Holy Land, Mary Geoise.
Knock, knock, knock!
His fingers rapped against the door. Akainu hesitated for a moment, then called out, "Reporting in!"
"..."
Silence lingered behind the door for a while before Ron's calm voice sounded. "Come in."
Things really were different now!
Akainu let out a quiet sigh and pushed the door open.
The moment he stepped inside, Akainu was startled.
"Why are... all of you here?!"
By all rights, Ron's office should have been exceptionally quiet and "deserted," considering he was the sole man in charge.
Yet there were quite a few people inside now, a whole crowd of them.
They stood before Ron in two rows. On the left, from back to front, were one of the Shichibukai in name only, the Surgeon of Death, Trafalgar Law; Koby, inexplicably covered in bandages like a mummy, with one leg in a cast and leaning on crutches; the renowned Knight of the Sea, Jinbe, and the "Benevolent Swordsman," Fujitora. At the very front, naturally, stood Ron's universally recognized trusted general, the Marine Ghost Sword, Quinn Dont...
Wait!
Dorte?
Akainu could not help widening his eyes. "When did you get back?"
Wasn't he carrying out a mission in the New World?
How had he arrived even earlier than Akainu and the others?
"Long time no see, Fleet Admiral."
Dorte turned back and nodded in greeting before explaining, "Pluton and the Kirin are indeed fast, but they can't match war airships traveling light."
The two had originally been about equally fast, but Pluton and the Kirin were ships with much greater carrying capacity, so they had fallen behind.
Still, he should not have been back this quickly!
Akainu had just been about to glare when a possibility suddenly occurred to him.
Unless...
Ron had secretly recalled Dorte long ago, without