Outside world … Ark No. 1 Medical Bay
"Th-thank you for all your trouble, Dr. Kureha!"
Ain bowed slightly toward Kureha as she walked out of the ward, her eyes red.
Hearing this, Dr. Kureha stopped, snatched the bottle of liquor from Ain's hand, and raised it to her lips.
Glu… glu…
"Ahh… that hits the spot!"
After a hearty drink, Kureha let out a satisfied belch.
"I've been a doctor for so many years, there's no storm or spectacle I haven't seen. I thought there was nothing left in this world that could surprise me…"
"But who would've thought I'd live to see the day I performed surgery on a corpse."
Seeing Ain's dejected expression, Kureha shook her head.
"Anyway, I've done what I promised you. As for whether he can come back to life or not, that's your problem."
All the aircraft and Arks combined could only evacuate one-fifth of the planet's population, and the closer one was to the mountain ancestor, the lower that proportion became.
Unless they managed to board in advance, before the Marines made their move.
Kureha still held deep feelings for the Sakura Kingdom.
So she used that as her bargaining chip, securing priority boarding rights for the nation's citizens.
With that, she glanced at the circle of Great Characters gathered outside the ward. Completely unfazed, she gave them a sideways look, then staggered off with the bottle in hand.
"Just who… is that woman?"
Aokiji couldn't help covering his nose. The smell of alcohol was so strong, it was obvious she hadn't stopped drinking even while operating.
Wasn't she afraid of causing a medical accident?!
…Then again, probably not.
After all, Rowen had already been confirmed to have no brain waves at all, completely and utterly a corpse.
"I don't know. I only remember that when I first took office as Chief Commander of the Three Forces, the Gorōsei personally told me that no matter what happened in Drum… Sakura Kingdom, no government personnel were to go anywhere near it."
Kong crossed his arms and shook his head.
"Maybe Zero knows something… the bald one."
At the first half of that sentence, the rather ordinary-looking Masked Zero raised a finger to point at himself, looking utterly confused, so Kong decisively added the latter half.
"These things aren't important. What matters is, can Rowen actually come back to life?!"
Tsuru waved her hand, cutting off the discussion, and looked toward Kizaru, who was sitting on a bench trimming his nails.
"Kizaru, didn't Rowen tell you what to do next?"
"Well now… no, not really."
Still speaking in his usual slow, drawling tone, Kizaru blew on his nails and replied,
"He just told me that once his Vivre Card burned up completely, I was to snatch his body away from right under Im's nose, and keep it as intact as possible."
"He didn't say anything beyond that."
"But… there's no need to worry too much."
At this point, Kizaru glanced in the direction Kureha had left, his eyes slowly turning cold.
"Dr. Kureha's medical skills are like Vegapunk's scientific research, five hundred years ahead of the world. If even she can't do it, then no one in this world can."
Was there something wrong with Kureha?
A fleeting glint of killing intent flashed through Kizaru's eyes, extremely subtle. Yet no one present was weak; everyone noticed it.
Tsuru and Aokiji exchanged a glance. Aokiji immediately nodded and headed toward the storage room where the materials brought from Headquarters were kept.
"I hope… I'm just overthinking things." Tsuru couldn't help sighing inwardly.
Not everyone had agreed with this risky plan, it was, after all, a gamble on the survival of the entire world.
"Justice" had always been a relative concept. They had merely chosen what they believed to be the best option.
But for the four-fifths of the populace who were abandoned, there was no "justice" in this decision at all.
However, this world had never possessed absolute fairness to begin with.
That line in the middle of all things, that balance, that "measure," and the bottom line in each person's heart, those were the soil in which "fairness" and "justice" could exist.
Just as everyone was lost in their own thoughts, a powerful electromagnetic shockwave suddenly spread outward.
Buzz!!!
The massive Ark instantly ground to a halt. All electrical equipment shut down. Lights went out, and chaos erupted in the civilian districts.
Yet instead of alarm, Tsuru and the others felt joy, because this familiar power belonged to only one person!
They couldn't help but look toward the ward.
Through the glass, they saw the pitch-black figure on the hospital bed slowly sit up.
Bang!
Walking to the door, he raised one foot and kicked it open. The ward door burst apart violently. In the darkness, it was impossible to see Rowen's exact expression, only the sound of him rolling his neck, producing a steady
creak… creak…
"How long was I unconscious?"
The emotionless question echoed through the corridor.
