Mid-1509, Sea Circle Calendar.
Somewhere in the East Blue, aboard a Marine warship.
Vice Admiral Momonga leaned against the mast, bored out of his mind. He yawned widely, his mohawk catching the afternoon breeze.
Not far from him, Marine Hero Garp sat with a fishing rod, line cast over the side of the ship. He hadn't caught anything, but he looked completely content regardless.
Actually, since Ace, Luffy, and the others had moved to Marineford, Garp hadn't visited the East Blue nearly as often as before. He hadn't been back in two years. This time, he'd finally gotten the chance.
"Vice Admiral Garp," Momonga said, stifling another yawn as he walked over to stand behind the old man, "what do you think Admiral Finn is trying to accomplish? Why is there suddenly another anti-corruption campaign? It seems like the intensity is especially strong this time."
Two months ago, Admiral Rodriguez Finn had convened a meeting at Headquarters in his capacity as Admiral. Nearly every elite officer from Marineford had attended.
During the meeting, Finn had passionately denounced corruption within the Marines, emphasizing that the organization was meant to uphold justice, not operate as some lawless syndicate. The Marines' obligation was to safeguard the people of the seas, not exploit them.
The funds distributed to each base annually were intended to help them operate more effectively and protect their jurisdictions better, not line the pockets of shameless bastards engaging in corruption!
The fight against corruption must be continuous and vigorous!
In that conference room, Finn had spoken with tremendous authority. And starting from Marine Headquarters itself, a new round of anti-corruption and integrity campaigns had begun sweeping through the organization.
This wasn't beyond his authority, either.
Currently, the three Marine Admirals each had their own areas of focus.
Sakazuki was in charge of New World operations. Admiral Sengoku managed overall strategic planning and had absorbed some of the Fleet Admiral's powers. Meanwhile, Finn firmly controlled economic and developmental authority within the Marines.
From that perspective, as one of the three Admirals, Finn had every right and justification to launch an anti-corruption campaign.
After all, he was in charge of the economy!
Then Finn had seemed absolutely determined to root out corrupt Marines to the bitter end. He'd sent Garp to the East Blue, assisted by Momonga and others. He'd dispatched Gion to the West Blue and arranged for Chaton to go to the South Blue, each accompanied by several Vice Admirals.
Admiral Finn himself had personally gone to the North Blue, the sea with historically the most severe Marine corruption.
At this point, Kuzan and Borsalino were overseeing the New World, each with some ordinary Vice Admirals under their command. However, Marineford, Marine Headquarters itself, had been almost completely hollowed out by Finn's deployments.
Chief of Staff Tsuru hadn't made any moves. She was in charge of the Intelligence Department. You couldn't exactly send her to fight corruption.
During this period, Admiral Sengoku had also gone to the New World to handle some critical strategic arrangements. After all, the gateway waters of the New World were experiencing continuous low-level conflict between pirates and Marines.
Sakazuki was still somewhat inexperienced when it came to large-scale strategic planning, so Admiral Sengoku had gone to assist.
Therefore, as of right now, only Sakazuki and Fleet Admiral Kong were stationed at Headquarters.
They seemed a little undermanned, but in reality, Fleet Admiral Kong, Sakazuki, and Chief of Staff Tsuru were all tremendously powerful individuals. At the same time, there was also retired Admiral Zephyr, who lived quietly in Marineford.
Theoretically speaking, Marineford still had sufficient strength to defend Headquarters.
Moreover, Admiral Sengoku, along with Kuzan, Borsalino, and other elite Marine officers, were all positioned in the New World. The major pirates there had little chance of breaking through the defensive line to cause trouble at Marineford. It was very safe.
But this level of security made Mary Geoise awkwardly vulnerable, though no one had noticed this hidden implication yet.
If something happened to Mary Geoise, the Marines wouldn't have enough high-ranking personnel available for immediate support.
First, the Fleet Admiral absolutely couldn't move. Of the three Admirals, one was fighting corruption in the North Blue, one was conducting operations against pirates in the New World, and only Sakazuki remained at Headquarters.
But unfortunately, his ability was far too destructive. If Mary Geoise caught fire, Sakazuki would likely be more of a hindrance than help. He might even burn things that weren't originally flammable.
And this was also part of Finn's arrangement. Marineford was more than capable of defending itself, but support? Sorry, if you dared to deploy Sakazuki, then go ahead and use him.
"Hahahaha! Didn't he tell you?" Garp laughed, still focused on his fishing line.
"No. I just returned from the New World and was immediately assigned by the Admiral," Momonga said, shaking his head.
"Finn's the one in charge of economy and development, right? Not long ago, after the aftermath of the New World campaign, our Marine's military budget wasn't very abundant. But Sakazuki wanted to rapidly conquer the New World and asked Finn to allocate funds for expanding three New World Marine bases, including G-1. The two had a huge argument in the conference room and almost came to blows. In the end, Finn approved half the requested funding to Sakazuki. Now Headquarters' finances are stretched even thinner. In the short term, that guy couldn't think of any good way to recover the funds, so he set his sights on these corruption issues..." Garp explained with a grin.
This was indeed the explanation Finn had given to the senior Marine officers, and it sounded perfectly reasonable.
Momonga nodded in understanding. "So the Admiral wants us to arrest these corrupt Marines and confiscate all the money they've embezzled and accepted in bribes over the years to use as military funding?"
"That's about the gist of it," Garp confirmed.
"The Admiral's methods are really impressive," Momonga said with an appreciative smile.
"Hahahaha! Finn is exceptionally talented at making money. You've been managing things in the Calm Belt, so you should know his capabilities well enough," Garp laughed.
