"Being sidelined... what an unfamiliar term!"
Hearing Tsuru's analysis peel back layer after layer and cut straight to the heart of the matter, Sengoku pressed his lips together.
He did not immediately argue. He simply picked up an invalidated document from the desk.
With practiced ease, he held it to the mouth of his pet goat, which was chewing on his Fleet Admiral's cloak beside him, and watched it happily devour the paper.
A faint smile even appeared on his face, weary yet relieved.
"You're as sharp as ever, Tsuru... that's almost exactly what I was thinking."
His reaction amounted to tacit agreement with every one of Tsuru's deductions.
"Actually, you could have continued running things."
Tsuru looked at his expression and sighed softly, regret coloring her voice.
"Rebuilding Marineford may be an enormous undertaking, but setting up a temporary command post and a basic defensive system wouldn't take very long.
With the prestige you've built over the years and the World Government's support, stabilizing the situation wouldn't be difficult.
After all, as far as I'm concerned, the Marines' current arrangement of one body, two systems is the most stable..."
At that, Tsuru fixed her gaze on Sengoku. "But..."
"You still chose to move the core of Marine Headquarters into the New World, using this G-1 Branch as your temporary headquarters..."
She paused, as though finally confirming a suspicion she had held for some time, then said slowly,
"Then I can more or less guess exactly what kind of deal you struck with that brat Gern before the Paramount War broke out."
Tsuru leaned back slightly, her voice quiet. "Sengoku... that brat Gern.
He wanted you to move the Marines' center of power and political symbol entirely into the New World, didn't he?"
"Otherwise, given his personality and his schemes,