Seaside System - Chapter 15.1

Another budget report.

How annoying, but less annoying than some other things he could think of. 'It's actually been rather quiet lately.' Sengoku mused to himself as he scribbled away at the paperwork atop his desk.

*Crunch*

*Crunch*

*Crunch*

Well, relatively quiet.

Sengoku cast an annoyed glance out of the corner of his eye at his oldest and most annoying friend lounging across the large couch that spanned the length of his office, munching on a bag of rice crackers.

…It was his fourth bag. Three empty sat on his left side.

Eleven more un-opened sat at his right.

To this day, even after decades of knowing the man, Monkey D. Garp's appetite completely baffled him.

He was used to the buffoon though, so he could ignore that through time honoured and intensively honed practice.

The sides of his lips twitched up in a semblance of a small smile as he went back to his paperwork.

Yes, things had been quite blissfully quiet in the world for the most part. The annoying Emperors were keeping to themselves, the uppity warlords were content with where they were at the moment and even those blasted revolutionaries hadn't done a single thing of note for a while now.

And there was even few pirate crews making all that of a ruckus they couldn't put a boot to beyond a few upstarts that weren't really all that concerning.

…Well there was one who he was keeping an eye on out of interest, but that was less to do with the boys career as a pirate, and everything to do with how he ended up on the path he was now.

Well, Sakazuki had made a stink not long ago, he was quite wroth over something he was keeping his eye on not working out. A promising young lad going rogue and killing one of their vice admirals on the way out, but then Sakazuki was always raging about something.

Personally, while it was of course aggravating Sengoku wasn't personally invested in the situation like Sakazuki who had been planning on taking the boy as a student, he was talented for sure but so were a lot of people, and Graydle wasn't exactly deserving of his rank as a Vice Admiral in strength or achievement and in fact Sengoku would never have promoted him anywhere close to Vice Admiral if not for pressure from above.

'Either way,' Sengoku hummed to himself as he continued on with the budget report in front of him, a report on the construction and cost of a new fleet of battleships, 'The boy was given an incredibly large bounty to start, if he knows what's good for him he'll keep a low profile from now on and not bo-'

The doors to his office slammed open, "Fleet Admiral!" one of his marines entered, a panicked look on his face and carrying a small proko, an older variant of den den mushi that could pick up visual transmissions from cameko den den mushi, "We have a situation!"

…Sengoku sighed, 'I just had to tempt fate.'

Garp of course barely reacted to the interrupted, merely raising an eyebrow, before tossing his empty rice cracker bag aside and picking up another.

"Report." Sengoku said simply.

And resisted the urge to massage his temples.

The marine, an Ensign going by his uniform saluted him, a nervous look on his face, "Sir! We…we received a transmission from the 16th branch, in the East Blue." he reported.

Oh.

Sengoku felt his shoulders relax almost instinctually, if it was just from the East Blue it wouldn't be anything of real note. This lad was young, he probably panicked about some pirate making a name for himself and running straight here.

Well no matter.

"I see," Sengoku smiled at him welcomingly, the lad was probably incredibly tense being in a room alone with both himself and Garp, who for some reason all the younger generation idolized, 'Garp the Hero', what a laugh worthy reputation for him, "Go on son, what's happened?"

Even assuming someone decently strong did pop up, it wouldn't be anyone Smoker who was stationed at Logue Town couldn't handle. His devil fruit while far from the most powerful of Logia's, came with few weaknesses that could be abused without Haki, and so it was all but impossible for someone from the East Blue to defeat him.

"Sir…we assumed the transmission would be from Captain Nezumi who leads the 16th branch….but…" the young lad trailed off nervously.

Sengoku frowned, that hesitation obviously didn't mean good news. Had some pirate assaulted the base then or something and killed Captain…Nezumi?

"I assume Captain Nezumi is in some way, unable to call himself then?" Sengoku asked gently.

"Well yes….he's dead Fleet Admiral," the young man reported, grimacing, "But…it's who is calling that is the problem."

His eyebrows rose, "Go on?" he prompted.

He caught sight of Garp sitting up straight on the couch and paying attention. Odd.

What had caught his attention?

"It's Crimson Kaden sir!" the young marine blurted out, "The traitor, he's somehow made it all the way from the New World to East Blue already and killed everyone stationed at the 16th branch and is demanding to speak to you!"

Garp promptly relaxed for whatever reason.

While Sengoku's jaw dropped at the sheer audacity he just heard of.

"…Since when do we give in to demands from pirates, and traitors for that matter?" Sengoku replied on instinct.

A vein pulsed on his forehead. What sheer gall this little upstart had!

"That's funny, I thought you were quite used to bending over and taking it from pirates." a voice he was completely unfamiliar with echoed from the microphone of the den den mushi.

Garp snorted.

The vein on his forehead doubled in size, "You didn't cover the receiver?" he growled at the young marine reporting to him.

