Sakazuki's Tyranny

The next morning.

Just as the first ray of dawn rose over the eastern horizon, the shrill whistle for an emergency assembly sounded once more.

More than seven hundred base soldiers who had not fled gathered tremblingly in the central training ground, their hearts filled with extreme unease and terror.

The dense gunfire that had come from the rear port last night.

And the many empty beds around them had left every one of them with their hearts in their throats.

They knew something had happened, but none of them dared to imagine the worst possible outcome.

When everyone had finished forming up and raised their heads toward the platform ahead.

A wave of sharp gasps spread through the entire formation like a tide.

At the very center of the platform stood an irregular cone-shaped object covered by an enormous white cloth. Dark red blood still dripped steadily from the edges of the cloth!

Rochi, draped in a coat of justice, slowly walked up to the white cloth.

"Last night, two hundred and forty-three idiots decided my training was too hard and this base was too dangerous, so they tried to flee under cover of darkness."

Enhanced by his powerful Observation Haki, Rochi's voice exploded clearly beside every soldier's ears.

He suddenly grabbed one corner of the white cloth and yanked hard!

"Whoosh!"

The bloodstained cloth flew into the sky.

A horrifying Jingguan, built from two hundred and forty-three heads with twisted faces and eyes that had died wide open, was laid bare before everyone's eyes!

Silence.

A deathly silence blanketed the entire training ground. Even the wind seemed to have stopped blowing at that moment.

Then—

"Bleurgh—!"

"Drip... drip..."

Overwhelmed by the horrific sight, countless soldiers in the front ranks violently vomited stomach acid. Some even collapsed into their own urine, their bodies shaking like sieves!

Those familiar faces had been carrying logs alongside them during drills just yesterday, yet now they had become part of a silent tower of corpses!

Rochi sneered, like a demon god from the abyss looking down upon a swarm of ants whose psychological defenses had completely collapsed.

"This is the consequence of desertion!"

"In this world, there is no safe haven where the weak can scrape out an existence!"

"Under my command, you have only two paths to choose from."

Rochi stepped forward, his violent killing intent sweeping across the field like crashing waves:

"Either fight until your very last breath and die on this training ground!"

"Or become deserters, then die beneath the law enforcement squad's guns like this trash and become the foundation of this Jingguan!"

"A soldier's duty is obedience!"

"From today onward, these four words—'obey orders without question'—must be carved into your bones! Do you understand?!"

Extreme terror had finally transformed into absolute obedience!

Those veteran soldiers who had still harbored petty thoughts and tried to slack off seemed to have had every trace of rebellion drained from them.

Ignoring the filth on the ground, the more than seven hundred soldiers straightened their backs in unison and roared themselves hoarse, their voices even carrying desperate sobs:

"We understand, Navy Colonel!!"

"Swear loyalty unto death! Obey orders without question!"

Watching the soldiers below, as uniform as machines and with not a shred of distraction left in their eyes, Major Lace felt stormy waves rise within her heart.

Only five days!

From Rochi's sudden arrival at the G-8 base, to blasting the corrupt deputy base commander to death, to this outrageous bloody purge that morning.

This Navy tumor, rotten to the core and once like a puddle of mud, had actually been forcibly forged by Rochi's iron-blooded violence into an army of absolute obedience and unified will!

"Is Navy Colonel Rochi... really only an eighteen-year-old boy?"

Lace looked at that tall, straight figure standing with his back to the morning sun, and the reverence in her eyes had seeped into her bones.

Having completed the internal purge of the base, Rochi turned around, strode down from the platform, and returned to the base commander's office on the top floor.

He walked to the enormous floor-to-ceiling window and looked down at the base troops, who had already begun training madly and were working even harder than new recruits at Marine Headquarters. A satisfied curve formed at the corner of his lips.

The internal trash had been cleared out. Next came the time for his own strength to have its feast.

"Lace!" Rochi called in a deep voice without turning around.

"Present! What are your orders, sir?" Lace immediately stepped forward and stood at attention.

Rochi turned around. At some point, the eyes hidden in the shadows had transformed into scarlet Sharingan. Three tomoe slowly revolved within his pupils, exuding an endless aura of danger.

"Fully activate the base intelligence network."

"Don't bother with small fry carrying bounties of only a few million, and don't bother with petty thieves hiding here and there."

Rochi planted both hands on the broad mahogany desk like a hungry wolf that had locked onto its prey:

"I want you to immediately gather the exact coordinates of every major pirate with a bounty above fifty million Beli in all waters surrounding the G-8 base!"

Marineford, the highest conference room of Marine Headquarters.

Beneath the broad semicircular dome, the atmosphere was so oppressive that even the air seemed to have solidified into heavy blocks of lead.

Around the enormous round table symbolizing the highest authority of world justice sat the upper echelons of headquarters, all draped in officers' coats.

Not only were all the powerful vice admirals present, but even the Navy's three admirals—Red Dog, Aokiji, and Kizaru—who rarely appeared together, as well as Navy hero Garp, were all seated in their respective places.

At the very center of the round table lay several high-definition photographs that had just been urgently sent back from the G-8 base.

The images in the photographs were immensely shocking!

It was a blood-red "Jingguan," layer upon layer of two hundred and forty-three heads with twisted faces and eyes that had died wide open! Under the Grand Line's morning sun, dark red blood streamed down the platform. Even through the photographs, one could practically smell that nauseating, terrifying stench of blood!

"Bang!"

Strawberry, the veteran vice admiral with a mustache, slammed his palm onto the table. His face flushed red, and his voice echoed through the conference room with extreme fury:

"Cruel! Bloodthirsty! Utterly without limits!"

"Those two hundred and forty-three heads once belonged to Navy soldiers wearing the same coats of justice as us!"

"This Rochi is completely insane! He did not even follow the most basic military trial procedures. He directly ordered them shot on the spot, then even used the pirates' most brutal method to build a Jingguan!"

Vice Admiral Strawberry stared fixedly at Fleet Admiral Sengoku at the head of the table and roared indignantly:

"Fleet Admiral Sengoku! Keeping someone like this in the Navy is like keeping a ticking bomb!"

"I strongly recommend immediately stripping Navy Colonel Rochi of his rank, escorting him back to headquarters, and sending him to Impel Down!"