(Location: Marineford)
(The Day Tsuru Arrived in Windmill Village)
(Fleet-Admiral Sengoku POV)
Things were not going well for Sengoku. Ever since Jack Sparrow pulled that stunt with the Video Transponder Snail for all of Marineford to see, morale had been at an all time low. Hundreds of Marines had resigned that very day, and any mention of the East Blue was like bringing up death sentences for any Marine who happened to be listening.
'He wanted to warn people to stay away, well it fucking worked!' Sengoku growled internally as he struggled under the pain of his headache. He was tired, and sick of this whole thing. It wouldn't be so bad, but the Five Elders in the Holy City were pushing him to do something about the situation, but when he asked them exactly what they wanted him to do, none of them had an answer either.
*Crunch!*
*Crunch!*
Like usual, Garp was eating some form of cracker next to him without a care in the world, which also seemed to add to Sengoku's building headache. "Must you always eat in my office?!" He snapped at Garp. To this, the man simply nodded his head as he continued to eat, not bothering to say a word and risk losing out on eating time. Sighing for what seemed like the millionth time that day, Sengoku began feeding forms to his pet goat, which acted more as a paper disposal than an actual pet.
More crunching sounded as Garp chewed even louder, and Sengoku couldn't stop himself from shouting, "Go train your crew or do something else, just leave my office!" "They're fine. Bogard is training them." Garp said lazily, then continued eating. "You cost more than you're worth, Garp! I don't know why I-" Sengoku began, but was interrupted by the sound of someone running towards his door.
*KNOCK!*
*KNOCK!*
*KNOCK!*
"FLEET-ADMIRAL! IT'S AN EMERGENCY!" Came the frantic voice of someone outside his office. Sengoku and Garp both looked at each other as they got to their feet and ran to the door. They were both thinking the same thing, that Jack Sparrow had done something again. They were right of course, but it wasn't quite as bad as they were thinking. When they opened the door, they were greeted by the young boy that delivered the newspapers around Marineford, and given how pale he looked, they assumed it was something bad.
"What's wrong?! Who's attacking?!" Sengoku barked quickly, wanting to know where he needed to send reinforcements. "Um… No one's attacking sir, at least, not yet." The boy said in confusion as he looked at the worked up Fleet-Admiral, who was usually so calm. "Then what's the big emergency?!" Sengoku asked angrily. "I swear, if this isn't important, you're going to be scrubbing the latrines for the rest of your life!" Sengoku growled, waiting for the boy's answer.
Instead of answering, the boy held out a stack of papers, which Sengoku took with a frown. It took simply glimpsing the top page to understand what all of the commotion was about, and Sengoku couldn't help it when his face paled in realization. He was waiting for this moment, though he didn't quite expect it to be this bad. When Jack Sparrow gave him the warning, Sengoku didn't know what to expect, but it certainly wasn't this. 'Prey indeed.' He grumbled to himself as he stared at WANTED posters depicting Marine soldiers. If these were spread around the world, the Marines were going to have a hell of a time being taken seriously, that is, if they weren't outright killed by people.
Garp, who had been looking over Sengoku's shoulder at the posters, grabbed them before Sengoku could stop him and began flipping through them, but it wasn't until he got to the bottom of the stack before he found the one he was looking for. Holding the poster up into the light, Garp looked it over carefully, but unlike any normal person who should have been outraged at finding a WANTED poster of himself, Garp began laughing like a lunatic. "Look at this, Sengoku! I'm worth $3 Billion berries! That's got to be the biggest first bounty in history that anyone's ever gotten!" Garp shouted happily as he held the poster out for Sengoku to see.
==========
WANTED
Garp the Fist
$3,000,000,000
DEAD ONLY
Reward delivered upon kill
Warning: The Fist is not to be taken lightly. A very easy going man, but when angered there is no haven. Can be tricked with food or bedtime music, and mostly travels wherever he wants. He enjoys crackers.
==========
On the cover of the poster it showed a picture of Garp in his blue muscle shirt as he was destroying a fleet of pirate ships with his meteor shower of cannon balls, and Sengoku wondered if Garp had actually posed for the damned picture. "We should hire his photographer for our bounty pictures. I look amazing!" Garp said happily as he pulled the poster back away from Sengoku and looked it over again. "Shut the hell up, Garp! This is no laughing matter!" A red-faced Sengoku shouted angrily as his mind tried to comprehend what was happening.
