123 Jagged dagger (2/2)

'Pere pere pere pere pere' the snail called out somberly as pulled it out of my jacket pocket. Its eyes following my hands as they moved to receive the call.

With a swift nod towards the group I got off my chair and walked out of the tavern into the glaring light of the sun. My observation Haki bloomed around me as a method to make sure that no one would hear the call that I was about to receive.

”Superbia.” I called out crisply as I picked up the receiver.

”Roman here sir!” A crisp and dusky voice called out from the other end. I could hear a hint of excitement on the man's voice, though he masked it quite well with the professional tone that he had employed.

”Boss! The papers came in and you got to see this!! The marines sicc-ed a completely unknown rookie crew with an insane bounty!” he huffed out, his voice breaking with the excitement of it all. Whatever sense of decorum he had had been blown away as soon as he began the report.

”Oh..? Send over a copy of the bounty pages as usual to the records group. They'll brief me about the overall trends.” I said professionally before immediately shutting off the call.

I had a hunch that I wanted to clarify.

*********************

”Are you sure about this, Sengoku?” One vice admiral Tsuru called out as she flapped a small collection of bounties in the air.

The fleet admiral curtly nodded, not even looking over the huge heap of papers that he had in front of him.

”Do you realize the kind of upset that this will cause? A drastic increase of bounties like this, at this rate the marines will look like a bunch of fools!” She called out as she gave the absurdly large number a seething glare.

”I tried sending Garp after the group Tsuru, he couldn't even catch up to him! And not only did he beat Doflamingo, he also had a run in with Kuzan! You know how that brat is. I had no choice but to give him that high of a bounty!

Any lesser and anyone that went after his head would end up dead, whole naval teams would have been lost! And even if we warned those bases in the grand line about him, and issued a gag order to shut them up, it still would be a fire under our asses! ” he groaned out as he looked at her through his rimmed glasses.

Genuine fatigue colored his old face as he sighed, rubbing at the bones of his nose.

Tsuru sighed as she began to calm down. Even if there had been a mistake, there was nothing she could do now.

'But still four hundred million berries? As his first bounty too! What sort of monsters did you drag out to sea Roger??'

With another sigh she exited the room, her mind going out to her fatigued friend. Her fingers aimlessly caressing at the edge of the yellowed bounty. Upon which in bold letters were written;

'jagged dagger' Lorean- 400,000,000 berries

'shard blade' Angella - 100,000,000 berries

'Mountain cutter' Fawkes- 150,000,000 berries