Stay Alive

"Get her! Take her away!!"

Saint Childers laughed smugly and ordered his two CP guards to seize her.

"No, please..."

The little girl's eyes were swollen from crying. Watching the two men in suits approach, she struggled to retreat in terror.

The two CP agents advanced expressionlessly and grabbed the girl by the arms and shoulders. Their movements were brutally rough. Ignoring her gasping sobs, they soon left streaks of blood on her arms.

The other civilians kneeling on the ground couldn't bear to watch. They turned away, afraid to look at the cruel scene.

Gion and the other marines stood there with grim faces. Their rage almost set their bodies ablaze, yet their hands and feet felt as heavy as if they'd been filled with cement. They couldn't move.

Darren drew a deep breath.

"Saint Childers..."

"What is it, Governor Darren? Do you have a problem with my decision?" Saint Childers interrupted him with a mocking expression, staring at him with a half-smile.

Darren's eyes narrowed, but a smile even warmer than before suddenly appeared on his face.

"Of course not. It's her good fortune that you've taken a liking to her, Saint Childers, and an honor for the people of North Blue."

"I'm only worried that your two subordinates might hurt your wife, so I'd like to lend you a hand."

As soon as he finished speaking, Darren vanished from the spot like a ghost.

The next moment, he was standing in front of the little girl.

He made no visible movement, yet the two CP agents felt an invisible force shove them away.

Darren casually beckoned. The long sword at one agent's waist shot into the air and twisted into liquid metal. Most of it quickly hardened into shackles that wrapped around the little girl's wrists and ankles.

The remaining metal formed a gag, sealing the girl's mouth and abruptly silencing her cries.

Only her terrified, tear-brimming eyes remained visible.

Darren stepped forward and crouched down, meeting the little girl's hateful gaze. His expressionless voice was cold.

"Being able to serve the great Saint Childers is your honor."

He took the little girl's hand and led her, her gaze vacant and despairing, to Saint Childers.

"Saint Childers, this way, your journey should at least be a little quieter."

Saint Childers glanced at Darren, then suddenly burst into laughter again.

"Ha ha ha ha!! How amusing! How amusing! You marines are just too entertaining!!"

His gaze toward Darren brimmed with approval and amusement.

"You're quite something, Darren... I'll put in a good word for you with those old men in the government."

Under the resentful, hateful stares of countless civilians, Darren bowed slightly and smiled.

"Thank you, sir."

"Ha ha ha..." Saint Childers laughed again. "Then let's set sail and head back."

At his words, one of the CP agents hurried over and dropped to all fours, like a tamed, loyal hound.

Saint Childers climbed straight onto his back and imperiously headed for the harbor.

The other CP agent led the dazed little girl after him, as if she'd been frightened out of her senses.

"No... please..."

A hoarse voice suddenly rang out.

Everyone froze.

The little girl's father shakily struggled up from the bloodstained ground and stretched out a hand toward the Celestial Dragons as they left, utterly despairing.

As if he were trying to grasp something.

But in the end, he couldn't grasp anything at all.

Gion's face was stricken with grief. She went over, intending to help him up.

"I'm sorry..."

She whispered.

She didn't dare look into the man's heartbroken eyes.

She watched as the party escorting the Celestial Dragon boarded the splendid official ship, then set sail and soon disappeared over the horizon.

A stiff smile suddenly tugged at the bloodstained man's face.

The sorrow, despair, and absurdity concealed in that smile were too painful to look at.

"Maybe Lia will have a pretty good life..."

Gion offered words of comfort that even she didn't believe.

"You have to stay alive, too—"

Suddenly, the man slammed his head into the wall of a building.

"Thud!"

Blood splashed across Gion's face.

Her vision grew blurry, as if the glaring red had swallowed everything. The world before her seemed to turn upside down, like hell.

Through the haze, she saw the man's blood streaming down the snow-white wall of the municipal building, freshly painted for the Celestial Dragon's arrival.

Bloodred and pure white twisted together in her world, weaving into a grotesque palette.

The dull impact echoed again and again in her mind... a constant buzzing in her ears.

Frantic screams, calls for a doctor, curses, footsteps... They shattered the street's deathly silence.

"Help him!"

"He's still alive!!"

"We can still save him!!"

"..."

Gion sat there on her knees, dazed and limp.

In her hand, she clutched a rose in full bloom.

Its thorns pierced the flesh of her palm, drawing blood.

But she didn't notice at all.

"Stay alive"...

She suddenly realized how absurd those words of comfort had been.

The little girl's mother had died of illness, and the man had loved only her.

Now the Celestial Dragons had ripped her away from him.

From this moment on, that man, whose hands were covered in soil, had no one left but himself.

What reason or courage did he have to go on living?

In a daze,

she remembered the words she'd said to the little girl.

"Don't worry. I'm a marine. I'll protect you..."

"Of course. It's a marine's duty."

Gion suddenly began to tremble all over.

She raised her head and stared blankly at the sky.

It was gloomy and dark, as though something had blocked out the light.

Rumble—!!

Thunder boomed and flashed among the dark clouds.

Snowflakes drifted down gently, as large as goose feathers.

"It's snowing... But it's still midsummer..."

She murmured blankly.

In the year 1492 of the Sea Circle Calendar, Batia Island in the tropical North Blue experienced its first snowfall in decades.

The gentle, not-at-all-cold snowflakes settled on Gion.

She turned her head blankly toward the silent figure of the North Blue Admiral nearby. It was as if her mind had frozen, leaving her unable to think.

In a daze,

she suddenly understood.

At last, she understood what Admiral Sengoku had meant.

"This sea... is too vast. The light of the Justice Seagull Flag can't reach every dark, filthy, and shadowy corner."