Doflamingo and the others shared a collective moment of reflection.
Then, Diarmuid spoke up: "It's about time we headed back. We need to find time to take a trip to Impel Down..."
Hina asked with a look of confusion, "What are we going to Impel Down for? Crocodile is already dead; surely you aren't planning to lock his corpse in there..."
But as she spoke, Hina froze, staring at Diarmuid in surprise. Even Doflamingo was eyeing him with a look of astonishment.
"Are you planning to make a move on those prisoners?" Hina asked.
Diarmuid nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "Well, of course. What's the point of just leaving them locked up in Impel Down? Those are all people with value. In the past, there was no way to utilize them, but now that I'm here, shouldn't we make them contribute more to the Navy? When the time comes, we'll head to Impel Down, bring some fruit to 'comfort' them, and then gut them one by one to seize their abilities..."
Whether it was Jinbe, Hancock, or even Doflamingo, none of them had actually spent a vast amount of time with Diarmuid. To say they "understood" him would be an overstatement.
Only Hina, who essentially followed Diarmuid day and night, was intimately familiar with him.
Listening to his words now, she felt a vague sense of unease. It seemed her Admiral had become even more... sinister?
Look at the wording he just used... "Gut them"?
Was that really how a Marine Admiral should talk?
Fortunately, while Diarmuid was indeed influenced by the Dark-Dark Fruit, he hadn't yet fallen into total darkness. This influence wasn't actually a major issue; it was similar to Kuzan's chronic laziness. There might be some personality shifts in daily life, but at his core, his essence remained unchanged.
Not long after Doflamingo and the others left with Crocodile's body, Spandine walked back in.
The man had a look of utter misery on his face. Upon seeing Diarmuid, he rushed up and asked, "Admiral, how am I supposed to explain this to Mariejois?"
"Explain what?" Diarmuid asked curiously.
"Regarding what you said earlier about making Crocodile take the fall—how are we going to set that up?" Spandine asked.
"Isn't that your area of expertise?" Diarmuid said, surprised.
Since when did Spandine need advice on how to shift blame?
However, seeing Spandine's slightly embarrassed expression after the question, Diarmuid seemed to understand something. He chuckled and said, "You rogue. Say whatever you want; don't worry about us."
Clearly, Spandine was a first-rate scapegoater, but since both the Navy and Diarmuid had been involved in the Alabasta affair to some extent, he was worried that in the process of shifting blame, he might accidentally interfere with one of Diarmuid's arrangements. That was why he wanted to coordinate with him first.
"In that case, Admiral, I'll contact the Five Elders right now?" Spandine said after a moment of thought.
"Fine. I'll listen in while I'm at it." Diarmuid sat on the sofa, indicating he had nothing more to say.
Spandine quickly contacted the Gorosei. Over the Den Den Mushi, the Gorosei asked immediately: "What is going on in Alubarna? How did it turn into such a mess?"
Spandine explained hurriedly: "It's like this, your Excellencies. Originally, everything was going according to plan, and even the Revolutionary Army couldn't stop us. However, that bastard Crocodile struck first and betrayed us. He used poison gas, turning all of Alubarna into..."
After a long-winded explanation, the Gorosei on the other end sharply caught onto one issue: "Are you saying that the daughter of Cobra was not captured?"
"She was originally captured, but Crocodile secretly sent men to snatch her away..." Spandine lied.
This wasn't entirely made up; after all, she had been caught by Crocodile's people. Currently, her fate was unknown.
The Den Den Mushi remained silent for a long time, making Spandine break out in a cold sweat.
Finally, the Gorosei spoke: "Forget it. As long as you have Cobra, that will suffice. You must ensure he is brought back to Mariejois safely. If another 'accident' happens, don't bother coming back, do you understand?"
"Yes! I guarantee I will personally escort Cobra to Mariejois! There will be no problems!" Spandine said quickly.
Moving past that topic, the Gorosei asked: "And what about the situation in Alubarna and Alabasta? How do you intend to settle things?"
Originally, the Gorosei had planned to leave Alabasta in Crocodile's hands for a transitional period. Once they handled their current affairs, they were going to deal with him.
But as it turned out, Crocodile had conspired with the traitor of the Navy's Special Science Group, Caesar Clown. He had used a weapon of mass destruction in Alubarna with the intent to poison millions of people.
That was intolerable. A man who did such a thing was effectively guilty of the intentional murder of over a million lives. Moreover, Mariejois had recently vouched for Crocodile; if he had succeeded, it would look as though Mariejois had maliciously orchestrated the mass murder of everyone in Alubarna.
The Gorosei did not want to take the fall for that.
Fortunately, Diarmuid just "happened" to be on vacation in Alubarna and was moved to action after receiving a request for assistance from Vice Admiral Dalmatian. As a Marine Admiral, taking charge of the situation and killing Crocodile in one fell swoop... wasn't that perfectly normal?
