(PS: This book finally got its rating. Damn it, 5.9. Alice thinks that's great-"thumbs up"!)
The Marines and the island's residents were still caught between immense shock and the bewilderment that followed venting their feelings.
They looked at the horrifying sight, then toward the top floor of the hotel with a gaping hole in its wall...
The man who had descended like a demon god and passed judgment on their "protector" with thunderous force was right there.
Kirishima Bupai had indeed returned to his room, which now smelled of dust and gunpowder smoke.
The broken wall let the sea breeze pour in unhindered. He casually kicked aside the rubble at his feet, walked to the still relatively intact bed, and lay down on his back.
He automatically filtered out the faint commotion outside, the residents' discussions, the Marines regrouping, and the groans of the wounded.
All he wanted now was sleep. As for Captain Nezumi, who had been blasted with a cannon, one shot probably hadn't killed him, but it didn't matter.
He was just an ant... no different from the pirates sliced to pieces by Dimension Slash earlier, something he could kill with a single kick.
And that was indeed the case.
At the critical instant just before the cannonball struck the stone pillar, the old hand who had lorded it over the East Blue for years unleashed his survival instincts.
He used the last of his strength, together with the cushioning provided by the Six Powers' Iron Body and the ropes loosening under the blast.
This desperate maneuver actually sent his entire body flying violently away the instant the shock wave reached him.
Boom!
The upper half of the stone pillar shattered, and flames swallowed most of the view.
Captain Nezumi felt as though countless red-hot branding irons