In the first half of the Grand Line, near the Devil's Triangle, in an area close to the Calm Belt, there was a very secluded island.
This island was called the Welfare Home.
A large number of orphans were taken in by the World Government. In name, it was claimed these orphans were found and rescued by the World Government after being harmed by pirates and other criminals.
But in reality, most orphans on this island were bought by the World Government from human traffickers around the world.
Just like the situation before Mother Carmel was eaten by Charlotte Linlin.
The World Government loved doing this kind of thing.
Talented children were purchased from human traffickers and intensively trained together. They were instilled with gratitude toward the World Government and brainwashed from an early age. After they grew up, they'd be absorbed by various institutions under the World Government and become members.
At this time, in the sea near the Welfare Home, a warship from Marine Headquarters was sailing.
Not far in front of the warship, a pirate ship was fleeing frantically.
The warship's cannons roared occasionally, shells exploding near the pirate ship, looking like a cat toying with a mouse.
On the warship's deck, Finn sat on the edge, holding a fishing rod, fishing leisurely.
Though he caught nothing due to the warship's artillery fire, his leisurely appearance suggested he was enjoying himself.
"Rear Admiral, we've arrived in the Welfare Home waters. If we continue, our route will deviate," a Marine Lieutenant walked behind Finn and reported softly.
"Hmm? That's pretty fast," Finn smiled when he heard this.
After a slight pause, he placed the fishing rod on its stand, stood up, and asked, "How is it? Have the identities of those pirates been investigated?"
"Yes, sir. The Arsonist with a bounty of thirty-six million berries. The Van Ernst Pirates," the Marine Lieutenant answered quickly.
"Good. Record it down and cancel their bounty orders after we return to Marineford," Finn nodded.
After he finished speaking, he walked a few steps to the warship's bow, looked at the pirate ship still fleeing madly, and tapped the scabbard lightly with his fingers on the Sōzai at his waist.
The Marine Lieutenant standing behind him had a glint of anticipation in his eyes.
The Violent Tiger of Marine Headquarters. Rumor had it that when his temper flared, he'd even hit the Fleet Admiral and was a brutal man who'd forced even the Marine hero to jump off a building.
In this department, few people had seen this Rear Admiral take action.
It was said that after coming to Headquarters, he'd participated in only two field missions before being promoted to Rear Admiral.
Both missions were extremely significant.
The first time, the Marines directly destroyed the Golden Lion Shiki's flying fleet.
The second time, he assisted the Fleet Admiral in capturing the Red Earl Patrick Redfield alive!
Among the new generation of Marines, this Rear Admiral was very mysterious, and many were looking forward to his performance.
"Gravity Blade: Tiger Bite!" Finn called out softly.
As the words fell, Sōzai left its sheath, bringing up invisible energy, and gently waved toward the distant pirate ship.
It looked like child's play, not meant to be taken seriously at all.
After the slash, the sea remained the same as before, without any change.
Finn calmly sheathed his sword, turned around, patted the Lieutenant's shoulder, and said, "No need to clean up the battlefield. Proceed to the Welfare Home as planned."
The Marine Lieutenant was confused. What did he mean by cleaning up the battlefield?
The pirates were fine! Was this a joke, Rear Admiral?
Just as the Lieutenant was about to ask what was happening, he suddenly saw the sea surface where the pirate ship was located change dramatically.
The seawater suddenly became turbulent. The surface under the hull suddenly collapsed, instantly transforming into a tiger's maw, swallowing the pirate ship from bottom to top in a ferocious bite.
Before the Lieutenant could react, everything seemed to have never happened. The sea quickly returned to calm. The only change was that the fleeing pirate ship had become a pile of debris, constantly emerging from the water.
Numerous pirate corpses also floated on the sea. Some of the lucky ones struggled, trying to ask the Marines for help. After all, even if captured, it would be better than being buried here and dying directly.
The Marine Lieutenant suddenly snapped to attention and saluted. "Yes, sir. Everything is for justice!"
Just like that, the huge warship didn't stop for a moment, nor did it launch any rescue operation. Instead, it simply sailed over the heads of these unfortunate pirates.
Cold and ruthless.
After finishing all this, Finn sat back on his little stool and continued fishing leisurely.
Compared to before, after he'd taken action, the sailors on the ship now looked at his back with admiration in their eyes.
As expected, worthy of being called the Violent Tiger of Marine Headquarters. According to rumors, Instructor Zephyr described him as someone whose talent and potential were no less than the three monster rookies of the previous generation.
Finn was contemplating while fishing.
He was currently very uncertain about his own strength level.
