Marineford War: I Will Stand in the Sky

After several breaths, Zefa finally recovered and spoke with difficulty.

"Perhaps it's some kind of special Devil Fruit ability? Weevil used some kind of Devil Fruit ability to pinpoint my location as his enemy."

"Ah."

Yone nodded, but did not continue the discussion with Zephyr.

This is partly because the current situation is not appropriate, and partly because Zephyr needs to calm down.

Furthermore, Yann himself needs to confirm this further, rather than just making things up based on guesswork.

Some seeds... can be planted directly, but it takes time for them to take root and sprout.

'But whoever hurts Sora and Hikari will have to pay the price!'

Ya'en pushed up his glasses, trying to hide his barely concealed fierce gaze.

As midnight passed, the morning sun slowly rose at the horizon where the sea met the sky.

Several naval warships that had departed from the Navy Headquarters hurriedly arrived at the training ship that was already paralyzed at sea. Vice Admiral Garp and Vice Admiral Tsuru, who were classmates with Zephyr and had a very good relationship with him, also rushed to the scene.

"Zeffa, are you alright?"

Vice Admiral Garp asked casually, while Vice Admiral Tsuru frowned as he surveyed the bloodstains and mess on the training ship, his heart skipping a beat.

After working through the night, Zephyr and Yann had collected the bodies of the students on the training ship and confirmed the casualties.

It is precisely because of this that Zefa is now swaying unsteadily. As a top expert in the ocean, he is somewhat unable to stand firmly.

"Hey, Zephyr?" Lieutenant General Garp asked with concern.

“Garp…”

Watching his colleague and comrade-in-arms of decades personally collect the bodies of his students one by one, Zefa could no longer suppress the grief and sorrow in his heart.

[Chapter 457 MISS. Ba Jin]

A total of 573 students participated in the internship training this year. Some of the students' bodies were so badly damaged that they could not be identified or pieced back together, while others had sunk to the bottom of the sea with the emergency boat.

Therefore, Zefa initially confirmed that the death toll was 262, the number of missing persons was 39, and the number of casualties was more than half.

"Ugh……"

Standing quietly to the side, Yan could only sigh, completely at a loss for how to comfort Zefa.

For Chief Instructor Zephyr, who resigned from his position as admiral and founded the naval academy more than 20 years ago, his entire life and duties revolved around training students.

While still in the midst of battle, Zephyr couldn't immediately grasp the grief of losing his students.

However, as Zefa insisted on personally collecting each student's body, the process was undoubtedly a huge torment and a blow.

If there hadn't been half of the survivors, Yann might have even suspected that Zefa's beliefs would have collapsed on the spot.

"However, even so, losing nearly half of our promising generals could very well lead to a generational gap in the navy's future."

'This is really troublesome...'

Yaon shook his head helplessly, understanding that things were fine during Sengoku's term as Fleet Admiral, but the next Fleet Admiral might face a shortage of combat power in the mid-to-high ranks of the Navy.

From the perspective of Aon and the Revolutionary Army, they do not actually want the Navy to decline. Otherwise, with pirates running rampant on the high seas and the order collapsing, it will also seriously affect the development speed of the Revolutionary Army.

After looking around, Lieutenant General Tsuru asked Ahn about the details.

There was no need for Yann to hide anything from him, so he told her everything he knew about the "Conqueror's Haki" incident.

When Lieutenant General Tsuru finally heard the number of students who had died, he realized that the impact of this incident would likely be quite profound.

but……

Lieutenant General Tsuru couldn't help but stare intently at Ya'en.

He nearly annihilated Weevil, who was known as "Whitebeard Jr." Even though there might be a problem of ability counterplay involved, it is enough to show that the combat power that Yann could exert was already at the top level of the ocean.

What surprised Lieutenant General Tsuru the most was the speed at which Yann crossed the sea.

Among the three current admirals of the Navy, Admiral "Akainu" Sakazuki can create a foothold in the sea for a short time by using lava, while Admiral "Aokiji" Kuzan has the ability to freeze the sea and walk around at will.

But neither Admiral Sakazuki nor Admiral Kuzan could travel as fast on the open sea as naval warships.

In the end, only Admiral Borsalino, also known as "Kizaru," truly possessed the ability to traverse the sea at high speed on his own, but the physical exertion required was also quite terrifying.

On the contrary, Yann has now demonstrated this ability to cross the sea with ease, arriving at the training ship from Marineford at an unimaginable speed to provide support.

'How did they do that? Is it the power of the Sakura-Sakura Fruit?'

Lieutenant General Tsuru couldn't help but wonder about this, but the current occasion was clearly not suitable for asking such a question.

Subsequently, the training ship, which was already badly damaged and on the verge of sinking, was towed back to Marineford by the other two warships, and the surviving students began to receive treatment from the naval doctor.

However, for these surviving students, most of their physical injuries were minor bumps and bruises; what they suffered was a severe psychological and emotional shock.

That feeling was probably like a max-level monster accidentally entering a beginner's village. I believe that Weevil's monstrous physique and strength will remain a lingering nightmare for a considerable number of students for a long time to come.

