"Gahahahaha!"
Though baffled, Yarvis still let out a hearty laugh.
"To witness you young stars rising before I step down… not a bad final reward!"
At that moment, a guard appeared at the broken edge of the Level 3 floor, shouting down into the ruins of Level 4:
"Warden Yarvis! Vice-Warden Magellan!
Please come up immediately—Chief Jailer Hannyabal has been gravely injured! He needs medical treatment at once!"
"Hannyabal? Seriously injured?"
Magellan's face changed dramatically—
as expected of a pair of quarrelling best-friends-for-life—
and without a second thought he vaulted several dozen meters upward into the Starvation Hell.
Longinus and the others followed via Moonwalk.
At the center of Level 3, Hannyabal lay sprawled across the floor, soaked in blood.
His eyes were rolled back, and his sword, Bloodsucker, lay discarded at his side.
"Damn it! With Hannyabal's strength, suppressing the first three levels should have been easy!"
Magellan barked orders for the medical team to hurry over, then questioned a nearby guard.
"It was the Head Jailer—no, the traitor Jin—who injured him," the guard reported, his voice trembling.
"The Chief was busy subduing rioters when the ground suddenly collapsed.
A massive pteranodon burst up through the floor.
The Chief recognized it as Jin's transformed state…
so he threw everything he had into stopping him."
Another guard chimed in, eyes shining with emotion:
"The traitor told the Chief to get out of the way, since he didn't want to waste time—
but Chief Hannyabal shouted that he would never let a violent criminal who threatens world peace escape!
Even if it cost him his life, he refused to take a single step back!
After a fierce battle… he was defeated, and the traitor escaped."
"…Hannyabal is… a true man!"
Yarvis and the others were deeply moved.
They never expected the usually ridiculous Hannyabal to have such a steel-spined side.
Of course—
the "fierce battle" part was quietly ignored.
Given Jin's overwhelming strength and frantic desperation at the time…
the only possible result was instant defeat.
Suddenly, a guard cried out:
"Hannyabal's lips moved!
Is he asking for water? Or trying to say something?"
Magellan crouched down at once, putting his ear to Hannyabal's mouth.
"Go on! I'm listening!"
"…I… I really wanna be Warden…"
Magellan's mouth twitched.
Yes, that's the Hannyabal he knows.
At that instant, Longinus's Observation Haki swept outward—
and he sensed a blazing, violent aura approaching rapidly,
not even attempting to conceal itself.
This heat… Sakazuki?
He looked up.
Chunks of molten magma dripped down from Level 2's Beast Hell…
coalescing into the stern, rugged face of Akainu.
"Seems I'm still late," Sakazuki growled, eyes scanning the wreckage.
"They escaped, didn't they?"
"Vice Admiral Sakazuki—did you come alone?" Yarvis asked.
"Headquarters is short on manpower," Sakazuki replied bluntly.
"The Marines just clashed with the Whitebeard Pirates in the New World.
Our forces are stretched thin.
I was only able to bring ten warships for reinforcement."
"New World… a war with Whitebeard…?"
Longinus frowned.
He hadn't expected so much to happen while he was away.
"It's we who should apologize," Yarvis said politely.
"To make the Vice Admiral come all this way for nothing…"
His tone placed Sakazuki almost as an equal—
unsurprising, given that Sakazuki was a monster who had shaken the world even ten years ago.
Even Yarvis wasn't confident he could suppress him.
Respect follows strength.
That rule never changes.
"Coming for nothing? Impossible."
Sakazuki's gaze sharpened.
"I never leave empty-handed.
Warden Yarvis, prepare a list of escaped prisoners.
I'll capture them myself.
If they were thrown in here once, they can be thrown in again."
"I can tell you the names now," Yarvis sighed.
"The primary escapees confirmed are three—
Red Count Patrick Redfield,
World Destroyer Bundy Waldo,
and the traitorous former Head Jailer, Jin."
Sakazuki's expression hardened further.
Three monsters.
Even the least renowned—Jin—was nearly impossible to catch thanks to the Ancient Zoan Pteranodon.
But then Sakazuki frowned.
"Warden Yarvis… the distress call mentioned a large-scale breakout.
But these three alone don't match that description."
"That's thanks to your Marine—Major Longinus."
Yarvis said with open admiration.
Sakazuki turned, scrutinizing him.
Longinus saluted.
"Vice Admiral Sakazuki."
"I've heard of you," Sakazuki nodded.
"Even stationed away from HQ, your name reaches far.
Are you the one who stopped the riot?"
Longinus slowly shook his head.
"When the situation deteriorated, I couldn't subdue them one by one.
So I… had no choice.
I killed them.
All of them."
Sakazuki's harsh features softened slightly.
"In that situation, hesitation would have been fatal.
Letting them escape would have been the true disgrace to justice.
You did well—
decisiveness is justice."
Then he added:
"To destroy over a thousand rioters alone… Sengoku was right.
It won't be long before the Marines gain a new Vice Admiral."
They began making their way upward.
"Vice Admiral Sakazuki," Longinus asked,
"may I ask about the war? When I left HQ, there was no such news."
"Karp led the fleet to capture Shiki," Sakazuki said coldly.
"Unfortunately, he was one step too late. Shiki escaped.
As for the war that followed—
the Marines do not need a reason to arrest pirates.
Even Whitebeard is no exception."
"Right now, the war is deadlocked.
Both sides are tangled in the battlefield.
And other monsters of the New World are beginning to move.
Some want to stand on Whitebeard's corpse to claim the throne.
Others want to crush the Marines to announce their rise."
"So many fools," Longinus sighed.
"The New World's idiots are no fewer than those in Paradise," Sakazuki snorted.
"But among them, a few are noteworthy—
Charlotte Linlin,
and Kaido of the Beasts."
Longinus's eyes deepened.
With the fall of the three legendary pirates,
those two were the strongest contenders for New World supremacy.
"I will likely be transferred to the New World soon," Sakazuki continued.
"If you want to see true war,
I can request that Fleet Admiral Sengoku send you along."
"The training program usually waits until your second year…
But with your strength, that rule is unnecessary.
Think it over.
When you're ready, come to me."
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