Chapter 132: Kneeling
The King's Plateau
"Fujitora?!"
Luffy's head popped up from his makeshift bed of rubble before anyone could stop him. His eyes were still closed, sleep bubbles still forming and popping at his nose, but the name had triggered something in his rubber brain that even exhaustion couldn't override.
"Isn't that the uncle I met at the casino restaurant?!"
"Luffy, just go back to sleep." Usopp pushed his captain's head back down with the resigned patience of someone who had long since accepted his role as the crew's unofficial babysitter. "You can barely keep your eyes open."
"It's fine, I'm awake. See? My eyes are open."
"They're closed."
"They're open on the inside."
Under Sabo's direction, the crew turned their attention toward the ruined city below. What they saw made even Law—who had seen the worst the world had to offer—draw a sharp breath.
"The Navy... can actually do something like that?"
"I can't believe it. That's an Admiral!" Usopp squinted, desperately trying to make out the details of the scene unfolding below. "Is he really...?"
Fujitora was kneeling.
The Admiral of the Navy—one of the three most powerful Marine officers in the entire world—had lowered himself to the broken earth before King Riku Dold the Third. Behind him, Vice Admiral Bastille and dozens of Marine soldiers had followed their commander's example, bowing their heads in unified shame.
The people of Dressrosa surged forward in confusion.
"Admiral! Please, you don't need to do this! Your Navy saved us!"
"We should be thanking you! Not the other way around!"
Fujitora shook his head. When he spoke, his voice carried across the ruined plaza with the weight of absolute conviction.
"I am deeply sorry. We were ignorant of Doflamingo's atrocities. Our blindness allowed you and your people to suffer unspeakable humiliation."
He pressed his forehead lower.
"We acted far too late. It is only now—only after pirates, warriors, and citizens rose up to fight—that we have finally turned our swords against the Warlord system and cleaned up this catastrophe."
His scarred face was wet with tears he made no effort to hide.
"This country was not liberated by the Navy. It was liberated by the people who call it home. By the warriors who refused to bow. By the pirates who risked everything."
"On behalf of the World Government and the Navy... I offer my most sincere apology to you and to every citizen of Dressrosa."
His voice cracked.
"This old man humbly requests that you reclaim your throne. Lead your people out of darkness and into a new dawn."
King Riku stood frozen. The former monarch—who had spent ten years in disgrace, believed by his own subjects to be a murderer and a thief—stared at the Admiral kneeling before him as if witnessing something that could not possibly be real.
"I... I cannot accept this..."
Before he could finish, the citizens of Dressrosa rushed forward. They surrounded the kneeling Marines, reaching down with gentle hands to lift them up.
"Please don't say such things! You are our heroes!"
"We saw everything with our own eyes! The officers protected us!"
"Your General is even supporting King Riku's return to the throne... I never thought I would live to see such a day..."
Amid the crowd, an old woman sobbed openly. "Please, Your Majesty! Return to us! Lead us again!"
"You are our true royal family!"
"Only under your rule can we live in peace!"
King Riku's weathered face twisted with emotion. His voice, when he found it, was barely a whisper.
"I have no right to stand before you as king. I was powerless. I failed. For ten years, I could do nothing while Doflamingo—"
"That is absolutely not true, King Riku!"
Fujitora rose and stepped forward, his blind eyes somehow finding the former king's face.
"There is no one more qualified than you to lead Dressrosa's recovery. Your people need you. And this time..." His voice hardened with promise. "The Navy will ensure that no darkness ever takes root in this kingdom again."
On the King's Plateau, Sabo watched the scene unfold with an expression caught between admiration and disbelief.
"I never expected to find someone like that in the Navy."
Law cradled Kikoku against his chest, his voice thick with exhaustion and something that might have been vindication. "I sensed it from the moment he landed on this island. Fujitora isn't like the other Admirals. He has his own sense of justice. His own vision for what the Navy should be."
He turned to Itachi.
"You fought him twice. What do you think?"
