Garen: Man of the Hour

Loguetown Pier.

After Smoker thoroughly reorganized the Loguetown garrison, the operation to conquer Arlong's territory finally took shape.

Although many soldiers in the original garrison were corrupt officials colluding with Commander Hammer, Smoker successfully reorganized the remaining available personnel into his command after a cleansing. This allowed the Captain from headquarters to finally assemble a team of one hundred men.

After taking over the Loguetown base, Smoker's flagship was finally replaced from that miniature civilian armed vessel to a standard warship equipped with dozens of cannons.

Smoker finally had the demeanor of a high-ranking officer.

High-ranking officers naturally wouldn't handle those tedious tasks themselves.

So Smoker leisurely smoked on the bow of the ship, while his adjutant, Tashigi, was busy directing the Marines to move supplies, inspect equipment, and count personnel, preparing for the warship's departure.

At this moment, the busy movements of the Marines suddenly froze, and then a chorus of unconscious, soft exclamations of admiration rose and fell.

Tashigi followed the soldiers' gazes and saw a burly man in a well-fitting white suit, with a heroic and awe-inspiring appearance, walking slowly towards them.

"Garen, Senior!"

Tashigi waved from afar, greeting Garen with a respectful tone tinged with excitement.

Garen also nodded slightly in acknowledgment.

However, the focus of the Marines' attention was naturally not the same as Tashigi's; their eyes were fixed on the orange-haired girl in a pure white, off-the-shoulder dress beside Garen.

After going shopping with Garen yesterday, Nami had changed out of her unchanging short-sleeved shirt and skirt and put on the "stunning" off-the-shoulder princess dress she had chosen.

"How is it?"

Nami enjoyed the admiring gazes of the people around her and asked Garen beside her with some pride:

"Do I look good in this?"

"It's alright."

Garen tensed up subconsciously when he heard this familiar question, and his tone became stiff.

"Hmph!"

Nami pouted with some dissatisfaction: "That's not what you said when you bought it for me yesterday."

Garen paused, but told Nami his true thoughts:

"It does look good..."

"But you're showing your arms and legs..."

"Who goes to sea to fight dressed like this?!"

"Huh?"

Nami tilted her head, confused, and examined her bare, slender shoulders and long legs protruding from the skirt, and said innocently:

"What's wrong with wearing this?"

"Many girls go to sea like this, right...?"

"Uh..."

Looking at Nami's justified expression, Garen couldn't find any words to refute.

Compared to the way Nami dressed in his "future" memories, the current Nami, who was only wearing a short, off-the-shoulder dress, was indeed extremely conservative...

And the beauties on the sea all wore more revealing outfits than the last.

He really couldn't imagine what special techniques these forthright girls used to keep themselves from being exposed during intense battles.

"Wear whatever you want..."

Garen, whose rigid thinking couldn't keep up with the open atmosphere of this world, simply stopped commenting on Nami's way of dressing.

Anyway, Nami looked much more pleasing to the eye dressed like this.

"This time when I go back to Cocoyasi Village..."

Nami's expression suddenly became serious, her voice filled with determination:

"I want them to see a different me."

Standing beside Garen, standing in front of that warship, Nami was completely renewed.

It wasn't just a gorgeous new outfit, but also a hope in her heart for a new life.

She finally had the courage to resist Arlong head-on.

"Miss Nami?!"

A surprised voice suddenly came from beside them.

Garen and Nami turned their heads and saw Wallace, who had arrived at the pier at some point.

He had already decided two days ago to follow Garen, the human news-making machine, to Cocoyasi Village to report on the heroic deeds of Knight Garen.

Wallace praised with great admiration, "Miss Nami's change is really big!"

"Can I take a picture?"

"Of course!"

Nami gladly accepted the request.

But Wallace didn't pull out his camera as usual. Instead, he took out a strange, large snail, held it in his hand, and struck a pose for a photo with Nami and Garen.

Nami and Garen were both slightly taken aback.

Garen carefully examined the large snail in Wallace's hand, which was clearly alive, and asked in surprise, "Is that... a Den Den Mushi?"

"That's right!"

Wallace proudly introduced his new equipment:

"This is a Visual Den Den Mushi with camera functions."

"It doesn't need film. It can not only take and store a large number of photos, but also record videos..."