He had no way to win against big players like Shiki and Whitebeard. Judging from actual combat with Zephyr, he'd probably lose within ten or twenty moves.
He had the strength to crush most ordinary pirates. The gap in strength between him and his peers from the Sixth Officer Training Camp was also very obvious. Only Gion and Tokikake could barely be his opponents.
Momonga, Onigumo, and others were completely unable to fight against him.
The comparison with mid-level fighters was so vague he didn't even know how strong he was now.
Not long ago, in-depth development of the Marine Six Powers had been successful. He'd successfully mastered one of the Six Powers' mysteries: Life Return.
As for Haki, except for Conqueror's Haki which hadn't awakened, the rest—Observation Haki and Armament Haki—were all hard work that needed slow accumulation, so there wasn't much to say currently.
Swordsmanship remained the same. Finn didn't have any outstanding talent in swordsmanship. If he couldn't find a famous teacher to guide him, he had no intention of working hard on it.
Therefore, he'd recently begun developing his abilities, which might be the fastest way to improve his strength presently.
Additionally, a certain amount of actual combat was required to hone his physical fighting skills.
There was no need to worry about this. Basically, when at Headquarters, he'd practice with Gion and others regularly.
"After we go back, I should choose Kuzan, Sakazuki, Borsalino, and others Vice Admiral as opponents. I wonder where I stand compared to them?" Finn murmured softly.
Just as Finn was contemplating all these things, the Welfare Home island had already appeared in front of the warship.
After a while, the extremely fast warship arrived at the Welfare Home's port.
Finn stood up. An orderly quickly put away all his fishing gear. Finn then asked, "Whose ship is that?"
The orderly froze momentarily, as if he hadn't expected the Rear Admiral to speak to him. He quickly looked at a large ship anchored next to the warship. "This type of ship should be from the CP agencies..."
"Really?" Finn nodded, then smiled. "Thank you for your hard work."
The orderly was very excited when he heard this. He immediately saluted. "Everything is for justice!"
Without saying anything else, Finn quickly walked down the gangway.
After seeing the special agents standing around the ship, he confirmed it was indeed a CP agency ship.
Though the Marines also had authority to come to the Welfare Home to find good seedlings and take them away for training, in reality, the Marines rarely used this power. In most cases, the Marines recruited soldiers from within their own ranks. There was also a tradition of inheritance. Many military families existed where sons followed in fathers' footsteps, generations serving the Marines.
So there wasn't much need to come to the Welfare Home to recruit people.
Compared with the Marines, the CP agencies seemed particularly fond of doing this. Basically, every year they took away large numbers of children from the Welfare Home island and trained them to become sharp blades in the CP agencies' hands.
After a few casual glances, Finn stopped paying attention to the CP agency's ship. At the dock, Welfare Home staff were already waiting for him.
As he approached, a genial-looking old man greeted him with a smile. "Rear Admiral Finn, we've been waiting for you."
"Thank you," Finn said with a friendly smile.
Though he knew very well this seemingly amiable old man was definitely not a good person.
But what did it matter? After all, he wasn't a good person either, was he?
Finn had come here today to recruit seedlings. Not long ago, Chief of Staff Tsuru had asked him to develop a plan for establishing the "nonexistent organization."
This plan had been submitted, and Tsuru was very satisfied. One of the points was to secretly nurture new blood.
Finn planned to find this blood from the Welfare Home.
But when he dug out this year's Welfare Home list from the files, he found a surprise.
There was a six-year-old kid named Rob Lucci.
Looking at the photo, Finn immediately confirmed this little kid was the guy who'd be taken away by the CP agencies in the future and become CP-9's ace.
Now that he'd encountered him... why bother with CP? Come and be a Marine of justice!
While chatting with the old man, Finn also walked into the Welfare Home.
He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. "I'm here mainly to take this kid away and pick out a few more promising ones. Please bring this kid to see me."
The old man took the document from Finn, glanced at it, and said, "Rob Lucci? Rear Admiral, you really have good taste. He's the most talented person in the Welfare Home recently."
"I hope he won't disappoint me," Finn said with a smile.
But at that moment, the old man said with a slightly embarrassed expression, "But Rear Admiral, the people from the CP agencies have also taken a liking to him and are in contact with him. This..."
Finn froze momentarily, then frowned. "The CP agencies can't snatch away the people our Marines like!"
"Please go and discuss this with the CP in person. I can't afford to offend anyone," the old man said timidly.
Finn glanced at him, knowing he was a slippery, cunning old fox. He didn't bother arguing with him and nodded. "Fine."
Time to see who had more authority here.
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