Diarmuid's established persona with the Gorosei was one of being extremely "unyielding," so this development wasn't particularly surprising. Furthermore, they knew that the Marines led by Diarmuid were notoriously hostile toward the Warlords of the Sea, especially a piece of work like Crocodile.
Since he had a legitimate reason to act, it would have been more surprising if he hadn't killed him! After all, with Crocodile dead, there was no one left to complain.
Therefore, the Gorosei found the fact that Diarmuid had killed Crocodile in Alubarna quite acceptable, even expected. The fact that Diarmuid was "vacationing" there was documented, so there was nothing more to say.
At the same time, the Marines' actions helped salvage some of Mariejois's reputation. With Crocodile dead, they could claim he was acting on his own; that they had discovered his treacherous intent and moved swiftly to resolve the problem. This sounded much better than Mariejois supporting a man using mass-casualty poison gas.
The only awkward part for Mariejois was that with Crocodile dead, they didn't have a proxy ready to manage Alabasta in the interim. Since the Nefertari family had been branded a "wicked royal bloodline" that intended to destroy Alabasta, they couldn't exactly release Cobra and let him go back to being King.
And with Crocodile dead, they certainly couldn't let the Revolutionary Army inherit Alabasta.
"Ah... about that..." Spandine was flustered, not knowing how to answer. He hadn't considered what would happen to Alabasta afterward; he was just here to kidnap someone. Reconstruction wasn't his specialty.
Sensing Spandine's awkwardness, the Gorosei seemed to blame themselves. Had they lost their minds? Why ask Spandine such a question?
After a short pause, the Gorosei spoke: "Very well. Bring Cobra back to Mariejois as quickly as possible. We will handle the arrangements for Alabasta ourselves."
"Yes, your Excellencies!" Spandine finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"See? All handled," Diarmuid said once Spandine hung up.
Spandine let out a long breath and said somewhat helplessly, "I won't be punished, but the 'achievement' is definitely gone. A wasted trip..."
"Hahaha! To handle a situation like this to this degree is already impressive. Spandine, you've at least proven your competence... The Gorosei might not reward you, but you've certainly earned points with them. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been so lenient just now," Diarmuid said with a laugh.
Spandine thought about it and nodded. "True. At least there's some gain..."
"Regarding the Pluton, any results from the investigation?" Diarmuid asked.
"No results. And based on Robin-san's description, it's likely that only that weapon remains of Pluton..." Spandine added.
Diarmuid pondered for a while before instructing: "Let this matter end here, Spandine. Regarding Pluton, you're to take it to the grave. Don't tell a soul."
"Yes, Admiral! You can count on me!" Spandine replied. After a slight pause, he added, "By the way, we did find lead on the Pluton blueprints earlier, but you told me to stop looking. Are you interested in Pluton now? Should we head to Water 7 to get that done for you?"
"No need..." Diarmuid waved him off.
On second thought, it was better to forget it. Something like Pluton shouldn't exist in this world.
As for the "remains" that Crocodile had found, they had already been stowed away by Diarmuid into the darkness. Over the recent period, Diarmuid's development of the Dark-Dark Fruit had yielded some results. For instance, he had researched a dark space with almost no upper limit. It allowed him to store many things in a place of absolute secrecy.
The barrel of Pluton was inside it.
The principle was simple—it was no different from the darkness absorbing matter, except Diarmuid hadn't gone the extra step to compress or crush the items. They sat inside in their original state, ready to be pulled out whenever he needed them.
To put it simply: Diarmuid was now a man walking around with the cannon of Pluton on his person. It was just one more trump card in his arsenal.
After seeing Spandine off, Diarmuid walked into the inner room where Hina was chatting with Robin. Robin looked to be in a poor state of mind.
The moment she saw Diarmuid, Robin asked, "Admiral, is my contribution enough to be promoted to Vice Admiral?"
Diarmuid's face twitched slightly. You really are obsessed with achievements.
Robin had taken the mission from the Intelligence Division to tail Crocodile. As she learned more and more, she had expected a massive reward once everything concluded. But in the end, the entire Alabasta incident had little to do with the Navy. The only useful result was catching that bastard Caesar.
Crocodile, the Revolutionary Army, the Nefertaris… the Navy had no official interest in any of it. They hadn't even participated in the million-man battle; only their Admiral had shown his face at the very end.
From a results perspective, there was zero contribution to the Navy. Robin was understandably dejected. What was the point of all those years in Alabasta? To get a nice tan? Was I insane?
"Ahem..." Diarmuid gave an awkward smile. But Robin was part of his inner circle, or rather, Gion's inner circle, so he couldn't just hang her out to dry, especially since she had worked so diligently as a mole in Alabasta for all those years.
"I'll see what I can pull when I get back," Diarmuid joked with a smile.
After a pause, he looked at Hina. "Start packing your things. We head back to Marineford in a couple of days."