In an unnamed stretch of the North Blue, the sun was bright and the wind was perfect.
A slightly salty sea breeze gently billowed the sails of the warship.
More than a week had passed since the... incident... with Doflamingo.
Raleigh, having just finished a glass of ice-cold coconut juice, was lounging on the deck in a perfect mood.
He could finally set work matters aside.
Then again, it wasn't like he ever did much "work" to begin with.
Still, after getting Doflamingo on a leash, he felt a weight lift from his shoulders.
It was a good feeling.
The most important, and most troublesome, piece of his North Blue plans had finally fallen into place.
"Raleigh. You seem to trust that Doflamingo guy an awful lot."
Gion's voice pulled him from his thoughts.
She'd approached from the dining area, also holding a fresh coconut.
She wasn't in her usual uniform, having swapped it for a blue swimsuit that... definitely suited her.
It seemed his lessons on the "art of slacking off" were finally starting to stick.
Raleigh waved over his shoulder.
"Miles! Go to storage and grab my fishing rods, would you? We're catching our lunch today."
He turned back, leaning against the railing to look at Gion.
"Trust him?" Raleigh snorted. "Hell no. I don't trust that guy at all."
"Then why did you let him go?" Gion asked, her brow furrowing. "And why haven't you placed any surveillance inside his family? You know planting spies is the most reliable approach."
She was surprised.
It was basic marine procedure for an organization this dangerous.
Raleigh just smiled, his confidence absolute. "Don't need to."
"I don't trust Doflamingo," he said, tapping his own temple. "But I trust myself."
"Besides," he continued, "Doflamingo is a smart man. He's a sinister, evil bastard, but he's smart. And at the same time, he's someone who values his own life and—weirdly enough—those around him. A person like that has weaknesses. He's predictable. He's not going to do anything foolish or reckless until he thinks he's accumulated enough strength to challenge me. And by then... well, he'll find out he was wrong."
He shrugged.
"Frankly, it's the hotheaded idiots you have to worry about. Doflamingo? He's the easiest type of person to control."
"Master, I've brought your fishing rods."
Miles quickly appeared, holding two exquisite-looking rods.
Raleigh took them and extended one to Gion with a grin.
"Care to do some fishing with me, Gion?"
"Alright." She agreed without hesitation.
During her time with Raleigh, her feelings about him had been steadily... changing.
Gion was realizing that her first impressions of him had been incredibly one-sided.
She'd been fooled by his lazy, slacker surface for far too long.
She'd never actually seen the real Raleigh, the one hidden beneath.
Sometimes, she found herself envying Momonga, who had been close to this baffling man since their academy days.
The two walked side by side toward the bow of the ship.
Raleigh gracefully leaped onto the bowsprit—the long beam extending out over the water—then turned and extended his hand back to her.
He looked at Gion with a beaming, almost roguish smile.
"Fair lady, might I offer you a hand up?"
Gion rolled her eyes, but a small smile played on her lips.
"Smooth talker."
Despite her words, she didn't decline.
She placed her delicate hand in his.
Raleigh looked down for a second, his eyes briefly swimming at the... scenery... before he quickly looked up.
"Form is emptiness, emptiness is form," he muttered silently to himself, giving his head a quick shake before pulling her up.
The area on the beam was spacious, yet Raleigh and Gion sat very close to each other as they cast their lines.
"Raleigh," Gion asked, her voice a bit quieter now. "Have you ever thought about your future? Your... goals?"
The longer she spent with him, the more she felt he was shrouded in a thick mist.
It was a strange, frustrating feeling.
It was like trying to interact with him through a hazy fog.
Gion hated it; she was accustomed to seeing through people's hearts.
Tokikake, for example? She didn't need to expend any mental energy to know exactly what he was thinking.
But Raleigh... this classmate of hers was just peculiar.
From the time she'd met him back in the East Blue, they had been almost inseparable.
Yet in all that time, she had never seen him seriously train.
Not even once.
Nevertheless, Raleigh's strength just kept improving, as if it had no upper limit.
Whenever she pushed herself, went through hellish training, and finally broke through to a new level, she would find that Raleigh was already standing on an even higher peak, probably yawning.
It used to make her feel incredibly frustrated.
But as they spent more time together, that frustration had slowly turned into a burning curiosity.
"Goals?" Raleigh shrugged, as if he had no expectations for his future at all.
"I don't have any goals. I just want to find a beautiful woman and happily slack off with her somewhere in the Marines, preferably on their dime."
"That's it?" Gion asked, puzzled. "Don't you want to become an Admiral? Or even... even the Fleet Admiral?"
Whether it was her, Tokikake, or almost anyone else in the Marines, that was the goal.
Everyone was aiming for the top.
Because to practice true justice, to make real change, you had to climb the ranks.
"If you want to realize your justice, you can only move upward," Gion said, her voice laced with a bit of her old frustration.
This guy!
He was good in every aspect, except he had zero motivation.
She'd realized it during their recent operations.
Raleigh had evenly distributed all the military merits from their victories to her and Tokikake.
Even without him saying it, Gion could guess the cynical reason—he simply didn't want the promotion.
He was intentionally pushing them up the ladder, knowing that once their ranks were high enough, they'd be recalled to Headquarters for new assignments, leaving him to his lazy life in the Four Seas.
Of course, Raleigh didn't seem to care that she'd figured it out.
He had his foundation to build, and he wouldn't be returning to Headquarters until he was good and ready.
"Gion, you're wrong about that," he said, turning to her. "I believe practicing justice has nothing to do with one's position."
"Justice is about the heart, not about achievements. Can't people without power practice their own justice? More than two-thirds of the marines are just poor souls who have suffered persecution from pirates. They may not possess extraordinary talents, but aren't they still protecting ordinary civilians' lives through the passion in their hearts and the sabers in their hands?"
He looked out at the water. "Everyone acts according to their own sense of justice. You don't have to be at the top to do that."
Raleigh glanced at Gion sitting beside him, sensing her words were a little unusual today.
"But..." Gion's voice was suddenly very small.
"If I... If I do get promoted to Headquarters... and I have to serve in the Grand Line later... Would you... would you leave the North Blue to take a position at headquarters?"
Her heart was pounding.
After saying it, she could feel a deep blush creeping up her neck.
In her eyes, what she had just asked was no different from a confession.
Raleigh looked at the blushing Gion, and a strange, warm sensation flowed through his body.
It felt like peach blossoms blooming in spring.
He smiled, a gentle, genuine smile that was nothing like his usual lazy grin.
"Whenever you need me, Gion," he said, his voice soft but sure.
"I'll appear by your side."
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