Armament Haki?
Lorne's distinctive Beast Ears twitched almost imperceptibly.
He raised his head, met the scrutiny and expectation in Zephyr's lone eye, and grinned, baring a mouthful of stark white teeth.
"Sounds... kind of interesting."
There was not a trace of awe in that smile, only pure curiosity and an eagerness for battle.
As Zephyr watched him, the lines of his stern face seemed to soften a little. He said nothing more, merely waving a hand.
"That's all for today. Dismissed."
With those words, Zephyr turned and left, his mechanical arm gleaming coldly in the setting sun.
"Go back and get your body and mind into peak condition. I don't want to see a useless wreck who can't even stand steady tomorrow."
His voice drifted back from a distance; he had already stepped down from the platform.
Lorne shrugged indifferently and rolled his somewhat stiff neck. Every bone in his body gave a series of sharp cracks.
He glanced at the recruits below the platform, some lying on their backs, others sprawled facedown, still unable to get fully to their feet, and gave a thoroughly bored yawn.
"They really... can't take a beating."
Muttering those words, he leaped off the platform several meters above the ground and landed lightly without making a sound.
That terrifying control over his body made the pupils of the few recruits who had barely managed to remain conscious contract sharply again. The faint thought of catching up that had just risen in their hearts was instantly crushed.
Night.
Marineford lay beneath bright moonlight. A sea breeze carrying the scent of salt and moisture swept through the World Government's strongest military fortress.
Unlike the noisy training grounds during the day, Marine Headquarters now seemed quiet and solemn.
Lorne did not spend the evening sweating in the gravity chamber or on the training grounds as usual, wringing out the last shred of his strength.
He sat alone on a coastal rock at the edge of Marineford, his shirt removed to reveal a young body covered in tiny scars yet brimming with explosive power.
He looked neither at the moon nor at the starry sky, only gazing quietly at the boundless sea before him.
The waves beat tirelessly against the rocks, throwing up white spray with a rushing sound, like some eternal, unchanging melody.
His golden beastlike eyes shone especially brightly in the night, reflecting the deep sea. No one knew what he was thinking.
Soft footsteps sounded behind him, unhurried, steady, and firm.
Lorne did not turn around. He did not even stir an eyelid.
"Teacher, why aren't you resting this late at night? Worried I'll die on the training grounds tomorrow?"
His tone was almost teasing.
Zephyr walked up beside him and followed his gaze out to sea, remaining silent for a moment.
"Your body is the closest thing to a 'monster' I've ever seen. I've never doubted that you could withstand training of any intensity."
Zephyr's tone was calm, without the severity of the daytime.
"I'm just... a little curious."
"Curious about what?" Lorne asked.
"About what you said today." Zephyr turned his head, his lone eye looking especially deep in the moonlight. "'My heart and deeds are as clear as a mirror. All that I do is justice'... Lorne, do you know what saying that means?"
"What does it mean?" Lorne asked in return.
"It means placing yourself above rules and order. That's a... very dangerous idea." Zephyr's voice grew low. "The Marines have had geniuses like you before. They possessed tremendous power and believed firmly in their own 'justice,' but in the end... they met their destruction, or... became something more terrifying than pirates."
There was a barely perceptible weariness and sadness in Zephyr's words, as though he had recalled certain unpleasant memories.
Lorne fell silent.
He could sense that this former Marine Admiral was not interrogating him, but expressing, in his own way, an elder's concern for someone younger.
The sea breeze blew over them both, and for a time, the atmosphere grew somewhat heavy.
Only after a long while did Lorne slowly speak.
"Teacher, let me ask you something."
"Go ahead."
"If a ship carried pirates who committed every imaginable evil, murdering and burning, along with civilians they'd abducted as slaves, and your mission was to sink that ship, what would you do?"
Lorne's question was pointed.
Zephyr frowned. For any Marine, that question posed an agonizing choice.
"The Marines' duty is to eliminate evil..."
"But the civilians are innocent," Lorne interrupted. "So innocent people can be sacrificed to eliminate evil? Is that 'Absolute Justice'?"
Zephyr fell silent.
Lorne turned and looked at the old man seriously for the first time. The arrogance and fighting spirit from earlier that day were gone from his beastlike eyes, replaced by a calm that seemed to see through the ways of the world.
"I can't stand pirates. I really can't. Those scum who use their little bit of strength to bully the weak, burn, murder, and plunder deserve to die, as far as I'm concerned."
"But I also can't stand the arrogance of those who think they can disregard life just because they fly the banner of 'justice.'"
His voice was quiet, but every word was clear.
"I protect the people I want to protect, like my mother, like those two idiots Ace and Luffy. If anyone dares touch them, I'll crush his bones, even if I have to turn the whole world upside down."
"I have a set of scales in my heart. They don't weigh the labels of 'Marine' and 'pirate,' but deeds of 'good' and 'evil.'"
"Enemy or friend, kill or spare-I'll see with my own eyes and judge with my own heart."
Lorne turned his gaze back toward the deep sea, a faint curve lifting the corner of his mouth.
"As for destruction... Teacher, who do you think will be destroyed first: someone who can't even stand by his own convictions, or someone willing to make an enemy of the world for them?"
Zephyr looked at Lorne's profile. In the moonlight, those youthful features seemed utterly resolute.
He recalled Fleet Admiral Sengoku's livid face earlier that day, Tsuru's sigh, and Garp's unrestrained laughter.
Perhaps... Garp was right.
Before you continue