Sengoku stared, his eyes fixed on the golden palm crashing down toward him.
His eyes seemed ready to pop out of their sockets and shatter his glasses. If two identical Devil Fruits couldn't exist in the world, he would have suspected the other man had eaten the Human-Human Fruit too.
That Haki and power were so insignificant, yet the Buddha-like aura was so pure!
Smack!
His Marine cap shattered into pieces. Sengoku's wild hair sprang loose, and he froze in a daze.
Conrad held his palm in midair, full of great compassion and mercy.
Time seemed to stop in that moment, the old man and the youth meeting each other's eyes.
Sengoku's gaze flickered. He dropped onto the lower bunk with a thud, hunched over with his head bowed and his elbows braced on his knees.
As though struck by a great upheaval, he remained silent for a long while.
Conrad was silent too. He turned his palm inward and held it upright before his chest, eyes lowered, without a word.
He waited in quiet meditation, letting the Zen flow with his breath.
After all, not everyone had his extraordinary gift for understanding—taking things in at a glance, then letting them go without clinging to fixed forms.
He had even learned by analogy from Oga's "Infinite Vibration Zen" and grasped "Buddha's Palm" from Legend of the Emperor.
Sengoku finally raised his head and questioned him, suppressing the turmoil within. "Did you eat a Buddha-type Devil Fruit?"
"Never." Conrad shook his head. "This is a palm technique: Buddha's Palm!"
Sengoku was known as Sengoku the Buddha. First, naturally, because he had eaten the Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Great Buddha. Second, because his temperament was as serene as a Buddha's.
But the aura this youth revealed, along with that palm strike, had made Sengoku feel as if he were gazing upon a true Buddha, bathed in Buddha Light.
Could it be that his understanding of Buddha was inferior to Conrad's?
He couldn't believe it. He had eaten a Devil Fruit and lived for sixty-six years!
"This... palm technique of yours? Where did you get it?"
"From a previous life." Conrad gazed out at the blue sky beyond the window, his eyes shifting with a brilliance that seemed to hold an entire world.
"Absurd! Did I hear you wrong, or have you gone mad?" Sengoku was a dignified Admiral. How could he let a child toy with him? Yet after staring him down, he still saw no change in Conrad's expression, no sign of deceit.
"Become my disciple." Conrad lowered his raised hand, his gaze clear once more. "I simply can't bear to see a pearl covered in dust."
"No!" Sengoku suddenly broke through his restraint and growled as he shook his head.
He was finding reality hard to accept. He had heard of people who were born with knowledge. Could the youth before him be one of them? A Buddha child born into the world?
"Sengoku! How can you... Oh!" Conrad cried out in anguish and stepped forward, gripping Sengoku's shoulders with both hands. "I've truly put my heart and soul into this! Don't you know you're wasting a priceless treasure?"
Faced with Conrad's earnest gaze, Sengoku looked away.
Conrad was about to speak again when a sudden force surged beneath the hands resting on Sengoku's shoulders, knocking him back two steps.
Sengoku had already turned in a flash and stood imposingly at the dormitory door, his back to Conrad as he reached to leave.
It had all happened so suddenly. Even with his reputation as a brilliant strategist, he couldn't make sense of it in an instant. He was old, had held high office for years, and had too much pride to swallow his embarrassment.
"Stop!" Conrad's hand trembled as he pointed at him, disappointment written across every muscle in his face.
"Sengoku! How can you be so stubborn? Can worldly prejudices bind you so easily? Are you just another narrow-minded fool who can't see past them?"
Sengoku stopped and turned half his conflicted face toward him.
He saw Conrad slap his chest hard and cry out in anguish, "The path is not limited by age or rank! I may be young, but I'm absolutely qualified to teach you! Become my disciple! Get down on your knees and do it now!"
Sengoku clenched his teeth and shut his eyes. After hearing those words, he didn't know how to respond. "I'll arrange for you to enlist in the Marines."
With that, he rushed out, slamming the door behind him.
Conrad was deeply disappointed and chased him into the hall, scolding, "You might as well be dead! Return your Devil Fruit to the world! Let someone who knows what matters and can tell right from wrong become my disciple!"
Sengoku sprang into the air, rising dozens of meters. He stepped through the air with Geppo, sending ripples of force through it, and vanished.
Baby-5 came over carrying the clean laundry. "Why did the old man leave in such a hurry?"
Conrad sighed. "He's old. That's how it is. Old people get impatient easily."
That old geezer's thinking was too rigid; he couldn't let go. Give him some time to think it over. Conrad had rushed things a little.
Baby-5 looked at the roast chicken and dishes still on the table. "I'll heat them up for you."
"No need. Don't trouble yourself. They're fine as they are." Conrad sat back down and picked up his chopsticks. "You should rest for a while."
Baby-5 nodded and sat opposite Conrad, watching him eat.
As soon as he finished, she immediately gathered the dishes and chopsticks to wash them.
But Conrad stopped her, grinning as he began to clear the table. "You can't do all the work. You cooked, so I'll wash the dishes."
"You don't have to!" Baby-5 blurted out, suddenly anxious. She even reached for the plate. "I'd be happier than anything if I could be useful to someone."
Conrad firmly held her hand while clearing the dishes with his other. "Change 'someone' to 'me.' Change it to 'you.'"
"As long as I can be useful to... you." After she said it, her face quickly flushed from pale to scarlet, like a delicate pink apple.
Clatter!
Kujaku's heart ached with a sour, swollen feeling, yet she also rather enjoyed sinking into it. She swung her whip at the washbasin.
"Cute little thing! Jump!"
The basin hopped up and down on the spot.
Marine Headquarters, main city.
Sengoku pushed open the door and returned to the Admiral's office.
The room held only three furnishings: a potted areca palm in a porcelain pot, a square redwood desk,
and a large plaque hanging horizontally on the wall, bearing the words "Justice That Reigns Over the World."
Sengoku pulled the curtains shut. They blocked the light exceptionally well; once closed, they plunged the whole room into darkness.
He sat back down behind his desk, switched on the lamp, and crossed his hands beneath his chin. His glasses reflected the light as he stared ahead, his eyes hidden.
Before long, someone knocked on the office door.
"Come in."
An officer in a greatcoat, with a pencil mustache, entered and saluted. "Reporting, Admiral Sengoku! The prisoner has arrived!"
Behind him, two guards in beige uniforms escorted Rosinante, who wore Seastone Handcuffs.
"Unlock the handcuffs and wait outside."
"Yes!" The officer ordered the guards, "Unlock them."
The guards immediately unlocked the cuffs with a key. Prisoners' handcuffs weren't normally removed before their release, but the man before them was Admiral Sengoku, and he had the authority to break the rules.
After unlocking the cuffs, the officer and guards saluted and left the office.
"Put up the Soundproof Wall," Sengoku said.
Rosinante rolled his wrists. A hemispherical Barrier enveloped the two of them. Facing the man who had done so much for him, his adoptive father, he lowered his head.
"I don't blame you," Sengoku sighed. "But you did the wrong thing. The Celestial Dragons wanted that item. You should understand their status."
Rosinante himself had once been a Celestial Dragon, enjoying the highest status, with people bowing their heads to him.
But his father had been kind by nature. He'd willingly given up his status and taken his family of four to the North Blue, hoping to experience the life of ordinary people. That was what had led to the tragedy of Doflamingo murdering his father.
And the Op-Op Fruit was a treasure that even ordinary Celestial Dragons weren't qualified to enjoy.
Yet he had fed it to Luo.
The anger of the Celestial Dragons' upper ranks was easy to imagine.
"I'm sorry." Rosinante had no regrets.
Before you continue