"Hmph!" Sakazuki huffed irritably, watching Hibari through the telescope. His face remained cold, but inside, he felt hurt, repressed, uncomfortable, and angry. He clearly understood that, judging by the subtle changes in Hibari's behavior, she was determined and ready to oppose him.
To put it bluntly, Hibari, this seemingly delicate girl, was actually full of contradictions. She had more stubbornness than gentleness.
Silence.
"Hiss!" came the sound.
Without warning, a drop of lava fell onto the deck with a sharp hiss, releasing clouds of white smoke.
"Alright," Sakazuki muttered.
As a Admiral, he could not afford to lose control over his powers. The overflow of his magma abilities was an unforgivable mistake.
He was obviously already angered by his daughter.
"I want to see what kind of person this Tengen is!" he blurted out.
In the next moment, Sakazuki removed the cigar from his mouth and indifferently tossed it into the sea. With a single thought, he suppressed the overwhelming power of his magma fruit.
He never imagined that after the War at the Summit, his daughter would bring such news that would throw him off balance. She had a boyfriend, his name was Tengen, and he was diligently training on a Deserted Island in the West Blue Sea.
When Sakazuki first learned of this, he was so shocked and stunned that his body jerked several times, and his mind went completely blank.
"What nonsense?" ran through his head. "The tender cabbage I've raised for eighteen years was devoured by some pig, and I didn't even know about it?"
As a father, he only found out about it half a year later. Moreover, this "pig" was a nobody. Sakazuki hadn't even heard his name. For someone who had invested so much effort in raising Hibari , this was utterly unacceptable.
Frankly speaking, even the wounds he received during the War at the Summit seemed trivial compared to the emotional blow of finding out that his daughter had a boyfriend.
Initially, when Sakazuki heard Hibari talking about the War at the Summit, he was pleased. He saw that his daughter had finally matured and understood how difficult it was to be both a father and a Marine Corps admiral. He also knew that the various Marine Corps forces interpret "justice" differently.
But he did not expect Hibari's final statement to practically stab him in the back, making him nearly lose his composure, as if his old wounds were about to reopen.
The gist was that Hibari had found a boyfriend to relieve the pressure on her admiral father. This made Sakazuki feel as if he'd swallowed a bug.
"What the hell?" he thought. "It was already tough for me during the War at the Summit. Different Marines forces pursued their versions of 'justice,' creating tension. As someone striving for 'absolute justice,' I paid no heed to this and just acted with full force.
In the end, the Marines barely won the victory, and he himself was severely injured. Just as he was recovering from his injuries, he found out that his daughter had been "devoured" by someone in the West Blue Sea. It felt like a blow to the head!
"I fought in the War at the Summit," Sakazuki thought bitterly, "and my home was plundered."
No, he couldn't accept this. In his eyes, the guy Hibari found was a nobody. He was training on a deserted island in the West Blue Sea, which clearly indicated a lack of potential.
And this was confirmed. Upon learning about the incident with Hibari in the West Blue Sea, Sakazuki, as an admiral, immediately activated the entire intelligence network of the Marines. He reviewed information about Hibari's mission six months ago. First, he used his power to capture and interrogate those who attacked his daughter.
Yes, learning that Tengen was the hero who saved the beauty moved Hibari. But Sakazuki's initial reaction was: someone staged this for his daughter. It was intolerable. He had to find out everything and show the naive Hibari just how dangerous the world was, and that she couldn't blindly trust anyone.
But... the investigation results were unexpected. The pirates who attacked his daughter did not know Tengen at all. They just happened to attack Hibari's ship as she was heading from the West Blue Sea to the Grand Line to loot. However, they ran into Tengen, who was also on a mission to catch criminals, and thus emerged as the hero saving the beauty.
There was no conspiracy.
After this, Sakazuki had no hesitation in launching an investigation into Tengen. Soon, fresh information about him appeared in his office.
Looking at the photographs in the intelligence data, Sakazuki finally understood why his daughter was so taken with this guy.
At first glance, Tengen's striking beauty was evident. Particularly his deep eyes. Even through the photograph, Akainu involuntarily frowned. The sixth sense of a Admiral hinted that there was something off about Tengen's eyes.
As for the specific information, Sakazuki studied it carefully. Tengen seemed to be a bounty hunter who had suddenly emerged from the West Blue Sea. He was a master of ninjutsu. He already had twenty-five pirates with bounties over five million to his name. Such hidden strength made many pirates in the West Blue Sea tremble, and he earned the nickname "King of the Dance of Heads."
The reason? Of course, each time before capturing a pirate, Tengen would ask with a playful grin:
Do you want to dance too?
To this, Sakazuki only smiled calmly.
