Just as Hina was about to draw her blade and attack Finn, the "old pervert," the Den Den Mushi placed on the deck beside him suddenly rang.
Both Hina and Finn turned to look. The Den Den Mushi mimicked Gion's appearance, which made them both fall silent immediately.
Finn glanced back at Vergo, who was reading. Vergo looked startled and quickly said, "Admiral, I didn't betray you..."
As he spoke, he stood up and looked around. The other Marine officers also wore expressions clearly stating, "It wasn't me."
"Get out of here! Just standing there making fun of me!" Finn cursed.
Vergo nodded with a smile, then quickly retreated with his fellow deck crew.
"Is there some surveillance Den Den Mushi hiding on my ship?" Finn looked around, muttering to himself.
As he spoke, he glanced at Hina again. The flush on her face, which had been so aggressive moments ago, had faded considerably. Her eyes seemed somewhat guilty as she glanced around, apparently also searching for monitoring Den Den Mushi.
How did Gion-san's call appear instantly after I just kissed Hina?
That doesn't make sense, right?
Finn looked around casually, decided it was impossible, and without further thought, picked up the Den Den Mushi. "Hello? Gion?"
"Hmm? Why do you sound so guilty?" Gion asked from the other end.
Finn was momentarily stunned. She could tell? He quickly covered. "What guilty conscience? I was fishing, and your call made me lose a fish."
"Really?" Gion didn't dwell on it, but her tone turned serious. "Something troublesome has happened."
"What trouble?" Finn asked calmly.
Hina leaned closer curiously, wanting to hear what was happening, but as soon as she approached, Finn glared at her and pointed at his own lips meaningfully.
Hina angrily raised her leg and kicked Finn's calf, her expression ferocious with gritted teeth.
Finn rolled his eyes and ignored her.
Gion naturally didn't notice the issue. After all, she couldn't see them. She simply said, "Robin ran away."
"???" Finn was confused. That couldn't be right, could it?
Why would she run away? She ate well and lived comfortably in the Marines. Both Gion and he had taken excellent care of her, even allowing her to visit her mother in Impel Down. She was a Captain at Marine Headquarters. He'd heard Gion had been planning to promote her to Commodore recently. She'd been one step closer to her goal. Why would she flee now?
"No way? Why did she run? Did she defect?" Finn asked with surprise.
"Not quite. You probably don't know yet—I just found out myself. During the time we went to the New World to capture Shanks, Robin applied to join the Intelligence Department's special forces. The Chief of Staff wasn't paying close attention, and she managed to slip through. Then yesterday, she took a mission from Intelligence and secretly left Headquarters. When I couldn't find her today, I discovered all this," Gion said softly.
"Ah..." Finn finally breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn't defected, just gone on a mission. That was understandable.
The more dangerous the mission, the greater the merit upon success. Robin had been working in Intelligence for so long—she must be eager to go out and earn accomplishments, right?
"What mission?" Finn asked.
"Going undercover. She chose Crocodile," Gion said helplessly.
Finn was stunned momentarily, then asked, "Why? Has something happened with Crocodile recently?"
"On one hand, among the current Seven Warlords, our Marines are most dissatisfied with Crocodile. Robin knows all these details, and she also knows about our Warlord infiltration plans. She understands that our Marines will eventually take action against Crocodile. If she can infiltrate early, wait for the right opportunity, and help us eliminate Crocodile from within, it would definitely be a major accomplishment. With our support for her, plus her own merits and accumulated experience over the years, she might jump directly to Rear Admiral in one move," Gion analyzed.
"That's true," Finn nodded.
There were currently five Warlords. Hancock didn't need much explanation. Robin had maintained a good relationship with her during their time at G-7, so naturally she knew Hancock was aligned with the Marines. Moreover, Hancock had only recently become a Warlord, so there wasn't much to discuss there.
As for Smoker, he was a veteran Warlord and also Marine-affiliated, so nothing needed to be said.
Bartholomew Kuma—the secret communication line between Marine Headquarters and the Revolutionary Army was managed by the Fleet Admiral and Admiral Sengoku. Finn had never paid much attention to these matters, but this man was currently in the same boat with the Marines, so there was no concern there.
Mihawk—Finn had recruited him to fill gaps, because he was very suitable for the Warlord position when the Marines were short on candidates. After all, he wasn't a true pirate. After claiming the title of World's Greatest Swordsman, his threat level had dropped sharply. Now he wouldn't just go around randomly cutting people down in the streets.
He was a wild card not worth worrying about—just let him make small waves.
Therefore, only Crocodile remained. The Marines had always been very dissatisfied with him and originally hadn't intended to let him become a Warlord, but he'd achieved it anyway.
After becoming a Warlord, this man had never contacted the Marines or made any statement. He'd simply stayed in Alabasta without moving.
According to Robin's own analysis, once the Marines decided to take action against the Warlords, the first target should be Crocodile. So after thinking it through, she'd made her decision when Hancock officially became a Warlord.
"Of course, that's just one aspect. There are two other reasons," Gion said again.
"What reasons?" Finn asked.
