The cold wooden floor carried a faint trace of seawater's salty dampness.
Clutching his throbbing head, Sengoku slowly regained consciousness in bed.
He stared blankly at his hands. As he remembered it, Pero had severed both his arms at the shoulders with Heat Vision. Who... had reattached them?
He struggled to sit up and looked around, finding himself in an unfamiliar room.
"Where... am I?" he murmured.
Creak-
With a soft sound, the old wooden door was pushed open.
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku, you're finally awake."
A cool female voice reached him.
Sengoku raised his head and saw who had come.
"Gion..."
The person who pushed open the door and entered was Marine Vice Admiral "Momousagi" Gion.
She wore a white Marine uniform shirt, its sleeves casually rolled up to her elbows, exposing her fair forearms. Her long, smooth black hair was simply tied back, but her lovely face was now filled with exhaustion and worry.
"Where are we?" Sengoku asked. "Did we... fail?"
Gion set the plate of seafood rice in her hands on the bedside table and nodded, a hint of bitterness in her voice. "This is Bali Island. We... failed completely."
She paused, took a somewhat wrinkled wanted poster that had been soaked in seawater from her pocket, and placed it before Sengoku.
Printed on it were the faces of every officer of lieutenant commander rank or above in their Buster Call fleet, beneath a bright red heading-[Rebels].
"The World Government... has issued warrants for us, for every Marine who participated in this Buster Call."
"...What?"
Sengoku's pupils abruptly contracted.
"The World Government... really... went this far?"
For decades, he had worked diligently and devoted himself utterly to that so-called "Absolute Justice."
And in the end, all he had earned was being treated as a disposable pawn, with