Chapter 216: Bad News
“You can’t leave.”
Obei clamped onto the arm of Aoxi, who was turning to flee, forcibly stopping her steps.
“HA NA SE!”
“For something this dangerous, couldn’t you just find an uninhabited place to test it yourself? Why drag me into this?!”
“Are you a water ghost?!”
Aoxi desperately tried to pull her arm free, but it was like a kite tangled on a tree trunk— no matter how she twisted her body, she couldn’t break loose even a little.
Did this girl Obei used to have this much strength?
“Don’t worry, I’ll personally handle all the specific experiment steps. You just need to pull me to safety before the explosion.”
“Future Sight… You can do it, right.”
This experiment would require Obei to concentrate all her energy, even for her, leaving no spare attention for any explosion or escape, so she needed Aoxi as a ‘safety rope’ to pull her out at the critical moment.
Though she was confident in her own physical intensity, she was even more confident in her pulling power.
“Eh? Like that…”
“Mm~↑”
“Mm~↓”
Hearing that she wouldn’t have to directly participate in the experiment, Aoxi stopped struggling, glanced at her arm that had been gripped until it was slightly red, and nodded.
“Okay.”
“But…”
Aoxi looked around; aside from the large crater blasted out earlier, everything else was uniform refined steel walls and that several-meters-thick safety door.
“Where are we going to run to later?”
Obei: “…”
This laboratory was originally for handling unstable weapons highly susceptible to environmental influences that could explode, like active bombs and such.
But judging from the power of that ping pong ball-sized energy that Aoxi had thrown out earlier, the small golden cube now in Obei’s hand could very likely blow the entire laboratory sky-high if it exploded.
“Let’s find an uninhabited small island. Do you have any recommendations?”
“Uh… There were some half a year ago, but now…”
Aoxi thought of that small island she had blown sky-high, feeling a twinge of regret.
People are like that—only regretting after losing something.
In the end, after asking Burufaruto, who often went out “on business,” Aoxi and Obei obtained coordinates for several uninhabited island reefs.
Then…
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
…
“Look, Ivan-chan! As expected of the New World! Even islands can fly!”
An adventure crew that had just entered the New World looked at the distant island reef that had been blasted away, saying excitedly.
“Come on~ That’s nothing.”
“In the New World, nothing is rare.”
The one called Ivan-chan replied with hands on hips.
This was someone with exaggerated heavy makeup, a purple explosive hairstyle, wearing sexy… clothing? A male?
“By the way, Ivan-chan, where should we go next?”
“Mm~ I heard there’s been some internal trouble lately in the Kamabaka Kingdom in the first half of the Grand Line. Let’s make our next stop there.”
The sexy-dressed man pondered for a moment and came up with the answer.
He, who had once been a slave, had given up the hard-won stable life to set sail, just to rescue more people suffering in dire straits.
…
“Hm? Wright, are you spacing out?”
“That’s rare.”
In the small house by the warehouse, Kaido’s gruff voice came from one of the rooms inside; he didn’t know when he had started squeezing in here too.
But with Kaido’s height of over seven meters, he had to bend at the waist and sidle in sideways every time he entered the room.
Fortunately, to handle the increasing affairs within the pirate crew, Wright had expanded the place several times, greatly enlarging the internal space; otherwise, with Kaido’s body size, there wouldn’t be enough room for him to move.
“Just saw some concerning things.”
Wright handed the newspaper in his hand to Kaido, explaining at the same time:
“The Navy side has had some major changes lately; there might not be much opportunity to come to the New World for a while.”
“Hm? Changes…”
Kaido pinched up the newspaper with his fingers and carefully looked at the content above—《Navy Admiral’s Family Member Murdered, Pirate Retaliation!》
“Hm?… Zephyr, huh.”
Looking at the photograph in the newspaper, Kaido recalled that man with short purple hair and powerful fists.
“Didn’t expect something like this to happen. The Navy’s gotten really lax these days.”
It had been a long time since a high-ranking Navy officer’s family had been attacked.
After all, for Navy personnel at the general officer rank and above, their families were generally relocated to live near military ports, with dedicated personnel for strict protection.
Even for leaders at the admiral or Fleet Admiral level, their family members and home addresses were classified as military secrets, inaccessible to anyone below a certain status.
But this time, Zephyr’s family had been easily killed by some pirate whose name no one had even heard of.
How exactly did the culprit know where Zephyr’s home was? And how did they break through the guards of those protection personnel…
『An accident? Or…』
Thinking of all sorts of possibilities, Wright could only hope this man with a soul shining like diamond wouldn’t succumb to despair and fall from this blow.
…
“Zephyr, about your wife and son, I…”
“I know, Fleet Admiral Kong. The culprit has already been sent to prison by me… a pirate I once arrested.”
In the Fleet Admiral’s office at Navy Headquarters, Zephyr sat on the sofa with his head lowered, responding to Kong’s consolation in a hoarse voice.
The justice coat, still stained with some blood, was removed and set aside; this back, once so broad and reliable in the eyes of countless Navy soldiers, now revealed undeniable grief and exhaustion.
Fate had played a massive joke on this man who had always upheld his beliefs.
Zephyr, who adhered to a ‘no-kill’ principle against pirates, had ‘killed’ his most cherished family through his own ‘no-kill’ policy.
The Navy admiral who had protected countless families ultimately failed to protect the ones he should have most…
This was too cruel for a hero.
Even so, this man still hadn’t crossed his own bottom line, merely sending the killer back to prison.
He could have just killed the guy outright, no need to follow any procedural justice, no one would object, not even god would disagree…
But Zephyr didn’t. This man with a shining soul chose to continue upholding the justice in his heart.
“Zephyr…”
Kong wanted to offer more comfort but didn’t know how to speak. Those who hadn’t endured the same piercing pain had no right to console this strong old soldier.
The room fell into silence once more.
“…”
“Fleet Admiral Kong, I want to resign from my admiral position and leave the Navy.”
After a long pause, Zephyr spoke, submitting his resignation to Kong.
“What?”
As if hoping he’d misheard, Kong asked again.
“I want to leave the Navy.”
“I no longer understand if the justice I’ve always upheld truly has meaning, or if everything I’ve done was truly right…”
“Right now, I can’t continue fighting pirates anymore.”
This man, who believed in justice more firmly than anyone in the Navy, now spoke these words filled with confusion…
