Starting as a Roger Pirates Apprentice-Chapter 442: Naval Deployment

On the eve of Sadgeo’s departure from Fish-Man Island, at the foot of the Red Line, near the New World side, the atmosphere was steadily congealing, stifling and oppressive. Soldiers stood in formation on the deck, backs straight as they kept watch, yet the unease on their faces showed they were far from as calm as they imagined.

There were fresh Marine recruits experiencing war for the first time, and others who had heard of the brutal history of the Summit War. Cold sweat involuntarily dripped down their faces.

Suddenly, a shadow enveloped one of them. He looked up to see a tall man approaching, eyes tightly shut, dressed in a purple robe. The Justice cloak epaulets on his back symbolized none other than the identity of a Marine Admiral—the highest combat power of Marine Headquarters.

"Very nervous, aren’t you?"

"A-A-Admiral, sir!!!"

The man called the Admiral—Fujitora—patted his shoulder and likewise looked toward the distance.

"No need to be so nervous. To be honest, this old man is also commanding a Buster Call for the first time, and participating in a war of this scale for the first time."

Fujitora was a civilian expert promoted directly to Admiral during the World Military Draft. This time, when Akainu selected the Admirals to carry out the mission, it was likely he intended for Fujitora to make an appearance before the world.

But Fujitora himself was not particularly enthusiastic about it. He did not even understand why the Marines and the World Government were mobilizing at such a level to besiege and kill a pirate with no criminal record—despite that pirate carrying a bounty as high as 1.1 billion Belly.

"War is always so cruel..."

It was obvious that some hidden agenda or something far more complex lay behind this, but he did not wish to see it, and thus chose to destroy his own eyesight. With powerful Observation Haki, it did not affect his daily life or combat.

Among the few masters of Observation Haki in the world, Fujitora excelled particularly in range. Some experienced Marine veterans even speculated that, purely in terms of distance, Fujitora’s Observation Haki might already rival that of the world’s publicly acknowledged strongest Observation Haki user, Black Gun Orin.

Soon, a soldier came running over, panting. Seeing this, the nearby new recruit immediately straightened up. He could chat casually with an easygoing Admiral, but that did not mean he could be disrespectful before a direct superior. One had to know that even the "ordinary soldiers" by Admiral Fujitora’s side were at least small-time experts who had mastered Armament Haki.

"Reporting to Admiral Fujitora!!! We have entered the operational zone!!!"

Hearing this, Fujitora’s tightly furrowed brow relaxed slightly.

"Is that so~"

He then followed the messenger Marine to the bow of the ship. What met his eyes was an extremely vast expanse of islands.

"This is where we’ll be setting up our deployment?"

"Yes."

At this moment, a man dressed entirely in white appeared, wearing a tall white top hat. A pigeon stood on his shoulder, dressed in the same outfit. It was Rob Lucci—the greatest genius of the World Government in eight hundred years—who had been defeated by Luffy’s crew two years ago and later became a member of CP0.

"CP0, huh... what business do you have here?"

Fujitora, being a straightforward man, had little fondness for these government lackeys who did dirty work, and spoke indifferently.

"No need for that attitude. This time, we’re on equal footing. This Buster Call operation isn’t just the Marines—our CP0 will also be involved. The Elder have dispatched a large number of intelligence agents, all for the sake of taking down [Dark Sun]."

Fujitora fell silent for a moment, then raised his head. Though he could not see, he could sense just how many soldiers and fleets would be participating this time. After a long while, he slowly spoke.

"Although this goes against military protocol, this old man is still very curious—what exactly is this war for?"

Logically speaking, although the World Government acted with extreme dominance and had often treated the Marines as a violent tool of rule throughout history—such as the God Valley incident or the Ohara Buster Call—the Marines had no right to choose and could only obey orders.

But Marines were Marines, and Marine Admirals were Marine Admirals. Even the Elder would not arbitrarily insult an Admiral, the highest-tier combat power. They could curse the Fleet Admiral whenever they liked, but Admirals were different—even the Elder had to show them some courtesy. For example, a certain Monkey D who loved to act would never face real punishment from the Elder no matter how displeased they were.

Therefore, before a war of this magnitude broke out, even if ordinary soldiers fought and died in confusion, Marine Admirals would at least know some of the inside story—or be given a reason. For instance, protecting the Celestial Dragons, or the enemy researching dangerous Ancient Weapons, and so on.

But this time was different. The Elder gave no reason or pretext at all, instead urgently demanding that the Marines dispatch as much combat power as could currently be mobilized. The target was to annihilate an obscure pirate.

Fujitora could not understand it.

But in response to his question, Rob Lucci merely remained silent, then spoke coldly.

"You have no right to know. Just complete the mission."

A man bold enough to confront even Fleet Admiral Akainu would naturally not indulge Fujitora.

"Eliminating pirates—isn’t that the duty of your Marines?"

Without waiting for Fujitora’s reply, Soru activated beneath his feet, and he instantly appeared on the bow railing, then leapt down to land on the islands.

Fujitora sighed inwardly, then followed helplessly, leading the Marine soldiers off the warship and onto this vast archipelago.

The moment he stepped down, he sensed something was wrong.

"The layout of these islands doesn’t seem natural. It’s more like..."

"Like they were smashed to pieces, right?"

Lucci had his hands in his pockets, gazing out over the broad archipelago, his beast-like eyes slightly narrowed.

"Many years ago, this place—being the closest island to the New World side of the Red Line—was once a super-giant island several times larger than Marineford. The reason it became this way is because it was forcibly shattered by the battle between two powerful figures, turning it into an archipelago."

"A battle?"

Fujitora’s white, sightless eyes opened slightly, revealing a solemn expression. Even his disaster-level Paramecia Devil Fruit, the Press-Press Fruit, could only manage feats like dragging down small meteors or lifting large sections of buildings from an island. Even natural-disaster Logia users like Akainu or Aokiji could only alter an island’s natural environment.

To completely shatter a super-giant island from its very foundation, turning it into an archipelago where every fragment became an independent island...

"What kind of monsters were they..."

Lucci’s gaze darkened.

"The ones who caused all this were none other than the young [Black Gun] Orin and [Whitebeard]!!!"