"What exactly did he do?"
When Sengoku's utterly grave voice came through the Den Den Mushi, Rob Lucci felt an indescribable bitterness rise in his throat.
What had he done?
How was he supposed to describe it?
Say that he had frightened a Celestial Dragon into an imbecile with nothing but a look?
Say that he had single-handedly confronted the very strongest fighters of the entire Rocks Pirates head-on, and even forced the legendary Former Marine Admiral Zephyr to retreat?
Say that he had erased "Silver Axe," a man with a bounty in the billions, from this world as easily as crushing an ant?
If he said any of that, never mind Sengoku-even he would probably think he was telling some absurd joke.
"All you need to know," Rob Lucci said, taking a deep breath, his voice almost dreamlike and filled with lingering fear and awe, "is that from today onward, there are no longer four Emperors of the Sea in the New World."
"There are five."
Three days later.
Inside the highest-level intensive care ward of the medical building at the Marines' G-5 Branch.
Sunlight streamed through the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows, gilding the pure white room, filled with the smell of disinfectant, in warm gold.
"Mm."
Yas's eyelids fluttered slightly as he lay in the hospital bed, and he slowly opened his eyes.
He saw the familiar white ceiling, smelled the familiar disinfectant, and heard the steady beeping of medical equipment.
"How long was I unconscious?"
Yas slowly sat up, assessing the state of his body.
The agony that had threatened to tear even his soul apart was gone, replaced by a weakness that seeped into his bones.
The "Black Lightning" energy inside him was still depleted, with only a thin trickle flowing slowly through his meridians, recovering at