazuki looked up sharply, a flash of suppressed anger burning in his eyes. "What are you trying to say, Kane?"
Kane stood up from his chair and walked to the center of the room, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper.
"Come with me. We're going to the G-5 Branch."
"G-5? That absolute junkyard of a base?"
Sakazuki frowned deeply, his face full of open disdain for the notorious, chaotic outpost.
"Yes, a junkyard," Kane said, his voice turning cold and hard.
"Here at HQ, you hit dead targets every day. But out there, those heinous pirates are constantly passing through the waters of G-5, pouring into the New World to harm even more innocent civilians!"
"Your so-called 'Absolute Justice' has no real place to be exercised in these safe hallways!"
"Right now, you are just engaging in a meaningless act of self-satisfaction!"
Kane's words were calculated, striking hard at the core of Sakazuki's personal philosophy.
"But there, at G-5, you can carry out your brand of Justice to the very end."
"Any pirate who attempts to pass through G-5, no matter who they think they are, is to be arrested immediately. Those who dare to resist are to be killed on the spot. No one at the top will care if you dye that entire sea red with their blood!"
Sakazuki's breathing grew heavy and ragged. Faint wisps of billowing black smoke began to rise from his clenched fists as his temperature climbed.
Kane turned back to Borsalino. "Borsalino, think about the logistics."
"In the New World, pirates are as numerous as the hairs on an ox. There is no shortage of targets."
"You just have to fly into the sky, fire off a few casual lasers, and it will be recorded as a massive achievement for your record."
"Finish your work, then clock out to drink your tea. There are no high-ranking inspectors there to check your attendance or your posture."
"Isn't that much more efficient than putting on this boring act here at Headquarters?"
Borsalino stroked his chin, his sunglasses reflecting the light from the window. "That sounds... like it really has some potential~"
"As for Kuzan."
Kane reached out and patted the shoulder of the still-dazed Aokiji, speaking with an earnest, brotherly tone.
"You can sleep wherever you want, whenever you want. It is far from the reach of the central authorities. You can ride your bicycle across the open sea for days at a time, and no one will bother you with reports."
"And..."
Kane's voice became deeply serious. "Only out there, facing true, great pirates in life-or-death battles, can your ice abilities be truly tempered."
"If you stay here in the safety of Marineford, you will just become flowers in a greenhouse. You will never be able to reach the peak of an Admiral!"
All three men fell into a heavy silence.
As the strongest trio of their generation, already being hailed across the Navy as "monsters."
Deep down, they each possessed an incredible amount of pride.
None of them wanted to start their retirement at such a young age, and they certainly did not want to watch their peers leave them behind in terms of strength and reputation.
Seeing that the three were already tempted by his pitch, Kane suddenly let out a long, dramatic sigh.
His acting skills were back online and running at full capacity.
He turned his back to the three of them. His shoulders trembled slightly, and he looked exceptionally desolate and lonely standing there.
"Besides... I have already made up my mind to go."
"I didn't originally intend to drag you all into this mess with me, but... when I think about how the four of us have been together since the first day of training camp, and now I am heading to the New World all alone... if I die one day at the hands of some legendary pirate, I won't even have a friend there to collect my body..."
"This..."
Kuzan was the first one to break. Among the three, he had the softest heart.
He scratched the back of his head, sounding a bit embarrassed and awkward. "Ah, well, since you've put it that way, I'm not the kind of guy who lacks loyalty. That... I guess I'll just have to go with you."
"Can't be helped then~"
Borsalino shrugged his shoulders and put away his nail clippers.
"Since Kane put it like that, it would be quite a lot of trouble if we let you die out there all by yourself~ After all, no one else is going to send me such high-quality tea."
Sakazuki did not say a word.
He simply picked up the iron box of cigars and gave a single, firm nod of his head.
At that moment, the room was filled with a touching, heavy atmosphere of deep brotherhood and shared destiny.
"Great! I knew you guys were loyal! You really are my good brothers!"
Kane suddenly spun around on his heel. The loneliness and sadness on his face vanished in an instant, replaced by the wild, manic joy of a successful scheme.
"Since everyone has no objections, then it is officially settled!"
Slap!
He suddenly pulled a thick document from the inside of his coat and slammed it heavily onto the center table.
It was an official transfer order, and it was already stamped with Fleet Admiral Kong's big, red, official seal!
"No need to thank me! To prevent any of you from regretting your decision later, I already applied for and secured the transfer orders for all of you this morning!"
Sakazuki, Borsalino, and Kuzan, who were all still feeling genuinely moved just a few seconds ago.
As they looked down at the document where even their specific names had already been filled in perfectly, their expressions froze in place.
Wait... isn't there something very wrong with this plot?
Before we even agreed to go, you already had the legal paperwork finished?
Which means... whether we agreed just now or not, we were going to be forced to go anyway?!
"See clearly, I am the official G-5 Base Commander."
Kane picked up the transfer order, pointing his finger at the high-level position appointment listed on it, laughing shamelessly.
"And you three are now my direct subordinate Majors."
Kane adjusted his tie, held his head high, and swept his gaze over these three future ultimate combat forces of the Marine. His voice was filled with a peak sense of delight.
"So, from now on, when we are in public..."
"Remember to call me 'Sir,' my Majors."
Looking at the three faces that now looked as if they had just swallowed live flies—uncomfortable, annoyed, yet completely unable to argue.
Kane's mood reached an absolute, all-time high.
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