The next day.
Grand Line, Marineford.
Detention Unit Dormitory.
"♪ Deliver Binks' sake, right to your side~"
"♪ Like the sea breeze, free at heart, riding the waves~"
"♪ Beyond the sea, the sunset is noisy too, the birds are singing~ hic!"
Watching a certain mysteriously cheerful man drinking cola while humming to himself—
Hans and Fal, as usual, were huddled in a corner, whispering.
"Hey, doesn't the boss seem to be in a really good mood lately?"
Fal muttered quietly.
Hans didn't think much of it and tugged at his collar.
"Well, obviously—he's been promoted to Lieutenant Commander. It'd be weird if he wasn't happy, right?"
"…But that doesn't quite add up either," Fal frowned.
"A few days ago I heard Vice Admiral Bilos wanted to throw him a promotion banquet, but he turned it down. Instead, he's just been holed up in his room every day."
Hans still didn't care and tugged at his collar again.
"What's strange about that? That's always how the boss is. Besides, not everyone likes showing off when they get promoted."
Then he was promptly kicked away by Fal.
"…You bastard! I've put up with you for a long time now!"
Fal retracted his leg angrily.
"Just because you joined the Marines a few years earlier and the boss promoted you to Petty Officer First Class—you're always flaunting it in front of me!"
After getting kicked, Hans wasn't angry at all.
He simply continued tugging at his collar, deliberately making the badge reading
[PO1 Hans Tol]
even more visible.
"Sigh, little brother Fal—if you're mad at me, I don't blame you. Jealousy doesn't feel good, does it?"
he said gently.
That almost made Fal grind his teeth in rage.
He desperately wanted to go out on a mission and get promoted to Petty Officer First Class himself.
But unfortunately—since Roy's official appointment as a Lieutenant Commander hadn't yet come through, they had no missions available at the moment.
"Jealousy, huh? I'll show you my furious fists!"
Fortunately… even if reason didn't work, Fal was at least somewhat proficient in fistfighting!
Meanwhile.
"Hoo—hic! What a nice day."
Completely ignoring his subordinates beating each other up nearby, Roy simply took a sip of his ice-cold cola and sighed contentedly at the bright weather.
Yes—his mood really had been quite good lately.
The reason hardly needed explanation.
His plans in Alabasta had gone extremely smoothly.
Making use of his foreknowledge of the plot, he had deliberately designed the "Dragon (Shenlong)" slice clone.
The Magma Fruit and the Ice Fruit—both once belonging to the Marine Admirals "Akainu" and "Aokiji"—were absolute top-tier among Logia-type Devil Fruits.
He had spent a full four billion Berries to enhance both of them to Level 3.
Combined with upgrading the Slice-Slice Fruit to Level 2, and strengthening several other frequently used fruits as well, the massive sum of Berries he had accumulated earlier was now completely drained dry.
But such a tremendous investment was, without a doubt, worth it.
"So-called rain is something born from the condensation of water vapor."
"The freezing cold and frost produced by the Ice Fruit, combined with the extreme heat generated by the Magma Fruit—bringing the two together makes rainfall possible!"
This was Roy's previously conceived method of "artificial rainfall." After all, in the original story, Nami had demonstrated a similar principle using her Clima-Tact; the underlying mechanics were essentially the same.
He had simply scaled the effect up.
As always—combining Devil Fruit abilities could give rise to countless possibilities.
And the success of this experiment was what made Roy's deal with Alabasta possible in the first place.
"Even if I only make it rain across all of Alabasta once for now, plus the commission King Cobra is paying, that's already over five billion Berries. All that's left now is dealing with Crocodile."
"And I've already obtained the Devil Fruit abilities of those two Alabasta vice-captains as well—the Bird-Bird Fruit, Model: Falcon, and the Dog-Dog Fruit, Model: Jackal."
With gains this massive, how could Roy not be happy?
To the point that lately, everything he ate tasted great—and even his beloved 'happy water' seemed sweeter than usual.
Of course, it wasn't as if he had no worries at all.
"Right now, there's really only one problem for me."
"Even though I've strengthened quite a few Devil Fruits, while I'm at headquarters, I can only use the human form of Zoan fruits—I can't use beast form or hybrid form."
"And I can't use elemental transformation from Logia fruits either, or my status as a Devil Fruit user would be exposed."
Thinking about this still irritated Roy a bit.
He had clearly strengthened so many powerful abilities, yet was restricted by his identity from using his full strength—this kind of frustrating 'almost-but-not-quite' feeling annoyed him to no end.
"If only there were some Devil Fruit ability that could solve this problem…"
And just as he was muttering to himself—
"Hey!"
A familiar low voice rang out, and the cola in Roy's mouth immediately sprayed out.
"Huh!?"
He whipped his head around—and saw Smoker's sour-looking face.
"Smoker!?"
Roy instantly went on guard.
"Aren't you in confinement—cough cough—why are you here? I'm telling you right now, I'm already a Lieutenant Commander. There's no way I'm going to be your adjutant."
He only remembered halfway through that Smoker's confinement was, at least in part, his own fault, and hurriedly corrected himself.
"…"
Smoker's expression visibly darkened even further.
He seemed to exert some effort to suppress the urge to punch Roy on the spot before stiffly asking,
"You asked Vice Admiral Bilos to arrange special training for you?"
As he said this, his tone eased slightly.
Clearly, seeing someone as talented yet usually unmotivated as Roy finally deciding to "work hard" was something Smoker found at least somewhat gratifying.
As a friend, he genuinely believed that Roy deserved a higher position—one where he could better carry out his sense of justice.
"R-Right, yes!"
Of course, Roy was too embarrassed to admit that the special training hadn't actually been requested by him, so he could only nod awkwardly.
"The person giving you special training happens to have some connection with me, so I've been asked to take you over."
As he said this, Smoker looked at Roy.
"If you've got nothing else to do, come with me."
Roy was momentarily stunned by this, but he didn't hesitate for long. After greeting Hans and Fal, he followed Smoker out of the detention unit's compound.
While walking, however, Roy inwardly thought, Just as I expected.
He had already guessed who Vice Admiral Bilos's so-called "old friend" might be.
And now it seemed clear—the person not only knew Smoker, but their relationship was evidently quite good. Otherwise, there was no way that the notoriously prickly chain-smoker would personally come deliver a message like this.
So in Roy's mind, the other party's identity had basically become obvious.
"You're going to take part in this 'Tri-Forces Martial Tournament's too, right?"
Just as Roy was thinking this, he heard Smoker ask.
"Huh? What was that?"
Roy reflexively nodded, but quickly realized something was off.
"Wait—what? What is the Tri-Forces Martial Tournament?"
Wasn't it supposed to be the All-Forces Martial Tournament?
"You didn't know?"
Smoker removed the cigar from his mouth and exhaled a cloud of smoke.
Amid the swirling haze, his voice carried a hint of excitement:
"Because of the recent Celestial Tribute robbery, the higher-ups of the World Government are furious. They believe the Marine's lax management led to a serious decline in internal combat strength, which is why something like this could happen."
"So after discussions between Fleet Admiral Sengoku and Commander-in-Chief Kong, they decided to change the rules of this year's All-Forces Tournament."
"This time, it won't be just the Marine—every military force and directly subordinate organization under the World Government will send participants."
"And its official name is—"
"The Tri-Forces Martial Tournament!"