If the one attacking the Marine base at Sabaody Archipelago had been Nereus, Kong would still have found it troublesome, but not to the point of having such a headache as now.
Pirates attacking a Marine garrison is indeed an incident of extremely grave nature; it can't simply be ignored the way the assault on a slave auction house was.
But in the end, there was still nothing they could do about Nereus.
He is a Fish-Man, an outright monster they can't deal with even on land.
According to the follow-up reports, Nereus had already dived into the deep sea. Were the Marines supposed to mobilize a fleet on a grand scale just to chase him into the depths of the sea?
That would be completely meaningless. They knew full well that Nereus would never wait for them to land smoothly on Fish-Man Island; instead, he would launch an attack midway.
Fighting that kind of monster underwater… there's simply no chance of victory to speak of.
Battling Nereus underwater causes the difficulty to increase by many times over.
In the end, the outcome would just be the Marines expressing anger, issuing condemnations, doing a few token things, and then letting the matter fade away with time.
After all, when a Marine base is attacked, it also depends on who the attacker is.
The World Government's top-tier combat forces are all private troops of the Celestial Dragons. Expecting the Celestial Dragons to stand up for the Marines is unrealistic.
They would only sneer at the Marines' incompetence, then recruit new Marines across the world.
Although the outcome seems vexing, if they just gloss over it, they can always manage to get by.
Now that the one taking action has become Rocks, things are even more complicated.
Over the past year or so, the Marines initially made a brief show of publicizing Rocks' death to highlight their own achievements.
After that, Rocks' name was continuously downplayed, in an effort to let time bury his name.
By now, that effort has begun to show results, but if Rocks is still alive…
Not only would the plan collapse, even the Marines' past propaganda would turn into a laughingstock.
After all, it hasn't even been a year yet; Rocks hasn't been completely forgotten.
"Garp, didn't you say that guy was dead?!"
"How would I know? He really should've been dead back then. Roger and I joined forces to break Rocks' Haki, and Nereus pierced his heart.
Besides, didn't those people from the World Government confirm the body too? They even handled the corpse themselves, and they were the ones who did the follow-up publicity. What does that have to do with me?"
Garp spoke bluntly as he repeated what had happened back then, even nodding firmly twice. Then came the sound of a stack of documents falling on the floor.
The messenger who had just been standing at the doorway was now staring at Garp in stunned disbelief, as if some halo had just shattered.
Wasn't it supposed to be the Marine Hero who fought Rocks alone, with the other pirates fleeing in panic?
Marines and pirates joining forces…
And more than that, the messenger suspected he had heard something he shouldn't have. Was he about to mysteriously disappear for no reason at all…?
"Leave now, and don't go blabbering about what just happened."
"Yes! Admiral Kong!"
Kong waved his hand as if he didn't care, but Garp stopped him.
"Wait. I'm short a clerk on my ship. Go tell Bogard and report to my ship."
"Since he's said as much, go report for duty. And again, don't say anything you shouldn't."
Seeing the messenger hesitate and glance at him, Kong also approved Garp's decision. This time, he personally went to close the office door and made sure there were no other soldiers nearby.
"Garp, it seems you don't trust me very much."
"Boss Kong, Sengoku once said that there was a soldier who disappeared after talking about certain things he shouldn't have. The darkness hanging over this cliff… it really doesn't put one at ease."
"In that case, you'd better mind your mouth first, so you don't stir up more trouble. Now, immediately, take some people and head to Sabaody Archipelago. Find out exactly what's going on there, understood?
And no matter what's happened, seal off the information from that side first… just block it, period."
Sabaody Archipelago gathers people of all kinds, and even reporters from newspapers around the world. Big breaking news often comes out of that place.
With such a huge commotion, the news might have already spread.
Before long, at Sabaody Archipelago, Garp arrived aboard his personal warship.
"Seal off the area. Don't let those reporters leave, confiscate all their cameras! You lot, go search for and rescue the wounded. You others—"
After disembarking, Garp's right hand man, Bogard, began making arrangements, directing the Marine soldiers in the handling of the aftermath.
Garp himself headed to the location of the destroyed base to examine the traces left behind on the ground.
"This attack… it really does look like Rocks' handiwork… That guy isn't really dead?"
Even after arriving in person, Garp couldn't make sense of the situation. Instead, Bogard came back with a new discovery.
After all, Garp and the others had taken quite some time to get here. Some quick-moving reporters had already sent the news out, making it impossible to completely suppress the information.
All the Marines could do now was show that they were at least taking action.
But during this process, Bogard discovered something unusual.
It was a photograph taken by chance: a massive slash of sword energy had just been unleashed, yet in the photo, there was no sign at all of the person who swung the sword.
"Vice Admiral Garp, that reporter… insists he saw the swordsman and even drew a sketch. But in the photo… there's nothing."
The simple sketch wasn't abstract at all. Garp could clearly recognize it as Rocks' appearance.
But that photograph…
"This is downright spooky…"
The scene had already exceeded the limits of what Garp's CPU could process.
He directly ordered Bogard to report the information here truthfully, while he himself took a stroll around the island, beat down a few pirates who tried to stir up trouble amid the chaos, and then headed back to report in.
It wasn't that Garp hadn't considered the possibility that someone was impersonating Rocks, but he and Rocks were old rivals. The traces of the attack were far too similar. No matter how he looked at it, it wasn't the work of a crude imitator.
Because Rocks was involved, the matter was ultimately reported up to Mariejois.
"Impossible. Maffey, Sommers, and I examined the body. Rocks was absolutely dead. There's no way that could be wrong!
Saint Saturn, weren't you there at the time as well?
It has to be some pirate impersonating him. The Marines these days are utterly incompetent if they can't even tell something like this."
"Garling, there's no need to get so worked up. I'm just confirming the situation. After all, it involves 'Davy.'"
"Yes, I understand, Saint Saturn…"
Among the Celestial Dragons, men are addressed as "Saint" and women as "Saint*"—honorifics typically used by lower-ranking Celestial Dragons when addressing higher-ranking ones, or as polite forms of address among equals. [TN: In English both male and female are referred to as Saints, but in Japanese, they are referred to as "-sei" for men and "-gū" for women.]
When ranks are similar, addressing one another directly by name is also common.
Within the Celestial Dragon hierarchy, however, the Five Elders stand just below Imu at the very top. Even Garling had to show them respect.
Saturn also saw no issue with this matter and didn't even report it upward, thus concluding the incident on the spot.
Not long after, two pieces of news spread one after the other.
One claimed that Rocks' ghost had returned, seeking revenge upon the seas.
The other claimed that someone was using Rocks' name to deceive others, and that the Marines were intensifying their efforts to track down who this person really was.
But regardless of which it was, the plan to erase the name "Rocks" had temporarily failed. That name, which had lain dormant for nearly a year, once again spread across the seas.
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