"Give me a ship! Now!!!!"
"I want a ship!"
"I want a ship!!!!!"
His bloodshot eyes seemed ready to bulge out of their sockets as he shouted, barely coherent.
He was like someone about to plunge into a bottomless abyss who had caught hold of a lifeline.
Unfortunately, his luck was poor... the people he had encountered were...
The Marine soldiers who had finished fighting gathered around him, leaving not a single gap, unmoved by anything the pirate captain said.
"Nobody move!"
"Aren't you Marines supposed to stand for justice?!"
"Don't you care about the brat in my hands?!"
"Give me a ship! Now!!!!"
The pirate captain watched the soldiers surround him, looking at him as though he were already dead. Terror flooded his body, pushing him to the brink of collapse.
"You want a ship?"
A towering figure nearly three meters tall appeared.
The surrounding soldiers silently made way for him.
"Th-that's right!!!"
Looking up at Sakazuki's towering figure, the pirate captain swallowed and forced himself to speak.
"Give me a ship!"
Sakazuki slowly raised his arm and extended a finger. Bewildered, the pirate captain remembered what he was trying to accomplish and roared.
"Hurry up and give-!"
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Two faint sounds sliced through the air.
Both of the pirate captain's arms suddenly burst apart, turning into a mist of blood.
"Aaaaah!!!!"
He howled in agony.
That was not the end. The instant his arms exploded-
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Three field officers used Shave.
They appeared in front of the pirate captain and on either side of him.
The one in front crouched to catch the child.
The officers on either side pressed down on the pirate captain's shoulders.
At the same time, they kicked forward into his knees.
Crack!
Both lower legs snapped forward at the knees, bending at ninety-degree angles!
"Aaaaah!!!!!!"
"Cough... cough!!"
After catching the child, the Marine in front picked up a stone from the ground.
Once the pirate captain's legs had been broken-
He shoved the stone into the pirate captain's mouth.
"Reporting!"
"Rear Admiral Sakazuki."
"All pirates have been killed or captured."
"Combat is concluded."
"Awaiting orders!!"
After delivering the final blow to the pirate captain, the officer who had rescued the child turned to report to Sakazuki.
"Have some of the men inventory the supplies."
"Once that's done, escort these pirates and the supplies into town."
"The rest will fight the fires."
"Yes, sir!!"
Sakazuki gazed at the town billowing thick smoke nearby and issued one order after another.
Then he led the remaining men into town to rescue the civilians.
The town was a sea of flames as far as the eye could see.
Ruined walls and civilian corpses lay everywhere, without a living soul in sight.
With the arrival of the Marine soldiers, the sea of flames was rapidly extinguished.
Seeing the fires being put out so quickly, some of the civilians in hiding cautiously poked their heads out.
"Mar-!"
"The Marines are here!!"
"Waaah!!!!"
"At last...!!"
As those cries broke into uncontrollable sobbing-
More of the civilians in hiding slowly poked their heads out and emerged.
As though they had found someone to lean on, they all wept loudly, trying to cry this nightmare out of their hearts.
Sakazuki had seen far too many scenes like this over the years. All he could do was sigh inwardly.
His expression remained cold and stern as he issued orders and directed the rescue efforts.
Most of the soldiers aboard his ship had experienced such things themselves. Every time a scene like this stirred those memories, their eyes reddened.
Once the civilians had largely vented their emotions, Sakazuki ordered the inventoried supplies distributed among the survivors.
Life had to go on...
As for the captured pirates, a spacious area was found for them.
After the soldiers forced the pirates to kneel in rows, Sakazuki gave each resident a blade.
"Please, let me go!!!"
"I'll never do it again!!!"
"Please, don't kill me! My child hasn't even learned to walk yet!!!!"
"I swear I'll turn over a new leaf!!!"
"Waaah!!"
"I know where the captain hid his treasure! Spare me!!"
"Spare me! You can have it all!!!!"
Their pleas rang out endlessly, but against the ruined walls behind them, those words seemed so feeble and empty.
Holding their blades, the civilians remembered the family and friends who had been with them only yesterday, now reduced to countless severed limbs.
Hatred kept building within them as they stared at the pleading pirates with blood-red eyes.
Shhk! Shhk! Shhk!...
The sound of blades piercing flesh continued for a long time.
Just then, a small figure caught Sakazuki's attention.
It was a child barely over half a meter tall.
He held a long blade pointed at the pirate captain.
He stared with hatred, yet did not dare step forward and stab.
The pirate captain noticed the boy's hesitation too.
His stone-stuffed mouth twisted into something of a grin, and he lurched toward the boy with a vicious expression.
The boy shuddered in fright. His grip loosened, and the blade began to fall.
Just then, a large hand appeared and closed around the boy's small hand, securing his grip on the blade.
"Look over there."
Sakazuki appeared beside the boy and bent down, holding the small hand that had nearly dropped the blade. His deep voice rang out.
He pointed toward the ruins as he spoke.
Looking at the rubble where his parents, friends, neighbors, and so many kindly old men and women from the town lay buried-
The boy could no longer contain himself.
"Aaaaaah!!!!!!"
A howl of anguish rang out as he turned his hate-filled gaze toward the pirate captain.
Holding the boy's small hand, Sakazuki pushed the blade forward. One stab... two stabs... three stabs... who knew how much time passed.
The boy went limp and slumped to the ground, utterly drained.
Only then did he realize that the Marine who had held his hand had already left.
And the pirate captain before him had long since stopped breathing.
"How are things?"
"Reporting, Rear Admiral Sakazuki."
"All search and rescue operations are complete. All supplies have been inventoried and distributed."
Sakazuki walked at the front, with the field officers following behind him on either side.
As they made their way from the town toward the coast, he questioned the officer to his right.
"Assemble the men. We'll head to the next..."
He nodded slightly and began issuing orders to the officer, but suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned to look behind him.
Everyone else turned as well.
A little boy came running up, carrying a long blade and panting for breath. Seeing Sakazuki stop, he quickened his pace.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
Clang!
Finally reaching Sakazuki, he tossed the blade aside.
Thud!
He dropped to his knees, then drove his head downward.
Bang!
His forehead struck the stone paving. When he raised his head, it was a bloody mess.
"Please let me join the Marines."
"General, sir!"
The boy looked at Sakazuki with a determined expression and shouted.
"I'm no general."
Sakazuki looked down at the kneeling boy. His deep voice rang out as he continued.
"And besides..."
"Give me a reason."
"I want to..."
"Ugh..."
At Sakazuki's question, something seemed to come to mind, and tears streamed endlessly from his eyes.
"I want to..."
"Ugh..."
The boy struggled to keep his expression steady, until at last... he could hold it no longer...
"I want to kill every pirate in the world!"
"Waaaaaah!!!!"
Before you continue