"The situation in Alabasta has been very unstable recently, with numerous internal conflicts. Apparently, the Nefertari clan's reputation has been affected. So our Headquarters also suspects something has gone wrong in Alabasta," Gion said softly.
"You suspect Crocodile is causing trouble?" Finn asked.
Gion was momentarily stunned. "Ah? No, do you suspect Crocodile?"
"Shouldn't I suspect Crocodile? He's hiding in Alabasta. Alabasta was fine before, but now problems have emerged," Finn said with surprise.
So Intelligence didn't suspect Crocodile?
After brief hesitation, Gion said softly, "Could it be Crocodile? He's a pirate—there's no reason for him to do something so tedious, right? Is he planning to usurp the throne? Hehehe."
In truth, before Doflamingo used schemes to seize Dressrosa as a Warlord, no one imagined that pirates could usurp nations.
After all, pirates' reputations were too terrible.
After Doflamingo seized Dressrosa's throne, everyone had actually regarded this as an isolated incident.
After all, Doflamingo had a special identity—his ancestors had genuinely been Dressrosa's royal family. This couldn't be considered a common pattern, so people still didn't take it seriously.
It wasn't until Alabasta nearly fell to Crocodile that nations worldwide truly realized the dangers posed by the Seven Warlords system.
Now, something had happened in Alabasta, but Marine Headquarters Intelligence didn't particularly suspect Crocodile.
In Finn's assessment, this seemed incredible and foolish, but looking at it from within this world's perspective, it seemed reasonable—unless he was cheating with meta-knowledge?
Finn didn't elaborate, but asked, "What does Intelligence suspect?"
In truth, when he asked this question, he already knew the answer.
"Revolutionary Army," Gion said quietly.
"Thought so." Finn clicked his tongue.
Yes, at this stage, if political instability, rebellion, uprising, or similar events occurred in any nation, the Revolutionary Army would undoubtedly be the first suspect.
After something like this happened in Alabasta, it was normal for Marine Intelligence to first suspect the Revolutionary Army. It was even possible that Crocodile had forged relevant evidence to frame them.
"Alabasta is different from ordinary nations. They're humanity's oldest country and the only nation on the super-large island 'Sandy Island.' They're also descendants of the twenty kings from that era. They hide countless secrets. But most importantly, Alabasta is a military power globally. If the Revolutionary Army genuinely seizes control of this country... the consequences would be unimaginable," Gion said softly.
Although Marine Headquarters maintained close ties with the Revolutionary Army, it didn't mean Headquarters hoped the Revolutionary Army could rapidly grow stronger.
At the very least, they absolutely didn't want the Revolutionary Army controlling Alabasta and suddenly commanding a million-strong army.
Finn wasn't foolish enough to ask whether the Marines had contacted Dragon through Bartholomew Kuma to confirm the situation.
Was he joking? If this were genuinely the Revolutionary Army's doing, Dragon would never admit it even under torture.
Therefore, there was no need for the Marines to ask. They should just investigate the truth themselves.
"It seems the merit Robin values this time is far greater than I expected," Finn said softly.
Previously, he'd been stuck in his meta-knowledge, instinctively and subconsciously assuming Crocodile had started causing trouble in Alabasta.
Now that he thought about it more carefully, he'd led the world astray with his butterfly effects. It wasn't impossible that the Revolutionary Army was genuinely causing trouble, right?
Even... perhaps Crocodile had allied with the Revolutionary Army?
After all, Gecko Moria had become a Revolutionary Army officer in this timeline. If Crocodile had genuinely been recruited by Dragon, that didn't seem impossible either, did it?
It seemed Robin had gone to Alabasta for multiple purposes: first, to see if she could infiltrate Crocodile's organization; second, she probably wanted to uncover the truth about Alabasta and determine if the Revolutionary Army was behind it. This was indeed a major accomplishment.
Finn thought carefully and felt he could no longer blindly assume Crocodile was causing trouble. Since Robin had already gone, he'd let her investigate. What if there were surprises?
Besides, he figured CP should have already made moves, right? But that had nothing to do with him.
"What about the third aspect?" Finn asked again.
"There are rumors of Poneglyphs in Alabasta. I think Robin would be interested too, right? After all, she's from O'Hara... But it doesn't matter," Gion said with a smile.
"It really doesn't matter," Finn nodded calmly.
But internally he was thinking—perhaps Robin could genuinely find Pluton in Alabasta?
Did that even matter though? At least not currently.
But if she truly found Pluton, it would definitely be a major achievement. However, given Robin's personality and principles, it was impossible for her to unleash such a weapon. Even if she found it, she'd pretend not to know, right?
However, regardless, if she could achieve even one of these three objectives, it would be a significant accomplishment. If she achieved all of them, she could easily become a Marine Vice Admiral.
This would satisfy her desire to earn merit.
Thinking this, Finn shook his head and said with a smile, "That little Robin has always had her own ideas. Now that things have reached this point, we can't just go capture her, right? She's on a mission too. Let her proceed."
"Alright, I think so too. It's better to support her than obstruct her. How many times can we stop her anyway? Might as well let her go. This time, I'm just informing you," Gion said with a smile.