"H-he said if we did sir he'd attack and destroy another marine base!" the lad spluttered, fear in his eyes, "S-since he is a former marine I thought it wouldn't matter as much and save our comrades lives in the East Blue, sir!"

…Well he couldn't fault him for that.

Sengoku gave an aggravated sigh and waved his arm, "Bring it over here." he ordered, collapsing in his chair in annoyance.

"Sir!" the young lad saluted, before walking over and placing the den den mushi on his desk.

"Good work." Sengoku praised him, before dismissing the boy. And only when the boy left the room behind, did he press the button on the shell of the den den mushi and display the full transmission.

Light erupted from the den den mushi snail's eyes and displayed the feed of the one it was connected to, way over in the East Blue.

And Sengoku got his first look at the so called 'Crimson Kaden'. Outside of his bounty poster at least.

His first thought of the boy, and he was just a boy.

Was, that he was a cocky little brat.

Large and broad of build for his age, with golden blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He was a handsome youth for sure that would no doubt catch the eye of many girls later down the line.

Too bad his face was ruined by a cocky, sneering smirk on his face as he reclined on a chair, feet resting arrogantly atop a desk.

And in the corner of the room being displayed, he could see a corpse facing away from the screen, dressed in a white cap and a marine captain coat.

'That would be Captain Nezumi then.' Sengoku grit his teeth.

Had there had been a pirate with such gall, that after murdering the force of a marine base would call the fleet admiral themselves…to what? Mock them?

Such audacity!

"What is the meaning of this, boy?" Sengoku leaned forward and growled out, gnashing his teeth angrily, "You dare make a call here and make demands, after what you've done?"

"Oh, Garp's there as well, crazy," the bratty upstart had the gall to laugh, "Hey Vice Admiral Garp, I copied your Galaxy Impact, it's got a lame name though so I'm giving it a better name."

A second vein joined the first pulsing on Sengoku's forehead.

"Doubt it." Garp replied without missing a beat and continued eating his crackers.

"Indeed, highly doubtful." Sengoku scoffed, "It's not so simple a technique that some upstart brat like you could copy just by hearing about it and how Garp trains, punching battleships only gets you so far boy."

Yes, he'd heard about that. He hadn't paid it any special attention, because the amount of people who tried to copy Garp's inane training were uncountable, only one he knew of had actually taken to it and got anything out of it.

"How ruthless, no faith," the brat just laughed, "Well I suppose you're not wrong, I was bluffing a bit, I'm not quite there yet." he continued, pulling one of the hands he had crossed behind his head and curling it into a fist before them.

And Sengoku's eyes widened as he watched bolts of black and crimson red crackle into existence around the boys fist!

Conqueror's Haki!

And what was worse, it was controlled! An awakened conqueror! No wonder the boy was so god damn audacious.

God damn conquerors! They always had the absolute worst attitudes to deal with!

"I'm not quite at the point where I can infuse Conqueror's Haki into my attacks, yet, but I'll get there some day soon." he told them sounding quite proud of himself.

That caught both of their attention, "You know of it!?" Sengoku hissed in shock, and even Garp's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

The advanced usage of Conquerors Haki was a technique they did their best to suppress the knowledge of. And even then, even if one had the knowledge of it and was an awakened conqueror, it wasn't something one could just learn. They had to have the will for it and the talent, not even your 'standard' conqueror could do it reliably.

The amount of people in the world that could use the technique, could be counted on Sengoku's hands with fingers left over. And a few on the list were already dead.

Like Roger.

"Yup, I know a lot of things actually, a lot of things you and your bosses wouldn't like anyone to know about." the brat smugly replied.

Sengoku barely resisted the urge to allow his hands to clench into fists, "What exactly is your goal here, you little upstart traitor?" he growled out, "What do you actually hope to accomplish? You killed your fellow marines, went rogue and now you're calling me to brag about it? To brag about what a threat you seem to think you'll be in the future?"

In return, the upstart had the gall to merely shrug, "Well I wouldn't call the fools I killed marines, they were corrupt, this whole base I'm in now were working with the pirate Arlong and his fishman crew," he replied uncaringly, "And Graydle and his lot were treating the people like slaves and outright stealing from them and raping the women of the place they were supposed to protect. But that's neither here nor there, I'm not really going to go into much in that regard, I've got a mission after all old man seagull."

…What!?

Sengoku wished he could be surprised about Graydle, but he wasn't. The sixteenth branch however was a surprise. The boy could be lying he thought for a second, before dismissing it. His casual uncaring statement as if fact, and what he said at the end tickled something in his brain.

"You have a mission?" he prompted the boy, "From who?"

"Classified," Kaden just laughed, before reaching towards his back where two blade hilts hung over his shoulders and unsheathed one, showing it off to him, "Enough about that though. Check out this sword of mine, pretty badass right? It's Sandai Kitetsu, I picked it up here in East Blue, a pretty awesome find to get a sword of this quality in the weakest sea, right?"