...
Almost every Vice Admiral-level officer in the office lowered their heads silently or showed pained, struggling expressions after hearing Sakazuki's words. The reason was simple.
The vast majority of the Marine officers present had once been students trained by Zephyr when he served as an instructor at the Marine Academy!
Kizaru, Aokiji, and Akainu—the three Admirals who came one after another—went without saying, but even these iron-blooded Vice Admirals had mostly received teachings from "Black Arm" Zephyr.
To them, Zephyr was not just a former Admiral—he was a strict father-like mentor, the symbol of the Marines' "no-kill" principle, and a figure of admiration in countless hearts.
Now, their mentor had become an enemy who must be subjugated. This tearing conflict between personal emotion and duty left everyone feeling as though their hearts were being cut by knives.
"No matter how many contributions Teacher Zephyr made to the Marines in the past, no matter what personal feelings we hold toward him,"
Vice Admiral Doberman raised his head. Though struggle still lingered in his eyes, his tone had grown firm: "What he is doing now under the name 'Z' is an open trampling of justice!
As Marines bearing the duty to uphold justice, we must… subjugate him!"
These words echoed the sentiments of many.
Personal feelings and collective duty had been forced to a cruel crossroads where a choice must be made.
The scene switched again—to the deck of a Marine warship sailing in the New World.
The atmosphere was equally heavy. Garp—now retired, his hair fully white but still imposing—munched absentmindedly on the senbei in his hand…
His gaze was fixed on the undulating waves in the distance, his eyes deep and lost in thought.
Beside him, Sengoku—who had also resigned as Fleet Admiral and now wore a floral shirt—leaned against the railing, silently accompanying his old friend.
Coby looked at Garp, hesitated, then mustered the courage to ask: "Vice Admiral Garp… Mr. Sengoku, why… why did Mr. Zephyr end up like this?
Wasn't he once a hero deeply loved and admired by everyone?"
Garp glanced at Sengoku. Sengoku gave a slight nod.
Garp sighed, picked up a piece of senbei but didn't eat it, and slowly began to speak. His voice carried the hoarseness and weight accumulated over time: "Zephyr… when he was young…
was a hot-blooded idiot dead set on becoming a 'hero.' A lot like me back in the day, hahaha!"
Old Garp tried to lighten the mood with laughter, but it quickly faded.
He sank into memory: "Back then, me, Sengoku, Tsuru, and Zephyr were all just rookie recruits in the Marines.
Zephyr had great talent and was willing to risk everything. He quickly made a name for himself on the battlefield.
He became an Admiral at thirty-eight, breaking records—known as 'Black Arm Zephyr.'"
Garp's eyes grew distant: "But he was different from me and Sengoku.
Sengoku and I believed in being tough on pirates—kill when necessary.
But Zephyr… had his own rule: he never killed any pirate he captured.
He believed arrest and trial were the Marines' duties, but taking life… should involve a more cautious process. Or perhaps, deep down, he believed in the possibility of redemption or reform.
That made him quite the outlier in the Marines back then."
Sengoku's voice joined in, adding: "But with his strength and achievements, plus his personal charisma, even though some criticized that rule, it earned him a lot of respect.
Especially from the lower-ranking soldiers and civilians. They saw Admiral Zephyr as powerful yet merciful."
Garp unconsciously crushed the senbei in his fist, grinding it to pieces: "But… tragedy still found him.
His wife and young son… while he was away on a long-term mission, were brutally murdered by a vicious, highly vengeful pirate crew."
Coby gasped, his face filled with shock.
"After that incident,"
Garp's voice dropped lower, "Zephyr changed—like he became a different person, yet somehow the same. He fell into a deep depression for a long time, but eventually returned to the Marines.
Only now, he shifted all his energy from frontline combat to training recruits.
He established the Marine training camp, pouring his heart into teaching generation after generation of new Marine blood.
Kizaru, Aokiji, Akainu… and many of the current Vice Admirals at Headquarters were all personally trained by him.
He poured all the love and expectations he couldn't give his own family into these students.
That's why his prestige within the Marines was so high—he was called 'Teacher.'"
Sengoku's voice carried a trace of sorrow: "Even after losing his wife and son, Zephyr never abandoned his 'no-kill' principle. He still upheld the justice of the Marines.
He believed that by training more outstanding Marines and strengthening the power of justice at its roots, more tragedies could be prevented."
Garp took a deep breath, his expression turning extremely grave: "The real turning point came during that time… when the training ship he was leading was attacked."
The scene, accompanied by Garp's narration, flashed with some blurred yet horrific flashback images.
A training vessel bearing the Marine emblem was suddenly ambushed at sea. Explosions and flames, young Marine cadets panicking as they fought, falling, blood staining the deck red.
A pirate figure slaughtered wildly amid the crowd…
Except for two survivors—Ain and Binz—everyone else was massacred by that pirate crew!
And Zephyr himself… to protect his students, was gravely wounded by that pirate and lost his entire right arm!
"Even so…"
Sengoku continued, his voice filled with powerlessness: "Even so, Zephyr didn't completely break. He equipped the Seastone mechanical arm 'Crusher' specially made for him by scientists, and with his broken body, he persisted in teaching at the training camp.
He wanted to raise a new generation capable of upholding justice and protecting peace. His resilience moved everyone."
Garp closed his eyes, as if reluctant to say what came next, but ultimately he forced the words out through clenched teeth: "What destroyed his last belief… was an order from the World Government."
He opened his eyes, filled with cold irony and sorrow: "That vicious pirate who attacked the training ship, massacred all his students, and severed his arm… was later recruited by the World Government and became a Warlord of the Sea!"
"What?!"
Coby let out a shocked cry—this revelation was simply too staggering.
The air around them seemed to freeze instantly.
Garp's voice struck like a hammer, each word pounding into Coby's heart—and into the heart of everyone hearing this through the light screen: "To Zephyr, this news was like a bolt from the blue.
The justice he had believed in all his life, the beliefs he had sacrificed his family, his arm, and countless efforts for—the path he had endured every pain to uphold…
In the face of this absurd order from the World Government, it all seemed so laughable, so worthless.
The blood of the students he cherished, the pain of his severed arm—before the so-called 'greater good' and 'political balance,' they became dust that could be easily sacrificed and erased."
"From that moment on,"
Sengoku concluded heavily: "The man known as Black Arm Zephyr, the no-kill Admiral, truly died. What survived was a man consumed by hatred for pirates, complete disillusionment with the World Government,
and determined to 'correct' this mistaken era in the most extreme way—'Z.'"
Garp and Sengoku's narration ended. On the warship's deck, only the mournful howl of the sea wind remained.
…
God Valley fell into dead silence.
Everyone was shocked speechless by this cruel truth.
The process of Zephyr being gradually pushed by fate from an idealistic Marine hero into the abyss of despair was laid bare so clearly and brutally before them.
Wife murdered, students slaughtered, arm severed, and finally his enemy granted amnesty… Each blow was enough to break a person, and the future Zephyr had endured them all.
In this moment, when the Marines looked at the future Zephyr's frenzied, pained figure on the light screen, the emotions in their eyes were no longer just hostility or confusion.
There was now a profound complexity—sympathy, understanding, regret, and… a chill toward the cold, twisted "world" that had driven him to this point.
Zephyr's extremism suddenly had a heartbreaking explanation.
And what he sought to destroy was perhaps not just "ONE PIECE" and the Great Pirate Era, but the unjust system itself that had produced countless similar tragedies.
...