Back at Marineford, Diarmuid met with his sensei Zephyr again to talk about old times.
He learned that a new Logia-type user named Smoker had been recruited in Loguetown in the East Blue. His natural Devil Fruit ability was so rare that the Marines there recommended him directly to Headquarters.
Smoker had already entered the Marine Academy as an intern. That's right, an intern, not a student. He was too young to join the Marines directly, but Zephyr saw his potential and placed him in the academy early.
He wanted Smoker to absorb the culture for a few years, and once he was old enough, Zephyr would take him on as a student and give him a good career path after graduation.
His Logia-type ability was, unsurprisingly, the Smoke-Smoke Fruit. Diarmuid was interested in the kid but didn't feel the need to go and see him. He stayed at Zephyr's home for a day, and on the next day, he left Marineford and returned to G-7.
His warship was sailing slowly near the G-7 sea area, and he could already see the base in the distance.
The expansion project was completed, and it was now being fortified. In the distance, he could see a large number of cannons and fortresses standing tall. The port had also been expanded from one to four, and dozens of new warships were docked there.
On the docks, he could also see groups of Marine soldiers jogging. It seemed the recruitment drive was almost over. After a little more training, with a base of 50,000 soldiers, they could continue to take people from Impel Down.
The Marine town planned for the G-7 project hadn't even started, and the Calm Belt development plan was about to begin.
On the deck, Diarmuid held a Den Den Mushi and leaned against the railing, chatting with the person on the other end.
"So?" he asked with a smile. "Has the situation been exposed?"
"No. Vice Admiral Garp is staying at that woman's house. Speaking of which, that woman is really something. She's already past her due date, and she still hasn't given birth. Her willpower is amazing. I'm starting to admire her," Stussy replied on the Den Den Mushi.
That's right, Diarmuid was contacting Stussy. She was his trusted ally. The kind of ally you could go to war with.
"Vice Admiral Garp is really a man of his word. Since we parted ways in the South Blue, he hasn't left Baterilla Island. I've passed by Headquarters a few times, but I haven't seen him," Diarmuid said with emotion.
Garp might have a thousand flaws, but you had to admit that if you trusted him with your life and family, you had nothing to worry about.
"Yeah," Stussy said with a sigh.
Both Diarmuid and Garp had a certain human warmth about them, something she never felt in the cold, dark Cipher Pol agencies. The more she thought about it, the more grateful she was that she had allied with Diarmuid. He was a trustworthy backer in the darkness.
She felt even more at ease after Diarmuid became a Marine Admiral Candidate. She hadn't misjudged him.
After a brief pause, Stussy said, "The search here will be over soon, and we've found nothing. Also, I told you before that we were going to create a new intelligence agency. The framework is already set up, and a lot of people are fighting for control. I'm going to try my luck."
"How confident are you?" Diarmuid asked with a smile.
"With me on the job, I'm 100% confident!" Stussy said, her voice filled with confidence.
She had earned credit for the capture of Roger and had been working tirelessly on a long-term mission in the South Blue without any complaints. The Head of Cipher Pol and the Commander-in-Chief admired Stussy's temperament and methods, and she hadn't received her reward yet. As long as she asked, the higher-ups wouldn't make things difficult for her. If she succeeded, she would truly be the Queen of the Pleasure District.
"Then congratulations in advance," Diarmuid said with a laugh. Stussy responded with a few words and then lowered her voice. "You Marines should have noticed that something is off with the higher-ups, right?"
Diarmuid frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"
"Huh? You didn't notice? That's strange… I thought that after you became a Marine Admiral Candidate and worked at G-7 for a while, you would be promoted to Admiral when you got back to Headquarters. So, I secretly looked into it. Haven't you heard? The Gorosei aren't going to fill that vacant Admiral position for a while."
Diarmuid thought about it. "Admiral Sengoku mentioned it… but I didn't pay too much attention to it."
"It was our doing," Stussy said softly. "We were afraid that your Fleet Admiral would accumulate too many merits and be promoted to Commander-in-Chief of all military forces, which would steal our power. So, we convinced the Gorosei to hold off on your promotion. It's possible that they won't be filling the position for a long time."
Diarmuid didn't take it seriously. "I'm not in a hurry," he said with a smile.