Itachi watched the distant figure of the Admiral—the man who had lost to him twice, who had been manipulated into becoming a hero, who had just knelt before an entire kingdom and begged forgiveness on behalf of the institution he served.
A faint smile touched the corner of his mouth.
He had not expected Fujitora to do this. The kneeling. The public apology. The open acknowledgment of the Navy's failure. It was not part of the plan Itachi had laid out. It was something Fujitora had chosen to do on his own—a final act of conscience that went beyond strategy, beyond politics, beyond the careful calculus of institutional reform.
You really are too kind for this world, old man.
"I can only say..."
His voice was quiet. Almost gentle.
"...that I don't hate him."
Sabo let out a short laugh. "Coming from you, that's practically a declaration of friendship."
"Forget it." He waved a hand, his expression shifting back to business. "Something this huge is going to shake the whole world once the news spreads. But right now..."
He surveyed the battered crew with a commander's eye.
"Everyone needs medical attention. Immediately. We need to find somewhere to hole up before the Navy or the reporters start swarming."
Rebecca's hand shot up. "I know a place! There's an underground chamber beneath the old palace—my grandfather showed it to me when I was little. It was used by the Riku family as a refuge during the old wars."
"Can you lead us there?"
"Yes! Follow me!"
"Good." Sabo adjusted his hat. "We need to move. The Revolutionary Army can't be seen collaborating openly with pirates, and the Straw Hats definitely can't afford to be caught in their current condition."
Itachi turned away from the plateau's edge. "I need to retrieve Zoro first."
"You mean the swordsman who got separated from you earlier?"
"Yes. He went to find me." A pause. "He is... directionally unique."
"Directionally—" Usopp's mouth opened. "THAT'S the nicest way anyone has ever described 'can get lost walking to the bathroom.'"
"I'll return shortly. Rebecca, lead the others to the refuge. I'll bring Zoro."
He mounted the Black Fire Crow and launched into the darkening sky.
The Ruins Below — Fifteen Minutes Later
Roronoa Zoro was running.
He had been running for approximately twenty minutes, though he would have sworn it was at least an hour. His trajectory had taken him through the same ruined marketplace three times. He had passed the same collapsed bell tower twice. He had somehow ended up back at the Acacia harbor despite having started his journey firmly inland.
"Where the hell is Itachi? I know I saw him fighting that admiral guy around here. He was right here. With the fire and the giant skeleton thing. How far could he have possibly gone?"
Ahead of him, the crowd of Marines and civilians around Fujitora came into view.
"That uncle again!" Zoro skidded to a halt. "Gotta avoid him. Can't let the Navy spot me. Turn around. Turn around—"
He turned around.
Five minutes later, he was standing directly in front of the same crowd.
"WHAT THE—?!"
He turned again.
Another five minutes. The crowd was now closer than before. Zoro could see individual Marines' faces. One of them was starting to point in his direction.
"How are there so many Marines here?! This doesn't make any sense! There weren't this many Marines anywhere when we were fighting! Is the whole Navy just HIDING in this one spot?!"
He spun on his heel.
And found himself face-to-face with a large, extremely solid wall.
"...A dead end."
Zoro took a deep breath. Then another. Then he drew all three swords.
"Fine. If I have to cut through every wall in this city to find my way back, then that's exactly what I'm going to—"
The sound of wings interrupted him.
He looked up.
The Black Fire Crow hovered overhead, its dark flames casting flickering shadows across the ruins. And on its back, looking down at him with an expression that somehow combined exasperation, resignation, and the faintest trace of genuine fondness, was Itachi Uchiha.
"Zoro."
"Itachi! There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!"
"Zoro. What are you doing?"
"Looking for you!" Zoro jabbed a thumb at his own chest. "What does it look like? Everyone's worried sick about you! You've been gone for hours! I've been searching this whole damn city top to bottom!"
"Zoro. You are standing in the same plaza you started in. You have passed this exact spot six times."
"HAH?! No I haven't! I've been moving forward the entire time! I took twelve left turns and—"
He stopped.
