Bounty Redemption

Near the shores of Alabasta, a massive Marine Headquarters warship lay quietly anchored on the turbulent sea.

Torrential rain washed over the deck, yet it could not douse the stifling, murderous atmosphere. Hundreds of fully armed Marine soldiers held their muskets at the ready, staring as if facing a formidable enemy at the black-clad man slowly approaching from the harbor pier.

Rainwater streamed down Rain's dark gray burlap cloak. In his left hand, he casually dragged the once-lofty Shichibukai, Sir Crocodile.

"Stop! Rain 'Grayrock,' heinous criminal! Drop your weapon immediately and surrender!" A Marine major's voice trembled with nerves, but driven by duty, he still drew his command saber and shouted his rebuke.

Rain ignored the rows of black gun barrels and walked straight to the boarding ramp.

Bang!

Rain roughly flung the heavily wounded, unconscious Crocodile onto the warship's deck. The dull impact made every Marine soldier gasp.

"Relax. I'm here to make a delivery." Rain slowly raised his head. His pitch-black eyes, concealed in the shadow of his hood, passed over the layers of Marine soldiers and settled directly on the two people behind them.

One was a silver-haired man with two cigars clenched between his teeth and a Seastone jitte strapped across his back. The other was a cold, beautiful female officer in a deep red suit, wearing a Marine coat and sporting long pink hair.

Marine Headquarters Colonel "White Hunter" Smoker. Marine Headquarters Colonel "Black Cage" Hina.

"Hina is surprised." Hina stepped forward in her high heels, a flash of surprise passing through her narrow eyes as she assessed Crocodile on the ground and the black-clad young man before her. "A bounty hunter with a fifty-million Beli bounty actually slaughtered a Shichibukai as prey. You've got nerve."

Smoker exhaled a thick cloud of smoke dampened by the rain and waved for the surrounding Marines to lower their guns.

"You actually dared to bring this guy onto a Marine warship." Smoker frowned deeply, staring hard at Rain's bandage-wrapped right arm. "The Alabasta royal family hasn't officially withdrawn its warrant for you yet. Legally speaking, you're still a terrorist responsible for a string of brutal massacres."

"Massacres?" Rain sneered, his hoarse voice especially grating amid the downpour. "Colonel Smoker, is Marine justice about protecting those parasites sucking blood while sprawled atop civilians' corpses?"

Rain took a step forward. A restrained yet oppressive wave of scorching heat instantly vaporized the rain around him into white mist.

"When the people of this country were dying of thirst from lack of water, those bloated officials were bathing in fountains and selling a single drop of water for ten thousand Beli. They didn't kill anyone with knives, but they monopolized the right to survive. And that's legal?"

Rain's gaze was icy to the bone as he stared directly into Smoker's eyes.

"I merely used more direct, more violent means to take back what they swallowed and return it to the civilians. As for the law... it's meant to restrain people. For beasts wearing human skin, hell is their best destination."

The deck fell into brief, dead silence.

Smoker clenched the cigars between his teeth. As a Marine who despised corruption from the bottom of his heart and even defied his superiors over it, he understood the misery of Alabasta's lower classes better than anyone. Rain's words were extreme and bloody, completely contrary to the Marines' procedural justice, but they struck precisely at the thorn in Smoker's heart.

If he took off this uniform, Smoker might even think Rain had done well to kill them.

"Hina has nothing to say." Hina sighed. As she looked at Rain, much of the hostility in her eyes faded. "But overstepping the line is still overstepping the line. However, considering that you stopped Crocodile's plot to steal the country and indirectly saved millions of citizens..."

"Take your bounty and get the hell out of here." Smoker rudely cut Hina off, turning his back to Rain. "Before I change my mind, and before the Marine Headquarters warships complete their encirclement of you. I won't arrest you this time. Consider it a... personal thank-you for taking down that bastard Sand Crocodile. But next time we meet at sea, I'll personally put Seastone cuffs on you."

"I look forward to it," Rain replied flatly.

He turned to leave, but just then, the corner of his eye caught a slender figure in the corner of the warship's deck.

It was Smoker's adjutant, Tashigi.

The young female Marine with red half-rim glasses was kneeling on the rain-soaked deck. Her hands clawed desperately at the planks, her nails even bleeding. She held no umbrella, allowing the icy rain and burning tears to mingle and stream wildly down her cheeks.

Beside her lay the famed blade Shigure.

"Why... why can't I do anything..." Tashigi choked out, her voice filled with unwillingness and despair. "It was clearly the Marines' duty... yet pirates and bounty hunters had to save this country... In the face of those powerful people, my sword wasn't even worthy of being drawn..."

Outside the underground mausoleum, she had watched Luffy risk his life to protect the country. She had watched Rain crush everything in his path. Yet she, a Marine representing justice, could only look on helplessly.

That sense of powerlessness, of seeing her faith brutally torn apart by reality, completely shattered her mental defenses.

Rain stopped.

Smoker and Hina watched Tashigi without saying anything. This was the growing pain every Marine who clung to justice had to endure after witnessing the world's true cruelty.

Rain slowly walked over to Tashigi.

He looked down at the crying swordswoman, and his right hand beneath the cloak twitched slightly.

Drip.

A scorching drop of dark crimson liquid magma fell precisely onto the deck before Tashigi.

Sizzle!

With a burst of pungent white smoke, the drop of magma instantly burned a bottomless black hole through the hard wooden deck. The terrifying heat made Tashigi jerk her head up, her face streaked with tears as she looked at Rain.

"If tears could kill, this sea would have been flooded long ago."

Rain's voice was cold, carrying not the slightest comfort—only a harsh analysis of reality, sharp as a blade.

"You feel wronged because you're too weak. Justice without strength is worse than empty words, and a famed blade in a weakling's hand is nothing more than a fire poker."

Rain crouched down, meeting Tashigi's shocked and bewildered eyes at eye level.

"Put away that worthless weakness of yours. If you truly want to carry out the justice in your heart, to capture those evil pirates, and even to one day send me to Impel Down with your own hands..."

Rain rose to his feet and turned toward the pouring rain.

"Then make your sword sharper. Until then, don't disgrace yourself with that pathetic justice of yours."

Amid the howling wind and rain, Rain's gray-black silhouette gradually vanished into the mist at the end of the pier.

Tashigi stared blankly in the direction Rain had left, then lowered her gaze to the charred hole burned through the deck by magma. She bit her lip until it bled. Then she suddenly raised a hand, fiercely wiped away the tears on her face, and grabbed Shigure beside her.

"I will... I will definitely become stronger!"