The next day.
Grand Line, Marineford.
Custody Unit Quarters.
“Gathering up Binks’ sake, delivering it to your side~” “Riding the waves like the sea breeze, wild and free~” “Beyond the horizon, the setting sun roars, listen to the song of the birds~ *Burp!*” Watching a certain mysterious, joyful man drinking cola and humming a tune in the corner, Hans Thor and Fal were huddled together as usual, whispering to each other.
“Hey, the boss seems to be in a great mood lately,” Fal muttered under his breath.
Hans adjusted his collar nonchalantly.
“Well, obviously.
He was just promoted to Major.
It’d be weird if he weren’t happy!” “…But if you ask me, that’s not it either,” Fal said, his brow furrowed in suspicion.
“A few days ago, I heard Vice Admiral Bilos offered to host a promotion banquet for him, but he turned it down.
Instead, he just cooped himself up in his room every single day.” Hans pulled at his collar again, utterly unbothered.
“So what?
Our boss has always been like this.
Besides, not everyone goes around bragging about a promotion.” A second later, Fal kicked him flying across the room.
“…You bastard, I’ve tolerated you for too long!” Fal retracted his leg with a scowl.
“Just because you joined the Marines a few years earlier than me and the boss promoted you to Warrant Officer, you flaunt it in my face every single day!” Despite taking a kick, Hans wasn’t angry in the slightest.
He simply picked himself up and adjusted his collar once more, doing his best to make the badge reading [Warrant Officer – Hans Thor] as prominent as possible.
“Ah, brother Fal…
I don’t blame you for being mad,” Hans said in a gentle, soothing tone.
“The taste of jealousy is hard to swallow, isn’t it?” Fal gritted his teeth so hard they nearly shattered.
He wished he could rush out on a mission right this second so he could be promoted to Warrant Officer too.
Unfortunately, because Roy’s official commission as Major hadn’t officially come through yet, they didn’t have any missions assigned to them recently.
“The taste of jealousy, huh?
How about you taste the fury of my fists instead!” Fortunately, even if logic failed, Fal knew a thing or two about martial arts!
On the other side of the room.
“Gulp…
*burp!* Ah, what a nice day.” Paying no mind whatsoever to his bickering subordinates brawling in the corner, Roy simply took a sip of iced cola and sighed contentedly as he stared out at the bright sunshine.
Indeed, his mood had been fantastic lately.
The reason needed no explanation.
His grand plan in Alabasta had progressed smoothly.
Relying on his foresight regarding the future timeline, he had specially crafted the ‘Dragon’ clone.
The Mag-Mag Fruit and the Ice-Ice Fruit—the two abilities originally belonging to Admirals Akainu and Aokiji—were absolute top-tier Logia powers.
He had spent a staggering four billion Belly just to upgrade both of them to LV3.
Combined with his LV2 Slice-Slice Fruit and several other utility fruits he had upgraded, his once massive stash of Belly had been completely drained.
Yet, such a monumental investment had proven entirely worth it.
“Rain is simply the condensation of water vapor,” Roy mused to himself.
“The freezing cold air and frost generated by the Ice-Ice Fruit, combined with the searing thermal heat of the Mag-Mag Fruit—the interaction between the two creates localized artificial rainfall!” This was the method of artificial rainmaking Roy had envisioned earlier.
In the original story, Nami had demonstrated a similar phenomenon using her Climate Baton; the underlying principle was virtually identical.
Roy had simply scaled the concept up to a monumental level.
As the saying went: the combined application of Devil Fruit powers yielded infinite possibilities.
The success of this trial made his trade deal with King Cobra of Alabasta entirely viable.
“Even if I only cause a single nation-wide rainfall for Alabasta right now, adding in King Cobra’s reward commission, that’s easily over five billion Belly.
All that’s left now is dealing with Crocodile.” “Furthermore, I’ve already acquired the Devil Fruit abilities of Alabasta’s two chief guards—the Tweet-Tweet Fruit, Model: Falcon, and the Dog-Dog Fruit, Model: Jackal.” With such massive gains, how could Roy not be thrilled?
Lately, everything he ate tasted delicious, and even his favorite happy water seemed noticeably sweeter.
Of course, it wasn’t as if he was completely without grievances.
“Right now, I only have one real issue.
Even though I’ve upgraded a ton of powerful Devil Fruits…” “When I’m at Marine Headquarters, I can only use the human form for Zoan fruits, not their beast or hybrid forms.” “And I can’t use Logia elementalization either, or my identity as an ability user will be exposed.” Whenever he thought about this, Roy felt a wave of irritation.
Having upgraded so many incredible abilities yet being forced to suppress them due to his cover identity was a deeply frustrating feeling.
*If only there were a Devil Fruit ability that could solve this issue…* While Roy was muttering inwardly, a familiar, deep voice suddenly shattered his train of thought.
“Hey!” Roy instantly spat out a mouthful of cola.
“Huh?!” He whipped his head around, only to see Smoker’s scowling face.
“Smoker?!” Roy immediately went on high alert.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in solitary…
cough!
I mean, what are you doing here?
Let me tell you right now, I’m a Major now.
There’s no way I’m acting as your adjutant!” Halfway through his sentence, Roy remembered that he was technically a tiny bit responsible for Smoker’s confinement, so he hastily changed the subject.
“…” Smoker’s face grew visibly darker.
He seemed to exert a tremendous amount of willpower to suppress the urge to punch Roy right in the face before grunting, “Did you ask Vice Admiral Bilos to arrange special training for you?” His tone softened slightly as he said this.
It was obvious that seeing a talented yet utterly unmotivated slacker like Roy take the initiative to work hard made Smoker feel quite relieved.
As a friend, he truly believed Roy should attain a higher rank to carry out his justice.
“…Uh…
right!
Exactly!” Naturally, Roy couldn’t admit that he hadn’t asked for it himself, so he could only nod forcefully.
“The person giving you special training happens to have some history with me,” Smoker said, his eyes fixing on Roy.
“He asked me to bring you over.
If you’re free, follow me.” Roy was taken aback for a moment, but without much hesitation, he called out a quick goodbye to Hans and Fal before following Smoker out of the Custody Unit quarters.
As they walked, Roy’s suspicions were confirmed.
He had previously speculated about the identity of the “old friend” Vice Admiral Bilos had mentioned.
Now that Smoker was involved—and clearly on good terms with the instructor—it was obvious.
Otherwise, a notorious rebel like Smoker wouldn’t run errands so compliantly.
The instructor’s identity was practically written on the wall.
“You’re participating in the upcoming Tri-Service Tournament too, right?” Smoker asked abruptly as they walked.
“Huh?
The what now?” Roy nodded instinctively before realizing something was off.
“Wait—what on earth is the Tri-Service Tournament?” Wasn’t it supposed to be the All-Forces Tournament?
“You don’t know yet?” Smoker took a drag from his cigar and blew out a thick plume of smoke.
Amidst the swirling gray clouds, a rare glint of excitement flared in his eyes.
“Because of the recent Heavenly Tribute heist, the higher-ups in the World Government are furious.
They believe the Marines’ internal management has grown lax, leading to a severe decline in overall combat effectiveness.” “So Fleet Admiral Sengoku and Commander-in-Chief Kong held a conference and decided to modify the rules of this year’s All-Forces Tournament.” “Besides the Marines, every military branch and directly affiliated faction under the World Government will be sending representatives to participate.” “It’s officially dubbed the Tri-Service Tournament!”