What Fills the Heart

Seeing the Marines arrive, Gawain could not help but feel the urge to retreat.

By now, he had delayed Smoker for several hours.

If Kuro had not found a way to escape or hide their tracks after all this time, then it was time to consider replacing the First Mate.

With that thought in mind.

Gawain turned to leave, but his gaze paused slightly when he noticed a familiar figure in the white smoke.

Akin, already badly wounded, had now completely lost the ability to resist. He lay helplessly on the ground, blood flowing from his wounds.

Only the faint rise and fall of his chest proved that Akin was still alive.

"Lucky bastard."

Gawain curled his lip. The next moment, he vanished from where he stood, along with Akin's body.

Raven Port.

As the battle ended, the drifting smoke and dust gradually dispersed. Tashigi led a group of Marines swiftly down from the Warship.

"Captain Smoker, how did the battle go?"

"Knight Gawain is a very dangerous man. More dangerous than we... than the Marines ever expected."

Smoker looked toward the place where Gawain had vanished, his expression incomparably grave.

"I have a feeling that if we can't keep him in the East Blue, then in a few years, the New World may see another figure like Red-Hair."

As he spoke, Smoker raised an arm.

Only then did he realize that the fingers which had gripped his Jitte were trembling without stop.

He clenched his hand into a fist and said coldly, "Raven Port has no other sea exits. Have the harbor sealed off first. No one gets out, only in."

"Also, bring out my spare Jitte."

Tashigi froze, then reminded him, "The spare one has no Seastone in it. Both its hardness and its ability to suppress Devil Fruit Users are greatly reduced."

"That's the one I want."

"So the other side even took your weapon?"

Tashigi drew in a sharp breath, becoming incredibly wary of the Knight Gawain she had never met.

She knew Smoker's strength better than anyone. Even among his peers, he stood at the very top. Being stationed in the East Blue was simply beneath him.

Anyone capable of beating Smoker so thoroughly that even his weapon was taken from him would be a formidable figure even on the Grand Line.

"Captain Smoker, exactly what—!"

Just as Tashigi was about to press further, she saw her superior's face darken. He nearly bit through the two Cigars in his mouth.

"Don't ask what you shouldn't!"

"Yes!"

Tashigi instinctively stood at attention. As she pondered the matter, Smoker's voice, soft as a mosquito's buzz, reached her ears.

"Oh, right. Find two people and see if they can fish my Seastone Jitte out of the sea. It should be around that spot. It was specially made, and it cost a fortune—worth several years of my salary."

"Huh?"

Tashigi's face was full of question marks.

"So it got knocked into the sea by your opponent?"

Smoker sighed.

"I told you not to ask! I threw it in myself!"

Tashigi looked utterly bewildered.

What kind of move was that?

Smoker simply skipped over the subject and turned his gaze toward the harbor burning in the distance.

"Also, split off some Marines to help the guards in the port with the rescue effort."

"Yes."

Smoker nodded, then looked solemnly toward where Gawain had disappeared.

"I'll personally lead the search through the harbor. This time, we must keep that guy here. If we let him reach the Grand Line, it'll be our disgrace."

Very soon.

Under Tashigi's leadership, columns of Marines scattered throughout the harbor. They rescued civilians while conducting a carpet search of every place in the port where someone could hide.

From the residential district to the commercial district, then to the black market on the outskirts, they found nothing but a few fugitives.

The next morning.

The sun gradually rose, its light shining into the harbor as the situation slowly came under Marine control.

Listening to the intelligence Tashigi had brought back, then studying the map of Raven Port, Smoker frowned slightly.

"You said that before us, there was another group of Marines rescuing civilians in the harbor?"

"That's right."

Tashigi nodded.

"But it was strange. Once our people took over the harbor, they began withdrawing in an organized manner. In the end, we didn't even know which base they came from."

"Captain Smoker, do you think they might have been people Rat Colonel left behind?"

Smoker gave a derisive laugh.

"Compared with a scum like Rat, I'd rather believe they were pirates in disguise."

"Still, though we don't know which base those Marines came from, they probably aren't enemies. Our top priority right now is capturing Knight Gawain!"

As he spoke, Smoker pointed at the central location on the map.

"The only place we haven't searched is the lord's manor."

"This..."

Tashigi hesitated somewhat.

"We don't have an internal search warrant. Going directly after the lord's manor would be against procedure."

"Procedure?"

Smoker sneered.

"How many times in the past have we watched pirates escape right before our eyes because of such meaningless things, only for them to cause fresh chaos somewhere else?"

"These rigid old rules should have been burned to ashes long ago. Catching pirates and stamping out evil—that is the procedure!"

"Come with me!"

"Yes!"

At the same time.

Inside the lord's manor.

When the Marines led by Tashigi entered the harbor, Kuro had ordered his men to retreat to the lord's manor in an organized manner. By now, nearly everyone in the Gawain Pirates had gathered there.

The manor's doctors were treating everyone's wounds.

Yet their physical injuries were minor matters. The complicated expressions in their eyes were what truly stood out.

"I never expected that this time, our mission wouldn't be taking advantage of the chaos to loot or flee, but saving people."

A pirate who had once belonged to Kuro's crew took a misshapen candy from his pocket, his expression filled with wistfulness.

"When I pulled that little girl out from beneath the rubble, I'll never forget the look on her face for the rest of my life."

"Yeah. Even when we followed Captain Gawain before, we never attacked the nearby towns, but the faces of those people were always filled with fear when they looked at us."

"You don't know this, but that old lady even grabbed my hand and said she wanted to marry her daughter to me. It really was..."

"How could she marry a pirate?"

"Hahahaha~"

As they discussed what they had seen that day, they felt something they had never experienced before gradually filling their hearts. As they spoke, tears even began to glimmer in the corners of their eyes.

Kuro watched coldly from the side, muttering, "That sort of conduct doesn't seem very pirate-like~"

"But they're very satisfied, aren't they?"

Gaza looked at the pirates dressed in Marine uniforms, a faint smile appearing on her face.

"They are Mr. Gawain's men, after all. They are ultimately different from other pirates. That man who was once a kingdom Knight, even after losing his identity as a Knight, still upholds a Knight's spirit."

"Heh."

Kuro neither agreed nor disagreed, but at the mention of Gawain, concern inevitably appeared on his face.

"The battle in the harbor has been over for quite some time. Don't go dying in a place like this..."

Bang!

The doors to the lord's manor were pushed open. Gawain appeared before everyone, carrying Akin over his shoulder.

"You're in such a hurry to inherit my ant flower... ptooey, so eager to inherit my position?"