"...Wait."
His eye narrowed. He looked at the wall. He looked at Itachi. He looked at the crowd of Marines in the distance. He looked back at Itachi.
"I found you."
"Yes."
"After searching the entire city. I found you."
"...Yes."
Zoro sheathed his swords. A slow, satisfied grin spread across his face.
"Good. Told you I'd find you eventually."
Itachi closed his eyes. Opened them. His expression did not change.
"Get on the crow, Zoro."
"See? No need to worry. I always get where I'm going."
"Get on the crow."
The Holy Land — Mariejois
The warship had docked at the Holy Land's private port less than an hour ago. Sakazuki—Fleet Admiral Akainu—had not waited for an escort. He had not requested an audience. He had simply walked through the halls of power like a volcano preparing to erupt, and every guard and functionary in his path had found urgent business elsewhere.
Now he stood in the office of the Five Elders, his magma-scarred face twisted with fury, his cigar trailing smoke toward the vaulted ceiling.
"I want to know who authorized that false report about Doflamingo's resignation from the Warlord system. First it was published, then corrected. The entire world saw the World Government flip-flop like a beached fish. Do you have any idea what that does to our credibility?!"
He slammed a fist on the massive table. The wood sizzled.
"And no one informed the Navy. Not a single word. I had to learn about this disaster from the newspaper. So I'm asking you directly—why are we being played for fools over a single Warlord?"
The Five Elders exchanged glances.
The bald Elder with the mustache spoke first, his voice cold. "Watch your tongue, Sakazuki. Your 'face' is not the concern here. The Navy exists to serve the Government, not the other way around."
The Elder in the kimono, the one who always kept a blade close, added with quiet contempt: "Your Navy is merely the public face of our authority. Nothing more."
The blond Elder nodded. "This matter was handled by CP0. It falls under the Government's intelligence jurisdiction. You have no grounds to interfere."
"CP0?" Akainu's lip curled. "That pack of Celestial Dragon lapdogs? So that's it. You let those 'gods' make the decisions, and now the entire system is in chaos. You've let yourselves become nothing but puppets dancing on their strings."
"Watch. Your. Mouth. Sakazuki."
The mustached Elder's voice had gone dangerously quiet.
But the Elder with the birthmark waved a dismissive hand. "This is irrelevant. What concerns us far more than Doflamingo's situation is the movement of that man. Kuzan."
At the name, Akainu's expression flickered.
"With his combat strength... to think he would align himself with Blackbeard." The kimono-wearing Elder's grip tightened on his blade. "A former Admiral. Standing beside one of the Four Emperors. The sheer loss of dignity this represents for the Navy is incalculable."
The blond Elder smiled thinly. "According to our intelligence, Kuzan appeared on that island shortly after the Punk Hazard incident. His motives remain unclear, but the implications are... troubling."
Akainu's teeth ground together.
"Kuzan isn't a Marine anymore!"
His voice erupted with such force that the office windows rattled in their frames.
"Where he goes! What he does! It has nothing to do with us! He made his choice at Punk Hazard, and I put him down for it! If you're so concerned about a man who abandoned his post, maybe you should have thought about that before you let the Warlord system rot from the inside!"
"Instead of obsessing over Kuzan's movements... you should be thinking about how to fix the disaster that YOUR policies have created!"
Before anyone could respond, the door burst open.
A Holy Land liaison officer stood in the doorway, his face pale, his uniform disheveled, his breathing ragged. In his trembling hands, he clutched a sheaf of papers that had clearly just been printed.
"Forgive the intrusion! Fleet Admiral! Five Elders!"
His voice cracked.
"Dressrosa! An unprecedented event has occurred!"
The Five Elders turned as one.
Akainu snatched the papers from the man's hands. His eyes scanned the first page.
His magma-scarred face went very, very still.
"What... is the meaning of this?"
(End of Chapter)
✨ If you're enjoying this story, please consider supporting me on Patreon:
Patreon.com/TofuChan