Thud…
One kick sent the young Marine rolling across the ground three full times before he finally stopped.
His entire body was covered in blood.
Not a single part of him remained uninjured.
"Damn brat. Trying to drag me down with you when you want to die."
Captain Nezumi finally seemed tired. He shook the blood from his fists and glared viciously at the young Marine lying on the ground.
From start to finish—
Nezumi had thrown thirty-nine punches and fourteen kicks.
Thirteen Marines on the training field had witnessed the entire beating.
Not one of them stepped in to stop it.
Every single one of them allowed it to happen.
When an avalanche occurs, no snowflake can claim innocence.
The saying fit this moment perfectly.
It was ironic.
And painfully real.
"Captain! Captain! Urgent report! A Marine warship—possibly belonging to Vice Admiral Onigumo—has been spotted near Cocoyasi Village!"
Suddenly, an anxious voice rang out from the distance.
A Marine messenger sprinted across the training ground toward them.
"Vice Admiral Onigumo is here?!"
Nezumi jolted upright as if struck by lightning.
"Quick! Gather the soldiers! We're heading to Cocoyasi Village immediately!"
…
The sunset over the sea was breathtaking.
The crimson light reflecting across the ocean made the entire world glow warmly.
Watching the sun slowly sink beneath the horizon, Kairos felt completely at ease.
Clink…
A faint metallic resonance stirred within his senses.
Kairos turned his head.
Sure enough—
the Magic Blade Thousand Blades was beginning to fade away.
The Assassin Wu Liuqi Card had reached its limit.
"About twelve hours."
Kairos exhaled slowly as he mentally calculated the time.
It had lasted longer than he expected.
Twelve hours was an incredibly long duration.
A lot could happen in that time.
Nami and Nojiko had already been taken home by Bell-mère.
Before leaving, the two girls had insisted that Kairos visit their house.
He had declined.
He still needed to wait for Onigumo.
Genzo hadn't left either.
He insisted on staying with Kairos.
According to him, as the village sheriff, it was his responsibility to guard the pirates until the Marines arrived.
"By the way," Kairos suddenly asked, remembering something. "Didn't you contact the Marine base earlier?"
"We did," Genzo replied hesitantly. "Before the battle even started… but we never got a response."
"I see."
Kairos nodded lightly.
He didn't need Genzo to explain further.
In a crisis like that, the villagers would never stop calling for help.
The Den Den Mushi lines at the Marine base were probably ringing nonstop.
Which meant the Marines absolutely had heard the distress signal.
That left only one possibility.
They chose not to come.
Kairos suddenly laughed.
The laughter carried a faint hint of mockery.
For the Marines in East Blue—
that kind of behavior was hardly surprising.
Genzo scratched the back of his head silently.
His eyes were dim.
The Marines had been their hope.
And they never came.
That truth left him deeply disappointed.
Deeply cold inside.
Fortunately—
Kairos had come instead.
Genzo made a quiet decision.
When he returned to the village, he would knock on every door and personally tell the villagers that Kairos was not some bloodthirsty monster.
In fact—
he was surprisingly easy to get along with.
"Look."
Kairos suddenly pointed toward the sea.
"The Marines are here."
Onigumo's warship was approaching slowly.
The white Marine flag of justice fluttered brightly in the wind.
Still pure.
Still dazzling.
Hoooo—
With a long blast of the ship's horn, the warship docked at the harbor.
Vice Admiral Onigumo stepped off the ship.
His massive figure, built like an iron tower, stopped directly in front of Kairos.
"Kairos… what's with your head?"
Onigumo had been about to greet him—
but his eyes immediately locked onto Kairos' head.
His expression turned extremely strange.
"A cute little girl gave it to me."
Kairos casually pointed at the flower crown resting on his head.
"What do you think? Looks alright, right?"
His face remained calm as he met Onigumo's gaze.
In truth—
he had been so busy thinking about the system cards earlier that he forgot to take it off.
Kairos quietly twitched the corner of his mouth.
"…It suits you."
Onigumo paused for a long moment before forcing out the sentence.
For someone as cold-blooded as him, making even a half-joking remark was already difficult.
"Did you kill all these pirates?"
Onigumo wasn't one for small talk.
His eyes shifted to the harbor beach covered in blood and headless corpses.
A hint of surprise flashed through his gaze.
The cuts were extremely clean.
The killer's swordsmanship—
was exceptional.
That was Onigumo's first impression.
And in East Blue, the only person he believed capable of such skill…
was Kairos.
But these pirates had all died at the exact same moment.
That required a level of killing precision that bordered on perfection.
Kairos' Seven-Sword Style and the Thunder Blade technique were powerful—
but this wasn't their style.
That was what surprised Onigumo.
It was why he asked the question.
"Yes."
Kairos nodded calmly.
A sharp light flashed through Onigumo's eyes.
His understanding of Kairos had changed yet again.
"The remaining pirates from the Krieg crew are still on those ships. Mind taking them in?"
Kairos didn't give him much time to think.
He simply pointed toward the pirate ships drifting offshore.
Since Krieg died, the remaining pirates had stayed huddled on the ships.
They didn't dare run.
And they didn't dare fight.
Kairos had stood quietly at the shoreline the entire time, holding the Magic Blade.
Every pirate understood one thing.
The moment they moved—
they would die.
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