Next Bonus, 100!!
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"Admiral Akainu was knocked down again??"
"Dammit!"
"Another Warlord turning traitor??"
Watching Sakazuki fall for the second time, the Marines were consumed by a volatile mix of disbelief and fury.
"Crocodile!"
Veins throbbed dangerously on Sengoku's forehead. He realized with sickening clarity that the war was rapidly spiraling completely out of his control.
"What exactly are you trying to accomplish here??"
Jin's eyes narrowed. "I already told you. I'm simply asking the world a question. I'm asking the Marines."
"What is Justice? And what is Evil?"
He turned his gaze back to Sakazuki, who was already dragging himself back to his feet. The guy is like a cockroach. No wonder he could fight for ten days straight.
"Sakazuki. I hear you're a devout follower of 'Absolute Justice.'"
Sakazuki glared at Crocodile, who was casually blocking his path. His eyes were chips of ice, his teeth grinding together audibly.
"That's right!"
"To maintain order in this world, the seeds of evil must be utterly eradicated! Even if it means sacrificing the innocent to achieve it!"
"And filth like you should be locked away in the deepest, darkest hole we have!"
"I see," Jin said calmly.
"Sengoku. I hear you operate under the banner of 'Reigning Justice.'"
Sengoku let out a cold snort.
He didn't deny it.
"But the ones truly 'reigning' over the world aren't you, are they? It's the Celestial Dragons!"
Jin didn't hold back. He aimed straight for the throat.
"Your definition of 'Justice' is simple: unquestioning obedience."
"The Celestial Dragons are gods, and the Marines are their faithful lapdogs."
"That is why you execute the Five Elders' orders without hesitation, completely apathetic to the civilian casualties you cause."
"It's why you actively assisted the Celestial Dragons in burying the truth of the God Valley Incident."
"You took a sadistic hunting game where 'gods' slaughtered civilians for sport, twisted the narrative, and framed it as a heroic Marine victory defending the Celestial Dragons against a pirate invasion. You called that Justice."
Sengoku was visibly rattled.
Even Whitebeard looked slightly surprised.
Aside from the handful of survivors directly involved, the true history of God Valley was completely unknown to the world.
Does Jin have some connection to God Valley? Whitebeard wondered.
"Borsalino," Jin continued. "You subscribe to 'Unclear Justice'?"
Borsalino raised an eyebrow.
"You don't actively commit evil, but you don't aggressively pursue good either. Put simply, you're just slacking off. Coasting through life, taking the path of least resistance."
"Kuzan! Actually, forget it. You're so wishy-washy it's not even worth dissecting."
Kuzan: "..."
"And the rest of you Marines. You all genuinely believe you're on the side of Justice, don't you?"
"Damn right we are!"
"Hey! We aren't the ones out here committing atrocities!"
"Of course the Marines are Justice!"
The soldiers shouted back, their indignation flaring at Jin's relentless questioning.
"Perfect," Jin said smoothly.
"Then let me present a hypothetical scenario. There is a man who casually and brutally murdered 14 innocent civilians and 152 slaves."
"He kidnapped 14 women to be his 'wives.' After torturing them, he executed them all—along with the children they bore him."
"His reasoning? He didn't want his 'noble bloodline' to be tainted by commoners."
"He completely destroyed a peaceful town simply because he didn't like the joyous atmosphere. He wanted to hear the sounds of weeping and agony instead..."
"Tell me. Does a man like that deserve to die?"
The Marines, driven by their innate sense of justice, answered without thinking. "He deserves to die!"
"A monster like that obviously deserves death!"
"That's pure evil!"
But Sengoku instantly realized what Jin was doing.
Panic set in.
It wasn't just him; the entire Marine high command recognized the trap. Their eyes widened in horror, and they frantically tried to silence their men.
"Shut your mouths!"
"Don't answer him!"
"What are you all so afraid of?" Jin mocked. "Are you trying to silence the true voice of 'Justice'?"
"Is the man I just described not evil? Isn't he exactly the kind of monster the 'Righteous Marines' should be hunting down and executing?"
"Sakazuki. You are the paragon of Absolute Justice. Tell me. Is this man evil? Does he deserve the death penalty?"
Sakazuki glared at him, a cold fury burning in his chest. He knew exactly what this was. It was a perfectly laid trap.
Jin was deliberately trying to sever the ideological bond between the Marines and the World Government. He was using their own rhetoric of "Justice" to completely dismantle them from the inside out.
"What's the matter? Too afraid to answer?" Jin taunted.