In response to his outburst, Garp flipped through the stack of WANTED posters until he found another one, then burst out laughing again. "You're- You're only worth $2 Billion berries! I'm worth a whole Billion more than you!" Garp wheezed out before he fell to the ground, laughing uncontrollably. Sengoku grabbed the WANTED poster from Garp and looked it over.
==========
WANTED
Golden Statue Sengoku
$2,000,000,000
DEAD ONLY
Reward delivered upon kill
Warning: Beware the spectacled Buddha. Even though he has spent years as a pencil pusher, he is extremely dangerous and makes a lot of threats. Spends most of his time in Marineford behind a desk.
==========
The picture on the poster was of him in his golden Buddha form standing before his soldiers. "That bastard is mocking me!" Sengoku shouted angrily as he threw the poster to the ground and started stomping on it, which only seemed to make Garp happier. Feeling a bit of resentment, Sengoku grabbed Garp's poster out of his hands and began stomping on it too, which caused Garp to panic and push him away so he could grab it. "There's no need to be such a spoil sport, Sengoku!" Garp said as he began to straighten out the poster to put it back to its former pristine glory.
"Don't you realize how bad this situation is, Garp?!" Sengoku shouted, hoping against hope that Garp would take something seriously for once. "Bad? The only thing bad about this is I can still see your footprint on this thing. I'm going to go and see if I can find another one, then I'm going to frame it! I can't wait to show my grandson this, he's going to be so proud of me!" Garp said, then without another word he left the room, leaving Sengoku to stare dumbly at his back. 'He's an idiot!' Sengoku thought, not for the first time.
Knowing he didn't have a whole lot of time to do a bit of damage control, Sengoku called for a meeting of the Vice-Admirals and the Admirals. An hour later they were all gathered around a long table in a room near his office. "What's the big emergency, Sengoku?" Kizaru, a tall dark-skinned man wearing a yellow suit, and one of the three Admirals of the Marines, asked lazily. It was evident by how calm they all were that none of them had seen the WANTED posters, otherwise Sengoku thought someone among them might look a little bit serious.
To his question, Sengoku threw the stack of WANTED posters across the table for everyone to see. "As of today, the Marines have bounties!" He said, bringing everyone upright so they could focus on the papers. As all of the Vice-Admirals looked over their own WANTED posters, a tall man wearing a red suit was burning with rage. Literally. "What the hell is this?!" Akainu shouted angrily as he slammed his WANTED poster down on the table.
==========
WANTED
The Crimson Puppy (Akainu/Sakazuki)
$1,000,000,000
DEAD ONLY
Reward delivered upon kill
Warning: The Government's little bitch of a dog is not to be taken likely. He is quick to anger and is all brawn and no brain, so using big words will just anger or confuse him. He wields the Magma-Magma Fruit, but only knows two attacks. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight.
==========
After reading over Akainu's WANTED poster there were a few people who fought to hold back a chuckle, but there were many who were shocked that someone would dare pull a stunt like this. "Well… at least it's a nice bounty." Aokiji, a tall thin, but muscular man wearing a white suit said with a half-smile. Evidently he thought Akainu was getting drawn too much to the poster and less on the situation as a whole. Plus he thought the poster was kind of funny.
"Wipe that smirk off your face, Kuzan! This isn't funny!" Akainu growled angrily as smoke billowed off of his body as parts of his upper body began to turn into magma. "No, no, you're right. I'm sure no one is going to pay attention to-" Aokiji began, but stopped when the door suddenly burst open and Garp walked in holding his sides as tears of laughter rolled down his face. "Sengoku, you've got to see Sakazuki's WANTED poster! It's funny and completely spot on!" Garp said as he held up the WANTED poster in question for Sengoku to see.
