After settling on a temporary direction, Bane began thinking again about expanding his team.
If he intended to join the Marines later, then at the very least, the people he recruited could not be Pirates. Besides, Nami herself was somewhat resistant to that idea.
That left few people who caught Bane's eye. After all, from what he remembered, most talented prospects worth cultivating at this point in time were Pirates, such as Trafalgar Law, who had just caused a major uproar in the North Blue.
Although Trafalgar Law was not truly a villain, he was indeed troublesome, especially given how unusual his abilities were. If he joined the Marines, it would be like sending a sheep into a tiger's den. Who knew what those scum in Mary Geoise might do?
After thinking over the members of the Worst Generation, none of them seemed particularly suitable.
"Enel might actually work." Bane suddenly thought of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit user who ruled over Sky Island like a tyrant.
First of all, Enel's identity was not a problem. Though he had committed all sorts of atrocities on Sky Island, he was not fundamentally a pirate. At a stretch, he could be considered a ruler.
Moreover, he had never been wanted by either the Marines or the World Government. As long as Bane went to Sky Island, gave him a beating, recruited him, and brought him down to the world of the Blue Sea for proper discipline, Enel could also atone for the absurd things he had done in the past.
His talent was not especially exceptional, but it was far from bad. His Observation Haki in particular, combined with his Rumble-Rumble Fruit ability, was remarkably outstanding. It was just that he had spent too long ruling supreme in a tiny place like Sky Island, making him a frog at the bottom of a well. If he were tempered on these vast seas for a while, he could still grow into a formidable expert.
"But how to get up to Sky Island is the troublesome part. I'll have to think it over carefully later." Bane shook his head with some frustration.
Under normal circumstances, there were basically only two routes to Sky Island. The first was to ride the Knock Up Stream from Jaya, reaching Sky Island in an extremely risky manner.
But the Knock Up Stream only appeared once a year, and this year's occurrence was still a long way off—the one the Straw Hat Pirates encountered in the original story.
Bane might not have that long to wait, nor did he want to.
The second conventional method was to take a secret route controlled by the Marines. This route was called the Summit of the West Sky. Bane did not know the details; he only knew that such a route existed.
Other than those conventional methods, it came down to each person's own capabilities. If you could fly, there was basically no issue. Big shots like Shiki the Golden Lion and Beasts Kaido could travel to Sky Island without any obstacles.
After pondering it for a long while, Bane still could not think of a good solution. He could only take things one step at a time.
After dinner, Bane, Nami, and Zoro checked into an inn. Sitting alone in his room, Bane took out a notebook and began carefully considering what he needed to do if he were to proceed according to that plan.
"First, I need to continue strengthening myself. There's no question about that. On these seas, strength ultimately does the talking, so I definitely need to try going to the prehistoric island, Little Garden." Bane settled on his first objective.
Then he began considering what would happen after joining the Marines. Zephyr's Neo Marines looked like a highly promising venture no matter how he viewed them. The only problem was that this big shot's original plans had been far too extreme. Not long after pulling his men out to operate independently, he was already preparing to make headlines by destroying three islands connected to enormous underwater magma pools in the New World, triggering catastrophic underwater magma eruptions that would completely wipe out every pirate in the New World.
And judging by his line of thinking, he intended to kill everyone in the entire New World along with them. On that point alone, calling him the greatest terrorist in history would not be wrong.
From that alone, Bane felt that Zephyr had definitely gone mad. Doing that was no different from digging his own grave. Not only would the Pirates of the New World never spare Zephyr, but the Marines, the World Government, and the people of the entire world would never forgive him either.
But in Bane's memory, Zephyr was not entirely a madman. So why had he chosen such an extreme method?
After thinking carefully for a while, Bane felt that perhaps it was because Zephyr was getting old. He knew that while his Neo Marines might flourish for a time, as he gradually became a remnant of the old era, they would eventually suffer the same fate as the Whitebeard Pirates: no successor, no one able to inherit his aspirations.