"I thought you harbored an absolute, unyielding hatred for all evil? I thought you were willing to sacrifice anything to eradicate it? What happened to your 'Absolute Justice'?"
"Answer me, Sakazuki! Is this man evil in your eyes? Should he be executed??"
Sakazuki ground his teeth. Jin's surgical strike aimed directly at the foundational core of his entire belief system.
"Heh. It seems 'Akainu's' Justice isn't quite as absolute as advertised," Jin sneered. "You're nothing but a coward. A pathetic hypocrite."
Trash talk? Two could play at that game.
Sakazuki's eyes burned with homicidal rage. He bared his teeth. "Of course a man like that is evil! He absolutely deserves to die!"
Jin's smile broadened into a triumphant grin. "Excellent! You all heard him. The Admiral of the Marines has delivered his verdict."
Jin raised his hand. A swirling portal connected to his sub-space tore open. He reached inside, violently yanked a figure out, and tossed him unceremoniously onto the ice.
It was a morbidly obese man, clad in the unmistakable, arrogant attire of a Celestial Dragon. His sudden appearance sent Sengoku and the Admirals into a state of absolute shock.
"Saint Charlos!!!"
Borsalino gasped, genuinely startled.
"What is he doing here??"
Borsalino had personally deployed to Sabaody Archipelago specifically to protect him. He had assumed the idiot had safely returned to the Holy Land.
Unless...
Borsalino thought of a specific variable.
Bartholomew Kuma!
He had been on the island at the time.
"It's a... a Celestial Dragon..."
It wasn't just Sengoku; the pirates were equally dumbfounded. Was Jin completely insane?? He actually had the balls to kidnap a Celestial Dragon??
Eight hundred years of absolute, unquestioned rule had ingrained a deep, primal terror of the Celestial Dragons into the very psyche of the world.
Even the most hardened pirates hesitated to lay a hand on them, knowing the apocalyptic retaliation it would provoke.
Jin reached out. Utilizing the power of the Memo-Memo Fruit, he physically extracted reels of memory film directly from Saint Charlos's head, projecting the horrific images for all to see.
"This is the man I described," Jin announced. "And his own memories are the irrefutable evidence of his crimes."
"Step up, Sakazuki! This is your moment! Prove to the world that your Justice is truly Absolute! Come here and execute him!"
Jin's voice echoed across the silent battlefield.
Sakazuki was completely paralyzed.
Son of a bitch.
If he dared to strike down a Celestial Dragon, he would instantly be stripped of his rank and hunted down like a dog by the World Government.
But if he backed down now... his entire ideology of "Absolute Justice" would be exposed as a pathetic, hollow joke. He would become the laughingstock of the world.
And he knew the entire world was watching this live!
Jin wasn't just trying to humiliate him; he was systematically assassinating Sakazuki's very character.
Sengoku, ever the "Resourceful General," frantically intervened. "Sakazuki! Don't fall for it! The Marines do not possess the jurisdictional authority to judge a Celestial Dragon!"
Sakazuki seized the lifeline.
He glared at Jin. "The crimes of Saint Charlos are not for the Marines to judge. That authority belongs exclusively to the Holy Land."
"As the righteous military arm of the World Government, it is our duty to uphold that established order! We cannot overstep our bounds and risk executing an innocent man!"
Jin let out a cold, mocking laugh. He pointed a finger dead at Sakazuki. "Bullshit!"
"At Ohara! At Dressrosa! You ordered the indiscriminate bombardment of civilian evacuation ships! Your philosophy was 'better to kill a thousand innocents than let one guilty man escape.'"
"What happened to that conviction? You had no problem slaughtering the innocent back then!"
"But now that it's a Celestial Dragon, you suddenly lose your nerve?"
"Coward!"
"Hypocrite!"
"Your 'Absolute Justice' is a sick joke. You're nothing but a pathetic, groveling lapdog who kisses the boots of your masters while trampling on anyone weaker than you!"
"Pathetic!"
Sakazuki reached his absolute breaking point. "Shut your mouth!" he roared. "You're just like the rest of this pirate scum! You all deserve to die!"
Everyone on the battlefield could feel the volcanic rage erupting from Sakazuki's voice.
He launched himself into the air once again.
His entire arm transformed into a colossal fist of churning magma. The sheer, radiating heat distorted the air around it, creating a shimmering mirage of absolute destruction.
"Sables!"
Crocodile intercepted him again. Empowered by two Devil Fruits and his recent intensive training regimen...
His combat power had skyrocketed.
He couldn't defeat Sakazuki in a straight fight.
But he was more than capable of stalling him.
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