Akainu stomped over to Garp, and with clenched teeth he growled, "You think this poster of me is spot on?!" There was a pause as Garp simply stared at the man for a moment, then finally he answered, "Affirmative." "Are you trying to mock me by using big words?!" Akainu asked heatedly as his breathing quickened. "Very good, pup. I didn't think you'd be able to figure that out with your tiny little brain." Garp said, then went back to laughing his ass off.
Before Akainu could do anything he would regret against Garp, and they all knew he would regret it, Kizaru of all people spoke up, "Don't take it to heart, Sakazuki. Mine isn't that great either." After saying that, Kizaru tossed his own WANTED poster forward for everyone to see.
==========
WANTED
The Walking Night-light (Kizaru/Borsalino)
$1,000,000,000
DEAD ONLY
Reward delivered upon kill
Warning: The lazy bastard is extremely dangerous. He never takes things seriously, as you are most likely not a threat to him unless you are at Emperor strength or more. He wields the Glint-Glint Fruit and really likes to hit people at the speed of light. Kill on sight or hide. You can't run away from the Lightbulb.
==========
After reading it, Garp started laughing once more before saying, "At least you're not a little bitch!" This caused Akainu to freak out again, but before he could react, Aokiji threw his WANTED poster over.
==========
WANTED
The IceMan (Aokiji/Kuzan)
$1,000,000,000
DEAD ONLY
Reward delivered upon kill
Warning: The walking refrigerator is deadly to all, warm food especially. Sea battles are useless against him, and touching him is very bad. He wields the Ice-Ice Fruit and uses it to cross the ocean on his pedal bike. Kill on sight or chill out and have a drink with the man.
==========
Garp was nodding his head as he read over the warning about Aokiji. "I think this fits you pretty well. I'd say Jack did his research when he wrote this." Garp said with a big smile on his face. "You mean the guy from the broadcast is responsible for these?" Aokiji asked, a little surprised that they already knew the culprit, and was even more surprised to realize they knew exactly where he was, but had been ordered to stay out of the East Blue at all costs, so going to confront the man was probably not a good idea.
"Yeah, he warned Sengoku that he was going to do something like this, but we didn't think it was actually possible." Garp answered honestly. "Who is this Jack Sparrow, and what does he want?" One of the few remaining Vice-Admirals asked curiously. Rubbing his temples, Sengoku took the opportunity to take a seat, knowing this was going to be a long meeting, and one that he doubted was going to end on a good note.
"He's the ruler of the East Blue, and the founder of a new organization called The Order. He has thousands of slaves he's freed working with him to bring down the World Government. Based on what Cipher Pol was able to gather before they lost all contact, he has a wide range of powers, the extent of which is unknown. What is known is that he has an endless supply of resources, can shit houses, and is a god damned monster. Those working for The Order are extremely loyal, even the ex-Marines. We thought to maybe use one of them to get information, but all of our attempts ended without success. Also, they have some new guns that are better than ours in almost every way, with Sea-Stone bullets to boot, so yeah…" Sengoku said, getting more depressed with every point he revealed to the group. "What he's basically saying is, we're fucked." Garp said simply, summarizing the whole explanation.
Ignoring Garp, Sengoku let out a sigh before returning his attention back to the room. "Based on the WANTED posters alone we can only assume that he is extremely rich and very well informed. He has information on individuals who were undercover in certain groups, but thanks to these posters, I've already confirmed that most of our undercover operatives are either dead or captured, and yes, the money does appear when a target is killed, and the corpse disappears, leaving no trace, which is the perfect way for anyone to kill our guys and get away with it." Sengoku said, surprising everyone with that bit of news.
"Does this mean we've got a mole in the Marines working for him?" A Vice-Admiral asked. "We're going to assume so, so until we've resolved this situation, keep vital intelligence only to those who need to know." Sengoku warned them. "Sakazuki needs all the intelligence he can get. Are you sure you want to keep it from him?" Garp asked with a chuckle, taking the opportunity to throw a jab at the Marine he hated the most.
"What did you say?!" Akainu growled angrily as he shot to his feet. "I thought dogs were supposed to have good hearing? Sakazuki, you better get your ears checked, after all, we wouldn't want you to miss a command from your masters." Garp said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Stop it, Garp! You're needlessly antagonizing Sakazuki, when there are much bigger problems at hand!" Sengoku shouted, stepping in before the situation escalated.
