As the silver-haired Marine boy came tumbling down from the sky, shrieking wildly, Hibari was the first to leap forward with Moonwalk, trying to catch him.
But in an instant, the girl's face flushed bright red, and she froze in place.
Her ears burned hot and soft, and it seemed like steam was puffing from the top of her head.
"Ahhh!"
Boom!A figure flashed past the frozen girl, slamming into the ground before her and leaving a deep crater.
On the ground, a perfectly clear "human imprint" appeared.
The violent air pressure blew away the dust and rubble around them, tossing the girl's long black hair and startling her back to her senses.
Then, Hibari saw a dusty arm tremble and reach out of the crater before her, as a dirt-covered boy slowly, laboriously crawled out. Gasping for breath, he stretched out a hand, grabbing onto her shoulder to stand up.
"Ugh, H-Hibari… y-you actually just watched me fall straight into that hole… you didn't even try to catch me… how heartless~"
Tears welled in the boy's eyes, completely oblivious to his own current state.
But soon enough, he noticed that the girl whose shoulder he was clinging to had her teeth biting her lower lip, her head slightly turned aside, her soft pink face red enough to drip blood. Her eyes drifted about as if admiring the distant seascape, but the corner of her eye kept flicking back in his direction.
Rorschach blinked, and only then instinctively looked down.
The next second, his face went blank, and he silently turned around and jumped back into the deep hole he'd made.
A few minutes later.
"I want to know — is there a Devil Fruit power in this world that can make everyone collectively lose their memories? Like something that can wipe out memories?"
Rorschach clutched Jonathan's shoulder, muttering in a low voice.
"There is."
"Where is it?" Rorschach's eyes lit up.
"The Paramecia-type Memo-Memo Fruit! Who knows where it is, though? Come on, come on, you're just a fourteen-year-old brat — who do you think's going to care about your bare butt? When I was fourteen, I was still wearing split-crotch pants!"
"Who the hell wears split-crotch pants at fourteen?! Aren't you afraid stuff will fall out?!"
Rorschach felt completely drained, tightening the white cloak around his waist, not daring to look at the blushing Hibari or the steadily growing crowd of onlookers.
The Memo-Memo Fruit — wasn't that the one held by Big Mom's daughter Brûlée?
Jonathan rolled his eyes, but his old face turned red as he held back laughter. In the end, he couldn't contain himself, clutching his stomach and laughing uproariously.
"Wahahaha! This is killing me! Kid, your bare butt has now been seen by thousands of people — the greatest black mark on the future pillar of the Marines! Hahaha, I can't take it, I'm going to die laughing!"
"Shut up! If you're going to die, then hurry up and die already, you old bastard!"
"Wahahaha! Bare and shiny!"
"Shut your mouth! I should've let Goliath smash you to death earlier!"
After quite a while, the thin-skinned boy barely managed to steady himself, turning his gaze toward the crowd pressing in before him, a vast black mass of people.
He saw Marines in bloodstained white uniforms, their eyes shining brighter than ever.
He saw bounty hunters watching with reverence.
He saw royal guards whose eyes were full of awe and fervent admiration.
And behind them all, he saw the sea of corpses and blood, the price they paid to protect peace and security.
The Marine boy's gaze flickered; then his lips slowly curved into a warm, gentle smile. Facing all those excited, eager eyes, he raised his voice and called out:
"Everyone!"
He clenched his right fist and thrust it high overhead, shouting loudly.
"We won!"
"Uoooo! We won! We won!!"
In an instant, a tidal wave of cheers erupted over the port of Queen of Spring City, shaking the very air with a buzzing roar.
At that moment, whether they were Marines, bounty hunters, or royal guards, all were moved to tears of joy, waving their weapons, cheering loudly, and embracing their comrades with laughter.
This thunderous, tsunami-like wave of cheers spread like wildfire, quickly rippling across the entire city.
Soon, even from the direction of the residents gathered in the inner city, thunderous cheers erupted.
The entire city, as if suddenly revived from a dead silence, regained its vitality.
"What should we do with these surrendering pirates?"
Law walked up carrying Kikoku, pointing at the clustered-together pirates, their faces filled with fear and unease.
Rorschach looked out over them, casually sweeping his eyes across, using a rough Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki) scan.
The number of surrendering pirates here was roughly 1,200.
Among them were around four hundred patched-together zombies with missing body parts.
These zombies had been created by Moria using his Shadow-Shadow Fruit powers, combined with the corpses of the dead.
Aside from salt, seawater, and flames, they basically had no other weaknesses.
Even though they didn't know who they were, these zombies still had emotions — they could feel fear, joy.
At the start, these zombies had caused quite a bit of trouble for the Marine soldiers.
Fortunately, someone later discovered the zombies' weakness: fear of seawater.
After using seawater to drive out the shadows from five or six hundred zombies, the rest were so terrified they surrendered on the spot.
If it were anywhere else, Rorschach would've just killed all these pirates without hesitation.
After all, they had come here to wage war and attack the city.
That was a capital offense, no question.
However… now that the war was over, and the residents sheltering in the inner city were all pouring out,
It wouldn't be right to issue such a cruel order in front of everyone.
So…
"Round up the living ones. As for the zombies, toss them into the sea. They're not living beings. The shadows inside them come from people whose shadows were cut off by Moria. If we purify these zombies, maybe some people can get their shadows back and return to living under the sunlight."
Rorschach gave the order.
People who had their shadows cut off by Moria couldn't live under the sun.
Otherwise, they'd be burned to ashes by the sunlight.
So, those without shadows were doomed to live forever in lightless darkness.
In the truest sense, they had no future in the light.
"The battle's not over yet! Everyone, clean up the battlefield! Then let's work together to help restore order to this city! Thank you for your hard work!"
Rorschach called out to the upright Marine soldiers.
"Yes, Rear Admiral Rorschach!"
The Marines roared in unison, swiftly beginning to clean up the battlefield.
Soon, the bounty hunters also joined in, under the Marines' command, sweeping the scattered severed limbs and body parts straight into the harbor.
There was no need to worry about the broken corpses soaking in seawater and breeding disease.
Because carnivorous fish in the sea had already smelled the blood here and were swarming up from the deep, thrashing and darting around at the surface.
"Hibari, Law, Lucci — you three should be able to tell which ones are pirates with bounties. Please help pick them out. These are our spoils of war and can be traded for bounty money. Also, while you're at it, tally up everyone's contributions. I'll report it to headquarters. After this, quite a few people should see their ranks promoted."
Rorschach said to Hibari and the others, then strode toward the blood-drenched battlefield at the harbor, planning to help out as well.
"Big brother Rorschach, you should go back and rest. Leave this to us — you must be really exhausted right now, right?"
Hibari caught up to him, speaking softly at his side.
"Don't worry, I'm not that fragile. Let's all pitch in — it'll go faster that way. Though… I do need to head back for a moment…"
Rorschach gave a wry smile, tightening the white Justice cloak wrapped around his waist.
(End of Chapter)
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