In truth, Zephyr's Neo Marines did have this flaw. He had plenty of troops under him and no shortage of elite soldiers, but there was almost no one among the higher ranks capable of carrying the banner. Whether it was Ain or Zephyr's other subordinates, none of them were strong enough, nor did any possess the talent to oversee the bigger picture. Therefore, Zephyr felt that his Neo Marines would not last long. Rather than gradually decline and fade away, he might as well go all in, make one grand gamble, and use the Neo Marines to trade for the entire New World!
Bane felt he could solve this problem. He could become Zephyr's successor, couldn't he? With the team he built serving as the management, they could take over Zephyr's forces directly without any problem.
If he gave Zephyr hope and let him see that the Neo Marines could continue improving, that the possibility of eradicating Pirates was growing ever greater, then Zephyr probably would not do anything so extreme. After all, Zephyr was not fundamentally a true madman, nor was he a homicidal maniac.
The second issue was the Neo Marines' sustainable development. Their emergence was primarily due to Zephyr's personal charisma and prestige. He had worked deeply within the Marines for many years, and nearly a large portion of the Marine higher-ups were his students. He could be said to be a figure on the level of the Marines' headmaster.
Thus, when he announced that he would establish his own faction, he received widespread support within the Marines and quickly gathered a respectable force, at least among the middle and lower ranks. And judging from the modified Pacifistas under his command, there should have been a group of elites from the Marine Science Unit who had run away with him.
But those people might work out of devotion for a while, yet they could not follow Zephyr into madness forever. First of all, failing to solve their salary issue was utterly ridiculous. To some extent, the reason the Marines were so tightly controlled by the World Government was also because they could not independently resolve their military funding, leaving them bound by all sorts of shackles until they gradually became the World Government's watchdog.
The reason the Neo Marines perished after only two or three years was partly because Zephyr died in battle, but another major reason was that they lacked staying power. Without sustainable financial support, everyone could only work out of devotion for so long before they could not continue.
So, to some extent, this might also have been one of the factors that drove Zephyr to take such a desperate risk.
As a major figure in the Marines, Zephyr had foresight. It was impossible for him not to recognize this problem. Yet he truly had no way to solve it in the short term, and in the end, he chose to go to extremes.
Compared with the first issue, Bane felt this one would be much harder to solve.
In the original story, Zephyr's Neo Marines could barely keep themselves going for a short time by plundering Pirates, but that definitely would not work in the long run. They needed to find an industry to support the Neo Marines!
Speaking of industries, Bane could not help thinking of Crocodile in Alabasta. That guy was filthy rich. Not only did he command Baroque Works, which operated throughout the first half of the Grand Line, but although the organization was considered criminal, its boundaries were rather vague. Aside from its intention to overthrow Alabasta's government, Baroque Works mostly hunted Pirates for bounties, took assassination jobs from the Underworld, smuggled various contraband goods, and dealt in intelligence.
Bane did not find those so-called crimes particularly unacceptable. There was both good and bad in them, with mixed praise and criticism. This world was not simply black and white, and he was not that naive.
Baroque Works had a complicated internal structure, but it continuously supplied Crocodile with huge amounts of money. That allowed Crocodile to thrive in Alabasta. Not only had he opened the most luxurious casino in the first half of the Grand Line, earning money by the day, but he could even fund hundreds of thousands of Alabasta rebels.
What kind of person was that? A tycoon!
He was already planning to take Crocodile down, so after dealing with him, it was only natural to take over Crocodile's assets, wasn't it?
Crocodile had used those assets for his evil plan to overthrow Alabasta, but Bane could use them to fund Zephyr's righteous cause. What was that? That was a great deed that benefited the whole world!
"Perfect. Given Robin's identity, it wouldn't be suitable for her to openly join the Marines, and she happens to be Baroque Works' second-in-command. She can handle these matters." Once Bane thought of that, he felt this plan was simply perfect!
Before you continue