"It's not my fault the puppy can't take a joke. Besides, Sakazuki is an asshole, so this is warranted. By his own estimates, he's killed more Marines than Sparrow for bullshit crimes like cowardice or desertion, but that's if we believe him because we only have his word to go on. And since when was a tactical retreat considered cowardice, and since when was the punishment for cowardice the death penalty?" Garp asked, bringing up some good points that no one wanted to talk about, especially not in front of the man himself. "What's your point?" Akainu asked coldly as he stared at Garp with narrowed eyes. "My point is, the next time you act out like a rabid dog against the Marines, I'm going to rip your god-damned head off!" Garp shouted, showing anger for the first time in a long time.
"Calm down, Garp!" Sengoku scolded him as he placed a hand on Garp's shoulder, but Garp pulled away from him. "Nothing written on these posters is a lie, which is more than I can say for some of the ones the Government has put on people we label as criminals. Let that sink in." Garp said, then without another word he turned and left the room, no one daring to try and stop him, for they knew when Garp was angry it was best to not be near him. 'I wish Tsuru was here.' Sengoku thought, feeling more overwhelmed than he had ever felt before.
"What are we going to do about the posters, sir?" A Vice-Admiral asked, breaking Sengoku out of his depressed thoughts and bringing him back to the dumbass reality he now lived in. "Aside from informing everyone to be on guard, there isn't much we can do about them. You can be damned sure there are going to be many people out there who will want to try their hand at pushing back against the Marines, and you can bet the pirates are going to be more bold as well. Our numbers are at an all-time low right now, so finding a way to recruit soldiers should be our top priority, as well as getting some better weaponry. We can't fall behind Sparrow and his Order, otherwise they won't stop at just the East Blue, and soon enough, Marineford will be next." Sengoku warned them, getting nods from all of the Vice-Admirals, whereas the three Admirals didn't so much as blink.
Recruiting wasn't really in their area of expertise, and only a fool would try to go up against one of them. They weren't given the title of Admiral for nothing. For the next few hours they talked about ideas to incentivize people to want to join the Marines, which areas they needed to reinforce to bolster their lines, and about locations they needed to avoid, which mostly consisted of anywhere in the East Blue, and most of the New World.
"Finally, to wrap up this meeting, the Government has decided to put a bounty out on Jack Sparrow." Sengoku said after a man in black suit entered the room and handed him a WANTED POSTER.
==========
WANTED
Jack Sparrow
$3,000,000,000
DEAD or ALIVE
==========
The photo on the WANTED poster was of Jack standing over Vice-Admiral Tokikake just before Jack killed him. It was the clearest photo they were able to retrieve of the man, and even though it was a bit gruesome, the Government had still decided on using it. "That's an impressive first bounty. Why, it's even higher than yours, Sengoku." Kizaru said, almost tauntingly. "It's as high as Garp's." Sengoku said without thinking, and regretted it the instant he said it as Aokiji let out a soft whistle of appreciation.
"Is this how pirates feel when we give them bounties? Because now I feel like it would be cooler if mine was higher." Aokiji said nonchalantly. "I guess it means we have some catching up to do." Kizaru said, joining in with the playful banter and completely disregarding the seriousness of the situation, though that could be simply because they were tired of talking about this whole thing by now and were itching to get out of this room. 'I'm surrounded by idiots.' Sengoku told himself, then silently cursed whatever deity was listening to stop making his life so miserable.
"I have a question." A Vice-Admiral piped up from across the room. He was Jonathan, the commander of the G-8 Marine Base, and arguably one of the more analytical Marines under Sengoku's command. If he didn't know that it was Sakazuki who had recruited Jonathan all those years ago, Sengoku never would have guessed it, especially since their personalities differed so much. "Speak." Sengoku said, giving the man permission to continue.
"Why is Sparrow's WANTED poster just now getting released? Shouldn't it have been put out a few weeks ago? I mean seriously, if feels like we're just retaliating because he put the WANTED posters of all of us out there." Jonathan asked curiously, bringing up a good point, and one that Sengoku had asked the damned Elders, but they simply shut him down. "That has no relevance to the present topic. Move on." Sengoku said, repeating exactly what had been told to him when he asked the same damn thing. 'It doesn't pay to be smart or ask questions.' He thought, hoping this day would end.