Do you want to dance too? - It reminded him of another colleague and his signature line: "Have you ever been kicked at the speed of light?" But he didn't know what Tengen's true strength was.
Being Sakazuki's son-in-law is no easy task. And somewhere deep inside, he involuntarily sighed with relief. Fortunately, Tengen was not a pirate. Otherwise, he would have come to the West Blue Sea not as a "father," but as one of the three admirals of the Marines, leading several elite warships to punish Tengen.
Of course, despite everything, he needed to teach this "King of the Dance of Heads" a lesson. Jokes aside, the daughter he had raised for so many years was simply deceived and humiliated. As a father, he could not allow it.
And the Marines of the West Blue Sea... What a disappointment. They needed a bounty hunter to fight pirates and maintain order. It's just disgraceful. It's just as well that he arrived here. Time to give the Marines a major shake-up.
"Hibari , how much longer?" In the next second, Sakazuki lowered the telescope and said meaningfully, "It's been more than half a year. Has he left that deserted island? I need to use the Marines' reconnaissance network to find out exactly where he's headed."
"No need... If my calculations are correct, we'll be there in about an hour," Hibari shook her head without hesitation and confidently added, "He promised me he would be waiting on the deserted island."
"Hmm!" Sakazuki snorted with a hint of jealousy and coldly said, "Everything I do is for your own good. I hope you won't be angry with me. When I see this Tengen, I'll be sure to give him a warm welcome."
"For my own good?" Hibari pouted and stubbornly retorted, "Aren't you happy that I found myself a boyfriend?"
Ever since he learned about her suitor, her father had been walking around with a sour expression, as if someone owed him money, and hadn't smiled once.
"Of course I'm not happy!" Sakazuki even got angry and shouted, "You were attacked in the West Blue Sea, and you didn't tell me right away? And then you found a boyfriend about whom there's not even basic information. I see you've grown some wings."
As he said this, he gritted his teeth:
"It seems I've spoiled you too much, and you've become completely unruly."
"Let me be clear... If he wants to be my son-in-law, he better have the strength of a vice-admiral of the Marine Corps headquarters before the age of twenty. Otherwise, don't even dream about it. So... I will never agree to your relationship."
"What?!" Hibari 's eyes widened, and she couldn't hold back an exclamation, "To have the strength of a vice-admiral of the Marine Corps headquarters before twenty? You're deliberately trying to prevent your daughter from getting married?"
Damn it! The strength of a vice-admiral? This condition is an outright mockery! Tengen is strong, and his ninjutsu is top-notch. But he still doesn't match the level of a vice-admiral. Even if he's trained for six months, even if he's made progress, he still can't compare to a vice-admiral.
"Hibari, you are my daughter, and this requirement is not that great," Sakazuki arrogantly raised his head and added with significance: "Ninjas are not the main players at sea, they have no prospects. I've been to Wano Country, the homeland of ninjas, and those ninjas are just pathetic weaklings."
"But... but I really love him," Hibari stubbornly said, clenching her fists, "I believe that if given time, he will one day surpass you."
"Hahaha!" Sakazuki couldn't contain his laughter.
"Too young. My dear daughter is too naive, too self-confident, and too believing in her fantasies.
"You want him to surpass me? Does that mean he would have more strength than a Marine admiral? Is that... even possible?"
It's not his fault. Even the Emperor of the Seas, who rules the Grand Line, cannot claim to defeat a Marine admiral with 100% certainty. And here we have Tengen, a ninja jumping around a pond in the West Blue Sea, wanting to surpass him. Isn't that a joke?
It's time to show Hibari the significant gap between her so-called ninja boyfriend and the supreme combat strength of the Marines, an admiral.
"Don't laugh," Hibari's face flashed with admiration, and she confidently added, "I really believe that."
"Alright then!" Sakazuki's temper flared up as well, and without hesitation, he said, "If Tengen really surpasses me one day, we'll go our separate ways. I'll call him my brother, and he'll call me father-in-law. Everything will fall into place, right?"
Hibari froze for a moment and then, crossing her arms, retorted, "It doesn't matter... If you want to be his brother, go ahead. Regardless, I'm marrying Tengen."
"You..." Sakazuki opened his mouth, wanting to shout something, but couldn't.
Whoever said Hubari was his daughter?
He took a deep breath. It's normal to feel dizzy.
Deep down, Sakazuki's anger toward Tengen had reached its peak. It's all Tengen's fault for unintentionally causing a rift between father and daughter.
He wants to show his daughter that her infatuation is just an empty fantasy. In the face of absolute power and status, Tengen will surely retreat, frightened of being his son-in-law.
Or perhaps there won't even be a need to intervene. Once Tengen discovers that Hibari's father is the renowned Fleet Admiral of the Marine Corps, he will be scared off and retreat.