Sakazuki's Concept of Justice, Hina's Breakdown

Eternal Federation, Prodence District.

Orange-red flames licked at every scrap of combustible material left amid the shattered walls and ruins.

Charred corpses remained frozen in their final poses. Some curled up in corners, while others stretched their arms outward, the terror solidified on their faces transformed by the intense heat into cracked masks.

Firelight reflected in their hollow eye sockets, like a silent accusation.

If an uninformed passerby came across this scene, they would likely think some notorious brute had just ravaged the place.

Yet the truth was exactly the opposite. The one responsible was not some pirate, but a Marine shouting about "justice."

On the scorched ground, Hina bit her lip and glared at the tall man slowly pulling himself from the churning magma before her.

Her chest heaved violently, and the dark-blue flames rolling over her body flared brighter with her emotions, scorching the surrounding air until it warped.

"After doing something like this, you still call yourself a Marine?! What did these civilians do wrong? Did they deserve to die? You call this justice? It makes Hina sick. Hina despises you!"

"Without sacrifice, where would justice come from?"

Faced with this question, one he had heard countless times and grown accustomed to, Sakazuki did not even furrow his brow.

He looked expressionlessly at the pink-haired woman in the distance, his tone carrying a trace of pitying mockery.

"If everyone were like them, breaking away from the World Government whenever they pleased, the world would have descended into chaos long ago.

"What do ignorant brats like you know? Killing them now is for their own good.

"Once they fall into the hands of the Celestial Dragons, they will learn what it truly means to wish for death.

"From the moment they chose rebellion, only two paths remained before