Inside the dim prison cell, several skeletal figures slumped in the corner, their bodies little more than skin and bones. Bloodstains and grime covered them.
Within Impel Down, they were the lowest of the low—men who could see no hope, yet lacked even the courage to take their own lives.
"Moshee moshee~ The Big Bad Wolf is here. Are the little rabbits home?"
The iron door creaked open.
The prisoners forced their lifeless eyes wide.
A towering figure stepped inside, draped in the coat of a Marine Headquarters Rear Admiral.
In that instant—
Fear flooded every heart in the cell.
Roldy entered with a grin.
But the grin was savage. Under the dim light, his sharp teeth gleamed white. His massive frame moved slowly forward, his entire body trembling—not from rage, but excitement.
"Rear… Admiral…"
Among the prisoners, one man was in slightly better condition than the rest. Once the strongest in this cell, he had seized more than half of the already pitiful food rations.
Now, summoning what little strength he had left, he shoved his near-corpse-like companions toward Roldy.
Roldy did not refuse the offering.
He grabbed one prisoner by the head.
Under the man's pleading gaze—
Roldy tightened his grip.
The skull burst apart.
Red and white splattered everywhere.
The headless body twitched briefly before falling still.
Roldy glanced around.
Including the one he had just crushed, there had been twelve.
Now—
Eleven remained.
"Sigh… I've already been conserving. Only a few each month. And yet we've still reached this day."
He stepped forward.
The stronger prisoner continued pushing others toward him.
Roldy accepted them one by one.
For these men, who were little more than walking corpses, he no longer felt the twisted satisfaction he once had. There was no joy in tormenting something already broken.
He killed them swiftly.
Cleanly.
Until only one remained.
"Seven years! It's been seven whole years!" the last prisoner roared hoarsely. "We've paid enough for what we did! Prisoners on Level 2 are supposed to atone until they die of old age! Why me?! I stayed on the ship that year—I never even stepped foot on that island!"
The stench of death thickened.
Desperation dragged forth his final emotions.
Anger. Fear. Regret. Resentment.
Life here was no better than that of a rat. Every day was torment.
Yet he still wanted to live.
Out of fear of death.
Out of longing for air.
Roldy was no longer the two-meter-tall boy he once had been.
At over eighteen feet tall, he crouched down, seized the man by his filthy hair, and dragged him close.
The grin on his face faded into something calm.
"How foolish," he said quietly. "Seems this prison doesn't just torment the body. It rots the mind too."
"What do you mean you didn't land on the island?"
"You stayed on that ship. You enjoyed the profits from selling slaves."
"That makes you no different from the rest."
"All of you deserved to die. Why should I bother ranking degrees of damnation?"
He slapped the man across the face.
Even controlling his strength, the blow shattered over a dozen teeth.
"But I'm glad."
"You still have enough strength to talk back."
"Those corpse-like ones were boring."
"You're different."
"So for the finale…"
"Let's put on a proper show."
The words were like whispers from hell.
The prisoner seemed to realize something.
He began struggling wildly, even forcing himself to stand, throwing weak, flickering punches at Roldy.
They landed like cotton.
Roldy felt no pain.
Only exhilaration.
Outside the Cell
Sakazuki, Borsalino, Dragon—
And every cadet of the first Officer Training Camp—
All changed expression.
Through the faint light, they saw two shadows intertwined.
One thin like a reed.
The other savage like a beast.
The beast lunged forward—
Using nothing but claws and teeth.
The shadow of the thinner man was torn apart violently.
His screams echoed down the corridor like air wheezing from a broken bellows.
The metallic scent of blood grew even stronger.
"Ugh—!"
The sound of vomiting echoed down the corridor.
One of the cadets had turned pale and doubled over.
To be fair, none of these rookies were naïve. Before arriving at Marine Headquarters, they had already been standouts across the Four Blues. Many held high ranks in their respective regions. They had eliminated pirates. They had blood on their hands.
But—
Even someone as hardline as Sakazuki had never treated a prisoner like this.
This wasn't justice.
This was torture.
Execution by savagery.
The phrase "I'll eat your flesh and drink your blood" had always seemed like exaggerated rhetoric.
Now—
They had watched it become literal.
"Rear Admiral Roldy… what happened to him?"
The one who spoke had previously served as a Commodore in the West Blue, where organized crime was rampant. He had seen cruelty.
Yet even his face was drained of color.
"They brought this upon themselves," Dragon said quietly.
"Rear Admiral Roldy… was once nearly sold as a slave."
"The ones responsible… were these men."
Dragon didn't know every detail. Garp had never spoken of it at length.
But he could clearly feel it now—
The rage pouring from Roldy was vengeance fulfilled.
And yet, beneath it—
There was a sorrow so heavy it refused to dissipate.
"So scary… an angry Roldy," Borsalino muttered.
For once, he wasn't joking.
"Evil deserves punishment," Sakazuki said in a low voice. "Though… this is extreme."
His impression of Roldy had shifted completely.
He had once thought Roldy was merely brash and straightforward—perhaps even reckless, but aligned with his own sense of justice.
Now—
He realized he himself might have been the conservative one.
Inside the cell, Roldy ignored them all.
Through precise control, he ensured the final prisoner still clung to a single thread of life.
The man's limbs were gone.
His heart barely beat.
His chest rose so faintly it was almost imperceptible.
"You won't be the last human trafficker I kill."
"Go to hell."
Slowly—
Deliberately—
Roldy brought his foot down upon the man's skull.
He crushed it at an excruciating pace.
After all—
If death came too quickly, there would be no time to savor pain.
The cell had become a nightmare beyond description.
A vengeance that had simmered for seven years—
Had finally reached its end.
When the catharsis faded—
The grief returned, swallowing him whole.
He stood motionless for a long time.
"Auntie… I've avenged you."
At last, he murmured softly.
Then—
A faint aura erupted from his body.
For a fleeting instant—
It felt as though the realm of Asura overlapped with reality itself.
Dragon's eyes widened.
That presence—
There was no mistaking it.
"…Conqueror's Haki."
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