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"Is that really Gobta?"
Rimuru watched him with open surprise.
"Gobta is the Imperial Guard Corps adjutant, Rimuru. He's the only one who has been trained by both Sakuya and Hakurou."
Kaito looked out at him with quiet satisfaction.
"Oh! I had no idea."
In Rimuru's mind, Gobta had always been the little brother who had a gift for finding trouble and an even greater gift for surviving it, usually at someone else's expense. She had not noticed him growing into this.
'Which means he can probably handle more pranks now. The bar has clearly gone up. Good to know.'
Gobta, standing on the ice with the last traces of Gish scattering in the wind around him, felt a sudden and very specific chill run up the back of his neck.
He hugged himself and looked around.
"Why do I get the feeling something bad is about to happen to me? It can't be Rimuru-sama again." He paused. "Why did I say 'again'?"
He shuddered.
"I really, truly do not want to eat poisoned food anymore. My poison resistance is already at its limit. There is no reason to push it further."
With Gish down, the fights across the battlefield began winding down one by one, like fires running out of fuel.
"I think that's about time."
"Agreed."
Aokiji brought an ice cone up and repelled his opponent, who responded in kind and stepped back.
"We've been at this a while and I still don't know your name. You've earned that much."
"Eh? Me?"
The young man raised a finger and pointed at himself, genuinely surprised.
"At your age, fighting an Admiral to a standstill is not something that should be possible. Though after seeing the rest of your people today, I've stopped being surprised by what the Jura-Tempest Federation produces." Aokiji studied him. "I mean it as a compliment."
"Hehe! I'm nothing special, really. My name is Kamado Tanjiro. Intern adjutant, currently."
Tanjiro gave him a wide, bright smile.
"Tanjiro. I'll remember that." Aokiji glanced past him toward the remaining warship, which had already raised the signal to withdraw. "It seems our little exchange ends here."
"Have a safe trip back, big brother!"
Something in the warmth of that sent a small, genuine smile across Aokiji's face before he could think about it. He raised a hand.
"Jhana, young man."
He used [Soru] and was gone.
Akainu stopped in front of Benimaru, who had already lowered his hands.
"Mr. Benimaru. I'll be withdrawing. I hope we have the chance to deal with pirates together someday."
Benimaru looked at him and smiled, and what he said next left Akainu turning the words over for a while after.
"Hahaha! I think that day is closer than you'd expect."
Akainu held it in his head, found nothing he could object to, nodded once, and left.
"Alright everyone, fall back while we can!"
Garp looked around at the returning senior officers, Dalmatian, Onigumo, and the others coming in from various directions.
"Fifty thousand Marines." Dalmatian pressed a hand over a cut on his arm. "All of them gone. I never imagined a country could field this many powerful individuals." He paused. "And they were holding back. I know they were holding back."
"We didn't rescue the Celestial Dragon and every CP0 agent is dead," Onigumo said, looking worried. "I don't know how Fleet Admiral Sengoku is going to explain this to the World Government."
"What is there to explain?" Akainu said. "We were outmatched. That's the whole story."
Crunch. "Bwahahaha! Let Sengoku deal with it!" Garp had produced a bag of senbei from somewhere and was eating them with great satisfaction.
"Sir! We have cleared the port. The enemy is not pursuing."
"Head straight back to Headquarters."
"Yes, sir!"
The Marine warships grew smaller and smaller against the horizon.
On the execution platform, Smulet was still kneeling.
Kaito looked out at the field being cleaned up below, then straightened and raised his voice.
"Everyone! This war is over, and we won. So."
He turned.
"Fat pig. You can die now."
The executioner moved without hesitation. The long blade went through Smulet cleanly.
In a moment, Smulet was still. His body toppled forward onto the platform.
His soul was collected into the Conqueror's Banner, where it would be kept for a very long time.
Across the world, people watching the body on the platform were quiet for a moment before the reactions started coming in.
"Fuck. The Marines actually lost. A Celestial Dragon was actually executed."
"Hahaha! There is justice in this world after all. Those animals finally got what was coming to them."
"The Jura-Tempest Federation is going to be known everywhere after today. Nobody is going to be looking for trouble with that country."
"Boys. From now on, we keep well clear of them. I've heard they put down every pirate they come across."
"Yes, boss."
The leaders of the major factions were paying a different kind of attention.
"Boss, did you notice? Not one senior Marine died in that entire war. Not even a serious injury among the flag officers."
Lucky Roux took a bite of his chicken leg and addressed Shanks with a measured expression.
"It does feel like someone wrote this in advance," Ben Beckman said, arms folded.
"You noticed it too." Shanks was quiet for a moment. "Then I'm not imagining things. The Marine high command and the Jura-Tempest Federation reached some kind of arrangement before today. The question is who it's aimed at."
"Boss, whatever arrangement they made, it's not our problem. That's the World Government's headache."
Shanks thought about the five old men in Mary Geoise and found he agreed. There was nothing useful he could do right now. Better to watch how things developed.
The sea was not going to be quiet from here on. But then, it never really had been.
At the Jura-Tempest Federation's Crescent Moon Bay, Kaito had set up a teleportation array large enough to cover everyone present.
On the execution platform, a bare-chested man with no shirt and apparently no plans to put one on was addressing the army below at full volume.
"Yarodomo!!! Target: Mary Gose!!! Tear it apart!!! From today onwards, this world is mine!!!"
"Veldora!" Rimuru's voice cracked across the platform like a whip. "It's Mary Geoise! And I am the Queen! The world is mine, not yours!"
She looked genuinely offended about this.
"Rimuru, aren't we best friends?"
Veldora turned to her with a deeply wounded expression.
"Hey." Kaito's voice was flat. "Veldora. Stay away from my Rimuru."
He looked at the two of them for a moment.
"You know what, there's no point discussing this. Go."
He flew up and kicked Veldora off the platform.
"I'll be back!!!"
Veldora's voice echoed out of the teleportation array as he disappeared into it.