Everyone let out a heavy sigh of relief.
"Strictly speaking, you were dead for three hours!" Kizaru puckered his lips in his usual lecherous way and teased him.
"Only three hours?"
Rowen rolled his shoulders and stretched, letting the blood flow rapidly through every corner of his body.
"I thought it had been a long thirty years!"
The others took it as a cold joke. However, they didn't know that for Rowen, it had been far more than thirty years. As he spoke, Rowen accepted the white cloak Ain handed him and draped it over his shoulders.
"Sorry for making you worry."
"No…"
Ain bit her lower lip and silently shook her head, unable to speak.
"Kureha does have some nerve, but in the end, she's still a doctor."
As he spoke, Rowen's mouth moved a few times. Then with a "ptui," he spat something into his hand, a fingernail-sized crystal, brilliantly blue.
"It's Sea Crystal!"
Tsuru sucked in a sharp breath. At the same time, killing intent surged in the eyes of Zephyr and the others, their expressions turning dark.
They remembered all too clearly, after the massive Dressrosa explosion, Rowen had once been declared dead precisely because Seastone powder suppressed his power, preventing his recovery.
And Sea Crystal was even more effective than Seastone!
According to rumors, Vegapunk had used Sea Crystal in an attempt to research a superweapon capable of countering all Devil Fruit ability users!
However…
As Rowen had said, she was still a doctor.
Even if she didn't want Rowen to come back to life, she couldn't bring herself to completely cut off his chance of survival.
Otherwise, this Sea Crystal wouldn't have simply appeared in his throat, it would've been silently sewn into the gaps of his bones.
Without dissecting Rowen all over again, no one would ever figure it out.
So…
What was Rowen going to do about it?
Arrest her, or kill her?
Zephyr and the others frowned as they looked at him.
Zzi, Buzz!!
But instead of answering their doubts, Rowen placed a crackling palm against the wall, electricity dancing across his hand.
"Too dark. Brighter is better."
Through the metal-filled walls, the current reformed damaged components. Before long, the generator restarted, the Ark's engines recovered, and the aircraft stopped its descent.
"Wait, Rowen, you…!"
As the lights came back on, Tsuru let out a sigh of relief. But when she clearly saw Rowen, her face filled with disbelief.
Rowen holding Sea Crystal without collapsing from weakness was understandable, anyone present could do that, though only for a limited time.
But holding Sea Crystal and using the power of the Goro Goro no Mi at the same time,
That was completely beyond imagination!!
"Oh, right. I forgot to tell you."
Rowen pinched the Sea Crystal between his fingers and raised it to the light, squinting as he examined it.
"It's a bit troublesome to explain. You just need to remember this… I can no longer really be considered a Devil Fruit ability user. So the inherent weaknesses of Devil Fruits no longer have any meaning to me. My power now stands above Seastone and Devil Fruits!"
Zzi, ZZZ!!
A piercing electric shriek rang out. Tsuru, Kizaru, and the others instinctively retreated, widening the distance between them and Rowen.
Electricity coiled around Rowen's body, like a suit of lightning armor covering him. This was a familiar sight, one of Rowen's signature techniques.
But now, those lightning arcs radiated a danger entirely different from before!
Unlike his previous sky-blue lightning, the dominant color of the electricity around him was now black. As it spread and dissipated, crimson seeped through the black. Yet even that crimson wasn't pure, deep within it, the familiar blue and white electric hues compressed like a light bulb, flickering intermittently.
Black, red, blue, and white filled the lightning in roughly a 5:3:1:1 ratio.
"What… is it called?"
Zephyr asked curiously. He could even faintly sense a wave unique to Haoshoku Haki within it. At the black-and-red core, a hint of purple occasionally flashed.
Like its colors, it was profound and beautiful, mesmerizing, yet filled with dangerous temptation, lethal coldness, and the domineering aura of a king.
And…
Total destruction!
Even without seeing its destructive power, Zephyr trusted his instincts, any one of those tiniest arcs of lightning was something he couldn't withstand.
Too dangerous!
If he didn't know Rowen so well, his body's instincts alone would have compelled him to flee at the sight of that lightning.
The others felt the same.
"What is it called? Does lightning even need a name?"
Rowen thought for a moment, then grinned.
"I was born from destruction, born from civilization. I…"
"Am destruction itself!"
Zephyr: "..."
Destruction?
That didn't really sound like a person's name.
(End of Chapter)
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