"Kill anyone who resists!"
The order fell like a cold anchor, and the ruined street sank into silence.
Drip.
A single raindrop broke against the stones. Then the sky opened, turning the night into a curtain of rain.
Icy spears and gleaming sabers leveled in unison. Marines stood braced and silent.
The world felt like a tomb, lowering over the living.
"So if I don't step aside… you'll kill me too?"
The purple-haired old man in a Marine coat spoke at last, his voice scraped raw.
He kept his head bowed. Rain ran over the deep lines of his face, leaching what color remained. A lit cigar smoldered stubbornly between his teeth, its ember a pin of red in the wind and rain.
His eyes, though—bloodshot and burning—held a banked fury.
When that gaze swept the ranks, Marines and officers alike shifted back a step without thinking, their will faltering.
Though seated casually on the ground, he radiated a heavy, unyielding presence no one dared test.
"Zephyr, don't make this harder than it has to be," a low voice rumbled from the rear.
The crowd parted. Admiral Sengoku strode forward, his cloak snapping behind him, the air around him taut as a drawn bow.
"You know as well as anyone," he said coldly, eyes complicated as they fell on his old partner's mud-streaked figure. "As Marines, we don't defy the World Government's orders."
Zephyr lifted his head and met him, contempt curling at his mouth.
"Orders… Sengoku, you're still rigid. And still a coward."
"Are the Government's orders always right?"
Sengoku stiffened, a hot surge of anger flaring at the derision in Zephyr's stare. Teeth grinding, he roared, "Zephyr! Get a hold of yourself! This isn't the time for childish tantrums!"
"Do you even understand what that Darren brat has done?!"
"He slaughtered hundreds of Elite Celestial Dragons on Felsek Island! He's nearly wiped out a generation of World Nobles!"
His students stood struck dumb, as if lightning had split the earth at their feet.
"Th-This… even for that bastard Darren…" Tokikake faltered, unable to finish.
Gion blanched, stumbling back two steps.
Shuzo and the other Academy trainees went rigid, terror frozen on their faces.
Nearby, Magellan's mask hid his expression, but confusion etched the line of his shoulders. He didn't grasp all that Sengoku's words implied—but everyone else's faces did. This was beyond grave.
On these seas, the Celestial Dragons sat above all—power, wealth, and impunity incarnate. To lay a hand on one invited the harshest retribution, no matter who you were.
Monkey D. Dragon—son of the "Hero of the Marines," Vice Admiral Garp—had become an internationally wanted criminal for killing just one. Marine Headquarters and the World Government hunted him without rest.
Darren had killed hundreds.
What would the Government do to him?
Zephyr's voice stayed level.
"That's why a gathering like Felsek should never have happened."
"And even if Darren did slaughter hundreds of Celestial Dragons—what of it?"
"What does any of that have to do with the people who live in this courtyard?"
Sengoku's anger hardened. He stepped in, fisted Zephyr's collar, and hissed, "You know perfectly—"
He stopped.
As the collar lifted, his gaze snagged on a corpse slumped against the wall behind Zephyr.
A CP0 agent—head, chest, and abdomen pulped by brutal, precise strikes. It was obscene.
And still not the worst of it.
Zephyr shrugged out of his coat, letting it fall. Beneath the purple shirt, one sleeve hung empty.
"Your… your arm…" Sengoku's pupils pinpricked.
Drip.
Fresh blood slid from the stump, blooming in the puddles like a dark flower.
"It doesn't matter. It's just an arm." Zephyr's calm was so alien it made Sengoku feel he was staring at a stranger.
His pale lips lifted in the faintest smile. "Whatever a Marine has done—his wife and child are innocent. Aren't they?" He pinned Sengoku with that question.
Sengoku's grip trembled and faltered.
Rain tapped at his hand and ran off the still skin.
"Answer me, Sengoku!" Zephyr's eyes flashed red, his voice knifing through the storm. "His wife and child—shouldn't they be innocent?!"
Silence fell like a hammer.
The rain redoubled, drumming against stone and steel.
The former Admiral's roar carried through the torrent, an accusation that would not die even when its echo faded.
Sengoku's mouth thinned. His hand slipped from Zephyr's collar.
"Zephyr, you know as well as I do… it's never that simple."
His voice wore down to gravel.
Zephyr studied his friend's tense, lined face—then laughed softly.
"No, Sengoku. It is simple."
"You're the one making it complicated."
"You'll follow the order and take Toki. I'll protect her and the child. From this moment, you and I stand on opposite sides… See? Simple."
He exhaled a dragon curl of smoke. His short purple hair whipped in the rain.
Black lightning crackled from his lone arm, thickening and deepening until it poured out like an abyss made flesh.
"Step over me—crush me—and you can take Toki."
"Come, then… my comrade."
The black surged higher, veined with a creeping red, and the storm seemed to answer.
"Last time, I wasn't there…"
Zephyr's aura surged violently upward, causing Sengoku and every Marine present to pale in alarm.
"But this time… it's different!"
To be continued...