In addition, Zephyr, the chief instructor of the Navy, was also seriously injured. Although he was not in mortal danger due to the "life return", his right arm, which was the most important part, was almost destroyed, and he also suffered a great deal of psychological damage.

If the attacker, Weevil, hadn't been killed on the spot by Yarn, the consequences of this incident would likely have been even more severe.

……

The following day, at the Marineford headquarters office building.

It was a rare sight for Yann to appear in his office, where he listened to Major General Hope's investigation report.

"Reporting to Lieutenant General Yann, I retrieved the reporting documents for the training ship's route as you ordered. The only departments that approved it were the General Staff and the Marshal's Office. After that, it was kept in the archives."

After a pause, Major General Hope flipped through the documents in his hand and continued speaking.

"The intelligence department and the six naval branches related to the shipping route and sea area need to cooperate with the training ship. However, the intelligence department and the six naval branches are unaware that the task they need to cooperate with is the training ship."

Yarn nodded, gesturing for Major General Hope to place the report he was holding on the desk.

"Any progress from the intelligence department or the general staff?" Yaen asked.

"The intelligence department and the general staff have roughly reconstructed Weevil's recent movements and believe that this should be purely a coincidence," Hope replied.

Yann declined to comment, instead sending Major General Hope off to get to work.

There is no doubt that the Navy will not be able to find anything out at this point.

With Chief Instructor Zephyr seriously injured in an attack and more than 300 promising future naval officers killed, the Intelligence Department and the General Staff naturally refused to take the blame without substantial evidence.

More importantly, everything really does seem too much of a coincidence.

In the vast ocean, Weevil, who has intellectual disabilities, happens to be traveling on a raft when he encounters a training ship.

Immediately, Yann picked up the documents that Major General Hope had just handed him and browsed through them, finally pulling out a photograph that was closely related to Weevil's life.

MISS. Ba Jin.

A short, elderly woman wearing black glasses and an extravagantly patterned cloak.

According to past naval intelligence, Miss Barkin was Weevil's biological mother, and she often claimed to be the lover of "Whitebeard" Edward Newgate.

"Judging by the timeline, they probably... caught them, right?"

Yann tapped the table, muttered something, and then leaned back in his chair.

……

Meanwhile, in a beauty salon on a bustling island near the location where the training ship was attacked.

MISS. Ba Jin was carefully examining her skin after the treatment, and her expression became increasingly dissatisfied. She angrily rebuked the shop assistant next to her.

"Didn't you say that after three courses of treatment, your skin would be restored to a youthful state? Why is it still so wrinkled?"

The surrounding shop assistants couldn't help but show a hint of helplessness.

If this guy weren't so rich and foolish, they wouldn't bother with such a pipe dream.

[Chapter 458. Zephyr, the Target]

The beauty salon manager, who rushed over, was also angry at Miss Ba Jin's impending outburst. Instead, she patiently and gently explained the situation to her.

"Madam, it's like this. We previously promised that three courses of treatment would show results, but those three courses are only the beginning of restoring your skin to a youthful state..."

"Come, madam, look here. Think back carefully. Have you noticed that your skin has improved considerably since the three treatments? Your pores have shrunk a lot, and it's starting to look like a young girl's skin."

"Madam, you must trust the strength of our store. As a long-established store in the Baidao chain, it has stood the test of time and been certified."

After a pause, the beauty salon manager pointed to herself with a hint of mystery in her voice and said, "Madam, guess how old I am this year?"

Unbeknownst to her, Miss Ba Jin was led astray by the beauty salon manager. Following the manager's question, she carefully examined the man who looked somewhat middle-aged and guessed.

Thirty-six years old?

"You guessed wrong, madam. This year..."

The beauty salon manager said with a touch of wistfulness, "I'm sixty-three years old."

Immediately, Miss Ba Jin's expression turned one of shock and disbelief as she asked, "Is your secret to staying young through these treatments?"

The beauty salon manager hesitated for a moment, then whispered mysteriously.

"Actually, in addition to these treatments, our store also has a beauty product that is exclusively for internal use. However, I see that Madam has an extraordinary temperament and supports our store a lot, so I can secretly take some for her to use."

Upon hearing this, Miss Ba Jin's displeasure vanished completely, replaced by a hint of joy.

Seeing this, the beauty salon manager hesitated before continuing, "However, Madam, even these are internal products, not provided free of charge by headquarters. It's just that as the manager, I have a certain share to purchase them at internal prices, so that portion of the cost..."

"Don't worry, Pele is not a problem."

"Miss," Ba Jin said nonchalantly.

In an instant, the beauty salon manager could hardly contain the ecstatic look on her face.

Fat sheep! This is definitely the big fat sheep I've been waiting for!

Sure enough, being a pirate is a dead end; nothing beats making money as fast as opening a beauty salon.

As for shrinking pores, simply washing your face will naturally shrink them temporarily.

As for the claim of a "hundred islands chain store," it is true, but the specific situation is that this store has been blocked by a hundred islands due to customer complaints about fraud.

However, this 26-year-old shop manager will soon have 101 islands.

But that doesn't matter at all; we can just switch to another island. The same trick will always find different victims.

However, before the beauty salon manager could go down to make arrangements, MISS. Ba Jin suddenly gave a somewhat frightening reminder.