Gion stood in Fleet Admiral Sengoku's office with the formal report in hand. Tsuru sat to the side, already reading a copy.
Munch! Munch! Munch!
Garp had claimed the sofa and was working his way through a fresh bag of senbei.
Sengoku flipped through the pages once, then again.
"So the territory is managed by civilian backed offices that report to him and everything is clear." He looked up. "You spent a week there and this is all you found?"
"Yes," Gion said. "Commodore Soren runs the archipelago with minimal oversight and maximum results. The local forces are disciplined without being rigid. Civilians don't flinch when they see a justice coat."
Tsuru turned a page. "Hmm. These systems are pretty good. Trained Marine individuals do not waste time on petty jobs. Instead civilians handle it while reporting it up. We could promote these systems."
Garp crunched down on a cracker. "BWAHAHAHA! The brat's sharp. He's pretty strong as well. His Haki is strong. He hasn't mastered it or learned to control it but I can feel his will. Zephyr will probably like the kid."
Munch! Munch! Munch!
Sengoku's eye twitched at the crumbs falling on his sofa. "Garp, you bastard. Where did you find the senbei?"
Sengoku set the report down and steepled his fingers.
"A twenty-five-year-old commodore turning an entire archipelago into a quiet, functional region without constant supervision. His potential is great, both physically and administratively."
Tsuru spoke without looking up. "He's wasted out there. The systems he built don't need him standing over them every day. Put him where the decisions actually matter and the results will scale."
Garp pointed a senbei at Sengoku. "She's right. Leave him on that island and he'll just keep making it quieter. Bring him here and maybe he'll make this place better than you, old bastard."
Sengoku was silent for a long moment.
"Very well. Ashen D. Soren is to be promoted and reassigned to Headquarters as Vice Admiral Tsuru's attendant, with additional strategist duties. He will retain formal oversight authority over the Sema Archipelago so the systems don't collapse in his absence."
It was a calculated decision. Gion was already an admiral candidate. Having her serve as Tsuru's attendant was already pushing it, even if Gion herself didn't mind.
Garp laughed. "BWAHAHAHA! The brat's going to hate that."
Gion nodded. "Understood."
Tsuru closed her folder. "I'll prepare a workspace for him."
Garp stood up, scattering crumbs. "I'm telling him myself when the ship makes the return trip. Want to see his face."
Sengoku pinched the bridge of his nose. "Just don't break anything on the way."
The meeting ended. Gion left with the report under her arm. In the hallway she paused long enough to glance once at the closed diary in her locked drawer back in her office, then kept walking.
Two days later the official orders left Marineford by encrypted snail.
On Sema, Soren was in the middle of reviewing next month's patrol rotations when the harbor master knocked and handed him the sealed envelope.
He opened it. Read it once. Read it again.
'F*ck my life.'
Then he sat down heavily in his chair and stared at the wall for a long time.
That night the diary received a new entry.
[Day thirty-nine.]
[Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Why the f*ck did I have to show off. They promoted me. I am a HQ Rear Admiral now. That means I am officially on the radar of those five bastards now.]
[Headquarters. Tsuru's attendant. I still get to keep oversight of Sema on paper, which is Headquarters' way of saying "we're not completely stupid."]
[I spent five years building a place that runs without me needing to scream at it every morning. The reward is a desk in Marineford and a front-row seat to the same machine I just finished calling broken.]
[Garp's probably laughing right now.]
[Whatever. This works too. I am stuck with my Haki training anyway. Now if I can get Zephyr or Garp to help me out, I can probably master Haki in some time. Sigh, f*ck my miserable life. I leave in a week.]