Starting as a pirate, he rose to become the strongest Shinigami in Soul Society.

Chapter 168 Naval Headquarters Senior Commander Meeting!

Tina was still not qualified to participate in this meeting, so after she saw Bane to the elevator, she looked at Bane with a resentful gaze.

"Hey, why are you staring at me like that? It's not like I'm stopping you from becoming a major general," Bane muttered as he pressed the close button.

"Damn it, Tina has to work hard from today onwards!" Tina clenched her fist and said.

After the elevator doors closed, Bane pressed the button for the fifth floor, which was the conference room floor. However, when the elevator reached the third floor, it opened again, and Kuzan appeared outside the door.

He looked at Bane with some surprise and said, "I thought you wouldn't be able to make it to the meeting and would have to participate via video."

As he spoke, he stepped into the elevator.

"Isn't this just a coincidence?" Bane replied with a smile.

"How is Professor Zephyr? I contacted him via Den Den Mushi and he seemed to be in pretty good spirits," Kuzan casually asked, starting a conversation.

"It's quite good, but as for the specifics, let's keep it as a surprise and leave it for you to discover next time we meet," Bane laughed.

Kuzan smiled upon hearing this and didn't press further about Zephyr.

At Navy Headquarters, most people only knew that Zephyr had gone to recuperate and go on vacation, but they didn't really know the specifics.

After a few seconds of silence in the elevator, Kuzan suddenly spoke up, asking, "You should know the current situation at headquarters, right?"

Bane sighed softly upon hearing this, "I just heard some things from Tina. Tsk... I didn't expect you two to have fallen out like this so quickly?"

Kuzan's lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't say anything.

A moment later, Kuzan scratched his head and asked, "So, whose side are you on?"

"Sakazuki." Bane gave the answer without hesitation.

Kuzan's expression wasn't surprised; he merely clicked his tongue with a slight hint of regret and said, "Your recent behavior has been a bit strange, which I already guessed. But even so, I still want to ask, what's the reason?"

"Support him, and I can be a general." Bane didn't hide anything and said directly.

Kuzan was genuinely stunned for a moment, his expression turning somewhat surprised. Just then, the elevator doors opened, and they arrived at the fifth floor.

However, neither of them intended to step out of the elevator, and the atmosphere became somewhat heavy as they stood in the not-so-spacious space.

After a long silence, the elevator doors closed again, and Kuzan spoke up at that moment: "No matter what, I will not back down this time."

"I know." Bane reached out and pressed the open button, then looked at Kuzan and said, "In my opinion, this is just the beginning."

After saying that, he took the lead and stepped out of the elevator. Kuzan looked at Bane's back with some confusion, scratched his head, and finally didn't understand what he meant. So he simply stopped thinking about it and followed him out.

Bane arrived rather late; as soon as he entered the conference room, he saw that quite a few people were already seated inside.

He also took a closer look at the long table in the conference room; it was brand new, indicating that a new one had been installed.

The head seat at the long table is currently empty, indicating that Fleet Admiral Sengoku has not yet arrived. However, the first seat on the left is already occupied by Admiral Sakazuki, while the first seat on the right is empty, clearly reserved for Kuzan. Admiral Borsalino has quite consciously taken the second seat.

Then Garp, Issho, and the others took their seats with their nameplates on them. Sakazuki's second seat had Bane's nameplate on it.

Without rushing to take a seat, Bane's gaze swept around the room, and then in the last seat area, he saw Zoro and Fubuki wearing the Justice Cloak, and opposite them were Smoker and the others. Clearly, that was the Major General's area.

After observing for a while, Bane confirmed that Momousagi and Chaton, the two general candidates, had no intention of attending this meeting, because their name tags were not present.

Without further delay, Bane walked towards his seat. As he passed Issho, he patted him on the shoulder and greeted him with a smile. Issho acted normally and chatted with Bane for a bit. On the other hand, Karp, who was sitting next to him, glared at Bane with great displeasure, snorted coldly, and looked like he didn't want to talk to him.

"What's wrong? Did your grandson upset you?" Bane teased when he saw this.

