Gato was still wholeheartedly preparing for battle, unaware that the Marines ten thousand meters below were tearing their hair out over him.
Sengoku rubbed his brow as he listened to Garp's report on the mission. Taking all the intelligence into account, although Garp was indeed somewhat at fault for failing to carry out his duties, he knew the main problem lay with his own decisions.
"Even if Gato possessed the ability to control hurricanes, he shouldn't have been able to sail that fast! It looks like they have an Eternal Pose... No wonder we've always been one step behind."
Gato did not know that although Garp had only caught up to him at the very end of his journey to the Sky Island, the Marines had actually been tracking him all along.
However, influenced by habitual thinking, Sengoku had assumed that he would obediently travel through every island along the route. That was why the arrangements had always left them a step behind him.
Just like this time—if Garp had arrived even a little earlier, the outcome might have been different.
Of course, the lack of intelligence had also led to his misjudgment. Who could have imagined that Crocodile, one of the Shichibukai, would board Gato's ship again as a pirate?
Without even thinking, Sengoku knew who had given Gato those Eternal Poses, and he also knew what Crocodile intended to do with them.
"Hmph, pirates will always be pirates. Even after becoming Shichibukai, they're still the same. None of them can be trusted."
Sengoku slammed the table and cursed angrily.
His brow was tightly furrowed. Aside from Whitebeard, few people had ever made him suffer repeated setbacks like this. Gato truly was a pirate full of unpredictability.
Something called fighting spirit seemed to be burning in his heart again