All Returns to Nothing

"Report, sir! Ten minutes ago, we received intelligence from an undercover agent near the G-8 Branch. A severely damaged Navy assault ship is approaching the branch at full speed. There are large amounts of bloodstains on the deck..."

"It's them! Even if the Illusion-Illusion Fruit user is dead, the transfer of its crystal must never fall into outsiders' hands! Lace must have brought it back!"

A flash of utter brutality and resolve crossed the commander's eyes!

The Illusion-Illusion Fruit was of paramount importance. There could not be the slightest mistake!

"Pass down my orders!"

"Immediately assemble every elite CP9 agent currently on the roster! And not only that..."

The commander shoved open the doors and roared down the corridor, "Go invite Lord Withered Bone of CP0 to intervene! Deploy the fastest new-model warship. Destination—the G-8 Navy Branch on the Grand Line!"

"Since Rochi is a disobedient mad dog, then today, before he discovers the truth, wipe out both him and that base!"

Several days later, in the first half of the Grand Line, G-8 Navy Branch Fortress.

The sky was gloomy, violent black clouds churning madly at the far end of the horizon. Muffled thunder rumbled deep within them like the suppressed roar of a wounded beast.

Base Commander's Office.

Rochi sat imposingly in his chair, casually flipping through a stack of battle reports on the desk.

"Still no prey worth over a hundred million..."

Rochi frowned slightly.

Recently, under his ruthless purge, pirates in these waters had nearly been wiped out.

Without high-level monsters to grind, the experience bar holding him at Level 40, Peak Colonel Level, was crawling along at a snail's pace.

Just as Rochi was considering whether to find an excuse to go "fishing" near the edge of the New World—

"BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP—!!!"

A shrill top-level red alert suddenly rang out over the branch fortress!

"Bang!"

A communications soldier soaked to the bone by rain stumbled and crawled as he burst through the office doors, his face as pale as a corpse's.

"Colonel! This is bad! Something huge has happened!"

"The assault ship sent to East Blue on a transport mission... has returned!"

Rochi abruptly raised his head, and an extremely dangerous gleam flashed through his dark, unfathomable eyes.

It had returned?

By his calculations, Lace had already been in East Blue far beyond the scheduled deadline.

Without another word, Rochi transformed into a white afterimage and vanished from the office!

When Rochi arrived at the harbor pier at a speed impossible for the naked eye to follow—

A blinding bolt of lightning split the sky.

The ghastly white flash illuminated the shattered warship moored by the dock, as though it had just been hauled out of a meat grinder!

Of the spirited elite soldiers from Headquarters who had departed... fewer than thirty remained!

Every one of them was missing limbs or had broken legs, drenched in blood as they staggered down the gangplank while supporting one another like walking corpses.

Among them—

Two heavily wounded veterans carried a mangled figure on a makeshift stretcher.

It was Lace!

The white suit of the usually proud and capable major adjutant had long been soaked dark red with blood.

Two horrifying puncture wounds ran through her abdomen and chest. Her breathing was so faint that it seemed as if it could stop at any moment.

Yet her right hand remained clenched like an iron vise. Even though her nails had dug deeply into her palm from the force, she would not loosen her grip in the slightest.

"C-Colonel..."

When the veteran carrying the stretcher saw the young man descend upon the pier with his cloak billowing like a demon god—

He dropped to his knees in the pool of blood with a thud and burst into heartbroken sobs. "We failed! Our brothers... almost all died in East Blue!"

Boom—!

A violent killing intent, nearly tangible, exploded outward from Rochi in an instant!

The bluestone paving across the entire pier cracked at once under the horrifying pressure, like a solid warhammer, forming countless dense spiderweb fractures!

Even the torrential rain was forcibly driven away within a meter of Rochi, creating a vacuum around him beneath the force of that violent blast!

He was not grieving for the lives of those hundreds of soldiers.

It was East Blue! His hometown, Locke Village! Someone had dared touch what was his?!

Who did it?!

Rochi stepped before the stretcher, forcibly suppressing the volcanic power about to erupt within him. Deep in his eyes, the crimson Sharingan had begun to emerge faintly.

"Who did this? Where are my mother and my sister?!" Rochi's voice was cold, devoid of even a trace of human warmth.

At the sound of Rochi's voice—

Lace, lying on the stretcher and already at death's door, convulsed violently.

She struggled to open her unfocused eyes, and tears mingled with blood slipped from their corners.

"Commander..."

Trembling, Lace used every last shred of strength in her body to slowly spread open her tightly clenched right hand.

At the center of her blood-covered palm lay a hexagonal crystal emitting an eerie purple glow!

Within the crystal, countless phantoms of light seemed to intertwine and dance.

With every word Lace spoke, a great mouthful of blood spilled from her lips. "Cipher Pol Agents... went to Locke Village... They wanted to capture Roski..."

"Your sister asked me... to give this to you..."

As her words fell—

The hand Lace had held in the air finally lost all strength and crashed heavily onto the stretcher.

This capable major had exhausted her last drop of blood during this desperate escort.

"Fake?"

For the first time, Rochi's face—always unchanging even if Mount Tai collapsed before him—showed extreme shock and confusion.

He stared blankly at the purple-glowing crystal.

For some reason, at the instant that crystal appeared, an uncontrollable tremor and stabbing pain rose from the depths of his once-unshakable soul!

It was as if something sealed tightly in the deepest part of his heart was screaming madly, trying to break free of its cage!

The sweater his mother had sewn... the letters his sister had written...

Rochi murmured to himself. He extended those hands stained with pirate blood, hands that had twisted countless enemies' necks, and slowly—almost with an instinctive tremble—touched the purple Memory Crystal.

"Buzz—!!!"

The instant his fingertips touched the crystal!

The purple crystal suddenly erupted with an unbearably brilliant light and, like a drop of water merging into the sea, instantly sank into Rochi's brow!

"AAAAAHHHH—!!!"

A shriek as piercing as the death cry of a wild beast suddenly erupted from Rochi's throat!