Sengoku had to admit that what Steel Bone Kong said was extremely correct!
Haku was only seventeen years old right now!
If they could firmly bind Haku to the Marines, how many years would he end up serving the Marines until his retirement? Thinking of this, the corners of Sengoku's mouth curved upward inexplicably.
Haku's strength might even increase further! He might even be able to suppress those Four Emperors out on the vast sea. The more Sengoku let his imagination run wild, the more excited he became. He suddenly felt that Haku was worthy of being a Fleet Admiral!
Crunch! Crunch!
Although Garp consciously refrained from disturbing Sengoku while the latter was deep in thought, the sound of him continually crunching on senbei was indeed rather grating! Sengoku's train of thought was ultimately interrupted by Garp.
"Garp! Can you not be so noisy!" Sengoku looked unhappily at Garp, who was still crunching on the senbei in his hand.
With a few crumbs around his mouth, Garp laughed heartily and said, "Ah! Have you made up your mind, Sengoku? Do you want some senbei?"
With that, he handed the whole bag of senbei in his hand to Sengoku, who was glaring at him angrily.
Sengoku stood on no ceremony either, snatching the senbei from Garp's hand and dumping all of them straight into his mouth!
"Ah! You bastard Sengoku, leave me some, this is the last bag!" Garp said with a heartache. However, that did not stop Sengoku from eating them all.
"My senbei..." Garp said helplessly.
Having finished them, Sengoku stood up, ignored Garp, and walked toward the direction of the conference room.
"Old man! You're going to kill me!"
Inside the Marine Headquarters conference room, Haku suddenly woke with a start and bolted up from the sofa in the corner!
The Marine high-ranking officials who were waiting for Sengoku and the others in the conference room all stared in unison at Haku, who had suddenly started shouting and hollering.
Uh... Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing? Why are all these people looking at me?
After a brief silence, Haku scratched his head, smiled awkwardly, and said, "Well, the weather is really nice today! And you know! I'm still growing, so I'm a bit calcium-deficient. Right! I need to go outside and soak up the sun for some calcium!"
As he spoke, Haku awkwardly edged toward the door of the room. Clearly, his social anxiety had flared up, and right now he wished he could find a crack in the ground and crawl right in.
Vice Admiral Tsuru smiled warmly as she looked at this energetic young man. She had never heard this side of Haku from Garp or Zephyr before, though? Smiling, she spoke up and said to Haku, "Haku, is it? Just find a random seat and sit down first."
Haku's figure froze instantly in place. With such a venerable person speaking, Haku felt like crying without tears; right now, leaving was out of the question, and staying was too!
In the end, Haku compromised, then turned around to face everyone in the conference room.
Hmm!
Except for Akainu, who had gone to get his injuries treated, the other Headquarters Vice Admirals and the two Headquarters Admirals were all present in the conference room.
Glancing around the surroundings, Haku found that apart from the main seat—meaning Sengoku's empty chair—the only other vacant seat was next to Vice Admiral Tsuru.
So he walked forward, and just as everyone thought Haku was going to sit beside Vice Admiral Tsuru...
Haku ignored everyone present and continued walking straight ahead.
Looking at the direction Haku was heading, only one thought remained in everyone's mind: No way?
Before long, Haku's footsteps paused as he pulled out a chair and sat directly beside Aokiji and Kizaru!
"Bastard! Get up right now, you brat! That is Admiral Sakazuki's seat!"
At this moment, the man who stood up to reprimand Haku wore a helmet engraved with a twin-dragon pattern, and his expression was extremely fierce. He was none other than Headquarters Vice Admiral Onigumo!
Baiyuan cast a disdainful glance in his direction, knowing full well that this Headquarters Vice Admiral possessed a cruel personality and cared not a whit even if his actions harmed his own subordinates during missions.
Haku said to him indifferently, "What? I'm not worthy of sitting here?"
"You brat, of course you're not wor—" Before he could finish speaking, an oppressive, tyrannical coercion bore down upon Onigumo!
Staggering and nearly falling, Onigumo stared with split eyeballs at Haku in front of him. He could not believe that with so many people present, Haku actually dared to make a move against him.
"Sit down!" An invisible ripple radiated outward from Haku's body, and a flash of red light crossed his eyes.
For a moment, Onigumo felt an irresistible pressure force him down, slamming him back into his seat against his will.
Hiss!
Someone—it was unclear who—drew a sharp breath inside the modest-sized conference room.
Conqueror's Haki! And it was the kind of Conqueror's Haki with quite a high level, at that!
The thought running through the minds of all the Headquarters Vice Admirals was: Did this kid start training from his mother's womb? How can he be this freakish? But then they remembered that Haku was Garp's grandson, and suddenly they felt that this was entirely normal.
Of course, aside from Onigumo, the party in question, only Vice Admiral Tsuru, Aokiji, Kizaru, and the two Admiral candidates sensed that something else was mixed inside Baiyuan's Conqueror's Haki! They just hadn't figured out what it was yet!
Actually, Haku's Conqueror's Haki had only reached an intermediate standard, and the Conqueror's Haki exerted on Onigumo was not quite enough to completely suppress him.
Yet besides Haki, Haku also possessed the spiritual pressure of the Shinigami system!
So what if intermediate Conqueror's Haki couldn't suppress Onigumo? One had to remember that Haku was someone capable of wielding Ryujin Jakka, the strongest fire-type Bankai.
The spiritual pressure within him was the most terrifying thing of all!
However, Haku did not wish to display this kind of power excessively, which was why he combined his spiritual pressure with his Haki when using it.
Just as Onigumo was reaching the point of exhaustion, Aokiji, who sat beside Haku, finally spoke up, "Alright! Haku, let Onigumo off."
Hearing this, Haku readily took the chance to step down and withdrew the force pressing down on Onigumo.
However, once Haku stopped acting up, he went right back to his foul-mouthed ways!
He turned his head to look at Aokiji beside him and said, "Kuzan, I haven't seen you in quite a while. How about it, do you want to fight me?"
"No! I refuse!" Kuzan replied without the slightest hesitation.
Yet right after, a bad feeling welled up in his heart. This was precisely why he had fought a match against Haku back then!
At that moment, Haku suddenly spoke up again, "Say, have you still not broken that habit of yours where you love to sleep? Why are you still wearing such an ugly blindfold on your head? And another thing, is the reason you love sleeping in so much because your kidneys are weak, and you need all that sleep just to make up for it?"
In an instant! The temperature in the entire conference room dropped by at least several degrees. Haku also clearly noticed something and immediately shut his mouth, stopping his teasing of the Aokiji beside him.
...Aokiji was somewhat speechless for a moment, secretly regretting that he had let Baiyuan sit next to him.
Before you continue