"Hmph, you bastard, you're the one who made me angry!" Garp, being a straightforward guy, immediately retorted to Bane.

"Really? Are you that petty?" Bane laughed.

After exchanging a few words with Garp, Bane quickly walked over to Sakazuki and sat down in his seat.

As soon as he sat down, Sakazuki looked at him. His expression was a little stiff, but you could tell he was trying to put on a friendly smile. However, this guy was really not suited to making that kind of expression; his smile was scarier than a ghost.

"I've already heard about the situation from those five people. Anyway, thank you very much this time," Sakazuki said with a somewhat stiff tone.

Bane thought to himself, "These Five Elders were acting all low-key and mysterious before, but now they don't need to hide anything anymore? It seems they really think they've got this game figured out."

Since that's the case, he didn't need to pretend he didn't know anything. He politely nodded to Sakazuki, smiled, and said, "Please take care of me from now on."

"Mm," Sakazuki nodded in response.

Not a single mistake, not a single poem, not a single post, not a single piece of content, not a single look!

It was clear that he still wanted to talk to Bane, but he couldn't find a suitable topic for the moment, so after a moment of silence, he stopped talking.

Initially, Sakazuki didn't really approve of Bane, but during the Marineford War, he changed his opinion of Bane. After all, as a tough guy, he admired Bane's brave fighting style, especially his spirit of fighting Kaido to the death even when he knew he was no match for him!

Not long ago, Sakazuki learned that Bane had killed Shiki in the New World, so his previous contempt for Bane completely disappeared. In Sakazuki's eyes, a good marine is one who can kill pirates!

Furthermore, Sakazuki now knows that Bane will unequivocally support him as the new Fleet Admiral, so his favorability towards Bane has increased even more.

In Sakazuki's view, Bane currently carries a very faint "label" within the Navy. Although he was recommended to join the Navy by Garp and was promoted by Fleet Admiral Sengoku, he has not actually been labeled as such. Furthermore, his relationship with Garp and others is not particularly close.

I should start building a relationship with Bane from now on. Later, when I become a marshal, it would be very promising to have Bane as a general to assist me.

However, he was a tough and inarticulate person, so even if he changed his opinion of Bane, he didn't know how to improve their relationship.

Just as Sakazuki was thinking about these things, Aramu appeared outside the conference room. He entered and looked in Sakazuki's direction, only to find Bane sitting next to him, which annoyed him.

He actually admired Sakazuki quite a bit. Ever since he was assigned to join the Navy, he had always given Sakazuki a lot of face and followed Sakazuki's lead. He originally thought that he would be able to sit next to Sakazuki at this meeting and completely establish his status as the future right-hand man of the Fleet Admiral. However, he did not expect that Bane, whom he had never met before, would be sitting there.

Although he was somewhat unhappy, he couldn't show it. Besides, he was just a vice admiral in the navy, while Bane was a proper admiral candidate. There was a difference in their status, and he couldn't even compare to Bane, who had also joined the navy not long ago.

Therefore, he could only silently find his seat and sit there without saying a word.

After that, several more naval officers entered one after another. After the rest of the officers had arrived, about five or six minutes later, Sengoku, the Grand Admiral of the Navy, walked in from outside.

As soon as he entered, the naval officers who had been exchanging ideas in the meeting room fell silent, demonstrating that even at this final moment, Fleet Admiral Sengoku still possessed unparalleled prestige.

Without any unnecessary movements, Sengoku quickly walked to the head seat, sat down, and tapped the table, making the already quiet meeting room even quieter.

"Alright, now that everyone is here, let's begin the meeting," Sengoku instructed.

As soon as he finished speaking, the projector behind the long table in the conference room was turned on, and the figures of several vice admirals appeared on the video.

Instead of immediately discussing his resignation as Fleet Admiral, Sengoku picked up a folder from the table, opened it, and said, "The first item on the agenda is the construction of a new naval base in the New World. As of today, there are a total of four applications submitted, which is still short of the number of new bases we previously planned. Does anyone have any good suggestions?"

(End of this chapter)