Chapter Text
Mina can pinpoint when the shift in her power happened a couple months before we first heard of the straw hat luffy crew.
The up and coming crew was quite a shock to most of the marines. But it all came to make sense when the rest of the pirate crews started to rise in their fame.
Because those crews were key players in causing trouble for the marines and so the marines called them the worst generation just to spite them.
Turns out that the pirates found the name quite catchy seeing as they continue to use it.
This was a thought that was quite common for Mina to have when she thinks back to when her marine career really took off.
Maybe it was luck, maybe it was hard work, maybe it was even puberty but when Mina started to get stronger and climb the ranks with her unique and exceptional skills she just didn’t stop.
Which led her to where she was now a rear admiral. Which happened to be way less exciting then what people would expect.
Of course it had its moments of adrenaline and action but not nearly enough for her slack off with her or those under her commands training
There weren’t many under her direct chain of command because she had a peculiar enough devil fruit power the gakin gakin no mi fruit. Which allowed her to take any type of metal and turn it into a weapon of her choosing.
An overall useful power for those who need weapons fast, of good quality and for the marines. And therefore she was in charge of the marine forges to crest weapons of the highest quality.
She had unknowingly eaten the fruit when she had seen it in her uncle Issho office and being a hungry child decided to eat it. Issho found her a while later still in his office and immediately got her checked out by a marine doctor.
It was then that they discovered her unique ability, because as it turns out no one had really known what that devil was since they discovered it.
She laughed at herself now in the present, thinking of how worried uncle Issho had looked and how stupid she had been to just eat a devil fruit purely because of hunger. As if she didn’t have access to the kitchen at all times.
Mina was currently overlooking the orders placed for order. Not much was surprising: swords, guns and some more swords.
Every once in a while we got orders for a couple specialty weapons like wips, hammers, spears, staffs and when we did Mina would make them personally to insure quality.
However, if you knew how to use and treat your weapon they were unlikely to break therefore often then not there were no orders that required her. So instead she acted as a sort of mentor and teacher to those in her forges.
In total she had around 4 forges, she would travel between them as she pleased but overall she spent the most time at Marine Ford.
She exited her office in the forge to the main crafting area, there were about 10 marines occupying the space and she took her time wandering the questions they had and helping them when they needed it.
She often heard rumours around the headquarters that many of the soldiers were fond of her, they found her calm, kind and a strong willed but gentle soul.
And that they would’ve certainly tried to join her forces if it weren’t for the harsh conditions and training that every marine had to endure just to step in the forges.
She quite enjoyed knowing that she was well liked, and understood their reasoning, the forges weren’t for everyone. They were always hot, always loud and most of the time very intense.
And unless they had an ability, a devil fruit that would fare well in this kind of environment like she did or were well accustomed to these conditions it was practically hell.
“Ms. Kaji?” She heard someone call behind her and she quickly made her way towards them. It wasn’t uncommon for people to call her by her surname but she wasn’t used to it as it was more common to use her first.
That was unless you were a marine with a lower position which wasn’t all that important when she came down to the forge.
She liked to treat everyone as equals in the forges since abilities, skills and training can be different for everyone and no one stays the same as when they first come.
The boy who had called her over was a lieutenant commander that had been assigned under her for a fairly short period of time, but had been making great progress.
He was working on a sword design but was worried about practicability, he had sketches of the sword and they were beautiful.
The attention to detail was amazing, the engravings meaningful but he was right about it being a little impractical.
The designs would add extra weight because of the extra metal needed for the designs to be visible and rightly appreciated.
Mina quickly gave her honest advice and opinions on the piece. And since it wasn’t an order for any marine, she told the lieutenant commander to go ahead with the process.
Unfortunately she couldn’t spend long in the forges since she had official duties to attend to. There was a meeting between the highest ranking marines to discuss our actions against the up and coming pirate crews.
Normally someone of her rank wouldn’t be invited to a meeting such as this.
But because you would need details of when to schedule material shipments, arms drop offs and changes to Mina schedule to visit her other forges.
Therefore her appearance was unfortunately mandatory.