Marine Headquarters, Family Town.
The battered seaside house had been repaired after the attack. Lush green ivy climbed the wooden fence around it. Even the grounds had been filled in and renewed, and the freshly planted lawn showed no trace of the damage. Now the warm afternoon sun fell across a chair in the yard, making Zephyr drowsy.
Sengoku, Aokiji, and the others had not wanted Zephyr to keep living there. But the old man insisted, and they could not bring themselves to refuse him. In the end, they let him have his way.
Besides, with Loa around, who would dare touch him now?
They stationed a few soldiers nearby, and that settled it.
It was May 4. Zephyr had risen early to clean, then fumbled his way through making breakfast. He finally ate his first meal of the day before the sun began to set.
Zephyr had never done kitchen work in his life. At most, he had peeled potatoes there as punishment when he was a recruit. Even after he stepped back from the front lines and later became an invalid, Ain had cooked for him.
Basking in the sun with his eyes closed, Zephyr murmured to himself, "I'm getting old. I can't even cook a meal properly."
The warmth did not come from the sunlight alone. It also came from his bandaged hand and the scattered braziers and barbecue grills in the garden. He had poured a pot of hot oil straight onto his hand. Thanks to the foundation he had built in his younger days, the injury was not enough to put him in a hospital bed.
As he reflected on the past, a cool breeze swept by, and Zephyr pulled his coat tighter around himself.
He opened his eyes a fraction and looked at the