Although Sengoku's announcement this time about the impending leadership transition in the Navy was merely to sound everyone out and the official orders would not be issued for some time,
both Akainu and Aokiji raised their heads simultaneously upon hearing the news.
Akainu's thought was that he was bound to secure the position of fleet admiral; he had long since been sick of the dove-leaning faction within the current Navy leadership, believing that marines should be much tougher and that striking down pirates should call for more unscrupulous methods, while the group led by Fleet Admiral Sengoku was far too soft.
In the past he could change nothing, for the doves indeed held too many numbers among the top brass and he lacked much say.
Once he could become the new fleet admiral, however, it would be different; by then he could reshape the Navy according to his own will, making the Navy far tougher,
and likewise recover through certain changes the naval prestige that had been battered by Oak this time.
Aokiji held much the same thought, aiming for the top spot of fleet admiral.
Previously he had been deeply dissatisfied with some of the upper government's practices and the many worms within the Navy's ranks, yet he had lacked any way to deal with it, bound by many checks even as an admiral; grown cold at heart, he had thus forged his Lazy Justice, whereas if he could ascend to fleet admiral, he could reform the Navy from top to bottom—though resistance would very likely still exist, at least he could alter a portion of the internal atmosphere within the Navy and let the Navy develop along his own ideals.
Furthermore, there was one more point: he did not want Akainu to rise to power, for in his