The Chief Director of Justice

Marine Headquarters, Marineford.

Sengoku stared at his name on the sky screen, standing motionless like an old tree struck by lightning that had yet to fall.

"Fleet Admiral."

Dozens of gazes from behind him were fixed on him, carrying complicated feelings. Some were surprised, some worried, and a few held a trace of something hard to define.

"What are you all looking at?"

Sengoku's voice was low, stifling a surge of anger.

"Get back to your duties. If you're on patrol, patrol. If you're on watch, get back to your post."

No one moved.

The question had already appeared on the sky screen.

[Question: What was the greatest mistake Fleet Admiral Sengoku made during the Paramount War?]

[A. Underestimating the strength of the Whitebeard Pirates]

[B. Using Ace's public execution as bait to deliberately provoke an all-out war with the Whitebeard Pirates]

[C. Ordering a Buster Call during the war to eliminate every pirate, even at the cost of his own soldiers' lives]

[D. Concealing the truth that Ace was Gol D. Roger's son for twenty years]

The four options appeared in a row, each one striking precisely at a sore spot for the Marines.

Akainu stared at option B, his brow knotted.

He saw nothing wrong with using a public execution as bait.

It was strategy, a necessary means for justice to eliminate evil.

But Aokiji looked at option C, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

Buster Call.

It was a term no Marine with a conscience could bear to face.

It meant unleashing devastating firepower on Marineford, wiping out every living thing in the targeted area without distinguishing friend from foe.

That included Marine soldiers still fighting on the front lines.

"If this is true..."

Aokiji's voice was so quiet that only Kizaru, standing beside him, could hear.

"Then Sengoku wasn't waging war. He was killing people."

Kizaru adjusted his sunglasses and, unusually, said nothing.

The countdown to answer began on the sky screen.

An unprecedented number of people tried to answer this time, voices from all over the world joining in a noisy torrent.

Revolutionary Army Headquarters, Baltigo.

"Mr. Dragon, should we answer?"

Sabo stood behind Dragon, his eyes shining with eagerness. He was the Revolutionary Army's second-in-command.

"No."

Dragon stood in the wind, his coat flapping loudly.

"Let the others answer. We only need to watch for the result."

"But there's a reward if we get it right. Luffy got his Conqueror's Haki Awakening before. If we could also..."

"Sabo."

Dragon turned to look at his adopted son, an unusual softness in his gaze.

"Rewards are good, but we in the Revolutionary Army can't answer questions in front of the whole world."

"Why not?"

"Because once we answer publicly, we'll be telling the whole world that we know these Marine secrets. The World Government will use that as an excuse to step up its campaign against us."

Sabo froze for a moment, then understood.

"What we need now isn't attention. We need to quietly gather intelligence and wait until this livestream has laid all its cards on the table before we make a move."

Dragon looked back at the sky screen and said nothing more.

But his fists slowly clenched inside his coat pockets.

The countdown reached zero.

This time, the correct answer came as a surprise to many.

[Correct answers: B and C]

Both options lit up at once.

The whole world erupted again.

The sky screen began playing the answer explanation, starting in the highest-level strategy conference room at Marine Headquarters.

Sengoku, Vice Admiral Tsuru, and the Three Admirals—Akainu, Aokiji, and Kizaru—sat at a long table.

"Fire Fist Ace's execution is set for three weeks from now."

On screen, Sengoku rapped his knuckles on the table.

"Whitebeard will certainly bring his forces to rescue him. We'll seize that opportunity to gather all our military strength at Marineford and wipe out the Whitebeard Pirates in one stroke."

"So the execution itself is a trap."

On screen, Aokiji made that observation.

"It's not a trap. It's justice being served."

Sengoku corrected him.

"Whitebeard is a great pirate. His very existence is the root of the world's unrest. Taking this opportunity to eliminate him is necessary to preserve world peace."

The contents of this footage were not surprising in themselves. Most people could have guessed that the execution was a strategy to draw Whitebeard out.

But the second piece of footage that followed was the real nuclear bomb.

The war had reached its fiercest stage. The Whitebeard Pirates' ability to break through far exceeded the Marines' expectations, and the battle line was on the verge of collapsing.

Sengoku stood on the Execution Platform, his face ashen.

"Initiate the Buster Call."

He gave the order.

The Marine officers around him went pale.

"Fleet Admiral, our soldiers are still on the front lines."

"I know."

Sengoku closed his eyes.

"But if Whitebeard breaks through our defenses and rescues Ace, the Marines' prestige will be utterly destroyed."

"Carry out the order."

The footage cut to the sky above the plaza, where dozens of massive cannons turned toward the combat zone.

Pirates and Marine soldiers were locked in a chaotic battle within that area.

The moment the cannon muzzles lit up, the image froze.

A line of cold explanatory text appeared on the sky screen.

[The nature of a Buster Call: sacrificing one's own soldiers fighting a bloody battle on the front lines to eliminate the enemy]

Deathly silence fell over the Marine plaza.

The Marine soldiers on patrol, the young people who had devoted their youth and passion to the Marines, watched their own Fleet Admiral on the sky screen order artillery fire to cover an area where their fellow soldiers were still fighting. Their expressions looked as though someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over them.

"Is this the justice we're fighting for?"

No one knew who said it, but the words took root like a seed in the heart of every Marine soldier.

Sengoku stood by the window. He heard the whispers, the questions, and the sound of faith collapsing.

"Tsuru."

His voice seemed to be forced out from deep in his throat.

"Was I wrong?"

Vice Admiral Tsuru stood behind him, silent for a long time.

"Right or wrong doesn't matter. What matters is what you're going to do now."

Sengoku glanced back at her, then looked toward the sky screen.

He knew the punishment was coming soon.

The system's voice rang out from the sky screen on cue, in that cold tone they had heard countless times and yet still made their hearts race.

[Now passing judgment on Fleet Admiral Sengoku]

[Punishment: The Marines' ten greatest hidden crimes committed in the name of justice over the past twenty years will be forcibly revealed, one every twenty-four hours, for ten days]

This punishment did not weaken Sengoku's personal strength or brand him in any way.

But its destructive power was ten, a hundred times greater than any personal punishment.

Because it would destroy not Sengoku himself, but the foundations of the Marines as an organization.

"Ten hidden crimes."

Akainu clenched his fists. Magma seeped between his fingers, burning several blackened holes in the floor.

"Just how much more is this livestream going to dig up?"

Aokiji turned around, put his hands in his trouser pockets, and walked toward the door.

"Kuzan, where are you going?"

"To get some air."

Aokiji didn't look back.

"It's too stifling in here. Too much of the smell of justice makes me sick."

The door closed behind him.

On the sky screen, the first hidden crime had already begun to appear.

[One of the Marines' hidden crimes: Twenty-two years ago, at the World Government's behest, the Marines carried out a "Buster Call" on Ohara, the island of archaeology in the West Blue. They not only eliminated all the scholars, but also ordered the sinking of an evacuation ship filled with innocent civilians]

[The person who ordered the evacuation ship sunk: then Marine Vice Admiral, now Marine Admiral, Akainu Sakazuki]

In a tavern in the East Blue, Lin Qi watched the massive flood of reaction data pop up on his screen, and a peanut fell from his mouth.

"Good grief, this plot twist is wild. I just put out a question about Sengoku, and it ended up dragging out Akainu's dirty past too?"

He hurriedly wiped his mouth, his eyes bright enough to glow.

"This game's writer is a genius."