In his memory, Sakazuki and the other two Admirals were only promoted after the arsonist, Fisher Tiger, died. That was still over a decade away, so he wasn't in a hurry. But Stussy's voice became serious. "You have to fight for it, Diarmuid! You need to become an Admiral as soon as possible!"
Diarmuid was startled. "Why?" he asked.
"Honestly, you Marines have never been good at political struggles. And you, while smart, are too naive in this area. If you had this 'I don't care' attitude in Cipher Pol, you would have been eaten alive!" Stussy warned him. "It would be different if you hadn't been named an Admiral Candidate or if there was no vacant Admiral position. But you have both. Under normal circumstances, you would train at G-7 for a while, prove your capabilities, and then naturally return to Headquarters to become an Admiral. Am I right?"
"You're right," Diarmuid said, nodding.
"But the way things are going, even after you've done your job at G-7 and returned to Headquarters, you still won't be promoted to Admiral, right?" Stussy asked.
"Right… So what?" Diarmuid frowned, still a little confused.
"What do you mean, 'so what'? This proves that your Headquarters' personnel decisions are being influenced by us, the Cipher Pol agencies. Do you know what that means? You can't let this happen. You Marines can't just take it. If you don't realize what this means, Cipher Pol's little test will be a success. They will only get more aggressive in the future, and your authority will be usurped. This is a common goal in political struggles. In politics, if you're not moving forward, you're falling behind. You must become an Admiral in the shortest amount of time possible to break the Cipher Pol's influence. Otherwise…" Stussy's voice was now full of urgency.
"Otherwise, this will become the norm? A new unspoken rule? And Cipher Pol will have a new way to interfere in the Marines' affairs?" Diarmuid finally understood.
Today, the Cipher Pol agencies, by convincing the Gorosei, had interfered with the Marines' internal decision to promote an Admiral. If he hadn't been an Admiral Candidate, it wouldn't have been considered interference because it would have been normal procedure. But with him being a candidate and the promotion being held off, it showed that Cipher Pol had indeed influenced the Marines' authority.
The Marines hadn't reacted to this yet, which, as Stussy said, showed their lack of political savvy. If the Gorosei and the Marines accepted this, it would become an unspoken rule.
From then on, whenever the Marines made a move, the Cipher Pol agencies would jump in to suppress them again. By then, the door would already be open, and it would be much harder to deal with.
This was why you couldn't make exceptions. One small concession today could cause a lot of trouble in the future!
"Exactly!" Stussy said.
As a high-ranking member of CP0, she shouldn't have been telling a Marine all this. But Stussy had made a clear choice between her own interests and the interests of Cipher Pol. She had decided to protect her own interests.
She was already Diarmuid's ally. In the short term, and even in the next ten or twenty years, they would benefit from helping each other. This was the only way they could both go further and increase their influence.
If Diarmuid stayed as an Admiral Candidate for another ten years, Stussy felt that she would lose out on a lot of benefits and support. She didn't want that to happen. So, after hearing some rumors, she noticed Cipher Pol's little scheme and immediately sold them out.
At that moment, Diarmuid finally understood everything.
To be honest, he had been too complacent. For the past two years, he had been a success at Headquarters, protected by Admiral Sengoku and Fleet Admiral Kong. He had naturally become a Marine Admiral Candidate. Because of this, he was at his most relaxed, believing that his future promotion to Admiral would be stress-free.
He never expected that his promotion would be used as an opportunity for the Cipher Pol agencies to undermine the Marines. He hadn't noticed, and the Marines hadn't reacted. He didn't know if Sengoku and Kong would realize what was happening and launch an effective counterattack, but he knew he couldn't let his promotion be so "natural" anymore.
When he returned to Headquarters after completing his task at G-7, he had to fight for it! Even if he had to challenge the World Government directly… he had to make the Gorosei back down.
He hadn't figured out how to do it yet, but he knew he needed to focus on two things: first, create trouble for the Cipher Pol agencies to make them lose the Gorosei's favor, and second, unite the Marines to fight back together. Otherwise, he couldn't change the minds of the Gorosei and the World Government by himself.
'Dragon… the Seven Warlords of the Sea… These two things can be used to make things difficult for Cipher Pol and to unite the Marines…' he thought to himself.
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