Marine Headquarters: Marineford

"So, we're heading back now?"

The adjutant held the nautical chart and first glanced at Ron's expression.

Ron shot him a sideways glance.

"You're heading back."

"What about you, sir?"

Click.

A thin crack suddenly appeared in the air at the warship's bow.

Ron reached out and pulled the door open, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Didn't he tell me to get my ass back immediately?"

The adjutant's mouth twitched. "What about the report? Didn't the Fleet Admiral tell you to... write it yourself?"

"That's right."

The adjutant's eyes lit up.

Was this lord finally willing to write his own report?!

Ron had already stepped halfway through when he looked back and added, "So sort out the evidence, records, and timeline of the Marines' actions in the Kingdom of Belo and send them to Headquarters first."

"Then what are you going to write?!"

"My name."

Bang.

The door closed.

The deck fell silent for two seconds.

"Major Ron—!!"

The shout startled a flock of seagulls into taking flight from the lookout.

Marine Headquarters: Marineford.

Beside Headquarters' training ground, a door opened out of thin air.

Ron walked out with Zhenyuan on his back. The moment his soles touched the ground, several recruits running laps nearby shuddered in unison.

"An ene—"

"Shut up, that's Major Ron!"

A veteran leaned out and shouted.

The recruits looked at one another.

"Major, you came back this way again?"

"What, should I have lined up at the front gate?"

Ron set off toward the office building.

A recruit lowered his voice. "Major, the Fleet Admiral's looking for you."

"I know. Is he really mad?"

"He's cursed you out three times this afternoon already."

Ron stopped in his tracks.

"Then I'll go get something to eat first."

The veteran leading the group didn't even look up. "The Fleet Admiral said if you dared go anywhere else first, he'd come and drag you in himself."

"..."

Ron turned around quite naturally and headed straight for the office building.

The recruits stared blankly. They had thought that a Major who could strike fear into pirates at fifteen wouldn't be afraid of anything.

"Is he really not afraid of the Fleet Admiral?"

The veteran patted him on the shoulder. "He's been running around this compound since he was five. What do you think?"

As Ron passed the mess hall, the head cook waved his serving spoon at him from the window.

"You little brat, coming to eat for free again tonight?"

"I'm a Marine. How can you call it eating for free?"

"You haven't paid for your meals in three months!"

"Put it on my pops' tab."

"Vice Admiral Sakazuki said last time that if you put any more on his tab, he'd make you scrub pots to pay it off!"

"It's not like he's short of that much."

"When you were five, how many times did I give you extra food when you came running over in the middle of the night?"

The head cook rapped his serving spoon. "You have to pay me back this time!"

The corners of Ron's mouth lifted. "Fine, I'll pay you back double later."

"That's more like it!"

As he rounded the Medical Department, a military doctor poked his head out.

"I heard you punched that Cipher Pol kid into a wall?"

"We were sparring."

"The wall collapsed, and you call that sparring?"

"The wall was just poorly built."

The doctor laughed in exasperation. "Next time you're hurt, come straight to me. Don't make people carry you back again!"

Ron raised a hand to show he'd heard.

Over the past ten years, he had been carried into the Medical Department plenty of times.

Especially when he had first started learning to fight from Zephyr, he had needed to visit almost every few days.

The gatekeeper stuck his head out the window. "Coming back for dinner tonight?"

"Depends on whether the Fleet Admiral feeds me."

Ron glanced up at the white building without breaking stride.

It was noisy here, there were lots of rules, and the old men were especially fond of meddling.

But ever since the fire when he was five, this place had been his home.

Of course, there was someone at home who really wanted to beat him up right now.

Outside the Fleet Admiral's Office, Ron knocked twice.

"Get your ass in here!"

The moment he pushed the door open—

Smack!

A thick file came flying at his face.

Ron raised a hand and caught it. He looked down: "Preliminary report on the Kingdom of Belo incident."

"Those two bastards tattled that fast?"

The veins on Sengoku's forehead throbbed behind his desk. "That's the mission report Cipher Pol submitted! Where's yours?!"

"On its way."

"Your report has to come by fucking ship?!"