*****
It only took a day for the newspapers to spread the word that yes, the bounties on the Marines was legit, and that the money did appear when someone killed a Marine. By now the whole world had heard about it, and thanks to the damned newspapers, the world even knew who was responsible. With the release of Sparrow's own WANTED poster and a list of some of the things he did, people were flocking to join his cause.
There were people flying the flag of his Order all the way in the West Blue, and they were on the opposite end of the world from him, and to make matters worse for Sengoku, more than ten-thousand Marines had quit over night, granted they were the lower level grunts who didn't have bounties on their heads, but it was still a big loss for the Marines.
On top of that, the lower ranked soldiers who did stay were refusing to be promoted to the rank of Captain or higher for fear that they might get a bounty placed upon them. The rank didn't do all that much for the person's strength, but it mattered for their influence, and right now, those in charge were hard to come by these days.
Some Marines who had gotten bounties placed upon them hoped that by retiring from the Marines they might get the bounties removed, however that didn't seem to be the case, rather instead it made them even more of a target because now they no longer had the backing of the Marines to protect them. A Rear-Admiral, three Commodores, and two Captains found that out the hard way just this morning when they arrived on Sabaody after retiring.
They had only touched upon land for all of five seconds before they were gunned down by criminals, who didn't even get the chance to spend their ill-gotten loot, because some old drunkard appeared out of nowhere and robbed them of all of the money that appeared where the corpses were. The description they got of the old drunk was that he had long silver hair and wore glasses, but that was about it. Still, he had robbed the criminals who killed the former Marines, plus they were too busy to even attempt to look into him.
In Sengoku's office, Garp was sitting in his usual spot eating crackers without a care in the world as Sengoku yelled at him. "Just because I'm worth more than you, doesn't mean you need to take your frustrations out on me." Garp said calmly, which only made Sengoku go red in the face. "For love of god, Garp, shut up about your fucking bounty!" Sengoku shouted with a mixture of anger and frustration.
Ever since yesterday when they had gotten the damned bounties, Garp hadn't shut up about it, and had even shirked most of his duties by saying things like, "Someone of my value shouldn't need to do this." It was plain for everyone to see that he was just trying to get a laugh out of it, but that didn't stop it from annoying the hell out of Sengoku.
"Any word from Tsuru?" Garp asked seriously after a lull in their bickering. "Yeah. She called me last night to let me know that she'd made it there and that she got Gion." Sengoku said with a frown. "Really? Then why do you seem so depressed?" Garp asked, figuring that Sengoku should have been thrilled at the news. "Because, not only did she leave the Marines, but now so did Gion! Granted, it was the only way Sparrow would release her, but then they go off and join the bastard!" Sengoku growled angrily before he threw a book at the wall and made a hole through it.
"She did what?!" Garp shouted in disbelief, unsure if he had heard right. "According to her she won't fight against us, but she did join the Adventurers Association, whatever the fuck that is. She wouldn't go into detail about it, but basically she's a mercenary for him, and in her words, 'Having the time of her life.' I think it's a bunch of bullshit, but then again, I'm the idiot who agreed to be Fleet-Admiral, so what do I know?" Sengoku said with a huff, then reached into his desk and pulled out two glasses and a bottle of whiskey before handing one of the glasses to Garp. "Good call." Garp said happily as he took the proffered glass.
"To forgetting the last forty-eight hours!" Sengoku said as he raised his glass into the air. "To having the highest first bounty in history!" Garp said, also raising his glass high into the air. Sengoku didn't even care anymore as he downed his drink in one go, then filled his glass for another round.
Both he and Garp spent the rest of the day and most of the night drinking bottle after bottle, raising glasses to lost friends or comrades, to fights or women, and in many cases for Garp, it was his bounty. At one point throughout the night, Sengoku actually declared that he would get a higher bounty than Garp someday, but neither of them would remember that declaration after how drunk they had gotten.
Their goal was to forget the last forty-eight hours, well they did a lot more than that. Come the following morning, it was a shock that Marineford was still standing.