Tatsuki put away the den den mushi, the expression of a tragic hero on his face vanishing instantly. In its place was a gentle, businessman-like smile.
He reached out and easily pulled up Roger, who was kneeling on the ground.
"Roger-san, thank you for your hard work. Your acting was great, very intense."
"You..."
Roger looked at this young man who changed faces faster than flipping a book, his eyes filled with extreme complexity.
He could already imagine what kind of terrifying waves this sea would stir up because of those short ten-plus seconds of footage.
And the culprit of all this was calmly tidying up those "fake" wounds on his body.
"Are you a madman?"
Tatsuki smiled, pulled out the crushed pack of cigarettes from his pocket, and handed one to Roger.
"Maybe."
"But in this even crazier world, only madmen can live the best."
Roger took the cigarette, lit it, took a deep drag, and choked, coughing violently. Amidst the lingering smoke, he looked at the excessively young man before him.
He seemed to see a monster more lawless than himself, more than Rocks, and more than all the heroes on this sea combined, rising steadily.
—
Marineford.
Inside the Fleet Admiral's office, the atmosphere was oppressive.
Kong and Sengoku were rubbing their temples, plagued by a headache.
Documents were piled like mountains on the desk, each representing a violent incident sufficient to make an ordinary Base Commander's head spin.
Kaido had gone to some kingdom for another failed suicide attempt, casually destroying a city in the process.
Charlotte Linlin had issued more death invitations to a tea party. No one knew which unlucky king would suffer next.
The sea in this era was a giant powder keg, and they, the Marines, were the firefighters rushing everywhere to put out blazes, yet they were perpetually short-handed.
"Sigh, that bastard Garp has disappeared again." Kong let out a weary sigh and picked up the hot tea on his desk.
Just then—
Bang!
The office door was slammed open.
A messenger stumbled in, crawling and rolling, his face a mixture of terror and wild joy.
"Fleet Admiral Kong! A major incident!"
"What's the panic?"
Kong's brow furrowed as the overwhelming pressure of the Marines' supreme commander poured out.
"Speak! Has the sky fallen?"
"It's even more unbelievable than the sky falling!"
The messenger tremblingly held up a small visual den den mushi.
"Please look!"
Kong took it skeptically and pressed the play button.
The screen flickered.
When the apocalyptic battlefield appeared, along with the figure kneeling miserably in the center of the ruins—
Clatter!
The teacup in Kong's hand slipped and shattered into pieces on the hard floor. Scalding tea splashed onto his pants, but he didn't even notice. He froze in place as if struck by lightning.
On that usually majestic and solemn face, the muscles twitched uncontrollably and violently.
"Ro... Roger?" His voice was dry, filled with disbelief.
And when Tatsuki's young face, covered in "bloodstains," occupied the entire frame, and he shouted to the world in a hoarse voice filled with endless power, "The chaos of this sea should end now!", Kong stood up abruptly.
The movement was so sudden that he even knocked over the Fleet Admiral's chair, the symbol of supreme power, behind him.
"Tatsuki?!!"
Impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
That was Gol D. Roger!
The arch-rival who had fought Garp, Sengoku, and him for most of their lives. The man standing at the pinnacle of this era.
Arrested him single-handedly?
What kind of international joke is this!
Just as Kong's mind went blank and his worldview was on the verge of collapse, a world-shaking burst of laughter suddenly came from outside the office.
"Kyaahahahaha!"
Boom!
The sturdy wall was smashed open, creating a huge hole with debris flying everywhere.
Garp, his mouth stuffed with senbei, strode in through the hole, a large bag of senbei in one hand and a newspaper waving in the other.
"Kong! Sengoku! Did you see it!" Garp was flushed with excitement, spit flying everywhere with his roar.
"That kid Tatsuki actually captured Roger! Kyahahahaha! Beautifully done! As expected of the man I have high hopes for!"
"Garp! Shut your mouth!" Kong used a roar to force his brain back into gear.
He snatched the newspaper from Garp's hand. It was an emergency extra issued by the World Economic News Agency, with a shocking headline.
"The Fall of a King, the Birth of a God! Marine Hero Tatsuki Single-Handedly Ends the Pirate King's Era!"
On the newspaper, the large photograph of Tatsuki standing leaning on his blade, with Roger kneeling behind him and Rayleigh's retreating back in the distance, delivered an unparalleled visual impact.
"Something's not right."
The silent strategist Sengoku was now staring intently at the photo, his eyes as sharp as an eagle's.
"This is very wrong."
"What's wrong?"
Garp stuffed another handful of senbei into his mouth and mumbled unclearly, "It just means that kid is even stronger than we thought. A total monster."
"It's not a question of strength!" Sengoku growled.
"It's a question of logic. You and I know Roger's strength best. Even if he's terminally ill, it's absolutely impossible for him to be defeated by one person, in such a short time, in this manner."
He pointed at the ruins in the photo. "Look at this battlefield, this level of destruction can only be caused by natural disaster-level power. Tatsuki's devil fruit ability is strong but..."
"But what?" A powerful voice came from the doorway.
Zephyr had stood there at some point. His expression was a mix of a teacher's pride and a hint of unavoidable worry.
"I, for one, feel nothing is impossible."
Zephyr slowly walked into the office. "That kid's growth rate has exceeded common sense since the first day he entered the training camp. Perhaps we have all underestimated him."
At this moment, the entire Marineford had exploded with excitement.
Countless Marines rushed out of their barracks and swarmed the plaza, hysterically chanting "mTatsuki's name, waving their fists, and weeping with excitement.
The capture of the Pirate King was an unprecedented victory for them. It was the loudest and most inspiring declaration of the word "Justice".