"After connecting to special external communication equipment, it can also transmit photos and videos remotely to the newspaper's headquarters in real time."

"A Visual Den Den Mushi?"

Nami was taken aback, and then asked with a hint of surprise, "That thing must be expensive?!"

Indeed, Den Den Mushi were already scarce creatures in the East Blue.

A more advanced Visual Den Den Mushi, with features as rich as a digital camera and a fax machine, was even more of a legendary treasure in the minds of working-class people like Nami.

Nami, a professional thief, didn't even know the specific price of a Visual Den Den Mushi. Her only impression of it was that it was "very expensive."

Because the levels were too far apart.

"Yes!"

Wallace nodded lightly and said:

"Our newspaper doesn't have many of these devices. Only high-ranking reporters are qualified to use them."

"The news captured by ordinary reporters isn't valuable enough, and there's no need to use such expensive real-time fax equipment."

"Oh?"

Garen picked up on Wallace's implication: "You've been promoted?"

"Thanks to Garen, I've captured world-class news."

Wallace nodded gratefully to Garen, and then said excitedly:

"I'm not talented, but I've been promoted to Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the East Blue Daily!"

"Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the East Blue Daily?"

Nami exclaimed in surprise, "That's really..."

The value of this position is much greater than it sounds.

Because of the existence of special creatures like "news birds," almost every island in the sea, except for the Calm Belt, is within the coverage of newspaper distribution.

Major news, such as the execution of the Pirate King, can spread throughout the world within three days, reaching the point where everyone knows about it.

In this case, the newspaper, which controls public opinion, actually controls the direction of the sea situation to a certain extent, and its influence is self-evident.

And the East Blue Daily is the newspaper with the largest circulation in the East Blue.

Although its influence cannot be compared with those major newspapers in the Grand Line, it is enough to dominate the direction of public opinion in the entire East Blue.

In addition, with the World Government's weak control and inadequate news supervision, the presence of local newspapers is even stronger.

Nami looked at Wallace's face, which was too young for the position of Deputy Editor-in-Chief, and said in disbelief:

"Is the news we've been making these past two days that big?"

"It actually got you promoted directly to Deputy Editor-in-Chief?"

"Well..."

Wallace said a little embarrassedly:

"Actually, there are also a few other reasons."

"The behind-the-scenes financier of the East Blue Daily is my father."

"Oh."

Nami's expression suddenly became strange. She thought of the huge interview fee that Wallace had casually taken out before:

"No wonder you're such a big spender for a small reporter."

"Haha..."

Wallace showed a shy smile as he said:

"Miss Nami and Garen have been of great help to me."

"My father has always been against me being a reporter. You helped me prove my ability as a reporter, and that's what finally changed his mind."

Wallace waved the Visual Den Den Mushi in his hand and said:

"Enough talk, let's take a picture!"

"Your current image is perfect. I want to take a picture and fax it back to the newspaper to use as an illustration for that special report."

"Oh?"

Garen was a little surprised, "You haven't sent out that news article yet?"

"Not yet."

"After all, this is a world-class news story involving a Marine hero and a member of the Pirate King's crew, so it naturally needs to be treated with caution."

Wallace explained with a serious face:

"Moreover, the news also involves Miss Nami, and considering the secrecy of our upcoming bandit suppression operation..."

"I've specifically arranged the publication time so that the delivery of this news report will arrive at Cocoyasi Village around the same time as our bandit suppression team."

"I see..."

Nami nodded her thanks to Wallace.

"Speaking of which..."

Garen suddenly said with some curiosity, "Since it's a report about me, can I take a look at the draft beforehand?"

"No problem!"

Wallace readily took out a stack of manuscripts from his briefcase:

"This is the sample of the news article I wrote, please take a look!"

"From the Steel Cutlass to Buggy the Clown and the corrupt garrison in Loguetown, it records all of Garen's heroic deeds!"

"Very good."

Garen nodded with satisfaction and eagerly took the news draft from Wallace to review it.

After all, it was the first time he had become a news figure, so Garen was very much looking forward to it.

A moment later...

"I say..."

Garen's face was ashen:

"This 'Fifty-Fifty' and 'Ippon Ken Dou Swordsman'..."

"What the hell are those?!"