In this way, Marine Headquarters launched a vigorous anti-corruption campaign. Corrupt Marines across the seas panicked as one rat after another was dragged into the light. Large amounts of confiscated funds were continuously sent back to Headquarters.
It was no wonder. The excuse Finn had devised really did effectively alleviate the Marines' current budget pressures. A pleasant surprise, indeed.
At the same time, on Fish-Man Island, Fisher Tiger received news of the large-scale anti-corruption campaign being conducted by the Marines' elite commanders across all the seas.
He looked at the famous Marine figures featured in the newspaper, and his eyes gleamed with an inexplicable light.
Tiger had been a slave in Mary Geoise for several years. During that entire period, he'd wanted to escape constantly, and at the same time, he'd been carefully observing the Holy Land's condition.
Because of this, he'd discovered that Mary Geoise wasn't as "impregnable" as he'd imagined. It could even be described as riddled with holes!
So before he escaped, he'd already formed a bold plan: to liberate the slaves in Mary Geoise who suffered as he had.
He wanted to teach this damned World Government a lesson profound enough that they'd never forget it.
Later, he'd managed to escape, but due to the oppression of several years of slave life, his physical condition had been terrible.
He'd returned to Fish-Man Island to recuperate first.
As for his plan, while traveling back, he'd originally intended to tell the Neptune royal family everything he'd seen, heard, thought, and felt.
But after returning to Fish-Man Island, he'd discovered that during his captivity, the relationship between Fish-Man Island and Marine Headquarters had transformed dramatically. Even his former younger brother Jinbe had become a Marine Captain.
Tiger understood this was undoubtedly good for Fish-Man Island, so he hadn't gone to the Neptune royal family to tell them anything. When his younger brother Jinbe had come to visit him from the Marines, he hadn't even let him in, sending him away instead.
Now, his body had recovered to normal condition, but he'd still been somewhat worried. Although Mary Geoise's defenses were weak, it was still the Holy Land, and not too far from Marine Headquarters. If something unexpected happened during his operation, Marine reinforcements could arrive quickly.
The current Marines were filled with talented individuals. Many powerful officers. If a Marine Admiral like Finn showed up, Tiger might not have a good ending.
Just when Tiger had been contemplating how to solve this problem, he'd suddenly found that the problem had solved itself.
Admiral Finn had launched a new anti-corruption campaign within the Marines, and a large number of Admirals who'd previously been concentrated at Marineford were suddenly dispersed across all the seas.
Wasn't this the perfect opportunity to act?
Thinking of this, Fisher Tiger could no longer sit still. That very night, he left Fish-Man Island without saying goodbye to anyone.
By the time some of his younger brothers in Fish-Man District, like Arlong, discovered that Big Brother Tiger had disappeared again, Tiger had already climbed onto the Red Line. The conviction in his heart supported him as he infiltrated Mary Geoise through this crude but incredible method.
Arlong and the others weren't particularly surprised by Boss Tiger's sudden disappearance. They were used to it, after all. Their eldest brother was an adventurer. Especially after returning this time, Boss Tiger's personality had seemed to change considerably. He'd seemed unwilling to talk to anyone. His leaving without saying goodbye didn't seem especially shocking.
Just like that, Tiger disappeared from Fish-Man Island again without causing any ripples.
While Tiger was scaling the Red Line, Dragon and a group of Revolutionary Army cadres were hiding beneath the Holy Land of Mary Geoise.
They'd arrived in Mary Geoise just two days ago.
All those gathered here were Dragon's trusted confidants, so there weren't many people, but each one was exceptionally strong.
At this moment, Dragon held a blueprint in his hands that contained detailed descriptions of Mary Geoise's layout and structure.
"You must understand that our operation isn't about anything else," Dragon said, looking at each person gathered before him. "It's about liberating as many slaves as possible. At the same time, we're going to take all the ill-gotten wealth from the Celestial Dragons' mansions. Focus on creating chaos, not excessive killing. Understood?"
Although it might be theoretically possible to capture Mary Geoise in one assault, with the Revolutionary Army's current strength, it was impossible to actually occupy the place or destroy the World Government's core center. Therefore, Dragon didn't harbor delusions of achieving his ultimate ambition overnight.
Although he was willing to be bold about this operation, he wasn't someone who couldn't control his desires and ambitions. This time, he'd remain pragmatic: liberate slaves and seize wealth!
"Mr. Dragon..." one Revolutionary Army officer spoke up. "We've been here for two days. Aren't you going to take action yet?"
Dragon was silent for a moment, then said, "According to my intelligence source, there should be an incident in Mary Geoise soon. That would be the ideal time to act..."
After a brief pause, Dragon continued, "But I'm not entirely confident in this intelligence source's reliability. Anyway, let's wait a bit longer. If there's still no movement by tomorrow, we'll take action tomorrow night."
"Yes!" the Revolutionary Army cadres responded in unison.
"How's the support team?" Dragon asked.
He was different from Tiger. Tiger operated alone, and his results would largely depend on luck.
But Dragon was organized.
"Our ships are coated and lurking beneath the port of Mary Geoise," another Revolutionary Army cadre reported quickly. "Once chaos erupts above and we take action, they'll rapidly capture the port and come to our aid."
Dragon nodded and said nothing more. Everything that needed to be arranged had been arranged. Now it all depended on how much they could achieve!
Even Dragon felt a surge of excitement at the thought that he was about to set fire to Mary Geoise, free the slaves, and plunder the Celestial Dragons.
It was just that in front of his subordinates, he had to maintain a calm and composed image.
"Time... please go faster," Dragon murmured softly, then closed his eyes, leaned against the wall, and rested.