Chapter 38

Grandline, Paradise, Marine Headquaters

Sengoku, the fleetadmiral of the marines, was normally a very pleasant man to be around. His joking relationship with his longtime partner and friend vize-admiral Garp had often earned him amused expressions and smiles from his subordinates which he never really took to heart, always keeping his easy going behaviour up. But sometimes even that exterior cracked, just like at this very moment when a certain captain stationed in Alabasta had called him to deliver the messege that the warlord Crocodile had been beaten in single combat and brought to them for the bounty by someone called Azul, who from the captain Smokers words, was proficient in the use of haki as well.

That alone wouldn't make Sengokus mood tipp but the one thing that came along with such news had developped to irk him more and more over the years, to the point that he got unbelivably cranky when he was confronted by his nemesis. Paperwork! Oh, how he hated this abomination of their god forsaken burocracy. Sometimes he thought he should have taken the easy way out like his friend Garp, who just like always, was sitting next to his desk with a bag filled with ricecrackers in hand and a grandfatherly smile on his face, which made the glas that contained Sengokus emotions, tip over in conjunction.

"GOD DAMN IT, GARP! WOULD YOU STOP GRINNING LIKE A MORON!" Sengokus voice echoed throughtout the whole building, making some of his subordinates wince slightly at the volume of the fleetadmirals words. Along with his words Sengoku stood up and ripped Garps crackers out of his hands before pouring them all down his throat which made Garp cry out in sorrow, which brought a sadistic grin to Sengokus face. 'Suits you right, damn it! Making me do all this crap alone, urgh!' Sengoku thought, the returning thoughts of the incoming paperworks making him wince.

With a knock on his door three subordinates, titled the apostles of hell by Sengoku, came in, each carrying a gigantic stack of papers.

"That's it! Whoever caused this will have a bounty on his head! I want him before my desk yesterday!" Sengoku roared at his subordinates, who after dropping all the papers on his desk, shuffled out of the room to carry out the mans orders. Better not to get on the mans bad side while he was in a fit. Only Garp remained, laughing with tears in the corners of his eyes, soon after getting smacked by Sengoku over the head, causing a new row. 'Just like an old married couple' some of their subordinates thought to themselves, not daring to voice their thoughts out loud.

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Grandline, Paradise, Alabastas shores

While Azul went shopping, dancing in the rain in a good mood after finally having had his battle for the day, the flying lamb, and the strawhats along with it, arrived in Alabasta.

Vivi though, having spotted the rain covering her home was gobsmacked.

'How is that possible? I need to speak with father as soon as possible. This may change the tide of the war in our favor!' she thought with a happy expression on her face.

And so they decided, instead of touring through the land in the hopes to stop the war from happening entirely, to head straight for the royal palace, hoping that Crocodile wouldn't be in control of it yet.

After Azul was done shopping, having bought himself some new trousers and food of different variaties, headed back towards his ship, planning to enjoy the rest of the evening in the tender craddling of the waves while consuming all the different meals he had bought for dinner.

Tomorrow he would head out towards the sea once more to travel on to the next island and think about how he could possibly get the Cipher Pol to come out of their hiding in the future.

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Meanwhile the news that sir Crocodile had been taken down by a young man named Azul spread throughtout the grandline like wildfire.

Who was this young man nobody had heard of before? Was he a pirate? A marine? A bounty hunter? Or maybe even a revolutionary?

Many people speculated and drew their own conclusions, though none knew if what they thought was actually the truth. The next morning though nobody was surprised when a bounty was issued for Azuls head. Taking down a warlord of the sea meant serious danger for the world government and a smirch on their reputation to boot. Sadly, the marines hadn't managed to take a picture of the young man, and so all that was revealed was an unbelivably bad picture of a nearly bald young man, as if drawn by a child. Somewhere in the marine headquaters, vize-admiral Garp sneezed in response to the collective thoughts about the drawing he had been forced to come up with by Sengoku as punishment for laughing at him.

Though alot of people had been surprised about the picture of the man, nobody had laughed since the bounty and title spoke for themselves.

Wanted: Dead or alive

'Azul-(no title yet due to missing information)-100.000.000 Berry

But nobody was as surprised as Azul as he received the issued morning paper the next day.

With a bright grin Azul thought: 'they got some nerves to issue a Bounty on my head for helping them out! Oh well, not like it really matters....'

Crumbling the newspaper and throwing it of his ship onto the shores of Alabasta, Azul closed his eyes again and went back into his peaceful sleep.