Marine Headquarters.
Underground prison.
Behind the heavy Seastone bars, Aramaki sat leaning against the cold wall.
After being locked up for so long,
he had neither begged for mercy nor admitted fault. Even his expression still carried obvious defiance.
In his view, he had merely been carrying out the World Government's orders.
Collecting the Heavenly Tribute.
Suppressing the rebels.
Arresting Doflamingo.
What was wrong with that?
What he truly could not accept was that Sakazuki had personally beaten him back to Headquarters.
Even now, Aramaki still believed that he had not changed—the Navy had.
"It's getting softer and softer."
He sneered quietly.
Just then, footsteps came from the end of the corridor.
Aramaki raised his head as Rock slowly stopped outside the cell door.
The corner of Aramaki's mouth twitched.
"You finally decided to come see me?"
"Getting ready to kill me?"
Rock shook his head.
"No."
"The World Government is demanding that we release you."
Aramaki froze at first, then the corners of his mouth visibly rose.
"See that?"
"The Holy Land hasn't abandoned me."
"That's the biggest difference between the World Government and people like you."
Rock did not argue. He simply tossed a document through the bars.
The papers landed at Aramaki's feet.
"Read it yourself."
Aramaki lowered his head.
At the top of the document was an official note that had just arrived from the World Government.
[Demanding that the Navy immediately return World Government-affiliated combat asset Aramaki.]
No colleague.
No personnel.
There was not even a single word referring to him as a person.
For the first time, the smile on Aramaki's face froze.
Rock looked at him.
"Do you think they're saving you, or taking back their weapon?"
Aramaki gripped the document, his knuckles slowly tightening.
"It's just wording. At least they're