"My adjutant's on the ship."

Sengoku took a deep breath, his fists creaking as he clenched them.

On the sofa, Garp was holding a large bag of rice crackers, laughing and slapping his thigh.

"Hahahaha! Sengoku, the kid did a fine job!"

"You shut up! You're the last person here with any right to speak!"

Ron had already slipped over beside Garp and reached into the bag.

"You little brat! Buy your own!"

"Didn't you swipe this bag from the Fleet Admiral's cabinet?"

"Nonsense! I'm holding them for safekeeping!"

"Then I'll hold one for you."

Crunch.

Ron sat down with a rice cracker between his teeth.

Garp glared. "You little bastard, you've learned to steal from your elders!"

"I learned from you."

"Hahahaha!"

Sengoku slammed his desk. "You two, are you done laughing?!"

Both fell silent at once.

The next second, they both stuffed rice crackers into their mouths.

Sengoku's temples throbbed, and he finally opened the report.

"How do you think you handled the Kingdom of Belo matter?"

Ron slowed his chewing.

"So-so."

"So-so?"

"Five hundred people still died."

The room fell quiet for a moment.

Sengoku put down the file. "The World Government has already responded."

"I know."

"Satisfied?"

"No."

Ron set the remaining half of his rice cracker on the edge of the table.

"An internal review. Sounds nice enough."

Sengoku glanced at him.

"How do you think they'll handle it?"

"Eight times out of ten, they won't have the heart to touch that kid."

Ron curled his lip.

"Lucci's only thirteen. The people who taught him to be like that are the ones who really need investigating."

Sengoku didn't respond. He turned to the next page of the report.

"At least you knew to keep evidence this time, instead of letting things turn into a brawl between the Marines and Cipher Pol."

"Obviously."

Ron spread his hands. "I couldn't just fight them, come back and tell you, 'I think they're guilty,' and then leave you to wipe my ass for me, could I?"

Garp immediately cut in. "A fight would've been fine too! We're not afraid of them!"

"Garp! Shut up!"

After glaring at his old friend, Sengoku looked at Ron again.

"What if the government won't even pay compensation?"

"Then I'll go have another chat with them."

"What kind of chat?"

Ron's gaze drifted slowly toward Zhenyuan, leaning against the side of the chair.

"...You're not allowed!"

Sengoku nearly jumped to his feet. "You're even harder to deal with than Sakazuki!"

Ron looked innocent. "Does it run in the family?"

Garp laughed so hard that rice-cracker crumbs sprayed from his mouth.

Just then, the door opened.

Sakazuki walked in holding a file. He heard the last part and gave Ron a cold look.

"Have you caused enough trouble out there?"

"Pops, I saved all the hostages."

"I asked whether you were hurt."

Ron was taken aback. He held out both hands.

"I'm not hurt. My clothes aren't even torn."

"Good."

Sakazuki looked him up and down, then placed the file on Sengoku's desk.

He didn't ask about Lucci. He merely moved the bag of rice crackers in front of Ron to one side.

"I signed the application to transfer the evidence from the Kingdom of Belo."

Sengoku snorted. "What about his action report?"

Sakazuki looked at Ron. "Write it yourself."

"..."

Well, even Pops wasn't going to bail him out.

Sengoku rapped on the desk.

"Finish it tonight. Especially the part where you beat up Lucci. Write it all out clearly, point by point!"

"Don't you already have reports from Cipher Pol and the kingdom?"

"I want yours!"

"I have to write a report just for beating him up?"

"What do you think?!"

Ron sighed. "What a pain. If I'd known, I would've just cut him down."

Sengoku sneered.

"Leave out a single word, and forget about dinner tonight!"

Ron instantly sat up straight. "Hey, hey, hey! That's going too far!"

Just then, a leisurely voice drifted in from the doorway.

"Oh my, what a lively crowd~"

Borsalino leaned against the doorframe with a cup of tea, his gaze falling on Ron as his mouth curled to one side.

"I heard little Ron took the World Government's once-in-eight-hundred-years genius..."

He deliberately paused.

"And beat him to tears?"

"He didn't cry."

"Now that's a shame~"